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Coach Ford on the Radio, 2020


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42 minutes ago, ACE said:

He cared a lot about it when RM was here. RM did a smart thing charming Bernie as soon as he got to town - probably with food.

Yes, I can confirm your theory: those 2 often ate out at local joints, including one of my favorites: LoRusso's, which still features on their menu RM & his touting of their world-class Cioppino, which is still listed as Cioppino Majerus!! ....  (it really is one of the best meals in greater STL!, only $30...)  ps: at some point Bernie lost a bunch of weight; anyone know if he has managed to keep it all off??

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I too listened in to Bernie.  It's amazing what Bernie didn't know about SLU.  I also found that because Coach does so many interviews, there really wasn't much new today. [Too many interviews - that's GREAT in my opinion.  I'm really pleased with the coverage SLU is receiving these days.]

The only item that raised my eyebrow was his comment that he has to keep his best players on the floor. Besides the obvious, this hinted, to me, that we will be staying with an 8 man rotation.  (Sorry KC.)

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Looks like someone at SLU had the idea to make up personalized jerseys for local media members.  Bernie is holding one up here.  I've seen Randy Karraker (101 ESPN) and Ahmad Hicks (KSDK) also tweet out photos of them hold up or wearing their personalized Billiken jerseys.  Pretty good marketing move.

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6 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:
Looks like someone at SLU had the idea to make up personalized jerseys for local media members.  Bernie is holding one up here.  I've seen Randy Karraker (101 ESPN) and Ahmad Hicks (KSDK) also tweet out photos of them hold up or wearing their personalized Billiken jerseys.  Pretty good marketing move.

Sooooo how do I get mine?

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3 hours ago, RiseAndGrind said:

One thing of note i found interesting was how much Ford likes the talent in stl. Sounds like he’s really really recruiting stl and making some good in roads. Referenced high school coaches telling him SLU hasn’t been to “x” school in forever. 

I was thinking the other day about the long reach Spoon's coaching tenure at SLU had on the area high school/AAU scene.  Between the guys that played for SLU and Kelvin Lee there is a pretty large Spoonhour coaching tree in St. Louis.

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5 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

That just seems unfathomable to me.  But I'm certainly glad Ford and his staff are making their presence felt locally.

I think coaches a lot of the time assume they already have an in just because their nearby, so they rarely check in

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i would bet that normally the coaching staff comes from areas out of the st louis metro area.   they already have networks and contacts set up elsewhere and probably were recruited to come to st louis for that reason.   i.e.   it is easier for them to work their developed area then to explore new horizons.   with coach tate we had a local guy that already was tied into st louis so it was easier for him to start banging on doors here in st louis and get coach ford in front of the right people.   

it takes a special coach to go out exploring recruitingwise.   they all have so much to worry about already.   spoon had local guys on his staff.   so they were willing to recruit locally.    romar just went out and found players.   recruitingwise he was special imo.   soderberg served on romar's staff and was likely introduced to certain players/coaches via romar.   thus the lisch and liddell contacts.   

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23 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

That just seems unfathomable to me.  But I'm certainly glad Ford and his staff are making their presence felt locally.

I feel like Soderberg did an ok job recruiting St. Louis. He certainly brought in a number of local guys (Polk, Meyer, Lisch, Liddell, Dustin Mcguire). His problem was moreso that he just wasn't a great recruiter. It seemed like he did a good job of putting in the time seeing local kids. 

Through a combination of health- and style- reasons, Rick Majerus wasn't really the type of coach who was going to be going to open gyms at Vashon or Chaminade. Then you combine that with a staff which included Harriman (who spent a lot of time recruiting in Australia, New Zealand and the west coast) and Alex Jensen (someone who we know did not enjoy the recruiting aspect), and you can start to see how that staff didn't get to local schools that often.

Crews' staff of Platt, Cheaney and Bronson had no local roots and seemed more focused on their contacts in other parts of the midwest (I'll admit to not following recruiting quite as closely during this era, just given how dreary everything was).

Ford made local recruiting a big priority early with the hiring of Tate away from Mizzou. Then you add the fact that his son was playing local high school basketball, and you can see how the pieces start to add up for a more significant local recruiting presence.

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6 minutes ago, NH said:

I feel like Soderberg did an ok job recruiting St. Louis. He certainly brought in a number of local guys (Polk, Meyer, Lisch, Liddell, Dustin Mcguire). His problem was moreso that he just wasn't a great recruiter. It seemed like he did a good job of putting in the time seeing local kids. 

Through a combination of health- and style- reasons, Rick Majerus wasn't really the type of coach who was going to be going to open gyms at Vashon or Chaminade. Then you combine that with a staff which included Harriman (who spent a lot of time recruiting in Australia, New Zealand and the west coast) and Alex Jensen (someone who we know did not enjoy the recruiting aspect), and you can start to see how that staff didn't get to local schools that often.

Crews' staff of Platt, Cheaney and Bronson had no local roots and seemed more focused on their contacts in other parts of the midwest (I'll admit to not following recruiting quite as closely during this era, just given how dreary everything was).

Ford made local recruiting a big priority early with the hiring of Tate away from Mizzou. Then you add the fact that his son was playing local high school basketball, and you can see how the pieces start to add up for a more significant local recruiting presence.

And he’s charismatic as hell, played one year at Mizzou, and was a national name at Kentucky. FINAL 4 here we come 

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It's not just local recruiting... Ford understands recruiting in the A-10. I was impressed in an early interview when he talked about how he went about putting a staff together. From his time in the A-10, he understood the landscape and what type of players you needed to be successful in this league. He talked about having a local presence (Tate), an East Coast presence (Macon) and then to add somebody like Bailey (a current A-10 coach who knew the league, plus had some connections in Chicago, which has always been a natural recruiting ground for SLU). Then you sprinkle in Ford's own connections that he has built during his long career (Kentucky, Texas, Louisiana, Florida and even Iceland). All of the sudden, you can cast a wide net and have a realistic chance of making inroads. And one other thing Ford said which applies to the A-10 - not every urban kid wants to go play at a state school in a small podunk down.  There are some kids that are more comfortable being at a city type school - those are the kids that SLU should be targeting. At this point, Ford and SLU are a very good marriage. 

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28 minutes ago, NH said:

I feel like Soderberg did an ok job recruiting St. Louis. He certainly brought in a number of local guys (Polk, Meyer, Lisch, Liddell, Dustin Mcguire). His problem was moreso that he just wasn't a great recruiter. It seemed like he did a good job of putting in the time seeing local kids. 

Through a combination of health- and style- reasons, Rick Majerus wasn't really the type of coach who was going to be going to open gyms at Vashon or Chaminade. Then you combine that with a staff which included Harriman (who spent a lot of time recruiting in Australia, New Zealand and the west coast) and Alex Jensen (someone who we know did not enjoy the recruiting aspect), and you can start to see how that staff didn't get to local schools that often.

Crews' staff of Platt, Cheaney and Bronson had no local roots and seemed more focused on their contacts in other parts of the midwest (I'll admit to not following recruiting quite as closely during this era, just given how dreary everything was).

Ford made local recruiting a big priority early with the hiring of Tate away from Mizzou. Then you add the fact that his son was playing local high school basketball, and you can see how the pieces start to add up for a more significant local recruiting presence.

I agree that Soderberg's local recruiting was solid.  Lisch, Liddell and Meyer were 3 of the top 6-7 players our area produced during his coaching tenure. Where he struggled was landing anybody over 6'5 who could play.  Ian Vouyaukas and Izik Ohanon were the only guys over 6'5 who amounted to anything.  You put French and Perkins on the Lisch/Liddell/Vouyoukas squad and that team is dancing.

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1 minute ago, 3star_recruit said:

I agree that Soderberg's local recruiting was solid.  Lisch, Liddell and Meyer were 3 of the top 6-7 players our area produced during his coaching tenure. Where he struggled was landing anybody over 6'5 who could play.  Ian Vouyaukas and Izik Ohanon were the only guys over 6'5 who amounted to anything.  You put French and Perkins on the Lisch/Liddell/Vouyoukas squad and that team is dancing.

Well, he also did an extremely poor job of recruiting point guards. The fact that Sodie could never recruit over Polk was another key to his failure. In Sodie's final season, Polk's junior year - he was a starter who averaged nearly 30 mpg.

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53 minutes ago, ACE said:

Well, he also did an extremely poor job of recruiting point guards. The fact that Sodie could never recruit over Polk was another key to his failure. In Sodie's final season, Polk's junior year - he was a starter who averaged nearly 30 mpg.

Polk was miscast.  He was really a short combo guard, like Weaver, whose shot abandoned him in college.  In an alternative universe where you're starting Lisch, Liddell, Perkins, French and Vouyoukas, then Meyer is your sixth man, Polk is playing 15 min and whatever big stiffs we had give French and Vouyoukas a blow .  Lisch has been playing point guard in the pros, he was more than adequate to play the position in the A10.

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6 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Polk was miscast.  He was really a short combo guard, like Weaver, who's shot abandoned him in college.  In an alternative universe where you're starting Lisch, Liddell, Perkins, French and Vouyoukas, then Meyer is your sixth man, Polk is playing 15 min and whatever big stiffs we had give French and Vouyoukas a blow .  Lisch has been playing point guard in the pros, he was more than adequate to play the position in the A10.

That's a lot of if's... regardless of what label you put on Polk, the bottom line is that he was considered one of the five best players on the team and he was still getting 30 mpg as a junior. He wasn't recruited over - I don't care if it was by a point guard or a player like Perkins in your dream scenario. The point is that Sodie was more than just one player away. Rather than Perkins in your dream scenario, you could put a true pg like Collins in the lineup and do just fine as well. Personally, I'd rather see a great shooter like Lisch playing alongside a true PG, rather than being the PG. Outside of Lisch, not an abundance of good guards either. Just not enough depth in general. 

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1 hour ago, 3star_recruit said:

I agree that Soderberg's local recruiting was solid.  Lisch, Liddell and Meyer were 3 of the top 6-7 players our area produced during his coaching tenure. Where he struggled was landing anybody over 6'5 who could play.  Ian Vouyaukas and Izik Ohanon were the only guys over 6'5 who amounted to anything.  You put French and Perkins on the Lisch/Liddell/Vouyoukas squad and that team is dancing.

he completely whiffed on harrelson or he could have had a good big

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All this recruiting takes, yet you all ignore Rickma's net. Kwamain- MN, Conk- Washington. St, Cody, Aus, Loe NZ, Reed, KC, Evans and McCall, Ill, Jett  NE Prep school via MN. Possibly the best teams we've ever put together. The man knew what it took, and he assembled a group that was the best we've ever seen.  No locals. No 5 stars. Just good solid players! 

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7 hours ago, RUBillsFan said:

 Pretty good marketing move.

Now just think how good it could be if I could actually buy one for my kids.   Talk about untapped money.   So many people would buy them for their kids and themselves. Think of thousands of kids wearing them to school in the STL area.  Their friends who aren’t even fans would want one(because that’s what kids do).  Give a free ticket(or two) to a directional school game with the purchase of a jersey.  Then you’re collecting for parking and that way over priced popcorn and soda.  Now that $90-$130 jersey just brought you 8000 plus people to a Wednesday night game in November.  Now that jersey cost me an extra $40-50 in parking and concessions plus another ticket for the wife.  The game atmosphere is always great so said child has a great time.  Guess what her next question is when we leave.  Hey dad when can we come back?   But none of this will ever happen because someone somewhere can’t get it together enough to sell jerseys like a big time program does.  Sorry for the rant my 9yr old has wanted a French jersey for several yrs. And for some reason I can’t buy one.

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14 hours ago, ACE said:

That's a lot of if's... regardless of what label you put on Polk, the bottom line is that he was considered one of the five best players on the team and he was still getting 30 mpg as a junior. He wasn't recruited over - I don't care if it was by a point guard or a player like Perkins in your dream scenario. The point is that Sodie was more than just one player away. Rather than Perkins in your dream scenario, you could put a true pg like Collins in the lineup and do just fine as well. Personally, I'd rather see a great shooter like Lisch playing alongside a true PG, rather than being the PG. Outside of Lisch, not an abundance of good guards either. Just not enough depth in general. 

That's been a problem for the last 25 years with two exceptions -- the Majerus years and this year.

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