Pistol

Great American Cookie in the Galleria. I just looked it up and it's still there in the same location. Amazing. We would also hang some SLU pennants and banners, stuff like that. Tom Frericks took it all after his visit. No other recruit ever took the merch, just the cookie cake (usually partially eaten and the remainder left). At least Frericks came to SLU. They stayed in the Sheraton (with the Richard Haas mural) across from what is now called Enterprise Center. We made sure they had rooms that faced the arena. Usually corner rooms. I guess that hotel is closed now (condos?) but the parking garage is still in use.

As someone who had to put cookie cakes in hotel rooms for four years, this is entertaining to me.

The makeup of the SLU Board of Trustees is public information that's extremely easy to find. They're not some mysterious council of elders that meets in secrecy in the top of a hollowed out mountain on a remote island. The way that Ford's contract would've been presented to them is as a budget-neutral line item for approval. They would outline the terms of the contract, explain that the contract will be privately funded by donors, and take a vote. They would know that this has been negotiated by the Athletic Director and already has the support of several board members, who may or may not have already spoken to them about it. I'm not quite sure why people here expected Board members to take a stand against this contract. If you're a SLU Board member, you're either a business executive, a Jesuit, or a born-wealthy philanthropist, or some combination of the above. You probably sit on multiple boards, you develop relationships within these boards, you rely on department heads (like the AD) to give you the information you need, and you vote based on that. At SLU, you're making decisions about major capital projects, cost cutting measures, endowment initiatives, academic programs, and the like. When the AD presents the MBB head coaching contract as something that pays for itself, it's going to seem pretty reasonable to move forward with it. Do you really think one or more of these people was going to raise their hand and be like, "WAIT! What about his track record at Oklahoma State?!"

Executive leadership experience in the top division. Stood up to Hitler. Checks a lot of boxes.

St. Louis is a metro area of 2.8 million people and our sports writers act like we're a town of 2,800 people. "He lives right here! Isn't that neat?!" "He went to high school here! He can probably recruit other kids who go to high school here!" "We already know them! They're our pals!" We're so afraid of being big-time.

@billikenfan05 made this point on our shared MMP Twitter account a few weeks ago and it got as many likes and retweets as anything we've ever posted. Don't be afraid to be a stepping stone - it's the sign of a healthy program at a certain level. It means the rest of the fundamentals behind your program are good, that you can sustain success even after coaches move on. It means coaches are consistently outperforming expectations. Guys get hired away after Tournament success, which is what we want more than anything. You're never on the hook for buyouts, either. If the next several coaches leave for bigger programs, it means we're doing better than we've ever done for an extended period of time.

One of the Bens mentioned him a week or two ago and my eyes just about rolled out of the back of my head. Bruce Weber has the profile of the opposite kind of coach SLU should hire.

Sounds like Frank. There's the retired guy lobbying his local sports journo buddies, there's a De Smet grad, and there are two actually very intriguing choices there. He also thinks the bigger names are out of reach completely. And maybe they are but there are enough small-time hints here to make me think it's Cusumano. Although publicly he's still gonna make excuses for Ford.

Ahearn has a reputation for being a sharp basketball mind and I've been hearing he has some respect in coaching circles. That said, if I'm hiring him, it's because about a dozen other candidates didn't work out. SLU must get this next hire right and there's a little too much risk in Ahearn.

No, but he's popped up in a few other places lately. Not sure the lesson has been fully understood.

The athletic department during when I was at SLU - which was during Biondi's tenure - was a dumpster fire. If he had any confidants in the AD, they were really well hidden and very ineffectual. Doug Woolard and Lori Flanagan were pathetic, penny pinching, charisma-free administrators with no leadership ability. Maybe the AD was in better shape in the 90s and maybe it was better in the early A10 years. I can't say for certain. But in the Romar/Soderberg years, it was a disaster. I would also be interested to see how responsibilities at the top of the house at SLU might shift as Pestello approaches retirement. In other words, what you're saying about his and Lewis' functions may be true but may evolve in the near term.

No.

If that's your take on his tenure, then why are you so charmed by Ford?

That's not how it went down. TheChosenOne and I were there. Romar is a stand-up guy.

5 pages deep on a GDT an hour after a road game ends = not a good sign. The apathy runs deep these days.

I assume this is gone by now.

The game is sped up in part because the defense is so bad and concedes so early, often in transition. I said we shoot well from the perimeter, and I would add that we're also a good FT shooting team. It's probably unfair for me to call the offense slow. The offense isn't bad. There are problems and it's sloppy and inconsistent but we can score, no doubt. I question how hard our opponents are playing defense, though, when they're up by a lot.

Collins made up for major deficiencies within our offensive scheme (or lack thereof). A lot of us thought he overdribbled and the offense got bogged down because the ball spent too much time in his hands. This is at least partially true but it's not because of Collins - it's because Collins was expected to improvise within a very loose offense. When you lose a guy with his vision, passing ability, and ball handling, you have to replace him with a similar player or you're asking guys who don't have his skill set to do what he did. We're dealing with the latter. Medley is a freshman, Hughes is not a PG, and Meadows is done for the season. We knew PG was going to be a problem, but we also assumed the offense would look different and compensate for the fact that we need the ball to spend a lot less time in the PG's hands. We thought that might involve trying to get more in transition, for example. Nope. We still play slow, run that little weave, and hope that something opens up. Not good enough. Luckily, we have good three-point shooting (although attempts remain too low) and a guy like Parker making up for other offensive shortcomings lately. I always come back to the defense, though. Collins was a good defender. We don't have any good defenders left.

"I'll give you ten million reasons why, Chris. I own you. If I go down, you're coming with me, and you know it."

Oh good grief, we have a game tonight. I had completely forgotten.

Right, I think they were counting on being as good as advertised last season, and everything from scheduling to recruiting going forward depended on that outcome, which didn't materialize. Even if we had the highest NIL budget in CBB, we would be disappointed in the results. If you gave the roster of UConn or UNC or Kansas or Purdue to Ford, he would give you a bubble team.

To be clear, I don't think Ford is staying. I don't see how SLU can retain him or May. Ford has lost the program and needs a total reset in year nine, and hasn't shown that he can actually accomplish that. As shown above, there's noting to point to as a plan in place, either. May can't be the AD to make the next hire. He's 0/2 so far and sounds increasingly out of touch every time we hear from him. He's lost control of his athletic program. He knew how to take care of his one-percenters and got a shiny new building out of them and he has ignored the rest of the fan base in the process. And now his disastrous contract extension for Ford has fractured his beloved blueblood donors as he bid against no one and threw away their money. His (micro)management style has created a climate of dysfunction and distrust among staffers. He preaches gratitude toward the student-athletes that get treated poorly because of his decision making. If either of these guys are still around next season, it will be a disaster. The program can't afford to keep bleeding season ticket holders and casual fan interest. The buyouts are expensive but the downside to keeping them is worse. They have to go.

Ford isn't going to put any of his salary in NIL. (I wouldn't, if I were him.) I expect a relatively high number of outgoing transfers whether or not Ford is fired. I also expect some turnover among the rest of the staff, even if Ford stays.

I don't disagree. Even if there are some talented players in this group, Ford can't get them to play as a unit and he really can't get them to defend. Maybe someone else could. Maybe not. He can't succeed with this group, though. So the question remains: Is his "plan" a total rebuild for year nine? Is he punting on HS/prep recruiting for transfers? Who can you keep, if anyone, from such a toxic environment? How does a successful roster come together? Does he have the NIL bag? How does he sell quality incoming players on a vision? How is he going to catch lightning in a bottle this time when we haven't seen it come together for him in the first eight seasons?