Jump to content

cgeldmacher

Billikens.com Donor
  • Posts

    3,082
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    24

Posts posted by cgeldmacher

  1. Also, this is another indication that Drew never intended to come to SLU. He has a choice between two decent positions. One an ACC school and the other an SEC school. We were never in the mix. I think we were waiting to hear an official "No" from him while the NIT was going on. His people probably dragged it out to keep his name swirling in the media around openings so that they could chum the water for the job he wanted to take (a BCS school job). His people knew something would open up and it did. He probably could have been in the mix for Pitt as well.

  2. Isn't Vanderbilt the obvious choice there?

    ACC vs. SEC. I can see a coach saying that the ACC is the league to be in. Kids obviously want to play in the ACC. Seven ACC teams made the Sweet 16 this year. Only one SEC team made it. I wouldn't say that Vanderbilt is the obvious choice.

  3. I didn't mean to make it sound like it was "Drew or bust" but this hire does zero for me.

    I think all that will come of it is sustained mediocrity and its a move that shows very little vision by those in charge

    Again, its just a personal preference. If you would like to continue to invest in SLU basketball more power to you

    I hope to GOD I am wrong, btw. I would love nothing more than to eat crow in a few years after Ford has resurrected the program

    I have been a season ticket holder for several years. I can't tell you what to do with your money. You are absolutely correct that choosing to invest in tickets is a personal choice and you have the right to make yours.

    Having said that, I could have dropped my tickets after Spoonhauer left, or when they hired Romar (I wasn't totally on board, but thought I would wait and see), or when they hired Sodeberg. I could have done that, but I am not a fan of any particular coach until he gives me reason to be. I'm a fan of the Billikens. The bad days we suffered through after Spoonhauer, and they weren't all bad, made the three tournaments in a row with Majerus's kids all the more sweeter. If I canceled my tickets every time things didn't go exactly as I wanted and then renewed again once the team was having success, I would be the worst example of a fair weather fan. Like I said, no one can spend your money but you. However, I would invite you to keep your season tickets and see what happens. It's always a bumpy ride, but I, personally, don't want to miss any of it.

  4. What a great opprtunity we had to really be a competitor for dollars and exposure as far as St Louis winter sports go.

    This hire will do zero to excite the masses and worse, is a huge letdown to those who have given so much to the university and more particularly this program

    I had taken a straw poll of the 10 ticket holders in my group and all had said they would renew if Drew was hired. Im sure many others felt similarly

    This hire will not get it done

    So, if Drew told SLU that he didn't want the job, then SLU had no real chance to have you as a season ticket holder next year, correct?

  5. Exactly what I was worried was going to happen happened. Several guys on this board got overly excited about a guy who was likely never coming here. Then when we get a decent coach who might do well at SLU, and everyone is disappointed, because it's not the pie in the sky guy that the board had built up as the only coach who could possibly be successful here.

    Drew was never coming here. He has allegedly turned down better jobs. When he does make the move from his alma mater, it will be to a BCS program. Taking the SLU job the year after Majerus died may have made sense. Taking our dumpster fire now when he's probably got an tournament team at Valpo next year would be dumb. If he doesn't take the Pitt or Vandy jobs this year, he can take Valpo to the tournament next year, and maybe he ends up coaching Indiana or Michigan or Louisville the following year.

    When the speculation about him coming, mostly self created on this board, was at a frenzy, I admit I allowed myself to get excited about the idea. Now I feel stupid for getting caught up in it.

    Let's get behind the new coach and help make his era a success. If anything else, it seems he can recruit. So, I'm excited about being able to follow the recruiting threads agains and get fired up about who we might get to turn this thing around.

  6. Here is Ford's resume at OK St.:

    - They miss the NCAA tournament three years straight before he gets there

    - He immediately takes them to two straight NCAA tournaments in his 1st two years as their head coach

    - They miss the tournament the next two years

    - Then he takes them to three consecutive tournaments

    - They have a bad year last year and they fire him

    His record in the NCAA tournament is not good, but he has shown he can get there out of a very tough conference. This hire is not as bad as many of you are making it. Give the guy a chance. Give him support. Let's see what happens.

  7. I don't really care what May said in different articles about what he wanted. Way too much is being made of that. Just get us the best coach.

    My list:

    1. Drew

    2. Stallings

    3. Stansbury

    4. Inglesby

    Beyond that I don't have a real preference. As I've said, I'm not as down on Ford as some others, but him vs. guys l like Rice, Terry, Grant, etc. all seem about the same to me.

  8. When you're an also ran in the Big 12 or SEC, it doesn't matter what resources you have, you will always suffer from not being Kansas or not being Kentucky. How many coaches graduated from success at a mid major only to not be able to get teams like Texas Tech or Auburn over the hump. Does it make them bad coaches? Was their success at the smaller school just an accident?

    If Drew, Stallings and Stansbury are off the table, I would be fine with Ford, and I truly believe he could be successful here.

  9. I'm not as down on Ford as everyone else. I think he's the kind of guy that will do better in the A-10 than at a BCS school. Some BCS jobs just have a ceiling (Vanderbilt, Oklahoma St., Mississippi St). That's why I would have taken or would take Stallings, Stansbury, or Ford. I agree that Drew is the first choice, but if we're not his choice, I'd be happy with Ford.

  10. Good point from a Valpo poster.. Drew made $7.8M in his 6 NBA seasons. Money may really not factor a ton into his decision (last post)

    http://www.valpofanzone.com/forum/index.php?topic=2480.0

    On the flip side, maybe the NBA money that provided him with a certain comfortable lifestyle is starting to dry up. Maybe turning down Iowa State was fine last year, but the wife is starting to look at the bank account this year and wonder if the $300,000 salary is enough.

  11. He really said that? I wonder what specifically he meant that they didn't do. Hire a different coach? Recruit better players?

    Continue three years of high level success? I assume that is what our program/coach "could have done" to make Tatum come here. We did what we needed to do recruiting wise (showed up at the right times and contacted them in the right ways), but not all that we could have done (continued success).

  12. Brad was a much better coach than Jim Crews and cannot be lumped in with JC simply as a "miss". Brad needed to go but he also was the victim of the program falling down from Conf USA to A10 and bad facilities -- his teams were still practicing in West Pine Gym, his players were lifting weights in a closet, bumping into each other and unable to lift over their heads b/c of the low ceiling, etc. and yet Brad still won 20 games and put a respectable product on the floor. Jim Crews was given the best skilled and coached players in modern times, was handed National Coach of the Years honors due to sentimental reasons following the death of RM, ruined the fanbase and put 2 of the least productive teams in Billiken history on the floor. Sorry, but Brad deserves better than to be lumped into the same category as Crews and his long-time proven failure, Jim Platt.

    I don't disagree. I just meant that Brad didn't elevate the program like others had. Also, while we might agree that his era and the Crews era need to be categorized differently, I still don't think that our hiring of him was a success.

  13. Very well stated. Even the most ardent of SLU supporters, such as myself, are predisposed to assuming SLU will make a mess of this.

    Let's look at the past hires:

    Rich Grawer - Saved the program

    Charlie Spoonhauer - Can't argue that was a good hire

    Lorenzo Romar - Several have called getting him back now a home run. His initial hire was a good one.

    Brad Sodeberg - Miss

    Rick Majerus - Home Run

    Jim Crews - Miss, but extenuating circumstances lead to it being very difficult not to hire him

    So, how exactly are we predisposed to SLU making a mess of this. Of the last six hires, four have to be considered to be handled very well and were successes. I get that two of the last three were bad hires, but I would assume when you make a comment like we "are predisposed to assuming SLU will make a mess of this," that there is more history behind it.

  14. One possible scenario: Vandy wants to dump Stallings, they were about to, and then someone in their athletic dept. says wait a minute "he's going to SLU either way, we can save money on his buyout if we leverage his wanting to go home to St. Louis." A game of chicken ensues where both sides try to wait each other out to save money.

×
×
  • Create New...