Dan Caesar Article

[billiken_roy]

Roy, do you let your employer dictate your feelings, opinions, politics, etc.?

pistol i dont leak stories about my disagreeing with company policy to the national press and i dont refuse to go to extra curricular activities like business receptions because my boss doesnt give me a perk.

i can guarantee you that if today i was somehow asked by the national media what i thought about obama's release yesterday wanting to put greater restrictions on bank activities, and i came out saying that obama was right (for the record, obama is WAY off base on this.) i would be in my bosses office so fast having to answer for that comment it would set some sort of speed record. i would expect to get fired.

it isnt that he has that view, it is how he expressed it and where/who he expressed it to. i am sure biondi couldnt really care less what his feelings and opinions are but when he is being asked as some sort of psuedo slu figurehead, he better give the no comment.

[aj_arete]

Do you actually have any idea what his obligations are? Or is a million dollars your personal arbitrary figure that says he has to extra? What if he was paid 975K? How about 800K? If it was 1.3 mil does he have to add any additional duties?

I don't understand why people who have no idea what his actual obligations are feel like they should have an opinion. His obligations are whatever his contract says they are. Nothing more. What if I arbitrarily looked at your job and decided that regardless of what your duties actually are, you should be doing a few extra things.

Personally, I couldn't care less if he regularly has a show or an appearance or not. I'd rather hear Porter Moser.

Actually as an educator, people comment on what my actual duties should be whether they are qualified or not. My salary is also listed and that's because I work for the state. That's just the way it is. I thought this was an opinion board, but I'll let the moderators rather than you tell me to stop expressing my opinions.

As for the standard for whether a coach should be obligated to deal with the media, I implicitly stated my opinion of the standard in the email. However, I will go into further detail, if you work as a head coach at a mid-major or high-major university, then you should be expected to deal with the media on a regular basis. In this era of ESPN, internet forums, and information era, it should be implied (if it is not explicit) that you should be involved in actively promoting your team. If you don't want to deal with the media, then work at a Division II or lower school and coach for the love of the game and not money. No, I do not have a background in law, but my wife does. However, I do notice a pattern of major college coaches, whose responsibilities include dealing with the media on a regular basis.

Now if you want to correct me and say that you have a copy of Majerus' contract and it states that he does not have to deal with the media, then that would be a fact and not an opinion. If you can't come up with the actual contract, then you are a hypocrite and doing nothing more than me, which is stating an opinion.

[billiken_roy]

With all due respect, no good fan of SLU basketball would say that that this article is "well done".

billikan, i never said i liked the article. i said it was well done because he tried to give perspective for the casual fan. the casual fan knows very little about rickma. they dont know he is a free speaking honest guy that doesnt hold back and speaks from his heart. he doesnt care what toes that might step on. and by presenting past incidents he let the casual reader know more about majerus to be able to judge the curent comments in a more accurate light imo.

i think if you read my entire post you would see all in all i dont like the spotlight the article gives us. and if i had my druthers it wouldnt be in the paper today. but in the same sense, i dont know how you can sit there and openly say you have no problem with these two incidents that rickma has come out blaring. first to firestart the old mvc thing again and second to just walk out on his own radio show.

what spoon was and rickma is are definitey two different things. and as i have presented here in the past, while i like both as basketball coaches, i have issues with both away from basketball. that said, at least spoon protected the university in regards to the media. i cant see how rickma cant see that being an ambassador for saint louis university isnt part of his job as the head coach. protecting the school should be a very high concern for him and these two incidents not only dont protect the program they invite attacks from all sides.

you question my loyalty as a billiken fan, i ask you, are you a billiken fan or a rickma fan? it seems to me that billiken fan should supersede rickma fan.

[Pistol]

pistol i dont leak stories about my disagreeing with company policy to the national press and i dont refuse to go to extra curricular activities like business receptions because my boss doesnt give me a perk.

i can guarantee you that if today i was somehow asked by the national media what i thought about obama's release yesterday wanting to put greater restrictions on bank activities, and i came out saying that obama was right (for the record, obama is WAY off base on this.) i would be in my bosses office so fast having to answer for that comment it would set some sort of speed record. i would expect to get fired.

it isnt that he has that view, it is how he expressed it and where/who he expressed it to. i am sure biondi couldnt really care less what his feelings and opinions are but when he is being asked as some sort of psuedo slu figurehead, he better give the no comment.

I agree that he should have said simply, "No comment." But that's not the guy we hired, and his opinions are his own. He didn't say anything negative about the University, anyone associated with the University, anything related to his job, or even education in general. I don't see how the political views of SLU's basketball coach are somehow directly related to what the Catholic Church teaches. It's a very indirect connection, so your example of you coming out to the press about company policy is a lot different scenario. That would have been more like Rick criticizing a move that Biondi makes or a new policy by Chris May or something along those lines. I would guess that if SLU had been stupid and tried to take any action against him, he could have taken legal action against them and won easily.

And it wasn't the national media, it was some local chump that shoved the camera and microphone in his face. The story got picked up by the national media after that, and they responded mostly in his favor.

[slufanskip]

Actually as an educator, people comment on what my actual duties should be whether they are qualified or not. My salary is also listed and that's because I work for the state. That's just the way it is. I thought this was an opinion board, but I'll let the moderators rather than you tell me to stop expressing my opinions.

As for the standard for whether a coach should be obligated to deal with the media, I implicitly stated my opinion of the standard in the email. However, I will go into further detail, if you work as a head coach at a mid-major or high-major university, then you should be expected to deal with the media on a regular basis. In this era of ESPN, internet forums, and information era, it should be implied (if it is not explicit) that you should be involved in actively promoting your team. If you don't want to deal with the media, then work at a Division II or lower school and coach for the love of the game and not money. No, I do not have a background in law, but my wife does. However, I do notice a pattern of major college coaches, whose responsibilities include dealing with the media on a regular basis.

Now if you want to correct me and say that you have a copy of Majerus' contract and it states that he does not have to deal with the media, then that would be a fact and not an opinion. If you can't come up with the actual contract, then you are a hypocrite and doing nothing more than me, which is stating an opinion.

Actually, I didn't state he should or shouldn't. What I said was, how can you say he has an obligation to, when you have no idea what his actual obligations are. If he is obligated by his contract to, then yes he should. If he is not, then no he doesn't have to. Would it be nice if he did, and was polite and said all the right things? Yes of course, but that isn't who we hired, and if we didn't know who we hired, then shame on us.

I feel all educators should have to do home checks on their students and give family counseling to any kids with problems. I also feel that if a parent can't get their kid from school on time the teacher should wait until whatever time that parent arises. I know it's not in their contract, but hey it's my opinion and I feel they should.

[basketballcountry]

Let me take another stance on this topic. I actually agree with Caesar's point of view. While people might realize that I'm not a great fan of Majerus and that might cloud my judgment, let me add that I think Majerus has a great eye for talent and might be among the elite in teaching and tactics. My problem has always been about his character and ethics.

A coach, who is paid over a million dollars, has obligations that go beyond the basketball court. If he is not interested in public relations and all of the extraneous responsibilities that go with being a big-time coach, then he needs to go to NAIA (like Soderberg) and coach the game on its purest terms and without its monetary rewards. College basketball is big business and coaches need to be aware of that.

It is my guess that the powers that be will let Majerus slide due to either intimidation or fear of potential ramifications of sanctioning him, but I think Majerus should be held to the fire and told to uphold his contractual commitments. It does nothing, but damage SLU's credibility and presence in the eyes of local media and outside observers.

Dont you get it yet after all these years????

No on cares about stlouieu basketball except you few

[Cowboy]

Dont you get it yet after all these years????

No on cares about stlouieu basketball except you few

-you maybe correct, but if you are correct then why did the stlpd print the article?

[TheChosenOne]

I said his criticism of Rick's backing out on his show was fair. Bringing attention to his comments during the primaries in 2008 only reminded me how stupid the local media is in the first place, like Caesar saying, "Hey, remember what idiots we are? We generate controversies out of nothing!" Caesar is doing his best to stir the pot as much as he can to justify his existence; with newspapers cutting staff, I'd imagine the guy covering the local sports media beat is pretty low on the totem pole.

You have a good point that Majerus stirred up a lot of local media attention with his comments back then. Desn't that say a lot about the quality of the local media, though, when they eagerly interview him at a Hillary Clinton rally while he's not working instead of covering what he's doing with his actual job? They just wanted to go for the cheap and easy story: SLU employee - Hillary Clinton rally - Democrat - pro-choice - SLU employee - Catholic school - generalization that Catholics are only supposed to care about abortion - turning a non-event into a local controversy. Are they aware that Rick Majerus is not the only SLU employee who votes Democrat? I had quite a few very liberal professors at SLU.

It's a two-way street; he hasn't played ball with the media, and they haven't been kind to him. Fair enough, I go here for my SLU coverage anyway.

Regardless of how stupid the local media is, the fact is that the biggest media splashes since Majerus has taken over as head coach were his comments made during the primary followed by the article that was in SI. It is what it is.

I was listening to Martin Kilcoyne and Frank this morning and they said the same thing. Frank said that it is a real shame that Majerus does not make any effort with regards to the media and that he considers Rick a friend. They both agree that winning will solve most of this, but question why it is so difficult to give a couple of hours of time a week to reach out to the media.

You condemn the local media for not reporting on his actual job, but Majerus makes it very difficult for them to do that and that is the whole point of the article. Guys like Doug Vaughn, Martin Kilcoyne, and Frank have all talked about how difficult it is to get access to the coach and program. If you want positive things to be reported about the program before they are having huge success on the court, you better cater to the media a little bit and SLU has done the opposite of that. Pissing off the radio station that carries your games is probably not a good start either.

Why can I hear Bruce Weber calling into the local radio station and not Rick Majerus?

[basketballcountry]

-you maybe correct, but if you are correct then why did the stlpd print the article?

The few still do not get it

LOL

[TheChosenOne]

Actually, I didn't state he should or shouldn't. What I said was, how can you say he has an obligation to, when you have no idea what his actual obligations are. If he is obligated by his contract to, then yes he should. If he is not, then no he doesn't have to. Would it be nice if he did, and was polite and said all the right things? Yes of course, but that isn't who we hired, and if we didn't know who we hired, then shame on us.

I feel all educators should have to do home checks on their students and give family counseling to any kids with problems. I also feel that if a parent can't get their kid from school on time the teacher should wait until whatever time that parent arises. I know it's not in their contract, but hey it's my opinion and I feel they should.

The programs director Jason Barrett said that "Majerus is contractually obligated to appear." SLU nor anyone else has said anything to the contrary.

[slufanskip]

The programs director Jason Barrett said that "Majerus is contractually obligated to appear." SLU nor anyone else has said anything to the contrary.

If that's true, then boo on RM. He needs to live up to his contract.

[basketballcountry]

The programs director Jason Barrett said that "Majerus is contractually obligated to appear." SLU nor anyone else has said anything to the contrary.

LOAO

Could big Rick be making a move to DE PAUL

[aj_arete]

Actually, I didn't state he should or shouldn't. What I said was, how can you say he has an obligation to, when you have no idea what his actual obligations are. If he is obligated by his contract to, then yes he should. If he is not, then no he doesn't have to. Would it be nice if he did, and was polite and said all the right things? Yes of course, but that isn't who we hired, and if we didn't know who we hired, then shame on us.

I feel all educators should have to do home checks on their students and give family counseling to any kids with problems. I also feel that if a parent can't get their kid from school on time the teacher should wait until whatever time that parent arises. I know it's not in their contract, but hey it's my opinion and I feel they should.

I have no problem discussing the merits of an argument from either side of the issue. I certainly understand your argument that a college basketball coach should be paid to just coach because they will ultimately be judged on wins and losses and not how well they deal with the media. In another era, even 10-20 years ago, I would have sided with your viewpoint. I was just expressing my point of view on the matter and feel that coaches need to justify their high salaries, so they should recognize that coaching is just part of their responsibilities.

While I teach in higher education, it is my opinion that K-12 educators should be compensated if they were required to do home checks and provide family counseling. As for my responsibilities, they do go beyond just teaching in the classroom and I have been compensated extra for doing that. Why can't Majerus do the same thing?

[mcglotherirvin]

Did you ever hear Charlie Spoon talking to the national media about how he thinks SLU is the 3rd best Jesuit school in the country? I hear Majerus saying things like this all the time. That's the kind of positive thing that Majerus says as an "ambassador" of the school that actually matters. When he repeatedly talks about how difficult the school is, people hear that. For the first time, we have a coach saying that to a national media. That is positive spin that I am sure is helping the school more so than any debate about what kind of offense we will run next week against GW.

It is similar to when he was at Utah talking about how he had more academic all-americans than anyone else. When someone says that on ESPN, people are hearing good things about the school. You never heard that out of any other coach we had before Majerus. When we are in the Sweet Sixteen next year, he will be telling Jay Bilas that one of his players is going to med school after the season, that one will have a degree in accounting, and then several will end up getting MBA's before finishing their basketball careers. That is big press for the school.

My point is that he is saying positive things about SLU that people are not giving him credit for. I would have liked Caeser to mention that in his article. But, guess what, Caesar has probably never bothered to attend a Billiken function and probably does not watch ESPN. So, he just goes on a rant because he is at the bottom of Majerus's list of who to talk to.

billikan, i never said i liked the article. i said it was well done because he tried to give perspective for the casual fan. the casual fan knows very little about rickma. they dont know he is a free speaking honest guy that doesnt hold back and speaks from his heart. he doesnt care what toes that might step on. and by presenting past incidents he let the casual reader know more about majerus to be able to judge the curent comments in a more accurate light imo.

i think if you read my entire post you would see all in all i dont like the spotlight the article gives us. and if i had my druthers it wouldnt be in the paper today. but in the same sense, i dont know how you can sit there and openly say you have no problem with these two incidents that rickma has come out blaring. first to firestart the old mvc thing again and second to just walk out on his own radio show.

what spoon was and rickma is are definitey two different things. and as i have presented here in the past, while i like both as basketball coaches, i have issues with both away from basketball. that said, at least spoon protected the university in regards to the media. i cant see how rickma cant see that being an ambassador for saint louis university isnt part of his job as the head coach. protecting the school should be a very high concern for him and these two incidents not only dont protect the program they invite attacks from all sides.

you question my loyalty as a billiken fan, i ask you, are you a billiken fan or a rickma fan? it seems to me that billiken fan should supersede rickma fan.

[TheChosenOne]

When we are in the Sweet Sixteen next year, he will be telling Jay Bilas that one of his players is going to med school after the season, that one will have a degree in accounting, and then several will end up getting MBA's before finishing their basketball careers. That is big press for the school.

Majerus has set himself up to where he has to start delivering things like this. If we don't start winning big then there is no way to defend his actions. We are able to put up with him to verying degrees because we see the program headed in a very promising direction, but if things don't pan out a lot of people will no longer put up with his shortcomings as a person/employee/coach.

[TheChosenOne]

Did you ever hear Charlie Spoon talking to the national media about how he thinks SLU is the 3rd best Jesuit school in the country? I hear Majerus saying things like this all the time. That's the kind of positive thing that Majerus says as an "ambassador" of the school that actually matters. When he repeatedly talks about how difficult the school is, people hear that. For the first time, we have a coach saying that to a national media. That is positive spin that I am sure is helping the school more so than any debate about what kind of offense we will run next week against GW.

I guess I question just how visible Majerus is to the national media and how he is a great "ambassador" of the school throughout the country. We don't play any games on national television and I have never seen Majerus on ESPN or the like. The biggest national story I saw was the article in Sports Illustrated and I did not take away a lot of positives from that. I live in St. Louis and could be missing these things though so I could be wrong on this. Here is the headline of an article from SI.com concerning the Billikens from yesterday "Majerus wants out of Atlantic-10."

[cheeseman]

While not a ringing endorsement from Broy on RM, he at least can see his POV. You may be right this may be a *** for tat deal. Hey if I'm contractually obligated to do the show, then you're contractually obligated to give me charters. So, you yank the plane, I'll yank your chain and blow off the radio show. This whole brush up has to do with money. The A department's probably been put on notice to reduce costs. They apply a little pressure to RM, he fights back. And his logic is, "hey, you want to reduce costs quit the A-10 then join the MVC. It's a lot less costly and better for the student athlete." Time for everyone to take a breather and reach a compromise. Someone wrote something about leasing In-Bev planes for $1.00. I'm figuring Bud products are only being served at the Chey, but if not make some sort of deal with 'em. Or we'll start offering Miller as well.

OK first of all - maybe it is just me - when you refer to the Chey - it should be spelled Chay - there is no "e" in the name up front - sorry just a personal thing.

If RM insists on going 2 days before a game how does belonging to another conf change the overall costs and lost academic time - I got news for everybody, RM is not taking a bus to Omaha or any place in Kansas or N. Iowa. If it was in his contract that he got charter flights then Biondi would not have stopped or curtailed the practice. What was probably said was something like this - I need charter flights - ok we will do charter flights whenever possible, fair enough - yes fair enough. Now who interprets the "whenever possible" will determine when charter flights are taken and not. I still say, Chris May needs to show some leadership in this situation - maybe he is trying I don't know - but there are ways to work through this problem and not in public.

[cheeseman]

pistol i dont leak stories about my disagreeing with company policy to the national press and i dont refuse to go to extra curricular activities like business receptions because my boss doesnt give me a perk.

i can guarantee you that if today i was somehow asked by the national media what i thought about obama's release yesterday wanting to put greater restrictions on bank activities, and i came out saying that obama was right (for the record, obama is WAY off base on this.) i would be in my bosses office so fast having to answer for that comment it would set some sort of speed record. i would expect to get fired.

it isnt that he has that view, it is how he expressed it and where/who he expressed it to. i am sure biondi couldnt really care less what his feelings and opinions are but when he is being asked as some sort of psuedo slu figurehead, he better give the no comment.

I see your point but you would not have attended an Obama rally either.

[cheeseman]

LOAO

Could big Rick be making a move to DE PAUL

First of all he wanted to be at a Jesuit institution and DePaul is not so if you had a brain you would know that. Second. DePaul is where they are because they don't spend money - even now they are talking about stepping up to pay and the money they want to pay is less then what RM makes here so if money is an issue here it certainly will be there even more so.

[Postcard]

I've never seen more examples of people wanting to "kill the messenger." All these charges of "Ceasar has it in for RM", and "the Post is out to get SLU" just make you look petty and insecure. One of these days you'll understand that the Post is not a PR arm of SLU. I know a lot of you think it should be but that is not their function. Dan Ceasar writes media related columns for the Post. So giving readers some background on RM's past dealings in the media, with the media etc are completely relevant. I swear, the Post could write a 3 page article on the Bills with 99% of the stuff being positive but if they mentioned that "this was the Bills best year in a decade" that people on here would ***** and moan that they brough up the past.

[Bay Area Billiken]

I guess I question just how visible Majerus is to the national media and how he is a great "ambassador" of the school throughout the country. We don't play any games on national television and I have never seen Majerus on ESPN or the like. The biggest national story I saw was the article in Sports Illustrated and I did not take away a lot of positives from that. I live in St. Louis and could be missing these things though so I could be wrong on this. Here is the headline of an article from SI.com concerning the Billikens from yesterday "Majerus wants out of Atlantic-10."

Rick Majerus is a nationally recognized coach. For example, most basketball fans out here know his name. Some don't know he is at SLU now, but they've heard of Majerus.

Somehow this current situation, whatever it is, needs to be resolved quickly. Surely it can be. Rational heads need to prevail. To borrow from the Musketeers: "All for one, and one for all."

The talent level, 1-10, on this SLU team is unprecedented. The future looks bright. SLU should strive to get positive PR in the national media. That will come with more wins and hopefully post-season tournament bids.

SLU does have some national TV exposure on CBS College Sports, ESPNU, and Fox Sports Midwest, all of which are available on DirecTV. It is not the Big East and ESPN proper, but some of the SLU games are available with a little looking for them.

The Pac-10 is generally not on ESPN either- the Pac-10 plays on the Fox Sports and Comcast regional outlets, which combined make it national.

[slufanskip]

I have no problem discussing the merits of an argument from either side of the issue. I certainly understand your argument that a college basketball coach should be paid to just coach because they will ultimately be judged on wins and losses and not how well they deal with the media. In another era, even 10-20 years ago, I would have sided with your viewpoint. I was just expressing my point of view on the matter and feel that coaches need to justify their high salaries, so they should recognize that coaching is just part of their responsibilities.

While I teach in higher education, it is my opinion that K-12 educators should be compensated if they were required to do home checks and provide family counseling. As for my responsibilities, they do go beyond just teaching in the classroom and I have been compensated extra for doing that. Why can't Majerus do the same thing?

and how much extra are we going to compensate him?

[slufanskip]

If RM was obligated to do the show, he should have either done it or negotiated his way out of it in advance.

It would of course be nice if he was a media darling with the personality of Spoon. He isn't though and we knew that when we hired him. Would more people be interested and come to the game if he was rubbing elbows with the local media? Probably, but how many more? More than will come if he makes us a winner? I doubt it.

It appears to me that RM doesn't care what the local media thinks. He knows that if we win they will come, and he's putting his time and effort into turning us into a winner. Spoon rubbed elbows, but he didn't like recruiting and as soon as Grawer's players left we were back to being an average team. RM puts his time into recruiting, into watching game film, into x's and o's and coaching the players. He puts his time into doing the things that will make us successful on the court. Personally, I prefer he continues that path. Could he do both? Possibly, but do any of us know how much time he currently puts in? I'd bet it's more than most of us. Maybe he only has so much time, and to give the media 2 hours a week, would take away from his watching game film and developing practice plans, or writing letters to recruits like Brian Conklin outlining his current game and what he could do to help him improve.

We hired him to take SLU basketball to the next level, to make us a consistent player in the NCAA tourney and he looks to have a good start at doing just that.

Lastly, I'd rather hear Porter speak anyway.

[JMM28]

Lastly, I'd rather hear Porter speak anyway.

100% agree. While I think Rick is a good listen, I think Porter overall gives more usable information. Plus if he is the heir to the throne, he should be out there as a co-face.

It is funny to get all worked up about something in the Post Dispatch. There is really no reason to. The post is in a dying industry and they all enjoy writing articles for some sort of shock value, hoping to sell another overpriced dead tree.

Now if ESPN wanted to come in and do an interview with Rick to air on sportscenter or gameday, I would guarantee you he'd do it. That is the kind of attention that makes a difference. The Post is about 20493rd on the list of places I would be looking to please, right below any st louis radio stations.

Someone asked how many times these guys (the stricklands, bernies, caesars, etc.) show up to a post game press conference, or even attend games? They ***** about Majerus not wanting to give them time, but do they go out of their way to give the school any time?

[Billikan]

billikan, i never said i liked the article. i said it was well done because he tried to give perspective for the casual fan. the casual fan knows very little about rickma. they dont know he is a free speaking honest guy that doesnt hold back and speaks from his heart. he doesnt care what toes that might step on. and by presenting past incidents he let the casual reader know more about majerus to be able to judge the curent comments in a more accurate light imo.

i think if you read my entire post you would see all in all i dont like the spotlight the article gives us. and if i had my druthers it wouldnt be in the paper today. but in the same sense, i dont know how you can sit there and openly say you have no problem with these two incidents that rickma has come out blaring. first to firestart the old mvc thing again and second to just walk out on his own radio show.

what spoon was and rickma is are definitey two different things. and as i have presented here in the past, while i like both as basketball coaches, i have issues with both away from basketball. that said, at least spoon protected the university in regards to the media. i cant see how rickma cant see that being an ambassador for saint louis university isnt part of his job as the head coach. protecting the school should be a very high concern for him and these two incidents not only dont protect the program they invite attacks from all sides.

you question my loyalty as a billiken fan, i ask you, are you a billiken fan or a rickma fan? it seems to me that billiken fan should supersede rickma fan.

No one should know better than you that I am now and always will be a SLU Billikan fan. When Brad was our coach I supported him through thick and thin. He has some strengths and some weaknesses but I stayed with him because he was the Billiken coach. I fought with others who wanted him fired because he was a decent man and could really coach defense. But he just could not recruit and that was ultimately his downfall.

This coach is far from perfect but no one is perfect. His main attributes--a solid coach and teacher, a coach who truly believes in academics, a coach who can really recruit, and a coach who plays by the rules--are fine with me. I don't like some of the other stuff but if our kids are progressing and the team looks to have potential then I understand that most times in life you have to realize that people are human with human weaknesses.

One thing that seems to also go unsaid in terms of the "program" is that RM does give us a much higher profile nationally. He is often mentioned on national broadcasts in a favorable light in terms of his coaching ability. I travel a fair amount and often talk basketball with folks and when I mention that I am a diehard Billiken fan their first comment is -- You guys have Rick M as your coach--he is really good.