2024 Offseason

[BCPanther]

Lots of smoke around Ben McCollum being the guy at Missouri State.

Home. Run. Hire.

[CyCarp]

I'm going to assume that, if nobody leaves, we're not going to look at any potential transfers. That is a little disappointing if so. It would be nice if that conversation was had with Courbat again, "hey, if we need a ride, can we use yours for a season?"

[BCPanther]

I'm going to assume that, if nobody leaves, we're not going to look at any potential transfers. That is a little disappointing if so. It would be nice if that conversation was had with Courbat again, "hey, if we need a ride, can we use yours for a season?"

I'm pretty confident that conversation has happened.

[PantherAlum09]

Yeah. I'll be keeping an eye on the portal. The window is next year for this group. Tytan, Hutty, and Bowen are all gone after next year. Good chance Heise too. If they think there's a piece that could put them over the top, they need to go do it.

[Username]

The biggest thing is going to be where does a transfer fit/motivated to come here?

Last year Hutson coming in made perfect sense, we had a glaring hole at center, and he was gonna get an opportunity to play minutes.

I'm not saying there's no room for improvement in the starting lineup, there's just really not one good piece to the puzzle.

I suppose we could always use size, shooting, or quickness off the bench, I just feel it's gonna be hard to find one player this year that makes a big impact, unless it's replacing someone else who's leaving

[PantherAlum09]

Any guard/wing that is a legit athlete who can get to the hoop or can shoot the 3 would be extremely helpful. Somebody who can get their own shot.We don't have that besides Bowen, and Bo couldn't shoot this year. There's a spot to make an impact on this team for sure.

[kochrab]

What a weird year of shooting we had as well. Bowen took by far the most 3PA on the team, but made only 31.6% of them along the way (almost 37% last year). That put him at 6th on the team for 3P%. Order going Duax, Hutson, Wolf, Campbell, Heise then Born. The guys who we depend on to get their shots couldn't make them and the guys making them didn't shoot enough of them.

[SteinPizza]

Kevin Lehman was on KXNO today. He felt UNI biggest weakness this year was lack of physical guard play. He basically said Born and Campbell don’t fit that mold, and it hurt us against a team like Indiana State since we had nobody to stop Julian Larry from getting downhill. He brought up Wes Washpun as an example of what he’s talking about.

He also praised Jake for gettting us this far, felt it was a good coaching job. He said he expects big things from UNI next year since everyone returns. Per this he also felt playing in a post season buy in tourney would help us next year.

[06panther10]

Kevin Lehman was on KXNO today. He felt UNI biggest weakness this year was lack of physical guard play. He basically said Born and Campbell don’t fit that mold, and it hurt us against a team like Indiana State since we had nobody to stop Julian Larry from getting downhill. He brought up Wes Washpun as an example of what he’s talking about.

He also praised Jake for gettting us this far, felt it was a good coaching job. He said he expects big things from UNI next year since everyone returns. Per this he also felt playing in a post season buy in tourney would help us next year.

The team is already mostly all 3rd and 4th year guys. We don't need to gain experience playing in some lame ass tourney.

Additionally, in this same line of thinking, I don’t know why we would expect to be a much better team next year just because everybody is coming back. I love our guys and I really liked this roster on paper but there is no denying that they fell way short of expectations this year.

[Username]

What a weird year of shooting we had as well. Bowen took by far the most 3PA on the team, but made only 31.6% of them along the way (almost 37% last year). That put him at 6th on the team for 3P%. Order going Duax, Hutson, Wolf, Campbell, Heise then Born. The guys who we depend on to get their shots couldn't make them and the guys making them didn't shoot enough of them.

That's usually how it goes.

Guys who take a lot take tough ones, and guys who take a few are usually wide open, case being Duax and Hutson. Born and kind of Heise shot pretty disappointing from the arc this year, though. Campbell shot lights out.

[BCPanther]

The team is already mostly all 3rd and 4th year guys. We don't need to gain experience playing in some lame ass tourney.

Additionally, in this same line of thinking, I don’t know why we would expect to be a much better team next year just because everybody is coming back. I love our guys and I really liked this roster on paper but there is no denying that they fell way short of expectations this year.

There's the disconnect. You're right.

This is probably Jake's best roster when you look at it but it just hasn't clicked and it sprinkles in real head scratchers at times (Evansville, UIC, Murray). This team cost itself an NIT bid by completely no showing 3 or 4 games.

No choice but to run it back next year but it's hard to see the ceiling being anything other than 20-12ish with another Saturday exit in St Louis.

Feel free to prove me wrong, boys...

[BrockLesnar2]

The team is already mostly all 3rd and 4th year guys. We don't need to gain experience playing in some lame ass tourney.

Additionally, in this same line of thinking, I don’t know why we would expect to be a much better team next year just because everybody is coming back. I love our guys and I really liked this roster on paper but there is no denying that they fell way short of expectations this year.

Agreed, CIT or whatever wouldn't help at all. You get better by playing better teams like what you see in the NIT or the Tournament. This team just needs to get to class and finish the semester strong.

[SteinPizza]

I agree with the semi-low ceiling. The roster seems to be made up of several solid players, guys who would have important roles on a MVC champ level team. But, there isn’t anyone who’s the next level up from that. Born has proven he’s good in the past, and Heise’s solid all around, but ideally a scholly opens and someone transfers in who defenses really have to account for.

[orangetennis]

I agree with the semi-low ceiling. The roster seems to be made up of several solid players, guys who would have important roles on a MVC champ level team. But, there isn’t anyone who’s the next level up from that. Born has proven he’s good in the past, and Heise’s solid all around, but ideally a scholly opens and someone transfers in who defenses really have to account for.

I like the pieces on the roster individually, but roster composition is lacking. Our guys don't compliment each other very well. We're much too heavy on the "skilled" player and much too light on the "athletic " player.
As an example, I was surprised that RJ committed here when much of his HS highlights were drawing defensive attention and tossing a great lob for a dunk. We don't have that dunker on our roster, and never really have. At least we've never added that component to our offense anyway.

[CyCarp]

Not us related, but interesting to see this morning that Porter Moser is expected to leave Oklahoma for DePaul. I guess it gets him back into the Chicago area.

Edit: Upon further investigation, he's denying this, so who knows...