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Met the big guy yesterday at the women's soccer game. He was very friendly and seemed extremely excited to be here.

Taj I have 2 free tickets for you for that game if you would like to be our guest. We sit in section 101 close to Steve. We bought 2 extra tickets this season because we carried over last years money and we wanted to support the school by purchasing what we normally would have spent in a basketball season. We will be giving away those seats for free all season.

Tate on Traore, "In two years he could be the face of SLU." He won't be redshirted. He will play. Frank asked about a starting lineup. Tate, "we have 10 guys that Coach would be comfortable putting out there at any given time." [I think that is our 10 (8+2) man rotation....who is left out?] Coach is really, really high on TJ Hargrove. He loves Collins like he is his son. On the new 'Shot Tracker' the team has used now for two years, Gibson is the leader. Gibson shoots 5,000 to 6,000 shots per week. The low end of the coach's expectation is 2,500 shots per week. Gibson had been over analyzing all his shots last season. NIL, discussed TJ with Bommarito, as has been covered already on this board. Coaches can point players to resources, but that is about their entire involvement. Tate: our selling point is 'opportunities in St. Louis'. In a college town, the opportunities are limited and could be 'tapped out' earlier than in a larger town like STL. Tate said we have one scholarship open for this team. SLU would have to sign any newcomer - for this season - by Friday. That puts the athlete enrolled in school. After Friday, the athlete wouldn't be eligible until semester break. Tate didn't say if anyone would sign or not. Backbone of the program will continue to be defense and rebounding. That won't change under Ford, ever.

That is their choice. They will know the rules and they can make a decision that is best for them. I want to watch the Bills in person this year so I will do what is required. That is my choice.

Clearly USNWR is discounting the impact of Nesbitt.

Cagey match all-around with teams spending much of the time between the two 18s. Louisville had much of the possession for the game but SLU seemed determined to keep the lines together, keep Louisville in front of them, and push them wide, and just prevent any breakdown down the middle. They executed well but it did make for a slightly boring game. SLU started strong with a CK goal off Becher. Match was stagnant for most the first half, just trading possession. Kalish brought on first half subs and Louisville gained the upper hand in possession and position on the field. The subs were able to get SLU out of the half though so credit to them. Second half saw Louisville hit an unstoppable shot from just right of the center D on the 18; truly a well-hit shot to make it 1-1. SLU had more dangerous chances between the two though in the second half with Becher almost grabbing one after nifty work by Parker to beat several down the left and create a mess in front of goal. Becher's shot was deflected away though. Becher also was stymied on a 50/50 ball in the box where the goalie did great to close him down and affect his shot. Klein almost busted through two defenders but was taken down hard outside the box which resulted in a yellow (Klein wanted a red because he thought he was clear through). So SLU had the the most of the chances, but Louisville did beat our keeper late in the game with another wicked shot but luckily the cross bar prevented them going up. Overtime was more of the same and seemed to be headed to a draw but we got a free kick which Klein hammered a ball to near side and Becher did enough to glance it in. There is more to say for sure and Courtside will have more. Quick thoughts: SLU seemed lacking in a dynamic center midfielder but this may have been reflective of how they wanted to play; Parker will be a handful as he grows into the game; I wish we were able to slot Mason more down the right as that kid has serious speed to burn; Becher was active and dangerous; Klein was ok but his stature made it tough to play against Louisville's backline; Freshman Anderson had good minutes;

I'm pro vacjne, but I don't think it should take more paper work to get into a sporting event than it does to enter the country.

@courtside Your posts are so good that I feel like I should be paying you to read them. As long as you are posting, I have nothing to add, but I'll say this: for the casual fan who usually goes to a few games because you love supporting SLU, it is definitely time to get back to campus for a game. It may be that I was overly excited to watch my first in-person game since 2019, but that was a great game. SLU plays a style that should appeal to most fans and does so with a number of local players. Lots more intriguing games on the schedule. Go support this team!

Nice.

Travis Ford talks with Peter and Zac to talk about The 6th Man, the outlook for the 21-22 seaon and everything in between! Women's Soccer Men's Soccer Volleyball Field Hockey Basketball News View the full article

Wow. Congrats on getting Coach Ford on the Podcast. I know there was a some Twitter interaction and you've had ACs on in the past (& W Soccer HC), but it is still kind of a shock to the system to see this. Things that would have seemed crazy during the Majerus / Crews era: 1. There even being a Billiken fan run Podcast that was high quality enough for any coach to consider appearing on it. 2. The head coach actually appearing on a fan run Podcast. I mean Majerus would barely even appear on his own radio show. Kudos to Coach Ford for doing this too. You guys are really big time now . I haven't had a chance to listen yet, but am really looking forward to it. I love that you guys talked to him about The 6th Man. I remember watching that movie as a kid and I really feel like Ford's appearing in a movie isn't talked about as much as it should be. At the very least I'd think opposing fans would use it as fodder for poking fun at him more.

All Pelican fans should read this brief.

Jerry Palm released a "way too early" bracket yesterday for the 2022 NCAA tournament: https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/bracketology/ He has SLU in the First Four as an 11 seed. Article about his bracket here: https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/2022-ncaa-tournament-bracketology-gonzaga-is-early-top-seed-ahead-of-no-1-seeds-ucla-kansas-and-texas/ "One league that could be interesting to follow this season is the Atlantic 10. St. Bonaventure returns most of the team that won the league a season ago and has a chance to be a top 25 team. Things get pretty bubbly from there as Dayton, Richmond, Saint Louis and VCU all look like potential tournament teams, but there likely will not be room for all of them."

SLU received a commitment today... stay posted for the official announcement. Bigtime pickup in my opinion on the wing!

I think the biggest jump will be the team as a whole. If this group can play as a team with different people stepping up as needed per game this eill be a very special season. With people keying even more than usual on Perkins he will need help from others to allow him to do his thing. This team has a very good roster that will require a team attitude to be really successful.

I see nothing wrong with requiring the card or a negative test. They’ll probably go the mask route as well.

I think that all this talk about fake vaccine IDs is both wrong headed and infantile. I think people should have the right to choose whether to be vaccinated or not. However, they DO NOT have the right to pretend they are vaccinated when they are not. If you choose to take the risk of not taking the vaccine, you are also choosing to abide by the restrictions against attending events and entering businesses or arenas that require proof of vaccination.

Hoping for some pirate feeds mateys

Part 2 of our conversation with Kevin Lisch Sponsored by ohsnap.com. Use Promo Code MIDTOWN15 at checkout and get 15% off your first order of the phone grip that doesn't suck! View the full article

Bates looks his age and, to your point, will have difficulty adjusting to some of the physicality in D1. He is more of a ball-handler and perimeter player, so don’t expect to see him inside banging with guys like Okoro. One interesting thing about Bates is that he’s too young to go one-and-done, so he will either have to stay in college two years or go overseas or the G-League after his freshman season. Duren is almost the opposite type of player. He has an NBA-ready body right now and his game is built around power. I’ll be excited to see him match up with Okoro and Linssen. The one thing that stands out most about Memphis is their size and length. There will be times when their smallest player on the floor is 6’6”. Penny does a good job of using that size to suffocate teams on defense. Memphis’ weakness this year is similar to what it’s been each of Penny Hardaway’s three seasons. They turn the ball over way too much, and they have never had a good point guard play. If we can speed them up, force them into turnovers and contested twos, and keep them off the offensive glass, we will have a chance for sure. It’s a shame Jordan and Has never got to play Memphis, because it would have been fun to watch Memphis get served a taste of their own bully ball medicine.

no disrespect, but i have never bought into the fatigue factor of too many games in a row or a short period of time. practice is typically more taxing than playing the games. the starters typically play 20-30 minutes with a couple of breaks. practices are typically 2 hours of hard play.

Happy Birthday to Javonte ...looking forward to this season

again, if we were filling a starter's or even a rotation spot, i would be rolling my eyes. but we are filling a 3rd string opening. he seem to have some athleticism so wtf. let it roll

Not arguing that we haven’t developed great bugs but the idea that you needed to have been a big to develop one is false. Coaching across all sports is filled with examples of coaches teaching things they themselves weren’t great at.

Years ago when I had 2 tickets so I could take a friend to spread Billiken mania. I put one up on this board & he claimed it. We enjoyed the game & each other. He invited me to a pickup game at a grade school gym in U City where he lived - I played a few times but he didn’t renew the gym the following year. By that time we were friends & he had 1st dibs on my extra ticket when available. He complained that there were no ticket perks for the faculty in the form of seating choices or pricing. I attended his book signing program for the Hemingway opus & bought one - good read & I have since passed it on. I always ran into him while doing half time laps around the concourse. I’ll miss him.

I agree that we don't have a track record of developing project bigs. Then again, we don't have a track record of 6'9 run and jump athletes on the roster either. Traore is our first one. Allotting our 13th scholarship to such a player is a low-risk, medium reward proposition.

i am fine with taking a flyer on an athlete. if we didnt have a competent center, that would be quite the risk, but third on the depth chart? all ok. likely will start out as a practice body. his job to show he's better than that.

I think this was missed earlier. Kyle Engstler has committed as a walk-on for this season. A 6'5 SF from Downers Grove North. A belated welcome to Kyle.

I thought we handled the Bell situation perfectly. As soon as he realized he would play only in emergency situations, he left. No fault on either side. We can't ask our recruits who could easily play big mins elsewhere to be the 12th man on the roster their 3rd year.

my take on bell was i was intrigued by the size, impressed by his apparent heart and determination he could lose that much weight (as a former overweight guy I KNOW how hard it is to lose weight and keep it off. it took Cancer for me to get in shape). he exhibited that he was a good kid and teammate. so naturally i had hope all those traits could translate into becoming a formidable basketball player. he still might and i hope he does, but honestly he was still pretty much the same player he was when he arrived at slu and no doubt was 3rd on the depth chart for the inside the lane position. honestly if we are just looking for that basketball player and taking all the above traits out of the discussion, that player is out there for the taking anytime. my guess is ford would rather look for a player he believes can progress a little faster and further.

Billiken fans collectively got Travis to come on the pod. Flex that muscle and tweet at Larry to come on the podcast.

Just watching the video, Kramer reminds me some of St. Joseph's Ryan Daly.

Men's Basketball Full Schedule Released Men's Basketball Recruiting: New Offers, Thames and Kramer shine in the Ramey Fall League Conference Realignment and SLU Women's Basketball Offers Men's Soccer Recaps and Bronze Boot Preview Women's Soccer Recaps and Dayton Preview Volleyball Results: Maya Taylor 1500 Kills, Kent Miller 150 Billiken wins Baseball Alumni in the Pros Update Field Hockey Updates Brought to you by ohsnap! The phone grip that doesn't suck. Use promo code MIDTOWN15 for 15% off your order at ohsnap.com View the full article

The war against "toxic masculinity" had already begun.

I'd rather see WSU and Loyola ... the A10 already has Philly covered, plus you don't have to deal with whatever football plans Temple has. Add two non-football schools that are further West - that helps SLU. Plus it would be good for the conference and SLU to get in the Chicago market.

I am not a huge Berhalter fan but the overreacting by USMNT fans is a little bonkers. He took over a program with zero direction or leadership in 2019. In 2019 we went to the Gold Cup final and lost, which was about as good as could be expected given where the squad was at that point. In 2021 we won the Nations League with a huge win over Mexico in the final; Our only blemish in the Nations League was against Canada (an infuriating loss), but we came back to smack Canada 4-1 a couple of weeks later (they had Davies btw) In 2021 we also won the Gold Cup with our B Team, again beating Mexico in the final We have a much deeper pool of players with national team experience than we did a couple of years ago and we have are generally better organized than any time since probably Bob Bradley I totally agree that he/they need to figure out how to consistently get goals and need to do it soon. But even as someone who was never a fan of Berhalter's style, it's hard to argue that he hasn't done a good job so far.

3-0 SLU over Memphis. Hustle play for Wilkinson to slot in a low cross from Klein for first. Brilliant freekick goal for the second by Komodi. Nice give and go in box for Parker for third.

Thanks almaman. I needed it. It will be "The Bills from da'couch in SoCenPA" since I moved. f05 will be so thrilled. 2,000+ word dissertations rule again! Permission accepted!

all they know is he was let walk by memphis. imo he and okoro are our wild cards. as nesbitt and okoro go will define our greatness.........or not this coming season. might be another "wait till next year" season ...........or not.

i think a lot depends on which jimmmmerson shows up. get us the deadeye sniper, i am playing him. we get the one after covid last year that seemed more than lost, well then i am fine playing hargrove over him. i also want to see strickland get every opportunity. man that is a lot of god given athleticism. he and hargrove together would keep people in their seats till the end. but i also understand with this much talent (as compared to previous billiken rosters) ford can insist on defense, rebounding and just flat out knowing the system and what to do to dole out PT. remember the days when sekue was good enough to start? long way baby!

SLU and Army are the only non-P5s there

That's all they really want Some fun

Some of the New England component to SLU’s team there. Kalish spent two seasons playing at UConn before a coaching change, and he transferred to SLU. Assistant Coach Kris Bertsch spent 4 seasons on staff at UConn, and he also played in the Patriot League. Simon Becher, from Brooklyn CT, near Hartford, a Holy Cross transfer. #23 is Alex Shterenberg, a Michigan St. transfer from Boston, played for Bryan Scales out there. (Michigan St. Head Coach Damon Rensing is from Alex started most of 2019, then came off of the bench more the next season. St. Louis, as is assistant Joe Ahearn. And former MSU assistant Caleb Wasserman is now SIUE’s Head Coach.) Chris Alwang is a UConn transfer that played club ball with Simon Becher. SLU now has more depth at several positions. They come from St. Louis (10) They come from the region, IL/KS/MO (8), they come from elsewhere in The Midwest (3), The South (3), New England (3) Mid-Atlantic (2), Other Countries (3). 7 are Transfers from other Colleges.

SLU 2 Illinois St 0 (It could have been worse) Good effort, good to get some goals, a win, and, to get on the board. The play was better. Emily Groark started and played limited minutes in bth halves. (left knee). She was having a strong preseason, and, she was conference UWS this summer as a forward. Not having her either up top or wide midfield has been a big hole to fill. Similar formation for SLU. Groark started up top which moved Kelly to off of the bench. Groark was active and involved early, whether it was getting deep into the corners, slotting passes for forwards, defending passing lanes, forcing turnovers, or hitting a few herself. You can see some of what has been missing. Sawyer wide mid with Friedrich, Miller/Kohl and Beach, Heckel, Stram, Houck in back with Puricelli. Sawyer was also able to play some up top, a more natural place for her. She has become a reliable many minute versatile offensive player that as mentioned during recruiting, preseason, etc lots of pace and fitness, areas of need. Halverson not dressed but she’s been involved, and, she at least made the trip this time. Illinois St. came in banged up a little bit and had to play one of its best offensive players in a more defensive role. Gaebe as mentioned before, can score in a variety of ways. That’s her strength, and, she’s a physical player, still getting match fit. This time, she scored in space as Walsh slots a nice through ball and Gaebe uses a nice first touch, body positioning, left foot, low far post. Summers was back and out of the walking boot. She played a little bit of everything, wide mid, left and right back. She can also play forward. Beach and Kohl with two nice stop ball tackles that weren’t there as much the first few games. Miller received an elbow to the head on a 50/50 aerial ball, was a down a bit, dazed a bit, didn’t return. Kohl played a full 90 on the side. You’ll see Stram (nice game) and Heckel play a full 90 much of the time at inside back. Liz Stureman also saw her first minutes of the season after being out all of preseason and first games wit injury. IMG Academy player originally out of Ft. Wayne IN, more backline depth at eight back. Summers, Stureman, and Brinkman showing the backline depth without Halverson, and Beach working towards 100% etc…makes a big difference. Friedrich set up Miller for SLU’s first goal, near post header. Friedrich was also active early getting inside multiple times, and defensively in passing lanes. SLU clearly wanted to take more shots on goal early, even from distance. Then they were able to get deeper into the wide mid corners and make some diagonal runs inside the box. Interestingly enough both SLU Men and Women had goals today where the defensive player was standing inside the goal line on a header. Both were correctly counted as goals. SLU’s wide mids were getting deeper up the field today, and working better with both attack mids and forwards. Kelly had a near miss header, and she had a near slam dunk assist broken up that she’d like to have back. Having her come off of the bench as a spark was better for her today. She will eventually break through. Better distribution out of the back today, and mids much better distribution forward connecting passes. Walsh, Kohl, nice job there. SLU did a better job showing for the ball as well. Smaller passes. First touch, combining passes. 17 shots, 6 corners. It could have been 4 or 5 goals. The last 20 minutes were a bit less effective finishing out the game with lots of players. But overall it was a good performance and a nice, comfortable needed win, much more dangerous chances created. Celebrate success. Notes: KU had an OT goal from Freshman Raena Childers to take down Iowa 1-0. It was KU’s most complete game thus far. They didn’t start slow, they didn’t have lapses as they did vs SLU. Raena’s sister Rylan had a big goal vs SLU. Xavier had a 4-0 win over Murray St. How long does it take to come back from an ACL tear? It varies, but one of the best local Stl prep players and UNC commit, Maci Teater played her first game recently this month, 311 days after her surgery.

Welcome to the club, @Bearcat! Always great to have new posters!

Courtside, Thank you for the continued fantastic coverage and insight. For a while now my daughter has been obsessed with the Billikens, and dragged me into it with her. Honestly in my limited soccer knowledge as former mid level club coach, referee for club NAIA and High School, and parent with 3 kids playing, I believe they were in the top 10 of teams we watched play this spring across all conferences. I have to believe they will get back on track. Fantastic coaches with high ethics and a team that is as cohesive as they seem from the outside says as much. Looking forward to seeing them put it back together. Thank you for the time you take to share your knowledge here. I just registered but she has been reading me posts from the site all year. Very much appreciate you, never thought I’d become an SLU fan, but here I am.

There's another guy with the initials CB with huge expectations that cannot help himself. I admire your/his persistence.

This is it. I think people are also underrating the importance of depth at this position, especially for practice. Rashed Anthony was more valuable than we ever realized because of this. The upside here is we have the potential to have him around for four years. He could develop into a nice big, and if he doesn't, he's depth until he leaves. There's not really any downside here.

If only we had a Billiken named Moggins.