3star_recruit Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 He just got a verbal from Martell Webster, a top 10 shooting guard from Seattle that at least one guru has compared to Paul Pierce. Romar's a recruiting madman on the West Coast. But as we're seeing, he has to BE on the West Coast for that strategy to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 He never seemed to win those big recruiting battles here. I expected Lorenzo to make a big recruiting splash here when he took over and it never materialized. Our roster was depleted by the time Brad took over, so it's amazing what he's been able to do. Romar is a better fit at Wash and we're better off to have Brad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 romar was a proven top recruiter by the ucla team that won the national championship. granted he never got it together here at slu, but he was in the running for a roster that would have been huge. we dont even get mentioned with kids of that caliber anymore. as ironic as it sounds, the fact he was as good of a recruiter as he was is why he failed at slu. had he not been in the running to the end of the likes of darius miles, jamal sampson, chuck hayes, travis deiner, etc, he wouldnt have had to settle for the likes of seyfert and randy pulley. he missed out on second tier recruits that he would have gotten if he wasnt being taken to the end by the top guys. i believe that eventually he would have hit on one of those big guys. and then it would have been dominos as it has been this year for him at washington. in the meantime, there is no denying that he did a good job with what he had. he coached hard defense and disciplined offense that allowed the billikens to compete. that all said, the greatest recruit coach romar ever did pull in was an unemployed head coach from wisconsin he brought in to help out for a year. if you think about it, to have the self confidence to bring in a brad soderberg as an assistant is quite amazing. all things happen for a reason and maybe the basketball gods made us go through 3 years of coach romar to get to coach soderberg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 here we go again.......Romar goes 51-44 plus one NCAA appearance in his first three years at SLU and some say he "failed". Amazing! I'm not surprised at Romar's quick success at Washington as he can both coach and recruit. It's interesting to note that two of Romar's four 2005 verbal commitments are players from the midwest and east coast (6-0 Justin Dentmon from Cardondale via a prep school in Winchendon, Mass; and 6-5 Roburt Sallie from Laurinburg Institute, Laurinburg, North Carolina). Evidently, Romar is still going after quality players regardless of where they play. I wonder why it is apparently easier to recruit at Washington versus SLU? As stated above, I glad Romar added Soderberg to his SLU staff. I would have been pleased if Romar would have stayed, because imo in time he would have been very successful. Likewise, I'm also confident Coach Soderberg will be very successful at SLU as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 >here we go again.......Romar goes 51-44 plus one NCAA >appearance in his first three years at SLU and some say he >"failed". Amazing! > >I'm not surprised at Romar's quick success at Washington as >he can both coach and recruit. It's interesting to note that >two of Romar's four 2005 verbal commitments are players from >the midwest and east coast (6-0 Justin Dentmon from >Cardondale via a prep school in Winchendon, Mass; and 6-5 >Roburt Sallie from Laurinburg Institute, Laurinburg, North >Carolina). Evidently, Romar is still going after quality >players regardless of where they play. I wonder why it is >apparently easier to recruit at Washington versus SLU? > >As stated above, I glad Romar added Soderberg to his SLU >staff. I would have been pleased if Romar would have stayed, >because imo in time he would have been very successful. >Likewise, I'm also confident Coach Soderberg will be very >successful at SLU as well. Who said Romar failed? This IS what I said: He never seemed to win those big recruiting battles here. I expected Lorenzo to make a big recruiting splash here when he took over and it never materialized. Our roster was depleted by the time Brad took over, so it's amazing what he's been able to do. Romar is a better fit at Wash and we're better off to have Brad. What part of that do you disagree with? Soderberg inerited a depleted roster. There's no denying that. Pulley and Edwin were shown the door. McClain never panned out. Seyfert left a year earlier. In time, Romar could've turned it around, but when he left, the program certainly wasn't looking good. Romar inherited a roster with Jeffers, Love, Perry, Tatum, Baniak, Heinrich, Fergerson and by the time Romar left, for a variety of reasons, the talent level was not as good. I don't know how anybody can deny that. Considering Romar was billed as a great recruiter, the state of the program when he left was disappointing. He didn't improve on what he inherited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 lighten up ACE, and re-run broy's above post! I was responding to friend broy's "why he failed at slu" comment. I was also assuming that I could do that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheltiedave Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 Ace, Romar won a huge recruiting war for Ryan Hollins. The battles are very, very difficult when your recruiting arsenal does not include a name school, a solid but perceived lower level conference, and the "other" major sport at the school is a top five soccer team. I believe, along with others, that Lorenzo was two years away from having a top three in conferece team, and a top two recruiting class, every year for the CUSA. It does take some time to get the train rolling, and once the inertia is positive, everything really moves well. Lorenzo has a great engine in his smaLL, LIGHTNING QUICK pg. Brad is at a similar junction now, where he is two years from having a monster season. If we avoid injuries, IF we get Tommie on the rebound, and IF we score a good PF and IF we successfully develop a center, we can get off the JUCO route and build some successful four year runs. Reloading is a hell of a lot easier than rebuilding, as Gonzaga has shown. The next year's battle will go a long way for Brad, IF he can convince Jesse's son to commit a year early to SLU. We would be well stocked at the 1 thru 3 if Jared makes a commit. I can't stress how difficult it is to convince a seventeen year old that SLU is as good a choice as a scool advertised on ESPN, with a razzle-dazzle coach who can brilliantly sell the sizzle. The trick is convincing them to buy the actual steak over the ground chuck... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 ace said, "In time, Romar could've turned it around, but when he left, the program certainly wasn't looking good." for a program that "wasnt looking good", coach soderberg must have been a miracle worker. imo, the likes of josh fisher, marque perry, kenny brown, chris sloan, and company would take offense to "wasnt looking good". and the fact that the billikens always finished in the upper half of the conference during and after coach romar, and went to post season most of the years during and after, prove that romar wasnt the mess most of you make him out to be. i am with tseugnekillib on this one. glad that coach soderberg is here, but i would have been happy to ride out the romar years. i will forever contend he would have been an eventual success. those of you that got to know him, know how personable he was, (translates to eventual recruiting success) and anyone with half a basketball brain could see how good of a floor coach he was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 i shouldnt have used that phrase. tseugnekillib you know i am/was a huge romar backer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 broy, we don't agree on everything, but we agree on Romar! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trich Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 I am not sure L.R. won a huge recruiting battle for Ryan Hollins. My recollection is that when Hollins committed and signed his L of I to the Bills, he was not a starter on his high school team. He became a starter his senior year and had a great year that raised his value but he was not that highly recruited after his junior year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 I should stay out of this but can't. I don't think 'Zo was a good hire for us to begin with. Now granted I was high on the guy once he got here, but his whole objective was to get back to the WC not to be a long termer at SLU. Second, his recruiting strategy was flawed. Going after top 100 WC players was not realistic. We couldn't compete and the results showed it, 0 LOI's. Ryan Hollins was not that highly sought after until his senior year. As for coaching skill, yes he was good, but what happened to that 2000-01 team? Mo, MP, et al that should have been in the NCAA. Bottom line: He was the third choice of UW's AD, so she wasn't all that impressed either, Was SLU in better shape when he left? C'mon, no one can objectively say we were headed in the right direction when players were falling like flies, his players, and two incomings that were highly questionable. If he were on Apprentice Trump would have fired him. But given him high marks for hiring UB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted October 2, 2004 Author Share Posted October 2, 2004 100% true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted October 2, 2004 Author Share Posted October 2, 2004 "The next year's battle will go a long way for Brad, IF he can convince Jesse's son to commit a year early to SLU. We would be well stocked at the 1 thru 3 if Jared makes a commit." Don't forget Dustin Maguire and Kyle Kirk. They're pretty good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 It's obvious that we are in a slow period with little to discuss if we are once again arguing the merits of the most recently departed HC. I don't care the least bit about him...he chose to move on...good riddance. It's time to turn a new chapter and worry about the Billikens. That's the team I care about...I didn't even give UW a 2nd thought when I lived in Seattle. I'm ready to worry about where we are as a program and where we are headed in the future...I like Coach Soderberg a lot and hope that he stays here and builds the Billikens to a program where we are looking towards the NCAA Big Dance each year and are damn disappointed if we don't make it at the end of the year. While we are not quite there yet, I think that we are getting much closer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUMS81 Posted October 3, 2004 Share Posted October 3, 2004 I think that the presence of a football team might also benefit basketball recruiting. I wonder how many potential basketball recruits might be persuaded to commit to a given school if they have friends/classmates who are being recruited to play football at the same university? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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