PonyFans.com

USM coach to shake up roster
By Associated Press
April 12, 2006

HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Southern Mississippi men's basketball coach Larry Eustachy says he wants to revamp his roster and sign as many as nine players, a move that could mean several current players will lose their scholarships.

The Golden Eagles signed three players to binding letters of intent in November. Now Eustachy says he could add five or six more during the spring signing period that begins today -- possibly at the expense of players already on the roster.

"My goal is not just to be an upper tier program in Conference USA behind Memphis," Eustachy said. "My goal is to be a conference champion like Memphis. We want to win. That's a must."

USM returns eight players from a team that finished 10-21 last season, only the third team to lose 20 games in a season in the program's history. Scholarships are renewable annually.

Eustachy wouldn't provide specifics on how he intends to sign that many newcomers while maintaining the 13-scholarship limit allowed by men's basketball by the NCAA.

Copyright 2006, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved

doesn't sound like a bad idea at all- do that to smu and who do u have left? bamba, dez, morris?

I know one grandson who would be the top one on my list to be shown the door.

yea, he could transfer to tcu and hit 10 three pointers against us for the next four years and it wouldnt hurt smu like he and max have done here in the past year. You better believe the distraction of all this damaged our season big time from January on too. You got that factored into your 4-10 record argument McClownster?

I don't want to jettison all our guys though. I really do feel like Dodo, Bamba, Morris, Pearson, Roberts, Dez and even Killen can all be pieces of a very solid team. If we took those 7 and somehow came accross a scorer to put in that lineup I really think that would be an 8 man rotation that could be coached to a very good season.

Hoop, I will give you that this must have been a distraction during the season. Even though I am not one to make excuses for people, this had to have been in the back of people's minds somewhat. How much that affected our performance there is no real way to tell.

Hoop Fan wrote:yea, he could transfer to tcu and hit 10 three pointers against us for the next four years and it wouldnt hurt smu like he and max have done here in the past year. You better believe the distraction of all this damaged our season big time from January on too. You got that factored into your 4-10 record argument McClownster?

I thought your crowd was still claiming that nothing happened. That being said, Tubbs could have very easily avoided this distraction.

I can't believe folks are discussing which players to essentially cut from the roster. What say we address how to make them better .... starting with the selection of a top-shelf coach?
And while I'm on the soapbox (I'll step down shortly -- promise), I think a lot of folks are being too [deleted] Matt Williams. By all accounts, Max is up to his eyeballs in all this, but as far as I know, Matt hasn't done anything. Let's not lynch him in a guilt-by-association scenario.

The lack of ethics when releasing/jettisoning Student Athletes is further eroding the collegiate game. This is how you get zero graduation rates.

Recruit, develop and play young men is the college game. Discarding them isn't

ClassOf81 wrote:I can't believe folks are discussing which players to essentially cut from the roster. What say we address how to make them better .... starting with the selection of a top-shelf coach?

Eustachy was considered to be a "top-shelf coach" when he was at Iowa State and had talented players. He obviously wants to be one again, thus the roster shake up. Good players usually make good coaches.

DickerJames wrote:

ClassOf81 wrote:I can't believe folks are discussing which players to essentially cut from the roster. What say we address how to make them better .... starting with the selection of a top-shelf coach?

Eustachy was considered to be a "top-shelf coach" when he was at Iowa State and had talented players. He obviously wants to be one again, thus the roster shake up. Good players usually make good coaches.

Good players go to schools who have coaches that recruit well.

MFFL02 wrote:

DickerJames wrote:

ClassOf81 wrote:I can't believe folks are discussing which players to essentially cut from the roster. What say we address how to make them better .... starting with the selection of a top-shelf coach?

Eustachy was considered to be a "top-shelf coach" when he was at Iowa State and had talented players. He obviously wants to be one again, thus the roster shake up. Good players usually make good coaches.

Good players go to schools who have coaches that recruit well.

What's your point? I was talking about Eustachy having good players at Iowa State and trying to get some at Southern Miss.

Don't mind him Dicker, he constantly has posts with no point to them, same as this one.

I agree that Matt has caught way too much flack on this board. I have not heard anything as much as even a substantial rumor regarding anything wrong the kid did yet people are all over him bc of his gandfather. He does not have control over his grandfather's actions so lets cut him some slack here. On another note, I think he could be a helpfull player to us. From what I have heard from guys on the team he cannot create his own shot but is lights out when given a little room. He could be used coming off screens as well as a guy to knock down open jumpers when the defense collapses on our post players.

Didn't that wild man of a coach at Texas Tech run off some of the players he found when he went to coach there?

he's doing it again this year as there are reports that he plans the sign 7-8 players this year. Just about everyone he's gotten so far is a Prep School/JC/Division 1A Transfer. The decsion to drop the 4/7 rule was ridiculous and a clear indication that the NCAA is paying Lip Service to real academic reform. Once again I support almost all the reform measures just so long as SMU isn't the only school following them.