stuff

[p diddy]

I don't think d.nark is being to hard on BS after losing lance. He has to be accountable. This was a situation that could have been avoided if Brad had been a little more assertive and offered early. The chances of lance coming here would have increased greatly if he had been more pro-active. That's how the mid-majors compete with the high majors. Grab good players when nobody else is paying attention. That's how we got kevin and to a certain extent Tommie, who a lot of people backed off.

Brad is close to having a successful team that can compete for NCAA bids on a consistent basis, BUT, he has to eliminate those crucial recruiting mistakes that leave his teams one or two players short of reaching their full potential. Brad has made positive steps in area recruiting, but his mistakes are just big enough to keep his teams from getting a bigger piece of the college basketball pie. The program is still reeling from Ahearn-itis among other gaffes.

Stemler's recruitment was a replay of the Matt Shaw story all over again. Everyone was in his ear to go hard after Matt early in his junior year because SIU was right there in his back yard. But, brad made his move too late and we were out of the running. I'm glad we got Knollmeyer, but we were fortunate on that one. We should have jumped on him the moment he changed his mind about his Mizzou commitment. we waited and waited, but we got lucky and got a good one, in my opinion.

And judging by the post I've read below, it's starting to happen with Brandenburg. History seems to keep repeating itself and this can't happen. These mistakes will continue to undermine his own succes.

Brad has to do something special with next year's team if he is going to sustain a coaching career at slu. If we start to win big (and early), attendance will continue to increase and those talented young area kids will have another reason to look at SLU and stay home.

If we have a similar record to this past year with all of increased expectations, it will be tough to convince these young kids to stay and they will scatter all over the country.

I'm afraid the 2007 season is the s**t or get off the pot year for this staff.

Players such as suggs, brandenburg, powell, griffey will be tough gets because the major programs have been on them hard early in their high school careers. They are out there for everyone to see. We could do our best recruiting job ever and still fall short because North Carolina is North Carolina and SLU is SLU.

However, the biggies weren't knocking down the doors of good players like ahearn, shaw, stemler, tolliver, watts, cusworth and players like that. those players keep your program solvent without any dropoff like we experienced in '05. Those are the guys you have to get all the time, then you enhance your chances of getting the blue chippers that everyone wants. All of the sudden you're 16-13 season turns into 21-8 and a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Brad has to learn this lesson soon or else kramer might not have the chance to lace 'em up in the new building.

Just like everyone else, I'm rooting for him, but facts are facts.

bad boyz for life

[slufanskip]

You say we might lose them because UNC is UNC and SLU is SLU. Well Indiana is Indiana and SLU is SLU. From what I understand wasn't UB still one of the first on Lance. Before Indiana and before Marq.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[TheA_Bomb]

Yes he may have been in there relatively early but failed to seal the deal before the cat was out of the bag on Stemler.

Maybe a few more cliches could've helped me to make this point better.

[Schasz]

P...very well said and I am also rooting that Coach Soderberg is successful next year which I believe is a critical year for him both on the court and recruiting wise. Losing out on Lance means that we are counting on improvement from players who have only given us glimpses of any promise like Danny and Dwayne just to name a couple players who will be counted on early on. If some folks thought there was criticism of Coach Soderberg after this year...then just wait if we are not Dancing after next year. I think that the main criticism one could have of losing Lance was the fact that we waited to long to offer the scholie.

[slufanskip]

who says we waited to long? NO ONE ... on this board knows. Just opinions. We could have offered in 1991 and he may have still went to Indiana.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[SluSignGuy]

nm

[SLUMS81]

If we sign Lance last fall, there would have been a chorus of criticism for signing a player who none of the big schools wanted.

If Lance had been the star then that he has now turned-out to be, then the more glamorous teams would have noticed him months ago.

If Lance really wanted to come to SLU, he would have committed to SLU when he was offered.

If Sampson were the coach at SLU, does anybody think that Lance would turn down Indiana for the chance to become a Billiken?

Brad, go find another good player.

[BlueStorm]

No according to lance on the kevin slaten show he said that the new indiana assistant Rob Senderhoff was the 1st coach to recruit him this year when he was at Kent State. When he got the job and found out Indiana's needs he thought of Lance. He must of had on hell of a relationship with him to get this done.

[slufanskip]

If Sampson coached at SLU, I think LS would still be going to Indiana ... then we would have to fire Kelvin. Oh never mind, we would have already fired him ... for being the cheating scumbag he is.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[moytoy12]

Is it just me or is there a disconnect by folks on this board? There is a difference to me between being interested in a guy early and offering the guy early and a lot of people are confusing the two. Assuming that UB did not offer Stemler in the fall and waited until the spring, then UB might have been on Stemler early, but did not offer early. I think a lot of folks here are simply saying that "offering" early would have increased our chances. My guess is, no one could foresee the Kent State contact going to IU back in Nov./Dec., therefore, being on Stemler early and offering early would have increased SLU's chances of signing Stemler.

[Billiken75]

Thanks for the great insights....

[kevinfootes]

Let's see how the season goes.

[BlueStorm]

I would agree. If those things happen then we would be talking about him signing at SLU and not Indiana.

[tseugnekillib]

imo, in the end, Mike Davis leaving Indiana turns out to be more of a factor in SLU not getting LS, than the exact week that Stemler was offered a scholarship.

Hindsight is such a beautiful tool!

[tseugnekillib]

.

[BlueStorm]

How can you say that? He was dreaming of suiting up in Billiken Blue, they waited Marquette Gold and Blue came in and his dream expanded and stole away SLU's thunder. If SLU offers earlier he verbals and he does not seem like someone who would go back on his word, and the rest would be history. Then we can have a chance to dance.

[tseugnekillib]

1) If Mike Davis doesn't leave Indiana, the Kent State assistant doesn't work for Indiana. LS may have gone to Marquette; but Indiana, under Mike Davis, was not recruiting LS; nor was Kelvin Sampson at Oklahoma.

2) After a virtual two-year lay-off, LS did not deserved an early offer. How many offers did Lance have before the early November 2005 signing date.....none....one maybe (SEMO).....why no early offers from anybody!

3) LS had an opportunity to sign with SLU in April but passed.... such is the college recruiting game.

No hindsight allowed!

[BlueStorm]

I agree with you on point 1. Point 2 I agree alittle. Correct me if I am wrong but when BS watched him had he played about 10-15 games by then. Wasn't he having a great season or atleast a great start? Was that not merrit enough for more consideration? I may be wrong but it is my opinion, for what ever that matters, that if you are the head coach you should know what fits your program and what does not. What you need and what you don't need, and who can play for you and who can't. Is that not why he gets paid so much money? How long should it take to figure this out? I have read your previous post and you seem to know alot about SWIC, JUCO and other recruiting situations: So I ask...Did it take SWIC's assistant or head coach long to want Stemler back from Bradley after the things he did there or did they have to think and evaluate him? On point 3 I also agree.

[Basketbill]

while everyone gripes stemmler was not offered soon enough, complains about not keeping the shaws, ahearns etc. and worse signing local kids like DM and AK but really those were mid major prospects.

Lock Stemmler up......stemmler is the one who decided when to decide. Most Juco's are advised to wait until after their season.

This whole idea of accountablity heads must role is a little knee jerk reactionary in my mind. Wins and Loses baby.....that is what it is going to take.

[BlueStorm]

Was he advised to wait? Maybe you have to have an offer before you can take it?

[tseugnekillib]

Blue Storm,

1) again, how many offers did LS have prior to the early November 2005 signing date? 0 - 1 ?

2) of course SWIC would take LS back from Bradley....they recruited Lance when he had no offers out of Gibault. He never played at SWIC before going to Bradley because of the wrist injury. Good kid, good student, plus SWIC needed players.

Only in American.....high school player with no offers goes to a local juco; breaks his wrist in pre-season practice, sits out his first year; after that seasoon takes a last minute scholarship to a mid-major, gets hurt early again, second year playing time totals 65 minutes; goes back to his local juco and plays on a great team and has a great season; coach at a historic high major gets disgusted and resigns; some players jump ship at historic high major; new coach comes in and needs players, newly hired assistant at historic high major knows of a small town kid that previous boss was undecided on....this high school senior with no offers and two injury filled seasons, lands at a historic high major with a chance to follow a dream....how will this unusual story end?

[moytoy12]

what is the relevance of offers from other schools. My point is whether LS showed enough that a decent eye for talent would have seen the potential. If not, then i don't blame UB for when he offered. If so, then some blame lies at UB's doorstep.

[Major Majerus]

I hear Maguire can really stroke it. Oops, I mean I've really seen him stroke it at the shootout. And he seemed to stroke it at Edwardsville this year. And Brad offered him early, and has been taking crap for it because noone else offered him early. God bless Lance, and let's play with what we have - the pieces might fit after all.

[Schasz]

I think they could fall in place providing there is some player development from a couple of our wings and 4 candidates. Hopefully, we will still Dance next year, but time will tell...stay tuned.

[slu72]

which is at this stage of SLU's development, we've got to take chances. Furthermore, UB said we don't have a back up plan to LS. So who else was he looking at when LS was first put on the list? He didn't have any plan B. It's kind of like the Ahern thing....we can't be that selective at this point, we ain't frigging IU or UNC or Duke.