Taj79

I don't believe roy said anything about naming anything for Romar, he just pointed out that Romar and Majerus made exactly the same number of Dances ---- one. I might also offer that Grawer left Spoon a nice little duo in Claggs and Hmark when he went out the door. Is that the same as now? Probably not. But short of that, Spoon's greatest legacy was getting Hughes here for one and done. I think it speaks volumes to the lack of substance in this program that we are talking about Majerus ( to some an interloper) in the same vein as Grawer (savior to many) and Ferry and MacCauley (when dinosaurs roamed the earth). The kids left seem to have come here to play for this legendary coach. What else is there to play for here? The so-called foundation created by Douglas/Gray/Bonner crumbled only to be reborn by Claggs/Hmark/H. Then it was crumbling until the Legend arrived; then it and he were one and done. Then it fell on to the broad shoulders of Majerus who I believe used his sizable rep to get the kids he wanted and knew that in order to become competitive and be in it every night, they all had to buy in to his system and make it work. We saw that last year. I still believe that his death notwithstanding, he was gone this year because he and Biondi could not co-exist. And what a way to go out ---- resurrecting a brain-dead program, making it a winner despite internal issues, and moving on, legend intact and amplified. My focus on sustainability is still unresolved. Obviously, it does not appear to be Crews or Whitesell. Next year does not appear to be much of an issue if we open with Loe, Evans, McCall, and Jett. What I don't like about that is that we obviously need a fifth starter and I prefer JJ off the bench. JJ is still not an offensive option to me right now. To those who still believe Manning and Glaze are going to come on and "get it," I say we'll see. Majerus said a lot of good things about Manning true,but without RM there to teach him what he knew, will it come to fruition? Good news in that the jury is still out on that and could come home a winner. Glaze? Have no clue -- just not enough in term sof a body of evidence. Carter and Drew had high preseason praise so there is still time to see that develops into. I am still skeptical on McBroom only because of what I have seen from our other MAC transfer. Locally, the Orioles, who had not had a winning record in 14 years and did not expect to make this year's playoffs (but did), ran a once-a-month promotion where they unveiled bronze statues in the centerfield court for each of their hall-of-famers. Palmer. Weaver. Brooks Robinson. Frank Robinson. Eddie Murray. Why not do something similar for Billiken basketball? Create a Hall of Fame. Induct one guy a month for the duration of the season. Start with Easy Ed. You coudl easily include Ferry. Harry Rogers. Monroe. Larry. Grawer and so on. I don't think you start with Rick but he's in there. Spoon? Maybe. Romar? No way. I believe that, in a way, Rick's illness gave the University an out. I really don't believe they were going to rehire him or extend him and it was going to be a messy divorce --- reality-wise or perception-wise. I think he had had enough of the good father and vice-a-versa. Guys like Bernie and Burwell would have been like "what the hell were you thinking,Larry?" I have long called Saint Louis University a "graveyard" for coaches. Rick's death takes that to a whole, new and likely uncalled for level. The man was truly a basketball genius. I'd like to see a picture of him and the telltale black sweater promitnently in Chaifetz' main entrance. His history here was unfortunately too short to emulate "Coach K court" or "the Dean Smith Center."

People rave over 6'8" forward Tony Mitchell. Rammer called him "an NBA player" on last night's game feed. I think he was supposed to go to Mizzou originally. They are young with Mitchell only a sophomore and three others in double figures --- two more sophomores and a junior. Typically, 6'8" mobile bigs give us fits. Delray James at Rhode Island comes to mind. The only real person available to cover Mitchell is Evans and we'll be giving away three inches or so there. Alzee Williams and Jordan Williams are listed as 6'4" and 6'6" guards. Matchup problems seem to be looming.

I had Rammer on the internet feed.

Rammer is a homer extraordinnairre but he is right on in what these refs are allowing. I am sure we are doing it too but Valpo looks a hell of a lot more obvious with their pushes and hand checks and grabs.

If Valpo is the best ther Horizon has, yikes. Of course, we are at home. Valpo 5 and 1 beating the likes of GA Southern, Northern IL, Kent St, Chicago St., and Bethune-Cookman. Not a real 5 and 1. Loss on road by two to Nebraska.

Weren't we once in the recruiting hunt for Bobby Capobianco?

It helps that Valpo is running the Rich-Grawer-settle-for-an-18-footer offense. Great D. Looksliek 31 to 24 at half. SLU.

8 to 0 run puts us up 23 to 19 at the under 4. Playing Remekun and Ellis on 5'9" point guards Buggs who refuses to shoot. Loe and Remekunwitgh twofouls. Manning doing well.

We look like sh*t. Good defensive stand blown by questionable decisions on offensive end. The ball goes through the net so often each make is like a once-a-year celebration.

i can't tell from the internet feed if there is anything on our unis or not.

13 to 12 w/Cody at line for two under 12 TO.

7 all at the under16 TO. A real emptiness for me today.

The column from the LA Times says it all ... something like awaiting a heart transplant but never got healthy enough to move to the top of the list. I think we all knew he was done but we all hoped for that one shining moment when he walked back out into the Fetz for a well-deserved adulation of appreciation. But the Hollywood moment is extremely rare in real life circumstances. The circumstances of today's politically-correct world will never allow another of his ilk to surface. That breed ofdinosauer just went extinct. He was a rare genius notonyl to watch but watch in person for our program. I'll offer a prayer for his eternal peace and echo the thanks expressed on here before me.

Yo kshoe .... at this point, the team is trending down so projections would turn that way as well. A projection in late October for a 12 and 2 OOC record now is not good (especially with three losses, eh?). Games now coming up against Valpo and a ranked New Mexico team are not the locks first thought of. Folks are even passing accolades about North Texas. That would be three more losses making a projection of 8 and 6 feasible. I am still not in meltdown mode as this thread suggests. My big issue, which still remains, was replacing Conklin -- both on the floor and in the lockerroom. Now add in Majerus. Add in Mitchell. And complicate it with injuries to Remekun, Jett, Glaze and Carter. And short of Santa Clara, we haven't been blown out of anything. As noted by 05, our string of just pure bad luck continues. But the injured get healthy and the conference season will matter so to panic is absurd. I always thought you got 4 points for the "home" advantage and the Wiz hasus by 5 over Valpo. That's not too good. The return of the walking wounded will be a breath of fresh air but if they return and guys are still playing bad defense, guys are still trying to do to much individually, guys are not running the offense crisply enough, guys aren't calling the proper timeouts and so on, Mitchell and company will be no saviors. Heck, losing Glaze and Carter might not mean anything more than them losing developmental minutes. Neither was anything really important to this team's success if you figure they were players listed between 9 and11 on the bench. Other than blow time for a starter and getting a feel for the college game, not much more could be expected despite those wanting Glaze to be the answer or part of the answer to the Conklin loss.

This is make-or-break time once again. As pointed out by many, Majerus was a luck hire. It was so drastic, so out-of-leftfield that no one saw it coming nor envisioned it. I always saw Majerus saving the program and riding off into the sunset, to either another gig or retirment, smugly content that his legend as a HOF coach and program saver was as intact as ever. I hoped in doing that he would leave a sustainable program in the capable hands of a disciple/protoege. All we got so far was enough to make us want more. Rick's in bad shape and I don't blame him for doing what he is doing. I appreciate his time with us and his time shows that what we all believe to be true, that SLU can be a decent, highly competitive, great job with a city all to itself, is not far-fetched. But it will take specila people dedicated to makin git happen to make it happen. The next hired gun has to be aligned directly with the school's plan or he is juist treading water until his light runs out or he move son to higher, greener pastures. I don't have a problem wiht th ehigher, greener pastures provided it leads to a legacy that is Xavier-esque or Butler-esque --- where the lifeline is carried on by thos eleft behind. We don't have that. In previous threads, I have often referred to SLU as a graveyard for coaches. That still remains true. In my time, Albrecht, Coleman, Ekker, Grawer, Spoonhauer, Sodeberg and now Majerus have figuratively and career-wise died in the job. Romar went home vto Alma Mater U after mediocre success here and would likely had not been offered that job a few years down the road given what he was doing here. He struck while his iron was still hot .... well, at least warm. Assistants? Bennett has been discussed. An two-year interloper who returned to his west coast roots. Cameron Dollar? Jay Spoonhauer? Derrick Thomas? Jackson Wheeler? Porter Moser? Chris Harriman? Lee Winfield? Not exactly a Hank Iba/Adolph Rupp kind of tree. Not only do coaches die here, so do assistants. Then let's throw in a screwy administration with half-hearted support. If you believe the premise that kids sign with coaches, damn straight this is a key hire. Cursed? Not at all.

On one hand, while it's nice to laud Mr. Conklin's continued following of the program, he's gone and it's not for him to say. Based on what Jett replied, he's not happy with Conklin either (although it's tough to interpret black type on white space). There should be enough leadership on this team to do the right thing w/o Conklin getting involved. Heart in the right place; head, not so much.

Absolutely patience. People overlooked or lessened the impact that losing Conklin would have. We all believed our guards were capable of holding on for Mitchell's return. And we cannot fully understand the intangibles a personality and expertise that a Majerus brings to the table. Then toss in Remekun's unavailability and we suddenly have a larger issue. Again, this OOC schedule will be a develomental one at best. Who is the inside threat? Can we hold on for Micthell's return? is Remekun more than just a body? Does Ellis start or stay comfy off the bench? Can McCall be a true point (I have concerns on this because Jett obviously needs the ball to do what he does best which is drive and if McCall is driving, who's the off-guard shooter?) Can Barnett contribute? Glaze? Manning? Lots of stuff to be answeresd w/o the complications of injuries. I said it was likely good to have a weak OOC. But pay me now or pay me later. You can fuok up the OOC and redeem yourself in the conference. You can fuok up the conference and redeem yourself in the league tourney. No matter how bad we are, we are still better than four teams in this conference so we'll have the Barclays opportunity I believe. We weren't going undefeated to begin with and having this happen sooner is better than later. Despite our returning core, there are enough questions looming to make finding answers quite an effort. No panic, but a kick in the panst if you think you can sacrifice hard work.

"I slept with the substitute teacher." -- Joey Tribiani.

"Take care of the ball..." is scary when you consider we have three junior guards, two junior forwards, a senior forward and only one freshman guard (who got hurt and was limited to 4 minutes and no TOs last night). Five turnovers by Evans, six by McCall, and three by Loe. We all kind of agreed that if we could take a hit on nthis club like we did with Mitchell, it would be less felt at guard because we were so deep. Yikes. Turnovers did hurt and fixing that will help. Righting the whole experience will also include running a more crisp offense, rebounding better and defending way better. We failed in just about every facet of the game last night. Unbelievable that could happen -- to anyone but especially at home. Oh well, VCU lost to Wichita State, Florida State lost to South Alabama, etc.

... didn't make it much better but it has moved me back off the edge of trying to teach the wind how to fly ..... Everybody has already pointed out a whole boatload of failings last night. I have to admit I was absolutely shocked at some of the things I saw .. namely a coach not doing all he could to stem an early tide, a total lack of effort, a total lackadaisical performance by the #9 team in the country, at home no less, to a C- team, and so on. Observations: 1) While Santa Clara shot phenominally well, so did SC-Upstate. SC-Upstate was making them from everywhere, Santa Clara just seemed to pulverize our boys on the floor, the boards, you name it. We were never in it from 11-11 on. They only got 7 offensive rebounds but it felt like they got everything. And as roy pointed out in the defensive rotation, things were missing and rotations missed as there seemed to be SC layups all over the place. 2) The defense. I thought we prided ourselves on that. Haven't seen it. SC-Upstate shot well. Sanat Clara just dominated at every position. Why did Foster miss the second half of the season last year? What was he suspended for or was it an injury? He reminded me of the old Detroit Piston guy ... Vinne Johnson "the microwave." According to Rammer, someone else on the bench at Santa Clara is called that but believe me, it's Foster. How come we can't get guys like that? I was worried about Craig at SC Upstate. Foster was fantastic. As Earl said too, we could never get a defensive stop. Even when we did force a missed field goal, we'd lose the loose ball rebound or turn it right back over ourselves. And if they are going to ignore flopping this year as everyone seems to believe, Cody has got to stand up stronger because when he flops and there's no call, the path to the basket is wide open. As Timmerman noted, if this is a team that feeds its offense by its defense, we're the next Biafra. 3) Individual defense. Roquemore ate McCall's lunch. He was toying with him. Now maybe running the point AND playing defense are a little too much for Mike but he looked horrible on defense. And on offense, as Earl noted, he went into some bad situations on the drive and left no viable option for relief. Whereas McCall and Jett dominated SC-Upstate, they were the whipped boys last night. Jett's all-defense place took a huge hit last night. Manning, Glaze and even Barnett do not seem to have the rotations down and understood. Evans gets an A for effort -- at one point he had Foster and at another Roquemore, two guards that took our lone rebounder away from the boards. 4) The offense. Two key items, each the same play. Both times, Loe set a high ball screen for McCall and both times McCall took the ball off it soft allowing the defender to go between the ball and the screen which then got Loe offensive screen fouls each time. Crews talked about more on-ball screens as opposed to RM's off-ball screens when he took over. The key to any screen is cutting angle -- geometry. We are not very crisp right now. That's just lazy. Santa Clara's defense seemed to be content to allow McCall and Jett to drive at will. Neither finished well but the Broncos did not drop off our outside-shooting bigs. And without the catch-n-shoot flare play, neither Loe nor Ellis is going to dribble and create their own shot. And as projected, neither is going to change their lifelong game and become inside-dependent, let alone inside-dominant. There seemed to be large segemnts of the game where our offense was nothing what it was last year. As noted by some, lots of abandoning the play and free lancing. i know we posted another six-minute scoring drought in the first half. And we missed our first five shots of the second. Still getting an F grade for two bombers ermerging per night. Two games and we are 8-of-32 from the arc bu *** sure seems all them cam ein mop-up time in both. And we are still a team who's personality is based on the three point shot as far as I can tell. 5) The interior. Now I'm still scared here. It would appear Remekun is our major hope but it is stil way too early to tell due to lackof anythign concrete. That doesn't make me feel very good. Glaze, outside of some nice hustle and enthusiasm, hasn't shown me much yet. But again it's early. However, if he can't compete against the OOC bigs, I'm not thrilled about him getting up against Gaston, Braswell, Aiken, Roberts, Lee, Holis-Jeferson and the known big dudes in the A10. Manning? No clue still. Our most viable NBA talent (accoridng to the HOF coach) has played an average of 3.5 minutes per game so far. I really want to see us play Jeff Withey and Kansas. 6) Boy are we thin. Mitchell was one thing but then deduct Cory and lose Jett to fouls and Carter to the injury and some of the combinations were downright scary. And speaking of thin, while I am not about to bail out and all over Crews, do not think the loss of Majerus doesn't mean something. A loss at home to Santa Clara should pretty much drop us from any poll considerations until maybe late February. We can get over that now. Again, no time to panic but a lot of questions have to be answered in the OOC schedule. Once again, we are a lunch-pail kind of team that cannot rest on its talent but must rely on hard work as the sum is much greater than the parts and the parts have to come together in the framework to make it work. Contrary to what someone said, no, we don't have Columbus any more. That was then, this is now. Need to step back, take lessons learned, and go from there. I have lower lows than last night ---- 20 points at GeeDub, losing to McKendree, losing to a 5-win Detroit team in the first round of the MCC tournament, and so on ---- but last night was a low I guess due to expectations. No panic but recognize a long way to go. And change the dance team's "uniforms."

@jimbo -- did you swallow?

Parody --- I guess a whole lot of spoofing going on. Now if it's parity you're looking for well, that's a little different. What I learend (although I didn't get to devote much time to watching everything due to work issues): Butler stil can't seem to shoot. Only 36.5% on the day and 22% from three. Only 18 points in the second half. And we al know this Xavier team is not what we are used to. Redford still only shoots the three but appears back from last season's knee injury recovery. Dee Davis is not that good at the point. Only two bench points not counting Redford's three treys. Where is this big Xavier recruiting class in Christon, Davis, Reynodls and Farr? Christon got 27 minutes but only Farr saw a mop-up minute at the end. Taylor, Martin and Robinson along the front line don't impress me much although they did handle Butler. If Christon is the A10's best recruit, he'll have to come a long way. Butler was awful --- the greatest shooter in th e land, Rotnei Clarke, was 3 of 11 with 1 of 7 from three-point land. Marshall and Jones, all preseason A10 selects by some, have a ton of room for improvement. Was it all due to playing at X? Did that game count in the A10 standings? Umass is still freaky athletic but I am with kwjybo on questioning Kellogg's ability to control this circus. Umass escaped with one there. And Harvard was out its two best players and playing in Amherst. Vinson was his usual enigma self. Williams shot 6-of 15 but with 10 assists. Jesse Morgan took 18 shots. And they win on a shot by a guy who was scoreless to that point. Prayers answered. Scootie Randall is ready to play and make up for lost time. He and Holis-Jefferson have that kind of height/weight combo that gives other A10 teams fits when trying tomatchup and cover. Thanks to bizz on the Wyatt update. I think Temple will play a very short bench but with Holis-Jefferson, Randall, Wyatt and Lee, they will still be a load to handle. Temple is still Temple and Fran Dunphy knows what he is doing. More how some things never change --- Gaston scores in double figures and Fordham still loses. A constant. Yeah, VCU lost but it appears they just ran out of time and the team making the last shot won. VCU went to the line for two to tie with a half-second to go and missed the first or they still might be playing. HAVOC actually had more turnovers than Wichita did and this so called top recruit Jordan Burgess didn't get off the bench. And Richmond is always a scary place to play at. I said that in the prediction thread. What I learend .. the usual ..... the A10 will be unpredictable, every team can offer a game every night, and the winner will win all their homes, make the most of their road games at weak opponets, and there will be upsets on any given night. Xavier looked better than I thought, I don't think they are THAT good. Temple was Temple and cannot be overlooked. Richmond is too soon to call. And VCU and Butler stumbled badly -- Butler ebcause they were awful and VCU because it was at home. Going to be a great year following A10 ball.

Scootie Randall throws down 31 as Temple romps at Kent State 80 to 66. Five-of-12 from three point land, 10-of-19 overall. TJ DiLeo and Dalton Pepper got more minutes at guard than either starter Khalif Wyatt or Will Cummings. That's interesting. If DiLeo is your third-leading scorer for the year, you got trouble. Wyatt had six assists and only one personal foul yet played only 17 minutes. Hmmmm?

Wow! I've forgotten so much ... thanks box. Now that I see it in writing, I'm ashamed I forgot it. I only looked at the current standings to see who was in there. How about Umass or Nova upgrading their current FCS programs .. oh, wait, that's been discussed too.

Frankly, Big East Football doesn't impress me much. Rutgers at the top? Uconn is not consistently good. Pitt has been wandering for about a decade now. Temple was thrown out once before. South Florida had like one year. And the school scoming from NASCAR country are like wshooting stars --- once maybe every rare occassion. Like when Tulane wen tundefeated on eyear and got hammered in a bowl. As did Hawaii with that QB Colt something-or-other. Wow ---- Pitt on the level of a Central Michigan and/or Toledo. Nice. How the once-mighty have fallen. Also, outside of VaTech (Metro), Florida State (Metro), and Miami (Independent), who all came infrom the cold, the ACC is a bunch of lightweights too.