TheChosenOne

I saw a quote on another fan message board that Calipari talked about supporting a return to the five years to play four seasons rule that was in place prior to COVID saying something about 28 year olds playing 18 year olds which I found amusing. I have been quite surprised to see the age of some of the guys playing on Saturdays this fall and was this past March Madness as well. It certainly would seem like this will have to normalize with the COVID year filtering out and the enforcement of the one time transfer.

I've always said we should be recruiting California... On paper this definitely looks like a quality get and we beat out some solid programs to land his commitment. Well done.

I meant the coach speak/bs he says in these types of interviews. Since so many coaches do it, I’m not going to take a shot at Ford for doing so as well. The roster construction is certainly problematic.

I am convinced Ford has bets with his assistant coaches with respect to the things he says in the off season. I bet you won't say French is working on his 3 point shot feels similar to saying the front court is as deep as ever when mentioning Hargrove playing the 5. Nothing he can say will satisfy a restless fanbase, so this isn't a shot at Ford. Ultimately, the team just needs to exceed expectations this fall/winter and get us all back on board.

Goodwin is just an absolute dog. One of those guys you can put on any team and no matter how talented the team is, he will find a role and produce. Just so damn competitive and tough. And he clearly has worked his tail off developing his game, so I don’t want the first few lines to be seen as implying he is merely a junkyard dog, the guy is a player. So proud to see what he has done, dude earned it.

Good point on the candidate. Seldom is a hire truly a home run without questions and some level of doubt. I am closer to you and torch with respect to my opinion of Ford, but less aggressive with wanting to fire him (and I suppose the discussion doesn't matter at this point). I would have given him this season with it being make or break. Unfortunately, the offseason did little to ease my concerns and now I am so concerned with our ability to compete in NIL under this current regime. Nobody took the bull by the horns with respect to NIL and the interview Troy did with Slaten further supported those concerns. This isn't on Troy, but the athletic department and program in general failing to see an opportunity. Instead, Troy talks about Mizzou almost taking passive aggressive shots at them in his interview, well I see their basketball program currently has the top recruiting class for 2024 on rivals (I assume it will not finish that way, but still) and a lot of smoke around their football program. Maybe mock them less and follow their lead. If Ford goes after this season, I hope May is gone too. We need leaders that see a changing landscape and view it is an opportunity and work to position the program to take advantage of those changes. Instead, we are once again playing from behind.

@thetorchthat is a reasonable response to my question (I had not really considered a comparison to that Sodie final season, but that is fair). I think I had checked out and didn’t realize just how many folks supported Ford being fired after the season. I assumed most would be more in line with 05 and driven more to that point after you layer on the off-season activity. What are we thinking the buyout looks like?

I think that’s close to where I am at now too unfortunately. Hopefully the team surprises us. And if not, we can discuss who our next coach should be.

Absent the contract, did folks actually think Ford was deserving of being fired? I was disappointed with last season and questioned the future of the team, but would not have supported firing Ford without some exciting candidate essentially lined up that would not be around down the line. I don’t know his contract, but think asking folks to buy him out in the spring wouldn’t get much support. Six months from now that might be a different discussion.

I do think if Hargrove is having to play the 5 that Ford might not have any choice. Might not be the worst thing. Having to play that way essentially by default.

If you had concerns with our NIL efforts being insufficient or falling behind, I’d recommend not listening as it will just affirm your opinion and possibly make you throw something hearing the guy leading the NIL effort at SLU bemoaning NIL. Also, he makes it pretty clear SLU had nothing to do with the state legislation as they won’t pursue it since it is state law vs. NCAA rule. So bad. I do plan to have Jimerson making balloon animals at my next birthday though.

Copied directly from the website: The Billiken Victory Fund is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization with approval pending from the IRS.

Troy was on Kevin Slaten’s show, the King’s Court. Give it a listen, but my initial thoughts are that our fears are well founded and not doing interviews was probably the right decision. https://590thefan.com/radio-shows/the-kings-court-with-kevin-slaten/

What show was he on? Might be good for someone to link it since I doubt many folks were listening live to 590 the fan this afternoon.

I have no involvement in the show. I get your primary point, just maybe not how you brought it up using their podcast that has made an effort to assist the group. My only contribution to Billiken fandom was hosting one tailgate a few years back which was a bust (ended up being brutally cold) and I think maybe hosting one with Zac and Peter's show could be fun this season. I have not mentioned this to them, so this is not something in the works at all. I have essentially no life, so if anyone is interested maybe we can pick a game that makes sense. The preseason has been so quiet and we seem to be sniping a lot with each other, why not bring fans together to share a beer and fellowship before a game? My wife did enjoy hearing folks introduce themselves by their screen name, not sure she has ever been so attracted to me hahaha. But, it was really enjoyable to meet some of the folks who did brave the brutal weather.

Assuming we do in fact see a team that pushes tempo and presses, it will certainly be an interesting season.

Right. I don’t understand the argument. You all have offered up your platform and it is really strange you weren’t taken up on that offer. Trust me, I get that NIL is primarily for the whales, but to not talk to the passionate fans and let them know what the group is doing and how they can contribute is a missed opportunity.

That’s the thing, the level we were at is not sold out, so we could buy right back in to essentially those same seats if we wanted to.

I’m not as down on the program as some on here, but I can say we (my wife and I) did not renew our tickets for this season. We had tickets that included about a $500 donation per ticket. I don’t recall the exact split, but know each ticket was about $1,000 and split close to even between the ticket price and donation. Candidly it is more because of things Ford can’t control, I have such little interest in most of our schedule. I’m not bullish on the team, but lost interest in spending about $2,000 for tickets to games we largely end up having no desire attending and can’t even find folks to give the tickets away to. The above is an issue for sure. There is no buzz around the program currently. I’m not trying to make some big point about Ford and May by not renewing, but possibly a financial decision others make as well when it just isn’t worth it to spend that sort of $ to sit through boring games.

Chris May had as much impact as I did making that legislation happen. Kurtis Gregory asked Coach Drink what they needed from the state to be competitive (tired of Missouri always playing from behind) and they knocked this out. Seems pretty obvious Mizzou is taking advantage of NIL while we are not, might be worth May taking advantage of those connections having worked with Mizzou on this legislation (haha) to figure out what they are doing.

Is Mizzou aware May was helping? This was the work of Kurtis Gregory (state rep and former Mizzou offensive lineman), Eli Drinkwitz, and Desiree Reed-Francois. I do not care for Drinkwitz in general, but he has really taken NIL and run with it fully understanding its importance from the jump.

I haven't read all of the posts, so I am not trying to get in the middle of this. However, Zac and Peter's show speaks directly to the most passionate fans of the program. Going on their show at a minimum requires very little effort and makes logical sense. I am not sure there is a better place to let the passionate fans know what they are doing, their plans, and how folks can get involved. Build some excitement, we are seeing how to do it just up the road. Heck, maybe even run some special for those listeners or even folks on this website. Step one is certainly hitting up the whales, but this site and those who listen to Midtown Madness are the sickos who live and die with the program that might not have the resources, but are likely the most receptive to contributing to some extent. I read one post above that was so good about accepting mediocrity, such a great description of our athletic department and many of our boosters.

I gotcha, that is fair and I think we essentially agree. I didn't know where to place my arbitrary rating hahaha. It is just such an interesting time with NIL and the transfer portal changing the landscape. Coaches really need to be on point in their evaluations.

Ok. I am not even sure what we are arguing at this point. When we are being told the cost for a transfer is greater than that of a high school recruit and when we see major and high major programs adding transfers to the degree that they are (in the Arkansas example, they appear to have added Tramon Mark, Jeremiah Davenport, Keyon Menifield, Chandler Lawson, El Ellis, Khalif Battle, and Denijay Harris from the transfer portal this spring), it would seem like saying that the market for high school prospects is softer would be the logical conclusion. Maybe I should not have gone as high as top 50, but my point was that there is a point where prep prospects who likely would have been being pursued and targeted by high major programs likely are not due to those programs allocating scholarships for and adding transfers instead. I suppose agree to disagree.

The market has softened though. The competition for high school recruits outside of the surefire stars is lesser now that some high major programs are focusing so heavily on the transfer market. Sure top 100 kids are still going to have their list/choice of suitors, but it’s not going to be as large as it was a few years back. Mizzou landed a stud from Arkansas and Arkansas fans weren’t sure whether they were truly pursuing him, not often top hoopers leave that state.