Bay Area Billiken

It looked to me like the laptop was a woman's sitting at the scorer's table on the SLU bench side.

Bad 15-0 Green Bay run was nearly the ballgame. But SLU was able to figure out to put Cody Ellis down low, where Green Bay could not guard him, and the SLU comeback was fueled. Bring on the Ivy Leaguers from Princeton on Wed. night. I like that matchup better for SLU than playing Boston U., which has athletes.

They are both bad, but I think tonight's were the worst yet. Rick Majerus rarely gets upset with the refs, and tonight Majerus and Porter Moser were both animated at that one horrible call late in the game, the one that prompted Majerus to make a move on someone's laptop near the SLU bench at the scorer's table. Moser fell back into his seat. Majerus then took a long walk down and in front of the SLU bench. There was also a terrible series of bad calls earlier in the second half, silly moving pick calls, that nearly took SLU completely out of the game. Once the coaching staff put Cody Ellis down low, where he had a huge height advantage and where Green Bay could not guard him, SLU came back in this game.

Or the Horizon League? I'm certainly not advocating that at this point, but when SLU was in the MCC (now known as the Horizon League), Butler was nothing special, more of a lower division team in that league. SLU routinely beat Butler in St. Louis. Now the Horizon has basically become Butler's own fiefdom, even more than Gonzaga and the Seven Dwarfs in the WCC, because St. Mary's has caught the Zags, and some of the other "Dwarfs" are on the rise there. That's one of my points re the A-10- is it too strong of a league? It eats its own. And I think Temple has far too much of a home court advantage getting to play the A-10 Tournament in Atlantic City, NJ, only 64 miles away from its campus. SLU's game with Rhode Island in that A-10 Tournament was a road game for SLU. At the bare minimum, we need to get the A-10 Tournament out of Atlantic City.

Agreed. Let's hope someone at SLU is doing something. SLU has been both a leader and follower in these situations in the past. The SLU AD, Larry Albus, was a driving force when SLU left the MVC and became a charter member of the Metro, with Albus becoming the Metro's first commissioner. DePaul drove the truck when the Great Midwest was formed. That was such a good league with good potential. I hated to see it merge with the old Metro to form C-USA. Without knowing, it seems that SLU is temporarily parked in the A-10, like a physician doing locum tenens work. More and more I don't think the A-10 works for SLU. Sorry, but that's now my opinion. especially after watching SLU in that A-10 Tournament in Atlantic City this season, the subsequent NIT snub, and given that Lambert Field is no longer an airline hub like it used to be. There you have it- snub and no hub. And I'm not saying the MVC is the right place for SLU either. In thinking some about this, and seeing the 5 non-BCS teams in the Sweet 16, it seems that the A-10 eats its own. One can bring up Xavier, but Xavier is a better fit in the A-10 than is SLU, like 300 miles better. However, being parked in the A-10 for awhile is better than being an Independent. I just hope SLU doesn't again get left behind when the next round of conference dominos begin falling.

VCU and SLU were probably the first 2 teams left out of the NIT. I suspect both make the NIT if there weren't 7 automatics in the NIT that shouldn't have been there- there were actually 8 automatics, but Kent State belonged anyway. Before the NCAA took over the NIT, the NIT was a 40 team at large field. Then someone decided to reduce the field to 32 teams and give out these automatic bids, which reduced the field this year to 24 at large bids. I'm certainly not defending the choice of Dayton over SLU, I mean what happened to head to head results, as in twice? What happened to conference standings, wherein SLU was 3 full games ahead of Dayton? But Dayton (RPI 54) had a significantly better RPI than SLU (RPI 87). Even worse was picking Illinois State (RPI 76), and its weak non-conference schedule, over SLU. That had to have been based purely on RPI. VCU's RPI was 67 on Selection Sunday, and it got the NIT snub too. Let's win tonight in the CBI and continue to move forward from there.

Green Bay has a good team- starts 2 Seniors and 2 Juniors, along with a freshman. Green Bay has 4 guys that shoot the 3, three of them starters. This Green Bay team is 22-12, and as noted, beat Wisconsin.

The two 6'11" big guys, Omar Samhan and Ben Allen, are both Seniors. The shooting guard, McConnell, is a Junior, the small forward, Steindl, is a soph, and the point guard, Dellavedova, is just a freshman. Allen, Steindl, and Dellavedova are all Aussies, as are two of the key reserves. Samhan is a local product from Danville, CA, and McConnell is from Phoenix. I got to see SMC play twice in person this season, and they are fun to watch. For years, SMC's Waterloo was Gonzaga, but the Gaels finally slayed that giant in the WCC Tournament championship game this season. My other post lays out my case in brief for picking SLU over SMC in a recruiting battle. Not to set off another conference debate here, but when I see schools like St. Mary's and Butler in the Sweet 16, it makes me question SLU being in the A-10, as there are so many good A-10 teams that the A-10 seems to eat its own, and in that it is easier to win the conference tournament and get in the NCAA Tournament in higher mid-major leagues like the WCC and the Horizon League, especially Butler in the Horizon. Gonzaga still resides in the WCC.

I'm a SLU alumnus, thus admittedly biased, but SLU should be able to win a recruiting battle with SMC. SLU is a much bigger school, a better school, and has a much better facility with Chaifetz Arena. SLU could and should be top banana in St. Louis, whereas SMC is way down the food chain in the Bay Area. SMC games were not even on live over the air radio this season, and when the Gaels were on the radio in the past, they were on a very weak signal station. But going to the NCAA Sweet 16 has to benefit SMC, although it will probably again be open season soon for various sharks out there trying to poach away Randy Bennett.

Just got here- I was in what has become known as the Man Cave, my friend's home theater, watching the Gaels. Anyway, that was an incredible win for SMC. Samhan was again great in the paint, McConnell hit the huge banked 3- Mickey is a good shooter, but I don't think he called bank on that one, and Delladevova, just a freshman, did a fantastic job at point guard against Nova's pressure, and hit a huge 3 himself. Agree re if Patty Mills was still there and had stayed for his Junior year. He was a big time star player. Also, last year's team had Diamon Simpson at power forward. SMC should have been in the NCAA last season and is proving it this season. SMC's RPI was 24 last season when Mills was injured and was still 45 on Selection Sunday. And the NCAA gave Purdue a #4 seed this season even after losing its best player to injury. Double standard? Cal plays Duke tomorrow, and I am rooting for the Bears. We are 3 games away from the unthinkable- Cal v. SMC for a Final 4 bid, but a lot has to happen before that.

Cornell 37 Temple 29 at half. Xavier and Minnesota are tied at 26 at half.

This affects the Fordham situation. Now both St. John's and Seton Hall jobs are open.

Cornell is leading Temple 29-21, 4:47 left in first half. A lot of the pundits picked Cornell in this one.

WVU is now up 38-27 at half. Morgan State started the game leading 10-0. I've noticed how teams that play well in the Big East Tournament have been struggling the next week in the NCAA. Georgetown looked good last week, but just got waxed by Ohio University last night. I've got WVU going to the Final 4, losing the National Championship Game to Kansas. So they don't lead to lose to ex-Cal Coach Todd Bozeman's Morgan State team.

It looked like the eyes of the Robert Morris coach were about to pop out of his head over some of those calls.

Omar Samhan completely dominated Richmond. Agree a big Center would help SLU.

Cal played and lost at MSG to Syracuse and Ohio State, without one of its best players in Theo Robertson, who was injured. Not saying it would have mattered in the outcomes, but Robertson is a great 3 point shooter and certainly would have helped against Syracuse's zone. Cal played a decent game in losing at Kansas. Cal was in that game for awhile. I've criticized Cal for its non-conference schedule in the past (which often resembled a certain other state school), but Cal did leave Berkeley and play some good teams this season under Coach Mike Montgomery, a very good and respected veteran coach. I doubt Cal wins against Louisville, but I also had Notre Dame making a run to the Final 4 ... Speaking of which, the season has ended for Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Marquette, but our Billikens are still playing. Re the Mountain West, although I'm out here, I don't know a whole lot about those teams.

The Pac-10 has been ripped to shreds by the pundits. I mean we were talking today- who is Seth Davis? At one point this guy said the loser of Cal-UW wasn't going to be in the NCAA Tournament. Cal may not beat Louisville tomorrow night, mostly because of the Jacksonville, FL venue IMO, but Cal has had a fantastic season. Washington is a good team, certainly an NCAA Tournament team, and Lorenzo is a good coach and a good guy.

Bow down to Washington (and Coach Lorenzo)! So the much maligned Pac-10 takes down Marquette and the Big East. Quincy P. is a star player. As usual the Eastern Block talking heads are full of beans. Welcome to the Left Coast and the Pacific Time Zone. No need to call timeout there, just let Quincy P. go one on one and take the ball to the hoop. He is a very difficult matchup problem. Big East is 1-3 today, and Villanova was lucky to beat the 15 seed, Robert Morris. Nova was down 9 with about 3 minutes left. I hope the Galloping Gaels stick it to Nova on Saturday.

I'm really torn- Lo is coaching UW, but tickets down there will be much easier to get on Sat. if Marquette wins. Looks like UW has brought a good crowd down from the Great Northwest.

Old Dominion 51 Notre Dame 50 (although that one literally killed my brackets, as I had ND making a run to the Final 4 in what appears to be the ultra weak South. As my Domer friend said, "Only a knucklehead would pick Notre Dame!" LOL!) Murray State 66 Vanderbilt 65 on a last second buzzer beater in San Jose. And in the diabolical non-BCS v. non-BCS elimination game: St. Mary's 80 Richmond 71. I mean you've just got to love it. Murray State (from Western Kentucky) and Vanderbilt (from Nashville) have to travel 2,000 miles to play each other. The Murray State players all fell on the Shark Tank basketball court in jubilation, even a young team manager or asst. coach joining the scrum, with that scrum being reminiscent of the Billikens in Baltimore in 1995.

Agreed re these diabolical NCAA non-BCS v. non-BCS matchups. We were commenting about it today amongst our group watching the game. This is the way of the NCAA/BCS killing one of the two little birds with one stone. I didn't know whom to root for before the game started, and I had Richmond in my brackets. But early in the game, I had to go with the Gaels, especially the way the local big man, Omar Samhan, was just dominating. And then when they put in the young frosh from DeLaSalle, that sealed the deal.

Georgetown has a lay President, although he is a Georgetown alumnus. It formerly was a requirement at Quincy that the President be a Franciscan, but that official requirement recently has been changed. But SLU has always had a Jesuit as its President.

Gaels win 80-71, and it wasn't that close in the second half. Despite spending long parts of both halves on the bench in foul trouble, SMC Local Center Omar Samhan (San Ramon Valley HS) dominated Richmond with 29 points. McConnell hit the long rainbow 3's for 23. And even young frosh, Bo Levesque, another local (DeLaSalle) subbed for Omar in both halves and scored 5 points, the last 2 on a dunk that had everyone yelling at our venue. Bo is only 6'5" at most, but played his role well, setting picks, grabbing rebounds. Great win- I hope the Gaels can take down Villanova in Round 2. Nova somehow survived today, and looks vulnerable to the Galloping Gaels in Round 2. Loved it when CBS played "Mr. Sand Man" to honor Omar. Here's hoping Willie Reed was watching. If Willie can put on a little beef, he can dominate Richmond the next 2 years, just like Omar did today. Richmond clearly had no answer for Mr. Sand Man down low in the paint.

Flat out awesome. The HDNet announcer from Kentucky loved it. That dunk and the subsequent great move to the hoop were two of the best plays we have ever seen from a SLU point guard. Also, Willie Reed reasserted himself tonight. The TV analyst, Rex Chapman's Dad, said SLU is going to make some noise in the A-10 the next few years. It is obvious this young SLU team should be in the NIT, but I'm glad the team is in the CBI and still playing- at home and on national TV on HDNet. There were some lulls, but this is a young team.