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80-66 Kansas City- Final I think it's fair to say SLU has everything to lose and none to gain by booking a game against them.

Anyone think Cuonzo went into Roos locker room to tell them they are great competitors?

ESPN+ is easily the best value in any realm of television entertainment

Heading over to Beale to delete some beers

I need you to step it tf up right now. This is a big day and you have had a brutal morning on here. Strap in and get yourself together

Mizzou since 2010: - Tournament wins: 0 - Losses to UMKC: 2

It's a great night!

This is great news. SLU has a good presence in Chicago already. The University already recruits well from the city, and it has a good number of alums in the Chicago area. This will only help to solidify that relationship. Lots of kids in Chicago who want to get away for college will be more likely consider SLU the more they know about it. From a University and student recruitment perspective, and from an alumni perspective, this is a home run. From an athletic perspective, it is great news. Easy road trips between the two cities. SLU fans will love their road-trips to Chicago, one of the best cities in America. Good rivalry between two good Jesuit institutions. The move will help Loyola recruit better athletes, but it should also help SLU recruit Chicago athletes better as well. A lot of great basketball and soccer players have come out of Chicago, just to name the two sports I follow the most. The move sets up a great rivalry between the two schools. Maybe I'm biased because I love the city of Chicago, and I love the fact that another Jesuit institution is joining the A10, but I don't see any downside to this development.

Props to our beleaguered commissioner. At worst, an above average A-10 team, at best a perennial NCAA team. And an easy road game for MBMs.

I had no doubt Majerus was going to beat that guy. Checkers against chess.

It was the most outlandish take ever. Even Anne Frank could have seen through it.

Hey Siri play Underdog by Spoon.

Under 2 hours.. roll bills

Ah yeah and Depaul is in the Big East......If Loyola is an also ran, Depaul is a never was..... Since the Bulls aren't coming to the A10, who the heck else would you want?

Or Helen Keller.

Yale, also, holds a victory over Vassar who I now know has a male basketball team.

Seems like everyone is doing podcasts these days. Here is a new podcast with Rammer and Rocchio. Not sure when this dropped (maybe last Thursday). It's a tight 48 minutes but the last 15 minutes are on the NBA. So half an hour on the Bills. Some good points brought up on Collins and Jimerson. After the H-S game, Williams came out with a Student Manager and worked on his shot. They were the last one's to leave the arena. Nesbitt - "mean-mugging" guys. Ford emphasizing talking on defense. He showed the team an NBA video that shows how much the players talk on D. Traore - he can really shoot. He hit's the three in practice. He will develop into a Rob Loe type of player. Hargrove, we take for granted his energy. Strickland, his H-S dunk was top 5 Billiken dunk of all time per Rammer. Surprised everyone playing point guard. Rammer states that Ford's recruiting is top notch, but his on floor game management and teaching have improved dramatically. We are getting a lot of different looks in each possession. Not a lot of wasted motion, killing time, on offense. We are playing faster, but that doesn't mean a higher tempo. There are more options on each set that we progress through. You are seeing multiple screens, including double screens and back screens on each set. (Interesting) Ford's play book is huge. He adds to it to make the team difficult to scout. https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1lPKqmQRvNlKb

The EIU game concludes the Cupcake portion of the season. These games turned out to be valuable....They let the Bills build some confidence, tap into some of their potential and do a little gelling. It would have been nice if we could have then transitioned into some harder games...say a C rated team but instead we are going straight from the freezer to the oven as we face A rated Memphis. Before we get started here ...let's do some trivia questions. ...Trivia with a purpose. 1...What team is most like Memphis from a competitive standpoint?... ie The game would be even on a neutral court. 2...What venue is most like the Pyramid?... ie This court would be just as difficult for a visiting team as the Pyramid 3...If we played Mem at the Fetz, who wins? Answers 1. St. B...When I search the database for the team most likely to play Mem even...St. B appears..... ...This is interesting...Both are A teams . Memphis is ranked 12th. St. B is not ranked. Memphis is not a ranked team on my list (probably a bit over ranked by the voters) ... We know that St. B is a good team that will likely get a dance bid but know one here would be ringing their hands going...OMG...It's St. B ...Oh woe is me. We would say ...this is a tough game that we can win...need to do the same with this Mem game. 2...The Pyramid is a very tough venue to play in for visiting teams. Again a search of the database for a similar difficult venue turns up...Dayton. We know Dayton well...it is home team friendly arena but we have won their before and likewise we can win in the Pyramid. 3...The Bills would be favored in a game at the Fetz today. The point of this question is to show how close these teams are on a competitive level. You say how can that be . That is because the Bills currently grade out at A- just a shade below Mem. But wait ..the Bills have played a cupcake schedule...well so has Mem....both teams grade out at F on SOS. So when you dig deeper into the data , The Bills actually matchup pretty well against Mem. Let's look at the report card. ..........................SLU............................................Mem..........................................SLU.....................................Mem ...................................................OFF.........................................................................................DEF............... PPG............................A+...7 ITN.............................B+............................................A.........................................B+ FG%...........................A+...17th ITN..........................A+...19th ITN..........................A.........................................A+..15th ITN 3Pt%...........................A-...........................................A.............................................C..........................................A+..17th ITN FT%.............................B.............................................D............................................................................................ Reb.............................A-............................................C+...........................................A+...9th ITN.......................B OFF Rebs = total rebs...DEF Rebs = opp reb UP.......OFF......PPG...FG%,,,,FT%...Reb..........DEF....PPG..FG%..3P%...Reb Down...OFF..3P% Top 100 ITN (In The Nation)/ gm Assts...Collins...5th FG%...Traore....63rd (75%) ...Linssen...89th (72.2%) Double-Double....Collins...17th....Okoro....17th Mem FG%....Duren....57th (76.9%) Blks......Duren... 8th (4blks)...Danbridge ...72nd WWN2D2W We need to take care of the ball....We have done that so far . We have averaged an excellent 10.5 TOs /gm. Meanwhile , Mem has averaged 18 PER GAME. Remember, this is against the same bad competition we played. This is their Achilles heel. If we can maintain a spread of 8+ TOs, we will win this game. ...Rebounds ... The data shows we can outrebound them. ....We need to shoot well. ....50/40/80....these numbers are not pie in the sky ...we are doing them. This game again presents the fly swatter problem. They have not one but 2 swatters...Duren and Danbridge....together they average 6 to 7 blocks /game....be more selective on the shots ...I thought we deed a pretty good job against Hamlin...the EIU swatter...a good warmup for this game. ...one last thing ...they are a bad shooting FT team.. we can beat them at the charity stripe...when was the last time we could say that. Bottom line...We need to shoot well ...we need to press them and force errors. We need to come out and set the tempo of the game right from the opening bell. If we make a few baskets and take care of the ball...Memphis could be singing the blues.

I bet SLU ml at +460. It might be lighting money on fire but that number just felt disrespectful lol.

I think this move was done to try to keep SLU and Dayton happy. The Chicago metro has the most SLU and Dayton alumni outside of their home metros. This is big for SLU and Dayton both for athletic recruiting purposes and for student recruiting purposes. The A10 with a solid Chicago basketball program is a much better conference for the Billikens.

Potentially solid addition for the A10, objectively great addition for SLU.

Hannah Friedrich was named to the Top Drawer Soccer National Team of the Week. (Best 11)

In all seriousness the talent level on the Mizzou roster (or lack thereof) is shocking. A return to the Kim Anderson era is not what I expected from them but here we are.

Having played Tennessee Tech and North Carolina Central, the Billikens' former conference mates have not seen anything this season like what Saint Louis will throw at them.

The Roos coach visited the SPUMAC locker room after the game to try and poach a few himself, but then thought better of it and decided there wasn't anyone there that could improve his team

Lol Opposing coaches probably use this picture in recruiting battles. ”is this really the guy you want to play for?”

1-Defend without fouling! Can’t get into foul trouble and don’t want to give them free points at the line. 2-Take care of the ball! Can’t give them free buckets in transition where they can take advantage of their a athleticism to run up and down the court. Force them to beat us in the half court where so far this season, they’ve relied almost exclusively on iso ball. 3-Play our game! Don’t try to change what’s worked for us just because this is Memphis and they’re ranked 11th. We don’t need to force anything. When we do that, we struggle. Play our game, and if they still beat us, we tip our caps. We don’t want to lose trying to be something we’re not.

Going to keep abusing this reference until everyone catches on, sorry not sorry.

A loss tonight likely means the end of the podcast too. Nobody needs a podcast for a program with a 3-1 record

Only thing I am worried about is looking at that ugly a** court for two hours

Mick Cronin basketball with that level of talent is pretty fun to watch. It is nice to see a guy like Cronin have the success he is having at a place like UCLA.

My best guess is I think this will be like the auburn game from a couple years ago. We always stay within shouting distance but never really have control losing by 4-8. now that the bad vibes are out, lets roll

https://youtu.be/f8tZO97uhyE

No idea. But UMass, as many teams, have a load of transfers they are working into their scheme. There have been a lot of upsets in D1 thus far. It may take time to get this all straightened out.

Mizzou down only 18 at home late to Kansas City.

Rasheed Wallace’s advice: “You had an opportunity to go for the technical foul there, why didn’t you do it?”

Then let's kick some Eastern butt at Hermann in Rd 2

we should never ever play slow with this roster and it's skill set. even when winning big, it is better to just pull the starters/regular rotation players and let the end of the bench finish the game. i wouldnt even let them play slow as it's important they learn the needed mindset and skills to play the same way as well they just wouldnt be expected to perform as well thus it should even the game up some at that point forward.

I gave a scouting report for the Ole Miss game. So, here is one for the game at Rutgers next weekend. Rutgers won the regular season Big Ten Title without losing a game. They lost in the Conference Tourney Final. 18 wins. Top 5 ranking and top 5 RPI. An NCAA 1 seed. They get a lot of players from Players Development Academy (PDA), one of the best club programs Nationally in NJ. Two of their coaches have long affiliations there. Rutgers plays an interesting 4-3-3, that at times, will look like 3 in back, 1 in the defensive midfield. They get a lot of people forward. Lots of short interior passing in the attacking third. Good, reliable experienced, Goalkeeper, Meagan McClelland, (12 shutouts, 2nd, 3rd team Big Ten multiple years) Gabby Provenzano, isn’t the biggest Center Back, but she’s very good, tough, efficient, converted midfielder. Great distributor. Injured at the end of Conference Tourney Title game. (Quad, wrapped, but will likely play the full 90) Leader, Captain, makes saving plays in back. Big Ten Defender of the Year. The length is next to her with Emily Mason. Misal, and Lynch outside, with Banks rotating in at outside back. While it’s a very good backline, I think there is an opportunity wide, deep into the corners switching fields and with diagonal balls. And, I think up top SLU can test Provenzano’s injury durability and play physical there in the middle with Gaebe and Kelly. Becci Fluchel, is another take charge player in the middle of the defensive midfield. Brocious is a solid player. Daigle gives good bench minutes in the midfield. Frankie Tagliaferri is the Big Ten Midfielder of the Year. All American. Central attacking mid, who can and does finish often. Have to find her at all times, anywhere near 25 yards out for combo play and finishing. She was a 4 year starter and star at Penn St. before transferring to Rutgers for her 5th year. Similar to some of her teammates, she is often in the right place at the right time, and she finishes any mistakes. Up top, Rutgers will have Amirah Ali at Forward in the middle. All American. First Team all Big Ten. Have to make her play as a target, back to goal, no turns, and double her. Great finisher and combo player. Can’t let her get away in transition. She’ll play for Portland NWSL next year. Riley Tiernan was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and Sam Kroeger will play the wings. Need to keep both of them as wide as possible. Tiernan vs Halverson will be a key matchup if Halverson plays the right side. (I think that would be the matchup and move Houck to the left side). Super dangerous 1v1, can score equally with either foot. Plays with pace and she makes frequent runs down the left side. Kroeger is small, but super skilled and crafty. Likes to cut in from the right side with her left foot. Terrific combo player. She’s left footed). Can take end swing corners. Rutgers likes to play lots and lots of short corners. Rutgers attacks often on the ground up the middle through Tagliafferi and Amirah, from Provenzano and Fluchel out of the back. They also will attack wide left often with Tiernan. Kroeger diagonal runs. SLU would do well to pressure Rutgers’ outside backs, trying to force turnovers from distribution, and get quick transition before Rutgers can get forward with their 4 attacking players up front. Have to pinch the middle. Have to play physical. In back, SLU has to limit Rutgers’ dangerous transition, especially if dmids miss tackles. Need 6 defenders out to 25 yards. Attackers have to help out and match numbers that Rutgers will throw forward. No through balls, double around the 18. Big challenge. But SLU can win the game. Have to play as well as they did at Ole Miss, for 90 minutes. Should be fun.

Great news! Big Loyola supporter and they’ve done a ton to their facilities and made huge progress with all their programs in recent years, as a result of the basketball success. Going to be tough to cheer for one or the other when they play each other!