Billiken Law Posted November 23, 2003 Share Posted November 23, 2003 Should be a laugher. Division II Arkansas-Monticello (the fightin' Boll Weevils, what a great mascot!) beat Savannah State last night 85-67. These guys will make Texas Pan-Am look good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluSignGuy Posted November 23, 2003 Share Posted November 23, 2003 That just means all the more reason that we CANNOT lose. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CentFLBilliken Posted November 23, 2003 Share Posted November 23, 2003 Very brave of Marquette to invite powerhouses Arkansas-Monticello AND Savannah State to their big tournament....and then have the balls to call the tournament a "CLASSIC" Not the type of courage I would expect from a Final Four team. I hear you already have Fontbonne and Tarkio lined up for next year's CLASSIC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Savannah St did somehow get 20 Offensive rebounds against Marquette. That is pretty good regardless of how bad you shoot the ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Law Posted November 24, 2003 Author Share Posted November 24, 2003 Actually the whole thing was set up for a Valpo/MU match-up. MU owes Valpo a return game at their place. Valpo is pretty tough with a really highly rated recruiting class (I think they had 3 top 50 guys coming in along with one junior Crean really liked, Ali Bierdal, and former MU player, Ron Howard - top 100 out of HS). When you're a final four team you can do that, just like Michigan State, Indiana, and other teams that hold "Classics." In fact, until a few years ago Indiana had never lost a game in theirs in somethign like 40 years. It would be great for MU to get in better teams but the fact is that few mid or even high majors are willing to give up 2 home games to play in one of these. When I was in school MU had teams like Princeton, Tulsa, Siena, UW-Green Bay, UW-Milwaukee, Northwestern, Cal-State Northridge (the year they beat UCLA and went to the Final Four) Kent State, Western MI, etc, but fewer teams are willing to play in such a tourney. MSU had actually dumped their classic 2 years ago after being unable to bring in stiffer competition. They brought it back this year so they could have a 25 year reunion of the 1979 Final Four - DePaul, Penn and Indiana State (hardly a "classic"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluSignGuy Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 "When I was in school MU had teams like Princeton, Tulsa, Siena, UW-Green Bay, UW-Milwaukee, Northwestern, Cal-State Northridge (the year they beat UCLA and went to the Final Four)" You lost me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Law Posted November 24, 2003 Author Share Posted November 24, 2003 Whoops, didn't mean to say Final Four (typo on my part - NCAA tourney). I mention that about CSN because people at MU complained a lot about the strength of the classic that year and the fact that MU barely beat Northridge. However, that year CSN they beat a Sweet 16 UCLA team and went to the NCAA tourney, which was pointed out to show that they were a strong invitee that year. In fact, I think that every other Classic participant went to the NCAA that year, EXCEPT MU. Sometimes you invite teams that nobody thinks are any good but instead turn out to be real sleepers. This year, other than Valpo (whom has established itself as a strong program) none of those teams turned out to be. The problem with "Classics" across the country and the reason many schools are dropping them. I wouldn't be shocked if MU's ceased to exist within the next few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoSlu Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Oh this thread is about basketball. D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CentFLBilliken Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Not from the mens team but I am reading in the Tampa paper that Florida State's womens team jumped out to a 41-0 lead against the mighty Savannah State U women yesterday. The first half finished a competitive 54-3. The all-time NCAA previous low for points in a half was 8. The game finished 107-28. Note to Jill Pizzotti: I think I have a good team to invite to the annual Billiken Classic Tournament. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 GoSlu--ten posts and counting--still a moron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 is a total embarrassment to the program. we have no business playing this team. now if they were a regional team like semo or siu, well that would be different. but i cannot see any reason to play this game. i just hope no one gets hurt. and if we miss an ncaa spot by 1 rpi point, this is the first place to look because it sure as hell isnt going to do the rpi any good tonite beating the worst team in the nation. my guess is that tommie liddell's team would be favored in an matchup east st louis high school vs savannah state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 but don't knock this game too hard. Savannah has been invited to an a** kicking by a number of good teams including Marquette. We need games like this obviously to pad our record and to tune up for the real ones that follow. We've argued before about these "buy" games but I'd hate to think what would happen if we had to play a really good team right out of the box. In my opinion we'd be putting ourselves in a tough spot if we scheduled SIU or SMS for our first or second game especially this year without Reggie and Ian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 but we could be playing semo or western illinois as well. they would serve the same purpose plus keep the regional flavor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basketbill Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 i get the sense that this game was scheduled, solely to be one of the first three games....if it was not on the schedule where it is, then Reggie Bryants first game would have been against Arizona, now he gets a tune up at WV, prior to the Arizona game. Savannah is playing its third game in three or four nights, they happened to be in the midwest already.......I do not expect this kind of scheduling in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 With Reggie Bryant and Ian on suspension and Izik either hurt on in a funk (depending on who you listen to), it's OK with me that we are playing a cupcake's cupcake tonight. We just are not that good of a team right now but I expect us to improve each week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Savannah State is also playing Marquette (CUSA), Florida State (ACC), Miami (Big East), Utah (Mountain West), Colorado (Big 12), Kansas State (Big 12), and Tulane (CUSA). I guess we are not the only team from a major conference who was seeking a guaranteed win against SS. A couple of interesting notes about SS: -They are in "independent." I guess they use "buy in" games to fund their athletic department. -Their head coach was a local high school coach in Savannah, Georgia two years ago. -The school was formerly known as Georgia State -The school obtained full "university" status seven years ago. -The school was formerly D3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 This game is RPI poison (at some point I will figure out exactly how poisonous). We had this discussion when the schedule both the main points remain: not all cupcakes are created equal and we scheduled too many. While EKU will probably not be a great RPI ranked team, it is a least possible they go .500 in the Ohio Valley (they are predicted worse though) and finish somewhere around 200. Not great but not poison either. Savannah State will struggle all year and can expect to finish somewhere in the bottom 10. More importantly they will have a very low winning percentage and they will not play that many good teams. The point is EVEN without Reggie and Ian and the team not quite together, we should have scheduled better. Generally, middle of the pack Ohio Valley teams (like Tenn-Martin) are fine. Better yet why not play a team in the top shelf of a bad conference like IUPUI--I did not think too hard of an example but the point still stands. Even so we have played some terrible teams before so why is this so bad? Because there are 4 of them (well, may EKU gets to around 200 but still this is bad). Playing 3 teams with 250+ RPI is real hard to overcome. Playing Savannah St. and EKU first is fine if you need to "tune up". Maybe a third in a "rebuilding year". I cannot condone playing 4 potential 250+ plus unless we were in the ACC or SEC or Big 12 or Big 10--and even then I would want to be sure I was going to finish above .500 in conference. The one piece of good news is I now think C-USA may be a bit better than I initially thought. Part of the problem of playing a weaker than normal schedule was that our conference RPI boost will not be that high this year. Not playing Louisville and Cincy twice, which has always helped our SOS in the past, still hurts. Hopefully CUSA has a good non-conf start--especially the teams we play twice: Marquette, DePaul and Charlotte. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CentFLBilliken Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 Georgia State is a fairly well known school located in Atlanta. They play out of the Atlantic Sun. They have been around awhile. Lefty Driesell coached there for several years before retiring last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CentFLBilliken Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 The Tigers have won THREE games each of the last three seasons in Division 1. My only question is why do they bother? What is the point moving up to D1 playing 20 road games every year getting their hats handed to them? Especially since they dont even have a conference to play in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 They were Georgia State until 1967. http://www.savstate.edu/athletics/ssu_ath_his.htm Also, although their basketball program is D1, they are curiously referred to as D2 in certain NCAA materials. http://web1.ncaa.org/ssLists/orgInfo.do?orgID=632 http://web1.ncaa.org/ssLists/sportByDiv.do?sport=MBB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Law Posted November 24, 2003 Author Share Posted November 24, 2003 >My only question is why do they bother? What is the point >moving up to D1 playing 20 road games every year getting >their hats handed to them? Especially since they dont even >have a conference to play in. It's all about the Benjamins. By agreeing to go on the road to all of these schools and get slaughtered they get much needed funding for not only the athletic department but the University as a whole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 You are both right. Savannah State was the name Georgia State College took when it became a University. Before that Ga. State University (Atlanta) and Ga. State College (Savannah) apparently existed in tandem (divided along racial lines). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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