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OSU finished 5th in B10 and lost 4 in a row leading into the conference tournament...maybe NCAA should have given the B10 more teams. My God, MSU was 2 games under .500.

I get that and understand that way of thinking. I never know if a person is pushing buttons or actually believes what they say. When I’m discussing sports with buddies over beers somebody always has outrageous takes. They aren’t “trolls” they really love the teams we discuss they just have crazy opinions at times. I try to treat message boards the same way.

All message boards and online forums, just like real life have people who suck and people who do or say dumb things. This forum isn’t even in the ballpark of “toxic”.

The MVC had 4 teams ranked in the top 150 the A10 has 10.

The SIU run was from the 2001-02 to the 2006-07 season. They won at least a share of the conference title 5 times in six seasons, averaged 3 conference losses a season, won five conference tournament titles. made six NCAA tournaments, made 2 sweet sixteens and won a total of 5 games in the tournament. Loyola is only in year 4 of their run. So far the have won at least a share of 3 conference titles, two conference tournaments, averaged 4 conference losses per season, made two NCAA tournaments, made a Final Four, and as of now have a total of 4 NCAA tournament games won. I would say right now the SIU run is slightly better, but I think most SIU fans would trade their whole run for that Final Four Loyola still has this tournament and two more seasons to surpass SIU for a six year run. II don’t get the constant need for some on here to constantly downplay the job Moser has done at Loyola over the last four seasons. I would trade all the NCAA tournaments in my lifetime of Billiken fandom for a four year run like Loyola has had.

Last night while discussing conference realignment I was graphically told to kill myself by esteemed board member @Billiken Rich because I dared to offer a scenario where heading to the MVC might be ideal for SLU. The post was promptly liked by @AGB91. A personal attack of this magnitude is an unacceptable and disgusting way to express disagreement, and cannot go unchecked. @SluSignGuy I tagged you in a response and while I can understand you may have bigger fish to fry in life, this board is incredibly transparent and I can see you've already spent some time on here today. Allowing this post to stay on your site makes you just as culpable as the folks that posted and liked it. You have no idea in impact words like that can have on a person, and a mob of message board morons telling another poster to end their life is unacceptable content to be left up. What if that were the final straw that pushed someone to actually take their own life? I talk sports on a lot of different sites and nowhere else would allow garbage like this to stay viewable. You're an employee of the university. Get rid of it, Steve. If you REALLY want to do the right thing, @Billiken Rich should be put in the Metz Club. This is the exact type of behavior the the club's namesake would partake in. This message board is unwelcoming, hostile, and toxic. It's that way because you allow it to be, Steve. I'm not the first person to bring this up and I'll certainly not the be last. New posters that do not conform to the boards hive mind are regularly chased away by a select few and no one sticks up for new posters for fear of being chased away themselves. Think about all the good discussions that are being stifled because people are afraid of being attacked for their opinions. You've made a nice site, Steve, but it needs to be a community where people free to openly express their thoughts on Billiken basketball. Where being critical of your alma mater is not a crime. A place where telling someone to "Please make sure you get your entire head in front of the shot gun," is not tolerated.

I definitely notice some people. I recognize posters more if they have an avatar in their name. If it’s just a letter I can glaze over it without noticing. Im more likely to go back and look at who posted something if I like the post than if I dislike it.

We should get into the Summit League.

Sorry Steve (for my overraction to a troll bringing up the old Mo Valley dead horse to beat the poor thing some more)

Thank goodness they lost. Can't stand sleazy Izzo. So the 2 teams with 70 net rankings are out.. we should have had one of those spots.

Take that up with the selection committee that has them as an 8 seed and the AP which had them ranked 18. No bias when they are facts! I already provided what he’s built with the Loyola program above. Machine maybe too strong but he’s got nothing but momentum going at that school and has some players. I’d take Moser as a coach.

Anthony Drejaj joins the show to talk about his experience in the NIT NIT Bracket Breakdown SLU vs Mississippi State Preview WNIT: SLU vs DePaul Preview Peter and Zac discuss #PartyGate View the full article

@SluSignGuy probably time to shut this thread down or delete it entirely. Nothing good can come out of it.

Go up to your roof and jump off. Ill hod your beer

Fuoking sucks this games on FloHoops. Billikens lead 63-49 with 8:30 to go in the game!

wow the showdown with Illinois is going to be must-see TV

I absolutely cannot listen to Bill Raferty.

Best FT shooting team in the country + NCAA leading scorer = things I wish I'd have known before that game. Great recipe

Duane Washington Jr. is, in fact, not clutch.

the only good thing about that game is the fact it was a big ten team. otherwise a pool buster.

OSU gives us the first “Surrender Cobra” of the tourney. Not much better than watching THE OSU lose.

Brass balls from liddell

McKissic dropped 20 and 24 on this Oral Roberts squad.

Bringing the Jesuits into now. Look, I get you want to have your look at me moment here so instead of just reporting the post which would have got the quickest response, you have to claim the board administrator is somehow culpable for your emotional baggage and then are scummy enough to use his job as a threat. Sorry that a guy that devotes hours of his time to keep this site running for no pay didn't act quickly enough or exactly in the manner you wanted. It takes an absolutely crazy and misplaced sense of entitlement to make the posts you have in this thread.

Damn.. Liddell is really good.

People have no right to not be offended by what someone writes. You got offended by a comment made in bad taste. Get over it, report the post, block the user and/or leave the board. The board doesn't revolve around you or your feelings. IMO, the board doesn't need people trying to cancel other posters.

Millions of people. Go play in traffic. Go jump off a tall building. If I was that stupid I’d kill myself.

I agree, hence the name BigMouth. Every conversation/debate needs a devil’s advocate. Otherwise it’s an echo chamber

I think increasing roster turnover will slowly erode fan interest. The die-hards like us will always follow, but it will become increasingly difficult to grow attached to players over the course of four years. I think continuity is important. Also, part of the fun is developing a hate for opposing players. For example, I'm disappointed I won't get to hate on Fatts one more year.

The difference is the MVC has better leadership and people who understand how the system works. Both Drake and Loyola played Mo State (97)and Ind State (120)on the road twice. The schedule was adjusted to accommodate this. It allowed them both 4 quad 2 wins rather than 2 quad 2 and 2 quad 3’s which a home and home would have given them.

@Billiken Rich's post, while presumably in jest, IMO does cross a line and should not be tolerated. Telling a fellow poster to commit suicide shouldn't be taken lightly. That is pretty much internet bullying 101. Probably warrants a look back through his post history, but if this is the 1st time offense (and I can't think of any other instances like this), a warning rather than Metz treatment is suitable. @TaLBErt good job calling him out on it. That being said, this did not need a separate thread and I don't think it is fair to label the entire message board as toxic and stifling independent thought. The MVC debate has been re-hashed time and time again. All of the regulars or posters who have been around a long time are more than tired of it. @SluSignGuy in my experience is fairly hands off as a moderator and that is the way it should be except in extreme circumstances like this. He's not doing this as a full time job and in fact has a different full time job. I'd be patient with him and reach out privately via email or PM if he doesn't respond to your tagging him rather than start a whole new thread because he hasn't addressed your issue within 24 hours. You have to be able to see that starting a thread trashing the whole board and Steve will likely not go over well.

Just to take this back to the MVC discussion without citing anyone, this is the first year, in the last 10+, where the MVC and A10 have the same number if bids. In the past, arguments that we should move to the MVC were pretty harshly rejected. That said, if the A10 and MVC have the same number of bids moving forward, then the A10 is just not a smart conference for basketball bids. The A10 is a better conference. More academically talented schools, and better basketball, more Jesuit schools also. But also more competition for 2 bids. I grew up an MVC fan, so I am entirely biased.

It was Iowa.

That is probably true. While I don't accept what happened, and see a clear double standard for a SLU vis-a-vis a Michigan State, SLU probably flunked a subjective eye test with that Committee when it came down to the nitty gritty. My biggest beef of all with the A10 was advancing that Tournament a week. That deprived SLU and other A10 teams of 2 more games, and likely 1 more key road game. In probability and depending upon the opponent, which very well would have been @St. Bona, SLU likely doesn't win that road game. But the A10 deprived SLU of its last clear chance, its chance to rectify the no quality road wins issue.

Friday productivity slowly decreasing....

@courtside thanks for the breakdown

Just when you didn’t think a team could choke more than Wichita State, along comes Norfolk State

@slufanskip I should add, I don’t blame you for doubting how good they actually are. I think it is fair to question how good most teams in this tournament actually are. There are more really flawed resumes and more teams with multiple flaws on the court in this tournament than I can ever remember.

Point taken point take... definitely a final four would make me die today a happy man... Just was calling out the "machine" part. As I stated earlier, would love to see Moser at a big boy job, do great, and prove me wrong. Would love Majerus' coaching tree to get better and better.

Friedrich had two more assists today, and she has done well delivering set pieces this year. It used to be mostly her and Pokorny. She now has more help on offense.

Not sure he marketed anything. He just recruited the right guys and won. If anything sister Jean is a bigger name than he is in that program. He’s drastically improved the facilities and the school made the right move moving to the Mo Valley and getting that school to drastically upgrade their facilities. Compared to the high school gun they use to have. He had some success at this first stop Arky State and fell flat at ILL State and learned a ton from Rick Majeraus when he was here and have turned Loyola around. Now he’s got it humming and is in the running for a lot of big time names. Look I’m pissed SLU didn’t make it either but my God there are a lot of you that just sound like the jilted lover. Lol.

It’s never one thing. 1) There are a variety of ways to win and be successful. 2) It takes a combo and balance of things in some fashion to do it. SLU is finishing more chances more often this year, and, many have been off of set pieces. They have been more dangerous there than before. They have had depth and balance, but, they have been getting a little bit more of it, at a higher skill level and better fitness level. SLU can sub in and out many players, and quality doesn’t change all that much. Recruiting is a factor, yes. SLU has done a nice job recruiting all over the entire Metro area and the rest of the state. And SLU has had success getting some local players to transfer to SLU after initialing heir college career elsewhere, often at Power 5 schools. Diversifying recruiting would be a good goal, in multiple aspects. SLU has a very young team. They play very few Seniors, and, many are Freshmen and Sophomores. There are obvious no weak positions on the team, which says a lot because the team is so young. Shields has done a nice job building an organized, fun, team, with a quiet but confident, fun, winning culture on and off of the field with good kids and students. There is a lot of team bonding. Now, SLU also has had some established success so more kids are considering and choosing SLU more quickly and more often as to where to play. Shields isn’t a yell and scream type, isn’t a rah rah type, and she has good command of the team and program, where you know she is in charge, that she is organized with structure, where there is some freedom for players and coaches and staff, but everything they do is within their culture or they don’t do it or they change it. Other opportunities for improvement: Scheduling, (this has improved by the way) but try to play a Power 5 non conference game later in the season in between league games. The league has not been a leader on this, more of a nuisance in the past. The reasons for it are to reduce the early season pressure of having to get a result in one or a few particular games. Sometimes playing later when you have had more time to get into the season is better. But the league must improve this and help out out. Size, speed, pace, physicality, although some of this has improved as well. But SLU has room to recruit more players with more size and speed that still have strong on ball skills and can play with pace. Power 5 teams have this all over the place. Making the NCAA’s even more consistently, and winning a game or two while there. Getting over the hump in the NCAA tourney v some Power 5 teams. One way to help this is to be even more dominant in league play and conference tourney, plus get non-conference results to ensure best possible seeding. Biggest on the field difference this year so far has been set piece finishing. Several of SLU’s younger players are immediate high level contributors, as opposed to just a few. Long way to go. But they are finding ways to win close games where they play well but have not been mistake free. I would like one more back line player like a Klug, but who wouldn’t. It wasn’t all that long ago when Pokorny was SLU’s only dangerous offensive threat in big games. She was fun to watch.

Drake and WSU fans would argue that a NCAA tournament team should get blown off the court in two of its last six games.

This is awful.... I mean really these bums over us. Wow

How has nobody talked about Puricelli and how she played like 40 min with one arm?

This game is so hard to watch, and not because slu should have been playing in it, but because it is bad basketball

okay drake and wichita are both trash... this is horrible basketball

Joe Reece has entered the transfer portal.

Coach Ford has lifted us from bottom 4 in the conference to top 4 in the conference despite Situation 2 and the 33 Day Pause. The next step is top 2 in the conference and regular NCAA bids. If you would have told me that was attainable after Crews, I would have laughed in your face.