RUBillsFan

If you're assuming that other players would have followed Tatum to SLU, then his supporting cast is not "monkey - blind kid - grandma." Given what happened with Ben Simmons and LSU last year, I don't think you can say with confidence that a Tatum led SLU team makes the tournament without any other talent on the team. Now if your argument is that if we had Ford a year earlier, he got Tatum to commit, and we were able to add some other talented players because of Ford and Tatum, then I think you have an argument. However, the two are completely different scenarios.

Grad assistant position is open...application info here: http://hoopdirt.com/job/graduate-assistant-st-louis-university/

It is an overly simplistic view point to group coaches into X's and O's guys and recruiters. There is a pretty wide spectrum of awful to excellent in each of those categories. Further, there are some coaches who coach defense very well, but can't coach offense (Sodie IMO was good at D, bad at O; Majerus was transcendent at D, and just okay at O) and vice versa (think Mike D'Antoni). Some coaches have "systems" and must recruit certain types of players to fit their "system". Others try to develop their system based upon the talent they have.

ESPN article on A-10 arenas http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/17145766/atlantic-10-venues-ranked-according-difficulty SLU is ranked 7 of 14. Rankings seem to be heavily weighted to recent success which makes them pretty flawed. I'm sure you could run a statistical analysis of how teams perform overall and then measure the boost they get from playing at home which seems like it would be a more objective measure. There is also a fan poll to vote for which you think is the toughest: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/115742/vote-which-atlantic-10-venue-is-the-toughest-place-to-play Naturally, you should vote for Chaifetz.

If people want to see merchandise at stores / online with the new Billiken logo on it, they should contact the customer service departments of the various sports apparel providers and ask for it. If the stores see a demand, they will stock the merchandise. Complaining about it on a message board might raise awareness, but it is not going to accomplish much.

Are you including Conklin and Majerus in that statement? Those two absolutely deserve to be in.

My wife would approve of your thriftiness choice of diapers (Target brand, I believe) and your choice of receiving blanket (the muslin ones are great). I approve of the T-shirt.

Based on these criteria Brian Conklin and (I assume) Rick Majerus (under a separate category) would be eligible for the 1st time this year (also Kyle Cassity, but IMO he doesn't have the resume to warrant serious consideration). Other men's basketball players who aren't currently in the HOF, but perhaps may warrant consideration: Tommie Liddell III - 8th all time in points (probably not in due to off the court factors) Luther Burden - 15th all time in points Carl Johnson - 20th all time in points Virgel Cobbin - 1,000 point club, 4th all time in 3pt made Jerry Koch - 2nd all time in rebounds Ian Vouyoukas - 1,000 point club, 1st all time in blocked shots Josh Fisher - 1st all time in assists, 2x in NIT John Kilo & Gary Lamps - only Academic All-America honorees with previous eligibility who aren't currently in the HOF (do not appear to have on-court contributions that stack up) John Bennington (head coach) - 4th all time in wins, tied for 4th longest tenure (7 seasons), 2nd all time in winning % (min 50 games)

This website lists contact info for almost everyone in the athletic department including the new men's basketball staff: http://www.slubillikens.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=210011524&DB_OEM_ID=27200&DB_OEM_ID=27200 Department of Athletics Mailing Address: Chaifetz Arena3330 Laclede Ave.St. Louis, MO 63103Phone Number: 314-977-3177 Chris May, Director of Athletics 977-3167 [email protected] Travis Ford, Head Coach 977-3170 [email protected] Will Bailey, Assistant Coach [email protected] Van Macon, Assistant Coach 977-3168 [email protected] Michael Wilson, Video Coordinator 977-3255 [email protected] Megan Centers, Office Coordinator 977-3170 [email protected]

Correction...it actually a fart not a sigh. Gus doesn't know the guys on the current roster. Let alone a former recruiting target who chose a different school. Although we'll still get the pleasure of hearing Gus botch Kostas Antetokounmpo's name at least one game a year since he chose UD.

As someone who had a baby compete (and lose) in the most recent race, I'll throw out that that focus / timing is the most important thing. You can have the fastest crawling baby in the world, but once they are out on the court lined up with 20 or so other babies they'll be very easily distracted. Mommy is 20+ feet away at the finish line, so their focus is going right to the baby in the lane next to them. If it is nap time or meals aren't planned properly, then your baby is toast as well.

Don't get me wrong, I love having an article about the Billikens on SI.com. However, this Q&A provides absolutely nothing. Ford's answers are very bland or just "coachspeak". I don't buy for a second that it was solely about finding a great place for his family to live. SLU likely offered him the most money or very close to it and the best opportunity to potentially make more in the future. Obviously he is not going to say that though and talking about the importance of family sounds good to everyone.

I was wondering about Crawford too. I was thinking more along the lines of him graduating and being eligible to play right away at another school as a graduate transfer. I'd hate to see him go because that would mean we lose likely one of the better players on the team next year. He also seems like a great student and person off the court who represents the program well. That being said, it would make a ton of sense for him to transfer if he wants to play for a winner. This team is not being built to contend next year, but rather for the following year when Crawford is gone anyways. In the right situation, I could see Crawford transferring to a low / mid-major (Horizon, MAC, or OVC team) with NCAA hopes next year and where he fits with the team's needs. Again, I don't want to see this happen. However, given the choice between an extra year of Crawford with a bad team and adding a very good piece for the future, I'd probably go with the future.

Zips fans getting their Saints mixed up.

If you count Bess, Henriquez, and Foreman as part of the 2016 recruiting class along with Johnson and Moore, is this the most talented class in the history of SLU? Not saying that they are the best or will be the most successful. I'm just thinking purely in terms of talent. Bess and Henriquez were both 4 star recruits. I do not think SLU has ever had 2 4 stars in one class.

Another sort of benefit is that having 3 scholarships taken by guys who have to sit next year means more playing time for the rest of the roster. None of this Jim Crews crap where we play 13 or 14 guys and it is hard to get a feel for which guys are promising. We are likely going to suck next year, but at least some useful pieces (JB will get plenty of experience (hopefully) and there will be little question about which guys aren't cut out for A10 level play. It will sort of be like when freshman year McCall and Jett played a ton and then we added Kwam the next year. The experience of playing a lot likely made McCall and Jett much better than if they had to sit behind Kwam.

I did some analysis of Ford's non-conference schedules from 2015-16 at OSU going back through his UMass days to his final year at EKU 2004-05. Here are some findings: -Ford has played 2 exhibition games more often than 1 (I'm assuming only 1 exhibition means a closed door scrimmage). However, 3 out of the last 4 seasons, his teams only played 1 exhibition game. My guess would be that we will continue the trend SLU has seen with 1 exhibition and 1 scrimmage (if anyone cares). -The exhibition games seem to be typically against local schools (OK Panhandle, OK Baptist), but he did play Cambpellsville (his first coaching gig in KY) a couple of times in exhibition games. My guess for exhibition opponents would be the typical schools (UMSL, Harris Stowe, Fontebonne, Rockhurst), but I wouldn't be surprised if we see an exhibition against Campbellsville as well. -Most common non-conf opponent was Tulsa (all while he was with OSU). I'm assuming this is just a regional rivalry game, so wouldn't expect SLU to play Tulsa, but you never know. There are lot of regional series (ex Boston College and Boston U while at UMass) and regional buy games (Central Conn St, Dartmouth vs UMass, Central Ark, UTSA, North Texas vs OSU). Therefore, I'd expect SLU to continue series such as the SIUC series and potentially add MO State (more on that later). I also wouldn't be surprise with buy games against the likes of SEMO or SIUE continuing. -His teams played Savannah State 5 times (1 at OSU, 2 at UMass, 2 at EKU). Last time was 2009, but we've seen SLU play Savannah St before, so it wouldn't surprise me if they are a semi-regular on the schedule as buy game. -OSU played MO State 4 times (10, 11, 12, & 15). Resuming the series with MO State seems probable sooner or later. -OSU played Arkansas Pine-Bluff 4 times (09, 11, 13, 15). Again, we've seen them on the SLU schedule in the past and this is a probable buy game opponent. -OSU played Virginia Tech 4 times (10, twice in 11, and 12), but two of those games were in early season tournaments, so I don't think that is predictive. I was looking for other major conference opponents that were regulars on his schedule, but I don't see any. Most seem to be just a 2 game series. Maybe we can get some Big 12 opponents given Ford's history there. TLDR - Again, I'd expect a similar schedule to what we've seen in the past.

I thought it would be interesting to look and any trends with Coach Ford's non-conference schedules from previous seasons. For right now I'm going to look at out of conference strength of schedule (OOC SOS): It feels like SLU has had a pretty poor out of conference strengths of schedule most years, but the numbers don't exactly bear that out. Here are the ranks the past few years (based on NCAA RPI - imperfect measure, but easily available): 2016 - 156 2015 - 253 2014 - 72 2013 - 86 2012 - 138 Meanwhile here are where Ford's teams ranked OSU 2016 - 303 2015 - 145 2014 - 97 2013 - 103 2012 - 157 2011 - 141 2010 - 119 2009 - 21 UMass 2008 - 39 2007 - 119 2006 - 71 EKU 2005 - 120 First a few caveats. I believe that often assistant coaches or DOBs have more to do with setting up the schedule than head coaches. However, I am assuming the head coach has some influence on the overall strength. The schedules for Ford's 1st years on the job may have already been in place somewhat because of previous commitments, so those likely should be thrown out. Also, at EKU Ford was likely scheduling a lot of buy games, so that likely isn't predictive for SLU going forward. I wanted to take the numbers back to his UMass days because presumably with OSU being in one of the top (if not the top) basketball conferences, he would not have necessarily needed to put together a strong OOC schedule to wind up with a good overall SOS. The relatively higher numbers while at UMass compared to OSU seem to bare this out. There also seems to be some stronger scheduling for his better teams. Overall, it looks like we can expect Ford to put together a similar or slightly stronger OOC schedule than we have been used to seeing at SLU. The awful 2016 schedule looks like an anomaly for him as his team typically have an OOC SOS around 150 or higher. Given his schedules at UMass look stronger than his OSU schedules, I would assume we will see something similar while he is at SLU. At some point in the future, I may look into teams that he has scheduled regularly in the OOC schedule because that may hint at who we might see SLU play going forward.

Not defending the NCAA by any means, but I believe most student athletes (especially in revenue sports) take the minimum amount of hours to be a full time student during their in-season semester(s) and then make up for it by taking a ton of summer classes. Therefore, summer practices may actually be a bigger drag on academics than practices during the season.

Great stuff Wiz. I had considered comparing the records for coaches in the article (like I did for A10 coaches in the 1st point in my earlier post), but you beat me to it and did a much better job than I could have. I also had remembered some media types lauding the Crews hire, but I couldn't remember exactly who/where. Bravo for finding the article and pointing out the awfulness of these lists.

This is not an article. It is a "list"icle designed to generate clicks for the website. The SportingNews is not relevant anymore in today's media. The listicle doesn't give any kind of criteria for ranking best vs worst. There is a vague reference to amusement park rides and getting fans hopes up only to "fall back down to Earth" when the hire is announced. Therefore, you have to assume the rankings are supposed to be based somewhat on the fan reaction or expectations which would be based on the current state of the program and program history. The rankings, however, do not bear that out. Because SLU's program under Crews became abysmal and SLU not being in a major conference doesn't have the same prestige or possibly money as some of the other schools listed. There seem to be 3 main knocks on Ford in the article: mediocre record, poor NCAA tournament performance, and declining attendance at OSU Mediocre Record?: Ford is knocked mostly for his overall coaching record being slightly above .500 (278 - 222, .552. However, this doesn't take into account that before OK State he often took over very poor programs before turning things around. Therefore, the first year or three he had poor records through little fault of his own. For example his first 3 years at EKU plus his first year at UMass his record was 38 - 71. If you lop those years off his winning % jumps to a more respectable .614. More importantly let's look at the career (DI) winning % of some other A10 coaches: Bob McKillop - Davidson - .621 - This is boosted by years of winning in the mediocre Southern Conference. Before Davidson joined the A-10 his conference winning % was .735 with his OOC winning % was below .500. In fairness, Davidson has done well in the A10 the past 2 years as well. Archie Miller - Dayton - .676 Very good coach, unfortunately, it is probably a matter of time before moves on. Record also speaks to the state of Dayton's program as a solidly good program, but not really elite. Jim Ferry - Duquesne - .472 Jeff Neubauer - Fordham - .581 - mostly from his long tenure at EKU (Ohio Valley Conf) Mike Longergan - GW - .618 - boosted by his time at Vermont (American East) John Giannini - LaSalle - .504 Dan Hurley - Rhode Island - .538 Chris Mooney - Richmond - .559 Mark Schmidt - St. Bona - .502 Phil Martelli - St. Joes - .596 Derek Kellogg - UMass - .541 Will Wade - VCU - .644 Only 3 years, 1 at VCU, 2 at Chattanooga (Southern Conf). With the exception of Archie Miller and possibly Martelli (too early for Wade), I would argue that Ford's winning percentage / career resume is more impressive than any other coach in the A10. Most of them padded their winning percentages coaching at the low major level for a long stretch and none have ever coached in a "major" conference. SLU's overall winning % for the history of the program is .540, so Ford is actually an improvement over that figure. Poor Performance in NCAAs? There is also a swipe at Ford for early exits in the NCAAs. Which is valid and the main beef some folks on this board have. Let's look closer at Ford's NCAA history: 2005 w EKU - lost as a #15 to #2 Kentucky by a score of 72-64. An 8 point loss by a #15 seed is actually fairly decent. I'd argue this team achieved slightly better than expected. 2009 w OK St - won as #8 vs #9 Tenn 77-75. Lost in round of 32 to #1 Pitt 84-76. Again I'd argue this team achieved slightly better than expected. 2010 w OK St - lost as #7 to #10 Georgia Tech 64 - 59. No shame in losing as a #7 to the #10 seed in a close game. Slightly worse than expected. 2013 w OK St - lost as a #5 to #12 Oregon 68 -55. SLU fans know a thing or two about this (under seeded) Oregon team as it would trounce #4 SLU in the next round and give #1 Louisville (eventual champ) a tough game. Worse than expected, but not as bad as it looks on paper given how well Oregon played in that tournament. 2014 w OK St - lost as a #9 to #8 Gonzaga 85-77. No shame in losing as the #9 seed. 2015 w OK St - lost as a #9 to #8 Oregon - 79-73. No shame in losing as the #9 seed. Overall a very poor record (1 - 6), but not as bad compared to expectations. I'd expect his teams to have won maybe 3 or 4 games vs 1. However, most of the games were toss ups and they lost by a small margin. His team performing below expectations record wise could very well just be bad luck in a small sample of games. I'd argue they were never big favorites in any of these games. Also note that Ford did take UMass as a #2 seed in the NIT to the title game, so it is not like he has never had any postseason success. Ford took over at EKU for the 2000-2001 season and his teams have made 7 NCAA tournaments winning 1 game. SLU has made the NCAAs 3 times since then and won 3 games. Declining Attendance?: Finally, Ford is knocked for declining attendace at OSU games. I'd argue the only way he controls this is by winning games and he did win a fair amount at OSU. Marketing and ticket sales people also influence attendance so a decline is not all on Ford. However, he probably deserves some of the blame as he was unable to win at the level of Eddie Sutton. Look at this article on OSU attendance (http://www.pistolsfiringblog.com/oklahoma-state-posts-worst-basketball-attendance-since-gia-expanded/). I'm not interested in the words in the article as much as the graphs and figures. Ford's attendance decline can be explained by the fact that Sutton took OSU to it's peak (Final Four then Sweet 16) shortly before retiring and Ford took over (following two mediocre Sean Sutton years) as that Final Four glow was wearing off. The article also mentions that OSU underwent a major arena rennovation / expansion in 2000. Ford took over in 2008, so the novelty of a "new" area had also worn off by the time Ford took over. Ford also had the misfortune of taking over at OSU the same year that the SuperSonics moved to OKC and became the Thunder. Stillwater is an hour drive from OKC, so a majority of its fan base had a different (better?) basketball option during Ford's tenure. As the Thunder got better OSU's basketball attendance only got worse. You'll also notice that the overall NCAA attendance is also declining. You can hardly blame Ford for college basketball declining in popularity overall. Given the extremely poor attendance at Chaifetz last year, I'd be shocked if it somehow declines further under Ford and I expect an uptick. TLDR: The "article" is not very well thought out and the knocks against Ford are not that bad when you consider the circumstances. I think he was a reasonable good hire for SLU. EDIT: Fixed the name of the school that Jim Ferry coaches.

Would this kid be restricted from following Ford to SLU? Looks like he would be a decent PG for the transfer team after we add Bess as the SF. Then we only need a center and we have a brand new starting 5 in 2 years.

Exactly this. Additionally Willie doesn't seem to harbor any ill will toward SLU over the way things ended up. His tweets indicate he is still proud of his time in a Billiken uniform and roots for the team. A very long and productive NBA career for Willie is a good thing for SLU.

I don't want to be a negative nancy, but wasn't Ash ranked fairly high? Obviously his numbers at Villlanova were disappointing though and Adonys has very solid numbers at UCF. EDIT: Nevermind. Verbal Commits shows that the highest ranking for Ash was 126 by Rivals. I must have been thinking of his positional rank.