Per Heff.
Per SIU mbb coach @Bryan_Mullins_ said today he has a meeting with Aaron Cook scheduled for today and hopes to have a resolution moving forward. Either pursue medical redshirt or try to come back. Cook has missed 13X games with injured hand. At least 13G left. #Salukis
him coming back for next year would be huge.
Yeah I’ve turned on wanting Cook back next year after seeing the improvements the team has made this year. I think if you get Cook back with improvements from Domask and Jones and get a BCS big guy transfer or JUCO to go along with Ben Harvey, you could be looking at a ton of deserved optimism for next year.
Yeah I’ve turned on wanting Cook back next year after seeing the improvements the team has made this year. I think if you get Cook back with improvements from Domask and Jones and get a BCS big guy transfer or JUCO to go along with Ben Harvey, you could be looking at a ton of deserved optimism for next year.
If they are able to land a TALENTED big, as you mention, there will be reason for optimism regardless if Cook returns. If both happen, you're looking at a top MVC team. The flashes of "what could be" are already there and this team will work as hard or harder than ANY team in the country bc that is the type of player this staff recruited. I am not looking past this season at all, but I AM already looking forward to next season !!!!!
I sat next to one of his former coaches at Arch Madness a few years ago. He and his children had only great things to say about Aaron. I for one hope he gets the medical redshirt and comes back for next year.
Best wishes to Aaron. Could be the old blessing in disguise.
March on triumphantly!
I'm going to assume SIU Athletics did its homework and wouldn't have arrived at this decision with Aaron unless they thought it was very likely he'll get the year back. And I'm going to further assume that Cook is enjoying the new vibes around the program enough that he's intending to be back as a Saluki next season instead of exploring a grad transfer situation.
If the above is true, I feel pretty good about this maneuver, though obviously it hurts this year's team's chances of avoiding Thursday and/or winning a game or two in STL, which is probably the ceiling this year even with Cook.
If Cook is back next year, with Cook, Domask and Harvey as a core of the starting lineup, there will be a realistic chance to contend in the upper-half of the MVC, provided the coaching staff can land a couple viable-to-good bigs this spring (take a drink every time that is mentioned on the board over the next few months). Cook's return would limit available playing time for some of the young guards who will be in the program next year, but having Cook around to learn from should help advance their development and hopefully help jump-start a new era of winning Saluki basketball.
Thanks for the info. Sure wasn't getting any info about Cook in the Southern. I hope it goes well for the program. Only bad about this IMHO is that McGill and Cook won't be going out together. Their loyalty to the program was the glue that held things together.
The preSeason steal leader will return, with another 12 months of Mullins defense coaching,
gotta stay healthy and without proper time to heal it only gets worse.
So what are the chances he gets a medical redshirt? Really good? 50/50?
I'm relieved by this decision. While I'm sure his cardio shape is fine, there is no way his "game legs," his timing, and most of all his shot would be in any way ready to contribute to the rest of this season.
I would imagine a broken bone in the hand would wreak havoc on one's shot and ball handling. Wasn't it a similar injury that sidelined Marcus Bartley and led to him never quite recovering to be the player we all expected?
(Inflammatory political snark)
So what are the chances he gets a medical redshirt? Really good? 50/50?
Should be a lot higher than that, he meets all the requirements. Only thing standing in the way might be him getting medically cleared to practice back in December but they also said he had swelling and pain after the case so it’s possible maybe he did something in practice?
