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Rebecca Tillett hired as Women's Basketball Coach


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Kyla McMakin averaged 18.1 ppg last year, and has started every game the last few years, and obviously knows what it takes to make it to the NCAA tournament because she’s done it. I’m not sure how it translates to the A10 level of competition instead of the Big South, but I don’t see a reason to worry. Time will tell, your right. 

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36 minutes ago, kmbilliken said:

This has not been an inspiring hire. There have been no exciting new players added. She better be good with the Xs and Os. Time will tell.

To fair, she has not really had enough time to start knocking her efforts.

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32 minutes ago, kmbilliken said:

This has not been an inspiring hire. There have been no exciting new players added. She better be good with the Xs and Os. Time will tell.

It's been 4 weeks. What are your expectations? She was recruiting players that were a fit for Longwood. This transfer actually looks decent. She had 19 vs Iowa State and 19 vs NC State in the tourney. She's averaged 18/5 in her 3 years at Longwood. 

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19 hours ago, kmbilliken said:

This has not been an inspiring hire. There have been no exciting new players added. She better be good with the Xs and Os. Time will tell.

She's been on the job less than a month.  I think we have to give her more time before expecting signings.

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21 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

She's been on the job less than a month.  I think we have to give her more time before expecting signings.

I think the frustration is coming from what seems to just be taking a shell of Stone's roster and bringing over select Longwood players to round out the roster and her entire staff from Longwood. With all due respect to Tillett's accomplishment in the Big South, the gap between the two conferences in competition is not a small one.

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Including Sardin, I think that's now 8 total Longwood staff members and players who have been brought to SLU - all 5 current staff members (1 was a former player) and 3 transfers.

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-I have no idea if CTillett will have success, I sure hope she does, but she is surrounding herself with folks that are familiar with each other so that should reduce the time it will take to get everyone on the same page and how she wants things done

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2 minutes ago, Cowboy II said:

-I have no idea if CTillett will have success, I sure hope she does, but she is surrounding herself with folks that are familiar with each other so that should reduce the time it will take to get everyone on the same page and how she wants things done

I really hope she has success too and I do understand the potential positive impact of bringing in familiar people.  That being said, below are the NCAA women's NET rankings for last year.  Recreating what she had in Longwood doesn't strike me as a clear path to improvement for the SLU program.  I'd happily take a big helping of crow later if a new opportunity / change of scenery leads to better results here.

image.png.9d1c15b9725877fbd1c22ef49001df0d.png

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We have significantly more talent than the women's team.  If we added an all-conference player and starting guard from a 16 seed in the NCAA men's tournament, would we be better?  Because that's basically what coach Tillett added to a much worse team.

The question that remains to be answered is: can this staff of youngsters get A10-level players from the East Coast to come here going forward?  It will take a couple of years to build relationships locally.  In the meantime they have to get players from somewhere. 

I imagine recruiting to Chaifetz will be a lot easier than recruiting to Longwood's high school gym.

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25 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

We have significantly more talent than the women's team.  If we added the two best players from a 16 seed in the NCAA men's tournament, would we be better?  Because that's basically what coach Tillett added to a much worse team.

The question that remains to be answered is: can this staff of youngsters get A10-level players from the East Coast to come here going forward?  It will take a couple of years to build relationships locally.  In the meantime they have to get players from somewhere. 

I imagine recruiting to Chaifetz will be a lot easier than recruiting to Longwood's high school gym.

I'd say 2 of the 4 best players. McMakin was the leading scorer and Calhoun was fourth, although Calhoun was set to see a big jump in production with Tra'Dayja Smith - now a SLU assistant - graduating. Akila Smith was the other top-2 player on the roster this season and probably the best player down the stretch when Longwood got hot. I wonder if she's done or taking a GT year; I wasn't able to find anything about her transferring, though.

Regardless, I think you're right that SLU is probably better in terms of the rest of the roster behind those top 4. Outside of Harbison, McNeal, and Toang transferring and MST moving on, I think everyone else is back. Tillett also held on to 3 of the 4 incoming players that Stone had signed. With McMakin and Calhoun, that's a roster that should return to the top half if they can avoid the horrible injury bug they had last season.

I do wonder about bringing so many people from one place and how the returning players feel in that environment. Will they feel alienated, like they're not part of that club? Tillett is big on culture so hopefully she's acutely aware of how they're treated and/or how they feel.

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4 hours ago, Pistol said:

I'd say 2 of the 4 best players. McMakin was the leading scorer and Calhoun was fourth, although Calhoun was set to see a big jump in production with Tra'Dayja Smith - now a SLU assistant - graduating. Akila Smith was the other top-2 player on the roster this season and probably the best player down the stretch when Longwood got hot. I wonder if she's done or taking a GT year; I wasn't able to find anything about her transferring, though.

Regardless, I think you're right that SLU is probably better in terms of the rest of the roster behind those top 4. Outside of Harbison, McNeal, and Toang transferring and MST moving on, I think everyone else is back. Tillett also held on to 3 of the 4 incoming players that Stone had signed. With McMakin and Calhoun, that's a roster that should return to the top half if they can avoid the horrible injury bug they had last season.

I do wonder about bringing so many people from one place and how the returning players feel in that environment. Will they feel alienated, like they're not part of that club? Tillett is big on culture so hopefully she's acutely aware of how they're treated and/or how they feel.

It sounds like between the two Longwood additions, and what we have, we are set at guard. Flowers should be fine, we need Gul and Lazar to improve.  Someone also needs to step up and sink 3 pointers, that was a problem for the Billikens last year (not taking the shots, but actually making them).

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1 hour ago, Lord Elrond said:

It sounds like between the two Longwood additions, and what we have, we are set at guard. Flowers should be fine, we need Gul and Lazar to improve.  Someone also needs to step up and sink 3 pointers, that was a problem for the Billikens last year (not taking the shots, but actually making them).

We really lost a great outside shooter in Rachel Kent.

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I hate to be that guy but...

You have to hire somebody from St. Louis.

Anyone hear that MST is staying. She is still in town. Would think she'd be in high demand and moved on by now.

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24 minutes ago, thetorch said:

I hate to be that guy but...

You have to hire somebody from St. Louis.

Anyone hear that MST is staying. She is still in town. Would think she'd be in high demand and moved on by now.

No, haven't heard anything official since a few months ago when she said this would be it. With the year lost to the knee injury, she has another season if she wants it. Could take some grad school credits.

And I agree. If we're going to finally make serious local inroads with this program, we need someone really connected in STL.

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5 hours ago, Pistol said:

If we're going to finally make serious local inroads with this program, we need someone really connected in STL

They could rehire Kerri 🤷‍♂️ she's not from St. Louis but she's lived here like 7 out of the last 8 years and knows the program.

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20 hours ago, Pistol said:

I'd say 2 of the 4 best players. McMakin was the leading scorer and Calhoun was fourth, although Calhoun was set to see a big jump in production with Tra'Dayja Smith - now a SLU assistant - graduating. Akila Smith was the other top-2 player on the roster this season and probably the best player down the stretch when Longwood got hot. I wonder if she's done or taking a GT year; I wasn't able to find anything about her transferring, though.

Regardless, I think you're right that SLU is probably better in terms of the rest of the roster behind those top 4. Outside of Harbison, McNeal, and Toang transferring and MST moving on, I think everyone else is back. Tillett also held on to 3 of the 4 incoming players that Stone had signed. With McMakin and Calhoun, that's a roster that should return to the top half if they can avoid the horrible injury bug they had last season.

I do wonder about bringing so many people from one place and how the returning players feel in that environment. Will they feel alienated, like they're not part of that club? Tillett is big on culture so hopefully she's acutely aware of how they're treated and/or how they feel.

Roster is full with 13 scholarships, so no room for a possible MST return or Akila Smith unless I'm missing something.  Correction: there appears to be one spot left on the roster.

Here is last year's roster with players expected to be on this years roster in bold:

Marisa Warren 5'8" G - returning

Ciaja Harbison G - grad transferring to Valderbilt

Natalie McNeal G- transferring to Green Bay

Peyton Kennedy 5'11" F - returning

Ny Toang F - transferring (no destination yet)

Julia Martinez 5'10" G - returning

Sevval Gul 6'4" F - returning

Kiley Bess 6'0" G - returning

Anna Maria Prifti 6'0" G/F - returning transferring (no destination yet)

Sarah Lazar 6'2" F - returning

Myriama Smith Traore F - graduating / not returning

Brook Flowers 6'5" F/C - returning

Ronni Nwora F - transferring to Buffalo

 

Then SLU is adding:

Kyla McMakin 5'11' G - transfer in from Longwood

Kennedy Calhoun 5'5" PG - transfer in from Longwood

Ashleigh Conner 5'11" G - incoming freshman

Abby Liber 5'11" G/F - incoming freshman

Mia Nicastro 6'2" G/F - incoming freshman

 

 

Edited by RUBillsFan
Correcting that Prifti is transferring out.
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1 hour ago, RUBillsFan said:

Roster is full with 13 scholarships, so no room for a possible MST return or Akila Smith unless I'm missing something.

Here is last year's roster with players expected to be on this years roster in bold:

Marisa Warren 5'8" G - returning

Ciaja Harbison G - grad transferring to Valderbilt

Natalie McNeal G- transferring to Green Bay

Peyton Kennedy 5'11" F - returning

Ny Toang F - transferring (can't find where)

Julia Martinez 5'10" G - returning

Sevval Gul 6'4" F - returning

Kiley Bess 6'0" G - returning

Anna Maria Prifti 6'0" G/F - returning

Sarah Lazar 6'2" F - returning

Myriama Smith Traore F - graduating / not returning

Brook Flowers 6'5" F/C - returning

Ronni Nwora F - transferring to Buffalo

 

Then SLU is adding:

Kyla McMakin 5'11' G - transfer in from Longwood

Kennedy Calhoun 5'5" PG - transfer in from Longwood

Ashleigh Conner 5'11" G - incoming freshman

Abby Liber 5'11" G/F - incoming freshman

Mia Nicastro 6'2" G/F - incoming freshman

 

 

Hasn’t Anna Maria Prifti entered the transfer portal to go out? 

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14 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Hasn’t Anna Maria Prifti entered the transfer portal to go out? 

If she has, my hopes for world peace seeing a Greek and a Turk play side-by-side have been dashed.

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