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MadBird

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  1. I pretty much agree with this post. I'm a UW season ticket holder, read and post on that board, and also on this board. This young man mentions the Board and some negative stuff, and there was some, but much of it was surrounding and generated by the Marquette aspect - say some kid committed to SLU and then his pal, who had signed with Mizzou, started talking in his ear to come to Columbia. There'd be some negative posts on the billiken board. Here you have the rivalry thing going on, a kid who doesn't seem like a bad guy but who maybe now seems like he doesn't want to play in Saint Bo's style of play (which includes freshman sitting on the pines most of the time) and you can see how some negative stuff gets on the board. Any kid this day and age better get some thick skin if he wants to play major college ball and if he reads the boards. It's life. He's gonna get it at the stadium too. That's the way people are. I'm not saying I agree with it or like it, but that's the way it is.
  2. First, remember that Dick Bennett only coached 5 years + 3 games at UW. So, they started off with "leftovers" from the Stu Jackson/Stan Van Gundy years, really got through only one complete recruiting cycle themselves. Soderberg did a good bit of the recruiting, especially in Wisconsin. As you may know, his dad and brother are well known in Wisconsin coaching circles, and of course the Bennett family is very highly regarded, so they had many connections in Wisconsin to the HS coaches. The other primary assistant during Bennett's tenure was a guy named Shawn Hood, from Boston, who was a star for Cleveland State and led them to the Sweet 16 in 1986 - tough point guard - and who also was an assistant at CSU before coming to UW. Brad and Shawn were the primary recruiters until Bennett brought in his son Tony, who was/is a very able recruiter as well. In fact, Bo Ryan kept Tony on after he was hired to replace Soderberg and Tony continued to recruit well for UW until he joined his dad at Washington St. Tony helped recruit Kirk Penney from New Zealand, having played and coached some pro ball in Australia, and is said to have had a big role in getting Devin Harris to come to UW. But Brad was seen I'm sure by most as a loyal Bennett disciple, in terms of style of play and temperment. It's been said his Loras and So. Dakota St. teams played a more uptempo style than Bennett's teams, but I think it's fair to say the styles are very very similar.
  3. Further clarification, from a UW season ticket holder in Madison (and Ill. St. alum, hence the screen name) who started visiting this board to follow Coach Brad after he left UW: Lots of "inside" crap on his dismissal. They lost to Georgia St. in the NCAA that year - if they had lost to Duke or Kansas, etc., the outcome might have been different, but there was a lot of outcry losing to that "level" of a program. There was some disgruntlement among the "boosters" (the "red sweater crowd" one of the local columnists likes to call them) about the way Bennett quit and handed the job off to Brad, in what many saw as a blatant attempt to "force" the UW to hire Brad as permanent coach. It wasn't that they wanted a "name" coach so much, Ryan wasn't a "name" coach, he was the favorite of many many many of the boosters going back to his days as an assistant to Bill Cofield and Steve Yoder, before he went to Platteville as head coach. Many had wanted to hire him INSTEAD of Dick Bennett, but Bennett did have some pretty successful D-I experience at UW Green Bay, while Ryan only had the DIII experience at Platteville. So, when Bennett bailed out as he did, tried to force AD Pat Richter's hand to hire Brad permenently, there was kind of a backlash I think against Brad, he lost to lowly Georgia St. in the NCAA, and the door was wide open to finally bring in Bo Ryan. In reality, except for Devin Harris (who was a Bennett/Soderberg recruit), for the most part Ryan has not recruited extemely talented players any more than Bennett/Soderberg did - he gets "good" kids, role players, who play within the system. Alando Tucker is the other Ryan player who went on to the NBA, but he is very much a hard worker type who is not flashy, etc. I agree totally that Brad has been somewhat a victim of "bad timing", and also his "style", which is based on running a system, and a system that for the most part is hard to get talented kids to buy into. But he was also a victim of a system that looks at a 20 win season as "unsuccessful" if it doesn't end up even with a low seed in the NCAA. Always enjoy visiting Billikens.com, mostly now to read about how former ISU coach Porter Moser is doing. I was one who was glad to see him go, but always thought he had a lot of potential. Just wasn't ready to lead ISU out of the wilderness when he had his chance (ie. bad timing!!!).
  4. Hello Billikens - frequent visitor, rare poster. ISU alum and hoops fan, living in Madison Wisconsin. Wisconsin season ticket holder. Started visiting your site to follow Brad Soderberg's fortunes. It was difficult for a lot of Redbird fans to see PM go, in some ways, but the plain and simple fact was he didn't get he job done record-wise. Coach Jankovich has taken a handful of PM's players and recruits, plus a number of his own JC and HS recruits and transfers, and has gotten the job done. Most ISU fans would agree PM was a gentleman - altho he rode the refs mercilessly at times and seemed to be a hot head - but he had a number of recruits over his tenure who didn't pan out and left. Many thought he "settled" for guys who were not as good as needed to be to move the program forward, but he needed bodies. On the other hand, no one questions the talent in guys like Osiris Eldridge, this year's top player, and last year's senior class, that PM recruited. So, it's hard to say. I think many wished that things had gone differently for PM, but we simply got tired of waiting. Not very many are unhappy with Coach Jankovich at this point. It's very possible that PM will grow to the point where he can be a successful DI coach.
  5. Hey, I can vouch for STLRedbird, he's no troll. I visit here too my friend!!!
  6. >MadBird, what do you think of Rob Jeter from UW-Milwaukee? Robbie did a nice job at UW with Bo, got a lot of props for the recruiting especially. He knows Bo's system well, and it is a solid system. Had a good year first year at UW-Milwaukee with Pearl's guys, and a not so good year last year after he lost like 7 seniors. Has a couple top notch recruits from Chicago coming in this year (and maybe a Milwaukee kid transferring in from Tulsa). I have some doubts whether he'd leave UW-Milwaukee for SLU - he's a Chicago kid, played at UW-Platteville, 5 years at UW as assistant, and then also his dad played for the Packers, so he has some ties up this way. But I think he'd be a solid get if you could. There was some talk about him possibly going to Iowa St. last year, since their new AD came from Wisconsin, but since he'd only been at UW-M for one year, didn't seem like he pursued it very much, or didn't get in the mix much.
  7. Have just gone through all of this with Illinois State. Some of the names on this list are just taking up space, there is NO chance of them coming to SLU (and in some cases no chance they want to coach anywhere - Majerus, Lavin in particular are professional announcers now, why can't some people get that through their heads???). I have to think Montgomery is not in the picture. On another thread, someone commented that there is an unrealistic opinion of where SLU stands in the pecking order (which was also the case with some of my brothers on the ISU board). Think hard about that. Monson just got a new job, at Long Beach St. I believe? He's a west coast guy, he's off the list. Stallings is not leaving the SEC and Vandy for the A-10 and SLU. Chris Lowery is not leaving the MVC and SIU for the A-10 and SLU. Anthony Grant is not leaving VCU for SLU. IMHO, in the rest of those names there are some possiblities. On another thread, someone mentioned Gene Cross asst. from Notre Dame, I tossed that one out for ISU. He's got potential. Good luck. I am an ISU fan, living in Madison Wisconsin, Badger season ticket holder. Started visiting this board to follow Brad, always thought he was a class act and hated to see him leave UW (not to say I'm unhappy with Bo Ryan). I'm sorry to see him go, he's a class act and gave you a good solid program. But the record is what it is, and the recruiting is what it is, and that's the way it is in top level college hoops these days.
  8. I sure hope Brad gets out of this, easy enough for me to say from up here in Madison. He's a class act, and a good coach. I really do believe that. Earlier comments on this thread make me think of Minnesota recently canning Dan Monson - his career won-loss record was so-so but winning, had a rather lengthy contract still with a significant buyout, but they decided to make a change because they saw a drop off in attendance and were afraid of where things were headed this year. So, if the right people want Brad gone, he'll probably be gone. But I agree with the poster who pointed out you are 10-5. Crissakes, hang in there people. It's a long season yet.
  9. Wonder if anyone on the board has seen or heard this news, from today's Madison Capital Times? Wisconsin guard Mickey Perry, from Maywood Proviso East, is leaving UW and lists SLU as a potential destination. Might help. ISU just signed a mid-year transfer this week, Sean Odzic, from So. Cal, so I doubt they'd have room for Perry. UW men's basketball: Seldom-used Perry decides to transfer By Rob Schultz December 22, 2006 Mickey Perry is leaving the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team. Perry, a 6-foot-2 redshirt freshman guard who has played the least amount of minutes of the Badgers' scholarship players this season, told UW coach Bo Ryan Thursday that he is planning to transfer. "He is a fine young man who I wish nothing but the best for in the future," Ryan said in a statement released this morning. The former Proviso East guard, who redshirted last season, averaged 1.0 points per game while playing just 23 minutes this season, mostly in mop-up duty. There was hope Perry would have done more for the fourth-ranked Badgers after he averaged 7.2 points a game and shot 60 percent from the floor during their five exhibition games in Italy this summer. But Perry, a native of Maywood, Ill., who possesses a good outside shot and worked in the weight room to improve his ability to drive and score from the post, never got comfortable with Ryan's system. Thus, he rarely played and fell behind true freshmen guards Jason Bohannon and Trevon Hughes in the playing rotation. Perry thanked the school, his teammates and coaches for supporting him at Wisconsin. "I've decided to look for an opportunity where I can help a team by contributing more on the floor during games," he said in a statement. "I also want to thank the fans at the University of Wisconsin for all the support they have provided myself and my teammates. I wish Wisconsin all the best in the future and hopefully they can continue the special season that has started here." Perry will transfer in good academic standing, a source close to the program said. Some of the schools that Perry is considering transferring to include Illinois State and Saint Louis, the source added. He will have to sit out a year, per NCAA transfer rules. He will be eligible to play during the second semester of next season. He is the second player to leave the Wisconsin basketball program in as many seasons. Last year, guard DeAaron Williams left at the semester break with the intention of transferring to Bradley. He is now attending a junior college in Peoria.
  10. >I have a cousin in Madison who is a Badger Fan. When Brad >was hired she said that she was just glad that he is not >their problem. > >Tonight I felt compelled to advise her of tonight's score >along with Brad's Christmas wishes to all his friends in >Wisconsin. > >This may not have been the most charitable note, but, if it >is a sin, there must be a Jesuit out there who will forgive >me without the need to express sorrow. Hello Billikens - first time poster, Illinois State alum, living in Madison and a Wisconsin season ticket holder. I'm a many time visitor to your board because I like Coach Brad and really appreciated the job he did at UW and have been following his career at SLU. Just wanted to say that there are plenty of fans up here who did not necessarily want to see Brad get canned at UW. The simple fact is many of the big donors had been wanting to install Bo Ryan as coach for some time, even before Dick Bennett was hired. There was tremendous pressure on the administration to let Brad go and bring on Ryan. All of which is to say, good for Brad and the Billikens tonight. He's a class act and it sounds like this team is playing the gritty style that put Soderberg and Bennett on the map.
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