Box and Won

Go Marquette. I want their RPI as high as possible before we beat them.

Sounds good...

Yeah, the Cintas is literally just on the other side of a small parking lot from most of the XU dorms. If the new arena is built on the Waring School site, it will be a pretty far walk for students living in Fusz or Marguerite (but still not too far). I would guess that when we have an on-campus facility, there will be pre-game festivities, pep rallies, etc. in the new Busch Center that would help draw more students. I was surprised to see that they sold beer at the Cintas as well. Hopefully A-B products will be available in our new building.

I was in Cincinnati this past weekend visiting my sister, who is a student at Xavier. Last night we went to the Cintas Center to watch the Muskateers dismantle Coppin State, and I must say that if our new arena is anything like the Cintas (and I think it will be), we're in for a real treat. Some observations: Student attendance and participation was excellent. The students stood through the whole game and were very boisterous. People I talked to told me that the atmosphere at the old Cincinnati Gardens was pretty good, but now that the team plays on campus, participation is a whole lot better. The students and the band took up both sections behind one of the baskets as well as one of the corner sections. Playing in a smaller arena made the XU band sound really good. Our band will kick even more butt in the new building. XU played a lot of the same songs; it might be time for us to update the song list. While I didn't go into the upper deck, I can't imagine that there is a bad seat in the house at the Cintas. It felt very intimate. We were in the last row of the student section, and it felt like being in the middle of the student section at the Savvis. The renderings of the inside of our new arena look very similar to the interior of the Cintas. Ours looks like it might be a little bigger. The Cintas has some features that our arena won't have because we have them elsewhere. For instance, the main student dining hall is located in the center as well as banquet/meeting space that we already have in the Busch Center. Whoever runs the SLU bookstore should take a trip to XU to learn a lesson on merchandising. XU has tons of quality merchandise available, with BLUE being the primary color of shirts, sweatshirts, etc. The XU campus is a lot smaller than SLU's, so the Cintas is much closer to the dorms than our new arena will be (assuming that it will be built on the Waring School site). They also have a student shuttle service that picks up students who live off-campus and drives them to and from the games (as well as transporting them to class, etc.). The concourses were very nice and featured huge historic photographs of XU teams and players over the years. The exterior of the Cintas is sharp as well. It is not as extravagant as ours will be, but it has clean lines and a nice modern appearance. Overall, visiting Cintas was a great experience, and I hope our new arena energizes our fans, students and alumni like the Cintas did for XU's.

Hell, I wouldn't mind being the current version of Hugh Hefner. The Little Blue Miracle is apparently quite effective.

And I seem to remember you as having a fondness for nude statuary. j/k A-Bomb!

I ate at Kitchen K for lunch about a week ago and enjoyed it (including the sweet potato fries). The place itself is very cool, and I'd like to check out its bar sometime.

It was great to see Saint Louis mentioned three times on the list of MO/IL verbals. Have any rumors about our remaining scholarship surfaced lately? One recruit who I had not heard of stood out on the list. Looks like we'll be seeing him in the years to come: Chauncey Duke 6'7 PF/SF Southwest Missouri Home School- Duquesne

When you mentioned a hotel, were you thinking of the Drake Plaza Apartments on Olive? I would be very happy to see that building spared from the wrecking ball. The Grand Center option sacrifices way too many historic structures that could play a role in the renaissance of the area. Building the arena on the site of the Waring School makes so much more sense to me.

As Bill_Ken_R mentioned in an earlier post. Here is the press release from the St. Louis Business Journal: SLU buys SLPS' Waring School for $1.25 million Saint Louis University has purchased Waring School from the St. Louis Public School for $1,251,000. Waring School, at 25 S. Compton, was closed over the summer because of declining enrollment. The school originally opened in 1940. The St. Louis Business Journal reported in its Oct. 17 issue that the St. Louis Public School District put up 39 surplus properties for sale, including 16 schools that were closed. Waring School was listed for sale with an offering price of $1 million.

Isn't it funny how people who ordinarily could care less about the program suddenly know what is best for us? If we win ballgames, it won't matter if we're playing Duquesne or Dayton.

He wouldn't let you give him the facts. Every time you started to make a point, he'd cut you off. The whole time he was complaining about Duquesne and Fordham, I was sitting here yelling "what about Northern Iowa and Drake!" which you also brought up.

Was that you on KFNS?

I like that idea! Keep the creative ideas coming! It's too bad we won't be able to taunt Louisville with the Kentucky fight song anymore. I've told several UK fans about how our band plays that song, and they've all thought it was great.

120, Row J

Hey Drew! This is Brian S. I was in your class at SLUH as well, but transferred, thus eliminating my shot at triple billiken status. The last time I saw you, we were at Llewellyn's, and you were just starting law school. Hope all is well with you. More info on me: 28, grew up in St. Louis (Des Peres), BA Communication 1997, MBA 2001. After growing up in west county, going to school in the city exposed me to all the great things that city living has to offer, and I now live about a block away from Forest Park. Still looking for Mrs. Box and Won. Currently work as a one-man marketing department for a local bank, but am looking to go into business for myself soon. Started going to Billiken games with my dad during the Grawer years, and still have an autographed team picture from the first NIT finals team. I often miss the environment of the old Kiel. In high school, I had already been accepted to several collleges but made my decision to go to SLU at a game at the Arena in which Spoon's first team beat DePaul. I used to haze A Bomb during our fraternity days. Actually, he was a pretty good kid unlike most of his pledge brothers. I created this screen name when Triangle and Too was at the height of his absurdity, so that I could tear him a new a-hole. My plan (which now seems fairly absurd itself) was to respond to each one of his posts as his more intelligent alter ego. I was too (sorry about using that word) lazy to pull it off though. I also used to post on the old Rivals board under a different name. My season tickets are in section 120, row J. That's the young alumni discount. For people who recently graduated, you can get a major discount on some good seats with the young alumni discount. It would be nice to fill that section up!

Great report. How was JJ? Did he take any abuse from coach?

True, but most of us (and hopefully most columnists) can discern fact from opinion. There is plenty of factual-based information here that I'm sure Stu uses when writing his articles or at least provides the inspiration for his articles. This board would be a good starting point for anyone wishing to write an article on Billiken basketball from an informed standpoint.

Well said, Roy. The sad thing is that all he has to do is spend 20 minutes reading the posts on this board for research purposes, and he's not even willing to do that. Just like most of his columns, this latest one sounds like he wrote it off the top of his head.

Tulsa joining CUSA was the one thing he got right in this article.

Why the ill will towards Marquette? We would have done the same thing if offered the opportunity.

You honestly think we would finish behind teams like LaSalle or Fordham? Give me a break. While we may not come out and win the A10, we'll certainly be competitive.

I think Fish is capable of scoring in double figures if he can overcome his offensive inconsistency. Last season he was much more valuable to us for his defense than for his offense.

Roy, I was a student at SLU at the same time as Larry Sssssssimmons, and I don't really remember his recruitment. Weren't there high hopes for him originally? I seem to remember him showing an occasional flash of talent early in his Billiken career, but by the end, he earned hardly any playing time. Was he an underachiever or just no good?

Gloom and doom pessimist? Don't worry, thicks, u r 2 cool 2 b 4gotten.