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Sounds like Crews has the job


HenryB

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Haters, who do you have in mind to coach, then? If there are better ones out there, start telling us who they are. Will we be able to get them? Can we pay them enough? How do you know they will be better than Crews?

Just a few names to start with. There could be a coach who does something this March that could be added to the list.

Gregg Marshall, Wichita State

Michael White, Louisiana Tech

Rick Stansbury, former coach at Mississippi State

Dan Monson, Long Beach State

Bryce Drew, Valparaiso

Ben Jacobsen, Northern Iowa

Leon Rice, Boise State

Steve Prohm, Murray State

Also, if we got into the Big East next week, or it was generally common knowledge in college basketball that we would, who knows who else might be interested. This might sound strange, but I don't think it would be terribly unrealistic for a current coach at a BCS conference school who isn't making $2.5 M per year to at least be intrigued by SLU if we got in the Big East.

I don't know if we'd be able to get the above guys. I'd like to think that the job at SLU would be better than any of their current jobs, especially if we got into the Big East. I'm pretty sure that what we were paying Majerus would be a significant increase for every coach on that list, with the exception of Marshall.

How do I know they will be better than Crews? I don't know. I think they could succeed at SLU. Stansbury has coached in the NCAAs 6 times since 2000. Marshall has coached in the NCAAs 8 times since 1998. White took over a team that hasn't been in the NCAAs in 20+ years, and in his second season has them 26-3 (16-0 in conference) and ranked #25 in at least one poll. Monson was Mark Few's predecessor at Gonzaga (coached the Elite 8 team there), an NCAA berth and 4 NIT appearances at Minnesota, and got Long Beach State to the NCAAs last year. Drew has 2 Horizon League regular season titles in 2 seasons coaching at Valpo. Jacobsen has 2 NCAA berths in 6 full seasons at Northern Iowa, and currently has UNI in 3rd behind Creighton and Wichita State in the Valley. Rice was a longtime assistant at Gonzaga, and is fighting for an at-large berth at Boise State this year. Prohm got off to a great first year at Murray State last year, and has another 20 win season this year.

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I get the love for this season's run but if we were talking about replacing Crews with someone with his resume the wailing would be epic. There would be knashing of teeth, rending of garments, and basically all the worst parts of the bible. It'd be Brad Soderburg x 1000.....

Wouldn't this all happen no matter who was coach? Even if Majerus had not passed and stayed as coach? This message board just loves to over react to everything.

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Wouldn't this all happen no matter who was coach? Even if Majerus had not passed and stayed as coach? This message board just loves to over react to everything.

The only people not orgasmic over the hiring of Majerus were the ones who wereupset at dumping Brad really late after a 20 win season. Crews rides into the sunset and our next coach isn't a cheap hire and isn't dirty and pretty much everyone will rally around the flag.........

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It is amazing what all that Kool-Aide does to one's brain. Enjoy the drunken ride of this year as we may not experience this ever again. In the meantime, let me correct major fallacies:

1. Coaching is more than coaching veterans. It is also and more importantly about player development. JJ is a perfect example. When he came to SLU, he was raw, had upside but was a turnover machine. RM was patient, saw the potential in him and coached him into the player that he is now. That is what 3 star players are -- guys with talent but also with flaws. Can Crews develop players? At this level, we don't know but his coaching record does not suggest that he can. I don't know how/if McBroom and Drew are developing. Are they receiving the same level of teaching that JJ, MM and KM received from RM? The roster is crowded so it is unfair to say that Crew is not developing JM and GG. As to KC, he may be a head case but so are most modern day players. Again, his transferring can only be considered a negative for Crews.

2. Chaifetz is a great facility but not really better than anything our competition has. Instead, we FINALLY have caught up with our competition. Our modern on campus facility has finally caused our students to show up and act like other student bodies/student sections but our competition has equally good student support, has equally good/better fan/season ticket support and don't seem to be consider it a a negative by playing off-campus in an NBA facility. Chaifetz is great for us but not a real advantage for us.

3. Where would we be without Dr. C? Not in 1st place this year with our current team -- we would not have hired RM. Finally, Dr. C and Tony Novelly have given us boosters. At the same time, we are finally catching up to our competition -- not exceeding it. Marquette, GTown, St. John, Xavier, Dayton, Creighton and Butler have equal or superior boosters and support. SLU is finally narrowing the gap of its competition but SLU and Fr. Biondi continue to underfund the athletic department. Why so many think that SLU is so flush with money because we have Dr. C is absurd.

4. Where has the notion developed that the new league will somehow recruit itself or make it 1000% easier to recruit? Really? Then why is DePaul's program worse today than it was in Conference USA? In the old Big East, DePaul, Seton Hall, Providence, St. Johns etc all could say "Come to our program b/c you will have a chance to play in the best basketball league with UConn, Louisville, Pitt, W. Va, Marquette and GTown..." but that didn't work out so good them. The new Big East (C 11 plus Butler) will be more like-minded but probably not better basketball. In short, if you don't win games, make the Tourney and have success, recruits won't come. In fact, having to beat better competition day in and day out will probably make it more difficult to recruit.

5. RM, being RM, was able to recruit, develop and coach with the best- if not better than the competition. Last I checked, our competition has young, proven coaches who have already established their system. Ask yourself why a kid would select Jim Crews over Brad Stevens. Do the same with GTown, Marquette, etc. 2013 National coach of the year may be a nice title and honor but SLU needs a real strong coach to continue moving this program forward.

6. Why is the alternative to retaining Jim Crews limited to the hiring of an unknown assistant coach? RM, Romar and Spoon were not unknown "up and coming" assistant coaches. Recruiting coaches should be easier in the new Big East than the A10 and should be more comparable to what we experienced in the Great Midwest/Conference USA.

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It is amazing what all that Kool-Aide does to one's brain. Enjoy the drunken ride of this year as we may not experience this ever again. In the meantime, let me correct major fallacies:

1. Coaching is more than coaching veterans. It is also and more importantly about player development. JJ is a perfect example. When he came to SLU, he was raw, had upside but was a turnover machine. RM was patient, saw the potential in him and coached him into the player that he is now. That is what 3 star players are -- guys with talent but also with flaws. Can Crews develop players? At this level, we don't know but his coaching record does not suggest that he can. I don't know how/if McBroom and Drew are developing. Are they receiving the same level of teaching that JJ, MM and KM received from RM? The roster is crowded so it is unfair to say that Crew is not developing JM and GG. As to KC, he may be a head case but so are most modern day players. Again, his transferring can only be considered a negative for Crews.

2. Chaifetz is a great facility but not really better than anything our competition has. Instead, we FINALLY have caught up with our competition. Our modern on campus facility has finally caused our students to show up and act like other student bodies/student sections but our competition has equally good student support, has equally good/better fan/season ticket support and don't seem to be consider it a a negative by playing off-campus in an NBA facility. Chaifetz is great for us but not a real advantage for us.

3. Where would we be without Dr. C? Not in 1st place this year with our current team -- we would not have hired RM. Finally, Dr. C and Tony Novelly have given us boosters. At the same time, we are finally catching up to our competition -- not exceeding it. Marquette, GTown, St. John, Xavier, Dayton, Creighton and Butler have equal or superior boosters and support. SLU is finally narrowing the gap of its competition but SLU and Fr. Biondi continue to underfund the athletic department. Why so many think that SLU is so flush with money because we have Dr. C is absurd.

4. Where has the notion developed that the new league will somehow recruit itself or make it 1000% easier to recruit? Really? Then why is DePaul's program worse today than it was in Conference USA? In the old Big East, DePaul, Seton Hall, Providence, St. Johns etc all could say "Come to our program b/c you will have a chance to play in the best basketball league with UConn, Louisville, Pitt, W. Va, Marquette and GTown..." but that didn't work out so good them. The new Big East (C 11 plus Butler) will be more like-minded but probably not better basketball. In short, if you don't win games, make the Tourney and have success, recruits won't come. In fact, having to beat better competition day in and day out will probably make it more difficult to recruit.

5. RM, being RM, was able to recruit, develop and coach with the best- if not better than the competition. Last I checked, our competition has young, proven coaches who have already established their system. Ask yourself why a kid would select Jim Crews over Brad Stevens. Do the same with GTown, Marquette, etc. 2013 National coach of the year may be a nice title and honor but SLU needs a real strong coach to continue moving this program forward.

6. Why is the alternative to retaining Jim Crews limited to the hiring of an unknown assistant coach? RM, Romar and Spoon were not unknown "up and coming" assistant coaches. Recruiting coaches should be easier in the new Big East than the A10 and should be more comparable to what we experienced in the Great Midwest/Conference USA.

1. I think he has done a nice job with GG and JB. I was hoping for more from JM, but we all know it takes bigs longer to develop. There isn't much track record here, but it's not all negative.

2. Disagree. Isn't the health and wellness aspect of Chaifetz (rehab, hot tubs, etc.) recognized as a leading facility in the control. Isn't there some under-water rehab whatchamacallit that is one of the few in college bball? I haven't checked out the other top arenas in college bball, but i'd bet we did more than just catch up with the competition.

3. I don't know much about other bball teams' boosters, but I'll assume you're right on this point.

4. take otto porter for a second. If we were in the new big east, i think we would have had a better shot of landing him. not saying we would have, but I think it would've increased our chances. Showcasing your talents against top schools on national tv is a pretty good point to sell.

5. Good point, this is the $1 million dollar question.

6. Agreed. I think some of the guys on desmetbilliken's list would be a good alternative to a young up and comer.

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I'm sorry. I guess I now know why there all those mid-major filling up the brackets and knocking off Duke every other day. Just get a system and recruit players to fit it. Brilliant!

Can Crews recruit the three star recruits needed to fit Rick's system? The jury is still way, way out on that. No one is asking for a scumbag like Calipari. Crews hasn't recruited anyone good or bad in over a decade. I CAN'T BE THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THAT THIS IS ONE HELL OF A GAMBLE! (or a product of the same flawed decision making that led to Brad Sodeburg)

So what availabe coach is not a gamble? You act like there are plenty of sure fire candidates availabe. Who would you recommend that will be a guaranteed success?

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4. Where has the notion developed that the new league will somehow recruit itself or make it 1000% easier to recruit? Really? Then why is DePaul's program worse today than it was in Conference USA? In the old Big East, DePaul, Seton Hall, Providence, St. Johns etc all could say "Come to our program b/c you will have a chance to play in the best basketball league with UConn, Louisville, Pitt, W. Va, Marquette and GTown..." but that didn't work out so good them. The new Big East (C 11 plus Butler) will be more like-minded but probably not better basketball. In short, if you don't win games, make the Tourney and have success, recruits won't come. In fact, having to beat better competition day in and day out will probably make it more difficult to recruit.

I like some of what you say but not this. You use one example, DePaul, to support a position.

The new league has so many advantages over the A-10 for recruits.

It will qualify as a power conference, not a mid major like the A-10. Huge difference. 4* types will finally be able to play under the big time limelight at SLU, beforehand, uh, NO.

And they will be on real national TV (as opposed to clusterschtook A-10 TV mess... SLU games are often not even on Charter), get big TV revenue (helps with charter flights, better overall conditions), play against goddam former National Championship teams like GT and Nova (none in A-10), will not play against nearly as many weak ass teams (like Fordham, RI, GW, St. Bonnie, St. Joe, U Mass, Richmond, Charlotte, LaSalle... yes I know some yrs these teams get hot for awhile but then they fall apart, coach leaves, whatever), play a more reasonable geography in the west with some rivalries to be developed.

Again IF we get into the C7, recruiting will be a LOT easier than before for SLU. No matter who our coach is... and it will help if we finish strong and win a game or three in the NCAA's. Next yr looks good but the graduation losses from this yrs team plus next yrs team leaves us incredibly thin compared to what we are used to with the Majerus era.

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I think Crews is a great coach and from what I've heard an even better person. I don't understand why people think he can't recruit? Who can recruit at Army and Evansville? Not trolling, just asking the question.

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Good objective analysis, Clock. You're right about just being in the new conf will not automatically bring a cluster of 5 stars knocking down the doors of the Fetz to play for SLU. However, it can only help, mostly because of the name teams and the TV contract. Why DePaul, SH, St. J, et al can't compete is a mystery to me. They are all located in basketball rich areas for recruits. My guess is it's got to be the coaches. So, JC's ability to recruit will be a key factor. If the powers that be have questions about his qualifications there, then we should cut ties even if he is coach of the year. Although that would be a PR nightmare and people may think really ill of SLU or that were just plain crazy. I mean just about every bb guru in the country right now is saying remove the tag and give him a contract. The flak will come hot and heavy if we fire him after say he leads us to the A-10 title or a deep run into the tourney.

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I think Crews is a great coach and from what I've heard an even better person. I don't understand why people think he can't recruit? Who can recruit at Army and Evansville? Not trolling, just asking the question.

I don't think anybody is saying Crews can't recruit, just that when it comes to recruiting, he is a relatively unknown commodity. Obviously recruiting to Army and Evansville is no easy task, but that doesn't necessarily mean he can do it at a more attractive school.

Making the wrong decision regarding a coach can set a program like SLU back years (see SIU), so you better be damn certain the guy can get the job done with his own players and his own system.

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success at army, while I will grant Bobby knight success, Coach K did not have overwhelming success there. In fact if we went out and hired someone who had a similar record there I think many would be a little underwhelmed.

Coach K 73–59 record and one NIT berth in five seasons, before leaving to coach at Duke. Knight was 102-50.....

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Just a few names to start with. There could be a coach who does something this March that could be added to the list.

Gregg Marshall, Wichita State

Michael White, Louisiana Tech

Rick Stansbury, former coach at Mississippi State

Dan Monson, Long Beach State

Bryce Drew, Valparaiso

Ben Jacobsen, Northern Iowa

Leon Rice, Boise State

Steve Prohm, Murray State

Does this mean we get Keith Carter back...?

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<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="AlumniFan" data-cid="348851" data-time="1362360834"><p>

<br />

Does this mean we get Keith Carter back...?</p></blockquote>

I wouldn't let crews go for anyone on this list.

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Brian I was thinking that yesterday. If Majerus had taken a leave in late April instead of August, I wonder if Bruce would have been interested. He took the KState job fairly late in the cycle.

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Crews is doing just as well with another coaches' players as Weber is doing at K-State. What indication has Bruce Weber given you that he could recruit any better to SLU than Jim Crews could? He is not a closer, in my opinion, although he is a good game coach.

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Bruce is one of my faves, he is so funny and laid back compared to standard coaching demeanor and these are qualities I hear from JC in what little I've heard him speak. he is disarmingly at ease on Rammer's post game interviews. Love RM almost as much as the rest of bunch here but I'd much rather have the proverbial beer with Crews than the big guy.

Also blaming a coach for a star leaving a program because of a lack of playing time is baseless. In a sense I'm amazed anybody with enough talent to make D1 would be able to sit on the bench more than play.

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4. Where has the notion developed that the new league will somehow recruit itself or make it 1000% easier to recruit? Really? Then why is DePaul's program worse today than it was in Conference USA? In the old Big East, DePaul, Seton Hall, Providence, St. Johns etc all could say "Come to our program b/c you will have a chance to play in the best basketball league with UConn, Louisville, Pitt, W. Va, Marquette and GTown..." but that didn't work out so good them. The new Big East (C 11 plus Butler) will be more like-minded but probably not better basketball. In short, if you don't win games, make the Tourney and have success, recruits won't come. In fact, having to beat better competition day in and day out will probably make it more difficult to recruit.

I like some of what you say but not this. You use one example, DePaul, to support a position.

The new league has so many advantages over the A-10 for recruits.

It will qualify as a power conference, not a mid major like the A-10. Huge difference. 4* types will finally be able to play under the big time limelight at SLU, beforehand, uh, NO.

And they will be on real national TV (as opposed to clusterschtook A-10 TV mess... SLU games are often not even on Charter), get big TV revenue (helps with charter flights, better overall conditions), play against goddam former National Championship teams like GT and Nova (none in A-10), will not play against nearly as many weak ass teams (like Fordham, RI, GW, St. Bonnie, St. Joe, U Mass, Richmond, Charlotte, LaSalle... yes I know some yrs these teams get hot for awhile but then they fall apart, coach leaves, whatever), play a more reasonable geography in the west with some rivalries to be developed.

Again IF we get into the C7, recruiting will be a LOT easier than before for SLU. No matter who our coach is... and it will help if we finish strong and win a game or three in the NCAA's. Next yr looks good but the graduation losses from this yrs team plus next yrs team leaves us incredibly thin compared to what we are used to with the Majerus era.

MB. Wrong again. 4 star recruits go to successful programs with good coaches. They don't go to schools just because they are in good conferences. Facilities and conferences are important and I am sure glad we have Chaifetz and sure hope we get into the new Big East. But once we get in, we then need to make sure we have a coach who is one of the better coaches in that league - not a coach who did a good job with RM's talent, not a coach who is a nice guy...

In short, the new Big East will be a "major" conference but won't be the best/toughest conference in college basketball. Likewise, SLU was in a "major" conference not all that long ago in Great Midwest/Conference USA. Spoon recruited and coached some really good players during his tenure here but even Spoon did not land 4 star recruits. Frankly, Spoon had some rather disappointing recruits and recruiting classes and lost out on a lot of top quality local talent during this tenure. The attraction of playing in major conference here at home in front of family and friends was not enough for Jahidi White, Chris Carrawell, etc. After Spoon, Romar did not land many quality kids -- local and otherwise -- even though we were still in a major conference. We know all the excuses ... Spoon got lazy and disinterested, local AAU politics, lack of institutional support/budgets, Romar was a West coast guy... but the point is obvious: the conference did not sell itself and 4 star recruits did not come. Is it harder to recruit to the A10 than to the old Conf USA? Sure, but RM recruited circles around our better recent coaches: Spoon and Romar. RM out recruited the major conference schools while at Ball State, Utah and here at Saint Louis -- none of which were in major conferences. Even under Spoon's best teams and Romar's surprise NCAA Tourney team, we never had the depth of talent we have had last year and this year.

My point: the right coach is more important than the conference. The trade off to the "recruiting" advantage and the advantages of being in a "major" conference is that it will be harder to win games in that our fellow conference rivals will also have these same advantages. Again, it will come down to the right coach to not only recruit talent but also to develop this talent and then coach this talent in games. Losing games and .500 records will be what SLU is looking at if we don't hire the right coach.

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Bottom line: Does Crews possess the charisma and vision to convince 17 year old kids that his program will maximize their potential?

Getting into the new Big East will make SLU an easier sell, and likely put some recruits in play that wouldn't have even considered us otherwise, but at the end of the day Crews' sales ability is the overriding factor.

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Bottom line: Does Crews possess the charisma and vision to convince 17 year old kids that his program will maximize their potential?

Getting into the new Big East will make SLU an easier sell, and likely put some recruits in play that wouldn't have even considered us otherwise, but at the end of the day Crews' sales ability is the overriding factor.

I agree, but it's not only can he sell, but is he selling to the right kids? I still don't think we're going to battle with UK, KU or Duke for recruits, so how good is he as a talent evaluator who can find the perfect kids to run his system. I think Rickma might have been the all time greatest at this quality. Crews has really been off of the recruiting trail for a long, long time. His years at Army don't count. Would the time off and some soul searching make him a different recruiter? Nobody really knows.

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Crews is doing just as well with another coaches' players as Weber is doing at K-State. What indication has Bruce Weber given you that he could recruit any better to SLU than Jim Crews could? He is not a closer, in my opinion, although he is a good game coach.

The program he built at SIU that and the sweet 16 birth he had. The problem that Bruce had with the Illini was that he forgot to recruit the type of players that made his system successful. He became to worried about landing the big time recruits. He learned his lesson when it comes to that.

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<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="brianstl" data-cid="348881" data-time="1362369712"><p>

The program he built at SIU that and the sweet 16 birth he had. The problem that Bruce had with the Illini was that he forgot to recruit the type of players that made his system successful. He became to worried about landing the big time recruits. He learned his lesson when it comes to that.</p></blockquote>

+1. He gave into the booster pressure that Illinois was supposed to be competing with Duke and Kentucky. Unfortunately for Bruce, he wound up getting the left over head case types like Richmond.

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