courtside

Yep, a little bit of pressure on Stack to land his first big 2020 recruit on short time, since being recently hired. They are also in final four for Osa Ighodaro, and some others. They have been targeting elite 4 and 5 star players in the 2021 2022 classes. So they are going high level with their approach. They have two openings but could always oversign. We’ll see. Faragi Phillips coached Murrell and some of the top recruits Penny Hardaway has landed at Memphis. He had high levels of success, at two Memphis High Schools, as well as two AAU programs there. One of those was Team Penny, both before and after it changed its name to Team Penny. He’s friends with Penny. He’s originally from Decatur Illinois, not too far from St. Louis. David Grace is their experienced elite national recruiter, especially out West. Many of the rest of the staff are high level player development guys like Stack’s background. Ole Miss is only an hour from Memphis, so not a surprise there. Kermit Davis is a good coach. Auburn getting in there. Shaka is also in that final four for Ighodaro. Arkansas coaching change.

Matthew Murrell's final 5: Vandy, Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss, Texas.

Quietly this is not a good loss, 1-0 on a pk. ND is trying to finish a rebuild mode with a new coach (last year) after a few mediocre seasons. Opportunity missed.

Roughly speaking. He is anywhere from 6'4 to 6'6. As a Sophomore he was a very good catch and shoot 3 point shooting guard on a deeper high school and AAU team. Roughly 43%. Last season was arguably the best player on his high school team and significantly increased his shot totals while previously adding other parts to his game. This would include putting the ball on the floor and attacking the basket, finishing at the rim as well as drawing fouls. He is a very good free throw shooter. He switched Summer team from BBE to Mokan Elite. He went back to being a role player on a deep team. He had a 28 point effort in one of his round robin Peach Jam games en route to the title. His shooting numbers dipped a little bit with the increased shots and role. But as long as he can shoot it from deep in the 40's he has high value. He needs to keep adding to his game as he did this past season, mid range, back to basket, etc and get to the line more often. Deceptively athletic as he can drive from the wing and throw it down. Plays hard every game. Gym rat type. Needs keep working on his handle and defense. But he would be a nice addition to SLU's team. He's a shooter first and foremost but he keeps adding other things too. Good team player. Has played on winning teams and against high level teams and players.

As long as there are no red seats... The TWA Dome seats never changed color all of those years. And the Cardinals don’t understand the value of seat color contrast. I like St. Louis FC’s colors. Mound City Steamboats is a good, local historical name. But, I recognize the regions need to have St. Louis in the name. Therefore, simply name it St. Louis. And, figure out a nickname from there. No need for anything before or after St. Louis other than a nickname. I’m all for SLU hosting future College Cups only because it is St. Louis. I much prefer to see those events in warmer climates. The last one was about as cold as it gets.

YouTubeTV, Hulu, Sling, Playstation Vue, will have ACC Network at launch. Otherwise for TV providers, DirecTV will have it as well as Verizon Fios. At launch, Dish, Comcast, Spectrum/Charter will not have it. In the past deals were slow at launch. However with success of SEC Network etc...expectations are higher now from consumers to carry these products close to launch. Being owned by ESPN, it won’t take too long for these deals to happen. Millions and millions of people in ACC markets that have these providers will not be getting it it at launch.

A local retailer told me that they are getting up to speed this week with AT&T TV. I have a few local Dish accounts that I am switching. This particular retailer also sells to Spectrum. I can get DirecTV deal slightly less expensive through the local retailer than directly through AT&T. Not much, $10-15. Local retailer seemed much more interested in selling Spectrum and/or AT&T TV than DirecTV. Though any were fine. He even asked me to wait until he and his staff finished some seminars this week about AT&T TV to see what he could offer with that. DirecTV by itself offer is $50 plus tax for Choice. It includes HBO for a year, all other movie channels for 3 moths, NFL Sunday Ticket for a year. Adding internet is plus $40 to the $50. (DirecTV does not have Pac 12 Network. Dish has it on basic tiers even out of market. But they do have the new ACC Network.)

Would have to compare to others below them and find a team or teams that have better results since 1997. It is certainly top heavy for them. The data includes, Kruger, Self, Weber, where most of their success has been obtained. Overall since 1997, 13 NCAA’s, 19 NCAA wins, a National Title game, an elite 8, and 5 regular season Big Ten titles. Just looking at it I would say Illinois has had better results than Indiana, who was 18. At first glance many seem reasonable. I believe 14 Catholic schools were ahead of SLU.

That is pretty good with internet included. A couple of DirecTV retailers recently offered me $62.13 all in for Ultimate ($10 less for extra which was good enough) + HBO. But the offer did not internet. HBO is included tor 12 months. Price package doubles year 2. I know someone in a different market that was able to lock in the first year price for two years instead of one. But I have not found that yet. I know AT&T has been aggressively marketing DirecTV at stores and with mailings. Spectrum offer was $85 including HBO Showtime (plus $40 more for internet) for every day pricing. Dish TV alone was $70 all in and it included Showtime, other movie channels, all sports channels. Sometimes I could get it for much less than that different years. But that’s every day pricing. But Dish lost HBO (owned by AT&T) 10 months ago. It lost Fox Sports Midwest & other Fox Sports Regionals a couple of weeks ago. In some markets it has not had local CBS affiliate for several weeks. But they provide and install free antenna.

Again, in general, and in theory, I have a great appreciation for the military. But it is not a blind across the board praise. Life is about individuals. Random example: Department of Justice reported almost 7,000 military sexual assaults in 2017. More than two thirds of these cases were deemed evidence efficient to take action. It also is something that is very underreported. You can pick many other category examples if you’d like. My point is people in the military are merely a reflection of people in other walks of life, good, bad, indifferent. This does not take away from all of the good and great military people. But let’s also not pretend any of these other things don’t exist within it either. What i don’t like is how the military responds sometimes to many concerns of its members. The United States can spend more than the next 7 countries combined on the military, but it still doesn’t have a high enough quality of care for those military members. It’s 15% of all Federal spending. And, that is to the above point of the other poster. Take care of your military people. With regards to training and motivation, whether it is military or sports, a wide variety of ways can and has been successful. One size does not fit all. We can rattle off all types of college basketball coaches personalities and temperaments and find success. It’s great that you had a positive experience in the military. But you also know that your military experience doesn’t speak for all military experiences. There isn’t just one type of soldier. There isn’t just one way of successfully doing things. Again, as for the speaker, as long as he isn’t too controversial or extreme in any bad way, and it helps the team, that’s great too. For many, their best play has come in a positive, relaxed environment. For others it may be something else. And those people may even be on the same team.

Dish Network previously was one of the best values out there but times are changing. They seem to be shifting their business model to keep non-sports customers and letting sports customers and their much more expensive channels go. And, they want to become the 4th mobile phone/wireless carrier. They’ve been investing money into developing it for several years. They currently do not have Fox Sports Regional (two weeks but I have heard it worst case last 1.5 years. We’ll see). Disney’s sale to Sinclair is waiting on DOJ/FCC approval. They also do not have CBS in some markets including St. Louis as of a few weeks ago. although the install free over the air antennas for some. They have been significantly less expensive than cable and DirecTV for similar channels. CBS sports Network has poor distribution with many providers, especially compared to NBC Sports Network. For streaming, You Tube appears to have the best combination of sports and other channels.

He visited Cincinnati, Ohio St. this past weekend. He is visiting Purdue and Northwestern this week and then he is off to an official visit to Stanford after that.

It depends on the person. I have a great respect for the military and people who serve. With that said.....there are a variety of personality types and temperaments in the military, or any other walk of life. There are some who may take the above Old Guy mentioned approach. But, there are plenty of others that take a much different approach. In college basketball coaching, there are several different personality types, temperaments, as well as approaches. One isn’t inherently better than another. In the military for example, (or any other walk of life) there are some great, phenomenal people, as well as some, not so much. And, soldier success is varied as in any other walk of life. When coaching a team or running a business etc...coaches often alter their approach with individual people based on what would make that person more or most successful. It’s not always a one size fits all. As to this particular speaker and SLU, I am decidedly indifferent. If the coaches and players like it and it helps them great. I know many athletes that are better motivated with this positive approach. The message Gordon sends isn’t very controversial. I appreciate SLU trying, and making an effort to bring a popular contemporary person in this field for the Athletic staff. Seeking an edge, adding something new, is for lack of a better word, a positive.

The discussion included history. Historically, what have been those results over the years. That poster even mentioned the father’s name. I wasn’t talking about just the 5 years. Hopefully Vashon (and many other schools) can and will produce high major talent that will help SLU’s program moving forward.

Floyd Iron was at Vashon 33 years.