cheeseman Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 Wouldn't be the first time a mysterious illness has sidelined a coach or corporate leader so big deal. I agree if Platt or anybody is so loyal to Crews then good for us if they leave on their own. 72 is right about communicating to the fan base you are serious. Honestly, I am making up excuses as to why not to go to games this year - this is so sad but if they got rid of Crews now and started off with a plan of revival, I would show up just to support the kids and the administration. Keep Crews through the year, I will find plenty of reasons not to show up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 The thing with doing it now would be that the administration would need to be convinced it had to be done. Somehow, I still see them as holding out hope or a ridiculous belief that Crews can turn it around Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 The thing with doing it now would be that the administration would need to be convinced it had to be done. Somehow, I still see them as holding out hope or a ridiculous belief that Crews can turn it around I am not sure what they are seeing but I could see them saying to themselves lets give him another 8 games before we have to do something drastic even though I wouldn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 I'd say a winless start in the conference in the first 5 games should seal his fate. At that point we're 5-11, and if those losses are as horrible to watch as the last 5 have been there's gonna be a lot of empty seats in the Fetz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Bump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Worse coach - Jim Crews or Jeff Fisher? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billboy1 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Who is closer to .500 this season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Worse coach - Jim Crews or Jeff Fisher? Crews, by a wide margin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 After last night I am now convinced this is even worse than the ekker days. At least then we had David burns to watch. With this trainwreck we get nothing. We have found the lifetime bottom. Big moment for those of you too young to have experienced ekker. Congratulations Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soderball Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 After last night I am now convinced this is even worse than the ekker days. At least then we had David burns to watch. With this trainwreck we get nothing. We have found the lifetime bottom. Big moment for those of you too young to have experienced ekker. Congratulations My father told me the same story regarding Ekker: he's been watching this team for a very long time, and i've asked him several times how this compares to what I grew up with as my version of the Depression I never saw: the Ekker years. He has said multiple times that having David Burns made the team fun to watch, the team we have now is not fun to watch at all. Dumpster Fire. Fire Jim Crews. These are low congratulations. This sucks. At least under Soderberg we could compete, even with ridiculous scenes like the gasping Freriks on the floor. We never finished last place in CUSA, to the best of my knowledge. I wanted Crews gone last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Fun experiment I just did: I searched the term "ekker" in the forums to see how frequently his name was mentioned at least once in a given thread. There are 85 threads with his name, broken down by season (measured as June through May): 2006-2007: 1 2010-2011: 7 2011-2012: 12 2012-2013: 16 2013-2014: 12 2014-2015: 25 (mostly in February and March) 2015-2016: 12 (so far, and in higher frequency within threads) Most mentions before February 2015 are in a much different, more historical context - for contrast instead of comparison. Since then, he's been a more popular subject for comparison's sake. I will say this much: I was born in 1983 so I have no memory of that era, and just about all of the Grawer era, for that matter. From what I understand about our athletic department in the early 80s, though: at least Ekker had the excuse of a total lack of resources. Low budget, low salary, sub-par facilities, lack of commitment from the AD, and so forth. Which is why the disappearance of some of our more AD-connected, established booster-type posters (presumably due to the message board's collective negativity toward the staff in the face of their continued support) is so puzzling to me. They know Crews has world-class facilities, a nice contract, a solid budget, an extremely fertile recruiting region, a basketball-dedicated strength and conditioning coach, and more all-around support from the AD than ever before in SLU history. I know the tone here toward Crews is negative - but what else could it be? He has literally no excuses. None. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeSmetBilliken Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 After last night I am now convinced this is even worse than the ekker days. At least then we had David burns to watch. With this trainwreck we get nothing. We have found the lifetime bottom. Big moment for those of you too young to have experienced ekker. Congratulations Gee thanks. I was comfortable just hearing about the low point of Billiken basketball. Now I've seen it? Yuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 After last night I am now convinced this is even worse than the ekker days. At least then we had David burns to watch. With this trainwreck we get nothing. We have found the lifetime bottom. Big moment for those of you too young to have experienced ekker. Congratulations But did the Ekker teams actually sort of compete for the first 15 minutes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soderball Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 But did the Ekker teams actually sort of compete for the first 15 minutes? The ekker teams had David Burns who was straight out nasty. Much more fun to watch, thats the impression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenLaw Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 The most disappointing part is that it directly followed a high point for the program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Yeah, I get that a star would make things more interesting. But the weirdest, ugliest thing about this team is the Jekyll and Hyde aspect. I've long since stopped thinking they have a chance to win or even make it close, but people who don't watch every game can still get duped into thinking that based on their first half performances. Watching the past couple games with people who don't follow the team has been an odd experience for that reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Gee thanks. I was comfortable just hearing about the low point of Billiken basketball. Now I've seen it? Yuck. Well to be fair - Ekker led us to trouble with the NCAA - illegal summer practices if memory serves me right. At least for now Crews has not done that yet but there is time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Worse coach - Jim Crews or Jeff Fisher? I think Chip Kelly is a more accurate comparison. Crews, like Kelly, has completely lost this team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 The most disappointing part is that it directly followed a high point for the program. Yes to this. A 3 year foundation was laid out and we failed to capitalize on it. Most fans on here would not be as up in arms if we at least saw signs of progress, but we've regressed from last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeSmetBilliken Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 The most disappointing part is that it directly followed a high point for the program. Exactly. Those 3 NCAA teams were so much fun to watch that it makes it tougher to see where the program is now. If Soderberg had followed up his bad third season with another bad year, it would've been tough to watch, but it wouldn't have been as stark of a contrast as this is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbizzle09 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Fun experiment I just did: I searched the term "ekker" in the forums to see how frequently his name was mentioned at least once in a given thread. There are 85 threads with his name, broken down by season (measured as June through May): 2006-2007: 1 2010-2011: 7 2011-2012: 12 2012-2013: 16 2013-2014: 12 2014-2015: 25 (mostly in February and March) 2015-2016: 12 (so far, and in higher frequency within threads) Most mentions before February 2015 are in a much different, more historical context - for contrast instead of comparison. Since then, he's been a more popular subject for comparison's sake. I will say this much: I was born in 1983 so I have no memory of that era, and just about all of the Grawer era, for that matter. From what I understand about our athletic department in the early 80s, though: at least Ekker had the excuse of a total lack of resources. Low budget, low salary, sub-par facilities, lack of commitment from the AD, and so forth. Which is why the disappearance of some of our more AD-connected, established booster-type posters (presumably due to the message board's collective negativity toward the staff in the face of their continued support) is so puzzling to me. They know Crews has world-class facilities, a nice contract, a solid budget, an extremely fertile recruiting region, a basketball-dedicated strength and conditioning coach, and more all-around support from the AD than ever before in SLU history. I know the tone here toward Crews is negative - but what else could it be? He has literally no excuses. None. This is pretty much the reason why I took an optimistic approach to this season even though all the data seemed to indicate that we were in for another sub-.500 season. (Not historically bad like this, but bad nonetheless.) It just seemed unfathomable to me that SLU could go from a top 10 ranking to being a bottom-feeding in less than two years. Yes, many have indicated that Crews shouldn't have been given the job after his interim year when he took the team to the A-10 title and a NCAA tournament win due to his past mediocrity. But even before SLU, he still won four conference coach of the year awards with Evansville, made 4 NCAA tourneys (one as an at-large) and had six 20-win seasons there. Sure, no great shakes, but he at least proved he wasn't completely hapless and at least knew how to coach a little. Combine that with two successful seasons at the beginning at SLU -- yes, with the Sons of Majerus -- and you'd at least think the wheels shouldn't come completely off. Seriously, the guy was given a great salary, top facilities, a solid recruiting area where his is the only real D-1 program in town and all the other stuff Pistol pointed out. His first big recruiting class had just gotten a ton of experience its freshman year and all returned. My thought, obviously erroneous, was that this team had bought in to whatever Crews was selling and was ready to prove any naysayers wrong who were concerned over the poor previous season. I also believed that Crews, while nowhere near Majerus's level, was at least competent enough to improve his players, especially with the knowledge that you needed to restart the momentum lost from the three-year NCAA run. Yet, it appears that Crews is either completely incompetent, has forgotten everything he's known about basketball or just doesn't care and is stealing money. What he has done to this program was inconceivable to me just a few months ago. It is in utter shambles, and it is all his fault. He has blown up everything that was so tirelessly built since 2007, and it took roughly 18 months for him to do it. It is my belief that the school has to fire Crews (or ask him to resign/retire) now. They can't wait. It doesn't matter who they toss in to finish the season as the year is lost. The reason they need to can him is to send a message not only to fans, boosters, recruits and players, but also to any potential coaching candidates that this is going to be an open job immediately. That it is going to be a top priority for the school to find a real coach right away. This really should be a high-end job. The school needs to treat it like so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMM28 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 The players are getting off pretty easy here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 This is pretty much the reason why I took an optimistic approach to this season even though all the data seemed to indicate that we were in for another sub-.500 season. (Not historically bad like this, but bad nonetheless.) It just seemed unfathomable to me that SLU could go from a top 10 ranking to being a bottom-feeding in less than two years. Yes, many have indicated that Crews shouldn't have been given the job after his interim year when he took the team to the A-10 title and a NCAA tournament win due to his past mediocrity. But even before SLU, he still won four conference coach of the year awards with Evansville, made 4 NCAA tourneys (one as an at-large) and had six 20-win seasons there. Sure, no great shakes, but he at least proved he wasn't completely hapless and at least knew how to coach a little. Combine that with two successful seasons at the beginning at SLU -- yes, with the Sons of Majerus -- and you'd at least think the wheels shouldn't come completely off. Seriously, the guy was given a great salary, top facilities, a solid recruiting area where his is the only real D-1 program in town and all the other stuff Pistol pointed out. His first big recruiting class had just gotten a ton of experience its freshman year and all returned. My thought, obviously erroneous, was that this team had bought in to whatever Crews was selling and was ready to prove any naysayers wrong who were concerned over the poor previous season. I also believed that Crews, while nowhere near Majerus's level, was at least competent enough to improve his players, especially with the knowledge that you needed to restart the momentum lost from the three-year NCAA run. Yet, it appears that Crews is either completely incompetent, has forgotten everything he's known about basketball or just doesn't care and is stealing money. What he has done to this program was inconceivable to me just a few months ago. It is in utter shambles, and it is all his fault. He has blown up everything that was so tirelessly built since 2007, and it took roughly 18 months for him to do it. It is my belief that the school has to fire Crews (or ask him to resign/retire) now. They can't wait. It doesn't matter who they toss in to finish the season as the year is lost. The reason they need to can him is to send a message not only to fans, boosters, recruits and players, but also to any potential coaching candidates that this is going to be an open job immediately. That it is going to be a top priority for the school to find a real coach right away. This really should be a high-end job. The school needs to treat it like so. I'm slowly coming to this conclusion myself. I don't think it makes a big difference as no new coach will be hired until the end of the season but at this point the fans just need to know for sure that a new coach is on the way. If nothing else, it will give us a reason to get excited if we win a game or two and not have to fear that doing so increases the chances of Crews being back next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westy03 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Well to be fair - Ekker led us to trouble with the NCAA - illegal summer practices if memory serves me right. At least for now Crews has not done that yet but there is time. If it wasnt for people on this board we wouldve hosted the #1 recruit in the country for an official visit during a dead period Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeSmetBilliken Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Yes, many have indicated that Crews shouldn't have been given the job after his interim year when he took the team to the A-10 title and a NCAA tournament win due to his past mediocrity. But even before SLU, he still won four conference coach of the year awards with Evansville, made 4 NCAA tourneys (one as an at-large) and had six 20-win seasons there. Sure, no great shakes, but he at least proved he wasn't completely hapless and at least knew how to coach a little. Combine that with two successful seasons at the beginning at SLU -- yes, with the Sons of Majerus -- and you'd at least think the wheels shouldn't come completely off. I wasn't optimistic about Crews' ability to keep this program at a level where we would remain a top shelf A-10 (or competitive in the Big East if we had gotten there) program regularly competing for NCAA tournament spots. I figured we would go back to the level of Soderberg's teams. Not bad teams (with the exception of his third season), but still far away from the caliber of the teams Majerus built. This current team causes me to look back at the Soderberg era with fond nostalgia. What a mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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