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Phil Russell put on his story, "watch this" above the fletcher transfer report.

We have not reached the level as a program where we're turning down 6'6 215 lb matchup nightmares if they want to come here. Especially not one with 4 years of eligibility.

Jerry Palm/Joe Lunardi Take - We have no idea how the Committee will vote on SLU but we'll both come to the same conclusion in the final hour when the Committee lets us know.

Literally every single post you make on here is negative. If Billikens basketball doesn’t make you happy, maybe you should find a new hobby. Just sayin.

Collins Jimerson/Thatch Perkins Fletcher Okoro would be a very good starting lineup and compete for the A-10 title.

A10 not shuffling the schedule more to get SLU some winnable road games down the stretch is really inexcusable when you consider the extra payouts an added NCAA team gives the league. A10 in general was terrible with rescheduling games, confusingly changing the the tournament format, and giving VCU home games.

Just two really bad posts. did you miss the play to end the first half where she took the ball the length of the court with 8 seconds left and dished it to MST to for a buzzer beater? She wilted at the end of regulation but she’s an outstanding raw PG talent for a sophomore and she showed that early in the game. secondly, Why are you classifying your critique of her on court performance by her being a woman? Julia Martinez is a college athlete and a division 1 basketball player who is open to any criticism that a men’s player is.

I didn’t mind that nearly as much when they were at Chaifetz Arena

Is rooting against bubble teams more fun than rooting for the Bills? Maybe.

I don’t equate passion and competitiveness to being a head case.

It’s not just that. When he did play for Kentucky, he did well. A lot of Kentucky fans were advocating for him to get more time, but it seems like there was a huge rift between him and Calipari. I don’t think his lack of playing time at Kentucky represents who he is as a player. Remember Javon Bess, our star for two season? Look at his stats at Michigan State his freshman year. Very similar to Cam’ron’s It also boils down to the fact that recruits of his caliber start for us. Goodwin was a four year starter. Gordon was heavily in the rotation and a starter just before he transferred. Okoro is being lined up as the starting center next year. Obviously he would have to earn the time in practice and a starting role isn’t guaranteed, but to say that he wouldn’t get any PT here and he’d be sitting for a year is outlandish.

As 3-time NIT coaching winner Dave Odom always said, “It’s not THE National Championship, but it’s A National Championship.”

Beat me to it. I think everyone could see this coming. Come on home, Cam.

I'm glad that I know more about A10 WBB from watching parts of several SLU games this year and looking at box scores than someone who is theoretically paid to know about it. SMH.

I agree with your first take. I don't think Wichita State is solidly in the field. A lot of people are overlooking the fact that they finished #1 in the AAC so some bracketologists have them as the default AAC auto-bid winner until they lose. We want Cinci to win and then lose to Houston. That is the best result for the Billikens chances. That being said, most important we need G-Town, Oregon State, and Memphis to lose. Edit: Also note that if you are projecting Wichita State as the AAC auto-bid winner then you would not have then in the First Four games and thus you'd probably be giving them an 11 seed (unless you have then behind Western Kentucky, Colgate, or some other 1 bid conference champ) which is where most of the entries in the BracketMatrix have them.

George Carlin summed that up well when he said think of the intelligence of the average person and realize half the world is stupider than that.

SLU let the dogs out, as long as you are going to limit yourself to Irish whisy, try Tullamore Dew 12 year, it is really good. I plan to stick to Margaritas tomorrow.

Too many people on this board, and elsewhere, seem to believe Lunardi, Palm or any bracketologist have the exact right answer. It's like Lunardi says we are in, so we must be in, but if he drops us out, we must be out type mentality. Truth is they are just making educated guesses. At the start of play today it feels like we are about 50% likely. Wins by Creighton, Colorado, Houston and Wichita St. move that up 10-15% in my mind. Losses by Creighton or Colorado drop the percentage by 15% each. Even if today goes horribly, we still have a 20-30% chance. Because we don't know if we are really the first team out, last team in or what. We could be the last bye for all anyone knows. It's just an educated guessing game.

I guess you can’t be wrong if you choose every alternative.

I think SLU is the Last Team IN going into Saturday's games. With its NET of 45, SLU should easily be IN. In fact, SLU's position actually improved one at large slot overnight, from the 32nd to the 31st At Large IN per the NET. SLU's NET remains at 45, the same as it was yesterday. The issue is while the NCAA field traditionally very closely follows the NET, and before that its predecessor, the RPI, there are annually approximately 3 variances between the metric tool used and the actual NCAA field. While I really disagree with the elevation of Michigan State (NET 70), if the bracketologists are correct, this gift bid, akin to a Power 5 Lifetime Achievement Award, is happening. We hear Michigan State has 5 Quad 1 Wins. Well, Michigan State has 11 QUAD 1 LOSSES! That's right, Sparty is 5-11 in Quad 1. Friends, that is not a good record. That is Power 5 mumbo jumbo, tv ratings, additional NCAA Unit($) to the Big Ten. The pundits have Louisville IN at 56 NET, 1-6 Quad 1. 1-6 QUAD 1! They also have Wichita State IN at NET 64, 2-3 Quad 1. SLU is NET 45, 2-3 Quad 1, 2-1 Quad 2, 4-2 Quad 3, and 1-4 Road. The latter, lack of road wins, is where the lack of games issue comes into play, and that is Covid quarantine related, out of the Billikens' control. Also, Ted "TV" Valentine is certainly an issue there for the Travesty @ VCU. I can easily excise the 2 Mountain West pretenders, 50 Boise State and 51 Colorado State. The 12th ranked Mountain West Conference (A10 is 9th ranked) is not getting 4 NCAA teams, and better not be getting 3 NCAA teams. Colorado State looked flat out awful last night, a bunch of bricklayers. Then that last spot comes down to 45 SLU, 52 Memphis (last team in per today's NET) and 53 Ole Miss (first team OUT per today's NET). Memphis is 16-7, 4-3 Road, 0-3 Quad 1, 4-3 Quad 2. Ole Miss is 16-11, 5-6 Road, 3-5 Quad 1, 4-4 Quad 2. I think Ole Miss loses out there, at least I hope so. That reduces the final NCAA At Large to SLU vs. Memphis. In the AAC, root for Houston to knock off Memphis today, hopefully big. Root for Cincinnati to beat Wichita State today. Then root for Houston to beat Cincinnati tomorrow (which would be imperative). In the Power 5 + 1 Bid Stealers, trouble is brewing in the Pac 12 and Big East. It is imperative for SLU's NCAA chances for Creighton to beat Georgetown in the Big East and for Colorado to beat Oregon State in the Pac-12. As the Billikens have sat idle this week, everything has pretty much gone SLU's way so far, except for that South Florida meltdown vs. Wichita State yesterday, which would have been an unexpected, but valuable, upset anyway.

It's a waiting game. The optimists think we'll get a pass. The pessimists think we'll get screwed. I'm just eating popcorn.

Think about how good LSU could be if they didn’t give up at least 1 offensive rebound on every single possession.

Wichita’s average metric if you combine KenPom, NET, and BPI is 77. And that’s before their loss today. If they make it over us the system is broken

I have not seen Fletcher play. The description of him as a rebounder sounds alot like Goodwin. He has been described as a hard nosed player and rebounder that would seem to fit the Team Blue identity. Fletcher is taller than Goodwin and shot high school free throws at 75%. He was not an accomplished 3 point shooter. Has not been a great ball handler. Is a great athlete. I dont know what led to his suspension at Kentucky, so that causes some concern. In Ford I trust.

I get where you’re coming from for sure. I watched a lot of Fletcher in high school and also most or all of his early season games at UK and definitely think he would get minutes for us right away. Keep in mind he even started for them at one point early in the season before that relationship with Coach Cal started fraying. He, Perkins, Hargrove and Strickland all can play and guard multiple positions. It would definitely be a bit of a logjam with those guys, but you have to roll the dice to make it work if you can.

Hargrove is also an elite athlete who shot the 3 very well this year. Along with GJ, and perkins thats a lot of talent to just assume a guy who never played for 9 win team to just jump in and take their minutes. Also yes he was a top 60 player, doesnt mean he'll play like it. Im not saying I dont want him, in case anyone gets that confused. I just dont think he'll want to go to a program with several players at that spot.

They split up the a10 in 3 divisions this season. SLU/SBU/UD/DUQ. UD is always in the mix for the title. Bona sits at 3-0. In the other divisions UMASS is at 3-1 and LaSalle is at 3-1. Mason sits at 0-3 but are in their second year with a national champion coach. VCU is historically pretty good.

Billiken women's basketball deserves their own GDT. They are the #3 seed in the tournament and this may be Lisa Stone's best chance in her tenure to bring the program's first NCAA bid. Here's how they have faired against potential opponents so far: Richmond: 62-57 Home W on 2/14 Fordham: 72-63 Home L; first game coming off long pause. Fordham will be coming off a long pause playing UMass in their quarters. UMass: Split with them, 2nd and 3rd games coming off pause, second game was a decisive 11 point win. VCU: 66-50 Home W. Dayton: 59-52 Home 2OT L and 64-57 Road W

I think we walk a fine line in player criticism. Describing a player as stupid can be construed as insulting them personally rather than a critique of their game. No doubt all our student athletes are hard working decent people. If they weren't, they wouldn't be a part of the team anymore. I believe this is what slu72 was trying to get across in his apology. Not anything sexist. We shouldn't be calling any player, male or female stupid.* *Brett Jolly is exempt from this. You can call him stupid anytime for any reason.

Really seemed like nobody on the team had an idea of time and score.

True. Martinez effected a good play at the end of the first half. She also made a couple of key plays during the game. That said, her six turnovers, most of them brutal, including the final one, where instead of dribbling to the half court, she threw the ball a meter over Brooke and thus came within seconds of terminating the Billiken season, render the critique valid. The fifth spot in the line up constantly hurts SLU. If only Clark would get out of the funk and back to her high standard of prior years...

I don't. Whining about not being selected never comes across well and it's not like pleading their case is going to change anything. Just say that you are disappointed but look forward to playing in the NIT.

I think the last 3 on your list are the only meaningful ones. lsu winning would be nice but not required Wichita St might as well just win to ensure cincy doesn’t steal a bid. They are in. Oregon st, Georgetown and Memphis need to lose. All about 8 point underdogs. this is the absolute best we could have hoped for so far.

I don't want the committee to look at our entire body of work. I want the committee to not look at our first two games following Covid. I want the committee to look at the games before the pause, then skip to our St. Bonnie win and ignore the two L's.

43 Drake should be OUT too, playing that absurd non-conference schedule of cupcakes. The stats show Drake as 1-2 Quad 1, 5-0 Quad 2, 9-2 on the Road, which is impressive until one considers the identities of those road opponents. The only good team Drake played all season is Loyola Chicago. The Ramblers won at Drake by 27 points and by 10 on a neutral court. Drake hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 2008, and has only 4 NCAA Tournament appearances all time. I get the feeling Drake is this year's feel good narrative. There always needs to be one. Re SLU's road record, Michigan State, seemingly enjoying total blanket immunity, is 3-8 on the road.

This is the #1 ranked bracketologist over the past 5 years. He says we are in as of now https://bracketville.wordpress.com/bracketology/

Good morning to everyone but those bubble teams that need to lose today.

I am starting to think this too. Guess we have to hope the MWC is a 2 bid league and/or the committee is down on Drake. I'm back in the boat that our lack of road wins will be the thing that keeps us out even if the covid losses are forgiven

BACK IN IT

Not to endorse it butttttttt this is why people bet on sports. $10 and you’re locked in

Didn’t think I’d ever be glued to the 3/6 AAC conference tournament game but here we are....

Neither did Richmond.

Been our best player I think.

We are great hate-rooters.

You think average Joe fan that tuned into our nationally televised games on ESPN2 against Dayton and Saturday's CBS Sports game against St. Bonaventure thinks we fit the eye test?

They didn't really game the system. They just didn't play any non-conference games. In a normal year, they'd have enough games against power conference teams that this would be impossible. (They were actually a very good team last year - after losing consecutive games to Clemson, Auburn, and Syracuse, they took only one more non-conference loss and even won a road game at Cincinnati.) So I don't think there's a big lesson to be taken from their ranking this year if we go back to normal full schedules next season. The only thing I'd add is that as power conferences lengthen their conference schedules to 20 games, non-conference schedules for everyone will get shorter and if a team like Colgate is able to pull off a couple non-conference upsets, look out. Then you could have a lower conference team with like 2 losses in March and a bunch of .500 power conference teams trying to convince us that they're more deserving.

Why? None of their top players have chosen SLU for decades.

I don't know that he is transferring. I just feel like he has options outside of the St. Louis area and may decide to move back closer to home. There are so many teams around his home in Virginia. It doesn't have to be a top team either. Teams like Virginia Tech or NC State could use his skill set. As far as movement, I cannot disagree with our lack of movement on offense, but it isn't Gibson. He's constantly running the baseline and moving to get open. He does exactly what I see other shooters like him do. I have to assume that this is what the coaches are telling him to do. Sometimes his movement is to draw his defender away from the play. Sometimes it is to get open. The movement that we need is movement with and near the ball. That's the movement that opens up the exterior shooters. I wish I had the time to re-watch a few of our conference games and screen shot all the times he's standing wide open out at the three point line. Unfortunately, I don't.

That's exactly what I've been saying regarding JGood and Yuri. If you tell them to change their aggressiveness it'll change who they are. Then I hear well just cut back on the bad plays. If they thought they were going to be bad plays or turnovers they wouldn't have attempted them in the first place. Great players play with extreme confidence that sometimes leads to bad plays, but changing their nature leads to them being different players. With experience they gain some feel for what is good or bad, but neither of those two and as you can see by the leading t/o list will ever b e players where you don't say wtf ... now and then