Hey folks don't blame the Post and its writers

[brianstl]

THey are not the ones that declared 19 years ago they wanted SLU to be a top 50 program. That was the man who runs the university. He is the run to be blamed for how it is being judged. He is the one that set the bar. This program has not been close to being a top 50 program. A few years here and there does not count. This program has never been there on a regular basis.

I do think Bernie has took shots at Billiken fans that were not called for. All this will end if the program ever reaches the stated goal of the man running the school.

[NashvilleBilliken]

Will it though, Brian? I highly doubt it. Bernie wanted nothing more than to see Brad fired. Well, he got it. Unfortunately, that has seemingly only intensified his ill will toward our program. He's got a big chip on his shoulder....and unfortunately, it's not the kind he can eat.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Bernie M. is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

[billiken_roy]

i disagree. while bernie was emphatic about soderberg's recent recruiting results, he never went after soderberg like he went after the likes of snyder at the end of his reign.

bernie has always been about biondi and the shell game he has been playing with the basketball program. and if the billikens dont step up with this hire, biondi will have proven bernie correct as we start over again.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Whereas Bernie perhaps didn't call for Soderberg to be fired, he certainly did not want him hired. Brian Gregory was Bernie's choice, and Gregory has taken his share of criticism at Dayton.

Further, I would not exactly call Bernie supportive of SLU during the Soderberg years. His MVC loving this past year did SLU no good at all. And that hallowed and exalted (it says here inflated) MVC still only received 2 NCAA bids.

I just hope SLU can close the deal with Rick Majerus. That would quell the media hits SLU has been taking. Majerus has a fabulous career won-loss record. The guy can flat out coach. He would bring instant credibility to the SLU hoops program, especially nationally.

[billiken_roy]

while i dont particularly care for the words bernie has written about slu over the years, there is no denying he has been consistent about his beef. and that is that slu was only masquarading as a program and not really putting the full effort into building a top 50 program.

i think had gregory gotten the job instead of soderberg, in retrospect he would have had the same results and bernie would have wrote the exact same points.

i agree with your frustrations about the mvc and find it hard to believe that so many locals are blind to the mvc vs the a-10 arguments. however, again, it is a matter of mostly the casual fans that dont understand more than the hardcores. i agree more and more hardcores have crossed over as of late, but that is likely more a reaction to the fine work of doug elgin vs the shoddy work of linda bruno. i have to admit bruno is wearing me out. unfortunately the rest of the a-10 is so apathetic about the situation that it is almost impossible for cheryl levick to accomplisch anything.

majerus is the only answer to this mess imo. if we cant close the deal on rick it is my opinion this whole mess turns into a positive move. if not, i think we just started over again as it appears the only reason majerus wouldnt get hired would be because we wouldnt do the necessary improvements to the infrastructure and assistant coaches that majerus wanted to be able to be successful.

i am really tired of starting over.

[bonwich]

>Further, I would not exactly call Bernie supportive of SLU

>during the Soderberg years. His MVC loving this past year

>did SLU no good at all. And that hallowed and exalted (it

>says here inflated) MVC still only received 2 NCAA bids.

Dude has to write several columns a week on a variety of subjects. It isn't his job to be "supportive." That said, he has been at times:

3/2006

- Don't get frustrated by the hideously bad officiating that's so prevalent in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Don't even try to understand the officiating, because no one can. It's incomprehensible. These guys must be Big East and ACC rejects. From what I could tell, Wednesday's officiating performance seemed to be a three-man tribute to the late Don Knotts, the bumbling actor.

2/2006

If you love college basketball, Savvis Center is the place to be this week. It's the hot spot, even for Mizzou fans who are feeling cold and disillusioned.

Well, Savvis can cure the blahs.

First up is St. Louis U. with a home game Wednesday night against Dayton. The Billikens, picked to finish 13th in the Atlantic 10, have zoomed into second place in the A-10 standings with a 10-4 record. It's not a big story nationally, because the Billikens haven't been ranked and the odds of making the NCAA Tournament are against them. But SLU is one of the most surprising teams in the nation.

Freshmen Tommie Liddell and Kevin Lisch have combined to win the conference's Rookie of the Week Award eight times. The positive, immediate impact being delivered by Liddell and Lisch reminds us of 1992, when freshmen Erwin Clagget and Scott Highmark arrived to revive the SLU program. In their sophomore season (1993-1994), Clagget and Highmark put the Billikens into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 38 years. Lisch and Liddell are local recruits, just as Highmark and Clagget were then. And Liddell-Lisch are trying to repeat the Clagget-Highmark magic. It's fun to watch.

12/2005

Memo to St. Louis sports fans: The Billikens are worth your bucks this winter. If the Blues have you down, if watching the NBA on TV isn't your thing, if you're fatigued by the daily soap opera at Rams Park, then check out St. Louis U. basketball.

I've hardly been a marketing representative for the Billikens in recent years. SLU has had a dull program, light on talent and charisma and heavy on excuses since Larry Hughes decided to leave early and cash those fat NBA paychecks.

But early in this 2005-06 season, it's obvious that coach Brad Soderberg is getting something going. His relentless optimism and recruiting sweat is leading to better days. In bringing in Tommie Liddell, Dwayne Polk, Kevin Lisch and Danny Brown (among others) over the last two years, Soderberg has upgraded the talent and created a spark. And the entertainment will follow. SLU is probably too young to be an NCAA Tournament threat this season, but win or lose the Billikens are highly capable of putting on a good show.

2/2004

We also saw two spectacular players in Vashon's Dwayne Polk and East St. Louis' Tommie Liddell. And this show will continue at St. Louis University next season; both classy recruits have committed to Billikens coach Brad Soderberg.

"The real winner tonight was St. Louis U.," Irons said. "What SLU just did was pick up 2,300 new fans who will want to come watch these two special kids do this together at SLU."

[Billikan]

Roy, let's try not to rewrite history on Bernie. He hates SLU and he has done everything he can to take as many cheap shots as possible at the school, its coaches, the team and its fans. I was furious early in the season when Bernie basically called for Brad to be fired and I sent him a strong email complaining that he should wait until the season was over and we see how the team performs before calling for a coach to be fired. His response to me was typical arrogant Bernie who said that Brad was a nice guy but a bad coach and a bad recruiter and he needed to go.

Bernie was a big instigator for people in town who are casual fans who know little about Brad to create a negative view of Brad by those fans. People know that I am a diehard Bills fan so they often approach me and ask what I think of Bernie's constant negative columns about SLU and the Bills. They ask it in a way that suggests that if Bernie says they are bad and Brad should be fired then it must be so. What they do not realize is that he is an arrogant know it all who does not follow the Billikens and he just wants to keep pushing his anti-Biondi agenda regardless of the facts.

Just because Bernie occasionally writes a paragraph or two that makes some sense does not mean that he is not strongly anti-SLU. He hates SLU and he wanted Brad fired. Let's not rewrite history!

[billiken_roy]

billikan, there is no doubt that bernie has it in for slu and in particular father biondi. however, let's not underestimate the likelihood that slu has just not did their job sports informationwise imo. another fine example of our understaffed athletic dept that functions on putting out fires instead of being proactive.

i beleive our sports information dept not only should provide sports information, they be the liason to media outlets. they should be smoozing and developing relationships that enable us to be in the best light possible with those media folks.

sure it seems a little quesy that we have to even do that, but it is the same in any business. i have to visit realtors and builders and developers and others in the business world all the time. considerably more times than not, that doesnt really translate into business opportunities, but sure enough that one time someone asks one of those folks about me or our business, i want them to say nice things about me and my employer. had i not spent that time networking, i can guarantee you that wouldnt be good feedback.

this is no different. and you can bet slu hasnt done the job in smoozing and marketing and such over the years. that is why it is so necessary to expand the rest of the athletic dept. so they have the time and personel and experience to be proactive to these kind of situations.

[Billikan]

I agree that cultivating a relationship with the media is important. I doubt seriously that an SID buying Bernie lunch would ever impact his ill will toward Biondi and SLU even slightly. SLU may have not done a good job in this area but it has very little to do with Bernie's diatribes.

[billiken_roy]

billikan said,

"I doubt seriously that an SID buying Bernie lunch would ever impact his ill will toward Biondi and SLU even slightly. SLU may have not done a good job in this area but it has very little to do with Bernie's diatribes."

true, however it isnt going to fix itself. if i was in charge, i would have my sid trying to bridge the gap and then have levick and eventually father biondi as well working to get not only bernie, but the other main media folks in town. hey you gotta eat, why not spend a day every month having lunch with these folks.

you dont put them on the spot about this stuff, at least not at first. you just become their friend share interests and a good time and eventually you are discussing those exact differences that we are now p!ssed about.

the only other choices to get them to shut up is to fix what they are talking about.

[3star_recruit]

DeCourcy just said on the radio that Majerus is a very difficult person to have work for you -- he isn't going to charm the media or yuck it up with boosters. He's purely a basketball coach. If Majerus comes aboard, SLU's fortunes will change but the Bernie hate parade will continue.

[brianstl]

BM has a pretty big national profile. I think Majerus would handle him perfectly. Everybody else in town maybe not. Also, RM hasn't been a HC in a city this size ever and he maybe he will view it differently in St. Louis. I know we aren't NYC, but we far are bigger than anywhere he has coached before.

[3star_recruit]

"BM has a pretty big national profile"

In the national college basketball media, BM is pretty much irrelevant. Frank is more connected in that area than BM is.

[Billikan]

Unless I am missing something, Bernie has no profile in college basketball.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Remember that Majerus was head coach at Marquette for a time. So he has coached at a Jesuit school in a big city.

Utah is in Salt Lake City, not as big as STL, but still a fairly big city. And Utah is a good sized university in the Mountain West Conference.

[brianstl]

And guys with the rep that is being laid on RM always play those guys well.

[Bay Area Billiken]

I think Majerus would be above Bernie's wrath, at least as long as Majerus is successful, which I fully expect he would be at SLU. The Majerus won-loss record speaks volumes to me. This is a coach who has been to the NCAA Tournament Championship Game (and with his own players, by the way, not inherited ones like that coach in Champaign, Illinois).

Is Bernie sore at Father Biondi because Father Biondi poked a little fun Bernie's way at the Brad Soderberg hiring press conference?

[billiken_roy]

majerus has had so much success in the past there would be no way he would be chastized for any failure. a majerus hire puts the pressure on biondi to in fact do everything possible to make sure majerus is successful, because if he isnt, the fingers will only be pointed at biondi.

that is the main reason i am so excited about majerus. majerus means slu HAS TO step up.

any one else is likely just desparate/naive enough to believe that they can be that exception to overcome the always present shortcomings and disadvantages to succeed. plus, they probably believe a slu promotion at the very worst gives them the head coaching experience to garner something else thereafter regardless.