Jump to content

for you jill haters...


Recommended Posts

it is my understanding that Amanda Kemezys, the 6'4" center from belleville east high school, who might be the best center in the area, verballed to slu yesterday. good job jill.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

According to today's Belleville News-Democrat, one of the reasons 6-4 Amanda Kemezys chose SLU over numerous other offers is because see wanted to play close to home so her family could easily watch her play. Amanda is super strong athlete, by no means a lightweight. Also plays volleyball.

I suggested to Coach Soderberg one time that I thought recruiting a local player must be 2-3 times easier than trying to recruit an out-of-state player. He thought it was more like 4-5 times easier to sign a local vs. the out-of- state player. Too bad the metro St. Louis area is so inconsistent in its annual production of high D1 talent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thnnks B-Roy. Let's see how good she is when she gets here. One of Jills assistant probably found her, I doubt that Jill found her. She will probably get here next year and asky herself why she came to SLU. Jill will probably ruin her career just like every other player she has coached. But, Roy thanks for the info! Have a great day!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just curious Orlando ... why do you have it out for Jill so bad. I agree her results have been poor ... and I'm on the fence between thinking she should be let go or given a better opportunity to succeed. You though seem to want to trash her at every opportunity ... Why?

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am certainly not a Jill hater,in fact I've spoken to her many times and have found her rather charming. That said I do wonder if this board would be so supportive if the mens coach had her record. I know she took over a very poor program and made it better,but she has not been able to get over the hump. How many years should she have? Or does anyone care?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

imo, Jill deserves three to four years in the new on-campus arena to prove she can build/maintain a successful program. I guessing she has been operating with the worst major D1 women's game and practice facilities (West Pine)in the country. While it may not matter to others, the fact that her last squad had seven C-USA academic award winners I believe is a meaningful achievement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe they should make Jill head of the honors program. Seriously I doubt if our facilities are any worse than DePaul or Marq. or Tulane or some of our soon to be ex CUSA schools. If I was Ms. Levick I would expect improvement this year or I would be looking for a new coach. But as I said earlier I don't really care.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

does jill have an equal budget with other area women's team's? i am under the assumption she does not. plus, brad at least gets to say he plays his games at the savvis. imo, jill doesnt have near the benefits to succeed. now if she had a budget equal to say sms and played her games in a bigtime arena (it's coming) then i ask what is going on. but until then, it appears to me she is doing what the administration wants.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

her belleville news democrat story today only has quotes about her relationship with jill no assistants mentioned.

she is a tall and strong girl. i cannot see how she wont step in and play right away. i have seen her play a few times and i think she will be a big addition to the team.

now if jill can get teresa lisch (althoff) and alexandria blake (john burroughs) from the next class, that would be pretty good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am sorry but Marquette's old facility was 10X worse than West Pine and Jim Jabir and Terry Mitchell have been able to build a program there during the early to mid 90's that went to a few NCAA's. In the last 90's the Marq. women moved games to the MECCA off campus they were lucky to draw 1500 to a game in a 10000 seat arena and still went to the NCAA's. From what a Memphis fan told me at the SLU/Memphis womens game last year what Memphis has is not any better than West Pine. Enough with the excuses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good for Marquette and Memphis. But there are still local high school gyms that are more impressive than West Pine.

If top female players want to stay within 3 hrs of family and friends they can always go to a more established Valley school and that's what a lot of them choose to do. However, Jill has still managed to upgrade the talent in the last two recruiting classes. I just have my doubts on whether she will be able to coach that talent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There has been no evidence provided (just asserted) that gyms CAUSE teams to recruit better and win. In fact, the causation runs the other way (and why fetishizing facilities is fallacious), that good programs (who are already able to recruit well) build good facilities (NOT vice versa).

Billiken Law correctly provides just a few of the many examples of successful teams without top facilities (although in time successful teams without great facilities eventually get around to building nice facilities to reward their team and fans). I would think this was more true of women's ball. In order to show that arena's (and to a lesser extent practice facilities) are the great victory generator and recruit magnet one would need to show that nearly all teams greatly improve when they build new facilites. I do not think that is the case (there may be a strong shortrun "honeymoon effect" but I have not observed anything sustained in the 4 or 5 places I am thinking of).

Also, nowhere has it been shown that the actual physical venue plays the central role in recruiting that has often been intimated here. It plays a role probably, but the school, coach, team, academic fit/support, location, etc. play bigger roles.

I admit that West Pine is no big draw (but I still think it is cool in a historic/archeticural way) and at minimum SLU needs to build a new practice facility but that is no reason to make it the lynchpin to success.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about Rachel Pierson from IWA? One of Jill's ex assistants is her coach. She is one of the top players in the area but Jill can not seem to get the great talent out of St.Louis. You would think one of her ex asst coaches like Dan Rolfes would help get her. BUt it makes you think, why can't Jill get her?

Jill will not get Lisch, if Stephanie did not come here why would teresa want to come to a losing program. If you can not win in West Pine what makes people think Jill will WIN in an on Campus Arena?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if you get a chance to see slu play this year, they have a freshman on the team named mia johnson from minneapolis who was ranked in the top 50 in her senior class. she led her team to the state title as a junior, tore her acl, but came back in february and led her team (minneapolis north, I believe) to a second state title. she chose slu over her home school minnesota (which was in the final four last year) and rutgers.

for those who like to surf, look up the name mia johnson and report back what you find. she is better than any guard around st. louis.

bad boyz for life

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...