c ford on with frank c 590 the fan in 15 min

[GOSLU68]

1 hour ago, billikenfan05 said:

Are you referring to Chris Harriman? Are you basing this on his one game stint as caretaker HC vs Duquesne? I always viewed him as a good assistant with strong recruiting ties to Australia. Not some sort of expert tactician. One would say Porter Moser was probably closer to your description.

Yes and I got to watch him coach our bigs and he was a world apart from the coach for bigs we had with Soderberg. Chris Harriman knew the position and was young enough to enact the moves not just talk about it. Not saying get him today but since you bring it up we sure had and lost a great down under connection. You would think with Kevin Lisch, Brian Conklin, Cody Ellis, etc. we would have continued that vein. Same can be said of the Grrek connection although Voyoukis was a late bloomer and others could not run with American competition.

[thetorch]

7 minutes ago, GOSLU68 said:

Yes and I got to watch him coach our bigs and he was a world apart from the coach for bigs we had with Soderberg. Chris Harriman knew the position and was young enough to enact the moves not just talk about it. Not saying get him today but since you bring it up we sure had and lost a great down under connection. You would think with Kevin Lisch, Brian Conklin, Cody Ellis, etc. we would have continued that vein. Same can be said of the Grrek connection although Voyoukis was a late bloomer and others could not run with American competition.

Jensen was in charge of the bigs.

[brianstl]

I think with the reality of NIL, it is more important to have coaches on the the staff that are accomplished skill teachers than loading up the assistant positions with recruiters.  I would, also, try to load up the DBO and the other non recruiting positions with people that are talent evaluators.  I would try to get people that have a background as pro talent scouts.  Get a guy or two on staff that can tell you the value of a player right now and isn't worried about what the guy could develop into a few seasons down the line.  SLU can't be wasting money developing players only to have them leave when right before that investment would pay off.  SLU's NIL money needs to be spent based on what a player can deliver right away for that money.

[billikenfan05]

1 hour ago, thetorch said:

Jensen was in charge of the bigs.

Yeah Harriman is like like 6'4 at most.

[HoosierPal]

2 hours ago, Aquinas said:

If you look at teams with steals, VCU had 4 guys average between 1.1 and 1.5 steals per game and one guy with 2.2. Our best last year was Yuri at 1.3 and Fred at 1. Hugh's had .4 steals in 8 min of play, which is promising. TJ only had .3 in 20 min of play, which is bad. Parker had .3 in 13 min. Jimmerson had .5 in 34 min. In addition to speed, it takes passion, focus, anticipation and knowing player and team tendencies. With a team full of wings last year I expected more steals, but it didn't happen. As a team we averaged 5 per game, VCU averaged 8.9. It was also the only stat where we were upside down o to 6.4. We have a long way to go. 

There was something off with this past season's team.  They totaled 132 steals, or as you have stated, 4.0 per game.  With much of the same nucleus one season ago, the team totaled 225 steals, or 6.6 per game.  Why the drop off with more or less the same guys?  Yes, Thatch missed 2/3 of the games, but he was about a steal per game in the prior season.  Collins dropped from 65 steals to 42. 

Was the desire not there?   

[Pistol]

7 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

More from the Press Box Segment: 

Portal and current scene is nothing like Ford has seen in his entire 26 year career.  He was on the road recruiting this past weekend.  They are having 3 to 5 Zoom's per day with prospects.  The challenge is getting to know these players as best as you can.  You want to not only get the best players but you need the right players that fit in with the team.  Looking for pieces to fit around what we have.  Have kids coming in this weekend and the following weekend.  Keeping track of all of this is time consuming. 

Ford can't yet comment on the 'good news'.  (April 12 begins signing period.)  Looking for more good news soon.  The numbers being thrown out (money) is insane.  Then players saw that only a select group was getting big money. 

Ford says it is important to get an immediate 'No'.  They can't spend time with them.  Now agents call saying his player needs 'this amount' of money.  You immediately know you have no shot at that player.  You have to figure out who you can spend time with.  Ford does tell recruits about the existing NIL deals current SLU players have he directs them to the BVL Collective.

Ford says he needs to bring in three more. [Three more likely means Rivera is staying and Hughes is going on scholarship.]  Need to be more athletic.  Some that didn't play as much can help with the athleticism.  Need to get more length.  Need to be versatile.  Our D and Rebounding fell off.  We need to get back to that.  Looking at Hughes as a Point Guard and Combo Guard, and at several other positions.  He is great on both sides of the ball.  He will be on the floor a lot.  Glad he got reps at PG behind Collins.

Forte leaving -> getting closer to home.  Literally 5 minutes from home. His sister is moving back to home also.  Important to Forte to get back to Texas.  This has been in the works for about a week.  Doesn't want to rush in his replacement, but he has had a lot of calls on the spot.

Need to be patient on the recruiting. 

That's probably North Texas, the closest D-I program to where Forte is from. Other D-I schools in DFW are SMU, TCU, and UTA. None particularly close to Flower Mound. Ford is playing fast and loose with drive times even for the closest one (UNT is probably more like 25 minutes).

[GOSLU68]

2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

Yeah Harriman is like like 6'4 at most.

Correct Jensen was the athletic big with the moves I saw- time warped my recollection- must be a chrve like gravity

[VeniceMenace]

13 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

There was something off with this past season's team.  They totaled 132 steals, or as you have stated, 4.0 per game.  With much of the same nucleus one season ago, the team totaled 225 steals, or 6.6 per game.  Why the drop off with more or less the same guys?  Yes, Thatch missed 2/3 of the games, but he was about a steal per game in the prior season.  Collins dropped from 65 steals to 42. 

Was the desire not there?   

Nailed it.

LHJ led the team in steals per minute, 1 steal every 21 minutes…Yuri had 1 steal every 26 minutes. LHJ had 1 turnover every 16 minutes, Yuri had 1 TO every 9 minutes.

Many other factors to consider with player performance but when a freshman is that sure-handed, he deserves more minutes the next season—way more…

[Crewsorlose]

It was partly a function of Yuri and Gibson knowing they were indispensable and not wanting to get in foul trouble. They also had to use a lot of energy on offense. A low turnover rate can be fine if it's accompanied by great defensive rebounding and forcing teams into bad shots. This wasn't happening. 

It may be a little bit of effort and scheme, but also a fear of "messing up." Going for a steal is risky, and can result in committing a foul or getting beat. 

I think SLU was something like 340th in turnovers forced. 

[ACE]

1 hour ago, Crewsorlose said:

It was partly a function of Yuri and Gibson knowing they were indispensable and not wanting to get in foul trouble. They also had to use a lot of energy on offense. A low turnover rate can be fine if it's accompanied by great defensive rebounding and forcing teams into bad shots. This wasn't happening. 

It may be a little bit of effort and scheme, but also a fear of "messing up." Going for a steal is risky, and can result in committing a foul or getting beat. 

I think SLU was something like 340th in turnovers forced. 

This is exactly why Yuri's steals went down. It was poor roster construction. We never replaced DeAndre Jones or before that Jacobs on the roster.  Yuri was the best at drawing charges and the best at steals (his numbers went down from the prior year due to lack of depth). Drawing charges and going for steals both put yourself at risk of committing fouls. He was in fear of committing two fouls in the first half. We need better backcourt depth.

[slu72]

Where is Chris Harriman today? Is he still at Nebraska? And I wonder as well how we list our down under railroad. Randy Bennet milks that source like a lactating cow. 

[DeSmetBilliken]

52 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Where is Chris Harriman today? Is he still at Nebraska? And I wonder as well how we list our down under railroad. Randy Bennet milks that source like a lactating cow. 

He’s been at Cal the last few years. Apparently was interim head coach while their recent coaching search was taking place. Can’t tell if he was kept on by Mark Madsen, or if they haven’t updated their website.

[crymdg2]

43 minutes ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

He’s been at Cal the last few years. Apparently was interim head coach while their recent coaching search was taking place. Can’t tell if he was kept on by Mark Madsen, or if they haven’t updated their website.

He was not kept on staff.

[HoosierPal]

@studurando

Travis Ford started workouts today with groups of 3 players in between constant meetings with his staff about players in the transfer portal and work to schedule for the 2023-24 season.

[thetorch]

If Harriman is available we should try to get him.

[slu72]

30 minutes ago, thetorch said:

If Harriman is available we should try to get him.

Agree! 

[slu72]

If Harriman was good enough for Rick, he’s great for Travis. Bring him back. 

[billikenfan05]

9 hours ago, slu72 said:

If Harriman was good enough for Rick, he’s great for Travis. Bring him back. 

Maybe, maybe not. I, admittedly, don't know much about Harriman's role on Majerus' staff or any of his other positions. But his most obvious contribution was the Australian pipeline of recruiting. Would he compliment Travis' strengths? Bring a different tactical perspective? IMO, It's not as simple as "if he's good enough for Rick". All that being said, I'm a big fan of Harriman.

[billiken_roy]

let's not forget that crews was rickma's personal choice to take over when rickma got sick.  i.e. a rickma endorsement is not a no-brainer replacement pick.

[ACE]

9 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

let's not forget that crews was rickma's personal choice to take over when rickma got sick.  i.e. a rickma endorsement is not a no-brainer replacement pick.

To be clear - it was Richma's replacement as the interim - and that part at least, worked out very well. He wasn't involved with picking his permanent replacement, because he had passed away by then.

[Cowboy II]

-just a friendly reminder to all who read this board, just like all things out there these days, don't believe everything you read

[billiken_roy]

1 hour ago, ACE said:

To be clear - it was Richma's replacement as the interim - and that part at least, worked out very well. He wasn't involved with picking his permanent replacement, because he had passed away by then.

even if i believe that rickma truly believed he was only an interim replacement and would be back, i have a problem with you insinuating that rickma would pick his "interim" as a much less qualified fill in.   you think he knew that harriman was a better choice but intentionally subjected his team to the inferior crews?   rickma would have had to be quite the Azz to do something that evil.

[billikenfan05]

41 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

even if i believe that rickma truly believed he was only an interim replacement and would be back, i have a problem with you insinuating that rickma would pick his "interim" as a much less qualified fill in.   you think he knew that harriman was a better choice but intentionally subjected his team to the inferior crews?   rickma would have had to be quite the Azz to do something that evil.

I don't believe Rick picked anyone to be in any role ahead of his death. I think that's what Ace is saying as well.

[billiken_roy]

thats not true, now whether he intended him to be an interim or something more permanent, i dont know, but he did pick him to serve immediately (at minimum the interim) when he was initially sick. 

[GOSLU68]

2 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

let's not forget that crews was rickma's personal choice to take over when rickma got sick.  i.e. a rickma endorsement is not a no-brainer replacement pick.

Majerus like to “save” coaches who were sidelined in the careers, I think. Clearly Crews was not a good restart.