cgeldmacher

Remember when we would always hear that SLU and its coaches under Crews had a problem with not showing certain recruits enough love. The SI article says that Ford and his coaches were going to all of French's games. In Massachusetts. All of them. “They basically targeted Hasahn from the day they got the job,” said PSA Cardinals assistant coach Mark Carter. “Travis Ford or assistant coach Van Macon were at every one of our games this spring and summer. Also while most coaches were in Las Vegas at the end of July, Ford was in Kansas City watching all of our games. That just showed the commitment they had to Hasahn and how much they wanted him to be a part of program.” This is why Ford is winning the recruiting game. Seems like he just knows what the hell he is doing.

Should I drive into the lane where four defenders are waiting for me and try to score even though there is very little chance of success? Answer: Yes Should I take this stolen phone and activate it knowing that phones can be tracked and using it has very little chance of success? Answer: Yes Sounds like his issues with poor judgment extend to off the court as well. I hope he is able to find success in life someday off the court/out of the courts.

#13 on ESPN in the 2018 rankings is Javonte Smart. He's a point guard out of Baton Rouge. Anyone know whether or not he is related to Marcus Smart?

Interestingly, even though SLU is picked to win the A-10, they got no votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Duquesne and George Washington each got two votes. Looks like the only A-10 voter is someone from Richmond. I'm really looking forward to the women's team this season. I think Coach Stone, Sadie Stipanovich, and Jackie Kempf will have them in the NCAA tournament this year.

I will revise my prior statement about Coach Majerus's ceiling. I agree, after seen some of the comments made to my post, that we never got to see his true ceiling, if there was one. I am sticking to my guns, however, on the idea that the excitement level is greater right now, before Coach Ford has coached a game, than it was right before Coach Majerus coached a game.

May got bashed when he hired Coach Ford. He needs to have that flipped now and get the credit for making the right call.

For quite a while, when people go to ESPN to see what the top ten 2018 prospects are doing, they will only see "Saint Louis" on the commitment line next to a bunch of "Undecided."

So, is the future brighter now, before Coach Ford has coached a game, or was the future brighter prior to Coach Majerus coaching a game? On one hand you had a coach that couldn't recruit top talent, but could find diamonds in the rough and could outcoach any opposing coach. On the other hand you have a coach who can recruit top talent, but has been criticized before for not being the best in game coach. I have to think the future is brighter now, given what Coach Ford has done recruiting wise, even more so that when we had Coach Majerus. I say this, because I think the talent we have can get us to a level where we have never been (Sweet 16). Even Majerus's best teams never made it past the Round of 32. I think we saw the ceiling of what Coach Majerus was going to do here. I believe Coach Ford's ceiling is even higher. The fact that Ford has done this while the stench of Coach Crews's dumpster fire is still in the air is hard to comprehend. However, I don't think anything illegal is happening. I think local players have been waiting on a situation where SLU's prospects were looking up and where they could play for a players' coach like Ford. Despite all his positives, Coach Majerus didn't give off that players' coach feel. The players had to get to know him before truly respecting what he was doing for them. If Ford really does start to get the top talent in St. Louis to stay home on a regular basis, and supplements with good recruits from elsewhere, then we are going to be the next Gonzaga or Xavier.

Sorry. You're correct. I got the names confused.

Keep in mind that better teams tend to be more up-tempo anyway. It can be a chicken or egg type argument. Are they good because they play up-tempo or do they play up-tempo because they are good? I tend to think that better more talented teams naturally play the game faster. Often teams that are underdogs in games think their only chance is to slow the game down.

I find it interesting that the MLS wants to push downtown venues. The idea is fine in theory, but one of the best stadiums in the league (KC) is nowhere near downtown. It's basically in the parking lot of a fancy strip mall development. The stadium in Chicago is about as far out of the loop as SLU is from downtown St. Louis.

We'll be bad this year, but "Manos: Hands of Fate" bad? I'm hoping we won't be at that level. That's a pretty strong statement tucked inside of a really cool obscure reference.

It would be unfortunate to not capitalize on the momentum we had with the Goodwin signing. Hopefully, the "parlay" White Pelican mentioned is still in play.

I will go Bishop, Roby, Crawford, Agbeko, Gillman to start the season, assuming they are all healthy. Gillman finally looks like he added weight and muscle base on the team photo. I think that Ford will want to find out if Gillman can contribute or if he needs to utilize that senior graduate transfer rule. If Gillman has had a Conklin summer, he may contribute for the next two years. If not, I bet we stop seeing him much after the non-conference schedule and see a transfer after the season. I would bet that Ford eases Welmer, Johnson, and Moore into the rotation, letting them learn mostly from the bench at first. They'll get time, certainly, just based upon the numbers game. By conference schedule, whoever of those three earned more playing time will get it. Neufeld and Hines will play more than the new guys, but less than the starters. Neufeld getting more than Hines. Again, once guys show Ford if they can play or not, this all will change. I just think that Ford will start with the veterans and then go with whomever is playing the best down the stretch, because his competitive juices will cause him to want to be able to prove to everyone that he can get more out of the same guys that his predecessor did. I think he believes doing so, if it can be done, will build confidence in him inside the fan base.

I'll probably take a lot of heat from the Biondi haters, but wasn't Biondi run out of town by the faculty and students over an issue that was intended to save on costs. I like Pestello, but it seems like in that move we traded financial stability for a great guy that everyone likes.

Agree. Forget for a second that we are criticizing Stu. If newspapers in other cities that have teams that are competing with us for recruits prints this stuff and our newspaper does not, then we have a legitimate beef with our newspaper.

The women's team should be an NCAA tournament team this year.

All politics aside, I found this to be a very responsible form of protest. Glad that our students went this route rather than the lunacy we have seen at other universities in our state. They made their point, they did so in a memorable way, they still allowed the speech to occur, and they raised some money for a good cause. Good job students. Now, please just start showing up to the basketball games. Also, if you do and what you see on the court this season eats at your moral core, please don't walk out. It will get better the next season.

The purpose in my forwarding the message that someone forwarded to me from West was to point out the imbalance of a conservative speaker being forced to have someone precede his comments, while dozens of liberal speakers have never had this happen. H. Smith - I went to SLU undergrad and law school. The law school does things differently and often presents speakers in a panel discussion because they are there to debate the law. There is a long history of SLU and SLU student organizations bringing in controversial liberal speakers and the university has never forced a conservative voice before the speech to contextualize their comments. This is the double standard I'm referring to. I'm not defending West's comments. I'm only complaining about the speaker being forced onto the listeners before his speech to offer a differing view. That has never been required on the other side.

Except there's this. As has become commonplace in our society, there is only one side that truly gets to have its say and have true freedom of speech.

US News and World Report's rankings came out a few weeks ago, and we were 95 I believe.

SLU could have saved a lot of money by just letting us handle this. We're the focus group they needed. LongLiveLisch should get some free merch from SLU for his design work. I don't think the mascot that was rolled out was all that bad, but LLL's touch ups did the trick. Get it done May and Pestello. Everyone will be happy. I think part of the problem is that I keep hearing that students were involved in the design process. I don't know about you, but my college years were not the best decision making years of my life. I'm not sure that any sane person would say that college kids are the best for making decisions. Why is some pimple faced Humanities major allowed to offer opinions that are shaping my mascot! There are people that know how to do this kind of thing (i.e. high paid consultants and LongLiveLisch and us MBMs) that should be making the calls.

Given the results so far, Ford and staff need to be given the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes a staff looks at a kid's tapes and might just think they are overrated or that they wouldn't fit their system. Sometimes a coach might reach out to the kid and the kid says he's not interested. In either case, neither the kid nor the coach would share their reasoning with MBM's like us.

Wow. This is a big development.

Biscuits and gravy.