Drury Panthers

[Pantherbooster]

Molly Miller's Arizona State team is now 15-0 after yet another conference road victory, this one at 10-3 Utah. Molly is already making her mark on the record books at ASU and has significantly revitalized interest and attendance for ASU women's basketball.

There are tough games ahead in the Big 12 for her first ASU squad, but it's very obvious ASU made the right choice in the hiring of the former Drury coach, where she was a 2 time D2 National Coach of the Year.

Very impressive and a significant point is her eye for players that can fit in her system. Coach Miller can get the best out of her team even during the NIL era. Proven track record of recruiting. It’s nice we can watch the ASU games as well! Agree the real challenge lies in the upcoming schedule.

had to miss the Blue &Gold this year. Started going years ago to see the recruits to Drury that had been announced. Not sure we have seen any announcements in the last few years or maybe just not looking in the right place. Passion for the men’s team for me personally, has really fallen off in the last 5 years. Honestly hope the team can turn it around.

[crazznewt]

Very impressive and a significant point is her eye for players that can fit in her system. Coach Miller can get the best out of her team even during the NIL era. Proven track record of recruiting. It’s nice we can watch the ASU games as well! Agree the real challenge lies in the upcoming schedule.

had to miss the Blue &Gold this year. Started going years ago to see the recruits to Drury that had been announced. Not sure we have seen any announcements in the last few years or maybe just not looking in the right place. Passion for the men’s team for me personally, has really fallen off in the last 5 years. Honestly hope the team can turn it around.

It's late, I hope this turns out right: First, good point on her ability to recruit players to fit her unique system. However, there is no way Molly could win in the NIL era at ASU if there wasn't money available to pay her players too. In contrast, the playing field has equalized for several reasons in D2. Those D1 level players she brought to Drury would not have come if there was money available elsewhere that Drury could not match

That being said, her winning percentage as a team leading point guard (at all levels), and later leading as a coach, is second to none. She is a brilliant coach with original defensive schemes and unique practices. She gets the community excited like few coaches are able/willing to do. She will certainly end up being one of the most coveted coaches in the country before she's done. IMO!

As far as the Blue and Gold, coach Foster picked up the m v p from last season's tournament in Republic's Brenley Hagewood.

[panthersclawz1]

Nice to see some fight tonight from the men to put away a solid Rockhurst team. Drury's offense is prolific, but their defense is still very suspect. If they can shore it up a bit, they have a shot to be good and not force their players to consistently over-perform. KeShaun Thomas has a chance to be the GLVC freshman of the year. Kid is fantastic. What Luke Stubbs did tonight is what he needs to do consistently imo for this team to be good.

Women had a nice performance from what seems to be their top three: Mendel, Gibbons, and King. Was nice to see both Brooke Teter and Ellie Wells get action tonight. Both can probably give them more than what their starting four does. Teter outperformed her tonight in one quarter of action in her first minutes all season. And man, Rockhurst is woefully bad. Yikes. Jewell's women on Sunday are even worse and whispers around the league have them pegged as one of the worst women's basketball teams in the history of the GLVC. Almost excited to see it. They're 0-10 and their last home game was a 28-point loss to an NAIA team where they had following number of points in the first three quarters: 4, 0, 6. Drury might win by 50.

[crazznewt]

Rockhurst and Jewell have traditionaly had a D1 level player or two on their roster to complement other solid players, though their rosters were never deep. I think of Jewell's kiera Bradley, who transferred to D1 Kansas City, started, and excelled. Rockhurst had the Sullivan sisters, the oldest was a D1 transfer, and the other was recruited by big time programs like South Carolina, North Carolina State, Kentucky, and UCLA. Players like this made it easier to convince other decent players to join their program.
These are fine academic schools, as is Drury. However, D1 level players don't base their decision on how good a school anymore is if money isn't part of the deal. It's not these coaches fault the NIL exists. Its a false balance, as much as sending billions abroad for transgender social programs.

[crazznewt]

Nice to see some fight tonight from the men to put away a solid Rockhurst team. Drury's offense is prolific, but their defense is still very suspect. If they can shore it up a bit, they have a shot to be good and not force their players to consistently over-perform. KeShaun Thomas has a chance to be the GLVC freshman of the year. Kid is fantastic. What Luke Stubbs did tonight is what he needs to do consistently imo for this team to be good.

Women had a nice performance from what seems to be their top three: Mendel, Gibbons, and King. Was nice to see both Brooke Teter and Ellie Wells get action tonight. Both can probably give them more than what their starting four does. Teter outperformed her tonight in one quarter of action in her first minutes all season. And man, Rockhurst is woefully bad. Yikes. Jewell's women on Sunday are even worse and whispers around the league have them pegged as one of the worst women's basketball teams in the history of the GLVC. Almost excited to see it. They're 0-10 and their last home game was a 28-point loss to an NAIA team where they had following number of points in the first three quarters: 4, 0, 6. Drury might win by 50.

Nice prediction on the Drury Women. They won by 50. Sad.

[panthersclawz1]

Big week for the Drury men. I have a feeling that Jewell loss will haunt them later on this season. Can they get at least one win this week against a ranked S&T team coming off a loss or a 7-7 Lincoln team that's just 1-5 in the league? Two losses would drop them to 1-6 in the GLVC, and I fear that's too large a hole to climb out.

[crazznewt]

Wow, i'm glad I did not go to this Lady Panther game. In fact, I've not been to a Drury game since before D E I night last season. I choose to watch on the GLVCSN if the Lady Panthers had won. I actually watched a good game between Missouri State and Kennisaw State at Great Southern Bank Arena tonight.

I could not help but wonder how much money these players I watched tonight were getting paid. I asked A I. Here was one answer: "One mid-major coach mentioned that to be "good" at their level, a team might need around $300,000 in collective funds, while $500,000 would make them "really good".

Another A I answer: "One source estimates that for the 2025-26 academic year, a low to mid-major basketball team might have about $100,000 in NIL money from third parties, while a mid to high-major team might reach around $1 million."

Molly Miller's Arizona State team is now 16-1. The previous three seasons ASU was 29-62. Wouldn't it be something if they made the big tournament? She would deserve to win some kind of award.

[Bballfan]

Arizona State will most certainly make the big tournament. The threshold for a Power 4 school is typically 20 wins. They will easily get that.

[Bballfan]

There once was a time Drury women would have played one of the toughest schedules in the region. Now at this point in the season, they are playing the third easiest schedule.

https://inkblotsports.com/d2stats/2526/wbb/mw.html

[crazznewt]

Yes, and like I pointed out in an earlier post, the end of the bench of those Drury teams would go undefeated in today's GLVC. Its just a matter of time before all of D2's small private programs are rendered completely irrelevant. It's like you and I have said repeatedly, greed has no limit


It is hard to accurately judge how well a program is performing due to a possible funding difference compared to other programs. We have beat this into the ground, but good players that a D2 program could have signed before the NIL, are now likely getting paid by a D1. It's ridiculous to fault a D2 coach for a mediocre record because of this, unless there is never any improvement. A common theme is "The playing field has been leveled in D2".

I watched some of the Lady Panther/Lincoln game on the GLVCSN. I counted 8 airballs (no rim) jacked up by Lincoln before I lost interest.

I wanted to see what UMSL did to dominate SBU's Women. It's almost like it was done on purpose, but the SBU announcer signed on long enough to say he would announce the starting lineups after a couple of commercials. 36 commercials later (there is a counter on screen and the app will not let you fast forward during commercials) the game finally came on in progress. At some point, I fast fowarded to the post game comments and waited through 28 commercials to hear an excuse coach Harrell has used muliple times since she arrived in Bolivar, that her players have been ill. After Drury's narrow victory early in the season, Harrell said: "If we play like we did tonight, we can play with anybody". Not a good look at all.

[Bballfan]

I could see more private schools heading back to NAIA. The only reason some are D2 to begin with to get a share of the March Madness slush fund. But how long is that going to be around with the greed of the big D1 schools?

All the NCAA cares about is protecting that tournament at all costs. It feeds all the D3, D2, and even some D1 championships who all operate at a loss.

[crazznewt]

A couple of quick thoughts:
Same story for the Lady Panthers. The lack of a pure point guard is killing them. They will have multiple good ones next season.

If it would mean all of the Drury underclassmen sticks around next season, I would be all for foster returning also.

The number one high school tournament in America, the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions is being played on the campus of Missouri State at Great Southern Bànk Arena.
Five of the eight schools entered are in the top twenty five national rankings, including numbers one and two. I thought our local logan rogersville team was going to beat the number one team in America last night as they were leading in the fourth quarter, but fell short late. They are no slouches as they have three division one prospects themselves. One has already signed with indiana as a junior.

[panthersclawz1]

The Drury women continue to beat up the lackluster competition the GLVC offers. Tomorrow's game against Indy should be more of the same because the Greyhounds are also bad. Starting Sage Stratton over Pasakarnis has actually helped the production of both parties. Something to monitor: after a 2-6 start, the Lewis women have won nine in a row.

The bigger story is the men. A massively disappointing result for them against UIS. Drury had its hottest start to a game all season tonight with all momentum behind them. They were up by 17 with 6:16 left in the first half. Then they collapsed, going into halftime up only two. Their lack of defense allowed UIS to run away with the game late and they lost by 15. After two players left the team, Drury runs only a seven-man rotation. They have basically no room for error and their frankly awful defense puts them in a hole nearly every game. Tonight's loss dropped them to 3-7 in the league. Barring a multi-week winning streak, they're likely on the outside looking in of the GLVC tournament for the fifth straight year. The player's visible frustration at the buzzer tonight seemingly confirmed many of them felt the same. I imagine change is on the horizon. I'm not sure how there could be any other outcome.

[crazznewt]

I've been indecisive on this, but agree Foster has to go. However, I'm going to hate seeing Drury lose some great young players.The program is not in good shape at all, never has been under Foster. Pantherbooster called the situation correctly a long time ago. I was hoping this talented young recruiting class would win more. Again, it's not just the losing, it's how they're losing. Hapless comes to mind. Drury needs their hap back.

I'm more tolerant of the women's program. I think Bailey has done a good job considering the playing field has been leveled in D2. At least the Lady Panthers appear to have hap :).

Im glad to have attended the Tournament of Champions last week here in Springfield. 10,000 fans were on hand, creating a very exciting environment for basketball. It was a reminder that basketball can be entertaining when played at a high level.

[Pantherbooster]

I am a bit indecisive on the women’s team but continue to root for the team. The expectations are much lower as I’ve accepted the good old days are over. Crazznewt and Pantherclawz both provide great insight as I’m not as close to it anymore, simply following along online during games (stats page), as it was at times hard to watch.
Newt, your memory is excellent. My opinion was the hiring of coach Foster was a great move considering the results attained at McKendry and his longer term knowledge of the GLVC. It just hasn’t really worked out at Drury and agree that it’s time for change. A reason given on this chat for keeping coach specially last season was the continuity of the roster and the great recruiting. Is that even reasonable in the modern era?
I may need to change my handle as I’ve withheld my booster allotment but as I also enjoy great basketball, TOC was very exciting, much better investment