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RUBillsFan

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Everything posted by RUBillsFan

  1. Your post sent me down a rabbit whole of searching Otzelberberg on the board and reading through the coaching search threads from 2016....and holy this post you made almost 8 years ago! It should be noted that Otzelberger has now coached at 3 different schools during Ford's tenure. I highly doubt he'd still be at SLU, but that's fine. Use us a stepping stone & then we just keep making good coaching hires. That route has been successful for a lot more programs we consider our peers than a route of trying to get a coach who will stay forever.
  2. If I'm making a college head coaching hire, I'd honestly be more inclined to hire a guy who is recommended by a bunch of high level AAU coaches, international youth level coaches, and/or high level Juco coaches than a guy recommended by NBA head coaches and blue blood college head coaches. I'm not saying the first guys exists, just that recommendations from the latter group shouldn't carry a ton of weight just because of their celebrity status.
  3. If SLU does indeed hire Schertz for the job, we 100% need to get Nickelodeon on the line to do a "Salute Your Schertz" night / Nickelodeon kids TV broadcast from Chaifetz Arena. Bring in Michael Bower aka Donkeylips to do color commentary. You're welcome fellow 90s Nick kids / Billiken fans.
  4. Reminder: 2023 Salaries per some quick Google research: Kelsey - $1.1 million May - $1.25 million Sprinkle - $900k DeVries - $630k Travis Ford - $2.34 million All these guys would be adding at least a million to their salaries. If they don't get P6 jobs, they'd be crazy to think that SLU is not a step up & jump at the chance for a million dollar+ raise.
  5. Oh man. That sucks. MBM prayers for the 4 year old (and for the rest of the family's sanity). As a parent, kids getting sick is a nightmare. You do what you can, but the kid still feels miserable, so you feel miserable.
  6. His interview Podcasts are cringey & awkward as hell which goes right along with what you are saying. Honestly, why TF is May even the ones doing those interviews?
  7. I'd disagree with this. Rick brought in some guys who weren't total gym rats / not "ready to absorb his coaching". Those guys (mostly) just transferred out. If you didn't execute the way Rick demanded, you'd probably sit & he'd make things not very fun for you in practice. Guys like Cody Ellis & Mike McCall I think are examples who stuck it out despite tough love. I'm assuming guys like Ruben Cotto, Brett Thompson, Justin Jordan, etc. all left because they weren't "ready to absorb his coaching".
  8. Others have already pointed out some massive differences, but to add to those: Kim Anderson was 58 when he was hired at Mizzou and Ben McCollum is 42 right now. That's a fairly significant gap. The jump from DII to SEC is bigger than DII to A10. I think Mizzou had some restrictions / was under probation from Frank Haith stuff during Kim Anderson's tenure. That not to say that there wouldn't be some risk in hiring McCollum, but Anderson's failure at Mizzou does not count at all as a negative for McCollum.
  9. It seems like the issue isn't necessarily a lack of NIL funds. It is just a misuse / squandering of them. We've seen this story over and over again under May & Ford with regards to the men's basketball program. Less with more. Don't worry though Ford has a plan now.
  10. My biggest beef with Ford going into this season was basically that he was overpaid for the results he was getting. He'd arguably been a more successful coach compared to others (excluding Spoon & Majerus) at SLU historically. It was just that we were paying him the highest salary in the A10 for upper-middle of the A10 results. This would never happen, but...If you told me going into the year that Ford had 4 year / $10 million left on his deal, it was going to be renegotiated to a 10 year / $10 million deal with the annual savings funneled to NIL via boosters. I'd think that was great & give Ford a few years of runway to see how it works. Now - this season has been a total dumpster fire & I'm not sure any level of pay cut with extra going to NIL would make me okay with keeping Ford.
  11. I'm almost positive this is NOT the case in the US (and Missouri). Employers aren't required to offer paid maternity leave. The only requirement is Family Medical Leave (FMLA) which is limited to 12 weeks and unpaid. No idea what is typical for colleges. If SLU went above & beyond that in Shields case, good on them. It doesn't necessarily mean the AD isn't a dumpster fire in other respects.
  12. With similarly untalented rosters: 2015-16 season under Crews - final KenPom rating 226 2016-17 season under Ford - final KenPom rating 273 I think you can argue about which roster is "better", but they both sucked. It doesn't matter, but I'd say on pure Xs & Os Crews is marginally better. Ford is a better overall coach because he's light years ahead in the Jimmys & Joes category.
  13. It seems like Jimerson setting screens is a new wrinkle in our offense. I don't recall him setting many screens in previous years or even earlier this year. I really like a guy who is an excellent 3pt shooter setting screens because it has potential to throw the defense into chaos. It reverses what the defense is normally focused on (help on drives to the basket). Instead they're worried about the guy setting the screen popping out to the 3pt line. This is part of what makes Steph Curry so good in the NBA is that he sets a lot of screens that either free him up or free up teammates going to the basket.
  14. Grandy showed some massive onions with the steal & layup vs NC State. You'd have to check with @billikenfan05 to see if Grandy is still showing massive onions.
  15. They don't directly use scoring margin, but they use net offensive & defensive efficiency which are heavily influenced by the scoring margin. Regardless, the SIUC game is a massive anchor dragging our NET down because we got our asses handed to us (Wichita State and Vermont were also bad, but not as bad).
  16. Can make a FT better than Hasahn. If you're counting on Brad to make a FT late in the game, you better make sure you have your anxiety meds. He's a career 58% FT shooter which is way better than Has at 34%, but still well below average.
  17. I think the explanation here is that Brad was playing on the scout team because they didn't expect him to be eligible. He would essentially learn how our opponents play and try to mimic that in practice to better prepare the our guys who were actually expected to play in the games. The optimistic take is that Brad wasn't practicing as a member of the rotation. As he develops familiarity, he'll get better. Pessimistic take is that as opponents scout us with Brad, they'll be better prepared to slow him down.
  18. You can add Booker to that list as well. I've posted in the past that I think Goodwin is a better fit than Grayson Allen next to any 2+ of those 3 elite scorers. Nurkic isn't a stiff / defense only type center either. If that is your 4/5 of your closing rotation, you don't need much offense from the 5th guy.
  19. This was Beal's 1st game back & he only played 27 minutes, but pretty huge that JGood got 30 minutes of run in a game where both Beal & Booker were both healthy. Grayson Allen was out, so it still remains to be seen how much PT JGood gets when the Suns are fully healthy. I'm optimistic he's shown enough & is really the only option at backup PG that he'll continue to be in the rotation.
  20. Let me preface this by saying I think SLU should fire Travis Ford (and Chris May) absent some kind of incredible run the rest of the season. I'm not privy to the financial aspects of it and, while disappointing, I could see how that may change what actually happens. That being said, I'm in agreement that whining about Ford here, on a Podcast, on Twitter, etc. has become tedious. It has sucked some joy out of just watching Billiken basketball & Billiken victories. I'd really hate to think that because MMP did good numbers after the SIUC debacle, they've decided to chase listeners by continuing to bash Ford. I don't think that's the case / I hope that's not the case. I've just seen so often the sports media playing to the lowest common denominator for ratings that I worry. I also don't have an issue with Ford said / didn't really think he was calling out fans by talking about the negative comments. I'd get it if he specifically came out and said "The Midtown Madness guys are just full of negative comments & have nothing better to do". He's just using a perceived negative bogeyman / internet troll type to motivate the players. Basically telling them to ignore the noise & go prove "the haters" wrong. He is not calling out fans specifically & we (including myself here) all think he should be fired regardless of what he says or whether the team beats Hofstra at home. Trying to turn it into something more is just piling on Ford when it isn't necessary or it is having "main character" syndrome thinking Ford is talking about you specifically because you've made negative comments online about him.
  21. I feel like we've reached this basically politics level of disagreement over Travis Ford whereby anything he does is going to be seen as a negative by his detractors and a positive or excused by his supporters.
  22. Gordon was only here for 1/2 season. Jimmy Bell at 2 years is (I think) the only traditional big man (outside of French) who came in as a freshman & was here more than 1 year. if you want count Welmer because his 1st year playing was under Ford he stuck around, but was rarely health after that 1 year. Jalen Johnson and KC Hankton were 2 years, but not really a traditional bigs. DJ Foreman, Rashed Anthony, Francis Okoro, Marten Linssen, Jake Forrester we’re transfers. Santos also a transfer but never played. Diarra, Traore, and Cisse were gone after 1 year. Ford’s teams have rarely had quality depth in the front court. He struck out in the portal this off-season and was banking on a 2 time transfer being eligible which exasperated the problem.
  23. Coach K disciples don’t have a great track record as NCAA head coaches though. There have been a ton of them and Mike Brey is the only really successful one at an A10 level or above (who isn’t currently coaching Duke).
  24. Per KenPom we're 81st in the country in 3pt % (36.3%, KenPom doesn't count non-D1 games) and 342nd on 2pt % (42.0%). However, our 3pt attempt rate (3 pt FGA / all FGA) is 229th in the country. As is typically the case with Travis Ford SLU teams (aside from maybe 2019 when we had an awful 3pt shooting team), we should be taking more 3 pointers and less 2 pointers.
  25. Rashad Williams is at Arkansas Pine Bluff: Averaging 18.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 4.1 apg and 3.3 TOs. Numbers are inflated by 3 games vs non-D1 opponents. Still chucking plenty of 3s (nearly 8 per game & making over 40%), but has diversified his offensive game a bit and is taking over 7 2pt FGs per game as well. He's essentially the same player as always - volume shooter/scorer who can thrive at a lower level, but doesn't fit a role on a good team.
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