Rick Majerus

[Clock_Tower]

OK. I will be the one to speak up about the 600 lb. gorilla in the room. RM is really doing a great job here at SLU!!

Despite all the flack that RM is too tough on his players, we really haven't had players leave during his tenure at their request. TL was the closest, was not happy with RM but not only finished the year with SLU/RM but then has gone back to school. Congrats TL.

Despite critics who said RM is "out of touch" with the current/modern player, that he is "old school", that he delegates too much, that he himself is not doing the recruiting, RM signs two (2) more solid players on the first day of the signing period.

Despite the loss of his long-time associate head coach (Porter), RM signed GG and ET in the Spring.

Despite the loss of his up-and-coming young assistant (Jensen), RM signs these 2 in the Spring. Our Australian coach, Chris Hariman, whose only addition to SLU was to provide an Aussie pipeline has made real connections from a kid/recruit from Indianapolis?

Despite last year's scandal and horrible season, concerns vented in the public, real tension with Fr. Biondi, not the best conference and being in the last year of his contract, RM has just signed 4 good players (2 in the Spring and now 2 more).

By comparison, Brad S. went the entire Fall without signing players and then threw away scholarships in the Spring to "save face." Romar, I believe, signed only Chris Sloan the one year and only Randy Pulley the next year. Now, RM is presiding over the deepest SLU team in terms of quality and depth, just signs another 2 kids who appear to have real upside for the program and we have so few comments posted.

Season opener is Friday!! What gives?!? Is this proof that most talk/posts are really only negative. Positive news draws only silence??

[brianstl]

Lets make the tournament before we say Rickma is doing a great job here. I believe it will happen, but we should wait for the results before we crown him.

[moytoy12]

Lets make the tournament before we say Rickma is doing a great job here. I believe it will happen, but we should wait for the results before we crown him.

Now if you wanna crown him, then crown his ass.

[SLU_Nick]

I agree with Brian. I have never experienced any Billiken success in fanhood. I am cautiously optimistic and I think I am in the majority.

But everything except for success has been going great. Sounds pretty pathetic when you say it out loud....

[kshoe]

OK. I will be the one to speak up about the 600 lb. gorilla in the room. RM is really doing a great job here at SLU!!

Despite all the flack that RM is too tough on his players, we really haven't had players leave during his tenure at their request. TL was the closest, was not happy with RM but not only finished the year with SLU/RM but then has gone back to school. Congrats TL.

Despite critics who said RM is "out of touch" with the current/modern player, that he is "old school", that he delegates too much, that he himself is not doing the recruiting, RM signs two (2) more solid players on the first day of the signing period.

Despite the loss of his long-time associate head coach (Porter), RM signed GG and ET in the Spring.

Despite the loss of his up-and-coming young assistant (Jensen), RM signs these 2 in the Spring. Our Australian coach, Chris Hariman, whose only addition to SLU was to provide an Aussie pipeline has made real connections from a kid/recruit from Indianapolis?

Despite last year's scandal and horrible season, concerns vented in the public, real tension with Fr. Biondi, not the best conference and being in the last year of his contract, RM has just signed 4 good players (2 in the Spring and now 2 more).

By comparison, Brad S. went the entire Fall without signing players and then threw away scholarships in the Spring to "save face." Romar, I believe, signed only Chris Sloan the one year and only Randy Pulley the next year. Now, RM is presiding over the deepest SLU team in terms of quality and depth, just signs another 2 kids who appear to have real upside for the program and we have so few comments posted.

Season opener is Friday!! What gives?!? Is this proof that most talk/posts are really only negative. Positive news draws only silence??

I'm sure your motive in this post is just to talk about how thrilled you are with the current program and not to piss certain people off and start a fight

[Bobby Metzinger]

Clock,

I agree with you 100% based on previous coaching blunders and I think we have an AD right now in Chris May that would NEVER allow for the Decade of Darkness that the Soderberg hiring brought this University. Doug Woolard is persona non grata in St. Louis for one reason alone - Brad Soderberg. As far as recruiting goes, we are seeing that Majerus is getting it done.

[SShoe]

OK. I will be the one to speak up about the 600 lb. gorilla in the room. RM is really doing a great job here at SLU!!

Despite all the flack that RM is too tough on his players, we really haven't had players leave during his tenure at their request. TL was the closest, was not happy with RM but not only finished the year with SLU/RM but then has gone back to school. Congrats TL.

Despite critics who said RM is "out of touch" with the current/modern player, that he is "old school", that he delegates too much, that he himself is not doing the recruiting, RM signs two (2) more solid players on the first day of the signing period.

Despite the loss of his long-time associate head coach (Porter), RM signed GG and ET in the Spring.

Despite the loss of his up-and-coming young assistant (Jensen), RM signs these 2 in the Spring. Our Australian coach, Chris Hariman, whose only addition to SLU was to provide an Aussie pipeline has made real connections from a kid/recruit from Indianapolis?

Despite last year's scandal and horrible season, concerns vented in the public, real tension with Fr. Biondi, not the best conference and being in the last year of his contract, RM has just signed 4 good players (2 in the Spring and now 2 more).

By comparison, Brad S. went the entire Fall without signing players and then threw away scholarships in the Spring to "save face." Romar, I believe, signed only Chris Sloan the one year and only Randy Pulley the next year. Now, RM is presiding over the deepest SLU team in terms of quality and depth, just signs another 2 kids who appear to have real upside for the program and we have so few comments posted.

Season opener is Friday!! What gives?!? Is this proof that most talk/posts are really only negative. Positive news draws only silence??

Am I wrong, or did I read this thinking you were being somewhat sarcastic?

Personally, I'm with brianstl and Nick. This is the make-or-break year for the Rick Majerus era. All the recruiting he's done means little if it doesn't turn into W's. He's gotten a pass up to this point because there have been circumstances outside of his control, but there are no more excuses this year.

[slufanskip]

Am I wrong, or did I read this thinking you were being somewhat sarcastic?

Personally, I'm with brianstl and Nick. This is the make-or-break year for the Rick Majerus era. All the recruiting he's done means little if it doesn't turn into W's. He's gotten a pass up to this point because there have been circumstances outside of his control, but there are no more excuses this year.

+1

[MB73]

I cannot believe any of you 24/7/365 posters have not mentioned that Sports Illustrated put us # 50, in the big dance. Maybe it is on another thread. That and a dime.

I have been an RM supporter, worth the gamble to go with guy like him, and it has paid off, we are the deepest we have been since I can remember.

But last yr was the year we shoulda-coulda-woulda risen to 25 wins, into the NCAA, even win an NCAA game. Then we get a 4* and or 5* power BIG recruit coming in this yr and we are off to the races, out of the doldrums.

But we are set back again.

We're deep but I just do not see us in the NCAA's. I just see 4th in A-10, about 19-20 wins, tops, going into the A-10 tourney, then win one there, two if we do not get a bye. NIT is the best I would expect.

Perhaps the lads will exceed my expectations. If a few guys like Loe improve dramatically a la Reed from freshman to soph, and Barnett and Ellis hit 3's all over the place, then maybe.

[slufan13]

25-4 regular season. 14-2 A-10. 2nd Place A-10. A-10 Tourney Champs. KM beats out Tu for A-10 POY. CR makes All-Defensive Team. Lose in the Sweet 16 on a terrible call.

[STLfan]

For me this is a make or break year for Majerus. So far despite having a new 80 million dollar on campus facility he really hasn't done any better than Soderberg. I am expecting that to change this year but if we don't make the tournament I will be ready for SLU to move on to a new coach. Between Chafetz Arena and the amount we are paying RM I was expecting more than we have gotten so far.

Majerus so far at SLU is 69-61 (32-32)

Soderberg at SLU was 80-74 (42-38)

[White Pelican]

For me this is a make or break year for Majerus. So far despite having a new 80 million dollar on campus facility he really hasn't done any better than Soderberg. I am expecting that to change this year but if we don't make the tournament I will be ready for SLU to move on to a new coach. Between Chafetz Arena and the amount we are paying RM I was expecting more than we have gotten so far.

Majerus so far at SLU is 69-61 (32-32)

Soderberg at SLU was 80-74 (42-38)

Is that including Rockhurst?

[WVBilliken]

I like RM and he seems to be doing a good job. Yet, we haven't made the NCAA or the NIT for that matter and we have his seniors on the team this year. Recruiting has been okay but until we make the tourney I don't see how we can say it has been any better than that. Yes Mitchell and Reed were great recruits but the jury is out on his other recruits. I have high hopes for McCall, Evans and Jett. Ellis and Loe are yet to pan out. Maybe this will be the year. Let's hope.

Our recruits for the most part are under the radar guys. The two we are signing today may become great players but they are not being highly recruited. So I don't see how we can say we are signing a great class. Hopefully RM sees something others are not in these guys. Right now they seem to be mid-major recruits who we hope will excel.

[Billsrmajic]

I like RM and he seems to be doing a good job. Yet, we haven't made the NCAA or the NIT for that matter and we have his seniors on the team this year. Recruiting has been okay but until we make the tourney I don't see how we can say it has been any better than that. Yes Mitchell and Reed were great recruits but the jury is out on his other recruits. I have high hopes for McCall, Evans and Jett. Ellis and Loe are yet to pan out. Maybe this will be the year. Let's hope.

Our recruits for the most part are under the radar guys. The two we are signing today may become great players but they are not being highly recruited. So I don't see how we can say we are signing a great class. Hopefully RM sees something others are not in these guys. Right now they seem to be mid-major recruits who we hope will excel.

Rick has made a career out of turning "under the radar guys" into oustanding players (Van Horn, Miller, Doleac, Mitchell, Evans, etc.) That`s the only way to win at a mid-major.

[jjray]

I started off down on Rick because he ran off so many players in the early years. He hasn't had any success yet but one has to see the ugrade in talent Rick has brought to the basketball program. This year's team is the most talented group I have seen at SLU in a long time and we have two solid recruits inked for next season. This season is key. We need to go to the NCAA or NIT tourney.

BTW, I didn't realize Drew has a 6'10" wingspan. It's not quite Tayshaun Prince but close. That means he should be better equiped than Evans to give us minutes at 4 when needed. Evans looks more comfortable @ 3 this season.

[NH]

We've gone 69-61 and had 11 players transfer under coach Majerus. Attendance has dropped, we have a worse tv package. We receive little to no more press coverage than when he came and so far he has not surpassed his first recruiting class.

The program has gone through a lot of unexpected ###### in his time here and I think that this season will be a big benchmark for how we judge coach. At this point I think it's too early for us to say he's either done good or bad.

[Tonka]

Yes, but could Soderberg have recruited Matt Dickey?

[jjray]

Yes, but could Soderberg have recruited Matt Dickey?

No, but I liked his chances of landing some kid named Kramer.

[GoBills]

No, but I liked his chances of landing some kid named Kramer.

That would have potentially created a bad situation.

[jbizzle09]

Am I wrong, or did I read this thinking you were being somewhat sarcastic?

Personally, I'm with brianstl and Nick. This is the make-or-break year for the Rick Majerus era. All the recruiting he's done means little if it doesn't turn into W's. He's gotten a pass up to this point because there have been circumstances outside of his control, but there are no more excuses this year.

I wholeheartedly agree with this post.

[BBall Fan]

I have only been a season ticket holder since 2007-08 which was the year before RM took over so I have not seen a lot of Billiken Basketball before RM. I had KU Season Tickets from 2001-06 and will say that Allen Fieldhouse is an incredible place to watch a basketball game. I will also say that Chaifetz is a fabulous place to watch a basketball Game.One of the reasons we have kept our season tickets is because I think RM is building something special that can last the test of time. KU has a tradition and is able to recruit on name only. It was incredible to see the players come thru there year after year. a good number of those kids weren't necessarily coming there to play for Roy Williams or Bill Self, but to play for Kansas. RM will not be here very much longer but I think he is trying to build a program that will remain over time with less emphasis on the coach and more on SLU Basketball.

Lightning in a bottle comes every so often for the James Madisons of the world but RM has not gone after that approach. He has recruited 4 year players that he feels he can mold into the type of player for the team he is attempting to put on the floor. We need to think Gonzaga, Butler, and X which have programs now and not just a good year every four or five.

It is no secret that I am an RM fan. I think criticism is warranted in some areas of RM's performance, but I sure think that the manner he has approached the job at SLU has been admirable. It would have been very easy for him to come here and try and win at all costs and leave SLU in a perilous position upon his exit. IMO he has a tremendous group of players and signed 2 more that give SLU the best chance to compete for the forseeable future. If he would leave tomorrow, the next coach would have a roster to compete for 3 to 4 years in the future. Consider what BS left when he was let go. RM may not be the most outgoing guy and one of my criticisms is his lack of media interaction but IMO he is building a solid blueprint for the program to evolve the right way and keep a solid pipeline for future coaches to tap into. Building a solid program that eventually makes the tournament on a regular basis is much harder than getting lucky and catching that lightning once every 5 to 10 years.

Just my humble opinion

[Clock_Tower]

Shoes. Why the negativity?

RM has now put together yet another solid recruiting class and the Board reaction appears to be: ho hum. We'll see... Frankly, this is surprising to me. As good as Grawer and Spoon were, they were not able to land good classes in a row. Other than Grawer landing Bonner the year after Gray and Douglas, there have really not been many examples. Same with Spoon. We had the Highmark, Claggett, etc. class but then not much after. Same with Hughes, Baniak, Tatum and Heinrich. In contrast, RM has now put together 5 good classes.

Does RM have to win and get us to the NCAA Tourney before we crown him? Sure. But is there not middle ground between crowning RM and silence. Are positive comments about the coach not permitted until after we make the Tourney? Conventional wisdom had us not getting quality recruits this Spring or this Fall. RM has proved this wrong.

RM really is building a solid program with 4 year players. RM certainly cleaned house and helped create "the youngest team" in college ball but he has also received two tough set backs: the NCAA not clearing CE for the start of the season and then The Incident. Two years ago, CE inspired play in January and a string of wins had this program trending the right direction. 23 wins and post season success - though not the NCAA or even NIT - with a team of Sophs and Frosh caused excitement and the long-awaited buzz.

But for The Incident, we would have been in the Tournament last year and talk about RM would have been focused on "Can we keep him or resign him" and not "Is he better than Brad?" The Incident alone would have set many coaches and programs back by years. Grawer never recovered from the loss of Craig Upchurch. Spoon gave up and quit after Larry left. Brad could not recover from the loss of Frericks and that miserable season and couldn't find a power forward to play with TL and KL.

I believe our Bills will make the Tourney this year. But if they don't, then sorry, but being a quality bubble team, having 25 or so wins including some quality wins, playing post-season ball (even if no NCAA) is still a success. Marked improvement with additional recruiting success has our program going in the right direction. I am just glad our last 4 recruits can see the good in RM w/o waiting for any coronation triggered by Tourney success

[Taj79]

I always get this feeling that we (and me included) are always waiting for the next bad shoe (no pun intended) to fall. How many times do we hear how tough it is to be a Billiken fan? Lots. In the long run, I think Majerus has been good for a program that was nothing more than lumped, brain-dead flesh on the slab of the college basketball scene. We needed our own version of Frankenstein to infuse life into this lifeless body. And it has not happened yet so while props go to the big guy, the mission is not finished and is not even above water in my book. We've done nothing to shed the shackles of mediocrity. We do stand on the brink of a season that appears full of hope and promise --- just as we were about this time last year. And how did that play out?

I'm not saying this year will repeat last year, heaven forbid, but as far as trending is concerned, our history says we are more apt to go south than north. I prefer to wait and see. Call it my new self. I do approach the year quite optimistic and am expecting great things -- ending in some sort of bid to the Big Dance. Not the NIT. Not the CBA. Not the NBDL or any other form of acronym-infested second place tournament. THE BIG DANCE. Take no prisoners.

I hesitate to endorse the "RM is building a solid program" statement because I haven't seen that just yet in the results department. I do agree that he seems to have and is able to import enough pieces to fill his idea of what a program is supposed to be. I stop short of swallowing the "solid recruiting class(es)" pill because, again the results are not so solid in terms of record and results. I believe we will get there. It seems to be a "teach a man to fish" philosophy rather than the "get lucky once in a blue moon" moments that Clock so aptly pointed out in the Grawer/Spoon recruiting eras.

Call me jaded. I've drank the kool-aid before ---- the Manuel/Ivester/Tadysak saviors in the Grawer era. Donnie Adkins, Ricky Cranford and Dwayne Caswell in the Spoon era. The big promises of the LoRo regime. And the hope and prayers that Brad would profit from being Kramer's dad and reel in all the St. Louis talent that was Suggs, Griffey, and the rest of the Eagles in that time. I am content to live in the moment and see what plays out; I can't control the outcomes of the games, the future of the Big Rick, or other things so I won't worry about that. Carpe diem.

Right now, while I will say the performances of McCall, Evans and Jett surprised me last year, I want to hold judgment unti year Two is done. I have no idea if the Glaze/Manning/Barnett/Greek lineup is anything more than unproven and a work in progress. Same too with Drew and Carter in 2012.

[slu72]

There is absolutely no comparison to Brad and RM. From either a recruiting or x's and o's viewpoint, Brad can't carry RM's jock. Granted we're not landing the quality of players that Butler, X, and Zaga are getting. But that's because of their resumes. You win, you land better players who want to play for winners. Even though we're all expecting great things this year, there is still an underlying fear held by many of us that this team still does not possess the athleticism required to play at a high level. No doubt we've got more and better athletes than we've seen since the 2000 team, but still it falls short of what X, Temple, and others in the A-10 have on their rosters. This shortfall is most notable with our inside guys; RL, BC, CE, GG, and JM. Admit it, when WR decided to exit SLU, or vice versa, a lot of air leaked out of the Billikens' balloon. But these are the guys we have and now it's up to them to make up for their lack of athleticism with smarts and toughness. BC does this game in and game out. CE and RL not so much. JM and GG are question marks at this point and one that won't be answered any time soon. I left out CR because he is our most athletic big, but so far has demonstrated little aptitude for getting what it takes to play at a high level. So, can RM develop CE and RL into the types of bigs he had at Utah becomes the issue. And it's the key to our winning and making either the NCAA or the NIT. Realistically, I don't see us making the dance unless we pull a rabbit out of the hat in Atlantic City. Why? I think we're going to experience some bumps in the road in our non con schedule. Bumps that will hurt our resume. I think we're going to see this team develop like our 09-10 team. We'll have a decent A-10 season, but still not enough to garner a dance invite. I'm hoping for an NIT bid and then see this team make a nice run to Madison Square Garden. If that happens, it would be a successful season in my opinion, and a springboard for a very successful 12-13 season. Don't take this as a negative post, just an opinion of long time suffering Bills fan who's hoping to be proved dead wrong. Go Bills.

[cheeseman]

While the records have been similar for both RM and BS - BS coached one year longer so lets see what RM's record is at the end of this year. BS did not ever have his two best players - all conf. types - suspended from school like RM had to endure last year and even then his record was better then BS's worst year. Had BS lost TL and KL for a year his 9 win season would have looked good compared to what it would have been under those circumstances. Clearly recruiting has been more consistent under RM than BS that is why we could still end up with 12 wins after losing KM and WR last year. Press coverage is a result of winning and we got more coverage after our run in the CBA and about the upcoming year afterwards until it all fell apart with the suspensions. Things will get better if we win. I do agree that much improvement must happen this year in that area. As far as saying that now RM has his senior class so now it is all on him - well there is only 2 players. Of that class besides KC and BC, FJ ended his career due to injuries - not RM's fault - BT and the other one from the East Side - were just not dedicated to improving/studying. KM is still there as a junior and WR - well school apparently was just not for him - he tried and RM tried with him but if you can not handle the studies you can not handle the studies. His first recruiting class not his fault since he was hired after the signing period - he had what he had that first year. I agree we have to wait for it to all play out this year.