DeSmetBilliken

How does that work? Did the team that drafted him not offer him a contract, or do they retain his rights while he plays at SLU?

First of all, on paper, Travis Ford had a track record of success in getting to the NCAA tournament. That got us 1 bid to the big dance. I think with the change in landscape with NIL and the transfer portal, people are placing a greater premium on being able to have success within this very small time frame. If someone made 3-5 tournaments 5-10 years ago, it may carry a little less weight. It’s also normal that when you fire a coach, fans tend to be intrigued by the opposite of the coach that you fired. There are questions as to Ford’s X’s and O’s coaching ability. Schertz, for example, is seemingly known for being a better tactician.

I get that viewpoint. McCollum hasn’t coached in D1, so there’s an inherent risk there. At the same time, I think there is a difference between McCollum and Anderson. In addition to the eye-popping record at Northwest Missouri State, 4 national championships, he’s seemingly brilliant as a tactician and coach. D1 coaches pick his brain in the offseason. Anderson, while he has a lot of success at UCM, I don’t think he was known for being a brilliant tactician. I think it was more of a mix of old Mizzou fans wanting a return to the Norm Stewart days, and Anderson happened to be fresh off a national championship. Without him being a “true son” of Mizzou, he doesn’t get hired there.

Moments on the court? I’m not sure. With that said, highlights of the Ford era for me were getting to watch Jordan Goodwin and Javonte Perkins play for the Billikens. You could probably add Hasahn French and Yuri Collins in there as well, but I just got a little more enjoyment out of watching Goodwin and Perkins.

It’s last place battles in late February like this that you dream about when you decide to pay Travis Ford the biggest salary in the history of the Atlantic 10 Conference. It’s just so exciting.

I’m intrigued by coaches who were at what should be peer schools to SLU, but have been more successful in basketball than SLU. Devries was a longtime assistant at Creighton (under Altman and McDermott), saw how they built things up there, and now has had some success running his own program at Drake. I’m sure entirely convinced that SLU has it in them to do this, as they have a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot, but I want them to hire a coach and say to them “You’ve seen how a school like us can win, because you’ve been a part of it. We want you to do that here at SLU, we’re going to support you in that, and we’re going to stay out of your way.“ You can go to Devries and tell him that whatever worked at Creighton, go ahead and do it.

That’s pretty much where I am too. I’m not including guys like Chris Mack and Porter Moser in my list, as I think those might be a bit far-fetched, but I’m basically at Schertz and Devries as a 1 and 1(a), and if those guys don’t come here, I’d be happy pivoting to McCollum. I really want us to return to a situation where we have a coach who is a high level basketball tactician.

Weber comes off as a good guy and would’ve been a decent hire when we removed Crews’ interim tag and when we hired Ford, but it’s too late now. We need a coach who can thrive in today’s college basketball environment, and I don’t think hiring a guy looking to squeeze a few more years out of his career is the move here. Ahearn is high risk, but potentially high reward. A lot of NBA coaches haven’t adjusted well to college. I’d potentially take him over a retread with name recognition who had success 5-10 years ago, but I’d rather hire a coach with recent college success. While he’s younger, Ahearn gives me Billy Lange vibes. Lange got the St. Joe’s job because of some “he knows Philly basketball…it just means more here” nonsense. While it would be cool to say that I remembered going to grade school basketball camps with the new SLU coach, where he’s from and where he went to high school should have nothing to do with the SLU hiring process. Give me someone who is on the way up. Also, our greatest successes have been with Spoonhour and Majerus at the helm, and both of those guys went about things a little differently. I’m not entirely convinced that SLU is capable of succeeding when they try to act like a normal program. We may need to hire a coach who has taken a different path (McCollum, Schertz) than normal. Maybe someone a little weird. Devries seems pretty normal and mainstream though. He’d be good too.

Honest question…WHAT??? Are you saying that Dalger left over non-payment of NIL money?

I’ve been mentally preparing for the idea that Ford will be back next season. Admittedly, I have trust issues with SLU. I also wasn’t convinced that SLU was going to fire Crews, and that got announced 5 minutes after the season ended, so it may just be a me issue.

As someone else said, they do this once a year, typically for the blizzard game. One year they did Colonel Sanders and several chickens, maybe another year they were polar bears. Stuff like that.

I’m pretty sure that they are dressed up as Kleenex/tissue boxes .

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.