When Brad Soderberg was announced the head coach of the Saint
Louis University men’s basketball team on April 12, 2002, many
people didn’t quite know what to make of the decision. Soderberg
had been an assistant under former SLU coach Lorenzo Romar during
the 2001-2002 season, when the Billikens finished fifth in the
Conference USA standings; yet relatively few people were familiar
with him. Now, as he enters his second season as SLU’s head coach,
many of those who doubted his hiring have changed their ways.
In his first season at SLU, Soderberg guided his team to a 16-14
record and a bid into the National Invitation Tournament, which was
the first postseason bid for the Billikens since the 1999-2000
season. With their 9-7 record in C-USA, the Billikens finished in
fourth place in the conference, giving them a first-round bye in
the C-USA Tournament.
Soderberg’s team won eight of their last 10 games, which
included a seven-game winning streak to close the regular season.
The streak began with an upset over No. 2-ranked Louisville that
sent a boisterous crowd at the Savvis Center into pandemonium. Six
days later the Billikens won their first road game in Cincinnati in
20 years when they knocked off the Bearcats 58-55 at the Shoemaker
Center.
As he enters his second season as SLU’s head coach, Soderberg
feels he now has a fuller understanding of SLU’s advantages and
limitations. He is also very pleased with the quality resources SLU
has to offer, such as academics, facilities–particularly with the
announcement of plans to build an on-campus arena–and the city of
St. Louis, which draws potential recruits.
“I really like it here. This is a very attractive place to a lot
of young kids and we are going to continue to recruit hard and sell
them on those points,” Soderberg said.
This season should be exciting for SLU fans, considering the
team’s great finish to last season, the progression of plans for an
on-campus arena, the recent announcement of SLU’s move to the
Atlantic 10 Conference and the signing on Wednesday of three
talented local basketball players–Dwayne Polk of Vashon High
School in St. Louis, Tommie Liddell of East St. Louis High School
and Luke Meyer from St. Francis Borgia High School in Washington,
Mo. All three will be freshmen at SLU next year and have four years
of eligibility.
“Right now our program is clearly on an upswing,” Soderberg
said. “Yesterday we signed three kids who I really think are going
to be fan favorites and take our program to some new heights.”
“Of all the things about SLU that I like, I like that it is
Catholic,” Soderberg said. “I feel very comfortable.” He is a
product of Catholic education, having attended a Catholic grade
school as well as Pacelli High School in Stevens Point, Wis., where
his father was the basketball coach for 32 years.
In between his graduation from the University of
Wisconsin-Stevens Point and his hiring as an assistant coach at
UW-Madison, Soderberg worked as an assistant at UW-Stevens Point,
Colorado State, Fort Hays State and Loras College before being
named the head coach at Loras in 1988, where he remained for five
years. In 1993, he accepted the head coaching position at South
Dakota State, where he led the Jackrabbits for two seasons before
joining Bennett in Madison.
While in Madison, Bennett and Soderberg turned around a Badger
program that had been a perennial Big Ten doormat into a perennial
postseason participant. The culmination of their success came in
2000 when the Badgers reached the NCAA Final Four.
The one cardinal rule that Soderberg stresses to his players is
that they always work hard. Last season, their work was rewarded
with their eight-game winning streak and an invitation to the
NIT.
“I’m continually impressed with how hard [Chris Sloan, Josh
Fisher, Ross Varmer and Phillip Hunt] played,” Soderberg said. “The
effort and leadership I’ve seen from the seniors has been the most
impressive thing.”
