A buddy on mine in the know says we're currently second for Donovan Davis behind Wisconsin.
Not that it's some giant revelation, but man I'd love to win that recruiting battle and bring Davis in.

Quote from: muwarrior69 on Today at 12:16:16 PMAre you kidding? These guys can't win games now. What makes you think they'll win games next season. The in coming class has yet to prove they can play high major D1 ball.

Justin Lewis, Oso and Greg Elliott couldn't win games in 2020-21. Yet Shaka surrounded those players with quality transfers and they made the tournament the next year.

Don't you think that putting some quality around the core of Royce, NJ and Adrien can result in a better team? I sure think so...

Quote from: Pakuni on Today at 12:30:33 PMIs it crazy to suggest the quality of transfers matters more than the quantity?
Two high-quality transfers, preferably a big and a 3-and-D wing who are capable of starting for most good P5 programs, would help this team far more than four depth pieces.

I don't think you necessarily need big money guys. A big like Jones or Traore at Butler would instantly improve our projected line-up for next year (James, Stevens, Parham, not sure who would be a the 3. Maybe Owens). Neither are stars, neither cost Butler a lot, but they'd be a significant upgrade from what we are looking at for experience at the 5 next year (assuming one or both come back) and help Sheek develop. I don't think we need to buy a Tarris Reed, Jr. or Hunter Dickenson type at the 5...but I wouldn't be opposed.

I think a lot of the criticism of Pritzker and the State of Illinois misses the point. A place like Hammond needs the Bears way more than Arlington Heights does. And Chicago certainly doesn't "need" them very much at all.

So the price that Illinois is willing to pay to keep the Bears in Illinois certainly is going to be lower than Indiana is willing to pay to move them to Hammond. In the end, AH will get that property developed, and Chicago will still be a world class city. But Hammond? Eh...

Quote from: Vander Blue Man Group on Today at 08:19:11 AMIt's laughable that is what you took away from his comments and it's very difficult to take you seriously. 

His comment about Jones was innocuous yet you're twisting it to something ludicrous. 

Next, of course retention of your best player has to be a priority this offseason and going forward.  And that primarily means Nigel, Royce, and Adrien.  There's nothing remotely confusing about that comment.

And then you conveniently ignore that he:

1) Said he was excited about the process. He likely feels that he has been freed from his self-imposed restrictions

2) They are going to use metrics to fill gaps.  Understand what the returnees down well and how to best supplement those skill sets in the portal. 

Get some help, dude.

Yup. It's amazing that people watched that and came out of it with anything else.

He is going to keep James and Parham (and likely Stevens) come hell or high water, and he is then going to bolster the roster by using the portal.

Any other take is just kvetching for the sake of it. Jeesh.

Quote from: jfp61 on Today at 08:13:31 AMHonestly.... this speach was not good...

Really, the issue with this roster is the lack of Sean Jones? Sean Jones, who made worse when he was playing, that Sean jones?

And the focus is on retention? Of which players? If you are focusing on retaining all, you're doing something wrong.

This staff is poor at self evaluations.

Your inability to grasp any of this is pretty remarkable. Kudos, man.

I've been as critical as anyone of Shaka this season, and found what I felt was his pride and stubbornness with roster building incredibly frustrating in November and December. But this is about as clear a mea culpa as a guy like Shaka will confess in a presser.

The issue is obviously not Sean Jones, it's what directly preceded him talking about Sean Jones: "This year, to be 100% honest, we had some older guys we felt could do more...and they haven't. But the young guys have really stepped forward in a major way." I don't know how much clearer he needs to be for you. Acknowledging Sean's injury is Shaka being a nice guy and highlighting a guy dealing with injury not contributing as opposed to outwardly lambasting the terrible play of Chase Ross, poor play of Ben Gold, vanishing act of Zaide Lowery, irrelevance of Tre Norman. He will literally never do that, ever.

OF COURSE the focus is on our retention of young players...how is that not something you comprehend. He literally says his "evolving" starts with keeping Nigel, Adrien, Royce, and Damarius in the program. "But certainly around them, we have to look at what's best for Marquette basketball and our roster...and I'm excited about that . How we can improve our team in different ways." Like is he speaking a different language here than you?

In my opinion, I think Sean, Tre, and one of Caedin (ideally) or Josh leaves the program: add in Zaide and that leaves 4 openings. I personally think we bring in 3 meaningful contributors to this team and maybe a Nash-type flier as a 4th since we know Shaka likes doing that.

Nigel, Royce, Adrien, Damarius, Michael, Alex, Sheek, Ian, portal guard like Minessale, portal wing, portal big man is a team that gives me a LOT of optimism. Thinking that 2026-2027 roster is a bottom dweller is crazy to me. We're led by freshmen and sophomores currently playing blind and with one hand tied behind our back and are taking Nova to the brink twice, St. John's to the brink, Seton Hall to the brink twice, running mid-tier Butler and Creighton out of the gym. Not seeing our growth and projecting a damn good team next year now that we're portaling makes no sense IMO.

I'd be surprised if two of Tre, Caedin, Clark, and Jones are not gone next year.  Would expect 2, would think 3 is more likely than 1 or 0.  Whether Shaka then uses all 3 spots on portal players we'll see, but my guess is yes.

People constantly overrate the need for depth here.  You need 7 good players to be a competitive team.  My preference would be a rotation of 8.

We were a 2 seed two years ago with a sophomore Ben Gold 7th in minutes and a sophomore Sean Jones 8th in minutes, prior to getting injured for the year half way through the season.  Nobody past those guys played more than 10 minutes per game, and Kolek missed a number of games late in the season with injury as well.  We were running a 6 man rotation for a while.  The year before that we won double Big East titles with freshman Sean Jones 8th in mpg at 12.  And people think Gold and Jones are "fat we should've cut" prior to their 4th year in the program, let alone years 1 and 2.

I've consistently brought up Villanova's two national title teams.  6 guys played 27+ mpg, Gillespie played 14, and nobody else was more than 12 on their second title team under Wright, and their first title under Wright they had an 8 man rotation.

Florida won a national title last year with 6 players over 20 mpg, one player just under 15 mpg, and nobody else above 12.  They basically played 7.  You can go on and on looking at how deep national title teams' rotations are.  Some are deeper, but most are 7 or 8.

You don't need 15 Big East rotational players to be competitive in college basketball.  The idea that we need to completely flip the roster is so far from the truth.  Nigel and Royce should be two of the best offensive players in the Big East next year.  Stevens is a proven 3 point shooter, and I trust we'll see an improvement defensively and going to the hoop.  He's definitely a rotational Big East player.  If you get 3 Big East rotational level players, you can easily find Ben Gold/Sean Jones sophomore year level of production from one of Sheek, Egbuonu, Philips, Walker, Miletic, or Owens.

Quote from: Tha Hound on Today at 12:21:42 PMThe best part of this clip is the only other MU players you can see on the floor are Caedin Hamilton and Tre Norman. Going to be hilarious looking back on that in 5 years.

Did you see how Hamilton was starting to fight for rebounding position if the shot didn't fall?

Yeah, neither did I.

Quote from: panda on Today at 12:23:21 PMI really think the block and then taking the ball up floor was equally, if not more impressive than the dipsy do layup

If he had made the basket at the end of that sequence, it too would've been on national highlights.

Quote from: Its DJOver on Today at 01:27:26 PMThat it's not an empty chair. Players can practice and help the underclassmen. They can be called upon, if needed, to perform a role.

To be clear, transfers are needed, but kicking players off the team and only carrying 12-13 scholarship players is a mistake.

Shaka has an idea of how many players he wants to fill out the roster. Cutting 5 players and only filling 2-3 is just leaving meat on the bone. If you have 15 scholarships, you should fill 15 scholarships.

IMO, you leave at least one spot open for a mid-year pickup - an international player or an early HS grad (what Shaka did for Walker this year). Maybe it's a Euro or Aussie who can contribute immediately too.