slu72

To me it seems we are deep at the wings; McCotry, Dunlap, Shirma, Thames, Jones, Warlick with little difference among the first 5. Given that two of them have injury histories the depth is a good thing. I also wonder if Schertz may be looking to speed things up and spread the minutes around to keep them fresh. You can never have too many shooters and it seems we have a few.

The list is at 117 (Va Tech) so far no A10 teams listed in the first 27 teams selected. Given our just about totally new roster I expect we’ll not get listed. Of course there are a lot of teams just like us, ie high turnover rosters.

Exactly. It’s all about the A10 tournament for SLU. Maybe if we won the reg season title and our record was like 29-3 we might get an invite. That said, I do miss games against P5 teams.

If healthy I would think Dunlap moves up to top 7. Schertz loves the 3.

I agree about the Beast. But that seems like a pipe dream at this point. If the opportunity to get in really exists then we should pull out all the stops to be an invitee. Our history has always been as a member of a major BB conference until the A10 got depleted when X and Butler bolted. But if big time BB goes the FB route I’m not so sure even the Beast will be a major conf. I was just being realistic. Again, the Beast is our lifeline but it hasn’t been tossed.

SLU’s never gonna be in one of the P5’s so we won’t face these pressures. That’s a good thing because the P5’s will for all practical purposes be professional sports teams. We and 300 other schools will be minor league semi pro teams. But that’s ok, we separate ourselves from the bigs and form new championship levels. It won’t be the end of the world.

It’s easy to see why UD is so popular with MTE’s and P5’s; their fan base travels well and every home game’s a sellout. Their deal with OSU is huge. Too bad for us Mizzery doesn’t have the cojones of OSU. All our previous games vs Mizzery were well attended and generated a lot of excitement.

I realize it’s practice and in these vids our FG% is 100%, but we do appear more athletic with more depth. Robbie does look trimmer and a little more toned. Still we have to replace about 35ppg with the loss of Gibby and Swope. Those points will lhave to be replaced by a deeper better bench as none of our newcomers had double digit ppg averages at their previous schools. I did like the ball movement and unselfish play seen in the vids. One question for anyone there, did we have a lot of turnovers or was ball security decent?

Took the words out of my mouth. I recall the practice before the UL game was a meat grinder. He ran them ragged and the tank was empty come game time. Admittedly May was in a tough spot after the COY award, but he could have found a justification and just thanked him for his effort. Thank God the portal was not in place at the time of Rick’s passing otherwise we very well may not have had those 2 extra dance invites. If we had brought back Moser, it makes you wonder if we might finally have got that long dreamed about seeet 16 bid or better.

No one promised us a rose garden. It’s why our motto is It’s hard being a Billiken fan. After 22’-23’ season I’ve tempered my expectations for any season and hoping for sunshine and lemon drops in March. I don’t get ‘em but am still hoping.

Added to the financial issues is the fact that the Trump admin is taking a hard look at the $$’s being doled out to Universities. Also. looking at foreign students who pay full boat in tuition. Even when I was at SLU we had a fair # of foreign students. Not sure what the foreign situation is today. A lousy situation all around. And I don’t expect the Beast to be in expanding mode unless their broadcast masters come up with increased $$’s.

Take him back in a NY minute. Swope hiit some huge clutch baskets for us last year. When u need a guy at the end to step up it was Swope.

Is there some question as to whether he’s coming? From his IG post it looks like he’s already here.

Tx for the effort and rundown. Can’t recall if it’s Torch or 3Star who tout the portal as working with good nods moving up and P5 subs moving down, but it does seem we got our fair share of P5’s dropping down for a chance at getting more minutes. Dunlap is intriguing as he was a Pitino recruit, and Slick Rick knows talent. Hope he stays healthy. Go Bills. Hope springs eternal every June.

68 to 72/76 is nothing. As TajMahal79 said, it’s a chance for P4 or P5 to get a few additional spots. It would need to expand to 98 or so to get in more mids. In all likelihood it’s irrelevant as once the biggies get FB sorted out they’ll turn their sights on how to make hoops more biggie friendly, ie how to get more $’s for themselves. In the long run, mids are toast.

Sorry about the above repeat post. I think the top 70 or so programs will survive and do quite well. As we all know the fan bases for the big state schools and well known programs, eg Notre Dame in FB , Duke in Bb, are large and loyal. They’re a step or two above pro minor league or feeder leagues. The biggies will do well. It’s those outside the top 70 that are going to have find a new niche in the sports world.

As time rolls on today’s college sports fans, except for us senior fans, will come to accept the current state of affairs. Back in the early 70s fans worried that pro sports would die because of Free Agency. They believed fans were more tied to their favorite players than the uniforms. Eventually we came to accept the inevitable, ie FA was here to stay. The same will happen in college sports. The big change will come when the major power conferences drive out the mids from competing for national championships. See FB and the BCS for proof. I don’t know the exact number but I think only around 100 schools are eligible to compete for the national title in FB. The only way for SLU to be one of those is for the very top mid major hoops schools get together and form a 16-20 team national conference. I think Zaga sees this change coming and is the reason they jumped to the PAC 12. Granted acceptance into the Beast might save the day, but I’m skeptical they’re ever going to expand.

As time rolls on today’s college sports fans, except for us senior fans, will come to accept the current state of affairs. Back in the early 70s fans worried that pro sports would die because of Free Agency. They believed fans were more tied to their favorite players than the uniforms. Eventually we came to accept the inevitable, ie FA was here to stay. The same will happen in college sports. The big change will come when the major power conferences drive out the mids from competing for national championships. See FB and the BCS for proof. I don’t know the exact number but I think only around 100 schools are eligible to compete for the national title in FB. The only way for SLU to be one of those is for the very top mid major hoops schools get together and form a 16-20 team national conference. I think Zaga sees this change coming and is the reason they jumped to the PAC 12. Granted acceptance into the Beast might save the day, but I’m skeptical they’re ever going to expand.

I agree with Chosen. Academics for a lot of these guys is a joke. Fine if you get guys like Jimmerson, Thatch, and others who see the value in getting a degree that you actually worked for. Not all college athletes are in it just for the chance to play a sport they love. I’d guess the majority are in it to actually earn a marketable degree. That said, there’s also a fair number of athletes in it solely to play the games. For those players the school should remove the requirement of working towards a degree. The schools should, however, require they complete some basic life skill courses, basic math, reading, communication et al. We’ve all read and heard stories about grads that couldn’t read or multiply 2*2. They wouldn’t be courses geared toward a degree, but how to keep a checkbook and read a job application. Give them a certificate and let them concentrate on their athletic endeavors. This is especially true for BB players who have numerous opportunities to play overseas. Those players can earn a pretty good paycheck playing for the Helsinki Icebergs or the Sao Palo Speedos. In today’s environment it’s time for schools and the NCAA to stop kidding themselves with the student first athlete second nonsense. Fans know it’s a myth. It’s time the schools realized it as well.

I forget the program’s name that was supposed to measure a college teams academic standing. I guess that it’s no longer practiced or been scrapped entirely in light of all the $’s being spread around. Some of these kids are getting life securing money if they don’t go crazy with it. Why do they need an education beyond their sport?

The only pro element missing is trading players. Now it may be said the portal serves as a traders market but not really. The portal is more like the stock market; highest bid wins. Why not give trades a try? Your team needs a 5 and another needs a PG. Let’s trade. Or even do a straight cash deal between schools. Hey, SLU, UK wants Avila here’s a million. The whole college sports world is a mess so why not go all the way with it. I’m not sure Congress could pass a law that would pass the constitution test and turn back the pages to college sports original premise.

Pittsburgh is a good choice as it’s kind of in the center of the A10 locations.

Is the A10 finished at Barclay?

A good warmup schedule so far. But for the next 7-8 games let’s get games from the best mid major conferences. I agree that our likely only way to a dance invite is to win it all in Brooklyn, but we need to provide the fans with some better OOC games just to generate interest in the program.

Oh boy, UNH. Why not Vermont? They’re good.