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In todays Wall Street Journal there is a 2 page article on George Washington Basketball with comments on the A-10. This is a good article. The Wall Street Journal is a pay site, so this piece may not be available. The A-10 is described as a weak conference, but statistically it is on par w/ Conf USA and above the Missouri Valley as for as success in the big dance. The bb players @ GW do not take a special curriculum and do not have separate dorms. They have to mix in and cope w/ the largely white student body, who has an average SAT of 1300 and pay a whopping tuition. I found this interesting because the WSJ did an article on Duke a couple of years ago and there the bb players took a special curriculum and stayed in separate dorms and generally did not mix w/ the general student body. The Duke student body also has an average SAT of 1300. GW purposely scheduled weak this year to build up wins and gain national recognition and the strategy worked. However, they thought they got short changed on the seeding. If they win the opening game they then face Duke. The premier athletic facility currently in the A-10 is Xavier's. GW's facilities are primitive. The team has to shower in their own dorm. Everything was going great until recent revelations on two players past academic efforts at prep schools. GW defended itself, but there is now a faculty inquiry into what happened. By the way in comparing the A-10 to the Mo. Valley, it seems the A-10 gets more press because of locations in major cities. Can you imagine the WSJ doing 2 pages on a Mo Valley team? Yeah, Terre Haute is exciting compared to Washington D.C. I'll take my chances w/ foggy bottum vs the high turf.

I love this post. Thanks for your insights and including the remarks of Heinrich's mom.

UAB's Anderson goes to Mizzou - Indiana's Davis goes to UAB and takes 1 Indiana player w/ him.

The school is currently offering free tickets, free food, and free transportation and we are not drawing students. Therefore, my conclusion is the new arena will not be a panacea for student attendance. As a consequence, if we have to choose between alloting space for students w/ piped in music vs alloting less room for students, but keeping the band, I opt for this latter option. I am assuming the on campus arena will result in the cessation of free tickets to students and free food to go along w/ the ticket. On another topic I think the 10,000 seat arena is very workable. The St. Louis Business Journal recently published a listing of the 10 most expandable sports markets in the US and the 10 most saturated markets. St. Louis placed 4th in the most saturated markets list. According to the article this market is dominated by the Cardinals, with the Rams still able to sell out and the Blues surviving, attendance wise, until recently. The Cardinals take most of the available sports dollar. Therefore, w/ the national trend in college bb attendance down, and given the status of our market, and w/ the season ticket base around 6,000, a 10,000 seat arena appears workable.

I thought the shot @ the end of the half was the better shot. First on this type of play Al McGuire thought running the clock down to 10 seconds left too little time. It put too much pressure on college kids. He preferred running this play @ 15 sec. However, Brad ran the play the traditional way. Everyone knew and was prepared for Lisch. He is a freshman, so not fully experienced yet. However, he still made the play against a prepared defense. Notice how many of these 10 second plays fail in subsequent college games you watch. Both shots were fantastic, but Lisch, a freshman, being our go to guy is fabulous. In the clutch his personality seems to change; he becomes calm, totally focused, and acquires better athleticism, a combination of skill and instinct. When I saw those two shots Kevin reminded me of Stan Musial the year he hit 376. I know I was carried away by emotion and admiration, but Kevin's shots were a high light of the year.

I live adjacent to the university and went to the student union building yesterday to use the ATM. A large banner proclaimed free food, free transportation, and free tickets to the Temple game, among other games, I believe 5 in all. The free food was at the Tex-Mex restuarant in the bldg. I am not a student, so I cannot verify the veracity of the banner. Are you proclaiming that the banner statements are false and that SLU is lying to the student body?

I thought introduction of our past players was about as mishandled as it can get. During half time we watched an organized waste of time. Small kids trying to heave a bb around that was obviously too big and too heavy for them. However, in the second half we get momentum going and the game is stopped to leave former stars come on court. The flow of the game is stopped and the stars are not introduced. I can handle things this well and you don't have to pay me. On another topic, given the Blues situation, I think the NBA coming back here is a possibility. If that occurs a 10,000 seat arena is fine. However, the Blues and the NBA here simultaneously will not occur. This market is too small. The NHL seems to be getting weaker, so moving the Blues may happen down the road. I'm not sure about student participation at the on campus arena. For the Temple game students were given a free ticket, a free bus ride to Savis, and free food prior to the game at the Student Union Bldg. I have no figures on student attendance last night, but I thought it was not great. This was an important game. For SLU a possible NIT bid, for Temple a NCAA bid. Temple now appears destined to the NIT. Therefore, considering the game was against a famous coach, and a name school, and in light of the consequences of the game, and the student promotions, I thought student participation was not overwhelming and I don't see an on campus arena changing this.

The Dayton fans were obnoxious back in the MCC days, so don't take it personally. It is part of their tradition. However, if you lived or went to school in Dayton you might feel the same. It is a very very dull place. On TV their coach impressed me as a jerk also. When they come here hopefully fans and team will take their measure.

These two programs have been and are under NCAA scrutiny. We know about Mizzou. Oklahoma has made some 500-700 illicit recruiting calls. They were going to dump everything off on an assistant coach and fire him. A lesson probably learned from Mizzou. However, Sampson is now implicated and how this turns out is not known yet. So we had two crooks playing each other and there was a winner. So what. On another note Jay Spoonhour went to Mizzou as an assistant and it looked like a good career move. However, w/ consensus opinion indicating Snyder is out, Jay will have to get the resumes out again. Anyway contrast two crooks playing against each other w/ our game tonite. Regardless of tonights outcome our situation is better.

Their biggest draw so far has been OK State @ just over 10,000, so we would be ahead. However, conference schedule will have a moe positive effect on Mizzou than us. We are in a new conference, so Mizzou can pull ahead.

Willie thanks for info. End of discussion. However, I want to add one thing. Purpose of the on campus arena is to increase student involvement. Therefore, if you can't or don't feel you can increase student participation why build. 1,200 to 1,500 is only about a 12% involvement. It seems a realistic goal.

If we hold 1,500 seats for students and 2,500 to accommodate the casual fan, in a 10,000 seater, that leaves only 6,000 for season ticket holders. However, we currently sell approx. 7,500 season tickets. That is the reality of a 10,000 facility. However, why rush into building the on campus arena. It is not a panacea. You still need a product. The main problem with building early is highway construction. The Market St. exit off I-64 east is woefully inadequate. Combine that w/ construction to take place @ Brentwood and the arena is a tough place to get to. It is also not convenient in regard to Metro Link. Apparantly we do not have a good working relationship w/ Laurie. However, he seems intent on selling. We may do better w/ the new owner. Here is the logic for a 10,000 seat arena. You don't have to market the product, you can raise prices, expenses are cut, you probably can attract smaller concerts and profit increases. Some fans get left out, but so what. Endowment increases because the heavy donors get priority on tickets. The heavy donors don't use Metro Link. You can build now. Limited supply over comes inconvenient access to the new facility.

As I recall the NIT was taken over by the NCAA this year. If that is the case we don't have a clue on the selection process. RPI may come into play at the expense of other subjective attributes. However, Mizzou's RPI should increase once they get into conference play and out of the bought patsies.

My all time favorite is the win over Cinci @ Memphis. I experienced so many emotions. My wife and I, walking to the Pyramid, are passed by a bus load of Cinci fans. We have Billiken colors on so they begin shouting and making fun of the Bills. I felt angry. During the game we moved up and sat is come empty seats behind the Bills bench and over heard Romar talking to the team during time-outs. Romar's intensity and emotion had an inpirational effect on us and we were not players, buy his talks still made us excited. Then the ecstasy and feeling of exhiliration over the win. That nite we went to a restuarant, and by luck, Bob Huggins and his staff were sitting at an adjacent table. Bob was joined by his beautiful wife and children. Huggins was crying over the broken leg incident. It was real emotion and very touching. It was a different side of Huggins I had never seen before and I became a fan of him. On the way home we stopped @ Lamberts in Sikeston. We had Billiken colors on and John Redden's dad came up and talked. He was a great person and I always like John because he played at Marquette HS which was close to where I use to live and John played so hard and so tough. As you can see by the end of the trip we had experienced a wide range of emotions. My favorite radio game was the win over Loyola in Chi town. We were down w/ 4 sec left and had to go the length of the court. Roland Grey received an inbounds pass and shot a 3 pointer from way out. It went in and the Bills won. Rammer went bonkers. So did I.

You are correct. It is 16,000+, so it is an example of a big arena and it can then be contrasted w/ the before mentioned small arenas as showing arena size and program success are not related. Thank you for the comment.

I am sorry, but I think it is smaller. Anyway I will try to look up. I recalled it as being around 12,000.

The size of the on campus arena and success of the bb program are not related. Kansas has a small arena. Its modern day success is from the Larry Brown era on. The size of their arena is constant. I paid $65 to see a Ks vs Nebraska game. The size of Indiana's arena is 18,000+ and I paid $75 to see an Indiana vs Michigan game. The success of the programs depends on quality of coaching as measured by wins. What we do see is that ticket prices, scalped and charged are a function of supply and demand. If demand is great enough, as in the Bob Knight era at Bloomington, ticket prices rise. What we have in St. Louis is a program on the rise and spurred by local talent, and a demand that is increasing, as indicated by this years atttendance. If we shrink supply to 10,000 that will bring about an increase in ticket prices, and supply will not accomodate the fan base. The choice is not between 14,000 without training facilities and 10,000 w/ training facilities necesarily. If the 14,000 facility brings in more outside events, revenue increases. Considering we only play about 15 home games per year you need outside events to make the arena viable economically. The answer here lies in whether the potential for additonal income that a 14,000 facility brings in can pay the extra cost for the larger facility. I don't know the answer. Part of the additional cost can be paid for by issuing bonds. Because we are a religious facility, I think the bonds would be tax free and thus desirable. The larger facility, with practice accomodations, will mean more tickets at a lower price and the accomodation of more fans. It will attract larger concerts and shows and bring in more revenue. However, if this has been studied and the difference in size will not attract larger shows, than it may not be a feasible option. The 10,000 seat arena will mean higher ticket prices, but with the HDTV standard becoming the norm in the future the school can sell a TV package and accomodate the surplus of fans. However, I find a comaraderie at the games that cannot be achieved elsewhere. Therefore even w/ tech advances, game attendance is desirable from my perspective. The basic issue I am bringing up here is this. Schools possess larger endowments, tuition has increased at a rate much higher than inflation, and enrollment has increased because of government support of tuition aid. Schools seem focused, to the exclusion of everything else, on profit. As pointed out in a recent Wall Street Journal article large donors are becoming more reluctant to give because of the large endowments schools are accumulating and not using. The local arena may be a play out of a national phenomenon and a disturbing trend.

I am not saying the smaller arena will destroy the program. I am saying the smaller arena will cause a rise in ticket prices. Prices will rise for the reasons I stated above.

Supply and demand. Shrink supply while the trend is upward and demand is increasing and you can raise prices.

Does anyone know what the arena size needs to be to attract events and become an alternative to Savis. Is 10,000 too small? If the arena scales down to 10,000 get your wallets out. Ticket prices go up and they may be accompanied by a PSL fee. Building the medical research center @ Grand & Choteau is a move to capture federal research money. I hope the arena does not become a similar move only aimed at capturing private entertainment money to the max. The arena should be of appropriate size to attain profits, but still accomodate a majority of the fans.

First I think Brad has done a great job recruiting. We have went back to local, we have done honest recruiting, the results look good, and the future looks great. I posted on the problem w/ juco recruiting on this board just prior to the Hawaii game, so I won't repeat. However, we have trouble qualifying jucos and they generally have a rough first year, so recruiting one is not a panacea. Regarding another point made above, basketball has changed, I agree. Freshman capable of being a go to guy the first year go to the NBA. Remember Roland Grey, Scot Highmark and Erwin Clagget, and currently IV and how they changed and developed in the years after they were freshman. All I am saying is Brad should recruit wisely, as he has done, and not sacrifice a scholarship on a person to produce immediately unless he has this luxury. What Brad says on a post game interview, after a loss, does not necessarily reveal what he thinks after a careful analysis. I think our freshman and sophomores look good and next year will be a break out year for the team.

I hope not. A freshman is not going to come in and fill that role unless he is a Larry Hughes type. Juco's will not fill that role their junior year. Remember Maurice Jeffers. His junior year he looked average. His senior year he had the NBA looking at him. I think we should work with what we have. Lisch, Liddle, Polk need to work over the summer on perimeter shooting. Also what about Luke Meyer. Why was he over looked last nite? What has happened to Brown? Last year he looked great; this year he looks befuddled. I think the answer lies in patience, we are a young team, improvement of perimeter defense, and working w/ the talent we have. What we saw last nite was a senior team vs what is essentially a freshman-southmore squad. We did a good job. We have a chance for the NIT. Quite an accomplishment for this young team. One other thought; look @ the difference in IV this year. It can and does happen. Marquis Perry was a go to guy by his senior year.

You cannot compare the officiating of this road game for Chicago State to the officiating of a road game for the Bills. Chicago State is a bought game. The fee can run from $40,000 to $60,000 and can also include travel expenses + athletic equipment. St. Louis U is not playing in games where they are bought. When we went to Oakland we did not get a fee, travel expenses, or athletic equipment. The officiating in our road games may be biased, but generally speaking will be more objective then in a bought game. Chicago State is suppose to lose. We paid them to come in here and lose. Their program is 1-9. They have played all games on the road and they were all bought games. This is how the Chicago State program survives. It does not rely on wins, but on bought games. The NCAA mirrors society; haves and have nots. The haves pay the have nots to come in and lose. The A-10 officials are not in a mood to see an upset. An upset may cost the conference money if the loss keeps SLU from being selected. The Wall Street Journal had an at length article on the programs surviving by playing in bought games. The article did not address officiating, but rather was in a more economic vein. The bought games allows these minor programs to survive, to hire coaches, to buy equipment. If they win a road game they are usually not invited back. In this light the outcome is not important to Chicage State. Receipt of our check is. The officiating was compatable with this atmosphere. Peace and Happy New Year.

The game is on Charter, so I would think it is not blacked out for the package either.

I think the fans are drawn to a game by the level of expected competition the local team will face. If Morrison and team played Arkansas State in St. Louis my guess is 15,000 + do not attend. The fans wanted to see how the local team with some local players did against a ranked team. The opposing team can be Gonzaga, Iowa, North Carolina,etc., but the opposition has to be a team with a local following. Therefore, the statement that the fans came to see Gonzaga is false and Morrison's statement is more a self reflection of his personality than an insight into reality of the situation he was involved with. I admire the way the two stars took over, going toward the end of the game; Morrison and IV. This is what I came to see, not Gonzaga, but rather St. Louis U vs Gonzaga.