Tom Timmermann off SLU beat

[thetorch]

Tom thanks so much. Really informative and candid answers.

I'd take the 13-14 team, only because everything being equal, you have a closer on the team. Jett down the stretch this last season played the best ball of any billiken since Love or Larry.

Then again Majerus coaching with werewolf Conklin out there, kinda give the edge to that team over the other two in just 1 game.

[Archy McNally]

I think the 12-13 was the best, but just ran out of gas after traveling to NY for 3 straight games and then the West Coast for the next 2. Oregon was hot, not the best matchup, and was playing close to home the whole time.

[brianstl]

I am going to go with 11-12. With almost any other draw that team makes a deep run.

[slufan13]

I'd probably rank them 12-13, 11-12, 13-14. Even winning 19 straight or whatever last season, it just didn't feel like we were that good. The run that the 12-13 team went on during A10 play was absolutely dominant.

[JettFlight5]

11-12 just to have Coach Majerus with another shot at things.

[Zink]

I'd probably rank them 12-13, 11-12, 13-14. Even winning 19 straight or whatever last season, it just didn't feel like we were that good. The run that the 12-13 team went on during A10 play was absolutely dominant.

This would be my order as well. Last season, even most of the wins felt like a struggle. 12-13 had so much talent and played like it in nearly every game, especially after the rough start to conference play. 11-12 was the turning point, and that team played with the most passion and focus I've ever seen, but wasn't quite as skilled.

I hope that we have some more teams to add to this debate in the next few years.

[billslasttermdropout]

I agree with slufan13, but something can be said for last years team being under the gun more than the previous two years. Other squads we're probably more hyped to take us down then maybe ever before. That 12-13 run was amazing.

[majerus mojo]

What was the highest we were ranked in '12-13? Must've been the final poll before the NCAAs.

[Clock_Tower]

The SLU locker room is closed after games, except in the NCAA and A-10 tournaments, as required by rules. And NCAA rules require that, except for players who go into the interview room, players have to be in the locker room for a specified time after the game. So after, say, the Louisville loss, they were as down as you would expect, but cooperative.

During the season, at Chaifetz, two or three players are brought into the interview room and sit at a table and answer questions. This format obviously limits how many people you can talk to, keeps you from getting anything that isn't shared with everybody on hand, and slightly alters the dynamic by putting a table and a microphone in the equation, rather than having a more informal conversation. But that's probably how 90 percent of schools do it nowadays. Late in the game, the media (OK, me) will be asked who they want in the room after the game. Ninety or 95 percent of the time that person will show up. Every now and then, someone (OK, usually the same guy) would duck out and evade the PR staff or be unavailable for other reasons. On the road, I usually hang out in front of the locker room door and grab guys as they come out.

When Brad Soderberg coached the team, I would go into West Pine Gym about a half hour before practice, sit down in the front row of the bleachers, and wait for people to come in. Soderberg would come over every day and we'd talk. Then players would start coming in, and if I needed someone, I'd give them a wave and they'd come over and talk. I can remember a time or two when Soderberg delayed the start of practice while I finished up an interview. That situation was great because sometimes, you want to talk to one person about something that happened in a game, but he didn't do enough otherwise to warrant coming into the interview room. So this format was great.

When Majerus became coach, that changed. Practices were closed and there was no access to players or Rick before practice. All interviews were done afterwards, though when practice ended about 6 p.m., most players just wanted to leave and get something to eat. So if you wanted to talk to more than one person, good luck. (He slightly let up on that in his final season.) Majerus would send assistant coaches out to do postgame on road trips because the set up there required him to walk back out to courtside to do the interview, and he didn't want to do that. (He didn't want to do it at SLU either, which is why they had to wire a microphone into the locker room oarea.) Majerus never once failed to talk to me after a game, though, as you've probably heard the audio, there were some games where he didn't really want to talk or wouldn't say much once he got there. (Fun times.) Also, in the years Majerus was coach, he didn't answer or return my phone calls just twice, which, having talked to other writers around the A-10, is an amazing success rate. Again, a lot of times he didn't want to talk and couldn't wait to get off the phone with me, but he always called me back.

With Crews in charge, we do interviews before practice again, which is good -- TV had a hard time covering SLU during the Majerus Era because they don't have camera units or reporters free at 6 p.m. Crews also gives better answers. Majerus' postgame sessions had a stream of consciousness quality and he was great for not finishing thoughts. You'd have the first two-third of what seemed like it was going to be a great quote, but he wouldn't finish the sentence.

Pretty much all of SLU's assistant coaches have been great to work with. I think everyone around the team would agree that Chris Harriman was the best.

So if I had to rank, I'd say it was best under Soderberg, second-best under Crews, third-best under Majerus. Though the Soderberg level of access is pretty much unheard of at any mid-sized program or higher anymore.

Appreciate your thorough and honest thoughts to me, to all in this thread and to us Billiken fans over this past decade. Please remain a Billiken fan and don't become a stranger to this Board!!

[For-DaLove]

I think we looked better thoughout the season in 11-12 and 12-13 but I'm still going to take the team with a senior Jordair Jett if I have to decide between the teams. I'm not sure that we even fully realize how dominant he was last season.

[Cowboy]

Been pondering this all day, so it's more of a general question for the board, but: Which team would you rather throw out there: 2012-13, or 13-14?

Have to lean the former, right?

As a bonus: Would anyone take the 2011-2012 team, with Majerus coaching, over either, with Crews?

-very interesting, i like Coach Crews, i loved Coach Majerus, who was better than Rick preparing for and coaching against an opponent? very few, if any