This is Drew's first season with his recruits making up 100% of our team. Drew chose to "run-off" Porter's last 4 recruits (Hutty, Johnson, Thomas & Schwieger). 3 of those 4 defects are more talented than anyone on our current roster. It would be really interesting to see what Porter could have done with that talent, Drew obviously could not relate to them. I am convinced if they'd have stayed together, they would beat our current squad handily. The soft scheduling to pad Drew's career numbers needs to stop, there is no benefit for the team! 5-10 does not look as good as 10-5 but at least it would be a true reflection of what we are bringing.

Wut?

Look, I have zero bad feelings about any of the kids that left. But they left for a reason. And those reasons seemed to be either attitude/off court issues, or playing time, or both. One of them might be starting in this current (healthy) group, but some need to take their rose colored hindsight glasses off. Especially when it comes to how Porter dealt with talented players on his roster who didn’t buy in quickly…on or off the court… if you think Porter would’ve been more patient with them than Drew was. Most especially two of them.

Hutty gets a double double against Indiana St...19 points 12 rebounds.....and Schweiger adds 15 and 5. Schweiger has moved to the starting line up....and Ty Johnson continues to score at a high level pouring in 23 against Hawaii. Saint Thomas continues to start and play major minutes for USC...getting 11 in a win over Nebraska....Ty Lewis continues in a bench role...about 8 minutes a game but has started to warm up from 3 pt land for Purdue F/W

well the development of a young coach has to include the emotional/maturity side. Seems like Drew was pretty raw in the beginning but is progressing? I do not know who was run out of the program and who left because they wanted more playing time or were following a girl friend etc....but I do know it is hard for me to warm up to one year players...even the transfers we got for more than one Edwards and Watson etc...takes a while...and once I have rooted for a guy, hate to see him leave...
I read the Sun Times every day. They really cover high school sports well....I would love to see us get more Chicago area kids.

LA Times story on Saint Thomas published this morning.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/usc/stor ... basketball

Without the context of the rest of the article, some of those early Drew quotes/anecdotes aren’t exactly the best look. Gets a little better with more context

Well, that article is gonna ruffle some feathers. Drew comes off as the boogeyman, but we're just getting Saint's side of the story, so who knows. Still some interesting insight into how big of a mess that year was, one that all of us I'm sure want to forget. You couldn't help hearing that there was a lot of negativity from the guys that ultimately transferred out (partly because Drew inadvisably called them out in his postgames). The losing is one thing, but all the extra drama is something that's hopefully well behind us.

Dansen, what context can you add?

Uhm, without saying too much a couple years back I heard from some guys that are pretty close to program. The contract that gets referenced in that article (and especially certain stipulations in there) makes a lot more sense and seemed like a good idea from the adults in the room to try and get things on track

When he started those first few games, he looked lost on defense AND completely out of shape. The first game, in fact, he was bent over in exhaustion just a few minutes into the game. Not saying he is a bad kid or or player or anything like that, but I was amazed how winded he was.