Crews on 13-14 Season/Future

[slu72]

Good reading here! Cool heads actually talking about the topic at hand.

Personally, I think Crews has earned about a three year leash. He deserves the chance to see "his guys" get to their senior year (Crawford, Lancona, Agbeko). Next year is a total question mark. My expectation is above .500 for this group. Anything less and the leash is tightened a bit. Two years down the road, we need to be back in the NCAA conversation. If we have a decent season, but come up just short then three years from now is do or die for his tenure. If we crash and burn the next two years, then Crews will probably be out.

I think next year the baseline is finishing above .500, top six in the league and seeing growth throughout the year from our underclassmen.

Two years away, we need to be a bubble team at the minimum. Anything less will be below my expectations. If we miss out on the tourney, three years down the line is do or die for the Crews era.

Not sure he'll get that long a leash. Next year's a free pass. But in today's world of instant gratification, he'll be under a lot of pressure the 15-16 season to deliver an NCAA berth. For some reason it's still hard to get fans into the sparkling Fetz even when you've got a winner. SLU has to deliver like never before and the only thing that's going to put folks in the seats is to continue the winning tradition of the last 3 years. A one year hiccup is expected. A two year hiccup won't be tolerated. So, that means this year's recruiting class comes thru and the next class really raises the level of this squad.

[AlumniFan]

Count me as a very happy fan of Crews. He has done a great job, especially under the circumstances. A lot of people said he could not recruit, yet the reality is he has five players coming in that collectively had good schools after them. I also think next year's sophomores have the ability to be very good. I just wonder how long the "jury is still out" mentality has to exist.....?

[TRN]

Count me as a very happy fan of Crews. He has done a great job, especially under the circumstances. A lot of people said he could not recruit, yet the reality is he has five players coming in that collectively had good schools after them. I also think next year's sophomores have the ability to be very good. I just wonder how long the "jury is still out" mentality has to exist.....?

+1

[VeniceMenace]

Yes

[moytoy12]

Count me as a very happy fan of Crews. He has done a great job, especially under the circumstances. A lot of people said he could not recruit, yet the reality is he has five players coming in that collectively had good schools after them. I also think next year's sophomores have the ability to be very good. I just wonder how long the "jury is still out" mentality has to exist.....?

I suspect this upcoming year will have a lot of influence on the jury. Just how good are his recruits? What is his system? Is it effective? Will he call timeouts? Use inexperienced players more in blowouts? These are fair questions.

Based on what I've read and heard, I could not have more admiration for JC as a person and how he conducts himself. As a coach, there are still questions in my mind.

[DoctorB]

Predictably, there's a lot of talk on here about a "short leash," "lack of consensus," "some reservations," etc., about Coach JC. It's like teacher evaluations ,where a lot of the negativity stands out. I gotta tell ya, I talk to a lot of fans and my feeling is most of them are very pleased and hopeful for the future.

My sense of the "consensus" is this: very, very strong support for JC. What he has accomplished, especially in context of the Coach Majerus death scenario, is just amazing to me. The team could have easily packed it in; I know, I was in contact with some of the players at that time. Recruiting has gone well and the assistants and staff are excellent. We won 19 in a row, reaching the top ten, before running low on gas and getting somewhat exposed offensively. He is a good man, good mentor, and runs a clean program, and goes for pretty good kids who do well in the classroom and the comunity. He also received coach of the year accolades, in case you missed it.

I'm frankly not really sure what the heck some of you guys are looking for, to be honest. Short leash my arse -- talk to some people in the AD. People at SLU are very pleased. Sorry if this is too much of a homer view...

Meanwhile, 2 of the most notoriously dirty programs play for the national title. Maybe some fans want a little more wheeling and dealing, a little more of that Kentucky smoke and mirrors... For me, I'm extremely happy and impressed with where we are--keep it at least fairly real. Go coach JC!

[moytoy12]

Predictably, there's a lot of talk on here about a "short leash," "lack of consensus," "some reservations," etc., about Coach JC. It's like teacher evaluations ,where a lot of the negativity stands out. I gotta tell ya, I talk to a lot of fans and my feeling is most of them are very pleased and hopeful for the future.

My sense of the "consensus" is this: very, very strong support for JC. What he has accomplished, especially in context of the Coach Majerus death scenario, is just amazing to me. The team could have easily packed it in; I know, I was in contact with some of the players at that time. Recruiting has gone well and the assistants and staff are excellent. We won 19 in a row, reaching the top ten, before running low on gas and getting somewhat exposed offensively. He is a good man, good mentor, and runs a clean program, and goes for pretty good kids who do well in the classroom and the comunity. He also received coach of the year accolades, in case you missed it.

I'm frankly not really sure what the heck some of you guys are looking for, to be honest. Short leash my arse -- talk to some people in the AD. People at SLU are very pleased. Sorry if this is too much of a homer view...

Meanwhile, 2 of the most notoriously dirty programs play for the national title. Maybe some fans want a little more wheeling and dealing, a little more of that Kentucky smoke and mirrors... For me, I'm extremely happy and impressed with where we are--keep it at least fairly real. Go coach JC!

Just to be more clear in my comments, I don't have a short leash mentality with JC. I do have some questions. JC has done a great job given the circumstances the last 2 years. I happily acknowledge our success and the prominent role he has played.

However, I think the questions I have are fair. Some of his coaching decisions or lack thereof have been perplexing for this message board moron. On the flip side, I like how JC's teams have generally tried to close out games instead of playing prevent defense like RM. I like the ability to make sh*t up on the fly, like the full-court press v. NC St. I like the camaraderie between him, the staff and the players. I like how he appears to be grooming Bronson as a future coach. I like the recruiting results so far. I can't say enough good things about how JC handled the 2012-2013 season and guided his players through that season. I like JC as a coach. I'm just not totally in love with him as a coach yet.

And I can't say enough good things about (1) him as a leader of young men, (2) the program he runs, and (3) the integrity he has and instills in his players. In this day and age of college athletics, JC is all you could hope for as a person.

[Billiken Rich]

Just to be more clear in my comments, I don't have a short leash mentality with JC. I do have some questions. JC has done a great job given the circumstances the last 2 years. I happily acknowledge our success and the prominent role he has played.

However, I think the questions I have are fair. Some of his coaching decisions or lack thereof have been perplexing for this message board moron. On the flip side, I like how JC's teams have generally tried to close out games instead of playing prevent defense like RM. I like the ability to make sh*t up on the fly, like the full-court press v. NC St. I like the camaraderie between him, the staff and the players. I like how he appears to be grooming Bronson as a future coach. I like the recruiting results so far. I can't say enough good things about how JC handled the 2012-2013 season and guided his players through that season. I like JC as a coach. I'm just not totally in love with him as a coach yet.

And I can't say enough good things about (1) him as a leader of young men, (2) the program he runs, and (3) the integrity he has and instills in his players. In this day and age of college athletics, JC is all you could hope for as a person.

+1

I don't see anyone trashing Crews. Crews still has to prove he can win here with his own recruits but I don't think he'll feel any real heat until his first recruiting class are seniors. It will facinate me to see the changes in Crews' coaching style with a much younger team. If he still makes it to the end of the game without using any timeouts, I won't be the only one pulling my hair out.....

I am looking forward to this season, maybe more than last season.....

[MB73]

Jim Crews is solid, as good of a coach and as good of a man as we can get in our situation. He would be effective coaching most major programs, though I doubt he would stoop as low as some of the scum running some of the big national top notch "successful" basketball programs for "student athletes".

Get off his back.

Or do you want to be like Kentucky and U Conn, two of the dirtiest programs in the NCAA's ? That is the issue, folks. You cannot have both. The NCAA is a sham. Missouri U is a joke.

Bernie finally got it right:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/breakfast-with-bernie-college-athletics-is-a-sham/html_451de788-eed4-53c1-8a9b-4b456fa68fc9.html

For JC, it is tougher to recruit into the A-10 now that Temple, Xavier, and Butler are gone. Majerus even didn't like the A-10. The A-10 was an anomaly last year, getting 6 teams in the NCAA's was a mathematical RPI fluke, 6 teams bunched together, the other seven were bad or even terrible.

Crews is fine. We need to get into the NBE.

The NCAA needs total reform, too. It is coming, it'll take a long time.

[JettFlight5]

Jim Crews is solid, as good of a coach and as good of a man as we can get in our situation. He would be effective coaching most major programs, though I doubt he would stoop as low as some of the scum running some of the big national top notch "successful" basketball programs for "student athletes".

Get off his back.

Or do you want to be like Kentucky and U Conn, two of the dirtiest programs in the NCAA's ? That is the issue, folks. You cannot have both. The NCAA is a sham. Missouri U is a joke.

Bernie finally got it right:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/breakfast-with-bernie-college-athletics-is-a-sham/html_451de788-eed4-53c1-8a9b-4b456fa68fc9.html

For JC, it is tougher to recruit into the A-10 now that Temple, Xavier, and Butler are gone. Majerus even didn't like the A-10. The A-10 was an anomaly last year, getting 6 teams in the NCAA's was a mathematical RPI fluke, 6 decent teams bunched together, the other seven were bad or even terrible.

Crews is fine. We need to get into the NBE.

The NCAA needs total reform, too. It is coming, it will take a long time.

Dirty programs have nothing to lose. That's why they do what they do.

[billikenbill]

Predictably, there's a lot of talk on here about a "short leash," "lack of consensus," "some reservations," etc., about Coach JC. It's like teacher evaluations ,where a lot of the negativity stands out. I gotta tell ya, I talk to a lot of fans and my feeling is most of them are very pleased and hopeful for the future.

My sense of the "consensus" is this: very, very strong support for JC. What he has accomplished, especially in context of the Coach Majerus death scenario, is just amazing to me. The team could have easily packed it in; I know, I was in contact with some of the players at that time. Recruiting has gone well and the assistants and staff are excellent. We won 19 in a row, reaching the top ten, before running low on gas and getting somewhat exposed offensively. He is a good man, good mentor, and runs a clean program, and goes for pretty good kids who do well in the classroom and the comunity. He also received coach of the year accolades, in case you missed it.

I'm frankly not really sure what the heck some of you guys are looking for, to be honest. Short leash my arse -- talk to some people in the AD. People at SLU are very pleased. Sorry if this is too much of a homer view...

Meanwhile, 2 of the most notoriously dirty programs play for the national title. Maybe some fans want a little more wheeling and dealing, a little more of that Kentucky smoke and mirrors... For me, I'm extremely happy and impressed with where we are--keep it at least fairly real. Go coach JC!

Excellent post.

+ 1 million

[ACE]

Good reading here! Cool heads actually talking about the topic at hand.

Personally, I think Crews has earned about a three year leash. He deserves the chance to see "his guys" get to their senior year (Crawford, Lancona, Agbeko). Next year is a total question mark. My expectation is above .500 for this group. Anything less and the leash is tightened a bit. Two years down the road, we need to be back in the NCAA conversation. If we have a decent season, but come up just short then three years from now is do or die for his tenure. If we crash and burn the next two years, then Crews will probably be out.

I think next year the baseline is finishing above .500, top six in the league and seeing growth throughout the year from our underclassmen.

Two years away, we need to be a bubble team at the minimum. Anything less will be below my expectations. If we miss out on the tourney, three years down the line is do or die for the Crews era.

I think that is a fair standard to judge him by. He has inherited a much better situation here than he had at Evansville and Army. He did a tremendous job running with what RM built. I look forward to seeing how he does as more and more it becomes his program. RM raised the bar on the expectations for the program. Let's see if JC can take it and run with it. We could do a lot worse for a head coach.

[moytoy12]

Jim Crews is solid, as good of a coach and as good of a man as we can get in our situation. He would be effective coaching most major programs, though I doubt he would stoop as low as some of the scum running some of the big national top notch "successful" basketball programs for "student athletes".

Get off his back.

Or do you want to be like Kentucky and U Conn, two of the dirtiest programs in the NCAA's ? That is the issue, folks. You cannot have both. The NCAA is a sham. Missouri U is a joke.

Bernie finally got it right:

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bernie-miklasz/breakfast-with-bernie-college-athletics-is-a-sham/html_451de788-eed4-53c1-8a9b-4b456fa68fc9.html

For JC, it is tougher to recruit into the A-10 now that Temple, Xavier, and Butler are gone. Majerus even didn't like the A-10. The A-10 was an anomaly last year, getting 6 teams in the NCAA's was a mathematical RPI fluke, 6 teams bunched together, the other seven were bad or even terrible.

Crews is fine. We need to get into the NBE.

The NCAA needs total reform, too. It is coming, it'll take a long time.

Who is on his back? Who is saying they want to have a program run like UCONN or Kentucky?

[JettFlight5]

Coach Crews' job is to win basketball games. I don't think (anymore) that the Billikens have to cheat to do that.

He said it himself: All coaches are interim coaches. He'll coach as long as the administration thinks he's doing a good job.

[Billikenswin]

Coach Crews' job is to win basketball games. I don't think (anymore) that the Billikens have to cheat to do that.

He said it himself: All coaches are interim coaches. He'll coach as long as the administration thinks he's doing a goo

Who is on his back? Who is saying they want to have a program run like UCONN or Kentucky?

If you look at some of the posts on this board it would appear that he has very lukewarm support but I personally believe this to be a false impression. The fans I speak with on a regular basis think he has done an excellent job in coaching this team and his on and off court demeanor are excellent.

Anyone who thinks we might not have a bit of a rocky road over the next year or so is missing the obivous--namely that RM did very little to enhance this team at the end of his time with additional recruits. Our "seniors" are Grandy and John Manning--two fine young men who can be part of the rotation but neither, at least at this point, would be starters on any of our last three teams. I like this year's recruits and this year's frosh in terms of their long term potential but they are all probably a year away from contributing at a high level. They may be thrown into the mix in a big way but after seeing experienced seniors play most of the minutes our fans must be patient. I am not at all sold on Austin M as our starting point guard, particularly because of his regression at the end of the year. AY should be a player but we have all seen repeatedly that it takes at least a half of a year for transfers to get up to speed once they start playing again. We have the potential to be very good in the future, particularly if we can add a couple of excellent additional players in our future recruiting efforts but I would suggest we keep our expectations under control for next year. Jim Crews and his staff have done an excellent job so far and if we stick with him I have confidence we can be back in the big dance in a couple of years, maybe with a better team than this year!

[brianstl]

Just because some people are not ready to give him a lifetime contract doesn't mean his support is luke warm. No one has called for his head.

I think it is more than fair for people to have questions at this point. It doesn't mean they don't support and like the guy.

[MB73]

Just because some people are not ready to give him a lifetime contract doesn't mean his support is luke warm. No one has called for his head.

I think it is more than fair for people to have questions at this point. It doesn't mean they don't support and like the guy.

Well this thread is mild, no direct cheap shots, but there have been plenty of inappropriate posts since he was named, hey, someone who posts here a lot threw Crews under the bus very recently. It was ugly, slimy.... when we were down 16 to NC State in the NCAA's.

Made ass-of-self.

Of course, then we came back to win in OT.

[Clock_Tower]

Just because some people are not ready to give him a lifetime contract doesn't mean his support is luke warm. No one has called for his head.

I think it is more than fair for people to have questions at this point. It doesn't mean they don't support and like the guy.

+1

[Clock_Tower]

I think that is a fair standard to judge him by. He has inherited a much better situation here than he had at Evansville and Army. He did a tremendous job running with what RM built. I look forward to seeing how he does as more and more it becomes his program. RM raised the bar on the expectations for the program. Let's see if JC can take it and run with it. We could do a lot worse for a head coach.

Agree that RM raised the bar but not sure you are lowering it? Above .500 team. I expect a drop off but if we win the buy games and then go .500 thereafter we are way above .500 for the year.

[GOSLU68]

NIT year

[slu72]

NIT year

It would be promising, but with what we know today, not a lock.

[HoyaBilliken]

Some know more

It would be promising, but with what we know today, not a lock.

Some know more then others, back to NCAA Tourney.....

[kshoe]

NIT year

I doubt it. The nit is harder to make then people realize. In the 11 year gap where we didn't make the dance, we only made the nit 2 times. And it's harder to make now with the regular season conference champs getting an auto invite.

[NH]

I doubt it. The nit is harder to make then people realize. In the 11 year gap where we didn't make the dance, we only made the nit 2 times. And it's harder to make now with the regular season conference champs getting an auto invite.

Exactly. I think it is possible to think we could be a bubble/NIT team. But to say that it is probable is in my estimation very optimistic.

[Taj79]

I think this is a great thread and well worthy of all the debate. Only time will tell.