The House That Rick Built Podcast

[Clock_Tower]

19 hours ago, Billiken Rich said:

The legend of what could've been Romar's recruiting is like a fish story compared to his actual recruiting.  Maybe if he'd have stayed he'd have the recruiting gravitas to hold Travis's jock strap, as it is he doesn't deserve mention in the same breath ......

Yep.  Every so many years, the fish stories surface.   Again, here's a dose of reality.

Spoon left the cupboards full with Justin Love (SR), Dave Ferguson (SR), Troy Robertson (SR), John Redden (SR), Larry Simmons (SR), Justin Tatum (JR), Maurice Jeffers (JR), Chris Heinrich (JR), Matt Baniak (JR) and youngsters Drew Diener, (FR), Marquee Perry (FR) and Chris Braun (FR)

Romar coached up these players and made the NCAA Tourney with Spoon's guys.   Thereafter, Romar did not get along with Justin Tatum (believe his son turned out to be a pretty good player) who never reached his potential and left the program early.   Romar also brought in major busts in Jason Edwin, Floyd McClain.Randy Pulley and John Seyfert.

Romar gets no credit for Nick Kern (understand his son is also a pretty good player) who never made grades  and who Romar knew would not make grades/enroll at SLU.  Darius Miles was not coming to SLU.   And sure, the high school kids liked Romar (I did too) but why did they not not sign with us if they liked him so much?  Instead, the cupboards thinned as the talent graduated.

Romar left the cupboards relatively empty:  Marquee Perry (SR), Kenny Brown (SR), Drew Diener (SR), Josh Fisher (JR), Chris Sloan (JR) and Ross Varner (JR). Yes, I would rather coach the team Spoon left than the one Romar left.   And yes, Brad Soderberg did one of his best recruiting efforts by just getting enough warm bodies to practice and fill out the team with late Spring additions of Anthony Drejaj and Izak Ohanon to offset the loss of our only Freshman/returning Sophomore (Pulley) who quit and Kern who could not/did not qualify.   Brad did the best he could with Romar's guys (plus Drejaj and Ohanon) and still could only win 16 games.   Why would the great West Coast pipeline suddenly start in year 4 after another poor season if it was empty the prior 3 years dating back to when we were a good team?

[Bay Area Billiken]

Ryan Hollins, 7'0" Center, would have been a Billiken had Lorenzo Romar stayed at SLU.  Taj Gray, 6'8" Power Forward/Center probably would have been a Billiken had Romar stayed.

I was disappointed when Romar left, but unlike some others, I really couldn't begrudge him when his Alma Mater, Washington (U Dub) called.

[Bay Area Billiken]

I loved Chris Sloan's story on the Podcast re the recruitment of Darius Miles, with SLU being a finalist along with St. John's.  Miles flew to New York City for his official recruiting visit to St. John's and was met at the airport by a Bentley and shown the town by Jay-Z.  Then a week later, Troy Robertson had the recruitment duty for SLU.  Sloan said Miles then lit up the McDonald's All Star Game, which propelled him directly into the NBA.

[billikenfan05]

The fact that people aren’t talking about Heinrich living in West Pine is shocking. 

[Bay Area Billiken]

9 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

The fact that people aren’t talking about Heinrich living in West Pine is shocking. 

That was quite a story too.

When SLU played at USF (CA) in Spoon's last year (a debacle from which I still have not recovered), the SLU team walked by the concourse from the locker room to the gym, through the fans mingling, like always at USF's War Memorial Gym.  My sister-in-law, a USF alumnus, saw Heinrich and said he is a Billiken.  I had 20 tickets to that game.  My parents were out here from Quincy.  As SLU collapsed in the second half, my Mom yelled at the Left Coast WCC refs:  "Homer."  

Like mother, like son.

[Aquinas]

My view is that Romar was a west coach guy that was a bad fit for a midwest team. The coach and the opportunity did not match.  

This is one of the reasons I was high on coach Ford from the beginning.  He is a midwest coach, strong recruiter with a lot of success getting his teams to the tournament. The only knock on him was not going deep into the tournament.

SLU was an underperforming midwest team, with excellent facilities. Located in a recruiting hot bed, and the the only legit Div 1 program with in a couple hours drive. In a conference that regularly sends 3 teams to the dance. 

On top of that, Travis coached in the A10, so he knows it well and St Louis looked like a good fit for his family.

It doesn't get much better than that.

[Clock_Tower]

54 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Ryan Hollins, 7'0" Center, would have been a Billiken had Lorenzo Romar stayed at SLU.  Taj Gray, 6'8" Power Forward/Center probably would have been a Billiken had Romar stayed.

I was disappointed when Romar left, but unlike some others, I really couldn't begrudge him when his Alma Mater, Washington (U Dub) called.

Yes. Ryan Hollins would have played for us had Romar stayed fir his 4th year.  He would have been the FIRST AND ONLY West Coast player to arrive - hardly a pipeline. And Hollins was not good early in his college career. If speculation is allowed, he likely would have missed home here in the Midwest and transferred after another mediocre year when all of Spoon’s guys (our best) were gone.  Further He would have replaced Kenny Brown - but who would have replaced the others?
 

And Taj Gray went to JUCO.  Not buying he chose 2 years of JUCO over playing for someone other than Romar. 

[Bay Area Billiken]

10 minutes ago, Clock_Tower said:

Yes. Ryan Hollins would have played for us had Romar stayed fir his 4th year.  He would have been the FIRST AND ONLY West Coast player to arrive - hardly a pipeline. And Hollins was not good early in his college career. If speculation is allowed, he likely would have missed home here in the Midwest and transferred after another mediocre year when all of Spoon’s guys (our best) were gone.  Further He would have replaced Kenny Brown - but who would have replaced the others?
 

And Taj Gray went to JUCO.  Not buying he chose 2 years of JUCO over playing for someone other than Romar. 

Josh Fisher was from Mercer Island, Washington on the Left Coast.

[Clock_Tower]

8 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Josh Fisher was from Mercer Island, Washington on the Left Coast.

True. Though didnt he committed to Pepperdine and follow Romar to SLU?

[Bay Area Billiken]

Just now, Clock_Tower said:

True. Though didnt he committed to Pepperdine and follow Romar to SLU?

Yes.

[billikenfan05]

2 minutes ago, Clock_Tower said:

True. Though didnt he committed to Pepperdine and follow Romar to SLU?

And then Romar left lol. Chris talked about that a bit. How both Romar and Fisher both took him leaving hard.

[Box and Won]

14 hours ago, Clock_Tower said:

Romar also brought in major busts in Jason Edwin, Floyd McClain.Randy Pulley and John Seyfert.

Jason Edwin wasn't a bust.

[Clock_Tower]

49 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

Jason Edwin wasn't a bust.

What was he then?

[TheChosenOne]

That got me to do a quick Jason Edwin Google search.

In his senior season he averaged 12.2 points (47.1% from the field and 44% from 3), 4.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.1 steal for a Kent State team that was 20-13 (11-7 in conference).

In his junior season he averaged 7.6 points (45.8% from the field and 42.3% from 3), 3.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists for a Kent State team that was 22-9 (13-5 in conference).

Edwin was an all time great Billiken basketball character, just a funny dude.

[Box and Won]

19 minutes ago, Clock_Tower said:

What was he then?

A pretty good player who didn't study.

[willie]

4 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

A pretty good player who didn't study.

Had a nice shot. 

[kshoe]

23 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

That got me to do a quick Jason Edwin Google search.

In his senior season he averaged 12.2 points (47.1% from the field and 44% from 3), 4.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.1 steal for a Kent State team that was 20-13 (11-7 in conference).

In his junior season he averaged 7.6 points (45.8% from the field and 42.3% from 3), 3.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists for a Kent State team that was 22-9 (13-5 in conference).

Edwin was an all time great Billiken basketball character, just a funny dude.

I had in my head that Jason went to Kent St. and was on their Elite 8 team. Turns out I was wrong as he came after that team but in doing a google search on the Kent St elite 8 team it showed Antonio Gates (the Chargers TE) leading that Kent St. with 20 points per game. From his wiki page: 

After being told by scouts that he was too much of a "tweener" to make the NBA, Gates (6′4″) arranged a workout in front of NFL scouts. Despite never having played college football,^[13] as many as 19 teams were believed to have contacted Gates about a tryout. Gates chose to work out first for the San Diego Chargers. Recognizing his potential, the Chargers immediately signed him to a contract as an undrafted free agent.

Hasahn French has the same build as Tony Gonzalez, Gates and even Mo Allie Cox...

[BilliesBy40]

7 minutes ago, kshoe said:

I had in my head that Jason went to Kent St. and was on their Elite 8 team. Turns out I was wrong as he came after that team but in doing a google search on the Kent St elite 8 team it showed Antonio Gates (the Chargers TE) leading that Kent St. with 20 points per game. From his wiki page: 

After being told by scouts that he was too much of a "tweener" to make the NBA, Gates (6′4″) arranged a workout in front of NFL scouts. Despite never having played college football,^[13] as many as 19 teams were believed to have contacted Gates about a tryout. Gates chose to work out first for the San Diego Chargers. Recognizing his potential, the Chargers immediately signed him to a contract as an undrafted free agent.

Hasahn French has the same build as Tony Gonzalez, Gates and even Mo Allie Cox...

Do we know whether Hasahn has any experience playing football? I ask because Gates was a college-caliber player who decided to play basketball when Saban tried to force him to only play football.

[billikenfan05]

4 minutes ago, BilliesBy40 said:

Do we know whether Hasahn has any experience playing football? I ask because Gates was a college-caliber player who decided to play basketball when Saban tried to force him to only play football.

Google.com

[BilliesBy40]

2 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Google.com

Thanks, Zach. I didn't think it would be something readily available online. 

[dlarry]

52 minutes ago, kshoe said:

I had in my head that Jason went to Kent St. and was on their Elite 8 team. Turns out I was wrong as he came after that team but in doing a google search on the Kent St elite 8 team it showed Antonio Gates (the Chargers TE) leading that Kent St. with 20 points per game. From his wiki page: 

After being told by scouts that he was too much of a "tweener" to make the NBA, Gates (6′4″) arranged a workout in front of NFL scouts. Despite never having played college football,^[13] as many as 19 teams were believed to have contacted Gates about a tryout. Gates chose to work out first for the San Diego Chargers. Recognizing his potential, the Chargers immediately signed him to a contract as an undrafted free agent.

Hasahn French has the same build as Tony Gonzalez, Gates and even Mo Allie Cox...

Obviously it worked out for Gates in the NFL but I wonder what he could have done in the NBA.

He kind of had a Charles Barkley build.

Barkley is listed at 6’6 but he says he is 6’4. 
As strong as Gates is he may have held his own in the NBA.

[Littlebill]

51 minutes ago, BilliesBy40 said:

Thanks, Zach. I didn't think it would be something readily available online. 

His high school didn't even have football

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, BilliesBy40 said:

Do we know whether Hasahn has any experience playing football? I ask because Gates was a college-caliber player who decided to play basketball when Saban tried to force him to only play football.

Hasahn was asked by Frank in a spring interview if he would consider the NFL, as Mo Allie-Cox has.  Hasahn said that it has crossed his mind but that he really didn't need to make that decision until a time in the future.

[Pistol]

4 hours ago, Box and Won said:

A pretty good player who didn't study.

Edwin and Pulley were going to run into academic problems if they had stayed.

I wouldn't call Edwin a bust - others have shown he had a nice career at Kent State.

Pulley didn't do much at Mizzou in his season there. Shame he couldn't make it work somewhere; he had a decent freshman season here.

Seyfert was a long-term project big. Left at the end of his freshman year because he was homesick. Started basically every game in the two seasons he played at Montana but didn't put up big numbers (averaged close to 6 and 4 his senior year). He actually had some skill as a traditional center but was a couple years away and was also a horrible FT shooter. He would've had to follow the Chris Heinrich model and just work his butt off for four years and just continuously improve.

I also have a hard time calling injured players busts. Sloan didn't bring this part up, but Floyd McClain was dogged by a chronic back injury that kept him from playing a sophomore year under Romar in 2001-2002 or the following year for Soderberg. He left that year out of frustration and never played anywhere again. So I guess you can call any player with a long-term injury a "bust" just based on pure lack of production, but it's not like he wasn't trying to get back. He was training constantly - I remember him being in the pool all the time doing low-contact exercises. It just didn't heal.

[Clock_Tower]

13 hours ago, Box and Won said:

A pretty good player who didn't study.

Good try.  Didn't study?  The truth is that he flunked out.  He probably did a lot more than "didn't study."   Probably didn't go to class, didn't do his homework, didn't read, didn't participate in class...   All college players are student athletes.  Apparently, Edwin wasn't a student.  Same with Randy Pully (Romar) who also flunked out, Nick Kern (Romar) who could not qualify for any D1 program, Taj Gray (Romar) who could not qualify for any D1 program… Anyone see a pattern? 

And just for the record, I never said Jason Edwin was a bad basketball player. Was he a great player?  No. I didn't see greatness and most great players don't drop down to the MAC.   Instead, I said he was a bust -- which he was - especially in the context of this article/topic -- evaluating the merits of what Romar did here as head coach for us.   We planned on having him for 4 years, invested time and opportunity recruiting him, (didn't we turn Blake Ahearn down for him?), spent a year teaching him, made recruiting decisions b/c of him... and he failed to keep up his end of the bargain -- be a good student.   Yes, I call that a "bust"