former_d1 Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 I would say yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLIKNS Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 I would agree.Considering Brad has already gotten Drejaj(NJ),and Bryant(MD and prep school). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenTX Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 I think our TV presence will only benefit from this potential move to the A-10. We pick up the Philly market as well as the Baltimore/DC market, while keeping southern Ohio in Dayton/Cincy. Boston/Providence with UMASS and Providence College. The more TV exposure we get the more recognition SLU will gain in the media which is crucial to landing talented recruits. With Dre and Reg being key players and being from that region can only help our chances in the future as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Don't you mean Rhode Island? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StLouBlue Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 I wouldn't be so quick to say yes. Losing the games with Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette and Memphis will not be good. It is good for recruiting when we could put a high school kid behind the bench when a top 10 team came into town with 12K+ fans screaming. We may not see many #1s like Louisville or Cincinnati back here for a while. I think Xavier is the only team recently that has hit the top 10 in the A-10, although I guess Temple was in 4 years or so ago. I don't know when the last time the A-10 had a team ranked #1. The A-10 has a better TV deal(at least according to the posts I have read) and will put us into more eastern markets, but I don't think these will make up the fact the A-10 is not as good a conference as CUSA. I don't think being in the A-10 will help our recruiting in markets like Chicago, Milwaukee, Indiana/KY, or Texas since we will no longer be playing games (at least conference games) there anymore. I don't think we will be able to recruit those new eastern cities/regions very well right away, it takes time to get your contacts with high school and AAU coaches. AD & Reggie seemed like right place and the right time type recruits, they were not the focus of a long term recruitment. I guess I would have to say no, being in the A-10 does not help recruiting. What will help recruiting, no matter what league we are in is winning and I think we do have a better chance of doing that in the A-10 than in CUSA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
former_d1 Posted September 24, 2003 Author Share Posted September 24, 2003 My thoughts were we are going to recruit local second tier players first. I would go to slu and the a10 before the valley and sms or siu. Tier one recruits I think would look at the a10 before the new cusa or the valley. Can we keep mu, cini, depaul and louiv on the ooc schedule? would these teams still play us or just pad the schedule with cupcakes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 if we are talking about comparing the current c-usa with the a-10, i agree with stloublue that the current c-usa is a stronger conference with better recruiting markets that suit the billikens. however if louisville, cincy, marquette and depaul are all gone, then the a-10 does present a better level of competition and better markets than what will remain of c-usa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 If we get a better TV package it will help us ... if not I don't think it will. Recruits want to be on TV. I think losing the conference games against Cinci, Marq, Lou, and Mem will hurt us if we can't replace them with other big name recognition games... if we can add 2-3 games of teams such as Arizona, maybe being in the A-10 helps us get some high profile non conference east coast games. Bottom line if we play on TV and play top quality teams with good name recognition and most of all we win and increase our name recognition it will help. I think the perception of us as a team will be better if we can consistently finish in the top 3 in the A-10 than if we finish 4-6 in CUSA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLU8592 Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 IMHO, joining the A10 should give SLU exposure in the northeast and potentially give rise to greater recruiting opportunities in that sector of the country. Hey, maybe we'll also get an increase in academic prestige since we may now be associated with the northeastern US (higher billing rates for Northeastern addresses on business cards you know). I'm joking here by the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Regardless of what conference we are in we must stop thinking about recruiting second tier local talent - that is absurd and will be counterproductive to us being successful. We must always recruit top level talent local or not! People on this board simple have to accept the fact that going after second tier recruits is not where SLU needs or wants to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StLouBlue Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 We have had the advantage of local recruiting over the MVC, Horizon, etc. I don't think moving to the A-10 will change this. Does moving to the A-10 help us recruit against Missouri, Illinois and other Big10 or Big12 schools, I don't think so. The A-10 is a step down from the current CUSA, so I think it will hurt recruiting. Since CUSA is breaking up, we don't have a lot of choices in where we can go. I think the question should be, does being in the A-10 still provide us an advantage in recruiting over other conferences like MVC or Horizon? As I said above, locally I don't think it will change, the kids that want to stay local will come if we were in the A-10 or CUSA. Where I think being in the A-10 may hurt recruiting is in our region--Iowa, outstate Illinois/Chicago, Wisconsin, Texas and down south. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Moving from Conference USA (after it loses its most visible programs) to the Atlantic 10 (which I wish would change its name) will help SLU get recruits who consider the conference good and will hinder SLU from getting recruits who consider the conference below them (i.e., they aspire to play in a "Big 6" conference). How much did C-USA help SLU in recruiting? Not enough, apparently. The most important thing is to have a coach who can win, motivate a team, and evalutate talent. It won't happen overnight, but Brad Soderberg will develop a program that will compete with any team in the country. As long as the conference is respectable and provides adequate television exposure and at-large Tournament opportunities, then I'm confident that Soderberg will still work his rear end off to make the Billikens a program that will be competitive towards winning a National Championship. I don't think Brad will look at the Atlantic 10 as a crutch, and neither should we fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Well yes and no. The thing that I am most impressed about with Brad is that he recruits for a system and he seems to be having the success he anticipates. I think that initially we will be successful because of the system, not because of the superior talent. We will only become consistently successful when the success of the system draws a higher caliber player to SLU. Now under Romar we tried for years to recruit the top talent for his sytem, but it never materialized. For how many top notch players did we end up as the #2 choice? What was the cost of the misplaced effort to get those players? Who did we miss out on selecting? The great thing about college hoops is that there any many paths to success (success defined as a Top 25 ranking). Talent, coaching, system/style, hustle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 I assume he meant the Providence market. Rhode Island gets covered in Providence but splits loyalties with the Friars (and to a lesser extent Brown). UMass gets little attention in the Boston market in an average year(less than Illinois gets in the St. Louis market I imagine) unless they are winning a lot. UMass is interesting media story because they do generate good coverage statewide when they are top 25 but very much forgotten outside of Western Mass ordinarily(only 1.5 million people there). This is a serious drawback to the A-10. They have a very good quality of play but no teams get top college coverage in any major metro area. Combined Temple,St. Joe's and a bit LaSalle get a lot of coverage in Philly but Nova, Penn, and a bit Drexel get coverage too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 While the Atlantic 10 is still officially the Atlantic 10 they have been "transitioning" their "brand" to "A-10". In other words their new official logo emphasizes "A-10" and pushes "Atlantic" into the background. Inclusion of Saint Louis (down the Mississippi and around Florida to the Atlantic) may hasten a change. http://www.atlantic10.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
former_d1 Posted September 24, 2003 Author Share Posted September 24, 2003 We should go after top tier local talent but I would like to know in 90% on the second tier would take a scholie from os over the sms and siu's of the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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