We Could beat Eureka! (unless Ronnie Raygun came back from the dead and took over) InSU beat Eureka by 40+ and Loyola beat Eureka by 50+.
I'm a bit shocked at people's crazy expectations this year, especially after losing EE. Losing your best player (and your best offensive player and shooter) can be devastating. Remember when Domask got injured? We only won a couple of games rest of the year, mainly because Jones took over and scored like 30ppg.
Certainly not ready to give up on Nagy. Mullins took 4 years to rebuild us into mediocre. Nagy had 1 1/2 months to recruit 10 guys. And you have to have the right players to play really good D. D is hard and not every one wants to work that hard at it or has the talent to do it. (Trae Young - NBA) Jack Hartman made Walt Frazier play nothing BUT defense in practice for a whole season.
But great effort can sure help you win games, especially when you shoot poorly, but no way were we going to beat a veteran Bradley team, especially shooting as poorly as we did. We had a really bad game, but that happens. Evidently people have forgotten us getting wiped by a fresh-from-D2 Southern Indiana two years ago (a week after winning at Okie St.)
Still think we'll be improved in a month or two. Still a lot of MVC teams we can beat. Need to see more Aligbe and Sharp.
The offense is no surprise,but the defense is disappointing.
The "had to fill out a roster" excuse does ring a bit hollow.
Drake returned only 2 players, one who was largely garbage time player and then a backup redshirt senior who had one start in his career.
They have 11 new players and a coach that was hired AFTER Nagy(albeit only 3 days later).
But they hired a young(ish) dynamic coach who had a massive amount of success at the D2 level.
“We didn’t get the scouting information across properly?” - nagy
Huh? How?
What the heck does that mean? You’re the coach, it’s your job to make sure they understand. I hope things change because a 20+ loss season looks like it’s right around the corner if you cannot express your scouting information across properly!
It's a little unfair to compare us to Drake at this time. We're not the program they are, that's just the reality of the situation in Carbondale. I think next year will tell how Nagy develops players.
I still have faith in the program and coach Nagy. I don't think it's helpful to harp on the past, but unfortunately, everything in this past D.E. article has been spot on so far regarding the Mullins firing. Would we be better or worse with Mullins? Who knows, it's impossible to tell and an exercise in futility. However the article looks prescient right now.
https://dailyegyptian.com/118150/sports/column-mullins-decision-one-siu-will-live-to-regret/
edited because I put the wrong link up initially
It's a little unfair to compare us to Drake at this time. We're not the program they are, that's just the reality of the situation in Carbondale. I think next year will tell how Nagy develops players.
I still have faith in the program and coach Nagy. I don't think it's helpful to harp on the past, but unfortunately, everything in this past D.E. article has been spot on so far regarding the Mullins firing. Would we be better or worse with Mullins? Who knows, it's impossible to tell and an exercise in futility. However the article looks prescient right now.
https://dailyegyptian.com/118150/sports/column-mullins-decision-one-siu-will-live-to-regret/
edited because I put the wrong link up initially
One main difference is several of McCollum’s better players followed him to Drake, giving him a head start. Nagy’s players did not.
But beyond that, anyone who has watched both teams play some this year will tell you Drake looks like a much better coached team to this point.
Drake is flowing in NIL $$$ because they got good at the right time. McCollum was not choosing SIU over Drake because they're quite simply a better program right now.
Also don't think it's fair to compare the two situations because McCollum brought players that know his system with him. We poached nobody from Wright State and that's not really a bad roster, they're much better than us.
Mullins put together a more competitive team in his first year and had the equal amount of time to find a team and no portal and no NIL just saying and oh by the way your record says who you are it is not the strength of schedule it is the margins of losses and lack of effort that is disturbing
Mullins put together a more competitive team in his first year and had the equal amount of time to find a team and no portal and no NIL just saying and oh by the way your record says who you are it is not the strength of schedule it is the margins of losses and lack of effort that is disturbing
That team started 4-7 playing a much easier schedule.
Here’s my take: I was in the extend Mullins camp. Moved on from it and bought into the “long and athletic” recruits and drank the kool aid. Currently this team feels like an AAU type team with so many players serving no specific purpose on the team. There was too much hype in the off season over how good the defense looked. We didn’t hire Nagy for his defensive coaching prowess….to me his hire was to move away from what we have always been known for and “modernize” the program. I think we went for a complete engine re build rather than replacing a spark plug. IMO the programs downfall was when C-Lo starting recruiting the flashy players instead of recruiting pieces that fit specific purposes for the program. There seems to be a lot of holes to fill in this roster that is hopefully addressed in the offseason. I’m not in the “it takes time” camp. There are many other teams in the valley that have a new regime and are looking respectable year one…..we currently are not. Will that change maybe but a 23 point drumming at home to the #1 team is not what I want to see year one. Bradley is good but its not like they are Creighton or Wichita of the years past. We should always at least be respectable at home. Rant over….always rooting for the dawgs and rooting for coach nagy….but positives need to be seen this year.
I personally feel like Nagy should have been a transition hire. The kind you make when you have a coach like Mullins on the staff who is in waiting but not quite ready to take over the head job. The issue is now we have an older coach for a rebuild but don't really have a plan B or heir apparent.
I personally feel like Nagy should have been a transition hire. The kind you make when you have a coach like Mullins on the staff who is in waiting but not quite ready to take over the head job. The issue is now we have an older coach for a rebuild but don't really have a plan B or heir apparent.
Nagy probably wouldn't have left a place he and his family admittedly really liked for the SIU job if it had been offered on a "transitional" basis. Interesting concept, though, because in 2012 I thought that was the role Hinson would have been a good fit for after the total meltdown of Lowery's final seasons. Ideally, he would have held the job for three years, stabilized the program on and off the court, then handed over the reins to someone younger and more dynamic who could have taken SIU to the next level. BH had other ideas, though.
The season is clearly over???!!! Never as good as your best win or as bad as your worst loss. Plenty of stuff to get fixed and figured out, but a long way to go in the season. We have played some good teams as Freedawg has noted. I agree the Bradley game was painful (I had them losing by 12 to 14 myself) and we have a long way to go to get to Bradley's level, but I think we need to settle down a bit. We really do miss EE and what he created offensively and his penetration helped open up other players as well. Nagy will figure it out and this is year one in what we all knew was going to be a rebuilding process, not that we all didn't hope that we would be upper half in his first season. Go Dawgs.
I have a three year old grandson who is very adroit at solving jigsaw puzzles. Late in the Bradley game I was wondering how well he would do if he had to solve a puzzle with pieces from 3 or 4 unrelated jigsaws. That was my impression of the team. Additionally my wife made the comment that had she not known better she would have thought Jevon Mamon was the head coach. Nagy's courtside manner is rather unconventional. Looks like an interesting season in the making.
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
James Madison
