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Revisiting a Majerus Prediction


Wang Chung

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In March of 2012, Rick Majerus made the following prediction about the Billikens:

"We'll be a Top 10 team in about three years," he said. "I did it at Ball State, did it at Utah, and we're going to do it here."

http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2012/03/canzano_rick_majeras_saw_somet.html

Obviously there have been some huge changes since this prediction, but the way we've been playing makes me think this could be a reality.

Regardless, I think Rick would be proud of this team.

Thoughts?

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Rick would be very proud of this team. He has left his mark at Saint Louis University. Rick put us on the map and started the process of building a sustainable, top tier program at SLU. He deserves all of the credit in the world.

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Rick would be very proud of this team. He has left his mark at Saint Louis University. Rick put us on the map and started the process of building a sustainable, top tier program at SLU. He deserves all of the credit in the world.

If Majerus was here maybe we would have cracked the top 10 with more pre-season notoriety and potentially squeezing out a win in one of our two losses. Let's face it, we drew more eyes from around the country with Majerus as our coach.

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Obviously there is no way to measure this as Rick is no longer here. However, I think the oh-fense would run more efficiently with Rick. Just look at kenpom.com offense efficiency since Rick left. It is easy to see the oh-fense has been less efficient. Crews has done an unbelievable job but I am worried what will happen when the players Rick had a large influence on leave the program.

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Obviously there is no way to measure this as Rick is no longer here. However, I think the oh-fense would run more efficiently with Rick. Just look at kenpom.com offense efficiency since Rick left. It is easy to see the oh-fense has been less efficient. Crews has done an unbelievable job but I am worried what will happen when the players Rick had a large influence on leave the program.

While I expect slippage for 2014-15, I'm not really worried about the departure of the last considerable contingent of RickMa's players, because then Coach Crews will install his system and the efficiency will improve.

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@thicks ----- sarcasm? Last I checked, the deceased was a HOFer not the interim new guy. I expect an off year if only due to the transition year. I'd still expect to see a near .500 record. But Athlon's comment remains key ..... "will Crews' recruits carry the load?" Time will tell.

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Obviously there is no way to measure this as Rick is no longer here. However, I think the oh-fense would run more efficiently with Rick. Just look at kenpom.com offense efficiency since Rick left. It is easy to see the oh-fense has been less efficient. Crews has done an unbelievable job but I am worried what will happen when the players Rick had a

large influence on leave the program.

I'm not sure I Agee with you offense statement. Maybe the half court O might run better but Crews let's them push the break more thanRick. We are scoring a lot of our points off of turnovers turned into driving lay ups. Quite often Rick had them pull it out.
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The offense currently ranks 192 in offensive efficiency. That wouldn't be the case if Rick was still around. That said we might not rank #1 in defensive efficiency.

I don't think the O looks as seamless as it did under RM, but still, as Van Gundy noted, it still is a very well run effective system. Even RM could not solve the problems we have in hitting wide open shots or easy layups.

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I don't think the O looks as seamless as it did under RM, but still, as Van Gundy noted, it still is a very well run effective system. Even RM could not solve the problems we have in hitting wide open shots or easy layups.

Bingo...we shot 38.5% against FORDHAM!...AT HOME! I pity the team(s) that face us when we can shoot 45+% and hit at a decent clip from deep.

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@thicks ----- sarcasm? Last I checked, the deceased was a HOFer not the interim new guy. I expect an off year if only due to the transition year. I'd still expect to see a near .500 record. But Athlon's comment remains key ..... "will Crews' recruits carry the load?" Time will tell.

No. No sarcasm at all. I wouldn't expect anyone to orchestrate Majerus's system as well as he could, but I think Crews has done a good job. But I also think Crews could do better orchestrating what he knows intimately than he could coach Majerus.

Remember "Bo knows Diddly"? Well, Crews-knows-Majerus is good -- with seven players, five of them seniors, who were indoctrinated by Majerus -- but Crews-knows-Crews is better. We believe Majerus-knows-Majerus would be best, but that's not possible anymore and time will tell.

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@thicks ----- sarcasm? Last I checked, the deceased was a HOFer not the interim new guy. I expect an off year if only due to the transition year. I'd still expect to see a near .500 record. But Athlon's comment remains key ..... "will Crews' recruits carry the load?" Time will tell.

no way we're anywhere near 500 next year. unless we play new schedule we should get at least 10 non conference wins. If we split in conference that puts us 20-10 or there of. If we approach being .500 again it will signal the end of our attempt to pole vault out of our perpetual mediocrity.

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no way we're anywhere near 500 next year. unless we play new schedule we should get at least 10 non conference wins. If we split in conference that puts us 20-10 or there of. If we approach being .500 again it will signal the end of our attempt to pole vault out of our perpetual mediocrity.

I love your optimism but I do not know how you can possible predict that we win 20 games until you see our actual schedule and you see how all of the new players, including Ash, fit in and play on the court. We are going to miss this year's five seniors as much as we have ever missed a group of graduating players. Each of them has played a key role at times (only a few for Jake) and Dwayne, Jordair, Mike and Robb have all improved greatly since they arrived--so much that each of them can be considered among the best to have ever played their position as a Billiken--after evaluating their entire body of work and the team's incredible success while they have played at SLU. That Timmerman stat which indicated we have the best record in all of college basketball over the past year is incredible. I know it will be fun to watch all the new guys next year and we hope that GG and John have Conklin summers but I think we should understand how great this year's team is and enjoy it now!

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I love your optimism but I do not know how you can possible predict that we win 20 games until you see our actual schedule and you see how all of the new players, including Ash, fit in and play on the court. We are going to miss this year's five seniors as much as we have ever missed a group of graduating players. Each of them has played a key role at times (only a few for Jake) and Dwayne, Jordair, Mike and Robb have all improved greatly since they arrived--so much that each of them can be considered among the best to have ever played their position as a Billiken--after evaluating their entire body of work and the team's incredible success while they have played at SLU. That Timmerman stat which indicated we have the best record in all of college basketball over the past year is incredible. I know it will be fun to watch all the new guys next year and we hope that GG and John have Conklin summers but I think we should understand how great this year's team is and enjoy it now!

i will in spirit of compromise go down to 18-12. I have no idea if anyone knows our schedule next year but we've been bitching about no good teams ever wanting to play us for years so I'm assuming SOS should be close to same as this year. we won 13 non conference games this season. If next year's team played same schedule I think we would still be able to win at least 10 of them, 9 are at home and another you can almost see from home, then 8-8 conference and lose first game with our unexperienced over achiever's @ The Barklay's Center; 18-12 but to me I think that will be a let down.
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