aj_arete Posted May 24, 2004 Author Share Posted May 24, 2004 Timing is everything. It just so happens that we're witnessing a truly special St. Louis class in basketball and Brad will reap the benefits of it. If Brad was hired five years ago, would he have achieved greater success than 51-44? Who knows that answer? I'm just happy to see that Brad appears to be capitalizing on this great local talent and let's hope we're entering a special era for Billiken basketball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheltiedave Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 This thread strangely went from Spoon to Romar, but staying with the detour... Jason Edwin, McClain, Seifort, Hollins, Pulley, Sampson(almost),kept Perry and Jeffers, but shunned by most of the local coaching staffs. Was aboveboard with all his dealings in three years at SLU, and it took a million reasons to hire him away...and his offer from UW was matched. Romar did well here with the hand he was dealt, and had reopened the West Coast pipeline for which HE WAS HIRED TO DO. SLU did not hire him to make it into the Dance using talent from the Midwest, they hired him because of the methods and means he established at UCLA and Pepperdine. He is enormous out west, and he was hired because he recruited and coached two teams into the Dance while operating programs in a manner that SLU desired. He was not asked to curtail his recruiting methods - he was given extra money to do such due to travel expenses TO the west coast. Biondi got to revisit this scenario when he was faced with hiring Brad, or Brian Gregory. Again, there was a great recruiter, or a coach with substantial program building knowledge - and they again went with a program builder in Brad. As it turns out, Pulley and Edwin's academic issues were personal rather than program deficiencies. It really is hard to deal with 19 year olds at times, and we are better off having student atheletes who can make 8 am classes all the time. Spoon had, and always will have, trouble chasing after 16 and 17 year olds, trying to convince them to come to XXX U. He wanted an easier lifestyle, and Las Vegas is where his heart was, not the hardwood at SLU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 That said, I must chime in and side with those who like(d) Lorenzo Romar. While he had unfinished business when he left SLU for his alma mater, I think he did a pretty good job as the Billikens' head coach and would have improved the program had he stayed. I think he is a good strategic coach, and his recruiting would probably prove to be as good as SLU's has ever been once he got a more solid foothold in the St. Louis area and the midwest. Probably the biggest mistake Romar made was bringing in all West Coast assistants. Had he hired someone from the area, he would have been better off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 baker, lee, miles and mckinney were all local names that romar lost out on. however, many of you act as though he never even tried to recruit locally. he pursued all four of the above players very hard and came very close on all four. he also recruited the one kid (name escapes me,) who had a twin brother. they were a package deal though and the twin wasnt nearly as good. valpo agreed to take the brother and romar rightly refused (name one of those "package deals" that has ever worked out for the billikens". so the fact is, romar did indeed strongly recruit the home town kids, he just couldnt pull the trigger. now except for the year that hughes brought his boys with him, i am sure you all can list the many names of local players that spoon successfully recruited? outside of the hughes season, who locally did we get other than troy robertson? wait a minute, troy would be one of those attempted "package deals" that went bad. but that's ok, let's just keep piling on lorenzo and start another thread that immortalizes the real snake oil salesman, the good old "awe shucks" boy. that was the guy who wasnt geniune. not lorenzo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Romar only went after local blue chip players. so ended up missing on very good local players like Phillip Gilbert and didn't recruit Wisconsin, Indiana or Minnesota at all. Poor strategy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 So what...we are supposed to forget the successful recruitment of Larry the Legend arguably the best (even though for only 1 year) player to don a Billikens uni????? No, Spoon was not a great recruiter but I know that he finished 2nd for J. White to Georgetown lest we forget the day the kid had the two hats to choose from. No one is really disputing that recruiting was Spoon's strong suit. No one is disputing that LoRo was a nice man. I'm just ready to close that books on his brief tenure and no, I don't care what happens to the snake oil salesman now that he is at UDub. I'm only concerned what happens to the Billikens and Coach Soderberg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Anybody that refers to Romar as a "snake oil salesman" for his tenure at SLU is either ignorant or a fool or both! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 >Romar only went after local blue chip players. so ended up >missing on very good local players like Phillip Gilbert and >didn't recruit Wisconsin, Indiana or Minnesota at all. Poor >strategy. Spoon completely missed on Kent Williams and Gary Buchanan. But he brought in Larry Simmons from Texas!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Roy, I never said that Romar did not try to recruit local talent just that coming in second really does not count because you can only play with the players you actually get. There is no second roster of this is who I almost got. Davie - are you saying that SLU wanted a recruiting pipeline reopened to the West Coast? When did we ever have one opened to the West Coast? and why would anyone think that was going to be a good strategy. Also, whoever said have you seen Malibu is correct - Pepperdine is an awesome place of beauty. That being said, SLU's campus is no slotch anymore - granted it is not Malibu but it is equal to many in the midwest and east now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 ask kansas if opening a pipeline to california is worthwhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 schasz, i am not trying to get you to endorse lorenzo romar. but my reasoning for his continued defense is that i see as many if not more "flaws" in spoon, who the fan base still seems to want to immortalize. that is simply wrong. again, my suggestion is let's just let the past go and deal with brad soderberg and today's billikens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Kansas was one of the top 10 basketball programs in the country before Roy ever opened up a pipeline to Cali. That's a nice advantage to have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 My beef is more with the $hitstorm of recruiting he left us. With players flunking out completely and not coming or feeling homesick and leaving. Of those who stayed, for every Fish there was a Varner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 still there is no denying that other than new york, probably no other state approaches the volume of quality basketball players as california. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Roy, that is true but all that means is that the competetion is intense. 3 Star is correct - Kansas and SLU are not the same. We are going to have to build our reputation over time and through hard work in getting those recruits that we have a realistic chance at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Grawer-built a nice little team for Spoon. Can't argue with Debbie Yow. She brought in a guy that appealed to the masses in SLU with a record of having taken underachievers to the dance. Spoon fulfills that objective in 94 & 95. Again w/the Legend in '97. Ok, he hates recruiting but hard to argue with 3 NCAA appearances, attendance that was ranked 7th in the country. My most vivid memory of his stint was that I attended the CUSA tourney game against UC in '94, we lost, while walking out I run into a bunch of +50' people all wearing Spoonball shirts. I asked them what year they graduated and none of them were alumni. They were Spoon fans first, SLU second, but the important thing is they travelled all the way from SL to Cinn to cheer the Billikens. Spoon's mistake was not hiring better recruiters. Face it AC's do most of the leg work, the HC is the closer. Although I do think UB is doing a lot of the leg work right now. 'Zo. Got to admit the guy was exciting in the off season. Filled our heads with the likes of Hayes, Sampson, etc. This was his biggest failure. He just had little chance of delivering those kids. Second biggest disappointment was the 2000-01 season. That was an NCAA team. Keep in mind we had two players who made all conference. I still think Mo Jeffers had one of the best all around seasons of any Billiken in our history. His legacy: he left UB with a bag of ...t. That we're only now working our way out of. But to his undying credit, he brought in UB, so for that reason Long Live 'Zo and good luck at WU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 I'm neither but I appreciate your compliments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Broy, I think that is a good idea and in fact endorsed it in my previous post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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