What happened??

[Schasz]

Seems the dust has settled enough and it is time to turn over the final piece of the puzzle to see "what happened" This is a compilation from assorted sources

Timeline....

Jan-Feb 2016....Coaching search gets underway,,,,Names come and go...wish lists are developed.

Mar 10...SLU loses to GW in A-10 tourney...Crews is fired...Seach cranks up a notch

Mar 8-20.....Stallings and Drew emerge as front runners .... Stallings interest is lukewarm...Drew is busy with NIT...negotiates with 3rd party....Other candidates start to interview including Ford

Mar 21......Dixson leaves Pitt to go to TCU...the lukewarm interest from Stallings starts to fade.

Mar 25....Stallings takes job at Pitt....Brian Gregory is fired from GT....Openings now at Vandy and GT...Both go after Drew....Drew's interest in SLU starts to fade

Weekend of Mar 25-27....With Stallings gone and Drew fading fast ...The Bills call Ford for a 2nd interview.....Other candidate interviews ongoing

Mar 29...Ford accepts coaching job at SLU

Mar 31...Ford officially becomes SLU's new Head Coach

Of course there is still more to the puzzle...Drew is still trying to decide between Vandy, GTech and Valpo . This will be decided fairly quickly ... but this really doesn't matter to us because..............

We already have a coach and are back on the upswing...Go Bills

Nice recap..let the Coach Ford era begin. I wish him the best!

[Bay Area Billiken]

SLU is better the way this played out.

SLU could not have done better than Coach Travis Ford. He is a very good choice for the SLU job.

For any still holding out concern about Coach Ford's departure from Ok. State, please note that Hall of Fame and 3 time World Series winning Manager Tony LaRussa was once fired by the Chicago White Sox.

I can tell you SLU's hiring of Travis Ford has even been noticed here on the West Coast. I walked into a Final 4 watch party yesterday in the East Bay, and my East Bay friends immediately raised to me SLU's hiring of Travis Ford and in favorable terms.

SLU will be back as a College Hoops player in short order.

[kmbilliken]

One of the things I liked about Ford is he expressed interest in the SLU job immediately. He wasn't Luke warm about it. He seems genuinely happy to be here.

[The Wiz]

One of the things I liked about Ford is he expressed interest in the SLU job immediately. He wasn't Luke warm about it. He seems genuinely happy to be here.

+1

And it is a 2 way street....Ford sees the potential in SLU AND SLU sees the potential in Ford.

[David King]

Seems the dust has settled enough and it is time to turn over the final piece of the puzzle to see "what happened" This is a compilation from assorted sources

Timeline....

Jan-Feb 2016....Coaching search gets underway,,,,Names come and go...wish lists are developed.

Mar 10...SLU loses to GW in A-10 tourney...Crews is fired...Seach cranks up a notch

Mar 8-20.....Stallings and Drew emerge as front runners .... Stallings interest is lukewarm...Drew is busy with NIT...negotiates with 3rd party....Other candidates start to interview including Ford

Mar 21......Dixson leaves Pitt to go to TCU...the lukewarm interest from Stallings starts to fade.

Mar 25....Stallings takes job at Pitt....Brian Gregory is fired from GT....Openings now at Vandy and GT...Both go after Drew....Drew's interest in SLU starts to fade

Weekend of Mar 25-27....With Stallings gone and Drew fading fast ...The Bills call Ford for a 2nd interview.....Other candidate interviews ongoing

Mar 29...Ford accepts coaching job at SLU

Mar 31...Ford officially becomes SLU's new Head Coach

Of course there is still more to the puzzle...Drew is still trying to decide between Vandy, GTech and Valpo . This will be decided fairly quickly ... but this really doesn't matter to us because..............

We already have a coach and are back on the upswing...Go Bills

Some of the above sounds like unsubstantiated opinion rather than fact. Was Drew ever really a front runner? Based on everything I've read, it appears that the SLU administration chose Ford over Drew. Whether or not Drew would have accepted the position is irrelevant, since it wasn't going to be offered to him anyway.

There really are a lot more question marks with Drew than with Ford. Let's face it, looking at the big picture, historically, Valparaiso sucks. This year, Valpo was 26-5 in the regular season and 16-2 in conference play, and they were still snubbed by the NCAA. Why? Because the Horizon Conference stinks, and so does Valparaiso. Have they ever been nationally ranked? Butler University is the model for national success in the Horizon Conference, and Valparaiso falls far short of that model. Sure, Bryce has done a good job of carrying on with a winning tradition that he inherited from his brother and dad, ( similar to Jimbo Crews) but can he make it at the next level? To a Valpo fan, going to the NIT finals is just a step short of reaching the mountain top. However, my guess is that Coach Ford would consider an NIT appearance as a sign that more work needs to be done.

But, Travis Ford is 1-6 in NCAA appearances!!! Bryce is 0-2. Look at Ford's record. Everywhere he has gone, he has inherited down programs and turned them around. Can Bryce do that? We don't know.

As a rabid Billikens fan for the last 35+years, in my humble opinion, the SLU administration has really stepped up their game over the last 10, or so, years. They have significantly upgraded the facilities, they brought in a HOF coach that put SLU back on the basketball map. They dumped Crews as quickly as could be expected. So now, I am trusting that they are making the right decision on hiring Travis Ford.

NCAA tournament in 3 yrs...or less! GO BILLS!!!

[CBFan]

SLU is better the way this played out.

SLU could not have done better than Coach Travis Ford. He is a very good choice for the SLU job.

For any still holding out concern about Coach Ford's departure from Ok. State, please note that Hall of Fame and 3 time World Series winning Manager Tony LaRussa was once fired by the Chicago White Sox.

I can tell you SLU's hiring of Travis Ford has even been noticed here on the West Coast. I walked into a Final 4 watch party yesterday in the East Bay, and my East Bay friends immediately raised to me SLU's hiring of Travis Ford and in favorable terms.

SLU will be back as a College Hoops player in short order.

Every time I read your posts Bay area I get more excited about the hire. I am working in Oklahoma and I got one opinion about coach Ford since I have been here. I wore my Billiken shirts here to see if anyone would say something too me about coach Ford but that has not happen. Until yesterday it is was Sooner fever so it is possible folks here will talk about coach Ford with me now that the Sooners season ended with a thud.

[Soderball]

Every time I read your posts Bay area I get more excited about the hire. I am working in Oklahoma and I got one opinion about coach Ford since I have been here. I wore my Billiken shirts here to see if anyone would say something too me about coach Ford but that has not happen. Until yesterday it is was Sooner fever so it is possible folks here will talk about coach Ford with me now that the Sooners season ended with a thud.

Would you rather have Travis Ford or Kim Anderson?

[almaman]

Every time I read your posts Bay area I get more excited about the hire. I am working in Oklahoma and I got one opinion about coach Ford since I have been here. I wore my Billiken shirts here to see if anyone would say something too me about coach Ford but that has not happen. Until yesterday it is was Sooner fever so it is possible folks here will talk about coach Ford with me now that the Sooners season ended with a thud.

in this case I think thud deserves capital letter to start. unbelievable almost 70 point turn around from their meeting during the season.

[CBFan]

Would you rather have Travis Ford or Kim Anderson?

Gee let me think about that one, I drive a Chevy but will take the Ford. Poor Kim Anderson, what was he thinking?

[ACE]

The press conference announcing Ford as HC was a year ago. You can see it wasn't very popular among some, SLUDrew said he was dropping his season tickets. Interesting to see if some people have changed their thoughts after year one.

Stallings and Drew were my first choices, but I wasn't as down on the hire as many. I wanted a guy with head coaching experience and was glad we did not roll the dice by hiring an assistant from somewhere. I figured Ford would recruit well, but he has exceeded any reasonable expectations. Also, his coaching in year one was better than expected. Getting 6 wins out of a team predicted to finish last in conference was very impressive, but there really were no expectations of success. Look forward to seeing how well he does with a more talented roster. There will be more expectations to get results now.

[RiseAndGrind]

4 minutes ago, ACE said:

The press conference announcing Ford as HC was a year ago. You can see it wasn't very popular among some, SLUDrew said he was dropping his season tickets. Interesting to see if some people have changed their thoughts after year one.

Stallings and Drew were my first choices, but I wasn't as down on the hire as many. I wanted a guy with head coaching experience and was glad we did not roll the dice by hiring an assistant from somewhere. I figured Ford would recruit well, but he has exceeded any reasonable expectations. Also, his coaching in year one was better than expected. Getting 6 wins out of a team predicted to finish last in conference was very impressive, but there really were no expectations of success. Look forward to seeing how well he does with a more talented roster. There will be more expectations to get results now.

I, obviously and admittedly, was very opposed to T. Ford. Without rereading this thread, I remember saying some pretty dumb things on this board. 

I'd say I've been about as wrong as possible.

Sometimes it's good to be wrong. 

Looking back, Stallings would have been a really terrible choice. Would have provided no energy to the program. 

 

[slu72]

I projected 5-8 Ws for this year's team w/ only 2 of those coming in the A10. The fact that he got this crew to 6 in conf Ws was nothing short of a miracle. He had a short bench, not much of an inside game, a disabled Crawford, two lowly recruited FR, and the stench of the previous two seasons to deal with and we still got 6 Ws. Yes, the A10 was down this year, and we didn't beat any of the top teams, it was still an impressive feat.

Now that it appears we do have some legit A10 talent comes his real test. Can he put the pieces together and get us back to the upper tier?

[slufan13]

I think we have to wait another season or two to really judge Ford but the thing I am most impressed with is how quickly he turned around the roster. I thought this would be a 4 year job for any coach but he will have us in the top half of the A10 after one season and probably the conference favorites heading into the 2018-19 season.

[SShoe]

16 minutes ago, ACE said:

The press conference announcing Ford as HC was a year ago. You can see it wasn't very popular among some, SLUDrew said he was dropping his season tickets. Interesting to see if some people have changed their thoughts after year one.

Stallings and Drew were my first choices, but I wasn't as down on the hire as many. I wanted a guy with head coaching experience and was glad we did not roll the dice by hiring an assistant from somewhere. I figured Ford would recruit well, but he has exceeded any reasonable expectations. Also, his coaching in year one was better than expected. Getting 6 wins out of a team predicted to finish last in conference was very impressive, but there really were no expectations of success. Look forward to seeing how well he does with a more talented roster. There will be more expectations to get results now.

Ford was pretty much my 3rd choice.  I wanted Drew and, if IIRC, the dude from Boise State before Ford.  So far, so very good. We all know the recruiting has far exceed expectations, but I was very encouraged by the actual coaching during the season.  Ford and staff were consistently able to draw up plays for open looks throughout the season (didn't typically make them) and put together some decent gameplans (see UMASS game).  Most importantly, he got the guys to improve their defense, which as we've seen in this tourney and with past SLU teams, is critical.   

[slufanskip]

Like many others Ford was not my first choice, however I was happy with the hire. My first choice was Drew who I thought was the gold standard for what we could get. Turns out we upgraded to Platinum.

[Taj79]

After reviewing the seven pages of this thread to see what I said back then -- amazing, I said nothing.  I think I was just so relieved that [dead] was gone that I was wiling to see who came in and when and just go from there.   

Travis Ford has exceeded even the wildest expectations.  You say otherwise and you're lying.

[majerus mojo]

to be fair, this thread is more confusion regarding the hiring process vs. outright opinions on the hire. Hat tip to slu06, Class of 90, BAB, and goslu68 for being the most level-headed though!

add valpo's NIT run to the list of "what ifs" in recent slu history 

[majerus mojo]

as someone asked earlier this month, when was the last time a coach was fired and then went on to great success at another school? the initial disappointment is understandable given the lack of names that satisfy that question 

[billiken_roy]

while I expected good recruiting from ford, I did not expect the splash we got.   ford's recruiting has literally been the best we have ever had.   flipping Goodwin after that recruitment  was lost by crewsplatt was off the chart unexpected.   then to get all the high quality transfers basically shortened the road to recovery by at least 3 or 4 years.  

there is no doubt he did about as good of a job as he could with a very limited skills roster this past season, but most importantly what I saw was a no quit attitude from the team and most importantly from himself.  he very easily could have said, "i didn't recruit this team.  they aren't my players".   never once did we hear that.  for that I have the highest regard for coach ford. 

what is left to see is what he will do with his team.   it's no secret his reputation was he was a recruiter but not a floor/practice coach.   if that turns out to be true, we will end up with a lot of close but no cigar seasons.   I fully expect worst case to be an over 500 team next year.   but we all want a tourney team.  I will give him a couple more seasons for reaching the tourney.   until then I am content to let travis ford do his job. 

[Soderball]

Guys like Bryce Drew may have  a higher ceiling than Ford, but they would always have met that ceiling at another program regardless.

Ford may move on from here, but we will have a stronger program when he goes.

 

The bottom line is that no coach in the country could have triaged this program the way Ford has. This roster was the absolute worst it has been in the modern era of Billiken basketball. Ford is turning that around within 20 months. The guy is astounding. Gathering transfers and key freshmen to create a brand new, graduated roster by his second year. The Billikens didn't need a genius, hall of fame coach this time around. We needed a guy who could keep us from becoming Duquesne. Ford started preventing that kind of slide from day one. Crews was the worst kind of nightmare, Ford is a cup of coffee and a cold shower in the morning.

[3star_recruit]

With the amount of money that some mid-major jobs are paying, I predict more fired P5 coaches returning the mid-major ranks in the future. We've already had Ford and Grant return to the A-10 within 12 months of each. It used to be a young P5 coach who failed at his first big time job had to return to being an assistant or take a job in a 1 bid conference. Now he can get paid over 1.5 mil a year at some mid-major programs.