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By waiting so long last year, the school basically punted this season and we all gotta ride it out. Powell was put behind the 8 ball to get any real talent this year. Ive said it before, but field a somewhat competetive team and build fan/community interest this year. Anything else we can build on this year is strictly a positive.

Unfortunately, its not uncommon.

And it really hamstrings the transfer portal and fielding a competitive team in year 1.

Any excitement or anyone who proves they can play at this level this year is just a bonus. Powell really needs to hit it hard and get some wins this upcoming offseason, and I believe he will.

The incident happened with around 8:11 to go in the game.

Pedon doubled down on his comments at least 25 minutes later in the post game conference.

Thats either a total fail on his part, or the part of SID to update him on the situation prior to speaking to the media.

As mentioned,  Pedon has issued an apology statement on X/Twitter, but certainly that wont come close to his in game reaction/post game comments publicity.

IL State/Ryan Pedon getting some attention today in national media.

They were playing Norfolk State at home. Apparently/allegedly a fan in the front row was calling a NSU player the N word. The two coaches had a heated argument at half court and post game. Fan(s) were removed from the game regarding it.

https://twitter.com/NSUCoachJones/status/1733691644271051108

I wasnt there and wont pretend to know everything that happened or was said, but the optics certainly dont look good for Pedon/IL state.

Does anyone know if he had some concerns coming out of HS which caused him to drop to the Murray State level? If so, good for Murray State keeping him on track.

If not, yeesh he fell hard and quick.

I don't believe we get Powell back if we were still in the HL. We may have stunk so far, but the  MVC still carries serious cache. It took a minute but we finally invested in ourselves with the coaching change. Now hope it pays off in attendance and Ws.

Crazy that we are entering june and we still dont have an idea of who is playing where. There are some knowns but still a lot of unknowns that can create ripples as alluded to above. Toss is the fact that there are still universities that are concerned about credits before automatic admission and we are looking at the end of june. About 3 months after the season but already about 3 months before next season. The portal has some positives but still needs to be tweaked.

At some point you need bodies to field a team, but, I dont think we are quite at that point yet. Even tho info is limited, I am hoping and believing that we are getting them because we actually want them and believe they are beneficial. I trust Powell and the staff's judgments. Let the good times roll!

I think everyone kind of expects next year to be bad with the timing of the change and player retentions, so I kind of struggle coming up with a scenario to define horrible/failure. We have to keep in mind Powell's learning the ropes as he goes along next year too.

As others have mentioned, Lottich results were so bad we stopped labeling it a failure and looked for any and all reasons to be optimistic. I don't think we will get to that point next year. And the second, which ties in with the first, is hope.  It's been a long time since there's been hope in the program. We've invested in the entire coaching staff and have too much talent there to not provide glimpses of hope for the future even if the results are not stellar next season.

Omg yes. Great hires. Love seeing the newfound commitment!!

He went to FL for prep school and came back to Valpo for family reasons. Valpo is home. That doesn't mean he will come here, but knock off the shenanigans.

I want people who can "call people" i.e. their mentors for input. Powell im sure will be able to call the Drews and Few for ideas and input. Lets branch out for assistant coaches. Im still curious if AC budgets also increased, or if they decreased since Im assuming the HC will make more, or stay the same? Really need at least one, preferably 2, strong ACs to finish this out and then take a swing at an up and comer or a previous player. Wouldnt mind hiring someone like Schilling, an older guy who has HC experience but is on his way out and willing to serve as an AC for a year or two to help Powell transition to HC.

I think Id be willing to take that bet as Valpo has been linked with some portal players. Someone has to be recruiting and, if #1 is canned,  someone needs to be running the program for the players still here.

Grand slam hire!

Im very happy that we hired a really good/qualified candidate that makes the buyout and all the bullsh*t worthwhile.

Much like ND pulling Shrewsberry, if Valpo can pull Powell back here then the only thing to take away from that is Valpo invested significantly into the program. Powell isnt coming back here to take over Valpo in its current form and resources. Schilling would probably come here in the current form so that was a toss up, Diebler wouldn't (and pulled his name), and Powell wouldnt either. If true, this is significant and brighter days are ahead.

That intersection is a mess. I thought the city was going to redesign that little section of the road going north to reduce the bottleneck that gets created there. Looks like they'd have to have permission from the university to do that?

Id be okay with Lowery. We could, and have, done worse.

I think it's important to note that Lowery is a pretty typical career path. As we have mentioned in other posts about growing over 20 years, coaches know they only get so many bites at the apple. When youre young you hop on your first opportunity and believe you'll change everything you dont like. You dont. You move on. Second time around, you make sure the fit is right. Im hoping thats the case here. And someone with experience in the Valley can be a nice thing to have.

Pleasantly surprised by the names being mentioned. Just hoping we have enough money left to get some good ACs as well.

Open market job searches are beneficial. If you cant get who you think you can get, then its time to upgrade some things if you want to get to that level.  If you dont, then you know where you're heading. How many times do people in that position get honest feedback.

It happened!!

Brey said hes pursuing tv for a year

People stopped supporting the program. Has anyone stepped up to buy out the contract? Seems likely not, and were stuck between a rock and a hardspot, so we will continue on.

Valpo has reached out to G Myles Tate, transferring from Butler

Theyre not wrong and I dont think we've hit bottom yet.

Its been too long. With all the portaling today and players now available, we need to get a start on recruiting them. Since nothing has been announced or even signaled/leaked, im getting the feeling that ML will be back next year.

And if a change still does happen, its another roadblock for the program and successor unless they have done all of this on the sly and will have a replacement named shortley thereafter (unlikely).