Thanks WuFan! Love the support from conference rivals.
I think you nailed it Ahunte. Mullins has been listed as lead recruiter for several of these prospects. If I had to guess Mullins being the youngest(?) on the staff allows him to better connect with student athletes. He had a very successful playing career and also played over seas so he has a lot of recent experience that may speak to these players. In fact he's the one coach who could probably still go out and guard them on court.
It's also worth noting a few other factors that occurred recently around LU:
-Recent Success: From the start of the 2014 season until now we've had two years of being competitive in conference and have pulled some big wins (Vegas Tournament, Creighton, sweeping UNI last season) along with a post season title. It wasn't the top tier tournament, but only 4 teams in the country end their season on a win.
-Campus construction is finally done; so athletes are no longer visiting construction sites and imagining what could be, they see what is. The student center and business school being complete are huge.
-Cultural shift in targeted athletes: It seems the athletes we've targeted recently all mention academics and post graduation opportunities- Chastain, Krutwig, and Negron all note that campus and academic culture played a big role. It seems as though we're targeting higher level players, but those who know that the NBA might not be in their future and are looking for what the school can offer them after basketball. I'm sure that pool is small when you're trying to get these higher ranked recruits, but so far we've done well. I could also be totally wrong on this, but the academic trend is something i've noticed more than i used to. Using the whole Loyola experience as a bargaining chip is clearly working regardless of who they'r targeting.
None of this is to take away from Mullins who has certainly been a huge asset on the trail. I hope we can hang on to him for a few more years... There will be a lot of spots to fill in the 2018 class; and if we can continue with this type of talent we could be a major force.
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