All Activity

Good posts. The real test for any coach these days is getting 13 individuals to play as 1. NIL $’s will not only impact who you can afford but also keeping your players focused on team goals rather than focusing on how their individual numbers may impact their value in the portal.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10135917-nba-insider-adrian-wojnarowski-retires-from-espn-will-become-st-bonaventure-cbb-gm?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial A bold move for the Bonnies. I have advocated for SLU having a GM. I expect this to be a growing trend with portal free agency and NIL - having a GM makes a lot of sense.

I felt Abonnel could have and should have handled the cross he punched out. Just a dangerous place to punch a low ball. Too crowded and too much of a chance to be deflected which is exactly what happened. I’ve said for awhile SLU makes poor decisions on when to turn and play forward, when to play it long and direct or clear, and when to drop it back and re start. Watching the game I can point to more than a dozen times where we just boot the ball to no man’s land just to defend again or where we play direct to no one and give up possession. All times where we had time and space to settle and make a better decision. Plenty of times like you said where we have space and/or numbers to play forward and we lay it all the way back to restart. Better decisions need to be made on when to just be patient and retain possession, play it back to restart, or to play a 1 or 2 line direct ball forward.

O G spellcheck malfunction's my guess

It is... do not feed it.

Seriously? This has to be trolling. This kid's name is spelled correctly in the rest of the thread on on the title of the thread.

Big NIL bucks guarantees nothing. I stated in the NIL thread that the University of Florida is number 4 in NIL money at over 700 million, but the football team is a disaster. You have to have NIL bucks to get players, but turning players into a team may be even a bigger challenge than getting the NIL donations. Right now, I don't think UF knows what to do. Coach Shertz is focused on turning these players into a team and outlined how hard that is in year one and how hard it is to recruit year one. Whether you refer to players as independent contractors or guys that want to play hero ball, Schertz has identified the big problem in this new era of NIL college sports. His style of game requires team play, his recruiting targets are team oriented players and its just the way he is wired. Now every coach wants team oriented players, but not many have the discipline to make it a top priority. I think Schertz does.

He didn't mention NIL directly, but his comment on "five independent contractors wearing the same jersey" was pretty indicative of his thoughts on NIL. You add that to his comments on paying freshmen in the recent PD article and you can imagine where NIL is at SLU.

As far as I can tell, Rudd Field at UMass does not have lights. At least they play on grass. UMass is 53rd in the opening RPI rankings, just behind SLU at 47 (Loyola is 49th and Duquesne 54th). This is a tough game to open up the A10 season with. Loyola and Duquesne are also in the first half of the A10 schedule, too, so it's a pretty front-loaded conference slate, with the exception of a road game at 6-2 Dayton to finish the regular season.

The game tomorrow scares the heck out of me. UMass is playing really well, have won 4 in a row, including a road win at a very good Boston College. I think SLU conference regular season unbeaten streak stands at 20. Not a time to have that end. This will be one of the toughest tests of the conference season. @ 4pm ET? Does UMass not have lights? Who do they think they are, SLU baseball??

This sure feels like a .500 kind of team to me, which is disappointing. Its hard to see them making a dominant run in the conference that looks like it has several competitive teams playing better right now. Really needed to win last night. Oh well, it would be nice to beat the hell out of LaSalle in Philly this weekend

Good summary, thanks! I listened as well. Coach Schertz just gets it. He comes across as sincere and someone guys will love to play for. Notable that the topic of NIL didn't come up once. I think Billiken basketball is in a really good place now.

I was never "all in" on Coach Ford because I was never convinced he was much more than a great recruiter. It is early on, but I'm quickly going all in on Coach Schertz. He may not be able to achieve everything we'd like, but I think he truly understands what a coach should do: recruit the right kind of kids for SLU, coach them up to the best of the coaches' abilities, and make sure (to the best of one's abilities) they have the chemistry so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I don't know how succesful he'll be on the court at SLU, but I back him, his approach, and his philosophy 100%.

SLU 2 Lipscomb 2 …………….. Lipscomb had 2 players drafted in the top 10 of this past year’s MLS Draft. Senior Tyrese Spicer went number 1 overall to Toronto, and Sophomore Malachi Jones went number 8 to New York City. ………………. For those wondering why teams need a 2nd 11, 6 Lipscomb players played their most minutes of the year off of the bench. A 7th played his most in half a dozen games. Lipscomb’s best scorer and best attacking player, missed the game entirely, Javanne Smith. Lipscomb’s reserve players played better than their starters. ………..:…… SLU continued with the new 4-2-3-1 formation, as expected, and that was very effective vs the offensive minded teams of Portland and Lipscomb.. For a SLU team that has struggled at times generating offense against defensive opponents, these 2 attacking opponents offered an opportunity for SLU to use their opponent’s pace and attacking prowess to SLU’s offensive advantage. 2 goals was good enough vs Portland because SLU’s defense was rock solid, no mistakes. 2 wasn’t good enough vs Lipscomb as a defensive mistake and bad call cost a couple of soft goals. Both games could have had SLU add a 3rd or 4th which is sometimes needed against high powered teams. …………….. SLU started the game well, scored an early goal, created a lot of opportunities to tack on to the 1-0 lead but didn’t. There was a 15 minute stretch late first half and early 2nd half that SLU faded, but for roughly 75 minutes the game is what SLU wanted. ……………. 1st half ………….. Offsides goal. Long throw up the line and Townsend switched fields to Seth who played a through ball to Carlos, and he squared it to Wrobel for the goal, but Wrobel left a little too early. Had one there. Good call. ………….. But a minute later, an Abonnel long ball flicked on by Wrobel to Seth behind the defense who laid it off to Lara for the goal. Aerial target with size, speed and pace behind the defense. Good start. 7th minute. 1-0. SLU almost scored on the exact same play from Floriani to Wrobel to Seth to Lara about 8 minutes later. ……………. A minute later. Lara wide run back to Barnett, back post cross for Wrobel from the 8 but his header didn’t have enough on it. …………… Lipscomb moved Karsten to the wing for the 1st half and it seemed like an odd choice as he’s an effective target player in the middle. Lipscomb made the adjustment later with Davis and Jones giving them lots of pace wide. …………. SLU had 2 more high level mid half chances, forced a few turnovers in Lipscomb’s 3rd. Tanner’s header from Seth was knocked away by the defender. Carlos won a free kick, Townsend service to Tanner and Rodriguez made a great save. Wrobel’a rebounder was over the bar. Not the biggest keeper but he has quick reflexes and he’s athletic. ……………… There were several times in both halves where SLU had good transition numbers, but they couldn’t get enough shots off at the top of the 18. And the final ball in space inside of 35 yards wasn’t sharp enough in tight spaces. There were also a few too many times SLU played the ball all the way back to regroup and restart when it wasn’t necessary. ……………… First 35 minutes were good. Chances for a multi goal lead. Faded the final 10 minutes. Lipscomb found a few things with its reserve players on the wings with Davis and Jones later in the half but mostly non threatening. …………. Halftime …………. Redmon has missed a few games at left back and he tried to play to start the 2nd half but he couldn’t go. Dougherty has done well there in his absence. But Redmon’s pace and ability to get forward is missed. …………. Early 2nd half Lipscomb goal. Swung wide left of the box for Colombo, who is left footed. He hit a heavy service with pace that Abonnel chose to punch out instead of scoop. And it went right off of Bryan and in for 1-1. Tough one there. Slow start to the 2nd for about 5-7 minutes before SLU took control again. ……………. SLU won plenty of set pieces in good areas of the field but they weren't super dangerous with them. And at times they couldn’t connect in the final 35 when Lipscomb was able to have numbers in back. Seth made a good diagonal run v Colombo and his service to Lara took another great save from Rodriguez from 6 yards. Abonnel did the same shortly after on a corner header from Davis at point blank range. ………….., SLU kept overloading and pinching the middle, so Colombo, Lipscomb’s left back kept playing higher and getting wide making runs. And eventually it led to another goal. Nice work from to win a 50/50 ball middle of the field and play it wide to Colombo. 4 Billikens could have cut him off at the 18, but he was able to get deeper and draw a PK foul. It was a bad call. It wasn’t a PK. But SLU shouldn’t have been in that position. The mindset of calling a PK needs to be did the infraction prevent a goal, or was it egregious. etc….this was an arms extended by Lopes from behind, but a dive by a defensive player at the end of a long run. 2-1. PK good. …………… Another kick save from 4 yards out from Rodriguez on Lara. SLU had been playing a 4-1-3-2 since going down a goal. Carlos kept the pressure. ………….. Lara again left side of the box cross grabbed by Rodriguez as Tanner knocked it out at the same time. Tanner scored the loose ball but Ref said no, and called a foul. …………… SLU finally did something wanted in other game situations, move Floriani up top and play 3 in the back. Townsend made a nice pass up the middle to Max. He turned and got past Medina. He grounded a nice through ball for Lara for the 2-2 goal. At that point SLU was playing a 3-1-4-2, and that was great. …………… SLU switched back to the 4-2-3-1 after that for the final 7 minutes and they put on heavy pressure but couldn’t get the game winner. …………… Tough result. A soft goal and a PK given up. Many chances to extend the lead in the first half. And many more in the 2nd to tie it sooner and win it. …………… 70-75 good strong minutes. Last 10 of first half and first 5 plus of the 2nd weren’t as good. Go ahead Lipscomb goal was against the run of play. ………….. As did Portland, Lipscomb’s style of play is conducive to playing more aggressively with formations, personnel, tactics. It was a 4-2 type of game and opponent. ……………

Coach was on 101 ESPN this morning on the Opening Drive. https://www.101espn.com/episode/saint-louis-mens-basketball-hc-josh-schertz-2/ His family has settled into their new house, about a 15 minute drive from campus. He hasn't had much time to play pickleball or tennis this summer. Biggest challenge in college sports is now chemistry. In this age you have too many teams with five independent contractors wearing the same jersey. There is a big diference between wearing the same jersey and being a team. He is working on having the team make connections inside the locker room. He was very high on Thames, saying he injects energy into the team. He is working extremely hard in the gym on his game. He is great going downhill and his shot has improved. He can play with the ball in his hands. He said that in the past 2 weeks Thames is as good as anyone in the program. Anya brings great size and is the best rebounder, both offensive and defensive, on the team. Says he can guard Avila and Swope. Super smart coming from the Ivy League. Swope and Avila have a great impact on the team. They both have the vision of what Schertz wants to the court and locker room. Swope can play lead guard position. Schertz "Gibson has blown me away'. None of the three returnee's came to SLU to play for me. But they have been great. Gibson's volume and efficiency are amazing. He isn't a vocal leader but sets the tone on how to play by example. Loves the academics at SLU and Champions Center and Chaifetz. Says they don't lose recruits due to facilities.

Admittedly I did not get to focus on the game live, but there was also a late yellow card on Leatherman that I thought was just ridiculous.

Congratulations! Be a Billiken!

Welcome to the Bills Cameron Houston, hope you enjoy it.

This is very likely going to be true. It is also highly probable that schools can pay players directly from revenue next season. It won't be a requirement, but if others pay and you don't, good luck. Today Tennessee announced that they will raise ticket prices for football 10%, to partially cover this new expense. Student fees will double. At least they are being transparent in stating why they are increasing the ticket prices. This is the future. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/41302985/tennessee-ups-season-ticket-prices-10-help-pay-athletes

Is there going to be a roster limit of 15? I think they were talking about that in both men and women’s soccer, increase to 28 scholarships in both of them, but coupling that with a roster limit of 28 as well.

I think what you meant to say is the player went down in the box to draw the foul. I think I could have stayed up balancing on 1 leg with both arms tied behind my back. The foul on Seth vs the keeper was a terrible call Seth jumps moving just slightly parallel to the goal. The keeper jumps 3 feet forward into Seth. 100% contact created by Keeper. keeper drops ball, Seth buries the rebound. Called back for foul. Both of those calls are lazy and poor officiating

Ends in a tie, 2-2, SLU needed to find a way to win this on their home field

2-2, Luis Lara evens it up with 7 minutes left.

So I read that the roster limit for NCAA Division 1 men's and women's basketball teams will be expanded to 15 players for the 2025–2026 academic year. This is an increase from the current limit of 13 players. So with 3 graduating seniors + 2 new spots there will be at least 5 new players next year. I would expect a couple transfers as well at the minimum. So recruiting should be real interesting. I was surprised when Schertz said he planned to sign 3 or 4 HS kids this Fall. Now I understand why he can do this with roster expansion ..... still expect at least one or two high quality transfer guards being signed with the end of eligiblity for Swope, Jimerson & Johnson.

SLU fouls in the box, to the spot, Lipscomb takes a 2-1 lead. SLU has lost a lot of their direct north-south offense, need to get back to direct attacks.