Listen all you realists can take a hike. If I want to believe that Tyson is a possibility until he commits to a Power 6 school, let me be! I need something to be excited about until we start getting some actual commits.
Listen all you realists can take a hike. If I want to believe that Tyson is a possibility until he commits to a Power 6 school, let me be! I need something to be excited about until we start getting some actual commits.
Sorry🤩🤞
Listen all you realists can take a hike. If I want to believe that Tyson is a possibility until he commits to a Power 6 school, let me be! I need something to be excited about until we start getting some actual commits.
Might be the last excitement we get for awhile. If people don’t think Kennedy or Smith are good enough (both were top targets for SIU), they’re probably not going to be happy with the final product.
They’ll probably bring in a decent 2023 HS kid and maybe 1 exciting portal kid but next year they’re probably going to sell us on a rebuild and nobody should be buying this. When the transfer portal exists how it does, SIU should never be rebuilding. You can rebuild your team in one offseason in 2023.
this is one reason why everyone leaving wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
fans are going to get a positive next season one way or another.
it is the only reason people like me are still interested in this program right now.
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.
I wouldn't consider this a rebuild regardless. There are 7 players back. They need to add a bit around them but I would consider it a retool. If they take a small step back without Domask and Jones that would not be the end of the world as long as the pieces are there to push forward after next year. What can't happen is slipping into the bottom of the valley. If we get 1 or 2 HS kids or young portal guys and Kennard is really good and we finish 6th or 7th I think everyone would feel good. If we rely on transfers that are seniors and get 6th or 7th I don't think anyone would feel good, so context will matter.Listen all you realists can take a hike. If I want to believe that Tyson is a possibility until he commits to a Power 6 school, let me be! I need something to be excited about until we start getting some actual commits.
Might be the last excitement we get for awhile. If people don’t think Kennedy or Smith are good enough (both were top targets for SIU), they’re probably not going to be happy with the final product.
They’ll probably bring in a decent 2023 HS kid and maybe 1 exciting portal kid but next year they’re probably going to sell us on a rebuild and nobody should be buying this. When the transfer portal exists how it does, SIU should never be rebuilding. You can rebuild your team in one offseason in 2023.
Not everyone will be happy. While I am definitely giving our new coach a chance to make an IMMEDIATE impact and giving him/them a chance before being negative, I will NOT be happy with a 6th or 7th place finish (unless we win the Valley tourney). It's year 5 and the rest of the Valley seems to have done a great job and landing some really good players. Our biggest weakness in my opinion was the poor recruiting done in the last 4 years and that was addressed this offseason. Because of that I am hopeful. But again I want to play in a post season tournament and anything less in year 5 is a disappointment, UNLESS there is a clear and significant improvement during the season which provides extreme confidence for year 6.
I wouldn't consider this a rebuild regardless. There are 7 players back. They need to add a bit around them but I would consider it a retool. If they take a small step back without Domask and Jones that would not be the end of the world as long as the pieces are there to push forward after next year. What can't happen is slipping into the bottom of the valley. If we get 1 or 2 HS kids or young portal guys and Kennard is really good and we finish 6th or 7th I think everyone would feel good. If we rely on transfers that are seniors and get 6th or 7th I don't think anyone would feel good, so context will matter.Listen all you realists can take a hike. If I want to believe that Tyson is a possibility until he commits to a Power 6 school, let me be! I need something to be excited about until we start getting some actual commits.
Might be the last excitement we get for awhile. If people don’t think Kennedy or Smith are good enough (both were top targets for SIU), they’re probably not going to be happy with the final product.
They’ll probably bring in a decent 2023 HS kid and maybe 1 exciting portal kid but next year they’re probably going to sell us on a rebuild and nobody should be buying this. When the transfer portal exists how it does, SIU should never be rebuilding. You can rebuild your team in one offseason in 2023.
They lost 69% of their scoring and 54% of their total minutes from last year and haven’t replaced any of it. They’ve lost 2 of their bigger targets in the portal. Yes, there’s still good talent left but the better players go off the board first. Once we get to May, you’re basically fighting for scraps like SIU did last year. You can get a good player like Rupert but the impact players are signing right now or have signed already. The rest of the MVC besides Valpo has added at least 1 impact player each.
The Kennedy miss frustrates me because we have two Mullins on our staff. One of the big selling points for Mullins was his dad runs one of the top AAU programs in the state if not the entire Midwest and we’ve landed 2 Wolves players in 5 years now. One year of Barret Benson and 2 years so far of Ebube. Bryan recruited Kennedy to Loyola and we couldn’t even land him when he transferred into the Valley.
is there any chance players are visiting right now etc. that isn’t publicly known on this board?
I mean if we always know which players are on campus, there would never be any surprises…
is jerrance howard off by himself 5 states away working on a big boy as we read this today…
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.
I don't think we can say that Kennedy and Smith were our "top targets"; that's just an assumption that I think gets murky with Howard on the staff now.
Kennedy and Smith are the only players I know for a fact visited SIU. Why would they waste their time getting both to Carbondale if they weren’t seriously interested in either? They’ve signed 0 players so I haven’t seen anything that leads me to believe they have another player lined up.
I wouldn't consider this a rebuild regardless. There are 7 players back. They need to add a bit around them but I would consider it a retool. If they take a small step back without Domask and Jones that would not be the end of the world as long as the pieces are there to push forward after next year. What can't happen is slipping into the bottom of the valley. If we get 1 or 2 HS kids or young portal guys and Kennard is really good and we finish 6th or 7th I think everyone would feel good. If we rely on transfers that are seniors and get 6th or 7th I don't think anyone would feel good, so context will matter.Listen all you realists can take a hike. If I want to believe that Tyson is a possibility until he commits to a Power 6 school, let me be! I need something to be excited about until we start getting some actual commits.
Might be the last excitement we get for awhile. If people don’t think Kennedy or Smith are good enough (both were top targets for SIU), they’re probably not going to be happy with the final product.
They’ll probably bring in a decent 2023 HS kid and maybe 1 exciting portal kid but next year they’re probably going to sell us on a rebuild and nobody should be buying this. When the transfer portal exists how it does, SIU should never be rebuilding. You can rebuild your team in one offseason in 2023.
They lost 69% of their scoring and 54% of their total minutes from last year and haven’t replaced any of it. They’ve lost 2 of their bigger targets in the portal. Yes, there’s still good talent left but the better players go off the board first. Once we get to May, you’re basically fighting for scraps like SIU did last year. You can get a good player like Rupert but the impact players are signing right now or have signed already. The rest of the MVC besides Valpo has added at least 1 impact player each.
The Kennedy miss frustrates me because we have two Mullins on our staff. One of the big selling points for Mullins was his dad runs one of the top AAU programs in the state if not the entire Midwest and we’ve landed 2 Wolves players in 5 years now. One year of Barret Benson and 2 years so far of Ebube. Bryan recruited Kennedy to Loyola and we couldn’t even land him when he transferred into the Valley.
I don't think even the most ardent Mullins supporter could say the very limited Illinois Wolves payoff through 4.5 years hasn't been disappointing. When Southern put A LOT of time into Wolves product Jalen Quinn and he picked Loyola, that was a concerning sign (followed by losing NJ Benson from Mt. Vernon to Missouri State in the same cycle). I haven't been as optimistic about recruiting under Mullins since. Hopefully the Howard hire provides a needed boost, but this spring, so far, has elevated concerns.
I don't think we can say that Kennedy and Smith were our "top targets"; that's just an assumption that I think gets murky with Howard on the staff now.
They were not. Rest easy.
They lost 69% of their scoring and 54% of their total minutes from last year and haven’t replaced any of it. They’ve lost 2 of their bigger targets in the portal. Yes, there’s still good talent left but the better players go off the board first. Once we get to May, you’re basically fighting for scraps like SIU did last year. You can get a good player like Rupert but the impact players are signing right now or have signed already. The rest of the MVC besides Valpo has added at least 1 impact player each.
The Kennedy miss frustrates me because we have two Mullins on our staff. One of the big selling points for Mullins was his dad runs one of the top AAU programs in the state if not the entire Midwest and we’ve landed 2 Wolves players in 5 years now. One year of Barret Benson and 2 years so far of Ebube. Bryan recruited Kennedy to Loyola and we couldn’t even land him when he transferred into the Valley.
As I've said before, there are a lot of reasons why a recruit might choose a school. Some kids are going to come to little Carbondale and not be impressed ... they'd rather play in the big city, they want to be close to home, they want a degree in Aromatherapy, they'd rather be close to their girlfriend, etc. This article, written long before the crazy portal and NIL, offers some reasons. Maybe we need to have some nice-looking coeds take them on a campus tour. (isn't that how SIU got Bobber?)
I don't think we can say that Kennedy and Smith were our "top targets"; that's just an assumption that I think gets murky with Howard on the staff now.
Kennedy and Smith are the only players I know for a fact visited SIU. Why would they waste their time getting both to Carbondale if they weren’t seriously interested in either? They’ve signed 0 players so I haven’t seen anything that leads me to believe they have another player lined up.
I don't think anyone is saying they weren't interested in them. They both would have been solid pieces (I liked Kennedy a lot to spell X and sometimes play alongside), but I absolutely think you can get equivalent talent still in the portal.
As others have mentioned it's hard to judge any of this until you see the results. I don't know that we will get 5 guys better than those two, but it's hard to get transfers to come in for a possible backup role, especially Kennedy when it's his last year.
