One of my favorite lines was, in reference to the question on how to beat the other top valley coaches, "out recruit them" !!!!!!!!!!! More music to my ears. Again, it's easy to say that vs actually doing it, but still just hearing that recruiting the highest level players that he can to fit in his system sounded great.
Tim Leonard was spot-on when he talked about who "left us at the altar" and how it turned out to be the best possible thing. If you want to know who and what I'm talking about, you must sign up for the premium site. 😉
Scott Nagy is not the most polished public speaker, but I liked everything he had to say today. He talks like a "real coach." Kind of the opposite of Barry Hinson.
Scottie Ebube stayed to talk to him after the press conference. That may mean something or it may mean nothing. I'm glad he's reached out to all the players. Hopefully, some will stay and others will join us from the portal.
Listened to the media Q&A. A few quick takeaways:
1). You can tell he's proud of the fast tempo/offensive output and that will be a centerpiece of his recruiting pitches.
2). He sounded very receptive to retaining someone from Mullins' staff - assuming Howard? Sounds probable. I'd be surprised if any of the other guys are retained, but ya never know.
3). Also on the retention front, he sounded about as optimistic as he could be that he'll be able to reel a few Salukis back in from the portal. Count me among those enthused that Ebube was in attendance.
4). He said he's working on bringing a coach or two from Wright State. Bere? Maybe a lower-level guy, too?
Scottie Ebube, you absolutely need to stay at SIU. This is your coach to a tee, dude.
So I was at the press conference and there was a very tall college aged kid there. He looked A LOT like Scottie but I cannot confirm. Hoping it was him and that means he’s staying. He was high fiving and waving at people there.
Fingers crossed.
Scottie has to like what he heard, no? A new coach that:
- Loves true bigs, and
- Wants to score a ton of points
Scottie fills both those.
I had a decent number of visa gift cards with varying balances form $2 to $36. I just put them all into the basketball NIL. It helps the program and gets rid of the clutter. Let's go !!!
Jerrance is staying. It's part of the deal.
I think they can keep Sharp with Howard staying. I’m very excited about Sharp despite the lack of playing this season.
I really wish Sharp had been redshirted last season. He played what, like 3 minutes all season?? Seems like a wasted year of eligibility for him.
I might be in the minority here but I'd really like Trey Miller to stay. I really like what I saw from him during the season in his VERY LIMITED minutes. He has great ball handling and uses his body well. He was very unselfish. He often gave up open looks to distribute the ball to teammates. That says a lot for a guy that wasn't getting much PT. Tells me he's a good teammate.
I really wish Sharp had been redshirted last season. He played what, like 3 minutes all season?? Seems like a wasted year of eligibility for him.
I might be in the minority here but I'd really like Trey Miller to stay. I really like what I saw from him during the season in his VERY LIMITED minutes. He has great ball handling and uses his body well. He was very unselfish. He often gave up open looks to distribute the ball to teammates. That says a lot for a guy that wasn't getting much PT. Tells me he's a good teammate.
I can't remember which game it was (and I'm too lazy to look it up), but it's the one in which X had to sit for something like 12 minutes because of foul trouble. Miller came in and did just fine. He attacked the basket and scored a few, and he distributed well. And then he was never seen again. Baffling.
These days especially, it's hard to tell whether to blame the coach or a player for failing to redshirt, but it happened with Sharp this year and Cade last year. (For the record, I think the most egregious of these offenses was Hinson blowing a redshirt opportunity with Sean Lloyd, for my money a very good "get" by Hinson, in the pre-portal days: no excuse for that.)
I just don't get it.
(Inflammatory political snark)
Interesting to hear a few comments during the introduction thing about how much Nagy’s teams score and how lousy the offense was under BM. They were somewhat subtle. People did laugh though.
I am very happy about the hire, thrilled that Jerrance is likely staying and loved standing next to Ebube. He wasn’t as large as I would have imagined being right by him.
Interested to see the first version of the Scott Nagy Salukis. At the very least, SIU basketball will be exciting to watch again. I could not have taken a 6th season of whatever BM was trying to do.
Supporter of the Fab 4: Scottie Ebube, Foster Wonders, AJ Ferguson & Cade Hornecker.
They’re the ones that can get us where we haven’t been in 15 years.
It's NAY-ghee, from what I've seen online.
(Inflammatory political snark)
@johnny-utah You don't find people who actually play ball with and against him "credible?"
Here's Ebube and Nagy:
