Taj79

Those guys on each of HP's two lists were ballhandlers. Ergo more opportunities for TOs. That's a fact of the nature of the game.

I'd love to see a chart of where these murders are occurring in St. Louis. I always saw SLU as an island in the storm, recognizing that bad things can happen anywhere. I lived in suburban Baltimore for 26 years. Baltimore city was the civic shooting range. The suburbs were fine. Even as we left, the touristy Inner Harbor was seeing crime migrate to it. The Johns Hopkins neighborhood was considered dangerous. I lived in DC, and the adage there was stay out of any of the Easts ---- Northeast, Southeast. You better train your kids to be vigilant and observant no matter where they are. So no, I'd likely be fine with St. Louis all the same.

@WUH: Based on the above, I don't know if I'd say our schedule is better. Their two wins over noted Power 4 teams were at neutral sites likely because of MTE schedules. Included in the one MTE was Miami of Florida and Florida Atlantic, all were wins. Other than those games, they played nobody but the Valley. What I don't know is how the lower echelon of the Valley compares to the pits of the A10. How does Missouri State and Valpo line up with Fordham and La Salle, for instance. What kind of athleticism exists throughout the Valley? I think Robbie and Schertz would both say the A10 was more athletic than thoguht.

I don't know how you correlate McCollum and Drake with him and us. I think we can all just about agree that the athletes in the A10 are much more superior to that in the Mo Valley. Robbie and Isaiah found out as did Schertz. I'll admit I don't know much about the Valley but to just believe McCollum and company do the same thing here as at Drake seems a little far-fetched. Of course, we'll never know. Now that someone said McCollum to Iowa, I have also heard McCollum to Indiana. Love those rumors.

La Salle names Darris Nichols, head coach at Radford, to replace thew retiring Fran Dunphy at La Salle. Harris had two seasons as HC at Radford in the Big South, going 21 and 15 last year, followed by 20 and 13 the year before per the La Salle/A10 press release. Radford finished fourth this year losing to High Point in both this year and last year's Big South tournament. Nichols was an assistant coach at Florida, Wofford, Northern Kentucky and Louisiana Tech.

Will try and conduct business with a full report.

In case you missed it ...... Saint Louis University will host a series of rallies in DC for the A10 tournament. A kick-off event will be held at 6 pm on Wednesday, March 12 with subsequent gatherings two hours before each tip-off as the Bills advance. All events will be held at Penn Quarter Sports Tavern, 639 Indiana Street, NW, which is about 2.5 blocks due south of the Capital One Arena.

ESPN is beholden to the big boys. I don't have an issue with the USA network.

For what it's worth, Tim McCormack had his first team all A10 as Shulga, Flemming, Haynes, Thomas and Dawson with his MVP as Shulga. Others have talked about Reynolds, Bamisile, Bailey, Santos, Brown, and Diggins in various posts. Very few have mentioned Jimerson and even fewer Avila.

Just one year removed from a Final Four, Kevin Keats was fired at NC State. One of the names rumored for this portal opening is Ryan Odom, HC at VCU.

Umass downright horrid. Worst shooting team in A10 according to Tim McCormack. It shows. Top four about dead. Umass down double digits at home at half.

I believe Dayton and VCU (like many other schools) come out and push the physicality to the point where it is in the ref to make a call. Some do, some don’t. And if you get away with it, well, that’s great coaching. You see this with teams that have greater depth because escalating foul totals don’t hurt them much. As a team and/or coach , you play and coach to what’s in front of you. You adjust. Given our depleted roster, this factor of a game is lost on us. With only 5 usable players, if I were an opposing coach, I’d make us work our butts off on our defensive end to reap some downside on our offensive end.

Count me in the camp that says no to High Point and goodbye to the A10 and McGlade if this happens. Having said that, my daughter went to High Point. High Point's physical campus can compete and maybe even surpass SLU. The president, Nido Quebein, is a motivational speaker who came to the US from Lebanon with $5 in his pocket. My daughter went there from 2009 to 2012. In that time, Quebein bought up a neighboring nursing complex, built modern dorm/apartments, built the brand new Quebein Athletic and Convocation Center, built a first-class soccer facility, instituted men's and and women's D1 lacrosse, built a four-story Student Union complete with hotel-like dorm rooms and a four-star steak house, expanded a first-class baseball stadium, and built a world-class fraternity and sorority village. He added a grad school, a school of pharmacy, a school of education and a school of communication. He stopped short of buying the adjacent High Point mall which was also rumored to be the site of a new football stadium should High Point pursue a football team. The basketball team has been on a two-year run. They won the Big South last year but lost in the league tournament and are currently in first this year with a 25 and 6 record with a three-game lead as the last week of the season plays out. There is a lot to be proud of for the school. Will they sustain it? I can't speculate.

Here's my take, cooled by seven hours of driving and covering about 400 miles, as gleaned from the fifth row courtside ...... Amazing first half and when it was over, an eighty-year-old Daytonite in the fourth row turned to me and asked if we shoot like this all the time. My response: no lead is ever too big, no deficit is ever too large. And so it went. In the second half, Dayton just ratcheted up the pressure. It was by no means clean, the clutching and grabbing was reminiscent of VCU. Nothing was called. Dayton had five fouls with a minute to go. Santos held Avila; Cheeks held Jimerson; Bennett and Smith held Swope. Nothing. Did I say NOTHING?!?! Dayton has been setting moving picks going back to Obi Toppin days. Zed Key was throwing shoulder blocks into our guys on picks. It's how McCottry got hurt. And Robbie crapped the bed from three. Still, I didn't feel that doomed us all by itself. We also went to sleep offensively. Santos switched on Avila both halves but in the second half, Dayton doubled down on Avila. Not at first, but giving him time to telegraph his intentions. His outlet passes went to guys who had lost some of their legs in Jimerson and Swope. There is no one else. And then Schertz did absolutely nothing to quell the run Dayton was constructing. And if you've ever been in Dayton Arena, once the run starts, the crowd amplifies it. I would have burned all three of my second half timeouts during that run. But Schertz did not. Dayton is not that good but we are obviously short-handed. But if Schertz doesn't change his philosophy of playing five guys, then nothing will ever change. Not a lot of warm and fuzzies over this one. We just can't seem to beat Dayton, home or away. Quote

Slash now 43/39/ 100

Slash right now is 50/53/100

By the way, lots of empty seats. Sell outs appear to be padded.

In a game like this, nine total fouls.

Damn. They moved Rammer and Earl to the other side of the court. Still at half court behind the TV guys.

The key is win out. I expect the Joeys and Loyola to do this. If we win out, and Dayton loses on the road at VCU, there are three teams at 12 and 6. The first tiebreaker in a multi-team tie is the collective record of those three teams against each other. Again, as noted, we are all 1 and 1 there. Then you go to the top and compare how teams did against #1, #2 and so on until the tie is broken. We beat VCU, the #1 team. End of story. We get #3 in that scenario. Loyola and St. Joes split head-to-head, neither beat VCU or Mason. Loyola split with Dayton while the Joeys lost to them so Loyola would get #4, the Joeys #5 and Dayton #6. But the key is Tuesday.

Based on the three games since Hoosierpoisted above, Gibson has added 209 minutes to his total for 5266 and should now be in thirteenth place by my count.

My usual spot .... fifth row, center court behind Rammer and Earl. It's good to have friends, even Dayton season ticket holders.

Right now, VCU is projected in as the auto-qualifier from the A10. No other A10 teams gets even a sniff. I guarantee you Bernie McGlade and company are hoping like hell that someone other than VCU wins in DC.

Avila can't really defend. He can't really rebound. But he is the centerpiece of Schertz' system. If he is proactive and looking to advance to the next level, would his skills be better showcased in Schertz' system or go somewhere else where he may or may not fit? Look at the two guys who went from ISU to Texas, and the fifth kid who went to Xavier. Right now, Texas is the last team in in Lunardi's projected bracketology. Xavier is in the first four out. Life is not always greener on the other side.

I believe that if the season ended today, with the standings Hoosier has posted, Dayton would get the four (2 and 0 vs. us and the Joeys). That would then make us and the ZJoeys still tied and we'd get the five because we split with the Joeys but beat the top ranked VCUers. Of course, that will all likely change over the next two weeks. Beating Loyola and Duquesne are strong possibilities; beating Dayon is not. That would be an 11 and 7 record. I can't see the Joeys losing again. That's 12 and 6. Dayton likely goes 2 and 1 as well, making them 11 and 7. Loyola losing to us but winning out then goes 2 and 1 and finishes 12 and 6. With all that, it's likely VCU, Mason, Loyola, the Joeys, Dayton then us.