Happy Orlando Stewart Day

[Duff Man]

RIP Kiel Auditorium

[Duff Man]

Matt Norlander continues his Billikens love

I love when users send me videos and links. Here's a good example. First off, it's got Dan Patrick calling a random game between Southern Illinois and Saint Louis at Kiel Auditorium 23 years ago. You obviously don't have to watch the whole thing, but the game's pretty crazy. Just watch the style. It's so different from the hoops of today. If there's one spot you should go to, it's the 34:35 mark. (Also, Saint Louis should bring this court design back.)

(scroll down to Moving Pictures and Music)

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/21555908/wakeup-call-the-case-for-the-worst-team-in-college-hoops-history

full disclosure: I did not send Matt the video but I know who did

[RUBillsFan]

full disclosure: I did not send Matt the video but I know who did

Well, I didn't send it, but it is good to know someone else is out there politicking for SLU stories/videos to get love on the national scene.

[bonwich]

1) We used to get refs like Ed Hightower.

2) Good ol' Melvin "Hands of Stone" Robinson.

3) Good things happen when you contest rebounds on free throws.

4) It's good to know that our homecourt scorer's table mismanagement is actually a tradition.

[West Pine Jim]

Not a very good game for Chris Lowery here. Who knew he would become a head coach ?

[Box and Won]

Why was Footes indefinitely suspended?

[West Pine Jim]

How did Duff make a three-pointer,and then shoot 2 free throws ? Fouled after the shot and then had a 1+1? Seeing this game again was like a trip through the twilight zone.

[SShoe]

I know what I'm watching tonight....

[bonwich]

Why was Footes indefinitely suspended?

Well, first, it should be noted that the SLU coach who went and spied on the game feed at the end was also subsequently suspended:

CINCINNATI - St. Louis University basketball coach Rich Grawer announced before Saturday night's game with Xavier that assistant coach John Mulroy had been suspended for three games.

Grawer said he made the decision after thinking more about ''this SIU incident.'' Mulroy, a part-time assistant coach, became embroiled in a controversy for what Grawer has deemed a ''stupid'' act in the final seconds of the Billikens' 57-56 victory over Southern Illinois University-Carbondale on Jan. 11 at Kiel Auditorium.

After SLU took the lead on Orlando Stewart's basket with two seconds remaining, SIUC called time out.

The game was being televised by ESPN cable. Mulroy came over to the scorer's table and watched the TV monitor for a moment while the cameras showed wSIUC coach Rich Herrin designing his final play.

Grawer said Mulroy didn't see anything and didn't offer anything to him as he aligned his defense.

After watching the tape of the ESPN telecast, Grawer heard the announcers talk about Mulroy looking at the monitor. Grawer then made three telephone calls. He called Herrin and apologized, Mulroy, and SLU athletic director Debbie Yow to explain the situation.

Mulroy was with the team in Cincinnati when Grawer made the decision to suspend him. Mulroy will not be allowed to come to practices or participate in anything involving the team until after the Billikens play Marquette on Jan. 26.

''I told him just to stay away, stay at home and think about it, '' Grawer said.

''I have had to do this now to two people I really care about in the last two weeks, '' Grawer said. ''This was tough, and I know I wavered on both decisions.''

Grawer suspended Kevin Footes, the Billikens' leading scorer, for two games on Jan. 10. Footes is back with the team.

Mulroy, 31, was interim head coach at the University of Detroit in 1987-88 after Don Sicko resigned. He led the Titans to the final of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament with upset victories over the Bills and Evansville. He was not retained after the university hired Ricky Byrdsong.

As for Footes, this was like the third time he got suspended while he was here:

A postscript to the Kevin Footes' situation at St. Louis University:

Coach Rich Grawer grew testy when the media kept asking him about Footes earlier this week. The coach shot off a series of ''no comments'' when questioned about his then-suspended player on a Midwestern Collegiate Conference teleconference call. Grawer said the whole episode was being ''blown out of proportion.''

He may be right. But Grawer is the reason it has been blown out of proportion.

Some background: It's news when a player has as much trouble as Footes has had with Grawer and the Billikens' program. The public begins to wonder what kind of crimes this guy is committing.

Only these: Footes can be a smart-aleck, and he has loafed occasionally in practice. Basically, though, Footes is a good person. He's a sensitive kid. He is not a thug or a slug. His misdemeanors were serious only in the realm of team sports, not in life.

Grawer, who suspended Footes last February for the remainder of the 1989-90 season, began the circus this season at the MCC Media Day in Indianapolis. In his opening remarks, he said, ''I guess the best way to summarize our basketball program is it's Oct. 30, 2:35 p.m., and Kevin Footes is still a member of our basketball team.''

That set the tone, and opened the door for questions about Footes' future with the club.

On Jan. 8, Grawer told reporters about how well Footes had been performing on the court and about how he had matured as a player.

The next night, Footes opened his big mouth and got himself in trouble. He walked off the court after a loss to Butler and proclaimed, ''Outcoached again.'' It seemed reasonable, given what Grawer had just said about Footes, that punishment for that remark would not exceed a benching.

''You have to distinguish between the inciting incident and things that had happened over a long period of time, '' Grawer said.

''In light of what happened last year, we felt that this had been going on for a long period of time - a year and a half. Simply benching him would not have had the impact we needed.''

Then he was suspended the next day, and Grawer's problems with the constant questions about Footes began.

Sorry, coach. But the media didn't suspend your leading scorer for the second time in two seasons and didn't send out conflicting signals. You did.

[Box and Won]

Thanks, Joe.

Mulroy, 31, was interim head coach at the University of Detroit in 1987-88 after Don Sicko resigned.

That is such an awesome name. It's like he's the psychotic patriarch of an Italian crime family.

[bonwich]

Best I can tell, Mulroy went on to coach at Central Michigan before dropping to the high-school-coaching ranks. It also appears he has a kid who plays football for Michigan State and another who played basketball for Detroit Mercy.

[RUBillsFan]

I realize that is was only 23 years ago and not ancient history, but when Bonwich posts things like this I like to imagine him down in the dark and musty basement of the PD building digging through boxes of microfiche and then sifting through it on an old school projector (sort of like you see in scary movies where they do research and find out that the same murders happened exactly the same way 100 years ago).

Thanks Joe.

[thetorch]

I was a kid during this but I sat in on many a practice session during this time and saw more than a few heated exchanges between Grawer and Footes. Grawer's mishandling of Footes and a couple other players on the team really caused his downfall.

The article is spot on. Footes wasn't a criminal, he went to class. He was certainly talented, a lot of it was wasted but he had some good games. After Bonner's class Grawer had just some empty recruiting classes. He repeatedly had to get JUCO guys to supplement people who left the team and then recruit questionable guys at the last minute. Grawer did have some bad guys on the team, and he had some good guys. There was a deep division on those teams. Footes didn't fall into either camp and was probably scrutinized more because of it. The team saw this and responded badly over time. Skinner was another one, not a bad guy but not controllable either by Grawer. Grawer's mishandling of certain player's personalities became his downfall, and made so so players into team cancers.

Grawer thrived with guys in his early days who were just losers off the court and not particularly team players on it. Seemed like after he had some success and near misses to the NCAA tourney he just stopped tolerating the behavior, but had no choice but to continue to recruit these guys and couldn't run them all off the team.

That Mulroy guy, who I don't really remember went from being an interim HC to part time coach at SLU. Those part time guys were impoverished. Working with the team basically unpaid, while having to work sometimes 2 or 3 other jobs to make ends meet. Coaches have come a long way since then, now we've got DOBs who make 6 figures.

[Clock_Tower]

I was a kid during this but I sat in on many a practice session during this time and saw more than a few heated exchanges between Grawer and Footes. Grawer's mishandling of Footes and a couple other players on the team really caused his downfall.

The article is spot on. Footes wasn't a criminal, he went to class. He was certainly talented, a lot of it was wasted but he had some good games. After Bonner's class Grawer had just some empty recruiting classes. He repeatedly had to get JUCO guys to supplement people who left the team and then recruit questionable guys at the last minute. Grawer did have some bad guys on the team, and he had some good guys. There was a deep division on those teams. Footes didn't fall into either camp and was probably scrutinized more because of it. The team saw this and responded badly over time. Skinner was another one, not a bad guy but not controllable either by Grawer. Grawer's mishandling of certain player's personalities became his downfall, and made so so players into team cancers.

Grawer thrived with guys in his early days who were just losers off the court and not particularly team players on it. Seemed like after he had some success and near misses to the NCAA tourney he just stopped tolerating the behavior, but had no choice but to continue to recruit these guys and couldn't run them all off the team.

That Mulroy guy, who I don't really remember went from being an interim HC to part time coach at SLU. Those part time guys were impoverished. Working with the team basically unpaid, while having to work sometimes 2 or 3 other jobs to make ends meet. Coaches have come a long way since then, now we've got DOBs who make 6 figures.

Don't forget Fr. Biondi saying no to Craig Upchurch after he successfully completed summer school. The recruiting classes would not have been so "empty" and Grawer then would not have had to "reach" for talented kids who had more questionable behavior/character issues. Biggest difference between between Grawer and Spoon is that Spoon's kids had better character -- personal qualities, grades, work habits, etc. Grawer took all the locals -- even those with baggage. V-Time would have really loved him.

[MusicCityBilliken]

I love the court we played on back then.

Always liked the Grinchie skinny looking Billiken spinning a basketball.

Should bring it back and naturally add the sponsors Centene and Chaifetz.

[Taj79]

^{To be fair to Grawer, I always thought he was a good guy with great intentions who was finally wiped out and wasted due to the extracurricular stuff of the administartion. Clock shows a good example of that with the great Craig Upchurch fiasco that ended up with us losing a highly regarded recruit to Houston AFTER we got him into summer school. As I recall, wasn't Footes a transfer as well. From SIU-C? Anyway, Grawer was in the process, I believe, of the meltdown as all the elements combined to form his perfect storm moment. This game was from the 90-91 season and the Bills were well above the standard Bills team ... 19-14 overall and 8 and 6 in the MCC. But they were falling from arguably Grawer's peakest team with 27 wins in 88-89, to 21 wins in 89-90, to this. It would all end the next year when he reposted his initial season's record of 5 and 23. In that year, I recall players walking off the court in the middle of games, never to return. Big Chill Robinson either quit or was thrown off the team seven game sinto 91-92. He tried to transfer to Arizona (I think) but don't believe it worked out. Wasted 7-footer. McGlother Irvin is the guy I remember just up and walking off the court during a game ..... I don't remember which one and stats say Irvin played in 17 games that year but it was a home game as I recall. That season saw two six-game losing streaks and we ended the season on an 8-game losing streak. Some great teams in those losses included Montana State, North Carolina A&T, and Northern Iowa (who then was no twho they are now). We even had home-and-homes that year with non-GWM teams SIU-C and Texas Christian!}

^{For you young'uns .. THOSE were the days. Anyone who lived through those dark days (except me, of course, as I don't want pity) deserves your youthful respect just for still being alive and still being Billiken fans. Double points to those who lived through that AND Ron Ekker. Those guys could produce one hell of a chorus of "... nobody knows the trouble I've seen ...."}

[Billikenbooster]

I would stand on line to buy tickets at the Arena (or was it the Checkerdome then?), and strangers would walk up to me and give me tickets, saying, "No one should have to pay to see basketball this bad!"

mhg

[billiken_roy]

kevin footes came via a juco.

[Duff Man]

How did Duff make a three-pointer,and then shoot 2 free throws ? Fouled after the shot and then had a 1+1? Seeing this game again was like a trip through the twilight zone.

Definitely the most obscure/bizarre highlight of this video (

). Duff gets the shot off before Amaya can get there. Amaya catches Duff as he lands. Duff just falls to the floor. Ed Hightower then calls it as a foul on the floor away from the ball (while the ball is still in the air!), and since SLU was in the bonus, Duff lined up for the 1 and 1 (counting the 3pt basket).

"He may reach his average on this time down the floor" -Dan Patrick

The only defense of Hightower I can think of is that this was a makeup call for the ridiculous charge on Dillard (

) that wiped out a basket and potential and 1 opportunity. Still, calling a soft foul on the 3pt shot is enough of a gift...no need for the absurd count the basket + 1 and 1. Sure enough that extra FT was the difference in the game...

[RUBillsFan]

Definitely the most obscure/bizarre highlight of this video (

). Duff gets the shot off before Amaya can get there. Amaya catches Duff as he lands. Duff just falls to the floor. Ed Hightower then calls it as a foul on the floor away from the ball (while the ball is still in the air!), and since SLU was in the bonus, Duff lined up for the 1 and 1 (counting the 3pt basket).

"He may reach his average on this time down the floor" -Dan Patrick

The only defense of Hightower I can think of is that this was a makeup call for the ridiculous charge on Dillard (

) that wiped out a basket and potential and 1 opportunity. Still, calling a soft foul on the 3pt shot is enough of a gift...no need for the absurd count the basket + 1 and 1. Sure enough that extra FT was the difference in the game...

Yeah, big time acting job by Duff on the fall and not one that he should win an Oscar for either. I suppose it was good enough to fool Hightower though. I believe that is the correct call though if Duff was fouled after he had finished the act of shooting. With the assistance of replay, it seems to me that was not the case and Duff was still in the act of shooting when the initial contact was made. However, the late flop by Duff and the fact that Hightower was sort of screened by the defender probably led Hightower to believe that there was more contact after the shot was finished.

By the way, I wholeheartedly endorse having an old-school game like this to break down when we have a week off in between games. If there are any others out there, keep them coming during long layoffs between games and the off-season.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Definitely the most obscure/bizarre highlight of this video (

). Duff gets the shot off before Amaya can get there. Amaya catches Duff as he lands. Duff just falls to the floor. Ed Hightower then calls it as a foul on the floor away from the ball (while the ball is still in the air!), and since SLU was in the bonus, Duff lined up for the 1 and 1 (counting the 3pt basket).

"He may reach his average on this time down the floor" -Dan Patrick

The only defense of Hightower I can think of is that this was a makeup call for the ridiculous charge on Dillard (

) that wiped out a basket and potential and 1 opportunity. Still, calling a soft foul on the 3pt shot is enough of a gift...no need for the absurd count the basket + 1 and 1. Sure enough that extra FT was the difference in the game...

Yeah, big time acting job by Duff on the fall and not one that he should win an Oscar for either. I suppose it was good enough to fool Hightower though. I believe that is the correct call though if Duff was fouled after he had finished the act of shooting. With the assistance of replay, it seems to me that was not the case and Duff was still in the act of shooting when the initial contact was made. However, the late flop by Duff and the fact that Hightower was sort of screened by the defender probably led Hightower to believe that there was more contact after the shot was finished.

By the way, I wholeheartedly endorse having an old-school game like this to break down when we have a week off in between games. If there are any others out there, keep them coming during long layoffs between games and the off-season.

If the foul was "off the ball," that means it didn't involve Duff, and whoever was fouled should have been going to the line for 1+1. If Duff was fouled while shooting, he should just have had one FT to make it a four-point play. I've seen instances when players jockeying for a rebound got fouled while a shot was in the air and got to shoot free throws in addition to counting the basket, but not the shooter. Sometimes it's the team on defense which goes the other way to shoot FTs after a basket goes in.

[RUBillsFan]

If the foul was "off the ball," that means it didn't involve Duff, and whoever was fouled should have been going to the line for 1+1. If Duff was fouled while shooting, he should just have had one FT to make it a four-point play. I've seen instances when players jockeying for a rebound got fouled while a shot was in the air and got to shoot free throws in addition to counting the basket, but not the shooter. Sometimes it's the team on defense which goes the other way to shoot FTs after a basket goes in.

What if Duff had followed his shot and gotten fouled attempting to get a rebound? Seems like once he has finished the act of shooting, fouling him is the same as fouling "off the ball." Again, I don't think that was the case here, but I think that is the way Hightower saw it/called it.

[thetorch]

kevin footes came via a juco.

Todd Starks was the transfer from Carbondale.

Upchurch did play a factor, but he was one guy, and would have been gone the year after Bonner anyway. The whole time we had Bonner, Gray, & Douglass, Grawer just needed 1 more guy and we would have had a tourney team. He kept bringing in jokers like Manuel, Entwhitstle, Wallace, Ivester, Braun, Smith, Tadysak. And thats just 1 recruiting class in the midst of what should have been a break through team. Grawer recruited no all conference type talents who were also character guys after Bonner, until he scored with Claggett, Highmark etc. That's 5 years of nothing. He still had talent but he had to adjust his coaching style to make it cohesive. He was too stubborn and burned out to do so. A good point is his 2nd to last team was still decent, 19 wins. They were just unwatchable, you could tell the team was poorly coached, the guys weren't into the game and it made it seems like it was worse than it actually was.

[brianstl]

I think O is still in jail for a murder that happened a couple of years after this.

[slu72]

I love the court we played on back then.

Always liked the Grinchie skinny looking Billiken spinning a basketball.

Should bring it back and naturally add the sponsors Centene and Chaifetz.

Totally agree. I had that decal on my car back in the day. I think Budweiser gave them out for free back in 70-71. The cocky Billiken spinning the ball was the best rendition of Billy I've ever seen. Would love to see that on center court at the Fetz. Or at least in the corners.