Bryan Mullins was fired from SIU after a two overtime loss to UIC at Arch Madness.

Great guy who will land another head coaching job.

There was a time when we were annually worrying about Porter leaving that we thought Coach Mullins was the guy that would step in at LU and there was disappointment when he left LU for SIU b4 Porter left. Will be curious to see if this puts SIU on a downward spiral. Wondering if they are thinking about bringing back Coach Lowery who has gotten a lot of the credit for the recent success of NU.
It is a tough gig. With 351 schools and 68 spots in the dance...and SIU in a tough one bid conference

Given what happened to the program under Lowery before, there might be riots in Carbondale by some if they bring him back. And not the fun Halloween Carbondale riots of old.

My other thoughts on this are in the other thread.

Read up on some interesting stats late last night.

SIU had a record of 5-27 against the MVC’s top teams during the Mullins tenure.

That was probably the justification, though AD can simply admit at this point he wants to bring in his own guy. The interview sounded very lame.

Regarding what could be next, AD says he wants to keep away from natl. search firms, and prefers doing it himself. Next coach isn’t required to have familiarity to MVC or ties to SIU.

The latest insider is projecting to Towson’s coach, who could be fishing for a new gig too, as SIU AD came over from Towson.

This will be something to watch.

The destruction of college basketball has begun.

The portal is the first step. Mullins lost two keys players to the Big Ten but still won 19 games this year,

Step two is the NIL Great story in the Washington Examiner about why Saban left Alabama and chose to retire. In short he indicated a majority of his returning players wanted to know how much playing time they were going to get and how much they were going to get paid.
It was said that initial proposals would require each athlete to be paid $30k. So imagine the tab for schools with football.
UNSUSTAINABLE!
An unintended consequence is some schools eliminating some sports altogether.
With Dartmouth players voting to unionize you could see sports strikes.

1. Agree that Mullins got screwed...remember Jones was injured for a good portion of the season 2 years back. When we defeated SIU in AMadness it was w/o Jones.
2. NIL is interesting that in the fact that it does not require schools to pay kids money but allows kids to use their image, name any way they wish. So there could be an alliance that agrees that they will not...then the problem is any school that does pay...then everyone has to. Also if schools dont then nothing prevents any body from rewarding them ....could be where a group of top players have their own agent who bids out for them...Jeez Scott Boras in the college ranks....possible solution would be a voluntary association like the NCAA paying all players the same amount ....or maybe schools start charging players for the use of the gym!!! ..
3.It is a mess...Coach Valentine thinks there will be a change and solution with in two years....we will see.

In other related MVC news, MizzouST has fired Dana Ford and today UIC has fired Luke Yaklich. Really surprised over the UIC news because they’ve competed with what little they’ve had, but they crashed hard since the new year. Both are disaster operations.

The Dartmouth union situation might actually end up up resolving some inequities in the recruiting process.
If the NCAA and a college player's union sign a contract under which all players are payed a "union scale wage," recruiting could be based on the same factors that it has been in the past.
I am suggesting that academics, location, coach, playing time, etc. woul be the most important considerations again.
Unions are designed to reward the mediocre and protect the incompetent.

_________________
Let's go Braden!

MLB players are part of a union. Tell me how that union "rewards the mediocre."

I've been a member of:

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (1979)
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (1981)
Screen Actors Guild (1985)
Teamsters (1998)
Service Employees International Union (2021)

In every case, I've found that being a member of the union as opposed to a non-union employee in the same field immediately imparts a sense of professionalism and pride in the craft that you're participating in. That, in turn, improves the quality of the employees.

The only bad experience I had with unions was when someone from NABET (National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians) filed a grievance against me for dropping a tonearm on a record at WLS in 1986. It was more of a territorial dispute between unions than a detriment to the employer.

Also, kudos to JC64 for finding a double-bank-shot-into-the-side-pocket way of injecting political issues into the basketball discussion!!