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Hit the game winner

Weaver is going to be the best thing that ever happened to Collins and Jacobs. Nothing is more motivating, and making you self-aware, than seeing your direct competition bringing it every single day in practice. They will realize that Weaver is the yardstick for their improvement. In order to garner much playing time, they have to bump their defense and effort on d by leaps and bounds. They have to improve their three point shooting. They have to get running the team, and learning the offensive sets, down cold quickly. Lest Roy again take umbrage, I am not saying Goodwin is not a solid point guard. I am saying I think we we be a much better team if our Pgs run the team, and let Goodwin average a triple double as the best off guard in the conference.

He has the “easiest” road to success. His game is suited for the quickest transition to college

We have had a triple success with # recruiting players who are physical studs # these players love and are committed to working hard in the weight room # these players learned early how to defend multiple positions.These are why I see Ford pivoting over more to facilitate the 4-1. As long as you can beat up the opposition on the boards and on d, you are in most games. The roster holes are significant, the recruiting reaches for a backup 10 mpg center who was weight limited and an injured senior who didn’t play illustrate the struggles even a well above average recruiting staff Face. It will be interesting to see how Ford starts the season, and evolves the team. As Goodwin drove Althoff to the state finals, so did Hargrove and Collins for their respective teams. If they can replicate a similar smooth transfer to SLU, we can be a dark horse in conference.

As you laid out, some years you're not going to have a true starting power forward on your roster, never mind a 6'10 center who can play 30 min a game. A center of that caliber is a luxury. That's just a fact of life in a mid-major conference. If you want such a player you're going to have roll the dice on a promising project and develop him. Most projects fail. Coach Ford understands this and is acting accordingly. You sign the best combination of length, rebounding and offense you can. If that guy is 6'6 195 lb you pack on 25 lb in his first two years with your weight program. If he's 6'10 290, you cut his weight down to 260. Before he reaches his junior year, make sure you have his replacement signed and repeat the cycle. This is how you get old and stay old. We were incredibily fortunate to get a physically mature power player like French straight out of high school. Those guys are almost as rare at the mid-major level as a skilled 6'10 center is. The two athletic bigs at Desmet are already grabbing the attention of high-majors despite being offensive projects. All it takes is a good weekend at an AAU tournament for either one of those guys to blow up beyond our reach. As a program you have to be prepared for that likely possibility. I love old school frontcourts with a traditional power forward and center. But you can absolutely be a perennial A10 contender with 6'6/6'7 forwards starting in the frontcourt, once they physically mature. VCU has been doing it for nearly a decade now. That is your cake. A skilled center is the icing.

Local schools go O-fer on the local top 150. Pretty brutal

While I do believe Hargrove and Collins will be studs for SLU, the guy that I think fans of A-10 teams two or three years from now will be saying, "I swear that guy has been killing us for about 8 years now; how has he not graduated yet?!" about is Jimerson.

I thought this would be worth cross-posting here: Local recruiting at the mid-major level is more of a feast or famine proposition. When you have plenty of playing time to offer, you have a counterpoint to offer top 150 recruits: "Hey, instead of fighting to get off the bench for a middle of the pack Big 10 team, come and be a major contributor at a rising program right away." But we just brought in one of the largest recruiting classes in SLU history and the local 2020 class is incredibly top-heavy. So we have all these conditions going against us: 1. We don't have much playing time to offer a top 150 guard out of high school. Given the choice between being a rotation player at a mid-major or a high-major, a recruit will pick the high-major most of the time. 2. A top 40 guy has his choice of high-profile programs. Unless that guy has an intensely personal connection with SLU, you're not even getting that guy's attention. 3. Top 100 bigs are always hard to land at the mid-major level. Everybody is courting those guys, including bluebloods. I think the staff did a good job of being realistic about their options. They shot their shot with Kasubke and Bradford and it didn't work out. They did their due diligence with the other top recruits and moved on quickly. The local 2021 class isn't nearly as top heavy and currently projects like this: Jordan Nesbitt 6'6 SF Top 100 Yaya Keita 6'9 PF/C Top 200 Sekou Gassama 6'10 PF/C Top 200 Nick Kern 6'5 SF Top 250 The good news is that we will have more playing time to give. The bad news is that, so far, there isn't much depth in this class.

I am pretty sure the NCAA limits the number of people that can go.

I really don't want to re-litigate the incident. Of course I'd want to know what the report recommended and want those involved held accountable in a way that is fair for all. But without knowing exactly what happened or what's in the report - and none of us know - I just can't say for sure what accountability looks like. It sucked and it seemed like overkill based on the rumors we heard, but we don't know and I would personally never use such harsh language without being sure. In terms of the AD budget, they're basically making it rain compared to my years there (2001-2005). You haven't seen penny pinching until you've seen a department run by Doug Woolard and Lori Flanagan with little to no involvement whatsoever from Biondi (they preserved his bottom line, I guess). I could tell stories for hours about what it was like to work in that environment. What we see today vs. what it was like 15-20 years ago is a bigger transformation that most schools undergo when they move from D-II to D-I. There are still a lot of things to improve but I actually get the feeling now that there are people within the Department who care about improving facilities, personnel, equipment, marketing, game experience, etc. I don't know a lot about how Pestello and the Board interact with the AD and I have no idea to what extent their annual budget has grown. I just know that based on four years of direct experience under the previous school president, we appear to have an actual athletic program now compared to an embarrassing dog and pony show.

I don't get how you think S2 plays out better if the president of the University puts his thumb on the scale. Are you not aware of what happened at Baylor, Penn State, and Michigan State? We lost a few players suddenly and had another suspended for 7 games. That was rough, given what we think is in the report. But if it came out that the SLU president interfered with a sexual assault investigation, the damage done to our program - and even more seriously, the school's reputation - could've taken years or even decades to repair. And unlike the three schools above, which have taken massive hits to their reputations, SLU isn't nearly as large or powerful, especially as it relates to the NCAA. I've made this point here like 10 times and I don't get why I have to keep making it. This seems so obvious.

Billiken men improve to 4-0 in A10 play. Still have not been scored on. We have the best goalie in D1 soccer and he is a freshman. I wonder how long he'll stay in college, the kid could play in the MLS tomorrow. I LOVE the direction this team is trending. That game against UVA is going to be a war. Win that and we likely get an at large bid.