Necks2003 wrote: Thu May 28, 2026 10:27 am
Does anyone know how many scholarships are still available with the bulk of the players leaving? Seems like there should be several open spots.
Best place I've found for that kind of tracking is VerbalCommits.com. Here's Western's page:
https://verbalcommits.com/schools/western-illinois
I'm seeing the following as players currently planned to be on the team next year:
Jack Riley, Hunter Vaughn, Abdoulaye Konate, Jordan Cain, Joshua Eli, Matthiew Biembongo, Makai Kvamme, Taye Moore, Danny Stephens, and freshman Shay Stephens.
Of the freshman offers listed:
Lamont Hamilton - signed to play football at Minnesota
Noa Eteuati-Edwards - no commitment, offers from WIU and SEMO
Lincoln Williams - no commitment, offers from a bunch of schools including Illinois, Arizona State, Virginia Tech, UNLV, DePaul, Saint Louis, etc.
Stephen Brown - signed to play football at North Carolina State
Andrew Hoerner - signed to play basketball at Central Arkansas
So, we have 10 players listed, plus possibly one other that we have a scholarship offer out for (highly doubt we'd get Lincoln Williams with the interest he's gotten).
DI Men's Basketball teams now have a 15 scholarship limit and they can be distributed any way the team wants to:
"Instead of being limited to offering either a full or no scholarship in head count sports, NCAA member schools now have the flexibility to provide each student-athlete with a full, partial, or no scholarship, depending on their program’s strategy and funding. All NCAA sports are now considered equivalency sports, giving DI schools greater freedom in how they divide athletic aid within roster caps."
So, it sounds like there's at least a few open spots on our team. Idk how many others our coaching staff have been in contact with but haven't officially made offers too.