brianstl

I'm sorry I missed it. Which show was it on?

That was cold.

Chris Sloan was a ok player. He worked his ass of to get everything he could out of his ability. He was not an impact player. He would have never been more than second guy off the bench for most top 25 teams. On an elite team he would have never gotten off the bench.

I just can't wait for the showdown at the city election board election night, always great entertainment. Politics at its best.

Footes, Irvin quiting during the game is one of the craziest things I have ever seen in a game.

I don't think getting kicked out of school is the same as getting kicked of the team. Some of those guys Pearl didn't get the chance to boot. THe schoolmade the decision for him.

Also remember for most college players the jump in thier level of play from soph. to jr. year is huge. Just look at Ian last year.

Just because Bonner isn't buying kids more than 20 years his junior drinks at Hump's doesn't mean he has issues with the program. Besides that is a violation of the NCAA rules. I also pretty sure his playing seasons in P.R. overlapped with with the Bills seasons. So it would be kind of hard for him to be around. Bonner continues to show up for tipp-off club events. I have know idea what the relationship between Hughes and the school is. I know it was rocky for awhile. Heard it recently had a thawing.

Cajun alot of programs like to have a scholorship avalible in the spring. You never know what what transfers and late qualifiers will pop up. I think Roy knows exactly what the Kevin situation was. He is a friend of the family.

His is the real deal. I think we are going to get him. This is the class Brad has to make his mark with.

Where do you come up with this line: If AB gets the Vashon job I am wondering what his feelings are for his Alma Mater after we pretty much forgotten him. Seriously, you have no basis for it. AB has always had a strong relationship with SLU. Just like in your post yesterday when you brought up Altman. I gave you a link showing you the Altman record at CU. It show that the beginning was in fact worse than Brad's beginning at SLU. You would have ran the same coach out of town that you were useing as an example of the type of coach you want. You just get so much stuff wrong. You just throw stuff up against the wall and hope something will stick. It is ok to complain, but back it up with some facts.

Sorry, Rich, I forgot to answer a couple of your questions. I don't think Grawer needed a break. I think on off-season would have refreshed him. Grawer should have been told he had one more year at least with that recruiting class. He would have looked much better if that was the case. Skinner and Irvin were bad news, Irvin in paticular. They shouldn't have been on the team. Grawer felt he had to take a chance on Irvin because his job was on the line. Melvin is Melvin. I don't know if you have ever met him Rich. If you have, you won't forget it. At the time I heard both Floyd and Bonner told him to stay. Later on I heard Floyd actually told him to transfer when he did. Floyd and others were worried about who the new coach might be. They didn't want Melvin to have to sit out for a full year if he decided to transfer later.

Do I Think Grawer getting fired was justified? The quick answer is no. Do I uderstand the decision? That answer is yes. I don't know how you read into my post that I was saying that Yow was a coniving b----. She wanted only what most ADs do, to hire their own coach. To be consider a success here she was going to have to hire a coach that would be a success. It would not help her if someone else's hire was the success. This happens in every AD and in businees all the the time. Bosses want there people woking for them. Everybody knew the AD job here was not a destination job and Yow would eventually move on. Some boosters wanted a face they felt comfortable putting with their product. Nothing wrong with that either. If they are spending big time bucks they have the right to have their opinion heard. Was it an evil plan? No. Did it turn out to be the best thing for the program in the long run? No. Yow didn't even know Spoon was intrested in the job till after she fired Grawer and Tucci told her Spoon was really intrested. I don't blame either of those to groups for what happened. It was Biondi's job to look out for the long term interest of the program. I believe he has learned from that. That is the reason Brad was hired and his position is safe.

B-law, if you believe all of the scouting scources for HS players this Mizzou is for more talented than the Bills team was in Brad's first year. Those players you keep on complaining about Brad not getting. But those facts wouldn't allow you to rip Brad one more time.

Roy, I dont think him having the Blazer was ever in doubt. The source of the Blazer was.

Altman hasn't left Creighton and won't because of the way he was run out of K-State. If the Bills hired a coach that had Altman's record at K-State you would rip the decision like there is no tomorrow. Why don't you take a look at Altman's record in his first four years at CU. Here is the link: http://www.gocreighton.com/items_of_intere...s.asp?BiosID=68 Now you can have a clue when you compare Brad to Altman. You would have been trying to run him out of town just like you are trying to run Brad out of town. Gillespie was trying to get the Mizzou job. During the NCAA, he got himself on every radio station in the state that would put him on talk about himself. MU would not consider a current head coach within the conference. So yeah, he would leave A&M for Florida in a heart beat. Just like he left UTEP. Sampson left before he got ran out of town, for a job that seemed only one other headcoach wanted. That coach is Alford. He is on the hot seat himself in Iowa. There must be some big time problems behind the scenes at IU. Self left the Illini for one of the top for jobs in the country. Almost any coach would have trouble turning KU down. For everyone of those guys that don't stay you have those that will. But those guys you have to give a chance to build a program. For the Altmans, the Cheneys, and the Martellis of this world it didn't happen over night.

Brad is the guy, in my opinion. That said, let's get to the tourney first.

I am not a Pearl fan, but that was a pretty nice vehicle Thomas was driving. I don't know if Pearl made all that up. Somebody does need to let Pearl know that the use of anti-perspirant should not be optional.

Yeah, we should have hired Bruce Pearl after Romar. Another guy using the program as a step up and then leaving. Does anybody think that Pearl created a consitent top 50 program UMW before he left. SIU learned it's lesson on this. They lost Weber and Painter. Then they hired the guy that would stick around for a while. THe worst thing that can happen to you on the recruiting trail is when players don't believe the coach is going to be there for his four year run. Ask Tulsa fans how much fun it is to lose a coach every five years. The guys that Hardball always talks about are guys that wouldn't have stuck around. They don't want to build a program at SLU, they just wan't to do what ever it takes to have one really good year. Then they move on to the bigger school in the bigger conference. They don't care about the players or the program the leave behind.

Roy, my position on the merits of Grawer and Spoon have shifted many times over the years. I think they were very close in most ways. You are definitly right about the way Spoon's teams got after it defensivly. They were fun to watch. I didn't think you were trying to put Grawer down. I wasn't trying to put Spoon down. I think they both really good coaches and they are both really good people. I just think that the Grawer firing started this whole cycle of starting over every few years. It shouldn't have been that way.

Rich, I didn't think you were attacking Grawer. I am sorry if my comments at the end of my reply made it seem that way. I was just stating that I really genuinely enjoy being able to argue about what we need to do to be a top 50 program. We were really close when I was a kid to losing that chance. After the two year run in the NIT, the team become much more marketable. Up till that point on TV our color man had the job because his department stores and computer stores were the only companies that wanted to spend major money to advertise during the games. Now you had other people putting more money into game advertising and into the program overall. As you stated Grawer always looked wrung during the season and didn't look much better in the off-season. He is was not the guy people really felt all that great about putting as the face of their restaurant or car dealership. When you add that to the fact that Yow wanted to put a stamp on her resume by hiring her own head coach, Grawer was done. Short of a winning season, with a talented but a super young team, Grawer was done. Short term it worked out. Yow got the Maryland job. Boosters got their spokesperson for their companies. We made the tournament, although this would have happened anyway. Long term it was the wrong move. Roy, when it comes to in game coaching you can argue who was better. Ask longtime Evansville and XU fans what they thought of Grawer as in game coach. They will tell you he is one of the best they have gone up against. Ask UNLV fans what they think about Spoon as an in game coach. Their answer won't be kind. As for developing talent, it is not close. Grawer was much better. You can ask Stipo, any of the players at MU when he was an asst, and his players at SLU how he improved there games. He was excellent when it came to improving the play of the big men. Hell he wrote a pretty well respected book about. Think about what he got out of the likes of Al-Martin and Hudson. Can't think of one true big man Spoon developed.

Rich, I didn't think you were attacking Grawer. I am sorry if my comments at the end of my reply made it seem that way. I was just stating that I really genuinely enjoy being able to argue about what we need to do to be a top 50 program. We were really close when I was a kid to losing that chance. After the two year run in the NIT, the team become much more marketable. Up till that point on TV our color man had the job because his department stores and computer stores were the only companies that wanted to spend major money to advertise during the games. Now you had other people putting more money into game advertising and into the program overall. As you stated Grawer always looked wrung during the season and didn't look much better in the off-season. He is was not the guy people really felt all that great about putting as the face of their restaurant or car dealership. When you add that to the fact that Yow wanted to put a stamp on her resume by hiring her own head coach, Grawer was done. Short of a winning season, with a talented but a super young team, Grawer was done. Short term it worked out. Yow got the Maryland job. Boosters got their spokesperson for their companies. We made the tournament, although this would have happened anyway. Long term it was the wrong move. Roy, when it comes to in game coaching you can argue who was better. Ask longtime Evansville and XU fans what they thought of Grawer as in game coach. They will tell you he is one of the best they have gone up against. Ask UNLV fans what they think about Spoon as an in game coach. Their answer won't be kind. As for developing talent, it is not close. Grawer was much better. You can ask Stipo, any of the players at MU when he was an asst, and his players at SLU how he improved there games. He was excellent when it came to improving the play of the big men. Hell he wrote a pretty well respected book about. Think about what he got out of the likes of Al-Martin and Hudson. Can't think of one true big man Spoon developed.

He knew he was gone. The team knew he was gone. He knew Yow and certain boosters wanted his head. Yow wanted to bring in a coach that she thought would cement her resume for the next level. Some boosters didn't like the fact that he wasn't the best spokesmen for their products. He had to win now and the team was built for it. So he had to take some chances on players that had some talent to go along with some major problems. I really do enjoy the fact that we can now sit here and argue about what needs to be done for this to be a top 50 program. If it wasn't for Grawer this would now be a division 3 program. I don't know how many people really know how close the school was to dropping all atheletics to D-3.

I think anybody that has been following the program for a long period of time knows you have to be pantient. The first big mistake was the Grawer firing. Some fans got a little jumpy after one year after he had the best recruiting class SLU has ever had. They bring in Spoon, who after Grawers kids graduate, decides he doesn't want to work at recruiting any longer. We get lucky landing Larry, because Spoon doesn't have to leave town to get him. Those early teams would have ended up dancing with Grawer as coach and would have advance further. They would have kept Winfield and K. Grawer. One went on to start and the other the first guy off the bench for teams that went further in the tournament. Grawer would have also kept a pipeline open to the city public and minority public county high schools. That hire didn't do a damn thing to help the program, unless you are a booster that sells pasta. They then hire Romar, who I think is a great coach and recruiter. The problem with him is this job was a stepping stone for him. You can keep hiring guys like him but you are willing to keep on rebuilding every five our six years. If you are looking to build for the long term Brad is your guy right now. You need somebody that wants to stay here for a while. Compare his start to Martelli's start. With the exception of the first and second year when he had someone else's players it took him five years to get it rolling. http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/school...rtelliBio07.pdf

Tatum POY level, now that is just funny. Braun all-conference, that is just stupid. I also love how you try to add the mid-major put down at the end. Victor, anybody not in the a BCS conference is a mid-major. Call us that all you want, doesn't bother me.