nobody caught this?

[Quality Is Job 1]

Now I understand why that pompous, blowhard jerk, Kevin Slaten, is so upset with all the people who didn't recruit Blake Ahearn and/or Troy Slaten. They have to stick together. ("Jerks of the world unite!")

[Pistol]

You couldn't have described Slaten any better. And look at the fine career his son is having- bouncing around from school to school, never really thriving anywhere. Can you imagine the baggage of having to deal with Kevin Slaten in addition to a player without D1 talent? Good posts, JP and Thicks.

[Hardball]

Posters on this board never cease to amaze me regarding the bashing of Ahearn.

Pistol is claiming the real reason we didn't offer BA was because of his father. Gee where have we heard this before? This is the same rehashing of the original propaganda that was used to protect this staff. If crazy fathers were the concern how did we managed to recruit KL?

Pistol, does this mean the attendance, speeches, demonstations, banquet references, freethrows, 3PT shooting, MSU NCAA snubs do not apply any longer? Or are we still slinging mud in order to rationalize BS not recruiting Ahearn? If Ahearn's rep was so bad why did MSU and Southern Illinois offer?

I have no knowledge regarding your claim that Ahearn was held back for basketball reasons however I do know Rich Grawer held his son Brian (Pattonville) back. Does this mean Coach Grawer is a jerk who doesn't care about education? What was his motivation?

Finally you seem to care what the parents at DeSmet think of Ahearn. I could care less what the parents thought of Ahearn at DeSmet. If they are like most private school parents they are upset their little Johnny isn't playing as many minutes like they did at St. Whatever. I think BS made a huge mistake (forget the fact that he would help us on the BB floor)by the mere fact that we are still talking about it three years later.

This whole discussion is not about BA and the fact that he may not be a team player. Or what size ego the parents at DeSmet may think he had but rather could Ahearn have helped us at SLU. You can keep bashing the kid and insinuating personality traits but the information I have is so far contrary to your claims that it leads me to believe you have an axe to grind.

And if that's the case, I will give you the same advice I tell my children "do not talk about other people unless your willing to share those same comments with that person". Therefore, I am sure if you ask the DeSmet coach how you can get you in touch with the Ahearn kid he could help you out.

[Quality Is Job 1]

...about who "Hardball" might be?

Who's bashing Blake Ahearn? I'm certainly not. I saw Ahearn play only once -- at the DJCF game after he finished high school. He scored over 40 points and made Brad Soderberg's decision to sign Darren Clarke over Ahearn look silly, and it turned out as such. But that doesn't guarantee that Ahearn would have been any more successful at SLU than Clarke was. On the other hand, what some of the people close to the situation at DeSmet are saying about Ahearn's character and his dad's character doesn't guarantee that Ahearn wouldn't have been successful at SLU. But the main thing is that Soderberg decided not to offer him, and he must have some reason for that decision.

[Pistol]

I didn't say it was only because of his father. No one besides our coaching staff can know the exact reason. What I wanted to present was plenty of factors that may have made the decision not to give Ahearn an offer. Additionally, I could not care less what the parents of DeSmet students think. After hearing the students' feelings, though, I found it interesting. And I also said that it is not uncommon for parents to hold their children back for athletic reasons. Just because a well-known coach like Grawer did it doesn't make it a respectable thing to do. Travis Deiner did it too, and he's in the NBA, but there are plenty of other kids out there who hate their parents.

Don't misquote or misinterpret me because you're still bitter about passing on Ahearn. Like I said all along, he might have had a nice career here, but we don't know that. I have no "axe to grind," but I think this particular player has been an interesting case that most fans don't know much about recruiting.

And thank you, Hardball, for your fatherly advice. I would have no problem asking Blake if he wanted to go to SLU and why he thinks he didn't get an offer.

[DeSmetBilliken]

For the record, Blake was a junior at DeSmet when he broke his wrist, ending his season. That was my senior year. DeSmet had been doing pretty well that year, with Ahearn leading the team in scoring, but it was the less talented seniors that provided an incredible amount of heart that was the real reason why they did as well as they did.

I know that there were some of my fellow seniors that year that were very angry after Blake got injured trying to dunk the ball, as they thought that him trying to be a hot dog was going to cost us the chance of going to see our team go to Columbia in our senior year. As things turned out, the rest of the team banded together and refused to lose, as evidenced by the district championship game against Parkway Central, where DeSmet appeared to be on the brink of elimination several times in regulation and multiple overtimes, before finally prevailing and moving on. They did make it to the finals, only to lose 82-27 to a very good Vashon team that really couldn't have played any better that night.

The next year DeSmet had a team that in no way should have failed to make it to Columbia. They had Ahearn back as a senior, along with George Robnett, Scott Spinner, and David Ward. Robnett and Spiner were seniors, and Ward was a junior. All three had played very well during the playoffs the season before, so they should have been primed for a big season. Also throw in Mike Kalicak, who joined the team after transferring from St. Dominic's. I went to at least one game that year, and the team showed little to no heart out there on the court. After starting the season well, I was told they repeatedly showed no heart out on the floor and as a result a team that should have contended for the state title failed to make it out of districts for the first time in a long while.

As far as Coach Steiner and his relationship to Blake is concerned, well I don't know how that stands. I did always get the idea that Steiner is a "no frills" coach, meaning that he'd much rather see his players score the points the boring way than try to be flashy, such as laying the ball in and making sure they get the two points as opposed to trying to dunk the ball when they might not pull that off. Every morning at DeSmet, the announcements are read. Included in those announcements are the results of games. Some coaches will include which players did something noteworthy, but after a win Steiner would always turn in the score and "It was a fine TEAM victory." So with that said, knowing what I do about Steiner, it wouldn't surprise me if at least at some point Ahearn was not on his good side.

[Hardball]

Thick, I am not suggesting you are bashing Ahearn but others certainly are. I'm tired of the Soderberg Apologists on this board attaching players that for some reason or another did not make it to SLU. I have read the comments: why Stemler would not have been the right fit, why he really wasn't going to make a difference anyway, why Tatum is a bad character guy, Shaw was too small to play the four...on and on and on. When are we going to start holding this coaching staff accountable?

If you have read any of my previous posts you would know I have been just as vocal about Shaw not being a Billiken. Why can't people just leave it at BS didn't think Ahearn could play here, period. They can't because then BS's ability to recognize talent comes into question. Which is the basis for this whole discussion and the scholarship offer that should/or should not be extended to Brandenberg. Or the fact that BS needed seven evaluation periods to recognize a Juco All American in his own backyard.

I have no clue if Ahearn would have panned out or not at SLU but I think I'm pretty safe in saying he would have turned out better than Clarke who only lasted two years.

[slufanskip]

I'm a BS fan ... and I still think Blake could have helped us. I saw him play and didn't think he would be as good as he has turned out to be. I would have signed Darren instead also. Brad missed this one.

I'm also the one that said it didn't look like Brad and Anthony had a poor relationship. I based that on their actions at the banquet and from talking to Anthony for a while. I didn't say they definately didn't ... I said it certainly didn't appear that way at the banquet. I've also heard Brad talk about AD numerous times. Also no one on this board had any evidence to the contrary ... and so many people claim to have some kind of inside information ... hell how do we know who really is inside and who isn't. Sorry, but I just assume no one really is.

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