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Greatest Billiken Games


prebilliken

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Well in my lifetime,  the greatest would have to be the win over the Illini at the dome, closely followed by the win over X on Conk's senior night.

I think the Illini win represented the zenith of the ascension of Billiken basketball in the modern era.  The actual zenith was probably just a bit before.  Then there was a fairly long slow descent followed by a spike to our greatest heights since the white guy/short shorts era, and then a dramatic, truly terrifying, spiraling plunge to the bottom.  And now a flat spot in the bottoms, and we're just waiting to see how high and far we go on the next hill. 

 

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SLU over Iowa in 03-04 NIT. Went to this NIT game at the St Charles Family Arena when I was in high school with my dad. My dad is an Iowa alumn so he was cheering back and forth to give me trouble, but we had gone to ten or so Billikens games that year so he was as excited as I was at the finish. We were down 18 at one point and came back to win. The buzzer beater was great. It could get some relevance for being a post season game, but maybe just sticks out to me because I was there, and it was against the hawk eyes. Not a great article, but this is the best I could find, would be awesome to find a replay to watch..

http://www.espn.com/ncb/recap/_/gameId/240760139

here is a cool article about that season:

http://www.netitor.com/photos/schools/stlo/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/0405guide-0304a.pdf

I remember being at the OT win when Phillip Hunt (who was 5 foot something from what I remember) tipped in a bucket to win over Houston. 

This was the season after Perry graduated and Reggie Bryant had an impressive year. Josh Fisher had a solid senior year.

In recent years.. I was at the double OT win over Dayton. Think it was on Mardi Gras. Can't remember the year, but I think it was already mentioned. Mitchell banked in a 3 at one of the key moments. Place was packed!

Good thread, nice thinking about the past and being hopeful for the future. If I can think of any other games I'll add to the thread.

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On ‎12‎/‎29‎/‎2016 at 10:35 AM, slu72 said:

I don't know if my offering calls for greatest games, but that year we won the Anaheim Holiday Tourney under RM in 2011-12 was probably some of the greatest BB I've ever seen SLU play. We were a friggin' well oiled machine out there. I'd also add the W over a streaking Memphis team in Columbus and then a real nail biter against the #1 seed MSU. We definitely had our chances to get to the Sweet 16 in that one. Obviously, the NC State game was something to behold. I've no argument w/ any of the games listed above.

I agree on the 2011-2012 team. They were the best I've seen. The NC State comeback was great, but NC State really lost that one. Probably one of the few times Crews outcoached anybody.

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6 hours ago, bgtholt88 said:

SLU over Iowa in 03-04 NIT. Went to this NIT game at the St Charles Family Arena when I was in high school with my dad. My dad is an Iowa alumn so he was cheering back and forth to give me trouble, but we had gone to ten or so Billikens games that year so he was as excited as I was at the finish. We were down 18 at one point and came back to win. The buzzer beater was great. It could get some relevance for being a post season game, but maybe just sticks out to me because I was there, and it was against the hawk eyes. Not a great article, but this is the best I could find, would be awesome to find a replay to watch..

http://www.espn.com/ncb/recap/_/gameId/240760139

here is a cool article about that season:

http://www.netitor.com/photos/schools/stlo/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/0405guide-0304a.pdf

I remember being at the OT win when Phillip Hunt (who was 5 foot something from what I remember) tipped in a bucket to win over Houston. 

This was the season after Perry graduated and Reggie Bryant had an impressive year. Josh Fisher had a solid senior year.

In recent years.. I was at the double OT win over Dayton. Think it was on Mardi Gras. Can't remember the year, but I think it was already mentioned. Mitchell banked in a 3 at one of the key moments. Place was packed!

Good thread, nice thinking about the past and being hopeful for the future. If I can think of any other games I'll add to the thread.

Can someone jog my memory as to how exactly we got a "too many men on the court" technical? 

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2006 at home against Missouri state.

Another great game I witnessed was a 51-50 victory over the Missouri State Bears. The played ended with a tip in by Ian Vouyoukas that had to be reviewed. Bears fans were pissed. Fun in state game, I think the Bears had a good season that year.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/gametracker/recap/NCAAB_20061218_MOST@STLOU

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1 hour ago, bgtholt88 said:

2006 at home against Missouri state.

Another great game I witnessed was a 51-50 victory over the Missouri State Bears. The played ended with a tip in by Ian Vouyoukas that had to be reviewed. Bears fans were pissed. Fun in state game, I think the Bears had a good season that year.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/gametracker/recap/NCAAB_20061218_MOST@STLOU

 

Here are the two games you mentioned. 

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On 12/31/2016 at 10:24 AM, billikenfan05 said:

Can someone jog my memory as to how exactly we got a "too many men on the court" technical? 

Uncle Brad moment.

 

Six guys were put on the court, that's usually how those happen.

 

I remember vividly watching the confusion of the Iowa lineup as they attempted to figure out who to guard. An Iowa assistant coach counted up our players, and lightning struck him. The entire Iowa bench(including Alford) threw a fit holding up an open hand and a single finger. Genius plan of attack by Soderberg. Still can't believe we actually pulled that game out.

The Family Arena is a pit.

On 12/31/2016 at 1:31 PM, bgtholt88 said:

Thanks!

A young Soderball visible in the second video. Goodness that one was fun.

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On 12/31/2016 at 10:58 AM, bgtholt88 said:

2006 at home against Missouri state.

Another great game I witnessed was a 51-50 victory over the Missouri State Bears. The played ended with a tip in by Ian Vouyoukas that had to be reviewed. Bears fans were pissed. Fun in state game, I think the Bears had a good season that year.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/gametracker/recap/NCAAB_20061218_MOST@STLOU

As NextYearBill stated on page 1 of this thread, that win should not have counted. The clock on the SMS TV feed was not synced properly to the game clock as I remember it. The refs used that to determine that the tip was good but that clock was running a bit shy of the actual game clock. I was watching Earl as he was watching and listening to the refs at the table. When he put his fists in the air, I turned to my Dad and said "we won!"

A day or so later, someone (I think it was a SLU  assistant or manager but it may have been someone from SMS) viewed the tape from a camera on one of the baskets and its view of the clock clearly showed that the tip was too late. My recollection is that SMS was not at all pleased with this development.

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The 2010 CBI game against Green Bay was a fun one. Coming back from being down double digits. The screaming from students and the crowd during Willie's free throws. That play by Kwamain at the end of regulation, to steal the inbounds pass and feed Reed for the basket and send it to the first of 2 overtimes, was unreal.

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7 hours ago, White Pelican said:

As NextYearBill stated on page 1 of this thread, that win should not have counted. The clock on the SMS TV feed was not synced properly to the game clock as I remember it. The refs used that to determine that the tip was good but that clock was running a bit shy of the actual game clock. I was watching Earl as he was watching and listening to the refs at the table. When he put his fists in the air, I turned to my Dad and said "we won!"

A day or so later, someone (I think it was a SLU  assistant or manager but it may have been someone from SMS) viewed the tape from a camera on one of the baskets and its view of the clock clearly showed that the tip was too late. My recollection is that SMS was not at all pleased with this development.

Didn't that game basically keep them out of the NCAA tournament that year?

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On 12/31/2016 at 2:16 AM, billslasttermdropout said:

Well in my lifetime,  the greatest would have to be the win over the Illini at the dome, closely followed by the win over X on Conk's senior night.

I think the Illini win represented the zenith of the ascension of Billiken basketball in the modern era.  The actual zenith was probably just a bit before.  Then there was a fairly long slow descent followed by a spike to our greatest heights since the white guy/short shorts era, and then a dramatic, truly terrifying, spiraling plunge to the bottom.  And now a flat spot in the bottoms, and we're just waiting to see how high and far we go on the next hill. 

 

Can anyone provide me with more information on this game against the UofI? I can't find anything on it except the result in the official Billikens' records on line. 
Date? Box score? Official attendance stats? Any photos? 

 

Thank you, 

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The NIT second round game on St Patrick's Day 1987.  We loss this game to Southern Miss in overtime, but it was a great game.  A Billiken comeback was capped with Roland Gray hitting two free throws to force overtime.  We had the lead early in overtime but stuff started going south after Bonner fouled out and I think there was an awful charge call against Roder that really hurt.

I still think that game was the loudest a building has ever been for a basketball game I have been at.  My ears were still ringing at school the next day.  It was when the childhood me realized what a big time college atmosphere could really be.

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17 hours ago, JohnnyJumpUp said:

The 2010 CBI game against Green Bay was a fun one. Coming back from being down double digits. The screaming from students and the crowd during Willie's free throws. That play by Kwamain at the end of regulation, to steal the inbounds pass and feed Reed for the basket and send it to the first of 2 overtimes, was unreal.

Dang, I miss chanting "Will-ie" in an attempt to give him enough confidence to make one

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On 1/3/2017 at 10:05 AM, prebilliken said:

Can anyone provide me with more information on this game against the UofI? I can't find anything on it except the result in the official Billikens' records on line. 
Date? Box score? Official attendance stats? Any photos? 

 

Thank you, 

http://www.fightingillini.com/boxscore.aspx?id=1180&path=mbball

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On 12/28/2016 at 11:42 PM, moytoy12 said:

The NCAA win against NC State. 

I liked the memphis game more.  We straight up beat them in the tourney.  NCst, well we got a lot of help from them. 

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