UB

[slu72]

I think UB is a pretty grounded guy, as opposed to say, 'Zo. I don't think he's the type to shower a player with false praise, so when he says "IO and JJ have what it takes now it's up to them to show it in games", I believe him. I agree with Roy, he's a Bill Parcells blue collar kind of guy. We're lucky to have him. What was most encouraging from last night's reports is that he did glow over the new arena. Makes you think he's planning on staying awhile, and this is what we need in our HC position more than anything....stability.

[billiken_roy]

while i was a brad fan from day one, the one thing about his time here that simply amazes me is the way he has changed long time attitudes that were at least indifferent to slu if not negative about slu to now one a hell of a lot more positive. last week when tommie liddell was getting ready to verbal to slu, i heard maurice scott on two different radio shows treating slu with a new kind of respect that we have never heard from him. i think bernie has become a soderberg fan. the importance of winning over the media folks in town imo is monumental. the recruits read the paper and listen to the radio. if all they hear is negative or indifferent attitudes, why would they ever come to slu. that is all beginning to change. thanks brad!

[gister]

Didn't Brad commment on the importance of getting to know the people around the recruit as much as getting to know the recruit. He said his assistants have been doing a great job of that.

Also, Jim Braun commented that season ticket sales are up although He did not give any numbers. That also supports the observation that things are turning around in terms of attitude.

[Box and Won]

Well, including my newly purchased season tickets, we're at least +2. When do we receive our tickets anyway?

[slufanskip]

Said at the meeting they should be in the mail this week

[Basketbill]

with regards to stability of the head coaching position....it is probably second only to what conference we end up in in importance to the program. Once a coach has been at a program for more than 4 years, that is when any doubts in a recruits mind about will the coach be there if I commit etc go away.

That is why it is so important that SLU end up in a good Basketball Conference, so that Brad is not tempted by a better offer. Thank god he will not pull a 'Zo and go back to Stevens Point(? i think that is it)

[Quality Is Job 1]

I'm sure Brad Soderberg loves his alma mater, Wisconsin-Stevens Point, now that he's tasted the experience of coaching at a high-major level, he won't want to go back to the lower level of his alma mater until after he feel he's accomplished all he can in Div. I. I imagine Wisconsin-Green Bay and Wisconsin-Milwaukee are also out.

[Box and Won]

nm

[tseugnekillib]

slu72.....please give me a couple of examples of when or where Coach Romar was not a "grounded guy" during his three years at SLU? Just curious and thanks!

[thetorch]

His outlandish and ridiculous attempts at recruiting big time west coast players to come to play for St. Louis. Those attempts landed us one year of John Seyfert.

His lack of awareness of the acedemic failings of two players, pulley and edwin, also kern can be put into that category.

I would say recruiting players out of your element, recruiting players who have no chance at qualifying, and then not having the players you did manage to get keep their grades up enough to play are all examples of not being grounded.

[Billikenbooster]

I would venture to state that he tried to recruit guys that we really had a very small chance of getting to come here. He wasn't really grounded in the strengths of what SLU is about, compared to how UB has been able to bring in players in one year.

[slu72]

First, his flawed recruiting strategy. Taking flyers on the big name WC kids really hurt the program. From all I understand about 'Zo he had a good rapport with his players but even his winning personality could not overcome a WC stars desire to stay somewhere near his home, or if he was going to go east it was going to be for a big time school, ala Hayes at Kentucky. Also, his claims about certain players, eg McClain "best athlete" (too bad he's never healthy), Edwin making it in the NBA (too bad he won't play D or study). I think from the get go, 'Zo saw SLU as a stepping stone back to a Pac10 job. If he could have hit on a couple of these kids sure they would have made an impact on the program, but they would have had more of an impact on his career..."If I can recruit great WC talent to come to the MidWest, think what I can recruit if my address is Seattle." I still think he's going to end up as an assistant in the NBA when all is said and done. Thanks for the miracle in Memphis and being a great guy, but overall he did more to advance his career than he did the program.

[billiken_roy]

dont be too quick to dismiss edwin yet. he will be a fixture in the kent state lineup this year. there is no doubt the young man is very talented. i would hope he has learned his lesson on and off the court and will show us accordingly what he could have been.

[slu72]

I tend to agree, but you can't make it in the NBA if your mind is on some beach in Trinidad with steel drum music wafting through the palm trees.

[tseugnekillib]

I disagree with you re the west coast recruiting issue. Josh Fisher, a west coast product, will be our starting PG and probably a team MVP candidate at year-end. The other west coast signee, Ryan Hollins, imo would have been a 25 minute per game player as a freshman at SLU if Coach Romar stayed. (Hollins averaged 17 minutes per game at UCLA last season.) With two of your five starters being west coast preps, I think that only would have helped SLU's recruiting in that area.

I see no difference in Coach Romar recruiting the west coast than Coach Soderberg recruiting Philadelphia and New Jersey. You recruit where you can get good players.

I agree re the academic potential of Pulley and Edwin. While both are quality players, their academic potential or more likely, their academic desires were overrated. Re Nick Kern, the former coach was either misled or extremely naive, or both.

[thetorch]

I can't connect fisher and Hollins with that.

Fisher was a pepperdine recruit, he had already signed on to Romar before Romar was hired. He along with Varner followed Roamr here. That is a different situation than recruiting guys outright from the WC to come to St. Louis.

Hollins can be pointed to as the cumulative result of Romars west coast pursuits. But Hollins never played here, Romar skipped out and Hollins went to UCLA. Romar spent all that time on the West coast, finally gets a decent player and then that guy can't even come to SLU, that is all Romar and SLU have to show for his foolish west coast recruiting, one Montana kid who played here one year and saw 2 minutes a game, and a decent big man who ended up never stepping foot on the court at SLU. If Romar had been more grounded he would have been after the several area players who went elsewhere who would have maybe considered coming to SLU, instead of courting some fantasy of a West Coast pipeline to SLU.

[3star_recruit]

There is a big difference in getting a committment from Josh Fisher, an unranked kid who had already signed to play for Romar at Pepperdine and recruiting a top 50 player like Jamal Sampson, who was highly sought after by every school in the PAC 10. With that being said, the only local kid that I blame Romar for missing on was Phillip Gilbert. David Lee had his choice of Final Four contenders, Jimmy McKinney went to play for the most successful program in the state, Darren Brooks was a partial qualifer, Marcellus Sommerville committed to Iowa out of high school and Gary Buchanan went off to prep school on the East Coast. Stetson Hairston is a nice role player but he isn't a program maker.

[billiken_roy]

hey i missed out on gilbert as well. and i saw a lot of his games in h.s. i guess i was so mesmerized watching darius, i never noticed him. romar probably did the same thing as i am convinced he finished 3rd behind st johns and the nba on darius. so we know romar saw phillip a lot as well.

[tseugnekillib]

imo, Coach Romar was banking on Mo Baker and thus passed on Gilbert, who he liked.....but not more than Baker.

[Schasz]

So he ended up getting neither one...pretty much par for the course for that failed regime...glad we had our regime change, as I like Coach Soderberg 110% more.

[choice]

not recruiting phillip gilbert was a HUGE mistake. he had already signed sloan, edwin and wasted a scholarship of mcClain in the fall. he had only one left and saved it for baker. gilbert wanted to come, but he could not wait any longer for something that wasn't going to happen. edwin was a nice player as well, but he was not as good as gilbert in high school. 'Zo blew that one in the fall. Terrible move.

[billiken_roy]

choice, edwin was the illinois class "a" player of the year as a junior and showed extremely well in the shootout. i would have taken edwin over gilbert in high school as well based strictly on that junior year.

[tseugnekillib]

Your nearly four years of hindsight on Gilbert's fine career is wonderful. I don't recall your campaigning "Gilbert to SLU" four years ago!

[jjray]

>I tend to agree, but you can't make it in the NBA if your

>mind is on some beach in Trinidad with steel drum music

>wafting through the palm trees.

This statement is a tired stereotype. I was disappointed to read it on this board.

[thetorch]

huh isn't edwin from the carribean? If I was a trinadadian and was stuck in a St. Louis winter I would be praying for steel drums and sandy beaches.