TheChosenOne

I guess I question just how visible Majerus is to the national media and how he is a great "ambassador" of the school throughout the country. We don't play any games on national television and I have never seen Majerus on ESPN or the like. The biggest national story I saw was the article in Sports Illustrated and I did not take away a lot of positives from that. I live in St. Louis and could be missing these things though so I could be wrong on this. Here is the headline of an article from SI.com concerning the Billikens from yesterday "Majerus wants out of Atlantic-10."

Majerus has set himself up to where he has to start delivering things like this. If we don't start winning big then there is no way to defend his actions. We are able to put up with him to verying degrees because we see the program headed in a very promising direction, but if things don't pan out a lot of people will no longer put up with his shortcomings as a person/employee/coach.

The programs director Jason Barrett said that "Majerus is contractually obligated to appear." SLU nor anyone else has said anything to the contrary.

Regardless of how stupid the local media is, the fact is that the biggest media splashes since Majerus has taken over as head coach were his comments made during the primary followed by the article that was in SI. It is what it is. I was listening to Martin Kilcoyne and Frank this morning and they said the same thing. Frank said that it is a real shame that Majerus does not make any effort with regards to the media and that he considers Rick a friend. They both agree that winning will solve most of this, but question why it is so difficult to give a couple of hours of time a week to reach out to the media. You condemn the local media for not reporting on his actual job, but Majerus makes it very difficult for them to do that and that is the whole point of the article. Guys like Doug Vaughn, Martin Kilcoyne, and Frank have all talked about how difficult it is to get access to the coach and program. If you want positive things to be reported about the program before they are having huge success on the court, you better cater to the media a little bit and SLU has done the opposite of that. Pissing off the radio station that carries your games is probably not a good start either. Why can I hear Bruce Weber calling into the local radio station and not Rick Majerus?

I think its a pretty fair article and probably speaks for the local media beyond the SLU apologists like Rammer and Frank. Him bringing up the comments Majerus made during the primaries makes a legitimate point and that point is that the biggest media attention Majerus has drawn was from those comments and not from something the team has done on the court. It is not Dan Caesar's job to write about the direction of this program. Majerus failed to meet a media obligation that was a contractual obligation and I think that is news concerning the local media and worth Dan Caesar writing about. All of the professional coaches in town find time for the local media, yet Majerus just can't even commit one hour a week; that is ridiculous.

The comments concerning the cost of hotel rooms and meals is a moot point if the team is flying in days before the game even with charter flights. So then you are still talking about $25,000 for the flight and the cost of hotel rooms and food. This is a stubstantial amount of money for each road trip. Also the schedule would appear to be known fairly long in advance for travel arrangements to be made and decent rates to be locked in. When Pistol and I worked for the basketball team we seldom chartered flights and never had issues having the entire team on flights. This may have changed to some extent with airlines cutting flights. I can remember chartering a flight to Kansas State and I know they chartered a flight for the North Carolina game. Obviously claiming this is a significant hindrance to the student athletes is a load of crap if the team is in fact flying in days before the game and when all the other teams are flying commercial airlines and doing just fine in the classroom.

$25,000 is a lot of money for a flight and if they are flying in days before the game anyway (as reported by volfan) then you can't make the argument that it is of great benefit to the student athletes. Also, I am pretty certain the basketball team is the only team with that perk and it seems like the other student athletes are doing just fine in the classroom.

I know earlier in the season they chartered a flight for the Georgia game. I was told it was $25,000 for the flight. I know this because the basketball team was stuck waiting for the University to wire the money. Not surprising that the athletic department would leave a team stuck on the road because they did not arrange such a minor detail as the payment for a flight. So if anyone is curious of the price, there you go.

What a start to the 2nd OT. I am not a KC fan at all, but what a game he has had.

How refreshing is it to see that!?!?!?

Cassity had 18 against Kennesaw State. In that game he was 4 of 5 from beyond the arc.

Yeah he had a nice scoring game earlier in the season at home. What a night for Mitchell.

Well he has hit the rim on 2 of his 3 three point attempts.

Thank God that 3 rimmed out after the Cassity turnover.

Do we have a three beyond the one Mitchell hit?

Its a good thing Kwamain was able to play today.

And we are finally pulling away.

The refs are definitely helping us out tonight.

Yeah he is just getting to the basket at will.

Mitchell is dominating them. You would think they would step off him a bit.

I think Cassity has some competition.

Maybe we can make some free throws in the 2nd half. They already have 7 fouls.

Well at least Ellis was cleared today.

Cassity just cannot shoot. He is not even close from distance any more.

Mitchell is just carrying us.