shempie

L Will be interesting to see if there are changes to the staff.

Pistol Pete Maravich vs George Gervin - HORSE - Bing video There are a few of these out there on YouTube. Fun stuff. Enjoy.

Roy I have been a fan/student/season ticket holder since 1980. I remember the bad coaching hires vividly. Most of those were made under dramatically different circumstances with dramatically different resources. West Pine gym, no charter flights, an unforgiving administartion (hello Craig Upchurch), zero control over our "home court", etc. This is a very good job at this point. Great facilities, a good size budget for mid-major plus basketball, the ability to pay a healthy amount for coaches, the fact that you get to live in a city as opposed to a cow, I mean college town, and an affordable, easy to travel from city at that. The one drawback I see is the league with not a lot of natural rivals and a league that treats SLU as an afterthought or annoying younger sibling. But even there you can sell travel. SLU plays in Philly, Washington DC, New York, Chicago not Manhattan, KS, Ames Iowa, Peoria, IL, or Laramie, WY. My point is, when we decide to hire a new coach (this year, next year, next decade), we can sell a very good job with lots of positives. And RM proved you can win here which is what all of these guys want, a place they can win.We will get great candidates, it is up to the administration to pick the right one.

Wearing his road blues. Nice!

Putting these here.

I would bet that this is for this cycle. For the spring recruiting and existing roster players that will stay

https://www.nwfraiders.com/sports/mbkb/2022-23/bios/pryor_kasean_2o62 Has anyone else heard we are involved with this guy? And that we are the favorite? Sorry if I missed it somewhere in this thread.

Hey Wiz, Thanks for all of the work you put it in on this and I appreciate your efforts, insight, and analysis. I respect that you have a process and remain true to it and aren't just making stuff up to fit a narrative.

Has anyone here seen TF's contract? How many years are left? Buyout? Special clauses? I think there is a lot of misinformation in this thread that we all need to be skeptical of treating as gospel. I am skeptical the buyout is anywhere near $7.5 million, but that is just my opinion. TF came here after a buyout of what was basically a 10 year extension at OSU. Seems like that maybe was a lesson. Hope SLU learned from it. I will add to the mix of gossip here... I have heard several big dollar boosters have expressed fatigue at being asked for $ for NIL. They feel they do a lot already and a small group was hit up for $ for the current recruiting cycle and the players already here. Wondering how they would feel if tapped for a buyout. I have also heard Chris May is very loyal to TF. In terms of the BOT, I don't know if they review and approve the contract for the highest paid employee of the university (I bet they do after weighing the ADs recommendation), but I do know the current Chair is at every home game and has been for over 40 years. I think he is interested, invested, and engaged in the team's success. Chris May is paid a lot of $ to make thse kinds of decisions. Like him or not, he has done some really good things in his time. Ultimatley the success or failure of men's basketball will determine if he gets the P5 jobs all these guys covet. I would bet there are some tough conversations being tee'd up for when the season ends. I will say one last thing. Dr. Chaifetz's tweet after Friday's game to me signifies a sea change in his attitude. I think that is worth watching closely.

That game was going to be trouble with no Pickett. They have size. Same issue we are going to have with Dayton. If we aren’t shooting well size is going to hurt us.

Hoping Pickett is healthy also. He could be a help there.

Thanks Wiz. Great stuff as always. I feel like our FT% is trending down and am wondering how big a concern that is.

I would encourage everyone to go read some of the other A10 message boards. Pretty sure you can find a "fire the head coach" thread on almost all of them. Check out UD Pride and the comments on Coach Grant. I will also point out that we have two pretty good examples of what the first year looks like at our level after making a change right here in our very own league. Arguably Frank Martin and Archie Miller both have better resumes than TF. Both have winning records in the NCAA tournament and Martin has a Final 4 and Archie an Elite 8. Both are really struggling this year in a down year for the league. Yes, there are success stories of first year coaches, but making a change has risks. And the season isn't over. Some of those first year coaching stories will change over the next 6 weeks.

Saw this and had to check twice. 62-52 at 1:09 to 76-69 at the end. Wild

I 100% agree with you, we lost to SIUE with Fred Thatch. But that isn't what you said. Now if your opinion is that Fred Thatch isn't a big injury then I will respectfully disagree and we can move on.

Fred Thatch

Fred Thatch

Putback to beat Iona last year rates high

I agree. And if one of the concerns when our offense stagnates is that the ball "sticks", wouldn't playing our starting and back up PG's together negate some of that?

Well played. Thank you.

I think this board is fairly representative of Billiken fandom. Maybe too hot a take. But a certain % of the natives are restless.

When I describe Ford to my friends I tell them he has raised the floor significantly, but not the ceiling. If you have been a fan since the 80's or even before, you have seen some bad basketball that has scarred you. Many years the teams were just not competeitive. I belive that won't be the case under Ford. He recruits enough good players to keep the team from having that disastrouse single digit win season. However, the next step is more frequent tourney appearances, that is where he has failed to date. Ultimately that is what he should be judged by. In terms of donors, they are out there and they care. I hear that recently, the top donors have been hit up to put together an NIL program for the existing players and the recruiting cycle we are in right now. That is critical, apparently. Tough to recruit when a visiting player asks your PG (who leads the nation in assists) what his NIL deal is and it isn't there. Why a collective is necessary long term. We are all going to be solicited to donate and and each of us will have to decide how important this is to us. Is it season ticket important? Or is it that plus the manadatory seat/Billiken Club donation, plus the additional donation plus an NIL contribution plus ....., you get the point. This is big business, which is why this offseason will be critical with a program that is losing some of the fanbase and turning over the roster. Until then I will root for the program and its current head coach as hard as I can, hope we right the ship and run the table and worry about the coaching staff after the season is over. As Norman Dale said "I would hope you would support who we are. Not, who we are not. These six individuals have made a choice to work, a choice to sacrifice, to put themselves on the line 23 nights for the next 4 months, to represent you, this high school. That kind of commitment and effort deserves and demands your respect. This is your team."

Seems like starting Thatch over Perkins would help on the defensive end and possibly take some pressure off JP. We sure seem to struggle on the perimeter defensively with JG, JP, and Yuri playing together.

The box score shows GJ played 40 minutes yesterday. Not sure why, but I find that interesting.