Welcome Yuri Collins

[Brighton]

Had he lived long, Majerus would've been That coach to do it.

[cheeseman]

2 hours ago, Bills_06 said:

Didn't know where to put this but you can tell Ford is getting to Mizzou fans.  Somebody else in the chat today asked if Ford is just renting because he will leave as soon as Power 5 offer comes along.

Well predicting that Ford will leave as soon as he gets a P5 offer does not make you Nostradamus.  Will he leave is another thing all together.  Ford could be like some who just can not wait to get back to a P5 school and get fired 3 years later or he could be someone who says been there done that - who knows.  He could be more like let me stay at SLU a bit and have some success for a few years and then maybe if I want to move on then I can - at my own time and pick my own place not just the first P5 offer that comes.

[BIG BILL FAN]

3 hours ago, Pistol said:

"Recruiting battles" is in the eye of the beholder. I'm not really sure what this guy is asking or suggesting - he's a little vague and contradictory - but I think it's clear that both SLU and Mizzou are going to offer a lot of the same players.

Gordon had a top 3 of SLU, Kansas, and Mizzou and chose SLU. Goodwin had a Mizzou offer which I'm sure was committable. Collins, Hargrove, and Thatch each had Mizzou offers, but I'm not sure if they were priorities for Mizzou when they committed to SLU.

Watson, Pinson, and Tilmon all had SLU offers. Pickett did, too, and committed to Illinois before changing his mind and going with Mizzou. I don't think Mark Smith ever had a SLU offer, either the first time around or during his transfer period.

McKinney and Liddell obviously had SLU offers, but we were never really that involved with McKinney. Mizzou is still in the mix for both, while SLU isn't.

Current players with both SLU and Mizzou offers: Christian Braun (2019), Caleb Love (2020), Luke Kasubke (2020), Cam'Ron Fletcher (2020), and Xavier Foster (2020).

So yeah, there are going to be some "recruiting battles" between the two, and it's been a fairly even split so far, since the new staffs took over.

I wish Ben Fred had been a little more clear about his answer, but the point is that for the most part, the top local recruits are going to have offers from both programs and unless someone is intimately familiar with a player or the coaching staff, it's hard to say how fresh each individual offer is. You just have to look at the amount of activity around a given player and program.

The “battle” may be fairly even in numbers, but I don’t think it’s been even in quality. To this point, SLU has clearly won the battle.

[Glorydays2013]

1 hour ago, cheeseman said:

Well predicting that Ford will leave as soon as he gets a P5 offer does not make you Nostradamus.  Will he leave is another thing all together.  Ford could be like some who just can not wait to get back to a P5 school and get fired 3 years later or he could be someone who says been there done that - who knows.  He could be more like let me stay at SLU a bit and have some success for a few years and then maybe if I want to move on then I can - at my own time and pick my own place not just the first P5 offer that comes.

I think it’s dumb to leave. St. Louis is a hub of talent. And if recruited well, you can have a constant top 25 team every year. 

We would be a P5 team if the Beast takes us. 

[TJHawk]

Outside of conference and maybe housing, SLU has everything a P5 +2 school has.  I don't think it's ridiculous to say Ford could win a national championship here 

[brianstl]

1 hour ago, Glorydays2013 said:

I think it’s dumb to leave. St. Louis is a hub of talent. And if recruited well, you can have a constant top 25 team every year. 

We would be a P5 team if the Beast takes us. 

It isn’t dumb if you get enough guaranteed money.  

Look, I don’t think Travis will be moving on anytime soon.  I think that is a combination of it taking a really good situation to get Travis interested and P5 programs being scared off by his track record at OSU.  That said, if another program wants to guarantee Travis $15 million ............ he will be telling peopl how much he is going to miss St. Louis.

[gobillsgo]

1 hour ago, BIG BILL FAN said:

The “battle” may be fairly even in numbers, but I don’t think it’s been even in quality. To this point, SLU has clearly won the battle.

Watson is the only one going there (to this point) I’d really like to have. Tilmon is no big loss. We have four comparable or better forwards. 

[kshoe]

1 hour ago, BIG BILL FAN said:

The “battle” may be fairly even in numbers, but I don’t think it’s been even in quality. To this point, SLU has clearly won the battle.

I love SLU and hate Mizzou, but I'm not sure why people are upset with Ben Fred's response and I certainly wouldn't say SLU has been "winning" the recruiting battles in St. Louis when it comes to Mizzou. To that point, most of our commitments have come when Kim Anderson was coach (Goodwin, Gordon and Thatch) or come from players that Martin isn't really recruiting at this point (Hargrove and Collins). Gordon is the only one that Martin really recruited hard. We'd have liked to have gotten Watson, Pinson and Tilmon very much. By my measure Ford vs. Martin is about even at this point.

Personally, I think Martin has made a mistake in slow-playing Hargrove and Collins but he'll probably end up with McKinney and maybe Liddell. Martin's biggest mistake may well be in aiming too high with his recruiting and missing out on the next tier like Hargrove and Yuri.

[RiseAndGrind]

18 minutes ago, kshoe said:

I love SLU and hate Mizzou, but I'm not sure why people are upset with Ben Fred's response and I certainly wouldn't say SLU has been "winning" the recruiting battles in St. Louis when it comes to Mizzou. To that point, most of our commitments have come when Kim Anderson was coach (Goodwin, Gordon and Thatch) or come from players that Martin isn't really recruiting at this point (Hargrove and Collins). Gordon is the only one that Martin really recruited hard. We'd have liked to have gotten Watson, Pinson and Tilmon very much. By my measure Ford vs. Martin is about even at this point.

Personally, I think Martin has made a mistake in slow-playing Hargrove and Collins but he'll probably end up with McKinney and maybe Liddell. Martin's biggest mistake may well be in aiming too high with his recruiting and missing out on the next tier like Hargrove and Yuri.

I do think Ford has really excelled at picking his spots with local recruits. It’s remarkable.  He’s gotten his stars (Goodwin and Gordon) and been able to supplement that with that next tier of top 100-200 players (Thatch, Hargrove, Collins).

I think he read the Ramey, McKinney, Tilmon, and Liddell recruitments right. Recruited them but didn’t over commit. To be clear: i think SLU would have loved all these guys, but they played it right.

I think Watson is the only player SLU really wanted (and recruited heavily) that didn’t work out. Maybe Pickett? I’m not fretting Pickett though. 

 

[Bills_06]

22 minutes ago, kshoe said:

I love SLU and hate Mizzou, but I'm not sure why people are upset with Ben Fred's response and I certainly wouldn't say SLU has been "winning" the recruiting battles in St. Louis when it comes to Mizzou. To that point, most of our commitments have come when Kim Anderson was coach (Goodwin, Gordon and Thatch) or come from players that Martin isn't really recruiting at this point (Hargrove and Collins). Gordon is the only one that Martin really recruited hard. We'd have liked to have gotten Watson, Pinson and Tilmon very much. By my measure Ford vs. Martin is about even at this point.

Personally, I think Martin has made a mistake in slow-playing Hargrove and Collins but he'll probably end up with McKinney and maybe Liddell. Martin's biggest mistake may well be in aiming too high with his recruiting and missing out on the next tier like Hargrove and Yuri.

His 2019 class right now looks to be make or break with Liddell after Tray Jackson committed to Minnesota last night and if the crystal ball is to be believed, odds aren't in his favor.  

[slu72]

32 minutes ago, Bills_06 said:

His 2019 class right now looks to be make or break with Liddell after Tray Jackson committed to Minnesota last night and if the crystal ball is to be believed, odds aren't in his favor.  

I won't be shocked if he ends up at Mizzery. 

[joe_davola]

23 hours ago, The Wiz said:

What?

Yes I do take the first 8 games of every  season to transition from a Bayesian (forecasting ) model to a real data  model. My forecasting model has done a pretty good job of predicting early games and projecting (grading) where we will be ....both in the A-10 and overall. But nothing beats real data.

The point is ...the 8 games has nothing to do with the Bills getting up to speed....It has to do with The Wiz getting up to speed. Will the Bills get better as the season goes on...they usually do unless something bad happens.  Will The Wiz get better as the season goes on....like the Bills he too usually gets better as the season goes on.

The point is there is no reason we can't get off to a great start.  My own feeling is that we will....You can't teach athleticism and fortunately we've got it. Next month I will ...."go see the kids play" and add that to my numbers for my preseason prognostication.

Finally....I don't need the first  8 games to determine  if we will be good or get off to a great start.....We will be good and get off to a good start....I will use the first 8 games to determine how good we will be and how far we can go.

 

Nobody beats the Wiz!

[Cowboy]

14 hours ago, cheeseman said:

Well predicting that Ford will leave as soon as he gets a P5 offer does not make you Nostradamus.  Will he leave is another thing all together.  Ford could be like some who just can not wait to get back to a P5 school and get fired 3 years later or he could be someone who says been there done that - who knows.  He could be more like let me stay at SLU a bit and have some success for a few years and then maybe if I want to move on then I can - at my own time and pick my own place not just the first P5 offer that comes.

-how much does the botched S2 push CFord to consider a change if/when P5 offers come?  I hope not but if I am him I am so pissed at how S2 was handled and it would be in the calculation, but I'm not CFord

-I hope UK is the only job he would leave us for and if so that Coach Cal has a long, successful life in Lexington, except when we play them

12 hours ago, TJHawk said:

Outside of conference and maybe housing, SLU has everything a P5 +2 school has.  I don't think it's ridiculous to say Ford could win a national championship here 

-you forgot money and to some extent national tv exposure

[Brighton]

We should be celebrating this commit.....instead we're talking about Ford leaving.

Billikens fans are a battered bunch.

[TheOne]

Collins is a good commitment that will help balance our team. He’s not an elite shooter at this point, but the staff is confident in his ability to see the floor, distribute to shooters, and build into a strong leader over the course of his four year tenure.  

I mentioned back in February that Collins was a heavy SLU lean and was likely to commit.  It took a bit longer than expected, but this is a good land for TF and staff.  Also, creates an even deeper SLU presence in the Bradley Beal Elite team, which will continue to feed the Billikens for years to come.

[RiseAndGrind]

3 minutes ago, TheOne said:

Collins is a good commitment that will help balance our team. He’s not an elite shooter at this point, but the staff is confident in his ability to see the floor, distribute to shooters, and build into a strong leader over the course of his four year tenure.  

I mentioned back in February that Collins was a heavy SLU lean and was likely to commit.  It took a bit longer than expected, but this is a good land for TF and staff.  Also, creates an even deeper SLU presence in the Bradley Beal Elite team, which will continue to feed the Billikens for years to come.

He’s back!!

[Slu let the dogs out?]

43 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said:

He’s back!!

[Littlebill]

1 hour ago, TheOne said:

Also, creates an even deeper SLU presence in the Bradley Beal Elite team, which will continue to feed the Billikens for years to come.