Bay Area Billiken

Refs were awful, as usual, reffed the game like it was Illinois High School Association Class 1A, destroyed the rhythm and tempo of the game. These zebras don't seem to understand we aren't watching these games to watch them.

Great games by Jordan Goodwin and Demarius Jacobs. At one point Goodwin looked like Doctor J!

Yurimania, Catch it!

Watching on TV, I was very impressed with Yuri Collins. SLU has a real point guard. My biggest observation was the usual improvement between Sophomore and Junior years, tonight exhibited by Hasahn French and Jordan Goodwin. I agree that having some shooters opens up the inside where French and Goodwin are dominant. It was a good opening night win. Bring on Valpo.

I agree, no Euro names, no FC, Real, United, etc. The issue for STL is so many of the potential names have already been used by STL pro sports teams, i.e. Stars, Steamers, Spirits, Storm. I would be ok with St. Louis Stars, the name of St. Louis' NASL team, but I don't think that would be a popular choice. That's why a group of us were trying to think outside the box to come up with a new name, not a recycled name or one used by other pro sports teams. I also think having the new MLS team in STL, with a 22-24,000 seat soccer specific stadium only about a mile or so from the SLU campus, will help SLU's Soccer program, which was once a national power to the point that SLU was known as the UCLA of College Soccer.

Out here we have the local San Jose Earthquakes, which was the name of the old San Jose NASL team. (So there is a precedent for calling the new St. Louis team the Stars.) I coached the younger brother of the Earthquakes' star striker, Chris Wondolowski, in CYO hoops and know their parents. LA has the LA Galaxy and the new Los Angeles FC. These two teams play in different soccer specific stadiums, with the Galaxy's soccer stadium in Carson being the temporary home of the LA Chargers of the NFL.

How about St. Louis Starships, for the forward, New STL MLS expansion team name? Enterprise-Rent-a-Car family is going to be a principal owner of the team. Team could potentially arrange to have the Enterprise starship from Star Trek as a logo.

#22 David Burns

First, I do not think the Big East will expand past 11 schools, UConn reportedly to be the 11th, as the Big East wants to keep the round-robin schedule. Eleven (11) conference teams allows the coming trend 20 game conference schedule. At this point, I think SLU needs to make the best of the situation in the A10, become the dominant force in the A10. SLU has the potential to do that. One good thing about the A10 is we know SLU can win the A10 and make the NCAA Tournament from the A10, as it has 4 times. As for the A10, I believe SLU should lead the charge to add Loyola Chicago to the A10. Loyola is from Chicago, the Nation's #3 media market, and a large SLU alumni base. Loyola would be my first A10 expansion target. The second would probably be Belmont, from Nashville, Tennessee, a hot, growing city and state.

I didn’t think the Sharks fans in my area and walking to and from the Shark Tank were that bad. There was no trash talk at all walking in and out. Some isolated Shark fans uttered some F Bombs at the Blues and tried (flailed and failed IMO) to rip STL after all was lost for SJ and the score was 5-0 STL, but a group of us Blues fans, sporadically seated, brought some of it on by chanting “Let’s Go Blues!” One misguided Sharks fan cited STL eats at Hardee’s (so what’s the issue), perhaps not realizing Carl’s Junior is the West Coast version of same. Another bellowed that STL doesn’t have a football team. Sign of the day, while I was walking out at the atrium, a Blues fan was holding up a sign, “Hands Off Our Cup.” Another sidebar, black on one side, white on the other, waving towels greeted us at our seats. When waved en masse, they look like orcas, killer whales, wrong species. I’m told orcas actually eat Sharks (like the Blues are doing). Let’s finish off the finned ones tomorrow night!

Long Live The Note! Let’s Go Blues!

BAB was there at the Shark Tank yesterday. It was awesome. I was safely seated next to a big “Enforcer” from Bridgeton, MO via Castro Valley, CA. Blues were dominant, the best I’ve ever seen them play. Blues need one more win to reach The Promised Land for the first time since 1970. Finish off the Sharks in Tuesday night’s Game 6 in STL. Don’t be like the Mathenaged Cardinals losing Game 5 of the ‘12 NLCS at home in STL to SF when the Cards had the Giants on the brink of elimination. It was good get the win at the Shark Tank after the last 2 Billiken NCAA games there ended in disappointment.

I was numb after that Blues game, said nary a word. But man, that was bad. The Blues should have won in Regulation. I'm out here in the East Bay with all these lousy non-fans, whose #1 priority is the Golden State Warriors. It was all I could do to get the establishment to put the hockey game on the screen at dinner last night. The Sharks are way down the list. They do have the Dot Com following in San Jose and Silicon Valley. The Bay Area is a big TV market, #5 in some studies depending upon what cities and counties are counted. Follow the money, as always. I am old enough to remember when the NBA Hawks were still in St. Louis. Given the explosion of the NBA, it's too bad the Hawks were sold to out of town interests in Atlanta. St. Louis should be big enough, with nearly 3 million people, to support both the NBA and NHL. I also remember when the fledgling Blues made the Stanley Cup Finals their first 3 years when the NHL put all 6 expansion teams in the same division. It's been 51 long years, and 49 since the Blues made their last Stanley Cup Final. Will we ever get to sip from Lord Stanley's Cup?

The San Jose Sharks have now been the beneficiaries of three key calls that have aided and abetted their playoff run to date: 1. The phantom major penalty called on Vegas, involving Joe Pavelski, in the Third Period of Game 7 of the first series. The San Jose season was at the figurative death's door when that manna appeared. 2. The off-sides that negated a Colorado game tying goal in Game 7 of the second series; 3. Last night's blown no-call on a clear hand pass by Timo Meier in the same play sequence as the game winning "goal" in overtime. Meier even received an "assist" for the violation. Last night's blown call has gone international, literally, was the lead story on the sports report on CJAD 800 AM in Montreal this morning.