Keep the Faith

[Bay Area Billiken]

Outside enemy combatants such as those at wannabe Dayton and elsewhere, claim that SLU is enjoying the final fruits of the labor of the Late, Great Coach Rick Majerus (the Maestro). Accordingly to these alleged experts, SLU will decline immediately after the eligibility of this year's Senior class leaves. Even some of our own Loyalists at Billikens.com fear this fate. Before the below study, I had similar fears. But lo and behold, look what the below study shows. It shows that Coach Crews' recruits are rated on par with Coach Majerus' recruits.

Coach them up. SLU will probably have growing pains next year. After all, SLU is not Duke (although SLU is ranked only 1 spot behind Duke in this week's AP Rankings). But Yacoubou, the Villanova transfer sitting out this year, was a big star coming out of Long Island Lutheran, a 3.3 star recruit. Grandy Glaze, a 3 star, was actually the highest star Majerus recruit on the current roster.

What SLU will really lack is the replacement for Dwayne Evans at the 3. SLU has lacked the 6'6"-6'7" smooth small forward seemingly forever. The last really good ones were Ricky Frazier for one year in '77-'78 and Roland Gray. Anthony Bonner was more of a Power Forward.

Dwayne Evans is really more of an undersized 4. But he is a star in the A10, no question. His outside shooting has improved this year.

http://verbalcommits.com/schools/saint-louis

The numbers after each player indicate the number of stars for the player/recruit.

Majerus Recruits

Evans- Senior 2.5
Loe- Senior 2.5
McCall- Senior 2.3
Jett- Senior 2.5

Barnett- Senior Transfer (Toledo) 2

Glaze- Junior 3
Manning- Junior 2.3

McBroom- Sophomore Transfer (Central Michigan) 2.5

Crews Recruits

Yacoubou- Redshirt Junior Transfer (Villanova) 6'4" 210 3.3

Crawford- Freshman 2
Lancona- Freshman 2.7
Agbeko- Freshman 2.5

Incoming:

High School Class of 2014 (all LOI)

Davell Roby 6'4" 200 PG Memphis, TN White Station 3
Miles Reynolds 6'2" 170 SG Chicago, IL Whitney Young 2.7
Brett Jolly 6'10" 220 C Southlake, TX, Blair Academy, Blairstown, NJ 2.3
Marcus Bartley 6'4" 175 PG Decatur, IL MacArthur 2.7
Austin Gillman 6'11" 200 C Oakville, MO Oakville 2.5

High School Class of 2015 (Committed)
Elliott Welmer 6'8" 195 PF Columbus, IN Columbus North 2 (or 2.3)

High School Class of 2016 (Hope)
Jayson Tatum 6'7" 190 SF (PG) Chaminade 5 Star- Medium (Interest), Son of former Billiken C Justin Tatum (current Coach at St. Louis CBC), Godson of former Billiken and NBA player #20 Larry Hughes.
Let us recruit, pray and dream of what could be.

In the words of a former Alameda County Superior Court Judge: "Everything is under control."

In the words of Ms. Blue on the old Jack Carney Show on KMOX Radio: "All is well."

Bring on the Bonnies!

Let's Go Bills!

[JohnnyJumpUp]

I agree, we should be ok, we may miss some leadership, but someone will step in and embrace the role. Only disagree with pray, recruit, and hope for Tatum, because that would be a complete waste of time, there is a ZERO PERCENT chance he comes to SLU.

[brianstl]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu3VTngm1F0

[Old guy]

Oh, I think Crews is very very good as a coach and as a recruiter. I also think we are going to suffer a hit in our standings next year with the departure of so many Seniors, but we may not if the Freshman class turns out to be as good as I think they are.

[NH]

Oh, I think Crews is very very good as a coach and as a recruiter. I also think we are going to suffer a hit in our standings next year with the departure of so many Seniors, but we may not if the Freshman class turns out to be as good as I think they are.

It's a little early to call Crews "very very good ... as a recruiter."

[JohnnyJumpUp]

Is it just me or does that video get everyone else fully aroused too?

[slu72]

The key to next year is how much experience this year's Frosh get and how they develop. We'll return AM! JM, and GG for vets. Ash will have to shake off some rust, but that shouldn't take long. We have 1 open scholie, and I'm hoping to land a 3 JUCO. Don't know of anyone, but hope that's what they're shooting for. Can't make any judgements on the FR, but would think Jolly Mon will have to back up JM. Would expect AM, AA, MC, GG, and JM as starters. Then RA, TL, and Jolly Mon. Which means one or two of those FR guards is going to get some serious minutes right from the get go unless we get a JUCO PG. I'd prefer a JUCO 3, w/ MC being a backup to Ash and the 3. Still, AM can't play 40 mpg, so a FR PG will be needed.

[moytoy12]

I don't want to think about next year. There's gonna be a big drop off. I do like the look of where we'll be in 2 years, but next year is going to have some tough spots.

Then again, we'll have the A-10 player of the year on our roster and he'll only be a sophomore.

[kshoe]

The simple truth is that if you go through SLU's history you'll find a whole lot of recruiting classes with players between 2 and 3 stars. Some of those players turn out to be as good as Evans, Jett, Loe, McCall, etc. and many more end up being flops or just role players. This current senior class has FAR exceeded their star rankings and past performance of similarly ranked SLU recruits.

A fair amount of the attribution for them exceeding reasonable expectations is that Majerus had a track record of finding hidden gems. Plus, we may have just gotten lucky. The million dollar question is whether Crews has the same ability to find under-valued talents and quite frankly we are going to need to get lucky again.

Even if this class does end up being as good as we all hope, I continue to remember that our existing seniors (i.e the most successful class in SLU history) went 12-19 as freshmen. Next year is going to be a struggle...

[FromDaEastSide]

Hopefully, we can find a graduating senior from a program with a 5th year of eligibilty that is looking for a theolgy master's program.

[bauman]

The key to next year is how much experience this year's Frosh get and how they develop. We'll return AM! JM, and GG for vets. Ash will have to shake off some rust, but that shouldn't take long. We have 1 open scholie, and I'm hoping to land a 3 JUCO. Don't know of anyone, but hope that's what they're shooting for. Can't make any judgements on the FR, but would think Jolly Mon will have to back up JM. Would expect AM, AA, MC, GG, and JM as starters. Then RA, TL, and Jolly Mon. Which means one or two of those FR guards is going to get some serious minutes right from the get go unless we get a JUCO PG. I'd prefer a JUCO 3, w/ MC being a backup to Ash and the 3. Still, AM can't play 40 mpg, so a FR PG will be needed.

Do you mean AY instead of AA?

I don't see GG & JM both starting on the frontline-you need one of your 4/5s to be able to score or at least be a threat to score. I know JC loves seniors but I could see TL and RA both starting on the frontline next year, possibly at the 3 and 4 slots with JM at the 5. Any shots by GG that are not from within 2 ft need to be eliminated from our FGAs. He should do three things-run the floor, rebound and set picks, that's it, that's the complete list-that's all I want to see from him. Judging from JC's reaction whenever GG takes a shot longer than 2 ft, he agrees with me. Now if I could just get the NABC's COY (an honor I agree with) to see that JB is just a consistency challenged sniper who should be dividing minutes with MC, then I would be one happy fan,

[Taj79]

You have to factor in Majerus as a teacher. I don't know that Crews is at that level. You have to factor in Majerus' system. I don't know if Crews has such a system. You have to factor in Majerus' belief in team defense and the whole team buying into it. I don't know if Crews is of the same ilk (altho I believe he is). Then factor out Majerus' players. Crews rode the coattails of Evans, Mitchell, and Ellis last year and he has Evans, Jett, McCall and Loe this year. THAT is senior leadership in a system that no one left really knows. The Crews report card starts next year.

Prior to last year, Crews' last year in the NCAAs was with Evansivlle in 1998-99. I still don't know why one goes from the Missouri Valley to a job with Army at West Point in the Patriot League but he did. Where he was fired. I hear guys like Dakich talk about how much of a good guy he is and how mature he's become. I, for one, am counting on that.

But numbers and ranking systems don't win games. Players win games. Do we have players? We have McBroom. The train is still waiting at the station for Manning and Glaze to come full around (we can hope). Yacoubou will be rusty. The freshmen are unknown. Th eincoming freshmen are incoming. I'd be disappointed, still, with a record under .500.

[brianstl]

The simple truth is that if you go through SLU's history you'll find a whole lot of recruiting classes with players between 2 and 3 stars. Some of those players turn out to be as good as Evans, Jett, Loe, McCall, etc. and many more end up being flops or just role players. This current senior class has FAR exceeded their star rankings and past performance of similarly ranked SLU recruits.

A fair amount of the attribution for them exceeding reasonable expectations is that Majerus had a track record of finding hidden gems. Plus, we may have just gotten lucky. The million dollar question is whether Crews has the same ability to find under-valued talents and quite frankly we are going to need to get lucky again.

Even if this class does end up being as good as we all hope, I continue to remember that our existing seniors (i.e the most successful class in SLU history) went 12-19 as freshmen. Next year is going to be a struggle...

That 12-19 team didn't have a backcourt of upperclassmen like Ash and McBroom.

We will take a step back next year, but it shouldn't be close to the 12-19 season. We shouldn't finish below .500.

[Old guy]

Whatever happens the only certain thing is that we will be there to witness it, whatever it is that happens.

[slufan13]

I think next year's team will be okay. I'd hope for 20 wins. Might be a weird senior night though. I know I've never heard John Manning talk.

[Bizziken]

That 12-19 team didn't have a backcourt of upperclassmen like Ash and McBroom.

We will take a step back next year, but it shouldn't be close to the 12-19 season. We shouldn't finish below .500.

Agreed...we will have 2 seniors, 2 juniors, and 3 sophomores in the rotation, something we didn't have in 2010-11. My goal for next season is 20 wins, 8-8 in Conference, and an NIT bid. I will be 'p!ss my pants' ecstatic if we can accomplish that...

[Bay Area Billiken]

Coach Crews is 43-9 as SLU Head Coach. I think he knows what he is doing. He has done an excellent job at SLU. I don't think his West Point days should be held against him.

The 12-19 season when the current SLU Seniors were Freshmen is attributable to one thing only- the SLU Situation. Absent that, SLU is an NCAA Tournament team that season, would have 3 straight NCAA Tournament appearances and going for a 4th this season (instead of 2 straight and going for a 3rd), and quite frankly could very well have been a member of the Big East right now.

[WestCoastBilliken]

Agreed...we will have 2 seniors, 2 juniors, and 3 sophomores in the rotation, something we didn't have in 2010-11. My goal for next season is 20 wins, 8-8 in Conference, and an NIT bid. I will be 'p!ss my pants' ecstatic if we can accomplish that...

HAH, 20 wins 8-8 conference record = BOARD MELTDOWN and calling for Crews' head next year. You watch, this board is one of the most emotional boards I know of heh

[hsmith19]

What strikes me as funny about this line of reasoning is that bringing Crews to SLU is a huge part of Majerus' legacy. He's his handpicked successor. It's a little inconsistent to on one hand paint Majerus as this genius who singlehandedly saved the program and then on the other hand act like Crews is this incompetent pretender who's going to let it all go to waste when Majerus' recruits are gone.

Also, apropos of nothing, people talk a lot about how Manning and Glaze will be the last players Majerus coached at SLU, but McBroom was also a Majerus recruit even though he never actually got to play for him.

[NextYearBill]

I think next year's team will be okay. I'd hope for 20 wins. Might be a weird senior night though. I know I've never heard John Manning talk.

weeeeeird

[kshoe]

What strikes me as funny about this line of reasoning is that bringing Crews to SLU is a huge part of Majerus' legacy. He's his handpicked successor. It's a little inconsistent to on one hand paint Majerus as this genius who singlehandedly saved the program and then on the other hand act like Crews is this incompetent pretender who's going to let it all go to waste when Majerus' recruits are gone.

Also, apropos of nothing, people talk a lot about how Manning and Glaze will be the last players Majerus coached at SLU, but McBroom was also a Majerus recruit even though he never actually got to play for him.

Can you point to the post that suggested anything of the sort?

Edit: Oops. I just read Taj's post. Now I see where your post came from.

[brianstl]

Coach Crews is 43-9 as SLU Head Coach. I think he knows what he is doing. He has done an excellent job at SLU. I don't think his West Point days should be held against him.

The 12-19 season when the current SLU Seniors were Freshmen is attributable to one thing only- the SLU Situation. Absent that, SLU is an NCAA Tournament team that season, would have 3 straight NCAA Tournament appearances and going for a 4th this season (instead of 2 straight and going for a 3rd), and quite frankly could very well have been a member of the Big East right now.

Dakick's comments the other day have me wondering if Crews thought the Indiana job was his when Knight retired. Would explain why he stayed at Evansville so long and why he ended up at Army after it all fell apart for Knight at IU.

[hsmith19]

Can you point to the post that suggested anything of the sort?

Umm...the very first post in this thread was addressing exactly the sentiments I'm talking about. And it's not just Dayton fans. If anything, local basketball fans who don't really follow SLU (Mizzou fans or otherwise) seem to be worse about this than fans of rival A-10 teams.

[kshoe]

That 12-19 team didn't have a backcourt of upperclassmen like Ash and McBroom.

We will take a step back next year, but it shouldn't be close to the 12-19 season. We shouldn't finish below .500.

I agree that we won't be 12-19 next year (and note that I never said we would) but I do think a couple games over .500 is about right. If things break right we'll get to 20 wins.

That's a pretty big drop from this year's team which should win 28 or 29 games when all is said and done.

[bonwich]

Aww, why not?