GOSLU68

you are really big time into rewriting history on the Grawer thing; Spoon was hiding in his various condos instead of recruiting and Romar was not a midwestern recruter; he thought Darius Miles could get in SLU-even Darius figured out it was easier for him to go to the NBA than go across the bridge to SLU-Grawer was good for a few years, Spoon was good for 2-3 and Romar caught lightning in a bottle but was saved by his ALMA MATER-Brad was the ultimate overachiever-and suffered what happens to you-all work and no play makes "BS" a dull boy-hard working but not a media darling. Sometimes the man at the top tightens the noose after allowing the string to play out- that is the similarity here-they all had plenty of rope in the beginning and eventually came judgement day-only Romar escaped his fate by jumping-the other three were not making progress

we need. a big a point a coach a coaching staff a p-r team a plan a place to play ( we have a good hole so far ) a fight song a loyalty song or chant an announcer who knows the players' names a good shoe contract and some other stuff like that

Grawer commenting on Soderberg reminds me of Dick Morris commenting on the morality and ethics in Washington DC after the Clinton Administration. Grawer turned a good program with good players into a private court for his and Winfield;s kids to play on and had a couple of very poor seasons as well. He was not a marginal coach at that point. Soderberg is guilty of only one thing and that is not having an administration or PR staff that promoted him as the next god of basketball as they did Romar. He was not a great recruiter and certainly was not winning games beyond his team's talent; I am happy to see a coaching change if it means we are going to support the program as we did in the Spoon and Romar years-then we can be proud of what the coach and teams do even if we have to pay more for tickets

nm

ball of any kind; IV made great strides going to a big man camp and KL seemed to benefit from his tour of Europe with the Christian BB team; does anyone know how AK or BH are spending their summer and if anyone else is an invitee to special camps?

we are happy to keep him coming; we haven't always owned him but he is a hard working coach and it has been a puzzle why his last two teams flopped. I still say the Q-10 has some real coaching talent to compete against. We have won a lot of first halves only to come up short at the end in league play. Eight and Eight really tells all for SLU in 2006-2007 season

lots of people in St. Louis know Dayton has long been hotbed of basketball soldout in a similar size arena to what we will soon have on campus; although I would have preferred 12,000 capacity-we used to have that many for every game just a few years ago and SLU should be a rising star in the A10-the Dayton vs SLU rivalry has seen many league changes over the years and Dayton has always played us tough when they came to visit. Of course it is tough to root against any fellow league member as we would like our rivals to be strong and lose graciously when we meet. We do need a big and it looks like you have cleaned house. We hope to do the same thing and upgrade through graduation of some of our bench players. We only need one or two pieces for coach to put a really competitive product on the floor. We are getting Illinois talent locally for the first time in years and kids seem to like seeing themselves on local TV. who wouldn't with a TV market of 2.6 million. Unlike Dayton who have to recruit against x and Cincy we really have 160 or miles to smaller TV markets before we find a competitor-we have upgraded our campus and our academic power is as good as ever. you are probably just as close to Purdue and Indiana U as we are to Mizzou and U of I Champaign-Urbana. We may not be Big 12 or Big 10 but they do not offer familiar city college environment that is friendly and small enough to not overwhelm those going away for the first time. Hope to see you in home and home for years to come.

or he could have simply said the wrong date to throw off the wolves-you think he's getting smarter?

earlier someone here had mentioned May 16 as the deadline-six weeks is a long time to twist in the wind waiting until May 30 to see if we get a juco big for a 5

EA is writing to the paper's audience; I pick it up and read it thoroughly because it gives me another view but I don't take offence because there is no mention of whites in this paper-no Asians, no Mexicans 0 no international news-it talks about what is happening in the local black community; I like EA and when he makes it big on TV or when MB makes it big on TV it will be a better day than this Rene' fellow-he doesn't get out into the community much-Hey Rene go to a game-practice saying the names of the players along with Guy Phillips

we need a 3rd big; you can't expect anything other than BH and AK getting 20 minutes each and both are targets for teams to have them get in foul trouble; Brad says he likes teams made up of 6-5 and 6-7 players; he thinks that means run and presents matchup problems-I got that from really listening to his post game interviews-but can his staff prepare 3 different game plans-one for BH one for AK and one when neither is in the game???????

you would think this would have had TV coverage Relphorde may be the cornerstone to this year's class

his team finished exceptionally below expectations-I was surprised how poorly they did against us and they did not do much better in the league. Another case of a pretty decent coach being outcoached by some of the old timers in the league who have time to study tapes? Maybe having just one game plan no longer works. I hope BS sees the handwriting on the wall and tries to be a little more complex. Afterall SLU doesn't let the real dumb guys in school just because they can dribble

Our two verbals look as good as AK and DM and the A-10 is on the way up, again that is what bringing in Charlotte and SLU was all about-rasing the bar for this league-that is our mission. We have plenty of time and lots of interest from a number of high school and jucos- Brad and staff have been working hard-but it is time to sign all available scholarships and to learn to coach and play 10 or more players-this thing of saving scholarships to be awarded to the walk on we begged to come out because we did not sign players is a travesty-If a head coach and staff can not coach 13 players plus a few walk ons that is really poor-that is a teaching ratio of 3 to 1 they would kill for that in math or language classes. Players like AK, DM,and BH deseerved more playing time-work harder at that coach

want to return to University of Illinois-he is a Collinsville kid and they were a pipeline to U of I for years-or he could play it out at Vandy they have a really hot fan base and it has to be a dream job for the head coach that delivers.

two days ago we seemed to be out of speculative material on the board-now we have plenty to hope for. I remember one of the final home games and forget the opponent but Brad was truly impressed going up against a team full of guys 6-5 and 6-6 that is one of the reasons I like him. Grawer and Spoon were content to recruit short guards that fit into the junkyard dog scenario-Brad would like to coach talent if he can get it to come to the school.

this would be a great get for us-we used to play U of Detroit; we could schedule Eastern Michigan or Michigan if we could get them; plane tickets are cheap round trip the kids dad could afford to go to a game or two and watch his kid graduate

other than the coaches having character issues-I always thought the team did not quite have the talent to play the positions available to them. Clagget came out on top because the entire fan base and team that remained were convinced of his talent. A kid that shot the three that well- maybe not a point guard in fact he hardly ever finished a drive for a layup prefering not to get hammered-but his passes turned into assists. Kevin Grawer could get minutes for SLU Or Mizzou-too bad KG couldn't have finished at SLU but his dad self destructed for whatever reasons-RG was good for the program for a while but he sure benched talent year after year in favor of true grit

this was a really tough season for a "20" game win season-disappointing P-R for the team and coach-poor media both radio and TV coverage were almost crystal set technology. Recruits-not many and as many left as gained. How does Brad keep staff and team spirits high under these circumstances? The future?-Is Kramer the point guard of the future and will he be shorter and slower than Grawer's son. A lot of us were there when Grawer let Clagget sit the bench freshman year so his son and Winfield's could try to learn point. So if we have these questions how does a recruit for point guard with more than Juco years choose SLU when he could be coming off the bench when the coach's son runs the point for 4 years whether he is that good or not. Somebody who has seen kramer play please write in and say he is that good and will give his body up for the team. The little I saw of him a year ago at Bauman-Eberhard scrimmage was that he thrived on being bounced around by the bigger guys, can he shoot from deep like the Porter kid 5 foot 6" or so from Oregon?

what is the status of wendell bennett?

they are both very accessable under the right circumstances; the school did more to introduce Romar but Brad was already here because it was quite obvious he or someone like him had to be brought in to recruit the midwest and as far Romar's coaching style-he let them play and sat on the sidelines; Brad has to restrain himself he wants to win so much and Romar's program had all kinds of recruiting violations as soon as he went to Washington and Cameron Dollar took the heat for it. Brad has the credentials many here have espoused yet they don't necessarily support him. He was a Big Ten Assistant for Wisconsin who continues to have a top program; he was acting coach of a Big Ten school; He has had few lucky wins and had some hurt players and his own assistants seem a little weak; but with jamal walker that seems headed in the right direction; jeff harris begged for a spot but with no coaching experience they did not take him on; Sloan could have been a good recruiter if you were looking for Sloan type guys; we are not necessarily looking in that direction. If he makes $4oo,ooo and his kid can come on with an employee scholarship deal; he should use some of his money for whatever extra it costs to have his kid stay in the dorms and use the extra scholarship for an athlete who needs a full ride and will play like he needs. Many of us who went to SLU had parents pay tuition and we worked summers and during school to get through. It seems Soderberg has lived in the county so his kids could get free public school educations-not exactly a backer of private schools, in his private life.

are we in this pickle because we gave walk-ons multiple year scholarships in spite of the fact that no one ever offered them; I realise their importance with our lack of depth but are they now the reason for us to have no depth? If so, that is stupid and I would jump ship on BS

actually having the Valley offices on Chouteau across from Ameren UE has been a boon to the local neighborhoods' residents for the most part. It seems as part of their good neighbor largesse-many $66 tickets were given away to fill the stands-attendance was 26,500 or so and many tickets had valley comp type signatures. We may not want to join but it is at least as good as having the Bowling Hall of Fame downtown. If SLU gets on a roll we should expect the media to want free tickets as well as pro players-for all the money they make. They had no problem when Spoon was here begging for tickets even if they left long before the curtain call-I am always amazed at "fans" who leave a tightly contested game with 2 minutes to go. UNX was down 49-33 before beating Georgetown by almost 10. a 20-30 pt swing is not unheard of in this game.

small towns and large cities-we in St. louis would not want someone to judge us by how we looked in the late sixties and seventies when people fled because of civil unrest and minorities wanting in a hurry what Kennedy promised. Change scared people. Now we have had lots of good changes in St. Louis but we shouldn't be surprised that all ships rise in a rising tide and we have found that it is good for all of us that we don't have to stand on someone elses shoulders to keep from drowning. It would be great if could get MG to play for us and I think he would find the influence of St. Louis would spread the reputation of his skills throughout Southeast Missouri.

I have SLU season tickets and most often invite neighbors to join-we enjoy the game and sometimes the buffet. One reciprocated and I am a guest to go the games tonight