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Recruiting - 2017


RUBillsFan

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Man, looking at those names makes me so happy that Crews is gone. I am not saying we will get them but it looks like Ford has at least the framework of a plan.

If he can land a quality transfer or 2 (The Rutgers big man looks good to me), one 2016 recruit, and get three 2017 guys. That gives us pretty great class balance going forward.

I am just excited to see us listed alongside Big East and top A-10 programs for recruits, and to read reports like "great athlete," "long and lean," "explosive jumper," "shot blocker," etc. Under Crews, it felt like we were recruiting talent for a D2 college in Indiana.

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It's certainly promising to see this kind of activity in the past few days after such a lull, and with an incomplete staff.

One of the things that drove me nuts about Crews (and his staff) is that we seemed to offer so few players relative to other programs. If you look at the lists of current offers by any big-time program, they've got several at every position; our chart showed one or two at each, sometimes none at all. So if we were extending offers, they were keeping things very close to the vest. And when players committed elsewhere, it was impossible to tell what the back-up plan was. I guess that's how we wound up with this current roster - missing out on top, secondary, and tertiary targets, and having to throw darts for whatever's left.

Coaches have to cast a wide net. Yes, you have to prioritize internally and not divide all attention equally, but this staff should be way, way more active on the recruiting trail.

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I am just excited to see us listed alongside Big East and top A-10 programs for recruits, and to read reports like "great athlete," "long and lean," "explosive jumper," "shot blocker," etc. Under Crews, it felt like we were recruiting talent for a D2 college in Indiana.

Crews had several guys that they were recruiting that wound up going to higher level programs. It was just the Plan B guys should have been Plan D or E guys, which is the same trap that most every SLU coach except Majerus has fallen into. We shall see how Ford handles it.

He won me over with that. He clearly wants to be here.

Send him a t-shirt and get his migration going.

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It's certainly promising to see this kind of activity in the past few days after such a lull, and with an incomplete staff.

One of the things that drove me nuts about Crews (and his staff) is that we seemed to offer so few players relative to other programs. If you look at the lists of current offers by any big-time program, they've got several at every position; our chart showed one or two at each, sometimes none at all. So if we were extending offers, they were keeping things very close to the vest. And when players committed elsewhere, it was impossible to tell what the back-up plan was. I guess that's how we wound up with this current roster - missing out on top, secondary, and tertiary targets, and having to throw darts for whatever's left.

Coaches have to cast a wide net. Yes, you have to prioritize internally and not divide all attention equally, but this staff should be way, way more active on the recruiting trail.

The scary thing is that I think with the current sophomore group, it seemed like we often did get guys who were our top priorities because several committed very early in the process (well ahead of the actual fall signing date) - AG, BJ, DR, MB.

We should have had a higher caliber Plan A target list. Agreed about casting a wide net and I like that we are really starting to work the East Coast. Crews' recruiting would typically go as far east as Indiana.

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Methinks that shipped has sailed. He might not be interested in staying home, no matter what.

I don't think we were ever a serious player for Tilmon. The question now becomes whether he joins some of his buddies at Illinois or goes to the highest bidder.

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I don't think we were ever a serious player for Tilmon. The question now becomes whether he joins some of his buddies at Illinois or goes to the highest bidder.

I don't know much about the recruiting or the local talent, but it seems to me that SLU should be all in on Goodwin, Ramey, and Gordon (to name a few).

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I don't know much about the recruiting or the local talent, but it seems to me that SLU should be all in on Goodwin, Ramey, and Gordon (to name a few).

I would agree with Goodwin being the only realistic local target for 2017 and then look at guys like Gordon, Ramey, and Torrence Watson as the local 2018 kids (might see a few more emerge this spring). Gordon is playing with one of the top AAU programs this spring (MOKAN who is led by Michael Porter and Trae Young), so he is going to have a chance to play in front of the top programs.

I take that first line back, Wyatt Yess would be another 2017 local kid we could land, but I wonder if he still has an offer.

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Goodwin got Crewsed so that ship has probably sailed as well

But you don't think that a new coach could persuade him to open the door? "I've Found Love Under New Management."

SLU should hire groce as an assistant when he is fired next year.

I still think Travis Ford should be bringing Billiken alumnus Jamall Walker back home this year. Make him the associate head coach, if that's what it takes. (I don't know what position he has at Illinois.)

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But you don't think that a new coach could persuade him to open the door? "I've Found Love Under New Management."

I still think Travis Ford should be bringing Billiken alumnus Jamall Walker back home this year. Make him the associate head coach, if that's what it takes. (I don't know what position he has at Illinois.)

+1 Jim Crews is long gone and Goodwin can now choose SLU and Ford or not. If Goodwin chooses elsewhere, then it is on Goodwin for not wanting to come here. 3 years mistake free kissing ass and fawning over young teens can certainly be a selling point ("Come to SLU b/c we believed in you first even when no one else did...") but it is not necessary and usually does not prevail. If Goodwin wants to a Billiken, then he will be a Billiken. End of story.

+1 also as to Jamal Walker

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I think you guys might be overselling the "clean slate" SLU has with regard to Goodwin. If a player is soured enough on a school, a new coach alone isn't going to suddenly make it seem totally fresh and different. Furthermore, I haven't seen any indication that Ford has gotten in touch with Goodwin since taking the job.

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I would love to see Walker come to SLU. I don't know much about him since he is before my time, but if he is a guy with area ties as well as to the school I would love it. I'd assume he is lead recruiter on the local players U of I is making progress with so a hire could be huge for us.

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I think you guys might be overselling the "clean slate" SLU has with regard to Goodwin. If a player is soured enough on a school, a new coach alone isn't going to suddenly make it seem totally fresh and different. Furthermore, I haven't seen any indication that Ford has gotten in touch with Goodwin since taking the job.

I don't know, Pistol. Most of the time players are drawn by and commit to coaches much more than schools anymore, even though the school controls their scholarship or release. A change in coaches is a change in program, and I think that would change the way a recruit would look at a school -- particularly if it's not a state school with a long-running reputation.

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Ford has a chance to somewhat start a new relationship with Goodwin, but the problem is that Crews put SLU way behind the other schools recruiting him. I think it would be an accomplishment if Ford can even catch up and put us on equal footing with everyone else.

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I would love to see Walker come to SLU. I don't know much about him since he is before my time, but if he is a guy with area ties as well as to the school I would love it. I'd assume he is lead recruiter on the local players U of I is making progress with so a hire could be huge for us.

Besides playing at SLU, Walker was an assistant at SLU under Soderberg for the last season of that regime, and Biondi made the mistake of retaining Angres Thorpe instead of the program's own output to ease the transition to Majerus. A major mistake.

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I think you guys might be overselling the "clean slate" SLU has with regard to Goodwin. If a player is soured enough on a school, a new coach alone isn't going to suddenly make it seem totally fresh and different. Furthermore, I haven't seen any indication that Ford has gotten in touch with Goodwin since taking the job.

Goodwin has already said he would wait a year. Maybe he does... maybe he doesn't. The point is that just his apparent decision to wait is good news for SLU.

Give T. Ford a chance. I am sure Ford and his new staff have already contacted Goodwin several times. No offense, but you are sitting in Cincy reading AP wire stories during a down time.

And yes, there are tons of examples of new coaches making things fresh and different. In fact, I truly believe that most good local players really do want to play for SLU --- but only if we are a good, successful and winning program. Had Crews kept the winning going from 3 straight NCAA invites to 5 NCAA invites, Tatum would have chosen SLU and so would guys like Goodwin.

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Ford has a chance to somewhat start a new relationship with Goodwin, but the problem is that Crews put SLU way behind the other schools recruiting him. I think it would be an accomplishment if Ford can even catch up and put us on equal footing with everyone else.

slufan13. Please explain how SLU under Coach Ford is now "way behind the other schools recruiting him." I call b.s.

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