I'd say its 50 percent the NIL and 50 percent coaching.
A) without question the NIL is a humungous factor this season. "Probably" lost Richmond because of it, although
I believe there were external factors in addition to that. Lost Davis too, but he still may have wanted to move his family to a different region of the country. Hard to say what resigning Wusu, plus adding Aligbe and Toumi cost? Maybe they should have used those funds to get one solid starter?? In addition, there has to be something in between marquee $800,000 a year player and this core group of transfers in. Sha deserves blame for signing off on some of these players, but his front-line scouts on the staff let him down. Just poor grades all the way around. We now have urgency as a community along with the University Athletic Dept to get this right until possible legislation comes along. Urgency equals Next Season.
B) We have to remember that St. Peter's surprised teams that season. Sha's coaching style had not been in the limelight up until that point. There are no more surprises and there are ways to offset some of his strategies. With talent like most coaches, he can and will succeed. The 13-7 record last season in conference and the NIT crown was evidence of that. Obviously, way more talent last season. Both last season and this season the team's OOC performance was poor, and he deserves a hit for that. The NIL is not really an excuse for losing to Fordham, Hofstra and Monmouth. The insane lineup changes and over subbing have been problematic. His loyalty to two or three guys despite below average play is squarely on him. Guys are always banged up or hurt? Maybe he is too consumed with Practice and that plays into some of these injuries. I would say that better coaching may not have led to Wins, BUT there is no reason for that jumbled bunch of nonsense we witnessed during the Xavier game.