Maybe one day we can get where Loyola has gotten

[Matty Light]

1 hour ago, Pistol said:

By the way, if Porter does stay at Loyola, they're going to own the MVC for a while.

So they should be solid for a while...if he stays.

I'd pump the breaks a little bit there.  I'm sure Loyola will be fine and compete for titles, but I don't think they are going to "own" the MVC.  Even in a conference without powerhouse programs it is difficult to come in on top every year.

Hell, look at the Creighton Bluejays.  You would have to admit that they had a good program there under Dana Altman.  Pretty much same opponents as now (minus Wichita St., plus Valpo) and they won the MVC regular season a total of...3 times in 16 years.  Sure they went dancing 7 times in 9 years between '99 and '07 but they didn't own that league with all their resources.

I expect Loyola to be more like a UNI or a S. Illinois.  Competitive for titles but not dominant.  I mean it is possible to dominate that conference.  Gregg Marshall did, but Wichita State puts a lot more money into athletics than Loyola does.

[slu72]

49 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

No that is my point - he could not coach.  He was a wreck when it came to putting a team on the floor that knew what to do.  

Not sure what team BillyKen was watching during the two season Coach Dead had his recruits on the floor. Those kids had no idea what they were doing out there.

[JMM28]

The Illinois schools should be at top of the  MVC for the next year or three at least. 

SIU is a wild card because there was apparently some sort of failed coup there recently. Really strange situation - their message board even shut down over it. 

ISU is the other wild card because Muller recruits good basketball players that are terrible people so he has a constant revolving door there. 

Bradley is on solid footing, made the MVC semis, last team to beat Loyola, almost beat them in the MVC tourney, and return nearly everyone. 

Loyola returns damn near everyone and adds a solid recruiting class. 

Drake, Evansville, SMS, Valpo will be bottom dwellers. UNI should rebound based on track record and Indiana State should be about mid pack next year. I would think Loyola wins the conference next year, but don't think they'll dominate the way Wichita did the last several years. 

[thetorch]

12 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

The Illinois schools should be at top of the  MVC for the next year or three at least. 

SIU is a wild card because there was apparently some sort of failed coup there recently. Really strange situation - their message board even shut down over it. 

ISU is the other wild card because Muller recruits good basketball players that are terrible people so he has a constant revolving door there. 

Bradley is on solid footing, made the MVC semis, last team to beat Loyola, almost beat them in the MVC tourney, and return nearly everyone. 

Loyola returns damn near everyone and adds a solid recruiting class. 

Drake, Evansville, SMS, Valpo will be bottom dwellers. UNI should rebound based on track record and Indiana State should be about mid pack next year. I would think Loyola wins the conference next year, but don't think they'll dominate the way Wichita did the last several years. 

2

Just read up on that.  Yikes.  

[billiken_roy]

7 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Not sure what team BillyKen was watching during the two season Coach Dead had his recruits on the floor. Those kids had no idea what they were doing out there.

i agree, 80% of being a good coach is for results and work prior to the jump ball.   first and foremost you have to recruit good players and get them to come.  some might not look as good as they turn out (finding the diamond in the rough like jordair jett comes to mind as a great example) but still you have to find players.    next you have to improve those players as basketball players that fit what you have in mind.   if you need shooters, you better be able to teach them to shoot better than when they got here, if you need rebounders and pick setters teach them the right way to do that, next you have to assist the players in their own maturation.   the likes of anthony bonner that show up day one as the skinny tall kid that then over the next four years builds himself into a physical beast all by himself is a few and far between happening.   a good coach has these kids in today's games eating and working out as though they are training for their only shot at a gold medal in the olympics in four years, and last, you have to be able to get their minds focused on the common goal and game plans and able to execute exactly what needs to be done to win.   crews couldnt do any of that.  everyplace he went he couldnt do that.   whatever mediocre success he might have had at evansville 30 years ago was before a coach needed to do all of the above plus he played in the weak missouri valley where everyone else was as unfocused on the details as he was.   he would have been pounded in the big east, big 10, big 12, acc, sec, pac10 etc.   absolutely nothing about crewsplatt takes him out of the category as the worst basketball coach in billiken history.   

so crews success when he first became coach and the reason he looked good is he had just a marvelously prepared roster of players that could have (and likely did) coach themselves.  period.   

[billiken_roy]

16 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

The Illinois schools should be at top of the  MVC for the next year or three at least. 

SIU is a wild card because there was apparently some sort of failed coup there recently. Really strange situation - their message board even shut down over it. 

ISU is the other wild card because Muller recruits good basketball players that are terrible people so he has a constant revolving door there. 

Bradley is on solid footing, made the MVC semis, last team to beat Loyola, almost beat them in the MVC tourney, and return nearly everyone. 

Loyola returns damn near everyone and adds a solid recruiting class. 

Drake, Evansville, SMS, Valpo will be bottom dwellers. UNI should rebound based on track record and Indiana State should be about mid pack next year. I would think Loyola wins the conference next year, but don't think they'll dominate the way Wichita did the last several years. 

give us a link to read on this.   i am very intrigued.

[thetorch]

5 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

give us a link to read on this.   i am very intrigued.

http://www.salukination.net/viewforum.php?f=5

Only 1 thread left on the board.

[RiseAndGrind]

17 minutes ago, thetorch said:

Just read up on that.  Yikes.  

What??

edit: just read that moderator’s post. WTF happened in Carbondale? People making threats, moderators trying to get the coach fired, university employees involved??? 

 Can anyone give some background?

[JMM28]

I don't really know what went down. Somehow a rumor got started that a group of boosters had money together to buyout Barry and that it was a done deal back in December/January, the Mullins family was taking over - I think brendan? who is a coach at Loyola now was going to be the head coach. Then Barry finished 2nd in the MVC with a short roster and killed it. Then the message board folks got twisted up and talked themselves into it being real. Someone got mad, found out that some of these posters were SIU employees, went to the chancellor, and the chancellor actually spoke with those people at work. The guy running that board being one of them, I believe. So he decided probably best to just shut it down. Not sure if any or all of that is accurate, but its a cluster. 

[brianstl]

30 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

The Illinois schools should be at top of the  MVC for the next year or three at least. 

SIU is a wild card because there was apparently some sort of failed coup there recently. Really strange situation - their message board even shut down over it. 

ISU is the other wild card because Muller recruits good basketball players that are terrible people so he has a constant revolving door there. 

Bradley is on solid footing, made the MVC semis, last team to beat Loyola, almost beat them in the MVC tourney, and return nearly everyone. 

Loyola returns damn near everyone and adds a solid recruiting class. 

Drake, Evansville, SMS, Valpo will be bottom dwellers. UNI should rebound based on track record and Indiana State should be about mid pack next year. I would think Loyola wins the conference next year, but don't think they'll dominate the way Wichita did the last several years. 

Saluki Nation now goes down just like Saluki Talk.  That Saluki Talk site brings back some memories.  They hated so many of us over there.  It was genuine real hate and I always found it strange that you would really hate a poster on another fan board.  Whole threads would be dominated by the "awful" things said about the Salukis and their fandom on this board.  That hate gave us the gift of basketball country.  

That was a fun time.

[JMM28]

1 minute ago, brianstl said:

That hate gave us the gift of basketball country.  

This is where they're hanging out at. One of the most wretched hives of scum and villainy. Sure to give birth to something similar or better than basketball country. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/SalukiNation/

[RiseAndGrind]

9 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

I don't really know what went down. Somehow a rumor got started that a group of boosters had money together to buyout Barry and that it was a done deal back in December/January, the Mullins family was taking over - I think brendan? who is a coach at Loyola now was going to be the head coach. Then Barry finished 2nd in the MVC with a short roster and killed it. Then the message board folks got twisted up and talked themselves into it being real. Someone got mad, found out that some of these posters were SIU employees, went to the chancellor, and the chancellor actually spoke with those people at work. The guy running that board being one of them, I believe. So he decided probably best to just shut it down. Not sure if any or all of that is accurate, but its a cluster. 

That is so messed up. 

@SluSignGuy- thanks for everything!

[brianstl]

23 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

I don't really know what went down. Somehow a rumor got started that a group of boosters had money together to buyout Barry and that it was a done deal back in December/January, the Mullins family was taking over - I think brendan? who is a coach at Loyola now was going to be the head coach. Then Barry finished 2nd in the MVC with a short roster and killed it. Then the message board folks got twisted up and talked themselves into it being real. Someone got mad, found out that some of these posters were SIU employees, went to the chancellor, and the chancellor actually spoke with those people at work. The guy running that board being one of them, I believe. So he decided probably best to just shut it down. Not sure if any or all of that is accurate, but its a cluster. 

Barry is what he is, so I get some of the frustration.  That said, he took over a dumpster fire and at least made the program respectable again.  I just don't understand how Saluki fans think they are in a position to hire someone better right now.  The program is broke, the school is broke and the state is broke.  They had to keep Lowery around two years after they should have fired him, because they couldn't afford the buy out.  That was when they had the money from 11 NCAA tournament credits coming in.  

[thetorch]

I've read through half of the final thread.  Some people lost their jobs over that message board.  

Thanks @SluSignGuy more than ever we should be thankful this board is kept civil.  Even with everything the program went through this past year, nothing compares to the mess with the Salukis.  

[Cowboy]

6 minutes ago, thetorch said:

I've read through half of the final thread.  Some people lost their jobs over that message board.  

Thanks @SluSignGuy more than ever we should be thankful this board is kept civil.  Even with everything the program went through this past year, nothing compares to the mess with the Salukis.  

-I had no idea their community of fans was in such a condition, wow, I read the first post and might continue to read this weekend as I think it will make me appreciate Steve and this site even more, people losing their jobs over a fan site? that's way out of control

[ACE]

1 hour ago, JMM28 said:

I don't really know what went down. Somehow a rumor got started that a group of boosters had money together to buyout Barry and that it was a done deal back in December/January, the Mullins family was taking over - I think brendan? who is a coach at Loyola now was going to be the head coach. Then Barry finished 2nd in the MVC with a short roster and killed it. Then the message board folks got twisted up and talked themselves into it being real. Someone got mad, found out that some of these posters were SIU employees, went to the chancellor, and the chancellor actually spoke with those people at work. The guy running that board being one of them, I believe. So he decided probably best to just shut it down. Not sure if any or all of that is accurate, but its a cluster. 

Just sounds like Methdale being Methdale.

[billikenfan05]

8 minutes ago, ACE said:

Just sounds like Methdale being Methdale.

Yeah I figured most people in Carbondale were self employed

[Pistol]

1 hour ago, JMM28 said:

I don't really know what went down. Somehow a rumor got started that a group of boosters had money together to buyout Barry and that it was a done deal back in December/January, the Mullins family was taking over - I think brendan? who is a coach at Loyola now was going to be the head coach. Then Barry finished 2nd in the MVC with a short roster and killed it. Then the message board folks got twisted up and talked themselves into it being real. Someone got mad, found out that some of these posters were SIU employees, went to the chancellor, and the chancellor actually spoke with those people at work. The guy running that board being one of them, I believe. So he decided probably best to just shut it down. Not sure if any or all of that is accurate, but its a cluster. 

When a line like this:

But then the “Dear Cheetos” thread happened and there was outright bragging and celebration over those attempts. That confirmed everything I had feared.

Is written by the moderator of a message board with the utmost seriousness, you know things have gotten bleak.

[cgeldmacher]

If Loyola Chicago ends up being the top dog in the MVC for a while, can we please get them on the schedule for a four year run of alternating home and home matchups.  SLU fans need a road trip away game every year, and Chicago would be perfect.

[WUH]

On 3/20/2018 at 11:17 AM, cheeseman said:

You misunderstood - my point was that Biondi would not let anybody raise money unless it was his project and he had little interest in athletics generally speaking.

I understood your point.

My point: many college and university presidents view fundraising in exactly the same way.

[cheeseman]

2 minutes ago, WUH said:

I understood your point.

My point: many college and university presidents view fundraising in exactly the same way.

Once again you missed my point - I am not saying that other presidents don't restrict fund raising from time to time for the greater good.  Biondi simply was always going to say no since he wanted to tap the donors himself.  If the AD wanted to raise money for a new locker room as they did this past year I can assure you that Biondi would have said no.  I remember when he reneged on the charter flight promise to RM, I called the athletic administration and asked could a fundraiser be done to raise money for the flights among donors and the answer was not going to happen.

[slu72]

I vote this thread be shut down. Wanting to be Loyola can't be viewed as a positive by our team and others who casually peruse the board. We don't want to be Loyola of Chicago, unless you want to play in the MVC and go to the dance every 30 years or so. Yes, I'll tip my Bills cap to Porter and what his team has accomplished. Hell, I hope they win the whole enchilada. It would be great for College hoops. I pray, though,  it doesn't give their 90 year old nun a heart attack if they do pull off a miracle.

In the end we just want to be the Saint Louis Billikens who someday will avoid the self inflicted wounds we've inflicted over the past 50 years or so and become a consistent competitive team every season. Where making the dance is not some pie in the sky dream but a reasonable expectation every season. Once we get in the dance the team plays their hearts out and gets a few lucky breaks along the way. I look at the Majerus years when we made the dance, we never really had an easy road right from the first game, save for NMState. In '12 Memphis came in to the tourney en fuego, but we won. And got the chance to play the #1 seed MSU. In 13 after winning we get a red hot Oregon team that suddenly becomes the best shooting 3 team in the country. In '14 we get an NC State team that's on a roll, but somehow we find a way to win that first game. Next team up the defending champs UL and their pressing D that would wear down a team with a 9 man rotation. But what's discouraging to us is we get these 2 and 3 year runs and then go underground for a stretch. Hopefully, Travis Ford and his staff are going to turn this around and we'll be that every year type of team.

I know this thread was kind of tongue in cheek, but I really think it should be removed. Makes us look like wannabes when all we've really been striving for these many years is our own identity as a solid program year in and year out.  

[WUH]

3 hours ago, Matty Light said:

 Gregg Marshall did, but Wichita State puts a lot more money into athletics than Loyola does.

Do you have a source for this or are you simply comparing coaching salaries?  And considering the Koch money?

Loyola has changed in recent years.

For example, they are adding a $18 million dollar practice facility that is only basketball and volleyball.

http://loyolaphoenix.com/2018/02/loyola-build-18-5-million-athletics-practice-facility/

[WUH]

1 minute ago, cheeseman said:

Once again you missed my point - I am not saying that other presidents don't restrict fund raising from time to time for the greater good.  Biondi simply was always going to say no since he wanted to tap the donors himself.  If the AD wanted to raise money for a new locker room as they did this past year I can assure you that Biondi would have said no.  I remember when he reneged on the charter flight promise to RM, I called the athletic administration and asked could a fundraiser be done to raise money for the flights among donors and the answer was not going to happen.

I am absolutely, positively not missing your point.

It is common for university presidents to have tight control over the donors.

Your call does not prove anything other than the athletic department was not interested.

[cheeseman]

1 minute ago, WUH said:

I am absolutely, positively not missing your point.

It is common for university presidents to have tight control over the donors.

Your call does not prove anything other than the athletic department was not interested.

They were not interested because they knew the answer would have been no.