Spoon-Balls

I'm sure most here would LOVE to have Chris May's job security. End of an era. Feels like the program is right back to where good ol' Jimmy Crews left it.

FIFY

May was always a colossal a**hole to the pep band during my time at SLU. Athletics department was always disorganized, chaotic, and when sh*t happened that put the band in a tough spot, it was never a culture of taking responsibility and simply saying "oh we're sorry, allow us to make amends." They'd blame the band for their own f ups. That is just the kind of person May is. I've worked with plenty of others over the years in my profession to know his type. He is a snake. If anything, Janet was always the one doing the heavy lifting around there and cleaning up the messes. As others have said, all of his schtick would be forgivable if the basketball program wasn't in shambles and could have something to show over the past decade other than just a single NCAA appearance.

Great news all around, really hope alumni can return and provide support for Grant and the next era of the World's Greatest Pep Band. It will take time and effort to recruit new student musicians. It always felt like the number of actual students joining the band really fell off a cliff around 2014-2015, by 2019-2020 it was primarily alumni carrying the entire brass section (bones, tubas, trumpets)...

He might not fully understand what he's getting himself into. I'm sure he was told all sorts of things by the AD to sell the position, but probably has no idea what kind of stuff transpired this past year that led to the position being open in the first place. Hopefully someone in the know can get him up to speed, otherwise I fear things could be somewhat ugly if he shows up to the first rehearsal in August and there's only like 10-20 undergrads present....

Hoping for the best in this regard, but the athletic department doesn't have the greatest track record when it comes to micromanaging the band...

The realistic side of me believes this is how Chris May and many of the boosters/donors feel about Ford.... ... which is precisely why my desire to support this program will continue to wane. And I imagine many other casual fans throughout the St. Louis region and across the country. I suppose the status quo is the norm for Billiken basketball. Anyone who is fine with this shite can keep on living in their own world but the rest of us are fed up. It's "Show Me" time for Chris May, and if he can't then, well, I can't continue to follow this program or recommend it to anyone else. If Chris doesn't even have a short/medium term plan for Ford's replacement, then maybe he isn't the best person to be leading Billiken Basketball to the promised land....

If I were the good Doc I'd be making some phone calls, but I think he easily ends up at another Power school

Ford has no game plan in these situations.

Perkins with zero control

Holy shite

If Perkins returns to form like we know he can we win this game handily.

The NET can kiss the Billiken's big white arse. Just win baby.

“Higher purpose, greater good”

What’s interesting is that if you go back and read some of the articles about Oklahoma State circa 2014-2015, the situation was almost exactly identical to the one we have right now. Zero wins against top 25 teams, loaded roster that severely underperformed, missed tourneys, etc. And Ford was one of the highest paid coaches in college basketball during his tenure there. Ford has always been a great recruiter but unfortunately I don’t think his coaching abilities have advanced a whole lot in the past decade.

Ford has lost the locker room, that much is obvious.

Perry would put on a masterclass for that solo. Although I’ll bet even if Austin wanted to play that song at tip it would get shut down by the AD. Sounds like there wasn’t much autonomy anymore in choosing which music they could actually play at various points in the game

I’m also shocked at how many of the Band traditions have been dismantled. It sounds like they were forced to discard all the good music and the classics in favor of these “cheers” that are supposed to create “new traditions” and “do it AD’s way.” I don’t fault any of the band for leaving having to put up with that shite. One of the best parts of band was coming up with new music every year and getting to innovate the way we wanted to, not the way AD wanted us to.

I keep coming back to this article and wondering if you could rewrite it verbatim about the current state of SLU basketball? It seems like Ford is in exactly the same place as he was nearly a decade ago. I just think it’s interesting, and we’ll see if he has the same outcome that he had before… https://www.cowboysrideforfree.com/platform/amp/2014/4/3/5546118/travis-ford-fired Lots of fascinating quotes but this one caught my eye: “Some fear that without Travis the [Billikens] won't attract the same level of talent, but what's it matter if the talent is constantly squandered?”

Sigh. There were many points over the years where I thought Austin would finally hang up the coat and call it a day, few SLU basketball fans have put their heart and soul into every single game the way Austin has over the last ~10 years since taking over for Mike Beskala. Beskala retired from the job early, for a variety of reasons, but probably was glad to be leaving when he did. Austin was the primary reason the band was able to maintain its enthusiasm and soul for the past decade, despite continual challenges from the people that should have been supporting him. Every year something was being taken away, like playing time, space, funding for new instruments, etc. And yet, Austin was there, every single game. His passion was to make SLU basketball games a fun atmosphere for everyone. He also had a full time job and this was more akin to a volunteer position with a stipend. As mentioned above, he often paid for things out of his own pocket, but it was because of his love for the band and SLU basketball. I like to think Austin could just set aside the lack of appropriate compensation or respect from AD because he loved what he did, but every year seemed to be a new series of issues. There were a few points back in 2017-2019 where they threatened to fire him because he was causing too many "problems" for them by pushing back on various BS (like threatening to have scholarships removed, reducing funding, taking playing time during games away, micromanaging from AD staff who were non musicians, telling us what songs we should play and ones we weren't "allowed" to, etc.). Like I said, I am very surprised he stuck around for this long, not many would have. He always had the band's back, and we had his. I doubt really anyone will show up now without Austin at the helm. He was the heart and soul of the World's Greatest Pep Band. 1. Around 2011-2012, there were a ton of students signing up to play in the band. At our largest, we were about 120 band members strong in 2013. Since around 2016 the number of students signing up for the band gradually dwindled. But many alumni, even grad students, would stay on as volunteers to help fill much needed brass sections. Hard to say the exact reasons for fewer students getting involved in band. It just seemed like there was less enthusiasm among new undergrads for any extracurriculars that weren't viewed as significant "resume boosters." 2. Yes, but often in the form of a scholarship and was often highly variable from school to school. I appreciated the small extra scholarship money, but it was never really as important as just being part of a really fun and special group of people. It wasn't really make or break for most students, and certainly not the main reason most people joined the band. 3. We received a half credit per semester. Not bad when you added it up over 4 years. 4. Only a few schools have much more substantial budgets. Places like G Mason and VCU fund their bands fairly well and pay the directors full time salaries. I think VCU band actually protested a number of years back until the university agreed to pay their director as a full time staff member. They also have many band members who are students in the music school there. At SLU we don't have a music school and most of the players don't play anywhere besides pep band. 5. Key word being "requirement." For an all volunteer band, there should be no requirements. And if there were any being levied against Austin and band members then, well, I guess this is what will happen and we will see how AD squirms now that their good thing they took for granted is now gone. But in general, it varies from school to school. You have football and non football schools. Football schools usually have the marching band AND the pep band (I knew a guy who played in Notre Dame marching full time and then pep band in the offseason). The marching band members receive a substantial stipend and scholarship, and play at various functions around the universities. It's a full time job, and extremely intense during the season. Then you have non football schools, which only have a pep band. VCU and George Mason, for example, play at a good number of their sporting events, i.e. basketball (mens and women's), volleyball, soccer, etc. But again, they are pretty well funded by relative pep band standards. Most other places just play at mens and women's basketball games. All in all, a sad day for SLU basketball. Austin was a treasure and hard to imagine them finding a replacement in the next 1.5 weeks. Most band members will not return.

MOOOOOONNNN RIVERRRRRRR

FIFY

Wondering what it will take for our NET to recover from this one... A10 isn't gonna be a cakewalk.

Our NET will take a serious hit after this one. Not good.

Ballgame