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Rebecca Tillett hired as Women's Basketball Coach


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I'm not going to critique thuis coach on day 1.  She probably will be good.

Chris May OTOH...

UMKC gave their new coach (who is a native St. Louisan) a 1.035 million 3 year deal.  She gets a car, she keeps 90% of the revenue from her camps, she gets 50k for radio, TV, and marketing appearances, 20k for team community work, APR bonus 20k, and a list of other possible inventives based on her success.  They doubled the salary of their womens coach and their overall budget going forward.  

UMKC made a commitment to their program.

SLU did not.

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i agree with Metz.   Chris May took his time and obviously thought through his decision.   second, is it really good to have a overwhelming majority of your roster local?   is there really enough high level talent to field an NCAA tourney level roster just from the metro St Louis area?  (and that goes for the men's team as well)  let's let the lady do her job.  if after 5 years the program has indeed failed, we can move on.   God knows the billikens are used to the move on phase in my lifetime.

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Just now, 3star_recruit said:

Other than Jim Crews and Kent Miller, has Chris May made any bad coaching hires?

i still believe rickma had picked crews.  not a chris may hire.  

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2 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Other than Jim Crews and Kent Miller, has Chris May made any bad coaching hires?

The soccer coaches before Kalish were not good.

He does have a decent track record.  Overall sports are improving.

I'm not saying she is a bad hire.

I'm saying May made a lot of promises in that press conference about how we will compete as a women's program going forward.

So far those are all talk.  This is not a splashy hire.  He isn't pouring money into the program.  He may be cutting their budget.

Mens basketball can be successful with a limited budget.  Get the right coach, good local recruiting, good scouting.  Womens program are successful because they have money thrown at them.  The more resources you give them the more successful they are.  Look at the powers in the A10, Dayton and VCU, their budgets are by far the highest.  

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15 minutes ago, thetorch said:

I'm not going to critique thuis coach on day 1.  She probably will be good.

Chris May OTOH...

UMKC gave their new coach (who is a native St. Louisan) a 1.035 million 3 year deal.  She gets a car, she keeps 90% of the revenue from her camps, she gets 50k for radio, TV, and marketing appearances, 20k for team community work, APR bonus 20k, and a list of other possible inventives based on her success.  They doubled the salary of their womens coach and their overall budget going forward.  

UMKC made a commitment to their program.

SLU did not.

Unless some folks troll the financials of the university around tax season, we’ll never know what May hired tillett for. There’s a good chance she makes more than 340k base (unless you’re saying this coach makes 1.035m a year at UMKC, and if so, I need to become a women’s basketball coach or agent). 

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8 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i agree with Metz.   Chris May took his time and obviously thought through his decision.   second, is it really good to have a overwhelming majority of your roster local?   is there really enough high level talent to field an NCAA tourney level roster just from the metro St Louis area?  (and that goes for the men's team as well)  let's let the lady do her job.  if after 5 years the program has indeed failed, we can move on.   God knows the billikens are used to the move on phase in my lifetime.

I know the Women's program is not popular but it still represents SLU.

Imagine you saying this about the Mens program?  I can't.  Why are the women different?

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1 minute ago, A10Ref said:

Unless some folks troll the financials of the university around tax season, we’ll never know what May hired tillett for. There’s a good chance she makes more than 340k base (unless you’re saying this coach makes 1.035m a year at UMKC, and if so, I need to become a women’s basketball coach or agent). 

There are no indications of this.  Stone didn't make close to that.  Again we don't know how much the new coach makes but it isn't 340k.

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2 minutes ago, thetorch said:

There are no indications of this.  Stone didn't make close to that.  Again we don't know how much the new coach makes but it isn't 340k.

What did stone make? There are no indications of saying she doesn’t make 340k either. 

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32 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i agree with Metz.   Chris May took his time and obviously thought through his decision.   second, is it really good to have a overwhelming majority of your roster local?   is there really enough high level talent to field an NCAA tourney level roster just from the metro St Louis area?  (and that goes for the men's team as well)  let's let the lady do her job.  if after 5 years the program has indeed failed, we can move on.   God knows the billikens are used to the move on phase in my lifetime.

Chris May made a lot of big statements after letting Stone go and then went with a "we think we can win without a substantial increase in financial commitment" hire.

 

33 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Other than Jim Crews and Kent Miller, has Chris May made any bad coaching hires?

I don't know if bad is the right question. Has he really done the leg work on the good hires? Might be appropriate. I think Katy Shields fell right into his lap. Stone was recommended by Majerus. Rumors were that this was Kalish's dream job and with Kavanaugh footing alot of the bills it was his top choice. He's continued to run and hire coaches for the Field Hockey program as a Title IX write off.

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32 minutes ago, thetorch said:

I know the Women's program is not popular but it still represents SLU.

Imagine you saying this about the Mens program?  I can't.  Why are the women different?

i am asking the same question about the men's program.  see parenthesis 

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26 minutes ago, thetorch said:

I know the Women's program is not popular but it still represents SLU.

Imagine you saying this about the Mens program?  I can't.  Why are the women different?

I mean...because the men's program supports the entire athletic department budget. The men's program thriving is crucial to the overall health of the athletic department. The women's program thriving or not doesn't really register. Frankly a successful women's team is probably a bigger money loser because there isn't any additional revenue that goes along with it. 

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22 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Chris May made a lot of big statements after letting Stone go and then went with a "we think we can win without a substantial increase in financial commitment" hire.

 

I don't know if bad is the right question. Has he really done the leg work on the good hires? Might be appropriate. I think Katy Shields fell right into his lap. Stone was recommended by Majerus. Rumors were that this was Kalish's dream job and with Kavanaugh footing alot of the bills it was his top choice. He's continued to run and hire coaches for the Field Hockey program as a Title IX write off.

I don't care how May makes good coaching hires.  If he can achieve good outcomes by being well-connected, that's typical of how the rest of the world works.

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10 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

I mean...because the men's program supports the entire athletic department budget. The men's program thriving is crucial to the overall health of the athletic department. The women's program thriving or not doesn't really register. Frankly a successful women's team is probably a bigger money loser because there isn't any additional revenue that goes along with it. 

Do you know any of what you said to be true? What is the financial breakdown of men's and women's basketball? How much profit would say the men's basketball program makes? What about the women's program? Your entire response is unfounded and counterproductive.

At no point was the decision made that the men's basketball program will support the SLU athletic department. That is a cop out used to diminish the importance of the other sports. Saying there "isn't any additional revenue that goes along with" increased women's basketball is also not based on anything and not true for many women's basketball programs. 

There are a lot of fans, supporters, alumni, boosters, etc. who care about women's basketball. That is what drives the investment in the program.

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Here's the long and short of it. May made bold statements amid the Stone firing, he missed on probably 5-10 coaches that would have been the splash hire that signaled a the large increase in focus and financial commitment to the women's program. The hiring in a vacuum or bubble looks like a good one. But considering everything, it's really quite discouraging.

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4 minutes ago, NH said:

Do you know any of what you said to be true? What is the financial breakdown of men's and women's basketball? How much profit would say the men's basketball program makes? What about the women's program? Your entire response is unfounded and counterproductive.

At no point was the decision made that the men's basketball program will support the SLU athletic department. That is a cop out used to diminish the importance of the other sports. Saying there "isn't any additional revenue that goes along with" increased women's basketball is also not based on anything and not true for many women's basketball programs. 

There are a lot of fans, supporters, alumni, boosters, etc. who care about women's basketball. That is what drives the investment in the program.

This is all true ^ there were several years where the men's team (Crews era) were awful and the women's team were phenomenal and setting school records and making deep postseason runs. Financial prudence aside, every team carries the weight they can.

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1 minute ago, billikenfan05 said:

Here's the long and short of it. May made bold statements amid the Stone firing, he missed on probably 5-10 coaches that would have been the splash hire that signaled a the large increase in focus and financial commitment to the women's program. The hiring in a vacuum or bubble looks like a good one. But considering everything, it's really quite discouraging.

I think this is the bottom line. May's the one who let Stone go and emphasized taking the program to the next level. That wasn't coming from the fans. He made a big statement and the hire doesn't seem to back that up on paper.

I hope for everyone's sake she's the exact right fit and thrives at SLU. May is a big culture guy and that seems to be why Longwood loved her so much. She came in, completely changed the culture, upgraded the talent, and put them in the Tournament for the first time. Now let's see if she can do it in a tougher conference.

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1 hour ago, thetorch said:

The soccer coaches before Kalish were not good.

He does have a decent track record.  Overall sports are improving.

I'm not saying she is a bad hire.

I'm saying May made a lot of promises in that press conference about how we will compete as a women's program going forward.

So far those are all talk.  This is not a splashy hire.  He isn't pouring money into the program.  He may be cutting their budget.

Mens basketball can be successful with a limited budget.  Get the right coach, good local recruiting, good scouting.  Womens program are successful because they have money thrown at them.  The more resources you give them the more successful they are.  Look at the powers in the A10, Dayton and VCU, their budgets are by far the highest.  

McGinty was the Crews of the pitch, but Doogie was great and so was Warming. Donovan was a three time conference coach of the year; Warming took the Bills to the 97 College Cup…two out of three pretty darn good. 

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1 minute ago, Pistol said:

I think this is the bottom line. May's the one who let Stone go and emphasized taking the program to the next level. That wasn't coming from the fans. He made a big statement and the hire doesn't seem to back that up on paper.

I hope for everyone's sake she's the exact right fit and thrives at SLU. May is a big culture guy and that seems to be why Longwood loved her so much. She came in, completely changed the culture, upgraded the talent, and put them in the Tournament for the first time. Now let's see if she can do it in a tougher conference.

Below is her first quote on coming to the Lou.. Off of one quote alone, she seems to be smart, eloquent, and the right fit for building a positive and winning culture in the lady billikens, but we won't know until November. I am excited to read/hear her press conference to see if she can speak on the spot similar to this quote below. Also, there were a lot of assistant coaches out there, but I am glad May hired someone that has called a timeout before.

"I'd like to thank Chris May, Dr. Pestello, Janet Oberle and Annie Reis for giving me the exciting opportunity to lead these Billiken women," Tillett said. "The department is clear in its strategic objectives of educating, competing and building community. The consistent support and investment in the development of women really drew me to the university. In addition, the passionate way that the St. Louis community supports Billiken Athletics is inspiring and infectious, and we will need everyone to support us on our pursuit of excellence in the classroom and on the court. The opportunity to coach at this special university while immersed in an environment of love, amidst passionate support for great teams, makes me excited to begin OUR journey to championships. Go Billikens!"

 

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35 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

I mean...because the men's program supports the entire athletic department budget. The men's program thriving is crucial to the overall health of the athletic department. The women's program thriving or not doesn't really register. Frankly a successful women's team is probably a bigger money loser because there isn't any additional revenue that goes along with it. 

There is a bigger upside financially to the womens program than the men’s. When MoState’s wbb program was rockin’, there attendance rivaled the men’s. Think of the increased revenues from parking and food as well as ticket revenue. The net increase possibilities are greater than the men’s.

Since the new arena the mens attendance has been great, the women’s i dare say hasn’t changed much from the small on campus arena days.

mhg

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1 minute ago, Billikenbooster said:

There is a bigger upside financially to the womens program than the men’s. When MoState’s wbb program was rockin’, there attendance rivaled the men’s. Think of the increased revenues from parking and food as well as ticket revenue. The net increase possibilities are greater than the men’s.

Since the new arena the mens attendance has been great, the women’s i dare say hasn’t changed much from the small on campus arena days.

mhg

This.

May had a chance here to really raise the profile of the women’s program by hiring someone like Molly Miller or Jackson-Durrett.  That is what the statement after letting Stone go appeared to be the stated aim.  They whiffed on that aim.

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