GDT SLU vs GM

[Box and Won]

Rammer said something about a special announcement at halftime on Saturday. I'm assuming the announcement won't be that Crews is retiring.

We're finally getting invited to the Big East. DePaul and St. John's lobbied for us so they'd have someone to beat up on.

[cheeseman]

Oh yes, exactly. We had our guys stand off to the side with only Bartley guarding the rim. We handed out matador caps for them to wave Livingston through. He had five seconds to dribble the length of the court. Figure it out!

A quick guard can make it full court in less than 5 seconds. (Review Tynus Edney's drive v Mizzou. That only took 4.2 seconds.)

Yes I understand wise ass but to be able to get to the basket and have to have it blocked means he drove pretty much uninhibited. I saw the drive my Edney and that is exactly what happened. Had any Missouri player made any attempt to defend he would not have gotten to the basket in time. They were so afraid to foul that they let him go in uncontested. If we did the same then that is just dumb. It is possible to defend without fouling.

[TheA_Bomb]

Jermaine "All A-10" Bishop!

That's right all-time A10

[Billiken Law]

We're finally getting invited to the Big East. DePaul and St. John's lobbied for us so they'd have someone to beat up on.

Someone's number being retired?

[kshoe]

Ash was NOT a Crews recruit. Ash came to play for Majerus after watching us destroy Nova in Anaheim. Let's get the history correct.

Wrong. Ash was part of the spring recruiting class of Reggie and tanner lanconna after crews had been hired full time. Majerus had nothing to do with his recruitment.

Let's get the history correct.

[brianstl]

We're finally getting invited to the Big East. DePaul and St. John's lobbied for us so they'd have someone to beat up on.

My guess is it is the introduction of all the previous Billiken alumni. Supposedly they have a ton of former players coming in for it.

[brianstl]

One thing that really cracked me up from Rammer and Earl last night was after Reggie got hit in the eye. Rammer said something like "They are checking to see if Reggie wants to come out. Reggie is saying he wants to stay in. If you come out in this rotation you don't know if you will ever get back in.". Earl, "That's true".

[slufan13]

One thing that really cracked me up from Rammer and Earl last night was after Reggie got hit in the eye. Rammer said something like "They are checking to see if Reggie wants to come out. Reggie is saying he wants to stay in. If you come out in this rotation you don't know if you will ever get back in.". Earl, "That's true".

That's awesome. I love Rammer and Earl but they're obviously huge homers. When they're calling out the rotation issues, you know the coaching staff is clueless.

[slufan13]

Where was Reynolds tonight?

My guess is he's either 1) hurt and they didn't announce anything nor did he say anything on twitter. or 2) the staff finally realized that he's not a good player, he's one dimensional and that one dimension would get destroyed by Mason's big men, and that he's 4th on the depth chart at PG at the moment.

[Taj79]

kshoe --- I recall an interview where Yacoubou stated that as he sat on the bench and watched a Majerus-led SLU whip his then Villanova Wildcats in Anaheim that he was truly impressed and that more than anything else helped him decide to come and play for SLU. Sure, Crews made the official transfer announcement in June of 13 because Majerus was dead and gone. And I am sure Yacoubou thought --- like many of us did ---- that based on Crews' guiding of the Majerus-staffed ship in 2012-13, success of that nature would surely continue. Show me where Yacoubou said "ooh, love that Jim Crews guy" and I'll concede.

Last year, I had the chance to talk to Ash's brother at Fordham. Yeah, I know. Consider the source. He said the problem with Ash was that Crews was an idiot an didn't know how to use him properly. And he said Ash didn't sign up for Crews, he signed up for Majerus. But Ash also signed up for Jay Wright and that too did not work out. Such is life.

[JMM28]

If Ash signed up for Majerus in June of 2013, he or his brother might need help. Or they ran into the greatest salesperson ever. Or there's a guy that looks like Rick out there recruiting on behalf of SLU.

You know, since Majerus died in 2012.

[kshoe]

Taj, your timeline is just off. We played Villanova around thanksgiving of ash's freshman year. Majerus left the SLU team the following summer and died during Ash's sophomore year at Villanova. Ash then decided to transfer and considered multiple schools before choosing SLU. Sure ash may have remembered us beating them but majerus was dead by 6 months when the decision was made.

What's next, in 3 years if a kid signs with SLU and says he remembers us playing in the NCAA tourney under majerus, will we call him a majerus recruit too?

[Clock_Tower]

Taj, your timeline is just off. We played Villanova around thanksgiving of ash's freshman year. Majerus left the SLU team the following summer and died during Ash's sophomore year at Villanova. Ash then decided to transfer and considered multiple schools before choosing SLU. Sure ash may have remembered us beating them but majerus was dead by 6 months when the decision was made.

What's next, in 3 years if a kid signs with SLU and says he remembers us playing in the NCAA tourney under majerus, will we call him a majerus recruit too?

Our current Soph class (all Crews recruits) chose SLU in large part because SLU was a winning program with 3 straight NCAA Tourney appearances - thanks to RM. And TL and RA committed to SLU after Crews was given National Coach of the Year honors guiding us to the NCAA Tourney for a second straight time. And Ash committed to SLU during this time so we have seen the best talent that Crews can recruit. After 2 miserable years, what good recruit now says he wants to play for Crews and SLU?

And I am not surprised about Ash's comments, Rammer's comments about our staff's substitution patterns or the negative comments/attitude of guys ranging from Glaze and Manning to McBroom and Lancona. And watching the regression of the Sophomore class and the lack of development of Neufeld, etc., I see more issues with the coaching skills of Jim Crews than anything else.

Finally, the only explanation I can give as to our staff's decisions regarding playing time, starting, substitution patterns, etc. is based upon attitude. My guess is that guys are repeatedly butting heads with Crews (in practice, during games, at halftime) and are being punished with lack of playing time. And frankly, this has gone on way too long with way too many kids. Wasn't Ash benched all during the Bahama's trip? The common link to all of them is Jim Crews. In short, Jim Crews must go and the sooner the better.

[Taj79]

No, I got the timeline. And I agree with your first graph above. I didn't say Majerus recruited him and I didn't say he was a Majerus recruit. I said he came to play for Majerus and I based that on Ash's front row view of Majerus' 2011-12 SLU team that impressed him enough to stick in his mind and make playing in that system a desire of his. Given that the success continued without Majerus at the helm and involved Crews, it would be logical to assume similar success despite the Majerus passing. And it continued for 12-13 and 13-14, Ash's sit out year. So if I were he, I'd be stoked coming out of my one year exile in 14-15. But that didn't happen because that was the first year devoid of all Majerus recruits. Kind of like some perverse 'bait-n-switch' routine.

In this regard, I believe Crews had no influence in the recruitment of Yacoubou unless someone can show me otherwise. I will admit to not knowing how the recruitment of transfers works -- I do know no coach can contact another recruit at another school until that recruit is released from said letter of intent/scholarship. I am not naïve enough to think someone somewhere is not operating in the background for said transfer benefit. Family. Friends. AAU coach. Street Agent. I am sure someone made a call to SLU, Crews likely, and said "hey Jimmy, if Ash Yacoubou wants to transfer, you want him and do you have a spot for him?" If you determine that makes him a 'Crews' recruit,' fine by me.

And besides, someone (was it MB?) has already said that Crews cannot take credit or blame for that first recruiting class given his interim status. No Agbeko, no Lancona, no Crawford. Isn't that Ash's class too? So no credit.

Your last statement is just ludicrous. I like how you weave that in however.

[hsmith19]

All these guys were seduced by the tourney teams stacked with Majerus recruits. Roby said the win over Memphis is what put SLU on his radar. Reynolds mentioned SLU's national ranking all the time. Although Crawford and Welmer are from Indiana, so maybe they were just really jazzed to play for the great Jim Crews and didn't care at all about those tourney years.

[CBFan]

All these guys were seduced by the tourney teams stacked with Majerus recruits. Roby said the win over Memphis is what put SLU on his radar. Reynolds mentioned SLU's national ranking all the time. Although Crawford and Welmer are from Indiana, so maybe they were just really jazzed to play for the great Jim Crews and didn't care at all about those tourney years.

Crawford and Welmer were jazzed by the great coach Crews because he played for Bobby Knight and the Indiana basketball team. Coach Crews is Royalty in Indiana, lol.

[hsmith19]

Welmer's grandpa might have some tales from childhood about watching Crews hit clutch free throws in that undefeated run.

[HoosierPal]

Yes I understand wise ass but to be able to get to the basket and have to have it blocked means he drove pretty much uninhibited. I saw the drive my Edney and that is exactly what happened. Had any Missouri player made any attempt to defend he would not have gotten to the basket in time. They were so afraid to foul that they let him go in uncontested. If we did the same then that is just dumb. It is possible to defend without fouling.

It seems like you want to make this into a bonehead play by the Billikens.

Listening to Rammer and Earl, it wasn't. Livingston is quick. Our quickest defender, Hines, had already fouled out. GM had already shot 31 FT, to our 9. So the refs likely call any slight bump or impedance as a foul. Boom, tie game. And don't forgot about Thompson and Gujanicic. We double Livingston, and they get a layup.

You stated that you read about this block in an article. So you didn't see the play, nor did I. I will give the benefit of doubt to the team handling the play the best way possible. You can take the opposite approach.

And Bartley blocked the shot. We won. Deal with it.

[kshoe]

Taj, I give up. If a man that was dead for 6 months is the reason Ash committed then so be it.

To follow your logic, every recruit that that committed to SLU having watched crews coach the jordair, Evans, loe etc teams under the majerus style must have really been coming to SLU for Majerus. This includes the entire sophomore class. Brilliant.

[ACE]

Bishop is definitely a keeper. I think Neufeld has some positive things that can be developed. Milik has talent. Bartley played well down the stretch. Reggie has been a man.

Now, it's not NCAA or maybe even NIT talent, but there are some decent pieces for the next coach.

The board's self-anointed moral authority was outraged when I suggested there were some things about Bishop's game that reminded me of MM. I was a huge MM fan, but I may have actually underestimated Bishop's ability to as a playmaker. Six assists - very nice. He may not be as steady as MM, but I think he flashes more creativity and ability to create for others to his game.

Agreed about the talent. I have evolved on this position - originally of the belief it was ALL terrible recruiting, but I am convinced bad coaching and player development is also another ingredient in this stew. Several players have flashed potential, but few show consistent, incremental improvement. You never know what you are going to get from one game to the next. A new coach could improve that. Not sure why so many on the board don't agree with that premise. IF one believes that the problem all boils down to a lack of talent, do you then believe that JC has done the best he can from an Xs and Os and player development standpoint?

[willie]

The board's self-anointed moral authority was outraged when I suggested there were some things about Bishop's game that reminded me of MM. I was a huge MM fan, but I may have actually underestimated Bishop's ability to as a playmaker. Six assists - very nice. He may not be as steady as MM, but I think he flashes more creativity and ability to create for others to his game.

Agreed about the talent. I have evolved on this position - originally of the belief it was ALL terrible recruiting, but I am convinced bad coaching and player development is also another ingredient in this ###### stew. Several players have flashed potential, but few show consistent, incremental improvement. You never know what you are going to get from one game to the next. A new coach could improve that. Not sure why so many on the board don't agree with that premise. IF one believes that the problem all boils down to a lack of talent, do you then believe that JC has done the best he can from an Xs and Os and player development standpoint?

Why does it matter? Either way it all falls to Crews. Bad talent=Crews. Poor coaching =Crews. Either way he has to go.

[Taj79]

Don't give up kshoe. Where would I be without you?

Why do you insist on extrapolating out the Ash circumstance to ALL Billiken recruits. That's your choice, ergo your problem. One size does not fit all. Each case has its particular reason. smith and CBfan capture some of them above. Some likely real; some likely facetious. I recall also hearing the Roby-Memphis correlation somewhere before. I am relating what I recall was attributed to Ash when he decided to transfer and picked us ... that he was impressed by what he saw from the Billiken team in Anaheim at the time we crushed Nova (#1 in the polls today). And Oklahoma (#3 in those same polls today).

Again, I do not believe Ash ever committed to anything Crews and was only correcting Soderball's statement that "Ash is Crews' best recruit" made in post 68 of this thread. I will do the same any time anyone says "Crews was Majerus' handpicked successor" unless they can provide attributional support for that as well. I have no problem with someone saying "Majerus recommended Crews for the interim tag over Whitesell," but hand picked successor for the program? No way, without further documented proof.

[Soderball]

Don't give up kshoe. Where would I be without you?

Why do you insist on extrapolating out the Ash circumstance to ALL Billiken recruits. That's your choice, ergo your problem. One size does not fit all. Each case has its particular reason. smith and CBfan capture some of them above. Some likely real; some likely facetious. I recall also hearing the Roby-Memphis correlation somewhere before. I am relating what I recall was attributed to Ash when he decided to transfer and picked us ... that he was impressed by what he saw from the Billiken team in Anaheim at the time we crushed Nova (#1 in the polls today). And Oklahoma (#3 in those same polls today).

Again, I do not believe Ash ever committed to anything Crews and was only correcting Soderball's statement that "Ash is Crews' best recruit" made in post 68 of this thread. I will do the same any time anyone says "Crews was Majerus' handpicked successor" unless they can provide attributional support for that as well. I have no problem with someone saying "Majerus recommended Crews for the interim tag over Whitesell," but hand picked successor for the program? No way, without further documented proof.

Crews sucks. Fire Jim Crews. That's all I care about.

If my argument supports firing Crews, then I stand by it.

If your argument supports firing Crews, and you support firing Crews, then i agree with you unequivocally and godspeed to you, sir. Fire Jim Crews.

[ACE]

Why does it matter? Either way it all falls to Crews. Bad talent=Crews. Poor coaching =Crews. Either way he has to go.

Certainly agree with the conclusion - we're all there, except for perhaps mb. It "matters" when the conversation shifts to how long the program will be down. Some think that this program will stay in the dumps for a long time. Look around college basketball. Numerous examples of good coaches who are able to get things at least headed in the right direction fairly quickly. My point is the right coach could take some of these players to a level of respectability... still not great, but at least a noticeable step forward.

[SShoe]

Why does it matter? Either way it all falls to Crews. Bad talent=Crews. Poor coaching =Crews. Either way he has to go.

Because if you believe there is some talent there that hasn't been properly coached, it gives hope that a new coach could do significantly better in years 1 and 2 A.C.