Prompted by T-dog's post, I briefly scanned the famous ESPN Transfer List. In addition to Kobani and Goesling, John Mosser's name is also there. That means that no fewer than eight 2015-16 AppSt players will not return for next season...three transfers and five graduating seniors--so far.

Perhaps it's purely coincidental, but as of 4:15 this morning, the men's basketball roster was down for maintenance and updates. Prepare yourselves for sweeping roster changes to be in effect by the end of the second summer session. Methinks that's a good thing.

Reason #1 why people should continue to temper their expectations for the progress of this program for next season. This will be Fox's third season and you can count the players that have been on this roster for three years and provided some type of production on one finger...Griffin Kinney. We'll be starting likely three sophomores, one junior and an unknown at this point, perhaps a transfer. We'll be younger next season, and maybe equally as frustrating to watch until later in the year.

It's gonna take 5-6 years (2-3 more) ...........It's been so bad for so long I can wait.

Eight players leaving sounds like a major overhaul, but realistically we're talking about Eaves (who admittedly IS a big loss) and a few seniors who were role players on a 9-win team. The guys who are transferring were practice players, and we have no shortage of those.

I'm hopeful we can get to .500 overall next year, then compete for a conference title the year after. Perhaps that's optimistic, but I think we at least have a few pieces in place. Need to finish this recruiting class strong, obviously.

Three years from now we will be a contender. Coach has to build a program from the ground up. He has started with a fan base smaller that a lot of womens programs, a roster less than desirable,academic problems, and who knows what else.

EastHallApp wrote:Eight players leaving sounds like a major overhaul, but realistically we're talking about Eaves (who admittedly IS a big loss) and a few seniors who were role players on a 9-win team. The guys who are transferring were practice players, and we have no shortage of those.

I'm hopeful we can get to .500 overall next year, then compete for a conference title the year after. Perhaps that's optimistic, but I think we at least have a few pieces in place. Need to finish this recruiting class strong, obviously.

Well, I see I didn't convince you. So let me try again. Seven of those eight are scholarship players; arguably and mostly players with little value-added in or out of Sun Belt play. So, Fox has seven scholarships to spend before the August 15 required-student-attendance University Convocation/Black and Gold Ceremony.

He has one nailed down--6-5 Wing Guard Zach Cottrell. He has one commitment to date--5-11 PG Patrick Good. We still need player and parent signatures to nail Good down and that's still at least 45 days away.

Scholarship-wise, that's a hopeful two down and five to go. Jim Fox has a lot of decisions to make. He has a bench full of preferred walk-on (APR academic & practice players). Is there one diamond-in-the-rough there who deserves a scholarship? We really don't know--but Fox does. Then there all of those senior transfers with only one year of eligibility remaining; all of those D-I and D-II transfers and JuCos with two or more years left; and all of those high school and prep school candidates to sift through.

Can Fox find five, legit D-I college basketball players who want to play for App State? Of those five, can he sign at least two or three who can make an impact in their first season? Can one of those "impact" types be 6-9 or taller? Nail-biting time for the dyed-in-the-wool Black & Gold fans.

Ah, well if your point was about opening up scholarships, I see what you mean. I was focusing more on the players who are departing. And honestly, I've never been entirely clear on whether a few of those guys are on scholarship, so thanks for clearing that up.

If he can find five more must-take players this off-season, that would be great. Otherwise, he doesn't have to use all five of those scholarships this year. And with few rising-senior scholarship players (are there any left besides O'Boyle?), I'm not sure he will. Better to save a spot for 2017 than to sign someone just to have another body on the bench. Of course a grad transfer or two would be a way to get around that choice.

Regardless, I agree with you that this is ultimately probably a good thing for the program.

EastHallApp wrote:Ah, well if your point was about opening up scholarships, I see what you mean. I was focusing more on the players who are departing. And honestly, I've never been entirely clear on whether a few of those guys are on scholarship, so thanks for clearing that up.

If he can find five more must-take players this off-season, that would be great. Otherwise, he doesn't have to use all five of those scholarships this year. And with few rising-senior scholarship players (are there any left besides O'Boyle?), I'm not sure he will. Better to save a spot for 2017 than to sign someone just to have another body on the bench. Of course a grad transfer or two would be a way to get around that choice.

Regardless, I agree with you that this is ultimately probably a good thing for the program.

Update...Since my last reply to you, I've had the opportunity to have a lengthy conversation with a person with rather direct access to, shall we say, members of the Mountaineer basketball "community." Here's a bit of more recent and more accurate info for you.

* First, Landon Goesling was upgraded from walk-on status to an academic scholarship--not a basketball scholarship. When he met with the coaching staff at season's end, he learned that his playing time next season was unlikely to increase. That triggered his desire to move on. He logged only 30 total minutes all season--only somewhat explained by an injury. Since he was on academic, not athletic scholarship, there are only six basketball scholarships becoming available. Current thinking is apparently to fill no more than three or four of those slots--unless as you speculated--Fox decides to bring in a post-grad player with just one year of eligibility remaining. The coaching staff recognizes the need to better balance the roster.

* Regarding Patrick Good, word is that both he and his parents are completely sold on ASU. He has apparently shut down his recruitment and is eagerly looking forward to joining the team this summer.

* Recruits are likely to be on campus for upcoming weekends.

asu66 wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:Eight players leaving sounds like a major overhaul, but realistically we're talking about Eaves (who admittedly IS a big loss) and a few seniors who were role players on a 9-win team. The guys who are transferring were practice players, and we have no shortage of those.

I'm hopeful we can get to .500 overall next year, then compete for a conference title the year after. Perhaps that's optimistic, but I think we at least have a few pieces in place. Need to finish this recruiting class strong, obviously.

Well, I see I didn't convince you. So let me try again. Seven of those eight are scholarship players; arguably and mostly players with little value-added in or out of Sun Belt play. So, Fox has seven scholarships to spend before the August 15 required-student-attendance University Convocation/Black and Gold Ceremony.

He has one nailed down--6-5 Wing Guard Zach Cottrell. He has one commitment to date--5-11 PG Patrick Good. We still need player and parent signatures to nail Good down and that's still at least 45 days away.

Scholarship-wise, that's a hopeful two down and five to go. Jim Fox has a lot of decisions to make. He has a bench full of preferred walk-on (APR academic & practice players). Is there one diamond-in-the-rough there who deserves a scholarship? We really don't know--but Fox does. Then there all of those senior transfers with only one year of eligibility remaining; all of those D-I and D-II transfers and JuCos with two or more years left; and all of those high school and prep school candidates to sift through.

Can Fox find five, legit D-I college basketball players who want to play for App State? Of those five, can he sign at least two or three who can make an impact in their first season? Can one of those "impact" types be 6-9 or taller? Nail-biting time for the dyed-in-the-wool Black & Gold fans.

We had thirteen (the maximum) scholarship players this season: Burgess, Clarke, Eaves, Lawson, Obacha, Kobani, O'Boyle, Babic, Kinney, Holley, Johnson, Logan, Shabazz

Five are graduating and one more transferring meaning we have six open spots. We have filled two with transfers prior to this season - 6'7 Craig Hinton from VMI and 7'1 Jake Wilson from Lenoir-Rhyne. Two more are filled with incoming freshmen - 6'5 Zach Cottrell and 5'11 Pat Good. That leaves us just two scholarships to fill, one likely being a post player and the other being the best player available. You seem to have misread the state of our basketball team pretty severely. It's a long rebuilding process and likely an even longer rebranding process, but Coach Fox has done an admirable job thus far and I have faith that he will see it through.

What have I misread other than the academic scholarship that went to Goesling? Are you dead certain that Hinton and Wilson have earned an upgrade? Fox certainly has the option to upgrade them from walk-on to scholarship status unless two better players are in the que. Time will tell.

I, too, have great faith in Coach Fox. We are still missing about three key pieces to make a deep run at the #Fun
Belt title; but I think we'll get there before some folks think we will. As we are building, others are graduating key seniors and will be in a re-building mode for a season or two. LIttle Rock and UL-L both fit that mold. Little Rock is losing the heart and soul of its team--Hagins and three other key seniors. Thus the reason for Beard's quick exit. Lafayette is losing 6-10 All-American Shawn Long--the player their team has been built around for four years. They don't have his clone waiting in the wings. They'll have some growing pains to get back to the league's top tier. While those two teams are fading, others will step up. If Fox can land a low post guy and a scoring guard in the next six weeks, our guys could make a little noise after playing this summer in Italy and Slovenia.