johnbj14

Any hire will have some inherent risk. Because of the type of program SLU is, the true risk free hire just isn’t out there. It isn’t hard to poke holes in a coach who was fired from the P6 level, rising low/mid-major coach, or hot shot assistant. The alternative of sticking with what we have for fear of the new hire being worse though is a really scary proposition. It feels like we’ve seen the height of what Ford can do here, and it is short of what a lot of us feel the program can achieve.

First sellout in 3 years. Really hope we can start getting more of them. Chaifetz is really tough when it’s packed!

Sorry @majerus mojowasn't saying you didn’t agree, just more so a general statement that applies to a lot of the posts around here this season. Your post was the best place to put it haha

Two things can be true. 1, that the team has underperformed and lost some they shouldn’t have. 2, they can still win the conference and be really fun. Really looking forward to seeing the packed house. Hopefully the first of a few down the stretch. Roll Bills, crush VCU!

Works even better once you’ve seen the VCU players swing a golf club. A ton of fore calls if they're on the course:

0% chance he gets let go in season. In the event SLU moves on, they don’t need to let him go to start putting out feelers. Guys don’t really get fired in season anymore unless they did something horrific or are simply checked out.

If you don’t think the AD can make a good hire, that says a lot more about his status than Travis himself. We’re at a time of change in college athletics, one where it is imperative to have a coach who can lead SLU into a sustained era of success. The coach next season should be the person the AD feels can best do that. There’s a lot to be said about the work Travis has done to get SLU to this point. SLU is consistently in the picture at the end of the season, but at some point NIT bids have to turn into NCAA bids, particularly at-large quality ones, for the program to be what a lot of the board feels it can be. edit: To clarify, I really like Travis as a representative of the university. He’s great on radio spots, has done a tremendous amount of fundraising for the department as a whole, and really seems to get what makes SLU special. The program he took over was an absolute mess, which he cleaned up admirably. I really wish some of the near misses over the years hadn’t happened, because this conversation wouldn’t be happening at all.

Mack would be an absolute home run. The fit is as close to perfect as you can get. My big fear is someone else getting to him first. If the school is moving on from Travis, it needs to be quickly so they get first crack at Mack.

There is a coach who gets his hands dirty in recruiting I wouldn’t hate at all: Will Wade.

If he’s proven innocent, which would be the only way SLU would hire him, he will be off the market before they can even call. He was making 5 million a year at Texas. There’s no way the AD pays it. Also I understand your point about everything else being irrelevant, but this athletic department, and university as a whole, has proven this kind of thing is relevant. (See Sit. 1 and Sit. 2)

I get we want to win, but hard pass.

I just feel really numb. It was awesome seeing Larry and Sincere have good game, but another overall disappointing night in a season filled with them. 16 more of these, and hard to not project a few more duds.

Anytime I see SLU favored on the road, it’s an immediate bet on their opponent’s moneyline. Makes the loss sting a bit less.

100% agreed here. This is something that seemingly is glossed over a lot. I've been a Ford defender, but believe that a change is probably best for all parties. However, this team just making shots at their career averages would likely have a lot of us feeling differently at this point in the season.

Perhaps this isn’t a popular opinion, but I don’t care if the roster is local or not. Get the best players for SLU here and just win.

Looks like the UMass collective has inked their first deal with a player

He has not said this, only that he was considering it last season. He is currently enrolled in a one year master’s program. Seems fairly evident this is his last year.

Sincere Parker is the most athletic player on the roster. Blend of quickness and verticality that no one else has. He coincidentally is the player I’d love to see way more of as well.

I guess my question was trying to get at what would constitute a shake up? Never said you had to be driving the changes, just more so curious what people on the board would view as efforts to change things.

Not that I’m in the camp of a head coaching change at this moment, but always curious when this comes up. What would these changes look like? Assistant coaching shakeup? Scheduling philosophy change? New offensive/defensive schemes? In general, I feel this team is going to be fine in A-10 play. Their losses are to teams that are far superior to anyone in the league this year. But do feel the questions regarding if Travis is the guy to take the program to the heights it can get to are valid.

We could all play the hypothetical game all day. It’s a pointless exercise that none of us will ever know the answer to. Jordan is an NBA player thanks, in part, to his time at SLU. He’s also an NBA player because he’s worked his tail off in a professional development environment.

There are a lot of things to criticize Travis Ford and the coaching staff about over the last 7 years, but Jordan Goodwin’s development isn’t really one of them. He was a fringe NBA guy during his time at SLU, and went the route of UDFA G-Leaguer to hone his craft. He’s put in thousands of hours as a professional basketball player over the last 18 months with professional skill development staff. Development isn’t linear, and Jordan didn’t magically become a rotation player in the NBA overnight just because he left SLU.

Parker played 2 seasons. Extra availability for COVID caused him to have 2 freshman seasons, similar to the D1 level.

They just had their timeline wrong. He was offered about a month beforehand, and whoever maintains the page for 247 didn’t take the time to get the dates right. Directly from Cian: offered July 11th: Visited August 4th: Committed August 6th:

NIL isn’t going anywhere, regardless of anyone’s personal opinion on the subject. Is it regulated poorly by the NCAA? Yes, and that’s no real surprise. But it is going to be a key component in staying relevant going forward. Not saying anyone is getting rich playing at SLU, but if the program wants to be able to compete for high level players, or retain guys that might transfer, NIL will have to be something that we get right.