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Closing in on 3rd


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I mentioned this in a thread, but it deserves a separate thread. Travis Ford is 6 games away from being the 3rd winningest coach in Billiken history. He would pass Spoonhour in the same number of coaching years (7 seasons). That is a pretty cool accomplishment, and we can track it here.

That said, there are 6 non-conference games left if the players needed a little extra motivation to ice their competition. It might say a lot if he were to accomplish this without even having any conference games in the latest season.

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1 hour ago, slufan13 said:

And 10 losses away from the 3rd most losses ever. Fun with meaningless numbers.

Coaches are judged by NCAA appearances. Ford is 4 months away from his second which is the true sign of good territory as a SLU coach

1st- That is super misleading. His winning percentage is .600. That is the highest of anyone since 1965.

2nd- I disagree.

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1 minute ago, dennis_w said:

ncaa appearances are tough to come by if you are not in the power conferences, mid major coaches shouldnt be judged by that criteria, some of grawer's teams were very good but the one bid league didnt allow him to get into the dance

High mid-major coaches are also judged by NCAA tournament appearances.  The bar just isn't as high as for high majors.  Typically, a coach at the high mid-major level who makes the tournament a third of the time is considered a very successful coach -- Bob McKillop, Randy Bennett, Bruce Weber at SIU, etc.

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1 minute ago, 3star_recruit said:

High mid-major coaches are also judged by NCAA tournament appearances.  The bar just isn't as high as for high majors.  Typically, a coach at the high mid-major level who makes the tournament a third of the time is considered a very successful coach -- Bob McKillop, Randy Bennett, Bruce Weber at SIU, etc.

The bar for SLU should be better than 50%. At least 3 of 5 years.

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52 minutes ago, Adman said:

The bar for SLU should be better than 50%. At least 3 of 5 years.

That's a high bar for a school that's gone to 10 tourneys in the 50+ years of NCAA preeminence.

It can be argued that the two most successful SLU coaches ever in terms of NCAA appearances achieved 3 in 7 years. That's the ceiling so far.

 

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47 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

So Lon Kruger's tenure at UNLV, a Hall of Famer, should be the baseline?  Why?

We have Power 6 facilities, a power 6 budget, and power 6 HC coaches salary playing in a mid major conference. If we aren't making the dance 50% of the time what are we doing?

If we are happy with 1 or 2 out of ten we could just be LaSalle. Turn Chaifetz into a 365 days a year monster truck rally, upgrade our neon light and fog machine while installing a pool underneath the court at Simon rec and start riding the bus on east coast road trips. We'd have a lot more money for shirtless statues around campus.

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11 minutes ago, thetorch said:

We have Power 6 facilities, a power 6 budget, and power 6 HC coaches salary playing in a mid major conference. If we aren't making the dance 50% of the time what are we doing?

If we are happy with 1 or 2 out of ten we could just be LaSalle. Turn Chaifetz into a 365 days a year monster truck rally, upgrade our neon light and fog machine while installing a pool underneath the court at Simon rec and start riding the bus on east coast road trips. We'd have a lot more money for shirtless statues around campus.

100%
 

The goal is to be a perennial top 50 team. Depending where we fall in top 50, that should have us dancing every other year, minimum. 
 

Anything less is aiming too low. 

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1 hour ago, thetorch said:

We have Power 6 facilities, a power 6 budget, and power 6 HC coaches salary playing in a mid major conference. If we aren't making the dance 50% of the time what are we doing?

If we are happy with 1 or 2 out of ten we could just be LaSalle. Turn Chaifetz into a 365 days a year monster truck rally, upgrade our neon light and fog machine while installing a pool underneath the court at Simon rec and start riding the bus on east coast road trips. We'd have a lot more money for shirtless statues around campus.

What's your plan to get us out of the A10 oh brilliant one?

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4 hours ago, thetorch said:

We have Power 6 facilities, a power 6 budget, and power 6 HC coaches salary playing in a mid major conference. If we aren't making the dance 50% of the time what are we doing?

If we are happy with 1 or 2 out of ten we could just be LaSalle. Turn Chaifetz into a 365 days a year monster truck rally, upgrade our neon light and fog machine while installing a pool underneath the court at Simon rec and start riding the bus on east coast road trips. We'd have a lot more money for shirtless statues around campus.

Amen, and One of the analysts on the ESPN halftime report a couple weeks back shared your sentiment. People see the potential. It’s a shame some fans and even those within the power structure want to temper that.

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26 minutes ago, BC1764 said:

The plan is to accomplish more with the facilities and recruiting base WHILE in the A10. How difficult is this to understand?

Please don’t confuse your goal with reality. Some on here act like Ford took over a well oiled machine upon his arrival. He’s done a terrific job in rebuilding this program and we now have consistent recruiting like we’ve never seen. Yes, the long term goals should be regular appearances in the NCAA, but that doesn’t mean we should overlook the work that’s been done to get to this point. 

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25 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Over the previous ten season we went to the 4 out of 10 years I don’t think it is crazy to think we should increase that to 5 out of ten in ten when we look back in December 2032.  Hell, that should be the baseline expectation.

you have no idea what the landscape will be like in 10 years....i don't understand the reluctance to appreciate the job Ford has done in very trying circumstances...we are very fortunate to have him.....

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25 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Over the previous ten season we went to the 4 out of 10 years I don’t think it is crazy to think we should increase that to 5 out of ten in ten when we look back in December 2032.  Hell, that should be the baseline expectation.

A team hand picked and developed by a Hall of Fame coach made three of those appearances.  You're demanding that Hall of Fame performance be the baseline.  If there were plenty of those coaches to go around, I could understand.  But there aren't.

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i wanted a pony for christmas but i got a bicycle. so i bitched about the bicycle instead of riding it. wanting a tournament appearence every year and getting one are not the same thing. hope is not a strategy. the p6 schools make it as difficult as possible for mid majors to get in as they can. that doesnt mean there are not deserving teams that we can enjoy. oh what the heck throw the bicycle away and ***** about the fact we are not riding a pony while being a foot. if ncaa appearances are the only goal , mid major fans are going to be disappointed many times. i will enjoy riding my new bike

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Ford will be the biggest beneficiary when they expand the NCAA tournament to 25% of the total field. We would have been in the last 4 seasons. If that is your criteria, then he is your perfect coach.

My criteria for a coach to be good is that he wins the games he is supposed to win. That simple. Keep in mind, you have to keep total SLU history as the spot for that bar on an expected win, not the current level of talent or play you see from his players. By that measure, Ford is better than simply good. How good is yet to be determined. 

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  •  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ABomb kindly reviewed Coach Ford's tenure here SLU in an earlier post. If you consider it a successful record, I love to work for you. By the way, post season appearance and performance is everything in college basketball.
 

Looking at Coach Travis Ford's record at SLU vs P5 (including UH and BYU), our #1 rival UD, VCU, and other select tournament games:

22-23

Memphis W

Maryland L

Prov W

AU L

21-22

Memphis L

BC W

AU L

UD L

UD W

VCU W

A10 Semi vs Davidson L

NIT UNI L

20-21

LSU W

NCState W

MINNL

UD L

UD L

VCU L

A10 2nd Round SBU L

NIT Miss St. L

19-20

SHU L

BC W

AU L

KState W

UD L

UD L

VCU W

A10 CXL

18-19

SHU W

PITT L

Butler W

Oreg St W

UH L

FSU L

UD W

UD L

VCU L

A10 Champion

NCAA VTech L

17-18

VTech W 

Providence L

Butler L

UH L

Oreg St. L

VCU L

UD W

UD L

A10 2nd Round L

16-17

Bama L

BYU L

KState L

Wichita St L

SIU L

VCU L

UD L

UD L

Unofficial count in 30 P5 games record is 11-19

12 games vs UD, 3-9

6 games vs VCU 2-4

NIT 0-2

NCAA 0-1

1 A10 Championship

I don't recall any wins vs teams at the time they were ranked in the top 25.  

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2 hours ago, BC1764 said:

The plan is to accomplish more with the facilities and recruiting base WHILE in the A10. How difficult is this to understand?

that sounds like hope not a plan. hope is not a strategy. i hope five mcdonalds aa's come to slu but i need an actual plan if they dont arrive on campus

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48 minutes ago, BIG BILL FAN said:

you have no idea what the landscape will be like in 10 years....i don't understand the reluctance to appreciate the job Ford has done in very trying circumstances...we are very fortunate to have him.....

 

34 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

A team hand picked and developed by a Hall of Fame coach made three of those appearances.  You're demanding that Hall of Fame performance be the baseline.  If there were plenty of those coaches to go around, I could understand.  But there aren't.

I appreciate Ford.  He has raised the recruiting bar to a level never seen at SLU before and brought back the program from a very bad spot.   He has already made the tournament once and we will make it again this season.  He can say the program developed a NBA player that wasn’t viewed as a potential NBA player when he signed.  He has done a really good job to this point. I have always said, he shouldn’t be on the hot seat.  That doesn’t mean he is above criticism and that the goals shouldn’t be higher going forward.  If the landscape dramatically changes, then of course those goals should be adjusted.

I am not demanding that Ford be like Majerus.  I am not demanding a program that wins a game in the tournament three years in a row and gets ranked in the top 10.  I just think having a program that can just make the tournament half the time should be the goal going forward.  I don’t think that is too much to ask given where the program is and the resources it has heading into the future.

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