It turns out that familiarity played a big part in Kramer Soderberg, the son of former SLU coach Brad Soderberg, choosing to go to Miami (Ohio).

 The town of Oxford, Ohio, reminded Soderberg of Madison, Wisc., where he grew up while his dad was coaching at Wisconsin, and one of the people on the staff at Miami is Jason Grunkemeyer, who was on Brad’s staff at SLU.

 ”Grunk tried to explain it to me and he said the only place he could compare it to was Madison. He said it was a mini-version of Madison. I liked it. It’s a neat campus.”

 Soderberg, the Post-Dispatch’s player of the year, chose Miami over Wisconsin-Green Bay, which had its own advantages since there are plenty of Soderbergs within a short drive of Green Bay.

“On the plane ride home, I wrote down the good things and the bad things and compared them on paper. They were extremely close. It pretty much came down at the end to a gut feeling. I followed my stomach, which I’ve done all my life.”

By coincidence, Miami was able to go after Soderberg after another St. Louis area player, Alex Moosman from Borgia, decided to transfer, opening up a scholarship.

Kramer’s dad, meanwhile, remains without a job. Brad has interviewed for several head coaching jobs and is a candidate for the still-open Florida Atlantic job, though former St. John’s coach Mike Jarvis is believed to be the frontrunner for that job.