DeSmetBilliken

Removed Blake and the 2 assistants on the list (Carrawell and Nevada Smith), added Richard Pitino.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/11/10/sport/new-mexico-state-basketball-players-charged/index.html

There’s a number of coaches who get thrown out there on sports talk radio whenever SLU has an opening purely out of name recognition in the local media (Barry Hinson, Jay Spoonhour for example). Good people, but I call that list the “Coaches whose mention as a SLU head coach candidate makes me want to throw up”. I’d hire anyone on that list over Heiar.

I’m firmly in the “Fire Ford” camp, but if it came down to keeping Ford or hiring Heiar, I’d run down Ford’s contract. That’s way too much baggage for me. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/37947056/fired-new-mexico-state-basketball-coach-greg-heiar-hired-missouri-junior-college

First things first…Fordham is not good. Nevertheless, they worked us for a decent amount of the first half, which was rough to watch. Then we played better in the second half, which should probably have won us the game because, as noted above, Fordham is not good. Anyway, we lost again. The positive spin is that it’s no longer surprising. Still awful.

I don’t have the power to make this call, but you’re hired.

Lusk was under .500 at Missouri State. Lowery was handed the keys to one of the best mid-major teams in the country at Southern Illinois, did well in his first few years, and drove that program straight off a cliff. They still haven’t recovered, and he’s been gone for 10+ years. When he did well early in his tenure at SIU, he became a hot commodity for bigger jobs, so SIU gave him a big contract. The problem was that shortly after that, the program started to decline, but I think they had to ride it out for a few years because his buyout was high. The concern that some of have that Ford’s buyout is too high for us to pay, requiring us to just wear this for a year or two? SIU experienced that with Lowery.

I hope you’re right. Until it happens, I don’t have the trust in SLU that they will do it. I felt the same way in Crews’ last season, and as we all know now, he was officially fired as soon as the buzzer sounded in our last game of the season. Hopefully I just have trust issues with SLU.

I found this way funnier than I probably should have.

I found this way funnier than I probably should have.

How do I get invited to one of these conversations? They sound like a hoot! Do they charge admission?

Should have spilled a drink on them.

It’s been bizarre all season how so many announcers have been carrying water for Ford. Frankly, I didn’t think that people liked him that much, but it’s happened game after game.

This season has been bad, and I have no reason to feel optimistic about the program in the coming years if Travis Ford is still in charge. Unless we have someone, or some people, out there to save us by paying the massive buyout after this season, how many years of bad basketball will we have to sit through?

Putting this here in case we lose by double figures.

When is the fun part supposed to start?

The buyout amount may require this anyway, but if you get rid of May first, which may be the best option, you probably have to keep Ford for an extra year. It might take a few months to hire a new AD, which means that a current staff member will be the interim AD. You absolutely don’t want an interim AD negotiating a new basketball coach’s contract, especially an interim from SLU’s athletic department staff. Then the new AD can hire their own coach in a year.

I asked if he had any eligibility left! As a side note, while I’ve heard good things about i3 (the company sponsoring that), it’s not available everywhere, including where I live. That could be a bit of a downer to think “I don’t have to pay for internet!!”, only to find out it’s not available at their home.

What a bloody shamble that was. Just an unmitigated disaster.

I noticed that too. Also, unless it’s changed in the last few hours, Carteare Gordon and all 3 of the players who were suspended/expelled and didn’t return from Situation 2 still had active profiles on the SLU site. But Dalger’s profile had to be scrubbed in less than 24 hours. With that noted, this could all just be SLU implementing a new “best practice” recommended by the new compliance director.

Did I miss something absolutely hilarious??

Also a bit telling that he would contradict the narrative that SLU put out.

If that’s an actual SLU soccer jersey, it’s likely from before 2000. It has an Adidas logo on it, and SLU has had Nike gear going back to at least 2002, when I started school there.

Grant was hired by UD when he was an NBA assistant, but most of his experience was in college. Assistant to Billy Donovan at Florida, head coach at VCU, and head coach at Alabama. He was more of a retread hire than NBA assistant trying out coaching in college.