Drury Panthers

[crazznewt]

I think there is only so much you can do at Grand Canyon as your area talent pool is limited and you have to find players that are okay being in Arizona, which is hot and dusty a lot of the year. But there are other places on par with Grand Canyon such as Oral Roberts or Liberty. If she is happy there though, that is all that matters!

I have heard that she is not hurting for money. I can see her being picky about entertaining job offers. She has no problem getting talent to north Phoenix. Take a look at her roster. She has recruited well enough to defeat Arizona and Arizona State in the same season, as big wins have become the norm.

Molly is becoming a celebrity in the sports world in Phoenix as a result, and is loved by the entire university. In contrast, Kellie Harper got fired from Tennessee despite getting to multiple sweet 16's. She had not been at Tennessee long before the typical grumbling started.

Based on what Molly and other coaches have said, you cant rely on just building trust with a recruit anymore because of NIL. You better have something else to offer, and you hope the fanbase is patient through the process.

[crazznewt]

SB Nation and others have said Molly is on the very short list for the vacancies at Mizzou and Arizona State. However, SBN reports "multiple sources say" Miller has been contacted multiple times by The Arkansas athletic director for the vacancy there after the Razorbacks gave outgoing coach Neighbors a one million dollar buyout.

[crazznewt]

Also looks like Drury transfer Elijah Whitley will end up at D1 UMKC. Also looks like several Quincy Hawks are in the portal. Good luck being consistently good in the D2 ranks anymore.

[Bballfan]

Based on what Molly and other coaches have said, you cant rely on just building trust with a recruit anymore because of NIL. You better have something else to offer, and you hope the fanbase is patient through the process.

Unfortunately that is true. I am aware of a high school player....just a junior....that was moved out of the state of Ohio this season as her parents see her as the "meal ticket" in the future and they wanted to ger her more "exposure". Current NIL offer is sitting at $600,000. No commitment yet. Still time for the bidding to go up before her senior season. Sad.

[crazznewt]

The Narcissistic, Corrupt, Affluant Alliance. ...sorry, this is a more accuarate acronym of NCAA. (I have too much time on my hands sometimes)

[Bballfan]

It's very hard to find the whole list sometimes, but I see Caitlynn Daniels received an honor here. The POY for the Midwest region this year is pretty darn good. I think her sister is going to be even better.

5 GLVC Players
4 GLIAC Players
2 GMAC Players

Rylie Bisballe Named D2CCA Midwest Region Player of the Year - Grand Valley State University Athletics

[crazznewt]

Other players had their moments, but Caitlynn absolutely carried Drury. She was a very entertaining player for the Lady Panthers.

[Bballfan]

I would have had her first team over a couple others on that list. One first teamer on the list shouldn't even be on either team!

[DUPanther]

Yes I noticed about the Drury foul trouble, BUT Drury held their own in the first half. It is the second half where they had the collapse. And getting a technical on a made 3....that suggests taunting but was it?

Drury women haven't been to the NCAA since what? 2014?

Edit: Read this again, and finally understood what you mean.

[DUPanther]

Coach Foster already hit the bottom in this race. Who is running things at Drury now?

Coach Foster has some really bad luck since he got here, not least of all with a medical condition that was legitimately life-threatening and put him out of commission for extended periods the last couple years. Also, I'm not sure how long you've been a fan, but the cupboard was completely bare when Foster got here player-wise (and I say that as a huge fan of Coach Hesser, who is the one of the best coaches I've ever seen on a basketball floor). The year before Foster was hired, the Drury men were 11-10 and their best 2 players were transferring even before the coaching change was announced. They didn't have 1 returning player that would've started on 75% of GLVC teams.

This year, he had 2 players that would've played significant minutes leave before the season started. One of them chose to leave school because his mother had serious health issues and another decided to just give up playing basketball.

My opinion is Coach Foster has this program headed in the right direction. After dismissing Juok Riak with 2 weeks left in the season, the Drury men were tough. They beat the best team in the GLVC convincingly in the last game of the year and they led then second best team (UMSL) on the road for the majority of the game before coming up a possession short at the end. Both of those teams made the NCAA tournament. DU went 2-2 against the top 4 teams in the GLVC this year, and the 2 they lost very easily could've gone the other way (UMSL and Lincoln).

Their best 2 players are returning - Logan Applegate is an All-GLVC player and Colin Hardrick is a stud who was the best freshman in the league. Both of them could've easily left and they would've gotten offers from every team in the league. They've already signed two really good freshmen prospects - Keion Epps is a physical guard that's the all-time leading scorer at Springfield-Central (and that's saying something if you know anything about the history of that program) and Keshaun Thomas out of Quincy, IL is a 6-6, 225 lb bruiser that is the all-time leading rebounder at Quincy High (another storied program). He had a game last year where he had 19 rebonds *in the first half*. Credit Foster for all of these players being at DU next year.

I saw a gritty team finish the year this year and I'm more excited about next year's DU men's basketball season than I've been for some time.

[DUPanther]

You asked who to blame it is 100% Nyla. She has failed at her previous three jobs and has now failed at being an AD. Kaci Bailey is not even close to being qualified to run this program, but I’m not sure we can blame her For being put in this situation. The other day they posted on their social media something about the standard and winning 20 games back to back. Unfortunately, that is the new standard as the old standard was winning 30 games, winning the GLVC regular season, winning the GLVC conference tournament, and making it to the NCAA tournament. It’s insulting to the alumni in the boosters to say that winning 20 games is the standard. My guess is that Nyla will “retire“ next year and write off into the sunset. Unfortunately, all of the damage will have been done because very little people care about this program anymore. I have been a fan for 15 years, but I cannot support what it has become.

I'm reserving judgement on Kaci Bailey....no doubt she's trying to fill some huge shoes.

To say that Nyla has "failed at her last 3 jobs" isn't a factual statement. Beyond that, Nyla Milleson built the Drury Lady Panther basketball program. What she did at Drury was more impressive than what Molly Miller and Amy Eagan accomplished. Both of those coaches took over a program that was already in the top-tier of DII women's basketball. Nyla started a program from nothing, won 20 games in her first year, and was in the national championship game in year 4 - and no disrespect to the great teams that both Coach Miller and Coach Eagan had at Drury, but that team Nyla had was still the best women's basketball team in school history.

Did she make a bad hire in Bailey? Maybe time will prove she did, but if so she'll have a chance to correct it. No AD hits on every hire. But to say she's "destroyed" the program in year 2 of a new coach is semi-ridiculous.

I'll also add that Nyla Milleson is a vastly better AD than the person she replaced. Corey Bray would've run the entire athletic department into the ground had he been given time.

[Pantherbooster]

Well DU Panther. You make some good points. Clearly you have the best view of the entire Drury basketball programs. To say coach Foster has moved this program in the right direction may imply you’re too close to it. Several times in this message board there are direct statements that the prior coach left the cupboard bare. To put Hester in that boat is just making an excuse for the current coach, who has been here a few years now. There are no 12th place participation trophies. All programs have challenges with recruits, injuries and illnesses. No bonus for beating a good S&T team on Senior day. Even Ed Beach stated there’s always some magic for Drury on this day. Maybe look a little closer to see the downward trend imo.

[crazznewt]

I'm reserving judgement on Kaci Bailey....no doubt she's trying to fill some huge shoes.

To say that Nyla has "failed at her last 3 jobs" isn't a factual statement. Beyond that, Nyla Milleson built the Drury Lady Panther basketball program. What she did at Drury was more impressive than what Molly Miller and Amy Eagan accomplished. Both of those coaches took over a program that was already in the top-tier of DII women's basketball. Nyla started a program from nothing, won 20 games in her first year, and was in the national championship game in year 4 - and no disrespect to the great teams that both Coach Miller and Coach Eagan had at Drury, but that team Nyla had was still the best women's basketball team in school history.

Did she make a bad hire in Bailey? Maybe time will prove she did, but if so she'll have a chance to correct it. No AD hits on every hire. But to say she's "destroyed" the program in year 2 of a new coach is semi-ridiculous.

I'll also add that Nyla Milleson is a vastly better AD than the person she replaced. Corey Bray would've run the entire athletic department into the ground had he been given time.

Very quick comment

This is from the MSU website from the early 2010's:
"Under Millesons leadership, the Lady Bears have won 70 games over the last three seasons, including a total of five postseason victories in the Women's National Invitation Tournament. The Lady Bears topped the 20-win mark for the 17th time in school history in 2011-12, finishing 24-9 overall to match the ninth-highest single-season win total in the 43-year history of the program."

That record was pretty good after previous coach "Abe" decimated the program.

"Nyla Milleson enters her sixth season as the head Lady Bear after returning Missouri State back to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference in year five. Milleson, who enters the 2012-13 season 276-106 (.723) overall as a collegiate head coach, is 91-70 (.565) at MSU to rank second all-time among Lady Bear mentors for total victories through five seasons."

It goes on to say:
"Milleson's Lady Bears will have a new look entering the 2012-13 season, with the five seniors who were so instrumental in the programs return to prominence being replaced by an exciting seven-player freshman class with loads of potential." .....Doesn't sound like a failure to me.

She went through so much adversity because half of the media in Springfield did not like Drury because it stole the spotlight from Missouri State. It's pretty damn hard to recruit when there is so much division within the community over the head coach. She has been put into some very tough situations and excelled.

So many D2 coaches say these are the toughest times to recruit because of the new rules. I agree Bailey deserves more time.

[DUPanther]

Well DU Panther. You make some good points. Clearly you have the best view of the entire Drury basketball programs. To say coach Foster has moved this program in the right direction may imply you’re too close to it. Several times in this message board there are direct statements that the prior coach left the cupboard bare. To put Hester in that boat is just making an excuse for the current coach, who has been here a few years now. There are no 12th place participation trophies. All programs have challenges with recruits, injuries and illnesses. No bonus for beating a good S&T team on Senior day. Even Ed Beach stated there’s always some magic for Drury on this day. Maybe look a little closer to see the downward trend imo.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

If you actually watched the games against SBU, UMSL, and S&T in the last couple weeks and still conclude that DU wasn't a good team at the end of the year, though, I'm going to question how well you know college basketball. The trend isn't down - the last few weeks of the season this team was playing better than any Drury team since the '19-20' squad (which was Hesser's second to last year).

Same goes if you think DU's men's program wasn't at the bottom of the barrel talent-wise when Foster got here. This was the returning roster that Foster inherited:

Davis, Malek
Nwagbarachoa, Victor
Okafor, Obi
Naeger, Riley
Samuels, Myles
White, AJ
Barshow, Devon
Shelton, Quenton
Hutchinson, Asa

Show me a worse returning roster in the GLVC for the 2021-2022 season. Not here to drag players so I'm not going to name which ones, but there are only 4 good players in that entire group, and maybe 1 who would start for a good GLVC team.

[DUPanther]

Very quick comment

This is from the MSU website from the early 2010's:
"Under Millesons leadership, the Lady Bears have won 70 games over the last three seasons, including a total of five postseason victories in the Women's National Invitation Tournament. The Lady Bears topped the 20-win mark for the 17th time in school history in 2011-12, finishing 24-9 overall to match the ninth-highest single-season win total in the 43-year history of the program."

That record was pretty good after previous coach "Abe" decimated the program.

"Nyla Milleson enters her sixth season as the head Lady Bear after returning Missouri State back to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference in year five. Milleson, who enters the 2012-13 season 276-106 (.723) overall as a collegiate head coach, is 91-70 (.565) at MSU to rank second all-time among Lady Bear mentors for total victories through five seasons."

It goes on to say:
"Milleson's Lady Bears will have a new look entering the 2012-13 season, with the five seniors who were so instrumental in the programs return to prominence being replaced by an exciting seven-player freshman class with loads of potential." .....Doesn't sound like a failure to me.

She went through so much adversity because half of the media in Springfield did not like Drury because it stole the spotlight from Missouri State. It's pretty damn hard to recruit when there is so much division within the community over the head coach. She has been put into some very tough situations and excelled.

So many D2 coaches say these are the toughest times to recruit because of the new rules. I agree Bailey deserves more time.

Nyla didn't get fired at MSU because she didn't win there. She got fired because they built a new arena, jacked up their seat prices to ridiculous levels to justify it, and then blamed her when attendance went down.

The year before she was fired she was 24-9 and won the Valley.