SShoe

To the average fan, rankings mean everything.  

Convincing myself to go to the games during the Crews era

You are assuming the 5 star point guard knows how to read. It better be on YouTube. 

0% return over that time period 🤔
Not an ideal ROI, for those that "understand investment"

The NBA is not all that entertaining for true basketball fans.  It is kind of like watching the best football players in the world play flag football.  Sure you have the best athletes in the world playing but it isn't exactly the game of basketball, is it?  No defense or travelling.  Hero ball all day and different set of rules for star players.  No thanks, I will stick to college ball.

Instead of reusing the old thread, I started a new one for 2018-2019 interviews.
Today Mike Kelly (yes the Mizzou play by play man) interviewed Coach Ford on KMOX.  It may have been the best interview I have heard in some time.  Really good questions by Mike Kelly and Coach Ford provided some different information.
Kelly "Anymore broken backboards"
Ford "No just one so far, but I am anticipating more.  Now everyone is trying to break one.  Once a guy breaks one, eveyone else feels like they need to do it as well."
Kelly "As you watch Bess and Gordon, what grabs your attention about them.
Ford"  Leadership.  Bess leads by example.  He is not a rah rah guy.  Goodwin is more of a rah rah guy.  Even French is showing leadership.  We expected him too because he saw so many minutes.  I told him he is like a junior with his minutes he played last year.  And we need all the leaders desperately because we have so many new guys.  We have four guys that were in uniform with us last year.  We are having to teach so much, and it is unusual for a team with so much expectation that our practices are so slow.  We are having to teach everyone all the plays, all the techniques, all the terminology....how we like to feed the post, how we use a screen."
Kelly" Goodwin had a terrific assist to turnover ratio"
Ford" Yes he had a great season, played a great point, played the two guard in the second half of the season when we moved Roby to point.  He understands his strengths and weaknesses and can effect the game in so many ways.  He worked hard on his shooting in the off-season and should be a better out side shooter.
Kelly" How has Goodwin grown through the adversity he had last season?"
Ford "Interesting, he has grown up a lot.  He sat back and learned and appreciates the opportunity to play basketball.  He's not afraid to talk about it either.   You can't live in the past, you can learn from it but you use the past to help you move forward.'
Kelly "Isabell, a guy I watched in Missouri, what does he bring to your roster?'
Ford " Brings experience and is a proven scorer.  For a 5'11" guard he averaged 8 rebounds.  We're not going to ask him to do that.  I think we have rebounding covered.  His points we can use.  He can create his own shot.  We have to find that combination where he is making his teammates better, where he is playing in the concepts of the offense, to play with other guys.  He is so used to controlling the game on his own, and shooting any shot he wants to, he has to find that fine line of finding his shots in the offense.  It has been a long time since he has played with good players.  It is a two way street.  He has to figure these guys out and our players have to figure him out.  It is a work in progress.  
Ford "Isabell has been very coachable.  He came here to learn more about being a point guard and become more of a leader and be known as more than a scorer.  He has been asked to adapt to what we are doing.  It is going to take time.  He has missed three weeks with a hamstring and has hurt his wrist.  Once he gets healthy, once he gets to watch film, he will be a big difference maker.
Kelly "What is the biggest adjustment Gordon will have to make from playing in HS to playing in the A10?"
Ford "As with any freshman, the physicality of the game.  He won't be able to dominate simply because he is bigger and more physical than his opponent.  He and Thatch have played hard every second.  He is playing against Foreman, French and Welmer every day in practice, and they are making each other better."
Kelly "I think this team has a shot at the NCAA Tourney"
Ford "I don't get people picking us first in the league.  We only have four returning players.  I don't get that.  We have a long way to go to be that type of tourney team.  Do I think we have the ability to be that time of team. I think we have that.  We put together a very difficult OOC, particularly on the road.  We will be tested, but maybe it is time to start talking about making the NCAA tourney.  We didn't talk about that with the other two teams."
       

SLU just got a commitment from literally one of the top shooters in the country — something this board has begged for for years — and people are getting into a bunch of pissing matches. Cool
 

I like Welmer's game and all, but you seriously picked him to be our leading scorer last year?

i personally  dont think a fourth big is a huge need as much as a luxury.   i could easily see a scenario where gordon and french average 30 minutes a game and foreman gets the other 20.   of course fouls could easily make that dream vanish any game.   

No one knows what he did yet, so I won't speculate on that.
He withdrew after an indefinite suspension for a violation of team rules. I'm not sure we've seen that pattern before here. Normally guys wait it out and get back to the team. Or if they withdraw, we've seen it for a multitude of reasons but not an indefinite suspension (at least as far as I can remember).
All four guys who have left the program recently have been coming off a sit-out year. Bishop was the only one with a medical redshirt and not a transfer redshirt, but it's just weird that they've all been guys who we've been waiting on for a year-plus (shorter with Graves), and then they're gone before we get to see what they can do.
I don't buy the narrative that we should be avoiding transfers. Bess and Foreman both appear to be high-character guys. We haven't seen any signs of problems from Wiley or Isabell at this point. If a guy has no previous incidents at his other program, how is that any different than a HS kid with no history of problems? There are some kids that shine as unusually high-character recruits but for most players, you do the best you can based on feel, relationships, remarks from coaches, meeting his family, etc. You can't always know what a guy is going to do in a new environment. Anyway, I don't think this is because transfers are lower character players in general than HS kids.
I'm also seeing a lot of people starting to get upset with Ford and imply he's losing control or recruiting low-character players. He suspended a guy for breaking a rule. Isn't that how it's supposed to work? Isn't that what shows he's indeed in control? If he did nothing, that's where it becomes a problem. Also, I made the point in the previous paragraph, but no one who has left the program on his watch had a history of bad behavior coming in. None of them publicly came off as bad guys. I'm just not seeing what Ford is doing wrong here.

rise, while we have now whiffed on a number of transfers due to off court b.s., i'll take bess and foreman and call ford's transfers overall a success for the basketball program.  bess seems to be a high quality guy to the nth degree and foreman really came on last year to show he will be a nice backup to french and gordon.   

05 - to clarify - I’m not speaking about Santos’ underlying behavior. I can’t speak on it. I’m saying Ford’s strategy of transfers isn’t working and I’m disappointed that he now finds himself down an available scholarship player (again) due to *some sort* of off the court issue(s). It’s frustrating and reflects poorly on the program. Ford needs to clean up whatever he’s trying to accomplish. 
As it relates to the loss of talent - I’ve heard from enough people that know basketball to be confident that this is a big loss. The team is now heavily dependent on two injury prone bigs, French who has had foul trouble, and a freshman. 

And Hargrove.  Dude can fly.

I think we CAN be the type of team that wins 5 of these, but simply from a "make the tourney" standpoint, I think 3 and 3 during this set and no trip-ups elsewhere in the non-conference should put us on track.  Road games are difficult no matter what and we've essentially got 5 of them here.  

I think we CAN be the type of team that wins 5 of these, but simply from a "make the tourney" standpoint, I think 3 and 3 during this set and no trip-ups elsewhere in the non-conference should put us on track.  Road games are difficult no matter what and we've essentially got 5 of them here.  

I think every one but Florida St should be a win if we are truly going to be as good as we are expecting. 

That's a final four level offense, so that seems about right.

Put any one of our 4 current frontcourt players on the Ian, Lisch, Liddell, Meyer team that won 20 games and we may have been dancing that year. 
On the flip side, then Soderberg stays on as coach and Majerus never comes here (but neither does Crews).  Eventually Soderberg still gets canned, SLU hires Cuonzo Martin and SLU fans are posting memes of Martin drinking coffee every time he lands a third-tier recruit. 

Like any policy changes, the devils will be in the details.  After observing last year's debacle, I have come to believe some changes are necessary.  Like, don't allow just 1 person to make the rulings.  But given this administration, I fear we'll just get a pendulum swing that takes it too far in the other direction. 

Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court
Stock Market reached an all-time high
Consumer confidence at 17-year high
More than 2 million jobs created
Mortgage applications for new homes rise to a 7-year high
Unemployment rate at 17-year low
Signed the Promoting Women In Entrepreneurship Act
Gutted Obama-era regulations
Ended war on coal
Weakened Dodd-Frank regulations
Promoted buying and hiring American
Investment from major businesses (FoxConn, Toyota, Ford and others)
Reduced illegal immigration
Bids for Border Wall underway
Fighting back against sanctuary cities
Created Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office
Changed rules of engagement against ISIS
Drafted plans to defeat ISIS
Worked to reduce F-35 cost
5-year lobbying ban
Sanctioned Iran over missile program
Responded to Syria's use of chemical weapons
Introduced tax reform plan
Renegotiating NAFTA
Withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
Removed The United States out of The Paris Accord
Created task force to reduce crime
DOJ targeting MS-13
Signed an Executive Order to promote energy independence and economic growth
Signed Executive Order to protect police officers
Signed Executive Order to target drug cartels
Signed Executive Order for religious freedom
Sending education back to The States
Fixing the Department of Veterans Affairs
SCOTUS upheld parts of President Trump's temporary travel ban Executive Order
Authorized the construction of The Keystone Pipeline
Created commission on opioid addiction
Combating human trafficking (both EO and action)
Rollback of Obama's Cuba policy
Food Stamp use lowest level in 7 years
Reduced White House payroll
Donating Presidential Salary
Executive Order on Obamacare subsidies
Would not certify the Iran Nuclear Deal
Successful trip to Asia
Signed trade deal with China
Designated North Korea a terrorist state
ISIS lost virtually all of its territory
Recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital
Passage of Tax Reform Bill
Signed 130 bills into law
Made 136 Presidential Proclamations
Signed 64 Executive Orders
winning big time!     
its a great time for americans, MAGA!
the above list was copied from conservative sean hannity web site.   

Nice.  We had a good discussion going and then that.  

Oh yeah? You think George Hill represented the same for the Cleveland Cavs as Lebron James?   
  

There really isn't much on here that's all that leftist.  The man has made a name for himself by donating vast sums of money to political candidates and movements, and as indicated by wgstl, has donated to both parties.  I can't speak for others, but my comment is more a statement about my own personal disdain for large political donors as a whole. 
People can spend their money as they choose, but donating to academic institutions in the pursuit of advancements in medical research is, in my mind, something else entirely and will be a benefit to the university and region.

There really isn't much on here that's all that leftist.  The man has made a name for himself by donating vast sums of money to political candidates and movements, and as indicated by wgstl, has donated to both parties.  I can't speak for others, but my comment is more a statement about my own personal disdain for large political donors as a whole. 
People can spend their money as they choose, but donating to academic institutions in the pursuit of advancements in medical research is, in my mind, something else entirely and will be a benefit to the university and region.

it was not, thanks for playing.