courtside

Larry Hughes II had 16 points and played well on the wing in CBC’s 73-72 OT loss to Morgan Park (Chicago) at the Chicago Elite Classic at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. (Caleb Love 26) Morgan Park a top 3-5 Chicago area team this year has Illinois Commit Adam Miller (21) and Brandon Weston (26). Hughes is getting a lot of good experience early in the season against some national competition.

Statistically, offensively, he was really good. And his defense while not good, wasn't terrible either. Some of the Whitey Herzog stuff was a bit interesting too. As Darrell Porter wasn't exactly a big defensive upgrade and certainly didn't have the offensive capabilities. Simmons didn't play on great teams which didn't help him with voting, or in the every day lineup.

Ozzie Smith, Robin Yount, Walt Jocketty, among the 16 member selection committee. Jay Jaffe had a pretty good article recently as to why Simmons is worthy of the MLB Hall of Fame: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/ted-simmons-election-to-the-hall-of-fame-is-overdue/

Those opportunities exist in academic conferences as well as some power 5 schools at times. People move on for a variety of reasons. Darren Ambrose left U Penn after 15 seasons for Vandy (and he's done very well at both places) She needs competitive pay for herself and staff, competitive budgets to be able to win in the NCAA's on a regular basis. As long as she keeps having success and improves upon it, she will keep getting opportunities.

It was mentioned in a different thread about SLU keeping coach Katie Shields. She has now completed 7 seasons at SLU and has kept SLU at or near the top of the A-10 during her time. And, SLU has gotten over the hump the past few years of getting into the NCAA's. The next step would be to try to win a little bit in the NCAA's. SLU women's soccer doesn't have much of a history prior to her run. Scheduling is difficult as the league requires too many league games and less opportunity for better RPI non-conference games. And the few they get are often mostly road games. They would benefit from fewer league games and from getting to player stronger non-league opponents later in the season, not just early. Kat Mertz, her one year predecessor at SLU as head coach, was not re-signed by Oregon after her contract ran out this year. She struggled greatly in her 7 seasons at Oregon. The Pac 12 is often one of the best leagues in the country. It definitely was this year. She never had a winning season there. So yes, hopefully SLU can give Shields the support and resources she needs to keep growing the program at SLU. If not, they would risk losing her to a power 5 team or a program or league that provides more support.

I believe you meant this for the women's soccer thread.

I don’t have this year’s totals yet. For 2018 (last year) SLU was 36th in average home attendance. They were 32nd in total home attendance, 800 per game. (South Carolina was 2nd, 2300 per game avg) .....For perspective, roughly speaking, both of these two teams had similar levels of play 2018/2019 seasons.

Klug, Niehaus, Reimer, Friedrich, named to the all region team. https://slubillikens.com/news/2019/12/2/womens-soccer-four-billikens-selected-all-region.aspx Would be nice to see SLU aspire to atmospheres such as the quarterfinal crowd shown below at South Carolina.

SLU offered 6'7 2021 wing/small forward Jaden Jones.(Stockrisers) He is in his first season at Prolific Prep in Napa, CA (Nimari Burnett (Texas Tech), Coleman Hawkins (Illinois) etc....a former point guard who can play the 1, 2, or 3. He is from Dallas.

NCAA quarterfinals: Virginia v SMU UCSB v Wake Forest Georgetown v Washington Stanford v Clemson

By the way, frequent long time SLU opponent, Indiana, which has 3 Stl area players on their team and 3 more committed for next year, are playing UCSB today for a spot in the quarters as well. Others.....Michigan v Wake Forest, Providence v Clemson, Stanford v Virginia Tech, Marshall v Washington, Georgetown v Louisville.

With wins this weekend.....two 2019 SLU opponents have advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals to face each other. SMU will travel to Virginia for a spot in the College Cup Final Four. SLU lost to both teams by a combined score of 5-0, both road games.

Purdue 59 VCU 56 Tough one there

NM

It's fitting that 3 of the 4 NCAA Final Four teams will be from The Pac 12 Conference. It had the best season of any league this year. (4 of 8 quarterfinalists) Stanford, UCLA, Washington St. North Carolina. It was almost all four as USC had a lead at UNC but fell 3-2 in a great game. UCLA and Stanford have been the most dominant teams in the tourney, especially UCLA. Washington St. has been a bit of a Cindarella taking down Virginia and South Carolina on the road in exciting games.