Ford Interview with Kilcoyne

[wgstl]

Plus we have to over-pay players just so they turn an eye on the fact that a Ford team does not play in March.  

 

Ford needs twice the NIL budget of a solid coach to get to the tourney. 

[Pistol]

To be clear, I don't think Ford is staying. I don't see how SLU can retain him or May.

Ford has lost the program and needs a total reset in year nine, and hasn't shown that he can actually accomplish that. As shown above, there's noting to point to as a plan in place, either.

May can't be the AD to make the next hire. He's 0/2 so far and sounds increasingly out of touch every time we hear from him. He's lost control of his athletic program. He knew how to take care of his one-percenters and got a shiny new building out of them and he has ignored the rest of the fan base in the process. And now his disastrous contract extension for Ford has fractured his beloved blueblood donors as he bid against no one and threw away their money. His (micro)management style has created a climate of dysfunction and distrust among staffers. He preaches gratitude toward the student-athletes that get treated poorly because of his decision making.

If either of these guys are still around next season, it will be a disaster. The program can't afford to keep bleeding season ticket holders and casual fan interest. The buyouts are expensive but the downside to keeping them is worse. They have to go.

[Aquinas]

I believe  Coach Ford's plan for this season was premised on winning a championship last season. Then reloading on that

success in the portal and maybe one or 2 good freshman.  When last season's team fizzled, Ford was stuck selling only the success of Goodwin in the NBA  and taking Yuri to national prominence. That wasn't and isn't enough to draw quick fix players. 

Now instead of coming off of a very disappointing season, we will be coming  off of a disastrous season. It will take a LOT of NIL money to attract recruits to play for Ford. Its true that players want money, but they also want to dance.

[slufan13]

Ford has failed at the following:

- General recruiting

- Transfer portal

- Talent evaluation

- Roster construction

- In game coaching/adjustments

- Talent development outside of a few players

 

Ford has succeeded at the following:

- Elevating facilities

- Creating relationships within St Louis

- Hyping the program

 

If you asked me to rank those 9 items, I would rank the 3 he's succeeded at as the 3 least important.

[Pistol]

1 minute ago, Aquinas said:

I believe  Coach Ford's plan for this season was premised on winning a championship last season. Then reloading on that success in the portal and maybe one or 2 good freshman.  When last season's team fizzled, Ford was stuck selling only the success of Goodwin in the NBA  and taking Yuri to national prominence. That wasn't and isn't enough to draw quick fix players. 

Now instead of coming off of a very disappointing season, we will be coming  off of a disastrous season. It will take a LOT of NIL money to attract recruits to play for Ford. Its true that players want money, but they also want to dance.

Right, I think they were counting on being as good as advertised last season, and everything from scheduling to recruiting going forward depended on that outcome, which didn't materialize.

Even if we had the highest NIL budget in CBB, we would be disappointed in the results. If you gave the roster of UConn or UNC or Kansas or Purdue to Ford, he would give you a bubble team.

[thatskablamo]

25 minutes ago, ACE said:

I think you're giving Forte too much credit - I never liked the Forte hire in the first place. It seemed like he was destined to try to get back into his natural recruiting area (Oklahoma/Texas) the first chance he got. SLU recruiting Texas because of Forte never made sense and always seemed like a temporary strategy. All of our recruiting down there felt like Forte auditioning for his next job.  Ford's loyalty to Forte was a big mistake. In fact, I would make the argument that the hiring of Forte in the first place was a sign that things were heading in the wrong direction.

I like your take on this. Maybe I did give him too much credit, but a lot of good employees cut bait on a bad manager. That bad manager was Phil Forte’s former college coach. That’s kind of eye opening, but what opens my eyes may not open the eyes of others and that’s fine, too! 

[DOC]

21 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

My biggest beef with Ford going into this season was basically that he was overpaid for the results he was getting.  He'd arguably been a more successful coach compared to others (excluding Spoon & Majerus) at SLU historically.  It was just that we were paying him the highest salary in the A10 for upper-middle of the A10 results.

This would never happen, but...If you told me going into the year that Ford had 4 year / $10 million left on his deal, it was going to be renegotiated to a 10 year / $10 million deal with the annual savings funneled to NIL via boosters.  I'd think that was great & give Ford a few years of runway to see how it works.

Now - this season has been a total dumpster fire & I'm not sure any level of pay cut with extra going to NIL would make me okay with keeping Ford.

I agree. Time to move on. I was speaking as if I were Ford offering up my plan. 

[slufan13]

If I'm Ford and May came up to me and said "why should we keep you around next year?" I'm not even sure how I would answer. There's a decent chance my answer is 13 new players. I know Parker is on a heater lately but his play on the other end of the court is a good part of the reason we are giving up 90 a game. 

[wgstl]

5 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

If I'm Ford and May came up to me and said "why should we keep you around next year?" I'm not even sure how I would answer. There's a decent chance my answer is 13 new players. I know Parker is on a heater lately but his play on the other end of the court is a good part of the reason we are giving up 90 a game. 

But Parker on the 2019 would be cool 

[Pistol]

4 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

If I'm Ford and May came up to me and said "why should we keep you around next year?" I'm not even sure how I would answer. There's a decent chance my answer is 13 new players. I know Parker is on a heater lately but his play on the other end of the court is a good part of the reason we are giving up 90 a game. 

"I'll give you ten million reasons why, Chris. I own you. If I go down, you're coming with me, and you know it."

[Cowboy II]

32 minutes ago, Pistol said:

"I'll give you ten million reasons why, Chris. I own you. If I go down, you're coming with me, and you know it."

-maybe this is The Plan

-but I doubt it as why should I believe a light magically got turned on a few weeks ago

[Crewsorlose]

1 hour ago, Pistol said:

Right, I think they were counting on being as good as advertised last season, and everything from scheduling to recruiting going forward depended on that outcome, which didn't materialize.

Even if we had the highest NIL budget in CBB, we would be disappointed in the results. If you gave the roster of UConn or UNC or Kansas or Purdue to Ford, he would give you a bubble team.

To me one of the most glaring failures was in securing Yuri's replacement. Ford could sell that he developed Yuri from a mid-major prospect into a borderline All-American, all within the context of very competitive teams with deep backcourts. 

I'll admit, I was excited about Medley coming from a great team and stepping into those shoes. Medley is at best a nice role player who's nowhere close to being Yuri-level in Yuri's freshman year. But if that's your frosh, then at least get a legit post-grad who can take over an older team with real shooting and scoring: Ezewiro, Parker, TJ, Jimerson. But Ford got us... Meadows? 

Nothing was a secret here. Heck, Yuri almost left after 2022. And this was the best that Ford could do with an absolute bullseye on this position. Yuri did everything for us 2022/23. You see what Jimerson is without him. TJ gets no lobs. 

To me, the three guys worth keeping are Parker, Ezewiro (assuming he stays eligible) and Thames. Hughes is obviously a nice role player but really struggles in a decision-making role on offense. But I don't know how Ford fills the other 9 scholarships. Does Zhang even want to stay around when his PT is yanked around during a rebuilding year? Do we have someone who can develop bigs in the way that Rob Loe and Cory Remukin were developed? 

[slu92]

1 hour ago, Pistol said:

To be clear, I don't think Ford is staying. I don't see how SLU can retain him or May.

Ford has lost the program and needs a total reset in year nine, and hasn't shown that he can actually accomplish that. As shown above, there's noting to point to as a plan in place, either.

May can't be the AD to make the next hire. He's 0/2 so far and sounds increasingly out of touch every time we hear from him. He's lost control of his athletic program. He knew how to take care of his one-percenters and got a shiny new building out of them and he has ignored the rest of the fan base in the process. And now his disastrous contract extension for Ford has fractured his beloved blueblood donors as he bid against no one and threw away their money. His (micro)management style has created a climate of dysfunction and distrust among staffers. He preaches gratitude toward the student-athletes that get treated poorly because of his decision making.

If either of these guys are still around next season, it will be a disaster. The program can't afford to keep bleeding season ticket holders and casual fan interest. The buyouts are expensive but the downside to keeping them is worse. They have to go.

As well written as anything ever posted on this board about current situation. If you think Chris May hasn’t tried to leave slu for another AD job over last 15 years, you are nuts. Nobody else wants the guy. His beloved Colorado opened up several times and  I heard he didn’t even get a courtesy call. Add in Oberle, who as one staff member describes, she’s like Mommy Dearest behind closed doors. Both these people are fakes and bad at running this department. For years I’ve watched these two pal around and be the “faces” of slu athletics and just laughed. They look like The Munsters in cheap clothing. If Fred doesn’t clean house he’s a bigger problem. 100% Ford needs to go after that interview, I genuinely think he’s either delusional or profoundly stupid. It’s one or the other. Whole place is literally a joke and all should be fired now so that we can get a jump start on fixing this multi-million dollar dumpster fire! This isn’t some cyc rec operation. Hope Fred treats it right and soon!

[thatskablamo]

9 minutes ago, slu92 said:

As well written as anything ever posted on this board about current situation. If you think Chris May hasn’t tried to leave slu for another AD job over last 15 years, you are nuts. Nobody else wants the guy. His beloved Colorado opened up several times and  I heard he didn’t even get a courtesy call. Add in Oberle, who as one staff member describes, she’s like Mommy Dearest behind closed doors. Both these people are fakes and bad at running this department. For years I’ve watched these two pal around and be the “faces” of slu athletics and just laughed. They look like The Munsters in cheap clothing. If Fred doesn’t clean house he’s a bigger problem. 100% Ford needs to go after that interview, I genuinely think he’s either delusional or profoundly stupid. It’s one or the other. Whole place is literally a joke and all should be fired now so that we can get a jump start on fixing this multi-million dollar dumpster fire! This isn’t some cyc rec operation. Hope Fred treats it right and soon!

The BoT needs to clean the house that Fred currently resides in, too. The changing of the guard needs to start in DuBourg Hall. 

[Pistol]

5 minutes ago, Crewsorlose said:

To me one of the most glaring failures was in securing Yuri's replacement. Ford could sell that he developed Yuri from a mid-major prospect into a borderline All-American, all within the context of very competitive teams with deep backcourts. 

I'll admit, I was excited about Medley coming from a great team and stepping into those shoes. Medley is at best a nice role player who's nowhere close to being Yuri-level in Yuri's freshman year. But if that's your frosh, then at least get a legit post-grad who can take over an older team with real shooting and scoring: Ezewiro, Parker, TJ, Jimerson. But Ford got us... Meadows? 

Nothing was a secret here. Heck, Yuri almost left after 2022. And this was the best that Ford could do with an absolute bullseye on this position. Yuri did everything for us 2022/23. You see what Jimerson is without him. TJ gets no lobs. 

To me, the three guys worth keeping are Parker, Ezewiro (assuming he stays eligible) and Thames. Hughes is obviously a nice role player but really struggles in a decision-making role on offense. But I don't know how Ford fills the other 9 scholarships. Does Zhang even want to stay around when his PT is yanked around during a rebuilding year? Do we have someone who can develop bigs in the way that Rob Loe and Cory Remukin were developed? 

Collins made up for major deficiencies within our offensive scheme (or lack thereof). A lot of us thought he overdribbled and the offense got bogged down because the ball spent too much time in his hands. This is at least partially true but it's not because of Collins - it's because Collins was expected to improvise within a very loose offense. When you lose a guy with his vision, passing ability, and ball handling, you have to replace him with a similar player or you're asking guys who don't have his skill set to do what he did. We're dealing with the latter.

Medley is a freshman, Hughes is not a PG, and Meadows is done for the season. We knew PG was going to be a problem, but we also assumed the offense would look different and compensate for the fact that we need the ball to spend a lot less time in the PG's hands. We thought that might involve trying to get more in transition, for example. Nope. We still play slow, run that little weave, and hope that something opens up. Not good enough. Luckily, we have good three-point shooting (although attempts remain too low) and a guy like Parker making up for other offensive shortcomings lately.

I always come back to the defense, though. Collins was a good defender. We don't have any good defenders left.

[willie]

3 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Collins made up for major deficiencies within our offensive scheme (or lack thereof). A lot of us thought he overdribbled and the offense got bogged down because the ball spent too much time in his hands. This is at least partially true but it's not because of Collins - it's because Collins was expected to improvise within a very loose offense. When you lose a guy with his vision, passing ability, and ball handling, you have to replace him with a similar player or you're asking guys who don't have his skill set to do what he did. We're dealing with the latter.

Medley is a freshman, Hughes is not a PG, and Meadows is done for the season. We knew PG was going to be a problem, but we also assumed the offense would look different and compensate for the fact that we need the ball to spend a lot less time in the PG's hands. We thought that might involve trying to get more in transition, for example. Nope. We still play slow, run that little weave, and hope that something opens up. Not good enough. Luckily, we have good three-point shooting (although attempts remain too low) and a guy like Parker making up for other offensive shortcomings lately.

I always come back to the defense, though. Collins was a good defender. We don't have any good defenders left.

You act like we can't score. Offense is not the problem. We seem to score a lot of points for a team that plays slow. 

[billikenfan05]

8 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Collins made up for major deficiencies within our offensive scheme (or lack thereof). A lot of us thought he overdribbled and the offense got bogged down because the ball spent too much time in his hands. This is at least partially true but it's not because of Collins - it's because Collins was expected to improvise within a very loose offense. When you lose a guy with his vision, passing ability, and ball handling, you have to replace him with a similar player or you're asking guys who don't have his skill set to do what he did. We're dealing with the latter.

Medley is a freshman, Hughes is not a PG, and Meadows is done for the season. We knew PG was going to be a problem, but we also assumed the offense would look different and compensate for the fact that we need the ball to spend a lot less time in the PG's hands. We thought that might involve trying to get more in transition, for example. Nope. We still play slow, run that little weave, and hope that something opens up. Not good enough. Luckily, we have good three-point shooting (although attempts remain too low) and a guy like Parker making up for other offensive shortcomings lately.

I always come back to the defense, though. Collins was a good defender. We don't have any good defenders left.

Ford not being able to hold on to Phil Russel will always not sit well with me. 

[Pistol]

2 minutes ago, willie said:

You act like we can't score. Offense is not the problem. We seem to score a lot of points for a team that plays slow. 

The game is sped up in part because the defense is so bad and concedes so early, often in transition. I said we shoot well from the perimeter, and I would add that we're also a good FT shooting team.

It's probably unfair for me to call the offense slow. The offense isn't bad. There are problems and it's sloppy and inconsistent but we can score, no doubt. I question how hard our opponents are playing defense, though, when they're up by a lot.

[slu72]

2 hours ago, DOC said:

Travis Ford is wealthy. He doesn’t need the money, but I see your point. It’s a long shot, but it’s been brought up on here as an option. This will be his last head coaching job at a D1 school so if he doesn’t want it to end, and that’s his only out…

He’ll land a good broadcasting gig. His being a UK star and some minimal coaching success has for some reason earned him cred in the world of college hoops. 

[OkieBilliken]

For all of his coaching shortcomings, I find Travis to be extremely likeable.  In any normal setting, he is impossible not to root for.  When he got hired all he did was talk up the school and the city.   Its a bummer that he has tanked so badly.   

Results aside, before him we had Crews (aloof and cold), Majerus (grumpy and sometime belligerent), Soderberg (creepily intense), and Romar (total phony).  It was kind of nice having someone as personable as TF at the helm.   

So yes, a studio analyst job would be good for him and better for us.  

[billikenfan05]

11 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

For all of his coaching shortcomings, I find Travis to be extremely likeable.  In any normal setting, he is impossible not to root for.  When he got hired all he did was talk up the school and the city.   Its a bummer that he has tanked so badly.   

Results aside, before him we had Crews (aloof and cold), Majerus (grumpy and sometime belligerent), Soderberg (creepily intense), and Romar (total phony).  It was kind of nice having someone as personable as TF at the helm.   

So yes, a studio analyst job would be good for him and better for us.  

He's charismatic, and he is very good at public relations when things are going well. But he's also very easy to dislike if he's not your coach or he's not getting the job done. 

[ACE]

2 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

He's charismatic, and he is very good at public relations when things are going well. But he's also very easy to dislike if he's not your coach or he's not getting the job done. 

If Dr. John Giannini can be a broadcaster, anybody can be.

 

[billikenfan05]

2 minutes ago, ACE said:

If Dr. John Giannini can be a broadcaster, anybody can be.

 

I question his ability to improvise after listening to that Kilcoyne interview. 

[crymdg2]

39 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

For all of his coaching shortcomings, I find Travis to be extremely likeable.  In any normal setting, he is impossible not to root for.  When he got hired all he did was talk up the school and the city.   Its a bummer that he has tanked so badly.   

Results aside, before him we had Crews (aloof and cold), Majerus (grumpy and sometime belligerent), Soderberg (creepily intense), and Romar (total phony).  It was kind of nice having someone as personable as TF at the helm.   

So yes, a studio analyst job would be good for him and better for us.  

This is probably the first negative thing I've ever heard anyone says with regards to Romar and his time here. Granted I was young at the time, but he was phenomenal I thought. I listen to a lot of NBA podcasts and the amount of people who still speak glowingly about him is incredible.

[OkieBilliken]

16 minutes ago, crymdg2 said:

This is probably the first negative thing I've ever heard anyone says with regards to Romar and his time here. Granted I was young at the time, but he was phenomenal I thought. I listen to a lot of NBA podcasts and the amount of people who still speak glowingly about him is incredible.

I judge him as a phony because he talked about the importance of education/grades but several players on that last squad (Pulley/Haliburton/a couple of others I think) were clearly not coming back and not going to class.   He didn't care because he was pretty sure he wasn't coming back either.  He left Brad a pretty big hole he had to dig out of.