cgeldmacher

Here is my best scenario for this season: The team, coaching staff and players, turn this thing around and become a team that is very competitive in the A-10. After the season, Coach Crews says to himself "I righted the ship. I can now feel good about stepping away. All of the stuff I went through at the beginning of the season is not what I signed on for. I wanted to be retired anyway when Rick called me several years ago. I'm going to retire now, gracefully, and turn the reigns over to a new coach." We then are able to get a much better coach to come here than we would have if the team tanked the whole season like some of you are hoping for. Upon retirement, SLU can throw a nice retirement banquet for Coach Crews. We all attend and thank him for stepping up and stepping in when required and for leaving our team in a nice place.

Bigs take longer to develop. In programs with more talent than we have, guys like Neufeld are supposed to learn in practice and from watching on the bench for the first season and a half. Lately, we have overexposed our freshmen bigs and killed their confidence. I hope Neufeld stays on the more traditional path, and we see the benefits in a few years.

Couple thoughts: 1. Milik is completely predictable at this point. Any opposing coaches watching video of us can tell their team that when he puts the ball on the floor out near the free throw line "he's going to try to drive." The other team's players might think "that's crazy, when there are four of us waiting for him under the basket." The coach will reply with "trust me, he's going to drive straight into all four of you, just don't foul him and we'll get the ball." 2. Jolly is not as bad as everyone on this board makes him out. He truly has become the scapegoat. I'm not saying he's good, but he's not that bad. I can foresee a scenario where he actually becomes a very solid contributor in his final two years. Not saying it's going to happen, just that it could. So, let's cut him some slack. 3. I simply cannot cheer for the Billikens to lose. Beating GW was awesome. I needed that game. We all needed that game. We need more of that game regardless of what we think of the coaching situation. I know why some of you are saying that you are hoping for things to pan out certain way, but come on!!! I'm the ultimate optimist in these situations and am telling myself now that if we now know that we can play the way we did last night, that we can play with that level of competition, maybe we can get even better and roll off a run in the A-10 tournament. Probably won't happen, but optimism is the only reason to be a fan.

I feel bad for Zeke. Our program did a 180 from our success of a few years ago and the fan base has nothing to be excited about with the current team. So, we are now grasping for any signs of hope. We have only one recruit currently on the books. Now, this high school kid has to have everything about his game over analyzed. If we want to let out our frustrations, let's complain about those that currently make up the team. Leave this kid alone at least until he gets here. That is assuming he doesn't decide to change his mind and go elsewhere.

Totally agree.

Kurtis Townsend at Kansas. Started as high school coach and worked his way up. Now he's a top assistant and top recruiter at Kansas. He was heavily involved in Kansas's recruitment of Ben McClemore.

+1 The thing I am looking forward to the least about our upcoming coach search is the comments from the guys that think we can land just about anyone. Yes, we have great facilities, but we have zero momentum as a program right now. Our realistic get for our coaching vacancy is a top assistant or lower level (below Mo Valley) head coach. Understand that we are in worse shape, not better shape, than when Majerus agreed to come here.

I don't disagree with this assessment of these guys, but coaches that can recruit and coach up their players aren't available. They will still be cashing large checks at the schools where they currently coach for many years.

There is no way the University can let Crews coach out his contract after this season. If we don't give him an extension after this season, and there is no way we will, he won't be able to recruit. I know that everyone is going to say that he can't recruit anyway, and that would be the obligatory joke reaction, but, in all seriousness, a coach on a short term contract can't sell high school players on a program when it doesn't look like he will be around. Pestello needs to do the math and realize the money that the University will be losing by continuing on this path. I'm guessing an argument can be made that paying Crews' buyout is less expensive than the cost of keeping the program the way it is. Also, Crews may do the honorable thing and realize that he was practically retired anyway and just retire again or give a big reduction on his buyout. Then, we need to go out and get a top assistant. No coach on the rise is going to want to have an intermediary stop between a lower program and a BCS program. A top assistant may decide he would rather come here and have a shot at a quicker turnaround than go to low major school first and work his way up. We can sell the guy on our competitive salary, top notch facilities, and high level recruits in the St. Louis region.

Or he's now in a system which maximizes his talents. Here's a question: If a couples guys on last year's team were, rightfully, questioning how things were being done and the system they were playing, could they have possibly been mislabeled as "malcontents?"

Conk would be more of a Matheny type play than Hanlen. If he is truly done with his Australian team, I think he would be a great assistant on the next staff.

I think the offense they are running is used by many successful teams. You just have to have the personnel to run it. At this point, I have come to the conclusion that these players aren't all that bad from a skill standpoint. They are, however, rather bad at running this offensive system. The blame for that is a combination of recruiting and coaching. All it takes is one player of the five on the court not running the offense properly and the whole system goes down the toilet. What I see is our point guards being too hesitant to pull the trigger on passes, which brings the whole "motion" part of the offense to a grinding halt, and a few guys deciding not to run the offense, but instead getting their hands on the ball and deciding to try to make some amazing move on three or four defenders. Needless to say, that is not working.

None of those guys were top coaches when they went there. Our fan base expects that we are going to get a guy who is already on the level of the guys you mentioned. The reality is that we will have to hire someone and hope that he becomes one of those guys.

I love the tradition of this program. The Billiken is one of the most unique mascots in sports. Our "fight song," has been used for years. I cannot imagine the Billikens coming out to anything but that song. That's tradition. While having a band is not unique, I think that our band, the way they do things, is a great tradition. Don't use the team sucking now as a platform to attack the tradition that we have. On a sort of related note, I think this current athletic department has botched the handling of the student section. In my day (I know I sound like an old man, which I probably am) the student section was always packed, and that's even with the fact that we had to take the Metrolink down to Scottrade. The athletic department has created an environment where students feel like they are getting disrespected if they don't get free pizza with their free tickets.

Easy there. I'm on the "this team and coaching staff sucks" bandwagon now too, but let's not kill everything having to do with the program over this current debacle. If you really feel this way, start following another team.

I was so disillusioned by what was happening in the game last night that I changed over and started watching other games. The difference in what I saw was astounding. Even these lower level teams I watched had some clue about what they were doing on offense. We have no idea what it takes to get good looks at the basket. Does anyone else get the impression that certain guys on the team seem to refuse to pass to certain other guys??? There seem to be times when the ball is moving around the outside of the motion offense and the player at the top of the arc will look like he wants to continue moving the ball, but then see who is next to receive it and hesitate. The motion offense can't work if everyone is not involved. The typical end result of our offensive plays is that the guys give up on running the offense and then decide to try to make their own shot. This is a disaster. I have finally removed my rose colored glasses and realize that this team has no idea what they are doing on offense. This might be because the players are not being given a system that has a chance of success (coaching), or that they are not capable of executing a good system that they are being given (recruiting), or that they are capable of executing the system, but are not doing so (coaching/recruiting). For some reason, I think that these players are not that bad and that they are capable of succeeding, but are not being given the tools or the support or the proper practicing or the system to do it. I have supported Crews up to this point. Now, I wonder it we might be better to part ways now, let an assistant take over as an interim, and begin the coaching search.

Something's not right with this situation. He was the league MVP last year, named team captain, and was averaging 15 ppg this year. Then they cut him mid season citing performance issues. Crikey. There must be more to the story.

If Rammer ever retires, we need to get an Australian play by play guy. I loved listening to that guy.

I'm not going to defend Jolly's play so far, except to say that he's at the beginning of his Sophomore year. At other schools where they have a balance of upper classmen to go with the Freshmen and Sophomores, a big like Jolly gets to make his mistakes and do his learning in practice, not during the games. This guy gets slammed by the message Board because he has been thrust into the spot light way to early. At the same time, I bet if he had been riding the bench mostly up to this point, the posters would be clamoring to get him in to see what he can do. I remember thinking that Remeken was not much for us his first couple years. Then, as an upperclassman, he really started to contribute. Let's give this kid a break and let him learn the game like he should. We've all seen examples of kids who watch and learn and practice and develop and get stronger and get smarter. Then, all the sudden, one season they just break out. We even have a damn term for that: "Conklin Summer."

Actually, I just looked. The best prospects for pillaging are 6'6" Malcolm Hill (Jr) who is from Fairview Heights, 6'7" Leron Black (So) who played with Roby at White Station in Memphis, and assistant coach Jamal Walker.

Are there any Illini players with St. Louis ties that might be interested in transferring to play at home once Groce gets fired either during or after this season?

Just saw the updated RPI. We are up to 8. I know it means nothing, but it is nice to see us on any sort of top whatever list.

With the downturn of both Mizzou and Illinois, it's truly said that we didn't follow up the momentum of the three straight tournament appearances. If we had, recruits on both sides of the river would be ours to lose. Even Bradley, SIU-C, and Missouri St. are down. Huge missed opportunity to be the top dog in the area.

Not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, or worried it was going to be, but not good either.

I went to a women's game last year, and it was eye opening. These girls are good and play entertaining basketball. Also, it appears that we added some talent coming in. Could be a very good year for the Lady Bills.