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Welcome to SLU, Carte'Are Gordon!


Pistol

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Gordon referring to talking to Hughes:  "I talked to him the other day, and it's been a long, long time since the top guys in the city stayed home," Gordon said. "I'm hoping this starts a trend."

It seems like recently we wanted a top recruit from St. Louis to do that.  All it took was Travis Ford.

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/recruiting/basketball/mens/story/_/id/17892018/carteare-gordon-no-9-recruit-2018-espn-60-rankings-commits-saint-louis

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Im gonna throw just an once of negativity in for a second. 

 

since he is a year away from signing, and next season is gonna be brutal, "go see the kids play" has never meant so much. 

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"This will be the second consecutive class in which Travis Ford has reeled in a ranked prospect, after he nabbed Jordan Goodwin (No. 57) in the 2017 class. Prior to Ford taking over in the spring, the Billikens hadn't picked up a ranked prospect since the ESPN recruiting database started in 2007."

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/recruiting/basketball/mens/story/_/id/17892018/carteare-gordon-no-9-recruit-2018-espn-60-rankings-commits-saint-louis

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6 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

I wonder why he bothered posting his top three last night, and then committed today?

Huge!  Best local big man commitment since Matt Baniak.

That's the understatement of the year.  This guy is on a completely different level from Baniak.  This is the best verbal we've had since Larry Hughes.  And no big man since Ed Macauley even comes close.  

 

He'll be a McD's all american.

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My head is swimming right now, but a few thoughts on this commitment:

-Travis Ford has been a home run hire so far. We had questions about his game coaching ability, and those still might bubble up - eventually - but I honestly think we have a level of incoming talent that will spring us to the top of the A10 pretty much immediately. He's taken his licks, he's probably learned some things in the wake of his OSU firing, and hopefully with the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 roster (drool...), he's got things set up just how he needs in order to win this conference and make some NCAA Tournament noise.

-Jordan Goodwin may very well be seen as the first domino that started toppling the best local talent in SLU's direction. We'll need at least a few more years for historical perspective, but that commitment may be more significant than just the top-60 player leading us on the floor. Goodwin got it started, Gordon is the one that sends a major, major message to local coaches and players. We had our mini-moments locally with Hughes-Baniak-Tatum and Lisch-Liddell and a couple other more minor ones, but have never been able to build momentum. This looks different.

-Go watch some video on Gordon right now if you haven't. Stop what you're doing. Seriously.

-Goodwin was without question our highest-ranked commitment since Hughes. That's already changed. Gordon's rankings: 9 (ESPN), 16 (Rivals), 26 (Future150), 41 (Scout), 63 (247Sports). My personal opinion is that the last two are low and will rise this season. Hopefully ESPN and Rivals hold close. I think he's a top-25 player.

-Some kids relish the process, like the attention, and really take their time with it. Ramey is one of those. He's been prepared to thrive on the big stage since childhood. Gordon seemed uncomfortable and/or overwhelmed with it. I'm not surprised he committed early (although I am surprised it's this early). My hope is that he can put the noise behind him and focus seriously on basketball (and the classroom) without getting hundreds of texts and tweets and calls and mailings on a daily basis. I expect this to be good for him.

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I've been a Bills fan for more than 50 years, so I have to add a note of skepticism: Is Ford doing a little bit too well? Or might this be perversely attributable to Crews, which gave Ford the tactic: "Hey, the current team is so crappy that you're guaranteed to be an immediate starter, and hey, SLU proved it can go to the Dance with the right coaching?" 

I'm not slamming Ford in any way. I'd just love to hear the pitch he's using to land so many great players after two horrible SLU seasons. 

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3 minutes ago, bonwich said:

I've been a Bills fan for more than 50 years, so I have to add a note of skepticism: Is Ford doing a little bit too well? Or might this be perversely attributable to Crews, which gave Ford the tactic: "Hey, the current team is so crappy that you're guaranteed to be an immediate starter, and hey, SLU proved it can go to the Dance with the right coaching?" 

I'm not slamming Ford in any way. I'd just love to hear the pitch he's using to land so many great players after two horrible SLU seasons. 

Are you suggesting something inappropriate is happening or that this is a sign of the end times approaching?

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1 minute ago, bonwich said:

I've been a Bills fan for more than 50 years, so I have to add a note of skepticism: Is Ford doing a little bit too well? Or might this be perversely attributable to Crews, which gave Ford the tactic: "Hey, the current team is so crappy that you're guaranteed to be an immediate starter, and hey, SLU proved it can go to the Dance with the right coaching?" 

I'm not slamming Ford in any way. I'd just love to hear the pitch he's using to land so many great players after two horrible SLU seasons. 

Many questioning this on social media.  There were allegations after Goodwin and there will be more now.

I think it is just a perfect storm.  SLU is a great school, great urban campus, world class facilities, now we have a head coach with energy and a great personality and an assistant coach who is THE STL recruiting insider.  This is what we've been waiting for.

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4 minutes ago, bonwich said:

I've been a Bills fan for more than 50 years, so I have to add a note of skepticism: Is Ford doing a little bit too well? Or might this be perversely attributable to Crews, which gave Ford the tactic: "Hey, the current team is so crappy that you're guaranteed to be an immediate starter, and hey, SLU proved it can go to the Dance with the right coaching?" 

I'm not slamming Ford in any way. I'd just love to hear the pitch he's using to land so many great players after two horrible SLU seasons. 

To be honest, he seemed to have taken an extremely smart approach at hiring assistant coaches.  Macon brought in Foreman.  Tate was very close to Goodwin and from the interviews with Gordon, he is close to him and his family.  

Frank has also said he is great at going to the schools, sitting with the kids and talking to them about everything.  Not just pitching them on basketball but asking about classes and how they are doing in each of their classes.  

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Frankly, I'm pleasantly shocked.  I root for two of the teams in Gordon's top three (and loathe the third -- because of envy, I guess), but my initial thought that he would be narrowing his list and committing this early would be news that I would hate.  It just seemed that, of the three programs, Kansas would, by far, be the most likely to get an early commitment from a junior.  Well, obviously, Travis Ford is changing the way SLU plays the game.

It's great for Gordon to commit before the 2016-17 season, which any reasonable expectation would consider lackluster.  After that, though, a new era will begin for Billikens fans!

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6 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

I strongly questioned Corey Tate, so I own up to being wrong. He may be dumb, but boy he can recruit the St. Louis studs!

Well, he did go to SPUMAC, so that goes without saying... but he is doing exactly what he was brought in to do and I also like what Macon has brought to the table - Foreman and French, plus got our foot in the door with Allen. Gotta have an East Coast recruiting presence in the A-10.

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3 minutes ago, thetorch said:

Many questioning this on social media.  There were allegations after Goodwin and there will be more now.

I think it is just a perfect storm.  SLU is a great school, great urban campus, world class facilities, now we have a head coach with energy and a great personality and an assistant coach who is THE STL recruiting insider.  This is what we've been waiting for.

Which was basically all started by Roy Schmidt.  They never bring up how when the whole recruiting process started for Goodwin he wanted to go to SLU.  Then as you addressed it was jst the perfect staff needed to bring Goodwin back to SLU. 

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2 minutes ago, Pistol said:

-Travis Ford has been a home run hire so far. We had questions about his game coaching ability, and those still might bubble up - eventually - but I honestly think we have a level of incoming talent that will spring us to the top of the A10 pretty much immediately. He's taken his licks, he's probably learned some things in the wake of his OSU firing, and hopefully with the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 roster (drool...), he's got things set up just how he needs in order to win this conference and make some NCAA Tournament noise.

Absolutely killing it. I certainly questioned the hire based on what I saw at Oklahoma State. I tended to believe a coach known as a recruiter and poor coach from a BCS program might have trouble at SLU. I questioned whether he would bring in that same level of talent at SLU and boy was I wrong. The fact is, talent will win in this conference and he has completely overhauled our roster in just 7 months. In the Big 12 he was playing teams with similar or greater talent, so it's not like he had rosters completely outclassing the field in that league. Tremendous job Coach Ford and staff.

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19 minutes ago, thetorch said:

Many questioning this on social media.  There were allegations after Goodwin and there will be more now.

I think it is just a perfect storm.  SLU is a great school, great urban campus, world class facilities, now we have a head coach with energy and a great personality and an assistant coach who is THE STL recruiting insider.  This is what we've been waiting for.

Amen - it's almost more marketing than recruiting. Gotta sell the program; it's an arms race in college athletics and we're rapidly closing the gap with Ford. Huge focking day to be a Billikens fan!

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