Old guy

Team Rankings has SLU winning be 6 pts, again very close to the Wiz's model. They give us 2 stars of confidence. The pregame stats are basically the same that we have had in recent games. We are over GW in 5 out of 8 offense categories, they are over us in 4 out of seven defense categories. This is a home game and we can and should win it, but it will probably be a tough game to win.

Do you think Jimerson is seeking a career as a professional basketball player or in finance? Do you think he may want to be closer to his family? He has a degree in international finance. Why not get what he wants plus additional basketball play and transfer to UVA or Duke. These are the IVYs of the South. A degree from Duke of UVA would be more prestigious than SLU's, probably resulting in a better position in finance. He would be closer to his family and he would be playing basketball in the ACC which is a Power 5 conference (both UVA and Duke). He might even get NILs in either school. What is so bad about such a transfer, particularly if he does not want to go into professional basketball as a career?

And he would also want the free money coming from a negotiated settlement to his contract. Remember he has had contracts that were broken before completion at UMass, and OSU. The turn for SLU is coming closer.

I want to add to this that Hargrove's depression may have something to do with Ford. Ford was severely limiting his playing time and in some games he would yank him out of the court when Hargrove was having a hot run. Never underestimate how important the relationship of a player with his coach may be.

If by 100% you mean playing like he was before the injury, he is not going to get there any time soon. If by 100% you mean playing in a way that contributes positively to the team, he can do this.

I have seen lots of posts saying Hargrove was not given enough minutes, but I do not recall much saying he was not capable. However, I have a lot of people on ignore so I cannot judge what they said about Hargrove. Hargrove and Parker are two of my favorite players in the team.

That is fine, this is what you believe.

Please explain why it is ridiculous? What you are really saying is that you cannot see or believe this would happen. OK, so you cannot see it happening.

However, Ford appears to be totally insensitive to his condition and, I would think, is likely to be putting pressure on him to improve. This is something he plainly cannot do.

And I am 76 and absolutely flunked sarcasm 101.

Breach of contract?

It also tells me that he has reached the hump he cannot go over at SLU. I am also sure that he will be happy if he gets paid money to end his contract before it expires. If you think about it, that is a good way to make extra money.

Prior to becoming the head coach at OSU, Ford had been the HC at UMass starting with the 2005 season. He was successful at UMass and his contract was extended for 5 years April 2007 when he left for OSU. I find no information regarding whether or not he received any post termination payments from UMass. He was hired to this position at OSU in 2008, after he left his position at UMass. His contract was renewed in 2009 for 10 years. He left (was fired?) in 2016 with OSU paying the payout portion of the contract. Travis Ford became the HC at SLU March 2016. His contract was extended March 2020. If the extension was for 3 years it will expire at the end of this season. If it was for 5 years he still has 2 years to go. There is a pattern in this work history, he becomes HC somewhere, has some initial success and receives a contract extension, then he leaves or is fired before the extension contract is completed. The data above is from Wikipedia.

Our problem this season has been not using the depth of the bench. We have continued doing the same thing we do with the same players and have watched as our lead disappeared at the end of the game and our losing multiple games in the last few minutes, games we should have won. I am not making this up, we all watched as the loss developed right in front of our eyes. Perkins is still not functional in all games, and Jimerson still has problems scoring. Yuri is still walking the ball across the court in the final minutes of a game and making lots of TOs, even when we win the games. I am very glad that we are (forced to) use Hargrove, Hughes, and Parker for more minutes. Their appearance in court may get us ahead after all the prior losses, but so far this is only a hope, not a reality. It is true that A10 is worse and has less depth this year than it has in the past. I thank Thatch, Perkins, Jimerson and all the others for their efforts so far, and hope the issues have been solved, but I just do not believe they have been solved. I think we patched the issues over for the game against St. Bona and won the game. Can we do the same against Dayton, VCU, and Richmond? I think the very best we can expect for this season is a 21-10 record, a second place in the A10 tournament, and an NIT invitation. We need to win all of the remaining games in the A10 to get a 25-6 record for the season and a possible at large bid to the dance. I just do not think this will happen. Can we win the A10 tournament? Maybe, we will see. This is what I expect to happen for the rest of this season, it is my eyeball estimate, it is not reality, not yet anyway. I think we may possibly win some of the remaining games against opponents that were expected to win against us, but we are also likely to lose some of the games we were supposed to win. I also think the probability of winning the A10 tournament is low at this time, and may become much lower if we lose a couple more games.

Let's be reasonable, Ford has until the end of this season to show that he can use the talent in the bench and win the games we should win, not lose them in the last few minutes of the game. No one is going to fire him until the season is over. If he screws up, as I expect he will, he still may not be fired because of non performance considerations, like a poor economy and tight funds. Ford will continue being Ford regardless of the effort he puts into it. The real issue is where is he going to be as he continues being who he is, I hope it is not SLU but elsewhere.