Crews

[kappy96]

all the things we are all questioning and seeing on the floor not being done correctly are the strengths that cassity brought to the floor. and after what we saw in the last two games, for you to assume that glaze and manning are capable of filling any part of a credible committee to replace conklin the senior, well that is just a little fairy tale land imo.

the other aspect of not having the equals rise from the ranks and recruits to replace the minutes of conklin and cassity is the level of depth this team will not have as compared to last season. even after mitchell and remeken get back, i believe our conference season rotation will pretty much be mitchell, remeken, loe, evans, ellis, jett and mccall. last season it was the same plus cassity and conklin. huge difference. huge. dividing those minutes amongst 2 less players is going to show against the quality teams that are able to rotate 9 players in and out.

can it be sufficient? most certainly. those 7 when healthy will be a darn good seven (if they get good direction).

we will see how good this team is this next week. 2 decent teams early in the week then siu. we go 3-0 or 2-1 everyone will calm down. we go 0-3 will this board be burning then.

My point was that with KM and CR out, the margin for error and ability to experiment and allow for normal development to indentify the best rotation early in the year is no longer there. With RM at the helm I have no doubt that he would have identified and then coach up an individual or committee to sufficiently replace BC's ppg and minutes come conference time. With Crews I'm not so sure that is the case...jury is still out and the injuries aren't helping

As for replacing Kyle, he averaged less than 8 minutes per game over the final 10 games of the season. That number is less than 3 minutes per game during that stretch against top competition like X (twice), Memphis and Mich St. As someone else pointed out, JJ had already passed Kyle on the depth chart. Between Barnett and Carter we will be able to get equal production and minutes from the 8th man once everyone is healthy.

[billiken_roy]

with conklin and mitchell out there last year, by years end cassity on the floor leadership wasnt as dire. right now this season would be a totally different situation. and when mitchell would come back, cassity could take a seat again.

i hope you are right with barnett and carter. i see a longer project completion date then "when everyone is healthy".

[White Pelican]

Not to mention we are losing our top four Saintsations, ALL to be replaced by male cheerleaders. The Panda halftime show will NOT be returning next season. AND the Arena will no longer have a Hot Roasted Nuts stand beginning February 1, 2013.

Whew, for a second there I thought you were gonna add that Rammer was lured away by the bright lights of Dayton.....whew.....got me shakin'....

[Tony 4 Billikens]

AND the Arena will no longer have a Hot Roasted Nuts stand beginning February 1, 2013.

Everybody except the Billiken players after they play games like they did against Santa Clara. How hot and how roasted and how long they have to stand will be up to the current coach.

[slufan13]

No halftime adjustments and no timeouts called by Crews in the first half to try to curb the momentum. He pretty much did nothing. I am way too depressed to stay up and converse about this game after what I saw tonight. I am going to bed.

Repost

Show some class, lets not jump on Crews.

We were missing a Top 10 NCAA coach, and both of our star players from last yr, outside, KM a great guard and inside Conk a "go to" back to the basket scorer who a lot of posters said was easily replaced. Not so fast.

KM will be back, (though not 100% for several months) but Conk and Majerus will not.

If no one steps us and becomes and inside force, we will be in trouble. That is a key.

And the effect of losing a GREAT coach might be a lot more than some thought. You have to remember, all of these kids came to play for the legend, Rick Majerus. And he is a 24/7 x's and o's nut, insists on 1,000% effort on D, etc. The kids like, respect, but also fear him. No nonsense.

It might be a disappointing year, even a very disappointing year. Too early to panic, but I am worried.

Sh*t.

Repost

www.firejimcrews.com .org .gov .edu .biz .whatever.

Repost

Just in case anyone forgot, we lose KM, CR and CE next year. So far, we have 1 recruit coming in that doesn't seem to replace any of what we are losing. Sigh.

Repost

[majerus mojo]

I fully agree. That may have been the worst coached Billiken team that I can remember. Awful. Just plain awful.

Crews is even more of a stiff on the sidelines than .... well, I could name 20 former Billikens but that would redirect my point. Bad pre-game preparation. No adjustments during the game. Nothing new at halftime. No set plays after a time-out. We could barely inbound the ball all game!! No pressure on them??!! When you are down by 20 to a not so good team at home, and with an experienced team full of guards and quickness, you have to try something different!! Zone. Box and 1 defense. Half Court trap. Full Court press. Double teams. At least do something!!

Instead, the team played uninspired are were a complete reflection of their new head coach. No tough defense. Few turnovers - and when we finally got on, we turned it over ourselves!! What happened to our superior perimeter defense we have seen under RM?

And here's a thought -- When we closed the scoring game to 12 or 14 points with 5 minutes to go and had the ball, we worked the ball around on offense (without much purpose or success) and almost had shot clock violations on two (2) straight occasions!! The only way to get back into such a game is to take risk, shoot threes, shoot quickly and then get back and defense to create turnovers, and if not, then foul them. The clock was our bigger enemy those last 5 minutes and yet Crews stood - confused - on the sideline like a big stiff!!

I have already seen enough of all three (3) Jims. SLU needs to take the following actions:

1. Remove Fr. Biondi as President of the school but allow him to finish the school year. He has become an embarrassment and is now hurting the University.

2. Find a new President who will not only lead the school in general but will also bring cedibility back to the both of my concerns: the Lawschool and the Athletics Department/Men's Basketball. The new guy must be both an academics guy as well as a fundraiser.

3. Phase out our current Law School Dean and allow him to go back to his class action lawsuits in Madison County. We need an academics guy here as well.

4. Chaifetz to proceed to the next phase of the new job search which will be much easier without Fr. Biondi. All current coaches can be strung along to keep them coaching this year but without any real interest in their being our next head coach.

5. Make a head coaching change halfway through the season (if at all possible) or announce the same as soon as possible at the end of the season.

+1

[Clock_Tower]

+1

Again, I never wanted Crews (unlike many on this Board calling for Crews to be fired) in the first place. Instead, I wanted a big splash hiring orchestrated by an interested and involved school President with the deep pockets of our best boosters (Chaifetz/Novelly). Many of you, though, preferred the safe hire of Crews out of fear as what all the outsiders would think. Believe we did the same thing (safe hire) by hiring Brad Soderberg while paying him $325,000 years ago.

Now I realize that Dr. Fred is not going to put on a press conference to say that he is actively meeting with Chaifetz/Novelly about buying out Crews' contract and then landing a name coach but the spotlight is now on Dr. Fred and we will see what he does. I sure hope he is aware of the problem which is our men's basketball program and that he is/will be taking action.

[kmbilliken]

+1

Again, I never wanted Crews (unlike many on this Board calling for Crews to be fired) in the first place. Instead, I wanted a big splash hiring orchestrated by an interested and involved school President with the deep pockets of our best boosters (Chaifetz/Novelly). Many of you, though, preferred the safe hire of Crews out of fear as what all the outsiders would think. Believe we did the same thing (safe hire) by hiring Brad Soderberg while paying him $325,000 years ago.

Now I realize that Dr. Fred is not going to put on a press conference to say that he is actively meeting with Chaifetz/Novelly about buying out Crews' contract and then landing a name coach but the spotlight is now on Dr. Fred and we will see what he does. I sure hope he is aware of the problem which is our men's basketball program and that he is/will be taking action.

He should be aware. He comes to the games.

[DeSmetBilliken]

+1

Again, I never wanted Crews (unlike many on this Board calling for Crews to be fired) in the first place. Instead, I wanted a big splash hiring orchestrated by an interested and involved school President with the deep pockets of our best boosters (Chaifetz/Novelly). Many of you, though, preferred the safe hire of Crews out of fear as what all the outsiders would think. Believe we did the same thing (safe hire) by hiring Brad Soderberg while paying him $325,000 years ago.

This was pretty much where I stood after the 2012-13 season. At the very least, I wanted SLU to take a hard look at what was available in the coaching market. I never got any indication that this was done. I eventually resigned myself to the fact that Crews would be retained, but never was thrilled about it.

Not to say "I told you so", because I wish I had been wrong about this, but I think the term "message board moron" arose out of people claiming to be insiders (maybe some actually were) bashing those of us who were posting that we didn't want Crews as the permanent head coach because we thought the success in Crews' interim coach year was more the result of Majerus. Maybe we weren't morons after all.

[billikenfan05]

The unfortunate reality is that the results of that season basically left the AD's hands tied. They were going to look like idiots to let the National Coach of the year go.

[JettFlight5]

The unfortunate reality is that the results of that season basically left the AD's hands tied. They were going to look like idiots to let the National Coach of the year go.

So the choice became then or now.

Not the best of situations.

[majerus mojo]

The unfortunate reality is that the results of that season basically left the AD's hands tied. They were going to look like idiots to let the National Coach of the year go.

People real hung up on this

[billikenfan05]

So the choice became then or now.

Not the best of situations.

hindsight being 20/20

[DeSmetBilliken]

The unfortunate reality is that the results of that season basically left the AD's hands tied. They were going to look like idiots to let the National Coach of the year go.

I eventually came to that realization. Still didn't like it. Basically had to just hope that Crews could run a program at this level. Evidence so far shows he can't.

[billiken class of 15]

hindsight being 20/20

An article which shows how tight of a situation we were in. http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball-news/4484547-sporting-news-coach-of-the-year-jim-crews-saint-louis-2012-13

[Soderball]

An article which shows how tight of a situation we were in. http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball-news/4484547-sporting-news-coach-of-the-year-jim-crews-saint-louis-2012-13

And where are these national fools now that we have tanked?

I knew this was a sketchy hire from the beginning. We got hammered with the "national coach of the year" bull####

I don't think I could have ever been less happy to have an award given to someone on this program's staff than when that award came our way. A bunch of crummy reporters with more propensity for clickbait than for serious basketball analysis. Jerks.

[Clock_Tower]

An article which shows how tight of a situation we were in. http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball-news/4484547-sporting-news-coach-of-the-year-jim-crews-saint-louis-2012-13

I didn't buy it then and I don't buy it now. A nice PR article in support of Jim Crews.... If SLU and Chris May do not hire JC it would be a real "head scratcher." May will sit down with Jim Crews after the season...

Typical SLU under Fr. Biondi. Let the stories dominate a passive and silent SLU administration. No efforts to get ahead of the stories. No efforts to control the stories or to "get ahead of" the stories. No prior public relations or counter publication relations.

The truth of the matter then and the truth of the matter now is that SLU did have choices. Had SLU announced they were hiring a guy like Greg Marshal (Witchita State) or some other big splash hire, SLU would have been fine. Had SLU tried to hire the next unknown or unproven assistant head coach from a big name program, then yes, it could have been considered a head scratcher. At the time the "hot" or "up and coming can't miss" young head coach became the Florida Gulf Coast head coach who did leave after his NCAA run that year. Instead, SLU had previously interviewed the FL Gulf but did not appear to ready to hire him, then he had his miracle NCAA Tourney run, and SLU was no longer in the running. Instead, SLU appeared not to be in the running for any coach much less a splash hire coach -- typical SLU and Fr. Biondi.

And let me remind everyone about the contract to hire Jim Crews "still sitting on Fr. Biondi's desk." For some reason, SLU let the who process drag out, other programs were announcing the hiring of their new coaches and SLU was still silent: no activity or reports of SLU interviewing other coaches - just silence. In fact, there was a collective sigh of relief that SLU finally did hire Crews - whom some thought might actually be hired away by another program - a a collective sense of relief with the belief that SLU could have possibly done worse than Crews. Questions: why did not SLU have their next coach (not Crews) waiting in the wings before the season ended? why no serious interviews of candidates other than Crews after the season? if Crews really was our man, why not sign and lock him up sooner before he could make demands for more money, longer contract, amount of any buyout?

The circumstances were quite unusual that a 2 or 3 year contract could have been offered and would have been accepted had SLU wanted to go with Crews at the beginning of the year and/or half way thru the year. A 5 year contract with the right to cancel after 2 years or with a nominal buyout after 2 or 3 years could have been accepted and would have been accepted and negated alleged future problems recruiting kids and from competing programs. Instead, Fr. Biondi and SLU sat on their hands.