- While I am still processing to what has happened and and emotions can still be raw I hope our future is bright and if some people leave I think the offense will improve just because of the lack of reliance of two scorers where you have to be team oriented not isolation and shot clock throw at the basket
"1. I think there's a pretty solid chance your skepticism about Ebube ends up looking really bad down the road. Yes, he needs to be in better condition going forward (and he will be) and develop further, but if you can't see the upside, don't know what to tell you.
2. You don't want to go into next year with just Rupert and Hornecker as your two options at the 5. You're then one scooter accident away from seeing D'Amico battle 265-pound guys under the rim."
Like I said if he comes back in shape and serious about basketball, it'd be a nice bonus ... but no he doesn't much remind me of Randall Falker or Ashraf Amaya or Jerry Jones.
Slam dunks are fun but that's what you expect from a 6'10" basketball player.
He just missed a whole other year of basketball development basically.
I hope I'm completely wrong and he turns out to be as good as that 6'10" guy for Drake who had 17 rebounds against us.
Ebube is going to be a big, big piece for us down the road.
My final take on this season and the chronic struggles on offense; I do not believe it was an issue of lesser talent. I do think Bryan was accurate in asserting that SIU had the talent to win this league.
Where I believe the true issue lies is with Bryan and his staffs entire philosophy on that end of the floor. If you watched any Saluki basketball this year, you saw an offense that 3/4 of the time had little to no movement off the ball, weak-side etc., the ball stuck and didn't move fluidly more often than not, certain players shooting a very poor percentage from 3 were taking way too many of them, often off-balanced, rushed, outside of any natural flow and/or rhythm either early in the shot clock or near the end of it; this suggests a lack of discipline which ultimately falls on the shoulders of the coaches. Also, whenever Marcus Domask was asked to get us a bucket, no set plays were ever ran to get him clean looks. It often resulted in him just trying to either beat his defender off the dribble, or back them down for either a fade away jumper while the other 4 stood around and watched, either waiting for a double-team so they could dive to the cup, or to retreat back on D if Marcus fired it up. And finally, with so many poor percentage shots being taken, there was little to no emphasis on crashing the offensive glass.
I believe we had guys outside of Marcus and sometimes Lance who could score, and we've had guys leave our program who have proven they can score. The problem is our system. Its completely broken and Bryan needs to self-evaluate and fix it.
Mullins and staff also need major improvement in their substitution patterns and rotational choices. I know they see things in practice that we don't, but ultimately what matters is in-game production. This is what everyone could see watching SIU play based on that metric alone: Some guys played way too many minutes, others clearly didn't play enough. He also needs to allow the younger guys to play long enough to actually develop a rhythm to get a better feel for what they can give you when it matters (not just practice). As a rabid fan of this program, I hope Bryan figures this out without having to face the adversity of mass roster defections. So far this hasn't been a problem, but ultimately, players want to play and to be given what they feel is a fair shot to do so.
I really like Bryan Mullins as our coach and I hope he can lead us to a standard of excellence that exceeds all our hopes, dreams and expectations, but bias aside, he has to be better for that to actually happen.
All that said, I still thoroughly enjoyed this season as I always do and I'll be counting the days until next season tips off. See you all in November! Go Dawgs!
--Insert something witty here--
My final take on this season and the chronic struggles on offense; I do not believe it was an issue of lesser talent. I do think Bryan was accurate in asserting that SIU had the talent to win this league.
Where I believe the true issue lies is with Bryan and his staffs entire philosophy on that end of the floor. If you watched any Saluki basketball this year, you saw an offense that 3/4 of the time had little to no movement off the ball, weak-side etc., the ball stuck and didn't move fluidly more often than not, certain players shooting a very poor percentage from 3 were taking way too many of them, often off-balanced, rushed, outside of any natural flow and/or rhythm either early in the shot clock or near the end of it; this suggests a lack of discipline which ultimately falls on the shoulders of the coaches. Also, whenever Marcus Domask was asked to get us a bucket, no set plays were ever ran to get him clean looks. It often resulted in him just trying to either beat his defender off the dribble, or back them down for either a fade away jumper while the other 4 stood around and watched, either waiting for a double-team so they could dive to the cup, or to retreat back on D if Marcus fired it up. And finally, with so many poor percentage shots being taken, there was little to no emphasis on crashing the offensive glass.
I believe we had guys outside of Marcus and sometimes Lance who could score, and we've had guys leave our program who have proven they can score. The problem is our system. Its completely broken and Bryan needs to self-evaluate and fix it.
Mullins and staff also need major improvement in their substitution patterns and rotational choices. I know they see things in practice that we don't, but ultimately what matters is in-game production. This is what everyone could see watching SIU play based on that metric alone: Some guys played way too many minutes, others clearly didn't play enough. He also needs to allow the younger guys to play long enough to actually develop a rhythm to get a better feel for what they can give you when it matters (not just practice). As a rabid fan of this program, I hope Bryan figures this out without having to face the adversity of mass roster defections. So far this hasn't been a problem, but ultimately, players want to play and to be given what they feel is a fair shot to do so.
I really like Bryan Mullins as our coach and I hope he can lead us to a standard of excellence that exceeds all our hopes, dreams and expectations, but bias aside, he has to be better for that to actually happen.
All that said, I still thoroughly enjoyed this season as I always do and I'll be counting the days until next season tips off. See you all in November! Go Dawgs!
This is a thoughtful, accurate and excellent analysis of this past year. Couldn't agree more and would only add: off season emphasis on rebounding/boxing out, turnover reduction and free throw shooting.
As always, hoping for the best next year...
March on triumphantly!
If, if, if, if, if, if, if....
If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle.
I said a month ago, this team was smoke and mirrors. Sure they won 23 games. But they could have easily been .500 team. Narrowly beating teams they were much better than. Love the players. I think we under achieved. I think we did not utilize the roster to our advantage most of the season.
The ultimate downfall of the first four years of the Mullins era (coincidentally the Domask/Jones era too) is the inability of a solid routine regular steady automatic third option emerging. Over the past four years we’ve seen the likes of Ronnie Suggs, Ben Harvey, Brown, Ben Coupet, Newton and Verplanken all take turns being that guy. Either through swings and misses in recruiting and one year grad transfers not working out and lack of development or injuries, none of these guys have proven to be the perfect answer to compliment them. Coupet was the closest but he only had one year to play and the team had too many other glaring holes. I think the staff expected Harvey to fill that spot long term and he showed glimpses before his injuries ended his career. Just could never quite find someone content with that kind of role that could steadily produce 10-12 points on a regular basis to compliment Lance and Marcus. Maybe it was the wrong style and maybe Verplanken could’ve worked in a different offense. But I think we were one more scorer away. Yes the offense needs work but it would look a lot better with one more guy who could get his own shot and create on his own.
The ultimate downfall of the first four years of the Mullins era (coincidentally the Domask/Jones era too) is the inability of a solid routine regular steady automatic third option emerging. Over the past four years we’ve seen the likes of Ronnie Suggs, Ben Harvey, Brown, Ben Coupet, Newton and Verplanken all take turns being that guy. Either through swings and misses in recruiting and one year grad transfers not working out and lack of development or injuries, none of these guys have proven to be the perfect answer to compliment them. Coupet was the closest but he only had one year to play and the team had too many other glaring holes. I think the staff expected Harvey to fill that spot long term and he showed glimpses before his injuries ended his career. Just could never quite find someone content with that kind of role that could steadily produce 10-12 points on a regular basis to compliment Lance and Marcus. Maybe it was the wrong style and maybe Verplanken could’ve worked in a different offense. But I think we were one more scorer away. Yes the offense needs work but it would look a lot better with one more guy who could get his own shot and create on his own.
This! If you look at all the other successful programs in the valley right now, they all have three consistent scorers and role players that can supplement when one of them is off or add to when they are all on.
Another year of Coupet would have been huge on this team. Newton was a great defender and had a few games where he scored, but by and large he was just another role player. X got more consistent throughout the year, but that’s not his game. Even if Jones and Domask come back, we have to find that third scorer, preferably a stretch 4.
Ben Coupet was a 24 year old in his 6th year of college basketball who averaged 10 PPG in the Valley with pretty meh shooting %.
He is ridiculously overrated on this board.
Ben Coupet was a 24 year old in his 6th year of college basketball who averaged 10 PPG in the Valley with pretty meh shooting %.
He is ridiculously overrated on this board.
He averaged 11 pts and 5 rebounds shooting 45% from the field and 41% from 3. Our 3rd leading scorer was this year X at 7 pts per game. Newton averaged 5pts and 4 rebounds shot 45% from field and 30% from 3…swap those two and I think a share of the league title is very realistic.
I don’t know what your deal is with certain players, but he would have absolutely helped this team. No one is saying he was the savior, just a solid third scorer that this team desperately could have used this year who could knock down an outside shot…with some length to boot.
Ben Coupet was a 24 year old in his 6th year of college basketball who averaged 10 PPG in the Valley with pretty meh shooting %.
He is ridiculously overrated on this board.
He averaged 11 pts and 5 rebounds shooting 45% from the field and 41% from 3. Our 3rd leading scorer was this year X at 7 pts per game. Newton averaged 5pts and 4 rebounds shot 45% from field and 30% from 3…swap those two and I think a share of the league title is very realistic.
I don’t know what your deal is with certain players, but he would have absolutely helped this team. No one is saying he was the savior, just a solid third scorer that this team desperately could have used this year who could knock down an outside shot…with some length to boot.
Coupet didn’t join this team as an 18 year old, therefore is dead to him. Same old garbage.
Ben Coupet was a 24 year old in his 6th year of college basketball who averaged 10 PPG in the Valley with pretty meh shooting %.
He is ridiculously overrated on this board.
Shooting 41% from 3 is pretty meh? C'mon now. Besides Xavier Johnson (and Ferguson on a whole 5 attempts) nobody shot over 37% from 3 this year
Ben Coupet was a 24 year old in his 6th year of college basketball who averaged 10 PPG in the Valley with pretty meh shooting %.
He is ridiculously overrated on this board.
WRONG!
Meh shooting? .. led the MVC in 3 pt shooting at 44.6%. Also averaged 5.1 rbs per game, 2nd only to Domask at 5.4 per game.
When was Trent Brown EVER that guy? The one time he scored 11 on Senior Night? OK...
