The House That Rick Built

Episode 4 - La Salle recap - Fordham preview A short episode from the podcast team:

Noted! Thank you for the feed back.

Episode 3, The House That Rick Built: - Welcome Zac Miller to the show - UMass Recap - La Salle preview - Gray Seasons - Women's Hoops Coverage If you guys are looking for a preview on the La Salle game, check out our thoughts here, plus much more in Episode 3:

SWIC was just one of the names I think he would actually be lured to in terms of JUCOs in the area. Certainly I have heard the same thing about Harrington. I feel like looking at it in terms of school, his best option is probably JUCO no matter where it is. Now if he is done with going to school, then that is another conversation altogether.

It had been my assumption from watching all of this Gordon stuff go down that his best option would be to try over seas. No big local school is likely to want that kind of head ache, no big school out of the area will need to take a risk on him. Now, maybe if he was unhappy with his decision to go to SLU in the first place then that could change at a new environment, but I didn't find it likely that he would move on to anything bigger than SLU at this point. Talent is there to do so. Just maybe not the head at times. JUCO would also make some sense, SWIC just across the river has been a successful school for pushing players on to better schools, would keep him local.

I guess my real question on this topic, apart from ignorant commenting of other users on here, is how much confidence do you have in Ford right now? I have all the confidence in his ability to recruit but that is only one side of it. Offense hasn't looked terribly fluid this year. Also responding to another comment you made since I am at my post limit apparently, if you have interest in contributing to this show in any way, shoot me an email [email protected] I would love to add new voices and thoughts to this podcast from SLU fans. Edit: Another edit to this post, I saw your message, have no way of responding through billikens.com because of posting limits (not sure how that is affecting messages) the only way to communicate further on any of these things right now would be to follow me on twitter @collin_kessler or emailing me through the site above. Sorry for the inconvenience hope to hear from you, excited to bring more podcasts here to the message boards.

I appreciate the support! Let me know if there are any topics you would like discussed on the show. In terms of Gordon at the 3, it was fifth hand information I had heard from friends I have who still play college basketball in junior colleges where SLU is recruiting. So it's not the most trustworthy information, its more just food for thought as to another reason Gordon may have been so eager to get out of SLU.

Are you comfortable saying that Gordon wasn't an isolated issue at SLU? That has been some of my bigger fears as I stated in the podcast, but I have to believe if Ford's handling of players was that bad, he probably would have run Goodwin off after last year. Maybe I am wrong, but I certainly am a little more realistic now about how good I think Ford is in St. Louis, or rather has been.

It was more along the lines of fifth hand information if that makes sense. College friends I have that play junior college basketball knew guys who knew guys type of thing. He said the rumors he was hearing from the Billikens camp were that Gordon wanted to be a three. Is this entirely factual? Certainly not, but if you think about Gordon, he wouldn't have much value in the NBA as a 4 or 5 so it certainly would make sense, but as it seems with everything related to Gordon, it was just another rumor to consider. In terms of Ford handling it negatively, that was purely speculation on my part. I have become fearful that Ford's reputation is he can't handle players well, and his three year tenure at SLU kind of adds to that reputation, fair or not. He may very well have given Gordon EVERY opportunity he was comfortable with, but maybe there were other opportunities Ford could have explored that would have been more beneficial for all. Again, I don't have any facts on this as of yet, everything seems pretty hush-hush in terms of actual reasons for leaving, but it terms of speculation, that has just been one of my personal fears of late.

The House That Rick Built - Episode 2, is out now, covering the Rhode Island game, as well as Travis Ford's legacy so far at SLU following the Gordon transfer:

New user to Billikens.com, avid fan and family has been seasons ticket holders for as long as I can remember. Decided to start up a podcast on the Billikens for more in-depth analysis of the team, starting with this Gordon situation. If you guys are interested, check it out, The House that Rick Built (working title, suggestions appreciated), Episode One, out now: