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Chris Harriman - Returns to SLU as Assistant Coach


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3 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

you wouldnt.   but i was promised i would love this hire.   i would have loved larry hughes.   and the poster asked who i would love as the hire.   i was just answering the question and explaining my unenthused reaction.   again, i dont hate the hire, i just think we could have probably did better.   

imo rickma's success had little to do with his assistants.   he was a one man show imo he used the assistants for less than what most coaching staffs would.   the track record of rickma assistants is less than spectacular.  

While I know it's done I think coaching your own kid is a bad idea. I also don't think Ford listens to anyone when it comes to x and o 's  Cody and Rob were 2 of the best billiken big men in recent memory. All we hear is our lack of a stretch 4. If he can bring anyone near their talent it is a good if not great hire.   

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2 minutes ago, willie said:

While I know it's done I think coaching your own kid is a bad idea. I also don't think Ford listens to anyone when it comes to x and o 's  Cody and Rob were 2 of the best billiken big men in recent memory. All we hear is our lack of a stretch 4. If he can bring anyone near their talent it is a good if not great hire.   

ellis and loe are argualbly his only two excellent recruits in his entire american career.   

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If Harriman can bring in Kuany with him that's great.  Plus maybe international recruits are an NIL cheat code.  So let's see how this goes. 

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1 hour ago, Box and Won said:

This is fine, I guess.  Last year totally broke me, so I'm having a hard time getting too excited about anything surrounding the program these days.

-I'm not sure if I am 'totally broke' but I will muster all of the discipline I can to not again fall victim to the hype from any source so I think we are in the same neighborhood

1 hour ago, willie said:

While I know it's done I think coaching your own kid is a bad idea. I also don't think Ford listens to anyone when it comes to x and o 's  Cody and Rob were 2 of the best billiken big men in recent memory. All we hear is our lack of a stretch 4. If he can bring anyone near their talent it is a good if not great hire.   

-you're not supposed to say that

-Welcome back Coach Harry, I hope you have a very successful return and stay 

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1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

you wouldnt.   but i was promised i would love this hire.   i would have loved larry hughes.   and the poster asked who i would love as the hire.   i was just answering the question and explaining my unenthused reaction.   again, i dont hate the hire, i just think we could have probably did better.   

imo rickma's success had little to do with his assistants.   he was a one man show imo he used the assistants for less than what most coaching staffs would.   the track record of rickma assistants is less than spectacular.  

I don't think that Majerus gets Ellis or Loe without Harriman.  So, I don't know that I would say his success had little to do with his assistants.  He relied on Harriman to recruit kids from that part of the world to SLU.  It's hard to get kids to come to the US at all from Australia and New Zealand.  It's harder to get them to come to the Midwest.  Harriman did that with Ellis and Loe.  I'm not sure Majerus would have known who they were if not for Harriman.

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1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

ellis and loe are argualbly his only two excellent recruits in his entire american career.   

Harriman was here from 2008 to 2012.  If he gets us a Loe and an Ellis every 4 to 5 years, that would be just fine by me.

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10 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Seriously though, what are we doing? Why do we continue to discuss Harriman's recruiting credentials. Has Ford's problem here ever been acquiring talent? 

I really don’t want to go here because I do think he’s a pretty good recruiter but we’re not talking coach Cal.  With the possible exception of French he has not gotten that shot blocking rim protector that everyone seems to have. So yes he can use some help. 

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2 hours ago, willie said:

I really don’t want to go here because I do think he’s a pretty good recruiter but we’re not talking coach Cal.  With the possible exception of French he has not gotten that shot blocking rim protector that everyone seems to have. So yes he can use some help. 

You make a good point, however my point was moreso that of Ford's individual head coaching strengths, it's pretty much a consensus that his recruiting ability is what he's hung his hat on. Whereas the biggest knock on him is his in game coaching. Ford brings in Chris Harriman with a really long career as an assistant, a guy we know can handle himself in the head coaching position in game and we've got people critiquing Harry because he's not a big time recruiter.

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2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

Seriously though, what are we doing? Why do we continue to discuss Harriman's recruiting credentials. Has Ford's problem here ever been acquiring talent? 

I dont think you ever have enough recruiting connections. We have had some trouble  recruiting specific needs. We desperately needed an additional ball hander and a 4 last year and didn't get them. 

We are in a position now where we only have one proven starter, no experienced div I post players and we are lite in experienced ball handers. 

Before we worry about Xs and Os, we have to have players. If we don't land experienced players, everything we run will be basic.

 

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From my perspective it gives us a re-connection to the Majerus Era, which was a golden age of our Billiken Fandom, along with the Spoon years.  I will definitely give this hire the benefit of the doubt.

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37 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

But I think it's a step outside the typical Ford path. And that was needed. Credit to Ford and all involved. 

 

Do you think Ford had any choice in this decision?

First of all, I liked Chris Harriman a lot and was sorry to see him leave a decade ago. Hope all is well with his son. I  think things may have turned out differently if he stuck around when Rick passed.

Question: what you expect Chris to do other than hopefully bring in some top-shelve overseas recruits?  Those that think of us to be the next St Mary's, I don't think so. The problem in the past was not our talent. It was coaching, game planning and player development.

Too bad retired Bob Mckillop not available. He owned Ford.

 

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11 minutes ago, MusicCityBilliken said:

Do you think Ford had any choice in this decision?

First of all, I liked Chris Harriman a lot and was sorry to see him leave a decade ago. Hope all is well with his son. I  think things may have turned out differently if he stuck around when Rick passed.

Question: what you expect Chris to do other than hopefully bring in some top-shelve overseas recruits?  Those that think of us to be the next St Mary's, I don't think so. The problem in the past was not our talent. It was coaching, game planning and player development.

Too bad retired Bob Mckillop not available. He owned Ford.

 

I disagree.  Talent level was a big problem last year; especially with loss of Thatch and Perkins being a shell of his old self. Also had too many wings, no power or stretch forward and no backup PG.  SURE, had some talent but lacked talent in key areas.

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1 minute ago, WVBilliken said:

I disagree.  Talent level was a big problem last year; especially with loss of Thatch and Perkins being a shell of his old self.

I am talking about all of Ford's 7 years. Other than one late run to the NCAA's which lead to VaTech blow-out, all the years have been mediocre at best.

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He’s an assistant coach. One we’ve heard of and are familiar with but that doesn’t tell us much. 
 

The most important part of an assistant coach is how well the assistant and head coach work together.

It doesn’t matter if he was awesome with Majerus or terrible with Cal the only thing that matters is how well he works with Ford.

He obviously knows ball but is he comfortable bringing ideas to Ford? Will Ford listen to him? Can he be a bridge between the players and Ford? 
 

What he has done with former coaches won’t tell us that. We will figure that out around January. 
 

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9 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

I just really don't understand the focus on his recruiting. We've spent the entire Travis Ford era yearning for a veteran coach with a fresh perspective on in-game coaching, see Giacoletti and here we are once again obsessing over what recruits he can bring in. 

This guy is exactly what we need. He has head coaching experience. He’s been an associate head coach. He will improve our in-game coaching significantly. He’s highly thought of in the industry. As far as recruiting, he brought Low and Ellis here. Enough said. 

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7 hours ago, WVBilliken said:

I disagree.  Talent level was a big problem last year; especially with loss of Thatch and Perkins being a shell of his old self. Also had too many wings, no power or stretch forward and no backup PG.  SURE, had some talent but lacked talent in key areas.

Talent wasn't the problem, roster building was the problem. We had all the basketball talent you could ever want at this level. They just couldn't play on the defensive side of the ball.

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