slu72

I want whatever Tonka had for breakfast this morning!

If they want to upgrade their quality of hoops, this is a no brainer, SLU's in. I can't possibly see XU and Dayton wanting to play the BU terriers twice a year vs games against us. BU is a good school with an excellent academic reputation, but athletics are considered a necessary evil, unless it's hockey. They have also had some decent bb teams. I'll be their avg attendance for hoops is under 3,000. Would one of you guys who knows how to locate this stuff, look it up?

Grow up? Why would I want to do that? Sorry I offended your sensibilities, but you can't deny they get a lot more press than we do.

Did the marketing geniuses screw up again last night...nothing in the paper about operation first look? Mizzery is once again getting all the press in our hometown newspaper,,,Q's new do(get your money back Q), High national ranking,Picked to finish first in the Dirty Dozen conference, Paulding and Johnson preseason all americans, the return of Randy Pulley to the show me state,blah ...blah...blah..blah...blah..blah! Good to know though the Tigers are not worried about the investigation. Wonder how much Clemons is being paid to go to class? Wonder if he's going to class?

but what about the Varner/jj situation. Who leads as being the first 4 man off the bench? Back problems are tricky....I'm worried about Frericks back. If he can't play we've got some real problems inside? Anyone else concerned about this. The reports on IO and RB are very encouraging. How many teams we face are going to have a 6'9" wing? If IO plays like a 6'4"-6'5" wingman this alone will greatly impact the season. By the way here are my player projections: Fish 6.0 ppg 4-5 apg Bryant 13.0 ppg IO 13.0ppg 4 rbg Sloan 9ppg 5-6 rbg Frericks 7.0 ppg 7 rbg total starter pts: 48 ppg Bench: AD 8.0 ppg Clark 4.0 ppg Varner 4.0 ppg Ian 4.o ppg If we can average 68-70 ppg a game, with UB's tenacious D, we should win 17-19 games. I figure we can keep other teams around 63ppg. Agreed? One red flag though, if our inside game is really weak, we can expect a lot of man to man and double teams on IO and Reggie, this is my major concern for a successful Billiken year. I think we saw a lot of this last year with the doubles concentrating on MP, who it didn't bother too much because of his quickness. I'd be breathing a lot easier if that kid Dennard Abraham's had qualified and come to SLU. Is there no way JJ can provide us with some inside help?

IO-going to be our primary scorer, but does he still tire easily and how bad's that ankle? RB-am a little disappointed that no one said "he's the man, a suitable replacement for MP." Sounds like he disappeared in the fifteen minute scrimmage. Fish-Same old same old, and I like Fish, but do you still question his consistency? Some say he should take on more of a role in scoring, but Fish doesn't see it this way unless no one else is scoring. Varner/JJ-RV is going to be a major factor this year, because JJ lacks focus or desire? Who will be first off bench to replace Sloan? Husak/Frericks/Ian-Is Bryce a redshirt candidate, or will he be forced to play because of Frerick's back problems and Ian's being on double secret probation for the first ten games? Sloan-Will he continue to look for his shot as he did in the latter part of last year and we can expect a 10-11 ppg avg? What's up with the knee thing? AD-Physically he's more D-1 material. How about skill wise? Will he be our 6th man? Darren Clarke-By the latter part of the year, will he be getting significant minutes?

Remember when zo said this referring to the type of player he could recruit at SLU? Well, from all I've heard we're still in the Blue Collar category, which isn't necessarily a knock on us. Look at what a bunch of really blue collar guys did last year. This year we've upgraded our talent, but so much of it is untested at the D-1 level, we're pretty much in the same boat. When you look at the schedule can't you see this team losing 17 games as easily as they can win 17? Face it, the top CUSA teams are athletic teams...we're not. For our guys to win it's going to be more of the usual Billiken style we've grown accustomed to: 1.)gritty intense D to keep the game close and low scoring, 2.) a player (Bryant) or two (Sloan) who is going to have to be the go to guy at crunch time (and we can expect a lot of nail biters) and 3) a sound perimiter game as we still have yet to land a proven/legitimate inside scoring threat. Sloan may pick up a few throw back's but his game is best played at 12-15 feet from the hoop. And while Frericks may be an improvement over KB at getting the ball in the hoop, I'd be surprised if his average ppg is over 7, but who cares as long as he plays good D and grabs some boards. The success of this team is going to be determined by Bryant, Fish, IO, and AD. Those four get it together and 18-19 wins is attainable. They stumble and fumble, and we're in for a long season.

I am a Drejaj fanatic. Love AD. I think we might have found a SLU version of Steve Logan.

Hopefully no one answers Floyd McClain.

What does DePaul have this year? Also, I think UC will once again rise to the top. My picks would be: UC UL Marquette Memphis Charlotte UAB SLU Depaul

Maybe with all the stress of the investigations, he's losing his hair.

Good call Schasz, back in the late 60's early 70's Bradley was a big rival. Man, I don't know what they play in these days, but back then their fieldhouse was unbelievably bad.

I tend to agree, but you can't make it in the NBA if your mind is on some beach in Trinidad with steel drum music wafting through the palm trees.

With all this realignment talk going on, who are we really going to miss as rivals? Got me to thinking about who are our big rivals, i.e. the team(s) we love to hate that the AD should make sure we play at least once a year. Here are my choices: 1.MIZZERY-the chickens**t som's a &^%@*+!s, SLU marketing should order rolls of Mizzery toilet paper with Q's face on it until they put us on the schedule every year. 2.UC-The Usual Suspects with hops and a warden for a coach 3.UL-Now a whole new reason to hate 'em even more-Slick Rick the Big East D**k. Whose the most powerful guy in CUSA? It ain't the commish. 4.SIU-Country cousins who always seem to wear out their welcome like Randy Quaid in those vacation movies. 5.SMS-Bums who will work for food and then steal your silverware 6.MU-Al McGuire Lives but without those uniforms with the pulled out shirts and the player who wouldn't stand for the national anthem. 7.XU-Like the little brother who you can't beat. Looking forward to reinstituting this one. Those are my top six picks.

First, his flawed recruiting strategy. Taking flyers on the big name WC kids really hurt the program. From all I understand about 'Zo he had a good rapport with his players but even his winning personality could not overcome a WC stars desire to stay somewhere near his home, or if he was going to go east it was going to be for a big time school, ala Hayes at Kentucky. Also, his claims about certain players, eg McClain "best athlete" (too bad he's never healthy), Edwin making it in the NBA (too bad he won't play D or study). I think from the get go, 'Zo saw SLU as a stepping stone back to a Pac10 job. If he could have hit on a couple of these kids sure they would have made an impact on the program, but they would have had more of an impact on his career..."If I can recruit great WC talent to come to the MidWest, think what I can recruit if my address is Seattle." I still think he's going to end up as an assistant in the NBA when all is said and done. Thanks for the miracle in Memphis and being a great guy, but overall he did more to advance his career than he did the program.

I think UB is a pretty grounded guy, as opposed to say, 'Zo. I don't think he's the type to shower a player with false praise, so when he says "IO and JJ have what it takes now it's up to them to show it in games", I believe him. I agree with Roy, he's a Bill Parcells blue collar kind of guy. We're lucky to have him. What was most encouraging from last night's reports is that he did glow over the new arena. Makes you think he's planning on staying awhile, and this is what we need in our HC position more than anything....stability.

Doesn't it make you wonder why our commish is so apathetic towards the BE's plundering of CUSA. You are right Taj 79 Mahal, we should file suit against DePaul and Marquette citing that some ancient canon law that has been violated. Jebby's shouldn't be deserting fellow Jebby's it was a law enacted during the great crusade.

Another thought on this BE myth. Say ND goes undefeated in that league, which they should every year, remember Tulane's undefeated season, not even a major bowl bid, BYU and Marshall have had the same happen to them. Wouldn't you just love to see the Fighting Irish playing San Diego State in the Corn Bowl in Ames Iowa two days after XMAS.....? Knute would roll over in his grave.

You want to improve yourself you have to play against the best. ND considers itself The Best in FB. Can you imagine them joining a league with USF, UL, UC, possibly Cent Fl. and having to play probably 8 or 9 of these guys every year and dumping schools like Michigan, USC, Purdue to have to make their schedule. Right. The BE is grasping at straws. Why CUSA is not exerting more authority to hold our conference together is what's puzzling to me. Our commish is like Tranghese's b***ch. The hell with this stuff. I'm putting my faith in the good father to land us in a decent conference and saying "let the games begin!" Doesn't practice start tomorrow?

Actually, the Illinois St fan is much more literate than you normal run of the mill Mizzery booster. Ok, here's one for you. Saw on ESPN site where Boggan's a 6'9" 270 pf is transferring from UofFloridays. Guess whose on his list? Give the man a kewpie doll... good old Mizzery! Guy wants playing time...I got some playing time for you Mr. Boggans right here at SLU, and we're not going to be on probation so you don't have to make another move in a year. Do you think Pretty Q's answer to a recruit about possible probation is ...."Nah, I'm unconscious about that." ????

>no more talk of joining the Valley. >no more Mizzery football posts >no more Matt Shaw posts >no more long threads arguing with an Illinois State fan...whatever would you have to talk about? >no more replies to the UE guy... he's Too operating under and AKA

Why oh Why don't the presidents of the non-fb schools see the light and just form the Papal Conference plus one heretic school (Charlotte)? These guys are allowing the BCS to beat them like a redheaded stepchild. I say it's time we bb only schools thumbed our noses at them and said...see ya! By doing the Papal thing, they would form one of the top 4-5 conferences in the country.

Over on ESPN they have the Valley "ready to gobble up SLU and the A-10 ready to pick up Charlotte." Jeez, give me a break ESPN.

on this board. Yeah, we don't want to obsess about them, but we can't totally ignore the fact that we'd like SLU to be the dominant D1 program in the state. It's like the Red Sox president said about the Yankees, Mizzery is the Evil Empire to SLU. Are you going to knock a Red Sox fan because he wears a "Yankees Suck" t-shirt or vice a versa? Rivalries are supposed to be fun, entertaining. So speculating on what would happen if they do get hit with sanctions is fair. Can you imagine how long the threads on this board would be if the NCAA slapped them with a Baylor like sentence? If Mizzery fans think worse of us for relishing in their plight, I say who really cares what those goobers think. If it's proven they cheated they deserve the abuse and criticism. And as Billiken fans, we deserve the right to speculate on where their players might go if given the opportunity.

Boy, if Mizzery got slapped and the NCAA gave the players the same ruling as Baylor....hmmm....makes one wonder what we would look like if McKinney and Grimes showed up at West Pine. Just a thought. In any event, UB is sure to have a back up plan in Shaw's case. Nice to hear Shaw say he didn't want to say to no to UB. I'd wait until the spring unless we got a real steal immediately.