Pressure is going to be more related to how he finishes in the MAC than making the NCAA's. The MAC is a 1 bid league and its unreasonable to expect a coach to punch the ticket every year. Hunter and TOS's seats got warm because they couldn't win in the regular season. Dambrot isn't making the NCAAs that often but he takes care of business in MAC play so his seat is never warm. At most places in the MAC what Saul has done through year 3 would be the talk of the league.

over in zippy land they're currently debating whether or not Dambrot should stay or go.

If you mean by offering Jeremiah Francis before anyone else did, then yeah he doesn't swing for fences. Francis currently holds offers from Ohio State and a handful of other high majors.

If you mean that trying to get Sterling Manley, a UNC committ, then yeah Saul doesn't swing for the fences.

If you mean by offering Jayvon Graves, a guy who may end up Ohio's Mr Basketball, then yeah he doesn't swing for fences.

If you mean by recruiting two guys, possibly three, who could end up winning state championships this year (Butler, Vander Plas, Haliburton), then yeah he doesn't swing for fences. And that doesn't even include the Ohio guys still in it (Mayle, Payton, Francis, etc.)

Saul's swinging for fences as much he can. What more do you guys want? Do you realize how lucky Groce got by landing DJ Cooper and Levert? That stuff doesn't happen every year for mid majors.

Two concerns regarding this comment. First, SP said "I can sell Athens. I can sell this place." Can he, or can he not, sell this place based on your post?

Secondly, if you peel away Tony since SP inherited him and then you peel away Simmons and Kaminski because transfers isn't the philosophy of the staff, then you have the following recruits that appear to be consistent with the philosophy of the staff and the direction they want to go:
James Gollon
Antonio Bisutti
Drew Crabtree
Jaylin McDonald
Sam Frayer
Gavin Block
Rodney Culver
Mike Laster (did SP inherit him too?)
Ellis Dozier
Jordan Dartis
Doug Taylor
*Jason Carter

The asterick is by Jason as this is the only current player from this list that I consider to be a foundational piece asset upon which to build a MAC Championship contending team. The rest to me are pieces and parts. True or false, if recruiting 4 year guys is the preference and this is the current sample size-- without really knowing who the incoming guys are, are you not a tiny bit concerned?

I'm not concerned at all. I think it's funny you put an asterisk by Jason Carter and nobody else though. Jordan Darts is the best three point shooter in the MAC. That's not good enough? Mike Laster was Saul's first recruit and has improved leaps and bounds from his freshman year. Gavin Block almost single handily kept Ohio in the game against Kent State by doing the little things no one else would. Rodney Culver is an unbelievable athlete that we haven't seen enough of to even judge, IMO. Doug Taylor is a capable post player in this league who needs to develop more of his game. Same goes for pretty much the entire team. That's what building a program is. You keep grinding to get better as a team with what you have on hand. Eventually they'll land the big recruit everyone covets because they'll be attracted to a winning program.

Do they need to get better? Absolutely. Am I concerned with the direction of this program? No. We just lost in the MAC semifinals by two god damn points. We won 20 games after losing the MAC POTY midway through and had to readjust on the fly.
Call me crazy, but I don't think SP is getting ENOUGH credit for what he's done.

Here's a question for everyone. Had this team completely fallen off the wagon after losing Tony, do you still blame Saul or just chalk it up to Tony being gone?

Laster was his first signee and Ryan Taylor was the second. His recruiting has been somewhat lackluster, we look ourmatched when we play athletic teams. We do shoot the three well. Jason Carter looks like he should become great, hopefully the medi's won't spoil him. He needs to add to his game steadily. He is good now, will he stay good or become great. If he gets submerged in medi land, he will believe he is already great. I hope the coaches give him film assignments. For athleticism and explosiveness, he needs to watch what he eats, run stairs and practice dunking a basketball consecutively and increase his number by five dunks. He needs to practice footwork drills and practice lateral drills. He has a nice shot and he has some nice competitive fire. Jaaron can be the player of the year, sometimes he overpenetrates and his midrange game and outside game needs a little work. He is an outstanding leader and he has tremendous heart. I hope stays, improves and wins conference player of the year.

Let's simplify the thought process and go really slow so you can follow.
If, the philosophy is generally against transfers and JUCO's, then here's who is on the roster that SP has brought in via the 4 year route--his preferred method of building a roster. Whether it's right or wrong to evaluate, it's the current sample size after 3 year of recruiting data when you're simply evaluating the non holdovers/transfers/JUCO guys. Tony was inherited, Kaminski and Simmons were transfers--something that we have not done since and say we don't prefer. They still count and it's not cheating to count them towards your record, but if that's not the direction you wish to go moving forward, we're simply pulling those exceptions to the rule out and looking at the remaining data.

the fact that you had to pad a list of 12 players with the names of 4 walk ons to try to make a point about Saul's recruiting proves that you don't even believe the bull you are shoveling.

I agree with this post being idiotic.

Won many more games past two years than when we had Bean, Stevie, Ndour, Tony. treg, etc. Thats 3 Euro league guys, at least, and an NBA player.

Patience, grasshoppers