Drew is Transferring

[JMM28]

Drew committed before Crews was on staff on 8/21/11. Crews wasn't hired until after Jensen left October 11, 2011.

Not that I think that has any bearing on this. I honestly don't care if a guy gets whacked the day before the new calendar year if Coach feels he can bring in a better player. These guys have the option of sticking around SLU free of charge by the way. If they want to play basketball they can leave.

[jbizzle09]

Just so we have our facts straight: The only person that could have possibly been involved in Drew's recruitment out of highschool was Whitesell. If you are going to argue that convincing him to stay at SLU after Majerus took his leave of absence constitutes recruitment then I guess you can hang your hat on that, but it wasn't like he had a lot of options at that point.

This is true, per Drew's own words. From the Indy Star article:

“I definitely come away (from Saint Louis) with mixed feelings,” he said. “I was coming in with coach (Rick) Majerus and then the coaches that recruited me ended up leaving and coach Majerus passed away.”

It would appear that Jensen (Jensen didn't leave until after Drew committed) and/or Harriman were most involved with his recruiting. Doesn't even seem like Whitesell was involved, at least per Drew's words.

[Old guy]

OK people let's take Jim Crews side in this discussion. Again none of us knows what happened here or what had been said before to Drew in terms of improvements, etc... Let's just look at this from the point of view of what does Jim Crews want, or needs, or feels capable of doing with the team he took over officially a few months ago.

From my point of view, which many of you do not agree with of course, Jim Crews has a great opportunity to lead a SLU team as far as is needed to clinch the NCAA basketball championship. He has a good, reliable and experienced crew in hand, and he is being able to sign up very impressive prospects so far. Now, and this is just a matter of perception, he needs to decide what he is going to do next, to play it safe or to go for for broke. If he wants to play safe, he can set a goal of having a team that gets to play in the NCAA tournaments for the next few years. Just playing in the NCAA tournament and getting to some kind of level there, let's say sweet sixteen, is probably enough to satisfy the powers that be at SLU and provide everyone with a nice warm glow of satisfaction. This is the "we are good," type of feeling.

Now let's say he has decided that given the circumstances he is dealing with at this particular time, he feels he has the chance to go for the full NCAA championship, not just getting to the NCAA tournament or to achieving something in the tournament, say sweet sixteen as i said before. If he chooses to go all the way, he needs to do whatever needs to be done to make as sure as he can to have what is needed to get there.

Let's say he has decided to go for the NCAA championship for SLU. This is a wonderful, commendable, and hard to achieve goal. In order to achieve this, he needs to do several things but primarily he needs to get the cast of characters that will get him, us, SLU, the billikens, there. This requires cold analysis of the capabilities of each of the players in the roster. He needs to put compassion at a lower priority level, and performance at a higher one. This is what I think, or hope, he is doing.

I do feel sorry for Jared Drew, but I support Jim Crews efforts to get us there, to the very top.

[Old guy]

The Briggs-Meyer's test cannot be paradoxical.

Anything can be paradoxical NH. When you say one of those "all or none" statements you are pronouncing yourself as judgmental.

[NH]

I am not informed enough nor do I have enough insight into how the NCAA works or what the ethical culpabilities in a situation like this are to tell anyone what SLU should have done. That is a judgement call out of my reach. I am not a college coach nor a college player and regardless of what I read I will never really be immersed in a process like this. As such, I'm not saying Crews, Drew or anyone else did something innately wrong.

That said I feel firmly about two things:

1) I am surprised by the lack of sympathy for an 18 yr-old kid who came to college to play the game he loves and will now have do it at a new school and with only three years to play. Twenty-five percent of Jared Drew's career was just taken from him and that is a tough thing to stomach for anyone.

2) People who ignore the possible negative impact on team morale and recruiting are being naive in my opinion. Hopefully the coaching staff took this into account, but I can guarantee you that Drew's AAU coaches won't be telling players to go to SLU anytime soon and that other college's coaches will be using this against us in the future.

[kappy96]

With this news coming out yesterday I would expect two committments in the coming day(s) from our top targets.

[HusakAttack]

I am not informed enough nor do I have enough insight into how the NCAA works or what the ethical culpabilities in a situation like this are to tell anyone what SLU should have done. That is a judgement call out of my reach. I am not a college coach nor a college player and regardless of what I read I will never really be immersed in a process like this. As such, I'm not saying Crews, Drew or anyone else did something innately wrong.

That said I feel firmly about two things:

1) I am surprised by the lack of sympathy for an 18 yr-old kid who came to college to play the game he loves and will now have do it at a new school and with only three years to play. Twenty-five percent of Jared Drew's career was just taken from him and that is a tough thing to stomach for anyone.

2) People who ignore the possible negative impact on team morale and recruiting are being naive in my opinion. Hopefully the coaching staff took this into account, but I can guarantee you that Drew's AAU coaches won't be telling players to go to SLU anytime soon and that other college's coaches will be using this against us in the future.

I would be really shocked if the coaches do not take into analysis the way a recruit gets along with existing players...i am sure the current players are shocked cause drew seemed to get along with everyone but as long as they get along with the new players then all will be forgotten after a week of practice

[kmbilliken]

Surely the coaches would have thought this through and considered the negative effects this could have on team moral and recruiting. This contradicts all the great publicity received about how this team stuck together through adversity and the coaches concentrated only on the players well being and not recruiting. That gave them a good brand to sell to distinguish SLU from other schools. You don't sell your family atmosphere as a recruiting pitch and then throw one of your family under the bus.

I hope this wasn't done in greed of another open scholarship to fill. If it was, it can wipe out a lot of goodwill created over the last year.

The worst case scenario(and I suspect the most likely) is that the coaching staff knew by the end of last season that Drew wasn't ever going to contribute much here but also knew they very well might be short players if they couldn't line up any decent spring commitments so they decided to keep him around. Now that recruiting has gone better than they imagined they have gotten greedy and want to bring in someone who they think will be a contributor, even if it means pulling the rug from under Drew this late in the year.

I don't have a problem telling a player he is not going to play and needs to consider moving on, but I do have a problem with this scenario and think it could have more negative effects than the coaching staff realizes.

[MB73]

playing with a student athlete's life as crews did was wrong. the kid did nothing wrong beyond apparently not being able to dribble a basketball well. this staff recruited him. if they didnt know his basketball shortcomings that is on the staff. the fact drew was a decent student and a good citizen should have allowed him to fullfill his scholarship until he obtained his degree and it should have been on the staff to improve his basketball skills.

Stop it.

So you are throwing speculation around like this without knowing the facts and blast our coach (here we go, again). You are going by a tweet from a kid who is not entirely pleased.

Those who ever played on an NCAA team know that there are dozens of dynamics in place as it relates to the player and the coaches assessment of the player's future. Attitude, work ethic, athletic IQ, teamwork, etc.. there could have been arguments, philosophical differences, conflicts, temper tantrums, etc... who knows? I am not saying any of this happened... I am saying that YOU do not know. And we will not likely really find out. Who said what, did what, when, going how far back? Maybe the reality is just that the kid is not going to get playing time... and he is putting the whole thing on Crews and SLU... maybe.

YOU sure do not know.

So do not attack our coach until we know more of the facts. It is not always possible to hear "everything" from both sides; privacy issues and ethics restrict our coach and SLU's version significantly. Possibly, probably, nobody really did anything "wrong".

[Taj79]

First of all, kudos for larry72 for throwing me into this and asking where my predicition was. For the record, I never saw this coming and was shocked as hell to read about it this morning. I have nothing to add here. You could all be right on various points, no matter whose side you take.

I will say this ---- much like old guy has a specialty, so do I. Mine involves media analysis and from reading the Indy Star article, I believe Drew is the aggrieved party and Crews and staff are taking the high road because, well, that's what they do. I also believe that the whole story is not all out and never really can be. You could speculate all over the board and what does it matter.

I, like roy, was not keen on Crews back in October but came arouno ver the time of the season. This I do not like but recognize it's a real part of big time athletics. I feel bad for the kid but cannot believe he is a total victim without the total story. It MUST mean two signings are imminent and this whole thing will stink even worse if that is not the case.

Like the weather, stick around long enough and the story will change. For example, the post that identified Jensen and Harriman and Majerus recruited the kid --- huge piece of relevant info not reavled until Page 9, post #176.

Life moves on. Still, hard not to feel bad for the kid. But he apparently wasn't a "Crews kid," he was "a Majerus kid." I believe given this situation as I know it --- that the kid appears to be a somewhat innocent pawn in all this -- he should be immediately eligible no matter where he goes.

[Old guy]

NH, I am not saying anyone did anything wrong either. I am saying that you do not get to the top with good intentions only, you have to build up your team to a level that will get you there.

And yes, feelings get hurt, and people go through hard times. But this, as has been posted before, may not be the worst that may happen to Drew. It may indeed put him in a path where he can come closer to his goals.

Your post is a good example of a feeling / judgmental personality at work.

[billiken class of 15]

I think we all need to wait and see how everything turns out with potential recruits before we go crazy over this (I realize that's asking a lot). Am I disappointed with the way this situation was handled? Absolutely. We all should be. Am I disappointed in the way this turned out? Ask me again in a couple years as the recruits are/arent making an impact.

[kshoe]

Surely the coaches would have thought this through and considered the negative effects this could have on team moral and recruiting. This contradicts all the great publicity received about how this team stuck together through adversity and the coaches concentrated only on the players well being and not recruiting. That gave them a good brand to sell to distinguish SLU from other schools. You don't sell your family atmosphere as a recruiting pitch and then throw one of your family under the bus.

I hope this wasn't done in greed of another open scholarship to fill. If it was, it can wipe out a lot of goodwill created over the last year.

The worst case scenario(and I suspect the most likely) is that the coaching staff knew by the end of last season that Drew wasn't ever going to contribute much here but also knew they very well might be short players if they couldn't line up any decent spring commitments so they decided to keep him around. Now that recruiting has gone better than they imagined they have gotten greedy and want to bring in someone who they think will be a contributor, even if it means pulling the rug from under Drew this late in the year.

I don't have a problem telling a player he is not going to play and needs to consider moving on, but I do have a problem with this scenario and think it could have more negative effects than the coaching staff realizes.

+1

[moytoy12]

I don't have a problem telling a player he is not going to play and needs to consider moving on, but I do have a problem with this scenario and think it could have more negative effects than the coaching staff realizes.

And i believe this is the real dividing line on the issue: tell a kid he doesn't have a future but let the kid make the decision v. telling the kid he ain't gonna play and he's released from his schollie. To me, the other things (e.g. timing) are red herrings.

Based on the things I have read, I don't like how this went down. However, as AlumniFan said, at the end of the day, I believe this is best for Drew. Yes, he was redshirted a year and will lose a year of eligibility. That's a tough pill to swallow. But, if Drew wasn't in Crews' plans, the kid could have basically lost all four years.

The situation is a turd for everyone involved and no amount of lipstick is going to make it anything else.

[SShoe]

1) I am surprised by the lack of sympathy for an 18 yr-old kid who came to college to play the game he loves and will now have do it at a new school and with only three years to play. Twenty-five percent of Jared Drew's career was just taken from him and that is a tough thing to stomach for anyone.

This is what gets me. In order to justify the move, there are people on this board who are already vilifying Drew, including wildly speculating that Drew would tank his classes and screw up the team's APR, was given an option to improve his game over the "offseason" (two months so far, people) and didn't, and/or may have done something recently that caused the staff to push him out.

If you want to see the program go big time and think this is the price that needs to be paid, fine, but let's refrain from raising BS questions about a 19-year old's character. He's the one that got screwed.

[billiken class of 15]

And i believe this is the real dividing line on the issue: tell a kid he doesn't have a future but let the kid make the decision v. telling the kid he ain't gonna play and he's released from his schollie. To me, the other things (e.g. timing) are red herrings.

Based on the things I have read, I don't like how this went down. However, as AlumniFan said, at the end of the day, I believe this is best for Drew. Yes, he was redshirted a year and will lose a year of eligibility. That's a tough pill to swallow. But, if Drew wasn't in Crews' plans, the kid could have basically lost all four years.

The situation is a turd for everyone involved and no amount of lipstick is going to make it anything else.

Exactly. We dont know how this will turn out yet. This looks bad now, without a doubt. But who knows, maybe Drew will go to some smaller school and have a solid career, a career that he wouldnt have been able to have at SLU. Drew could end up realizing that this was a blessing in disguise, becasue it allowed him to get significant playing time and blossom into a great player. It kind of reminds me of when Kwamain had to sit out due to the incident. Arent we all happy that he was on the team this year, as opposed to having graduated in 2012? We just have to wait and see how this situation pans out over the next few years.

[SShoe]

Surely the coaches would have thought this through and considered the negative effects this could have on team moral and recruiting. This contradicts all the great publicity received about how this team stuck together through adversity and the coaches concentrated only on the players well being and not recruiting. That gave them a good brand to sell to distinguish SLU from other schools. You don't sell your family atmosphere as a recruiting pitch and then throw one of your family under the bus.

I hope this wasn't done in greed of another open scholarship to fill. If it was, it can wipe out a lot of goodwill created over the last year.

The worst case scenario(and I suspect the most likely) is that the coaching staff knew by the end of last season that Drew wasn't ever going to contribute much here but also knew they very well might be short players if they couldn't line up any decent spring commitments so they decided to keep him around. Now that recruiting has gone better than they imagined they have gotten greedy and want to bring in someone who they think will be a contributor, even if it means pulling the rug from under Drew this late in the year.

I don't have a problem telling a player he is not going to play and needs to consider moving on, but I do have a problem with this scenario and think it could have more negative effects than the coaching staff realizes.

+2

[cheeseman]

I was surprised at first when I read this about Drew. However, after thinking about it I am OK with it. Drew was recruited by Harriman - Harriman leaves before the kid gets here. RM followed through on giving him the schollie - the red shirt was always a decision that was up to the kid when RM was here. I know JC was technically the interim coach then but he had to follow through on what RM's normal practice was or else the cat would have been out of the bag. Most transfers have not landed anywhere yet and as someone pointed out that it would be after the spring recruiting season ends before the transfers will start falling. This is not terrible timing - I agree it would be best if it happened sooner but maybe Drew was having trouble making up his mind - who knows. I agree this is not at all like the Lancona situation. I just hope he is up to date credit wise and we do not take an APR hit. Who knows, Drew may have waited to announce this until he found a school to take him but has to wait for the announcement. My preference would have been to keep him but sometimes it is best to cut ties early if the player is not going to see playing time. As far as RM's last recruiting class - Carter leaving was the real problem and who knows RM might have kept Drew around so hard to predict how it was going to work out.

[DoctorB]

Boy, is Coach Crews and staff getting the shaft on this thread. The amount of misinformation staggers the imagination. It's truly amazing how much sheer speculation can come from a very one-sided tweet these days. What would you expect a teenager to tweet about all this??

There's more to this story, believe me. Has it ever occurred to anyone that there may be, just perchance, a very obvious reason this waited till finals were complete (yesterday)? Or that there might be other dynamics at play in all this?? Sometimes it seems like people forget these are teenagers trying to go to college, write papers, take exams; students, not just basketball players.

And by the way; regarding the "lost year" via redshirt -- boo hoo hoo! well: but guess what? if JD had not redshirted, where were the minutes? He would have simply languished on the end of the bench; and actually might have still not scored a bucket all year, except maybe in the sense that Sean Duff scored. Big deal; the year was lost for JD either way.

I really think it's too bad that Jim Crews gets thrown under the bus on this one. Really unfair, and the full story is yet to unfold, believe me -- or don't, who cares?? Because it's obvious most everyone has already made up their minds -- how badly Drew got screwed -- really? REALLY??

[JMM28]

Agree 100% DocB. I applaud Jim Crews's efforts to make this team better.

[billikens747]

This is what gets me. In order to justify the move, there are people on this board who are already vilifying Drew, including wildly speculating that Drew would tank his classes and screw up the team's APR, was given an option to improve his game over the "offseason" (two months so far, people) and didn't, and/or may have done something recently that caused the staff to push him out.

If you want to see the program go big time and think this is the price that needs to be paid, fine, but let's refrain from raising BS questions about a 19-year old's character. He's the one that got screwed.

Was just going to post this. Many dont want to speculate on what the coaching did or did not do, but hey let's make assumptions and villianize the kid.

[davidnark]

I hope this wasn't done in greed of another open scholarship to fill. If it was, it can wipe out a lot of goodwill created over the last year.

Every major program formally or informally "grades" their returning roster at the end of each season. Major programs also continually recruit to upgrade their program. The harsh reality is that you don't want to be the player with the lowest "grade" because if the program needs a scholarship for a recruit that will upgrade the program something will have to give. Jared got the raw deal this year, but there will certainly be more who do in years to come -- just like there are at 100 or so other programs. This is one reason there are nearly 500 players on this year's transfer list. Let's not kid ourselves; these basketball programs are big business with millions or even tens of millions of dollars of revenue at stake.

Hopefully, the players are shown respect through the process, and the program does what it can to help them land on their feet. For example, I saw Christian Sal. at the ballgame last night. I am sure he would have preferred a sold, 4-year career at SLU, but he has still managed to play competitive basketball for over 5 years while living for free and getting a free higher education. I am sure Jared Drew will do the same. Most posters on this board would die for that same opportunity.

[drkelsey55]

Something I don't understand. Why is Drew being called a transfer? He no longer has a scholarship to attend SLU. Why wouldn't he be allowed to play right away anywhere he goes? He has used one of his 5 years he should be allowed to play the next four. I understand if a player decides to transfer on his own but he has no choice.

[SShoe]

Boy, is Coach Crews and staff getting the shaft on this thread. The amount of misinformation staggers the imagination. It's truly amazing how much sheer speculation can come from a very one-sided tweet these days. What would you expect a teenager to tweet about all this??

There's more to this story, believe me. Has it ever occurred to anyone that there may be, just perchance, a very obvious reason this waited till finals were complete (yesterday)? Or that there might be other dynamics at play in all this?? Sometimes it seems like people forget these are teenagers trying to go to college, write papers, take exams; students, not just basketball players.

And by the way; regarding the "lost year" via redshirt -- boo hoo hoo! well: but guess what? if JD had not redshirted, where were the minutes? He would have simply languished on the end of the bench; and actually might have still not scored a bucket all year, except maybe in the sense that Sean Duff scored. Big deal; the year was lost for JD either way.

I really think it's too bad that Jim Crews gets thrown under the bus on this one. Really unfair, and the full story is yet to unfold, believe me -- or don't, who cares?? Because it's obvious most everyone has already made up their minds -- how badly Drew got screwed -- really? REALLY??

Well, Doc, this "speculation" is also based on quotes in an article and interviews, but if you have some additional information that you'd like to share, please do. Otherwise, maybe you should be a little more patient with our staggering ignorance.

[someoneelse]

40k a year does.

+ $40,000, or +1