johnbj14

First sentence is spot on. Travis does some things well and some things poorly as a coach. He’s not truly a bad coach, but not a great one either. My suspicion is the AD does know that last season was a disappointment, but the only times they really admit that publicly is when they make a coaching change. If the university thinks he is the best choice right now, whether it be due to lack of funds for a buyout, or legitimate belief he is the man going forward, the point remains that something has to be done differently. I have no real doubts Travis can cobble together a group that wins 20 games every year. In today’s landscape though, it’s about getting to 25. I hope that something differently will be done, whether through roster construction or (less likely) a staff shakeup.

That came with a pretty notable assistant shakeup. Chris Lowery totally revamped their defense. I don’t necessarily feel like that’s in the cards here. Tate and Phil are not going anywhere for their respective reasons. Corey is tied to STL, Phil to Travis. I doubt Bailey is going to bolt after a year considering he was coming back to Travis after initially accepting at UMass. So it’s harder to see something changing considering the voices are all the same. I don’t think the program will fall off the map, and we’ll likely win between 18 and 20 games. But it’s the same position of limbo we’ve been in for a couple seasons. That doesn’t exactly excite me.

If SLU wants to be on the shortlist for when the Big East expands, the men’s basketball program will have to take a serious step forward. I’m skeptical that call will ever come, but again, for the resources being spent on this program, including coaching salary, they need better results. 18-22 wins annually is not attractive for a bigger conference, but more importantly, is just a poor ROI. Most importantly, it directly contradicts what the department says publicly about their goals. They want to consistently compete for championships and tournament runs. The current approach isn’t really indicating that is the case for your premier revenue sport.

Sure, that’s fine to wait. But this season has been a disappointment as a whole. The expectation outlined by the staff was that this would be an at-large quality team. Instead, they eeked out 12 wins in one of the weakest A-10 seasons of the last 20 years and lost several games when leading at halftime. I’d love to see them win 3 games and make the tournament. That small sample won’t fully alleviate concerns I have about how this staff builds rosters and struggles making in-game adjustments.

Sure, firing a coach is a risky move, and the AD has pretty much assured they aren’t taking on that risk this year. I truly hope Travis wins here. As others have said he is a good ambassador for the program, and the personal trauma he’s had here makes me root for him even harder. However, he needs to have answers for how a season like this isn’t going to happen again. They’ve regressed from a top 75 team to one just outside the top 100. That’s really concerning for a team that he said could be his best ever. I’m pretty confident SLU will never bottom out under Travis. I’m not confident we’ll ever become a consistent NCAA Tournament team. Which for what he’s paid should 100% be the expectation. My fear is that instead of taking on risk, the AD and fans will just grow apathetic, and accept that these results of being on the outside looking in are fine.

Yep. Running a high ball screen with two big men that pretty much have to roll and not pop hurts too, as Yuri pretty much only goes downhill. Would be really curious to see how this staff recruits the portal to make them more offensively dynamic and not so reliant on this action.

Man, DJ would have been fantastic on this team. Combo guard who is a solid defender. Had a pretty decent season at Ball State too!

I don’t necessarily believe it is fully Yuri’s fault he isn’t as impactful as his assist totals would indicate. There are certainly things I wish he would have done to round out his game, notably shoot more from deep to keep defenses honest and not drive directly into shot blockers multiple times a game. However I think there’s a pretty significant case that the roster construction around him simply was clunky. Not enough guys who can create for themselves, and a scheme overly reliant on Yuri making opportunities for others. As much as I like Gibson and Javonte, they just aren’t dynamic (this year in the case of Javonte) enough off the dribble, and a lot of their scoring was dependent on Yuri breaking down the defense first. We saw how disastrous that plan is against a team like Fordham, who took him out of the game completely. Yuri undoubtedly is the best passer we will ever see in a Billiken uniform. He’s also a flawed player who would have been better served with a different supporting cast. I’ll miss him a lot, but also hope our roster next year doesn’t have to rely on one player this much.

With how much money the department invests in the program, a CBI bid is simply unacceptable and shouldn’t be played if that’s what this team is offered. It costs money to play in it to boot.

What a magical run it has been! Program has never made a tournament and has a first year head coach? Nothing to worry about for Rebecca Tillett and this group! An all-time performance from Julia Martinez, adjustments any time UMass got going, and key moments from up and down the roster. Just not enough words to describe how awesome this team is!

Don’t believe they can, as it is not legal at the federal level. Think the good rule of thumb is that if it is on the NCAA banned substances list, they can’t strike a deal with a company who produces one of those substances. Alcohol is fair game though, but only in certain states based on their specific laws.

Not controversial in the slightest. Marten was a legitimately above average A-10 starter until he got hurt against Auburn. We miss his toughness tremendously.

Removing since someone beat me to the link, but so happy for Jordan. Love that there is at least one Billiken in the NBA to root for for the foreseeable future!

He won’t even be on their list. They’re going to go with a really big name or rising coach. Chris Beard, Dusty May, and Will Wade have all been mentioned by Jeff Goodman on Twitter this morning.

IIRC, Gibson, not TJ, was the primary defender on Burton in the first half. Last night didn’t seem like a great matchup for him. Combine that with Perkins and Gibson playing well, it makes sense why his minutes were low.

Again, that shouldn’t impact the decision to move on or not. The program has goals of consistently winning A-10 titles and being in the dance. That has not materialized under Travis. Chris May and whatever search firm the department may utilize are the only factors on if the hire will be good or not. May is 1/2 on MBB hires. Removing the interim tag from Crews was a mistake. Travis was a good hire for what the program needed at the time, despite not taking the next step forward once he got going. But judging whether or not to make a change based on moves that were under prior decision makers is how you doom SLU to a future of accepting the status quo.

To steal a phrase from finance 101, “prior performance is not indicative of future returns” SLU’s hiring history doesn’t mean the next one will be bad.

Expectations of a tournament appearance this year with the players we had returning, and additions via portal, were absolutely realistic IMO. But when all is said and done, it’s likely that this year will be similar to last: close, but just not enough (barring a miraculous run in Brooklyn)

Sounds like he’s not in loveseat with Travis’ coaching skills

Those rankings above speak volumes. SLU is a slightly above average team, that right now is on the outside looking in... of the NIT. There are still fun moments, exciting plays, and flashes of potential. But ultimately, those just serves as a reminder of the high expectations most of us had coming into the year. With the money spent on the program, it is fair to demand better results.

Carte’are Gordon played there after he left SLU and DePaul

This is how I feel 100%. Ford was the right hire at the time to clean up the program, raise the floor, and bring necessary facilities improvements to help keep Chaifetz on par with P5 facilities. It seems that we have seen the ceiling of his tenure, and a replacement can help unlock another level of Billiken success now that the program is back on solid footing.

Curious why you are so convinced the next hire will be a cheap one. If high money donors are willing to cut the cord on Travis, then they will be willing to pony up for a serious replacement. You don't make that former decision without assurances of the latter.

Chris Mack was made in a lab for this opening. The stars couldn’t be aligned more perfectly. The only real questions are if he’s going to pursue a job this cycle, if SLU will be open, and how big of a bidding war he’d command.

In my eyes, no. A bad hire only is devastating if the department is slow to move on. Butler is a fantastic example. They replaced Brad Stevens with the wrong guy. He was gone after a year and then they brought in Chris Holtmann.