Old guy

We can only expect one thing from Ford, the very best. Why? because that is what we are going to need from him for this coming season.

Hicks, some people die suddenly but this is not the way the majority of people die. Most people die because they have a number of diseases in fairly advanced stages and they just deplete their reserves and stamina. Majerus, as good as he was coaching was in very a very bad medical state, it got worse progressively and finally caused his death. As far as I can see, this is absolutely not the case with Ford, so we are or should be very happy in this respect. To correct your prior post, any number of the posters in this board may indeed die in the next five years. However, if this is the case and one of us dies, the chance of dying will be much greater for those among us that have a number of diseases (take your pick, heart, kidneys, neuro, CA), and much much lower among those of us (not including myself because I am after all an old guy) that are younger and disease free. Of course there is always the outlying possibility of a lightning strike, of being attacked by a Great White shark while scuba diving in the Great Reef Barrier in Australia. However the likelihood of these things happening to anyone of us is rather small. The ones that are likely to die in the next five years are those who are old, like me, and who have a parcel of medical conditions in various states of control.

OK guys let's analyze the situation as it is profiling itself: We have lost Milik, and like it or not he does have a lot of talent which will go elsewhere. We are going to lose another two sophomores it looks like, let's assume for a second these are Davell and Miles. Despite their shortcomings I liked them both. I think Davell would be very good under a different coach but we may not get to see this either. Ash will graduate and be gone. So far so good. We have a few decent people left. Reggie is good but needs support he cannot carry the game by himself. Bishop is reasonable although he is small and skinny. And there the count ends. We have what you could call two walking wounded. Crawford and Bartley, both played many games and gave SLU all they had with (quite likely a good deal of pain). I do not think either can be expected to be 100% next season. I do not know how much they will be able to contribute and think it will depend upon the status of their chronic problems. Then we have a whole bunch of marginal players. Hines tries hard but really does not make it consistently. Gillman has been out most of this year with a broken foot, even if ti fully mends and he is fully functional, he needs a lot of work and training before becoming a significant factor (in my opinion). I know nothing about Welmer, never saw him play as he was sidelined again with a broken foot. What can we expect out of him?, he has not played D1 yet. Jolly is Jolly, there may be something in him that has not been shown as yet, but I would not take a bet on this. Neufeld may improve but I doubt he is ready to pull his weight for next year. Zeke Moore is coming in as a freshman, he is supposed to be a decent shooter but has not played D1 yet. I do not know if you will agree with me or not but this is looking pretty bad to me. All I can really say is that if Coach Ford is really capable to recruit talent in short notice, he will have his work cut out for him. I hope he, and his assistants, whoever they may be, will be good training this bunch. It looks like it will be an acid test for the new coaching staff. We will have ample opportunity to see exactly how good they are by what we do next season. Talking about a rebuilding year... This will be a seriously tough one, or so it seems to me.

If there is something we really do not need again at SLU this is a coach with advanced medical conditions which may or may not die before completing his contract. Thank the Lord that Ford is not in that category.

Excellent post HoosierPal, fully agree. Milik has a lot to offer and little to lose.

Wiz, you talked about the metrics and the economics, the one factor that you did not mention is the fact that Ford probably interviews very well (I would be fairly certain of this considering his press conference and his facility with presenting himself). Another point you did not make is that in a formal search you (the hiring company) always interviews more than one person (even if the one person is the firm choice of the hiring company), in case that for some unpredictable reason the offer is not accepted by your choice candidate. In this case you can jump to option B, assuming such a candidate exists within the bounds of the search.

Plantar fasciitis is nothing that is easily treated after it becomes a chronic condition. Unfortunately for MC, in order to play with his plantar fasciitis he overcompensated using his other leg and developed issues there as well. He had surgery today, I would not anticipate he will be "good as new" in 6-8 weeks, he will still have the plantar fasciitis to deal with plus the recovery from the "overcompensation" surgery. Not good. I know Ford had multiple injuries plaguing his OKSU team last season, but the truth is that we had significant health issue problems last season as well: Crawford, Bartley, Welmer, Gillman. We were lucky that Reggie did not get injured last season, as he has done in the past

OK Tonka, I took your joke seriously, sorry for the misinformation.

I am not messing with anyone. I am pretty sure I saw a tweet from the new head coach saying that "my first act as the head coach of SLU is to confirm (? do not know his first name and cannot find the post) Platt as Associate Coach." This may be a case of a senior moment but I just cannot find the tweet, sorry. I will be the first to be relieved if I am wrong about this. Ford is good for public relations which is a +. I hope I am wrong about Platt. And no I have absolutely no inside information on SLU. Too early to bet BJK

All the best Milik

Sorry to see you go Milik, all the best. May you get into a program that will help you fulfill your dreams and aspirations.

I hate to say this, I have always been a supporter of the coach in his role, however there are two sides to this coin describing what a head coach should be able to do: 1. In terms of being able to talk convincingly and carry the enthusiasm and support of the crowd, Ford definitely has proven to be a most capable person. He wowed them in the interviews and he wowed them in the press conference today. He aces the PR, showtime, portion of the deal. Crews was never very good at this. 2. The other side of the coin is, of course performance. We will not see this side until the season starts. Of course Crews was not very good at this either. I really hope Ford is a true, solid guy capable of delivering. However nowadays we see entirely too many people that talk pretty and convincingly and plainly do not deliver. Let's hope Ford is not one of these ilk. We live in the era of all show and all look at me pretense, I hope he is not in that group of people. I must say I am pretty turned off by the fact that he kept Platt as Associate coach without looking into what Platt has been doing for these last few years. I think this is not a good way to start after his triumphant public presentation. We will see, but color me skeptical at this time. Remember the Governor of Illinois, now serving time, with the unpronounceable name, Blagogevicz or something like it. They were selling Blagogevicz sandwiches in Chicago after he was sentenced, these were, of course, boloney sandwiches. Let's hope our sandwich shops will not be selling Ford sandwiches in 3 or 4 years (again boloney sandwiches, why reinvent the wheel, just rename it).

Wow! a new page for SLU is coming up soon.

Fine thing Sulfan13, if this is the very best we could do, we will have to live with it and hope it works.

As per your request biliken roy. My first wife was not a basketball player, in fact she hated the sport. She does not validate Ford in any way imaginable. She was just used as an example of people or situations that appear to be perfect and later on they are found to be far far from even acceptable. It is like saying 'beware of what you wish."

JMM if I may ask what makes you think you can achieve perfection (a perfect world, a perfect choice, a perfect wife, etc...) with any single choice you make in life? The same applies to schools and corporations. Perfection is not a choice, it takes work. So, OK let's say we made a couple of offers to potential head coaches that were rejected. Fine, if they do not want to come here or we cannot pay enough to them, or we are not attractive enough to them for whatever reason, they may as well continue with their lives and we will look elsewhere. Why is it that if it is not the first choice you made it has to be bad? So, you preferred to have a different head coach, tough cookies to you, live with it, this is what you got. Once upon a time I wanted my first choice for a wife, and I got it, and Lord was it ever a terrible choice... I paid for my first choice in more ways I could have imagined... So, we go for another search in 4-5 years, fine if that is what we have to do. Ever heard the story about making lemonade out of lemons, it happens to be true. Ford may not be perfect but it has a lot of good to offer the program. We will see what happens next won't we?

Whatever happened, we have a Head Coach. Welcome Coach Ford, we need you.

Welcome Coach Ford, we really need you here.

What cat? Do we really know what is going on or are we just speculating about it?

I am sure you are right cheeseman but we do have a name for at least one basketball player who did not make it at SLU for academic reasons. That is more than what we have of OK State or any of the other schools.

Back to the issue of academics at SLU. SLU is not a diploma factory as some schools are. For example, remember Willie, same class as Kwamain. He was a very good basketball player but could not cope with academics at SLU and dropped out. You do not see players dropping out of state schools because of academics, or do you?

Fully and completely agree

Did you mean to write this in blue color?

You are correct milwaukeebill, OSU will pay the bill X3 years if he is hired officially before 30 days pass after his firing. Whoopee, financially this looks good for SLU if it comes to pass.

And how do you know that a search firm is not hired, besides their many other advantages, for CYA control?