Taj79

Ditto ---- Aaric Murray. Second place --- Nicholson. I had Juan as number two and changed given that he is a junior and we have tons of guards. An inside presence that can operate at a traditional four would be better in my book.

I like the comments at the bottom of the article ------ especially considering one is by some guy named "Metz" and it deals with the Billikens. The Putz lives!

I am in the media business where in I advise a media-conscious and media savvy group. well that's their self-perception at times.. Despite this advice, and advice of similar colleagues, we are still apt to hear items, post-advice, like "Absolutely, GEN McChrystal, having "The Rolling Stone" reporter in is a no-brainer and, don't you worry about it, we'll handle everything off the record."

Ditto on vouching for Mr. Swift. As far as I know, and I am "in the business," there are no credentials needed to blog. Cureently, there are more than 100 MILLION bloggers on the web. YouTube boasts 300 million users. Facebook claims over 400 million active viewers. There are over 30 million Tweets on Twitter per month. And its a free country with freedom of speech perceived as a god-given yet profane right. I'd go on Metz's blog just to see what he's saying now but I don't want to give him a "hit." If nobody hears your rants, are you relevant? If a tree falls in the forest ....

With all due respect for For-Da Love, this is a valuable reference thread ---- its posted for all the dreamers on here who think Chaifetz and Rick Majerus are such an alluring draw that the North Carolinas and Dukes and Gonzagas and Texas and Arizonas and UCLAs and Uconns and all the other "name" schools in world are going to suddenly stop dead in their tracks and say "hey, let's go to St. Louis to play a basketball game!" Its for all those guys in the media and in the stands at Chaifetz who are wondering why we built it and nobody will come. Its for Bernie and his buddies who want to come down to the front row, free, be wined and dined, and see nothing but top ranked team after team running against our Bills at Compton and Laclede. Ain't gonna happen -- Dayton is just proof. Want more? Go back and look at who Xavier played at home over the past few years. Butler. SIU. Mason. Any of the other so-called mid-majors out there. I have not seen any of the schedules I've mentioned but I'm willing to bet you that the thread is true and there are a few minor, yet inconsistent, variations. John Chaney played anyone, anywhere. So too does Fang Mitchell. But both Temple and Coppin State did that more times on the road than ever at home. All I'm saying is that a great home pit facility with a proven, HOF coach equals even less of a chance th ebig boys are going on the road to play in som eother team's "super bowl." Bank on it. As to udfan --- Dayton will be interesting and i wil follow because they are in our league and my buddy won't let me forget how great Dayton truly is. However, if you subscribe to the hteory that the college game is a guards game (and I for one do), the YouDee has to resolve the issue of an upperclassman front line getting fed by newbies. I know the freshman guard was Top 50 and the Drake Transfer was good at drake. Despite that, it wil take some time I think for all of it to mesh. Now is Staten (name?) is near Wall-like talents (as some have said) it could happen sooner than later. Right now, Dayton has a few question marks and still has questionable outside shooting skills. But it coudl gel and I expect them near the top as usual in the A10. They have the great equalizer in YouDee Arena and almost 13K fans a night. Even if thei rschedule is full of mostly crap opponents. Gregory owes it to his team and fans to go slow to break the new engine in. Play mostly at home and do it against buy teams is typical strategy. I think Rick has done that as well.

I am guessing that my 30 year association with the state of Missouri and the city of St. Louis makes me want them more.

NH: please explain or offer a citation to your statement about NIU fans having an issue with the McCall recruitment. I had never heard that and am somewhat stunned that our prized recruit would even consider a lower eschelon tiered school like NIU as his collegaite choice.

On one hand, I get the impression Rick would want to roll the ball out and play --- no hype, maybe even no fans, boosters or school presidents to appease. On the other hand, its a somewhat sad state of the game nowadays but games have to be events with hip-hop lead-ins to rile the paying patronage up. Videos during time-outs. Updated scores on demand at your seat and fingertips. the game becomes an event, and, y'know, you can charge higher prices for "events" rather than "games." Not that's a delicate balance. I see Rick as a dinosaur who will have to either adapt or die.

Cheese --agree on you can't compare numbers like apples to apples. Unfortunately, that's all one has and numbers are more absolute and objective. Roger Maris 61, Barry Bonds 75 (or whatever). In the numbers game, Bonds obviously wins. Then you add in the steroid era. Taken out of context is the phrase to hide behind .. ask Ozzie Guillen. Spoon's cupboard was filled with developing players in Claggs and Highmark. But those teams do not become legendary with Spoon (& staff's) work in getting H, Dobbs, Robinson, Campbell, Turner and others. Spoon leaves right after Hughes, but leaves Baniak, Tatum, Heinrich and Love behind for Romar. Not bad if you ask me. Romar does get Perry but short of that, the shortcomings of all his recruits are well-documented by Clock. Soderberg did well enough to remain soluble and keep the head mostly above water, but he was the wrong man in the worng place when it was decided that a major renovation had to come in with the major renovation, Chaifetz. Coaches always come and go and the question I'd ask is "was the program in better shape when coach left, then when he came?" I'd say "yes" to Grawer, Spoon and actually Soderberg. I'd say no to Romar and my short experiences with Albrecht, Coleman and, of course, Dr. Death Ron Ekker. And this is without looking at any numbers and stats. Its probably more of a feel thing and subjective rules in sports as the perception is the reality. Any job has got to be hard when there is no tradition, no facilities, no support, bad karma or whatever. That IS Saint Louis basketball. But it is changing I believe and the first step was the drastic hire of Majerus. Its still got a long way to go but I don't remember being this excited about an upcoming season since Gray and Douglas' senior year.

Then I'd bet Mizzou would NEVER sink this low and be in it. EVER!

While I long advocated a place of our own to play in (Chaifetz) I also knew getting "real" teams to come into this pit was going to be difficult and likely get worse over time. I compared that to YouDee and its magnificent facility -- so magnificent, the NCAA might play ALL FOUR play-in games there this year. My buddy got his Flyer tickets bill for the coming year along with their OOC schedule. Here it is: at home Mount St. Mary's, Akron, Savannah State, Florida A&M, East Tennessee State, Miam of Ohio, Central Connecticut State, Western Carolina, Winthrop, George Mason and New Mexico. Away games include Ole Miss, Old Dominion and Seton Hall. There is a neutral game site against Cincinnati in Cincinnati at Fifth/Third or US Bamk Arena (neutral my relatively fat arse!). Dayton and Mason have been playing for some time now but the luster of Mason's improbable Final Fou rrun is long gone.. New Mexico is a return game from last year as is Old Dominion. Still, nice schedule gets. Winthrop is okay and the Miami game they play every year. Akron is in state so I'm cool with that. The rest is buy crap. I don't know what Ole Miss, Seton Hall or Cincy will have coming back and dayton lost both points from last year but with Wright and Johnson, they should be okay. They aleways win at the Triplle D so it is possible that with a luck win here or there, they could end the OOC with a win over New Mexico, and have a record that is 11 and 4 coming into the league portionof their schedule. If they do better and win two on the road, I see them ranked come conference time. In other words, another typical Dayton year.

I think its doable for any state if you try hard at it .... MO: Mizzou, Mo State, SLU and someone. IL: Illinois, SIU, Bradley, DePaul, and Northwestern. PA: Penn State, Pitt, Nova, Temple, St. Joe's, Duquesne, La Salle, etc. KY: Kentucky, Louisville, Murray State, Western or eastern kentucky. UT: BYU, Utah, Utah State, Weber State. Makes its interedsting no matter how you slice it and allows for improving your RPI. Playing any one of these school sin your OOC has got to be better than Savannah State, Florida A&M and/or Western Illinois.

Two recent A10 grads -- Ryan Brooks of Temple and Rodney Green of La Salle -- following Scotty Reynolds of Nova and going to Europe to play. http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleg...ml?nlid=3151592 or check out ther Lingerie League tryout photos!

Players who go to college sign with coaches ..... I think most of agree on that. The examples are limitless .... Kowal with Patton, Hughes with Derrick Thomas, Hollins with Romar, Fisher with Romar, Suggs with Romar, Brett Thompson with Soderberg and so on. Kids leave the local area for varius reasons --LaPhonso Ellis, Darius Miles, David Lee, Alex Tyus, and now the note on Maurice Baker and the eman streets. Kids lose out on academic issues as well --- Craig Upchurch, Brandon Morris, Darius Miles. It's all a crap shoot. I believe the advantage Majerus has is years of ongoing success. If you're a high school junior, and you're looking at any school, if you don't buy in to the overall coaching gameplan, you're meat. With majerus, I think there is enough evidence out there to give you an understanding of what you are signing up for --- long practices, motion offense, in-your-face defense, coaching abuse, and so on. You see a resume that includes Keith Van Horne, Andre Miller, Hanno Motola, maybe even Andrew Bogut and you think he can get you where you want to go. If today's kid, who knows all that and continues to entertain you and your offerors, you stay with them. Rick knows his program and he knows what kids will likely fit it best. Will tbere be failures and drop outs? Sure --- no one's perfect. Again, the difference to me in this staff versus previous staffs is the ability to identify talent early. and get in on it. Romar was indeed building relationships and he was getting pretty good at it locally. I never saw Sodie having the personality for it. Sppon was "aw shucks" and lived on middling success down in Springfield when Springfield was relatively unknown. And it has been proven over time that the St. Louis area does not develop major, D-1 talent on a regular basis. The chances of the STL POY doing much of anything in college are notoriously slim. At best, they might be a contributing cog on a successful team. But rarely. Sure, folks will scream out Hughes, Lee, Carrawell, Woods, and White but none of those (outside Hughes) really dominated on the college scene. There are more Polks, Allens, Brandenburgs, and Harrelsons out there than not. St. Louis has that occassional needle in a haystack sure, and if its and identifying issue, now we are at the fore in that level with Majerus and staff. But the studs will still want to go to the bright lights --- and we are not that and never likely will be.

Sorry --- I don't watch ten-year-olds for any other reason than they might be relatives --- my niece, nephew, son or daughter. And like Clock says, you can speculate all you want at that age ---- 8-footers, true point guards, even fry cooks and criminals. The ten-year-old next door to me is a budding bully. I called that first. As for the football tape, the first hit was legit, the other sideline hit was typical. Anybody see Wilbon and Kornheiser on 7/27? Wlbon said he wouldn't let his kid play football because of the new concussion stickers the NFL has put up in lockerrooms on the subject. Kornheiser said football is today where boxing was a few years ago --- making parents fearful of injuries and thereby restricting the talent pool going into the area. Willbon is one of those parents --- fearful of the what ifs hits can lead to --- brain damage, dementia, mental problems, brain dysfunction and so on. The fotoball tape also proves more to me about the parents ---- listen to the tape. Who is doing all the hooting and hollering in the background? Rest in Peace Jack Tatum.

At $50K a year for four years of undergrad, plus another three years in law school, adding in the same costs, you will ring up $350K in costs to go to college. As a lawyer, you'd have to jump to the top of the pay scale and, with no expenses, you'd still take over 4 years to pay back your college costs. Physical therapsist are now required to have doctorates ---- that's a sevn- or eight-year program and you'd spend the next 8 or so years paying all that back --- with no secondary items lie food, rent, kids, etc. to hold you down. If college costs continue to rise, and with no guarantee that you'll have a job on graduation, something's got to give. The debt continues to escalate. bk --- get some sleep son.

"Football is becoming a pretty popular sport and an important aspect of collegiate athletics." Crap! When did this happen and why wasn't I informed? The Big 12? Us? Because of our football program? We can't run with the Georgetown's, Marquette's, Villanova's and Boston College's of the world and you want to align us with Iowa State, Mizzou (who won't give us one basketball game a year), Kansas, K State, Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and so on? I will say one thing, aim high, grasshopper. What would the costs be to add what, 90 men's football schollies a pop, compounded by an equal number of female schollies, in terms of what it would cost to go to SLU the way it is? Then the capital costs in buyilding a stadium> Or are you suggesting we play in downtown Edward Jones' neighborhood? Plus the added admin and other capital costs to build the needed ancillary facilities like dorm rooms, weight rooms, training tables, practice facilites. You are quit emad, y'know. I guess these are the innovative thoughts prevalent out there at 3 in the morning.

Okay ---- I finally went back and looked at the link ..... first of all, is this kid's name "Courtney Ramey?" And if so, anyone else see a conflict of interest (nee: exploitation) with Ramey basketball placing a YouTube video up of Courtney Ramey? Looks like someone has bought their version of the lottery ticket in this somewhere. We also ought to ask that they change the position nomenclature from "point guard' to one of "ball hog." I didn't commit the whole gangsta rap bullsh*t to memory but I do not recall seeing one ASSIST from this kid whatsoever. Calling him a "point guard" seems somewhat out of sorts to the term and duties said player would have if he indeed did play that particular spot on the floor. On th epluss side --- I loved the killer crossover --- of course, it is illegal and is indeed carrying the ball but hey, let's train 'em right.

Under 10??????? I knew a lot of great athletes under ten. Then 11. Then 12. Heck, even 18. And a lot of those weren't even the same kids. If you have to be stroking a kid at 10, then, once again, I'm glad it ain't my life's calling. The only person you're stroking here is his old man or woman. Or self-proclaimed entourage. Everybody once again looking to hit their own personal lottery.

I'd rather he was in our system, under our wing. I don't see what two or four minutes per game against that competition is going to add in terms of our roster. Granted, he won't get the speed of the game until actual conference games, but hw will get more time knowing and bonding with his SLU teammates and you can't sell team chemistry short.

I'm just talking reality here. Folks are not going to be too keen to come in and play Majerus at home. Its a given how he plays, how he recruits, his teams are always over .500 and he wins. As much as I hate to say this, we are as Dayton is --- go back and look at their non-con over the last few years. Outside of Pitt at home and semi-annual tussles with Miami, they had to go to Cincinnati to play Kentucky, they had to go to Conseco to play Purdue, they had to go to Riverfront to play Cincinnati. The rest is scuffling as we will have to scuffle. And I for one will never count games at Savvis or the Dome as home games. Come into our place and play. As for Butler and Indiana, Notre Dame, and Purdue --- instate schools are instate schools. While not of the same caliber, we have Missouri State and SIU. Granted, they are not the same level as the Indiana schools but you know what I mean. Same with neighboring Ohio State. I guarantee you the big schools are rolling the dice mostly with Butler --- sure they made the final last year but all things peak at the same time for them. In the grand scheme of things, I doubt th eBig Ten schools fears little Butler year ina and year out. As long as there are true bottom feeders in the A10 --- like Fordham, La Salle, St. Bonaventure, and so one --- SOS in conference is not going to go up eight years out of ten. And with the big boys MOSTLY staying away, the conundrum exists.

Preseason could be two blown ACL's, one broken thumb, and a severe eye injury. Which could mean the Cameron Crazies chanting "Shutout, shutout" as they did well past the tne minute mark the last time a SLU team ventured into Cameron. I hope we can keep it close enough to steal one. But a prayer is a prayer. I do think it nteresting that Duke is scared enough NOT to go home-and-home. That, in and of itself, speaks volumes.

No offense bk but where have you been? Nobody is coming to Chaifetz. We have long discussed how nobody comes to Dayton. Or to Butler. Or to Xavier. Sure, they'll come to Riverfront or meet you in Indianapolis, but on campus? Forget it. You get one shot every five or so years (see Pitt @ Dayton 2008). Otherwise ain't going to happen. Duke wouldn't come here AND Duke wouldn't give us a home-and-home anywhere else for that matter. This scheduling thing will be the annual lament. Besides, I have yet to see SLU students support unconditionally. The current crop, sans a few hearty souls and you know who you are, look like bandwagoneers to say the least. Free food? They are there. Free t-shirts? Ditto again. Camping out overnigth for tickets to see East Bumfuque U.?

'Im guessing home-and-home? 2010-11 here and 2011-12 there? There at that time when the nucleus are seniors and juniors? Good test IMO.

Only pdiddy can respond to his post when and only when the streets barf out whatever they were talking about to bgin with. The Duke lovers and broy bashers can all stay on the eightpage post going in part one.