@salukiworld honestly connecting it too last year is a really bad take. This year we lost our best player and best big. Not sure how everyone other than barkeep and a few others can’t see that
I love Domask but I really don't think he's the difference between being a mid-tier Valley team and being maybe the worst team in the conference. And if he is that big of a difference, it's showing this team has a lot of work to do in terms of roster. I will say, if they had Domask today, this game might have been a different story.
We need "athletic" forwards with length.
We need someone like Drake's ShanQuan Hemphill in the worst way!
It's weird and not comforting to see a Bryan Mullins coached team near the bottom of the Valley in a ton of defensive metrics
Folks don't seem to understand just how big of a loss Mulia was. He is everything we do not have this year. He is a true rim protector. He was one the most highly regarded Juco post player recruits last year. He was supposed to be an elite defender, shot blocker and rebounder. Add the loss of our best player in Domask and it spells huge trouble for Southern. This would have been quite a different story with a health Mulia. If you would have asked me during the pre-season who the key players we could least afford to lose I would have said Mulia and Domask followed by Jones. The only good thing to come from the Mulia injury was that Filewich developed much more quickly. I would like to see us keep Mulia, Domask, Jones, Havey, Verplancken, Brown, Filewich and Banks. Add the 3 highly regarded freshman recruits and 1 or 2 athletic Juco or grad transfer 6'5 - 6'7" wings. I would be fine with not bringing Butler, Long and D'Avanzo back. Technically D'Avanzo and Long could come back due to the extra year of eligibility, but I think getting a couple upper class athletic wings would serve us better. I think we have a shot at being very good next year. It will still be a very tough task as the valley could be really, really good next year!
What’ll be interesting is how post minutes are distributed next season because I agree interior athleticism is SORELY needed, but Filewich is turning into an offensive focal point. We’ll see if they are just a 1-2 punch or they can play some together. And then Ebube is a wild card.
Watched Drake rally past Valpo today with several big putbacks crashing the glass like crazy. Southern doesn’t get near enough of those with this group.
It's weird and not comforting to see a Bryan Mullins coached team near the bottom of the Valley in a ton of defensive metrics
This roster is not designed to be a defensive juggernaut. Need more athleticism, especially inside, and while the team is generally well-coached on D with their rotations, they also have enough defensive breakdowns to cause problems.
Just finished watching the replay...a few things that stood out to me (I'm sure some of this has already been said):
Offense: 66 should be enough to win...BUT I counted at least 6 relatively easy layups that we missed. Jones had a great shooting night, but 5 turnovers is too much for any one player, let alone the starting PG. I know a lot of the offense runs through him now, so there is added pressure, but he's needs to better there. 8 turnovers in the second half can't happen and they seemed to come at the worst possible times (momentum killing, late in the game, etc.). I thought overall, aside from the first 10 minutes and free throws, we played pretty well on offense. This is not why we lost the game.
Defense: Played pretty solid D in the first half and thought we competed really well on the glass. Thought there were some soft fouls given throughout the game, but you can't let a team shoot 20+ free throws in a game...especially when they are going to knock down 95% of them. Bradley shot out of their mind (for them anyway) from three. Three point shooters who average 26%, 34%, and 36% respectively went a combined 8-12 (67%) from behind the arc. Maybe some of that is bad defense, but I know we had a hand in their face on a few of these that happened down the stretch that allowed them to keep the lead when we made our run. In the end, 74 points given up is too much, doesn't matter how they happen.
Overall I thought we played okay, certainly had an opportunity to pull this one out. Unfortunately, we just can't afford for Jones to disappear in the second half (no matter how unfair that is to him). Learn from it and get better.
Now my thoughts on the season overall...I know a lot of us (myself included) were excited coming in to conference play with us being 7-0. I was pretty worried at the beginning of the season when we lost Muila for the year (one starter down) b/c we were so thin in the front court. Make no mistake, we do miss the presence he would have had down low as he is super athletic, blocks/alters a lot of shots, and rebounds well...all things we've been struggling with this year. When you lose Domask on top of that (two starters down and your best player) that makes things a whole lot harder. Just take a look at UNI if you need to see what happens when your best player goes down (they were picked to win the league). Oh and by the way, this is still a young team (a bunch of freshmen and sophomores), people seem to forget that. Sometimes I think the worst thing Mullins did was have such a good season last year and set such high expectations in year two. There are going to be growing pains when trying to build this program back to what we all want it to be. I'm just as disappointed as you guys with how things have gone, but when I look big picture with what we have coming back next year, plus the recruiting class coming in I feel a whole lot better. I know it's been awhile since we had a team that could compete for a championship and damn do I miss those days (not one of Barry's team had a realistic shot), but I would advise taking a step back from the ledge. If we are in this spot again next year (headed for bottom four) with a healthy roster, then maybe I'll start to worry a bit too.
#14 should watch Rick Barry’s video on free throws. Barry was a good FT shooter, changed his whole technique and became a great FT shooter.
“The best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.”
-- Al McGuire
#14 should watch Rick Barry’s video on free throws. Barry was a good FT shooter, changed his whole technique and became a great FT shooter.
I think Filewich has looked a lot better recently at the line. You can tell they're working with him and he's put in the work. Earlier in the season he had no shot at making many.
- @salukiworld. He really has improved in a ton of ways. He looks to be a force in the next few years. Also how do people complaining on here not know the names of the people they are insulting lol
The good- Filewich continues to show he is going to be pretty special and the work to improve his FT shooting just shows how much work he puts into his improvement. Harvey started to look like the player we hoped he would be, hope he keeps working on it. Verplanken is going to be a major contributor for us both on offense and defense and also I think in rebounding and assists. He has good awareness and sense. Banks continues to show his quality. Lance is a special player and hopefully he can continue to improve on cutting down the turnovers but they are to's of aggression and don't want to take that away from him. I saw a week of practice improvement overall. The bad- turnovers overall need to be cut down but the effort is there and that will come. Free throws. I believe we are better than what we have shown the last two weeks. Practice, practice. Filewich has been that's for sure. The ugly- didn't really see anything ugly. Good effort. The week of practice showed. Can't stop the other team from making all their free throws but one and can't control the officiating. Am hoping todays game is a different result but do expect the same level of effort and commitment to continue to develop and get better.
@salukiworld honestly connecting it too last year is a really bad take. This year we lost our best player and best big. Not sure how everyone other than barkeep and a few others can’t see that
I love Domask but I really don't think he's the difference between being a mid-tier Valley team and being maybe the worst team in the conference. And if he is that big of a difference, it's showing this team has a lot of work to do in terms of roster. I will say, if they had Domask today, this game might have been a different story.
Respectfully disagree. When you have a player like Domask who typically would be the focal point of the other team's game plan defensively, it opens the game offensively for everyone else on the floor. He is a legit first teamer, and would absolutely bring this team up to the middle of the pack if we had him healthy.
The more I watch this team, the more evident it is to me that we're just one or two highly athletic players away from being really good. They reminds me in many ways of the pre-Rolan Roberts Salukis of 2001-2002; just one athletic infusion and a little bit of seasoning away from everything clicking. The loss of Muila has been well documented and hugely impactful on the season. I love that the side effect though is that Kyler is getting invaluable on the job training as a freshman. I was worried a bit about his below the rim athleticism when he was signed, but he's proven that through brute strength, a nice touch around the rim, and a penchant for solid passing from the post that he was a great get. An athletic compliment to what he brings to the table would be ideal.
Our post depth looks much better next year, but I still think a more athletic 5 with some experience, maybe in the form of a grad-transfer should be a high recruiting priority. After two years of health struggles, I'm not sure we can bank on Muila having a healthy 21-22 campaign. If he were to go down again, we're very thin once again.
We also desperately need an athletic wing; 6'5"-6'7"ish that can guard multiple positions and be relied on to play heavier minutes when needed without a total drop on the offensive side. I'd hoped Long could be the answer there, but I don't think that's the case.
--Insert something witty here--
“We also desperately need an athletic wing; 6'5"-6'7"ish that can guard multiple positions and be relied on to play heavier minutes when needed without a total drop on the offensive side. I'd hoped Long could be the answer there, but I don't think that's the case.”
Foster Wonders
Just finished watching the replay...a few things that stood out to me (I'm sure some of this has already been said):
Offense: 66 should be enough to win...BUT I counted at least 6 relatively easy layups that we missed. Jones had a great shooting night, but 5 turnovers is too much for any one player, let alone the starting PG. I know a lot of the offense runs through him now, so there is added pressure, but he's needs to better there. 8 turnovers in the second half can't happen and they seemed to come at the worst possible times (momentum killing, late in the game, etc.). I thought overall, aside from the first 10 minutes and free throws, we played pretty well on offense. This is not why we lost the game.
Defense: Played pretty solid D in the first half and thought we competed really well on the glass. Thought there were some soft fouls given throughout the game, but you can't let a team shoot 20+ free throws in a game...especially when they are going to knock down 95% of them. Bradley shot out of their mind (for them anyway) from three. Three point shooters who average 26%, 34%, and 36% respectively went a combined 8-12 (67%) from behind the arc. Maybe some of that is bad defense, but I know we had a hand in their face on a few of these that happened down the stretch that allowed them to keep the lead when we made our run. In the end, 74 points given up is too much, doesn't matter how they happen.
Overall I thought we played okay, certainly had an opportunity to pull this one out. Unfortunately, we just can't afford for Jones to disappear in the second half (no matter how unfair that is to him). Learn from it and get better.
Now my thoughts on the season overall...I know a lot of us (myself included) were excited coming in to conference play with us being 7-0. I was pretty worried at the beginning of the season when we lost Muila for the year (one starter down) b/c we were so thin in the front court. Make no mistake, we do miss the presence he would have had down low as he is super athletic, blocks/alters a lot of shots, and rebounds well...all things we've been struggling with this year. When you lose Domask on top of that (two starters down and your best player) that makes things a whole lot harder. Just take a look at UNI if you need to see what happens when your best player goes down (they were picked to win the league). Oh and by the way, this is still a young team (a bunch of freshmen and sophomores), people seem to forget that. Sometimes I think the worst thing Mullins did was have such a good season last year and set such high expectations in year two. There are going to be growing pains when trying to build this program back to what we all want it to be. I'm just as disappointed as you guys with how things have gone, but when I look big picture with what we have coming back next year, plus the recruiting class coming in I feel a whole lot better. I know it's been awhile since we had a team that could compete for a championship and damn do I miss those days (not one of Barry's team had a realistic shot), but I would advise taking a step back from the ledge. If we are in this spot again next year (headed for bottom four) with a healthy roster, then maybe I'll start to worry a bit too.
Jones: certainly not one of his best games...but not his worst by any means. Jones only played 12 minutes 2nd half, so some of the disappearing was the coach's decision. If I remember right, one of two of those turnovers were people just not catching the ball when they should have (DAvanzo).
We made 11 - 18 FTs, Bradley made 20 - 21. There's the game. We were also pretty awful last minute or two - blowing layups and bunnies. Terry Nolan killed us - have to play better D on him.
Refs didn't help.
@salukiworld honestly connecting it too last year is a really bad take. This year we lost our best player and best big. Not sure how everyone other than barkeep and a few others can’t see that
I love Domask but I really don't think he's the difference between being a mid-tier Valley team and being maybe the worst team in the conference. And if he is that big of a difference, it's showing this team has a lot of work to do in terms of roster. I will say, if they had Domask today, this game might have been a different story.
Respectfully disagree. When you have a player like Domask who typically would be the focal point of the other team's game plan defensively, it opens the game offensively for everyone else on the floor. He is a legit first teamer, and would absolutely bring this team up to the middle of the pack if we had him healthy.
We win that game with Domask!
Valpo is giving Drake all they can handle for the second straight day. A Drake team that wiped us off the court with Domask. SIU was projected to finish 5th, and now 10th looks like a distinct possibility. Now, I’m presuming a lot that SIU finishes 8-10th I do not think that:
a) Marcus Domask is worth losing 3-5 places in conference for losing 6-8 games. If he is, that’s a problem.
b)This team is only 1-2 players away when the conference doesn’t lose players next year.
I hope I’m wrong. I don’t want to be this negative...but I’ll believe the change when I see it in the W-L column.
Lord, I promise I’ll have more positive things to say soon!!
Bow Em
