JMM28

A new coach with 11 new players has come in and is dominating. Weird how that happens.

This is funny in a lot of ways.

Good point on Hurley. Bryce Drew has won everywhere he's been except for the school that never wins (Vandy) and he at least made a tournament there. Agreed that need to do better though. I don't know if I trust May to be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat.

I'd at least call Gregg Marshall, too.

Brey had a weird go around with USF this past cycle. I wonder if he wants to just have a TV gig and go the way of some of the old dogs that didn't want to deal with the NIL landscape. Johnny Dawkins is like Travis Ford. Get ya 1 NCAA in 9 years and a lot of underwhelming years. I shudder at most of the Coach K underlings in general. Langel is an interesting name. He is having a mediocre start to this year but has had more success at Colgate than just about anyone. Pass on Jones. Amaker is an interesting name too, but he has passed up other (better) opportunities to stay at Harvard.

Wade wouldn't be hirable because he is on a 2 year show-cause from his various transgressions. Mack might be a good hire. I just worry that he is the kind of guy that took over a program on its high and maintained success. He has never been a guy that rebuilt a program. His situation at Louisville is also very strange, although Louisville is a dumpster fire larger than SLU at this point. Plucking a guy like Brian Wardle or Darian Devries from Bradley/Drake would be great gets. Devries has done really well at Drake and would possibly bring his son with him for a final year. Wardle rebuilt Bradley from ground zero and would bring an actual system with fundamentals and player development that hasn't been seen here since Majerus. Would Bryce Drew leave Grand Canyon for SLU? Look at Bobby Hurley if he gets canned at AzState?

He also led the country in technical fouls last year. Him and Sincere would make a hellacious backcourt duo for referees!

I agree, basketballcountry.

Utah State is the @MB73 15 star lock of the decade. Bet the mortgage and the emergency fund.

Whatever the line on this game is, I will be placing a large wager on Utah State.

In my opinion, clean house after this year. Put together a plan that has about a 1.5-1.8 million a year HC salary with a solid assistant pool. Hire a coach that has a proven track record of development. Has to be a sitting head coach or someone who has been a very recent head coach - don't mess around with P5 assistants, former players, or any of that goofy crap. Retain Harriman as the holdover assistant, if necessary (I don't think it is.) The difference in the new salary and old salary gets conveniently diverted to NIL efforts, as I assume some of the larger boosters are funding the 2.4 through the school. Let the new coach come in and help mold that to what fits his recruiting system best. Win championships.

Because you can’t recruit when everyone knows you’re on the flaming hot seat/about to get fired. And so Travis assembled a roster of projects and at least has the “it’s a rebuilding year!” excuse when he wins 9 games this year. Bruce could be a really good player. Unfortunately the coach here isn’t very good at developing players.

On the transfer front, the vast majority of inward transfer movement is the middle levels where SLU resides. on the NIL front, SLU should be a leader in the A10 without question and probably at a level on par with most big east schools. They aren’t right now, but they should be.

This is a really incredibly bad take. NIL and free transfers SHOULD be a huge advantage to SLU in so many ways.

The A10 has solidified itself as a 1 bid league already, IMO. Dayton has a couple quality wins. Davidson and St B have wins over Maryland and OkSt. And that is it for “quality” and I’m stretching to include the last two. Everyone else has played a marginal 150-350 schedule and lost some won some.

Here’s the real story. UC said they were going to sue and get the NCAA on record with these things. NCAA capitulated within hours. The ncaa originally said that it wasn’t better for his mental health to be in Cincinnati because he’s not from there.

Bad take. SLU has the fundamentals of a high major D1 men’s basketball program. A top 25 on campus arena. A top 50 coach’s salary. A top 75 basketball budget. The resources are there. The caretakers of this program have just fuoked the dog.

"and now the wheels are starting to fall off for Travis Ford's Billikens" is a phrase that we'll probably hear a lot this year from announcers.

Kelly Self on the whistle means everyone is getting a bad game. Kelly should have retired several years ago. He's too old and too grudge-y. Covington (the black dude) and Burdett (younger white dude) are pretty solid refs.

The guys on the bench starting to run to the locker room when the shot clock went off was a special moment too. #TeamBlue

Glad they didn’t mess up those shooting percentages by attempting to do anything with 2 seconds left on the clock. What a joke.

Set that picture to some Sara McLachlan and you’ve got a video spot for the BVF.

In a surprise to nobody that pays attention, Loyola is bad again. They had a couple very questionable calls go their way to squeak by University of New Orleans by 3 yesterday. Drew Valentine is a terrible coach.

Silver linings - we can all profit on betting against the Billikens. Then, if they do turn it around, we can bet against them and buy happiness either way!

Vermont is a good solid team. There is no shame in getting beat by a superior team, coach, and roster. There is shame that this is the state of the SLU program compared to a program that’s entire budget is less than Travis Fords salary.