That athletic department is focused on one thing at the moment...basketball I wonder if anyone even noticed they were bounced from the A 10 tourney and ended up with a losing record...
I am (Dayton and La Salle fan), but I did not watch any of your games this season so I have no comment specific to coaching. It's not like you guys aren't competitive, you usually walk all over the A10 during regular season, it's just not up to the T-25 standard the program is used to and there really isn't a lot of A10 tourney success. A lot of blame from the fans has been put on the basketball-only focus and the conf. realignment. I can't disagree with those specifics but conference affiliation alone shouldn't hold back the top flight programs. There are so few powerful programs in men's soccer. How do you attract the top talent, and top opponents to come play you? The last time I went to an SLU home game back in 2014 the stands were half filled with pigeon poop. And you guys charge $10 admission (men's and women's) which is by far the highest among the A10 programs and probably among the highest nationally. My only comment you can take back to your AD is, stop simply milking these non-revenue programs for revenue and start investing in it some more. I'm basing this on limited experience and I don't know what your internal budget issues and breakevens are - but I can't help but think there are other casual observers in the SLU area that would find these outward signs offputting and something's gotta change.
Wrong. First, look at your statement in 2005 terms when you had Temple and Xavier there, and Charlotte coming in. Xavier was heading to the Sweet16 a couple of times back then. It was arguably the best mid major conference then outside of the P-5, or one of two. Certainly a few A10 teams have gone plenty deep in the tournament even after SLU's arrival. A few years ago SJU sent eventual champion UConn to OT, then lost (obv). La Salle went to Sweet16 in 2013 and lost to final four team in Wichita State. Dayton was Elite Eight in 2014 and eventually lost to Top 10 Florida. last year, SJU won their first game then lost to a one seed Oregon, and the 8/9 seed, which is rather high for an A10 squad usually, turned out to be their poison as it so often can be. So, you're cherry picking, to say the A10 has no success in basketball. Conference affiliation could not be the sole reason for SLU's failures.
Mr. hykos, i will assume you havent read all the posts, but we all agree with you... check out one of my earlier relating to the A10 and basketball.... Did a little research for ya Bahramov, dont throw up comments when you havent a clue in hell! 2015-16 - 3 teams (St joes, dayton, VCU) - 7th most overall in teams sent.... 1st first among mid majors 2014-15 - 3 teams (VCU, Davidson, Dayton) - tied for 7th most overall in teams sent - 1st among mid majors 2013-14 - 6 teams (SLU, VCU, Dayton, St Joes, GW, Umass) - tied for 2nd overall in teams sent- 1st among mid majors 2012-13 - 5 teams (SLU, VCU, La Salle, Butler, Temple) - tied for 3rd overall in teams sent - 1st among mid majors 2011-12 - 4 teams (Bonnies, Xavier, SLU, Temple) - tied for 5th overall in teams sent - 1st among mid majors And another little FYI....of the last 5 years SLU made 3 tournament appearances. Not too bad when you've had a few controversies (**cough willie reed cough**), a passing of a coach, a fire sale of players and a new coach. notice a little bit of .....consistency? FIRST AMONG MID MAJORS? we are not the SEC, ACC, BIG10, PAC whatever, etc... stop your nonesense! find the facts out, then make your bonehead comments!
Surely with three NCAA tournament appearances (SLU fans act like they won the tournaments instead of appearing) SLU had two Top 10 recruiting classes the past two years. I must have missed those considering how bad the team has been the past two years. Maybe you would like to explain? Did you know McGinty lives in Springfield, Missouri? Why would SLU allow that?
Great question! I'll guess it's because we still live in a free country. Does seem like a lengthy commute, though, if he drives it daily. Perhaps he's paid by the mile, or gets reimbursed for his commuting costs, or has a (closer) place to crash during the soccer season. I'm curious now, so would you mind asking him. Thanks in advance!
I'm sure everyone has realized this already but Bahramov is a troll who has gotten banned from this site before, he's also had over 20 usernames banned from stltoday.com, and he's had multiple usernames banned from billikens.com. I'd just ignore him. In fact, he just recently got banned again from billikens.com which is why he's been so active here.
He is not a good enough coach to be reimbursed for mileage for a four and a half hour commute. I guess SLU isn't paying him that much. Guess he recruits the foreign players by video over the internet. Not working out so well for him is it? Maybe he should go to some high school and select games and recruit some local kids.
Completely ridiculous to assume someone should live around campus and/or get reimbursed for mileage. Please get away from those assumptions and ambiguous statements.
Furthermore, I think it has been covered why SLU has taken a step back...this isn't 1965 anymore. McGinty isn't a bad dude, but is resistant to the formula that was successful to Warming and Clarke. Donnigan had the same issues. No shock here.
I bet to differ with the bad dude.... i could give you handful of examples of how he is! .... wife was in residency somewhere down there last time i checked...he was staying at hotels on weekends, and the office during some of the week nights.
This is somewhat "common" in my understanding of big-time coaching jobs, regardless of sport. I personally know several coaches who are in this situation. Outside of the personal ones, there's others that you hear of. It's hard to pack everyone up and leave when another spouse has his/her own life (career) too. If it works, it works. Not the life for me.
Care to name any of the coaches and where they are at? How do you get to know the local coaches both high school and select if you are not around?
I would rather not share names. It's not necessary. People are free to live and work where they want. It's up to their employers and their families to make it work. It's not up to me to speculate or divulge anything other than what works for ME and/or my employer. I am in the soccer community. I am involved all over. I have friends in coaching in numerous states. I've worked in 4 states in the last 9 years with soccer. There's a lot we talk about. There's a lot we encourage. There's a lot we rally around each other with.
I don't see many competitive D1 teams that are heavy on "local" players. If anything, those who didn't jump on the international bandwagon originally are moving that way. If you peruse enough rosters you'll see some teams have few international players and others are laden with them. With some teams you'll see 'token' local players, 1-3 guys who get next to zero minutes but help make sure the roster isn't 100% people from other countries and other regions. Teams use up their money on academy players and international players and are looking for local players who are "just happy to be on the team", don't need any money and will stay for 4 years. Similar to the b-ball teams with 8 regular players and then the 5 guys at the end of the bench with 3.8 GPA's and 100% graduation rates, some schools are looking for ballast to keep the roster from having no US or in-state players.
Ehh.. This maybe true at some of you power conference schools, but since we are talking about SLU, I will respectfully disagree. SLU isn't going to win out in a race for the best international recruits. They just aren't. They need to keep a fair share of the local talent in order to propel the program annually. McGinty hasn't even tried. Instead, he has lost out on players like Austin Ledbetter and Keegan McaHugh, who were both highly regarded out of high school, to SIUE and other regional schools. McGinty didn't even sniff them. The list is rather lengthy in the past five years.
How are those " international" players working out for SLU? They were 7-8-2. Last year the High School Player of the Year was from Saint Louis. He went to IU. So why shouldn't McGinty rely on local players then?
I can't add much regarding individual players...my intention was to point out the increasing percentage of international players and academy players taking spots on teams, leaving fewer and fewer spots on D1 rosters for 'local players'. There are D1 teams that come right out and say they won't recruit any domestic players unless they are academy players. Those teams still have a few local players but they aren't getting money or meaningful minutes. I did a quick search in our folders...no ID camp or other marketing from SLU. We get emails from schools all over the country and we don't see any from SLU. Solicitations from all divisions, all regions and all levels of admission are plentiful; some schools do a great job of exposing potential players to their program, campus, conference etc. The first result when googling SLU ID Camp is from 2012. The women's team has more recent materials. Perhaps the SLU coach could do some more marketing and make sure his assistants are attending tournaments and keeping up with the level of recruitment found at other schools. Checking the last few significant tournaments in Region 1, I don't see SLU on the attending coaches list. We laugh about some schools who appear to be better at marketing than soccer but if one of the assistants isn't a full-time marketer/recruiter then somebody else is going to beat SLU to the recruits. Send them a note and ask what recruiting they do...academy events, National League, USYS regional and national championships etc? There are plenty of schools we're not interested in that I still would be able to say "yes, I've seen them at tournaments and get materials from them". If people thought a kid with an offer from IU was going to go to SLU maybe expectations are askew. Every state or region has those kids who are going to one of the premier schools. I suspect the local schools touch base but know they aren't going to keep a kid from IU, Stanford, Notre Dame, etc.
I wasn't talking about just local players. I was talking about the National High School Player of the Year that SLU couldn't talk into going to SLU who was from Saint Louis. How sad is that? I will guarantee you SLU has not one assistant coach as a full time marketer/recruiter. SLU has half of their roster with kids from foreign countries. Not working out so well for them is it?