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TF interview with Frank


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6 hours ago, CBFan said:

I had the same expression on my face as his mom when he did that.

Seeing that happen makes me paranoid of any SLU recruits with hats in front of them when making their announcement, I cannot watch anymore, I will read about it on this site.

hahaha

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53 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Others he missed on were Ahern and Harrelson. Instead we got the Obis and Dixons of the world. Brad actually could have been a Mark Few at SLU.  I don't think he would have bolted if he was successful here, because of the way UW dumped him. Sadly, he couldn't recruit or was a lousy evaluator of talent. 

Every coach misses on a couple of recruits over a 5 year period. Romar undervalued more future stars than Soderberg (Darren Brooks, Phillip Gilbert, Dan Oppland) and he was only here three years. Soderberg struggled to close the deal. Romar, though a superior salesman, had absolutely the wrong recruiting strategy. 

We never had a coach who was a great mid-major recruiter and had a passion for recruiting locally. Until now. Kevin Stallings was the guy who could have been a reasonable facsimile of Mark Few.

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10 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

Every coach misses on a couple of recruits over a 5 year period. Romar undervalued more future stars than Soderberg (Darren Brooks, Phillip Gilbert, Dan Oppland) and he was only here three years. Soderberg struggled to close the deal. Romar, though a superior salesman, had absolutely the wrong recruiting strategy. 

We never had a coach who was a great mid-major recruiter and had a passion for recruiting locally. Until now. Kevin Stallings was the guy who could have been a reasonable facsimile of Mark Few.

If memory serves me Romar had offered Ahern but it was Brad who took it back once he became the head coach.

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21 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

If memory serves me Romar had offered Ahern but it was Brad who took it back once he became the head coach.

Romar did show interest but never got around to offering Ahearn. Ahearn broke his wrist at the end of his junior season and was out of commission for a couple of months. Brad took a wait and see approach,  Darren Clarke had a great summer in the interim and Brad offered him instead. Then Clarke injured his ankle in the fall and never regained his explosiveness. Bad breaks all around.

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11 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

Every coach misses on a couple of recruits over a 5 year period. Romar undervalued more future stars than Soderberg (Darren Brooks, Phillip Gilbert, Dan Oppland) and he was only here three years. Soderberg struggled to close the deal. Romar, though a superior salesman, had absolutely the wrong recruiting strategy. 

We never had a coach who was a great mid-major recruiter and had a passion for recruiting locally. Until now. Kevin Stallings was the guy who could have been a reasonable facsimile of Mark Few.

I've always gotten the sense that Stallings thought he was too good for the SLU job. Going to Pitt seemed like an odd fit and proved to be a disaster.

Bruce Weber is the guy who would have made sense as our Mark Few. Following the 2015-16 season he was on the hot seat at K-State. He has since turned it around, but if he had gotten let go, he would have been a perfect fit here. All that being said, I'm happy with Ford and think he is a good fit for this job. He can have a long and successful run here.

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In real life, the very best option may not look like the very best option at the time of the decision and is not tapped. All kinds of bad options (people who have a great ability to promote themselves but  prove to be worthless) can and are oftentimes chosen, just to be discarded later on. Bruce Weber or Stallings may or may not have been better for SLU but one felt he was better than SLU and would not have lasted at the job, the other was still trying to keep the position he had (not available). Just about everyone, including the self promoting disasters might have been better than Crews in the final analysis. There is really nothing to be gained by revisiting the old list of choices and prospects we had then.

All in all Ford has turned out to be a wonderful choice for us. Good recruiter and good coach with a good staff of his own. Ford is someone who has settled well in St. Louis and appears to be willing to remain here for quite some time. We made a wonderful choice to appoint as HC. In reality we hit the jackpot by hiring him. In Ford we trust

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35 minutes ago, ACE said:

I've always gotten the sense that Stallings thought he was too good for the SLU job. Going to Pitt seemed like an odd fit and proved to be a disaster.

Bruce Weber is the guy who would have made sense as our Mark Few. Following the 2015-16 season he was on the hot seat at K-State. He has since turned it around, but if he had gotten let go, he would have been a perfect fit here. All that being said, I'm happy with Ford and think he is a good fit for this job. He can have a long and successful run here.

i agree ace.   it remains to be seen what happens after the really big run and the big boy programs come sniffing around.   he left for the "bigtime" big 12 before when he had some success.   hopefully he sees the pressure and expectations arent worth it and realizes slu is the perfect place for a career.   we shall see.   

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1 minute ago, billiken_roy said:

i agree ace.   it remains to be seen what happens after the really big run and the big boy programs come sniffing around.   he left for the "bigtime" big 12 before when he had some success.   hopefully he sees the pressure and expectations arent worth it and realizes slu is the perfect place for a career.   we shall see.   

One thing in our favor is that I don't think the "big boy programs" will come around for quite a while. He is regarded as a "re-tread" at this point because he ultimately failed in the Big 12, and that works in our favor. IMO, Ford will have to have a LOT of success here before he gets another shot at the "big time" and that would be fine too, because it would mean we're doing very well.

A lot of the BCS programs will go for who they perceive to be the young up and coming coach or some young mid-major guy who made a run in the Tourney - example, the Illini's  horrible hire of Groce. Ford does not fit that profile at this point. He's nearly 50.

And as long as Ford has the resources, a strong recruiting strategy, good facilities... he'll figure he can have a long run here of kicking butt in the A10 and getting to the Dance.

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5 minutes ago, ACE said:

One thing in our favor is that I don't think the "big boy programs" will come around for quite a while. He is regarded as a "re-tread" at this point because he ultimately failed in the Big 12, and that works in our favor. IMO, Ford will have to have a LOT of success here before he gets another shot at the "big time" and that would be fine too, because it would mean we're doing very well.

A lot of the BCS programs will go for who they perceive to be the young up and coming coach or some young mid-major guy who made a run in the Tourney - example, the Illini's  horrible hire of Groce. Ford does not fit that profile at this point. He's nearly 50.

And as long as Ford has the resources, a strong recruiting strategy, good facilities... he'll figure he can have a long run here of kicking butt in the A10 and getting to the Dance.

This is what I wish for w/ Ford. 

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1 hour ago, ACE said:

I've always gotten the sense that Stallings thought he was too good for the SLU job. Going to Pitt seemed like an odd fit and proved to be a disaster.

Bruce Weber is the guy who would have made sense as our Mark Few. Following the 2015-16 season he was on the hot seat at K-State. He has since turned it around, but if he had gotten let go, he would have been a perfect fit here. All that being said, I'm happy with Ford and think he is a good fit for this job. He can have a long and successful run here.

He left SIUC for the bright lights of IL so he would have left SLU also once a bigger program came a knocking.

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8 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

He left SIUC for the bright lights of IL so he would have left SLU also once a bigger program came a knocking.

Not necessarily... leaving Methdale is a VERY easy decision. 

Anyway, I was talking about the possibility of Weber coming here IF had been canned at K-State a few years ago, as was being rumored around that time. That would have made it two BCS failures for Weber at that point, so coming here, which has been a recruiting hot spot for him, would have made a lot of sense.

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15 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

He left SIUC for the bright lights of IL so he would have left SLU also once a bigger program came a knocking.

Probably true in the case of Weber.  But Kevin Stallings was a St. Louis (Collinsville) guy.  He actually interviewed for the SLU position after his 6th year at Illinois State.  That's not something you do if you think you're too good for the program.  SLU hired Romar instead.  I can only imagine how the meeting between Stallings and Biondi went. 

We finally got our guy.  What's a few decades between friends? 🙂

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25 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

He left SIUC for the bright lights of IL so he would have left SLU also once a bigger program came a knocking.

He wouldn't have left SLU in his 60's.  Weber lobbied hard for the SLU job twice from what I have been told.

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20 minutes ago, ACE said:

Not necessarily... leaving Methdale is a VERY easy decision. 

Anyway, I was talking about the possibility of Weber coming here IF had been canned at K-State a few years ago, as was being rumored around that time. That would have made it two BCS failures for Weber at that point, so coming here, which has been a recruiting hot spot for him, would have made a lot of sense.

the only advantage slu over siu is/was the better conference.   the fact siu is a public school with access to lot more money imo doesnt make it an easy decision.    none of us know the slu athletic budget as they are not required to disclose being a private institution, but i would bet that siu has a larger overall athletic budget AND men's basketball budget. while rickma got some concessions we never saw before expensewise, it was no secret by the end of his life, he like all coaches before him was fighting for budget concessions to try to be competitive as well.   the biggest problem our basketball team still has imo is our BoT.   overall they couldnt care less about billiken athletics.  

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38 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Probably true in the case of Weber.  But Kevin Stallings was a St. Louis (Collinsville) guy.  He actually interviewed for the SLU position after his 6th year at Illinois State.  That's not something you do if you think you're too good for the program.  SLU hired Romar instead.  I can only imagine how the meeting between Stallings and Biondi went. 

We finally got our guy.  What's a few decades between friends? 🙂

Folks interview for other jobs they are not really interested in order to get a better deal at their current job frequently.

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1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

the only advantage slu over siu is/was the better conference.   the fact siu is a public school with access to lot more money imo doesnt make it an easy decision.    none of us know the slu athletic budget as they are not required to disclose being a private institution, but i would bet that siu has a larger overall athletic budget AND men's basketball budget. while rickma got some concessions we never saw before expensewise, it was no secret by the end of his life, he like all coaches before him was fighting for budget concessions to try to be competitive as well.   the biggest problem our basketball team still has imo is our BoT.   overall they couldnt care less about billiken athletics.  

SLU also has the advantage of not being in Carbondale

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2 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

the only advantage slu over siu is/was the better conference.   the fact siu is a public school with access to lot more money imo doesnt make it an easy decision.    none of us know the slu athletic budget as they are not required to disclose being a private institution, but i would bet that siu has a larger overall athletic budget AND men's basketball budget. while rickma got some concessions we never saw before expensewise, it was no secret by the end of his life, he like all coaches before him was fighting for budget concessions to try to be competitive as well.   the biggest problem our basketball team still has imo is our BoT.   overall they couldnt care less about billiken athletics.  

It seems illogical to me that with the leadership of the Board of Trustees avid basketball or should I say rabbit basketball fans that they don't care about billiken athletics. I assume your criticism goes back to the situations. Without knowing what the workings are at a university I just don't believe that was something that would get to a board level. Could Fred have done something Maybe. ? And I am a fan of Fred. 

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7 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

Are you saying Weber is in his 60s when he went to KState?  He did leave SIUC for IL so why would SLU have been able to keep him?

Weber was sixty when Ford got the job. That was when Ace was referring to when he was in danger of getting forced out at K State.

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24 minutes ago, willie said:

It seems illogical to me that with the leadership of the Board of Trustees avid basketball or should I say rabbit basketball fans that they don't care about billiken athletics. I assume your criticism goes back to the situations. Without knowing what the workings are at a university I just don't believe that was something that would get to a board level. Could Fred have done something Maybe. ? And I am a fan of Fred. 

we have forever been nickeled and dimed to death.   while we have one supposed fan at the leadership of the BoT, not much of what has happened for the men's basketball program would be identified as a hard core fan of the program imo.

as to fred, i dont know how anyone could be a fan of that spineless man.   well maybe krafty and stormy would be a fan with the power he indeed gave them to ruin the program for no good reason.  

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29 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Weber was sixty when Ford got the job. That was when Ace was referring to when he was in danger of getting forced out at K State.

 

29 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Weber was sixty when Ford got the job. That was when Ace was referring to when he was in danger of getting forced out at K State.

OK - I thought you meant when he was at SIUC

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1 minute ago, billiken_roy said:

we have forever been nickeled and dimed to death.   while we have one supposed fan at the leadership of the BoT, not much of what has happened for the men's basketball program would be identified as a hard core fan of the program imo.

as to fred, i dont know how anyone could be a fan of that spineless man.   well maybe krafty and stormy would be a fan with the power he indeed gave them to ruin the program for no good reason.  

I think you are living in the past. Biondi was the nickel and dimer. I don't believe our basketball team lacks anything. As proof count the suits on the bench. I think Fred is a fan who understands that a good basketball program is good for the university.  

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7 minutes ago, willie said:

I think you are living in the past. Biondi was the nickel and dimer. I don't believe our basketball team lacks anything. As proof count the suits on the bench. I think Fred is a fan who understands that a good basketball program is good for the university.  

marketing has a LOT to be desired.   i missed that we fly all charters at the school's expense to all away games.   nice new shirts for the band each year (not).  oh i guess the band in it's entirety and the complete dance and cheer teams chose not to go to new york city last spring for the A-10 championships?    i could go on.   yes it is better, but to say the program lacks nothing is far from true.   

if fred was a fan he would never have allowed that cheerleader to lie her way into framing our players and basically ruining the potential of two seasons.   fred belongs at some charter grade school. 

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