A little praise for Fr B

[BillikenLaw]

No. You got it all wrong. Levick was given a shoestring budget by the good Father and then kept her completely out of the loop as it relates to the Chaifetz, Novelly and RM. And with the limited budget from everything from the head coach, to the assistant coaches to travel arrangements to recruiting budgets, after the drop down to the A10, still playing off-campus and prior to receiving the benefit of the real Division 1 facilities (no comparison between Chaifetz and West Pine Gym), we could have done worse than Brad Soderberg. But there is no way that Levick would have preferred Soderberg over Majerus. Had Fr. Biondi simply approached Levick, told her about the new financial situation, told her about that we were prepared to spend $1 million to a guy like RM plus all the other requirement such as coach would want (assistant coach monies, travel/recruiting budgets, chartered flights, strength coach, tutors, etc.), Levick would have gladly clicked her high heels and gotten rid of Soderberg. Keep in mind that we had paid Spoon $600K, Romar $500K and that Brad was then earning $325K (believe he may have received a raise up to $375K). This was all Fr. Biondi's doing.

No. Fr. Biondi did this same thing to our Law School Dean -- another female department head-- while personally working with benefactors to receive a new building and move the law school off-campus without even bringing her (the Dean of the Law School) into the loop. Just like Levick, she was totally embarrassed by the actions of Fr. Biondi. The difference, of course, is that Levick chose to leave quietly (most likely for her own sake) recognizing that fewer opportunities exist for female athletic directors in Division 1 college sports.

Sorry, SLU72 but I am not ready to praise Fr. Beyondme at this time.

Correct. Two professors have independently told me the story of when Fr. Biondi informed Dean Annette Clark of the new law school building: apparently one day he simply told her they were going for a ride, drove her downtown to the building, and said basically said "Voila, this will be the new law school, now get everything ready for us to have it open by Fall of next school year, or else."

[Iggy]

I think we should all just leave it up to MUDKAT to let us know how much or how little praise Fr B deserves.

[brianstl]

I don't know if buy the Biondi suggested the basketball program to Chaifetz story. Chaifetz was already trying to buy an NBA team at that point and had hired basketball advisors. One of those advisors played a huge role in landing Majerus.

That story reeks of Biondi trying to take credit for something he had little to do with.

[davidnark]

Sure, I agree Biondi deserves credit for suggesting the basketball arena to Chaifetz. But it's also significant to me that for two of the major accomplishments Biondi's supporters credit him for (finally making the on-campus arena a reality and finally making the new law school a reality), angel donors suddenly dropped out of the sky after years and years of development hell.

I don't pretend to be an expert on other tangible contributions Biondi may have made to the basketball program, but a lot of the examples I hear offered seem pretty thin.

I am not privy to the details of Chaifetz or Majerus, but it is naive to think Biondi played no role in either situation. Also, there is a lot of convenient historical reinvention going on here; the arena project was already well under way in its current form when Chaifetz stepped up and donated his millions to secure the naming rights. Chaifetz did not drop out of the sky to make the project happen. In fact, Chaifetz's donation only covered a small percentage of the project's capital cost.

[hsmith19]

Where did I say Biondi played no role? The post you quoted started off with me saying the exact opposite...

The law school "project" had been going on for years and years, and had been stalled for several when the Scotts stepped in and donated an entire skyscraper. Likewise, the arena "project" had been going on for years and years until Chaifetz stepped in to make sure it was actually completed. All this occurred while Biondi made sure other (usually smaller and cheaper) real estate development projects of his actually did reach completion.

If Biondi was really this master at making the trains run on time that some act like he was, they should be able to come up with better examples than either of the above two.

[cheeseman]

No. You got it all wrong. Levick was given a shoestring budget by the good Father and then kept her completely out of the loop as it relates to the Chaifetz, Novelly and RM. And with the limited budget from everything from the head coach, to the assistant coaches to travel arrangements to recruiting budgets, after the drop down to the A10, still playing off-campus and prior to receiving the benefit of the real Division 1 facilities (no comparison between Chaifetz and West Pine Gym), we could have done worse than Brad Soderberg. But there is no way that Levick would have preferred Soderberg over Majerus. Had Fr. Biondi simply approached Levick, told her about the new financial situation, told her about that we were prepared to spend $1 million to a guy like RM plus all the other requirement such as coach would want (assistant coach monies, travel/recruiting budgets, chartered flights, strength coach, tutors, etc.), Levick would have gladly clicked her high heels and gotten rid of Soderberg. Keep in mind that we had paid Spoon $600K, Romar $500K and that Brad was then earning $325K (believe he may have received a raise up to $375K). This was all Fr. Biondi's doing.

No. Fr. Biondi did this same thing to our Law School Dean -- another female department head-- while personally working with benefactors to receive a new building and move the law school off-campus without even bringing her (the Dean of the Law School) into the loop. Just like Levick, she was totally embarrassed by the actions of Fr. Biondi. The difference, of course, is that Levick chose to leave quietly (most likely for her own sake) recognizing that fewer opportunities exist for female athletic directors in Division 1 college sports.

Sorry, SLU72 but I am not ready to praise Fr. Beyondme at this time.

You have hit the highlights - what you left out was that Biondi would never share any limelight with someone who worked for him - remember Levick was the one who talked Biondi in to scraping the bigger arena for a smaller one that allowed for the the entire athletic's stuff to be built around it and the practice facility included. She basically redid the design and over saw its initial kick off. When she told BS that he was coming back and then she was blindsided by Biondi on the matter she was upset and embarrassed. The decision to fire BS had its upside but had Biondi screwed the hiring of RM up which he almost did - he lucked out that RM really wanted to get back in to coaching at a Catholic school - Jesuit preferred - RM would have probably told Biondi to suck eggs. We got lucky that Creighton's coach decided to stay and so that meant we were the only option available to RM. All in all it worked out just find - I do however regret losing Levick - there was a way that a truly good leader could have done both but that was way above Biondi's ability. I have no praise for him - he basically got lucky and in the process lost a very good AD.

[cheeseman]

Disagree.

It took Biondi way too long to get Chaifetz built; with all the large companies and powerful alums in town, the economy booming at the time, it should have been built at least 10 or even 15 years earlier. If he was well received by the community and got out there and hit the street on behalf of the athletic department, the arena would have been up so much quicker.

Majerus was a gift, a fluke of good luck and fortune on our part. RM sought a Jesuit institution, not in a power conference, and close as possible to his mother in Milwaukee. So, we win the lottery.

Biondi wouldn't pay RM the going rate so some alums pitched in and paid a majority of his salary. Biondi blessed the hire. Impressive? Then Biondi fought with RM over petty issues, even reneged on some promises.

Am I right or wrong?

Right on all this.

[cheeseman]

If I announce I'm going to win the lottery and then actually do it a decade or two later, that doesn't mean I won because I was really great at picking numbers or financial planning or anything else.

I don't know exactly how much credit Biondi deserves for what's going on now with the basketball team, but I don't see a blandly optimistic "top-50 program" goal announced during the Spoonball era as contributing at all.

Biondi did not announce the top 50 proclamation when Spoon was here it was when Grawer was here.

[cheeseman]

I totally agree with what you said. IMO the praise for RM's statement should come because of what he did, before and after the statement, to make it come true. There's nothing special in simply making a prediction.

The same goes for Father B. He wanted us to be a top 50 program. He said so on the record. Then he did things that helped make the statement come true.

My recollection of the story of how Chaifetz got built is that Dr. C told the university that he wanted to repay the university for what it did for him, but left things open ended on how. Father B could have told him to build a new building for the school of allied health or pay to rehab the library or some of the dorms. Instead, he asked him use the money to build a basketball arena.

I do not think your memory is right about this - Biondi went to Chaifetz and asked him about paying for the naming rights since they had talked about him giving something back to SLU.

[davidnark]

Likewise, the arena "project" had been going on for years and years until Chaifetz stepped in to make sure it was actually completed. All this occurred while Biondi made sure other (usually smaller and cheaper) real estate development projects of his actually did reach completion.

So we are clear, construction started in August 2006, to be completed in March 2008. The project cost $80.5 million. In March 2007, Chaifetz donated $12 million for naming rights.

It was a wonderful donation that helped close the fundraising for the project, but Dr. Chaifetz did not make sure it was actually completed. The project was well underway and going to be completed.

[willie]

Biondi did not announce the top 50 proclamation when Spoon was here it was when Grawer was here.

this is correct. It was at a season ending awards banquet. He did very little over the next 25 years to make it happen. I also believe he was reluctant to ask the civic progress types for arena money when he was trying to get their money for other programs. We were also their tenant for Keil /Scott Trade. My belief is it got built in spite of Biondi.