Short-Sighted Move

[aj_arete]

Looks like the local big-time donors were behnid this move, plus it helps that Cheryl Levick wasn't behind the Brad hiring. I think this is a bad move because it will be difficult to sell the A-10, in its current state, to established names in the industry.

While it's true that the facility is a big selling point, I think SLU's limited TV exposure offsets it. I would have rather waited until SLU moves to another conference, which might happen sooner than any of us think, or wait for the A-10 to get its act together before making this move.

Admittedly, this move can work if Levick can astutely find a top assistant at a BCS conference or the right coach from a rising low-major. I'd be shocked if the next coach doesn't come from either of those pools. This SLU job is not as attractive as it was when Romar left and that's due to conference profile.

[Cowboy]

aj i think you have 2 different things going in your post.

#1 - I think this is a bad move because it will be difficult to sell the A-10, in its current state, to established names in the industry.

why? the A10 had 2 tourney teams, same as mvc for instance, and who posted how many of the top scorers and rebounders are back (or scheduled to be) next year?? who knows what the outcome of the mtgs at the a10 tourney will produce, but CL should have a clue about that, and perhaps these results will be god things. the conference teams can schedule out of conf based on last yr's non conf sos which was better than the Big East or Big 12 (please don't confuse these points with my thinking all is well with the a10, it is not)

#2 - This SLU job is not as attractive as it was when Romar left and that's due to conference profile.

based purely on the conference i agree as cusa was a power conf in most eyes and the a10 is not, but i hope the hole in the ground at compton and laclede counts for something.

quite frankly, and this is perhaps my biggest dream of the day, some of the schools recruiting the 2008 kids are in big time wonderment about who we hire which could lead to us landing these kids

[davidnark]

If we are to believe the university's statement, they have elected to forego the short-term benefits of this spring's recruiting opportunity in favor of a long-term upside.

[Box and Won]

Then again, this same decision could have been made WEEKS ago.

The only way I see this as a good thing is if:

1) We hire the right man for the job.

2) The administration treats the hiring as a fresh start, adopting the commitment to excellence that has been lacking all these years (paying for cell phones would be a nice start).

[kshoe]

the short term move was to do nothing and hope that we get lucky with a recruit or two this fall. By doing this now, you are seriously hurting your chances at a decent spring signing period, landing the local studs this fall and even run the risk of current players leaving.

In the very short term this move will likely hurt us but many of us feel that in the long-run this is for the best.

[jimbofive]

Firing Brad right now is a horrible move.

Hiring someone better right now would be a great move.

Only one of those has occurred thus far. I know it's early, but they had better not be just starting the search.

This program could easily be screwed until at least 2010. You guys think people b!tch a lot about a 20-win season? Wait until we win less than 10 again. I don't think Brad was taking us in the wrong direction, I think it was just taking more time than people were ready for. I don't deny that the last several recruiting periods were all Brad's fault, and he might not have gotten anyone else of note this time around, but this is the WRONG time to dig ourselves a hole.

[NashvilleBilliken]

Can you please explain why this is best?

If this was to be done, it should have been done immediately following the season. This makes no sense. You two are some of the most vocal about wanting Brad gone. Well, you got it.

The way things sit now and based on our history, we will be completely screwed next year. The year before the opening of a new arena. So, any sort of expectation for 2009 will be based almost ENTIRELY on freshman. Freshman that our new coach will probably just start recruiting in a few weeks. So, that more than likely means anybody Brad was on is gone.

I would be VERY interested, and hopefully you can provide this in your reply, of schools similiar to ours who hire a coach from outside the program and see high major results within 2 years.

[davidnark]

I fully support the decision to fire Brad, but I do not understand why the firing took place halfway through the Spring signing period. (Then again, it was Brad's recruiting failures last fall and early this Spring that created the circumstance.) There are a lot of open questions and facts to be assimilated, and I don't believe it is fair to rely upon Bernie for the facts. Based upon some of the errors in his list of candidates, I believe his facts are about 80% speculation and 20% fact.

I will reserve judgment on the timing (not the decision) until after the new coach is named.

However, I speculate that we may never learn a lot of the key facts. For example, did the staff and the administration recently learn that Brad wasn't going to land any more targets this spring? Was landing these recruits a condition of Brad not losing the job earlier this spring? Was a big booster directly or indirectly behind this decision? Is another coach already lined up? Did Levick have any influence or say in this decision?

My hope and expectation is that this firing is part of a new philosophy at SLU. I hope that this mean's bigger budgets, higher coaches salaries, more resources, etc. Only time will tell.

[jimbofive]

I think in a way it's an insult to Tommie, Kevin, Luke and even Dwayne. Tommie and Kevin are the two best players we've had since Larry and it looks like barring a miracle we're going to let them fall through the cracks. The only way those two make the tourney is if we do get a big name coach and he tears it up and recruits everyone in STL for 2008. And Luke and Dwayne can kiss the tournament goodbye.

Who honestly thinks we'll be dancing next year? I was at 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 odds before this happened, couldn't say now. Probably 20 to 1.

SLU tried to clear a huge gap on this one and changed their minds halfway over. You either commit to a decision and act early, or you suck it up. Could there have been some sudden impetus for this move? Was Brad blowing smoke about being really excited about 5 or 6 recruits? Surely possible news of losing Alexander couldn't have been the deciding blow. We still had several guys out there.

MAN I'm frustrated...

[Billikan]

I know you are happy about the firing but are you really content to start over with the hope that we can have a good team in 2010. Man, I am really tired of the lack of continuity. This is the true to life example of the grass is always greener. I am very concerned that this will be a disaster.

[davidnark]

It ALL depends upon the new coach. I think it is fair to assume that we were not going to land an impact recruit in the next two weeks. That means that the roster we have in place today will be the roster for next season. Assuming that we do not lose any players on the current roster, we are only worse off next year if the new coach is inferior to Brad in terms of preparation and gameday coaching. IMO, the prior three SLU coaches were all superior to Brad in this regard, so there is no reason to believe a new coach won't be as well.

In other words, if the yet-to-be-named coach can convince the current players and Relphorde to stay, then we may actually be better off next year.

[moytoy12]

Respectfully Billikan, we don't know yet that we are starting over. Nonetheless, I agree that this whole situation is fishy.

[jimbofive]

That's certainly what I'm hoping for. And who knows, maybe the replacement will have recruits of his own, but I find that highly unlikely in the Spring.

I just hope that it's been Thorpe selling all our targets, but that probably won't matter anyways. We should have had a new coach no later than the first week of April. That's all.

[kshoe]

"I would be VERY interested, and hopefully you can provide this in your reply, of schools similiar to ours who hire a coach from outside the program and see high major results within 2 years."

SLU in 93-94 was in the 2nd year of the Spoon era.

I don't disagree on the timing, and I wish it had been done at the end of the season but I'd much rather have it happen now then at the end of next year. If it is the right decision, and obviously some of us felt it was, then why wait another day?

[Billiken Law]

this reminds me of when Marquette fired Mike Deane. 100 wins in 5 years, 2 NCAA tourneys, a conference tourney title, 2 NIT runs, but the administration realized the direction he had the program going in wasn't the direction they wanted to go. A booster also got involved. I thought Deane deserved another year, a buddy told the AD he made a mistake. In the end we were wrong it was the right move. SLU has a chance to go to take the program to the next level. I think this is both a short term and long term move. Now, let's get the hiring process right....

[slufanskip]

David, I think your thoughts are the same as mine. I would assume there have been discussions as to why SLU hasn't done better. During those discussions and the review of the program the determination may have been made that the administration needs to get behind the program more. Also people that have donated big money want results. If in fact they have come to the decision that the admin needs to step it up and and have made a real committment to do that, then why wait. Is the timing great ... No, but would it be better in 6 weeks, 6 months, or a year. If you feel Brad is not the guy, then the time to move is now. Discussions were probably had earlier regarding Brad and if he is the guy and I'm sure that there were questions. It may have just taken a little time to determine or make the decision that you were going to make a real committment to be a top tier team, including discussions with donors on what it will take to achieve their goal.

Hopefully that decision has been made and SLU will back the arena up with a new committment.

I don't care if the coach is someone like Montgomery (who I seriously doubt) or an up and comer like the Western Kentucky guy or the guy from Marist ...

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H Waldman

Official Sponser of the Stemmler and Ahearn could and would have helped club.

[kshoe]

This all has to play out before you can say we are starting over. If Lisch and Liddell come back then what has really been lost? None of the seniors to be like Meyer, Polk, Husak are going anywhere. Most of our freshman class has already left. DM leaving would not be a bad thing. I want AK to stay but won't shed tears if he doesn't. mitchell isn't going anywhere else because he didn't have any other options. We will have to wait and see on Relaphorde.

[DeSmetBilliken]

Just in case some people don't know, the hiring Law is talking about is when Marquette hired Tom Crean. That has worked out pretty well for them. I would definitely take the success they have had from our new coach, whoever he is.

[MusicCityBilliken]

For some of you old-timers, at the end of the '73-'74 season, administration fired Bob Polk. Who, except for that last season, had some very respectable results.

Unfortunately the University didn't give much support and ended with almost killing the program with the hiring/firing of Albrecht, Coleman and Ekker.

If Brad did not do something wrong, I hope CL has someone lined up with announcement by early next week. One poster mantioned earlier that CL was not a the banquet because of illness, hmmm...

Tarheel

[SLUSER]

I hate to say it to all you kool-aid drinkers, but obviously Brad had no more recruits lined up. He didnt have Suggs or Brandenberg or anyone else that you all thought Brad actually had a chance with. This was going to be the third signing period in a row with very little and SLU had enough. Do you keep your job at work for underperforming? Why don't you just wait and see what SLU does? it has been 5 hours and everyone is freaking out. Don't you think they have a plan? Biondi knows he needs to fill the arena, he is a smart man. I have been saying this for months now, but how do you fill a new arena at a very mediocre basketball school? ask Kansas State.

[Billiken Law]

>Just in case some people don't know, the hiring Law is

>talking about is when Marquette hired Tom Crean. That has

>worked out pretty well for them. I would definitely take

>the success they have had from our new coach, whoever he is.

and as I said, I thought MU was making a mistake when they fired Mike Deane. 100 wins in 5 years, 4 post season appearances.

I know Kevin O'Neill wants to coach college hoops again. He would be an AWESOME hire for SLU. Without KO who knows were Marquette hoops is today, he took them from the brink of becoming Loyola to the Sweet 16. He made a mistake going to Tennessee, he admitted that. He's grown as a coach and a person and would be a great get for SLU. He applied for the U of Denver job, so he wouldn't think SLU is "below" him.

[Schasz]

He was also interviewed for the USF job before Woolard hired Heath.

[NashvilleBilliken]

What?! So, you'd like to run off DM and don't care about AK leaving. That leaves us with WHO?!?! Oh yeah, I can't wait to watch a team next year with a bunch of SLU frat guys lacing them up. Anyway you look at this, we are starting over.

Any recruiting ties - GONE

Offense - GONE

Defense - GONE

It's not like we are a BCS school, KShoe. Some coach can't just come in here and lead us to the promised land next year or even 2. We WILL NOT hire a big name coach. We WILL NOT sign anybody worth a damn this year. We WILL NOT sign any of the coveted recuits from 2008. I say this with 99% certainty...which of course is just my opnion.

[Battlecat455]

Get serious. How are we not starting over? New coach, new philosophy, new offensive and defensive systems and at least a possible loss of current scholarship players. You are kidding yourself if you think this is anything other than a fiasco. It's going to be a rude awakening for many when it becomes apparent that Brad wasn't the problem to start with.

[kshoe]

"We WILL NOT sign anybody worth a damn this year. We WILL NOT sign any of the coveted recuits from 2008. I say this with 99% certainty."

Well, most of us felt we weren't going to sign any of the coveted recruits in 2008 anyway. You are always saying SLU has no chance against the BCS guys so why believe this time was going to be different?

"Any recruiting ties - GONE"

Gee, you think maybe a new coach, whether an assistant, head coach at a low major, or even a re-tread might have a recruiting tie somewhere?

"you'd like to run off DM and don't care about AK leaving."

I didn't say run DM off, but him leaving will not hurt this program. Don't care does not = shed tears.

Someday, you and the rest like you, will stop this pity party that SLU can't do better than a coach like Brad Soderberg and will realize that SLU can be a very nice program if the right man is leading it.