Pistol
-
Posts
17,442 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
146
Posts posted by Pistol
-
-
7 minutes ago, slu92 said:
Why would he leave NBA for SLU? Answer that one. And yes I think guy has something extra based on spurs plucking him out of high school to coach their G League team. Those jobs aren’t easy to get. I’m sorry I’ll take RC Buford and Pop’s opinions over Chris May in evaluating coaching talent. Do you think the Spurs don’t have options??? Hired him because he went to DeSmet? I went to high school with him? Uh really? That’s a new one too. And his name was brought up by Frank, who I think is a dope. He lost all credibility after last year defending Ford in my book. But the nonstop bashing a guy who from what I understand has no interest coaching in college and SLU in particular is weird. Like let it go. We get you don’t like him, he must of cut you from DeSmet freshman team, didn’t sign your camp T-shirt, whatever the reason we get it. I like idea of a Tatum or Ahearn being from stl and wanting to build something longterm, wanting to be at slu, like a Mark Few type, that’s all! Wow.
More money, higher profile job, more autonomy, and located in hometown. There are probably more but those are the easy ones.
His agent has major clout in the coaching carousel every year. It's possible he's pushing Blake's name out there to gain leverage for the Missouri State job. But he has enough supporters within SLU's donor base that he could be a candidate that fans need to take seriously. And by the way, those fans are all entitled to their own opinions on Ahearn as a candidate, and all the opinions are entirely valid because we truly don't know how good he'd be at this job.
TaLBErt likes this -
Yeah, May completely fumbled the baseball gift. Plus the actual surface of the field this year, that's inexcusable.
And yet, this team has started 8-0 for the first time since 1966, they lead the nation in runs, and they broke the program record for home runs in a game.
They have a legit shot to start 11-0 with a 2-5 Le Moyne team coming to town this weekend. Everybody needs to get out to The House That May Didn't Build on Friday or Saturday or Sunday (or all of the above) and watch these guys mash.
billikenbill, MusicCityBilliken, BillTheCat and 1 other like this -
Some of these rankings are ties with other schools, but still pretty impressive.
Lord Elrond, BillTheCat and OkieBilliken like this -
1 minute ago, wgstl said:
Richmond is dead last in all of college basketball (362nd) at offensive rebounds. That and FT rate are really the only thing they suck at.
It fits with their style. They send everyone back after the shot. Their offense is cutting, screening, shooting - they're not attacking the basket. Which is why they don't draw fouls, either.
All 5 starters are 4th/5th year players. They're patient and methodical.
They're going to carve SLU apart.
-
Oops, thread title is missing a 0 at the end.
Lord Elrond, billikenfan05, Lando Griffin and 1 other like this -
On 2/23/2024 at 7:05 PM, slu72 said:
Here’s what I don’t get about the BOT. No doubt the primary purpose of SLU is to educate. But that’s the primary purpose of every university worth its salt. But SLU is in competition for applicants with every major college in America. And that’s where athletics come into play. College sports gets just about every school, other than the Ivy’s and a handful of others, more recognition than any area of academic achievements. For example, look at Notre Dame in little old South Bend, IN. How many kids who go there can name one academic or scientific breakthrough that school has made? But ask them what they’re noted for and it’s FOOTBALL! It’s fun to go there for the FOOTBALL! Take Gonzaga, a little known small town school way out in the Far West boondocks. Suddenly they are a great BB school and applications go up and kids from all over the country are applying. The list goes on and on. But SLU had never recognized the importance of athletics as a marketing tool. I don’t get it. You’d think the BOT would be aware of this and put more resources into one of the major marketing tools available and increase the interest in prospective students. Finishing at the bottom of the A10 and not making the dance on a regular basis is doing little to enhance the school’s image.
I'm guessing that when the Board approved this contract, what you're saying was more or less the selling point made by May and others around the table (including Chaifetz and Kavanaugh). "Coupled with Chaifetz Arena and the forthcoming Champions Center, this contract represents an investment that will take not just men's basketball, but SLU athletics as a whole to the next level." I have no doubt it was sold along those lines. The problem is they were investing in the wrong guy.
-
Just now, TheA_Bomb said:
Kinky
-
1 hour ago, Cowboy II said:
-thanks
-so were you two responsible for securing any entertainment?
Unfortunately not. We were always available for free entertainment in the form of drunken managers but we mostly entertained each other.
-
Just now, TheChosenOne said:
We need to make him aware that St. Louis has the best fans in baseball, that will lock him up.
I still remember one of the first questions at Ford's introductory meet and greet with fans was "Are you a Cardinals fan?"
He chuckled and said he was, but inside he was probably like "This is the easiest paycheck I will ever earn".
slufan13, TheChosenOne, thetorch and 1 other like this -
56 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:
when its the largest contract in school history and it is one that will last for a decade or more, if they dont question it and blindly sign it they are definitely a party to the fail. for you to absolve them from doing their due diligence is nothing short of absurb.
I'm not necessarily absolving them. I'm telling you how this would've gone down.
I'm not aware of any examples of university boards turning down coaching contracts funded by athletic boosters and not the university. Are you? Do you think it's unusual for the Board to have approved this contract?
Also, due diligence is not their responsibility. Boards make decisions based on all information presented to them based on due diligence performed downstream. They rely on being given good, correct, relevant information. In this case, the department head responsible for negotiating the contract and performing all necessary due diligence (which would also be delegated, to a degree) failed miserably. When that happens, the board has to decide if that department head is worthy of ongoing employment by the University. Because in this case, even though the University is not funding the coach's salary directly, the coach's failure is having a material impact in terms of lost revenue in a broader scale.
That's when you get rid of the coach and the AD and reset, hopefully having learned some painful lessons from the last round and probably taking a harder look at the next contracts for the coach and AD.
-
8 minutes ago, Box and Won said:
I can verify that @TheA_Bomb is both old and experienced.
-
1 hour ago, Cowboy II said:
-serious questions, where would you get the cookie cakes? what else did SLU do with the rooms to try to impress?
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.
MusicCityBilliken likes this -
As someone who had to put cookie cakes in hotel rooms for four years, this is entertaining to me.
SLU_Lax, Box and Won and TheA_Bomb like this -
- Popular Post
- Popular Post
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?!"
2010andBeyond, TRN, Dr Bird and 7 others like this -
3 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:
Imagine Twitter during the 1956 presidential election:
Frank Cusumano: hearing names for presidential nomination include former Austrian Fascist Dictator Kurt Schuschnigg who lives right here in Kirkwood!
Executive leadership experience in the top division. Stood up to Hitler. Checks a lot of boxes.
billikenfan05 likes this -
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.
TheBand, JMM28, billiken_roy and 4 others like this -
1 minute ago, slufan13 said:
One thing for me in the coaching search is that I would like to get rid of the mentality that we need to hire a guy who is never going to want to leave for a bigger job. If the next coach we hire leaves SLU for a Big 10 job in 3 years, I will be pretty happy with the success it means we had.
@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.
JettFlight5, The Valley Sucks, Bilzz and 1 other like this -
Just now, johnbj14 said:
Access journalism at its finest! If SLU is going to oust his buddy who gives him 100% access, you can bet he’s going to want a guy in there who has just as close of a relationship with.
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.
johnbj14 likes this -
5 minutes ago, Bilzz said:
Take with a grain of salt, but I did talk to a local sports reporter with ties to boosters about the coaching search. Haven't read the whole thread so excuse me if some of this is already posted. Ford is a goner. SLU has reached out to Weber, Ahearn, DeVries, & Schertz. Weber wants the job badly and is pushing for it. SLU also reached out to Sprinkle, but he wasn't interested. Doesn't think Mack/Wade/Holtmann/Moser have much legs to them. All will probably take P5 jobs.
I'm not an "insider" by any means, just have a pre-existing relationship with the reporter and we talk on occasion. He gives me stuff he hears, but can't report.
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.
stmdragons, Box and Won, JettFlight5 and 1 other like this -
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.
Bilzz and billiken_roy like this -
6 minutes ago, brianstl said:
Dis Shane chime in?
No, but he's popped up in a few other places lately. Not sure the lesson has been fully understood.
brianstl likes this -
37 minutes ago, Crewsorlose said:
I work at SLU and this is misinformed. Lewis as Provost runs the academic side of things. He has no direct role in anything outside of that. Think of him as a VP but with a huge portfolio. Everything else--athletics, DPS, parking, student services, mission & ministry.--that's all Fred P.
Biondi was a micro-manager: you had a title but he always thought he knew better and was on your back telling you how to do your job. Fred P is the opposite; he's a delegator. Which is fine if you have really good judgment in hiring your VPs and staff. SLU athletics has had a lot of success (both soccer teams, women's hoops, Champions Center, and MBB until very recently) since Fred P took over and Chris May was not his hire. His life is much easier if he can simply delegate to May, and that's largely what he's done. Fred P was at Dayton, but only as a Dean. He was Pres. at a super small-time place (LaMoyne) and the main thing he needed to do when he got here was to get up to date on the medical school (which was a dumpster fire on top of a toxic waste dump), and smooth things over with Biondi loyalists. He's largely succeeded. He's good on his feet and he has a very good speaking voice.
I don't get much intel but my sense is that Fred P doesn't value intelligence as much as he does amiability. Of the VPs and upper admins I've dealt with, very few are what I'd call bright. And that trickles down.
If this were Biondi, he'd have 6-8 confidants in athletics who would have been giving him negative intel for years. He'd probably be cold calling random coaches asking if Ford is really that good. He was trigger happy. Fred P is cautious and he'll gladly be talked into May saying Travis deserves another year.
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.
Bizziken likes this -
33 minutes ago, Dr Bird said:
Did Ross C make any comments on last night's X Spaces session? I saw he was listening.
No.
-
9 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:
I was in town at the time. I was all in. He talked a great game but it came across as total bs when those players all left and turned out had no chance of being eligible the next year. Sorry, he could have been a great dude but that was garbage. It wasn’t like it is now where you can replace a whole roster with mercenaries.
If that's your take on his tenure, then why are you so charmed by Ford?
2024 SLU Men's Basketball Head Coaching Search
in Billikens.com Main Board
Posted
To be fair, the local media has also mentioned other names, like DeVries and Schertz. They're not only putting those names out there.