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You know who did a good job on Toppin? Thatch. Obviously, the moments were limited but Fred was really effective. Man, I hope we get a healthy Fred Thatch back soon.

I remember it quite well, a good friend’s brother was the basketball student manager at Illinois that year. Pearl was the Iowa recruiting asst. who was Thomas’ lead recruiter. After Thomas verballed to Illinois, Pearl kept badgering him with calls. In his final call to Thomas, starting after midnight and spanning over an hour, Pearl demanded multiple times for Thomas to give him reasons why Thomas would not flip to Iowa, and why he chose Illinois. Pearl was taping the call. He directed the conversation multiple times to the reason why Thomas went Illinois, and walked him through multiple scenarios. Finally, he threw out that Thomas’ friend had said that Illinois had offered $30k and a new Ford Bronco. Thomas, desperate to end the call and go to bed, agreed that that was the case, and shortly after the call was ended. Pearl and associated staff went to Davis the next day with an edited tape of the conversation, and then contacted the NCAA and gave them a copy of the edited tape. Pearl has one of the worst track records of NCAA violations as a coach. He did not get hung for his misdeeds at Iowa, but Davis rapidly sent him on his way elsewhere after he learned the taped conversation was not contiguous, and the full background. The NCAA found the purported evidence provided was not "credible, persuasive and of a kind on which reasonably prudent persons rely in the conduct of serious affairs." Pearl again pushed the envelope too far at Southern Indiana. He bounced to UWMilwaukee, where he again won big while garnering investigated complaints. He bounced to Tennessee, where he got fired for cause, and almost got Tennessee the death penalty as well. He picked up a three year show cause penalty. In Auburn, he managed to land in the one conference whose motto should be, “If you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying.” Sure enough, his asst., Chuck Person was fired for cause, and two of his current players had to sit out last last year in the Adidas payola scandal the FBI is investigating. Meanwhile, Illinois’ head coach during the Thomas fiasco came out of retirement to coach for free for two years at New Mexico State, his alma mater. Feel free to judge the character of Henson and Pearl. Henson is in two university HOFs for his coaching efforts, while Pearl has shown his coaching chops are exceeded by the broad stripe down his back at every college he has coached. Great motivating coach whose ethics are practically nonexistent.

8-1 is a great start, and a top 4 finish in the A-10 seems possible and not far-fetched. If the Bills can somehow end up at 10-2 OOC, and 11-5 in conference, it's quite likely that an NCAA bid could come our way. There's a lot of season left to play, but it's possible. Imagine what that would do for our program. First, to finish top 4 it will mean some great victories and some very hyped games at Chaifetz. Fans will sprout up, and the bandwagon will need an extension. Second, it will pave the way for next year. There's a lot of left before we can talk about a 2020-21 roster, but what we know so far is that Jacobs and Collins are taking PT away from our one senior, Weaver. So of the 9 or 10 guys that play, we'll be losing our 9th or 10th man Imagine the hype going into next season if the Bills return their top 8 from a tourney team? Consensus 1st place in the A-10? Possible pre-season top 25? Preseason POY for Goodwin or French? And imagine how Ford will be able to leverage that on the recruiting trail? The present tastes great, but the future smells fantastic. We could be moving into a golden era of Billiken hoops!

Looking at the big picture, any STL player that fails at K-State is good for us.

With The Bills currently the worst FT shooting team ITN and Aub with a D- at the foul line....it may be , who ever makes the first FT wins the game. Besides the tongue in cheek remark , I made here....I am editing this post to include the real info ...of the 10 pt spread...4 of those 10 come from FTs...so while maybe not the difference maker...it certainly is an important part of the spread...plus if it becomes a close game (within 6 ) anything can happen.

Here is my take .... It will take a minimum of 24 wins.....assuming we lose to Aub and win against KSU and Bethune...we finish 10-2...No I didn't forget Mville...I don't count Div 2 because the NCAA doesn't count them...which means we need 14 wins ...if we go 12-6 that would be 10+ 12 =22 ...which means you need 2 A10 tourney wins to have a chance at a bid. One of the problems in making the calculation is ...you don't know how many at large bids there will be. If during the conf tourneys you start having upsets...ie Bost Coll wins the ACC torneyor Tex A&M wins the SEC tourney , this decreases the number of at large bids. In a "normal" year...24 wins gets you a 60% chance of getting in...a few upsets and you are below 50%. So for those that want to be doubly sure ...you can use 25 wins....Sometimes when there are few upsets , 23 will work....but in general I would use 24 as a minimum. I will let you all fool with the different combos to get to 24 or 25 wins. Bottom line...No matter how you do it ...it won't be easy....Just win...one game at a time.

Bob Boone, Jim Sundberg and Tony Pena belong in the Hall of Very Good. Lance Parrish was an eight-time All Star, nearly identical to Gary Carter statistically and had a better arm. I have no idea why he isn't in.

He's alive!

Step 1: print the Wiz’s prediction Step 2: retrieve from printer step 3: walk to fireplace step 4: throw paper into fireplace thanks for keeping backhand warm all winter, Wiz!

I don't know about better but this team is way more fun to watch than last year. It looks like SLU hit big time on 3 freshmen and the other 2 have big time upside. French looks significantly better this year. I expect them to be in the tournament this year.

Getting back to the game, any team that shoots 60% from the three usually is victorious

I'm not sure you get what @Franchise_08 is saying. He's not suggesting that SLU should go after Williams or that SLU can't or won't be able to do better. He's saying that K-State is one of our primary rivals in recruiting local St. Louis talent at the level we are recruiting (not 5 stars). Therefore, if a St. Louis kid goes to K-State and "fails" by transferring / not succeeding, then it is good for us because it might make it more difficult for K-State to recruit St. Louis in the future. Flip side is that a guy like Sneed going to K-State and succeeding isn't good for us. Bringing it forward - K-State beat us out for Kasubke and Bradford. I don't wish ill on any players, but I won't be unhappy if things don't pan out for those guys at K-State.

Frankly, Shaun is better than any local guard we're looking at in the 2021 class except for Jordan Nesbitt. But I think it makes more sense to bring in a freshman to be your 8th man than an upperclassman. The former has a chance to start one day and maintains continuity.

Not sure he is good enough? Based on what exactly? In no particular order: He is in the top 200 all time of any position player in WAR. There are six catchers in the MLB Hall of Fame with a WAR worse than Simmons. There are only 8 other catcher's with a 50 plus career WAR. All are in the Hall of Fame. For players that played most of their career primarily as a catcher: 2nd all time Catcher RBI's. 2nd all time Catcher Doubles. 2nd all time Catcher hits. 3rd all time Catcher games played. 7th all time among HOF Catcher Home Runs out of 14. 7th all time Catcher Batting Average. 4th all time Catcher Walks. 5th all time Catcher Runs Scored. Top 10 in league in WAR 5 times regardless of any player's position. Top 10 in OPS 15 times regardless of any player's position. His defense statistically was much better than some would think. Not great but not bad. At minimum average defensively as a catcher. He's clearly a Hall of Famer based on various criterias used for selection.

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I didn’t know about it when it was happening because I was too young, but the articles I’ve read on the Deon Thomas/Illinois/Pearl situation are the same story as what SheltieDave has posted. My recollection is that the investigation that resulted from Pearl trying to be a whistleblower found no truth to Pearl’s allegations, but found some other violations which got Illinois sanctioned. I’m not particularly an Illinois fan, but the story I always heard was that Pearl made signing Deon Thomas a huge priority and couldn’t handle it when he lost a recruiting battle, so he tried to set up a sting operation.

Unless things go spectacularly well, a NIT bid would not be bad this year with the young freshmen. I always thought that CBI year during the Majerus years came at the right time.

Surprised I hadn't seen this yet - I don't know much about him. Is he someone we may kick the tires on? He's from Hazelwood Central https://www.kansas.com/sports/college/big-12/kansas-state/article238291313.html Looks like they were over-committed for next season anyway

Speaking of post season play, I wouldn't even mind this team taking a CBI bid. More experience. Also, are we heading overseas next summer. I think we qualify since it's every 4 or 5 years you're allowed to do it. In fact, maybe that's why our AC was in Spain. Setting up some games. I'm surprised with a campus in Madrid we've never landed a Spaniard.

Good question....the edge goes to French to make the FT...UNLESS he starts to make a lot of FTs ...then the edge goes to the Bills to win.

Maybe not if your team is not in it, but if your team is in it, you should be rooting for them to win it. Schools still hang banners for NIT appearances! Yeah, I get it: you'd rather your team be in the NCAA Tournament, but if they can't get an invitation to the Big Dance, if they get a spot in "the little dance," then they'd appreciate your support through that, too.

You are right.......the good news is that our FT shooting has improved recently...60.4% (last 3 games) vs 53.5% (overall)....we were down around 50%...so while I can't see the F yet....we are are at least battling Winthrop (53.9%) for spot 352.

Willie, the fog of 30 years from the event, and close to 15 years from last reading/writing about it smeared some of the memory details. First, the taped call from Pearl to Thomas was documented by Illinois Bell to be 16 minutes long. The tape Pearl submitted as evidence was 4 minutes long. The master tape was never turned over to anyone, nor heard by anyone outside of Iowa’s basketball recruiting staff. Notre Dame/Digger Phelps was part of the initial litany of player buying complaints, re an offer to LaPhonso Ellis of 80k and a new Bronco. Please note that both Ellis and Thomas denied the existence of any offer of pay to play, Thomas took and passed a polygraph, and the NCAA found zero substance or credible evidence to support Illinois trying to buy players. None whatsoever. Please don’t believe me. Go to the source, the Nov. 7, 1990 Notice of Violations, published by David Brest, the NCAA assistant executive director of enforcement, and waste half an hour reading it with a good coffee. Read it with the foreknowledge that virtually every violation found was detected and documented by an internal investigation, and voluntarily turned over to NCAA. I am a huge Illinois fan, I have known all of the central Illinois high school players that ended up at Illinois, my younger brother served as a student manager, and we have been friends of the Henson family for 40 years, so guilty as charged. However, I always like to look at the available facts before tossing conjectures out. Read the Illinois NOV, and read the Auburn actual pay to play situation, and your beliefs may change.

Or we could just win out

Gratuitous and unnecessary.

Playing Auburn is win win. When we pull the upset it’s a big win and a resume builder. If for some reason the Bills lose they will be credited with the win 5 years from now when Pearl and Auburn forfeit wins for cheating.

I actually like the fact that Pearl did this. Don’t exactly remember the circumstances but Illinois was offering Deon Thomas a Ford Bronco. Pearl taped a conversation and reported it to the NCAA. Something like this. Pearl took heat for being a snitch. His recruiting violations at Auburn were nothing compared to the Pitino’s of the world.

Seemingly pointless correction by me but something that grinds my gears. I know no malicious intent meant though One thing that encourages me beyond 2021 is that we already have pieces of the puzzle for the next 3 years. Obviously next years team will be good, but Yuri, Jacobs, Jimerson, Bell, Hargrove being around after that will hopefully allow us to "reload" instead of "rebuild". Something we haven't really had at SLU. Good job to Ford and staff so far

pics or GTFO

Sign him up!

We made it until tuesday before the jimmy bell cant play post hit the board. Is this a record? I wonder when that dead horse will stop being beaten. Ford is going to play him even if mbms think he should sit

Another good listen. Driving into work listening to the Auburn preview and hearing your plug for rankings got me thinking. Would it be possible to find an MBM from upcoming opponents message boards to come on and give a preview of their team? It may require some work but I if you can find an opposing fan message board you could make a post asking who would be willing to come on and who would be a good representative of their fans. This would provide good info of our next opponent and get you listeners from the other teams fans base.

not to be debbie downer, but it will only take one cheerleader.

Hate to be the guy again, but Bell does not have the skill to be on the court with a top 10 program like Auburn. We can't afford a slow start. We need to pound them in the beginning like Vtech 2 years ago

Couple of the current billikens could maybe be walkons for the Jayhawks even.