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AJ hit the nail on the head


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AJ said

The "fire Brad" crowd were concerned that if it didn't happen first thing this morning Brad might succeed in signing a couple studs and the window of opportunity would be gone, for now to fire him and/or his termination would look even more unreasonable than it looks now.

You could just feel that some good things were about to happen. In home visit with Kentucky player of the year -- down to the final 2 with Alexander -- upcoming visit with Harris

Somebody has a burr up their a$$ regarding BS and got Biondi's ear and just pounded on it. And Biondi caved

SLU basketball will survive. At some point it may even flourish. If all players stay, some coach will have success with Brad's players next year. KL said it "We will be better next year".

Someone said it was a black day for SLU basketball. If you don't think that's true, you haven't been paying attention. SLU is the laughing stock of the basketball world right now. Yes, it will pass. Give it a couple of days. But if you are a Billiken supporter, you should be embarrassed.

This whole scenario is just typical of our society as a whole. "I want it now" -- "Me first" -- "If we don't do it my way, I'll take my ball and leave" -- "If I'm not starting, I'll quit the team and do something else". Why do you think we have trouble finding coaches for teams. Because boosters and fans and parents are out of control. And here we have another example. Do I have any proof? No I don't. But I haven't heard any other theory that makes any sense.

Good luck SLU -- the black eye will heal. Some people will forget, some won't. But my thoughts of sending my 2 daughters to a Christian college will be reevaluated.

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If I may paraphrase your logic...the anti Brad crowd which spends a ton of money on SLU was so worried that Brad would land some big-time recruits in the next few days that they forced his termination.

Yup, thats what happened.

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Yeah the Boosters who spend millions because they love SLU and want SLU to win were scared that Brad may land impact players. Whatever.

Sports are expensive and every school must have it's boosters for the sports programs to exist. You have to keep them happy somehow. Brad wasn't getting it done he had 5 years to get something done he didn't, now he is gone. SLU is not a laughing stock, if anything people maybe thinking "wow after a 20 win season SLU fired their coach they are getting serious about winning."

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I don't think anybody was saying "I want it now". I think they were saying "I would at least have liked it in 5 years". I don't think they are saying "Me first" either. I think they are saying "University first, Program second, Coach Third". I also don't think they are saying "If we don't do it my way, I'll take my ball and leave". I think they are saying, "We did it your way. We did it your way for quite some time".

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"Good luck SLU -- the black eye will heal. Some people will forget, some won't. But my thoughts of sending my 2 daughters to a Christian college will be reevaluated."

I can't imagine paying SLU's tuition for my boys. If they are together enough to go on scholarship, that's one thing but after reading this board for the past decade, it's hard to see the value......Metz is a SLU grad.....I've yet to meet a SEMO grad that was nearly as useless and hateful.

"Somebody has a burr up their a$$ regarding BS and got Biondi's ear and just pounded on it. And Biondi caved"

Hard to believe after Bernie's constant ribbing of Slu fans out there. I hope that these "fans" do not get what they deserve but that we are successful in spite of them.

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A Bomb and Tonka:

I think you are missing the point. Nothing in my original post suggested that I thought the firing was completely unjustified or unfair. The timing couldn't have been worst, however. You fire him within hours after a successful in home meeting with a top recruit and days before he was on the verge of one or two potential big signings ? Why fire him 5 weeks after the season ended ? Why pull players out of class at 9:00 am in the morning ? If you guys or anyone else has another theory that explains the timing lets hear it.

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Have you been one of those people who spends tons of money?

I wonder!

This big bucks booster thing is a myth. We are not like the big boys with numerous billionaire boosters who give the school access to their private planes at the drop of a hat for a recruiting trip.

Where in the world to people come up with this stuff?

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i completely agree. however, i have too much blind loyalty to believe that there isnt a solid plan in place. give me a press conference by thursday.

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Come on? You think Brad was actually going to land those recruits? You think there was a chance Pettigrew was going to choose SLU over Xavier? Alexander was going to choose us over Illinois? This is Brad we're talking about. He never won tough recruiting battles. Lisch and Liddell were the only exceptions and we won those because they wanted to stay close to home. He never won battles for players from outside the area. In five years he managed to get three good players(including Meyer here)in a major metropolitan area to stay home and play local. The timing is awful and the way it's being managed is embarrassing, but if it didn't happen in three weeks we would have sitting here with two recruits in hand talking about why we finished in second place with the rest of our potential recruits and hoping the fact we then would have 7 scholarships for the fall would allow Brad to pull off a recruiting coup in the fall and carry us to the big time. It wasn't going to happen. He couldn't land any when he had two open last fall signing period. He landed two when he had five open in this spring. More dissapointment was on the way for the fall. This firing was going to happen next year if it wasn't done now.

Even though Biondi created a public relations disaster, the good news is we now have a shot to bring someone in that may be able to pull in some good local recuits out of the upcoming class that is supposedly loaded. The biggest danger here is Levick will start to look elsewhere for a job. She's too good to put up with Bioni's stunts.

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Some followup thoughts:

Roy:

I hope you are right and a press conference is forthcoming and I hope it includes not only a new hire BUT an explanation on the timing. The PR disaster has been magnified, as usual, by SLU's failure to provide any info or explanation for the seemingly insane timing, leaving long-term boosters like you and me grasping for an explanation. I talked with two other very high-level boosters yesterday ( I am talking top 5 in one case) who had no idea this was happening and no explanation. Both are ready to walk, as am I, unless some explanation is given, and it better be good. I am sorry I made a donation to the arena recently.

Kmbilliken:

You may be right, maybe Brad would have signed no one else and then there would have been some additional justification. I can only tell you that the PERCEPTION Tuesday at 8:30 AM in the athletic department was that we going to sign two more high-level recruits within the next 7-10 days and CL knew that it was a distinct possibility. This comes from highly credible sources at West Pine, and they are not janitors. Ask yourself this question: If everyone was so sure we were not going to sign Alexander, then why not wait 2 more hours to announce the termination ? In doing that they would have defused at least some of the what ifs. Your last sentence makes a great point: there is tremendous potential for collateral damage of the worst kind. In addition to CL we stand to lose a number of key boosters and possibly KL and TL.

You didn't make the decision to hire Soderberg nor did I. Neither one of us decided to hire Spoon or Romar and then ran them of. These were all Biondi's decisions. When do we hold him "accountable."

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My contributions as a % of my income are significant and we'll leave it at that.

If you believe the big-bucks booster thing is a myth, why not respond to the original poster, which is the one presenting that theory. I basically said I thought his theory that a big bucks booster didn't want brad to sign any good recruits was complete b.s.

Billikan, so you don't believe in the big booster theory? What is your theory on the firing? If you take away the big booster theory you are pretty much left with:

1) big name replacement in wings

2) some sort of violation by Brad

3) Biondi and Brad had a major, major argument

What other theories am I missing? Take your emotion out of it and tell me why you believe Brad was fired, if big boosters had nothing to do with it.

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AJ

When I first heard the news I figured the perception on Cheryl's part would have been the opposite, that there would be no additional signings and Brad blew his last chance to save his job. I still doubt there would have been any, just by his track record. If your theory is correct why keep him around this long?

Why not terminate a month ago? Did it take that long for the boosters to get to Biondi? Maybe the report on the status of the baketball program sat on his desk for a month and he just read it on the plane to New York so he calls Cheryl and says fire him.

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AJ... I'm not a long-time booster like you or Roy, but I have been a supporter/season ticket holder since the Romar days. I agree with your thoughts completely. Biondi has torpedoed the program. I would not blame CL to bolt... I would not blame any of the kids if they bolt. What recruit would ever want to come here? Who would ever want to be an AD under Biondi? What coach would want to come into this embarassment? I wouldn't want my kids attending a Biondi-led SLU. This whole thing is a joke and unless a timely and miraculous save is made...I've spent my last penny on the Biondi Farce.

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it was said yesterday that brad was informed on monday nite. if i was brad, my first calls would have been to those kids that i just promised i would be their coach. i.e. brad is told he is fired, he calls alexander, who then calls weber.

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I have talked to a few more people today and I think that your point number 3 is the closest to accurate. I do not think the phrase "major,major" is right but from what I can tell Father Biondi had some issues with Brad. If that is the case, I would defer to his judgment because he is the man in charge and the buck stops with him.

My problem is the way this whole thing was handled.

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How can you think Alexander was going to come here? We've been on him since last fall and he never committed. Illinois pops up in the last few weeks and suddenly they're a favorite. When did Brad ever win a recruiting battle for a kid from out of the area? Never. Alexander had visions of big time and we were just a backup.

The only recruiting battles Brad won were for local kids that wanted to play close to home. The rest were all other programs discards, damaged goods or players no one else was interested in taking. Many gambles of which only a few paid off.

Regarding the 08 class Brad would in all likelihood followed his prior MO and chased the big boys until it was too late, miss them and be stuck with 3rd tier guys.

Face it, the guy was the worst recruiter we've ever had and it cost him his job.

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Just because I can predict the future and I know if I don't correct you now we are all going to have to listen to 3-4 years of arguments like: "If Brad hadn't been fired we would have landed Alexander, Petigrew, MG, etc. and that would have been good enough for an NCAA tourney bid" I will re-post BrianSTL's post that said he was the one that said he had heard it was Monday night but now believes it was Tuesday morning...

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

Every news media report I heard said it was Tuesday morning. If anybody has an actual news media report that it was Monday night I will listen. Otherwise, the conclusion is that Alexander was an Illini BEFORE this announcement.

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