@kyle_saluki_17 I can understand that but he needs to understand he may like Mullins but he was far from a perfect or ready head coach . 1 year wouldn’t have cured that. The argument that he wanted high school kids doesn’t hold water. Where was this desire when we were missing by out on players consistently to valley schools
Hard to recruit your last year with no extension and everyone knows it and uses it against you and as far as missing out on recruits earlier in his tenure I pretty sure Mullins isn't the only coach who ever missed out on recruits how many has Nagy missed and we not know about
@jabman62 I’m not talking on his last year. I’m talking his whole tenure. You can’t keep moving the goal posts. Mullins missed out on highschool and juco/college players that’s a fact. Other coaches missing players doesn’t change that. My point is you can’t just blame the university, blame the nil, blame the college blame whatever. Valley schools routinely beat us out for recruits. We were losing out on recruits to schools with half our budget ovc,summit,sunbelt) and new coaches.
it does a disservice to continually blame the university and the individuals themselves
I don't believe I blamed anyone
👍
@jabman62 I’m not talking on his last year. I’m talking his whole tenure. You can’t keep moving the goal posts. Mullins missed out on highschool and juco/college players that’s a fact. Other coaches missing players doesn’t change that. My point is you can’t just blame the university, blame the nil, blame the college blame whatever. Valley schools routinely beat us out for recruits. We were losing out on recruits to schools with half our budget ovc,summit,sunbelt) and new coaches.
it does a disservice to continually blame the university and the individuals themselves
Absolutely right on. If the bad product we often saw on the floor and the constant losing out on promising recruits - even guys who visited and got to look at our awesome arena and beautiful campus - in the BM era does not convince the revisionists, your facts are not going to change their wee minds!
Let me start by saying I am a big fan of Brian Mullins. I hoped he would be as successful as a coach as he was a player.
Playing the “what if” game is not going to change anything. What if Avila was recruited harder instead of Hornecker? What if Dalton Banks and Steven Verplancken had stayed? What if Jones and Domask had stayed, or even Aaron Cook? What if Rodney Watson had helped coach?
It is time to move on. Mullins is gone and good luck to him. Nagy is here and I wish him even more good luck. He is coaching my alma mater and I will do nothing but hope for the best. In the meantime, as I said before, we will renew our season tickets, continue to donate to SASF and other SIU programs, and eat at Italian Village, Midland Inn, and other Carbondale eateries when we are in town.
Looking forward to catching a baseball or softball game or two this spring. Go Dawgs
@siufan81 My lips on his butt? What are we, 13?
I never said competing was hard because he was recruiting HS players. I was pointing out that's what he wanted to do, and is exactly what Nagy says he wants to do. In the college basketball landscape, where loyalty is out the window and players are now bought, the portal has to be the #1 way to get players and getting HS players will be #2. Nagy has said publicly 10+ times, "I want HS players and I don't believe in NIL." How hard is it for an old guy to change what he's done the last 25+ years in coaching?
I said Bryan was at a disadvantage because established coaches, who the SIU administration pointed out Bryan couldn't beat (DeVries, Wardle, Jacobson), had 4-5-year players. Please go and look at Drake's roster and know that they had guys play 5 and 6 years of college basketball. Several played more than 160 games in their career. Why? Because of Covid. Having 23 and 24-year-olds play against 18-20-year-olds is a huge advantage. An example is why our early 2000's teams were good. Bruce, Painter, and Lowery redshirted freshmen and always have those 4th and 5th-year guys leading our teams.
I could name 5 to 7 things Bryan did that didn't help his cause to retain his job. I can point out 10 things that he did well. I understand the game and business better than most, and as some have pointed out, I probably have more inside knowledge of SIU basketball than anyone here.
Without question, Benson and Enright were coming to SIU. Benson's family was going around Mt. Vernon in the middle of his season, saying he couldn't wait to come back home and play for SIU and coach Mullins. All Wright was 100% coming to SIU. As someone pointed out, the family told them in StL the same thing.
I'm over Bryan being the HC. It's a business, I get it. My frustration is simply with the Administration, specifically the Chancellor and Kupec. It was these two who made the decision. They wanted a different brand of basketball, a proven coach, etc. They were cocky, saying they had their guy(s).
Well, they struck out 3 times on their coach. They settled for a guy who has coached for a long time and won many games. But he is a coach who doesn't like the portal, doesn't like NIL, and has had declining success in a lower league. Bryan's teams were better than Nagy's every year during his tenure. These aren't my opinions; they are facts. We paid $100k more to get a guy with 25+ years of experience but a guy who doesn't like the new era of college basketball and had the same number of wins as our HC over the last two years.
Everyone on here should ask themselves, if Nagy was so good and has so many wins, how did he never get above the Horizon League?
I want Nagy to win. I automatically support him because I will ALWAYS support the SIU basketball team.
@so-ill-24 all great points. I wish you were on here more during the initial debates on this! A lot of folks here were saying the same things, but this board is so split on this topic, I don’t think minds will be changed (not that it matters at this point). Stick around for the portal/recruiting!
I hate that Tim Leonard put himself in a box last year when he said he wanted a proven winner.
I think his search process went about as well as you could hope though. They had Preston Spradlin through the Illinois game and he backed out. I’ve heard that Spradlin had a discussion with Brad Underwood that might have changed his mind there and James Madison is a better job so hard to blame him. It would have been a home run hire as Spradlin wouldn’t be at SIU for long.
Don't know how close things got with Jerrod Calhoun but he ended up getting a better job too and he’s been one of the best coaches in the country this season at Utah St.
@salukiworld That is how you do it. Admin got rid of Prohm, and you 100% have the next guy lined up, and you ensure he signs the dotted line ASAP before the flood gates open on coaching vacancies and transfer portal.
@siu_2011 I lurked and read for a while, but what some people put out there as insider information was far from the truth. I refused to interact with lies.
