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2023 Offseason - Coaching Discussion Thread


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On 3/16/2023 at 6:18 AM, billiken_roy said:

The Billiken's hired giocolleti a few years back supposedly for that reason.   Ford apparently ignored any input because there was no noticeable change.

I'm going out on a limb here but I think he could listen 100% & still show no noticeable change.

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Here is year by year of Ford's tenure

1) (2016-17) Took over from the Crews dumpster fire. He immediately hit the transfer market building for the future - Bess, Foreman and Henriquez who had to sit a year, so the roster he played with that season was even thinner and less talented than the one from the last year of Crews. The team battled and got better as the season progressed, but he inherited a bad roster. BTW, interesting to note that if Ford had landed these transfers in today's era of free agency (rather than an era where players had to sit out a year) it would have rapidly sped up the rebuild.

Year 2) A lot of optimism with Goodwin/French coming on board with the transfers becoming eligible.  Situation 2 hits right before the start of the season dashing postseason hopes - losing Bishop, Graves and Henriquez... that's the player I'm most disappointed we never got to see play. I think he would have been a real impact player. Team finished 5th, big progress climbing out of Crews dumpster fire, but losing Henriquez in particular slowed the rebuild.

Year 3) An uneven regular season, but get hot in the tournament led by Isabell. The "bully ball" roster was short on skill

Year 4) More skill (Yuri, Perk and Jimmer)  added to the bullyball roster. The team starts to peak late in the season winning 5 in a row, including dominating wins over Bonnie and VCU. The team cracks the Top 50 heading into the conference tournament. The team is on the bubble - speculation was one win conference tourney gives them 50/50 at large shot; two wins likely gets them in the Dance... then COVID shuts down the conference tournament, so we'll never know, but everyone on this board was feeling good about the state of the program.

Year 5) Team has a strong non-conference season with wins over LSU and NC State, cracks the Top 25, and then COVID hits right before conference play and shuts the team down for more than a month. Team is rusty coming out of the long break and has two bad losses in their first two games back and that kept them out - just win one of those and they're in. Still, they had a NET of 43 and were in the first four out.

Year 6) Hopes are high with the return of Perk - preseason conference POY. Blows out his knee in the first exhibition game. IMO, that ended all hopes of an at-large bid. I'm really not sure why people continued to have such lofty expectations after such a huge injury. I actually thought Ford did a very good job with that team.

Year 7) Expectations are high, but we all know how that turned out. My biggest criticisms of Ford prior to the season pertained to roster construction. It was as if he was banking on a 100% return of the Perk of old, rather than addressing some of his other roster deficiencies. He took a good run at Carr and he would've been a difference maker, but my bigger criticism was not addressing the guard depth. Very frustrating.

My conclusion: Ford deserves another year and will get it, in years 4-6, he assembled Top 50 ish/at large caliber rosters. I think some of the most passionate Ford critics lose credibility when they don't at least acknowledge there was a lot of bad luck (COVID and Perk injury) which happened to coincide in three seasons when Ford had assembled his most talented rosters.

 I started the season Pro-Ford, BUT have ended it believing it's fair to start up the hot seat. This is a huge offseason which will determine Ford's future. IMO, it's all about how he puts together his next roster.

1) He needs a big transfer haul like he had his first recruiting season: Bess, Henriquez, Foreman. Thanks to free agency, the team can improve quickly with the right additions  2) More depth with multiple versatile combo guards on the roster AND you have to have a good stretch big in today's game. Ford has never been able to land that type of player. Maybe Vice is a step in the right direction, but I'd also like to see an experienced stretch big added 3) Finally, find the right balance between bullyball and skilled players. I feel like he found that right balance in years 4&5, but he lost that bullyball element and the roster became way too soft the last year or two. And you absolutely have to have players on the roster who can play D.

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1 hour ago, ACE said:

Here is year by year of Ford's tenure

1) (2016-17) Took over from the Crews dumpster fire. He immediately hit the transfer market building for the future - Bess, Foreman and Henriquez who had to sit a year, so the roster he played with that season was even thinner and less talented than the one from the last year of Crews. The team battled and got better as the season progressed, but he inherited a bad roster. BTW, interesting to note that if Ford had landed these transfers in today's era of free agency (rather than an era where players had to sit out a year) it would have rapidly sped up the rebuild.

Year 2) A lot of optimism with Goodwin/French coming on board with the transfers becoming eligible.  Situation 2 hits right before the start of the season dashing postseason hopes - losing Bishop, Graves and Henriquez... that's the player I'm most disappointed we never got to see play. I think he would have been a real impact player. Team finished 5th, big progress climbing out of Crews dumpster fire, but losing Henriquez in particular slowed the rebuild.

Year 3) An uneven regular season, but get hot in the tournament led by Isabell. The "bully ball" roster was short on skill

Year 4) More skill (Yuri, Perk and Jimmer)  added to the bullyball roster. The team starts to peak late in the season winning 5 in a row, including dominating wins over Bonnie and VCU. The team cracks the Top 50 heading into the conference tournament. The team is on the bubble - speculation was one win conference tourney gives them 50/50 at large shot; two wins likely gets them in the Dance... then COVID shuts down the conference tournament, so we'll never know, but everyone on this board was feeling good about the state of the program.

Year 5) Team has a strong non-conference season with wins over LSU and NC State, cracks the Top 25, and then COVID hits right before conference play and shuts the team down for more than a month. Team is rusty coming out of the long break and has two bad losses in their first two games back and that kept them out - just win one of those and they're in. Still, they had a NET of 43 and were in the first four out.

Year 6) Hopes are high with the return of Perk - preseason conference POY. Blows out his knee in the first exhibition game. IMO, that ended all hopes of an at-large bid. I'm really not sure why people continued to have such lofty expectations after such a huge injury. I actually thought Ford did a very good job with that team.

Year 7) Expectations are high, but we all know how that turned out. My biggest criticisms of Ford prior to the season pertained to roster construction. It was as if he was banking on a 100% return of the Perk of old, rather than addressing some of his other roster deficiencies. He took a good run at Carr and he would've been a difference maker, but my bigger criticism was not addressing the guard depth. Very frustrating.

My conclusion: Ford deserves another year and will get it, in years 4-6, he assembled Top 50 ish/at large caliber rosters. I think some of the most passionate Ford critics lose credibility when they don't at least acknowledge there was a lot of bad luck (COVID and Perk injury) which happened to coincide in three seasons when Ford had assembled his most talented rosters.

 I started the season Pro-Ford, BUT have ended it believing it's fair to start up the hot seat. This is a huge offseason which will determine Ford's future. IMO, it's all about how he puts together his next roster.

1) He needs a big transfer haul like he had his first recruiting season: Bess, Henriquez, Foreman. Thanks to free agency, the team can improve quickly with the right additions  2) More depth with multiple versatile combo guards on the roster AND you have to have a good stretch big in today's game. Ford has never been able to land that type of player. Maybe Vice is a step in the right direction, but I'd also like to see an experienced stretch big added 3) Finally, find the right balance between bullyball and skilled players. I feel like he found that right balance in years 4&5, but he lost that bullyball element and the roster became way too soft the last year or two. And you absolutely have to have players on the roster who can play D.

Been saying the same for quite awhile.  I think Ford has done an admirable job and if not for situation 2, the covid shutdown year with no Tournament, and Perkins' injury ...... think SLU would of "Danced" at least twice in Ford's tenure.  I am still on the Ford bandwagon but he must "pull some rabbits out of the hat" this off-season from the transfer portal.  Changing coaches every 5 or so years is not the solution, especially for Mid-Majors.

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I realize that bad luck can create difficulties but that is the game - seldom do you have seasons without some issues that pop up.  All teams are subject to it and some do not over come it but some do.  This is why you hire  the coach to manage in the tough times as well as the good ones.  

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43 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

I realize that bad luck can create difficulties but that is the game - seldom do you have seasons without some issues that pop up.  All teams are subject to it and some do not over come it but some do.  This is why you hire  the coach to manage in the tough times as well as the good ones.  

So it would be fair to say you think we should fire ford?

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18 hours ago, ACE said:

Here is year by year of Ford's tenure

1) (2016-17) Took over from the Crews dumpster fire. He immediately hit the transfer market building for the future - Bess, Foreman and Henriquez who had to sit a year, so the roster he played with that season was even thinner and less talented than the one from the last year of Crews. The team battled and got better as the season progressed, but he inherited a bad roster. BTW, interesting to note that if Ford had landed these transfers in today's era of free agency (rather than an era where players had to sit out a year) it would have rapidly sped up the rebuild.

Year 2) A lot of optimism with Goodwin/French coming on board with the transfers becoming eligible.  Situation 2 hits right before the start of the season dashing postseason hopes - losing Bishop, Graves and Henriquez... that's the player I'm most disappointed we never got to see play. I think he would have been a real impact player. Team finished 5th, big progress climbing out of Crews dumpster fire, but losing Henriquez in particular slowed the rebuild.

Year 3) An uneven regular season, but get hot in the tournament led by Isabell. The "bully ball" roster was short on skill

Year 4) More skill (Yuri, Perk and Jimmer)  added to the bullyball roster. The team starts to peak late in the season winning 5 in a row, including dominating wins over Bonnie and VCU. The team cracks the Top 50 heading into the conference tournament. The team is on the bubble - speculation was one win conference tourney gives them 50/50 at large shot; two wins likely gets them in the Dance... then COVID shuts down the conference tournament, so we'll never know, but everyone on this board was feeling good about the state of the program.

Year 5) Team has a strong non-conference season with wins over LSU and NC State, cracks the Top 25, and then COVID hits right before conference play and shuts the team down for more than a month. Team is rusty coming out of the long break and has two bad losses in their first two games back and that kept them out - just win one of those and they're in. Still, they had a NET of 43 and were in the first four out.

Year 6) Hopes are high with the return of Perk - preseason conference POY. Blows out his knee in the first exhibition game. IMO, that ended all hopes of an at-large bid. I'm really not sure why people continued to have such lofty expectations after such a huge injury. I actually thought Ford did a very good job with that team.

Year 7) Expectations are high, but we all know how that turned out. My biggest criticisms of Ford prior to the season pertained to roster construction. It was as if he was banking on a 100% return of the Perk of old, rather than addressing some of his other roster deficiencies. He took a good run at Carr and he would've been a difference maker, but my bigger criticism was not addressing the guard depth. Very frustrating.

My conclusion: Ford deserves another year and will get it, in years 4-6, he assembled Top 50 ish/at large caliber rosters. I think some of the most passionate Ford critics lose credibility when they don't at least acknowledge there was a lot of bad luck (COVID and Perk injury) which happened to coincide in three seasons when Ford had assembled his most talented rosters.

 I started the season Pro-Ford, BUT have ended it believing it's fair to start up the hot seat. This is a huge offseason which will determine Ford's future. IMO, it's all about how he puts together his next roster.

1) He needs a big transfer haul like he had his first recruiting season: Bess, Henriquez, Foreman. Thanks to free agency, the team can improve quickly with the right additions  2) More depth with multiple versatile combo guards on the roster AND you have to have a good stretch big in today's game. Ford has never been able to land that type of player. Maybe Vice is a step in the right direction, but I'd also like to see an experienced stretch big added 3) Finally, find the right balance between bullyball and skilled players. I feel like he found that right balance in years 4&5, but he lost that bullyball element and the roster became way too soft the last year or two. And you absolutely have to have players on the roster who can play D.

 

Great post, Ace. A lot of great points. Ford has definitely experienced some bad breaks. You make a great case to retain Ford another year. Although given the financial commitment (as many have pointed out) he was likely always coming back. Question for you though: you said after this season it’s fair to “start up the hot seat” for Ford. Curious… what will it take, for you, to get Ford OFF the hot seat next season? 

 
By giving Ford another year we’re really giving him (at least) 2 more seasons because one of three things will happen next season: 1) For the first time as SLU coach 2nd half adjustments will become clear to Ford, we finally beat a ranked team or two, don’t blow any double digit leads, finally avoid a bad loss or two, finish at the top of the A10 (top 3) for the first time in 8 seasons under Travis, and earn an at-large 2) We, once again, have to win the A10 tourney in order to dance, catch fire in Brooklyn, and cut down the nets 3) We finish in Ford’s wheelhouse (4th-6th), fail to earn an at-large or autobid in a 1-2 bid league, and pray for an NIT invite. 
 
While I pray for 1 or 2 to occur, 3 is the most likely outcome based on Ford’s 2 decade + coaching career.  I’d love to be wrong. My worry is that given the excuses we’ve heard the last 5+ years I have no reason to believe they wouldn’t continue if 3 were to become a reality: “Well it was a transition year and we lost a lot of veterans. What did you expect!?” We’ll hear the same from May.  We’d then be going into our 9th season in the Ford era at SLU (yes, almost a decade) with zero at-large bids under  the highest paid coach in the A10, one autobid 5 seasons prior (thanks to a hot Isabel), and (likely) zero top 3 finishes in a downward-trending league. 
 
In the age of Aquarius and also the portal, and given how crappy the A10 has become, there is absolutely NO reason to think 1 or 2 above can’t happen next year even with a team full of transfers. None. Won’t be easy. It’s going take the right additions and an old dog learning some new tricks but it’s possible.
 
But I’m genuinely curious…what kind of season does Ford need to have next season to remove himself  from the hot seat?

 

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Ace makes some great points. The Covid year was the one where I was the most anti-Ford off all of it. That loss @ Lasalle was the killer. That team had a strong JP, Has, and Goodwin as key players and missed the tournament. I think the Year 6 analysis was spot-on. We all know how bad the team was this year relative to expectations (4 seed in a bad A10). 

Travis Ford is the coach here for better or worse for awhile longer. 

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On 3/17/2023 at 2:48 PM, ACE said:

Here is year by year of Ford's tenure

1) (2016-17) Took over from the Crews dumpster fire. He immediately hit the transfer market building for the future - Bess, Foreman and Henriquez who had to sit a year, so the roster he played with that season was even thinner and less talented than the one from the last year of Crews. The team battled and got better as the season progressed, but he inherited a bad roster. BTW, interesting to note that if Ford had landed these transfers in today's era of free agency (rather than an era where players had to sit out a year) it would have rapidly sped up the rebuild.

Year 2) A lot of optimism with Goodwin/French coming on board with the transfers becoming eligible.  Situation 2 hits right before the start of the season dashing postseason hopes - losing Bishop, Graves and Henriquez... that's the player I'm most disappointed we never got to see play. I think he would have been a real impact player. Team finished 5th, big progress climbing out of Crews dumpster fire, but losing Henriquez in particular slowed the rebuild.

Year 3) An uneven regular season, but get hot in the tournament led by Isabell. The "bully ball" roster was short on skill

Year 4) More skill (Yuri, Perk and Jimmer)  added to the bullyball roster. The team starts to peak late in the season winning 5 in a row, including dominating wins over Bonnie and VCU. The team cracks the Top 50 heading into the conference tournament. The team is on the bubble - speculation was one win conference tourney gives them 50/50 at large shot; two wins likely gets them in the Dance... then COVID shuts down the conference tournament, so we'll never know, but everyone on this board was feeling good about the state of the program.

Year 5) Team has a strong non-conference season with wins over LSU and NC State, cracks the Top 25, and then COVID hits right before conference play and shuts the team down for more than a month. Team is rusty coming out of the long break and has two bad losses in their first two games back and that kept them out - just win one of those and they're in. Still, they had a NET of 43 and were in the first four out.

Year 6) Hopes are high with the return of Perk - preseason conference POY. Blows out his knee in the first exhibition game. IMO, that ended all hopes of an at-large bid. I'm really not sure why people continued to have such lofty expectations after such a huge injury. I actually thought Ford did a very good job with that team.

Year 7) Expectations are high, but we all know how that turned out. My biggest criticisms of Ford prior to the season pertained to roster construction. It was as if he was banking on a 100% return of the Perk of old, rather than addressing some of his other roster deficiencies. He took a good run at Carr and he would've been a difference maker, but my bigger criticism was not addressing the guard depth. Very frustrating.

My conclusion: Ford deserves another year and will get it, in years 4-6, he assembled Top 50 ish/at large caliber rosters. I think some of the most passionate Ford critics lose credibility when they don't at least acknowledge there was a lot of bad luck (COVID and Perk injury) which happened to coincide in three seasons when Ford had assembled his most talented rosters.

 I started the season Pro-Ford, BUT have ended it believing it's fair to start up the hot seat. This is a huge offseason which will determine Ford's future. IMO, it's all about how he puts together his next roster.

1) He needs a big transfer haul like he had his first recruiting season: Bess, Henriquez, Foreman. Thanks to free agency, the team can improve quickly with the right additions  2) More depth with multiple versatile combo guards on the roster AND you have to have a good stretch big in today's game. Ford has never been able to land that type of player. Maybe Vice is a step in the right direction, but I'd also like to see an experienced stretch big added 3) Finally, find the right balance between bullyball and skilled players. I feel like he found that right balance in years 4&5, but he lost that bullyball element and the roster became way too soft the last year or two. And you absolutely have to have players on the roster who can play D.

Gotta love the logical posters

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On 3/17/2023 at 3:48 PM, ACE said:

Here is year by year of Ford's tenure

1) (2016-17) Took over from the Crews dumpster fire. He immediately hit the transfer market building for the future - Bess, Foreman and Henriquez who had to sit a year, so the roster he played with that season was even thinner and less talented than the one from the last year of Crews. The team battled and got better as the season progressed, but he inherited a bad roster. BTW, interesting to note that if Ford had landed these transfers in today's era of free agency (rather than an era where players had to sit out a year) it would have rapidly sped up the rebuild.

Year 2) A lot of optimism with Goodwin/French coming on board with the transfers becoming eligible.  Situation 2 hits right before the start of the season dashing postseason hopes - losing Bishop, Graves and Henriquez... that's the player I'm most disappointed we never got to see play. I think he would have been a real impact player. Team finished 5th, big progress climbing out of Crews dumpster fire, but losing Henriquez in particular slowed the rebuild.

Year 3) An uneven regular season, but get hot in the tournament led by Isabell. The "bully ball" roster was short on skill

Year 4) More skill (Yuri, Perk and Jimmer)  added to the bullyball roster. The team starts to peak late in the season winning 5 in a row, including dominating wins over Bonnie and VCU. The team cracks the Top 50 heading into the conference tournament. The team is on the bubble - speculation was one win conference tourney gives them 50/50 at large shot; two wins likely gets them in the Dance... then COVID shuts down the conference tournament, so we'll never know, but everyone on this board was feeling good about the state of the program.

Year 5) Team has a strong non-conference season with wins over LSU and NC State, cracks the Top 25, and then COVID hits right before conference play and shuts the team down for more than a month. Team is rusty coming out of the long break and has two bad losses in their first two games back and that kept them out - just win one of those and they're in. Still, they had a NET of 43 and were in the first four out.

Year 6) Hopes are high with the return of Perk - preseason conference POY. Blows out his knee in the first exhibition game. IMO, that ended all hopes of an at-large bid. I'm really not sure why people continued to have such lofty expectations after such a huge injury. I actually thought Ford did a very good job with that team.

Year 7) Expectations are high, but we all know how that turned out. My biggest criticisms of Ford prior to the season pertained to roster construction. It was as if he was banking on a 100% return of the Perk of old, rather than addressing some of his other roster deficiencies. He took a good run at Carr and he would've been a difference maker, but my bigger criticism was not addressing the guard depth. Very frustrating.

My conclusion: Ford deserves another year and will get it, in years 4-6, he assembled Top 50 ish/at large caliber rosters. I think some of the most passionate Ford critics lose credibility when they don't at least acknowledge there was a lot of bad luck (COVID and Perk injury) which happened to coincide in three seasons when Ford had assembled his most talented rosters.

 I started the season Pro-Ford, BUT have ended it believing it's fair to start up the hot seat. This is a huge offseason which will determine Ford's future. IMO, it's all about how he puts together his next roster.

1) He needs a big transfer haul like he had his first recruiting season: Bess, Henriquez, Foreman. Thanks to free agency, the team can improve quickly with the right additions  2) More depth with multiple versatile combo guards on the roster AND you have to have a good stretch big in today's game. Ford has never been able to land that type of player. Maybe Vice is a step in the right direction, but I'd also like to see an experienced stretch big added 3) Finally, find the right balance between bullyball and skilled players. I feel like he found that right balance in years 4&5, but he lost that bullyball element and the roster became way too soft the last year or two. And you absolutely have to have players on the roster who can play D.

How year three is just a short paragraph is very interesting (and telling). Ford’s best year is given a graph somehow shorter than the combined obituaries of Sacco and Vanzetti. 

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On 3/17/2023 at 2:48 PM, ACE said:

Here is year by year of Ford's tenure

1) (2016-17) Took over from the Crews dumpster fire. He immediately hit the transfer market building for the future - Bess, Foreman and Henriquez who had to sit a year, so the roster he played with that season was even thinner and less talented than the one from the last year of Crews. The team battled and got better as the season progressed, but he inherited a bad roster. BTW, interesting to note that if Ford had landed these transfers in today's era of free agency (rather than an era where players had to sit out a year) it would have rapidly sped up the rebuild.

Year 2) A lot of optimism with Goodwin/French coming on board with the transfers becoming eligible.  Situation 2 hits right before the start of the season dashing postseason hopes - losing Bishop, Graves and Henriquez... that's the player I'm most disappointed we never got to see play. I think he would have been a real impact player. Team finished 5th, big progress climbing out of Crews dumpster fire, but losing Henriquez in particular slowed the rebuild.

Year 3) An uneven regular season, but get hot in the tournament led by Isabell. The "bully ball" roster was short on skill

Year 4) More skill (Yuri, Perk and Jimmer)  added to the bullyball roster. The team starts to peak late in the season winning 5 in a row, including dominating wins over Bonnie and VCU. The team cracks the Top 50 heading into the conference tournament. The team is on the bubble - speculation was one win conference tourney gives them 50/50 at large shot; two wins likely gets them in the Dance... then COVID shuts down the conference tournament, so we'll never know, but everyone on this board was feeling good about the state of the program.

Year 5) Team has a strong non-conference season with wins over LSU and NC State, cracks the Top 25, and then COVID hits right before conference play and shuts the team down for more than a month. Team is rusty coming out of the long break and has two bad losses in their first two games back and that kept them out - just win one of those and they're in. Still, they had a NET of 43 and were in the first four out.

Year 6) Hopes are high with the return of Perk - preseason conference POY. Blows out his knee in the first exhibition game. IMO, that ended all hopes of an at-large bid. I'm really not sure why people continued to have such lofty expectations after such a huge injury. I actually thought Ford did a very good job with that team.

Year 7) Expectations are high, but we all know how that turned out. My biggest criticisms of Ford prior to the season pertained to roster construction. It was as if he was banking on a 100% return of the Perk of old, rather than addressing some of his other roster deficiencies. He took a good run at Carr and he would've been a difference maker, but my bigger criticism was not addressing the guard depth. Very frustrating.

My conclusion: Ford deserves another year and will get it, in years 4-6, he assembled Top 50 ish/at large caliber rosters. I think some of the most passionate Ford critics lose credibility when they don't at least acknowledge there was a lot of bad luck (COVID and Perk injury) which happened to coincide in three seasons when Ford had assembled his most talented rosters.

 I started the season Pro-Ford, BUT have ended it believing it's fair to start up the hot seat. This is a huge offseason which will determine Ford's future. IMO, it's all about how he puts together his next roster.

1) He needs a big transfer haul like he had his first recruiting season: Bess, Henriquez, Foreman. Thanks to free agency, the team can improve quickly with the right additions  2) More depth with multiple versatile combo guards on the roster AND you have to have a good stretch big in today's game. Ford has never been able to land that type of player. Maybe Vice is a step in the right direction, but I'd also like to see an experienced stretch big added 3) Finally, find the right balance between bullyball and skilled players. I feel like he found that right balance in years 4&5, but he lost that bullyball element and the roster became way too soft the last year or two. And you absolutely have to have players on the roster who can play D.

I agree with a lot of this, but Ford deserves at least partial blame for the mid season covid shutdown.....

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2 hours ago, dennis_w said:

my understanding the healthy players were not even allowed in the gym or to practice. was that ford or the admin?

This decision was driven by the City.  They had criteria that the admin chose to follow.  I don't know if there was an option of not following the guidelines, but they did.  Ford went public stating his players couldn't practice and that he didn't understand the reasoning. 

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Back to coaching and away from SLU hoop politics for a minute. I’ve been watching quite a few tourney games and marvel at how well coached a lot of teams are. 
Especially on the offense side.  I have seen little or nothing of the dreaded weave we seem to employ endlessly. Instead most teams seem to emphasize spacing and using screens to find open spots for open looks.  Also the really good PGs don’t dribble as much as Yuri. They pass quickly or if they see an open lane take their man off the dribble for a shot or a dish to an open man. There were a couple of games this year where Yuri had to sit and I thought our offense looked a lot more efficient. One game Perkins ran the O and then later it was run by Legend Jr. they did not waste a lot of time dribbling but instead looking for an open man. I realize it sounds crazy to knock a guy getting 10 assists per game, but think we’re better when we pass the ball quickly than dribbling it or running a weave around the perimeter. Passing to a guy off a screen or the inside out pass seems way more efficient. 

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11 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Back to coaching and away from SLU hoop politics for a minute. I’ve been watching quite a few tourney games and marvel at how well coached a lot of teams are. 
Especially on the offense side.  I have seen little or nothing of the dreaded weave we seem to employ endlessly. Instead most teams seem to emphasize spacing and using screens to find open spots for open looks.  Also the really good PGs don’t dribble as much as Yuri. They pass quickly or if they see an open lane take their man off the dribble for a shot or a dish to an open man. There were a couple of games this year where Yuri had to sit and I thought our offense looked a lot more efficient. One game Perkins ran the O and then later it was run by Legend Jr. they did not waste a lot of time dribbling but instead looking for an open man. I realize it sounds crazy to knock a guy getting 10 assists per game, but think we’re better when we pass the ball quickly than dribbling it or running a weave around the perimeter. Passing to a guy off a screen or the inside out pass seems way more efficient. 

Have you dropped an email to Ford?  just kidding

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On 3/17/2023 at 2:48 PM, ACE said:

Here is year by year of Ford's tenure

1) (2016-17) Took over from the Crews dumpster fire. He immediately hit the transfer market building for the future - Bess, Foreman and Henriquez who had to sit a year, so the roster he played with that season was even thinner and less talented than the one from the last year of Crews. The team battled and got better as the season progressed, but he inherited a bad roster. BTW, interesting to note that if Ford had landed these transfers in today's era of free agency (rather than an era where players had to sit out a year) it would have rapidly sped up the rebuild.

Year 2) A lot of optimism with Goodwin/French coming on board with the transfers becoming eligible.  Situation 2 hits right before the start of the season dashing postseason hopes - losing Bishop, Graves and Henriquez... that's the player I'm most disappointed we never got to see play. I think he would have been a real impact player. Team finished 5th, big progress climbing out of Crews dumpster fire, but losing Henriquez in particular slowed the rebuild.

Year 3) An uneven regular season, but get hot in the tournament led by Isabell. The "bully ball" roster was short on skill

Year 4) More skill (Yuri, Perk and Jimmer)  added to the bullyball roster. The team starts to peak late in the season winning 5 in a row, including dominating wins over Bonnie and VCU. The team cracks the Top 50 heading into the conference tournament. The team is on the bubble - speculation was one win conference tourney gives them 50/50 at large shot; two wins likely gets them in the Dance... then COVID shuts down the conference tournament, so we'll never know, but everyone on this board was feeling good about the state of the program.

Year 5) Team has a strong non-conference season with wins over LSU and NC State, cracks the Top 25, and then COVID hits right before conference play and shuts the team down for more than a month. Team is rusty coming out of the long break and has two bad losses in their first two games back and that kept them out - just win one of those and they're in. Still, they had a NET of 43 and were in the first four out.

Year 6) Hopes are high with the return of Perk - preseason conference POY. Blows out his knee in the first exhibition game. IMO, that ended all hopes of an at-large bid. I'm really not sure why people continued to have such lofty expectations after such a huge injury. I actually thought Ford did a very good job with that team.

Year 7) Expectations are high, but we all know how that turned out. My biggest criticisms of Ford prior to the season pertained to roster construction. It was as if he was banking on a 100% return of the Perk of old, rather than addressing some of his other roster deficiencies. He took a good run at Carr and he would've been a difference maker, but my bigger criticism was not addressing the guard depth. Very frustrating.

My conclusion: Ford deserves another year and will get it, in years 4-6, he assembled Top 50 ish/at large caliber rosters. I think some of the most passionate Ford critics lose credibility when they don't at least acknowledge there was a lot of bad luck (COVID and Perk injury) which happened to coincide in three seasons when Ford had assembled his most talented rosters.

 I started the season Pro-Ford, BUT have ended it believing it's fair to start up the hot seat. This is a huge offseason which will determine Ford's future. IMO, it's all about how he puts together his next roster.

1) He needs a big transfer haul like he had his first recruiting season: Bess, Henriquez, Foreman. Thanks to free agency, the team can improve quickly with the right additions  2) More depth with multiple versatile combo guards on the roster AND you have to have a good stretch big in today's game. Ford has never been able to land that type of player. Maybe Vice is a step in the right direction, but I'd also like to see an experienced stretch big added 3) Finally, find the right balance between bullyball and skilled players. I feel like he found that right balance in years 4&5, but he lost that bullyball element and the roster became way too soft the last year or two. And you absolutely have to have players on the roster who can play D.

This a great post and summarizes the Ford era really well. But I think there are a couple items to point out:

1) I think some are greatly exaggerating how close we were to an at-large in 19-20. Yes we were playing extremely well at the time but we did not have much of a resume that year - neither Bonnies nor VCU were going to be NCAA teams that year. We lost to our only 2 quality opponents in non-con in Auburn and Seton Hall and went 0-2 against Dayton including a game at home we coughed up in the final 8 minutes. IF we beat Dayton on that Saturday, maybe we have a shot but that's a big if and the point remains again Ford was unable (again) to have an at-large resume together going into the final week of the season. I sincerely doubt 1 more win that week gets us much consideration by the committee.

2) In 2020-21, yes the two losses coming out of the COVID pause were a killer, but after that we had 3 games that could've still gotten us in the NCAA's (At VCU, At Dayton, and in the A10 tourney against Bonnies) and we lost all 3 of them. You HAVE to find a way to win one of those games. That was the most talented team in my time as a fan (been going to games since the early 2000's). But again lost those three games and the trend of Ford unable to win that "get us over the hump" game continues.

I'm confident Ford will put together a roster that will compete towards the top of the A10 again. But he's got to find a way to get his teams to execute in big games. I'm really hoping he can do that. 

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11 minutes ago, GoSluBills said:

This a great post and summarizes the Ford era really well. But I think there are a couple items to point out:

1) I think some are greatly exaggerating how close we were to an at-large in 19-20. Yes we were playing extremely well at the time but we did not have much of a resume that year - neither Bonnies nor VCU were going to be NCAA teams that year. We lost to our only 2 quality opponents in non-con in Auburn and Seton Hall and went 0-2 against Dayton including a game at home we coughed up in the final 8 minutes. IF we beat Dayton on that Saturday, maybe we have a shot but that's a big if and the point remains again Ford was unable (again) to have an at-large resume together going into the final week of the season. I sincerely doubt 1 more win that week gets us much consideration by the committee.

2) In 2020-21, yes the two losses coming out of the COVID pause were a killer, but after that we had 3 games that could've still gotten us in the NCAA's (At VCU, At Dayton, and in the A10 tourney against Bonnies) and we lost all 3 of them. You HAVE to find a way to win one of those games. That was the most talented team in my time as a fan (been going to games since the early 2000's). But again lost those three games and the trend of Ford unable to win that "get us over the hump" game continues.

I'm confident Ford will put together a roster that will compete towards the top of the A10 again. But he's got to find a way to get his teams to execute in big games. I'm really hoping he can do that. 

1) In 19-20, I remember the consensus being that we would have to beat Dayton in the A-10 tourney for an at-large. 
 

2) One thing about 20-21 is that we got screwed by TV Ted in the last road game against VCU. Of course we shouldn’t have had to rely on that game to get in but it is an added wrinkle. 

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On 3/17/2023 at 4:45 PM, WVBilliken said:

Been saying the same for quite awhile.  I think Ford has done an admirable job and if not for situation 2, the covid shutdown year with no Tournament, and Perkins' injury ...... think SLU would of "Danced" at least twice in Ford's tenure.  I am still on the Ford bandwagon but he must "pull some rabbits out of the hat" this off-season from the transfer portal.  Changing coaches every 5 or so years is not the solution, especially for Mid-Majors.

You and Schasz should go enjoy your P5 favorites. I'm a SLU fan and have been going to every game since Spoons was here. I'm not interested in these excuses. You have other stuff to watch, I don't. Go enjoy your Mountaineers.

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