Marty Simmons interviewed at Wright St

[Ricardo del Rio]

Discussing the now open SDSU job on another site I threw some quick thoughts together about Marty...feel free to correct what you don't like about it

Lot's of inaccuracies a mistruths. I'll hit the high points.

Evansville is not a good place to be a coach. The funding is horrendous. I believe he is the lowest paid coach in the MVC and his budget for assistants, recruiting, travel, etc... is being cut every year for nearly a decade.

No one will ever say UE is a big spender in terms of athletics, but I don't see how you can make this comment when a. it is a private school and those numbers aren't available, b. they move into a brand new arena (city owned but rent is much higher), and c. they recently built a brand new on campus practice. The current crop of assistants also have the best pedigree since Marty's been at Evansville.

He had UE's best team in history and 2 of the best players in college basketball with Egidijus Mockevicius and DJ Ballentine and still couldn't even get an NIT bid.

This was no where near the best time in UE's history. You don't know much about UE's history. Also, you've said yourself Balentine (yes, 1 'l' not 2) is a system player. He may have started for WSU this year, but no way he's first team all conference. Mockevicius would have excelled anywhere.

He'd almost always enter conference play between 8-4 and 11-1

He's done that 3 times. Each of the last 2 years and his second year. Most of the time he's right at .500. (13-3, 15-3, 8-7, 7-5, 7-7, 7-7, 6-6, 9-4, 6-6)

Fans are now starting to see the issues with him - thanks largely to issues being pointed out by other MVC team fans.

This is just silly. There are what, maybe 10 UE fans on this board? UE doesn't have a large fan base, but that is still just a fraction of the overall fans. Are fans of other schools in the MVC stopping Aces fans after games to tell them their coach has issues? Never has happened to me. UE fans have known for awhile now Marty has issues.

His issue is that he is so set in his system to have one guy be "the man" it actually held a guy like Mock back. He could have been a 20/20 guy had Marty let the system run through him.

How many 20/20 guys have there been in the history of the MVC let alone the NCAA? How would running the offense through Egi have gotten him six more rebounds per game?

The top 5 scorers that are gone:
1. DJ Balentine - grad
2. Egidijus Mockevivius - grad
3. Jaylon Brown - transfer
4. Mislav Brzoja - go back to Europe to play pro
5. Adam Wing - senior
Harris Brown - their top freshman is transferring. Likely the next DJ/Colt in the system.

As has been pointed out, unless you know something no one else knows, Jaylon Brown isn't transferring. Harris Brown was the top freshman because he was the only freshman. He wasn't going to be the next DJ/Colt/Ely. He was the short, stalky, defensive, pass-first point guard Marty has recruited since he's been at Evansville.

That leaves him with a returning roster of
SR Christian Benzon - 1.8 ppg 1.3 rpg .3 apg
SR Duane Gibson - 2.0 ppg 1.8 rpg 2.0 apg
SR David Howard - 2.0 ppg 1.4 rpg, .1 apg
SR Blake Simmons - 5.9 ppg 2.0 rpg, 2.9 apg
SR Sergej Vucetic - 1.1 ppg, .3 rpg, .2 apg
SR Willie Wiley - 2.4 ppg, 2.0 rpg, .1 apg
JR Ryan Taylor - zero stats

Gibson was injured most of last year and has asked for a redshirt. He was the starting point guard over Jaylon Brown the two previous years. He average 6.7, 3.6, and 3.8 his sophomore season.

Ryan Taylor is a transfer from Ohio and will be a sophomore. He averaged 8.1 points per game as a freshman. He seems to be the one that will try and fill DJ's shoes.

Facts are so pesky.

[mvcfan]

You must really be taunting Evansville fans. Simmons won't even get a smell from SDSU.

You're pretty high if you don't think feelers from both sides will be traded.

That's not how they hire coaches in the modern game. Decades ago, they would target 5 candidates and check them out. SDSU is a top job (they sell out their arena 12,000 every game), are one of the top MWC jobs, and will have their picks of very good coaches. IMO, Simmons hasn't won enough nor is he a part of a strong enough coaching tree (Jim Crews won't get it done) to get him high on the SDSU list. He doesn't have a chance.

[BirdsEyeView]

SDSU is South Dakota St....not San Diego St. Wrong school, wrong conference, wrong attendance numbers.

[squirrel]

SDSU is South Dakota St....not San Diego St. Wrong school, wrong conference, wrong attendance numbers.

Hahaha....^^^^ This.

And San Diego State will go back to complete and total irrelevance once Steve Fisher retires.

South Dakota State BOR just approved multi-year contracts in the wake of Nagy leaving.

[PurpleAcesFootball]

Discussing the now open SDSU job on another site I threw some quick thoughts together about Marty...feel free to correct what you don't like about it

Wow. I wish I could throw together that many words quickly! I would have made term papers a breeze.

A few minor things as others have pointed out, but overall a thorough analysis.

Unfortunately men's basketball is our one revenue sport, so all our athletic eggs are in that basket so to speak. The new practice facility and brand new arena were supposed to "fix" recruiting issues and make it possible to get back to the NCAAs.

Last 4 years: practice facilities, arena, new assistant coaches, weaker Valley (without Creighton), and talent (plenty of accolades the last 2 years). Really the only thing left to examine is the head coach.

And to further illustrate your scheduling point, check out the SOS column now in a historical context:
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/evansville/

2015-16 was the weakest schedule in over 20 years, and 2014-15 was the 3rd weakest. The schedule was put together to amass a gaudy number of wins and hope the committee and fans would be fooled. It almost worked to achieve an NIT berth, but a weaker than usual Valley was an unlucky break.

IMO, the biggest eye-opener for fans the last 2 years has been the handling of number #50. His statistics have declined the last 3 years, while others like J Brown and Brzoja improved. That's when the fans began questioning things. It seems unfair to say, but you have to confront the brutal facts. It is hard to separate the coach, his system, and his handling of #50's playing time.