AlumniFan Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Moser went first, replacing Whitesell at Loyola-Chicago. Majerus then hired Whitesell to replace Moser. Essentially a trade if you ask me. Whitesell was on the staff when Jensen left and Majerus brought Crews in. Whitesell left when Crews got the interim tag over him. I saw Jim Whitesell in Brooklyn the year we won it all. Spent some considerable amount of time talking to him. A class guy, he never said anything bad about the school, the team, Crews, May etc. He said he was there to see the kids he essentially helped recruit to SLU and follow them to the end of their line. He said he took the St. John's job because it was moving up and because his wife wanted to be more East Coast or return to it (and I don't know how true that is). What would you have done if you were Whitesell? You are essentially the senior staff guy and the HC brings in a friend who the administration promotes over you even though you have more time in grade? Frankly, its sayonara for me too if I'm Whitesell --- the writing is on the wall. Whitesell was a class guy. I talked to him for a while at one of the golf tournaments and he was great. I always thought he was the heir apparent and was surprised with Crews was brought in. That said, if Whitesell wanted to get back to the East Coast, I don't think he would have been a good long term option. That was basically the case with Romar. Hard to argue with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmbilliken Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I don't know any other way Crews could have handled the press conference. He didn't want to through players under the bus. He couldn't say anything positive that wouldn't have been a lie, so he took the blame. The interesting thing is what he said in the locker room and we'll probably never know that. It is obvious this team doesn't buy into the fact it can't win unless it plays top flight defense. Whoever wants to leave, needs to leave, but please don't bring in any more slow big guy projects. With two more on the way, our quota is filled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Here's the rub on that East Coast thing ....Jim was born in Iowa. He was an assistant at places like North Dakota, Ellsworth CC, Wabash CC, and Minnesota State before getting his head coaching start at Elmhurst in Chicago. He spent five years there before 12 more at Lewis University. He then took over at Loyola and spent seven years there before being fired, replaced by Moser and coming on with Majerus. In other words, not a smidge of East Coast ties. Makes one wonder how deep the coach-speak was on when I talked to him ..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I don't know any other way Crews could have handled the press conference. He didn't want to through players under the bus. He couldn't say anything positive that wouldn't have been a lie, so he took the blame. The interesting thing is what he said in the locker room and we'll probably never know that. It is obvious this team doesn't buy into the fact it can't win unless it plays top flight defense. Whoever wants to leave, needs to leave, but please don't bring in any more slow big guy projects. With two more on the way, our quota is filled. That strikes me as the main problem with this team right now - either an unwillingness or inability to play solid defense. I get the zone thing (great article), but I would think that learning to play solid man-to-man would really make throwing in a zone defense that much more effective. Even in a zone, you still have to defend man-to-man when your man comes into your zone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clock_Tower Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Here's the rub on that East Coast thing ....Jim was born in Iowa. He was an assistant at places like North Dakota, Ellsworth CC, Wabash CC, and Minnesota State before getting his head coaching start at Elmhurst in Chicago. He spent five years there before 12 more at Lewis University. He then took over at Loyola and spent seven years there before being fired, replaced by Moser and coming on with Majerus. In other words, not a smidge of East Coast ties. Makes one wonder how deep the coach-speak was on when I talked to him ..... Taj. Of course. 99% of people would leave in Whitesell`s position. And your own post said hid WIFE wanted the Easr Coast. After all those bad cities, who wouldnt want to live in NY? And again, Whitesell failed at Chicago Loyola with all that talent in his backyard. Seems like only this Board wanted him as a HC. Same with Porter who cannot coach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmbilliken Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Taj. Of course. 99% of people would leave in Whitesell`s position. And your own post said hid WIFE wanted the Easr Coast. After all those bad cities, who wouldnt want to live in NY? And again, Whitesell failed at Chicago Loyola with all that talent in his backyard. Seems like only this Board wanted him as a HC. Same with Porter who cannot coach. I wouldn't want either as head coach. When we go fishing for our next one, I hope they remember the lesson Majerus taught us. This can be a winning program with the right coach. Look hard and be willing to pay for the right one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARon Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 If we're second-guessing coaching hires, I'd rather know why we didn't back up the Brinks truck to Gregg Marshall's house than worry about Coach Whitesell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 What I took from the post game comments was that he is disappointed with himself and the players. They apparently are being stubborn abut somethings but that is what freshmen kids do they can not see what they are doing is not working but they keep doing it anyway. It usually takes some big water shed moment to wake them up - this season might be it. Before we put this all on the freshmen not buying in I did not see AY doing anything and JM was getting beat like rug on defense. If Crews would have just been in denial then everybody would have been going nuts also. He was in a lose lose situation. That being said, this is mess now and he can only blame himself. He recruited these players, he hired the coaches, he charted the course this year - so rightly so he needs to get down on himself. RA and MC are not the answer - RA has developed JM disease when it comes to catching, handling and passing the ball - no touch. Crawford - it is not his fault but he simply is to slow for high D1 play - you can not make him any faster. AM - what is there to say about him - too short for this level of play and not fast enough to compensate for it. TL - no need to go there - a D2 player trying to play D1. Has Crews lost the players - we better hope not because if there is this mass transfer of freshmen we are in deep trouble for next year - no way he can replace all them with better players this late in the season. If we lose that many then we are 3-4 years away from being good again and frankly Crews would have to go - period. What I hope to see is a mass exodus of 3-4 sophomores and juniors. We can live with that and hope the freshmen have their own come to Jesus reflection. Zone or man to man is not the problem - they just have to get their heads screwed on and Crews has to show them that he is still behind them by charting a course that works for next year. RM had his issues with young players also - Ellis struggled to adapt so Crews does not have a monopoly on that issue. By the way I find this an odd situation for me - I was never wanted to hire Crews but at this point we are hooked to him for next year and so we better hope he gets it together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Always liked Whitesell, but he isn't the long term answer either. The commitment to defense is clearly absent, but that still doesn't explain the 300th ranked offense. I said it in another thread, but I see 12 individuals out there and not much of a team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikenboy Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 What I took from the post game comments was that he is disappointed with himself and the players. They apparently are being stubborn abut somethings but that is what freshmen kids do they can not see what they are doing is not working but they keep doing it anyway. It usually takes some big water shed moment to wake them up - this season might be it. Before we put this all on the freshmen not buying in I did not see AY doing anything and JM was getting beat like rug on defense. If Crews would have just been in denial then everybody would have been going nuts also. He was in a lose lose situation. That being said, this is mess now and he can only blame himself. He recruited these players, he hired the coaches, he charted the course this year - so rightly so he needs to get down on himself. RA and MC are not the answer - RA has developed JM disease when it comes to catching, handling and passing the ball - no touch. Crawford - it is not his fault but he simply is to slow for high D1 play - you can not make him any faster. AM - what is there to say about him - too short for this level of play and not fast enough to compensate for it. TL - no need to go there - a D2 player trying to play D1. Has Crews lost the players - we better hope not because if there is this mass transfer of freshmen we are in deep trouble for next year - no way he can replace all them with better players this late in the season. If we lose that many then we are 3-4 years away from being good again and frankly Crews would have to go - period. What I hope to see is a mass exodus of 3-4 sophomores and juniors. We can live with that and hope the freshmen have their own come to Jesus reflection. Zone or man to man is not the problem - they just have to get their heads screwed on and Crews has to show them that he is still behind them by charting a course that works for next year. RM had his issues with young players also - Ellis struggled to adapt so Crews does not have a monopoly on that issue. By the way I find this an odd situation for me - I was never wanted to hire Crews but at this point we are hooked to him for next year and so we better hope he gets it together. I do not agree with your statement about RA or MC but you are spot on about JC having a problem. Hopefully at season end we will maintain a solid core of kids that will stay and continue to grow. This staff opened a door for some kids this season and those kids are now emboldened to do things their way. Reining that in is now a problem. Here is a stat from last night that should alarm everyone watching. How many assists did our guards dime out vs GM? 2 lovely ones. Hmmmmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMouthBilliken Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Say what you want about the statue, Mike Brown, or Ferguson; the biggest injustice in STL was that performance last night on the court Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 RA and MC are not the answer - RA has developed JM disease when it comes to catching, handling and passing the ball - no touch. Crawford - it is not his fault but he simply is to slow for high D1 play - you can not make him any faster. AM - what is there to say about him - too short for this level of play and not fast enough to compensate for it. TL - no need to go there - a D2 player trying to play D1. Has Crews lost the players - we better hope not because if there is this mass transfer of freshmen we are in deep trouble for next year - no way he can replace all them with better players this late in the season. Crawford isn't too slow for our level of play. There are guys at Davidson who are no more athletic than he is who are lighting it up. He's shown that ability in spurts here, even in a broken offense. It's true that he isn't fast enough to guard the opposing two guard and not athletic enough to guard the opposing three. As BayArea has pointed out and the Thad Mattas of the world have realized, that's what zones are for. You know, what Crews had a lot of success with at Evansville. Crews doesn't need to replace transfers with "better players". He needs to replace them with guys who can do what he wants done. You can find a 2 star 6'5 power forward with an old school understanding of screening and passing. They're not as plentiful as they were 25 years ago, but they are out there. You can find a shooting guard who is prepared to shoot off of said screen. Again, they are not as common as they once were but they exist. And there are definitely 5'11 jitterburg point guards available who can drive and kick. Those kind of point guards are not likely to be huge scorers themselves But if you want to create open shots for others, they are worth their weight in gold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 My argument wasn't that Whitesell should have got the job. I am just pointing out the whole narrative that Rickma hired Crews to take over the program if he couldn't coach anymore is BS. Crews got the the job because of when Jensen quit. It was not some plan by Rick for Crews to take over. In fact, when Crews and Whitesell were both on the staff he named Whitesell associate head coach. He did that two months before he took the medical leave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 If MC was fast enough he would be able to guard the other teams players and he would not get blocked on his drives so often. If you have to keep someone then fine keep him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 My argument wasn't that Whitesell should have got the job. I am just pointing out the whole narrative that Rickma hired Crews to take over the program if he couldn't coach anymore is BS. Crews got the the job because of when Jensen quit. It was not some plan by Rick for Crews to take over. In fact, when Crews and Whitesell were both on the staff he named Whitesell associate head coach. He did that two months before he took the medical leave. Yeah, the fact that Whitesell was the Associate is the reason a lot of people were surprised when Crews got the interim job. There had to be some reason Crews was chosen over Whitesell. If it wasn't Crews' history as a Majerus buddy (and the fact that he was brought in by Majerus at a time when Majerus knew his health was deteriorating), what was the reason? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 If MC was fast enough he would be able to guard the other teams players and he would not get blocked on his drives so often. Well hell if that's the criteria for "fast enough" then the whole team should transfer to low D-1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I do not agree with your statement about RA or MC but you are spot on about JC having a problem. Hopefully at season end we will maintain a solid core of kids that will stay and continue to grow. This staff opened a door for some kids this season and those kids are now emboldened to do things their way. Reining that in is now a problem. Here is a stat from last night that should alarm everyone watching. How many assists did our guards dime out vs GM? 2 lovely ones. Hmmmmmm. To be fair, this team is probably #1 in the country in errant passes. How many more assists would we have this year if those passes had not ended up in the stands? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 If MC was fast enough he would be able to guard the other teams players and he would not get blocked on his drives so often. If you have to keep someone then fine keep him. Crawford seems to get to the basket and FINISH more often and easily than anyone else on the team. Reynolds definitely tries very hard to get to the basket, but he often ends up flinging up a prayer and trying to draw the foul. MY is very streaky - sometimes he gets there but the shot goes awry, other times he seems to never get close. And Ash, well, he certainly has the ability to get to the basket, but he very often misses. Crawford doesn't always get the minutes, but when he does, he seems to always be looking for a way to score. He probably does not have the raw talent that MY or AY has, but he has developed the skills and he seems to play really hard. His defense is another issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Crawford leads all guards in 2 point shooting percentage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Yeah, the fact that Whitesell was the Associate is the reason a lot of people were surprised when Crews got the interim job. There had to be some reason Crews was chosen over Whitesell. If it wasn't Crews' history as a Majerus buddy (and the fact that he was brought in by Majerus at a time when Majerus knew his health was deteriorating), what was the reason? Crews wasn't brought in because Majerus's health. He was brought in because Jensen quit. I think the school made the decision without input from Rick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 There still had to be some reason for not making the obvious choice (promoting the senior coach already carrying the "associate" label). If it really had nothing to do with Crews' history with Majerus, or Majerus' wishes, then I'm curious what it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billboy1 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Really? RM had no input? That's not the story we've heard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 They are both named Jim.... Maybe just a mix up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmbilliken Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Really? RM had no input? That's not the story we've heard. What story have you heard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billboy1 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 The bringing in of JC was due to RM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.