Join A Grassroots Movement for Change of AD and MBB Coach

[TheA_Bomb]

5 minutes ago, SLUMS81 said:

Overly emotional?  Some observers would call it intensity, which is generally considered a good thing.  
   No argument from me that his in -game management is inconsistent at best.  But if being ‘emotional’ helps motivate the players, then so be it.

If you act that way and your team responds and wins it's good. If you act that way and get T'd up and your team is mediocre it's embarrassing.

[Soderball]

21 minutes ago, SLUMS81 said:

Overly emotional?  Some observers would call it intensity, which is generally considered a good thing.  
   No argument from me that his in -game management is inconsistent at best.  But if being ‘emotional’ helps motivate the players, then so be it.

It's part of why we are so bad in the 2nd half and late in games. Ford panicks and it feeds to the players.

I know you're trying to defend him again but Ford is really bottom of the barrel in on-court presence. Dude ate a clipboard.

[TheA_Bomb]

21 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

I would call his cocking his fist at his players to be an overly emotional response bordering into assault but that's just me. 

Ford had a player go into the stands and attack a fan.

[billikenfan05]

6 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Ford had a player go into the stands and attack a fan.

So did Anthony Grant. Poor Jordair Jett.

[Soderball]

6 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

So did Anthony Grant. Poor Jordair Jett.

Anthony Grant nearly attacked a fan. He was out of control.

[CenHudDude]

3 hours ago, Soderball said:

In the past I wouldn't rip the players as brutally as I will now(except for WBAT Brett Jolly.. because... yaknow..)

 

The smart thing to do in coach searching today is to bring in an existing coach and drag his players with him(see Providence, Utah St)

I don't know why we are hung up on keeping coaches 4+ years. Fire these guys and move through them and bring in new coaches with new players regularly, OR let a "bigger" school come and grab them from us and let us go grab some other teams players. The name of the game in modern college MBB is mercenary and wouldn't it be sweet if we were finally keeping up with the modern trends rather than playing a decade behind everyone else? Lazy, out of touch athletic dept and administration IMO. Starting to happen with SLU's academics as well. Be more forward-thinking. Be innovative. Stop being lazy.

 

8 years of CTF is insane.

You can’t bring in an existing coach and drag his players with him if you don’t have nil money to pay those players.

[CenHudDude]

1 hour ago, billikenfan05 said:

I would call his cocking his fist at his players to be an overly emotional response bordering into assault but that's just me. 

Soderball would say that some observers would call that intensity, which is generally considered a good thing.

[billikenfan05]

1 hour ago, CenHudDude said:

Soderball would say that some observers would call that intensity, which is generally considered a good thing.

There are a lot of things about his sideline demeanor that I will happily chalk up to intensity, the cocking of his fist towards players is gross. 

[Soderball]

1 hour ago, CenHudDude said:

You can’t bring in an existing coach and drag his players with him if you don’t have nil money to pay those players.

We do, though.

 

Sorry CenHud, Ford is just trash. Worst expenditure in SLU history. At least Crewsplatt was a lot cheaper.

[CenHudDude]

2 hours ago, Soderball said:

We do, though.

 

Sorry CenHud, Ford is just trash. Worst expenditure in SLU history. At least Crewsplatt was a lot cheaper.

I’m not trying to defend CTF.

[Dr. Holly Hills]

There are many things I do not like about CTF’s sideline demeanor.  His players (past and present) don’t  complain and generally like playing for him so I chalk that up to “tough love”.  All of the other things I dislike about his in-game antics, I would happily look the other way if we were winning more.  But we aren’t winning enough so it all pi$$es me off.

 

 

[gabriel]

Is there any possible way to defend what Ford is doing here?

Going into this year, I was pro ford. I didn’t think he deserved to be fired after last year, clearly regret that thought process now.

Theres no way to spin what has happened this year. We’re 231 in the NET and the laughing stock of the conference. If Fords not fired after this year, then I will never watch another SLU basketball game again.

[TheA_Bomb]

Help me draft a letter to send to Pestello and BoT to achieve the goal of removing May and Ford.

I'm considering asking them to conduct an audit of the Athletic Department and basketball team to arrive at the conclusion that both should be removed. Is that a good strategy or should it just ask them to be fired and state the case?

Key Points

Athletic Department Failures under Director May

1. Ford's contract is out of line with industry standard and a waste

2. Marketing is abysmal

a. Social Media marketing across all platforms is limited and has mostly bad reactions (help me with some crunch on this as I don't do social media for example "SLU tweeted only 5 times in 3 months and 94% of reactions were negative"

b. Marketing is not on par with other A10 Schools and often wrong. See recent tweets with incorrect locations and Conklin not even knowing about his team being honored.

c. lack of fan interaction and efforts to attract new fans/student fans

3. New Billiken Design Roll-Out Failure

4. Compliance failure this season (Ezewiro, Magassa, Zhang)

5. Lack of vision and leadership in changing college landscape (NIL, Conference re-alignment)

Basketball Team Failures under Ford

1. No regular season Conference Championships

2. No wins vs top 25 and losing record vs UD and VCU, No NCAA wins only 1 win in 27 seasons

a. despite best support/facilities in the A10

b. despite National Leader in Assists and a current NBA player

3. Can be fired for cause due to violation of SLU COVID-19 Protocols leading to team illness and underperformance

4. Sideline demeanor is embarrassing technicals, bizarre treatment of players out of line with current accepted behavior

5. Lack of efficient Defense and Offense (need some kenpom or other data to show this if it is true, have we backslided?)

6. Inability to adapt to changing basketball landscape; loss of possible key contributors to transfer, inability to leverage BVF or work effectively with BVF; inability to construct roster

 

If you want to help respond with input on the above or other points you feel should be included. The letter will be more effective if it is factual with data/stats and not emotional. So if you have data please share. Also hit me up with addresses or emails of BoT members (via PM) so I can send them in the mail.

[Slu let the dogs out?]

39 minutes ago, gabriel said:

Is there any possible way to defend what Ford is doing here?

Going into this year, I was pro ford. I didn’t think he deserved to be fired after last year, clearly regret that thought process now.

Theres no way to spin what has happened this year. We’re 231 in the NET and the laughing stock of the conference. If Fords not fired after this year, then I will never watch another SLU basketball game again.

Never again is a bit extreme but I won't bother attending or watching SLU basketball next year if Ford is back. With three kids 5 and under and an older one that always has something going on, my free time is extremely limited at the moment. I'd prefer to spend that time on something that lowers my blood pressure not increases it. I'm sure some on here that have unlimited free time and money to burn won't understand that.

[Soderball]

7 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Help me draft a letter to send to Pestello and BoT to achieve the goal of removing May and Ford.

I'm considering asking them to conduct an audit of the Athletic Department and basketball team to arrive at the conclusion that both should be removed. Is that a good strategy or should it just ask them to be fired and state the case?

Key Points

Athletic Department Failures under Director May

1. Ford's contract is out of line with industry standard and a waste

2. Marketing is abysmal

a. Social Media marketing across all platforms is limited and has mostly bad reactions (help me with some crunch on this as I don't do social media for example "SLU tweeted only 5 times in 3 months and 94% of reactions were negative"

b. Marketing is not on par with other A10 Schools and often wrong. See recent tweets with incorrect locations and Conklin not even knowing about his team being honored.

c. lack of fan interaction and efforts to attract new fans/student fans

3. New Billiken Design Roll-Out Failure

4. Compliance failure this season (Ezewiro, Magassa, Zhang)

5. Lack of vision and leadership in changing college landscape (NIL, Conference re-alignment)

Basketball Team Failures under Ford

1. No regular season Conference Championships

2. No wins vs top 25 and losing record vs UD and VCU, No NCAA wins only 1 win in 27 seasons

a. despite best support/facilities in the A10

b. despite National Leader in Assists and a current NBA player

3. Can be fired for cause due to violation of SLU COVID-19 Protocols leading to team illness and underperformance

4. Sideline demeanor is embarrassing technicals, bizarre treatment of players out of line with current accepted behavior

5. Lack of efficient Defense and Offense (need some kenpom or other data to show this if it is true, have we backslided?)

6. Inability to adapt to changing basketball landscape; loss of possible key contributors to transfer, inability to leverage BVF or work effectively with BVF; inability to construct roster

 

If you want to help respond with input on the above or other points you feel should be included. The letter will be more effective if it is factual with data/stats and not emotional. So if you have data please share. Also hit me up with addresses or emails of BoT members (via PM) so I can send them in the mail.

 

Should definitely discuss the declining quality of the A10 and how the SLU falling off a cliff is helping that. While we weren't horrible last year teams with 70-90 NET are not helping to become and remain a multi-bid-conference. We are suffering financially due to the lack of NCAA credit payouts; while paying a coach 2.4 million to coach. He is paid in no small part to keep that revenue stream coming to pay his own salary.

Do we have the off-season quotes Ford made about NIL? It showed a coach very frustrated with the system. We whiffed on our first-choices in recruiting(Brock Vice, Dandridge) .. it's a big part of why we recruited the guys we have, because the ones we actually wanted did not come. For all my despisal of CTF, we are not this level of suck if Vice & Dandridge were suited up. Not even close.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

21 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

3. New Billiken Design Roll-Out Failure

I was a sophomore when they did this and I still remember the gasps and silence when they revealed the new logo and Billiken.

[majerus mojo]

3 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

I was a sophomore when they did this and I still remember the gasps and silence when they revealed the new logo and Billiken.

It was pretty cool to be on PTI though. “It looks like a demonic frog.” 
 

[Slu let the dogs out?]

2 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

I was a sophomore when they did this and I still remember the gasps and silence when they revealed the new logo and Billiken.

and the small children, gripped with fear, crying out for help

[billiken_roy]

58 minutes ago, gabriel said:

Is there any possible way to defend what Ford is doing here?

Going into this year, I was pro ford. I didn’t think he deserved to be fired after last year, clearly regret that thought process now.

Theres no way to spin what has happened this year. We’re 231 in the NET and the laughing stock of the conference. If Fords not fired after this year, then I will never watch another SLU basketball game again.

i understand the board's negative feelings.   Trust me, i am very unhappy as well.  I was saying after his first year at SLU he was a terrible floor coach, practice coach and talent developer.   But I defended him solely on his recruiting ability.   He has consistently had more talent on his teams from an overall viewpoint than any Billiken coach in my fandom in my opinion however his overall coaching abilities never maximized what talent we had.  

So why is this roster all at once so lacking in talent compared to years past?   Simply because the recruiting angle has died.  It is all about the  money now and the warm and fuzzy "make them want to be here" approach he has been successful with over his entire career to bring in players, is all but gone now.   The players want to get paid and if SLU doesnt some other program will. 

Therefore, Ford is worthless now in my opinion.   However, while I havent see it, the very likely rumor is he has quite the contract that will be very expensive to buyout.   It will involve him working off his contract for a few years before it will be possible to get rid of him unless one of the whales steps forward and pays.  Then keep in mind, there is the matter of the replacement coach.   How much will that cost?  What length of time will that commit be?  What's the point if SLU wont go all in with the portal and the the paying of our players?

So if you consider, SLU apparently wasnt going to play in the bigtime aspect of NiL, so what crumbs we got have definitely not panned out to compete.   We also believe that he didnt get fired this past spring because the buyout was prohibitive.   With those two financial near certain aspects in mind, what makes any of you think anything is going to happen soon?   Oh slu has the means, a multi-billion dollar unrestricted endowment fund is just sitting there and never used.  But apparently SLU needs that for flash and bragging rights.  So get that out of our heads.  We are screwed for the near future.   I have started to believe we arent even a D1 program with the new circumstances.  I doubt i would become a rabid D3 fan like I am nowwith the Billikens, but as long as the powers to be at SLU continue to ignore our wants, there isnt much us common folk can do and all the complaining and threats, etc, arent going to help.   in all liklihood, only total ekkertime absense and caring will make them even consider anything drastic compared to where we are now. 

i'd suggest finding another passion.    

[billikenfan05]

18 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

I was a sophomore when they did this and I still remember the gasps and silence when they revealed the new logo and Billiken.

The logo is actually not bad, I’ll defend it. The mascot is what happens when you let one person run wild with no oversight. 

[billikenfan05]

10 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i understand the board's negative feelings.   Trust me, i am very unhappy as well.  I was saying after his first year at SLU he was a terrible floor coach, practice coach and talent developer.   But I defended him solely on his recruiting ability.   He has consistently had more talent on his teams from an overall viewpoint than any Billiken coach in my fandom in my opinion however his overall coaching abilities never maximized what talent we had.  

So why is this roster all at once so lacking in talent compared to years past?   Simply because the recruiting angle has died.  It is all about the  money now and the warm and fuzzy "make them want to be here" approach he has been successful with over his entire career to bring in players, is all but gone now.   The players want to get paid and if SLU doesnt some other program will. 

Therefore, Ford is worthless now in my opinion.   However, while I havent see it, the very likely rumor is he has quite the contract that will be very expensive to buyout.   It will involve him working off his contract for a few years before it will be possible to get rid of him unless one of the whales steps forward and pays.  Then keep in mind, there is the matter of the replacement coach.   How much will that cost?  What length of time will that commit be?  What's the point if SLU wont go all in with the portal and the the paying of our players?

So if you consider, SLU apparently wasnt going to play in the bigtime aspect of NiL, so what crumbs we got have definitely not panned out to compete.   We also believe that he didnt get fired this past spring because the buyout was prohibitive.   With those two financial near certain aspects in mind, what makes any of you think anything is going to happen soon?   Oh slu has the means, a multi-billion dollar unrestricted endowment fund is just sitting there and never used.  But apparently SLU needs that for flash and bragging rights.  So get that out of our heads.  We are screwed for the near future.   I have started to believe we arent even a D1 program with the new circumstances.  I doubt i would become a rabid D3 fan like I am nowwith the Billikens, but as long as the powers to be at SLU continue to ignore our wants, there isnt much us common folk can do and all the complaining and threats, etc, arent going to help.   in all liklihood, only total ekkertime absense and caring will make them even consider anything drastic compared to where we are now. 

i'd suggest finding another passion.    

Is Travis Ford’s salary paid by SLU from gross income or is it paid via donations to the AD? If it’s the latter and people are willing to spend 2.5 million per year on a coach, we absolutely have a wealth of NIL money if you hire a coach at 1, 1.5 or even 2 million per year. I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again, that if I was Travis Ford and my salary came from donations I would have asked to renegotiate my contract to 1.5 or 2 million with the understanding that those who put up the money for my salary instead donate to the BVF. 
 

more directly to your post this is the sunk cost fallacy. You do understand that you’re paying Ford his full contract regardless. If you don’t cut bait after this year you’re wasting precious time you could be spending with your family actually enjoy going to Billiken games. 

[billiken_roy]

10 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Is Travis Ford’s salary paid by SLU from gross income or is it paid via donations to the AD? If it’s the latter and people are willing to spend 2.5 million per year on a coach, we absolutely have a wealth of NIL money if you hire a coach at 1, 1.5 or even 2 million per year. I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again, that if I was Travis Ford and my salary came from donations I would have asked to renegotiate my contract to 1.5 or 2 million with the understanding that those who put up the money for my salary instead donate to the BVF. 
 

more directly to your post this is the sunk cost fallacy. You do understand that you’re paying Ford his full contract regardless. If you don’t cut bait after this year you’re wasting precious time you could be spending with your family actually enjoy going to Billiken games. 

im fairly certain billikenswin isnt going to answer your questions or comment.

[billikenfan05]

2 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

im fairly certain billikenswin isnt going to answer your questions or comment.

Didn’t ask him. 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

35 minutes ago, majerus mojo said:

It was pretty cool to be on PTI though. “It looks like a demonic frog.” 
 

The Two-Face comparisons were pretty good, too

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

18 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

The logo is actually not bad, I’ll defend it. The mascot is what happens when you let one person run wild with no oversight. 

It's too pointy, I miss the soft edge Billiken I grew up with on my Boomer dad's sweatshirts