Ford Interview with Kilcoyne

[TheA_Bomb]

24 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

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.   

Eh maybe he took a chance on a few guys but it was a different time. Players were actually ineligible sometimes back then.

Romar was great in person took the time to talk with students, would play wiffle ball in the quad, go to the cafeteria.  He once talked "ball" with me outside West Pine about that Floyd Irons undersized PG we didn't recruit, forgot the name.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

58 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Eh maybe he took a chance on a few guys but it was a different time. Players were actually ineligible sometimes back then.

Romar was great in person took the time to talk with students, would play wiffle ball in the quad, go to the cafeteria.  He once talked "ball" with me outside West Pine about that Floyd Irons undersized PG we didn't recruit, forgot the name.

Ford would never.

[willie]

I was a fan. Not sure he was a great coach but was sorry he left. Never felt phony to me. 

[TheChosenOne]

3 hours ago, OkieBilliken said:

For all of his coaching shortcomings, I find Travis to be extremely likeable. Results aside, before him we had Crews (aloof and cold), Majerus (grumpy and sometime belligerent), Soderberg (creepily intense), and Romar (total phony).

So you never met Romar? One of the coaches above seems to be a total phony and Romar is certainly not the one. You could not find a much better man than Romar.

[TheA_Bomb]

1 hour ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Ford would never.

Unless there was a pandemic and it was strictly prohibited by the school in a pledge all employees, faculty and students signed, then he'd throw a party

[TaLBErt]

I just watched the interview, and man, this guy is unlikeable! 

It's so clear that this guy doesn't get it. He says he takes full responsibility but then rattles off all the ways this situation was out of his control. Throughout the whole interview, he tries to paint himself as a victim. The entire thing, from the BS excuses to the tears, was so gross.

Nobody wants to fire poor Travis solely based on this season's results. We want him gone because he has a proven track record of producing mediocre results. Twenty wins and not making the NCAA tournament is not a successful season. Neither is going on a miracle run in the A10 tournament and then getting bounced in the first round (if I remember correctly, the game wasn't even close). Those are stepping-stone seasons. It's been eight years, and we've never made the jump the way teams like Dayton or VCU have.

It's time to part ways.

[Fraz]

The A10 championship was a success.  However long ago or short-lived it was.

[OkieBilliken]

3 hours ago, TheChosenOne said:

So you never met Romar? One of the coaches above seems to be a total phony and Romar is certainly not the one. You could not find a much better man than Romar.

Sorry, he left the program in shambles.  Players he brought in weren’t going to classes and he didn’t give a darn because he was on his way out.  He didn’t practice what he preached.   

[Pistol]

2 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

Sorry, he left the program in shambles.  Players he brought in weren’t going to classes and he didn’t give a darn because he was on his way out.  He didn’t practice what he preached.   

That's not how it went down. TheChosenOne and I were there. Romar is a stand-up guy.

[TheChosenOne]

3 minutes ago, Pistol said:

That's not how it went down. TheChosenOne and I were there. Romar is a stand-up guy.

But he had guys like Pulley and Edwin who weren’t serious students, the outrage! Ignore a guy like Ross Varner, Pulley and Edwin were not the type of student athletes I can be proud of. Give me players who get kicked out of school for non academic reasons!

[VeniceMenace]

6 hours 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. 

Ford cites bad breaks like COVID. He conveniently leaves out the good — like the NCAA suddenly granting eligibility to EZ and Parker getting healthy again & scoring 30/night.

[OkieBilliken]

12 minutes ago, Pistol said:

That's not how it went down. TheChosenOne and I were there. Romar is a stand-up guy.

 I was in town at the time.  I was all in.  He talked a great game but it came across as total bs when those players all left and turned out had no chance of being eligible the next year.  Sorry, he could have been a great dude but that was garbage.   It wasn’t like it is now where you can replace a whole roster with mercenaries.  

[TheChosenOne]

9 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

 I was in town at the time.  I was all in.  He talked a great game but it came across as total bs when those players all left and turned out had no chance of being eligible the next year.  Sorry, he could have been a great dude but that was garbage.   It wasn’t like it is now where you can replace a whole roster with mercenaries.  

We worked for the program, not worth our time to tell you how you are wrong. We can message you privately at some point, but for now give you the floor to continue posting incorrect information on here.

[Pistol]

9 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

 I was in town at the time.  I was all in.  He talked a great game but it came across as total bs when those players all left and turned out had no chance of being eligible the next year.  Sorry, he could have been a great dude but that was garbage.   It wasn’t like it is now where you can replace a whole roster with mercenaries.  

If that's your take on his tenure, then why are you so charmed by Ford?

[TheChosenOne]

5 minutes ago, Pistol said:

If that's your take on his tenure, then why are you so charmed by Ford?

Maybe they are unaware of the number of players under Ford who have been kicked out of school? In fairness, a number of those guys were kicked out of school before they ever played a game. Strange take I was not expecting at this point in Ford’s tenure.

[OkieBilliken]

1 minute ago, Pistol said:

If that's your take on his tenure, then why are you so charmed by Ford?

I wouldn’t say charmed.  I always found him very like-able.  He has been a consistently positive seller of the university as a whole, unlike some of his predecessors.  Unfortunately he has because a malignant cancer that is destroying the program and needs to be removed.

As far as Romar’s tenure, I would say if it wasn’t for a freak Cincinnati injury in the conference tournament, it would have been a lot less positively remembered.  How many great recruits did we end up their 2nd choice?     Justin Love was my 2nd favorite Billiken of all time, so that was great. 
 

But we have much bigger problems to worry about than rehashing the legacy of Pepperdine’s current so-so head coach.  

[OkieBilliken]

12 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

Maybe they are unaware of the number of players under Ford who have been kicked out of school? In fairness, a number of those guys were kicked out of school before they ever played a game. Strange take I was not expecting at this point in Ford’s tenure.

I’m not at all a Ford defender.  I kind of just mentioned Romar in passing.  He disappointed me how he left and I thought it was hypocritical.   That’s All.   We have bigger problems to worry about.  Cheers.  

[TheChosenOne]

1 minute ago, OkieBilliken said:

But we have much bigger problems to worry about than rehashing the legacy of Pepperdine’s current so-so head coach.  

You were the one who decided to go after Romar. I have no problem with folks questioning him as a coach, but you went beyond that and you will not find a better man in college basketball than Lorenzo Romar. Nobody would put Travis Ford on that level.

[TheChosenOne]

2 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:

I’m not at all a Ford defender.  I kind of just mentioned Romar in passing.  He disappointed me how he left and I thought it was hypocritical.   That’s All.   We have bigger problems to worry about.  Cheers.  

It doesn’t matter, but really bad take. If you ever met Romar you would have a much different opinion of him. You are likely the first to call out his character.

[OkieBilliken]

7 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

It doesn’t matter, but really bad take. If you ever met Romar you would have a much different opinion of him. You are likely the first to call out his character.

I didn’t realize Romar criticism was the 3rd rail.   I’ll take your guys’ word for it that there were extenuating circumstances for the mass exodus and that he did everything he could not to leave the program on life support.  You were certainly closer to it.  No further comment from me.  

[thatskablamo]

43 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

You were the one who decided to go after Romar. I have no problem with folks questioning him as a coach, but you went beyond that and you will not find a better man in college basketball than Lorenzo Romar. Nobody would put Travis Ford on that level.

Agree. An additional anecdote, but in 01, my Mom and I were at the Galleria and Romar was doing a promotional thing there with some players, the Billiken, cheerleaders - I was doing a federal work study program that put me in the SID kind of like an internship program with Terry Elmore - Romar tosses me a t shirt and a plastic basketball and says “quit letting Terry ride you like a prize pony” haha I about died laughing. It was so cool to have the head basketball coach at SLU not only say hello to you, but act as if he knew you. That’s a whole other level of professionalism and said a lot about his character. Cameron Dollar was like that, too. A great guy you could clown around with at the rec during a pickup game. That whole staff was great. 
I’m a ride-or-die Romar guy. 

[Soderball]

5 hours ago, TheChosenOne said:

So you never met Romar? One of the coaches above seems to be a total phony and Romar is certainly not the one. You could not find a much better man than Romar.

I always had a high opinion of Romar's character. He did a lot of video messages and stuff for us after he left which was nice.

He was also pretty sucessful as a coach in my opinion; Washington wanted him and came for him. He was the last Billiken coach to not get canned or die in office, but actually come and get taken by a program with higher $(and the west coast locale that Romar was always all about) .. there's also worse things than being HC at Pepperdine.. some salary and a relaxed fit in Malibu. I'd take that job.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

7 hours ago, thatskablamo said:

Agree. An additional anecdote, but in 01, my Mom and I were at the Galleria and Romar was doing a promotional thing there with some players, the Billiken, cheerleaders - I was doing a federal work study program that put me in the SID kind of like an internship program with Terry Elmore - Romar tosses me a t shirt and a plastic basketball and says “quit letting Terry ride you like a prize pony” haha I about died laughing. It was so cool to have the head basketball coach at SLU not only say hello to you, but act as if he knew you. That’s a whole other level of professionalism and said a lot about his character. Cameron Dollar was like that, too. A great guy you could clown around with at the rec during a pickup game. That whole staff was great. 
I’m a ride-or-die Romar guy. 

Dude, I would kill for a coach like that right now. If you're not likeable, but a savant like Majerus (I'm not saying he wasn't likeable in a quirky way but maybe not so personable) then you excuse it because the team is good. Travis Ford has neither the people skills, nor the basketball acumen of a Romar or Majerus, so yeah, he's just trash.

[billikenfan05]

18 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Dude, I would kill for a coach like that right now. If you're not likeable, but a savant like Majerus (I'm not saying he wasn't likeable in a quirky way but maybe not so personable) then you excuse it because the team is good. Travis Ford has neither the people skills, nor the basketball acumen of a Romar or Majerus, so yeah, he's just trash.

Majerus was a very nice guy. Geniuses are often misunderstood.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

56 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Majerus was a very nice guy. Geniuses are often misunderstood.

Oh not saying he wasn't, just saying he wasn't a tradition "people person" type of figure. Speculation is he was on the autism spectrum; my older brother has autism and stories I've heard about Majerus remind me of some social behaviors my brother has. Not one size fits all, but reminiscent.