It wasn’t long after his first season on the bench as McNeese State’s men’s head basketball coach that John Aiken learned how quickly the honeymoon ends.

Over the course of six months he went from the pick to turn the program around to the guy on whose seat was heating up.

Such is the coaching life, in which every season seems like a must win.

So Aiken and his staff hit the road recruiting, and the results are in. Or at least the paper work is.

McNeese has signed five players, none of whom has fewer than three years of eligibility remaining. No final-season folks as of yet, though that might be coming as the Cowboys look to put the finishing touches on the class.

“We are really happy with what we have done but we would like to finish it up with a big or two with experience,” Aiken said.

Last season’s NCAA transfer portal grab didn’t work out well for Aiken and the Cowboys. Too many individuals playing more for the names on their backs than the one on the front of their jerseys. Not this time.

Now Aiken finds himself back in good graces thanks to a recruiting class that, on paper, is an exciting one. Then again, championships aren’t won on paper.

Still, Aiken appears to have won the offseason and with it maybe getting a second honeymoon from Cowboys fans. If nothing else he has given the program a boost in the arm when it comes to attention.

When Walker Timme signed on Monday, Aiken had gotten another player who flew under the radar in part because of COVID.

By all accounts Timme is a basketball player whose stock is on the rise. He has a brother who played at Gonzaga who is headed to the NBA in the upcoming draft, so there are solid bloodlines running through him.

He also has an extra year of high school behind him thanks to playing a season at Link Year Preparatory School school in Branson, Missouri. The basketball finishing school gave Timme a season to grow into an even better player than he was in high school.

But this is not a one-hit wonder class. There is point guard Rashad Boldon from Southern Mississippi, Robert Perez, a 6-foot-6 shooting swingman from junior college, a high schooler named Donovan Oday from Texas who, Aiken said, at 6-3 can shoot and get to the rim. And there is another 6-8 big man coming from high school, Dionjahe Thomas.

They are young, with plenty of time ahead to grow. Of course in today’s world of college sports they have to be kept as well.

When you add ultra talented freshman Christian Shumate and two other rookie point guards, then you have the start of something. And we haven’t even mentioned the two guys who showed they can shoot from distance last season, Harwin Francois and Zach Scott.

“I think we are building something sustainable for years to come,” Aiken said.

Aiken also understands championships aren’t won in mid-April. Many a previous McNeese season has been hyped only to fall flat on the wood court.

But in all the 13 offseasons I’ve been around in this town, this is the best recruiting class. Maybe because it is so young it holds the extra promise.

Then again Aiken knows one day you can be riding high and the next … well.

That the pressure of trying to build a winner.

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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com