Old guy

The Wiz had nothing to do with this, the stats prior to the game looked a lot more favorable to SLU than the way it was. I suppose that after this game they will look worse. We are a C team at best I am afraid to say.

My turn I was there, we lost, not by a few points either. It looks like we are a C team at best. A few things were good or better than in prior games: There were a hell of a lot more students watching the game. Austin Gillman played better than he has been doing and can shoot. Miles is good. I thought Reggie did well holding their players from going to the boards. A lot was not so good. I thought one of the referees spent his time trying to find fault in whatever the bills did. We lost by a lot. Bad news. We have 5 games left until we start conference play...

Well guys, it is getting to be time to leave home for the game tonight. I am of two minds tonight, I hope we will win, and fear we will lose badly. We will find out soon, won't we.

Teamrankings opened up their vegas implied spread for tonight's game against Wichita St. They are favoring Wichita St. by 6 over SLU.

I believe TX is primarily a football type of place, not so much basketball. The arena is very nice, but it was fairly empty, Shaka or no Shaka. Did they win?

Here are the comparative stats so far for WSU (WIST by teamrankings) and STL, including the most recent games, from TeamRankings: Offensive Stat Comparison Stat WIST STL Points/Game 69.0 / 67.3 Avg Score Margin -3.0 / +3.7 Assists/Game 11.8 / 13.7 Total Rebounds/Gm 38.6 / 32.2 Effective FG % 42.8% / 50.7% Off Rebound % 36.9% /18.7% FTA/FGA 0.359 / 0.536 Turnover % 12.7% / 18.1% Defensive Stat Comparison Stat WIST STL Opp Points/Game 72.0 / 63.7 Opp Effective FG % 53.6% / 46.7% Off Rebounds/Gm 13.2 / 5.3 Def Rebounds/Gm 21.8 / 23.7 Blocks/Game 2.2 / 2.5 Steals/Game 7.2 / 4.8 Personal Fouls/Gm 21.4 / 20.2As you can see, we are not doing that bad in comparison.

My opinion in this matter is not an issue, it is their opinion that counts. Will you be the one telling them otherwise? and who are you going to tell?

I realize we have a high opinion of one another. All the best.

SLU72 all I can say is what companies have you worked for and at what level? You should consider contacting the AD or the President and letting them know your concerns for the program. Undoubtedly after they talk with you, they will take immediate action without further ado before irreparable damage occurs. PS I particularly liked the idea that "...they are not doing their job..." Please do not forget to include this thought in your conversation with the AD and or President. I think this may really fly. All the best to you.

Of course RM quit recruiting effectively for at least the last year he coached the team. How could he have done it?, all you had to do was to watch him during a game in one of the last years. The man was dying and could well have passed away during one of his last games. Of course he had to let some things go just in order to muster whatever was left of him for his last season's games.

Ace your post contains a very large amount of truth and knowledge about the way things are actually done. The big issue is, as it always is, who is the person that will step up to the plate and take this issue in his hands (and has enough clout to bankroll it)? I do not have the slightest idea who this person may be, or even if it exists. Please remember that it is a very different thing to give the University a gift worth something followed by six zeroes and have your name in a great big and lovely building like the Chaifetz is. It is a very different thing to give a similar amount of money and wind with nothing substantial in your name. You may know you did this and got it to happen, but who else knows it? Is your name out in the open for everyone to see, nope... All you have is the (hopefully) great satisfaction of getting someone fired and someone hired. But could you perhaps name this like an endowed academic chair? Could you have the endowed "Joe Blow" head coach position at SLU? I bet the fund raisers never thought of this, but it might be a good way to deal with issues like this. Of course it would cost bushels of money, but some people have this kind of money don't they? Are you hearing this in the fund raising department? PS. Maybe I should have colored this post in blue.

Thank you cheese. I have been reading a lot of commentaries about Biondi doing nothing about getting at least a few viable coaching choices before RM was incapacitated and passed away. This is lack of action is seen as proof of mishandling, etc... My question to you all is why are you all surprised that organizations fail to act upon knowledge that they need to do something within a period of time? This is nothing new or unique to SLU, indeed I think it is a fairly common situation in the corporate world. About Dr. Pestello, we must realize that he has a lot of bigger fish to fry in his hands. The basketball program may bring visibility and money to the University, at least in winning years, but certainly is not such a major contributor to the University's finances that requires the President of the University's constant attention. Yes, it is true that he may intervene if there is some really major problem associated with the basketball program, otherwise he will probably let the AD handle it until the AD asks for special support or help. I really do not think Dr. Pestello has any intention to sack the AD at this time, and may not have much concerns about Crews either. After all games are won and lost, are they not? By the way, the state of affairs I describe above is most likely entirely satisfactory to the AD as well. Therefore I tend to think things will remain status quo in the basketball program.

Let's make a comparison between a school having a coach that is "less than optimal" and a marriage that is also "less than optimal." Certainly any number of us, of both sexes, have had experiences with bad marriages, or "less than optimal" marriages. How do we handle this? Well, before anything else happens there has to be a definite awareness that we are involved in a bad marriage. This awareness is very hard to achieve because there are vested interests involved and the general tendency is to try to fix the situation first of all. The fix may or may not work, and may well make things worse than they were before. Then comes the crucial step, a decision must be reached to separate or split the marriage. This is not easy to do in any way imaginable. Just think of all the ties (emotional, financial, children and friends) that will have to be dealt with and you may get an idea of how difficult a process this may be or become. After all, a marriage is not a one night stand, there are financial ties that are difficult to unravel, and commitments that have to be terminated and replaced by what??? There are all kinds of issues involved, children, living arrangements, ownership of things... The list goes on and on. And on top of it all, whether or not the parties in a divorce proceed to think about it, there is (or should be) the fear of how to replace what you are in the process of losing. Look at the statistics, any number of divorces lead to a remarriage with spouses that are strikingly similar to the prior ones, and end in divorce for very similar reasons as the prior marriage ended in divorce ... Now let's put this into the context of getting anew coach after firing the prior one. First of all the powers that be must decide that there is no fixing to the current situation. This is not a easy decision to make under any circumstances. Anyone who supported the hiring of the coach that is being terminated will get a black eye in the process. In corporate speak this is a no no. Something must happen to make the old supporters of the coach being eliminated capable of walking out of their prior support and not get that black eye. This is difficult and does not happen overnight, regardless of performance. Reasons supporting the need for the elimination must be collected, sometimes for quite some time. Once a case is made, the termination should not be done without a lengthy look at candidates for the spot. A considerable amount of time determining desirable goals (that are also realistic) for the basketball program is required before you go out through with the process of firing the current coach and hiring someone else. Otherwise it is like going to match.com and finding someone who you really enjoy being with for the next couple of weeks before you remarry which is not a good thing to do, at least not the remarrying part. You need someone who you (the person responsible for the process) can feel somewhat assured may achieve the goals for the program that have been decided. Then comes the hard part, the top dogs in the institution have to be presented with a proposal, with a full cost analysis (how much it will cost to get the coach to depart and how much additional money you are willing to spend to provide a new coach up to specs). This is very hard to do, and it does put the parties that control the process in a bind: what happens if we choose wrong and get someone else that is like the one we are getting rid of? How much of this will stick to my own coat and give me a black eye later on. This is the way it is done in the corporate world. Of course there are variations, this is just a schematic road map. The following happens next: 1. the institution will have to spend significant money to get rid of the current coach, particularly if there are still multiple years of contractual agreement unfulfilled. This is not a trivial expense. 2.The new coach better be as good as you (the power in charge) is claiming he will be, and better be committed to move to our City and program for the length of the contract. This of course is what the person heading the change process hopes will happen. However, if the new coach comes in and stays a couple of years out of a multiyear contract before quitting and stepping into a newer and better offer somewhere else, or if the new coach turns out to be a repeat performance of the prior coach's, the person in charge of the change may get a black eye (something you DO NOT want to get in a corporate setting). I am posting all of this stuff to try to emphasize how much easier it is for everyone in charge to maintain the status quo and not change it. There are too many pitfalls in this process that can negatively affect the job and career of the guy proposing the change and leading it. This is not the case if the directive to change coaches comes from above. When the directive comes from above the change will take place and usually in a reduced time frame because the person leading the change will be able to push blame up the ladder later on ... Or will he be able to do so? Believe me people, what many people in this blog fervently wish to happen is not going to happen soon or at all unless the president of the University decides it is going to be so. Let me remind you that Dr. Pestello is not like Fr. Biondi in any way imaginable. I personally do not think this will happen at all for the reasons delineated above.

Agree it was painful to watch. Agree that we probably lost the game on Morehead's 3 point shooting and our inability to control them. They did outplay us, vastly, in offensive rebounds 10-2. But look at the other numbers: they had twice the number of blocks and close to twice the number of steals that we had. They also outfouled us 24-17 (meaning Morehead's players were playing us very close and very hard) and had 5 less T/O than we had. They constantly attempted to bat balls out of our hands, which they succeeded in doing in a number of cases. You put all of this together and they beat us soundly by playing very very physically. We just could not handle the level and amount of constant physical aggression, attempts to bat the balls out of our hands and foul plays in various degrees that they threw at us. They had a flagrant 1 foul against Jolly. They wound up with some of their players getting hurt and lying on the floor at times. They overwhelmed our team physically. We were caught in an avalanche of aggression (a modified Havoc style of play?) and could not extricate ourselves from it. Period. You may interpret this outcome any way you wish. However it just may serve as an object lesson to our team and indicate to them what they have to do to in order to get to play at the next higher level. I think they might have become a little cocky about themselves prior to last night's game and possibly needed an object lesson like the one they got. Now we will see if they managed to learn something from this defeat.

Tonight Morehead was definitely the better team and Yacoubou was very much on the (+) column for SLU. He did not disappear and he was not fully neutralized either.

I was there and saw it. From the very beginning Morehead dominated the game. They outplayed us plain and simple. They played a very physical game with some touches that reminded me at times of VCU's Havoc. We lost, it was not a good night for SLU. I really have nothing else to say tonight.

A very sensible arrangement if I may say so.

Well actually this is the new uniform for Santa when he talks to kids before Hanukkah at the J. I other places the standard red an white uniform is to be worn.

I fully agree with you in this one. J Crews is not adept to PR or public speaking.

OK Wiz, back to Teamrankings, the Vegas implied spread for this game is 4 points in favor of SLU. You were right on the spot in terms of the Vegas based odds just prior to the game. Very nicely done!

You may well be entirely correct Clock, the chance is that we will never know for sure.

I have never been to Australia, but some friends that have (not basketball players) said it reminded them of the US decades ago.

Talking about Manning, it should be remembered that he played reasonably well the first few games he played for SLU until he had a significant concussion and had to be taken off play for a lengthy amount of time (this is what I recall about Manning's early career with us). After this incident he was never the same. The Manning we all saw play after his concussion is what we all saw as a playing throughout the bulk of his career at SLU. I am not saying he ever developed into a good player, he was mediocre at best, I am saying he was injured and most likely never fully recovered to the point of improving to his full potential before the injury. Reggie also had a concussion which rendered him unconscious and left him laying down on the court in his freshman year with SLU. He appears to be doing OK now, but again, he is a post injury type of case and what we are seeing is probably not and may never be his full potential before the injury.

Yup, first things first

Hsmith19 by what I have been reading in this blog, a lot depends upon whether or not Van Fleet is playing for Wichita St. next Saturday.