For Tdell and/or others

[Cowboy]

Tdell - how is Tommie doing with this situation? do you know about other players' feelings at this point?

anyone else know how the team is doing?

i ask as i would guess this has been a pretty bad week for them and I am not interested in transfer talk, just how are they handling the situation

i hope the U is providing whatever support the kids need

thanks

[TDELL]

They are all sad about this,Tommie is waiting to see whats going to happen,SLU is supposed to have a coach by next week.Sodie called some of the players,he's not doing to well..I feel for the guy..

[SluSignGuy]

If anything, tell them not to read this place. No good will come out of it. I know those guys read it, but they shouldn't.

Just hope everything works out for them.

[jjray]

>>Sodie called some of the players, he's not doing to well..I feel for the guy..<<

He was obviously told he'd have one more year so he was blindsided by it. A shot to the gut for sure. I also feel for the entire Soderberg family. Must be especially tough on Kramer. But if this thing was inevitable maybe sooner is always better than later. Only the Lord knows.

[slu72]

Getting fired is a gutshot. It hurts more emotionally than it does financially. According to those at the banquet he was upbeat, gushing about new recruits, etc. Didn't appear to be a man who thought his job was on the line. I'm thinking this was due simply to the loss of RA and the Peterson kid. It's not hard to imagine Biondi calling CL saying, "that's it, pull the plug." Her absence at the banquet also is suspect. I would think the only illness that would keep the AD from attending a schools major athletic banquet would be a real bad case of the flu.

[slu72 fan]

I spoke with BS at the banquet for at least 15 minutes. He had zero idea of this. In fact, he got in a car on Monday, drove to Kentucky and had a home visit with Kentucky's Mr. Basketball. Who, by the way, was supposed to be on campus this weekend.

If, as some suggest, the Alexander loss was the final straw, how did that affect CL's non-attendance at the banquet? Alexander only informed his coach on Monday evening. Peterson didn't decide until Tuesday.

My guess is Cheryl already knew and felt guilty saying nice things, knowing what was about to unfold. The trip to Kentucky probably stood in the way of something happening Monday. The Good Father probably didn't realize BS hit the road early and wasn't sitting by his phone waiting for his highness to call.

[billiken_roy]

you are giving biondi for too much credit for having his pulse on specifics. i would bet he couldnt name 5 of the recruits we were chasing.

this had nothing to do with day to day recruiting progress.

[jimbofive]

of the resources I need to really make this happen"

Whether or not he would have is up in the air, but it sounds like promises were all but broken. I wonder if we'll hear from Brad eventually. What am I saying? I wonder if we'll hear from anyone...

[VTIME]

A lot of people on the board couldnt name 5 guys.

[satrap]

I agree j and I feel the exact same way. Man, so close with the new facility and the FEELING he was secure. What a hammerblow. This is what I wrote after the banquet Sunday night, now archived on this board:

"Rammer is up to begin the formalities. Nice black and gold tie. I really like Bob, especially after he stopped working with that vicious bastard Slaten. Decide not to tell him that. He does a great intro, also excusing Cheryl due to sickness. Sickness, sickness, hmmmm. Are those alarms going off in my head? No one else seems to feel the vibe and then I'm sure I just read this board to much."

No matter how this turns out - with Majerus or Rick Pitino for that matter, it will still have been an unforgivable fiasco.

[slu72]

He may not have known the names, Broy, but you've got to think this thing just didn't develop on a whim or him waking up on the wrong side of his bed on Tuesday. Would it be logical to assume that CL and Biondi had a sitdown at the end of the season, and she said something like, let's give him this spring period, he's on to some decent talent. Biondi agrees, asks for updates since the guy's already on the hot seat and what he's doing is very visible. CL informs him it's not going as planned, and he says no more. Last fall delivered nothing. Obi and HD left. The spring was shaping up to be much of the same. There was a large body of evidence here, and I don't think Biondi was blind to shortcomings of the University's highest paid employee. To assume he was is naive. I do agree with SLU72fan, CL may have known it was coming and didn't feel right about gushing over a soon to be ex-employee.

[satrap]

that "this spring was shaping up to be much of the same"? Anthony Mitchell was, according to Earl Austin, an explosive athlete and Relphorde sounded like a true A10er, at least. How is that more of the same?

[brianstl]

nm

[slu72]

I think what most of us expected and knew what was needed was immediate help at the 4 and possibly another JUCO starter, either pg or another inside guy. None of us were gushing over Mitchell, he wasn't highly recruited, and Relphorde as being immediate imapct kids. Neither is a true 4. Also, we all know how much faith UB has in frosh. That was not intended as a knock on Mitchell or Relphorde. I hope they stay with us and develop into all conference types. But losing Correia, Peterson, Alexander, UB was moving down the list into plan B's and C's. Sorry, Satrap, we've been there before. I really believe this came down to the Alexander signing. Not that he alone was the greatest thing to hit SLU since the Legend, but that he was the latest in a long line of misses. That's all.

[Tonka]

I guess I am not as shocked as most people are about this. It may not be normal to be fired as late as he was, but what is normal these days?

This board is about Billiken basketball and Brad was in the public eye and thus the support and well wishes for him. I too wish him well and pray him and his family. I know we will be fine.

This whole situation just reminds me of business in general. I know of more people who have been fired or laid off in the last few years and it's often as ruthless and cold as Brad was fired. My position was eliminated and I was fired five years ago the night before Thanksgiving. You would have thought they could have waited till the following Monday. They don't care though. Very few employers do. When it happens to you, it feels like the life is sucked out of you and you are just a shell.

It happens so often these days when we here of a neighbor losing his job or the friend of a friend, it seems like those people don't get the outpousing of emotion and thoughts when someone in the public eye does.

Brad is getting a lot of money and he and his family will be fine. Brad has a freat work ethic and he is a man of integrity and he will be fine. There is no way to sugarcoat these things. They just plain suck. I think what is hitting Brad the hardest is the relationships with the players. And, for that specific reason I feel his pain and hope time will help with that.

Also, to follow in what was said in this post, I feel for the players for their relationship with Brad. Above anything else, the personal side to all of this is the worst and I hope the players and Brad get the support they need.

[Tonka]

and a lesson I need to keep learning is to use the preview feature of this board. There may have been more spelling errors and grammer errors in that single post "tahn I hvae evre scene in mi entyre lyfe";",)- yse, I ma a SLOO gard.

[billiken_roy]

slu72 said,

"He may not have known the names, Broy, but you've got to think this thing just didn't develop on a whim or him waking up on the wrong side of his bed on Tuesday."

actually i think biondi is the type that could fire someone for having his shirt out without knowing his name.

slu72 said,

"Would it be logical to assume that CL and Biondi had a sitdown at the end of the season, and she said something like, let's give him this spring period, he's on to some decent talent."

it's already been said that cheryl was all for one more year, not one more month.

slu72 said,

"Biondi agrees, asks for updates since the guy's already on the hot seat and what he's doing is very visible. CL informs him it's not going as planned, and he says no more. Last fall delivered nothing. Obi and HD left. The spring was shaping up to be much of the same. There was a large body of evidence here, and I don't think Biondi was blind to shortcomings of the University's highest paid employee. To assume he was is naive. I do agree with SLU72fan, CL may have known it was coming and didn't feel right about gushing over a soon to be ex-employee."

i believe had cheryl levick known it was coming SHE WOULD have been there to deliver a gushing last say. she is a class act and she believed in soderberg and would have not hid out. she had no idea it was coming down.

[billiken_roy]

slu72, you are assuming soderberg was done recruiting. i dont believe that for a second. there is no way that man could have looked us in the eyes on sunday nite and spoke with the passion he did if he felt another signing or two or three were not on the horizon.

as to mitchell, i am very high on him. and all i have heard is that relephorde is the real deal as well.

[satrap]

>

>i believe had cheryl levick known it was coming SHE WOULD

>have been there to deliver a gushing last say. she is a

>class act and she believed in soderberg and would have not

>hid out. she had no idea it was coming down.

Nicely put, Roy. You know, I didn't think of that but you're right. Our last memories of the Brad era could have been with her giving him a resounding sendoff (though it would have been unknown to us there Sunday night).

[kmbilliken]

Brad was always positive about recruiting, but he rarely delivered. He never won a recruitng battle for a nonlocal kid. In five years he convinced two highly regarded kids to stay close to home, three if you include Meyer. There was no indication that was going to change.

[brianstl]

Marcus Relphorde

[slu72]

I'm sorry guys, ain't buying her delivering a rousing sendoff. What would have been rousing? "We're really excited about this past year, great strides were made. And more excited about next year as we expect to land some impact players during this signing period. Brad Soderberg's our coach today and our coach of the future." If she did this, Brad would have screamed "Et Tu Cheryl" as his future was being flushed down a toilet at West Pine. If CL was in the dark as much as Brad was, I fear we will lose her in the not too distant future. I don't know her, but to not even have an indication this was in the works has got to be a major blow to her ego. How would you feel if your highest paid employee and one you had great faith in was summarily fired by your boss on an end around leaving you to find out about it after the fact?

[kmbilliken]

I don't recall him having any other offers. Who did Brad beat out for him?

[billiken_roy]

slu72 said,

"If CL was in the dark as much as Brad was, I fear we will lose her in the not too distant future. I don't know her, but to not even have an indication this was in the works has got to be a major blow to her ego. How would you feel if your highest paid employee and one you had great faith in was summarily fired by your boss on an end around leaving you to find out about it after the fact?"

not good and the crux of this whole nasty affair imo. the real nagging problem i have about the whole thing and the horrible taste i have right now. biondi lost a lot of respect in the last three days. he has to hit a homerun.

unfortunately, he also has created an atmosphere that leads me to think it is as though he is rex hudler coming to bat vs a satchel paige in his prime.

[brianstl]

http://indiana.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp...=2&pr_key=53222

http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=437&p=8&c=1&nid=2167722