Taj79

I did notknow that and while the info might be the question to a "Jeopardy" answer at best some day, I do appreciate it. I have to admit not knowing that Cranford had that year or was a pre-season pick for All-League. Thanks guys.

... not all situations are created equal. Not all programs are created equal as well. And what is the status quo for now, may not be the status quo for later. What I am saying, which is open to debate and other opinions, is that I see this as a seminal moment in the Billiken Basketball program .... the building of an on-cmapus arena for the first (and probably last) time. A huge investment and a rather huge change (again my opinion) in the overall direction of athletics at the school. If ever there were a time for open, direct and almost instaneous communications with the fan (i.e. dollar) base it would be now. Now, I'm too lazy to do it and don't really have the time, but there are two rather close examples we could very easily turn to for reference .... Mi$$ouri down the street (because they are the largest D1 program inthe state) and Maryland (because Yow did it there and has recent connections to us). Maybe they did nothing as well, like I said, I don't know. And maybe the skids are being greased elsewhere and us ghetto dwellers are not in that particular circle. from my foxhole, I don't see anything happening so that is my reality. I'm not suggesting oyu have to live in my reality (heh-heh)!

.. but did any of them "do" anything? what I mean by "do" .. Jason Edwin "did" something at Kent State. I would say that's "doing" something. Did these guys "do" anyhting or jsut paly out hte string? I also heard Caswell left SLU and went into the Army. He came in from JUCO and went to SLU; I do not believe he left SLU went JUCO and came back.

The Darren Clarke thread struck me. Whatever happened to Donnie Adkins, Ricky Cranford, Tyrone Caswell, Jeremy Biles, JJ Haliburton, Eric Bickell and some of the others that graced this program between Claggs and now. Did they ever end up playing anywhere else or producing anything of note? Anyone know? Adkins was like the top scorer in the state of West Virginia .. which is huge when you think of Jerry West. Cranford was the next Hughes. Caswell was the Sporting News' Top CUSA recruit the year he came in. Bickell was part of that huge Claggs/Hmark/Winfield class.

Seems to indicate that we really flunked on this talent evaluation. No one wants him. Of course, his production at SLU isn't much of an endorsement, is it?

.. I thought you said "played a second game" but you said "played a second in a game." So in the case of a fifth year senior ... one where he completes his four years of eligibility in five, he must declare his redshirt year prior to the season beginning. Thiscould be his freshman year or any year for that matter. But a player can apply for a medical redshirt if he's plays in only 1/3 of the games scheduled before he is injured. I can agree to that. But that then takes me back to the backwards one where I asked the question if what he said was possible ... he said "it will take Obi until January to be healthy and physically fit to make a meaningful contribution. If he's not fit to go Jan1....I would redshirt him." My question still applies. Canthis be done? Would you have to call it a redshirt year long before Jan 1 or are you at that point saying he's only done a third of the games so apply for the medical waiver?

... that part was lost on me. Lying is alway reprehensible, but Yow must have done something right to move up to a major college (i.e. big time) athletics department now that she's at Maryland. I find it somewhat interesting that she then did there what we are talking about now here .... albeit probably with a lot more difficulty. Namely, she took a program, amore storied program than we can ever hope to be right now, and moved it and probably a whole lot more influential (see BANDITS, BELTWAY) and cantakerous season ticket holders from Cole Field House into the brand spanking new ComCast Center. I once emailed them to see how they did the ticket disbursement andi t was interesting to say the least. But they had a ticket brochure explaining how all were going to be treated. Money contributions and long-time points systems were used in tandem. I think if you all in St. Loo had the same stuff from Cheryl and her department, it would ease some of this pain some. And you don't; that's wrong. What I meant by the last moves coming out of West Pine in the Yow era was the firing of Grawer, the hiring of Spoon, and the reality of going back into the sterile Savvis. You would be hard pressed to argue that those are the glory years most of us ascribe to wanting to become once again. Nothing has been done since except the lucky recruitment of Larry Hughes. This is not the sign of extreme competence in my book. So .. if we agree that we are indeed small time, and endorse as I have before, controlling that which we can control, not only does that mean on-campus in my book, but getting dedication given TO the athletic department as well as FROM the athletic department. And I'm not talking coaches ... I'm talking operational staff and adminsitration. The ship is nice and the captain warm and fuzzy ... but someone's got to run the engines or we're floating adrift with no purpose. This is probably not fair, but what has Ms. Levrick done since she arrived at her post some months ago? Updates are good .. they create the semblence of news which could create a buzz and things, at least the name, is kept in the news. From what this board is saying, the school has done nothing to keep anyone informed which is easily interpretted to mean nothing is going on. Right at a point when the school is trying to define its seminal moment ... athletically speaking. Finally, if Yow lied, she lied. Not that I commend that. But some things are all dependent on the perception and if you (or I) perceived someone to do something, then in our reality it happened. If you believe Yow lied, she lied. But I have yet to see any situation happen in which someone doesn't perceive that something wrong happened somewhere along the line. I can see footsie's not a Yow fan. He's entitled to that. But in comparison to the rest of our illustrious ADs in the "modern" era, did anyone do anything beter or of greater note?

Would a big time athletic department be able to keep its fan base informed of althetic department events, progresses and setbacks over the course of a year? Would a big time athletic department market its teams, sports and athletes adequately? Would a big time athletic department know how to schedule properly? Would a big time athletic department be able to recognize and address the concerns raised over what is probably the watershed event (on campus arena) that its campus has ever seen, athletically-speaking? Would a big time athletic department be adequately and professionally staffed at key times? Would a big time athletic department negotiate local television and radio rights correctly? Would a big time athletic department, with no perceptible competitor in its market, allow the curent state of affairs to exist in that market? Would a big time athletic department allow itself to be housed in antiquated facilities for this long? In the past few years, themost electric personality to come through the school has been Larry Hughes. Can you imagine how short he would have fallen in the All American race if he had stayed for his senior year and had to depend on our sports and marketing departmetn to "tout" his accomplishments? If there were a college basketball Heisman, and it received the same type of hype and marketing that colleges do for football Heisman candidates, Larry, despite probably having a legitimate dossier, would most likely have finished 11th out of 10 qualifiers if he was dependent on services currently exisitngin our big tiem athletic department. The last gasp of action coming out of that area of the school occurred when Ms. Yow had the controls. You can't jump off the front porch and run with the big dogs when you still squat and pee like a puppy.

... I think there has to be two different scenarios here ... Frericks ttok to about what, the sixth or seventh game when it was finally decided he was done. At that point I believe the discussion came into play about applying for another season with a medical redshirt. As I recall, Tom wasn't real interested in doing it so it became a moot point. But based onwhat you are saying, let's say some poor kid sits on the bench all year after playing in the home opener blowout. I do nto belive that come March 10, because the kid never got in again, that you can declare it a redshirt year. There has to be a time frame by which that call is made and the kid moves off the bench. Another thing, can a redshirt kid go on all the trips with the team as the year progresses? Can a trnasfer like Reggie do the same? Or are they limited to just being "on" the bench at home games?

The thread entitled "Family Arena Dates" and some of the conversations occurring in there shows me why this program faces the problems that it does. If dates at the Family Arena are a "power play" or some other ruse by the SLU administration to further their "plight" and get a school arena built, so what? Its not like its the first time its been used in the context of mankind. Is it right? I am not in a position to offer ultimate judgement but my opinion right now is that its not. Ten years or so ago Biondi said he wants to be a "top 50" program. Two years ago he pledged to build our own arena. Last year we got a new athletic director who's main goals were wrappe dup in boht Biondi statements. In a world where action speaks louder than words, what kind of volumes are being written here? The calls that identify the program as "small time" seem to strike a resonant chord here. It is stuff like this that makes the elite players not even cast a glance our way. And it is amplified by our inability to win with any consistency. To be vagabonds within our own city and so on seesm to me to be another negative that must be righted in the overall turnaround of the program. We might get looks from a Ben Hansborough and a Troy Robertson and a Johnnie Parker Jr. and a Monroe Douglas Jr and Jesse Leonard's kid or some other associated legacy, but it is rare that these kids come and play. We have a chance with some locals of local repute ... the Hughes, the Liddells, the Claggetts, the Grays and Lischs ... but we have to seal those deals and then succeed with them in order to advance the state of the overall program. Hughes is long gone. So too are Claggs and Gray. Was the program sustained over their successes and subsequent graduation? I'd say no. We are rebuilding once again in that I've lost count over the number of times we've rebuilt. I want reload, restock, adjust ..... not rebuild. It sounds like to me, we on this board are the ghetto neighborhood of the SLU alumni base. I can't fund the arena .. neither can nark, or roy, or skip, or boxer, or 72, or Schaz ... A lot of you guys are in better standing with the school based on your claimed donations and all but while that elevates you certainly above me, it is not the upper crust level of the alums that a Biondi among others would appeal to. And if big donors are the ones that get involved in small things like renaming a girls dance troupe, we are indeed small time potatoes. Roy, for one, has argued long and hard against moving out of the creature comforts that are Savvis and into a typical college arena. I disagree withthat and agree with the masoleum references but respect his concerns. Bonwich has argued against the move for monetary reasons. I disagree but he has many good points. Kshoe and kwijybo and others disagree about the home court advantage that I think we'd get at ahomeof our own. But then we see arguments about driving 30 or so extra miles to Strip Mall H*ll for a game and it becomes a real question in my mind what kind of supporters we really are. St. Charles? In old days living at the then-end of Page Avenue, St. Charles would have been a plus as opposed to my driving downtown. But I'm an idiot, I went to see the women's soccer team at Princeton from here (Baltimore) a few years ago. This year, I am in for any games at LaSalle, St. Joe's, and GeeDub and do not believe Richmond, Fordham or Duquesne to be that far out of my reach. When you consider that the shortest (one-way) trip there is about 70 miles to Philly, the Strip Mall H*ll argument don't play in these parts. We seem to have a disinterested upper crust base, a disinterested student fan base, and a passionate yet financially-challenged mid- to lower-class fan base screaming for changes and better results but not in much of a position to empower those changes and results.

I was under the impression that the redshirt declarationhad tooccur earlier ... with a cut off date of about two or three games into the year .... longer if there was a medical mishap but that still needed a special declaration and a no-guarantee submission or plea to the NCAA eligibility committee? I do not thinkyou can wait until January and make the call ..... if you were a program that had a couple of transfers coming eligible as second semester, it might behoove some programs of lesser credibility to use those situations to a certain advantage.

HEY ... LIKE I SAID, IF THE KID MAKES ME EAT CROW, SO BE IT .... AT LEAST IT'LL BE SOME OF THE SWEETEST CROW I'VE EVER DOWNED .... I'M HOPING TO FEAST ON IT. AS FOR THE NUMBERS BEING A COMPOSITE OF THE COMBO .... I DON'T KNOW. I GUESS I'D TAKE IT BECAUSE IT WOULD BE A CONSTANT AND WE STILL HAVE TO REPLACE IZIK'S CONTRIBUTION FROM LAST YEAR. BUT WHEN YOU START TO TALK ABOUT REPLACEMENT, YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT REPLACING NUMBERS THAT RESULTED IN A MEDIOCRE RECORD. IT WOULD SEEM TO ME THAT WE NEED NOT TO REPLACE BUT TO ADD TO IT AND IMPROVE.

... I think it is 72. Nine points a game and six to eight rebounds a game? Based on what? This kid finally finding himself. I would love nothng better than to eat those words and be surprisingly shocked at JJ's production but at this point, I believe that if our season hinges on JJ, that's not good. Let's also remember that technially, he's a senior. My belief is that if he's not doing it in mid-December, he'll be a washout as far as his career is concerned and relegated to bench duty from here on out. As for a post up guy who also can kncok it down from 17 feet ... we've never had one. What thicks described of Baniak was one game and adds to his legacy of a tease of a ballplayer. Bonner was never an outside shooter. Braun never came inside. Tatum was not functional outside the lane. Jamal Johnson was an inside-only act. About the best guy with his back to the basket and a decent outside shot might have been Donnie Dobbs. I will say this, if Sean Finn and Keith Waleskowski were all A-10 performers, being a big man doesn't require as much in the A-10 as it did in CUSA.

Congratulations and good for you bob .... of course, what we really want are more pictures of you with gorgeous young ladies and you can edit yourself out without guilt!!! With the understanding that if I say this, I will be an *ss .... but that's never stopped me before .... what is wrong with today's print media???? Where does that headline correspond to the story? Other than the last line, where it explains what happens now that Princeton has forfeited its remaining games, there is no mention made about that issue except in the headline. Seems to me that if it were important enough to be part of the head, it would have been explained somewhere in the story. Oh well, a little cheese with my whine, please. Sorry ..... dealing with the liberal media has made me quite cynical. Again, way to go bob ....

... but if she wants that big house in the 'burbs based on her little boy's signing bonus, she better kick some long pants hard in the butt region and spark a fire under her meal ticket.

... top five or whatever is purely subjective. Who wouldn't classify Iti as a bust right now?

.. to my SLUBALL ???? above. I asked why not getting BH is embarrassing and your answer is to tell me to stop making excuses. I am so sorry I have obviously chosen to argue with an expert. You must be an expert if you are in a position to make a statement like BH is better than two of our guards right now. Then you come back with the answer that we could redshirt BH. Nate makes mention of questions swirling around this kid and I cannot comment either way but off the top of my head ... if this is a kid with an attitude who wants a "bigger" lillypad to flop on, what gives you the idea he is receptive to redshirting? What if he wanted to major in PE? Or even marine biology? or other things SLU doesn't offer. Then you had no problem with Romar .. a guy who some claim to have left us high and dry as far as the talent cupboard was concerned by his concentrating on big names and having no backup plan. How long have you followed this program? If you have, as I'm sure you'll say, you'll know that if DM can't cover the wing, and that's where he's playing, he ain't playing. I think for a man we all agree that if a player don't play "D" for Brad, he don't play period. And let's not ever say SLU is better than SIU .... that's purely subjective and based on the latest performances of both schools, you are way off. And now this answer ... that we're back to square one with the loss of Reggie and only Kevin to replace him. Duh?!?! I always thought Clark was the next long range shooter but for whatever reason didn't work out. It happens. The only constant in some things is the change. Right now to say I'm happier with Lisch over Clark is an understatement but that's based on hopes and nothing solid. The only excuse I have for this program is that we constantly seem to be at "square one," to steal your words. Frankly, I am sick and tired of it and if there isn't noticable progress next year -- NIT lock, NCAA close -- Brad's onthe way on the down side as far as I'm concerned. My opinion is that once the winning is more consistent -- and we are in a hole to begin with so we need six or seven straight years of high-teen wins at a minimum starting next year -- we will continue to be a square one school. SIU is ahead of us there; the Valley is not ahead of the A-10, however.

In your first post you said "it is embarrassing" that a kid this close isn't mentioned with this program. What makes that so embarrassing? I think pdiddy hit this one on the head in his response ... that we were told early on not to bother ... but still, just because he's local and we're three hours close, why is that embarrassing? Darius Miles mentioned us. Quentin Richardson mentioned us. A long time ago, Steve Stiponavich even mentioned us. I think even LaPhonso Ellis mentioned us. We have guards out the ying-yang ... shouldn't we concentrate on bigs? Based on our closeness, how come we didn't get mentioned by the Rush family out of KC? You drive fast enough, you can cut that drive close to three hours as well .......

... in the K-I-S-S method. Keep It Simple Stupid. If verbalized, the NFL rogue of rogues, Al Davis, said it best with "Just Win, Bay-bee!" Control what you can control. Your anaylsis is just as good considering all opinions are, but scheduling is a myth ... most of the big boys don't give you a home-and-home and playing all the big boys will kill you (see Coppin State, Temple, etc.). Scheduling is almost an art form. You have to splice in some wins somewhere ... the bottom feeders of Div. 1 need those bigger paydays to keep their programs afloat. A game at a sold out Savvis in year's past meant tons of cash to those Mercer's and UMKC's of the world. I question what good fundraising would be. The Notre Dame nation is the richest endowment this side of the Vatican .... and that has guaranteed what? Not that much lately. Finally, television deals of the national nature are where the big bucks come in ... and that's mostly a conference deal. Sure, an AD might get some local network to do things but even ACC games here where Maryland plays is on the local UPN affiliate. And even if conference deals are done, you (or we) will be a one and done if we don't do the Al Davis boogie and win out more times than not. As a Billiken case in point .... there were no huge promotions to pack the house during the Clagg years. That was winning, entertaining basketball. I believe 17 and 0 going into the Memphis home game at the old Arena. Bill Veeck used to pinch hit with midgets .... where did that get him? The product sells, which in any sport is winning. You can dress it up all you like but that will wear thin. Who said "Winning ain't everything, its the only thing" or something like that? Yes, all the things you mention SHOULD also work in tandem, but even if they all did and winning wasn't happening, we'd still fire the coach in the long run. I can't wait for this season in the A-10. I am really curious to measure at least that against the old CUSA.

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Ahhhh .. the Billiken ..... international symbol, encompassing the world-renown phrase .... "hope springs eternal." We have no proven inside game. We have no traditional forwards of note. We have no known outside shooter. And we are once again looking, almost longingly adn lovingly, at our incoming freshmen to play above their youthful exuberance with almost professional aplomb. You realize that if that were to happen, all three might declare early for next year's NBA draft? Considering only one Billiken has ever done that, I am more concerend about keeping their grades up and their eligibility intact as their experience increases. Gonna be an interesting year ... here's hoping the experience is more on the positive side than not.

You do what you feel you've got to do ... but the outside of the cursing, the knocks against the information in the post might be true. Gister has a great point about trustworthiness and why one would betray that, if one truly did. I can't say. Brehms has some points as well. Mt first run-in with her was what I thought was my being cautious about relying on Reggie Bryant so much after a year of sitting out. It was not an attack just some caution. Reggie started out very well in hindsight and I would hope brehms understands my comments as much as I liked and understood hers. But if you are an insider .... as she was and you might be ... you must be careful. Same could be said for Nate. Every board is going to have some impassioned homerism. That's why these boards exist. Blogs are impassioned homerisms as well. Shat happens. I have never predicted how this team will do in any given season. To me its that old saying of bet with the head, not the heart. Could I see Brad making the statement? Sure. But I sincerely doubt it would ever be stated in a public forum. I've coached as well and I've never understood managing your tema in the press. He didn't put it there ... you did. What's said behind closed doors deserves to stay there. Was Mark Feldt a hero? I have always cautioned the optimism when a team depends mostly on freshmen. Hughes proved me wrong but how many times in one's lifetime does SLU see a Hughes? One-and-done I'm afraid. I like the incoming class .... I am hopeful on Liddell, Lisch and Obi. I also like the Maguire signing and the Koch rumors. Only time will tell. And before everyone starts ranting and raving on TL ... please remember that the next Hughes .... Charles "Rickey" Cranford .. was not that long ago. Dayton went very far with eight freshmen last year. Can we do the same? I guess .. its the A-10 and not CUSA. And I don't mean that to disrepsect the A-10 but playing a Duquesne or a LaSalle is more realistic to me than a UAB or a TCU. I try to think a little before I post. Some may disagree or say I do a pretty p*ss poor job at it. I also believe that the context of the statement, if it were true, is missing. Frankly, without having been there, neither you ... nor I ... should have made the post you did.

... on the HCA for some time now. I acknowledge that and respect his opinion. He is most certainly entitled to it. Numbers and percentages are a part of that old saying .... "If you cant' dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshat ... and if all else fails, use statistics." I am not condemning the thread, I am only saying that the points used here can and should be used .. but I think it will be one of those dilemmas that rushes on for the ages ... kind of like the BCS, RPI and other things that take the humanness out of the sports ranking system. Does that need to be done? Probably. Is the end-all to the argumetns? Probably not. I'll close with this .... if there is no real truth to the dreaded HCA, then why are the better teams over a regular season rewarded with the HCA? Why did we change the meaningless baseball All-Star game and afix HCA to the winner for the World Series? Why can a team like the Detroit Pistons, who looked horrible in San Antonio, all of a sudden look like world beaters in Detroit? And reverse that for the Spurs? I can't prove it with statistics, but there has to be some meaning in all that, don't you think, kwj ????? By the way, I want the Biondidome. Real campus or something like that. I feel that in the long run, it will help the team and the students. Can't really prove that though so build it and let's see what happens. P.S. Welcome back Blues.

I used to think that way .... until sitting in Myrtle Beach watching the Bills play Cincy a few years back, getting pasted, and having folks in the bar ask the 'tender "to put some basketball on .. some real basketball, please? Maybe even some college ball." Let's face it, we're an oddity .... same place someone like Gonzaga used to be until they started winning. As odd as Slippery Rock, maybe. Frankly, same place Duke used to be until they started winning. We've been on TV before ... we beat Kansas ... played Arizona to one with Reggie's toe on the line .... stayed with GaTech .... and what does that get you? Us talking about exposure once again. Give that ghost up. I'm glad in that we're playing some tough teams .... I would hope the guys on the court can turn these big games into experience that leads to consistent wins. So what if we beat a down or even UNC? Until the winning and the dancing is consistent ... it still ain't gonna make any kid worth his salt turning down a name school to come to us. Frankly, I don't think it ever will. I am hoping that the Liddell's, Lisch's, Obi's, Maguire's and Koch's of the world fit the system as someone notes above and Brad makes that work. Consistently. Then maybe more wins come and we get better respect with better kids looking at us. We saw what happened with Hughes ... I understand he got us Love and some others looking at us to play with him. Of course, he left, and the well went very dry, very quickly. Leaving behind studs like Baniak, Tatum and Heinrich. Playing for exposure ain't worth a damn.