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VERY critical Bernie article


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this article backtracks from his throwing down the gauntlet at Levick's feet earlier this year. He thinks Brad is not gone, and has a chance to save his job with a good spring recruiting class...... some on this board will not even give him this much.

Looking back it seems a little harsh to cut and run on the guy who is Partly responsible for getting the arena going, and all the extra work he had to do for that..... then say you have improved the team overall but we will not let you coach in the new arena.

This spring's class will be huge for BS one way or another.

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I agree. I don't think the article was as harsh as the headline and opening. I think Bernie did a good job with it. He gives his pluses and minuses and what Brad needs to do to save face. It made sense to me.

The article was the type of discussion we should have on this board instead of all the name calling and insults of posters. I don’t see that happening, though.

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Yes, Biondi would have found a way eventually. The key is eventually. Be honest, Doug Woolard did more to set this program backward than any headcoach.

Brad certainly has his flaws, deserves some blame and must, despite all of the inherent deficiencies at SLU, get the job done. All will agree on this. The difference appears to be more of degree and length of time. Is the program moving forward, despite some steps backward? Should the program be further along after 5 years on the job?

I am not a Brad apologist nor am I ready to place all blame on him and fire him. We, at least not me, are not privy to results of Romar's exit interview (assuming Woolard did one) and/or the results of a Board's report (assuming one was ever commissioned) regarding what SLU needs to make Biondi's goal of a Top 50 program a reality. If these issues are ignored and all blame, instead, is placed at the personality/ability of the head coach, SLU will remain where it is.

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These are the comments Bernie had about Brad: "Yes, he's a high-quality man in a tough and unforgiving profession. He cares about his players, he cares about their grades, and he cares about their development as young men."

Are you questioning these comments or something else?

As disapointed as I am with Brad the program builder I have no reason whatsoever to question his character. Do you disagree?

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Bernie said:

"And what about next season? Vouyoukas will be gone, replaced (apparently) by the little-used Bryce Husak. Liddell and Lisch will be flanked by pretty much the same nondescript cast of supporting players."

He says BH is going to take over, but what about AK? I think we've all seen his potential. He has strength and can have a lot of power when he goes to the basket, he just needs a bit more experience.

And what does he call LM and DP? If we didn't have one of them, we would be really screwed...especially without LM.

The other thing is what explanation do we have for why we were so good 2 months ago and bad now? Did Brad all of a sudden become a bad coach over the last 4 weeks?

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Billikan will say....he'll basically personally attack Bernie and say that he isn't a friend of the program, he hates SLU, yada yada and nobody should listen to him.

Here is a sampling from a Billikan rant about Bernie earlier in the year...

"There is no person in this town who dislikes SLU more than Bernie. For those of you who support him I say that you just need to look at his history. He has in the paper, and personally on the radio and in conversations, insulted just about everyone involved in the program, particularly the fans. He know very little about basketball but he claims he is an expert. He seldom goes to Billiken games even though we are the only D1 basketball team in town. Yet somehow he is an expert. He takes credit for everything good and blames everyone but himself if things go bad. If we do well he will jump on the bandwagon and claim that it was his doing that we were successful when in fact we do in spite of his constant negative articles.

In every situation in life a person can analyze a situation with people and there will always be some positives and some negatives. No situation or person is perfect. For some reason, Bernie has dedicated most of his commentary for years about the Bills over the years with a hard and consistant focus on anything that is negative with almost no recognition of anything positive. We now have a nice team and you would think he could talk about that but he cannot help himself and he has to be negative. I do not respect the man because he will not admit his prejudices and he writes as if he is just being fair to all concerned. This is, regrettably, the approach of many newspaper writers around the country. it is a big reason why newspapers are failing!"

http://www.billikens.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/d...ewmode=threaded

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I have dealt with Bernie for a number of years. One thing I know for sure is that he is the anti-Billiken. He very much dislikes SLU and he will take every opportunity he can to write a negative article because it feeds his huge ego. He thinks he knows all and if a person does not do exactly what he says then he will try to destroy them in print. He has been writing anti SLU articles for years. A perfect example is that he said the arena would never be built and he attacked Biondi and the school repeatedly. He hurt the effort to try to get it built and then when it became a reality he refused to acknowledge that he was wrong or give Biondi or the school any credit.

Now he sees a real opportunity to hurt the school so he jumps in with both feet. Do not kid yourselves, this man is not an objective observer who wants to see the Bills do well. He hates SLU and he has shown it over and over.

As to this article, it is typical of Bernie. He is extremely clever and he always puts in a few things that would make it appear that he is not biased--that is a classic method of political attack and he has applied it here--have someone write an article that has some positives and then on every key point make sure it is very negative about the person being attacked. It is subtle and it can be effective if people do not know the motivation and intention of the writer. He criticizes the recruiting while at the same time he is trying to torpedo Brad by saying that he will be fired so he is saying to recruits that they should not sign with SLU because Brad is a lame duck.

I would not put it past Bernie for him to read this board and realize there is a cadre of "we hate Brad" fans and try to appeal to that group by some of his comments.

I have said repeatedly that Brad is not perfect and I agree with the people who quesitoned the Coffey situation at Temple. But to completely ignore the impact of the various Lisch injuries on this team is ridiculous. For any true SLU fan, if you start supporting Bernie's attitude toward SLU you are getting in bed with the devil.

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"For any true SLU fan, if you start supporting Bernie's attitude toward SLU you are getting in bed with the devil."

I cannot take you serious anymore. Your childish and hysterical rants are comical. You're a bit paranoid too.

While BM may be all negative about SLU, you're all positive. Which one is better? They are both close-minded positions.

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If you are then I understand your positions so much better. I met with him a few years ago where he told me that the aspirations of the Billiken basketball faithful were a "joke" and he said that the arena would never get built. If you are not him, has he said the same things to you?

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