TheChosenOne

The past few years I’ve been going to Pizza-A-Go-Go on my birthday, pretty solid spot in south city and I like bringing my own booze. La Pizza is probably my favorite local pizza spot, but there are some solid options out there and I seldom have bad pizza (here comes the IMO’s responses haha). Living out in Chesterfield my regular spot is Faraci’s. I saw Roy mention Peel, great spot too.

Thanks for posting, interesting to see the numbers (23.3%!). It will be nice to have that COVID year essentially out of the equation. I know and understand the intent of it, but it harmed a lot of high school players and in connection with NIL has really made things crazy the past few seasons. Personally, I would like to see some transfer rules, but do not expect to see that happen anytime soon.

And finally a power forward with the prototypical power forward size! He had a lot of big-time programs recruiting him just two years ago. Pus, he would have received quality coaching at Miami, spent two years in an ACC strength and conditioning program, and competed against some dudes day in and day out. I think this is the profile of transfer we should expect to see a lot of for programs at the level of SLU.

Huge get!

Oh, I get it which is why I never bought the all 5 are coming talk. The power brokers on here probably should not have been making it seem like a slam dunk. Ultimately we got the prize and a tremendous coach, so I fully expect him to still build a high level roster without those 3.

Yeah, I am really excited about adding Avila, but it does seem like adding him and Swope from their starting 5 was the minimum expectation. A lot of the connected folks on here were implying we’d be getting all of them. Ultimately I am pumped with the hire and Avila, so who cares, but what you point out is true. Now let’s see how Schertz builds out the rest of the roster.

This is becoming a great St. Louis thread! I do appreciate the line above “daddy’s would never be brave enough to come out of the stands and fight us” referring to adults fighting high school kids as bravery haha.

FedEx announced a 5 year $5 million per year NIL deal with Memphis athletics. That seemed like a logical next step in all of this. Again, we are still in the arms race phase of NIL. While I assume at some point this all slows/normalizes/formalizes, that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Happy to hear that for Corey Tate, congratulations.

Sounds like we will be getting that!

That is what is so shocking to me. The compensation went so quickly to essentially being right below the NBA and NFL. Paired with the free COVID year, why wouldn't you stay in college as long as possible if you are not a surefire draft pick in the NBA or NFL? Especially now that while not formally stated, the academic side of college athletics is an understood farce. Again, thanks to those who are funding the program and NIL at SLU.

Yet, boosters keep paying it and increasing the level needed to compete. It is wild to me how quickly NIL spun out of control and how it is yet to truly slow down. I completely agree with you (and I think it will basically need to include formalized contracts for a level of transparency and protection), but am starting to wonder when that will actually happen! None of it makes any sense. Is your d!ck that small and ego so big that you need to pay a star basketball player a million dollars to play for your school? I am glad we have some folks willing to pay, but if there is a bigger waste of money, I am not sure what it would be. SEC programs received $50+ million from their conference distribution, yet boosters are expected to pay the labor?!?! Someone explain to me how any of this makes sense? I guess it truly is playing rich people's egos against each other because there is no way to justify it.

Should we start a separate thread where folks can throw our food ideas and then we can establish the definitive Billikens.com list to forward along to Coach! I know Rick would have put Adriana’s on the list for lunch! You mentioned south city, what are your favorite spots there?

Excited to see Dr. Jimerson return! It is hard to imagine a better coach and system for him.

We should create a list for Schertz.