TheChosenOne

Love it! Molly Brown’s is going to drop the bag to deliver this one to the Billikens!

In theory I think this is right. I think most of us have a tough time thinking the boosters who were funding basketball programs over the $3 million being speculated ($20.5 million with 15% going to hoops as posted by @TheA_Bomb which lines up with what has been written/posted on social media by those seemingly in the know) on their own are just going to go away though. I struggle with thinking that coaches like Calipari, Pearl, Sampson, etc. are going to be operating with less money than they have been and are going to accept being at a disadvantage to programs in the non-BCS leagues that are well funded. It is certainly going to be interesting to see play out and I am encouraged to hear SLU is looking to spend at the level you referenced. Crowd sourcing, does opting in mean that the school also has to now fund all of the scholarships? I know there was talk of increasing the number of scholarships for some sports and in the past SLU was not fully funding the scholarship limits.

Correct, I think this has become the reality for a few seasons now. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get power conference programs to play you on your home court. And I think fans of those programs would blast their coach if they saw their team playing a game at SLU. It is the unfortunate reality at this point. Candidly, I am not sure what the solution is or how programs like SLU should schedule. I hate it.

I think the problem with that is that college athletics at the highest level is by nature a farce. We are supposed to believe that the most talented basketball players are capable of sitting in the same classroom with the brightest students in the world at institutions few of us would ever get into (but they met the NCAA eligibility requirements…..)? It’s not reality. So instead, these prestigious academic institutions that decide they also want to compete in athletics, had to find ways to keep their top athletes eligible and clearly the NCAA understood and accepted this. We seldom hear about football or basketball players at high major programs being ineligible or having to sit out a game for academic reasons. Sure, there are athletes who are also good students and we hear all about those ones, but that’s not common. And honestly, why should they be expected to be? They are pursuing their career of being a professional athlete and we’ve decided for a number of sports that college athletics is the next step to get there. I’ve long said they should eliminate any academic requirements for college basketball and football players. Let them pursue their sport to the max without silly academic requirements that top schools were ignoring anyways. And like I said, it is silly to believe they are even capable of doing so anyways at some of these institutions. None of this is meant as a shot at the athhletes (the nerds cheering them on have no business on the basketball court either), but one issue we seem to run into is refusing to acknowledge the obvious when it comes to a lot of things. The farce of the student athlete when talking about athletes at Duke or Notre Dame has always frustrated me (the same kid who signs at Houston or Miami instead is a cocky thug). And while we are at it, stop with the bullsh!t majors. Although maybe we won’t need some of them if we just eliminate forcing athletes to pretend to be students.

It is a neat area and campus. Their athletic facilities are rather impressive, and the campus is neat with the hills and mix of new and historic buildings. Bentonville is a neat town to visit and just like 30 minutes north of Fayetteville.

I don’t follow college softball, but see that the top 6 ranked teams are all from the SEC. That conference is something else. Let’s go shock the college softball world!

Have you read Jack Carr’s book, Red Sky Mourning? It’s fiction, but a fun read dealing with quantum computing and AI being used in combat.

I think that’s a fair comment. I also don’t think SLU has ever done a good enough job connecting as the city’s team. Sure we do cheesy tag lines and talk about being as much, but since Spoon we just haven’t accomplished that. I realize one can make a strong argument that winning would solve that, but just a general failure in my opinion. I also thought we failed in marketing Avila, but I suppose we have another season to do better there. Winning tends to cure all which sadly seems to be the plan of our athletic department.

The team was pretty average. I was surprised by how pedestrian our offense looked most games, but understand we were dealing with roster limitations. Basically a team just outside of the top 100 gets a C from me. That doesn’t change my opinion of Schertz, but this season was a dud.

I do agree. But, if we are talking about Duke, it should be noted that 3 of those 4 starters who came from Duke are freshman superstars (and another superstar freshman has started some games as well), so a bit different since that just requires landing those studs vs. retaining them. Basically, also reliant now on big pockets buying their players they just happen to be the elite prep recruits vs. transfers.

Thank you thank you! This immediately destroys my productivity this afternoon.

I will be the out of touch guy, what site is the best for monitoring the portal?

The thing I appreciate with Schertz is that he fully acknowledges the deficiencies of the team’s performance and now that includes the lack of athleticism on the roster. I was often quite taken by how unathletic and weak our guys looked this season with some having questions about their overall fitness level. That needs to be an area of emphasis this summer. I sometimes wonder if the team were healthy how big of a concern this would have been, but obviously going forward we need more strength and athleticism throughout the roster.

Will anyone be watching to find out?

Maybe we are able to make a bigger financial commitment to him this spring vs. a year ago? He has played at 3 different schools in his 3 seasons, why not make it 4 haha.