nomad

Crews got fired after a bad streak at Evansville and was beyond awful at Army. His winning days go back 20 years

nwflyer

I can't find an article that says Jim Crews was fired at Evansville. I can find statements similar to: "Jim Crews, who ended a 17-year career at Evansville in March when he took the head coaching position at Army"

http://gopurpleaces.com/sports/2007/...hleticshistory

During his 17 years at Evansville, Jim Crews had a losing record in conference twice - his first season in the MCC and his last in the MVC. Evansville has not had a winning record in the MVC since Crews left. Evansville last made the NCAA tournament in 1998-1999. Crews left Evansville after the 2001-2002 season. Based on W-L records, I find it hard to expect more from Jim Crews during his years at Evansville.

In spite of Crews losing record at Army, he was given a contract extention the summer before he was fired. He was fired for undisclosed issues.

I don't know Jim Crews. It also appears to me that some people who have bad things to say about Jim Crews also don't know Jim Crews.

bprichard

It seems like it would be really hard to recruit to a school whose jerseys have sleeves. When did Evansville finally stop doing that? Evansville had some really strong teams back in the MCC. I hated them so much growing up, both for beating UD and the sleeves.

nomad

seems kindoff strange that a guy who was "successful" could never get another head coaching gig other than a military academy. And even then his "style" went too far over the top for even the brass at West Point.

buckswope

Crews's 88-89 Evansville squad was the first MCC team to earn an at-large bid (Gillen owned those MCC Tourneys), going 23-4 in the regular season with the only conference losses coming @X (NCAA) and @SLU (NIT runner-up).

I have no idea the circumstances that led him to Army, but one possibility is that he didn't have the desire to keep up with the evolving standard of what was necessary to maintain an NCAA-tourney caliber D1 program and took a job where he could just coach.

As a Billiken fan, I'm clinging to the idea that he's going to adequately steer the ship for this season with Rick's players, guide SLU to the Sweet 16, then ride off into the sunset and let someone else take over the program.

X-band '01

I don't remember when they went back to conventiona jerseys, but the sleeve jerseys were meant to be in memory of an Evansville team that was decimated by a plane crash sometime in the 70s.

Muddy Waters

Atlantic 10 Preview: Saint Louis Interim Coach Jim Crews Has Big Shoes to Fill (Jeff Eisenberg, The Dagger - October 21, 2012)

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uz2b-len

Interesting article for the non-initiate such as myself. Crews did have some time away from coaching. I would allow for the possibility that a person can mature and acquire a little wisdom through their experiences as they age. Hopefully, he had took the opportunity to ponder and correct what got him fired at Army. (Mediocre seasons not withstanding--what other kind of season does Army basketball every have?) I'm thinking of Tom Coughlin, who made some big changes in how he related to his players, and has two Superbowl rings to show for it. Not Steve Lappas, who was even worse at my place than he was at Villanova. When I asked Lappas what he had learned from his Villanova experience and he would do differently now, he said, "Maybe run a little more." That's when I knew we were screwed.

EC Basketball

Majerus made the best choice in picking Crews. Crews played for one of the best teams in the history of the NCAA. Indiana's 1976 team. Yes he played - didnt start but was a hell of a guard. He played for Bob Knight. Then coached at Indiana as an assitant. He did an exceptional job at Evansville winning 20+ games on numerous occasions in a tough conference. He then went to Army - due to Knights first job at Army - and did a good job at one of the toughest places in the nation to coach basketball This guy can coach, he is a proven winner in the past, he has experience and now has a very good team.
The Billikens will continue to win and grow. Watch out A10 Crews has something to prove.

__________________
06-2007 Season 54-26 67%
07-2008 Season 54-35 60%
08-2009 Season 46-42 52%
09-2010 Season 56-38 59%
10-2011 Season 19-23*
11-2012 Season 56-38 59%

07-2012 Overall 285-202 58%

Muddy Waters

Welcome to the Atlantic 10, Jim.



SLU Loses at Home to Santa Clara (Tom Timmermann, St. Louis Post-Dispatch - November 15, 2012)

The breakdown for SLU was pretty complete Wednesday night at Chaifetz Arena. The offense didn’t work. The defense didn’t work.

SLU got slammed by Santa Clara 74-62.

The game stopped being close late in the first half, and the final score was not indicative of the dominance of the Broncos. SLU got beat, and beat bad, in 40 minutes of disjointed basketball.

If SLU’s offense was supposed to flow from its defense, on this occasion, nothing moved. "I don’t have an answer why, but that is the correct statement," interim coach Jim Crews said. "We just quit on our offense. … We didn’t play very good. We were pretty consistent at not being good tonight. We weren’t strong with the ball. … We quit on our offense continually, we would only get to one side, maybe two, then quit on it. I have to do a better job of getting them to understand we have to continue with it, believe in the system, stay in the system."

It was the worst loss for SLU since it moved into Chaifetz Arena in 2008-09 and featured Santa Clara’s Kevin Foster scoring 30 points, the second-most by an opponent in Chaifetz. "Foster had his way," Crews said, "every which way."

SLU (1-1) heads to Kansas City on Monday to play Texas A&M and, it hopes, a game to follow with Kansas, though after Wednesday’s effort, the thought of a meeting with the Jayhawks looks a bit more daunting.

SLU is, right now, a team with issues.

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buckswope

The answer is pretty simple. SLU only has 5 active players who are battle tested in Rick's system. The system requires a high level of mental focus and hinges on all 5 players on the court playing as a single cohesive unit.

They can get by with 4 veterans and 1 noob - provided none of the 4 are too fatigued and that the noob can at least set a proper pick - but as soon you put 2 guys out there who aren't battle tested in the system, the other 3 grow frustrated when them, abandon the system and try to take over on their own.

Majerus would always yank star who was veering away from the system - even if a short bench meant subbing in a mediocre player. That was never an issue last year as the team was injury free and the bench was always deep.

more cowbell

So it's ok for St. Louis players to be inexperienced since they will get better? Xavier players, however, simply don't have enough experience to compete in the A10.

Muddy Waters

SLU Introduces Jim Crews As Head Coach (CBS Sports, St. Louis - April 12, 2013)

ST. LOUIS - He’s the interim head coach no longer.

Saint Louis University formally introduced Jim Crews as head coach of the school’s men’s basketball team at a Friday afternoon news conference at Lorenzini’s inside Chaifetz Arena.

Crews led the 2012-13 team as interim head coach at the beginning of the season after it was announced that head coach Rick Majerus was too ill to coach. Majerus died on December 1, 2012.

After winning a school record 28 games, Crews was named Atlantic 10 coach of the year, as well as The Sporting News and National Association of Basketball Coaches national "Coach of the Year."

Saint Louis Billikens - HS Class of 2013 Commitment List (Rivals.com)

antboy

Surprising to me, but it's tough not to hire him after he won so many coach of the year awards. The problem is that he did it with Majerus' recruits. My understanding is his limitation is recruiting more so than coaching, and he'll have to be given some time to build the recruiting since I assume it was next to impossible to recruit effectively as an interim coach.

Wonder how long the contract is for.

Flyer75

Crews did much much better then I expected last season, but I guess time will tell moving forward. I hope SLU didn't find themselves jumping the gun on this with a long term deal. (I have no clue on the terms). UD found themselves in a similar situation with Gregory after some early success he was signed to like a 8-10 year deal and were stuck.