Everyone relaaaax. Do you remember the year Bryan took over? the cupboard was bare. Recruits did not come, except Jones, everyone graduated or left except McGill... Bryan Built a roster that was competitive and didn't sign the best player on that team until May... That kid was Marcus Domask. This year he has big time recruits and players already on the roster... Lets go over this.
Rupert- This is a dude who played in an elite 8... was recruited out of HS by Murray, SLU, Georgia, Wichita St. (1 year experience)
Cade - 3 star recruited by Oklahoma, TCU, Creighton amngst others. (1 year experience)
Troy - Valpo, Loyola, SLU - plus we have seen he is a good player here at SIU. (2 years)
Foster - big recruit out of HS, big scorer, role going to be much bigger but a great get (2 years)
Ebube - labeled as one of the best bigs in the chicago area, big recruit (2 years)
Xavier - Good player, came from the A10 we have seen him be a good player for us (4 years, 2 at SIU)
Kennard Davis - 3 star recruit, big time HS accolades
We will see about AJ Ferguson but certainly fits what we have been looking for in length and athleticism in a wing.
This is a foundation. Kids graduate. Kids leave. The cupboard is not bare, this is not a rebuild. This is college basketball, you don't get to keep kids for 10 years. This team has good players and the opportunity to add through HS or the portal to make it better, it has deficiencies but nothing like what Bryan took over 4 years ago. A few specific holes to fill and Bryan is now recruiting off the back of some success and an arena full of fans. Take a breather, it's going to be fine.
How long does Mullins get without hitting a postseason tournament? They went through a 4 year rebuild with Domask & Jones and barely made it to Saturday in St. Louis in their last year and were so far out of the NIT conversation that they sent kids home for Spring Break.
Their 2nd year recruiting class of Dalton Banks, Kyler Filewich, and Eric Butler is now gone so they don’t have a Senior on their roster that they recruited. X and Troy will be the only returning upperclassmen.
Unless they nail the Portal, which they haven’t done in their 4 years here so far, next season is going to be rough.
@salukiworld they have to extend him after this next season too.
But five years with zero postseason would be tough to justify a contract extension.
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.
circumstances matter... If COVID never happens and those Drake kids move on, Mullins first recruiting class likely hangs a banner either regular season or MVCT. I would say if they are bad 2 years in a row that would be trouble, but every year Mullins has a healthy team they are competitive, so I really doubt that is going to happen.Everyone relaaaax. Do you remember the year Bryan took over? the cupboard was bare. Recruits did not come, except Jones, everyone graduated or left except McGill... Bryan Built a roster that was competitive and didn't sign the best player on that team until May... That kid was Marcus Domask. This year he has big time recruits and players already on the roster... Lets go over this.
Rupert- This is a dude who played in an elite 8... was recruited out of HS by Murray, SLU, Georgia, Wichita St. (1 year experience)
Cade - 3 star recruited by Oklahoma, TCU, Creighton amngst others. (1 year experience)
Troy - Valpo, Loyola, SLU - plus we have seen he is a good player here at SIU. (2 years)
Foster - big recruit out of HS, big scorer, role going to be much bigger but a great get (2 years)
Ebube - labeled as one of the best bigs in the chicago area, big recruit (2 years)
Xavier - Good player, came from the A10 we have seen him be a good player for us (4 years, 2 at SIU)
Kennard Davis - 3 star recruit, big time HS accolades
We will see about AJ Ferguson but certainly fits what we have been looking for in length and athleticism in a wing.
This is a foundation. Kids graduate. Kids leave. The cupboard is not bare, this is not a rebuild. This is college basketball, you don't get to keep kids for 10 years. This team has good players and the opportunity to add through HS or the portal to make it better, it has deficiencies but nothing like what Bryan took over 4 years ago. A few specific holes to fill and Bryan is now recruiting off the back of some success and an arena full of fans. Take a breather, it's going to be fine.
How long does Mullins get without hitting a postseason tournament? They went through a 4 year rebuild with Domask & Jones and barely made it to Saturday in St. Louis in their last year and were so far out of the NIT conversation that they sent kids home for Spring Break.
Their 2nd year recruiting class of Dalton Banks, Kyler Filewich, and Eric Butler is now gone so they don’t have a Senior on their roster that they recruited. X and Troy will be the only returning upperclassmen.
Unless they nail the Portal, which they haven’t done in their 4 years here so far, next season is going to be rough.
Also, I am not super eager to get rid of a coach who was a Mast 3 pointer away from playing in the NIT... We have won more meaningful games the past couple years than we did the previous 10...
circumstances matter... If COVID never happens and those Drake kids move on, Mullins first recruiting class likely hangs a banner either regular season or MVCT. I would say if they are bad 2 years in a row that would be trouble, but every year Mullins has a healthy team they are competitive, so I really doubt that is going to happen.Everyone relaaaax. Do you remember the year Bryan took over? the cupboard was bare. Recruits did not come, except Jones, everyone graduated or left except McGill... Bryan Built a roster that was competitive and didn't sign the best player on that team until May... That kid was Marcus Domask. This year he has big time recruits and players already on the roster... Lets go over this.
Rupert- This is a dude who played in an elite 8... was recruited out of HS by Murray, SLU, Georgia, Wichita St. (1 year experience)
Cade - 3 star recruited by Oklahoma, TCU, Creighton amngst others. (1 year experience)
Troy - Valpo, Loyola, SLU - plus we have seen he is a good player here at SIU. (2 years)
Foster - big recruit out of HS, big scorer, role going to be much bigger but a great get (2 years)
Ebube - labeled as one of the best bigs in the chicago area, big recruit (2 years)
Xavier - Good player, came from the A10 we have seen him be a good player for us (4 years, 2 at SIU)
Kennard Davis - 3 star recruit, big time HS accolades
We will see about AJ Ferguson but certainly fits what we have been looking for in length and athleticism in a wing.
This is a foundation. Kids graduate. Kids leave. The cupboard is not bare, this is not a rebuild. This is college basketball, you don't get to keep kids for 10 years. This team has good players and the opportunity to add through HS or the portal to make it better, it has deficiencies but nothing like what Bryan took over 4 years ago. A few specific holes to fill and Bryan is now recruiting off the back of some success and an arena full of fans. Take a breather, it's going to be fine.
How long does Mullins get without hitting a postseason tournament? They went through a 4 year rebuild with Domask & Jones and barely made it to Saturday in St. Louis in their last year and were so far out of the NIT conversation that they sent kids home for Spring Break.
Their 2nd year recruiting class of Dalton Banks, Kyler Filewich, and Eric Butler is now gone so they don’t have a Senior on their roster that they recruited. X and Troy will be the only returning upperclassmen.
Unless they nail the Portal, which they haven’t done in their 4 years here so far, next season is going to be rough.
Drake did have a bunch of old players but SIU also started 4 Seniors this year and 6 of their top 7 leaders in minutes per game were Seniors. Also Bradley hit an NIT with a much younger team than SIU.
Everyone relaaaax. Do you remember the year Bryan took over? the cupboard was bare. Recruits did not come, except Jones, everyone graduated or left except McGill... Bryan Built a roster that was competitive and didn't sign the best player on that team until May... That kid was Marcus Domask. This year he has big time recruits and players already on the roster... Lets go over this.
Rupert- This is a dude who played in an elite 8... was recruited out of HS by Murray, SLU, Georgia, Wichita St. (1 year experience)
Cade - 3 star recruited by Oklahoma, TCU, Creighton amngst others. (1 year experience)
Troy - Valpo, Loyola, SLU - plus we have seen he is a good player here at SIU. (2 years)
Foster - big recruit out of HS, big scorer, role going to be much bigger but a great get (2 years)
Ebube - labeled as one of the best bigs in the chicago area, big recruit (2 years)
Xavier - Good player, came from the A10 we have seen him be a good player for us (4 years, 2 at SIU)
Kennard Davis - 3 star recruit, big time HS accolades
We will see about AJ Ferguson but certainly fits what we have been looking for in length and athleticism in a wing.
This is a foundation. Kids graduate. Kids leave. The cupboard is not bare, this is not a rebuild. This is college basketball, you don't get to keep kids for 10 years. This team has good players and the opportunity to add through HS or the portal to make it better, it has deficiencies but nothing like what Bryan took over 4 years ago. A few specific holes to fill and Bryan is now recruiting off the back of some success and an arena full of fans. Take a breather, it's going to be fine.
How long does Mullins get without hitting a postseason tournament? They went through a 4 year rebuild with Domask & Jones and barely made it to Saturday in St. Louis in their last year and were so far out of the NIT conversation that they sent kids home for Spring Break.
Their 2nd year recruiting class of Dalton Banks, Kyler Filewich, and Eric Butler is now gone so they don’t have a Senior on their roster that they recruited. X and Troy will be the only returning upperclassmen.
Unless they nail the Portal, which they haven’t done in their 4 years here so far, next season is going to be rough.
Zero of the folks on that list of players were able to create their own shot, save for X and he wasn't really doing that until the end of the year. Everything ran through Domask and Jones. Did you see how our offense ran when they were both on the bench...rarely happened but when it did, no one knew who was going to score on offense.
If we lose everyone we expect, 70% of the scoring is gone...in one off season. I have no doubt that we have some talented kids on the roster, but if one of those guys makes a big jump in scoring that would be a win...we need all of them to do that or hit big in the portal to make up the difference. That doesn't even account for the fact that we really need to be scoring more than last year. As SalukiWorld already mentioned, we've yet to land a big time scorer in the portal outside of Benson in Mullins first year. We've got some decent complimentary players (X, Rupert, Newton, etc.), but no one that would be able to replace the guys leaving.
I'm willing to let things play out and see who the staff is able to bring in for next year, but if this becomes another rebuild in year 5 we are not at all where we should be and that falls squarely on the coaching staff. We should be re-loading at this point, not rebuilding.
I think Coupet was a hit in the portal along with Benson. Last season was a disappointment because it was a huge offseason for the team with Domask & Jones possibly leaving after the year. They needed a true point guard so X was a good addition and I like Rupert, but neither are big scorers. Which means they had to hit on a scorer and they ended up with Newton who averaged 5 points per game. They got better defensively but never replaced Coupet and Verplancken’s scoring from an already poor offensive team.
Just because our best players were seniors does not mean it is not re loading... Domask and Jones were always going to graduate... The offense will be different... Were we supposed to not run it through Domask? Next year it will be totally different because Marcus is gone... COVID was a killer, it just was. It screwed us because our players left and Drakes decided to stay. It is what it is... Normal circumstances and things are different.Everyone relaaaax. Do you remember the year Bryan took over? the cupboard was bare. Recruits did not come, except Jones, everyone graduated or left except McGill... Bryan Built a roster that was competitive and didn't sign the best player on that team until May... That kid was Marcus Domask. This year he has big time recruits and players already on the roster... Lets go over this.
Rupert- This is a dude who played in an elite 8... was recruited out of HS by Murray, SLU, Georgia, Wichita St. (1 year experience)
Cade - 3 star recruited by Oklahoma, TCU, Creighton amngst others. (1 year experience)
Troy - Valpo, Loyola, SLU - plus we have seen he is a good player here at SIU. (2 years)
Foster - big recruit out of HS, big scorer, role going to be much bigger but a great get (2 years)
Ebube - labeled as one of the best bigs in the chicago area, big recruit (2 years)
Xavier - Good player, came from the A10 we have seen him be a good player for us (4 years, 2 at SIU)
Kennard Davis - 3 star recruit, big time HS accolades
We will see about AJ Ferguson but certainly fits what we have been looking for in length and athleticism in a wing.
This is a foundation. Kids graduate. Kids leave. The cupboard is not bare, this is not a rebuild. This is college basketball, you don't get to keep kids for 10 years. This team has good players and the opportunity to add through HS or the portal to make it better, it has deficiencies but nothing like what Bryan took over 4 years ago. A few specific holes to fill and Bryan is now recruiting off the back of some success and an arena full of fans. Take a breather, it's going to be fine.
How long does Mullins get without hitting a postseason tournament? They went through a 4 year rebuild with Domask & Jones and barely made it to Saturday in St. Louis in their last year and were so far out of the NIT conversation that they sent kids home for Spring Break.
Their 2nd year recruiting class of Dalton Banks, Kyler Filewich, and Eric Butler is now gone so they don’t have a Senior on their roster that they recruited. X and Troy will be the only returning upperclassmen.
Unless they nail the Portal, which they haven’t done in their 4 years here so far, next season is going to be rough.
Zero of the folks on that list of players were able to create their own shot, save for X and he wasn't really doing that until the end of the year. Everything ran through Domask and Jones. Did you see how our offense ran when they were both on the bench...rarely happened but when it did, no one knew who was going to score on offense.
If we lose everyone we expect, 70% of the scoring is gone...in one off season. I have no doubt that we have some talented kids on the roster, but if one of those guys makes a big jump in scoring that would be a win...we need all of them to do that or hit big in the portal to make up the difference. That doesn't even account for the fact that we really need to be scoring more than last year. As SalukiWorld already mentioned, we've yet to land a big time scorer in the portal outside of Benson in Mullins first year. We've got some decent complimentary players (X, Rupert, Newton, etc.), but no one that would be able to replace the guys leaving.
I'm willing to let things play out and see who the staff is able to bring in for next year, but if this becomes another rebuild in year 5 we are not at all where we should be and that falls squarely on the coaching staff. We should be re-loading at this point, not rebuilding.
Some of you think the program is like folding because seniors are graduating... Marcus and Lance were always going to play a ton and score a ton, they have been those guys for us for 4 years... That does not mean the others aren't good, but you would have been a fool as a coach to not throw the ball give Domask the ball. Maybe next year it's more high ball screens with X driving and dishing to shooters. maybe we throw it into a big guy more. Maybe it posting Davis or Troy up on smaller guards and drawing doubles. Coaches job is to put the players in the best position, last year that meant relying heavily on Domask, next year, we will see.
From Dusty May (FAU), "There are middle men, third parties that have incentive to get kids in the portal and help them find another spot and then with the new rules who know what happens after that.”
https://twitter.com/verbalcommits/status/1641113264561029121?s=46&t=7s0hTttieSER8wqRSA0LoA
3 star Freshman from Cardinal Ritter in St Louis but barely played
Some of you think the program is like folding because seniors are graduating... Marcus and Lance were always going to play a ton and score a ton, they have been those guys for us for 4 years... That does not mean the others aren't good, but you would have been a fool as a coach to not throw the ball give Domask the ball. Maybe next year it's more high ball screens with X driving and dishing to shooters. maybe we throw it into a big guy more. Maybe it posting Davis or Troy up on smaller guards and drawing doubles. Coaches job is to put the players in the best position, last year that meant relying heavily on Domask, next year, we will see.
A couple things. Of course having your upperclassmen being your best players, especially for mid-majors is great. Of course we knew eventually both Domask and Jones were going to leave and not be the focal points of the offense. I'm not even annoyed that 90% of the offense was run through those two, the thing that concerns me is none of the folks we think are returning have shown the propensity to score anywhere close to what we need for the team to be competitive next year. D'Amico had some decent games, X had a couple games where he scored in bunches, Rupert had some good stretches, but they also had games where they disappeared. No one really showed the consistency I would have liked to see to feel good about replacing the scoring and facilitating Jones and Domask provided. That was part of the issue all last year, can we find a consistent third scorer...the answer was no. And if to further my point, you mentioned Jones and Domask being relied on for the last 4 years to provide that...we've had 4 years to try and find guys that could help take some of that load off their shoulders, who would be ready to take the reigns from them when they left and maybe these guys will do it, but I just haven't seen it on the court yet. To be fair to them, Mullins hasn't given some of these guys many minutes to show they are capable.
Arguing rotations and who got minutes is an entirely different discussion I don't want to hash out here, but that certainly comes in to question when your seniors leave and your underclassmen don't have much game experience.
All this brings me back to my original point. We need to have some success in bringing in big time contributors in the portal. It's unfair and unrealistic to think guys who are averaging 3,4, and 5 points a game and playing 10-15 minutes are all the sudden going to be 10+ point scorers (maybe some will...I sure hope so), but it certainly isn't the norm. If we fill the roster with transfers like we have in the past and don't get some guys that can score and go get you a basket when your offense breaks down, we could be in for a tough year and what I would consider a rebuild (finish bottom half of The Valley).
Like I said before, I'm more than willing to see how this recruiting cycle goes and I'm hopeful some of our recent success (albeit not as successful as we would have all liked) will help Mullins and company land some big impact guys. If they are unable to keep the train moving and we finish bottom four or six, I think Mullins seat will justifiably start getting warm.
Another Freshman bench player:
https://twitter.com/verbalcommits/status/1641171499598921731?s=46&t=7s0hTttieSER8wqRSA0LoA
