ACE Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 I've heard Roy try to deflect some accountability from Soderberg's recruiting failures by talking about problems with the SLU administration. What does SLU have to offer compared to Gonzaga, Mo State, SIU, Xavier, Creighton and Butler? The reason I ask is that about 10 years ago, we were better than all of these programs. In recent years, we haven't been. Is that because they have "better administrations" or their school have more to offer? I'm surprised that Roy is so negative about what SLU has to offer. I think there are coaches out there who have equal or less to offer who are doing a better job recruiting. What we have to offer didn't prevent us from landing a nice core of 5 players, but what about the rest of the roster? Why have we had four recruiting periods since the Lisch and Liddell signings without landing a significant contributor? Is it because of "the administration" or because the staff failed in their recruiting efforts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 What is even more shocking is that 10 years ago we were a better program than Marquette! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 And Wisconsin, Tennessee, Clemson, the list could go on and on and on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted January 5, 2007 Author Share Posted January 5, 2007 >And Wisconsin, Tennessee, Clemson, the list could go on and >on and on... With those, the counter argument will be they are state schools or in BCS Conferences. I'm not even going there. I'm just limiting to programs that IMO we should consistently be as good as considering our school and conference affiliation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 ace all i know is that grawer couldnt recruit here, spoon couldnt recruit here, romar, who now looks like a world beater couldnt recruit here, and now folks are saying soderberg cant recruit here. romar is the one that makes me believe the problem is more than coach deep. how can the guy recruit a national champion at ucla and be top 15 annually at washington, but in between he is worthless? the problem is more than coach deep. now i am not saying that the coach isnt a problem. and if he had all the tools and didnt succeed, then fire away. i think long term a coach can be successful in that cheap environment. but there has to be the long term patience to let the man build gradually. there would be periods of two steps forward and one step back and might take more than 5 years, but i agree it can be done. what i dont agree with is it is as simple of hiring a new coach. that is looking for a needle in the haystack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 SLU has much to offer a coach. We are located in a major city. We have been able to sign home and home contracts with top teams unlike some. We have a new on campus arena, practice facility, weight room, and offices all located in the same place - a real one stop service place for the coach and players. We have a campus which very nice - if you haven't been there recently you need to go - it stands up very well against any other urban campus. We pay reasonably well and our assistants are paid reasonably well compared to our peers. You do not have to share the lime light with football - you are the man! I wish I could say we play in a competive conference but we do play in a conf. that has teams located in cities that a recruit has heard of without having to go to a map. I think we have much to offer but like anything else, it is easier to focus on what you don't have than what you do have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NashvilleBilliken Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 "I think we have much to offer but like anything else, it is easier to focus on what you don't have than what you do have." Amen cheese. Kinda like 10 wins and one bad loss... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 and none of that has changed since 1992. so why havent we signed a big name coach in three tries? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knight_rider Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 Are we kidding ourselves; what do we offer? Kids want exposure!! We do not play on TV. Our local newspaper focuses on programs outside of the viewing area. The few that attend games do not make much noise, so where is the big-time atmosphere? Players have a dressing room in a dungeon; where they spend 5 days out of the week. Coaches have to pay for their own cell phones and sometimes their own travel in recruiting; lack of budget - when the A.D. is begging for more funds so she can run a top-notch athletic department and it seems nobody is listening at the top. SLU Athletics leave a lot to be desired, to no fault of anyone in West Pine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 Roy, we have heard that the facilities have been a problem and that is now taken care of so that argument is null. Why have we not gotten big name coach - well I would contend that Spoon was - he had trips to the NCAA, had big wins in the tourney, and had won his conf. I would not put Romar in that category based on what he did at Pepperdine. Also, we all know that Spoon was lazy when it came to recruiting but he did have better results than Brad has even given his lack of effort. My point was that we can recruit here we just have not found the right guy to do it as a total package. Let me ask you this - do you think Self would have gotten kids to come to SLU - he would have come to SLU from Oral Roberts back then. Would Altman have come before he ended up at Creighton - I think so. All I am saying is we have much to offer - we are not the armpit of the D1 world. Hiring is the single most critical component to having success and we simply have not been consistent enough with finding the right person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 bigtime coaches dont come out of springfield missouri. the type might turn into one, but they arent big time. we got him at the end of his run so he could watch the cardinals. if you take hughes out of the equation i dont think that spoon has out recruited anyone at slu. hughes was the ultimate and we had him one year. other than that spoon fell into waldman apparently soderberg fell into lisch and liddell. they all have their conquests. but nobody sustained anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clock_Tower Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Sure, SLU has a lot to offer but the deficiencies (facilities, exposure and tradition) are glaring. Recruiting obviously got tougher recently with the A10 v. the old Conf USA. Easier to say to a recruit, "Play for SLU and you get home & away against Cincy, Memphis, DePaul & Marquette..." Nothing we can do about this now. We can only hope to rekindle old rivalries with X, UD, etc. With the new facilities being built, SLU will have even more to offer. The secret of the Valley seems to be solid but not spectacular recruiting of player who stay for 4 years (become stars in their Jr. and Sr years), an increase in basketball budgets and facilities and commitments to their coaches to keep them from having to start over every few years. I know we all wanted Brad to get a guy like Stemler to add a positive impact now, for Ian's last year; however, our Jr and Sr talent simply does not stack up with that found in top 50 programs. Next year, now that OI and HD have not panned out, the JUCO route must be used. Assuming we can find at least one (hopefully two) JUCO replacement(s) for Ian, we will finally have the upper classmen talent by which to fairly judge Brad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VTIME Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 The program has to offer recruits that actually want to come like 6'9 260 pound centers that want to come and you've seen many times because they play for your sons rival school like Josh Harrellson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted January 6, 2007 Share Posted January 6, 2007 Roy, Self came out of OK City and Tulsa hardly big time areas. I know what you think of Spoon but not to say that he was not big time coach relatively speaking is simply wrong. He did recruit better than Brad - Robinson, Turner, Dobbs, Love, Harris, Waldman, Hughes, Heinrich - you would love to have him back up Ian as opposed to who we have now, Walker, the kid from Kirkwood who came to us from Miami. Brad would love to have those type of players today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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