courtside

Laura Ziegler entered the transfer portal last week.

It’s a good hire for Fordham. Magpayo worked with Kyle Smith and Todd Golden among others, including the current Columbia HC and current Cleveland Cavs GM. His 4 of 5 winning seasons at UC Riverside are all but 2 they have ever had since they transitioned to D-1 two decades ago. And Magpayo was on staff for one of the other two. Prior to his arrival they had just 1 top 4 finish in the Big West. He had 3 the past few seasons. And he has their only postseason appearance. And all of this was while UC Riverside was going through a lot of financial challenges. https://x.com/benrosstweets/status/1906147821134414023?s=46

Eric Dixon had a $1.7 million NIL deal at Villanova. They have NIL money and they will also do well as mentioned with revenue sharing. St. Joe’s recently lost star Women’s player Laura Ziegler to the portal.

I’m not sure of the streaming situation at Dayton but they have streamed about 4 home games this season. (3 vs Bradley and 1 vs Bryant) Mendez (A10 Rookie of the year) has been mostly a defensive replacement so far at a variety of positions as a utility player in the SEC. Fennell has been deep on the relief bench but he did get a spot start in the SEC, in which he did well 3,2 innings, 2 runs, 8k’s. They both went with King.

2nd Spring Game vs STL City 2 now has a date, time, and location. Home game. First one was at City 2. https://x.com/slumenssoccer/status/1904605609456025852?s=46

Big East had 5 out of its 11 teams in the NCAA Tourney. Connecticut, Creighton, Marquette, St. John’s, Xavier It was just the 5th time in 45 years (1980) that the Big East had zero teams in the Sweet 16. 2025, 2019, 2014, 1993, 1986. Conference began 1979-80. (25 Final Fours, 11 National Titles)

Anumele and Shavers also announced they are transferring. (Speaking of the OVC, former Billiken Mia Nicastro had 26, 7, and 6 yesterday in a Western Illinois WNIT win over Lipscomb.)

It’s less about firing the coach after one year, and more about explaining why the shorter time frame of 3 years to fire vs the past 4 or 5 years and beyond. As gobilllsgo said, it is a different time and era with the transfer portal, NIL, etc…coaches are having some success in years 1 and 2. Villanova doesn’t have to look beyond St. John’s in their own league, let alone the success of several “new” head coaches elsewhere in other leagues from last seasons carousel. St. John’s won the league for the first time in 25 years in year 2 of Pitino. Top end Big East programs are paying $4 million in NIL. …………. Neptune worked under Jay Wright for 12 seasons. He was well known to Villanova. He was going to get a chance. …………. Who or what you follow also matters. immediately prior to HC Neptune at Villanova: 3 of last 6 Final Fours w/2 National Titles. 7 of previous 9 Big East Regular Season Titles, finishing 2nd the other two seasons. 16 of last 17 NCAA Tourneys made. 8 NCAA Tourney 2nd weekends or better under Wright. …………. Who or what did Jay Wright follow? Before Jay Wright, Villanova had missed 6 of the previous 10 NCAA Tourneys. Before Jay Wright, Hofstra had 2 NCAA Tourneys 22 and 23 years prior. Wright matches the 2, and Hofstra has had none since. …………. Villanova also has a new Athletic Director. He’s making a move in just his first year as AD there and he’s a Villanova alum. That’s also a factor. There have been several other success stories besides Pitino for new coaches in their first 2 seasons in this era. Competitive programs see this and they want the same in a similar time frame. Three seasons of no NCAA’s and finishing no better than 6th in the Big East was enough for Villanova in era of transfer portal, NIL. etc…also having known the coach for 12 previous seasons prior to that. ………….. SLU doesn’t quite have the same level of pressure as some of these schools. But general expected time frames to be successful are generally a little shorter than they used to be at more competitive places in this era. Watching someone like Ryan Conwell score 38 points in a close Big East Tourney loss, I think many hope for just a few more difference makers that can get SLU over the top into the NCAA Tourney as soon as possible.

SLU lost 2-1 to St. Louis City 2. Six future Billikens played preseason with St. Louis City 2. Two of them will stay and play with City 2 through the Spring and early Summer. All 3 of SLU’s incoming transfers have participated in Spring Ball. Upcoming home Spring games include: Missouri Baptist: March 29 (11am) Indiana: April 5th at Soccer Park (2:30pm) Bradley: April 12 (11am)

Let me try to help. Respectfully, you aren’t comparing apples to apples. You probably noticed the discussion in Jacksonville about the reduction in homicides, violent crime etc….and that’s great. https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2024/07/02/jacksonville-is-on-pace-for-fewer-than-100-homicides-in-over-a-decade/74012408007/ ……………… This is the Jacksonville Sheriff's office transparency page which were used in the stats: https://transparency.jaxsheriff.org Notice how the crime statistics include all of Duval County, which includes geographies roughly 20-30 miles out in all directions. (Now go 20-30 miles in all directions from St. Louis, and include them in the overall crime stats. The numbers would change.) ……………… As the above attached article states, murders were down 26% nationwide. This includes St. Louis. St. Louis City saw its fewest homicides since 2013. Violent crime, property crime, “crimes against society” all were down, some double digit percentages. SLMPD said it has had a clearance rate of 75%. and 66% the past two years, well above the national average of 52.3%. ……………. In your first post you referenced where Jacksonville used to be ranked before the turnaround. 7th in 2023 in homicide rates. St. Louis, despite the big boundaries disadvantage in collecting the stats, was 23rd, which was still better than almost half of A10 school locations. ………………

SLU added a 2025 commitment from Kaviraj “Kavi” Badh. Kavi is a versatile, first touch, pace winger/forward who plays with the 06/07 Seattle United team in the ECNL Northwest Conference. He was an ECNL National Selection Game participant in Las Vegas last month. Kavi attends Eastlake High School. Kavi previously played right back with the Seattle Sounders Academy team that won the U17 Generation Adidas Cup Championship. That title, qualified them for the Liga BBVA MX International Tourney in Mexico against top youth teams from Mexico and Europe. on their way to the GA Cup Championship, they defeated Philadelphia Union, Austin FC, Inter Miami, Santos Laguna, CF Monterrey, and Tigres UANL. Prior to that Kavi played with XF Premier, (current U18/19 ECNL National Champions) a local rival club with Seattle United.

They do. All 3. A minimum of 6 indoor and 12 outdoor are required by the NCAA. That’s why you see that number often, so they can host. I know of a higher profile tennis school that’s just under that, but is expanding, so they can host NCAA events. One thing you may see soon is a combination of those Oklahoma schools hosting events especially the NCAA Indoors. There is a new thing where 2 schools within 200 miles of each other, host the NCAA Indoors. Reduces costs, and the indoors host requires 12 indoor courts. They can split the 16 teams into two sites of 8 each. This year for example, Illinois and Northwestern are the Women’s final 16 hosts. SMU and Baylor are the Men’s final 16 hosts. 56 teams, 14 sites (OK State was a Women’s site host in the early rounds) Four teams advance to the designated primary host site while the others stay behind to finish out play. Host schools receive auto entry into the event. The USTA National Campus in Orlando agreed to added 6 more indoor courts to make it 12. They also needed to add scoreboards to all courts, provide more seating, etc…some other upgrades in order to be a long term host for the Men’s Women’s team National Championships. But there are several other events to be hosted as well.

Oklahoma State hosted the Men and Women’s NCAA Championships last season.

SLU also added a player from Orange County FL, not a transfer but an incoming Freshman. Theo Franca is a forward from Brazil. He will be a 2025 Freshman, not a transfer. His family relocated to the Orlando area when he was 9. He played at Ronaldo Academy before switching to Orlando Academy about 4 years ago. Theo also spent some time with Orlando B.

SLU has added 3 transfers: John Carlos “JC” Cortez (UCLA) Fabian Hilpert (Embry-Riddle FLA) Xavier O’Neil (Boston College) ………….. JC Cortez is a versatile 6 foot center back/left back that sat out last season with an injury, after playing 34 games his first 2 seasons in Westwood. He was formerly a top 100 college Freshman. He helped UCLA to its first Pac 12 Title in 10 years. He appeared in 4 NCAA Tourney games over 2 seasons. A Ridgewood NJ native, JC is a former Captain of the U17 and U19 NY Red Bulls MLS Next Academy teams. ………… Fabian Hilpert is a 5’9 forward from The Hague, The Netherlands who scored 9 goals in 15 games at Embry Riddle his 1st season. Fabian was named the Sunshine State Conference Freshman of the Year. He played with several Dutch youth teams including Ajax, ADO Den Haag, HBS Craeyenhout, eventually scoring 16 goals with 9 assists over 54 games with the HBS Craeyenhout Senior Team. ………… Xavier O’ Neil is a 5’11 midfielder from Herndon, Virginia who started 27 of 32 games over 2 seasons at Boston College. Xavier played his youth soccer at DC United Academy. An immediate impact Freshman, Xavier led the Eagles in assists his first season, and he was named to the All ACC Freshman Team. …………