Taj79

I think the write up is decent ---- anything that spurs debate. HP: I know their rankings are for the recently completed year. And Goodwin (rated #8 in the preseason rankings if memory serves) didn't make this Top 25. I thought my statement "how is that possible" was rife with sarcasm .... as broy pointed out to me in the blue font response on page 1. To me, these rankings validate my "evaluation" but many will claim I'm jumping on the kid. Not true ----- I'd take him over Gilyard, Carry, Honor, and a few other of these so-called Top 25. But tons of improvement, especially in the shooting skills of the game, is still needed. And I expect him to do just that ...................... or the season will be lost. Ditto French. Ditto Thatch. Going to need strong upper class leadership to offset what we lost plus six newcomers. Can't wait to see how it develops.

This is about right. Sixth in A10. Meaning behind Davidson, VCU, Dayton, Rhode Island and who? Richmond? The Bunnies? A10 Talk has Richmond owning two of last year's top ten players in Golden and Gilyard. And Sherrod is back. I don't have a lot of internal fortitude to believe Welch, Osunniyi and Lofton can do enough to put them ahead of us, So we shall see. By the way, A10 Talk didn't list Goodwin in it's Top Twenty Five. How Is that even possible?

Bauman ---- appreciate the feedback. To clarify, not all my eggs are in that basket, rather, what i'm saying is it starts now on the Ford regime. We have lived through the debacle of the [dead] years and Travis has weathered the course. Last year was six of one, half dozen of another ---- we were giddy as all get out to start and then it fell apart. Then we recovered in a glorious week in Brooklyn. That was fantastic and it also I believe relieved some pressure on Travis going forward. I don't think its win now because of that so with the reprieve, I see now as the time to start building on to it. I have no expectations to put on this coming year, but do want to see improvement. Can we return to the Dance? Yes. Are we favored to do so? Most likely no. In case anyone has forgotten, Jordan Goodwin has tons of room for improvement. Ditto Hasahn French. But both are well above the average player in the A10 IMHO. Thatch is a nice compliment but needs an offensive game. Neither Hankton nor Jacobs are returning veterans by any stretch. Some want to wax poetically on Perkins, Hargrove, Jimerson and Collins. Most believe Bell and Diarra are projects as I do. But the sustainability I crave seems to be there ----- it is time for Travis to develop it, that's all. No more mercenaries. Mo more transfers from elsewhere (he can but he hasn't). Travis has leveled his playing field by overachieving last year. I just look forward to seeing the development. And that development will equal sustainability. I want to see what progress we show this year ...... a Dance invite would be a stunning achievement given our roster and the strength of the A10 this time around. But a Dance invite is not a needed measure of success as I see it this year.

Right now, making the tournament alone is our buggaboo. We don't get there enough to satisfy me. And we all know how hard that can be. Once that is achieved, then it comes to making a Sweet Sixteen --- something we've never done. Then the Elite Eight. Than and only then a Final Four. In the 80 year history of a Final Four, these teams have been there once: Auburn, Charlotte, Duquesne, Drake, Dayton, Florida State, Mason, Georgia, Gonzaga, Indiana State, Iowa State, Jacksonville, Umass, Minnesota, Mississippi State, New Mexico State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Penn, Pitt, Princeton, Rutgers, Snata Clara, Seattle, Seton Hall, SMU, South Carolina, St. Bonaventure, St. Joe's, Texas Tech, UTEP, VCU, Wake Forest, Washington, Washington State, Western Kentucky and Wyoming. And yes, some of that is ancient history (Duquesne 1940; Drake in 1969). In the last ten years, the only teams outside the P5 conferences to get there are Loyola, Gonzaga, Wichita State, and VCU. The ten years prior to that, only Mason broke the mold. So in the last 20 years, teams outside the elite are shooting at a 6.25% clip. If the Bills did that, St. Louis should be New Year's Eve, Mardi Gras and Fourth of July all wrapped into one week. Of course, the front page sports story in the Post would be Mizzou's women's softball team losing a heartbreaker or pitchers and catcher playing extended toss in Florida. Sustainability. The first real measure of that in the Ford regime starts this year. Can't wait.

What rules are you speaking of? Those of the opaque NCAA? Not a fan of Cuonzo Martin but yours is an uniformed statement. As Pistol and brian say, the rules seem pretty cut-n-dried. Except then the NCAA makes unexplained waivers and we're all left guessing. I think Lewis got shafted at first when [dead] went after gems like Miles Reynolds and Marcus Bartley. That's on [dead]. Did the kid really, really want to be a Billiken all along? So he says. Then he got shafted when Ferry, the coach he signed with, got canned at Duquesne. Dambrot re-recruited him obviously, same with Eric Williams, Jr., and then couldn't or wouldn't hold on to either. Lewis got passed over for Sincere Carry and Tavian Dunn-Martin. Problem was he didn't figure that out until second semester junior year. Transfers sit a year. Then the guy he wants to play for, Musselman at Nevada, rides off into a promotion send off and the kid is left adrift again. Ian Vouyoukas. Cody Ellis. And now Mike Lewis. The NCAA doesn't do SLU any favors and likely never will. Coulda/shoulda/wouldas run deep in the Lewis tragedy. I will watch with some interest where this "pro" career goes.

Bench coach ..... as in X's-and-O's man, timeouts, sub patterns, strategy, schemes, defenses. The one knock on Howard is he might be light in the mental aspect of head coaching. The biggest knock on Phil at the Joeys was he wasn't getting the right players to play for him. He'd get one (Langford or Bembry) and the rest would be prayers. Michigan gets players, no doubt.

Like government on any level, the NCAA's issue is one of transparency. No one seems to know how anything works. Someone mentioned the differences in the Smith cases at Mizzou. One in the other not. Was it Mustapha Heron at St. John's too? Even Travis Ford said he didn't know how things worked for these waivers and no one seems to know. My immediate gut reaction is that it hurts this team because we have no known outside shooting credibility. It does appear to give more minutes to Jacobs and Jimerson and I'm okay with that. The urgency for Ford to deliver has waned some what with last year's tournament run so the stop-gap mercenary recruiting can end. Verbal Commits still shows Maidoh and Pryor as unsigned targets of ours. Both are listed as small forwards and we only list Perkins in that area with Hankton as the unknown backup. But Perkins is also somewhat of an unknown as well. Going to be a huge development year. Goodwin, Thatch and French all need further development. Bell and Diarra are both likely projects. Hankton and Jacobs are second year unknowns. Jimerson, Perkins, Collins and Hargrove all have some unknowns coming in. Going to be a great year to sit back and see what develops. Outside of just surviving his first year with {dead} dumpster fire, this year might be Ford's greatest challenge.

I don't know this Xavier alum but there is NO real talk of Big East expansion but any post like this will get a whole bunch of panties in a wad of excitement. If expansion were based on NCAA appearances, DePaul (4 in last 30 years) would be booted out of the Big East in a heartbeat. St. John's is a reoccurring nightmare. But no. Why? Chicagoland and the Big Apple! TV market. Recruiting. Midwest hub far above Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and, blech, Omaha. Broadway! Expansion will happen anywhere for two reasons ..... money and competition/domination. St. Louis is by far the prettier TV option than most. Competition/domination is what you see the P5 doing with 20-league conferences and schedule lockdowns. If the Big East wants us, they know where we are.

to Phil Martelli. ESPN calls it great move. Phil won't recruit ---- just practice coach and bench coach.

I'd rather Bell and Diarra get OJT over another big like this.

Poyser ain't that good .......

The "highlight" video is unimpressive. to say the least. Of course, Playboy centerfolds don't look the same in real life as they do with the airbrush. He banked quite a few shots in that looked kind of like prayers to me. His one dunk was on a breakaway and he showed very little lift in the paint. Maybe the knee injury holding him down. But, you can't teach heights ... of course, I think I said the same thing about John Manning. My question is this ...... with two arguable big men "projects" on the roster in Diarra and Bell, who I sour big man coach that is teaching them the ins and outs of D1 basketball.

Thanks QIJ1.

On a side note, Verbal Commits has Mike Lewis as an official transfer to us and immediately eligible. Anyone care to confirm through the school?

I searched for this Carpenter news but didn't find it. Where did I miss it? I liked this kid ....

.... the Bonnies.

Only one guest! Conundrum ---- who's giving your Hall of Fame Induction-like speech for you ... me or roy?

Let's see how Zion does against the Joel Embiid's, Blake Griffin's, and Kwahi :Leonard's of the world -- night, after night, after night. Maybe he'll surprise me. On th eflip side, at least another ro fmy least favorite players --- Russell Westbrook -- is dead and gone for another 0off season. He's 31, he'll never win.

Well, we all know Dick Vitale sucks Duke d!ck and had a robust association with Jim Valvano (NC State). Jay Bilas is a Duke grad. Jay Williams went to Duke. Seth Greenberg last coached in the ACC. Other ACCers have included Kara Lawson, Len Elmore, Hubert Davis and a host of others on ESPN. ACC roots also exist with Mike Gminski, Shane Battier, Alaa Abdelnaby, Kenny Anderson, Brad Daugherty, Brendan Williams and so on down the line. Just seems to be the way it is. As noted previously, I am sick and tired of Zion, send him away. And you are right, here comes the next "top recruiting class" and it is again falling into Duke's lap. I don't know why --- this is like Duke's fifth top recruiting class in the last six years and in that time, they've won one title. They do have three since the turn of the century and that's just Duke, a blueblood if there ever was one. I guess winning it all isn't really the key ---- likely being on TV, getting talked about by the pro-ACC talking heads every night, having that done in prime time on the East Coast, speculating about your upcoming draft position, eyes squarely focused on the next level and the big dollar contract scomign to those poor moms and dads who support and carry the entourage going forward. . Whatever the draw is its not about winning it all, getting a super degree from a great place or anything I value. Must be a mentality I am not familiar with.

I think Hoosier Pal's statement is right on ----- I can see these sentiments being the mainstay of the town. I also see fo5's comeback to HP as true. So the battle lines will be drawn ---- local hotbed plays local players? If not, do the locals support? Will be quite a grand experiment.

Great concept, great design. Good idea to max out at 25k for seating. No seat more than 120 feet away ..... that will be an interesting twist.

Again, for the record, I love St.Louis. Wouldn't change a thing. But it is what it is. Just as Philly fans are obnoxious ..... Washington fans are arrogant ...... Baltimore fans are perennially optimistic ......

I assume you mean 300 more at OSU than us at SLU? And I am not surprised. I think we might be in the middle range of mid-major attendance figures slumping well behind the North Carolinas and Michigan State's of the world. Of course, all that is governed by size of facility too. But I also think schools like High Point and others will naturally decrease the gene pool because evenif they sell out, their gyms only hodl 2 or 3 grand. That's why I'd love to see what the average is for the smaller group sof "big" schools an dkeep the small frys out. Better representation in the numbers. Would also advocate taking the so-called P5 schools out and see how the rest of those conferences compare. Just so I'm ready for that "Jeopardy" question when it comes up.

skip -- read my lips ... this has little to do with attendance and teams moving. This has to do with the question of will more local players on the roster result in greater attendance at Billiken games. My answer remains the same --- no. Yes, there might be an exception in a Hughes or Tatum or Beal-type player but in general, no. Names? How about Kevin Lisch. Tommie Liddell III. Dwayne Polk. Luke Meyer. Matt Naiak. Luther Burden. PeeWee Lenard. John Duff. Reditt Hudson. Dale Renken. Chris Sloan. All ns, just like my list of minor league teams. I'd offer you can have a team comprised of 13 St. Louisans and if they go 10 and 24, short of their families, the general St. Louis area and fan won't care. All teams move (so it seems) and will continue to do so if the bottom lien remains in the red. I would say Baltimore lost the Colts because Irsay put a bad product on the field, made going to a game miserable and expensive for such a poor product and when no one showed up, gave him the perceived right to bolt to Indy. Bidwell continually put a weak product on the field and made constant demands on the city. As I said, I was proud of the city when they said don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. And what has that family done since they got to Arizona? One miraculous Super Bowl appearance. And constant runs for the #1 draft pick. The Bullets eventually moved because the Baltimore Arena (still used today) is/was antiquated. Still is. There is no fan experience there. They got a sweet deal to move to Largo and play in the Cap Center. Then, what with allthe killings in DC and Baltimore, 'Bullets' was too politically insensitive, They went to Wizards. The Cap Center was akin to DC as Florissant is to downtown St. Louis, ergo the downtown Verizon Center (or whatever it is) with its fan-friendly, price-gouging amenities. The only reason you don't hear about the Orioles moving is because Peter Angelos got a sweet deal in the Expo's relocation from Montreal to DC. It created the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) and gave the Orioles and Nats equal-standing television outlets whereby they generate and keep their own revenues. Or at least add to the pot. Ownership of baseball in Baltimore is not concerned with winning or losing --- they have the revenue and Oriole Park is seen as a additional source for such -- the product on the field is horrible. All these new palaces are like that ---- look over here, we have a nice crab cake stand or craft beer line. Don't look over there, the product on the field s horrible. Have you seen Jacobs Field lately? The Indians can't draw to fill the stadium. They have changed over the upper deck in right field into something other than stands. I think the press might sit there or something like some sort of picnic deck. In any case, they took a lot of the seats out. So yes .... exactly like the Indians and Jacobs Field. Your point on D1 attendance is fine ---- however, there are what, 354 "D1" teams in NCAA men's basketball? Powerhouse places like High Point, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Chicago State, Florida A&M, Arkansas -Pine Bluff. I would offer that average attendance is more telling if you only do it for the Top 8 or 10 conferences. Then do your average. Then see how SLU compares. My problem is with SLU's accounting ---- I believe they count tickets sold, not fannies through the turnstiles. Which might be the way every team does it. But you could have a 'sell out' and no one shows. I was at the Butler game which I believe was labeled a sell out and seats were available or unoccupied to say the least. This still would never answer the question 'what was the walk up crowd?' which I think is also important in determining if the support is local to the area or just local to people affiliated with the school. Bottom lien is we'd never really know.

Where were the Blues moving to? Saskatoon? I actually like the Blues but this is not an attendance thing. Most won't like this either but I also have to question if the MLS will actually survive in St. Louis. If you get a stadium, it will be small(er). The initial uniqueness will carry the day. For a while. Maybe they win maybe they don't. My question is will St. Louis support the Martinez', the Huerto's and the Brickenbrackers of the world? Or will they demand a team stocked with St. Louisans? Will we move the Billikens 12 blocks east of our campus home to play as interlopers in a stadium rental deal as well? I can't wait to be tap-danced on when I'm wrong. And isn't there an XFL team coming?