The Cougars season ended a long time ago. It's been over a month now since SIUE defeated Hannibal LaGrange to finish at 8-21. The Cougars are now three years into their transition to NCAA Division I, and it's time to do some comparisons to see where we are in Division I. Let's look at the 2007 class, featuring SIUE, North Dakota, South Dakota and Seattle in all sports, specifically men's basketball.
Today, it's SIUE, tomorrow USD, UND Tuesday and Seattle Wednesday.
SIUE (Record since transition)
Men's basketball: 24-64
2008 final RPI: NA
2009 final RPI: 322
2010 final RPI: 328
Biggest win: vs. Drake (Drake Hy-Vee Challenge) vs. the Citadel (Las Vegas Classic) vs. Kennesaw State (First D-I home win)
Worst loss: 61 (Iowa)
against power-conference opponents: 0-8
against Ohio Valley Conference: 1-13
2011-2012 returning starters: M. Yelovich 15 ppg 7 rpg (broke foot in game one, medical redshirt, junior) C. Chatt 12.1 ppg, 2.3 assists per game (senior) C. Wickware 11.6 ppg, 2.8 apg (senior) K. Stineman 5.5 ppg, 40 percent shooter (senior) M. Messer 8.7 ppg, 47 percent shooter (sophomore)
2011 recruits: Charles Joy (O'Fallon H.S)
Scholarships available: 4 (GONE: Bundalo, Mavrak, Mitchell, Tillman, Jones)
Walk-on spots available: 2-3
Outlook: Good: It's still early, and things have not been going well for SIUE at all to this point. The Cougars return a lot of points if Mark can stay healthy. Still not a whole lot of news on recruits, but if the returnees continue to improve during the offseason, things could be getting on track. The Cougars got rid of some dead weight in Tillman and Jones.
Football: NA
Women's basketball: 24-64
Volleyball: 29-56 (Take away 2-27 2009 season, SIUE is 2 games under .500)
Men's soccer: 10-17-4* (fast-tracked) 20-22-8 (MVC runner-up)
Women's soccer: 16-25-3
Baseball: 32-93
Softball: 67-34 (fast-tracked) 80-51 overall
What if? The record isn't great, and the fans may have Lennox on the hot-seat, but here is something to ponder as the coaching carousel gets busy.
Bradley is open after the firing of Jim Les. Forrester is the protege of Les, so Bradley probably won't consider looking at Forrester. If some of the bigger coaching jobs open up though, I would not be surprised to see our old friend Marty Simmons on a couple of big program's short-lists. If Simmons goes at Evansville, which again, is improbable because Evansville is pretty much Marty's dream job (or is it? we can assume) could Forrester get a look by his alma-mater?
I don't think you can look at the record as indicative of performance as it could be for Forrester, and even if long-term he gets the axe (he is under a 7-year contract and I don't see him going anywhere) he will get a better D-I job somewhere. Building a D-I program from scratch is not an easy thing to do, ask NJIT. IUPUI has an opening as well, but I see them going in-house.
Honestly though, I would not be too surprised if some small D-I schools with openings took a look at his resume. Seem too farfethced?
Grade thus far: D+
Outlook: Good
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