Three Players Leaving SIU ?

[tornado]

It has not been confirmed by the school, but the talk is that three players are leaving,
Jordan Armstrong - is said to be transferring to DII
Brandon Wood - "mutual parting", "didn't see eye to eye", are the terms being used.
Chris Cornelius - athletic scholarship not being renewed, he has been injured too much.



Also--- there are some rumors of several players wanting to leave Saint Louis Univ., possibly even returning senior stars Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell.

[Bravesfan]

It has not been confirmed by the school, but the talk is that three players are leaving,
Jordan Armstrong - is said to be transferring to DII
Brandon Wood - "mutual parting", "didn't see eye to eye", are the terms being used.
Chris Cornelius - athletic scholarship not being renewed, he has been injured too much.



Also--- there are some rumors of several players wanting to leave Saint Louis Univ., possibly even returning senior stars Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell.

Hmmm. Interesting. Amazing how the SIU dynasty is collapsing this quickly! Time to take advantage of that.

[mportsch]

Honestly, I don't see any of those players as meaningful losses for SIU. Here's their likely rotation for next season (with or without the aforementioned players):

PG Mullins Sr.
SG Bone Jr.
SF Clemmons Sr.
PF Booker Fr.
C Boyle Sr.

PF Fay So.
SG Bocot Fr.
SG Roundtree Fr.
PG Dillard Fr.

So, at most, the players they are losing could have provided a bench alternative to the freshmen guards, but the freshmen may actually be more talented anyway. If Booker is as good as advertised, SIU should be back in the upper third of the MVC again.

[BradleyBrave]

Honestly, I don't see any of those players as meaningful losses for SIU. Here's their likely rotation for next season (with or without the aforementioned players):

PG Mullins Sr.
SG Bone Jr.
SF Clemmons Sr.
PF Booker Fr.
C Boyle Sr.

PF Fay So.
SG Bocot Fr.
SG Roundtree Fr.
PG Dillard Fr.

So, at most, the players they are losing could have provided a bench alternative to the freshmen guards, but the freshmen may actually be more talented anyway. If Booker is as good as advertised, SIU should be back in the upper third of the MVC again.

I agree that none of those departures look to be significant, but experience cannot be underestimated in this league. A team that brings 3 freshmen off the bench and starts another reeks of a wildly inconsistent team (good at home, bad on the road), a team that has the propensity to hit the proverbial 'wall' late in the year, and one that may not have much depth. I'm not saying this will happen, but I certainly think that expectations should be tempered for SIU until some of these guys mature.

[ER3]

Hmmm. Interesting. Amazing how the SIU dynasty is collapsing this quickly! Time to take advantage of that.

Ummm...the dynasty is not collapsing, unfortunately. Those three players leaving will help them long-term by freeing up scholarships that can be used on players that might actually contribute there.
The recruiting class that they have coming in next year, on paper, is the best recruiting class in the recent history of the Valley...so if you are expecting them to fall apart because three non-factor players are leaving their program, I think you are going to be very disappointed.

[mportsch]

A team that brings 3 freshmen off the bench and starts another reeks of a wildly inconsistent team (good at home, bad on the road), a team that has the propensity to hit the proverbial 'wall' late in the year, and one that may not have much depth.

I agree wholeheartedly, but I don't think any of the guys that are leaving would have changed this. SIU will have to deal with some growing pains next year with possibly 4 freshmen in their rotation. They do have a good senior PG in Mullins, which will help immensely.

[lefty]

It seems that this has been a growing trend. Kids think they are going to be an impact player right away and then decide to leave when that doesn't happen instead of working their tails off to get in rotation and being somewhat patient to play

It seems that when this happened before it might hamper recruiting but anymore I don't know that it's as big a factor as it use to be.

[Da Coach]

SIU finally confirms it officially--

http://siusalukis.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/041508aac.html

[scout4126]

Honestly, I don't see any of those players as meaningful losses for SIU. Here's their likely rotation for next season (with or without the aforementioned players):

PG Mullins Sr.
SG Bone Jr.
SF Clemmons Sr.
PF Booker Fr.
C Boyle Sr.

PF Fay So.
SG Bocot Fr.
SG Roundtree Fr.
PG Dillard Fr.

So, at most, the players they are losing could have provided a bench alternative to the freshmen guards, but the freshmen may actually be more talented anyway. If Booker is as good as advertised, SIU should be back in the upper third of the MVC again.

Here's my predictions:
PG Mullins
SG Bocot
SF Clemmons
PF Booker
C Boyle

6 Fay PF
8 Bone SG
7 Dillard PG
8 Roundtree SG

[tornado]

Here's my predictions:
PG Mullins
SG Bocot
SF Clemmons
PF Booker
C Boyle

6 Fay PF
8 Bone SG
7 Dillard PG
8 Roundtree SG

Not to start any arguments, but who among the group would be able to hit from the outside if they have trouble scoring inside now that Falker is gone?

Certainly they won't be expecting Boyle and Booker to put it up from outside, and Clemmons (33%), Fay (30%), and Bone (33%) all shoot lower percentages than all of Bradley's starters and frequenty subs.

Then you have Bocot, who isn't going to be a 3-pt threat, Hare (if he qualifies) isn't going to be a 3-pt threat, and neither is Roundtree, so that leaves just Mullins and Dillard as their outside shooters.

Mullins, at 41% has built himself into a legit 3-pt threat (but who knows when the line moves back), but as I pointed out elsewhere, the likelihood of Dillard becoming a big scorer as a freshman will be a real long shot.

They will again have toruble scoring points next year if all holds true.

[mportsch]

I agree that SIU will having trouble scoring points again. The more I've looked at the numbers from last season, I'm less sure that SIU will actually be in the upper third of the MVC.

Falker is just such a huge loss for them - he was their best offensive player by a longshot, an outstanding offensive rebounder, a solid defensive rebounder, a very good shotblocker, and drew tons of fouls (while shooting 69% from the line).

Shaw is a meaningful loss as well, mostly because he was an excellent defensive rebounder. Without Shaw and Falker, it remains to be seen who will clean up the defensive glass. SIU's defense was fueled by forcing turnovers and limiting offensive rebounds, so losing half of that equation could really hurt the overall defense.

Carlton Fay showed solid defensive rebounding ability last season (not far behind Falker, actually), but someone will have to replace Shaw's excellent defensive rebounding, and I'm not sure that person is on the roster. Booker seems to be the only one with a chance to be that guy, and that's a lot of pressure on a freshman.

With the dropoff in defensive rebounding, I expect SIU's defensive efficiency will drop from 29th in the nation to more like 40th or 50th. Without a big improvement on the offensive end (115th last season), that would leave SIU somewhere around the 75th best team in the country. That probably puts them 4th or 5th in the Valley next season.