Blers42 - That's about all I know, plus all the F-bombs and other curse words overheard from the bench that night.
Hopefully he lands in a good situation elsewhere whether D1 or D2 or who knows where, and an attitude adjustment was found since then.

It really sucks the two recruits from 2021-22 class are both gone now. TY and Saint.

Correct, the other Rubin brother is going to UNI, because for reasons unknown LUC wasn't the right fit.

Unfortunately, I think losing Hutson really puts us in a bind for next season. I’m sure Golden was a nice guy, but he did not nearly live up to expectations. I didn’t expect Krutwig production, but I also didn’t think we’d get less than 20 lackluster minutes a game from him.

It looks like we’ve got 3 spots to fill. I’m curious to know what everyone wants from the transfer portal? I think the one thing we learned this year is that we need to get bigger down low to compete in the A-10. We can have a small point guard in Norris, but every other position needs to get bigger.

Phil Alston is a beast, but at only 6’6”, I think it’s too tall of a task to ask him to guard 6’9” and 6’10” power forwards in the post in this league. Alston is a great Valley power forward, but a vulnerable A-10 one. It seems like a major reason he got himself in foul trouble this year. Plus, in terms of development, Phil’s professional chances hinge on him being able to play guard/wing because of his height. I’d really like to see the staff work with him to get him conditioned to play the 3 position. I think it’s good for us and for HIM I’m the future.

If our plan is to play Tom Welch at center again this year, we are in major trouble and it will be a long season. A 6’8” Welch is not an A-10 backup center, and definitely not an A-10 starting center. It somewhat worked in the Valley, but it’s just not going to work here. We’ve seen that. There were two years recently where I think we only had 1 player foul out of a game all season. Now we seem plagued with foul trouble. I’d like to see Tom play in the 4 spot, which I think is his true position. Hopefully Drew begins to grow and make necessary adjustments. He needs to ask himself - would any of the other 14 teams want Tom Welch as a backup center? Hopefully he realizes the answer is “no.”

There are reports that Miles Rubin is 6’10”. Hutson was actually 6’11, so I would love to hear from the contingency of fans that went to see Rubin play to let us know if they think he’s actually 6’10” using Hutson as a comparison. My guess is he’s more like 6’8” or 6’9”. He’s also a bit lanky and needs to put on muscle, which should happen in the next year or two. With that being said - his quickness and athleticism, but lack of build, make him much more suited to play the 4 position next year. I don’t want us to put him in situations where he has to contend against veteran, muscled-up centers in the A-10. I think his lankiness and inexperience is going to make him foul-prone, and ultimately ineffective as a 5. Plus, if he can’t hack it, our fallback options will be either an undersized Welch or … well.. nobody now. I hope our plan is to play him at the 4.

In my mind, our current depth chart should sort of look as follows:

5 - ????? / ?????

4 - Rubin (6’9”) / Welch (6’8”)

3 - Alston (6’6”) / Schweiger (6’7”)

2 - Edwards (6’4”) / Dawson (6’4”) Kennedy (6’1”)

1 - Norris (6’0”) / Quinn (6’3”) / ?????

We need 40 minutes a piece from each position. With this depth chart:

I have 100% confidence at the 3 position with Alston and Schwieger splitting time

I have 100% confidence in the 2 position. I think Edwards finally gets it and is prime for a breakout season. Kennedy’s injuries make me sad, but I still think he can provide sparks off the bench in short spurts. The intel on Dawson sounds like he’s going to be great, and he’s got size and a year of conditioning.

I have 65% confidence in the 1 position. Braden is going to bring it in his swan song season, but his size hurts us. I don’t think he’s built to be an A-10 leading point guard, but his leadership, experience and drive make him invaluable. It’ll be a make-or-break year for Quinn. We need him to cut down the turnovers. If Norris has to give us more than 30 minutes, we are in trouble.

I’m 45% confident in the 4 spot. I think Welch is fully capable of giving us 18-20 minutes a game in that position. The big question mark is Rubin. We’re going to ask him to do a lot his freshmen year BUT he’s our best rated high school recruit since Kennedy. Also - we need to plan for the future so we need to give him minutes, keep him happy and focused on improving and committed to a 4 year process and experience. I’m much more comfortable with an ineffective 18-year old Rubin, learning and growing, than 20 ineffective minutes of a 5th year Bryce Golden that leads us with only a gigantic hole to fill at the end of the season.

0% confidence at center right now - whether it’s with nothing or with Welch as a backup center. ONE of the 3 available spots has to be filled by a center. WE NEED A 6’10” guy with experience or we are screwed. Had we played Hutty more this year, we probably could have kept him. When Drew evaluates himself this year, I hope he realizes the major mistake he made. Once we went 0–6 in conference, after 17 games, Drew needed to realize 1) Golden was a bust and gone in 60 days, and 2) Hutty had 2 years of eligibility left after the season. Whether he sucked or figured it out - Drew owed him 12 games to earn a spot next year. Now, instead of possibly only needing to fill 20 minutes at the center position, we need to fill 40. Ugh….

My prioritized hopes to fill our spots:

1) a 6’10” center with 2 years of eligibility

2) a 6’9”, double digit scoring PF (1 year of eligibility is fine) who can a) play back-up center, and b) play the back-up 4 spot

3) a backup point guard who sat the bench on a power-6 program, 3 years of eligibility left (i.e. Clayton Custer), with a chip on his shoulder, ready to make his name in the mid major ranks.

If the stars align and we get those 3 type of players, we’re covered for success in the present and prepping the roster for the future. BUT - the key to all of it is FIRST getting a 6’10” starting center.

If you can’t get a 6’10” starting center, we have to go into mitigation mode. All 3 portal players need to be at least 6’8” guys, and we are going to have to play them all in the 5 and 4 spots by committee just to tread water. Also, at the end of next season, we will be in desperate need of a veteran point guard.

Thoughts? Am I way off?

1. Miles Rubin is closer to 6'10" than 6'9". Very slight build in the chest, but huge wingspan, quick reactions, and a great shot blocker. Not a bad passer, either. He could play center in this league with some strength training and 15-20 lbs., because there aren't a lot of beefy guys at that position (Holmes, DeLoach, Okuro, etc.) in this league.

2. Don't forget Trey Lewis, a 6'6" redshirt with a 7' wingspan who can score.

You are right about Alston-- he was brought in thinking he had the skills and motor that could dominate at the 4 (and he would in the MVC), but in the A-10 he needs to go to the 3 to make the best of his skills.

Look-- you can be a .500 or better team in this league with only one serviceable offensive frontcourt player (St. Joe's, GW, Duquesne, Fordham pretty much showed that this year), and they don't have to be taller than 6'7" or 6'8" to be effective. But to get into the upper echelons of the league standings, you have to have either three incredible (or big) guards or two great bigs. And there has to be a versatile player off the bench in the 6'5-6'7" range that can score and defend.

I think unless you're a fantastic point guard that doesn't need to score (and has many high-scoring options to go to), you have to have guards taller than 6'2". God bless Braden Norris, but every other PG in the league is either taller, faster, quicker, or longer. Some are all four. Marquise Kennedy was worn down and beat up in the MVC; he's not physically where he was as a sophomore, and at 6'1" he's the smallest two guard in the league.

Probably need a grad transfer who can play 25-30 minutes in the front court and can help mentor Rubin. Welch will need to step up as a backup PF, but it will be his last year if I'm not mistaken-- who comes in after? This is why we could have used Wes. I shudder to think that UNI could become a Top 50-75 program based mostly on our squandered opportunities.

We'll need a transfer or juco/D-II/III guard, especially a three-point shooting ace. I think we need at least one guy on the roster in the 6'4" to 6'7" range who is excited to be the on-ball defensive star. And of course, a big body (to make up for getting very little out of our three year investment in Hutson).

It's insane that we only had one big signee for the HS class of 2023 (Miles Rubin)-- Jack Turner, the 6'3" high scoring guard from California might turn out to be a happy surprise, but he's not a high pedigree recruit. But now here we are, getting tied up thinking about stop-gap measures to back-fill for people we took for granted.

I think how the coaching staff is deployed is showing signs of failure. Seems like they're wandering from one focus to another in an uncoordinated group, with basic things falling though the gaps. There needs to be an assistant coach who focuses on team cohesion and motivation, making sure that grievances are addressed and hard feelings are smoothed over, and keeping people motivated and on the same page. No one was doing that this year, obviously, and we lost Jacob Hutson and Saint Thomas. I don't know why Golden didn't play at all in the last two games (injury?), but it was awkward to have him disappear for the last 2 1/2 games of the season with no apparent or obvious physical issue. (This is just my view from outside the program-- I don't know and there's not much info to explain the lapses).

It seems like everyone is operating in their own sphere, not always understanding or realizing what others are focused on, what's good for the team, and too many are acting selfishly and independent. How can we have only two A-10 recruits nearly two years after we announced moving to a new, better conference? Why were we so unprepared for this season, in so many ways (fundamentals like holding onto the ball, basics like not having a good idea who's in your rotation, long-vision stuff like keeping people happy so they're back next year, optics in post game interviews, etc.)? This is a coaching staff that is reacting, and not anticipating.

Great insight, but your post didn’t give me the optimistic feeling I was hoping for. I guess it seems apparent that we need at least two big guys in the portal system to attempt to be competitive next year. If we end up with two 6’4” guys, it’s probably going to be a repeat season.

I guess, theoretically, we are really only replacing meaningful minutes from Golden and Wilson- so maybe we’ll be better next year purely on another year of experience for everyone. I’m very comcerned now that we can’t hit the portal home run we need to make us A-10 competitive.

I'd like to see another PG (preferably a bigger, more physical one) become the primary ball handler so Braden can play a bit more off the ball on offense. I think the combination of fewer minutes & not being constantly harassed as the ballhandler would be great for his legs down the stretch...and hopefully get his 3P% back up to 45%. On defense, it's tough. Braden was attacked quite a bit this year by bigger, faster and more physical guards. I am hoping Quinn could be this guy, but he was way to raw and turnover-prone this past year. Need a massive leap from him this offseason...or a portal grab.

Agree on the big guy situation. We currently have no center. And I think Welch is, at best, a backup 4. Although he doesn't really have an outside game and is a bit slow guarding athletic wings on other teams. Not quite sure where he best fits in on an A-10 roster.

Our early portal contacts seem to be a Chris Knight-type player and then wings. Unless I missed something, we haven't targeted any big guys to fill the void. Rubin is tall, athletic and has a massive wingspan, but he is also lanky and not quite ready on the offensive end for A-10 basketball. He'll be good for some minutes this year, but neither him nor Welch can be our starting/primary big guy if we want to be competitive this year.

I also don't really understand how this happened. If you didn't know we would lose Thomas and Hutson, then there was only one scholarship left unaccounted for, so maybe saving it made sense?

I think people are getting too hung up on positions and minor differences in height. You can play center at 6'8" or 6'9" (see Oduro, Okoro, etc.). Rubin certainly can play center. I don't deny that we had issues keeping guards in front of us at times, but remember all the mid-range shots that were hit against us? It's not as if our only problem was getting beat off the dribble. We also had tons of missed assignments, blown coverages, and moments where guys seemed to have no idea what was going on. If we get another big to share minutes with Rubin, and get another bigger guard/wing, AND if those guys can buy in and play team defense, we'll be fine.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Alston to the three is an interesting idea but I doubt it can work, because he has absolutely horrible court vision on both sides of the ball. Probably a function of being way more talented than his competition at every level until he transferred to D1, and it never got coached into him.

The talent is obviously there for him to be a monster player, but I'm not sure he learns how to see the floor, make the right pass, etc. in one offseason. Well, I have zero faith in this coaching staff getting him up to speed on it, at least.

As for the big man mess, I am guessing Drew intends to reinstate his disastrous run-and-gun style, come hell or high water. You know, despite the fact that it's a horrible fit for the players actually on the roster (and completely flies in the face of what LUC has been successful with during their run of success). If he does, it's going to fail miserably, and he should be getting shitcanned at the end of next year.

I am happy for both of these players. They get to move on to situations they feel are better for them. We don't know the inside scoop. It's hard to tell when they "left" the program. Hutson makes his transfer decision in a day or two. Thomas struggled on the court and clearly was not happy with his role. When did they really decide to leave? There are kids in the transfer portal playing for their teams in the NIT. Weird.

With that said, the reality is that none of our transfers have moved to better programs. Some of the transfers have been lateral moves at best. To the extent that any of them have experienced success, it has been at a lower level of competition. I am not sure if that is good or bad. Are we not recruiting the right players or are they not improving? On the other hand, we have a strong history of developing impactful transfers. This year we were one out of three, which is unusually low for us.

I would not mind getting a good transfer to fill our ranks. At the same time, I am interested in seeing how the young players rebound (pardon the pun). Lewis, Quinn, Dawson, Rubin, Alston and Schweiger have shown potential. I think some of their bad plays will go away with maturity. Welch and Kennedy have a history of contributing role players. I think that performed better in those roles. I think Norris would benefit playing fewer minutes. As far as size goes, I don't think we need a bunch of big guys, but it would nice to have one or two big bodies.

This is a good sign. Over the past 5+ years, we have been able to hang on to our top players and avoided 'up' transfers. The fact that we were able to keep Lucas, Krut, Custer, Townes, etc. after fantastic seasons on a national scale is nothing short of amazing. That is so rare among the mid-major ranks and speaks a lot to the "culture" of the program. As noted, our transfers have all been "down" (TY, Paxon, Kaifes) or "lateral-ish" (Big Frank, Hutty). Now, whether we mismanaged guys like TY and Hutty and let go of would-be productive LU players, that's another question.

Agree with Ahunte on Rubin. He’s a shot blocker with a crazy wingspan, he’s going to play center.

Alston to the 3 makes sense until you see him pass or dribble the ball. Unless things wildly change, our offense involves almost everybody to be able to do that, especially on the wing. Phil and Ben should probably spend the entire off-season hall handling

Give me the big from Dartmouth, and 2 long wings that can shoot and I’m happy.