The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(03-23-2017 08:30 PM)ODUCoach Wrote:  I'm showing you facts that show it is normal. If you don't want to believe the numbers, I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

Exactly! Actually, one of the unfortunate issues we have had is our last few coaches have left the cupboard bare. That results in possibly having to sign some players that may not be ideal but they need bodies to fill roles. Anyone can look back on our media guides and find a lot of players that didn't pan out about the time a coach was leaving. A good example is the 2011 roster that included Ekene Anachebe, Deon Clark, Anton Larsen, Stuart McEwen, DeShawn Painter ( 1 year player)., Donta Hill (2 years) . And how about DeQuan Mitchell and Jason Pimentel a year or two before?

Fortunately for us the better players in our program have for the most part stayed with us and had a great experience but ODU has not been unscathed when it comes to losing players. I can think of three players off the top of my head that came in under Taylor in his early years that were pretty well thought of that did not make much of a contribution, ( Josh Hicks, Jason Thompson, Yanko Mrksic). I also remember Taylor complaining about the players that he inherited that played but didn't stick around long ( Clay McGowen, Joe Principe).

We have lost lots of role players in the past and most of the time it happened during the transition to a new coaching staff. This coaching staff we have now had some talent to build around in Freeman and Bacote. I think they chose to do that the juco and transfer route hoping to compete immediately. Some didn't work out but we also had some real solid success that should continue to show dividends ( Porter, Stith's, come to mind). Some of them bombed but I think it did allow us to compete with what we had returning. I am anxious to see what new additions we get for next season to pair with Green, Hueitt, and Godwin.