Mike Claiborne on RM

[slufanskip]

Good points. I should clarify that you guys who defend the program as to the local content are correct, and Claiborne is wrong in those details, certainly. I think he, along with myself, is just disappointed at the utter media and fan unfriendliness that Majerus has shown. I've probably gone overboard in describing RM negatively,but overall his behavior in StL has just made his lack of PR polish morph into downright needless churlishness.

There is alot of media he can't have time for everyone. I know Bernie likes him, Rammer and Frank do also. I've talked to him twice and he was always friendly.

Could this be more about his political views

[brianstl]

Man, he SHOULD be doing that stuff. For chrissakes, why in the world should Bill Self or Mike Anderson or Bruce Weber do that and not RM? Bill Self was on Fox Sports Radio, ESPN, and Dan Patrick last Tuesday morning, after getting one hour of sleep after the Monday night NC game. I'm sure he did interviews with the KS media, too. Nobody is asking RM to be Paul Harvey, but I just don't understand the lack of outreach-unless he believes own hype.

I don't think Majerus ever passes up a chance for national exposure.

[slufanskip]

Man, he SHOULD be doing that stuff. For chrissakes, why in the world should Bill Self or Mike Anderson or Bruce Weber do that and not RM? Bill Self was on Fox Sports Radio, ESPN, and Dan Patrick last Tuesday morning, after getting one hour of sleep after the Monday night NC game. I'm sure he did interviews with the KS media, too. Nobody is asking RM to be Paul Harvey, but I just don't understand the lack of outreach-unless he believes own hype.

And I bet they have time for the bigger media, you think Self has much time for the Mike Claiborne's of KC ... I doubt it. You also have to remember RM had alot of recruiting to do and alot of prior committments along with new coaches to hire. I'm sure he met with some of the big money boosters also when he first started. Then the season started ...

I wonder why the things he says about Luke, or Danny or his quote about not liking AM, but loving him don't make the headlines or get the mention on talk radio that some of his other comments do. People like to *****, talk radio is about people bitching ... so th more they can give people to call in all fired up about ... the better for them.

[moytoy12]

Just not coming on the postgame much, not being as radio accessible as Brad or as he should have been-given that he was trying to resurrect a dormant program. Thats it.

goodness, you're really sensitive. what about the hours he has spent signing autographs and the press conferences where it's reported that he hung around until the last question was asked?

[Westy03]

Maybe if Brad spent more hours on the recruiting trail instead of doing the rinky dink local radio shows he wouldnt be unemployed.

[kappy96]

Does everybody realize that if things had stayed the course, the year after TL and KL graduated, our upperclassmen would have consisted of AM, DM, AK and MR... Yikes!

Talk about a scary proposition.....

[Billikan]

The American is, undoubtedly, a strange publication. Most of the African-American community has political views- which intersect with their views on sports- that could only be described as utterly insane. However, it does contain Earl's friendly little gems each week and Claibs seems like a fairly rational actor, though I never listen to 550 AM.

What????????? You are painting most of the African American community with political views and views on sports that are "utterly insane". That is truly one of the worst and most inaccurate things I have ever read on this board. I deal with many many members of the African American community on a regular basis and such views are pure claptrap and bull****! To suggest that the whole "community" thinks the same way is insane. I am sure many do not share your views but so what! Why aren't your views insane?

Claiborne is like many of the people in the media today--they are products of their own past experiences and they, like all of us, have certain opinions. I have never thought that Claiborne was willing to give the Bills a fair shake and this article, as uninformed as it is, demonstrates his bias.

On RM, I decided months ago that we have to live with the good and the bad. He has his foibles but he and his staff have proved to me that they are terrific recruiters and when he gets to coach "his" type of players then we will be able to analyze whether he is the great coach everyone thinks he is. I have positive feelings about the future but no one really can predict how this will all turn out.

[Billikan]

I don't think he makes the time or kisses the ass of some boosters like previous coaches did. The same thing causes his problems with some media members. When it comes to the media, it appears to me, he has determined that he needs only to give time to certain local media members and national media members. I think he thinks he gets the most bang for his buck that way.

I actually disagree with your comments about the boosters. I have been to several events with RM and he has always been very friendly and willing to stay for hours to talk basketball. He understands that the boosters are an important part of the overall effort to build a program.

[moytoy12]

I actually disagree with your comments about the boosters. I have been to several events with RM and he has always been very friendly and willing to stay for hours to talk basketball. He understands that the boosters are an important part of the overall effort to build a program.

I disagree with Billikan a lot, but recognize he is probably in the booster community. That being the case, he probably has some insight on whether RM speaks with the boosters and it sounds like RM does that to a certain extent. Therefore, if RM has at least a decent relationship with the boosters and has dedicated some decent time to the fans, it's seems illogical to say that RM is unfriendly to the fans.

[moytoy12]

What????????? You are painting most of the African American community with political views and views on sports that are "utterly insane". That is truly one of the worst and most inaccurate things I have ever read on this board. I deal with many many members of the African American community on a regular basis and such views are pure claptrap and bull****! To suggest that the whole "community" thinks the same way is insane. I am sure many do not share your views but so what! Why aren't your views insane?

Claiborne is like many of the people in the media today--they are products of their own past experiences and they, like all of us, have certain opinions. I have never thought that Claiborne was willing to give the Bills a fair shake and this article, as uninformed as it is, demonstrates his bias.

On RM, I decided months ago that we have to live with the good and the bad. He has his foibles but he and his staff have proved to me that they are terrific recruiters and when he gets to coach "his" type of players then we will be able to analyze whether he is the great coach everyone thinks he is. I have positive feelings about the future but no one really can predict how this will all turn out.

good catch billikan. one only hopes that satrap meant to say that mixing political views with sports views is utterly insane. Hopefully, he really wasn't saying that the african-american community has utterly insane political views.

[Majerus Magic]

I love it. Mike Claiborne isn't getting his pillow fluffed by RickMa and now RM is a terrible person. Claiborne who?

[satrap]

good catch billikan. one only hopes that satrap meant to say that mixing political views with sports views is utterly insane. Hopefully, he really wasn't saying that the african-american community has utterly insane political views.

No, I was definitely saying the African-American community, as far as those that reflect the viewpoints of the American, have insane views. Carry on.

[satrap]

Could this be more about his political views

No. I'm sure RM's political views are fairly square with Claiborne's, at least as far as we know with RM's Democratic leanings and the American's wacky black Democrat fetish. Read some of the editorials and columns in the bloody paper. It's fulltime conspiracy theory.

[TheA_Bomb]

If you aren't stepping on anybody's toes then you ain't tryin' hard enough.

I just don't understand the B-Roy hate for Majerus.

[Adman]

I actually disagree with your comments about the boosters. I have been to several events with RM and he has always been very friendly and willing to stay for hours to talk basketball. He understands that the boosters are an important part of the overall effort to build a program.

Billikan, completely agree with you. I've been around him twice -- at the MAC event and right before the season at his Busch Center event on campus. If someone wouldn't have stopped him, he probably would have stayed all afternoon and night talking hoops, talking politics, talking recruiting (if he could have gotten away with it!)...just talking. I don't recall Claiborne being at either event. Wonder why.

Also, to set the record straight, the Busch Center event he hosted was HIS idea. I was standing there when he suggested it, unsolicated, after the MAC event. Originally he wanted it held at West Pine Gym during last 30 minutes of practice -- then food and refreshments and talk. It was moved to Busch Center for reasons unknown. But it was his idea either way. He was entertaining to put it mildly. And he was not put off in the least that he had to be there. He loves to hold court.

I agree that he could do the local media rounds more often. Roy, like you, I agree he's said a few things about the team that were better said in the locker room. And to small degree, Claiborne had a few good points as to boorish behavior.

But otherwise, Claiborne's comments were nuts as earlier posters noted. Also, I disagree on Claiborne's comment that he hasn't taken any of the blame for some of the losses. At the time he gave up the plan of completely putting his system in, he said he'd made a mistake, that his assistants suggested some adjustments and that he did it. In related interviews (in print and on radio), he also said he needed to install a zone defense, had no idea how to install one and was thankful his assistants could do it for him. Also saw him quoted in the Post-Dispatch the morning after a loss, taking blame for a tactical coaching decision that contributed to a loss. Can't remember exactly what it was any longer. But I made a mental note at the time.

Would I like to hear him more often on radio, in paper, etc? YES. Once a week with Rammer and the occasional sit down with Bernie isn't enough. Rickma is a great interview. Highly intelligent, funny...interesting. Heck, would love for him to be on the Sports Plus couch on Sunday nights and with Savard. Would love to hear him post-game but with his overmatched team last year, his time was better spent in locker room. He also came in very late last year, was way behind in recruiting and had his work cut out. And as we all know, the job isn't done yet -- even for this year. He's got 2 very big recruit slots to fill that have potential to make next year a very good year and future years even better.

Actually, I'm glad that he is prioritizing. That's what a good chief has to do. He's way better off hitting the recruiting trail, building a winner -- than entertaining me (and building Claiborne's ego.) Plenty of time for that later.

Sorry Mike. No sale.

[GOSLU68]

Let them be negative. I don't remember many of them rallying around Sodie and Romar during some of those mediocre seasons. When we make the Big Dance, they'll all jump on board. And if they don't, who cares.

All of these periphery issues mean little. It's about winning. Brad was a nice guy, but much of the local media didn't take our program seriously. The status quo was leading us nowhere. Does everybody realize that if things had stayed the course, the year after TL and KL graduated, our upperclassmen would have consisted of AM, DM, AK and MR... Yikes! Some of us were sounding the recruiting warning bells for good reason. Things had to change for the better and now they are. Enjoy the ride!

Social skills are definitely not what we are getting with RM. We are getting is a team that can play. What the St. Louis media lacks is educated

sports writers. The P-D and the local TV have been happy to promote ambitious, young sports enthusiasts and they are a far cry from those who have

passed through the same halls such as Bob Costas.

Claiborne, Randy Karraker, and many others were wannabees at one time and now they are never

wasses and it may be obvious to R'M that he does not have to pander to a bunch of people who represent noise on the radio at best.

[thetorch]

Claiborne is a small time huckster. A fifth grader could write a better column.

Majerus is doing this the smart way. St. Louis media always ******* and whines but they are small time. Peoria or Paducah have better writers and sportscasters than this town does. This is what we get for despising anyone who was born 50 miles from the arch and tries to to be a media personality in this town. Who is the best radio guy? Bernie and Randy hands down. They would be interns in most other large markets. Look at our sportswriters. Bernie is not a good writer. Burwell is probably the best writer in town but he isn't exactly writing prose. The TV media is filled with a bunch of bumbling hacks. Why should someone of Rick's stature give these losers the time of day?

I'd rather have Rick pay lip service to the national media. Lets face it, is our next recruit going to come to SLU because Rick gets interviewed on KSDK or 590? Hell no. He is gonna come cuz Rick is on ESPN and on the cover of national magazines.

As long as we win our local media can go to hell. They have never supported SLU like they have Mizzou, Illinois, and even the Valley schools. If Majerus wanted to ban every local media member from games, save for Tom and Nate, I could care less.

[billiken_roy]

Social skills are definitely not what we are getting with RM. We are getting is a team that can play.

oh sorry, i didnt realize a successful coach couldnt do both.

i understand the goal is to become a great basketball program. i am just not enjoying his methods of getting there. hopefully a lot of the nonsense will discontinue now that he has sent all but three of his stepchildren on their ways and those last three will be gone a year from now as well.

btw, for those of you keeping track on this apparent effort of rickma to stay connected to the fans, he has already missed more billiken club meetings than romar and soderberg combined missed in 9 years. and my sources tell me that the post game pressers are just brutal. not being on the radio after games at least occaisionally is poor. sure once he gets started at that rare occasional appearance he is a treat. just that they come all too far apart. that said, sure seems like he uses a lot of the same lines every time i've seen him.

that said, the worst aspect is the way he has treated the players. and i am sure we only get bits and pieces of the extent. again hopefully that will all but stop now that he has reached his goal of getting everyone to leave but three next year seniors. and he can concentrate on being a coach which included civility to the fans, media and players.

[davidnark]

btw, for those of you keeping track on this apparent effort of rickma to stay connected to the fans, he has already missed more billiken club meetings than romar and soderberg combined missed in 9 years. and my sources tell me that the post game pressers are just brutal. not being on the radio after games at least occaisionally is poor. sure once he gets started at that rare occasional appearance he is a treat. just that they come all too far apart. that said, sure seems like he uses a lot of the same lines every time i've seen him.

Roy, I get the sense that you would rather have a crappy team with a coach who is buddy-buddy with the low-level boosters than a top team with a coach who isn't. I recall you bashing Spoon for many years for similiar reasons. This isn't the local youth program; what matters is winning, not being friends with Billiken Roy. Ironically, Majerus shares much more candid information about players, recruits, and strategy in his limited public appearances than we ever received under the fortress-mentality of the last coach. Plus, I would rather have my head coach out recruiting or watching film during the season than hanging out at Humphrey's.

[BIG BILL FAN]

oh sorry, i didnt realize a successful coach couldnt do both.

i understand the goal is to become a great basketball program. i am just not enjoying his methods of getting there. hopefully a lot of the nonsense will discontinue now that he has sent all but three of his stepchildren on their ways and those last three will be gone a year from now as well.

btw, for those of you keeping track on this apparent effort of rickma to stay connected to the fans, he has already missed more billiken club meetings than romar and soderberg combined missed in 9 years. and my sources tell me that the post game pressers are just brutal. not being on the radio after games at least occaisionally is poor. sure once he gets started at that rare occasional appearance he is a treat. just that they come all too far apart. that said, sure seems like he uses a lot of the same lines every time i've seen him.

that said, the worst aspect is the way he has treated the players. and i am sure we only get bits and pieces of the extent. again hopefully that will all but stop now that he has reached his goal of getting everyone to leave but three next year seniors. and he can concentrate on being a coach which included civility to the fans, media and players.

Roy, If our coach is such an A hole, then why are the recruits flocking to SLU??? Are you saying our recruits and their families are fools? They obviously don't have the same feeling about RM based on their PERSONAL MEETINGS with him. Roy, why can't you just accept the fact that people are different? Charlie Spoonhour for all of his wit and charm was a mediocre recruiter. Players want to go to a program where they sense the opportunity to win and be successfu. RM has given them the belief that will happen at SLU.

[davidnark]

and my sources tell me that the post game pressers are just brutal.

Who are these "sources"? Timmerman or Nate.

[billiken_roy]

Roy, I get the sense that you would rather have a crappy team with a coach who is buddy-buddy with the low-level boosters than a top team with a coach who isn't. I recall you bashing Spoon for many years for similiar reasons. This isn't the local youth program; what matters is winning, not being friends with Billiken Roy. Ironically, Majerus shares much more candid information about players, recruits, and strategy in his limited public appearances than we ever received under the fortress-mentality of the last coach. Plus, I would rather have my head coach out recruiting or watching film during the season than hanging out at Humphrey's.

again, why does it have to be one or the other? think roy williams. even calipari who i detest for other reasons, plays the fan base, media, and loves his players.

[satrap]

Claiborne is a small time huckster. A fifth grader could write a better column.

Majerus is doing this the smart way. St. Louis media always ******* and whines but they are small time. Peoria or Paducah have better writers and sportscasters than this town does. This is what we get for despising anyone who was born 50 miles from the arch and tries to to be a media personality in this town. Who is the best radio guy? Bernie and Randy hands down. They would be interns in most other large markets. Look at our sportswriters. Bernie is not a good writer. Burwell is probably the best writer in town but he isn't exactly writing prose. The TV media is filled with a bunch of bumbling hacks. Why should someone of Rick's stature give these losers the time of day?

I'd rather have Rick pay lip service to the national media. Lets face it, is our next recruit going to come to SLU because Rick gets interviewed on KSDK or 590? Hell no. He is gonna come cuz Rick is on ESPN and on the cover of national magazines.

As long as we win our local media can go to hell. They have never supported SLU like they have Mizzou, Illinois, and even the Valley schools. If Majerus wanted to ban every local media member from games, save for Tom and Nate, I could care less.

Torch, I think you nicely encapsulate Majerus' point of view, at least one that his actions could possibly derive from. I don't agree with it, but I think it's a real phenomenon. Bobby Knight would have the same MO

[billiken_roy]

As long as we win our local media can go to hell. They have never supported SLU like they have Mizzou, Illinois, and even the Valley schools. If Majerus wanted to ban every local media member from games, save for Tom and Nate, I could care less.

actually the likes of jeff gordon has been more consistently possitive about the billikens than even tom and nate. it is just that jeff doesnt follow as regularly so some of his statements seem out of touch.

also the likes of small timers like art vollinger from the suburban journals and john molina from the herald publications have done a spendid job of following the billikens and reporting in a positive manner.

frankie c has been a fabulous billiken supporter in his coverage.

the truth is there are more than tom and nate that have done a very good job of covering the billikens and have been subjected to the undeserved treatment.

[OC]

Roy, If our coach is such an A hole, then why are the recruits flocking to SLU???

Even better: Why hasn't anyone left voluntarily?

The seniors-to-be....the four since-exiled kids didn't leave at semester.....three assistants are back.....Alex Jensen certainly feels some loyalty/connection and he's had Coach up his a** a time or two, I'm sure. He made plenty of cash overseas but he's back in the trenches with someone he obviously values as a mentor/coach/friend.

Majerus is candid.

People don't like that for some reason. Why would anyone want the opposite?