Leatherneck Nation

Both teams come in to this one struggling a bit if you believe the trending bar chart:

http://208.109.241.246:3002/ovcb/statRank/MBB?game=87

But someone has to win and we definitely need to "get off the schneid", to borrow an overused euphemism.

Not meant to be.  Four straight home games coming up.  Chance to right the ship. 
Biggest difference between last year and this year IMHO, is last year, we had some veteran leadership coming back even if they were only around for a couple years.
95% new team this year.  That is a tough draw. 
 

Southern Indiana wins 78-66

Only 6 Bench Points for Western.

Attendance at Southern Indiana = 2,369

Game Stats:
https://goleathernecks.com/boxscore.asp ... l&id=13922

Current OVC Standings:
Morehead State  7-1
Little Rock  5-2
Tennessee-Martin  5-3
Southeast Missouri State  5-3
SIU-Edwardsville  5-3
Tennessee Tech  4-4
Southern Indiana  3-5
Lindenwood  3-5
Tennessee State  3-5
Western  2-6
Eastern Illinois  1-6
 

Need this team to turn it around, I don't understand how we are in 2nd to last place.

Is it coaching or the roster or maybe both?? 

4EverPurple&Gold wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 10:22 am Need this team to turn it around, I don't understand how we are in 2nd to last place.

Is it coaching or the roster or maybe both?? 

 

I think its the roster, I think we have a pretty good coaching staff, no bigs and no depth are really hurting this year.

meganeck wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 5:17 pm

4EverPurple&Gold wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 10:22 am Need this team to turn it around, I don't understand how we are in 2nd to last place.

Is it coaching or the roster or maybe both?? 


 

I think it’s the roster, I think we have a pretty good coaching staff, no bigs and no depth are really hurting this year.

 

Unfortunately i think this team would be better playing uptempo but don’t really have the depth to do it.

meganeck wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 5:17 pm

4EverPurple&Gold wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 10:22 am Need this team to turn it around, I don't understand how we are in 2nd to last place.

Is it coaching or the roster or maybe both?? 


 

I think its the roster, I think we have a pretty good coaching staff, no bigs and no depth are really hurting this year.

 

I agree that Coach Boudreau and his assistants are doing the best they can with the pieces they have this year. They have tried line up changes, and playing style changes with both the offense and defense without much to show for it, but at least they're trying.

I blame the era of the Transfer Portal and NIL; it is killing the ability of small mid-major level programs like us to developed long term success for any sport. Coach has even said himself each of his years here as both an assist and then Head Coach, its looked like a JUCO program with semi or complete roster overhauls each year. Kids are in the program one, maybe two years if you're lucky. If things are going well for them, they'll transfer out to a bigger program with more exposure and NIL money. If things aren't going well for them, they transfer out to a "better situation" even if that means dropping down to a DII school (KJ Lee transferring to Central Missouri or Shay Davis to West Florida for example). We don't even seem to recruit true freshmen out of high school anymore, as you have to go back to the 2022 version of the team to find some on the roster. It's all about who is transferring in.

The kids we do bring in are either trying to move up for a lower division of basketball, and thus the question becomes can they handle the jump and be consistently successful as a DI player? Or you get kids who have DI talent, but weren't getting lots of minutes at their previous school for whatever reason, so there's not a lot of data to truly judge how could they really can be. This by nature will lead to years where things fall into place, the team has good chemistry, and we find a few diamonds in the rough, but also years where the science experiment just doesn't work out as intended. It is not anyone's fault, just the nature of modern college basketball. 

I feel were just going to have to power through the rest of this season with the players we have, and hope we get lucky a few times to be a top 8 seed come OVC Tournament Time.

What are the recruiting strategies in the age of the transfer portal?  I think you still need a mix of kids out of HS, JC, and other transfers, including foreign talent, to be successful long term.  I would also be chasing down multi-sport kids from smaller and middle size High schools.  Those might be your diamonds in the rough.  Brandon Gilbeck comes to mind.  I would encourage them to play multiple sports if they wanted to.