2023 Offseason - Coaching Discussion Thread

[Cowboy II]

1 hour ago, cheeseman said:

I have no problem with this practice even the Cardinals do a dynamic pricing model.  You can get a ticket to some games for $10 and last year it was $5.  Selling single game  tickets at a discount is not an unusual practice.

-sorry in advance but repetition here -  I have posted many times that I think our ticket pricing for single game seats is absurd

[Slu let the dogs out?]

1 hour ago, Cowboy II said:

-my question, so next year the roster will have 7 or more new players, does that give Travis a bye into being the coach in 2024-25 because it was a new team?

I brought this up last week. This was a worry for me: We would miss out, yet again, on an at-large or autobid but Ford would get another pass by May because of a complete team overhaul. We would then be going into season 9 under Ford with 0 at-large bids and 1 autobid half a decade earlier which is ridiculous. In the age of the portal there is absolutely no reason we can’t compete for an A10 title next season. 

However given what has transpired the past 3 days I think it’s safe to say that it probably won’t matter what May thinks next year. 

[billiken_roy]

8 hours ago, dennis_w said:

many teams use a version of a weave offense, critics should do a little homework before they say it just wastes clock time

Other teams run options off it.  We do not

 

[kmbilliken]

We’re Frank & Rammer saying we didn’t bring in big time transfer’s because Perkins would have lost playing time? If that is true, Ford should be fired. Bring in the best players you can get and let the playing time go to those who earn it.

[HenryB]

59 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

Spoon had 3 tournament appearances in those 7 years. He finished last-2nd-2nd in the 3 years of GMWC against Memphis, Cincinnati, Marquette, DePaul, Dayton, and UAB. Had 2 crappy years and then back to the NCAA and a 4th place in CUSA in year 3 of that conference.

 

If this is anywhere close to accurate, it would be cause to fire Chris May. As it is, I think May's reluctance to make a change will have him back as an Associate AD of Tickets at some mid level Big Ten school. 

Don't tell me we are now going to begin months of fire May.

[Lord Elrond]

13 minutes ago, kmbilliken said:

We’re Frank & Rammer saying we didn’t bring in big time transfer’s because Perkins would have lost playing time? If that is true, Ford should be fired. Bring in the best players you can get and let the playing time go to those who earn it.

They were using it as an example of why we shouldn’t fire Ford. But question, doesn’t the head coach have final say on who comes on to the team, and who to pursue in the portal?  Not sure how that equates to “not Ford’s fault” in Frank’s mind, but there we are.  Also, Frank seems to think we never should have had high expectations for this team, which seems odd because he had the same expectations as I recall.  And of course, Frank thinks fans should never hold head coaches accountable nor look at results as a measure of success. I was fine with not firing Ford, even after what a logical person can only think was a disappointing season.  I thought the buyout would be too much for SLU and money does matter, so I really have no complaints with how this turns out (although May could have come up with a better way to communicate this).  But Cusumano apparently thinks all us SLU fans are idiots and chumps.

[DeSmetBilliken]

19 minutes ago, kmbilliken said:

We’re Frank & Rammer saying we didn’t bring in big time transfer’s because Perkins would have lost playing time? If that is true, Ford should be fired. Bring in the best players you can get and let the playing time go to those who earn it.

Something to that effect. Whether it was specifically Perkins, or someone else, Perkins was the example used. Basically they said that Ford may have been loyal to a fault as it related to existing players, as he then might have passed on a transfer because he was loyal to a player on the roster.

[Cowboy II]

26 minutes ago, kmbilliken said:

We’re Frank & Rammer saying we didn’t bring in big time transfer’s because Perkins would have lost playing time? If that is true, Ford should be fired. Bring in the best players you can get and let the playing time go to those who earn it.

-Rammer said perhaps the program was loyal to a fault to not getting big time transfers that would take minutes from JPerk  and asked can you recruit over what you have? -- he did not say that is what happened, asking if it happened 

[cheeseman]

2 hours ago, SLUDrew said:

Right but his point was still valid. The game didn't sell out organically. For a lot of these games there were BOGO offers or deep discounts, etc

 

True but the Cardinals don't say we drew 3 million but only 2 million were full price tickets.  If the plan for the Cardinals is to get butts in the seats it seems to work so why not for SLU.

[Schasz]

10 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

True but the Cardinals don't say we drew 3 million but only 2 million were full price tickets.  If the plan for the Cardinals is to get butts in the seats it seems to work so why not for SLU.

However, the Cards ownership is heavily invested in Ball Park Village so Stadium Attendance is only part of the Revenue that goes in the pockets of the Cards owners. 

[DOC]

3 hours ago, TheBand said:

And how many late season conference games were they running specials on tickets to get butts in the seats?  Quite a few.  

He compared our relevance to UMSL. Give me a break. 

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, kmbilliken said:

We’re Frank & Rammer saying we didn’t bring in big time transfer’s because Perkins would have lost playing time? If that is true, Ford should be fired. Bring in the best players you can get and let the playing time go to those who earn it.

Please listen to the segment. 

[slufan13]

This whole situation has made me realize Ford has the greatest agent in the world to be paid that salary with that buyout for these results. And that he has the most loyal friend in the world in Frank. 

[dennis_w]

53 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Please listen to the segment. 

agree, listen to the interview and then decide what rammer and frank said

[BIG BILL FAN]

2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

No we’re not. We’re making comparisons and you’re not conversing in good faith. That’s fine, Spoon had to convince them to stay. I’ve directly asked both of those guys, recorded on video and audio, about the coaching change and their decisions and Spoon absolutely had to sway their decision. 

My post was not to imply that Spoonhour was not a good coach, it was to point out that he did have some flaws. His recruiting his last few years was flat out terrible, and he knew  it, that’s why he bailed. Say what you want about Travis, but he works his tail off recruiting, something Spoon wouldn’t do. 

[dennis_w]

Just now, BIG BILL FAN said:

My post was not to imply that Spoonhour was not a good coach, it was to point out that he did have some flaws. His recruiting his last few years was flat out terrible, and he new it, that’s why he bailed. Say what you want about Travis, but he works his tail off recruiting, something Spoon wouldn’t do. 

it was apparent that spoon never laid eyes on sekue before he hit campus, the guy had no basketball skills, but he got a scholly

[cheeseman]

1 hour ago, Schasz said:

However, the Cards ownership is heavily invested in Ball Park Village so Stadium Attendance is only part of the Revenue that goes in the pockets of the Cards owners. 

I am not sure that is relevant to the point.  Selling tickets whether it is the Cardinals or Blues, or SLU discounting tickets is a normal practice.  So, it really doesn't matter if you fill the house with some full and some discounted tickets - a sell out is a sell out.  Yes everyone would like to sell out at full price but that is rare for a regular season game.  For example, when the Red Sox visited StL a few years ago, no discount tickets were available but when the Pirates come to town the Cardinals use dynamic pricing all the time.

[HoosierPal]

9 minutes ago, dennis_w said:

it was apparent that spoon never laid eyes on sekue before he hit campus, the guy had no basketball skills, but he got a scholly

I remember Spoon touting Sekue at a Billiken Club Meeting, saying he was the 400 m IH hurdles JUCO champ in Texas.  Yep, he could run. 

[cheeseman]

15 minutes ago, dennis_w said:

it was apparent that spoon never laid eyes on sekue before he hit campus, the guy had no basketball skills, but he got a scholly

It was pretty well known that Spoon really did not like recruiting but that man sure could coach.

[SLU_Nick]

Did the coup fail? 
 

how will we know? 

[thunderdan]

17 hours ago, Cowboy II said:

-I listened to the replay of Frank from yesterday and Frank and Bob from this morning, there are a few things that I feel the need to post regarding these segments

-perhaps the second biggest is the Frank has to change his policy of not being critical of college athletes for their on-court performance to make his point of supporting Travis -- this tells me a lot

-Rammer said there are social media folks who claim to be fans-- I am not on social media other than looking at the scroll on the right side of the page on Billikens.com but from what I see those folks are fans, diehard fans

-Rammer also said if just a results centered thinking you might be right but it's not a very convincing arguement and Frank agrees --- the results I want are Tourney bids--- Rammer said it is silly to want Travis gone

-Rammer wondered if the program was loyal to a fault but not getting bigtime transfers for this past season to take minutes from JPerk and asked can you recruit over what you have? -- my answer is yes, I want the best team we can get, a coach can promise competition for playing time but can't promise playing time

-Frank mentioned $10mil, some have speculated that is the buyout amount

-Rammer said that with the first season, two Covid seasons and last season losing JPerk who was presumptive conf POY to hold those against the program is ridiculous 

-Rammers comment about NBA players was that we have to build our team like we are in the BEast with guys that will be in the NBA

-Frank said next year the buyout is significantly lower and Rammer said this is the challenge the program should have and this heat is what the program should have and it has to perform

-but I think the biggest thing was they expected an A season and we had a B season ---but from his OKST days and this past season this is what Travis delivers

-my question, so next year the roster will have 7 or more new players, does that give Travis a bye into being the coach in 2024-25 because it was a new team?

-I would love for us to start of run of 15 tournaments in 20 years, or better, under Travis and I would happily post I was wrong in my thoughts as I sit here today

 

For me, an 'A' season is making the NCAA tournament, and a 'B' season is making the NIT.  We didn't do either of those. 

[Lord Elrond]

7 minutes ago, SLU_Nick said:

Did the coup fail? 
 

how will we know? 

Unless you see an announcement that Travis Ford is fired, the coup failed. With the length of time that’s passed and nothing happening, and no other announcements, I think it’s safe to say it’s failed.

[SLU_Nick]

2 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Unless you see an announcement that Travis Ford is fired, the coup failed. With the length of time that’s passed and nothing happening, and no other announcements, I think it’s safe to say it’s failed.

see, I disagree completely.  How can it be safe to say it’s failed when all the big boosters who post on here have been silent? 

Maybe we are waiting for FAU to lose to make the announcement.  
 

 

[TheA_Bomb]

11 minutes ago, SLU_Nick said:

see, I disagree completely.  How can it be safe to say it’s failed when all the big boosters who post on here have been silent? 

Maybe we are waiting for FAU to lose to make the announcement.  
 

 

I think it failed....kinda.  Now we'll just see a slow death over the next season as we win 18 games.  Dead man walking.

Also if the buyout is truly $10mil.  May needs to go.  Paying the highest salary plus that much buyout.   Big Money Boosters will not be happy with that amount. Bad decision making.  Why?  It's not like anyone was going to come for Ford. It's hard to know all the ins and outs at a private school but what we know doesn't look good. 

[wgstl]

18 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

I think it failed....kinda.  Now we'll just see a slow death over the next season as we win 18 games.  Dead man walking.

I too think this.  One(maybe 2) boosters got vocal, and some thought this was the start of something.  While it absolutely may be the start of something, its not enough for a turnaround this offseason.  What this says to me, instead of Boosters being comfortable about letting Ford be here long term like May said, they're moving closer to a make or break year this year.  All this did was speed everything up, not end things.