DeSmetBilliken

Not sure what would cause them to practice away from SLU today, but I know two years ago they had to practice over at Concordia Seminary for a couple days because the volleyball season wasn't over and the volleyball team had the gym when the basketball team wanted to use it.

Came across these rankings on CBSsportsline. Ian was ranked as the 9th best center in the country. They come up with some kind of formula that produces a score, and Ian's was the 9th highest among centers. http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketbal...n/C?&_1:col_1=1

At this point in time, I think our only possibility at an at-large bid would be to run the table for the rest of the regular season, then to lose in the A-10 tourney after beating GW in the semifinals. Considering that our RPI is in the 90s, we'd probably need help, and the best chance at help would be for Temple to beat the top team in the RPI, Duke. I still think though that our most likely chance at getting into the Big Dance is to win the A-10 tournament.

Game time is at 8 pm Central Time. Look at slubillikens.com if you don't believe it.

>Folks...if you want no band, think back to the game at the >Family arena early in the season when we couldnt be there. >THAT is what you would get. Exactly. Even though the building was pretty well full, there was absolutely NO atmosphere. I wish I could bring up a thread on a Memphis board from a SLU-Memphis game in Marque Perry's senior year. The game was at Savvis, and I can remember Memphis fans who had gone to the game commenting on how great the SLU Band was in that game. They thought it was great how the whole game went by without any canned music being played. I think the best example comes with the canned stuff that is played when the team comes out and right before starting lineups. Now, just to be safe, I'm not suggesting that the Band should take over playing there, but I just want to point out that aside of the Blue Crew, absolutely NOBODY responds to it. At just about every game, while they start the music before the starting lineup for the Billikens, very few people get up, and I end up making some sarcastic comment like "And the crowd rises to its feet". So, basically, I don't want any techno, canned garbage.

I listened to it again after you posted that just to make sure I got everything right, and all the words were right. Chaney was talking about how Robinson and Salisbery were very ineffective, then said that Mardy Collins began to take more on himself because two of his teammates were so ineffective. Then he made the quote that I posted above. Maybe Robinson and Salisbery going the wrong way resulted in a broken play.

Some of you may know this and some may not, but I am a sportswriter for The University News at SLU. During the basketball season my primary assignment is men's basketball, with the occasional commentary. My assignment for this week is to cover the SLU-Temple and SLU-URI games, so I was in the post-game press conference last night. Let me start by saying that I normally try to keep a lot of distance between my role as a reporter and my leisurely posting here at Billikens.com. For that reason I very rarely, if ever, post stuff I hear in the post game press conferences. Well, let's just say that it was interesting to hear John Chaney speak last night after the game. He praised the SLU crowd for the kindness they showed towards him. He pointed out how rare it is to see a crowd that is not hostile, and in fact said that SLU should get a letter from the conference commisioner saying how wonderful the SLU fans were. Chaney also said that he wants to write a nice letter to Fr. Biondi commending him on our nice fans. While I think that there is a clear line between humorous heckling and sheer hostility, and I myself try to heckle humorously, I'm sure some of my fellow Band members as well as Blue Crew might be somewhat insulted, as I was when I heard it at first. Now, for the interesting stuff. Chaney spent much of the press conference criticizing the play of Temple players Antwayne Robinson and Dustin Salisbery, who both started the game and were very ineffective. Robinson scored 0 points, shooting 0-5 from the field and 0-3 from three, while Salisbery scored 1 point, shooting 0-8 from the field, 0-4 from three and 1-4 from the free throw line. Here is a quote that I kind of did a double take when I first heard it, then later listened to several times again to get it right. It was in reference to Robinson and Salisbery. "They had two or three broken plays that we set up for them to shoot and they went the wrong way.[Pause] I don't know, it's like the old days when people throw games. Remember that?" I think he was joking, but still a rather odd thing to say about your players.

Well, since it was so poorly organized, the only way you could tell who was there was to read the scoreboard and just to notice the players. The ones I remember were Erwin Claggett, Scott Highmark, Monroe Douglass, Roland Gray, Chris Braun, Matt Baniak, Joe Wiley, and quite honestly that's all I remember.

Roy is right. slu72, since you might not know this because you don't live in St. Louis, Charlie Tuna is the biggest clown that I can think of in the sports media, though it is a stretch to say he's a member of the sports media. The guy got caught trying to scalp his media credential to the Final Four in St. Louis last year. The only way he gets on the radio nowadays is if Bernie lets him on his show, which I still don't understand because Tuna does nothing but bring down Bernie's credibility imo. He also has the option of purchasing his own broadcast time , which last time I checked he was doing on 1380 ESPN some nights from 10 pm-midnight. I normally try to refrain from doing this, but I'm going to say this anyway. I have seen Charlie Tuna in person, heard him speak, and just seen his overall demeanor. He struck me as probably one of the most legitimately stupid people I have ever seen in my life.

Where were you guys then? I went in there with about 6:00 left in the first half, walked around the place and didn't see the game on anywhere, no did I see any people that I could definitely tell were SLU fans, so I left.

I might try to make it there as well.

Wow, that "quote" from Martelli is bad.

Just to clarify, the guy in the chicken suit prefers to be called "The Chilliken." It is a combination of chicken and Billiken.

It was already mentioned above, but I remembered the PA guy last night as the PA announcer for the Shootout each December.

I've seen Jeremy Sharpe play a few times, and while I thought he was a nice/decent player, I wouldn't really call him a D-1 prospect. Who knows, maybe a low level D-1 school will give him a shot, but honestly the only reason that I think he might look like a player is because he literally looks like a miniature Tayshaun Prince. Now, let me say that his game in no way resembles Tayshaun Prince, but in his build and face, he looks like Prince.

J$ aka Bomble- I figured that one of the following would be your hero: Dubya, Karl Rove, Ronald Reagan, Gussie Busch, Jack Daniels, or for that matter just about anyone else who has some kind of alcoholic beverage named after them.

I've mentioned this before, but a few years ago a caller called into a early afternoon radio show hosted by Brian McKenna and Joe Deniro on 1380 AM(before it became ESPN Radio) and expressed his displeasure with Rene Knott at KSDK. Deniro responded that KSDK couldn't fit his entire name on the screen, which was Rene Knottsogood.

When we go to the conference tourney each year and we are limited to 30, there still is a difference in the quality.

Yeah, Kaiser helped out with the team my senior year. Ripplinger was the coach during my three years with the program, but her last season as head coach was my senior year, which was 2002. She was replaced by Dave Boland, who as far as I know is still the head coach. In the offseason, the majority of players at DeSmet would participate in clinics with Sunset that were put on by Craig Sandvig. I would sign up for the summer clinic, but I also took private lessons at MAC West during the offseason, so I wouldn't sign up for the Sunset clinic during the school year. Craig's a good guy and definitely knows his stuff. The only problem I had with the program would be that it was during the summer in the afternoon and on the tennis courts at Chaminade. On several occasions the heat gave my asthma some problems, but I tried to give as much effort as I could without keeling over or overheating.

Did you play tennis at DeSmet? Just curious, but I figured that with your knowledge on the sport, you might have. I played during my sophomore, junior, and senior years, which were the 2000, 2001, and 2002 seasons.

They apparently also started a high school verson, which is a completely separate entity. But yes, the college verson is only available to those with valid college e-mail addresses.

Now that's a new one. Recruiting scoops coming from Facebook.

Didn't hear it, but apparently there is a women's game before the SLU-GW game, so the start depends on when the women's game ends. Cusumano called in from DC for a while on his show with Burwell and said that the tip off time is dependent on the end of the women's game. Wouldn't surprise me if they did move it back just to have a more certain tip off time. On a side note, Cusumano is like a little kid in DC. He's really excited to be there. He commented how happy he was to hear the following when the plane landed in Washington, "Welcome to Ronald Reagan National Airport." He also is looking forward to seeing the White House, as he (and I'm assuming the team as well) is staying a couple blocks from there.

Mike was there??????????? Now I wish I had gone to the meeting.

This has nothing to do with Kramer, but I've got another basketball camp story. In the summer of 1994, when I was in between 4th and 5th grades, I went to a basketball camp at DeSmet. On my team there was this little short and scrawny kid who was without a doubt the best player on our team, and also one of, if not the best players in the camp. He could get down the court incredibly fast, kind of like a junior version of Marque Perry. In the more than ten years since, he obviously has grown up, and now is one of the best shooters in college basketball. The little scrawny kid was Blake Ahearn.