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Maybe one day we can get where Loyola has gotten


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Willie's right there were not a lot of objections about hiring Crews and there was some consternation as to why it was taking so long. Winning the COY award put May in between a rock and a hard place. I can recall some analysts saying you can't dismiss a COY. However, I don't think anyone was overly enthusiastic about retaining Crews as HC either. A lot of posters were skeptical in that he didn 't accomplish much at Evansville or Army, who fired him. His job with Rick's boys consisted of making sure the unis were clean, a practice schedule was kept, making the plane on time, etc. Those two teams were on auto pilot. I also don't think we got him on the cheap, as I seem to recall his salary was somewhere in the $800k region. He should be made to pay at least one half of that back to the school.

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4 hours ago, ACE said:

I would be on board if the title read - Maybe one day we can be Gonzaga or Xavier.

I'm rooting for Porter and have over the years stopped and watched a bit of his teams when I run across them on the tv. It's great what he has done this year, but until he strings a few NCAA appearances together, it will just be viewed as another cute "Cinderella" story. They were a number #11 seed and may not have even gotten in without winning their conference tournament. Fortunately, they have been able to pull out a couple of buzzer beaters in the Dance this year. But if this is where the ride ends for Loyola and they are out of the Tourney the next couple of years, I'd prefer our three-year run - three at-large bids (#9 seed, #4 seed and #5 seed) plus breaking the Top 25 rankings in some of those years and winning a Tourney game each of those years. It's more legit than a Cinderella story.

What I want is sustained success, which is elusive for most programs. I'm much more interested in the two plus decades of continuous success of Xavier and Gonzaga than I am in what may just be "one shining moment."

Not disagreeing with your point, but the 12-13 team was not an at-large bid. After winning the league, we also won the conference tourney for an autobid.

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5 minutes ago, White Pelican said:

Not disagreeing with your point, but the 12-13 team was not an at-large bid. After winning the league, we also won the conference tourney for an autobid.

Technically not an at large, but easily would have been based on that seed we received. The same can't be said for this year's Loyola team, that would have been on the bubble without winning their conference tourney.

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49 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Willie's right there were not a lot of objections about hiring Crews and there was some consternation as to why it was taking so long. Winning the COY award put May in between a rock and a hard place. I can recall some analysts saying you can't dismiss a COY. However, I don't think anyone was overly enthusiastic about retaining Crews as HC either. A lot of posters were skeptical in that he didn 't accomplish much at Evansville or Army, who fired him. His job with Rick's boys consisted of making sure the unis were clean, a practice schedule was kept, making the plane on time, etc. Those two teams were on auto pilot. I also don't think we got him on the cheap, as I seem to recall his salary was somewhere in the $800k region. He should be made to pay at least one half of that back to the school.

Nothing you said is wrong but $750 was the salary and compared to RM's $1M on a contract 5 years earlier it was cheap.  To get anybody of consequence to come here it was going to take 1.5 M then.  Crews got lucky and he knew it so he did not play hard to get.  

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19 minutes ago, Billiken Rich said:

A sweet sixteen is farther than we've ever been......not counting the NIT runs.  I'd trade our first NCAA tourney under Rick -- going to the sweet sixteen -- for the two crews post season years any day of the week

So the following year after RM passed away... winning the regular season conference title and conference tournament title in the same season for the only time in school history wasn't special? Plus, beating the amazing Brad Stevens three times that year in addition to beating VCU twice (including one a$$ kicking). That season showed we weren't some Cinderella story. We were legit bad asses.

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4 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

you think rickma would have allowed anyone to set up a succession plan for himself that he didnt approve?   crews was his succession plan.   he was the man hand selected to serve as the interim coach when rickma got sick by rickma himself.  unfortunately the team was so well prepared by rickma (who was indeed a basketball genius) that crews couldnt fail with that team.   my 89 year old mother could have coached that team and won.   then we were pretty much stuck with crews from that point.  

I respect your posts but disagree with this comment.

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6 minutes ago, ACE said:

So the following year after RM passed away... winning the regular season conference title and conference tournament title in the same season for the only time in school history wasn't special? Plus, beating the amazing Brad Stevens three times that year in addition to beating VCU twice (including one a$$ kicking). That season showed we weren't some Cinderella story. We were legit bad asses.

I forgot about the accolades and accomplishments of that season until you framed it like this.  Wow - what an accomplishment....

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5 minutes ago, ACE said:

So the following year after RM passed away... winning the regular season conference title and conference tournament title in the same season for the only time in school history wasn't special? Plus, beating the amazing Brad Stevens three times that year in addition to beating VCU twice (including one a$$ kicking). That season showed we weren't some Cinderella story. We were legit bad asses.

Being apart of the win at Butler that season was one of the highlights of my time in school. Walking out of Hinkle after that win, I'll never forget it.

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11 minutes ago, TheOne said:

I respect your posts but disagree with this comment.

so you say that rickma did not want crews to be the interim coach?  so who do you say rickma wanted to be the interim coach and who decided that crews was the choice instead?

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12 minutes ago, ACE said:

So the following year after RM passed away... winning the regular season conference title and conference tournament title in the same season for the only time in school history wasn't special? Plus, beating the amazing Brad Stevens three times that year in addition to beating VCU twice (including one a$$ kicking). That season showed we weren't some Cinderella story. We were legit bad asses.

One of my favorite highlights of that season was blowing the doors off of Top-20 ranked New Mexico on New Year's Eve.  Coach Steve Alford didn't even get to see the second half as he got double-Teed up as we built a 20 point first-half lead.  That was awesome!

There were signs of troubles ahead when we lost our entire Freshman class for that season.  I wonder what kind of player Keith Carter would have ended up being if Majerus had been his coach for 4 years.

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15 minutes ago, ACE said:

So the following year after RM passed away... winning the regular season conference title and conference tournament title in the same season for the only time in school history wasn't special? Plus, beating the amazing Brad Stevens three times that year in addition to beating VCU twice (including one a$$ kicking). That season showed we weren't some Cinderella story. We were legit bad asses.

We were badass that year but through bad luck and match-ups we didn't get as far as freaking loyola........I believe it was their second sweet sixteen too.....

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8 minutes ago, Matty Light said:

There were signs of troubles ahead when we lost our entire Freshman class for that season.  I wonder what kind of player Keith Carter would have ended up being if Majerus had been his coach for 4 years.

Majerus used to rave about him. Said he was the best PG he'd had since Andre Miller. Though he also said John Manning would play in the NBA

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The NCAA committee really screwed us that year.  Giving Oregon a 12-seed and placing them in San Jose??!!  They were 26-8 and 2nd in the Pac-12.  While that was bad for us, imagine what Travis Ford was thinking when he saw the tournament selection.  You get the 5-seed but you have to play Oregon all the way out West.  Oregon had no business being anything less than a 9-seed.

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22 hours ago, Matty Light said:

The NCAA committee really screwed us that year.  Giving Oregon a 12-seed and placing them in San Jose??!!  They were 26-8 and 2nd in the Pac-12.  While that was bad for us, imagine what Travis Ford was thinking when he saw the tournament selection.  You get the 5-seed but you have to play Oregon all the way out West.  Oregon had no business being anything less than a 9-seed.

I may be wrong but I also think they won the PAC12 tourney that year.

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23 hours ago, Matty Light said:

The NCAA committee really screwed us that year.  Giving Oregon a 12-seed and placing them in San Jose??!!  They were 26-8 and 2nd in the Pac-12.  While that was bad for us, imagine what Travis Ford was thinking when he saw the tournament selection.  You get the 5-seed but you have to play Oregon all the way out West.  Oregon had no business being anything less than a 9-seed.

Again if memory serves me, the 12 seed we played in San Jose was New Mexico St that had that Turkish Redwood Tree at C, Kantor?, we got Oregon in the second game. Either way Oregon was way under seeded and treated very favorably by the committee. Also, they weren't supposed to be a good perimeter shooting team, but against us they hit 3s from just about everywhere on the court.

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4 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Again if memory serves me, the 12 seed we played in San Jose was New Mexico St that had that Turkish Redwood Tree at C, Kantor?, we got Oregon in the second game. Either way Oregon was way under seeded and treated very favorably by the committee. Also, they weren't supposed to be a good perimeter shooting team, but against us they hit 3s from just about everywhere on the court.

Sim Bhullar was his name. Indian descent, born and raised in the Toronto area. He played at 7-5 and close to 400 lbs. at NMSU, and is still playing - currently in Taiwan. Had a cup of coffee in the NBA - 10-day contract with the Kings, and checked in for the last 16 seconds of one game, making him the first player of Indian descent to play in the league.

Oregon went 8-11 from 3 against us. They were a horrible matchup for us. Just how it goes sometimes.

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2 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Sim Bhullar was his name. Indian descent, born and raised in the Toronto area. He played at 7-5 and close to 400 lbs. at NMSU, and is still playing - currently in Taiwan. Had a cup of coffee in the NBA - 10-day contract with the Kings, and checked in for the last 16 seconds of one game, making him the first player of Indian descent to play in the league.

Oregon went 8-11 from 3 against us. They were a horrible matchup for us. Just how it goes sometimes.

I am not worthy, Pistol. Tx for the corrections. That means Oregon was the 13 seed that year. Joke. A cruel one at that.

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13 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Sim Bhullar was his name. Indian descent, born and raised in the Toronto area. He played at 7-5 and close to 400 lbs. at NMSU, and is still playing - currently in Taiwan. Had a cup of coffee in the NBA - 10-day contract with the Kings, and checked in for the last 16 seconds of one game, making him the first player of Indian descent to play in the league.

Oregon went 8-11 from 3 against us. They were a horrible matchup for us. Just how it goes sometimes.

Evans ate him up with the high post jump shot. His brother Tanveer was a grad transfer from NMST. Played this past season at Missouri State I think. Watched him in the MVC tournament. Did nothing of note.

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1 hour ago, slu72 said:

Again if memory serves me, the 12 seed we played in San Jose was New Mexico St that had that Turkish Redwood Tree at C, Kantor?, we got Oregon in the second game. Either way Oregon was way under seeded and treated very favorably by the committee. Also, they weren't supposed to be a good perimeter shooting team, but against us they hit 3s from just about everywhere on the court.

We actually were the 4 seed playing against #13 NM State.  Travis Ford's Cowboys were the #5 seed.  That Oregon teams was indeed a nightmare matchup.  Our defense that season was incredibly sound and functioned well as a team.  The one weakness in the defense was if a guard could penetrate the lane it forced the back line (Ellis, Loe, etc.) to step up into the middle of the lane leaving someone open under the basket or having someone on the perimeter rotate down, leaving open 3 point opportunities.  That Dominic Artis was so quick that Mitchell and McCall could not keep him in front of them.  Artis was probably the one guy all year who could penetrate the first line of defense, and it just totally broke down our defense.  Sucks how that all went down.  I still believe we were one of the 16 best teams that year, even if we didn't get to the Sweet Sixteen.

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1 hour ago, slu72 said:

I am not worthy, Pistol. Tx for the corrections. That means Oregon was the 13 seed that year. Joke. A cruel one at that.

Matty Light has it. We were the 4-seed, and beat 13-seed NMSU without any trouble. Then 12-seed Oregon upset 5-seed Oklahoma State (Ford!) and that was that.

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On 3/20/2018 at 2:05 PM, Matty Light said:

The NCAA committee really screwed us that year.  Giving Oregon a 12-seed and placing them in San Jose??!!  They were 26-8 and 2nd in the Pac-12.  While that was bad for us, imagine what Travis Ford was thinking when he saw the tournament selection.  You get the 5-seed but you have to play Oregon all the way out West.  Oregon had no business being anything less than a 9-seed.

 

5 hours ago, slu72 said:

Again if memory serves me, the 12 seed we played in San Jose was New Mexico St that had that Turkish Redwood Tree at C, Kantor?, we got Oregon in the second game. Either way Oregon was way under seeded and treated very favorably by the committee. Also, they weren't supposed to be a good perimeter shooting team, but against us they hit 3s from just about everywhere on the court.

Revisionist history is funny. Oregon was not really underseeded, they just got hot at the right time and could not miss in their conference tournament or their first two games of the NCAA tournament. If they would have lost the first game of their conference tournament there is a decent chance they wouldn’t have made the NCAA tournament at all.

Tough break for us running into a buzzsaw, but that’s the way things go sometimes.

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On 3/20/2018 at 1:54 PM, billiken_roy said:

so you say that rickma did not want crews to be the interim coach?  so who do you say rickma wanted to be the interim coach and who decided that crews was the choice instead?

Rick was in a serious health condition much earlier than the public knew and was actually in the hospital praying for a heart to be donated . I personally know that Rick from my many talks with him  did not bring  Crews in  to be his successor.

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