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I had a nice sit down with Coach Tillett and have had some additional follow ups with her as well. She is great. Very positive, very humble, and very engaging. She went to work immediately and is doing the things you would want her doing. She was out recruiting before she even had her staff in place. She is working hard to get to know the area and the lay of the land in regards to girl's basketball. She's already been to two out of town events looking at girls. She's made contact with numerous high school coaches and is working on developing those relationships. She's been told from a number of coaches that SLU has not been a destination school for a lot of the local talent on the girl's side. As you might expect, she's looking to change that. She may not be the big splash hire, but it seems like she will represent the school well. She's a hard worker and has great energy. Only time will tell, but I'm excited about her future.

We need a DJ Foreman-like guy in the worst way. Cory Remuken-like guy. There has to be someone who fits that description ready to come in and be a warrior for us. I honestly do not care if our 4 man has D+ offensive ability. I just want him defending, rebounding, and can make an open lay-up.

Fellas: expansion isn't a requirement. They don't HAVE to add a team. These suggestions of Howard, Vermont, Iona.... yikes. If they don't make the league better, don't do it. The only miss in expansion since SLU's been around is probably Mason. Every other addition has made the conference better. The list begins and ends wit Belmont, Murray, and Wichita State. All of the expansion talk is crazy to me. The league's problem is only having 6-8 teams (just a guess of a number, need to look at the list) who really invest in cbb. Adding more teams doesn't solve that

On the topic of following players, it is criminal on the part of Billiken fans that Perkins, Okoro and Jimerson don’t even have a thousand followers on Twitter. Come on Billiken fans, do better.

As big of a cesspool that Twitter is it can actually be a good source of Sports/news information. It is one of the first things I check every morning. I have a total of 0 tweets but it’s a great way to get information quickly. You just need to avoid all the nonsense.

I think we need another team with the Rams as their mascot.

I unfollowed for business AND hard feelings!

I’m not on twitter nor do I care to be

Maybe a lot of Billiken fans are trying to follow them on My Space?

I wonder if there are even a thousand Billiken basketball fans on twitter? I suspect there are more Billiken basketball fans reading this message board than there are on twitter. A lot more.

What is your point? @thetorchis talking about people on the platforms.

Can someone set up a sticky thread that links to all the players social media accounts to make it easier for people over 40 to follow them. Thanks

Belmont adds Nashville to the conference. That would be fun.

Nova Scotia Agricultural College is 'the Rams' (also known as Dallhousie University). They do have a basketball team. Perfect fit.

SLU is adding a transfer, Freshman Forward Julia Simon. Julia played her Freshman season at Louisville. She started 11 of 16 games her first season for the Cardinals, including in their game at SLU. She played 800 minutes, scoring 4 goals and adding 3 assists. Julia is a goal scoring, and play making, forward who combines well with teammates. Julia played club ball for Eclipse Select SC out of Chicago, (one of the best nationally) and, she attended Wheaton North High School, where she was also a good, all conference basketball player. (she is the all time single season steals leader at Wheaton North)

Go in the other direction ... contraction. La Salle should go. George Washington can go. Duquesne can go. So too can Fordham. And with the Iron Five now gone, Bonaventure will be closely watched to see if it can maintain any semblance of decency. We are not that far removed from the salad days of the Bonawelders, y'know. Much like guys who like Belmont because of Nashville trips, I like Fordham because of NYC trips. But that doesn't make either right. Saint Joe's hasn't doen much lately and Mason hasn't seen the heights since the improbable Final Four run. There isn't a decent, sensible addition sitting out there anywhere right now. But the trash in this league is immense.

No more f’ing schools in Virginia. This isn’t the CAA

-sorry for my skepticism but I wouldn't trust an alogorithim developed by a BIG AD under the guise of trying to help the non P6 conferences, my jaded eyes tell me, as the article reads, they pit two "equal" teams against each other, okay when SVU and San Diego State were in the Top 10 this knocks one of them down a rung or two on the bracket which elevates a UVA/OU/pick your team and then when they have teams ranked 40 and 41 play the loser goes to the NIT opening a bid for Rutgers/Ole Miss/pick your team from a P6 -I do not believe for one second the P6 will do anything to legitmately help schools not in their conferences and this extends/includes the godfather of scheduling

So they repackaged Bracket Busters from the mid 2000's. It was a good idea then and its a good idea now.

Seems like we should’ve just kept Bell

As Brian said above, the 3pt line is the same... One other thing I wanted to clarify was the slash line I used above. The international slash line is different than the US slash line.... The international uses 2P/ 3P / FT...the US uses FG ( 2P +3P) / 3P / FT. To make things easier to compare I converted his International slash into a US slash. So the 36/ 21 / 70 is the US slash. An advantage he has over the average HS player is that he is already shooting at the college arc and won't have to adjust. Some HS players adjust easily to the new distance ...others don't. Rashad Williams struggled not just with the Bills but 2 years before he got here . Yet when he was a college freshman, he shot lights out. Why? Because he couldn't adjust to the new 3p distance which was increased between his freshman and soph years. Crespin won't have to adjust to a new 3P line but will have to get his 3P numbers up. One encouraging sign is in postseason play (4 games) his 3P numbers were up to 28%. Hopefully, if he comes here, his numbers would continue to improve.

In this order: Belmont WSU IONA COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON

I for for one am excited to see Larry Hughes II play for the Bills:

There’s always money in the Pickle Market.

Yes, that would. Not trying to state the obvious but unless if it’s one these, heck no: Belmont, Murray state, Wichita state, temple. anything else is a disappointment. Iona’s problem is they were nothing before Rick, and will be nothing after Rick. Also No thanks on another 2k arena.

To drop the historical bottom 5 teams from the A10, and bring in Gonzaga, Witchita State, Belmont, Saint Mary’s, Murray state, and SF.

Lmao Carr just passed up an Elite 8 appearance

Belmont and see if Wichita State is looking for an exit plan from the American.

Unfollowing isn’t about hard fellings, it is about business. Twitter followers and how often accounts are interacted is one thing players can use to generate NIL opportunities. Don’t help players build a brand after they passed on playing for SLU. Do follow the social media accounts of all of SLU’s players and engage with their accounts when you have a chance. It is the easiest thing all Billiken fans can do to help make SLU a more attractive option in the modern landscape.

No hard feelings here. Wake Forest is a great academic school, certainly top 50, and is on the East Coast, one of Carr's wants. Very understandable decision. Now Coach Ford, let's get a Big who is better or equivalent to Carr.

I’m pretty sure we quit recruiting him

We get into some more NIL stuff, update Crespin and Carr, break down Ben Fred's piece on Yuri's return, and do a deep dive on Thatch's pickle endorsement. It was a light basketball news week compared to the series of insane weeks that preceded it. But we always make sure there's something for basketball fans.

Shameless bump, and a little explanation on this episode, if you haven’t listened yet. There’s some really good basketball notes and discussion in this episode despite it being very baseball heavy. I promise you listening to Colin Suhre ahead of the basketball talk is absolutely worth your time! I’m sure @Pistolcan do a better job articulating this point better than I.

I'm sick of the negativity. Look at Jimerson. He's not even the best player on the team. We have two big time stars and two of the top scorers in the NCAA coming back next season. We have the best big man in the A10. We have a couple awesome two way players in Pickett and Thatch. We have the human highlight film Hargrove. We have another sniper in Sincere Parker working into the rotation. Parker scored the MOST POINTS in JUCO last season and he won't start for us. We have two nice freshman in Thames and Kramer hungry to push for PT. We have Larry Legend JR walking on!!! Most talented walk on since Jeff Leuchtefeld. We need 2 guards who can handle the ball and compete for playing time with the freshman. We need a serviceable backup big, maybe 2. You think Ford isn't going to bring in impact transfers? What year hasn't he done this? This is a team that will still contend for the A10 championship and make the NCAA tournament. We have 6 guys and counting all from the STL. The city will be behind this team. Forget about all the rest of the BS. When we win, which we will, all that will take care of itself.

Links!

SLU had a good player development Spring. They capped their Spring Schedule with a strong 3-1 result at Illinois. Illinois had 4 wins this Spring, including 3-1 over Indiana, 3-0 over Illinois State, and a win over the current D2 National Champs. But more than that, Illinois is a Power 5 School, and, any Power 5 win is a good one for SLU, especially a convincing one on the road against a school having a good Spring. Power 5 is one of the biggest recruiting selling point challenges SLU faces on a regular basis. Illinois has one of the better recent local players on their team, and, they target some overlapping local and regional players. Indiana’s (whim Illinois defeated this Spring) newer regime overlaps SLU recruiting right now with about two dozen player targets. Women’s Soccer has more Power 5 teams and leagues than Men, and selling that experience, facilities, resources is even more of a recruiting factor in the Women’s game. That’s why it’s important for SLU to be competitive in those categories to keep up. ……………… It’s also a good confidence booster heading into Summer Ball. SLU will have players playing in 3 different leagues, on various teams this Summer, from May through July. Rosters are still being finalized, and, a few players are switching teams, while some others will remain with long term clubs. ……………… It’s an important time for recruiting. Just this past weekend alone, while prepping for Illinois, there were ECNL Super Cup games amongst six clubs, the Naperville Invitational, and the Adidas Tournament of Champions in Iowa. Lots and lots of competing Power 5 programs were at these events. Spring High School and club seasons in various states, showcase events and Summer national playoffs. …………. There has been a lot of coaching turnover. One conference movement of note, is Dayton assistant Dean Ward leaving to be the head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne in North Carolina. (lots of strong youth teams there as well as future program opportunities). Ward was their lead recruiter in St. Louis and in the region. Florida State’s highly successful coach stepped down over differences with their new AD. Tennessee’s recently successful coach will take over at FSU. He was given a 3 year extension one month prior. He will get a big compensation and resource bump at FSU. Coaching compensation, resources, facilities, budgets, all matter. ………… The Fall outlook (and beyond) for SLU is strong. The goals this Fall are to win the A-10 regular season, and A-10 Conference Tournament. And, it’s to be a top 16 National Seed, making a little bit deeper NCAA run as well.

Brian this is missing the mark here again. This has never been about Billikens.com type posters or season ticket holders. This is about the every day sports fan that bought their ticket at the box office or on stub hub etc. that may be visiting Chaifetz for the first time or maybe only been a handful of times. It's about providing a positive experience at all times for every fan. Turning someone down to an plainly visible, open area is not doing that. Details matter, every person, every time.

My point was pretty straight forward. Brianstl said it was criminal that Billiken fans had not given Billiken players thousands of likes on their Twitter accounts. My response was that not all Billiken fans have twitter accounts. BrettJolleyComedy responded in like on Instagram. I responded that not every Billiken fan has an Instagram account. I have torch, among others on ignore, so I have no idea what was posted there.

Just checked the stats, there are about 600 billionaires in North America. Sorry but that includes Mexico and Canada. So let's say for the sake of round numbers that there are 500 people in the US with over a billion net worth. OK, now, you must understand that some of these people do not have their assets in readily available cash, but rather they are invested in businesses or real estate which are not liquid. This limits the number of these people ready to drop your $500,000 in NILs. Let's say that 10% of the total (probably a high figure) have plenty of liquid assets and are interested in college basketball. That means there are 50 or so billionaires ready and willing to try NIL out. There are, in my opinion, many more players going for the money than sources of available money. In other words, do not dream about NIL money this will be the exception rather than the rule.