The House That Rick Built Podcast

[Box and Won]

2 hours ago, thetorch said:

We could have started Knollmeyer at the 4 and still won the A10.

[Auto-reply triggered by keyword ‘Knollmeyer’]

 

[Billiken Rich]

That, along with the Brett Jolly three pointers and the crazy Majerus/Bonaventure speech are my favorite short videos ever.....

[DeSmetBilliken]

17 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

I recall talk of Williams being a lock had we offered.  Wasn't the story that his family drove him to STL to meet with Spoon to ask for a scholly?

I was a bit young to know the Williams background, but if both him and Ahearn were guys that would have come if we had offered, I think Williams was the bigger miss. That said, we talk about stacking or bridging classes with Ford, and the progression from Williams to Ahearn to Lisch would have given us 10 years of really solid guard play.

[cgeldmacher]

Knollmeyer doesn't even go over the damn trashcan.  He goes around it.  Watch his legs.  He never would have cleared it if he was actually going over it.

[billikenfan05]

9 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

Knollmeyer doesn't even go over the damn trashcan.  He goes around it.  Watch his legs.  He never would have cleared it if he was actually going over it.

That’s the joke.

[DeSmetBilliken]

1 hour ago, Box and Won said:

[Auto-reply triggered by keyword ‘Knollmeyer’]

 

I think that guy attended the Billikens alumni thing at halftime of a game this season. My first thought was “Really?” The second thought was “ where’s a trash can!”

[billikenfan05]

5 minutes ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

I think that guy attended the Billikens alumni thing at halftime of a game this season. My first thought was “Really?” The second thought was “ where’s a trash can!”

He was extremely valuable in College Hoops 2k8 

[Clock_Tower]

13 minutes ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

I was a bit young to know the Williams background, but if both him and Ahearn were guys that would have come if we had offered, I think Williams was the bigger miss. That said, we talk about stacking or bridging classes with Ford, and the progression from Williams to Ahearn to Lisch would have given us 10 years of really solid guard play.

Yep.   Not much left here by Romar but Soderberg started strong by getting us not only Dreja and Ohanan last minute but also Reggie Byrant - who was a very good player. Then Liddell & Lisch -- but then not much further.  We seemed to have an inside tract to the best local recruits.... But yes, Harrellson, Ahearn, Kent Williams... were the guys we were missing.  Brad gets alot of blame for poor talent evaluation and waiting far too long - if at all.   And not blaming it all on facilities and our drop to the A10 - though Brad sure would have benefitted from our new arena/facilities and better, or at least better known, conference rivals.

 

[TheA_Bomb]

Lorenzo Romar Head Coaching Highlights

• 22 years
• 2× Pac-12 regular season champion (2009, 2012)
• 3× Pac-10 Tournament champion (2005, 2010, 2011)
• C-USA Tournament champion (2000)
• 3× Pac-12 Coach of the Year (2005, 2009, 2012)
• 7 NCAA tournament appearances, 3 Sweet 16 appearances, 8-7 Record in NCAA Tournament Games

Travis Ford Head Coaching Highlights

• 20 years (DI only)
• OVC Tournament champion (2005)
• A–10 regular season champion (2007) (NIT Bid)
• A–10 Tournament  Champion (2019)
• 7 NCAA tournament appearances, 1 round of 32 appearance, 1-7 Record in NCAA Tournament Games

 

[Littlebill]

27 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Lorenzo Romar Head Coaching Highlights

• 22 years
• 2× Pac-12 regular season champion (2009, 2012)
• 3× Pac-10 Tournament champion (2005, 2010, 2011)
• C-USA Tournament champion (2000)
• 3× Pac-12 Coach of the Year (2005, 2009, 2012)
• 7 NCAA tournament appearances, 3 Sweet 16 appearances, 8-7 Record in NCAA Tournament Games

Travis Ford Head Coaching Highlights

• 20 years (DI only)
• OVC Tournament champion (2005)
• A–10 regular season champion (2007) (NIT Bid)
• A–10 Tournament  Champion (2019)
• 7 NCAA tournament appearances, 1 round of 32 appearance, 1-7 Record in NCAA Tournament Games

 

Well after a final four this year, I think Ford's resume looks a lot better

[Billiken '04]

Yes, Heinrich lived in West Pine locker room for 3 months.  

That was a fun to do. Thank you for having me and I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. Happy to clean up any details I might have missed on.  Also, I can confirm or debunk a lot of the Billken conspiracy theories 

Go Bills!

- Chris Sloan

Edited May 8, 2020 by Billiken '04

[Pistol]

2 hours ago, slufanskip said:

I never heard that, but don't doubt you and Pistol. Absolutely agree that would have been a bigger miss. 

I saw the shootout game.  The shootout used to be one of my favorite days of the year. I was at every one from 1990 on. The list of NBA and/or college greats that played in it is unreal. Just some amazing performances. Anyone else remember Teddy Dupay?  Dude hit from everywhere. 

The Dupay game was nuts. He'd cross half court and everyone in the arena was yelling "SHOOT IT! SHOOT IT!"

Williams was coming to SLU if we had offered. We didn't, he signed with SIUC, and then Romar took over for Spoon. Scouting (and again in pregame) for the SIUC game his third and final year at SLU: "I will never understand why Charlie didn't offer this kid. But the fact is he didn't and now we have to deal with him."

His freshman year/Romar's first year, he was ice cold and scored 5 in a loss at SLU. Then he had 23 as a sophomore, and another 22 as a junior - SIUC won both. Romar left and Williams got cold again as a senior, finishing with just 7 in a loss to SLU.

[3star_recruit]

59 minutes ago, Pistol said:

The Dupay game was nuts. He'd cross half court and everyone in the arena was yelling "SHOOT IT! SHOOT IT!"

Williams was coming to SLU if we had offered. We didn't, he signed with SIUC, and then Romar took over for Spoon. Scouting (and again in pregame) for the SIUC game his third and final year at SLU: "I will never understand why Charlie didn't offer this kid. But the fact is he didn't and now we have to deal with him."

His freshman year/Romar's first year, he was ice cold and scored 5 in a loss at SLU. Then he had 23 as a sophomore, and another 22 as a junior - SIUC won both. Romar left and Williams got cold again as a senior, finishing with just 7 in a loss to SLU.

Kent Williams was basically Kevin Lisch.  I know dumping on Soderberg's recruiting is a time-honored MBM tradition, but to me this isn't even an argument.  Williams was a better player and therefore a bigger miss than Ahearn. 

Romar failed to build a local pipeline while he was here, leaving that unenviable task to Soderberg.  You needed a elite salesman to consistently bring top local recruits to West Pine by the time we entered the 21st century.  Romar and Ford are the only SLU coaches that even had a chance of making that work.

[Billiken '04]

3 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Kent Williams was basically Kevin Lisch.  I know dumping on Soderberg's recruiting is a time-honored MBM tradition, but to me this isn't even an argument.  Williams was a better player and therefore a bigger miss than Ahearn.  

Romar failed to build a local pipeline while he was here, leaving that unenviable task to Soderberg.  You needed a elite salesman to bring top local recruits to West Pine by the time we entered the 21st century.  Romar and Ford are the only SLU coaches that even had a chance of making that work.

Mo. Jeffers > K. Williams 

B. Ahearn > D. Clarke

Bigger miss was Ahearn

[3star_recruit]

I agree, Chris, I'll take Mo Jeffers on my team all day.  I also would have taken Williams over a backup big in Andrew Latimer all day.  We all saw what Williams did as a sophomore. He could have made that 2000-2001 squad a tourney team.  Marque Perry, Kent Williams and Mo Jeffers at the 1, 2 and 3?  Yeesh.

[The House That Rick Built]

Paul Biancardi joins the podcast on Monday. We may be the worst podcasters ever because we couldn’t remember the name of the hotel Majerus lived at downtown, so I’ll apologize for that in advance. But it’s also a great interview, another one I think everyone will love.

[NH]

In more recent memory, Jordan Barnes is a player who wanted to come here and certainly would have helped our team these last couple of seasons. 

[drkelsey55]

29 minutes ago, The House That Rick Built said:

Paul Biancardi joins the podcast on Monday. We may be the worst podcasters ever because we couldn’t remember the name of the hotel Majerus lived at downtown, so I’ll apologize for that in advance. But it’s also a great interview, another one I think everyone will love.

The Chase on Kingshighway

[The House That Rick Built]

2 minutes ago, drkelsey55 said:

The Chase on Kingshighway

Was it the Chase Plaza hotel? 

[DeSmetBilliken]

4 minutes ago, The House That Rick Built said:

Was it the Chase Plaza hotel? 

Yeah. The Chase Park Plaza. As I remember it, he lived in LaRussa’s former place.

[The House That Rick Built]

3 minutes ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

Yeah. The Chase Park Plaza. As I remember it, he lived in LaRussa’s former place.

Okay so then we were pretty close with calling it the Plaza. Not as bad.

[slufanskip]

3 hours ago, Billiken '04 said:

Mo. Jeffers > K. Williams 

B. Ahearn > D. Clarke

Bigger miss was Ahearn

Mo Jeffers and K Williams isn't a fair comparison as far as recruiting though as Mo was a Juco recruit

[brianstl]

9 hours ago, Pistol said:

If we want to talk about misses of guys that wanted to come to SLU but we passed on, and then they either thrived at smaller schools or moved on to bigger things, I think there are a few who fit that profile as similar or bigger misses than Ahearn.

Kent Williams didn't get an offer from Spoon and Romar repeatedly expressed exasperation about it, especially as we were scouting SIUC (he dropped 22 on us in a 5-point SIUC win in that game). Williams played in the same conference as Ahearn right before Ahearn showed up, he played more minutes every year, averaged more each season and over his career, and took SIUC to two Tournaments, including a Sweet Sixteen. He was a better passer, rebounder, and defender than Ahearn. He didn't shoot FTs as well (no one did) but he got to the line more. Ahearn shot a little better from 3 and a slightly higher volume but Williams was way more effective inside the perimeter.

Philip Gilbert was Miles' running mate at ESL and was an all-conference player at Bradley. Dude scored 19 PPG as a junior and scored more than any of the other guys listed here for his career. They didn't see the Tournament when he was there, which is a shame because they went on that Sweet Sixteen run shortly after he graduated. Spoon didn't recruit him; not sure why Romar didn't offer along with Miles. I don't remember the story there.

Another miss was Darren Brooks out of Jennings. I don't get why we never offered him. He wound up putting up slightly higher scoring numbers than Ahearn in his MVC career. SIUC made the Tournament all four of his seasons there - Sweet Sixteen, first round, first round, second round. Much better passer and rebounder than Ahearn, much better defender. He would have been a perfect fit at SLU in those years.

Josh Harrellson didn't put up big numbers at Kentucky until his senior year, but imagine four years of him in our frontcourt. Soderberg never offered, Harrellson signed with WIU, Soderberg got fired, Harrellson heard Thomas was going to be out at WIU and asked out of his LOI, they refused, he went to JUCO and had a huge year, and wound up at Kentucky. Majerus and SLU offered when he was a JUCO freshman but it was too late. He wanted to play somewhere more big-time. Based on our rosters in those years, I think he would've been way more impactful than Ahearn.

You could make a strong case for any or all of these guys in that era as being bigger misses than Ahearn. I think I just did. Was Ahearn a miss? Absolutely. He would've been a good player here (although possibly not put up the same numbers he did at MSU). He was far from a sure thing at the time, though. He made a big jump from his sophomore to his junior year in college. Others have made this point before, but when you recruit local players, you don't want to miss. You don't want a guy at the end of the bench resenting his lack of minutes and not being a good ambassador of the program for HS/AAU players in the area. I guess Spoon, Romar, and Sodie saw all of these guys as being risky in that way. I don't get why we mythologize just the one in particular, though.

Don’t forget about Falker and Jamaal Tatum. Basically that whole SIU sweet sixteen roster were Brad misses.

[The House That Rick Built]

Just a friendly reminder that in a little over 5 hours our interview with Paul Biancardi drops. Make sure to check that out, Paul does Monday With Majerus on Twitter every Monday, has a lot of love for a Rick and a lot of great stories To tell about Rick (not as explicit as other interviews). If you haven’t in the mean time check out our other interviews, likely some more new stuff in the pipeline so as always stay tuned here, the way you guys have been listening to this podcast without any actual basketball is truly awesome and it’s very much appreciated. Hope you enjoy. 

[Littlebill]

On 5/8/2020 at 5:16 PM, NH said:

In more recent memory, Jordan Barnes is a player who wanted to come here and certainly would have helped our team these last couple of seasons. 

This was by far Crews's most egregious offense. Barnes was good enough on his own to start on those bad Crews teams. And he didn't want him even though it would have at least helped get Tatum.