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Can We Say SLU Chose Ford Over Drew


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It's being reported that Vandy has hired Valpo's Bryce Drew. http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2016/04/04/bryce-drew-vanderbilt-valparaiso-commodores-basketball-coach

While I've been pleased so far from what I hear of Travis Ford, I do think Bryce Drew is a better fit. Now it's possible that Drew would have picked Vandy over SLU due to their more successful NCAA history and being a Power 5 conference. However as an AD, I think I could have sold to Drew that the Billiken job is a better one for these two reasons.

  1. A-10 is a better conference than the SEC.
  2. SLU's facilities are near the top of the A-10, while I suspect Vandy's near the bottom, but that's just speculation on my part.

What do others think?

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Travis ford is a good hire. He has the best track record of any guy we've hired other than the Great One.

Drew may be national champion next year, but his record is just not as good as ford's.

We just hired the 15th highest paid coach in the country.. Ok states guy.. Big 12.. How can we not be happy with this? SLU will probably never win a national title in my life time, but Ford has come in 2nd in the big 12 and he can get us back in the top 4 of a10 programs. We will be relevant again. This is exciting.

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"Drew is the son of former Valparaiso coach Homer Drew and the brother of Baylor coach Scott Drew. He’s best remembered in NCAA tournament lore for hitting a buzzer-beating shot against Mississippi in 1998. He’s received significant interest for high-profile jobs the past few years, including Iowa State, Saint Louis and Georgia Tech."

At least we are considered to be a high profile job per the SI article...........let's get behind Coach Ford and Billiken basketball to return us to where Rick Majerus left the program....

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I seriously doubt that if we had Travis Ford ready to sign behind one door and Bryce Drew ready to sign behind the other door, we would have gone with Travis.

But at some point the certainty of getting Ford and being able to say with a straight face he was your #1 choice is more important than waiting till Drew made up his mind and picked between us, Vandy and G-tech. Throw in the reality that we can likely pay Ford a lot less money due to the OK-state buyout and that meant that we "chose" to go with Ford rather than the less certain prospect of Drew.

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I seriously doubt that if we had Travis Ford ready to sign behind one door and Bryce Drew ready to sign behind the other door, we would have gone with Travis.

But at some point the certainty of getting Ford and being able to say with a straight face he was your #1 choice is more important than waiting till Drew made up his mind and picked between us, Vandy and G-tech. Throw in the reality that we can likely pay Ford a lot less money due to the OK-state buyout and that meant that we "chose" to go with Ford rather than the less certain prospect of Drew.

+1

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I wanted Drew and I think he's the better coach long-term. But Ford's our guy so I'm standing behind him and SLU at this point. I really think he's going to quickly upgrade our roster. Hopefully it won't be long until we're good again.

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"Drew is the son of former Valparaiso coach Homer Drew and the brother of Baylor coach Scott Drew. He’s best remembered in NCAA tournament lore for hitting a buzzer-beating shot against Mississippi in 1998. He’s received significant interest for high-profile jobs the past few years, including Iowa State, Saint Louis and Georgia Tech."

At least we are considered to be a high profile job per the SI article...........let's get behind Coach Ford and Billiken basketball to return us to where Rick Majerus left the program....

Agreed.

It is very good to see SLU being included by Pete Thamel, a national writer from SI, as a "high-profile" job along with Big XII and ACC schools ...

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Not even close

Team RPI

LaSalle 298

Mizzou 224

SLU 207

G Mason 203

Fordham 188

Auburn 179

UMass 174

Duquense 161

Miss St 154

Tenn 142

While I agree that the SEC is better at the bottom, I don't think we can discount that the A-10 got double the number of teams in the NCAA over the SEC. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

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While I agree that the SEC is better at the bottom, I don't think we can discount that the A-10 got double the number of teams in the NCAA over the SEC. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

The a-10 got double the teams in lunardi's bracketology (4 vs. 2) but in the actual tournament each got 3.

Regardless, the two conferences are roughly equal over the past 4 years or so once you adjust for Kentucky.

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This is all much handwringing about nothing. We hired Ford. Vandy hired Drew. Did we get our 2nd choice, and Vandy got our first choice? Who knows. Who cares at this point? Time to get behind our guy. That simple. And remember Jim Crews w/ a less than stellar team beat GW twice in two years. Drew and mighty mite Valpo couldn't.

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Let's try this......

SEC........................A-10

KY........A+..............St. J.....A-

TAM.....A+...............VCU....A-

FL........A..................Day.....B+

Vandy...A.................GW.....B+

Ark.......B+................Dav.....B

Ga........B+...............RI........B

LSU......B+...............Rich.....B

SC........B+...............St. B....B

Ala........B.................Duq.....C+

Miss......B.................Ford.....C+

Miss St...B...............UMass...C+

Tenn......B................GM.......C-

Mizz......C+...............SLU......D+

Aub.......C.................LaS......D

Bottomline.....Overall.....SEC....A-.........A-10...B+

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Preferring Ford to Drew is revisionist history at its finest (that took long). Which doesn't mean there's necessarily anything wrong with Ford (NCAA and B12 record aside), or that he couldn't be a good fit at SLU. I enjoy how easy the kool-aid can flow on this board (aside from MB after Jan. Crews wins)

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Preferring Ford to Drew is revisionist history at its finest (that took long). Which doesn't mean there's necessarily anything wrong with Ford (NCAA and B12 record aside), or that he couldn't be a good fit at SLU. I enjoy how easy the kool-aid can flow on this board (aside from MB after Jan. Crews wins)

Havent seen MB for awhile.

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