Pistol Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 On 3/29/2016 at 10:31 PM, Pistol said: He can recruit. But he can't coach. His in-game coaching is objectively poor. This is a baffling hire. We may look like a program on the rebound for a little while - assuming he can recruit here, and I think he can - but we will get frustrated when he squanders talent and fails to get us anywhere. Prove me wrong, Coach Ford! On 7/5/2018 at 12:34 PM, Pistol said: If I'm the person calling the shots here, I'd give Ford an extension right now, taking my chances on the potential of him winning with this group and future groups, and with the mindset that an extension is going to cost a lot more in the spring, not to mention the threat of other offers down the road. Which means I'm also not going to fire the guy if they don't produce to my expections this season, and my expectations are an NCAA Tournament appearance. Hopefully that also means an A10 conference and/or tournament title, but a top 2-3 finish should also do it if things go well enough in the non-conference slate and break right in relation to the rest of the field. And then next season I'd be looking to build on that result. We should be good enough this year to make some noise in March. We have a lot of new guys playing together, so I expect some stumbles, but barring injury problems or other unforeseen circumstances, I have a good feeling about this squad. This thread is a fascinating read. We seem almost universally skeptical of the initial hire and by late 2017 we're eating crow and by 2018 we're full speed ahead. Should've trusted our initial instincts. SLUMedBilliken15, TheChosenOne, MusicCityBilliken and 2 others like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheA_Bomb Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 33 minutes ago, Pistol said: This thread is a fascinating read. We seem almost universally skeptical of the initial hire and by late 2017 we're eating crow and by 2018 we're full speed ahead. Should've trusted our initial instincts. Yeah I threatened to water board someone. I did not remember that and for the record, I never waterboarded that person. So I owe him/her still. PM me so we can meet in Rolla bring a towel. I'd like to point out that the guy I was advocating SLU hire, Leon Rice, has gone to 3 NITs, 2 NCAAs and is 14-6 on the bubble with the KenPom #28 ranked Defense this season. All our worst concerns over Ford are realized worse than we anticipated. Dr. Holly Hills, Pistol, JMM28 and 2 others like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChosenOne Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 It is interesting how prophetic some of these posts ended up being (including an Oklahoma State fan spelling out what we would be getting). Yet, a year in folks decided to dunk on those individuals (hilarious to read at this point) with many acknowledging they were wrong and then here we are with those initial posts being spot on. Really interesting to read. Maybe we aren't the collection of morons I thought we were! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 The reason people started to get behind Ford was because of his success in recruiting. The problem then was never if he could get players but what he did with them. He got lucky/unlucky depending on how you look at it with Situation 2 and he got a pass which only delayed the inevitable. His inability to hold players accountable caused the ones who had a bit of a checkered past to go off the rails and not live up to expectations. 10 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said: It is interesting how prophetic some of these posts ended up being (including an Oklahoma State fan spelling out what we would be getting). Yet, a year in folks decided to dunk on those individuals (hilarious to read at this point) with many acknowledging they were wrong and then here we are with those initial posts being spot on. Really interesting to read. Maybe we aren't the collection of morons I thought we were! TheChosenOne and Soderball like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 On 3/29/2016 at 9:42 PM, brianstl said: Jim Crews has 3x as many NCAA tournament wins as Travis Ford. Let that set in for a minute. Still true. dlarry and SLUMedBilliken15 like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 34 minutes ago, Pistol said: This thread is a fascinating read. We seem almost universally skeptical of the initial hire and by late 2017 we're eating crow and by 2018 we're full speed ahead. Should've trusted our initial instincts. Pretty accurate reflection of most of the fan base, and some of the initial coaching concerns were certainly warranted, but I think it is more nuanced than that. His mediocre coaching (to put it kindly) has played out as expected, but I don't think it was wrong to be won over by the recruiting for a period of time either. He quickly assembled what was a good staff at SLU - Tate, Bailey and Macon and hit the recruiting trail hard - landed some nice transfers. Too bad the immediate eligibility rules weren't in place then, or Bess, Foreman and Henriquez would have hit the floor right away and the rebuild would have been even quicker. He makes the NCAA Tournament in year 3 following Crews, he follows the next three seasons with Top 50-ish rosters (one that cracked the Top 25). Very few people were really calling for his head until last year - IMO, that was the first truly disappointing season. He then followed that up with terrible recruiting and now you have this year's dumpster fire and it is time for him to go. I'm very frustrated now with the situation like everyone else, but I'm not going to rewrite history and go back and say the era was a complete disaster - the way things turned out has been very disappointing for a lot of different reasons, absolutely - but he did in fact stack recruiting classes over a 4 year period as good or better than any SLU coach, so I don't think people were wrong to be won over by the recruiting. Things change and he can no longer recruit in this environment. Time for a change. DOC and billiken_roy like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbj14 Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Cringing reading my old posts. Was an absolute sucker. Going to chalk that up to being a dumb undergrad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 I think it is important to point out we get a program in our current state when you ignore the recommendations of the search firm @Box and Won& @JMM28 LLC. Box and Won, JMM28 and TheChosenOne like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChosenOne Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 2 minutes ago, ACE said: I'm very frustrated now with the situation like everyone else, but I'm not going to rewrite history and go back and say the era was a complete disaster - the way things turned out has been very disappointing for a lot of different reasons, absolutely - but he did in fact stack recruiting classes over a 4 year period as good or better than any SLU coach, so I don't think people were wrong to be won over by the recruiting. Things change and he can no longer recruit in this environment. Time for a change. And when you read some of the posts from when it appears Ford was first rumored to be the choice (I had forgotten about the PR mess it became), this is exactly what some folks predicted. He would improve the talent, the talent would have some success, but underachieve, and then things would fall apart. Really crazy how prophetic some were and reading the take from the Oklahoma State fan is wild. I called him as mediocre as they come, the white Frank Haith, so I am not pretending I was one of those people as I never give a measured take. TheA_Bomb likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Ford brought in some real talent. More than I thought he would. I'd argue he underacheived with that talent but I won't get into COVID and injuries. Then he lost all momentum and the bottom fell out and here we are. ACE and cgeldmacher like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 It cracks me up how much Jerry hated this hire and how much he hates Travis Ford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 9 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said: And when you read some of the posts from when it appears Ford was first rumored to be the choice (I had forgotten about the PR mess it became), this is exactly what some folks predicted. He would improve the talent, the talent would have some success, but underachieve, and then things would fall apart. Really crazy how prophetic some were and reading the take from the Oklahoma State fan is wild. I called him as mediocre as they come, the white Frank Haith, so I am not pretending I was one of those people as I never give a measured take. Yeah, I think it's safe to say there were two camps about the hire: disliked it and not thrilled, but will keep an open mind... I don't really recall any segment of the fanbase that was immediately excited about it. But he started quickly winning some people over by landing the transfers, and getting Tate brought optimism because then we were quickly mentioned being in the mix for strong local recruits like Goodwin. It went from dislike/ambivalence to mostly positive in just a few months. Pistol and TheChosenOne like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 I do hope the next hire has more universal excitement. Not that excitement matters but would be nice TheChosenOne likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billikenfan05 Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 3 minutes ago, slufan13 said: I do hope the next hire has more universal excitement. Not that excitement matters but would be nice It absolutely cannot resemble a retread. Chris Mack is the only exception. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgstl Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 On 3/29/2016 at 10:43 PM, wgstl said: Why do people forget he stayed relevant in the best conference in the country. Im not thrilled but this could have been worse. How did his in-game coaching keep him semi relevant in the B12? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OkieBilliken Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 2 minutes ago, wgstl said: How did his in-game coaching keep him semi relevant in the B12? He had Marcus freakin' Smart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLIKNS Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Looking back , I was hoping we would have gotten Johnny Dawkins. Stanford had just fired him, but UCF got him first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NextYearBill Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 the Fire Chris May posts dating back 8 years..... i love it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgstl Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 24 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said: He had Marcus freakin' Smart For 2 years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 This is one hellova read. I didn't post way back when but if I did choose, I'd probably have been in the wait-n-see crowd. But the Oklahoma State fan was dead right on. Amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 The other thing these threads reminded me was that the process was excruciating for us. It dragged on, went through ups and downs, and had a total lack of transparency. We were worried about the warning signs for Ford but ignored that the search/hiring process was loaded with red flags for May. JMM28 likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 1 hour ago, ACE said: Pretty accurate reflection of most of the fan base, and some of the initial coaching concerns were certainly warranted, but I think it is more nuanced than that. His mediocre coaching (to put it kindly) has played out as expected, but I don't think it was wrong to be won over by the recruiting for a period of time either. He quickly assembled what was a good staff at SLU - Tate, Bailey and Macon and hit the recruiting trail hard - landed some nice transfers. Too bad the immediate eligibility rules weren't in place then, or Bess, Foreman and Henriquez would have hit the floor right away and the rebuild would have been even quicker. He makes the NCAA Tournament in year 3 following Crews, he follows the next three seasons with Top 50-ish rosters (one that cracked the Top 25). Very few people were really calling for his head until last year - IMO, that was the first truly disappointing season. He then followed that up with terrible recruiting and now you have this year's dumpster fire and it is time for him to go. I'm very frustrated now with the situation like everyone else, but I'm not going to rewrite history and go back and say the era was a complete disaster - the way things turned out has been very disappointing for a lot of different reasons, absolutely - but he did in fact stack recruiting classes over a 4 year period as good or better than any SLU coach, so I don't think people were wrong to be won over by the recruiting. Things change and he can no longer recruit in this environment. Time for a change. So you don't think Goodwin and French's last year when they had a number 1 seed in the NIT and lost in the first round to an 8 a disappointment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrettJollyComedyHour Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 20 minutes ago, Pistol said: red flags for May The man is a walking red flag lol. He reminds me of the George Bush parody from 30 Rock. He takes one thing he remembers about you and turns it into your personality if he ever sees you again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettFlight5 Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 11 minutes ago, cheeseman said: So you don't think Goodwin and French's last year when they had a number 1 seed in the NIT and lost in the first round to an 8 a disappointment? That was the year that should have been an automatic firing NextYearBill and Box and Won like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 35 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said: The man is a walking red flag lol. He reminds me of the George Bush parody from 30 Rock. He takes one thing he remembers about you and turns it into your personality if he ever sees you again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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