waterboy

Meant to say, I'd up CR to around a 6 and drop CS to around a 2. CR seems to be the "whipping boy" lately whenever I listen to RM comments.

I agree with most of the sentiments. One other thing that has bothered me about the situation. Where the heck has Dr. Chaifetz been throughout this ordeal? If he wants to play like he's "Mark Cuban," where was he to countereact the "donor" tearing down Willie and Kwamain? Where was he when Majerus needed money to go to Australia? Where was he on opening night of what will be a tough season? How can he be OK with this crap?

Nebraska shot 58%.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=3324439

Not really going to get into this argument as I would like to have both players, but I believe that Cotto would shoot a lot better if he were playing St. John, Construction Career Academy and Valley Park.

Here are some impressions that I had....take them for what they are worth: 1) Polk does not have a point in A-10 play. He has seven assists and seven turnovers. He has three steals. We have to pull him out at the end of the game because he cannot shoot FTs. Note, this also includes 10 minutes of OT. Dwayne is by all accounts a great kid...but was not the player the former staff thought he was. Their guard, Clark, I think, scored seven points and really didn't do much more than Polk except hit a frickin' shot occasionally. I think Kwamain Mitchell has to be an immediate upgrade for next year.... 2) Husak looks like the tin man out there. I am going to send my cousin down there to oil him before the next game. That may help. 3) That over and back call reversal in the second half really hurt. We were up by five with the ball...they get it back and Christmas hits a three. Major swing there on a BS call. 4) I looked at Temple's record...they have some losses, but have played a tough schedule. I think it's a bit unfair to label them as a mediocre opponent. 5) I generally think that Knollmeier does play OK in spurts. He, at least, has some hands and can make some rebounds in traffic. I hope that Barry's problems are due to injury. We have seen some glimpses of good things from him in past games. Overall, I am a bit disappointed. Maybe, it's just because everyone inside is playing out of position. 6) If we don't beat LaSalle or Richmond on the road....we may not be in the A-10 tournament. 7) Will continue to support the team and the Billiken Club---looking forward to better days in the near future.

This quote from Cronin sounds like what I hear at every sales meeting I attend. It is truly a number's game. Hear are the four pillars that we hear now....I think that you could easily apply them to recruiting: 1) Penetrate 2) Radiate 3) Elevate 4) Dominate

Looks like Shimmy is getting the recruiting job done. What is amazing to me is how she is able to get this done with home games at West Pine, what has to be a poor budget compared to other womens' programs and, finally, a pathetic history of women's basketball at SLU. Her charisma is tremendous.

Here's another thing that brings us down a notch: How many times does Guy Phillips say, "correction" over the PA during the game? I was counting and quit at about 8....it may be more. Brutal.

The numbers are right, according to Ken Pom -- which is almost identical to the RPI right now. Here is my take. Elgin has (or had) been on the NCAA tournament selection committee for years. I am sure that behind closed doors he kept hearing the group make decisions based on the RPI. Maybe, he (Elgin) put the time in to understand how the RPI really operated, having seen its power as a decision making criteria. Here is what seems to have worked-- my opinions, not science: 1) Avoid scheudling complete cupcakes (250+ RPI) 2) Schedule regional rivalry type games against the so-called power conferences: i.e. Northern Iowa v. Iowa, Indiana St. v. Indiana, etc. These games tend to be "high adrenaline" and can get you wins against the traditionally high RPI conferences. 3) Retain your conference's good coaches. 4) Do not have your best team win the conference tournament if they are likely guaranteed a bid anyway. This is probably "taboo" to discuss, but seemed to happen quite a bit in the MVC---that way, you are guaranteed two bids and more money for the conference. 5) The Bracket Buster games---exposure and quality games against similar opponents. I actually would not mind an A10-MVC challenge if it was given good media attention. Ultimately, the teams must also take care of business on the court and the Valley did a great job with that as well. What really killed the A10 was GWs incredibly shameful schedule, the unexpected weaknesses of Xavier, Dayton and Charlotte, etc. and the fact that St. Bonaventure and Duquesne were worse than most "buy game" type teams. To the Valley people, I am not critical of this at all. I only wish that the A10 was in a similar position this year (5 or 6 teams with good RPIs). The NCAA tournament outcome will judge whether the Valley was justified in its number of bids.

Our non-conference RPI was 128 based on a SOS of 70.

I was over at KenPom and found that Missouri St. is now #20 in the RPI. What I found interesting is that their OOC RPI is #6 with a schedule strength of 45. Here are their OOC results: Northern Illinois 133 RPI (home) W Arkansas St. 214 RPI (away) W Georgia Southern 146 RPI (home) W Texas A&M Corpus 205 RPI (home) W Oral Roberts 129 RPI (away) W Detroit 170 RPI (home) W Arkansas 46 RPI (away) L Arkansas St. 214 RPI (home) W Wisconsin-Mil. 53 RPI (away) W This does not seem like it warrants #6 in the nation to me. Have to hand it to Elgin for beating the system.

Diddy- Here are the RPIs and records vs. D1 of some of our opponents. Our best victory is obviously SIU....the next best victory is Jackson St. according to RPI. This is from Ken Pomeroy's site. Gonzaga RPI = 4 10-3 Iowa RPI = 16 11-4 Wis. Mil. RPI = 20 9-3 N. Carolina RPI = 31 8-2 S. Illinois RPI = 36 10-2 Hawai'i RPI = 84 8-4 nice OT win vs. Nevada last night Mississippi RPI = 141 10-3 Oakland RPI = 228 3-9 losing a bunch lately

I also think that Saint Louis fans are looking for some positives as well: The Rams are going through the motions The Lauries have run the Blues and Mizzou into the ground The Cardinals are making some questionable offseason moves Hey, it's us and the Steamers right now:) I think that we are in position to pick up some serious additions to the fan base, especially if we keep the momentum going.

I agree on the jumpshots. I did not think that we would be so poor at nailing jumpers with a guard oriented offense. I checked the stats and opponents are making about 3 more three pointers per game than we are and shooting a higher percentage. Some of that may be due to not having a "true" home court where you can practice regularly. It also looks to me like we do not have the confidence to come down the court and shoot a quick, open jumper in transition before the D is set. Hopefully, the confidence will come as the young team matures.

I agree with you Roy, that play hurt. I was also wondering why the refs didn't give us a timeout before calling the jump ball. We couldn't get a call from Sanzere (the little guy) all game. The second foul call on Ian was brutal, especially since Morrison clearly walked and then Sanzere calls the foul after the basket was made, giving Gonzaga the ball out of bounds. Also, if that play before halftime occurs in the Cameron, the Duke timekeeper lets that .8 bleed off and you're at the half with the four point lead.

Cheeseman- I have no problem with your post. My point was that I did not think this season's schedule was too "unbalanced." I do not want to go back to the Spoon years of scheduling, where SIUC is your best nonconference game. The RPI has made scheduling like that difficult to justify. One question for you. Why didn't the program get rolling after Spoon appeared in the NCAAs twice in a row? Following your logic...it should have. I am assuming that the best answer would be Spoon's recruiting shortfalls. Just curious........

I for one have no problem with Brad's schedule. A young team will only get better by facing tough competition, especially on the road. We all should expect the Billikens to take some lumps this year, especially early. Our nucleus is freshmen and sophomores (Ian being the exception). By January/February, I expect to see some improvement in A-10 play. I will evaluate the team (coaching) at that time. When Claggett, Winfield and Highmark were freshmen, they were 5-23. Heck, they only won ten games as sophomores (minus Winfield). I think that scheduling patsies gets you nowhere. You may make the NCAA (as SLU did in '94). However, once Joe Smith and Maryland came a calling....that was a reality check. So...do we want to be a real program that can advance in the NCAAs or play patsies and maybe "slink into the NCAAs and get throttled" every once in a while?

We lost Craig Upchurch in the late '80s due to SLU academic standards (not NCAA standards, I believe). He would have been teamed with Douglas, Gray and Bonner and may have helped Grawer get into the NCAA versus NIT those two years. I know that Upchurch starred at Houston and may have been all conference for them.

Back in my day, it used to be that referees were employed by the conference, kind of like the college football officials are today. I am not sure if that is true now or not. And, obviously, basketball officials are sometimes employed by multiple conferences. What is happening now is similar to what happened when the MCC dissolved and the Billikens and Marquette were about to bolt to the "old" Great Midwest Conference. It was, at that time, in the referees best interest to align themselves with the better conference and increase their stature. Coaches, I think, have a "say" in which referees are brought on board. I remember this, because I thought it strange at the time, but it was from the horse's mouth. This is about 12-13 years ago. Welmer was an MCC ref that had just worked a conference game involving the Billikens. Before the game, he shook Grawer's hand and said "remember me for the new conference." It was, obviously, a step up from the MCC to the GMC. My memory fails me as to if we received favorable calls or not, but we won the game. I did not see the game last night and did not see the call. Welmer's stature at this point is obviously big time. However, if it were another ref, maybe he would like to be a part of the new Big East;) I guess, the bottom line is draw your own conclusions........