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I'm all in on LSU. The way a10 twitter has treated Ford and the Bills the last two weeks (I like the unfurled guys, but the whole fanbase is getting full of themselves) I'm rooting hard for LSU. VCU I think can win their first one but should get blown out in the next one. Garza could score a Wilt 100 if he wanted to

I think your points as to why SLU was didn't make the NCAA are largely correct. I think SLU flunked the Committee's subjective eye test. Objectively per the metric used, SLU should have been IN. However, SLU was still snubbed. The NCAA field followed the NET to the button, 100% for 35 of the first 37 at large bids. The two variances occurred because (1) Room had to be made for Michigan State (NET 70, 9-12 Big Ten including B10 Tourney) as the 9th Big Ten team. That NCAA Unit is simply worth too much money, $1.8 to $1.9 Million; (2) a second AAC team (72 Wichita State) had to be slotted because each conference in the Group of 4 (WCC, A10, MVC, and Mountain West) each received 2 bids, and the 7th conference ranked AAC was not going to receive only 1 bid. Someone had to go to make room. Regrettably, SLU was excised, despite its easily NCAA qualifying NET of 43. In fact, the picking was so skewed against SLU that SLU was only the 3rd team OUT, despite having a significantly better NET than 56 Louisville and 51 Colorado State. I do not accept the snub of SLU, not with its NET of 43, kenpom ranking of 47, and ESPN BPI ranking of 37. Why have the NET metric if it is going to be ignored when it comes down to the nitty gritty? Why have a ridiculous Power 5 exception for a Big Ten also ran like Michigan State? In advance, I'm well aware of the claimed justifications of Michigan State winning 3 top level games late (all at home), or its 5 Quad 1 wins. Michigan State was 5-11 in Quad 1, .3125. Those faux justifications are rejected here. Michigan State is IN for one reason: Follow the money. I will watch SLU play in the NIT, and am looking forward to seeing the Billikens play some more ball in '21.

I think most D1 coaches would agree that the hardest thing to get across to incoming FR is how important D is at this level. Take for example Mike McCall when he got here. Good offensive player, but Rick didn't like his D. McCall finally got the message and worked hard on it to become one of our better defenders during his tenure here. Sounds like McKissick has already got the message and excels at D. You can't have enough guys who really like playing D.

And root for Michigan State, Wichita State, and Utah State to lose by 25.

I am excited about finally having high speed internet at the Lake of the Ozarks at my new place that I will be able to watch my beloved Billikens instead of listening on KMOX. I am now past my disappointment of missing the big dance and now into the NIT that I think will be dominated by the A10 conference. I just love watching my team play and when the season is over it’s a long wait for December.

Lol.. get a grip dude. If you’re begging here’s another

The disconnect between the message board set and social media set has never been in more stark focus.

What did Ford say that countered anything in the tweets sent by Gardner or Chapley? Ford didn't deny anything in those tweets. Ford never said he wasn't at the party. Ford went out there and acted like the whole thing was an attack on Brooks to avoid getting asked questions he didn't want to answer. Since the loss to the Bonnies, Ford has been saying COVID should be took into account for the Billikens issues in the second half of the season. If you are going to use that as the excuse, you should be prepared to answer question about how the team got hit so hard by COVID. Especially when this story has been making the rounds for months.

BTW.....what ever happened to HIPAA...it sorta seems odd to me how such specific names come out. It is also to hide them given the HUGE amount of gambling that goes on around this tournament. Glad it is not my problem to manage those things.

Jerry Palm, if he is correct, kept citing SLU's lack of quality road wins. A chief explanation, quite possibly disregarded by the Committee, was the Covid quarantine cost SLU 6 games, 4 of which were never made up. The @UMass road game was not played. While the St. Bona home game was rescheduled, the @St. Bona road game, which was TBA, was never rescheduled. That's where the ridiculous A10 decision to advance its Tournament a week comes into play. That ill fated decision, even if well intentioned at the time, cost SLU 2 games, 1 of which would have likely been a key road game, quite possibly, even likely at St. Bona. So the A10, concerned about an additional Covid related quarantine, played a key role in the excision of a 3rd A10 bid. As is, let's not forget the stellar work of Ted "TV" Valentine, who handed a key road game to VCU. If SLU wins that game, which was very possible given the amount of time on that clock and SLU racing down the court, the claim of no quality road win disappears. The bottom line is when you are outside the Power 5 and have not won your conference tournament, you are at the mercy of that NCAA Committee. I was hardly surprised at what happened. I pretty much knew SLU was toast early in the Selection Show when that Drake vs. Wichita State play in game appeared on the screen. NET 43, who cares says the Committee? They needed to get in the 9th Big Ten team, come hell or high water. And they needed room for the 2nd AAC team, didn't want to upset that apple cart. The Committee can always find something if it wants to look. It knew its end; it merely had to find its means. It did.

Agree about the blowout losses. And think you are being kind as to the LaSalle loss which also was a blowout loss. No real argument from me either as to the selection committee. We failed on the basketball court and our leadership at SLU and the A10 also failed the kids. Tough to survive both - but we nearly did. The handling of the entire season, IMO, was shameful. French and Goodwin (and Perkins and the others) deserved better. And I, like most, will be watching and pulling for them. I have questions about Coach Ford and his son's 21st Birthday party -- not good. I question why we missed 30 days and did not practice. If the entire league shut down, then fine, but when the others are playing, strict COVID protocols greatly hurt - and how effective they really were is another story. They were greatly effective, though, in killing our team's chances this year. And I would like to really know what happened in Richmond. Had SLU handled the other aspects better, I would be more inclined to believe SLU. I want to believe SLU but right now, I don't. I am from Missouri: show me. Yes, a practice game would be fine. But how about some help from the A10 as well. Again, the Valley stepped in and changed their whole format. The SEC in football changed opponents each weeks for the whole league depending upon COVID outbreaks. The A10? crickets... until it shut the season down a week prior, we missed 2 important games and made us sit and wait along with the lesser conferences while the better conferences had their day in the sun. The rest of the country thinks we are no different then the Valley - and our A10 Commish made us look that way too. Again, why could we not play our 2 games AFTER losing to St. Bona? All teams other than VCU and St. Bona had a week off and could have played each other. Who said to Coach Ford, yeah, renting out a bar for your 21 year old son during a pandemic when you are the high profile coach and employee of the University? Who said the odds of playing one (1) more game - the A10 final a week later - would increase the risk of COVID so much that the loss of 2 games would be worth it? Who said to the A10 Commish, yeah, playing less games and the optics of playing when the lesser conferences do is a good idea as well? This is not rocket science. Grab 10 random people off the street and you would get better advice.

I see people post this a lot, especially when talking about accepting a NIT or CBI(not this year of course) bid. I know we want to see the young guys get a chance, and I hope we do, but French and Goodwin aren't playing in this to waste time, they want to win. I don't see the minutes changing at all just because of it being the NIT.

I remember a story (I will just have the gist of it) that athletes cannot start to have the meals paid for by the school until semester beginning or practice start or whatever specific event. Glaze could not feed himself because he lacked the means and they found a way to get him like a jar of peanut butter and a couple loaves of bread to just get him through. While things can change and people can change and his current lifestyle is a bit extreme, Grandy always seemed well liked, friendly, hard-working, etc. I wished him the best when he left SLU and would have also been happy to see him return. I think he will be a great interview and will have a lot to talk about just focusing on his playing days and childhood.

Typically there have been about 1,000 transfers/year. This year, I'll put the over/under at 1,500

Goodwin did a lot of things well on D - great with steals and of course rebounding, but it seemed he would get beat quite a bit off the dribble by quicker guards. I always felt he was better suited guarding the other team's 3, as opposed to their 2.

Lake Grill/smoker Beer Billiken basketball Sounds like a pretty good combo.

You absolutely should. I recall Harriman was really talking him up on the radio. He had a really rough upbringing growing up in Canada. Aside from his post playing shenanigans, I think he would have a lot of interesting things to say. I happened to be at practice in 2014 when he threw out his shoulder, essentially ending his SLU career. He was going to take on a bigger role that year. The following year, he wound up his career with a very strong season at Grand Canyon. I believe he originally committed to UNLV under Lon Kruger, when he left then he committed to SLU. Played for Majerus and then Crews and then a final stop at GC, so an interesting career. He earned the best college basketball transfer award in 2016. You'd have a lot to talk about.

Think Houston can make a deep run, elite 8 or final four

I don't think our perimeter defense was that great this year. Our guards seem to get beat off the dribble too much and we give up too many wide open 3s. There was debate earlier about the quality of this team vs. some of the Majerus teams. I think the biggest difference was the perimeter defense of the RM teams was so good. Just overall such a cohesive team, even though they didn't have the athleticism and some of the pure scoring of this year's team.

He'll be far and away the worst athlete on the floor. Including Ford and probably Howland

Lucky. I really don't think I'll be there until November

It would honestly be pretty entertaining.

True, also vcu and bonnies are both in the top 17 in defense, while state is 59th, so hoping that gives.

Low key best part of an interview would be @Pistol asking hard hitting questions about the Cult of the Grand Canyon.

Thats obvious from your posts. Not sure why you even come to billikens.com

This board has already checked into off-season mode

The pandemic makes it harder to tell which programs are really trying to step up and which are maybe seeing an opportunity to cut what is often the highest salary in the entire school. Hopefully GMU is the former.

willie no one is concerned about the date of the championship game. brenda's FU was moving the rest of the tourney up a week. that was a huge mistake.

They’re f.cking sick. Coach Ford threw a party for them

I think we’re going to get into Billiken gossip mostly. Really focus in on off the court rumors and salacious pictures of players that we can take out of context. in all seriousness I’d really like us to get back into the interview game. I have feelers out with a couple players but it’s so busy during postseason hard to carve out 2 hours on a random weeknight. We have a former player guest, for our NIT special dropping Thursday, to talk about playing in the NIT.

05, what is your plan for upcoming podcasts? I am really liking the content. At some point, I think you and Pistol interviewing a guy like Ian Mooney would be pretty outstanding if you are taking long distance requests.

IMO whatever his previous position in local media, Gardner is a doorman and has no obligation to uphold journalistic standards. He might as well just be some random guy. If I had access to those pictures, I personally wouldn’t have shared them, but if I did, it’d be dumb to criticize me for not adhering to journalistic standards. Because I’m not a journalist. I hold Chapley to a slightly higher standard, but the only thing I feel like he messed up is he should’ve reached out to and provided Ford’s statement alongside his original retweet. For example if Ford would’ve denied that Brooks’ party happened at all, it would’ve been really important context. That’s not what happened though so I guess in the end it doesn’t matter. As a side note, is Brooks’ birthday 12/23? That’s my daughter’s birthday.

You look at the two writers' content, and think Durando provides better SLU news? Honestly. Carter handled this perfectly - like "hey this is out there, it's been out here a while, just FYI." He didn't share it until it started making the rounds through a10 twitter. What he did was literally unbiased. Didn't comment on it - asked Ford to comment. That's it. This is a truly bizarre reaction to the story. Chapley provides the best billiken news and is really the only one who listens to the fanbase as far as what we're looking for in a beat guy. The only one who does anything else worth reading is @Pistolthrough the new podcast (and here). The yellow journalism take is one of the wilder takes I've seen on this site... and that's saying something

Fordham is important to the other A10 members because the fundraising opportunities that games in NYC gives those members with alumni based in NYC.

Funny. Would be nice to read a positive comment or two from you about our team's players rather than the glowing ones you post of the other A10 teams. I respect your knowledge of the other teams and such info is appreciated, but not sure you realize how negative you have been about our own team. You said you were done with JGood. Nothing good from you about French. Alot of blame upon Coach Ford. Blame due to not making the NCAA but 1 time during their careers. Will just agree to disagree. We were an NCAA Tourney last year and this year too, but for the COVID. St. Bona is not a better team than us and I would much prefer Coach Ford over Mark Schmidt. We don't need a new coach or a program overhaul of talent - just good health this year and some new pieces to the puzzle next year. Maybe you and others call COVID an excuse this year. So be it. Again, agree to disagree. My 19 year old son was in perfect physical shape before getting COVID last Fall. He lost taste and smell, had normal sore throat and cough, slept 22 hours two (2) days in a row and soon otherwise recovered. Young kids recover quickly -- and thankfully he did too - though he continued to be winded going up stairs for 2 months afterwards. No big deal for him -- but I suspect it was/is a big deal for French and the others. Thankfully, I have no first had knowledge - though several in my office and friends and family tested positive and all have talked about both the short term recovery and the longer term recovery. Bad luck, possibly self-inflicted as per the other thread ... but the effects of COVID are real -- and I suggest are not an excuse.

If anyone is involved in a10 Twitter at all, you know that no one in this league is rooting for SLU. Surprisingly, the most pro-SLU guys are probably the Dayton people, which is crazy. I’m 100% down with being the villainous team in this league for years to come.

Yes. All good arguments... but 4 of our 6 losses were blowouts. And were down the stretch. Our good wins which made up the 43 NET were pre-COVID pause. The Committee was likely unsure as to why the losses and why blowouts. And, coupled with a smaller body of work, the lack of a name school and our conference affiliation -- the Committee clearly did not follow their own system. I suspect the Committee would say, as with all systems, there is always human over-ride if the system produces an outlier result.

Yes and a good coach and recruiter can turn DePaul into a powerhouse. A Top 20 program

I have eyes and ears and the experience of 50+ years walking this earth......

It's the only thing they do right.

I named only Terry Cummings. Forgot Aquire was still there. https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/depaul/1981.html

Agree about the blowout losses. And think you are being kind as to the LaSalle loss which also was a blowout loss. No real argument from me either as to the selection committee. We failed on the basketball court and our leadership at SLU and the A10 also failed the kids. Tough to survive both - but we nearly did. The handling of the entire season, IMO, was shameful. French and Goodwin (and Perkins and the others) deserved better. And I, like most, will be watching and pulling for them. I have questions about Coach Ford and his son's 21st Birthday party -- not good. I question why we missed 30 days and did not practice. If the entire league shut down, then fine, but when the others are playing, strict COVID protocols greatly hurt - and how effective they really were is another story. They were greatly effective, though, in killing our team's chances this year. And I would like to really know what happened in Richmond. Had SLU handled the other aspects better, I would be more inclined to believe SLU. I want to believe SLU but right now, I don't. I am from Missouri: show me. Yes, a practice game would be fine. But how about some help from the A10 as well. Again, the Valley stepped in and changed their whole format. The SEC in football changed opponents each weeks for the whole league depending upon COVID outbreaks. The A10? crickets... until it shut the season down a week prior, we missed 2 important games and made us sit and wait along with the lesser conferences while the better conferences had their day in the sun. The rest of the country thinks we are no different then the Valley - and our A10 Commish made us look that way too. Again, why could we not play our 2 games AFTER losing to St. Bona? All teams other than VCU and St. Bona had a week off and could have played each other. Who said to Coach Ford, yeah, renting out a bar for your 21 year old son during a pandemic when you are the high profile coach and employee of the University? Who said the odds of playing one (1) more game - the A10 final a week later - would increase the risk of COVID so much that the loss of 2 games would be worth it? Who said to the A10 Commish, yeah, playing less games and the optics of playing when the lesser conferences do is a good idea as well? This is not rocket science. Grab 10 random people off the street and you would get better advice.

Baton Rouge Tigers. I don't give a rats ass about the A10.