Colton Crowdis committed.

[Nukem2]

Just got an email response from Ben Steele on this. He confirms that Crowdis was brought in as a practice player and says who knows if he can develop into anything more.

[brewcity77]

Tempering expectations of the many Scoopers slotting him for double digit mpg?

#COLE

Unannounced commitments will typically be the guys closer to the Jonah Lucas end of the career spectrum than the Chase Ross end, to use two recent grads as potential comparables.

[MUbiz]

Just got an email response from Ben Steele on this. He confirms that Crowdis was brought in as a practice player and says who knows if he can develop into anything more.

[Markusquette]

So were the other programs looking at him as a practice player only?

[Boone]

SJU was

[MU82]

Thanks for the responses, all.

I believe Shaka even mentioned a returning walk-on, so I still find it odd that he didn't mention Crowdis.

But I have not been in the group of Scoopers expecting anything from the kid.

[JakeBarnes]

Thanks for the responses, all.

I believe Shaka even mentioned a returning walk-on, so I still find it odd that he didn't mention Crowdis.

But I have not been in the group of Scoopers expecting anything from the kid.

I expect academic excellence, a strong work ethic, and growth.

[Jay Bee]

I expect academic excellence, a strong work ethic, and growth.

At least we got a deal on him - only paying him $1.1M.

PS - dodds claimed SJU 'came off' Crowdis because of their point guard signing three weeks before the kid "visited" SJU.

PPS - Sheek was irked by the prospects of 18 getting a lot of his minutes.

[swoopem]

Just got an email response from Ben Steele on this. He confirms that Crowdis was brought in as a practice player and says who knows if he can develop into anything more.

What if he's the hardest worker in practice? Will he play?

[Shooter McGavin]

So no true back up ball handler/playmaker.  And no backup 4/5.  Interesting.  Shaka hoping for zero injuries at the 1 and 5 positions. 

[Pakuni]

I expect academic excellence, a strong work ethic, and growth.

What, no relationships?

[Jay Bee]

So no true back up ball handler/playmaker.  And no backup 4/5.  Interesting.  Shaka hoping for zero injuries at the 1 and 5 positions. 

He's got HIS backup at the 5.

[Galway Eagle]

At least we got a deal on him - only paying him $1.1M.

PS - dodds claimed SJU 'came off' Crowdis because of their point guard signing three weeks before the kid "visited" SJU.

PPS - Sheek was irked by the prospects of 18 getting a lot of his minutes.

You should be capitalizing "Dodds" due to a name being a proper noun.

[Jay Bee]

You should be capitalizing "Dodds" due to a name being a proper noun.

No. It was absolutely intentional and reasonable.

[Pakuni]

So no true back up ball handler/playmaker.  And no backup 4/5.  Interesting.  Shaka hoping for zero injuries at the 1 and 5 positions. 

I'm going to wait to hear from well-embedded moles before deciding whether to worry about frontcourt depth.

[MU82]

So no true back up ball handler/playmaker.  And no backup 4/5.  Interesting.  Shaka hoping for zero injuries at the 1 and 5 positions. 

If our 1 gets hurt, we're royally effed. And no backup PG in the portal woulda changed that.

[brewcity77]

If our 1 gets hurt, we're royally effed. And no backup PG in the portal woulda changed that.

That's not guaranteed. If he misses 10-20 games at the end of the season, sure. If he has a 4-game stretch with a manageable schedule in that time, a competent backup portal combo guard could easily be the difference between 3-1 and 1-3.

Adding depth is never a guarantee, it is an insurance policy. We're electing to drive without coverage at the two most important positions on the floor, hoping our health will work out like 2023. And personally, I don't consider hope to be a strategy.

[MU82]

That's not guaranteed. If he misses 10-20 games at the end of the season, sure. If he has a 4-game stretch with a manageable schedule in that time, a competent backup portal combo guard could easily be the difference between 3-1 and 1-3.

Adding depth is never a guarantee, it is an insurance policy. We're electing to drive without coverage at the two most important positions on the floor, hoping our health will work out like 2023. And personally, I don't consider hope to be a strategy.

Can't argue with most of that. So, we should have gotten a true combo with true PG skills instead of Minessale?

[brewcity77]

Can't argue with most of that. So, we should have gotten a true combo with true PG skills instead of Minessale?

Not instead of, in addition to. Just like we should've added another big in addition to what we had once Sheek left.

Here's my rough expectation for starter minutes:

PG - NJ 30
SG - Stevens 25
SF - Minessale 28
PF - Parham 28
C - Fru 25

That leaves us with an expectation of 37 minutes at the 1-3 and 27 minutes in the front court. I'm sure we'll get some overlap, Nolan sliding to the 1, Parham moving to the 5, etc. But in general, we're going to need 2-3 players to pick up the back court and 1-2 to pick up the front court.

Hopefully Owens and Phillips can take some of that, possibly both back court and front court, but there's 15-20 minutes for a guard to slot in and I'm not confident that Nash Walker is that guy. I worry about the minutes Fru is off the court and while Parham might help, another big to pair with those two when one is off the court really would've helped because right now, Hamilton and Clark are it, and last year the staff made it clear by the end of the year they didn't trust either of them to play significant minutes.

Egbuonu might help, but I don't love trusting freshmen. Similar thoughts on Miletic, Walker, and Johnston. I have zero expectations for Crowdis. Really feels right now like a 7-man rotation, which is fine once you get to March, but difficult to make it through the 32 games before postseason tourneys start.

[tower912]

Can't make quality players transfer to MU with offers of reserve minutes and reserve pay. 

[brewcity77]

Bottom line, I think this is where we saw the staff's inexperience in the portal shine through. They went in with a plan to add a big man, a wing, and a combo guard. But when Tylen Riley went elsewhere and Sheek Pearson entered the portal, they didn't have backup plans to solidify the bench.

They wanted to add depth, but convinced themselves it wasn't worth it and painted themselves into the corner of "it's too late, and is anyone out there really any better than Caedin" which leaves us at risk if we have injuries to significant players.

Kam and Stevie were never fully healthy down the stretch in 2025. Tyler missed six games in 2024. We saw what happened with a run-down Howard in 2019. Little injuries happen and a competent bench is often the difference between successfully weathering those stretches and collapsing in critical stretches of the season. I would've liked to see better planning in that regard.

[brewcity77]

Can't make quality players transfer to MU with offers of reserve minutes and reserve pay. 

And yet other programs can? We weren't the only team that needed to add depth. LSU and NC State added depth pieces that would've benefitted us. Providence and Seton Hall grabbed guys late that would've helped us.

There are guys that won't be starting elsewhere that could've been pursued by Marquette, but once Sheek left, we basically played turtle and pulled into our shell within a few days. If you're going to be active in the portal, which is what the staff statement ahead of the Xavier game said, then you need to continue to be active through the difficult times of missing out on players and losing others.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Brew's minute projections are a bit light.  MU's leader in minutes per game under Shaka is typically around 32-33 mpg.  So he's underselling Nigel about 2-3 mpg.

He's also projecting Royce and Adrien to each average 1 mpg less than they played last year.  I'd be surprised if that was the case, especially considering both averaged north of 30 mpg in BE play.

I'd project:

Nigel 32.5
Adrien 28
Nolan 29.5
Royce 30.5
Fru 27

[Tha Hound]

There's just no excuse for not adding depth in the portal era and with our open scholarship situation. There's no guarantee we'll get players who can come in and succeed, but you have to at least fill out the roster and give it a shot. Feels like we're once again handicapping ourselves for no discernible reason.

[Shooter McGavin]

Can't make quality players transfer to MU with offers of reserve minutes and reserve pay. 

That's a 180, basketball strategy wise (down to your core, you know a back up ballhandler/playmaker was needed.  You said so 1000 times).  But not a 180 from an oh well, we did what we could do.  I'm sure Shaka did everything he could wise. 

When analysis on this board turns from strategy to resignation and rationalization it leads to hundreds of pages of circular arguments.

Because they are not getting the backups necessary, the ceiling for this team has been lowered.  I am resigned to this fact but will not rationalize it to be a good thing or rationalize that it could not have happened.