thetorch Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 NY Daily News Interesting quote from Whittenberg - So it raises the question: Is Fordham in over its head playing in the Atlantic 10? "I think that's a question for the administration," Fordham coach Dereck Whittenburg said. "To be honest with you, I don't know why they're in the A-10." You cannot hide the fact anymore that Fordham doesn't belong in the A-10. This is a good first test fro the new A-10 admin. Do they have what it takes to kick out Fordham? I don't think they do. Without marked improvement in facilities and budget regardless of play on the court Fordham should be out in under 5 years. If this is allowed to go on (not to mention the 2 or 3 other programs who function as non competitive in the league) SLU has to seriously consider moving on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 NY Daily News Interesting quote from Whittenberg - You cannot hide the fact anymore that Fordham doesn't belong in the A-10. This is a good first test fro the new A-10 admin. Do they have what it takes to kick out Fordham? I don't think they do. Without marked improvement in facilities and budget regardless of play on the court Fordham should be out in under 5 years. If this is allowed to go on (not to mention the 2 or 3 other programs who function as non competitive in the league) SLU has to seriously consider moving on. Good article. Weird that Whittenberg says "they", shouldn't it be "we?" They really do have no business in this conference. The one issue I've always had with any "kick them out" on message boards is it always seesm to focus on the team that is currently down and out. A few years ago Duquesne would have been the team most mentioned. Today, they are one of the better half and moving in the right direction. That being said, Fordham has rarely had any ups and just doesn't belong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARbilliken Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 As someone who has traveled to their campus and been to their athletic facilities--it is not up to par and worse than the other schools I have been to in the league. Kinda sad really. I hope the A-10 can step in and make a change for the best interest of the league and the school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Postcard Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 NY Daily News Interesting quote from Whittenberg - You cannot hide the fact anymore that Fordham doesn't belong in the A-10. This is a good first test fro the new A-10 admin. Do they have what it takes to kick out Fordham? I don't think they do. Without marked improvement in facilities and budget regardless of play on the court Fordham should be out in under 5 years. If this is allowed to go on (not to mention the 2 or 3 other programs who function as non competitive in the league) SLU has to seriously consider moving on. I don't think SLU should be telling anyone to move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOSLU68 Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 I don't think SLU should be telling anyone to move on. Finally, I agree with Postcard-this must be postal holiday. The A10 is too strong for us now; but we will dominate in years 3-4-5 under RM. The A-10 has a dual elimination-teams 13 and 14 do not get a smell of the A-10 tournament. Relax, lets get our 18 plus wins this year chalk it up and move on to the holy grail as promised us by Chaifetz and Biondi in hiring Majerus. Meanwhile if we continue to play SIUC will they please win some games after ours-they are killing our RPI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 I don't think SLU should be telling anyone to move on. You are wrong. Regardless of our success on the court we have made a commitment to our program with our arena, million dollar coach, and bigger budgets across the board. We may not win but we are putting ourselves in the best position to do so. The A-10 has several schools that have made similar commitments and several others who drag on their coattails. SLU needs to be in a stronger league. We can do that by leaving the one we are in or making our current league stronger. It is apparent in order for the A-10 to be successful the league must be retracted. I give a lot of credit to a school like Duquesne but ultimately if they refuse to upgrade their budgets and facilities or the fact that they just cannot they will not be successful over the long term. They may have periods where they can be competitive but for the most part they won't be. Same with Fordham, St Bonaventure, LaSalle, and even St Joseph's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I agree with Torch on this one. The Metro certainly let us know we better look elsewhere when we stunk-up the league back in the early 80's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Finally, I agree with Postcard-this must be postal holiday. The A10 is too strong for us now; but we will dominate in years 3-4-5 under RM. The A-10 has a dual elimination-teams 13 and 14 do not get a smell of the A-10 tournament. Relax, lets get our 18 plus wins this year chalk it up and move on to the holy grail as promised us by Chaifetz and Biondi in hiring Majerus. Meanwhile if we continue to play SIUC will they please win some games after ours-they are killing our RPI What the hell are you talking about? Not counting the tourneys here is what we've done since being in the league: 10-6 8-8 7-9 6-5 Clearly nothing special but certainly not "too strong for us". I do agree that in 2 years we will be one of the top 2 teams in the conference with X. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 You are wrong. Regardless of our success on the court we have made a commitment to our program with our arena, million dollar coach, and bigger budgets across the board. We may not win but we are putting ourselves in the best position to do so. The A-10 has several schools that have made similar commitments and several others who drag on their coattails. SLU needs to be in a stronger league. We can do that by leaving the one we are in or making our current league stronger. It is apparent in order for the A-10 to be successful the league must be retracted. I give a lot of credit to a school like Duquesne but ultimately if they refuse to upgrade their budgets and facilities or the fact that they just cannot they will not be successful over the long term. They may have periods where they can be competitive but for the most part they won't be. Same with Fordham, St Bonaventure, LaSalle, and even St Joseph's. Drop St. Joes from that list. They have proven they can compete on the big stage even with the facilities they currently have but this year are doing a major renovation to their current home court. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted February 17, 2009 Author Share Posted February 17, 2009 Drop St. Joes from that list. They have proven they can compete on the big stage even with the facilities they currently have but this year are doing a major renovation to their current home court. I've been there. While a renovation is needed, badly, and the arena is historic they need a ew one. Add to the fact that Martelli is the new Chaney, his recruiting has fallen off a cliff the last couple years. Losing Nivins they may be worse than Fordham next year. While they have been good to very good for a decade I think their run is over and we may see 10 years of an old Martelli running St Joes into the ground. Without that top flight coach St Joes is no better off than the other A-10 also rans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I've been there. While a renovation is needed, badly, and the arena is historic they need a ew one. Add to the fact that Martelli is the new Chaney, his recruiting has fallen off a cliff the last couple years. Losing Nivins they may be worse than Fordham next year. While they have been good to very good for a decade I think their run is over and we may see 10 years of an old Martelli running St Joes into the ground. Without that top flight coach St Joes is no better off than the other A-10 also rans. St Joe's facilities should look pretty good after the renovations. Funny, Dr. Gianni, coach of LaSalle, is doing an outstanding job of recruiting while Martelli, with all its better facilities and fan support, has been kind of dead in the water recruiting wise the last few years. Gianni, taking advantage of that recruit rich No. New Jersey area, will probably have at least a top 3 A10 recruiting class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyerhawk Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 St Joe's facilities should look pretty good after the renovations. Funny, Dr. Gianni, coach of LaSalle, is doing an outstanding job of recruiting while Martelli, with all its better facilities and fan support, has been kind of dead in the water recruiting wise the last few years. Gianni, taking advantage of that recruit rich No. New Jersey area, will probably have at least a top 3 A10 recruiting class. how can you say SJU has better facilities than LaSalle? They don't. And Giannini has had far fewer St. Anthony's players than Martelli. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 how can you say SJU has better facilities than Lasalle? They don't. I would hope after (how million $?) renovations they would. I seen both campuses, I have to say Hawk Hill is more appealing then LaSalle. Concerning fans, LaSalle has okay fans but I found St J's to be on the fanatical side and more of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I also find it difficult to preach to the conf. about who should stay and leave given we are part of the problem. A league of 14 teams is just too big for several reasons - can not have home and home with each conf team each season, the bigger league raises the chances of the conf having a lower RPI since it is hard to ensure that all the teams are excelling, and you have to divided the post season revenue into smaller pieces. I am glad the A10 took us and UNCC but had I been advising them objectively I would have told them not to do it for all the reasons I just listed. However, I do think the A10 does have some soul searching and we should wait until we are asked about our opinion rather than be a pusher - we do have to acknowledge some respect for tradition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Postcard Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I've been there. While a renovation is needed, badly, and the arena is historic they need a ew one. Add to the fact that Martelli is the new Chaney, his recruiting has fallen off a cliff the last couple years. Losing Nivins they may be worse than Fordham next year. While they have been good to very good for a decade I think their run is over and we may see 10 years of an old Martelli running St Joes into the ground. Without that top flight coach St Joes is no better off than the other A-10 also rans. We are 3 games over .500 in the A10 since entering the league and you want to run off St. Josephs among others. Don't you think maybe we should win something and make a tourney run or two before we're dictating who is good enough to be in "our" league. However, I do think the A10 does have some soul searching and we should wait until we are asked about our opinion rather than be a pusher - we do have to acknowledge some respect for tradition. Totally agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I also find it difficult to preach to the conf. about who should stay and leave given we are part of the problem. A league of 14 teams is just too big for several reasons - can not have home and home with each conf team each season, the bigger league raises the chances of the conf having a lower RPI since it is hard to ensure that all the teams are excelling, and you have to divided the post season revenue into smaller pieces. I am glad the A10 took us and UNCC but had I been advising them objectively I would have told them not to do it for all the reasons I just listed. However, I do think the A10 does have some soul searching and we should wait until we are asked about our opinion rather than be a pusher - we do have to acknowledge some respect for tradition. cheese, not agreeing or disagreeing at this point in the discussion, but could you expand on your statement "we are part of the problem"? just curious of the thoughts behind that and where you see the billiken program as an a-10 problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 cheese, not agreeing or disagreeing at this point in the discussion, but could you expand on your statement "we are part of the problem"? just curious of the thoughts behind that and where you see the billiken program as an a-10 problem. Sorry, I now see how my post might have been confusing - I meant that we are part of the problem for making the league too big not that we are dragging the conf down. I agree that we can compete just fine in the A10 right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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