billikendave

In preparing my above post, I found this article republished in 2010 surrounding the aftermath of the 5-23 year (1991/1992). Not directly applicable but I forgot how all that went down with Grawer and no extension. As it suggested, no recruits were signed. Funding, planning, foresight with personnel in an athletic program does not seem to be the speciality of Biondi. As I remember he fired Brad after most positions were filled and after the spring recruiting session, before he had Rickma lined up. Who was his plan B? How could they let Porter and Harriman go if there were concerns about Rickma's health or at least you have a coach in waiting a la Matt Painter? What do you tell recruits or is this year a wasted recruiting year? http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/slu/slu-s-four-freshmen-and-a-trip-down-an-unpleasant/article_506c7798-0a24-11e0-9e04-00127992bc8b.html

The oldie also wrote "Don't see a bad hire in the group each had strengths and weaknesses" I have followed SLU since Grawer took over in 1982-1983. I'd consider this as the "modern SLU era." Rickma is the only "excellent" coach. Its not even close. Here are some facts about the program that I knew but time makes the good memories pop and the bad memories fade. Since Spoon was hired, SLU has been 348-277 or 56% winning percentage. If you include Grawer, SLU is 4 games under 500 since +/-1982 in whatever conference they have been in (212-216). WIthout Grawer, they are 6 over .500. "Excellent" coaches don't win only 56% of the time. Bashing Spoon is like challenging Whitey Herzog in this town but here are the numbers. Spoon was 122-90 overall but 6 games below 500 in conference (44-50). He had 4 winning seasons (23-6, 23-8, 16-14, 22-11) and three losing seasons (12-17, 11-18, and 15-16). Never won a conference or conference tournament. Recruiting (other than Larry Hughes) was mediocre and had great success because of Grawer's class Claggett and Highmark. If you want to count H Waldman, I'll give it to you. Left Justin Love and a couple solid players but not very deep team. Was never able to capitalize on success and sustain recruiting. Great X &Os guy. In a similar timeframe (1994-1999), Mike Deane at Marquette was 100-55 and 50-32 in conference and fired after his only losing season. I don't think many are claiming Mike Deane was an "excellent" coach. Romar was 51 - 44 overall and 500 in conference (24-24). He has done fantasic at Washington but .500 is .500. Cupboard empty as no west coast guys signed on. Brad was 80-74 and 42-38 in conference. He is who he was. Love the guy personally but a .500 coach. his tenure has been much discussed. Fact remains. No conference championships since 1971 be it the MCC, Great Midwest, C-USA or A10. 1 conference tournament championship and that is belovedly called the "Miracle in Memphis." That says enough. 5 NCAA tournaments since 1981. Several NIT/CBI. No stability in AD - Joe Yates, Debbie Yow, Doug Woolard, Cheryl Levick and now Chris May. I know that I am missing a couple as Yates took over in 1988 and can't remember if there was someone between Yow and Woolard. We have seen Marquette, Xavier, Georgetown, Gonzaga and Creighton all have more sustained success during the same timeframe. Majerus was 95-69 and 8 games above 500 in conference. The major difference is he seems to have a loaded pipeline. Our depth is like nothing I have seen since I started following in the early 1980s. Truly a program building coach that SLU has never had. But he's gone. Biondi has a chance to actually make an "excellent" hire. However, I think many are right to be suspect.

Biondi pulling a fast one? I'm shocked to hear such a thing. Wait this happened at about the same time 2 years ago with KM and WR? Annette Clark always said he was such a stand up guy.... ?????

As someone who is familiar with him professionally, I have substantial reservations about him. I'd rather not say more than that publicly as I practice in St. Clair and Madison. I can only guess what the med school/SLU hospital would think of this choice as he does a large percentage of plaintiff's medical malpractice cases suing doctors, hospitals and nurses. according to one website, his email is isuedocs77@(domain omitted on purpose).

The ABA is the American Bar Association and AALS is the American Association of Law Schools. To be a functioning law school, these are the entities that provide accreditation. If you refuse to meet with them, that is problematic.

Tom Keefe is good lawyer. He is about as cutthroat and adversarial as you can get through. I have substantial concerns about him being named interim dean.

would me either. The downtown law school thing (while I think overall pretty good for the university) was from left field. The announcement was that it was to open this fall -- a ridiculous time frame if you have seen the state of the building and have considered all the things that would have to be done to make that happen. That got walked back to next year. It sounded anything but methodically planned out.

here is the long form letter to university faculty and staff. Same things but more detail. http://www.scribd.com/doc/102368276/SLU-Law-Dean-Annette-Clark-Resignation-Announcement-to-Faculty-Staff-8-8-2012

km is on the ticket for tennessee state (game 3) and dayton (game 15). I think all scholarship players are represented (though I am sure I am missing someone) -- Conklin (2), Cassity(2), KM (2), Cody (2), Remekun (2), MM (1), DE (1), Loe (1), JB(1), JJ(1). though, Id rather have more cheerleaders than players like games 5 and 18.. :D

Got the tickets in the mail today. Look good. Photos of players on the tickets and they are spiral bound....

When did you graduate? That will be telling. My wife and I are both graduates of SLU. The tuition has more than doubled in under 15 years. I would suggest that the value of a SLU degree has not doubled. The tuition increases have built a lot of pretty buildings and statues though...

+1 Using your figure of $44,500 per year with CNN/Dept of Education seems to suggest that real cost is $31K per year. This means that the average scholarship/grant is $10K to 13K. That is certainly reasonable numbers. That means an average SLU student's (4 years) would cost in real dollars in the range of $124,000 for an undergraduate degree. That number is dumbfounding, staggering and unsustainable.

so i understand what you are saying is that the average incoming freshman gets $27,805 in scholarship or grants? This means money that eventually does not have to be repaid. This does not include stafford loans, not private loans secured through the university. That seems really high. Its great, if accurate, though.

Saw that on my twitter feed too. For every bad think RM says, there is a hilarious quote too. Gotta take the good with the bad i guess!!

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/article_ff76961e-45ad-11e0-b3c5-00127992bc8b.html

If that was the goal of SLU, it failed miserably. The public at large and many students think that KM and WR got a pass. Georgetown, Boston College, Marquette and Notre Dame (and there are many others) are all catholic but winning. Until the Administration/faculty stop treating the AD and athletics as they did in the late 70s and 80s, it will never be a "winning program."

+1000 I used to bristle at these comments but this year has caused me to take off the billiken blue glasses. I think it is pretty accurate. As to Roy's point, it takes a "special" person to succeed at SLU because the Administration isn't serious about having a winning program. I define winning as regular (not every year) appearances in NCAA and occasional runs. Think Butler, Xavier, Gonzaga or SIU's run or what Creigton used to be.

I would suggest the "let down" from losing KM and WR affects everyone -- coaches, AD, fans, and players. Losing the top two players in the way that it did right before the season starts hurts morale. Everyone -- coaches, players and fans -- knew that the season that they were expecting was gone. All momentum from last year's finish and CBI was gone. These are 18 - 20 year olds who thought that they had a good shot at an A10 title and NCAA tournament. Gone. Also, if you feel the administration does not have your back and kicks off your friends and teammates, how does that affect motivation? I am not saying that the team isn't trying. I'm not saying that they aren't giving effort. I'm not saying that they are tanking it. However, when KM and WR were gone, there is no way you can tell me that the team didn't get its knees taken out. It is hard for pro-teams to recover from something like this -- let alone college. Could Rickma do more to hold everyone together? I don't know. But I don't blame him for it right now.

AGREED!!! The timing of the whole punishment screwed the team completely. The team has been built around KM and WR. They were gone days before practices start. They were down 3 total scholarship players (WR,KM and JB). If it was graduation/NBA related, Rickma could have recruited someone to fill the gap. No one had huge expectations for two years ago when KM, WR etc were freshman because they were freshman. Not much is different. This is a replay of two years ago. Flashes, ups and downs, good wins with terrible losses. Its the nature of young teams. The only difference between this year and two years ago is: expectations.

I really wonder why I care about the program...

See it completely differently. SLU could have said when this whole thing came out that this type of behavior -- criminal or not -- is not allowed at SLU. That is principle. They wait 5 months. Let the accused back on campus -- in campus housing -- for half a semester. In the mean time, they run a kangaroo court. Reduce a year suspension to effectively a couple months. Also, if this was an average girl (i.e. not connected somehow to a major donor), this would not have happened (read: need Cash). SLU tried to walk a fine line. Don't piss off a major donor and don't kill SLU athletics -- lose Rickma and have an empty 'Fetz (read: need Cash). This is all about the benjamins not principle.

There is no doubt there is that upside and I respect that viewpoint. However, there is little to hide this was a pure "buy" game for Duke. Reportedly, this was the first time Rickma agreed to such a thing. Why now then? I would have to believe that pure "buy" games at their house (with no home/home or even 2 for 1) can be had with top programs.

Sorry, wasn't trying to comment on your post in particular but reply to general thread discussion. I agree that once the game was scheduled little could be done. It shouldn't have been scheduled though for reasons above.

This game was scheduled in July. The incident took place in May. If SLU had promptly acted and suspended WR and KM within a month or two (even though most disagree with it), this game would not have been scheduled in the first place.

The point is: unless the administration is fully supportive of the athletic department and wants it to thrive, it won't. If you don't like the NBA analogy, use the whatever pro team that has been preennially bad because of bad ownership/management. I don't blame Rickma for this team. I had hoped that with the new arena and hiring of Rickma that SLU had taken the leap. However, little has actually changed (look at the charter flights issue.) See Cheryl Levick leaving after Biondi went around her and athletic department to fire Soderberg. Please keep in mind the Duke game was scheduled in JULY. The "situation" happened in May. Again, HOW DOES THE AD schedule this game if he knows that there is a realistic possibility that our best players (KM and WR) are gone. The answer has to be that the AD didn't know or wasn't in the loop on what sort of sanctions were being considered. Same for putting KM and WR on season tickets and billboards! I don't want the AD or Rickma running the school. This drubbing on national tv is directly caused by the delay in hearing the matter until September/October. This is directly caused by teh Administation not letting Chris May and staff know what was going on or what is at stake. This is without getting into the shenannigans of the hearing itself. AND if Chris May did know about all of the severity of the issues and the adminstration did keep them in the loop and he scheduled the game, put KM and WR on billboards and tickets anyway, that should be addressed too.