Josh Schertz hires first Assistant Coach

[RiseOfTheBillikens]

I'm fine with it. It will look good in locals eyes that Schertz cares about Tate and St. louisans. 

[billikenfan05]

Just now, RiseOfTheBillikens said:

I'm fine with it. It will look good in locals eyes that Schertz cares about Tate and St. louisans. 

This. If I say it like this do I not get the stink eye? Fine is basically a synonym for "doesn't move the needle"

[billiken_roy]

21 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

I mean you have a personal connection to Tate. Seems like you're letting your bias get in the way. Excuse me that I'm not excited to keep any coaching remnants from the worst season in my lifetime. 

Crews only won 11 games each of last two seasons. And while it was before you were born Ekker was worse than both crews and the end of Ford.

[billikenfan05]

5 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

Crews only won 11 games each of last two seasons. And while it was before you were born Ekker was worse than both crews and the end of Ford.

Last season was tougher to stomach, and I was much more emotional about Billiken basketball in 2015-16.

[johnbj14]

5 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

Crews only won 11 games each of last two seasons. And while it was before you were born Ekker was worse than both crews and the end of Ford.

I’ll contend pretty adamantly that last year was worse than both of the final 2 Crews years. When you look at the increase in coaching salary and financial investment in the program, Travis’ final year was objectively a disaster. 
 

That’s all in the past though. New coach, new era, new Billikens. 

[AGB91]

12 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

Crews only won 11 games each of last two seasons. And while it was before you were born Ekker was worse than both crews and the end of Ford.

Ron Coleman was no picnic either.

[MusicCityBilliken]

13 minutes ago, AGB91 said:

Ron Coleman was no picnic either.

Geez, it was only one year. Didn't he pull in Ricky Frazier?

[slufan13]

Not a needle mover. No assistant is really. Just do what Schertz wants and you're perfect for the job. Whatever he needs is best. 

[RUBillsFan]

39 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Last season was tougher to stomach, and I was much more emotional about Billiken basketball in 2015-16.

Yeah.  I'd agree with this.  Crews final 2 season and Ford 1st season were objectively worse.  They all had fewer wins and lower KenPom raings.  

2014-15 - 11 wins, 289 KenPom

2015-16 - 11 wins, 226 KenPom

2016-17 - 12 wins, 273 KenPom

2023-24 - 13 wins, 199 KenPom

However, this past season was devoid of 2 things those other awful years had going for them.  #1 we were still in the afterglow of the best 3 year run in program history (or at least recent history) and #2 we had more hope that better results were coming.  2014-15 we all knew would be a massive step back after Loe, Evans, Jett & McCall graduated.  We expected the young team to take some lumps, but could hope they'd improve.  2015-16 was still a young team & by the end we pretty much knew Crews was going to get canned & his replacement would be better.  2016-17 we had new optimism that Ford would bring in talent & win and we had a bunch of promising transfers sitting out (Bess, Henriquez, Foreman) plus our highest rated recruit in decades coming in (Goodwin).  This past season was 5 years removed from our most recent NCAA appearance, coming off one of the most disappointing years in recent memory in terms of expectations vs results, and there was substantial doubt about whether or not Ford would be fired / how much hope there could be for better results the following season.  It was an awful experience all around.  No afterglow, no hope of being competitive from the start and little/no hope that we were building toward anything for the future.

[billiken_roy]

1 hour ago, AGB91 said:

Ron Coleman was no picnic either.

Hell I apparently erased that nightmare completely out of my memory.   Did grawer have a less than 13 win season as well?  Thinking he did.   And grawer's last season was tough to stomach as well.   Terrible career ending injuries, players disappearing and playing with a D2 team without the fans even knowing, players quitting and walking off the floor in the middle of the season.   Wow 

Regardless, while ford's end was bad, the billiken fandom has been through worse.  

[cgeldmacher]

I agree with Zac that Tate isn't really bringing in any high level St. Louis high school talent.  However, I think he is a good retention, because:

1. He does seem to have JUCO connections that have helped us with local kids that other programs have missed (Perkins & Parker)

2. I feel like he is a good connection to have for local kids who sign elsewhere and then want to transfer a year or two later

3. He will help Schertz understand and be able to better navigate the local high school basketball scene

[Westy03]

This could help with Turnbull since he played for the Beagles. 

[gobillsgo]

2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

Last season was tougher to stomach, and I was much more emotional about Billiken basketball in 2015-16.

At least Crews had the courtesy to not pretend like he was doing a good job/blame everyone else. Man was just existing at that point. 

[thetorch]

Tate in a reduced role is an asset to the program.

[Taj79]

I never got that "much" from Tate's in-game coaching skills, if there were any.  But with the proliferation of 'suits' on the bench, retaining Tate for continuity and the St. Louis connections seems a good move at this point.

[brianstl]

8 minutes ago, thetorch said:

Tate in a reduced role is an asset to the program.

It never hurts to have a guy that everyone in town loves on your staff.

[aj_arete]

1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

Hell I apparently erased that nightmare completely out of my memory.   Did grawer have a less than 13 win season as well?  Thinking he did.   And grawer's last season was tough to stomach as well.   Terrible career ending injuries, players disappearing and playing with a D2 team without the fans even knowing, players quitting and walking off the floor in the middle of the season.   Wow 

Regardless, while ford's end was bad, the billiken fandom has been through worse.  

Was the issue with Coleman was that he committed recruiting violations?  I know his record was terrible, but he was only given one year.  I was curious what happened during his tenure.  I was born at the time, but was real little.  When I think about when I started to seriously follow the Billikens, it was during the Ekker era.

[thetorch]

10 minutes ago, brianstl said:

It never hurts to have a guy that everyone in town loves on your staff.

Tate is probably the best type of "this local guy" that we have had.  Most of our staffs have had one version or another, an STL connection that everyone in town respects.  

What tangible results have we gotten from it?  On the whole not much.  No 4 or 5 stars are coming here no matter how much everyone local loves our coach.  So there is a limit to the love for Coach Tate.  In a reduced role we can deal with it, as an Associate HC, probably not getting our ROI in that.

[thetorch]

2 minutes ago, aj_arete said:

Was the issue with Coleman was that he committed recruiting violations?  I know his record was terrible, but he was only given one year.  I was curious what happened during his tenure.  I was born at the time, but was real little.  When I think about when I started to seriously follow the Billikens, it was during the Ekker era.

The big level boosters did not like the Coleman hire.  After his first season they held a tip off club meeting as a season review.  Boosters called out Coleman in public and he didn't mince words.  He was fired in less than 48 hours after that.  

[willie]

3 minutes ago, thetorch said:

The big level boosters did not like the Coleman hire.  After his first season they held a tip off club meeting as a season review.  Boosters called out Coleman in public and he didn't mince words.  He was fired in less than 48 hours after that.  

This is true but I was also told Coleman was less than responsible. He would not show up for meetings etc. While he recruited Frazier, Ricky supposedly left school with zero credits. Isn’t a coach somewhat responsible for a players progress? 

[TheA_Bomb]

Keep Tate

Fire May

Never forget

[Taj79]

Coleman went 7 and 20 in his lone year at SLU in 1977-78, my junior year.  I believe he was hired out of Vashon High School and followed local legend Johnnie Parker, Sr., to SLU.  If memory serves, Parker was out of Central High.  Parker lasted six games into his sophomore year under Coleman as Coleman went 7 and 20.  Others on that team included Milt Wiley, Henry Tiggs, Mike Smith, Craig Shaver, Mark Rhode, Rick Plate, Mike Newbold, Carl Johnson, Howard Jackson, Curtis Hughes, Jimmy Glass, Everne Carr, and Mark Alcorn.  They weren't collectively any good and played in the tough Metro Conference.   And, of course, Ricky Frazier.  Frazier only played in 17 games of those 27.  

Unfortunatley, this was in the real down period of SLU basketball.  Coleman followed Randy Albrecht and was replaced by Ron Ekker.  This was about the tiem college basketball was taking off, highlighted by the Bird/Magic final in 1979.  Many also forget that Grawer had bookend seasons of 5 and 23 in both his first year and his last.  So while college basketball is starting to soar and really take off, SLU was bumbling its way through typical bad seasons.  Yes, Grawer had a few, but he could never get over the Xavier hump and make the NCAAs, making the NIT finals in 88-89 and 89-90.

Spoon then won with Grawers' core and Romar lived the Miracle in Memphis.  The Majerus years then became the highlight of the program.  If you start with Albrecht in 1974-75, SLU has seen 8 NCAA appearances and 6 NIT appearances with one CBI runner-up appearance.  Those percentages are 16%, 12% and 2%.

 

[mrjoelabs]

Happy that Tate is back in some capacity

[slu72]

Tate isn’t going to hurt anything, but he could help with transfers that might want to come home or good local HS kids. 

[billiken_roy]

I noticed during games that Tate was the coach that seemed to be the guy to have a player come and sit next to him when he came out of the game after ford did one of his famous yanks.  Imo having that guy there is pretty important.