DeSmetBilliken

Everyone else has said it perfectly. Thanks Steve. Enjoy GWU.

Yeah, I was there. I actually think that SLU outplayed ND in the first half, they just couldn't put the ball in the net. ND clearly did outplay us in the second half, which is when they scored their two goals. I'm not sure about the no-call in the box, but I thought that one of the ND goals(can't remember which one) shouldn't have counted because they gained possession on what I thought was an obstruction foul. Anyway, hats off of Notre Dame. They have a good team and so does SLU, we just are a little bit inexperienced.

Last week I was reading either Andy Katz or someone else from ESPN, and they wrote that if it weren't for the mess at Baylor, then Mizzou would be the outlaw program that everyone was talking about. I think i might agree with them now.

Thanks to Roy and Nate for clearing that up for me.

Nate, how do the transfer rules work for the MSHSAA? I know that some players have had to sit out a year because of their transfering to another school, such as Joe Ries and Mike Kalicak at DeSmet. Is there an exception in the rules if a player relocates?

Actually that would be a close battle. Assuming Randy hasn't stepped it up lately with his 3's, it would be a contest between two poor outside shooters. Aaron Miles isn't known for being a good outside shooter at all, but he did make a big 3 for KU when they beat Mizzou at Hearnes last year. I don't remember if it tied the game or gave KU the lead, but all I remember seeing is that I believe the shot clock was running out and he had to fire one from outside. The shot looked more like a soccer throw-in than a basketball shot, but somehow it went went in.

At one point he was rumored to be transferring to DeSmet. Then Nate asked him about the rumors and Kyle said he was going to CBC before saying "just kidding" a few seconds later. The two schools I have heard him associated with are DeSmet and CBC.

The thing is that Pilz was a very successful player for UMSL when he played there, so I guess that they wanted someone who was familiar with the program. When he was a player at UMSL they enjoyed their greatest success.

Wow. I think that Baylor really just needs to have the program shut down for a couple of years while this all sorts out. I'd guess that there will be all sorts of civil and maybe criminal charges in light of this whole thing in addition to Dotson's murder charge. Whether Baylor imposes it on themselves or the NCAA does it, they need to shut the program down.

>Reminds me a bit of Dipsy but has the potential to >be a little better with the ball. He needs to work on his >finishing as he could have easily scored 4 or 5. I thought the exact same thing about Will John. Right now I'm not going to get worried about this team's defense. Nick Gannon, who I would say is our team's best defender, was given the night off, so I think that this defense will be better with him in the middle. I ran into tseugnekillib on the way to the garage and the consensus was that this team clearly has the talent to score goals, but their one problem tonight was that they waited to long to shoot the ball. They would try to make one pass or move too many. I missed the first Loyola goal, but we dominated the rest of the first half, and Coach Donigan played all of his bench players, so I believe that was part of how the lead shrunk. The only players who didn't play were Gannon, Danny Wynn, John DiRaimondo, Brian Grazier, Pat Kelly, and David Greathouse. Gannon and Wynn are certain contributors, DiRaimondo and Grazier are with the US under 17 national team right now, and Kelly and Greathouse are backup goalies. Next game is Tuesday against SMS at 7:00 pm at Hermann Stadium.

To clarify for others, the two players that are referred to are Vedad Ibisevic, a freshman from Roosevelt High School in St. Louis, who is a Bosnian immigrant, and John DiRaimondo, a freshman who went to SLUH for a year before playing for the US under 17 national team the past few years. For those who don't know, the first exhibition game is this Friday at 7:00 pm at Hermann Stadium on the SLU campus against Loyola Chicago.

I have said on occasion that in a perfect world I would wake tommorow morning to read that the St. Louis metro area had been annexed into Illinois. Basically that's just because of a combo of things that annoy me about the state of Missouri and the fact that a good portion of my relatives grew up on the Illinois side of the river, so they always talk up Illinois as a wonderful place. I still expect myself to remain on the Missouri side when I get older though.

>ashamed to live in Missouri period. It's strange how that >catholic guilt can manifest itself. First of all, I'm not ashamed to live in Missouri. There are things about the state that I don't like, but I'm not ashamed to live here. Second of all, if you consider living in the state of Missouri as an affiliation, then we are at a misunderstanding. By affiliated with Mizzou, I meant alumni, faculty, fans, and current students, not taxpayers. By the way MUTGR, if I remember correctly, you also have an advanced degree from SLU. Sometimes in your postings here I get the idea that you are ashamed to be affiliated with SLU. Can you explain your relationship with SLU?

If I had heard the interview, I would give you guys a recap. Unfortunately, I was asleep, so I didn't hear it.

Mizzou won't get the NCAA death penalty. I doubt the NCAA will ever hand that down again after the way it destroyed SMU's football program. If what is stated in this article is proven, then I could very easily see Mizzou in a situation like Minnesota a few years ago and Alabama's football program at the current time. If I was affiliated with Mizzou, I would be very ashamed about this. If an investigation is completed and turns up results and penalties in the next year, then I wonder how this would affect the purchasing of seats for Mizzou's new arena.

I'm a student at SLU right now and at this time it looks like I will declare as a marketing major when the time comes. Assuming this happens, I think it would be valuble experience to work with the school and try to come up with ideas to market SLU better. The way I see things is that in the Billiken SLU has a mascot that is unique and should be promoted. Now, with that said, more success would be greatly beneficial, but the Billiken is the kind of thing that would make interesting products bearing its resemblance. One idea I thought of lately was shirt with a Billiken on the front and the question "What is a Billiken?" On the back you put the definition of the Billiken like a dictionary entry. I just got back from an enjoyable vacation out to the West Coast that included visits to the California Wine Country, Monterey, and San Francisco. In between the wine country and Monterey we spent a night in San Jose which is pretty close to Palo Alto, California, home of Stanford University. By the way, Stanford has a ridiculously beautiful campus. Anyway, after we walked around Stanford I decided that I wanted to find a keychain of the Stanford tree mascot to put with one of my Billiken key chains to make a combo of unusual mascots. I wanted it to look like the tree costume that is at Stanford games, not the official logo that just has an outline of a tree. I went to the Stanford bookstore and they had nothing of the like. The only thing close was at Pier 39 in San Francisco when I found a small bean bag version of the tree. I didn't end up buying it because I was looking for a keychain. You can find just about anything else that says Stanford in red or white(not like SLU who seems to sell SLU gear in every color except blue and white), but I still felt that there was a flaw in Stanford's marketing similar to SLU. For the record, I also saw numerous UC-Santa Cruz shirts while out in Cali. For those who don't know, their mascot is the Banana Slug. For a school who I don't think is D-1 they sure seem to market themselves reasonably well with a unique name.

It would make sense considering that Grimes recently verballed to Mizzou, so now the staff would offer the next best area post player. Now that Grimes is out of the picture, it gives SLU more time to devote their attention to players like Shaw, Liddell, Evans, etc.

> > It is a soccer and a rugby term for someone who defends >another player ... usually the other teams main threat one >on one To put this into basketball terms, think Josh Fisher.

It's really been great to see Bill Mueller play as well as he has this season, and for him to do something historic like he did last night is really special. Congrats to him! The Red Sox are my second favorite team behind the Cardinals, and the Sox will be in Oakland playing the A's in the next couple weeks while my family will be in that part of the country. I hope to be able to go to a game to cheer on Bill and his Red Sox teammates. Also, Bill Mueller is on my fantasy baseball team, so needless to say I was rather thrilled about this.

I just read through this entire discussion on soccer and figured that I should post my reply at the end of this thread rather than somewhere in the middle. Anyway, I think Skip was right when he said that most people who enjoy soccer played the game at one time. That would be true for me, as I played for 9 years from Kindergarten to 8th grade. We were pretty good and made the playoffs every year from 5th through 8th grade, with our best finish as coming in 2nd place in the City/County playoffs in 6th grade. I would have liked to continue playing in high school, but the problem was that I wasn't too good. Personally, I love walking over to Hermann Stadium to watch SLU play. I know some people who think watching a soccer game is like watching paint dry, but I also know others who really enjoy the games. I think we all know where different people stand on this issue. And by the way, I don't like the idea of finishing up games in a tie either. Put in at least some overtime period, even if its not sudden death(aka Golden Goal for soccer fans).

Yes, there is a student level for $50 which Roy set me up with. Personally I found it worthwhile just to be able to get into the meetings once a month.

The one cool thing about the astro-turf field was that since SLU moved their games to the Soccer Park, SLU let grade school teams, such as the one I played on, play games there. It was cool playing at a college facility, but we didn't always like the turf. One time the turf was to our advantage was when we beat the defending city champions n the turf, partially because my team prepared for the turf and wore indoor soccer shoes or track shoes, while a good number of the other team's players wore cleats. I'm not a fast runner, but I was blowing by defenders all night.

I can't speak for Roy, but allow me to weigh in on why I have a dislike for Mizzou sports. First of all, my Dad doesn't like Mizzou, so he passed that on to me at a young age. As I have grown up I have been built up that dislike myself, and probably the biggest reason is the arrogance of Mizzou fans who say that since SLU is not as athletically strong as Mizzou, SLU is worthless and deserves no respect(sometimes they also add that since Mizzou is better athletically and that since SLU isn't at the Ivy League level or Wash. U's level, there is no reason for SLU to be given any respect or interest). Let me add one disclaimer though: This dislike is directed at Mizzou Athletics. I have family members who have gone to Mizzou who are very good, caring people who represent the University of Missouri well. Also, some of my classmates at DeSmet who went to Mizzou are good, upstanding human beings. It just is unfortunate that I can't say the same thing about everyone I know who is affiliated with the University of Missouri.

I started going to SLU soccer games during my junior and senior years of high school. Now that I'm a student at SLU living on campus I try to go to as many games as I can. Hermann Stadium is really a beautiful facility, and SLU has almost always had one of the best teams in the country. I'm really looking forward to seeing how good this incoming freshman class will be.

I couldn't have put it any better than you just did, davidlee. For me, SLU offers the ideal opportunity because I can live on campus yet still be close to home. I can come home for a good meal when I get tired of dorm cafeteria food and I didn't have to spend a dime on laundry at SLU since I could take it all home each weekend. This year I didn't have a car on campus, but I could have one of my parents pick me up and bring me home so I could have my car to drive on weekends if I needed it. For me, SLU was ideal. But to each his own.