Please put it all here please
just remember before you are too harsh. This team was 30 seconds away from winning the conference championship. It sucks and I get it. I had a whole lot of fun this year. I hope everybody comes back and next year is just as fun. The offense needs a LOT of work. Hopefully Bryan addresses this in the next 7 months.
The offense needs a lot of work.
Recruiting needs a lot of work.
With an offense this bad, if Wonders can barely see the court after a redshirt year then that is not good.
Why was Hornecker's redshirt pulled only for him to just ride pine?
In year four, with multiple recruiting classes under your belt, a player like JD Muila shouldn't be more than a 1 to 2 minute garbage time player.
When you already have a junior PG on the team, going to the portal and getting a senior PG who is basically a marginally better version of that junior PG you already had is puzzling.
How do you replace the scoring of Domask and Jones assuming they don't return?
I think the biggest thing that could change this team is a total revamp of the coaching staff.
There is little experience and one is a brother.
The offense needs a lot of work.
Recruiting needs a lot of work.
With an offense this bad, if Wonders can barely see the court after a redshirt year then that is not good.
Why was Hornecker's redshirt pulled only for him to just ride pine?
In year four, with multiple recruiting classes under your belt, a player like JD Muila shouldn't be more than a 1 to 2 minute garbage time player.
When you already have a junior PG on the team, going to the portal and getting a senior PG who is basically a marginally better version of that junior PG you already had is puzzling.
How do you replace the scoring of Domask and Jones assuming they don't return?
I think the biggest thing that could change this team is a total revamp of the coaching staff.
There is little experience and one is a brother.
I think this sums it up.
I don’t know if there was enough talent on this team to win the conference, but I’m confident there was enough to compete better than this team did this year.
When you have a single player scoring in double digits in multiple games, that is bad basketball.
I don’t know what exactly needs to be done, but Mullins needs to take a hard look at the program and make some changes. I don’t have a lot of optimism for the future given what we’ve seen so far.
On the flip side, I trust that Mullins will make the corrections necessary to fix the offense. I’m proud of how this team competed and I’m proud of the way they represented SIU. They seem like a great group of kids that love being Salukis and the effort was always there (just maybe not the execution). I did not think we had the talent to beat Drake or Bradley in the tournament, so this is about where we should have finished. If Mullins can field even an average offense, paired with this defense, then we’ll be dancing next year.
On the flip side, I trust that Mullins will make the corrections necessary to fix the offense. I’m proud of how this team competed and I’m proud of the way they represented SIU. They seem like a great group of kids that love being Salukis and the effort was always there (just maybe not the execution). I did not think we had the talent to beat Drake or Bradley in the tournament, so this is about where we should have finished. If Mullins can field even an average offense, paired with this defense, then we’ll be dancing next year.
Great post, and thank you for sharing your thoughts PD. I wholeheartedly agree with you.
The offense must absolutely be redesigned and improved. From what I have encountered this year, all of our student athletes have represented the university wonderfully. I also believe the overall student body is improving and enrollment is increasing. As I posted two weeks ago after the BU loss at home. Drake and Bradley are Tier 1, SIU, Belmont, Indiana St. are Tier 2, at least for this season. Newton, JD, and Brown move on. Enter Scottie, Cade, Ferguson, Foster and Davis and that’s a bright future. Being amongst the throng of Saluki fans this weekend was once again amazing, and extremely enjoyable. All of us want so badly to have a winner. BM is young, and in his first HC coaching job. However, even this loyalist realizes that adjustments/changes need to occur, most notably offense, set plays, and press breakers. Than perhaps with staff? Most definitely will not hold my breath on staff unless someone chooses to leave.
GO DAWGS!
I see a lot of similarities to Porters Loyola teams in terms of generating open 3s and playing defense, the difference is we haven’t found the guys who will lock up and consistently make shots yet, but hopefully that’s coming.On the flip side, I trust that Mullins will make the corrections necessary to fix the offense. I’m proud of how this team competed and I’m proud of the way they represented SIU. They seem like a great group of kids that love being Salukis and the effort was always there (just maybe not the execution). I did not think we had the talent to beat Drake or Bradley in the tournament, so this is about where we should have finished. If Mullins can field even an average offense, paired with this defense, then we’ll be dancing next year.
Great post, and thank you for sharing your thoughts PD. I wholeheartedly agree with you.
The offense must absolutely be redesigned and improved. From what I have encountered this year, all of our student athletes have represented the university wonderfully. I also believe the overall student body is improving and enrollment is increasing. As I posted two weeks ago after the BU loss at home. Drake and Bradley are Tier 1, SIU, Belmont, Indiana St. are Tier 2, at least for this season. Newton, JD, and Brown move on. Enter Scottie, Cade, Ferguson, Foster and Davis and that’s a bright future. Being amongst the throng of Saluki fans this weekend was once again amazing, and extremely enjoyable. All of us want so badly to have a winner. BM is young, and in his first HC coaching job. However, even this loyalist realizes that adjustments/changes need to occur, most notably offense, set plays, and press breakers. Than perhaps with staff? Most definitely will not hold my breath on staff unless someone chooses to leave.
GO DAWGS!
On the flip side, I trust that Mullins will make the corrections necessary to fix the offense. I’m proud of how this team competed and I’m proud of the way they represented SIU. They seem like a great group of kids that love being Salukis and the effort was always there (just maybe not the execution). I did not think we had the talent to beat Drake or Bradley in the tournament, so this is about where we should have finished. If Mullins can field even an average offense, paired with this defense, then we’ll be dancing next year.
The only thing I’d push back on here is it was evident to most of us after last season that the offense needed major work and … here we are. I’ll hold out hope this off-season will lead to a better course of action but it seems there is some stubbornness at play that needs to be overcome.
23 wins was a nice improvement and Mullins knows how to coach defense. Offense not so much.
This team played very hard and that's great ... they never gave up. I don't actually think we had enough talent to win the Valley, and recruiting concerns me - you need more than one or two good players.
Hopefully we get an assistant that can really coach offense and especially big men, because we've got a 7 footer on the bench that can score the ball ... and Rupert can be a good offensive player. Not sold Ebube at this point. Hopefully he puts in a lot of work this summer.
One thing for sure .. if XJ, Lance, and Marcus all leave, we will not be as good next year.
( I agree with Spike that wasting Hornecker's redshirt year is a shame, but I completely disagree about XJ. He's a very good point guard, and I would love to see him come back. He's a very good defensive player and a good shooter, and we certainly need good shooters.)
I think everyone would agree at this point as little as CH played , they should have redshirted him. I also think XJ is a solid point guard. Obviously, if MD and LJ don’t stick around next year , things will look a lot different. If they do stick around. We need to see improvement at the 5 spot, we need to be able to throw it into the post and be a threat to score a few baskets a game that way. After that , I think overall offensive improvement and getting better players kind of goes together. If we get better players, we will score more points.
Rodney Watson made great points that Bradley and Drake can score 1-5 on the floor and SIU can only get scoring from 2 positions most nights.
Anyone that’s been watching Arch Madness in person can see the difference between most teams in the league on offense and SIU, it’s like watching a different sport. The league is way too talented for a team to only win with great defense, you’ve got to score.
23 wins was a nice improvement and Mullins knows how to coach defense. Offense not so much.
This team played very hard and that's great ... they never gave up. I don't actually think we had enough talent to win the Valley, and recruiting concerns me - you need more than one or two good players.
Hopefully we get an assistant that can really coach offense and especially big men, because we've got a 7 footer on the bench that can score the ball ... and Rupert can be a good offensive player. Not sold Ebube at this point. Hopefully he puts in a lot of work this summer.
One thing for sure .. if XJ, Lance, and Marcus all leave, we will not be as good next year.
( I agree with Spike that wasting Hornecker's redshirt year is a shame, but I completely disagree about XJ. He's a very good point guard, and I would love to see him come back. He's a very good defensive player and a good shooter, and we certainly need good shooters.)
You beat me to it on XJ: in my opinion that guy is the difference we were in the conference title race. His ability to distribute, score, and play d - not to mention finally be able to take the PG responsibility away from and free up Lance - was huge. Hope he comes back too.
If this is the last of the senior group, I just want to say thanks. What a fun group to watch, and while we didn't get to the NCAAs we were literally a missed 3 and bunny at home against Bradley from potentially tying for the league title.
And if the seniors return, I think at this point they have to be preseason 2 or even 1, but it will depend on if Mast returns. Belmont loses Shephard and Friberg, Drake will finally lose their 25 year old guys, so we have to be in the mix.
Lastly, I remain highly optimistic and excited for this team's frontcourt depth and potential.
I thought X was a great addition and if Domask/Jones were back, I’d love him back too. Newton was a big miss for me. I think Verplancken was a pretty big loss and Newton was a bit of a downgrade there. Newton was an empty-stats guy on horrid Evansville teams
First and foremost, thanks, especially to the seniors,for a good season that brought the fans back. Marcus,Lance,X I hope you come back,but if not, may the road rise up to meet you.
Mullins thinking he could compete for the league championship was realistic. Dawgs were a 3 pointer with 5 sec left from a share. How's that not realistic?
CH redshirt. Is it not possible CH did not want to redshirt ----maybe some contibutors know better?
It isn’t realistic if you see the talent gap between Drake, and Bradley, and the rest of the league. We were the best of the rest. That’s not an honor that gets any awards. I would take the words of Rodney Watson seriously. If he saw that we needed to get scoring from more places, who am I to argue? Our most effective scoring was Marcus on iso. We didn’t have effective pick and roll and motion. We weren’t going to win the conference without balanced scoring and being able to run multiple offensive concepts. That’s not taking shots at Mullins - the defense was very good. But very good defense alone won’t win at the top levels of college basketball in the modern era.
First and foremost, thanks, especially to the seniors,for a good season that brought the fans back. Marcus,Lance,X I hope you come back,but if not, may the road rise up to meet you.
Mullins thinking he could compete for the league championship was realistic. Dawgs were a 3 pointer with 5 sec left from a share. How's that not realistic?
CH redshirt. Is it not possible CH did not want to redshirt ----maybe some contibutors know better?
SIU was really not that close to Drake or Bradley. Both teams are playing their best basketball the last few weeks and SIU has been the same team all year. I think they played their worst basketball down the stretch. They ended the year with 3 straight games shooting under 40%.
