Saul on the hot seat??

[stevdock]

Didn't watch the game and didn't even listen to it. In my personal opinion Saul is not a D1 head coach. Yes the team is young, yes they have talent, but this team has not improved whatsoever under Saul. But saying that, there is no way he will be let go this year, next year or after that unless the team completely crashes and burns. The whole BSA thing is an excuse, but an excuse that both Saul and Gene have bought into valid or not.

[HoopsBison]

Short answer no, Saul is not there yet. However doing what this team did in the first half of the season and then allowing what happened during the second half is frustrating as hell. The most disappointing thing of the season is the team at the start of the season would have beat the team at the end. Got play your best basketball in February and March and we were far from that.

[MNLonghorn10]

it bugs me that saul didn't call a time out after the 4 pt play, and nothing was developing when they were trying to free up felt.

[bisonfan08]

I love Saul as a person and I think he's a great recruiter and has a great relationship with his players. Bottom line though, we haven't won a tourney game in the last 3 seasons. NOT A SINGLE GAME! With ORU gone next year it's going to be our best chance to get to the dance since we last made it. If this team doesn't win 20 games and at least win one tourney game Saul needs to go, plain and simple. Love the guy, need to see improvement, this team actually got worse as the season went along.

[herdmember]

Very fair, and I have never spoken poorly about a player. we have been very fortunate, or recruited a long line of absolutely terrific kids. It is factual that we just played a tourney game without a minute played by a Junior or Senior. It is also a fact that when you have a team that is playing a very young roster and we have a couple of seniors on the team that have started a bunch in their career that suddenly aren't playing, it can be a stressful/challenge in the locker room.

I agree with 99% of your longer post, but quoted this one to take up less space. I do really question the motive for not playing Carlson/Lundberg one minute. This will sound great at the team maker's luncheons, and yes it will be 100% factual that all you played the entire game were freshman/sophomores, but people that watched this team all year know enough to raise an eyebrow as to why no seniors played in the last game.

I can't believe this question wasn't asked in the postgame presser. Will ANYONE hold Saul accountable to ask if this starting lineup paid off/worked? He mentioned a couple of things in the press conference that I found interesting, and yes I'll be paraphrasing:
1) We tried a different lineup so we could play our game against them. - my take, you played a defensive team that isn't as good on offense, so you switched your starting lineup to be more of a defensive team. Whose game are you trying to play? NDSU's or WIU's?
2) Yeah, we were right there to the end and had a chance. - my take, that's great if you're playing Oral Roberts, not Western Illinois.

I think Saul is a heck of a recruiter. I think the next two years will be excellent and I'll be extremely disappointed without at least 1 trip to the dance. I'd just love to know what the seniors and some of the former players are thinking about Saul right now.

[*Bisonrube]

I agree with 99% of your longer post, but quoted this one to take up less space. I do really question the motive for not playing Carlson/Lundberg one minute. This will sound great at the team maker's luncheons, and yes it will be 100% factual that all you played the entire game were freshman/sophomores, but people that watched this team all year know enough to raise an eyebrow as to why no seniors played in the last game.

I can't believe this question wasn't asked in the postgame presser. Will ANYONE hold Saul accountable to ask if this starting lineup paid off/worked? He mentioned a couple of things in the press conference that I found interesting, and yes I'll be paraphrasing:
1) We tried a different lineup so we could play our game against them. - my take, you played a defensive team that isn't as good on offense, so you switched your starting lineup to be more of a defensive team. Whose game are you trying to play? NDSU's or WIU's?
2) Yeah, we were right there to the end and had a chance. - my take, that's great if you're playing Oral Roberts, not Western Illinois.

I think Saul is a heck of a recruiter. I think the next two years will be excellent and I'll be extremely disappointed without at least 1 trip to the dance. I'd just love to know what the seniors and some of the former players are thinking about Saul right now.

Again I will say it...CLASSLESS. Saul didn't play his seniors for his own selfish reasons ^^^^, not for the TEAMs best interest. Not even playing Carlson a minute...seriously. Saul can take his BS senior night speeches and shove em...that is no way to treat a Senior that used to start for you, got injured and battled back all year without making waves about being benched..and still performed at the end. It has to leave a bitter taste in Carlsons mouth and he deserved better. Stay Classy Saul. (If the seniors had some sort of injury, please let me know that I am way off base here)

[unbison]

Again I will say it...CLASSLESS. Saul didn't play his seniors for his own selfish reasons ^^^^, not for the TEAMs best interest. Not even playing Carlson a minute...seriously. Saul can take his BS senior night speeches and shove em...that is no way to treat a Senior that used to start for you, got injured and battled back all year without making waves about being benched..and still performed at the end. It has to leave a bitter taste in Carlsons mouth and he deserved better. Stay Classy Saul. (If the seniors had some sort of injury, please let me know that I am way off base here)

Here is a note for you..........when did this team start to fall off..... answer when carlson came back......so maybe best for the team was not carlson on the floor......i think he did make waves........just saying

[BisonSD]

Here is a note for you..........when did this team start to fall off..... answer when carlson came back......so maybe best for the team was not carlson on the floor......i think he did make waves........just saying

nope come up with a different excuse. We lost three in a row in January. Carlson played 1 minute in that god awful loss to U N D. He played 4 minutes in the s d s u loss in January. He played 2 minutes in the loss to I p f w . The team fell off before Carlson came back.

[silkamilkamonico]

we lost three in a row in January. Carlson played 1 minute in that got awful loss to U N D. He played 4 minutes in the s d s u loss in January. He played 2 minutes in the loss to I p f w . The team fell off before Carlson came back.

Agreed, even when this team was winning close games at the start of the new year you could see there was building issues with it.

[unbison]

nope come up with a different excuse. We lost three in a row in January. Carlson played 1 minute in that god awful loss to U N D. He played 4 minutes in the s d s u loss in January. He played 2 minutes in the loss to I p f w . The team fell off before Carlson came back.

could it have more to do with attitude he brought to the success of younger players? And i am talking about the wire coming off his jaw ......and you talking about his 4 minutes of playing time and 1 minute of playing time is exactly what i am talking about...attitude not ability