MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

hopefan · October 10, 2009, 10:02:22 PM

Formal Practice doesn't start until Oct 15 - couldn't have been a very formal setting - more like a pick up session......

hopefan · October 10, 2009, 10:04:33 PM

The Cardinals are already out, The rams may not win all season, Mizzou loses, the Blues are down after Sweden - I Can't Wait for D3HOOPS !!!!!!!

ac slater · October 11, 2009, 03:17:24 PM

One of the Westminster players is good friends with a Mizzou player. Said it was pick up games where they kept track of the score. Sorry if I made it sound like an official game.

hopefan · October 11, 2009, 03:32:26 PM

No problem AC your tidbits from Westmin are appreciated - try to make it to practice and let us know who the new faces are and who is looking good....

Love_for_the_Game · October 11, 2009, 09:56:06 PM

Well I would like to say that my GOOD source is a GOOD source, it comes from a player at Fontbonne. He already told him and I think to the team so you might want to check your SOURCe. That is why I said it was a GOOD source bc it comes from the team. Yes he has been coaching for a while but honestly I think its time for his leaving. The game is to new and his time is up. Not trying to say he has not been a good coach but I think if someone else would had his teams the last 3 years they could of made a run at the National Title and not just to make the tourny. They were very good teams and only missed a coach to take them all the way. But he will always be remembered as a great coach and with a lot of wins. Just want to see who is going to be coaching after him..maybe the ass. coaches, not sure. We will see

y_jack_lok · October 11, 2009, 10:27:03 PM

Well, there has already been one coaching change at FU and it isn' the head coach. I heard yesterday that former Webster player and FU assistant coach Scott Spinner is now the men's and women's basketball coach for Lindenwood U's Bellville campus. Apparently this is a new campus so he gets to establish the programs by spending his first year recuriting. I wish him success.

fcnews · October 11, 2009, 10:41:01 PM

It's a shame your source was miss informed. I'll bet Hopefan's last dollar on the fact that McKinney will be on the FU sidelines next year.

What another coach could of done with past teams is just speculation. It would of took another coach with the ability to recruit a bunch like them. Let alone coach them. It's been stated on this board that the past three year teams lacked depth and other pieces that kept it from winning the games it did. Run at the National Title? I appreciate your respect for the talent.

The game hasn't changed. FC was an uptempo 3pt shooting system way before it was accepted as traditional. FC has played a type of game that attracts players.

And, you can go back to the John Thomas and Steve King days, to hear that this is Coach's last class. Bret Farve syndrome. Why quit doing something you love and are still successful at?

Living Life for the Love of it.

fcnews · October 11, 2009, 10:48:37 PM

You are correct Yjak. Lindenwood University of Belleville. Scott is in for some work. An agreement between Lindenwood and SWIC keep him from recruiting HS seniors on the Il. side. The program is still researching an affiliation.

The new VP at LU-B is also from Fontbonne. This is who approached him with the oppurtunity. He will be hard working searching for players.

Gregory Sager · October 11, 2009, 11:21:23 PM

Quote from: Love_for_the_Game on October 11, 2009, 09:56:06 PM
Well I would like to say that my GOOD source is a GOOD source, it comes from a player at Fontbonne. He already told him and I think to the team so you might want to check your SOURCe. That is why I said it was a GOOD source bc it comes from the team.

If fcnews says that Coach McKinney isn't retiring, then he isn't retiring. You can take that to the bank. His sources are far, far better than yours, LFTG.

Quote from: Love_for_the_Game on October 11, 2009, 09:56:06 PMNot trying to say he has not been a good coach but I think if someone else would had his teams the last 3 years they could of made a run at the National Title and not just to make the tourny. They were very good teams and only missed a coach to take them all the way.

You clearly don't know D3 very well if you think that Fontbonne had national-championship-caliber talent, LFTG. Yes, the Griffins were very good -- well above the SLIAC's usual standards -- but they weren't a national-championship-caliber team. Wash U, which has been to the Final Four the past three seasons and won the Walnut and Bronze the past two, has played Fontbonne four times over that three-year span and won by 15, 19, 16, and 11 points. Of the three other D3 tournament teams that Fontbonne has played over that span, only once -- in the '08 tournament's opening round against Mary Hardin-Baylor -- have the Griffins played the opponent close all the way to the wire, losing 65-62. In the other two games, both played last season, the Griffins lost at home to Elmhurst, 74-61, in a game in which Elmhurst led by a minimum of six points over the last quarter, and on the road at Wheaton, 85-58, in a bona-fide blowout in last March's first round of the dance.

Given that only one of those seven games was not a double-digit loss, it's safe to say that coaching was not the difference. Personnel was the difference. I've talked to Wheaton and Elmhurst people who were very impressed with what Coach McKinney got out of his players. But he didn't have the horses to run with the nation's elite. There's no shame in that, and Fontbonne fans can be proud of what the Griffins accomplished over the past three seasons. But it's unreasonable to hold him and his program to a standard that's more than likely unattainable for any SLIAC team under present circumstances.

hopefan · October 12, 2009, 07:15:05 AM

Seriously Love uv da game - don't doubt the word of FC when it comes to anything regarding the future wishes of Coach McKinney - SERIOUSLY, you'll only come off looking silly.... This is not to say I don't enjoy reading the rest of your thoughts regarding Fontbonne's past and future exploits...... keep up the good work

FC - all I can say is good job...... VERY mellow response.....

Greg - Well put - I appreciate your positive thoughts on Fontbonne and the SLIAC - hope I'll get to see you somewhere on the road this season, and if you have any plans at all for a game in St. Louis, let me know - would be happy to help you out....

y_jack_lok · October 12, 2009, 11:15:51 AM

One of the local tv stations did a brief segment on the Fontbonne men's program last year and I was impressed with Coach McKinney's interview. The thing I rember most out of all that he said is that he wanted his players to have fun playing the game and that he gave them some freedom on the floor to help accomplish that. So when FC says, above: "FC has played a type of game that attracts players." I think the goals of having fun and giving the players a certain measure of freedom must be part of that.

Gregory Sager · October 12, 2009, 01:31:34 PM

Quote from: hopefan on October 12, 2009, 07:15:05 AMGreg - Well put - I appreciate your positive thoughts on Fontbonne and the SLIAC - hope I'll get to see you somewhere on the road this season, and if you have any plans at all for a game in St. Louis, let me know - would be happy to help you out....

Ditto, Hopefan. Let me know if you're coming up to Chicagoland again sometime this season.

fcnews · October 12, 2009, 02:45:16 PM

First - Thanks to Sager, Hope and Yjak for your comments.

On LOTG's behalf, this is not the first time these kinds of assumptions come up. I'm sure there is a long list of players who have heard " Your last game will be mine", from Coach McKinney. Also, his appointment to the NCAA Mangement Committee and his term on the Financial Aid Compliance Council are complete at the end of this year.

More then one set of parents have ask "How long will you be hear?". It's part of recruiting. Parents want to know before they commit out of pocket monies, if the coach recruiting their son or daughter is going to be around for them. I'm sure this was a point of discussion with the Lisch family and two HS kids from Willard.

I think it might be an issue of age. I don't know why. If a coach can still recruit and win. If he still enjoys what he's doing. If his health permits. Age is not a real motivation to retire. Coach has all the above going for him. Plus Mrs. Coach enjoys the game almost as much as Coach.

LOTG - It's obvious that you do spend sometime on the FU campus. If you want to talk basketball you should just walk down the DSAC hall to the Athletics office. Coach's open door policy stretchs along way. If Hopefan has an all access pass to the inter sanctumn of the FU offices

, I'm sure Coach would be glad to chat with ya.

HCACBBALL · October 12, 2009, 08:31:01 PM

Any word on Mac? I wonder what Coach Creal is brewing up at Mac?

Love_for_the_Game · October 13, 2009, 12:04:01 AM

That is what I heard and I believe it. It might not happen but that is what I heard. And to GS, you dont make any sense. I said that if FU had a better coach they would have gotten farther. Since they had the players that is why they made it to the national tourny. They rode the players and if they would of had a BETTER coach a GOOD coach would have gotten them further. Good players can only take a team so far its the COACHing that takes them to Championships. Just look at WU, FU had more talented players but WU had a way better coach. That is why WU has done what they have done. You take WU coach and put him on FU teams that they had last year, they would have gotten further or won the whole thing. You put Coach Mck. on WU, they lose the first round or dont even make it. I just think they had too good of a team and with a good coach they would have won a lot more games.

To FC news, you might have all of the connections but if this was his final year he would not want you to be telling everyone so you would keep it shhhhh shhh...right

I am just saying what I heard and it was a pretty good SOURCE but we will see. Maybe he will stay another year just so he can prove me wrong