2024 SLU Men's Basketball Head Coaching Search

[billikenfan05]

5 minutes ago, slu92 said:

I think it all comes down to who a coach hires for their staff. If they let their egos get in the way and surround themselves with yes men, bad results will typically follow. I know with Stackhouse some of his hires were questionable at the time. Adds up. Honestly whether it’s Indiana State guy or Northwest guy, all a crap shoot, esp at SLU. 

This sounds like the same sh*t we were talking about when Ford was hired. Let me refresh everyone:

Alright, Travis Ford we can get some good Croots now! He just needs to hire one or two X's and O's assistants....

8 Years Later:

Life comes at you fast. 

[Bilzz]

Take with a grain of salt, but I did talk to a local sports reporter with ties to boosters about the coaching search. Haven't read the whole thread so excuse me if some of this is already posted. Ford is a goner. SLU has reached out to Weber, Ahearn, DeVries, & Schertz. Weber wants the job badly and is pushing for it. SLU also reached out to Sprinkle, but he wasn't interested. Doesn't think Mack/Wade/Holtmann/Moser have much legs to them. All will probably take P5 jobs. 

I'm not an "insider" by any means, just have a pre-existing relationship with the reporter and we talk on occasion. He gives me stuff he hears, but can't report.

[Box and Won]

Just now, Bilzz said:

Weber wants the job badly and is pushing for it.

Noooooooooooooooo

[slu92]

1 minute ago, Bilzz said:

Take with a grain of salt, but I did talk to a local sports reporter with ties to boosters about the coaching search. Haven't read the whole thread so excuse me if some of this is already posted. Ford is a goner. SLU has reached out to Weber, Ahearn, DeVries, & Schertz. Weber wants the job badly and is pushing for it. SLU also reached out to Sprinkle, but he wasn't interested. Doesn't think Mack/Wade/Holtmann/Moser have much legs to them. All will probably take P5 jobs. 

I'm not an "insider" by any means, just have a pre-existing relationship with the reporter and we talk on occasion. He gives me stuff he hears, but can't report.

Bruce Weber is a weird bird. No thanks! 

[johnbj14]

4 minutes ago, Bilzz said:

Take with a grain of salt, but I did talk to a local sports reporter with ties to boosters about the coaching search. Haven't read the whole thread so excuse me if some of this is already posted. Ford is a goner. SLU has reached out to Weber, Ahearn, DeVries, & Schertz. Weber wants the job badly and is pushing for it. SLU also reached out to Sprinkle, but he wasn't interested. Doesn't think Mack/Wade/Holtmann/Moser have much legs to them. All will probably take P5 jobs. 

I'm not an "insider" by any means, just have a pre-existing relationship with the reporter and we talk on occasion. He gives me stuff he hears, but can't report.

If I were Bruce Weber, I’d also like a job badly where I could be generously paid for being mediocre at my job. Pretty sweet semi-retirement gig. 

[slufan13]

I do fear that SLU dug themselves a little too deep of a hole by hanging onto Ford too long and bottoming out while the NCAA continues to evolve (or dissolve) and non power conference schools risk becoming totally irrelevant. 

I don't think that ^ is fully going to be the case, but I do think we're going to be a less attractive job than we would have been a year ago. 

[Bilzz]

1 minute ago, johnbj14 said:

If I were Bruce Weber, I’d also like a job badly where I could be generously paid for being mediocre at my job. Pretty sweet semi-retirement gig. 

Yeah. I really don't like the idea of Weber. My #1 criteria for a hire would be success in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. We need someone who understands how to be successful in the NIL and transfer portal landscape.

[Pistol]

5 minutes ago, Bilzz said:

Take with a grain of salt, but I did talk to a local sports reporter with ties to boosters about the coaching search. Haven't read the whole thread so excuse me if some of this is already posted. Ford is a goner. SLU has reached out to Weber, Ahearn, DeVries, & Schertz. Weber wants the job badly and is pushing for it. SLU also reached out to Sprinkle, but he wasn't interested. Doesn't think Mack/Wade/Holtmann/Moser have much legs to them. All will probably take P5 jobs. 

I'm not an "insider" by any means, just have a pre-existing relationship with the reporter and we talk on occasion. He gives me stuff he hears, but can't report.

Sounds like Frank. There's the retired guy lobbying his local sports journo buddies, there's a De Smet grad, and there are two actually very intriguing choices there. He also thinks the bigger names are out of reach completely. And maybe they are but there are enough small-time hints here to make me think it's Cusumano.

Although publicly he's still gonna make excuses for Ford.

[johnbj14]

1 minute ago, Pistol said:

Sounds like Frank. There's the retired guy lobbying his local sports journo buddies, there's a De Smet grad, and there are two actually very intriguing choices there. He also thinks the bigger names are out of reach completely. And maybe they are but there are enough small-time hints here to make me think it's Cusumano.

Although publicly he's still gonna make excuses for Ford.

Access journalism at its finest! If SLU is going to oust his buddy who gives him 100% access, you can bet he’s going to want a guy in there who has just as close of a relationship with. 

[slufan13]

One thing for me in the coaching search is that I would like to get rid of the mentality that we need to hire a guy who is never going to want to leave for a bigger job. If the next coach we hire leaves SLU for a Big 10 job in 3 years, I will be pretty happy with the success it means we had. 

[Pistol]

Just now, johnbj14 said:

Access journalism at its finest! If SLU is going to oust his buddy who gives him 100% access, you can bet he’s going to want a guy in there who has just as close of a relationship with. 

One of the Bens mentioned him a week or two ago and my eyes just about rolled out of the back of my head.

Bruce Weber has the profile of the opposite kind of coach SLU should hire.

[Bilzz]

3 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Sounds like Frank. There's the retired guy lobbying his local sports journo buddies, there's a De Smet grad, and there are two actually very intriguing choices there. He also thinks the bigger names are out of reach completely. And maybe they are but there are enough small-time hints here to make me think it's Cusumano.

Although publicly he's still gonna make excuses for Ford.

[Pistol]

1 minute ago, slufan13 said:

One thing for me in the coaching search is that I would like to get rid of the mentality that we need to hire a guy who is never going to want to leave for a bigger job. If the next coach we hire leaves SLU for a Big 10 job in 3 years, I will be pretty happy with the success it means we had. 

@billikenfan05 made this point on our shared MMP Twitter account a few weeks ago and it got as many likes and retweets as anything we've ever posted. Don't be afraid to be a stepping stone - it's the sign of a healthy program at a certain level. It means the rest of the fundamentals behind your program are good, that you can sustain success even after coaches move on. It means coaches are consistently outperforming expectations. Guys get hired away after Tournament success, which is what we want more than anything. You're never on the hook for buyouts, either.

If the next several coaches leave for bigger programs, it means we're doing better than we've ever done for an extended period of time.

[billikenfan05]

2 minutes ago, Bilzz said:

If it’s Frank, sounds like his inside sources are his own brain(Ahearn and Weber)

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

1 minute ago, billikenfan05 said:

If it’s Frank, sounds like his inside sources are his own brain(Ahearn and Weber)

I hate dogging on Frank because he's always nice to my dad and knows him as an acquaintance, but damn wanting someone just for media access is so stupid, lol.

[Pistol]

St. Louis is a metro area of 2.8 million people and our sports writers act like we're a town of 2,800 people. "He lives right here! Isn't that neat?!" "He went to high school here! He can probably recruit other kids who go to high school here!" "We already know them! They're our pals!" We're so afraid of being big-time.

[billikenfan05]

1 minute ago, Pistol said:

St. Louis is a metro area of 2.8 million people and our sports writers act like we're a town of 2,800 people. "He lives right here! Isn't that neat?!" "He went to high school here! He can probably recruit other kids who go to high school here!" "We already know them! They're our pals!" We're so afraid of being big-time.

Imagine Twitter during the 1956 presidential election:

 

Frank Cusumano: hearing names for presidential nomination include former Austrian Fascist Dictator Kurt Schuschnigg who lives right here in Kirkwood! 

[slufan13]

I don't hate Ahearn. He's outside of my top 5 candidates for sure but he's well ahead of some guys that I could see us looking at such as Crean, Weber, etc. 

[AGB91]

VCU has done pretty well being a "stepping stone" job.

I would take their success in a minute.

[Pistol]

3 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Imagine Twitter during the 1956 presidential election:

Frank Cusumano: hearing names for presidential nomination include former Austrian Fascist Dictator Kurt Schuschnigg who lives right here in Kirkwood! 

Executive leadership experience in the top division. Stood up to Hitler. Checks a lot of boxes.

[slufan13]

12 minutes ago, Pistol said:

@billikenfan05 made this point on our shared MMP Twitter account a few weeks ago and it got as many likes and retweets as anything we've ever posted. Don't be afraid to be a stepping stone - it's the sign of a healthy program at a certain level. It means the rest of the fundamentals behind your program are good, that you can sustain success even after coaches move on. It means coaches are consistently outperforming expectations. Guys get hired away after Tournament success, which is what we want more than anything. You're never on the hook for buyouts, either.

If the next several coaches leave for bigger programs, it means we're doing better than we've ever done for an extended period of time.

If 05 thinks it's a good idea I have to reconsider now. 

[billikenfan05]

10 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

If 05 thinks it's a good idea I have to reconsider now. 

That’s fair.

[billiken_roy]

55 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

This sounds like the same sh*t we were talking about when Ford was hired. Let me refresh everyone:

Alright, Travis Ford we can get some good Croots now! He just needs to hire one or two X's and O's assistants....

8 Years Later:

Life comes at you fast. 

that never happened.   he surrounded himself year after year with recruiters.  ford was/is obviously so arrogant he thought/thinks he is a good floor/practice coach that can develop players.  

[billikenfan05]

Just now, billiken_roy said:

that never happened.   he surrounded himself year after year with recruiters.  ford was/is obviously so arrogant he thought/thinks he is a good floor/practice coach that can develop players.  

That was my point, roy. 

Many of us here, including myself posted the hope and expectation that he would surround himself with assistants who complimented his recruiting abilities and with Xs and Os ability. 

[3star_recruit]

50 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

One thing for me in the coaching search is that I would like to get rid of the mentality that we need to hire a guy who is never going to want to leave for a bigger job. If the next coach we hire leaves SLU for a Big 10 job in 3 years, I will be pretty happy with the success it means we had. 

Other than one of us striking the lottery and taking over the Board of Trustees, I'm not sure how you get rid of the mentality.  Nothing I've read on any of these threads convinces me that they will ever do business differently.