Alex Jensen Gone

[billikenfan05]

I can't believe we keep missing the obvious. Matt Dickey is going to skip his senior year and take the Assistant Role.

Matt Dickey graduated. He won't have to skip anything.

[The Pelican]

Double post.

[The Pelican]

I hear we're looking at some guy named Porter Moser? He coaches at Loyola I think.

Our Kenpom plummeted to 122 with the AJ loss.

[Billikan]

i would think the need for some actual recruiting experience and recruiting success would be more instrumental in alex jensen becoming a college head coach.

as someone else mentioned above, he very much looked and sounded like a head coach running those practices and instructing players pre-canada. so i dont think instruction would be his need.

that is why i think this move is more about possibly a dislike for what i perceived as his biggest shortcoming. recruiting.

As is so often the case, you post rank speculation supported by no facts at all. The fact is that a young coach gets no credibility for running practices, he gets credibility by having the job and the title of head coach. There has been a large amount of publicity about this new job for Alex in a situation where the team is owned by the Cavs and the GM is the director of player personnel for the Cavs. He will be an integral part of an NBA organization and will have the title and the responsibilities of head coach. The is a great resume and connections building job for a young coach who has very little direct coaching experience. I wish the best to Alex and hope you would stop your baseless attacks on good guys.

[For-DaLove]

Our Kenpom plummeted to 122 with the AJ loss.

122? As in 81 spots behind Butler? Holy sh*t, we are ######!!!!!

[BBall Fan]

This thought crossed my mind too. I had assumed that AJ would succeed RM as head coach when Rick decides to hang 'em up.

Could he possibly be leaving the program to get that head coaching experience for a possible return with that experience to assume control when RM does step down? I would assume that RM played a role in helping AJ secure his first Head Coching position. Just a thought.

[Billsrmajic]

Is Lance Allred available? He might want to get into coaching, and he has a prior relationship with Majerus...

Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

[thetorch]

As is so often the case, you post rank speculation supported by no facts at all. The fact is that a young coach gets no credibility for running practices, he gets credibility by having the job and the title of head coach. There has been a large amount of publicity about this new job for Alex in a situation where the team is owned by the Cavs and the GM is the director of player personnel for the Cavs. He will be an integral part of an NBA organization and will have the title and the responsibilities of head coach. The is a great resume and connections building job for a young coach who has very little direct coaching experience. I wish the best to Alex and hope you would stop your baseless attacks on good guys.

Must you spin everything positively? This isn't a good situation.

I question if you know anything about the NBA. Do you follow it at all? If you did you would know that the Cleveland Cavaliers are on a short list of the worst run franchises in sports and certainly the NBA. This is the franchise which employed Ron Ekker for a number of years. Their front office is a laughingstock. This is not the organization for a future coach to develop in.

Some other Billiken ties to the Cavaliers, Bob Ferry was a longtime scout for the team and his son Danny was GM until he resigned following the "Decision" fiasco.

D-League Head Coaches are 2 things, college basketball retreads who were fired from jobs and working out till retirement or NBA hangerons with no real shot at a decision making job in the league. In 10 years of the D-League name a coach who has developed in that league to become anything at the next level? Several NBDL coaches have gone to coach in the WNBA. Maybe that is what Jensen wants to do.

From Majerus' comments it appears that Alex grew tired of the college coaching lifestyle and he wanted to move on the pro ranks. Surely this isn't for everybody but couldn't he figure this out in March or April or May??? Instead he leaves us for the D-League days before practice begins. Folks Jensen isn't HC of the Lakers, its the D-League. A HC with no experience in the D-League will make $75,000 maybe. He's taking a pay cut (I hope). This wasn't a "once in a lifetime opportunity." Jensen will be coaching in the dregs of pro basketball.

How did Jensen go from accepting a promotion and pay raise to I don't want to coach college ball in 3 months?

Jensen was a good recruiter. He was recruiting locally, nationally and internationally. His connections got us Tsalentakis. No one else on the staff has euro connections. He was just starting to make inroads with recruits and now he abandons the team. You can say Al is a great guy all you want, this was a ###### move for him to make.

Now we have 4 days till practice starts. We have Majerus, coming off multiple medical problems, Whitesell who has only been with the team a couple months, only conducted a few practices and still getting acquainted with Majerus' system and now Al is gone. Al was the coach most familiar with Majerus and running the team the way he wants. Now we bring in 2 new coaches. We are starting from scratch.

We all knew Majerus ran through players fast, but not assistants. What is the count up to now?

Maybe losing Jensen won't make a lick of difference. Still I don't see any positives coming out of this for the Billikens.

[Billikan]

Must you spin everything positively? This isn't a good situation.

I question if you know anything about the NBA. Do you follow it at all? If you did you would know that the Cleveland Cavaliers are on a short list of the worst run franchises in sports and certainly the NBA. This is the franchise which employed Ron Ekker for a number of years. Their front office is a laughingstock. This is not the organization for a future coach to develop in.

Some other Billiken ties to the Cavaliers, Bob Ferry was a longtime scout for the team and his son Danny was GM until he resigned following the "Decision" fiasco.

D-League Head Coaches are 2 things, college basketball retreads who were fired from jobs and working out till retirement or NBA hangerons with no real shot at a decision making job in the league. In 10 years of the D-League name a coach who has developed in that league to become anything at the next level? Several NBDL coaches have gone to coach in the WNBA. Maybe that is what Jensen wants to do.

From Majerus' comments it appears that Alex grew tired of the college coaching lifestyle and he wanted to move on the pro ranks. Surely this isn't for everybody but couldn't he figure this out in March or April or May??? Instead he leaves us for the D-League days before practice begins. Folks Jensen isn't HC of the Lakers, its the D-League. A HC with no experience in the D-League will make $75,000 maybe. He's taking a pay cut (I hope). This wasn't a "once in a lifetime opportunity." Jensen will be coaching in the dregs of pro basketball.

Jensen was a good recruiter. He was recruiting locally, nationally and internationally. His connections got us Tsalentakis. No one else on the staff has euro connections. He was just starting to make inroads with recruits and now he abandons the team. You can say Al is a great guy all you want, this was a ###### move for him to make.

Now we have 4 days till practice starts. We have Majerus, coming off multiple medical problems, Whitesell who has only been with the team a couple months, only conducted a few practices and still getting acquainted with Majerus' system and now Al is gone. Al was the coach most familiar with Majerus and running the team the way he wants. Now we bring in 2 new coaches. We are starting from scratch.

We all knew Majerus ran through players fast, but not assistants. What is the count up to now?

Maybe losing Jensen won't make a lick of difference. Still I don't see any positives coming out of this for the Billikens.

I wonder if you are the expert you claim to be on the NBA. The fact is that over the past two years the NBA has been revamping the D league to be much like the minor leagues in baseball. A few years ago the D league teams had no real ties to the NBA but now there are direct relationships to 9 teams in the league and in light of the lockout it will be the only way an NBA team will be able to evaluate young players.

The Cavs have started anew this year in Canton in a effort to have a minor league team close to home.

Chris Carrawell the Duke star from St. Louis just got his first coaching position as an ASSISTANT on the Nets D league team. He left Duke to take the job.

The former NBA coach of the year Del Harris just took the D league head coaching job in Texas.

Kevin Young a young and up and coming coach just took over the head coaching job at the D league team in Iowa. He was hired from a group of 40 applicants including multiple former NBA head coaches.

The D league is changing and many coaches view it as a way to start a career in coaching or keep sharp as a head coach. Why belittle AJ or his new position. With the lockout the D league teams will get a lot more attention from the front office and if he does a good job he may be able to parlay this into a good coaching career. He was only recruiting for a short time so we will not know how this will affect us. I liked the guy and I wish him well. Everyone wished Porter well in his new job and I see no reason to treat Al any differently.

[thetorch]

I wonder if you are the expert you claim to be on the NBA. The fact is that over the past two years the NBA has been revamping the D league to be much like the minor leagues in baseball. A few years ago the D league teams had no real ties to the NBA but now there are direct relationships to 9 teams in the league and in light of the lockout it will be the only way an NBA team will be able to evaluate young players.

Great.

The Cavs have started anew this year in Canton in a effort to have a minor league team close to home.

This doesn't change the fact that team has horrible ownership and an inept front office.

Chris Carrawell the Duke star from St. Louis just got his first coaching position as an ASSISTANT on the Nets D league team. He left Duke to take the job.

Yeah Carrawell's duties at Duke consisted of Video, Assisting the strength coach, & Community Outreach. I'm not sure if he was even paid, and he was never a full Asst on their staff. So that would be a step up for him. Plus the Nets are owned by a Russian Billionaire & Jay-Z & are constructing a state of the art arena and just generally throwing money around. The Cavs are owned by Dan Gilbert.

The former NBA coach of the year Del Harris just took the D league head coaching job in Texas.

Del Harris is 74 years old. He was NBA COY 20 years ago. He hasn't been an NBA HC in 12 years.

Kevin Young a young and up and coming coach just took over the head coaching job at the D league team in Iowa. He was hired from a group of 40 applicants including multiple former NBA head coaches.

I imagine a lot of former NBA coaches would want paying jobs in this economy.

The D league is changing and many coaches view it as a way to start a career in coaching or keep sharp as a head coach. Why belittle AJ or his new position. With the lockout the D league teams will get a lot more attention from the front office and if he does a good job he may be able to parlay this into a good coaching career. He was only recruiting for a short time so we will not know how this will affect us. I liked the guy and I wish him well. Everyone wished Porter well in his new job and I see no reason to treat Al any differently.

Owmership may be changing but not much else. It isn't a feeder league for NBA coaches. It never has been. Its a place for old coaches to cash a check. Name a NBA coach from the D-League?

I never said I didn't wish Al well. Timing could have been better is an understatement. Why accept the promotion 3 months ago if you want to take an entry level pro job? There have been several NBDL job opening this summer, why not pursue those? Did he really want to work for the Cavs? I can't think of any reason he would want to. Things like this make it easy for fans to think something else is amiss down at Chaifetz. I'm hearing now that potential replacement candidates look very promising so maybe all is not lost.

[Billikan]

Great.

This doesn't change the fact that team has horrible ownership and an inept front office.

Yeah Carrawell's duties at Duke consisted of Video, Assisting the strength coach, & Community Outreach. I'm not sure if he was even paid, and he was never a full Asst on their staff. So that would be a step up for him. Plus the Nets are owned by a Russian Billionaire & Jay-Z & are constructing a state of the art arena and just generally throwing money around. The Cavs are owned by Dan Gilbert.

Del Harris is 74 years old. He was NBA COY 20 years ago. He hasn't been an NBA HC in 12 years.

I imagine a lot of former NBA coaches would want paying jobs in this economy.

Owmership may be changing but not much else. It isn't a feeder league for NBA coaches. It never has been. Its a place for old coaches to cash a check. Name a NBA coach from the D-League?

I never said I didn't wish Al well. Timing could have been better is an understatement. Why accept the promotion 3 months ago if you want to take an entry level pro job? There have been several NBDL job opening this summer, why not pursue those? Did he really want to work for the Cavs? I can't think of any reason he would want to. Things like this make it easy for fans to think something else is amiss down at Chaifetz. I'm hearing now that potential replacement candidates look very promising so maybe all is not lost.

Scott Brooks, one of the hottest young coaches in the NBA started his pro coaching career with the now defunct Stars of the ABA, a league much less established than the D league is today.

[billiken_roy]

Scott Brooks, one of the hottest young coaches in the NBA started his pro coaching career with the now defunct Stars of the ABA, a league much less established than the D league is today.

you seem to be saying that jensen is on the track to be an nba coach. i agree. but being a D league coach hardly is the right experience to become a college coach. you have to be a proven recruiter. he was not and wont become a college recruiter with an nba minor league team. you said above i was slamming jensen. just the opposite. i saw a very poised and confident young man running practice in august. but if he doesnt like the rest of the college coach life, the travel, the need to suck up to 16 year olds and their single parent households, the likelihood of never staying in the same place for a prolonged period of time, i dont blame him for leaving. it would have been nice to have made this decision months ago, but that would have been before his first full season of being on the road recruiting. good luck to coach jensen.

next.

[Taj79]

Billikan-do always spins it good for the Bills. Expect him to deliver that.

From what I've heard, RM sees nothing else in the world but basketball. And is very demanding on his lead assistant. Maybe AJ put in three long mont and said "screw this." I have no idea. What I do know is the PERCEPTION of this move is not good, not at this time, four days prior to the start of the season. I wish AJ success, and agree with the poster who asked if losing our assistants was a bad thing. I think not --- outside of Bennett and Dollar, we have had absolutley no coaches move onward and upward. (Please remember I do not count Romar going home to alma mater u and consider SLU the graveyard of coaches for the most part). The timing does suck but such is life.

I love it when folks on here talk about "the facts." That's like when folks on "Survivor" talk about honesty and integrity when they get blindsided and voted out of the tribe and off the island. I personally have no facts, but live off speculation. That's what talk boards are all about. Get used to it. I second roy's questions on recruiting and personally see that as the worst part of all college coaching. Why not be able to ask that question -- there is no way one goes off to the NBA or NBA-D league and gains "experience" relevant to the college game. Name me one NBA-D league team or other that "recruits" players. If an NBA coach at any level wants to practice 20 hours a day he can -- he has no concerns over classes, tests, exams --- because these guys are PAID to do that. It's their job. Sure, the experience of organization might be good, but I can't see any pro coach going pro to then come back and apply those skills to the college game. And as torch says .. this IS Dan Gilbert.

Ekker long disappeared into the d league did he not. So too did Quinny. They want Bruce Pearl to land there when Tennessee banishe dhim. Not saying you won't rise from this ash pile because truth is strnger than fiction in the long run.

[slu72]

you seem to be saying that jensen is on the track to be an nba coach. i agree. but being a D league coach hardly is the right experience to become a college coach. you have to be a proven recruiter. he was not and wont become a college recruiter with an nba minor league team. you said above i was slamming jensen. just the opposite. i saw a very poised and confident young man running practice in august. but if he doesnt like the rest of the college coach life, the travel, the need to suck up to 16 year olds and their single parent households, the likelihood of never staying in the same place for a prolonged period of time, i dont blame him for leaving. it would have been nice to have made this decision months ago, but that would have been before his first full season of being on the road recruiting. good luck to coach jensen.

next.

I just wonder out of all the college AC's, former unemployed college HC's, former Pro AC's, former unemployed Pro HC's, former NBA players w/ coaching aspirations, etc, the Cleveland Cavs pick little known Alex Jensen, former Euro player now an AC at a middling college program to coach their D league team? Makes you wonder if AJ and RM had a sit down and AJ said something like, "man, this recruiting gig's a beatch and I'm not cut out for it." Rick calls his buddies in the NBA, Nelson and Karl, they in turn look around and voila AJ's a coach in the NBDL, or whatever it's called. Charleston had a NBDL team a few years back, and I can tell you it's nothing compared to minor league baseball or hockey, which both draw well here in Charleston. At the most there might have been a 100 people in a 10,000 seat arena. And that includes the player's girlfriends and wives and the team's bus drivers. But good luck, AJ. Sure wish you could have timed it better. I'm just glad, as someone pointed out, this wasn't the nail in the coffin we got last season two days before practice began. Please let this be the last shoe to drop this season.

[ACE]

Must you spin everything positively? This isn't a good situation.

I question if you know anything about the NBA. Do you follow it at all? If you did you would know that the Cleveland Cavaliers are on a short list of the worst run franchises in sports and certainly the NBA. This is the franchise which employed Ron Ekker for a number of years. Their front office is a laughingstock. This is not the organization for a future coach to develop in.

Some other Billiken ties to the Cavaliers, Bob Ferry was a longtime scout for the team and his son Danny was GM until he resigned following the "Decision" fiasco.

D-League Head Coaches are 2 things, college basketball retreads who were fired from jobs and working out till retirement or NBA hangerons with no real shot at a decision making job in the league. In 10 years of the D-League name a coach who has developed in that league to become anything at the next level? Several NBDL coaches have gone to coach in the WNBA. Maybe that is what Jensen wants to do.

From Majerus' comments it appears that Alex grew tired of the college coaching lifestyle and he wanted to move on the pro ranks. Surely this isn't for everybody but couldn't he figure this out in March or April or May??? Instead he leaves us for the D-League days before practice begins. Folks Jensen isn't HC of the Lakers, its the D-League. A HC with no experience in the D-League will make $75,000 maybe. He's taking a pay cut (I hope). This wasn't a "once in a lifetime opportunity." Jensen will be coaching in the dregs of pro basketball.

How did Jensen go from accepting a promotion and pay raise to I don't want to coach college ball in 3 months?

Jensen was a good recruiter. He was recruiting locally, nationally and internationally. His connections got us Tsalentakis. No one else on the staff has euro connections. He was just starting to make inroads with recruits and now he abandons the team. You can say Al is a great guy all you want, this was a ###### move for him to make.

Now we have 4 days till practice starts. We have Majerus, coming off multiple medical problems, Whitesell who has only been with the team a couple months, only conducted a few practices and still getting acquainted with Majerus' system and now Al is gone. Al was the coach most familiar with Majerus and running the team the way he wants. Now we bring in 2 new coaches. We are starting from scratch.

We all knew Majerus ran through players fast, but not assistants. What is the count up to now?

Maybe losing Jensen won't make a lick of difference. Still I don't see any positives coming out of this for the Billikens.

Roy says Jensen couldn't recruit, but you say he was a good recruiter... wow, who should I believe?

Agree that the timing is less than ideal, but I don't get your suggestion that Majerus runs through assistants. Moser and Jensen were here from the beginning, correct? Moser left to take a head coaching job in his hometown. Good for him. Harriman is entering his 4th season. There is not an unusual amount of turnover among the staff.

[slu72]

Roy says Jensen couldn't recruit, but you say he was a good recruiter... wow, who should I believe?

Agree that the timing is less than ideal, but I don't get your suggestion that Majerus runs through assistants. Moser and Jensen were here from the beginning, correct? Moser left to take a head coaching job in his hometown. Good for him. Harriman is entering his 4th season. There is not an unusual amount of turnover among the staff.

Thorpe and Biancardi can be added to the list. Pretty sure AT was kept around to bring in Reed then it was see ya round. Biancardi left on his own accord for his cushy gig at ESPN. Which was too bad, because his strength was recruiting.

[brianstl]

Roy says Jensen couldn't recruit, but you say he was a good recruiter... wow, who should I believe?

Agree that the timing is less than ideal, but I don't get your suggestion that Majerus runs through assistants. Moser and Jensen were here from the beginning, correct? Moser left to take a head coaching job in his hometown. Good for him. Harriman is entering his 4th season. There is not an unusual amount of turnover among the staff.

Jensen was doing well on the recruiting trail. He was making a strong impression.

I think the point was that Roy believed Jensen probably didn't enjoy that part of the job and not that he was going to be a failure at it.

[ACE]

Jensen was doing well on the recruiting trail. He was making a strong impression.

I think the point was that Roy believed Jensen probably didn't enjoy that part of the job and not that he was going to be a failure at it.

This is what roy said "that is why i think this move is more about possibly a dislike for what i perceived as his biggest shortcoming. recruiting."

I am not saying I agree or disagree with roy. I don't know enough about the situation. But if a coach does not enjoy recruiting, odds are that he will not be successful at it.

[thetorch]

Scott Brooks, one of the hottest young coaches in the NBA started his pro coaching career with the now defunct Stars of the ABA, a league much less established than the D league is today.

Scott Brooks is an NBA veteran. Played PG in the league for 10 years. He was known as a coach on the floor, along with Scott Skiles he was always thought of as a future coach. He played in that ABA league, had to in order for them to let him coach. Brooks is an Nba guy. He's already in the club. Entirely different from Jensen, who is an outsider. Regardless of coaching acumen Jensen has a much harder road than Brooks ever did.

[thetorch]

Roy says Jensen couldn't recruit, but you say he was a good recruiter... wow, who should I believe?

Agree that the timing is less than ideal, but I don't get your suggestion that Majerus runs through assistants. Moser and Jensen were here from the beginning, correct? Moser left to take a head coaching job in his hometown. Good for him. Harriman is entering his 4th season. There is not an unusual amount of turnover among the staff.

Majerus is starting year 5. 4 assistants have left under his watch in under 5 years. The video guy also left to follow Moser. That seems like a lot to me. I'm not saying it is Majerus' fault or anyones, just saying the turnover rate is high. You can't deny that.

[moytoy12]

Is this a chance for SLU to turn a negative into a positive? Are there any decent name former HCs that we could bring in that might have a connection with a player or two?

I lean strongly toward the answer being "no" for two reasons:

1. this is SLU, when do they ever turn a negative into a positive vis-a-vis men's bball

2. unlikely to hire a "name" guy with Whitesell here now.

[Clock_Tower]

Majerus is starting year 5. 4 assistants have left under his watch in under 5 years. The video guy also left to follow Moser. That seems like a lot to me. I'm not saying it is Majerus' fault or anyones, just saying the turnover rate is high. You can't deny that.

Context means everything. In the past, SLU hired no names and/or high school coaches (Lee Winfield). Winfield had no desire to "move up" by going to a better D1 program or to be a D1 head coach. Brad Soderberg was probably the most well known/proven asst. coach we have had and that was a one (1) deal. Had Romar stayed for several more years, no way Brad would have stuck around being content to be an assistant coach at SLU. Randy Bennett may be the most accomplished assistant coach we have ever had but the others like Angres Thorpe and Jay Spoonhour are nothing to write home about.

When you consider that RM has been hiring older, more accomplished former D1 head coaches as his head coaches (Biancardi, Porter and now Whitesell), the fact that they don't stick around for years at SLU (historically a mediocre team now in the A10) is not at all surprising. What is surprising is that they wanted to be an assistant at SLU in the first place. Had Biancardi not had the NCAA cloud over his head, no way he'd be at SLU as he was doing awesome at Wright State and, after another year or two there, he would have had his pick of a number of BCS head coaching spots. Porter not being content as an assistant coach (following his prior head coaching job) and leaving after 4 years to be head coach in his home town should be expected. Now, Whitesell is helping stablize our program while most likely looking out for another head coaching job unless he no longer wants the pressure and simply wants to retire as an assistant coach.

[ACE]

Majerus is starting year 5. 4 assistants have left under his watch in under 5 years. The video guy also left to follow Moser. That seems like a lot to me. I'm not saying it is Majerus' fault or anyones, just saying the turnover rate is high. You can't deny that.

The video guy? Really? Come on... that kid was a native of Chicago so not surprising that he heads to Loyola with Porter. Are you counting Thorpe? Everybody knew that was a one-year deal. Jensen, Moser and now Harriman have all had good runs. We've had plenty of assistants come and go over the years. This turnover rate is not high.

[bonwich]

This is still an only moderately desireable place to work. It's too bad Jensen jumped ship before this highest-potential-in-the-Majerus-era year, but just like getting good games, drawing good crowds, etc. -- we haven't shown anyone anything in the past several years, other than we still generally don't behave like a classic "basketball is important to us" school. He's taking a calculated risk, one that's really hard to blame him for. Actually, I can't blame any individual, although I could probably come up with a list of unrelated individuals who collectively have continued to keep the program at underachiever status.

[slufan13]

I know he has a good career playing in Australia, but it would be cool so see Kevin Lisch become as assistant down the line. Don't know if he'd ever be interested.