Brad is accountable!

[Billiken75]

I wish we had signed Stemler also - but c'mon David - you have a shorter leash on Brad than Brad has on JJ.

You question his recruiting and you question his ability at game coaching. Would you have been whining if Lisch's 3-pt ties Gonzaga? That we played UNC - there - and were tied with 4 minutes to go? If Danny gets a shot off at GW? Each Dayton game down to last possession? All with an incredibly young team. Mellow out David. And if you really want a dose of reality - the SLU program is more than likely in Brad's hands, like it or not. This program has had zero stability - another coaching change could be lethal. Brad took over a program with no talent (except Perry) - he has been establishing good local recruiting in-roads and has captured most of the regional talent. The next two recruiting classes are key - I agree. And, I believe that an upgrade in experience and the off season will make our current team Dance worthy. Patience is not a virtue for nothing.

[StLouBlue]

Okay, instead of just saying that Brad is accountable for not getting Stemler, I think we all agree that he is. What steps would you take if you were Cheryl Levick about this. To me not landing a JUCO target does not rise to the level of getting fired. Here are some options that I could come up with:

1. Have a sit down meeting and explain that recruiting has to improve and leaving two scholarships open for the coming year is unacceptable.

2. Inform Brad that his new assistant must have an outstanding recruiting resume. He also must get approval from AD before he can hire this assistant or promote current assistants.

3. Take a more positive tact and increase recruiting budget.

4. Encourage Brad to make a congratulatory call to Kelvin Sampson and while talking to him see if Brad can gain some of his exceptional recruiting tactics that he can put to use(ha ha).

5. Take Brad out to lunch and informally go over any remaining names for this year as well as current targets for '07. Make sure major AAU tournaments are on the staff's calendar as well as whatever local AAU practices he can get to.

I guess I see as #5 as most likely. #2 may already be in place and I hope it is. #1 could happen if CL already has a replacement in mind and basically lets Brad know he is on a much shorter string. #3 I can see the positive part, but I doubt there is any more money in the budget. #4 I just thought would be kind of funny--my poor attempt at humor.

[billikenmetz]

Amen, Nark. Well said. God bless you for opening the eyes of the blind.

[billikenmetz]

Nark, GOD LOVE YOU MY FRIEND! This is what I've been trying to say for well over a year and people want me banned for saying it.

[BlueStorm]

Great idea, I wish you could walk into her office and get this done. It is amazing how we can figure this out and a staff that is getting paid for this can't. We talk about SLU like its Harvard at times for getting kids in maybe we ought to look at the staffs academic ability. (Ha,Ha for everyone that doesn't know I'm joking)

[BlueStorm]

I am on your side as well. Take off the blinders slu faithful.

[AJ]

Yes Brad is "accountable" for not landing Stemler, whatever that means. Likewise, Mike Krzeyewski was "accountable" when he took over a Duke program in 1981 that had been a nationally ranked NCAA tourney team in 1978-80 with a roster full of top 100 players. He was accountable when his first three teams went 17-13, 10-17, and 11-17 and most of the alumni wanted him fired. Fortunately, the administration didn't fire Coach K because they say a potentially great coach who needed time. Brad has done a better job of recruiting than either Spoon or Romar did and he has the program headed in the right direction. Believe me, I've been a fan for over 30 years and sat through losses to UMSL, McKendree, with 1000 fans in the stands and nobody that even resembled a D1 athlete on the court. Some of you guys don't know what bad coaching and poor recruiting really is. Brad also needs to be given credit for developing IV, recruiting KL and TL AND finally convincing Biondi that we need an on-campus facility. I think he deserves a little more time and patience before we give up on him. Some of you who think otherwise might also start thinking who else would apply for this job if Brad goes. After Grawer, Spoon and Romar's experiences here the applicants weren't exactly lined up all the way the the Arch after Romar left.

[billikenmetz]

Yeah, the Derby is coming up and my horse needs a spare set

[kevinfootes]

that's how Brad will be measured.

Losing out on this kid sucks, but geez, he's going to Indiana. Even with their coaching change and recent controversy it's one of the all-time best programs in the history of the NCAA. Sometimes the big fish come in and land top players.

Brad will be held responsible if the team doesn't improve next year.

[slufanskip]

agreed Footes.

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[cheeseman]

This is nonsense to keep saying - "oh gee whiz he is going to IU we could never hope to recruit against such a storied program". BULLSH** I say!!! We have to be able to recruit against any and all programs regardless of who they are. Brad needs to figure out how to best maximize his situation when it comes to recruiting - I not sure I know the answer but he is the one making the big bucks so he has to get it done. I do agree with the idea that this assistant coach vacancy is important and can not simply be given to an insider so he can move up. Brad has to get someone who can recruit now and not take 3 years to figure it out.

[slufanskip]

you need a Dose of reality. we lost a recruit to one of the best schools in the history of college basketball in one of the best conferences in the country. No one said we can't recruit against them ... but to insinuate as many have that the coach did a poor job because we lost the battle ... is just plain stupid ... no ... let me change that ... VERY, VERY STUPID

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[pakapablo]

Here is the link I found.

Not much of a mention about SLU. The author and Stemler's juco coach make SLU sound like a distant third.

http://www.journaltimes.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=5375

[billiken_roy]

stloublue said,

"Here are some options that I could come up with:

1. Have a sit down meeting and explain that recruiting has to improve and leaving two scholarships open for the coming year is unacceptable."

the fact that this has happened every year probably tells us that the athletic dept is all for not using all the scholarships. remember we are talking about the same athletic dept that figured out if we drop golf for both men and women and start "track" and only have the cross country athletes running track, we save valuable scholarships and still have enough sports to qualify for division one.

stloublue goes on:

"2. Inform Brad that his new assistant must have an outstanding recruiting resume. He also must get approval from AD before he can hire this assistant or promote current assistants."

we have already heard that chris sloan is a strong candidate for the job and will be amongst the candidates getting a final interview. again, one would think the athletic dept is in on this.

stloublue goes on:

"3. Take a more positive tact and increase recruiting budget."

what evidence do we have that there is a substandard recruiting budget now. i have never heard either romar or soderberg even infer we lost out on a recruit because of our recruiting budget.

stloublue goes on:

"4. Encourage Brad to make a congratulatory call to Kelvin Sampson and while talking to him see if Brad can gain some of his exceptional recruiting tactics that he can put to use(ha ha)."

wow, i know that was meant as funny, but sampson's oklahoma cheating is pretty well documented. i dont even want to think about walking in the gray areas.

stloublue goes on:

"5. Take Brad out to lunch and informally go over any remaining names for this year as well as current targets for '07. Make sure major AAU tournaments are on the staff's calendar as well as whatever local AAU practices he can get to."

come on. we all know that he is working the aau circuit big time due to the kramer advantage. i have talked to numerous folks that have told me that brad always hits all the aau events. this has never been a problem.

[billiken_roy]

storm, i am surprised you are still here. i assumed you would be heading to the hoosierboard by now. the fact you buy into an ounce of that post shows you are clueless.

[cheeseman]

Skip - what many have said is OK he lost the kid to IU but how come he did not have other options? Everytime we let a coach off the hook for loosing a kid to a higher profile program we are accepting low expectations - this has to stop. We also have to recognize how to identify talent earlier so we can start getting in deep with them ASAP as Pdiddy said. No one does not understand what happened with Lance but that does not mean we have to continue accepting it as the status quo. At some point you have to stop putting all your eggs in one basket and say to a kid who is holding you hostage, hey we really want you but if I give you another week to make up your mind, I will loose my other options so let me know in 2 days one way or the other so I can be fair with the other kids.

[Hardball]

Cheeseman, I agree 100% with your statement. How come Lance was not given an ultimatum? Surely BS can remember the Shaw bunggling by following the exact same process. Learn by your mistakes and make adjustments.

A friend of mine lives in KC and he said Self identifies two players he really wants and offers both players. Then he says who ever takes the offer first gets the scholarship. Why can't BS do the same? And if you do not get a committment from either player move on and identify two more players who are acceptable. My gosh this is really not that hard.

[StLouBlue]

B-Roy most of this was tongue in cheek, in that everyone seems to be up in arms over losing out on a talented JUCO player. Everyone seems to agree that Brad is accountable for not landing Stemler, but Brad is not accountable to the billiken board, but rather to his boss.

From what I have gathered, it sounds like Brad and Cheryl have a good working relationship, so I would not bet on any tense meetings or lines drawn in the sand over this. I would guess Cheryl probably knew the chances of landing Stemler and is probably knowledgeable about where the staff is at on recruiting. I just tried to pick a range of possible responses to show that while we all want to say Brad is accountable, nobody really knows what this means or how he should be held accountable. Just people wanting to blow smoke. We all know that Brad will primarily be judged by wins and losses and not by the recruitment of 1 prospect.

[billiken_roy]

i know blue. however it is obvious from a lot of our posters that they dont think that way.

one thing everyone should think about slu athletics which of course translates a lot to every sport including the cash cow men's basketball.

if our athletic dept is so tight (or read cheap all the same) that we drop a sport like golf for the charade of track in order to save those few scholarships it speaks volumes imo.

[billiken_roy]

hardball you are twisting the shaw story a little bit. in stemler instance we truly waited to decide if he was good enough. in the shaw instance we waited not because slu didnt think shaw wasnt good enough, but because coach soderberg wanted grimes first and foremost

(for the record, there were about 3 of us that were long long on the shaw bandwagon and were telling all that would listen that shaw was the better player. ironically if i recall many here at the time defended brad for playing out grimes to the end because he was the higher profile recruit)

when grimes said no, then he turned to shaw as backup plan when shaw let painter talk him into how slu didnt love him as much, then we settled for backup plan 2 newborne.

[slufanskip]

there may not be another option. If UB goes to a plan 2 and we don't like the guy we'll be all over him for that. I like our team. I would have liked it better with Lance, but I still like it.

I personally called the factory, they are out of stock right now. Half the work force is on strike, it will be fall before any new players are available and then Duke, UNC, UT, Fla, and KS get first dibs. They told me SLU would have to take it's place in line. The rep told me that even Indiana is ahead of SLU as Sampson calls all hours of the night.

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[slufanskip]

and what happens when he says no. We call one of our dozen or so other high major recruits.

How come KS can do it and we can't ... Gee I don't know.

The good thing about this board is that I now don't have to spend my time watching the comedy channel to get my share of laughs

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[StLouBlue]

I agree that our AD dept certainly seems to run on the cheap. I guess I don't have much of a problem with dropping the golf program and adding track. This provides a chance to upgrade our cross country program, which was really behind most other schools because those athletics at SLU could only compete in the fall while other schools could compete year round with cc, indoor and outdoor track seasons. I see this as a good move for SLU.

I seem to remember hearing that the golf program was supposed to basically run itself, in that through donations it wasn't going to cost SLU much if anything to run, since that wasn't happening then close it up.

I just hope that our AD is not encouraging Brad to have 2 open scholarships for the money savings. If it happens it happens, but to run 2 scholarships behind as a cost savings strategy, that would be very shortsighted.

[cheeseman]

Skip, perhaps coach should be identifying more players of equal/close to equal ability and working both of them just as hard rather than only one kid and hoping he lottos. Nobody is saying we are KU yet but what would have been the problem with having Adam and Wallis offered - if Brad does not get Adam then even you are wailing and gnashing your teeth. This all or nothing approach bites him in the a## every other year.

[billiken_roy]

and i do not think or profess that is what is going on. however, my point is only that if the athletic dept is as tight as the golf/track scenario suggests, then some of the points about making sure they are spending every possible cent for research and development (read recruiting and scholarships used) probably is the furtherest thing from the administration's mind when monitoring any sport at slu.