Will your team be better or worse next year?

[achrist70]

Not if he has already earned a degree, which is possible.

[DUBulldog]

Not if he has already earned a degree, which is possible.

This. Kale actually got his degree in 2015 after only 3 years. Because he's already graduated, he doesn't have to sit out a season.

[MoValley John]

Not if he has already earned a degree, which is possible.

This. Kale actually got his degree in 2015 after only 3 years. Because he's already graduated, he doesn't have to sit out a season.

So his last year art Duquesne, he might finish with a masters? And not spend a dime?

Nice!

[underdawg]

I'm of the opinion that SIU will be worse next season. Losing Beane is huge and I simply don't believe SIU recruited anyone with enough scoring to offset his loss. SIU is not only losing one of the top scorers in SIU history, but their go-to guy. It'll be interesting who SIU will turn to now to fill that role. Looking at the roster, I don't see anyone who can. SIU desperately needed to sign a scorer this spring, and failed to do so.

Even with the core of the team returning, I think this team will really struggle to score. Vincent, Smithpeters, and Weiher are all really good shooters, but I'm not sure how well they'll actually be able to create their own shot. Of the three, Vincent is the most likely. However, whereas this past season they were largely an after-thought in opponents' scouting reports, they'll now become the focus.

Point guard is another position I'm concerned about. As of now, the only point guard on the roster is Mike Rodriguez. The back-up was going to be incoming freshman Aaron Cook, but he recently had surgery and will be out at least six months, so the best course of action for him at this point would be to redshirt.

I think the key for SIU this season will be Armon Fletcher. He has probably the highest ceiling of any player on the team. If SIU is going to have a good season, Fletcher is going to have to build off of his solid freshman season and become a consistent scoring threat.

I'm looking at probably a 5th or 6th place finish for SIU. I expect Hinson will remain on the hot-seat all throughout the season. It'll be his 5th season now at SIU, and a middle-of-the-pack finish in a weak MVC is not acceptable at this stage of a rebuild.

It's rather hard to recruit someone that comes in and averages 20 plus a game first year. However, I believe each of the five top PT guys will up their average--will any of them average 20 plus by themselves? of course not. What will happen is that if each ups their average by a conservative 2-3 points per game and the new guys (by that I mean not only recruits but roster guys that didn't get the bulk of PT like Fletcher, Austin Weiher and Rudy Stradnieks etc) contribute, then the points will be made up. One thing we may not have however, is a "go-to" guy that can bail you out when you need a score.

[Cdizzle]

Fun thread to read with hindsight.

[BCPanther]

Man, whoever said UNI would go as Koch and Carlson go was dead on. I think we all just expected them (especially Carlson) to be much better and MUCH MUCH MUCH more consistent.

When they were both playing really well, we crushed Oklahoma and looked pretty good winning 9 of 10 and when they were bad we showed we could lose to George Mason and Evansville.

I think my uncle said it best--'Klint Carlson was the best player in the country for 10 minutes against Oklahoma, what the f*** happened?'

[TheObserver]

Great stuff. Rinse and repeat, the cycle continues.

I'm really quite impressed by the evaluators of talent, particularly from some SIU and BU fans, who clearly would excel in such subjects.

[Redhawk]

I thought that ISUr would be better by adding JuCo's Clayton & Fayne to the core of 4 returning starters.
Clayton didn't have the impact I expected though since he could never find his stroke but he did do a lot of other things to help the team win and made All-Bench.

Fayne has had a much bigger impact than anticipated. His presence in the paint helped Hawkins stay out of foul trouble and Phil also stepped up when MM was injured. He will be fun to watch for two more years.

The biggest surprise though was Evans. After virtually being a forgotten player as a Freshman he has been a strong addition to what was considered a short bench. His hot outside shooting was sorely needed with Clayton & Will's struggles.

Paris, Hawkins and MM get all the accolades but this team would have never been able to tie for the league championship without the contributions from Clayton, Fayne and Evans!

[Blers]

If i had to guess I'd say we finish 6th. But i wouldn't be surprised if we get 5 or 7.

Awwwww yeah.

[Aces1982]

It is interesting. Just 1 year ago observer went by another name. One of the 5 names he has used.


Yet he has the nerve to try to call people out.


lol