Closing in on 3rd

[BC1764]

That’s wishful thinking according to some. Yuri would be in Knoxville if they were in charge.

Edited December 1, 2022 by BC1764

[3star_recruit]

6 minutes ago, brianstl said:

 

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.

Tournament appearances half the time by an A10 team over a 10-year period is elite performance.  If coach Ford accomplishes that at SLU, it will be recognized by the national media as such.

[BIG BILL FAN]

45 minutes ago, MusicCityBilliken said:

•  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.  

and I would hate to have worked for you....first of all SLU isn't a P5/P6 school and secondly Ford inherited a disaster of a roster when he took over....to expect anything but losses to P5 schools the first two years was unreasonable...his record the last 5 years (including this season) is 10-11...pretty darn good, I would say...Ford has made this a respectable program with a bright future, unless fools are allowed to derail it...

[Box and Won]

There's no way we shouldn't be able to make the tournament every year.  It will just require us to dig up and reanimate possibly the greatest strategic mind in the history of the game.

[slufanskip]

1 minute ago, Box and Won said:

There's no way we shouldn't be able to make the tournament every year.  It will just require us to dig up and reanimate possibly the greatest strategic mind in the history of the game.

Who do we need to deliver the briefcase to, to get this done?

[House]

I think some on this thread are confusing the programs goals with what it takes to be a consider a good coach.  Those things are not mutually exclusive.  I agree that the goal for the program is to be in the tourney 50% of the time.  However, we have to get to that level before it can be the expectation going forward.  So how can you say an individual is a bad coach just because he hasn't a achieved a level when none of his predecessors could achieve either?

Ford is a good coach.  Period.  300+ other D1 programs would take him in a second as their coach with no hesitation.  WHEN he achieves the goal above (and I believe he is on track for this going forward), he should be considered a great coach.  

[Bills By 40]

The easy solution is to have the SLU STEM departments cooperate to clone a coach that is equal parts Ford's recruiting and Majerus' in-game coaching with Ford's in-game tendency to verbalize his feelings and Majerus' Billiken-esque appearance. All problems solved.   

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

4 minutes ago, Bills By 40 said:

The easy solution is to have the SLU STEM departments cooperate to clone a coach that is equal parts Ford's recruiting and Majerus' in-game coaching with Ford's in-game tendency to verbalize his feelings and Majerus' Billiken-esque appearance. All problems solved.   

SLU Department of Cloning and Basketball Studies

[JettFlight5]

44 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

Who do we need to deliver the briefcase to, to get this done?

Y'all still got the primate delivery system?

[Bills By 40]

1 minute ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

SLU Department of Cloning and Basketball Studies

Department Chair Job Responsibilities:
-Upholding MBM Expectations and Demands

[Old guy]

5 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

SLU Department of Cloning and Basketball Studies

During the Soviet Union era, before WWII, the central bureau decided to solve food issues by creating a plant with the roots of a carrot and the leaves of a cabbage, as proposed by their lead geneticist. There was no genetic manipulation ability in those days so they used hybridization methods. The project successfully created a hybrid plant mixing the two original plants. However, it had the roots of the cabbage and the leaves of the carrot. The leaders of the project, those that were not shot outright, spent the rest of their lives in Siberia. The law of unintended consequences at work.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

10 minutes ago, Old guy said:

During the Soviet Union era, before WWII, the central bureau decided to solve food issues by creating a plant with the roots of a carrot and the leaves of a cabbage, as proposed by their lead geneticist. There was no genetic manipulation ability in those days so they used hybridization methods. The project successfully created a hybrid plant mixing the two original plants. However, it had the roots of the cabbage and the leaves of the carrot. The leaders of the project, those that were not shot outright, spent the rest of their lives in Siberia. The law of unintended consequences at work.

Never thought I'd see Soviet Scientific History on the board.

[slu72]

This may or may not be an accurate assessment of the factors that make for a successful coach, so take it with a grain of salt. 
1)60%~ recruiting players/talent that can compete at the D1 level. Good coaches bring in this quality of talent. Great coaches bring in high quality talent that fit their systems. Ford delivers talent but am not sure he focuses on talent that will fit his system(s) because I’m not sure what his systems are. But he is a good coach based solely on the quality of his recruits. Yes, he’s had some misses but overall he has raised the talent level of our rosters. 
2) 15% -Coaching up the players skills and bb smarts. Again I think he’s had his hits and misses here. Bess, Goodwin, Thatch, Jimerson, Yurimania come to mind. I don’t see where the bigs he’s brought in have improved all that much under his guidance. For example, French pretty much left the same player as when he arrived, ie a tough as nails bull with a little hook shot five feet from the basket. Overall Ford gets a passing grade here but nothing eye opening. Majerus was a genius in this regard. Player improvement was really evident under Rick. Especially in the basics such as setting screens, help D, rebounding, etc. 

3) 15%~ Motivation and Cohesiveness. Keeping a team of 13 egocentric personalities focused on a team first attitude while somewhat content can’t be an easy task. I think Ford does a better than average job here. For the most part his guys buy into the Team Blue Mantra and the one for all all for one concept. No coach can ever satisfy every players needs and desires, but it seems to me that Ford does a good job at keeping his squads focused and motivated to reach the team’s goals. 
4.) 10% - X’s and O’s and in game adjustments. Face it, BB systems are not the nuclear physics some folks think. Whether you run a motion, Princeton, fast break, spread, slow down, or bully ball offense it’s not la mystery what your opponents are going to try and do to beat you. Same for D, man to man, matchup zones, or various zones, havoc, or other presses your opponents systems and tendencies are well known. It’s why they have film rooms. How a coach game plans and makes in game adjustments to exploit the weaknesses of his opponents systems is the key. Majerus was a genius at this. Remember when Chris Mack said “I was playing checkers and he was playing Chess.” ? There are times with Ford where he seems like a genius when he switches up his D schemes. Still, why do we seem to struggle in stopping the 3? As for his offenses, he seems to finally have accepted the idea that we are at our best when we up the tempo. With few exceptions, it seems Travis is an average X and O coach, ie no better or worse than the majority of D1 coaches. The exceptions are guys like Pitino, Wright, McKillop, Majerus, who just sense what switches to flip to throw a team off it’s game. 
Bottom line, we should be happy that Yravis Ford is our coach and hope he stays for a long time. His ability to deliver talent alone will keep us competitive for years to come. 

[wgstl]

8 hours ago, Soderball said:

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

we're doing everything we can, at some point it becomes out of our control.

[Compton]

10 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.

This seems generous. Approaching the lowest 10% isn't exactly "we have P6 facilities"  

Taken collectively, our facilities, budget, and salaries don't seem comparable to most P5 programs, including all ACC, Big Ten, or SEC programs. Maybe we get a little closer to the likes of K-State, Iowa State, BYU, or Washington State? And then for the P6 maybe a 1/2 step closer to Providence, Butler, Seton Hall, Marquette, Xavier?

Next year there will be 80 P6 schools. CF's salary might be higher than the bottom 10%, but it seems unlikely our facilities and overall budget are.

 

[AnkielBreakers]

I just want a note that around 2/20 or so posters in this thread are showing discontent with T. Ford. It doesn’t seem that way, because the vocal minority always stands out online. But that is it, 10% negative, 90% positive or at least content.

[Old guy]

17 minutes ago, Compton said:

This seems generous. Approaching the lowest 10% isn't exactly "we have P6 facilities"  

Taken collectively, our facilities, budget, and salaries don't seem comparable to most P5 programs, including all ACC, Big Ten, or SEC programs. Maybe we get a little closer to the likes of K-State, Iowa State, BYU, or Washington State? And then for the P6 maybe a 1/2 step closer to Providence, Butler, Seton Hall, Marquette, Xavier?

Next year there will be 80 P6 schools. CF's salary is probably higher than the bottom 10%, but it seems unlikely our facilities and overall budget are.

 

It will be very interesting to see how the P6 schools handle the increases in salary at the same time as the NIL payments which are likely to continue going up. When translated to "lower level" schools that do not have similar levels of funding it will be even more interesting to see how the salaries and facilities vs NIL payments issue is handled.

[thunderdan]

10 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.

In their defense, that shirtless dude outside Chaifetz is pretty jacked .

[HoosierPal]

20 minutes ago, Compton said:

This seems generous. Approaching the lowest 10% isn't exactly "we have P6 facilities"  

Taken collectively, our facilities, budget, and salaries don't seem comparable to most P5 programs, including all ACC, Big Ten, or SEC programs. Maybe we get a little closer to the likes of K-State, Iowa State, BYU, or Washington State? And then for the P6 maybe a 1/2 step closer to Providence, Butler, Seton Hall, Marquette, Xavier?

Next year there will be 80 P6 schools. CF's salary might be higher than the bottom 10%, but it seems unlikely our facilities and overall budget are.

 

This is all nice and lovely.  But unless you have a competitive NIL situation, facilities, budget, salaries and team culture aren't going to cut it by themself.

[slu72]

1 hour ago, HoosierPal said:

This is all nice and lovely.  But unless you have a competitive NIL situation, facilities, budget, salaries and team culture aren't going to cut it by themself.

May seemed pretty confident last night when asked about NIL saying local sponsors are working with SLU to keep our programs competitive. 

[Bay Area Billiken]

11 hours ago, Soderball said:

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

In the immortal words of the late Al Davis, Just Win Baby, and win big, meaning NCAA Tournaments and Sweet 16 appearances once SLU gets there.  Square 1 is making the NCAA Tournament this season and going as far as SLU can, hopefully past the first weekend.

The next question is how do we get there after this season?  That question is at least in part rhetorical.

[slu72]

3 hours ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Never thought I'd see Soviet Scientific History on the board.

And I’ve never seen a carrot leaf. 

[slu72]

7 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

In the immortal words of the late Al Davis, Just Win Baby, and win big, meaning NCAA Tournaments and Sweet 16 appearances once SLU gets there.  Square 1 is making the NCAA Tournament this season and going as far as SLU can, hopefully past the first weekend.

The next question is how do we get there after this season?  That question is at least in part rhetorical.

If we lose all the guys we think we’re gonna lose the Portal will be our only hope to build off a, hopefully, successful 22–23 season. 

[BC1764]

SLU and Dayton’s budgets are higher than DePaul, Butler, and Seton Hall.

[brianstl]

2 hours ago, slu72 said:

May seemed pretty confident last night when asked about NIL saying local sponsors are working with SLU to keep our programs competitive. 

Local sponsors aren’t what make you competitive in NIL.  A collective is what makes you competitive. I understand May not wanting to go all out on that route (the loss of control over donor money), but it is the route the program needs to go.