Soderberg on Sports Plus

[glanderm]

Apologies if this has already been posted, but did anyone catch Soderberg on Sports Plus last night (I did not - I live out of the area). Bernie posted in the Pressbox that Soderberg gave himself an "A" grade on the year.

http://www.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.p...er=asc&&start=8

Thoughts?

[billiken_roy]

if someone asks you to grade yourself and you know area recruits are probably watching, what would you say?

it was a horrible interview. renee knott is about as bad as they come. the whole intereview seemed focused on renee wanting soderberg to say soderberg sucked as a coach and the billiken players suck. it was a total waste of time as no coach is going to say that about himself or his players.

[bonwich]

How many games you figure "Renee" saw this year?

[Bay Area Billiken]

I would like to stay out of this. But here we go again. Let me preface this by saying that I am not a Kool-Aid drinker.

1. Why is this question being asked of the Coach on live TV?

2. How exactly is he supposed to respond? He's damned no matter what he says. If he gave himself a C, he would be ridiculed; he reportedly gave himself an A, and Bernie is taking shots at him.

How about this, let's grade the STL media for their coverage and opinions re this basketball season.

Bernie (MVC) Miklasz

Randy (Absent the MVC, SLU should have stayed in C-USA) Karraker

Slaten

Bryan Burwell

Jeff Gordon

John Maracek

et al.

Now I will give an A+ to Tom Timmerman, who did an excellent job this year covering the Billikens.

Should we take a poll re the overall objective of the STL media scribes and talking heads vis-a-vis the SLU hoops program?

A- Trying to destroy it.

B- Trying to damage it.

C- Trying to effectuate (prod) to "positive" change.

D- Doing whatever it takes to make the MVC look good and SLU look bad.

E- Some of the above.

[Westy03]

0. Did he say Soderberg's name right? I think it took him a good part of a year to pronounce Pujols, you know the best hitter in the game.

[Bay Area Billiken]

If that happened in that interview, then it was completely uncalled for and patently absurd.

See my other post. How exactly was the Coach supposed to respond?

This STL media bashing of SLU has gotten completely out of hand. And it needs to be quashed.

[Westy03]

I honestly dont think he meant to bash him. I just think Renne Knott is that dumb and has no idea how to conduct an interview. By far the worst sportscaster in stl in many years.

[Box and Won]

I'm still convinced that Rene is some sort of cyborg or android. He's programmed to only say certain words or phrases, which helps explain why he mispronounces the easiest of names (Bruce Sutter). Ever use one of those computerized voice emulators? It's the same thing with Rene.

[billiken_roy]

none

[Bay Area Billiken]

If true, that means I saw 2 more SLU games in person this year than he did. And I'm 2,000 miles away, not a few blocks.

If true, that talking head gets an Incomplete as his grade. He probably cannot make it up in summer school.

[billiken_roy]

since timmermann has started the blog, i have done a 180 in my view on tom timmermann and concur on a high grade for timmermann

i hope he continues to post on the blog. surely in the offseason he can give us recruiting and offseason stuff to nibble on.

i also have been tremendously impressed with ramsey the last couple of months. ramsey used to work so hard at being seen as impartial to the point that on his kfns show, he sometimes came off overly critical of the billikens. as of late he has been a fantastic defender of the billikens and imo regained the right to be called "the voice of the billikens".

of course frank seems to have been there for us all along. so he deserves high marks as well.

most of the rest of the media, i question if they even went to a game this year some of the nonsense they spew is so uninformed and vendictive.

[SShoe]

Timmerman was great.

I thought both Burwell and Gordon were very fair this year in their assessments of SLU and I generally agreed with their sentiments.

Bernie, as usual, rides the flavor wave of the month. Made some good points from time to time, but generally will go up and down.

RK is a joke.

[sandgnat18]

Not meeting your preseason goal--NCAA tournament, or even just any postseason-- shouldn't merit an "A" in anyone's bell curve. An "A" means you accomplished what you set as the goal and I don't think 19 wins and 7th in the A-10 were what anyone had in mind.

[slu72]

I don't buy that they are trying to destroy it. A solid D1 program in St. Louis would be a good story and creates a buzz. Watch what happens when Anderson makes Mizzery a consistent winner. The largest city in MO is looking for something to cheer about other than just the Blues in the Winter. But am not sure the media is trying to make it better either. Bernie is disrespectful towards the program, because he thinks we're a joke. We're not a joke, but, other than staying out of NCAA problems, we're pretty vanilla in the way we play, our usual record of slightly over .500, and we rarely upset any biggies. After watching 4 straight days of untold number of games, you must know by now our talent pool is very slim and not up to what it takes to compete at "dance level." This is UB's fault, but he himself and the team an A for working hard. That might work in grade school and little league, but not at this level. UB should have slid around the question. By giving himself a grade he is going to open himself up to criticism no matter which way he goes. He says A, so the obvious reaction is, "if this year was an A does that mean this is the best we can expect under your leadership?" If he answers C the reaction's going to be, "C's average, and average don't cut it these days." He should have taken a page out of the Kool Aid Clubber's manual, "we had a better record than last year. We made progress."

[willie]

I agree. If your stated goal is to make the NCAA's and you don't meet that goal you can't give yourself an A. I know this the era of grade inflation but I would have to give him something less. Even on TV he should have said our goal was to make the NCAA's,we didn't therefore I'll take a B. That would show that your not satisfied.

[Quest]

No, SLU needs to be bashed. What are you smoking? Did SLU get to the post-season this year????!?!?!? Soderberg has had five seasons to right the ship and he has done NOTHING. What are we waiting for?!?!?!?!?!?!

I don't care if he's a good Christian person. Christian people get fired everyday from Fortune 500 companies, car dealerships, even non-profits like Catholic Charities. Soderberg is the one reason why fans are leaving this program and buying those stupid tiger tails to put on their trunks. This has to end.

Hire Tommy Amaker

[Westy03]

Um... How many years was Amaker at Michigan and how many NCAA tournament games did he play? Im not a big Soderberg fan but what makes you think Amaker can do a better job. Shouldnt u judge Amaker the same way you judge Soderberg.

[billiken_roy]

quest said,

"Soderberg is the one reason why fans are leaving this program and buying those stupid tiger tails to put on their trunks. This has to end."

you do realize that our average attendance was higher this year than last and last year was higher than the previous year? if our fans are all leaving, who's coming to the games?

also those tiger tails on the trunks, slu had a higher average attendance than mi$$ouri this year. or did you mean the fans were going to the edwardsville tigers or memphis? what tiger program are you talking about?

[crymdg2]

I can still remember this summer right after the situation with Floyd Irons came out, Knott had a sitdown interview with Irons. Renee had the questions he was going to ask written down on a card. Give me a break, the sign of a good interview is rolling with the person being interviewed. What a great opportunity for Knott to actually gain some credibility in this town, but instead he looked scared of Irons (or probably thought Irons was justified in his actions.) It's a damn shame that Frank C didn't get the head sports job he clearly deserved it.

[bauman]

Do you mean the same RK who last night on SportsPlus said Bill Self can't coach. Randy needs to sign on to "the Queen's" agenda in which only Slaten knows anything about coaching basketball. When you consider RK's opinion of one of the best MBB coaches in D 1, maybe it makes his statement that the Bills belong in the Ohio Valley conf w/ SEMO easier to understand,and forgive the poor dumb b@$t@#*.

[glanderm]

I tend to agree with sandgnat. I consider myself somewhat ambivalent regarding Soderberg - maybe willing to give him more time, maybe not; wanting to see improved performance.

No doubt that, from how I understand it as I didn't see the interview, it might not have been the most intelligent question in the history of sports interviews, but I think Brad giving himself an "A" is a bit ridiculous. His own expectations of himself should be and, based on public statements he's made in the past, are, higher. I would have been happy to hear that he game himself a "B" noting that while they got to 20 wins, he, like everyone else on this board, had higher expectations for this year's team. He should always be striving, and encouraging his players to strive, for something better. I don't think that's a bad message to send to any recruits who might have been watching.

[Billikan]

Did he really ask Brad to give himself a grade, now, in the middle of a big recruiting push? I can not imagine a live interview where a reporter asked a coach to give himself a grade. We live in never never land when it comes to the media!

[billiken_roy]

he did. and you could see it on soderberg's face he wanted to be anywhere but there that second. can you imagine bobby knight being asked that in the same circumstance.

[glanderm]

It's a tough question, no doubt, and, since I didn't see the entire interview, I can't comment on the slant of the interview as a whole. But, setting the reportedly imcompetent Rene Knott for a second, isn't the media generally supposed to ask tough questions of coaches, managers, etc.? Granted that the sports media (in general - not just in convering SLU) is probably more critical that it has ever been before (and knee-jerk criticism is rampant), but is asking Soderberg how he feels about his performance looking back over the course of the season really that ridiculous of a question? I'm not saying that it's not, I'm not sure how I would answer that question (especially given that I didnt' see the interview), but I feel like that's a question worth asking.

[courtside]

I've actually seen and heard this type of question before many times asked to a coach or player....happens all the time...many simply say it is not my place to give myself a grade, that is for others to decide. If question is repeated, repeat that same answer calmly, politely and firm, and move on, not too tough.