cgeldmacher

I wouldn't be surprised if Ford is holding out for a new assistant coach that can bring a player with him.

Yuri is not to blame for our lack of success during his years here. He is a fantastic talent and put up numbers that are undeniable. Please stop the revisionist history here. The culprit is the system that we ran with Yuri at the helm of the offense. He is not responsible for that system. Ford and coaches are. I am not a "fire Ford" guy (right now), but they shoulder the blame for lack of overall success, not a point guard that lead the nation in assists. In my opinion, a system that would have given us more success would have caused Yuri to get less assists but slightly more points.

Then, I'll say 1) SLU is first team ranked #1 in first ever AP poll and 2) the final year of SLU's football program.

If our best recruiting coach in a long time if not ever does not have success getting recruits to come here in the NIL era, then we have a much bigger problem on our hands. This off-season actually scares me quite a bit. If we cannot get quality guys to come in, it may be a sign that we will never be able to outbid the power conferences. They will always have more money to offer. I think recruiting still matters quite a bit, but identifying diamonds in the rough (coming down from power conferences or up from lesser conferences) may be the most important attribute of a head coach for our program if we are not going to be able to outspend many of the other programs we want to compete with. It will be interesting to see if a program like Gonzaga (7,300 students) starts to lose ground in the NIL era to programs like Washington (36,200 students) just based on the availability of NIL funds from its alumni.

Has it been confirmed that we granted him his release? I haven't heard that we have. I only saw that he requested a release. I know the popular opinion is that if a kid asks for a release you should give it to him, but what would be so bad about saying "No?" He stays, plays a year, knows that he has to showcase his skills if he wants to transfer somewhere else next year. Then he leaves. Also, you've sent the message that if you commit to SLU plan on being here at least a year. If a recruit has a problem with the policy of not granting releases from commitments, we probably don't want that kid anyway.

Maybe someone on the team already had, or had been promised, the uniform number he wanted.

Not to pile on what is already a difficult day for our program, but I hope people are not looking at the BVF as a way to elevate our program. Here is what I mean. There is almost no chance that our NIL fund is in the same league as the NIL funds of power conference state schools that kick out tens of thousands of graduates each year. The power conference schools will always have more NIL money to spend, possibly by a lot, than we will. Also, while I agree that kids will follow the money, there probably will not be a direct correlation between money offered and getting a kid. If we offer a kid $100,000 to come to SLU out of the BVF, and, let's say, West Virginia offers the same kid $50,000, that kid may still choose WV, because he wants to play in a power conference. He might think that he's going to be just fine on $50,000 a year, and the difference between that and the $100,000 we offer is not enough to sway him. Having NIL money to offer and the BVF to organize that money and utilize it well is necessary in the present environment, but please don't think that our fund is going to change the landscape in comparison to others or suddenly cause us to get kids we wouldn't have gotten in the past.

I know its unlikely, but can't we just say "No." I get the arguments about not wanting a kid to play somewhere he doesn't want to be, but if every kid gets let out of their commitments every time they ask, then commitments to a school don't mean anything.

I also want to add that it is awesome that you went to see our guys play (assuming you will catch a Yuri game as well). Thanks for taking the time to support our guys.

Flights and hotels cost money. Any money spent on those things comes from somewhere and takes away from using that money on something else (NIL funds). I'd rather have the coaches concentrating their efforts on guys who could play for us next year than an entire tournament full of guys who cannot.

It's not hypocrisy. If we don't have it to offer, there's no point wasting either side's time.

Thames will have to learn to slow his game down and properly take advantage of his newer size. Last year, my impression of his time in games was that he looked like a guy whose hair was on fire and was running around looking for a bucket of water.

The WNBA draft is 12 picks in and the #20 on ESPN’s Best Players remaining is Brooke Flowers.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/36105322/former-north-carolina-guard-caleb-love-transferring-michigan Headed to Michigan. I suspect they offered the most money.

He was a 6'7" sophomore. On that team was a 6'11" senior, a 6'11" junior, a 6'7" junior, a 6'8" sophomore, and a 6'6" senior. That team was stacked with height. He may have just been stuck behind some other guys. But, your point is valid.

I'd rather find a slightly more skilled Okoro.

I remember watching his recruitment video and thinking "We need to get this guy." Now, I'm hoping to watch videos of him in the NBA and be able to say "We had that guy." Good luck with everything, Yuri.

Wow. NIL must be more lucrative than I thought.

The problem with this is why would Mack, Kelsey, and Devries take the SLU job when they will be getting offers from power conference schools. We all think that these guys are available to SLU, but they are really not. if those guys are going to leave their current school, it will be to make a big leap, not a small one, from where they currently are. The up and coming type guys that are available to SLU are guys most of this board would look at and say "Why did we hire this guy?" Could turn out just fine, but we probably wouldn't be happy at first.

The fans at any power conference school in the country will only be mildly excited about Caleb coming to their program after his performance last season. The fans in his hometown would be over the moon if he came here. I hope he thinks to himself that he is better off showcasing what he can do against lesser competition in the A-10 than in the grinder that is the ACC or other conferences like Big10 or Big12. I don't think it's that crazy to believe that there is a chance he could come home to play for the Billikens. Signing him could start the snowball rolling downhill for signing other transfers who want to come in and put together a team that can make a run in the tournament without having to fight their way through a big conference schedule (see San Diego State, FAU, Gonzaga, Princeton, etc.)

Izzo doesn't know what he's doing. What an idiot.

I've been advocating the ideas stated in this article for years. Glad that Notre Dame is trying to lead the charge to instituting some needed changes. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/notre-dame-administrators-call-for-creation-of-nfl-minor-league-and-elimination-of-nbas-one-and-done-rule-124404605.html

NM

If that is the definition of being on the brink of irrelevance, then we have been on the brink of irrelevance my entire lifetime. We are as relevant, or close to as relevant as we have ever been in the St. Louis sports community, which is to say that we have a small loyal fanbase and a lot of casual observers around the city that will show up when things are good and stay away when things are bad. Selling out the Dayton game is a better crowd than those that showed up for games against Dayton during the Majerus years.

It is amazing to me how much of this boils down to what is happening is exactly what everyone expected would happen, yet everone on this board is still losing their s*#t about it. When a coach has a season where the team is expected to do great things, but doesn't, he is going to be on the hot seat the following season. When a coach has produced moderately good, but not great, results over a span of eight years, he is going to be on the hot seat the next season. Signs a coach is on the hotseat include 1) some folks on a team fan message board wanting the coach out, 2) some boosters, not all, approaching the Athletic Department to show that they are upset, 3) the team play by play guy and a big media proponent for the team discussing, for the first time on air, that the coach has left folks questioning things. So, let's all agree that Ford is on the hot seat. He needs to show us changes next season. He has to show that he can handle his pre-game and in game duties better than in the past, that he can handle his lineups better, and and that he can produce at a higher level. I don't think he has to make the tournament next year or be fired. But he does have to have us in a place at the end of next season where most folks feel as if he is the right guy moving forward. If he doesn't do that, he should be replaced. Also, whether it happens this season or next season, we better be able to get the right guy. They people on this board have to realize that the reality may be that the right guy is not out there at the present. If that is the case, then we would be doing a great deal of harm to our program to fire Ford and plug in someone just to make a change. May, the top boosters, the administration, may all be thinking its time to make a change, but can't do it because they don't see the right candidate out there who would take the job.