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Ford contract


crymdg2

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Ford's house is on the market, has been for a few weeks.  I'm assuming with the kids grown they don't need all that space.  Downsizing.  But that's my assumption.

BLUF:  Bottom Line Up Front:  I don't want to lose Ford.  best coach we've had in a while.  But he really hasn't made the super splash that seems to be required to make the big jump.  He's not done what Andy English did at Florida Gulf Coast.  He hasn't done what Shaka did at VCU.  Larranaga at Mason.  Or any other of the "hot names" that typically come up every year.  Heck, he hasn't even done what he did at Umass to warrant the move to Okie State.  

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10 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

Ford's house is on the market, has been for a few weeks.  I'm assuming with the kids grown they don't need all that space.  Downsizing.  But that's my assumption.

BLUF:  Bottom Line Up Front:  I don't want to lose Ford.  best coach we've had in a while.  But he really hasn't made the super splash that seems to be required to make the big jump.  He's not done what Andy English did at Florida Gulf Coast.  He hasn't done what Shaka did at VCU.  Larranaga at Mason.  Or any other of the "hot names" that typically come up every year.  Heck, he hasn't even done what he did at Umass to warrant the move to Okie State.  

His best year was 23-13 and needed to win the conf tournament to get a bid.  

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21 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

Ford's house is on the market, has been for a few weeks.  I'm assuming with the kids grown they don't need all that space.  Downsizing.  But that's my assumption.

BLUF:  Bottom Line Up Front:  I don't want to lose Ford.  best coach we've had in a while.  But he really hasn't made the super splash that seems to be required to make the big jump.  He's not done what Andy English did at Florida Gulf Coast.  He hasn't done what Shaka did at VCU.  Larranaga at Mason.  Or any other of the "hot names" that typically come up every year.  Heck, he hasn't even done what he did at Umass to warrant the move to Okie State.  

A little harsh there, Old Man. He inherited a hot mess from coach Dead to us. Then goes out and recruits some pretty decent transfers plus JGood and Has when he loses most of Dead’s roster (no great loss). We all pretty much figured it would take any coach, unless his name was Jesus Christ, about 4-5 years to get this program back on solid footing. He might have done it by year 2, but he gets blindsided by situation 2 and the Pink ***** Hat cult. Still, you could see some progress and the product was getting away from the helter skelter mass confusion brand of hoops we’d seen for 2 years of Deadball. Year 3 we’re back dancing and A10 champs despite losing a top 50 spoiled whack job who was gonna be an instant game changer. That’s progress and even ahead of the time line set by the great one, Rickma. Year 4 looked like another step forward until it’s done in by the China plague. And now we may have the most complete best roster in Billiken history. Point being, Travis Ford may go down as the most successful coach we’ve ever had. I love the guy and hope he’s SLU’s version of Mark Few, ie stays forever. 

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4 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

This is a great year to be the coach of a middling P6 program.  Not only because you have a built-in excuse with COVID if you're not having a good season but because chances are, you're having a good season.  We know that the teams who normally dominate the top 25 are not.  I don't see many P6 jobs opening up.

I expect DePaul to have an opening.

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Travis has done just about everything that could have reasonably been asked of him through his first 4+ years. We forget sometimes just how bad the program was when he took over. The true mark on his tenure will be how his extends the era of Goodwin and French forward. I’m very confident he will continue to field a team fighting for bids, and hope he is here for a long time. 

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The coaching carousel’s pretty much going to be down again this year for a couple of reasons. First, any P6 openings may come with big payoffs due the parting HC and AD’s bank accounts ain’t what they were pre Covid. Second, depending on how hard a team was hit by the plague is going to be used as a justification for saying the HC can’t be held responsible for a team’s performance if it was struck by the plague. Even though some of the blue bloods are down, their HC’s aren’t going anywhere unless they retire. And I don’t think any of those guys are going to want to leave on a down note. So, while there may be a few slots come open, I don’t believe it’s going to be all that good a market for up and coming mid major coaches. 

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1 hour ago, Taj79 said:

Ford's house is on the market, has been for a few weeks.  I'm assuming with the kids grown they don't need all that space.  Downsizing.  But that's my assumption.

BLUF:  Bottom Line Up Front:  I don't want to lose Ford.  best coach we've had in a while.  But he really hasn't made the super splash that seems to be required to make the big jump.  He's not done what Andy English did at Florida Gulf Coast.  He hasn't done what Shaka did at VCU.  Larranaga at Mason.  Or any other of the "hot names" that typically come up every year.  Heck, he hasn't even done what he did at Umass to warrant the move to Okie State.  

Maybe Arenado will buy it - originally Holliday's home and friend Ford bought it so keep the line moving.

NextYearBill and TheBand like this
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14 minutes ago, slu72 said:

A little harsh there, Old Man. He inherited a hot mess from coach Dead to us. Then goes out and recruits some pretty decent transfers plus JGood and Has when he loses most of Dead’s roster (no great loss). We all pretty much figured it would take any coach, unless his name was Jesus Christ, about 4-5 years to get this program back on solid footing. He might have done it by year 2, but he gets blindsided by situation 2 and the Pink ***** Hat cult. Still, you could see some progress and the product was getting away from the helter skelter mass confusion brand of hoops we’d seen for 2 years of Deadball. Year 3 we’re back dancing and A10 champs despite losing a top 50 spoiled whack job who was gonna be an instant game changer. That’s progress and even ahead of the time line set by the great one, Rickma. Year 4 looked like another step forward until it’s done in by the China plague. And now we may have the most complete best roster in Billiken history. Point being, Travis Ford may go down as the most successful coach we’ve ever had. I love the guy and hope he’s SLU’s version of Mark Few, ie stays forever. 

Yes. I like Taj but BLUF that may be his worst post in quite a while. Complete ignoring of the facts and circumstances. Goodwin and French were his first recruits and their opportunity as juniors were taken away from them after a great season. In fact, Goodwin has finished only one season, being his sophomore season, and we were dancing. Now, they are both trying to regain form after both recovering from, and having to sit out for a month while your competition continues to compete, COVID and a global pandemic. Terrible post

And Dayton should get no credit at all for last season because the A10 tourney and NCAA tourney were canceled?  Last year did not happen? Last year was a failing year for everyone because no one won a conference tournament and no one made the NCAA tournament? What a disappointing year for Dayton and SLU.  They did not even make the NCAA tournament!!

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Anyone who badmouths Travis Ford is dead to me. This program owes him a massive debt. I have no reason to believe that he would leave, but if he does, he will have left it 100x better than he found it.

Any coach would inherit a loaded roster, well set pipelines into area schools, a well coached team, and a solid relationship with local media. A top level coach looking for a change would beg for this job.

That said, I would hope Ford can remember what life was like at Oklahoma State. Nothing was good enough.

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1 hour ago, Taj79 said:

Ford's house is on the market, has been for a few weeks.  I'm assuming with the kids grown they don't need all that space.  Downsizing.  But that's my assumption.

BLUF:  Bottom Line Up Front:  I don't want to lose Ford.  best coach we've had in a while.  But he really hasn't made the super splash that seems to be required to make the big jump.  He's not done what Andy English did at Florida Gulf Coast.  He hasn't done what Shaka did at VCU.  Larranaga at Mason.  Or any other of the "hot names" that typically come up every year.  Heck, he hasn't even done what he did at Umass to warrant the move to Okie State.  

Andy Enfield is a curious example. 

Two wins, in one NCAA, over Georgetown and San Diego St. and Enfield gets the USC HC position. This was after just two seasons as HC at Florida Gulf Coast.

In his first seven completed seasons at USC, he has one NCAA win, by one point, over SMU. And that is considering a sometimes soft Pac 12 during that time.

I don't disagree that some programs jump at the NCAA run of the moment. It happens, and it's fairly common. Others are a bit more thorough in their search. 

Ford has turned around SLU and stabilized the program. Last season there was no NCAA, and this season, long COVID-19 lay offs have coke into play. So it isn't really apples to apples. 

I think a fair question is how will SLU look next year and the year after, etc...considering the mention above things.

I think SLU has gotten what it wanted and needed, and an experienced coach, with some success, that knows both the A-10 and Power 5/Big East, that could turn the program around in that 3-5 year cycle. 

I don't see Ford leaving to go anywhere other than a possible Power 5 program that has football, more revenue, league stability, etc...if that opportunity ever came. He's from a few hours from St. Louis, played at Mizzou and UK, there aren't a ton of landing spots for him based on what he would get and where he might be interested. And he has very little pressure at SLU unlike some other places. Coaching a team that can be one of the best teams in its league has more appeal than ever considering today's money.

As for SLU, unless you get an elite coach like a Majerus, with good enough recruits, you'll need a good enough coach in several phases of coaching, recruiting, marketing etc...

As long as he continues to keep SLU as an NCAA team almost annually, Ford offers some stability for a place that has long searched for it. And, SLU offers a nice landing spot for him long term as well. (Always subject to annual evaluation to see where things are at the time)

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1 minute ago, wgstl said:

Also, how did we go from "The man very recently signed a VERY lucrative extension." to  "is he leaving"

He's probably going to UK and I would assume Goodwin, French, Perkins, Collins, Jimerson, Jacobs, and Okoro are all going with him. That's what I heard in the real estate inner circle.

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