Leaderboard

At this point the Democrats do have a coherent message - take care of people first. The problem is the GOP keep moving the goal posts. Send a check to everyone - no wait send loans that are unsecured to essential corporations - no wait give money to anybody who are FoT - no wait give money to all corporations including Trump's business - no wait who knows what is next. My point is as long as the objective keeps changing it is hard to do/say anything. No matter what happens the Dems will be blamed since Trump has the bully pulpit and the media just keeps chasing the next shiny object he puts out there. At this point, just beef up the unemployment benefits and develop a small business loan system and let the corporations borrow on the open market at virtually no interest unless they are willing to agree to use the money correctly and are willing to secure the money with equity in their companies. Cruise lines are not essential nor are casinos and resorts. I am sure there are more that others can think of.

Myself and @Pistol have finally finished our write up for this season. It's about a 26 minute read so it's a long one. As you will hear on Wednesday's episode we were initially going to have Carter Chapley involved as well but schedules have been hectic with everything going on, and 26 minutes already feels long enough. You can read this blog at the link below: https://www.bigredworld.org/post/2019-2020recap If you have comments, thoughts, hated what I said, etc. I will be on here for another hour or two to talk this blog with everyone on here as well. With this pandemic cutting short seasons or canceling them altogether, we know there is a vacuum of Billikens content so here's hoping we can fill this somewhat. Coming the next few weeks we will have what looks like two interviews per week, plus a couple of other shows that we have been developing. The schedule as it stands is in concrete: - Former Billiken Aaron Burg on Wednesday - Jack Raboin Part One Friday - Jack Raboin Part Two Next Wednesday (4/1) These are the ones I'm confident posting about at this time but we have a lot more on the way to hopefully make this more bearable. Look for more updates on our show schedule Wednesday.

Just heard that a player had an exchange with Pitino that went like this, “Young man, my name is Rick Pitino, Iona College.” The player replied, “OK, which one?”

Showing my age with the first one; Listening to Billiken BB on KMOX and beginning to become a fan: Dick Bouska (Springfield Ill); Grady Smith (Puxico Mo as a Jr with Joe Todd (Morehouse, MO) as a Soph forming an outstanding backcourt; the 3 guards recruited the same year (S Ulrich, R Reinberg and R Albrecht with the first two starting for 3 years together. Maybe the most important event in Billiken B history, in that it saved the program from near extinction-----watching my TV one night when the lead story was an interview with Monroe and Roland (the McKinley twins) in which they both announced their intent to go to SLU. That was followed the next year by AB coming onboard. Spoon leaving SW MO St to become the Billiken HC The years we had the 2 "L" guys from the eastside (I'm pretty sure these were Roy's favorite years) Coach Ford making immediate inroads in recruiting, especially in local recruiting with Goodwin and CAG (eventho the latter didn't turn out so well) The atmosphere at the 'Fetz during the 2018 Butler and 2020 UD and VCU games. This proves what's possible during the next few years! Finally, having Billikens.com to stay informed about Billiken BB in spite of our occasional disagreements. (Yes, Roy, it's Jimerson with one "M.")

Who wouldn’t want to play for Pitino? Strippers and free escorts.

It's been great reading these memories as a newer Billikens fan, as I've been able to go back and learn a lot about SLU basketball history. My list is short and much more recent, but here's a few of mine: -Watching the tournament teams from 2012-14. I was young and not really following college basketball, much less the Bills, but I remember going to a few games at Chaifetz with my dad and watching Mitchell, Jett, and Loe just to name a few. -2019 A-10 championship run. -Dayton home game. Even though it was a hard loss, the atmosphere inside Chaifetz was unmatched. Goodwin's layup to tie it almost blew the roof off of the place. -Watching our current team grow together. This year turned out much better than I expected after losing some big parts of our team from the year before, but now I'm so excited to see what this team can do next year and beyond.

I do think someone is going to leave but I don't think SLU is going to take a commitment from Russell until the departure(s) are announced. So if Russell wants to move quickly SLU may not be the best spot for him.

good read

NABC District 4 is the 14 teams in the A-10. There are 24 districts, 18 represent one conference and 7 represent 2 conferences. Toppin, Crutcher, Lofton, and Russell were the other 4, so those 5 together were 5 of the 6 named to the All A-10 first team.

-by using year of high school graduation you are guessing that all made a natural progression to that point, didn't anyone spend 3 years in the 6th grade?

One more late addition -- I had my bachelor party in St Louis in January 2017. One of my friends in the alumni department arranged for my brother and I to watch one of the closed practices. We watched the starters that season get absolutely torched by Bess, Henriquez, Graves and 2 walk ons. Then 17 year old JGood walks in and watches practice and my brother and I talked to his parents for a while. I told my brother than JGood was "the future" and would be one of the best billikens of all time (basically just listening to all the Billiken Roy hype). Talked to Ford for a while and all the players came over after and thanked me for coming to practice and supporting the program. Then each one of them shook our hands (seemed to be protocol for practice visitors). This is really why I give Ford such a long leash and am probably too easy on him. He represents the university so well. We are lucky to have him. Lastly...It did not shock me at all that Johnson transferred out...He saw Bess and Henriquez coming in poised to take every minute from him.

I have tons of great Billiken memories, but Columbus is at the top. I drove there with my father (now passed away) and my ten year old son (now 17 and doesn't hang out with his dad like he used to). We met up with my cousin who lives in Columbus. The four of us went to both games. That's an all time memory for me, not just all time Billiken memory.

I lived in Ohio so went to a couple of games in 62 as an 8 year old falling in love with basketball. Met Oscar on the floor during warm-ups and that same year was able to stand next to Wilt to see how tall he was... different times then.

Is this becoming a competition to see who is the oldest among us? I qualify to enter in this contest, although I have no doubt someone else will prove to be older than me.

some would say the big O was the GOAT

Thanks to corona virus, I was able to watch Tiger King on Netflix. Holy sh1t. That was a journey. Absolute must watch.

Absolutely, I don’t know how he does it. Much appreciated @Pistol!

That’s why we have people for recruiting news like @Pistol, right?

Lol...you mean that his dad was committed to us?

It's really only Marcus Smart but some others: Pat Beverely Avery Bradley Talen Horton Tucker

This is a good take. I think the reason why people aren't taking it seriously is that it has never occurred before and the trust of the media/big govt/the president, take your pick is at an all time low. I'd also venture to say that society at large has systematically taken the empathy out of a lot of people...especially the young that are somewhat disenfranchised paying minimum payments on student loans that don't really see a path to upward mobility. i.e. why am I supposed to stay indoors and not live to keep the 60+ year olds sitting with $5M net worths comfortable. It is a dark thought that I am seeing in Twitter mentions. Might be all russian bots but I dont think so. It is a scary thought. I just hope we find a vaccine/cure soon so we can get out of this spiral we are in. I also think that the "situation" in Italy has not really had that shock factor to the casual observer that would drive a change in behavior for the under 30 healthy person. If this thing had ebola or SARS-like symptoms it might be a different story. It is too easy for a young person to say, when I get it, I will get a cough, recover at home for 2 weeks and be fine.

It would be interesting to hear from Mike McCall. Of all the guys from that era, he remains a bit of a mystery to me. I don't recall ever hearing from him in an interview. He was overshadowed by guys like Jett and Evans, but was an extremely steady, valuable player who was an important part of a lot of winning. Even the way he played was very stoic. Very little emotion or expression. It was hard getting a sense of what was going in on his head. Perhaps he's a bit shy and wouldn't want to be interviewed, but I would like to hear his perspective on his time at SLU.

If there is a next year...

Just stop loser, you are trying to create a story, not add to one. Saying, Italy is not comparable to the United States is not saying there isn’t a problem. Apparently you are cheering with glee at every death so you can come back on this board and say I told you so. The statements I made were 100% factual! What we have determined is that YOU HAVE BEEN QUOTED AS SAYING JIMMY BELL IS A HEAVY FOOTED TROLL... FALSELY ATTACKING OTHER IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE THE FACTS... I’m through with the discussion...