Taj79

The kid is a freshman in high school. Wonder if Coach Ford and Coach Tate will really matter when the time comes.

The thing that scares me the most about this coming year ---- and increases my desire to watch how it goes --- is Ford's talent development. In my estimation, he's gotten who he's gotten basically as finished products. Yes, there was some upward extensions from guys like Goodwin and Bess but for the most part, Foreman, Isabell, French, Hargrove, Bell, Cisse, Diarra, Collins, Traore and even Jimerson were who they were when they got here and stayed that way. Maybe Dalger and Meadows perform along the lines of Isabell and Foreman. None of the bigs of the recent past developed any before moving on --- hell, they didn't even play --- and now you're telling me van Bussel, Zhang, Magassa and Sotirov are manning those low block posts (counting on Ezewiro being denied a waiver). That being said, it all changes my perspective. Yes, we have Jimerson but Gibby no longer has Yuri. Hughes is a project at point guard. Medley is a freshman. And Sincere Parker is a relatively complete unknown. My perspective now becomes show me development, show me how you can coach these guys up. If you can, great! If you can't, well there he goes. Right now, I'm expecting more befuddling losses than wins. Right now, sitting close to the action down at the beach in November is a real and exciting curiosity for me. I honestly can say I have no team expectations right now. No projections. No predictions. I too if I were a season ticket holder, would not be happy with the level of D1 talent coming into the Fetz this OOC but I will watch every game I can and apply the same measuring stick to the performance. The players. And the coach. Bottom line is it's his team.

Just back from an off-season trip to the beach. Weather was fantastic. Restaurants not crowded. Kids back at school (mostly). Went out to Coastal Carolina University for some G2 on the MBI. Ended up buying the total tournament package for the advertised $160 per seat. This is for the baseline-to-baseline seats on either side of the court. All seating will be general admission with no assigned seats. The side opposite the benches goes up about 11 rows; the bench side appeared higher but was rolled back as accordion seats usually are. CCU basketball was practicing at the time we were there. According to the ticket office, single sessions seats won't likely be released until the week before the games. Single session seats ran last year from $50 to $75. So if you were buying two cheap seats (as I would have) that would have been $100 per three Billiken sessions. My two total package seats ran me $328 with the tax (only $8 bucks --- refreshing considering what Ticketmaster does to folks!). I'll see if I can make some scalp sales on the ones I don't want to use. The ticket office did warn me that the cheapest seats, those along the baselines behind the baskets, do NOT have seat backs. Bleacher seats, bench-style. All others have seat backs. The HTC Recreation and Convocation Center sells food but no alcohol. It seats 3,600 for basketball. The football stadium has teal-blue turf. Coastal is out about 15 miles from downtown Myrtle Beach in Conway, SC. Took about 30 minutes to get there.

In order to transfer schools mid-term, wouldn't the gaining school have to release a person from the 13 scholarship limit? Then you're bringing in a stranger to a team already established since summer workouts began in August. I guess you could do that but the guy coming in better be named Mike Jordan or Hakeem.

That's .6 goals per game....... or maybe an undefeated season by other accounting measures. A goal every 150 minutes.

No way it's Duquesne. Gots ta be VCU.

I'm guessing two. One done at LSU. Two at Georgetown. That would put him on the five-to-play-four time line.

I understand thetorch's point ...... but I would offer that torch is comparing 'basketball like-minded' programs and willie and Bay are coming from 'institutionally like-minded' schools. I also don't think going down to the MVC puts us automatically in the running for one title, let alone three or four. You still have to have a talented roster to do that. That's why I look forward to the coming year ---- just what hath Ford wrought?

That's not a bad move for VCU. It aligns them with Wichita State, Memphis, Charlotte, UAB, Temple, East Carolina, USF, FAU and Tulane .... schools that we have been aligned with in the past albeit at a higher conference level (or so it seems). It sure beats the hell out of Fordham, Duquesne, Mason, Geedubya, La Salle and a few others in the A10. It also gives an old dominion school a bigger footprint into the southern region of the USA, if that matters. It drastically weakens an already weak A10. What is left there? Dayton? Everybody else is in the throes of suckiness, including us right now. It further cements the A10 as a Juan Bid league moving forward and brings the whoel conference closer to Division 1AA as speculated in past threads. VCU is arguably the A10's most marketable and successful team right now.

@thetorch: no issue with your above closing statement. Still see "M" as in millions, not "B" as in billions. I still think the question does remain: how many billionaires does SLU indeed have and are they athletic supporters (no pun intended)? The argument about raising the profile of the school is a good one. The question then is "is that the direction our school is taking?" It would have to be a collective push, much like the SMU effort.

Love to see you name names. How many are athletically-inclined? seems every SMU donor was so labeled.

That is one game. ONE. Isn't that the very definition of outlier?

Which A10 team right now gets you all excited and makes you say "that is must-see TV viewing" for me. Game on at 3 am or 11 pm, doesn't matter. I'm up and glued to the TV. And you can't count your home school.

@HoosierPal: great link. Thanks!

I did go to the ESPN web site and look at schedules posted from all A10 teams. All are restricted to OOC games and some are more complete than others. So I am guessing the hold up is in Newport News, VA, at the A10 national headquarters. Around the A10, some games of note: Davidson has a neutral site game with Maryland. Dayton opens with Edwardsville and has games with Northwestern, LSU, SMU, UNLV and Cincinnati. Duquesne has Charleston and Nebraska. Fordham has St. John's and Tulane. Mason has Tennessee and Tulane. Geedubya has Hofstra and South Carolina. La Salle has Duke, Temple and Miami of Florida. Loyola has Creighton. Umass has West Virginia and Georgia Tech. Rhode island has Northwestern and Providence. Richmond has Boston College, Florida, Colorado and Wichita State. St. Joe's has Kentucky, Villanova and Charleston. The Bonnies have Oklahoma State and Florida Atlantic. VCU has Iowa State, Memphis and Temple. For us, they only currently list the Illinois State, Wyoming and NC State games. Home games underlined. Only team pulling in name opponents is VCU.