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Travis Ford is not a good coach


Bonner89

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2 hours ago, thatskablamo said:

There’s a difference between trolling and frustration. I understand the millennials are going to get their lace jockstraps in a wad over the following, but it is ok to be mad. It’s ok to be upset. You can have a space to vent your frustration. 

I agree there’s a difference. And I agree it’s ok to be upset. I’ve criticized Ford and the play of the team on this board more times than I can count. But it’s also true that certain posters ONLY focus on the negative. They take that negativity to an extreme that’s just simply not realistic. I’m not trying to start a war here. I’m not going to name any names. But I’m sure everybody notices them. That was my point. The line is becoming blurred between the people who are just venting frustration, and the people who are being negative for the sake of being negative.

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Ford recruits guys that can play. His track record says that while we may not win the national championship, we will frequently make the NCAA tournament. If I watch that for the rest of my life as a billiken fan, I'll be happy with that. No more irrelevance.

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41 minutes ago, Soderball said:

Ford recruits guys that can play. His track record says that while we may not win the national championship, we will frequently make the NCAA tournament. If I watch that for the rest of my life as a billiken fan, I'll be happy with that. No more irrelevance.

I am not trolling: what do you consider “frequently”?

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40 minutes ago, A10Ref said:

Probably means for a program that has made 10 tournaments since 1950, more than 1 in every 7 years (hopefully). 

A program investing as many resources as we are, while located in fertile recruiting ground, should make the tournament pretty consistently. I believe Travis is close to doing that, but he needs to break through and show material results for the progress made over the last few years.

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9 minutes ago, BilliesBy40 said:

A program investing as many resources as we are, while located in fertile recruiting ground, should make the tournament pretty consistently. I believe Travis is close to doing that, but he needs to break through and show material results for the progress made over the last few years.

I agree with ya.  I also think with 3 of his seasons being impacted by a pandemic that slu hasn’t dealt with since 1918 has hampered some of his success. Maybe not, though. 

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2 hours ago, BilliesBy40 said:

A program investing as many resources as we are, while located in fertile recruiting ground, should make the tournament pretty consistently. I believe Travis is close to doing that, but he needs to break through and show material results for the progress made over the last few years.

It should be 50% of the time. A top 50 program would be in it about that often. If you’re in top 40, you’re virtually in yearly. Top 50 is the goal and despite large investments, we’re not there yet.

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11 hours ago, Soderball said:

Ford recruits guys that can play. His track record says that while we may not win the national championship, we will frequently make the NCAA tournament. If I watch that for the rest of my life as a billiken fan, I'll be happy with that. No more irrelevance.

In 25 years of coaching (22 years in the NCAA plus 3 NAIA), Ford has guided teams into the NCAA 7 times. 

1 Eastern KY

5 Oklahoma State

1 SLU

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10 hours ago, A10Ref said:

I agree with ya.  I also think with 3 of his seasons being impacted by a pandemic that slu hasn’t dealt with since 1918 has hampered some of his success. Maybe not, though. 

This. I know people will say you are just making excuses. However, sometimes there are truly reasons. Being in a pandemic and being hit harder with Covid than any other team in D1 seems like a legit reason. Losing your best player and top scorer who was considered one of the best wings in the country seems like a reason. Yes, every team loses players but how many A10 or below schools lose their best player and are still in the hunt for an NCAA appearance? Not many. A10 schools just don't usually have multitudes of players with Perkin's ability. 

Like most I'm concerned with not only the 3 loses but how we lost them. 

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14 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

This. I know people will say you are just making excuses. However, sometimes there are truly reasons. Being in a pandemic and being hit harder with Covid than any other team in D1 seems like a legit reason. Losing your best player and top scorer who was considered one of the best wings in the country seems like a reason. Yes, every team loses players but how many A10 or below schools lose their best player and are still in the hunt for an NCAA appearance? Not many. A10 schools just don't usually have multitudes of players with Perkin's ability. 

Like most I'm concerned with not only the 3 loses but how we lost them. 

We've never had a problem with losing double digit leads in the final minutes before.  This is an issue unique to this squad -- we have no answer to full court pressure at the end of games. If you pressed Yuri in the past, we got the ball to Perkins and he would make teams pay.  Now when teams double Yuri at the end of games, bad things happen.  Either he turns it over or the guy receiving the pass does.

What is the answer?  We can't just put Yuri on an island at the end of games.  On the one hand we have Jones who is good at protecting the ball but can't create anything.  On the other hand we have Nesbitt who can create but is still struggling with shot selection.  Clearly the long term answer is Nesbitt being co-closer at the end of games.  It just isn't clear how long it will take for him to be a consistent offensive player.  

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On 12/9/2021 at 10:08 AM, juniorbill76 said:

Records at SLU:

Rick Majerus

07-08

16-15

51.61%

08-09

18-14

56.25%

09-10

23-13

63.89%

10-11

12-19

38.71%

11-12

26-8

81.25%

Total

95-69

57.93%

 

Travis Ford

16-17

12-21

36.36%

17-18

17-16

51.52%

18-19

23-13

63.89%

19-20

23-8

74.19%

20-21

14-7

66.67%

21-22

7-3

70.00%

Total

96-68

58.54%

 

I think it’s more effective to compare one vs your peers as opposed to different eras, because different eras are played under different circumstances. So that will always be apples to oranges.

What Majerus did (under Biondi) was to get SLU to be a 3 straight year NCAA Team, finishing 2nd, 1st, 1st in a row in the league. Those 3 teams had a KenPom of 14, 19, 35. (No KenPom isn’t the be all end all, but it is one reasonable objective measure of evaluation) Obviously Rick got sick and passed away preventing him from continuing what he built. But I think it’s pretty clear he had the ability to have SLU as a top of the league annual NCAA team. 

Travis is in his 6th season. He has yet to get SLU to a top 3 league finish, and, he has yet to crack the top 50 in KenPom. The SLU team that won the conference tourney under Travis was 106 KenPom. But it counts. It checks a box. Just as regular season league finish checks a box, NCAA Tourney invites and results check boxes, and so on. 

SLU is sitting at 80 KenPom now. They were 53 and 62 the prior two seasons. 

Travis doesn’t need to be Rick, but he does need to finish inside the NCAA bubble more often. COVID-19, missing players, all things to take into consideration just as Majerus was missing players his 4th season during his time at SLU. Getting those 50’s and 60’s KenPom teams down into more of an NCAA invite range. Part of that is non-conference. Part of that is the league. 

When people say this person is or is not a good coach. The list is long. Game prep, in game adjustments, x’s and o’s, recruiting, marketing, fund raising, player development, and several other things go into being a coach. And other staff can have various strengths in those areas. They all represent one program.

 

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On 12/9/2021 at 1:01 PM, slufanskip said:

The entire tone of the board is so negative right now. I find myself just not wanting to read or respond to basketball related threads for a while. We had one poster (and I agree I'm an idiot for even reading game day threads) claiming his dad was a better game coach than Ford. 

To me game day threads are like watching a game with buddies at a bar.

When I’m at the bar I’ve been known to say things like “I could have made that shot” or “my mother sets a harder screen than that.” It’s not true but it’s how guys talk to their friends while watching sports.

Game day threads are the perfect place for over the top comments.

It doesn’t mean you are a troll it’s just away to enjoy the game the same way I did 15-20 years ago when I could go get hammered at a bar on a Wednesday.

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2 hours ago, dlarry said:

To me game day threads are like watching a game with buddies at a bar.

When I’m at the bar I’ve been known to say things like “I could have made that shot” or “my mother sets a harder screen than that.” It’s not true but it’s how guys talk to their friends while watching sports.

Game day threads are the perfect place for over the top comments.

It doesn’t mean you are a troll it’s just away to enjoy the game the same way I did 15-20 years ago when I could go get hammered at a bar on a Wednesday.

I get what you’re saying. It’s just my opinion but spouting off to your buddies in a bar is different than putting something in writing

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11 hours ago, slufanskip said:

I get what you’re saying. It’s just my opinion but spouting off to your buddies in a bar is different than putting something in writing

Have you been on the internet?  It's the nature of the beast.  Bonner the boo-bird and friends come out and everyone is sure that they could've done better.  If we'd have not pissed away the lead against Auburn, we'd start worrying about Travis Leaving for the SEC.  Losing close games will do that to a social group.  Pull yourself together man! 

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i was at an event last night where the "bragging rights" game was playing on the TV's.   what little i saw, was an embarrassment for anyone that calls themselves tiger fans.   wow, what a mess.   another example why we all should be so thankful for Coach Ford.   with whatever weaknesses he might have, it sure is still a hell of a lot better than that trainwreck going on in Boone County.   "The Poacher" has got the be the worst D-1 coach in all the land to put a product out like that is inexcuseable.   i ALMOST feel sorry for them.  but mostly i just laughed.

glad we got ford.   

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25 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i was at an event last night where the "bragging rights" game was playing on the TV's.   what little i saw, was an embarrassment for anyone that calls themselves tiger fans.   wow, what a mess.   another example why we all should be so thankful for Coach Ford.   with whatever weaknesses he might have, it sure is still a hell of a lot better than that trainwreck going on in Boone County.   "The Poacher" has got the be the worst D-1 coach in all the land to put a product out like that is inexcuseable.   i ALMOST feel sorry for them.  but mostly i just laughed.

glad we got ford.   

Mizzou has the 4th worst 3 point % in the nation (DI games only) and gives up the 27th highest 3 point % to their opponents.  The dearth of talent on the roster is incredible for a Power conference team.  Even more incredible that Cuozno IMO has a similar reputation as Ford of being a recruiter, but not necessarily a great floor coach.  Sure they lost a bunch of seniors from last year, but with the transfer portal today a decent Power 5 recruiter should be able to reload & never fall below top 100ish level.  Poor talent + mediocre coach = terrible team.

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