At what point do we start looking at what is happening with the City of Carbondale, with recruits not choosing us? What do we have to offer outside of basketball? The town has lost a lot in the last 10-15 years.
This is something I've been wondering this whole off-season. How does a coach sell a kid on Carbondale? It's certainly not the place we all once knew and loved. Feels like you have to find a specific kind of kid to sell them on Carbondale and I think that's getting harder by the day. Even in cases of Cleveland or Lincoln, Nebraska I'd imagine those places have a lot more going on.
My bad on the quote part, long time reader, first time poster.
@seabass24 Good point sb24. For me, the selling point was all the forests and lakes surrounding C'dale. I bet that doesn't carry much weight for inner city kids.
I'm not sayin' -- I'm just sayin'!
At what point do we start looking at what is happening with the City of Carbondale, with recruits not choosing us? What do we have to offer outside of basketball? The town has lost a lot in the last 10-15 years.
This is something I've been wondering this whole off-season. How does a coach sell a kid on Carbondale? It's certainly not the place we all once knew and loved. Feels like you have to find a specific kind of kid to sell them on Carbondale and I think that's getting harder by the day. Even in cases of Cleveland or Lincoln, Nebraska I'd imagine those places have a lot more going on.
My bad on the quote part, long time reader, first time poster.
This. 1000 times this… I have said it over and over Carbondale might be the worst city/town in the MVC. If a kid chooses SIU it’s for campus and the basketball program because that town is garbage these days and not much fun anymore either.
Solid first post
welcome to the insanity that is Saluki-insider
@seabass24 Good point sb24. For me, the selling point was all the forests and lakes surrounding C'dale. I bet that doesn't carry much weight for inner city kids.
Very cool to read this. I was heading to U of I with a good portion of friends in my graduating class until my Mom took me on a 'last minute' visit just to check out Carbondale. I saw Giant City State Park and ALL the lakes and immediately fell in love. Such great hiking and fishing spots !!!!!!! Absolutely LOVED it there.
@saluki-4-life In my opinion Carbondale is not the worst city/town in the MVC. Have you been to Terre Haute? I am from Carbondale and went to SIU. Carbondale campus is still beautiful and so is southern Illinois. Carbondale is not garbage. Carbondale is not what it was in the 70's & 80's, but it's certainly not garbage.
Plenty of schools with towns a lot worse than Carbondale can get talent. Just look at Murray State or Indiana State. Have to have the right people that can sell talented players to come to SIU.
I would like to remind you guys Peoria is in the Valley and nothing is worse than that crime ridden diseased cesspool
Long-time visitor and first time poster.
I think these last posts may have hit the nail on the head. The campus is better than ever, but I am not sure you can say the same for Carbondale. There is no entertainment area like “The Strip.” I don’t know where students go for entertainment. How long has it been since there has been a concert in the Arena?
I spent more than one weekend night at Merlin’s or Bonaparte’s watching bands like REO Speedwagon and Head East among others. There were great bars like Gatsby’s, American Tap, the Alley, and late night at Midland Inn. You also felt safe walking from campus to anywhere in Carbondale.
When the weather warmed up, there was the campus beach, Crab Orchard spillway, and of course the hill at the baseball games.
Very nice thank you for posting
Just fyi: the arena concerts are returning this fall. This current chancellor has prioritized a strong public image and a return to an elevated campus experience. For any faults he has, there’s no doubt he puts a lot of resources into the things the public sees. Also, SIU is building a new welcome center where that field by mcandrew was/is. It’ll be a nice barrier so we don’t have to stare at the smokestacks. Add in the concert venue in the town square and a huge Amtrak/travel station and those are all things that are currently in early production. Hopefully more to come. The city has received a lot of grant money under Pritzker’s administration and there also seems to be a renewed exuberance by the city ambassadors. There’s reasons to bet on real estate in Carbondale. It’s far from perfect but the demise has been greatly exaggerated. The one thing it absolutely is struggling with is shopping. But that will return as the student body does.
This discussion got me thinking about town populations in the MVC. While I don't really think there is a connection between population and the success of the basketball programs, there is a vast difference in population in the MVC. SIU has the second smallest where only Murray with less. Carbondale and Murray combined have less people than Cedar Falls who only has a little over 40k. Six places have over 100k while the other six are below 61k. I'm not sure it means anything but it's interesting. Thank you for following me down this rabbit hole.
There’s reasons to bet on real estate in Carbondale. It’s far from perfect but the demise has been greatly exaggerated.
[/quote]Truth. Big time.
agree with you on the shopping tho
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.
As long as we're mentioning positives, Marion Airport is now getting one-hour flights to and from Chicago.
