swellafelon wrote:
I just hope after Bryan Mullins is hired at the end of this season as SIU's new head coach that none of our Illinois Wolves recruits decommits to follow Bryan to Carbondale.
If we can keep the trio together we will have a very good squad in 2020-21 after they get a year's experience under their belts and join seniors Krutwig, Williamson, et. al.
It would be super dicey. They've all signed LOIs, so we would have to voluntarily release them. I'm not positive but they might also be subject to the no-scholarship when you transfer in the conference rule that forced Chastain to have to pay his way at ISU last year. I imagine it would get
super ugly between Bryan and Porter/Loyola because we do hold most of the cards in this situation. Can't emphasize the ugliness enough. No coach takes kindly to their roster being recruited off of, especially by a conference rival.
Plus, I doubt their decisions were made solely based off of the relationship with an assistant coach. Mullins' conections were huge, but they still would have made that decision to buy into Porter, the school, the city, etc. when they committed. The only thing that's really more appealing for those kids at SIU would be immediate playing time, and even then, all three of them (especially Kennedy) will probably see the court here right away as freshmen. Also, SIU is not in the greatest of financial situations. NIU might be a dark horse to land the services of Mullins, especially if SIU lowballs him.
Worst case scenario is Bryan leaves right away, Porter gets snapped up later in a domino effect, and then who knows what will happen. If that were to happen I could see maybe Wojcik leaving if Porter hires his father at his new school. That said, we'll have some really solid options out there to hire as a new head coach. This program was always looked at as kind of a sleeping giant given our campus, endowment and location, but the Final Four run changed everything. We will have plenty of quality coaches wanting this job so I don't think we whither on a vine if either Porter and/or Bryan leaves.