Jump to content

Biondi and Crews Announcement


Recommended Posts

Strauss a reporter for the Post has written an piece today indicating that Biondi will be making the announcement today unless of course Biondi has another whim and decides to not do it. Biondi is a man who manages to ****** a PR screw up from the mouth of a celebration. Strauss indicates that apparently Biondi was offering less money to Crews then what Crews wanted and he speculates that some other amenities for the program were also being wrangled over such as number of coaches and other items. Strauss also says that several boosters have now become estranged from the school over this. Biondi simply has to go - he is incapable of running the institution anymore. His need to be the center of all attention is simply not what being president of SLU is about. What a mess he has caused for himself and SLU. How could it be that someone who oversaw the rebirth of the school now finds himself in a position of causing the very demise of the same institution - see the article on the page 2 about how the faculty is even more united against him staying. Biondi has no understanding or interest in ever changing is operating methods. The Board of Trustees can no longer keep their heads in the sand - Biondi has got to be dealt with and the sooner the better. I will continue to be a Billiken Club member but the school has seen the last dollar of other support from me until the Biondi mess is handled.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As most know, the 79 in my handle is my grad year. I have two buddies I travel with, both from the class of 79 and both then from SLUMS class of 83. The one guy is from NYC and because that town has two football teams, two basketball teams, two baseball teams, etc. --- it is ingrained in him to root for the team doing the best at that time and the one that gives him the best chance to win. It's an endearing character flaw.

When discussing the Bills and our history, he has defaulted to this gem ... "The Billikens, they will always break your heart." I'm not going to debate the validity of that statement but it's not the players. It's not the coaches. It's not even the athletic department. It IS Biondi. This fiasco should cement that understanding.

Without the commitment and total, unfettered support from the top, no program has a chance to survive. Fund-raising trip to Asia. Holy Week. Dead brother. Whatever. You don't have one hour to devote to getting this done and off your desk? I call bullshat!

This man is not committed to athletics and never will. As Strauss posed .. if you can't make the simple decisions quickly ...... if everyone else can fire/hire in less time than you can remove a tag ......

He truly is the enemy within.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a shame that the feel good attitude of the last two years suddenly feels like the big blue balloon is deflating because of one man's ego. Hate to say it, but it's still hard to be a Billiken fan.

I fear this isn't helping our image w/ the Beast schools.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, he is here for howver long he wants to be as he hand picked the Board of Trustees who will support him no matter what happens. Maybe the head Jesuit could tell him he needs to retire.

If he pisses off the wrong boosters the trustees can turn on him, too. He might have appointed them, but once they become a trustee they can do what they please. Gratitude only buys you a longer leash.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From Strauss:

Anyone know who he's referring to?

Yeah, it's me. A couple months ago some poor bastard from the business school called asking for donations while providing a quick life story that I unsuccessfully tried to interrupt about seven times. I told him I wouldn't give the school a cent as long as Biondi is still in charge, despite his protests.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll be interested to see how May/Crews handle questions about why it took so long. Surely Biondi will be at the press conference. Will they throw anyone under the bus? Doubt it. What's the alternative though? You can't say you didn't want to rush it. Makes you look like you don't care enough. You can't say other things were a priority. Makes you look really bad. Crews was only at the Final Four for about 3 or 4 days. The rest of the time he's in the area recruiting. He can tell recruits he's the coach, but it's still a disadvantage that it hasn't been announced. Going to be bad publicity either way I think. Right now it's all about the publicity for SLU if we want to get into the Big East. This is a bad start.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll be interested to see how May/Crews handle questions about why it took so long. Surely Biondi will be at the press conference. Will they throw anyone under the bus? Doubt it. What's the alternative though? You can't say you didn't want to rush it. Makes you look like you don't care enough. You can't say other things were a priority. Makes you look really bad. Crews was only at the Final Four for about 3 or 4 days. The rest of the time he's in the area recruiting. He can tell recruits he's the coach, but it's still a disadvantage that it hasn't been announced. Going to be bad publicity either way I think. Right now it's all about the publicity for SLU if we want to get into the Big East. This is a bad start.

Regarding the Big East, they know Biondi is 75 and set to go to pasture soon. Hopefully, Crews will continue our rise in spite of Biondi and we'll get an invite due to out success, natural fit, an tv market.

If the Big East wants us, I sure hope Biondi doesn't drag those talks out like he did here. They'd likely tell him to get bent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the insiders have left the building. It's now just us message board morons. You know though this could be worse, JC could have told Fr. B to kiss off, I'm outta here.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid you're right. And those who are still here and have info aren't sharing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, that's been going on for awhile.

Are these people who are disillusioned with Biondi's leadership, or do they have other reasons for abandoning support of the university?

If we're losing talented faculty AND donors, we've got big problems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is the article. I'm glad to see the media finally putting pressure on SLU/Biondi for this debacle.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/joe-strauss/strauss-is-plodding-slu-finally-set-to-act/article_56846497-daad-5ac9-a6ff-0bcbdd349097.html

This is exactly why some of us early on recognized that this process was dragging on way too long. What could have been a feel good story about Crews that should have wrapped up just a few days after the NCAA Tournament, instead turns into a story like this... all because of Biondi's bullsh!t. Perhaps Biondi was jealous that Crews was getting so much positive press, so he wanted to take him down a notch and show him who is boss. What a jack off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where are our "insiders" telling us how everything is running so smoothly...

Again: I know lots of insiders and not a single one of them really thinks anything is running smoothly at SLU, let alone this PR debacle.

I hope those in other walks of life--and not dealing with SLU realities on a daily basis-- can smell the coffee here and realize why there is so much tension and distrust about leadership at SLU. Based on the very long threads on this topic, it appears some folks are beginning to figure out what's up at SLU, and what's hurting the university. Maybe it's not just a bunch of whiney tenured radicals who took too much acid and listened to too much Hendrix back in the 60s . . . . (not that there's anything wrong with that, as Jerry and George might say).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

could have been a situation where biondi wanted crews to "turn down" the position. thinking that would alleviate the pr disaster of crews not being the next coach after the billikens fine season. "hey we offered him the job and he turned us down."

Biondi needs to attend Dale Carnegie classes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is completely telling (and par for the course) that not a single member of our enormous Board of Trustees has stood up and addressed the coaching situation, or the Law School situation, or the votes of no confidence, or basically any of the string of massive embarrassments that have been happening in the past year. They should, to a person, offer their resignations and have the board be completely reconstituted. And pigs should fly, although maybe the Geico commercial offers us just a glimmer of hope.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Again: I know lots of insiders and not a single one of them really thinks anything is running smoothly at SLU, let alone this PR debacle.

I hope those in other walks of life--and not dealing with SLU realities on a daily basis-- can smell the coffee here and realize why there is so much tension and distrust about leadership at SLU. Based on the very long threads on this topic, it appears some folks are beginning to figure out what's up at SLU, and what's hurting the university. Maybe it's not just a bunch of whiney tenured radicals who took too much acid and listened to too much Hendrix back in the 60s . . . . (not that there's anything wrong with that, as Jerry and George might say).

Jerry Garcia and George Carlin....?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was ok being in the camp of waiting on the announcement until the tournament was over, theorizing better or more publicity would be garnered. Im not ok with:

"One can only surmise issues that posed additional obstacles: better pay for assistants, the hiring of a full-time video coordinator, perhaps adding another recruiter/coach."

Biondi continue to allow his insatiable ego to get in the way of what's best for SLU. Hiring Tom Keefe as the dean of the law school because Biondi wanted to eff the law school faculty, is one of many examples of his poor leadership.

In the meantime the basketball program will not be permitted to reach its potential. Sad but true.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good to see Fr B and our new HC getting off to such a good start, eh? I certainly hope JC is content w/ whatever he got, but more importantly Fr B doesn't pull the rug out from underneath him like he did to RM.

One would hope that one of his Jebbie peers from the Beast would call him and tell him this is not helping SLU's cause.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...