cheeseman

Strauss a reporter for the Post has written an piece today indicating that Biondi will be making the announcement today unless of course Biondi has another whim and decides to not do it.  Biondi is a man who manages to ****** a PR screw up from the mouth of a celebration.  Strauss indicates that apparently Biondi was offering less money to Crews then what Crews wanted and he speculates that some other amenities for the program were also being wrangled over such as number of coaches and other items.  Strauss also says that several boosters have now become estranged from the school over this.  Biondi simply has to go - he is incapable of running the institution anymore.  His need to be the center of all attention is simply not what being president of SLU is about.  What a mess he has caused for himself and SLU.  How could it be that someone who oversaw the rebirth of the school now finds himself in a position of causing the very demise of the same institution - see the article on the page 2 about how the faculty is even more united against him staying.  Biondi has no understanding or interest in ever changing is operating methods.  The Board of Trustees can no longer keep their heads in the sand - Biondi has got to be dealt with and the sooner the better.  I will continue to be a Billiken Club member but the school has seen the last dollar of other support from me until the Biondi  mess is handled.

This not meant to be an attack on Burwell - he actually has been fair with us the last two years so I have no real complaints.  However in his article today he says that the only way SLU can continue to fill the seats is to have local kids on the team.  He does say that he had no problem with the talent that RM brought in but sees the lack of local players as a draw problem.  This idea that local players bring in ticket purchases is honestly a small minded approach - when has all the local players that we have had created sell outs? - the only sell outs at the Chafietz have been since RM has been here and this year.  I know about Spoon but honestly that was a Spoon thing as much as anything.  Yes we had Highmark and Claggett but the odds of us getting the top two players out of StL ever year is very slim if ever.

The other issue in his article that I find wrong headed is when he talks about Crews showing he can do the day to day coaching required so he should get the job.  All these media types who are pushing Crews all seem to manage to leave out or forget the entire recruiting part of the job.  They simply think that recruiting is something that everybody can do apparently.  If SLU hires Crews I will still be supportive of the program but I will also be watching carefully and if it looks like things are going south I will be the first to start calling for heads.  Crews and May are on a short leash with me.

1. How does the NCAA decide who plays in the first round - this year we had 16, 13, 1nd 11 seeds playing?

2. If you went to Chafiez today how was the turnout and how good was the viewing.

What is the TV schedule for VCU and Butler games?

I know most in StL did not get to see the game but I happened to be in San Diego and oddly enough the game was on here - go figure.  The defense was not that tight but I guess it is hard to play tight defense every game.  I would rather if they were to have an off day they have it against Fordham and not Richmond.  Cody really stepped up as did Evans - what is nice is that GG is really starting to produce.  Not sure about Manning, he looked kind of lost out there.  The team seems to be having fun and that will go a long way in making this a good year.  If we beat Richmond, we should be ranked and if not close to it given all the upsets tonight.