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R.I.P. Ron Coleman

AGB91

By AGB91
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MusicCityBilliken Listener of the Streets

MusicCityBilliken

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1 hour ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Ron Coleman was at the helm at my first Billiken game and Victory (over Tulane) in person in '78 at Kiel Auditorium, with #32 Metro Conference Freshman of the Year Ricky Frazier.

RIP.

Soon after Coleman was let go, Stewart stole Ricky Frazier. If Frazier stayed with Ekker, Frazier's Jr & Sr year he would been teamed-up with Burns. Things might not have been so depressing back then.

RIP 

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RUBillsFan Listener of the Streets

RUBillsFan

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13 hours ago, MusicCityBilliken said:

Soon after Coleman was let go, Stewart stole Ricky Frazier. If Frazier stayed with Ekker, Frazier's Jr & Sr year he would been teamed-up with Burns. Things might not have been so depressing back then.

RIP 

This is sort of an old school what if Jim Crews had landed Jayson Tatum (or more accurately what if Jayson's love for St. Louis won out & he chose SLU/Crews over Coach K/Duke because of that), right?  Ekker was way before my time, but my understanding is that he was a terrible (program killingly bad) coach.  Adding a few more wins because he had another talented player would have only allowed him a longer leash with which to set back the program.

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billiken_roy I have reached billiken_roy levels of posting

billiken_roy

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first to clarify, only crews was worse than ekker.   imo ekker set the program back a long long time.   but the fact that the nba gave him a job as an assistant coach and or an advisor for decades after his time at saint louis university, ekker knew basketball.   i think he was just not a good person and was terribly distracted by other "interests" (there are plenty folks here at billikens.com that know what i mean, i wont post anymore about that here).  

crews i just dont get.   rickma loved the guy.   considering rickma lived ate slept basketball, he would not have taken crews in if didnt know basketball.   i know no other stories about character flaws of crews.    so while i am convinced he was a horrible coach, one has to wonder how rickma could entrust him to be his successor here at slu for the long term benefit for saint louis university as his successor.  

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RUBillsFan Listener of the Streets

RUBillsFan

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4 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

first to clarify, only crews was worse than ekker.   imo ekker set the program back a long long time.   but the fact that the nba gave him a job as an assistant coach and or an advisor for decades after his time at saint louis university, ekker knew basketball.   i think he was just not a good person and was terribly distracted by other "interests" (there are plenty folks here at billikens.com that know what i mean, i wont post anymore about that here).  

crews i just dont get.   rickma loved the guy.   considering rickma lived ate slept basketball, he would not have taken crews in if didnt know basketball.   i know no other stories about character flaws of crews.    so while i am convinced he was a horrible coach, one has to wonder how rickma could entrust him to be his successor here at slu for the long term benefit for saint louis university as his successor.  

I didn't mean to derail a thread that should be honoring the life of coach Ron Coleman, but here is my 2 cents on Crews.

Crews knew basketball & was a decent coach back in the day (see his decent success at Evansville).  His issue was that he absolutely could not relate to modern players.  He was an old school Bobby Knight disciple.  You can be the best basketball mind in history, but if you can't relate to your players & get them to buy in, then you aren't a good coach.  He also made bad assistant coaching hires that did not at all make up for his deficiencies.  Crews was fine coaching a veteran team who had already been through Majerus, but not a team of mostly freshman / sophomores.  Majerus was old school, but on an entirely different level of basketball knowledge, was already a coaching legend, and made better hires especially early in his tenure.  Majerus did not pick Crews to be his successor.  I'm not sure where that story came from.  My guess is that Majerus thought Crews was the best to keep his seat warm until he was healthy again.  Therefore, SLU named him interim coach.  After Crew interim year was wildly successful, they AD didn't have the balls to not bring him back & the rest is history.

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willie Listener of the Streets

willie

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9 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

first to clarify, only crews was worse than ekker.   imo ekker set the program back a long long time.   but the fact that the nba gave him a job as an assistant coach and or an advisor for decades after his time at saint louis university, ekker knew basketball.   i think he was just not a good person and was terribly distracted by other "interests" (there are plenty folks here at billikens.com that know what i mean, i wont post anymore about that here).  

crews i just dont get.   rickma loved the guy.   considering rickma lived ate slept basketball, he would not have taken crews in if didnt know basketball.   i know no other stories about character flaws of crews.    so while i am convinced he was a horrible coach, one has to wonder how rickma could entrust him to be his successor here at slu for the long term benefit for saint louis university as his successor.  

It's time for my annual defense of Ron Ekker. I won't get into his personal life but he was not a bad basketball coach. Don't forget we were in Conference USA playing some of the best teams in the country. He had no budget to do anything. The whole athletic department consisted of maybe 3 people. If Ekker had a fatal flaw and Crews had the same flaw it was in his recruiting . You can't beat horses with ponies.  Grawer had the same lack of budget but he figured out you could recruit locally for far less money. 

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Bay Area Billiken I have reached billiken_roy levels of posting

Bay Area Billiken

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I don’t know the reason(s) Ron Coleman was only at SLU 1 season (1977-‘78). Others on this Board may know. I was a Senior in high school, 125 miles up river. SLU went 7-20, 2-10 in the rugged Metro, but had talent. I do remember hearing that SLU had recruited Ricky Frazier from Charleston, MO, who was Metro Conference Freshman of the Year at SLU. I listened that season on the car radio to Bob Costas PBP on KMOX when the Ron Coleman coached Billikens nearly upset defending National Champion Marquette in Milwaukee. 
 

Ron Ekker came from West Texas State, where he coached Maurice Cheeks. Ekker lobbied hard for the SLU job. There was sentiment that SLU should have hired Rich Grawer from DeSmet Jesuit HS then, rather than Ekker, and instead of 4 years later. 

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RUBillsFan Listener of the Streets

RUBillsFan

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To get the thread back on topic.  Coleman didn't have success at SLU, but was an important figure nonetheless as the first African American head coach in program history.  Coleman coached SLU during the 1977-78 season.  The first ever African American head coach in NCAA Division 1 men's basketball was Will Robinson at Illinois State who was hired in 1970.  As sad is it is to say this about 1978, it seems like SLU was ahead of the times compared to many other programs in the region.

All of this is pulling from Wikipedia, so correct me if any is wrong:  Mizzou didn't have an African American head coach until Melvin Watkins took over as interim coach for Quinn Snyder in 2006 and then Mike Anderson was the first full time head coach also in 2006.  Jamal Walker in 2017 briefly took over as interim coach after John Groce's tenure, but Illinois has NEVER had a full time African American head coach.  SIU-C's first black coach was Chris Lowery in 2004 and Missouri State's was Cuozon Martin in 2008.  Dayton's first was Oliver Purnell in 1994 and Xavier has NEVER had black HC.

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billiken_roy I have reached billiken_roy levels of posting

billiken_roy

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30 minutes ago, willie said:

It's time for my annual defense of Ron Ekker. I won't get into his personal life but he was not a bad basketball coach. Don't forget we were in Conference USA playing some of the best teams in the country. He had no budget to do anything. The whole athletic department consisted of maybe 3 people. If Ekker had a fatal flaw and Crews had the same flaw it was in his recruiting . You can't beat horses with ponies.  Grawer had the same lack of budget but he figured out you could recruit locally for far less money. 

ekker had non basketball distractions while at slu that imo did more to end his career than even his coaching.

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billiken_roy I have reached billiken_roy levels of posting

billiken_roy

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45 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

I didn't mean to derail a thread that should be honoring the life of coach Ron Coleman, but here is my 2 cents on Crews.

Crews knew basketball & was a decent coach back in the day (see his decent success at Evansville).  His issue was that he absolutely could not relate to modern players.  He was an old school Bobby Knight disciple.  You can be the best basketball mind in history, but if you can't relate to your players & get them to buy in, then you aren't a good coach.  He also made bad assistant coaching hires that did not at all make up for his deficiencies.  Crews was fine coaching a veteran team who had already been through Majerus, but not a team of mostly freshman / sophomores.  Majerus was old school, but on an entirely different level of basketball knowledge, was already a coaching legend, and made better hires especially early in his tenure.  Majerus did not pick Crews to be his successor.  I'm not sure where that story came from.  My guess is that Majerus thought Crews was the best to keep his seat warm until he was healthy again.  Therefore, SLU named him interim coach.  After Crew interim year was wildly successful, they AD didn't have the balls to not bring him back & the rest is history.

rickma indeed picked crews to be his interim as he was trying to recover.  by the time he died, crews had the job.  

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dlarry Listener of the Streets

dlarry

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55 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

To get the thread back on topic.  Coleman didn't have success at SLU, but was an important figure nonetheless as the first African American head coach in program history.  Coleman coached SLU during the 1977-78 season.  The first ever African American head coach in NCAA Division 1 men's basketball was Will Robinson at Illinois State who was hired in 1970.  As sad is it is to say this about 1978, it seems like SLU was ahead of the times compared to many other programs in the region.

All of this is pulling from Wikipedia, so correct me if any is wrong:  Mizzou didn't have an African American head coach until Melvin Watkins took over as interim coach for Quinn Snyder in 2006 and then Mike Anderson was the first full time head coach also in 2006.  Jamal Walker in 2017 briefly took over as interim coach after John Groce's tenure, but Illinois has NEVER had a full time African American head coach.  SIU-C's first black coach was Chris Lowery in 2004 and Missouri State's was Cuozon Martin in 2008.  Dayton's first was Oliver Purnell in 1994 and Xavier has NEVER had black HC.

To be fair Mizzou had the same coach from 67-99. 

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billiken_roy I have reached billiken_roy levels of posting

billiken_roy

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3 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

Right.  Big difference in picking someone to keep your seat warm versus picking someone to take over for you permanently.

but he was the guy that selected crews.  

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billiken_roy I have reached billiken_roy levels of posting

billiken_roy

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Just now, Cowboy II said:

-no, Coach Majerus did not select Jim Crews to be interim head coach, we've been over this, in the modern world I will agree that saying the same thing many times will get some to believe it to be true, even if not

you are wrong,

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thetorch Listener of the Streets

thetorch

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Coleman's departure stemmed from a Billiken Club or Tip Club Meeting. He refused to answer some questions by some dumb but influential and rich SLU supporters and left the meeting. He was fired the next day.

 

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slufanskip I have reached billiken_roy levels of posting

slufanskip

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18 hours ago, thetorch said:

Coleman's departure stemmed from a Billiken Club or Tip Club Meeting. He refused to answer some questions by some dumb but influential and rich SLU supporters and left the meeting. He was fired the next day.

 

Do they still have Billiken Club meetings? I used to enjoy those but haven't heard there was one in many years. 

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