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you're being a realist imo. the results we have seen the last two years are what they are. i will still be at every game i can be at. Hell i spent the last of my 2023 vacation time and paid for airfare and hotel etc to go support the team at myrtle beach. in hindsight if i was just a basketball fan and not a rabid billiken fan, no way in hell i go to that tourney. i could have easily been on a cruise ship or an all inclusive in the riviera maya and spent the same money. i'll be there tonight and be rooting for the one game win. hopefully not another davidsonlike game. but fellow mbm's dont beat yourselves up for supporting the billikens. it's our team and the program will evolve one way or another. sure enthusiasm and hope lessens, but it's our team and as the lord elrond expands, we need to try to be positive. as a wise old mbm once said years ago, "it's hard to be a billiken fan". but it's our cross to bear and i already have my billiken blue sweatshirt on with my blue shoes and i am practicing my phone ticket presentation (i struggle with it every f'ning game). at least the band always sounds good.

Yes

All I can think about is how much better those Goodwin teams would’ve been with an actual coach.

And all I can think about is how our weak President suspended/expelled Jordan his freshman year as part of incident #2, when he wasn’t a participant. That guy is just squishy all around. He’s 71 now, shouldn’t he be retiring soon?

Some posters just aren't smart enough to make a cogent argument so they play the race card. I was hard on Yuri. In retrospect too hard. He walked away from HIS team and HIS city. Then came crawling back. His defense his Sr season took a massive drop. I thought he dominated the ball too much. He played too slow even though we were built to run, so he could run his two man game. I blamed him too much because had to be the alpha dog on that team and he wasn't built for that. His point production just couldn't hold up for that. He needed another star to play off and his final two years he didn't have it. He's a better player than Jimerson though so I expect more but he was a victim of Ford's lack of recruiting and Perkins injury. On the other hand if you are going to dominate the ball as much as Yuri did you can't expect many 1 on 1 players who can get their own shot to want to play with you. You have to score then and Yuri tried and couldn't. Jimerson's shooting has stunk lately. His defense has sank to freshman levels. He is a real weapon on offense though. On almost any other team that we've had I would have begged for him to be the 3rd option. Imagine Jimerson replacing Barnett on the Majerus teams. Jimerson's strengths are playing off ball, vs Yuri's playing on ball so its comparing apples to oranges. Jimerson can't get his own shot, he's never tried to be that guy. If the scheme can't get him looks than he either doesn't take any shots or he takes really bad shots. For Jimerson to be a #1 guy the rest of the team has to buy all in on getting him open. His teammates don't care and his coaches don't either. One of the few things they have in common is lack of postseason play and really high, ultimately useless counting stats. Collins is in the conversation for best Billikens PG. Jimerson is not in the conversation for best Billikens anything.

This is great. Had no idea on Willie. Great talent. Had challenges. Really great story. Thanks Torch. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - It’s been some since former No. 1 NBA G League draft pick Willie Reed Jr. was back on an NBA roster. And while Reed is still working his way back to the Association, he has not forgotten the little things. The former Saint Louis Billiken returned to the Last Frontier in November alongside Team Hollywood Celebrity Streetball (THCS), a sports mentoring program made up of current and former professional athletes, to continue his tour around Alaska’s northern villages. Reed spent a week in Kotzebue touring schools and conducting team-building activities with audiences that couldn’t wait to meet one of the pro’s. “Just being able to spend time with everyone in the villages has been amazing,” said Reed at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport before catching a flight to Kotzebue. “We talk a lot about what it’s like to live in the professional life, you know, what it was like for me growing up as well. We talk a lot about being able to stay away from drugs, being able to stay away from alcohol and those aggressive things and just being able to lead kids in the right direction.” Reed, 33, who is from Kansas City, Missouri, said he started to learn about Alaska through former Bartlett High School and Miami Heat player, Mario Chalmers. “[Chalmers] trains with a good friend of mine, [professional trainer] Stan Remy, so we get to see each other in the summertime, so just talking about Alaska,” Reed said. But it was THCS’s Peter Adams who placed down the final piece of the puzzle to get Reed in front of Alaskan youth. “When he asked me to come out here and be a part of this, you know, it went right in line with my no excuses [philosophy] and it just seemed like it was right where I’m supposed to be,” Reed said. “No excuses” is a phrase so instrumental to Reed that it was written across the front of his black hoodie while speaking with Alaska’s News Source in November. It’s a motto many have come to live by, and for Reed, has become a lasting message. “No matter your situation, your circumstance, you can be whatever it is that you want to be. You just can’t give up on yourself,” Reed said. “You know, you might be born into a certain situation, but that doesn’t determine what you’re going to be in your future. So, what you make of that is going to be simply up to you.”

This makes zero sense. How does NIL or students transferring have anything to do with these sports? Their administration decided to blast the scapegoat du jour for their decision to drop programs that generate $0 revenue. Thats all. Why can’t they just say that?

Reed isn't playing because of a heart condition but is doing some good things. https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2024/01/05/former-nba-player-willie-reed-tours-northern-alaska-villages/ https://www.adn.com/arctic-sounder/2023/12/05/recent-nba-player-visits-more-northwest-alaska-villages-and-opens-up-about-personal-challenges/ Ezewiro is putting up OK numbers as a 3rd year college player. Reed didn't play his 3rd year. His Sr year he was in the G league averaging 15/8/3. Any comparison is ridiculous. EZ has talent, but c'mon Reed coming back would have been the top center in a deep A10 and a top 10 big man in the country at the same age EZ is now.

I was happy to see Yuri leave at the time because I believed we had reached our ceiling with him. In reality, it was Ford’s ceiling we had reached

If we expanded the tournament to 256 teams….

I miss being excited for games

If they paid me to do A10 play by play I could lie and say the same thing.

Wonder is Jayson would pay the CTF buyout, so we can get his dad to coach?

Do you know something we don't?

Jimerson is what Scott Highmark would have been if Highmark wasn’t playing alongside H and Clagget.

Don’t let it stress you out. We can always transition this board into a WashU Bears fan club.

I really do believe that recruiting is 75% of the job. Brian Conklin and Dwayne Evans didn't suddenly become leaders because Majerus recruited them. Their leadership qualities were part of the reason why they were recruited. You need players on your team that other players naturally follow. When those players are also the best players on your team there's a multiplier effect. If Coach recruited fiery undersized perfectionists like himself he would be better off. At least his teams would have a consistent identity.

A fair thought, but the hypothetical coach would’ve had to land him on the recruiting trail in the 1st place. Ford was punching above his weight class with that commitment and does deserve some credit. Not every day we beat out the likes of Texas, Michigan State, Purdue, Bama whether it’s a local kid or not

+1

To maintain his season average, Gibson is gonna bounce-back with a 35 point game. People want to be there to see it.

PM sent, if you still need them.

It would be submitted to the Vatican to see if it was an actual miracle.

Reed was a stud. It's a shame he got in his own way. He could have been one of our all-time best.

At this point you just put the best scorers on the court and forget about defense. They can’t play it anyway so why waste the energy trying? 1. Curcic 2. Jimerson 3. Parker 4. Thames/Hargrove 5. Ezewiro On offense Bombs away On defense play a 2-2 zone with Jimerson camped out on the offensive end waiting for an outlet pass.

I met thicks early in the billikens.com lifetime before a game at the old Savvis. I found out later it was his first game in person to watch our Billikens. I was surprised when I met him at how reserved he was in person but I came to realize that he was always pretty much in control of his emotions and passion. What we got on the board was exactly what Mr Hicks was in person. "Thicks" was the perfect choice for Steve to "hire" as our board monitor and he took the duty serious. Many (including myself) initially didn't like his seriousness doing the job. But in hindsight, I am not sure any of the rest of us had the demeanor he did to do what he did, let alone taking all the personal written shots from anonomous hacks since all of us are hiding behind a moniker and typing words that many times were/are quite venemous. Without his early actions on our community messageboard with his guideance and rule, who knows what this board might have evolved. I am always amazed when I peek at other messageboards how usually,their discourse is much worse as compared to billikens.com. We truly are a family of mbm's that are special and I think we owe a lot of what billikens.com became to Terrence. When he got the opportunity to move out of the St Louis area for a better job, I was happy for Terrence but I had come to love and greatly appreciate his passion for the board and the professional way he handled his assigned tasks for monitoring billikens.com. I feared the tone of the board might actually change for the worse. As is the case of when many of our friends and relatives pass on, I wish I had taken the time to get to know him personally better. Obviously that ship has now sailed and I regret never taken the small effort to get to know him better in person. He was a good person and will be missed not only by our little community but also his circle of personal friends and relatives. Thanks "thicks" for all you did for our little sandbox of all things Billikens. May you rest in peace. So Mote It Be. Roy Mueller aka billiken_roy