Bay Area Billiken

Add to the tape the wrestling takedown/football tackle of IV by some Iowa thug in the first half. That might have been called an intentional foul in the touch foul Pac-10 or the ACC. But it was "traveling" when some almighty Big 10 team was the culprit.

I wondered why Luke Meyer did not play, especially when Iowa went to the 2-3 zone. SLU needs another shooter or it will see zone, zone, zone. We know Temple is a matchup zone team.

That wrestling takedown/football tackle of IV, which incredibly resulted in a "traveling" call and an Iowa possession, was one of the worst calls I have seen in a long, long time. That might well have been called a flagrant, intentional foul in the Pac-10 or ACC. Two fouls could have been called on Iowa on the play. But it is a no call when a bunch of bangers from the almighty Big 10 is involved. And Brad Soderberg practically had to pray to get the refs to finally call the over and back on Iowa on another play.

Some Iowa fan seated by us actually claimed that a SLU player touched the ball on the over and back! The wrestling takedown/football tackle of Ian Vouyoukas in the first half, that amazingly resulted in a no foul call and an Iowa possession, was yet another case of reverse homerism to protect the almighty Big Ten team. Where was Luke Meyer when Iowa went to the 2-3 zone? Without Drejaj, SLU needs another outside shooter. Isn't Meyer a decent outside shooter? The refs were again horrible on SLU's "home court." This game was supposedly played in St. Louis, not Iowa City or Keokuk. Still SLU would have won, even with these refs, had the Billikens made just a few more shots, including layups, and shot better at the free throw line. It was a frustrating loss. But there is hope for this team, and the future looks brighter.

At the Oakland Coliseum Arena, an old San Francisco Warriors banner bearing a Native American was placed on a visible high wall at one end. But the Warriors for a long time had no mascot. The logo once included a SF Cable Car and later a map of California. A couple of years ago, Golden State introduced Thunder as its mascot, which looks like a blue titan, like an action figure. The point is that a Warrior does not have to be a Native American. Marquette's alumni have wanted Warriors back from the time that name was dropped. It is hard to believe that Marquette would compound its past error with an even bigger one.

One cannot help being amused by Marquette's seemingly endless search for a nickname. The vast majority of the Marquette alumni wanted to reinstate Warriors, but that ran afoul of Native American groups. Out here we have the NBA's Golden State Warriors, and the mascot, Thunder, is like a titan, not a Native American. No one seems to complain about the use of Warriors here, although the name Golden State is another story. In any event, Marquette Gold is just a terrible nickname. Couldn't they do any better than that?

Billy Lou brings back painful memories. He was said to have looked like the Mayrose Meat Man. Ekker mentioned that a lot was paid for him. We worked hard to restore the real Billiken.

I also wanted him to stay at SLU and hoped UW would lure someone else to Seattle. He is doing a great job at UW, as the #1 NCAA seed attests. His Huskies play an up tempo, exciting brand of basketball. They are a bit undersized, which might ultimately catch up with them in the NCAA.

Predictions? Earlier in the season I would have picked SIU. Now I am not so sure. SIU has no one to contend with SMC's 6'10" Aussie, Daniel Kickert, who often plays far away from the basket and can shoot and make NBA type 3 pointers, but who can also score inside. A key is whether Kickert will be at full speed. In the WCC final against Gonzaga, Kickert's knee was heavily wrapped, and he had to sit out for periods of time. I know SIU's Darren Brooks is a star guard, but so is SMC's Paul Marigney, who is also a Senior. SMC's point guard, E.J. Rowland is a Senior and a pretty good ball handler. The venue in Oklahoma City is a long way from Moraga, CA. Plus, SIU has become a veritable NCAA regular, while the bright lights of the NCAA will be new to the Gaels. It should be one heck of a game.

probable first round fodder. But you never know, and they are in the Big Dance.

Correction: I meant to say that Rudy T. was there on Sunday night. We were speculating that the scouts must have been looking at Adam Morrison and possibly Turiaf and Batista of Gonzaga and Daniel Kickert (6'10" Aussie who can really shoot the 3 from deep range) and Paul Marigney of St. Mary's.

I was there the last 2 nights at Santa Clara. Gonzaga's Adam Morrison is a great player and is drawing comparisons to Larry Bird. It seemed as if he was unstoppable both nights. He can literally do it all. Gonzaga is a very, very good team. The Zags could make some real noise in the NCAA. Randy Bennett said the Zags have improved since SMC last played them. Scouts spotted at their table included Rudy Tomjanovich on Saturday night and Danny Ainge last night. St. Mary's should still be in the NCAA with an RPI of 30. But Gaels' followers are on pins and needles until Selection Sunday. They are worried than SMC, a small college with a relatively small following, will be passed over by one of the big conference also-rans. I sincerely hope not because the Gaels (25-8) deserve to go to the Big Dance.

Marquette has no standing to criticize SLU's talent. Marquette is going to be in for a very rude awakening in the Big East.

Agreed. SLU is a better team than Marquette without Diener. Marquette is overrated.

Crean is getting ripped on the Marquette board. Of course, SLU is getting no credit. Marquette has no point guard without Diener. I was hoping SLU would be able to exploit that. Chapman and Mason are 2-3 types. Townsend is a 4.

Wasn't SLU a 9 seed in the C-USA Tournament won in Lorenzo Romar's first year, the year of the Miracle of Memphis? This is the second time I've heard someone claim that SLU was a 12 seed, and I'm pretty sure that is incorrect. Also Larry Hughes was not on that team. Hughes' team earned an at large bid to the NCAA 2 years earlier.

Take that, Marquette, all the way to the NIT and second division status in the Big East. If there was one game we wanted to win this year, it had to be Marquette. To beat Marquette in Milwaukee on its Senior Day is super sweet. Even with Diener, Marquette was overrated. Marquette is the poster team for the fallacy of the RPI. Marquette came into this game with an RPI of 53. Marquette and its followers still held out hope for an NCAA bid. Even that false hope has to be gone now. In truth, SLU should have swept Marquette this year. We will take the win today. In this disappointing season, the Billikens at least have improved. Valuable experience has been gained for the young players.

The responses so far from the Billiken supporters in Bernie's Press Box have been solid and well reasoned. It is best to take the high road here, knowing that better days lie ahead.

To me, Bennett's performance at SMC should give SLU followers hope. He took over a team from a small college, much smaller than SLU, that went 2-27 the year before he arrived and now has that team on the brink of the NCAA Tournament. Plus, he spent 2 years at SLU as the top assistant under Lorenzo Romar.

Perhaps you are right that no response to Bernie M. is the best response. It may be best to not feed more to the columnist. Personally, I just don't like my double alma mater being ripped like that at this time for no legitimate reason, without taking into account the totality of the circumstances, and with the attack evidently spawned by that columnist's own failure to get his facts straight and being called on that.

Billiken Roy, I think you have some very valid points. Whatever the reason, there has just been too much change and lack of continuity at SLU, from coaches to AD's. If I recall from my early days out here, that first Gonzaga coach was Dan Fitzgerald, who was from the Bay Area. Gonzaga was not that good in those days, an average middle of the conference team in the WCC. Next came Monson, who is the son of the old Oregon coach. Then came the current coach, Few. Few was an assistant to Monson, who is now at Minnesota. But overall, the Zags seemed to play the same type of system. As far as I recall, they have always been an up tempo team. They always had hot 3 point shooting guards from Santangelo to Frahm to Dickau to the guy they have now. Gradually, the Zags began to get the bigs too, and they have two horses inside now. SLU has gone from Rich Grawer to Charlie Spoonhour to Lorenzo Romar to Brad Soderberg, all of them with different coaching styles and philosophies. Soderberg was only with Romar one year. How many AD's has SLU had? There was Jim Bakken, followed by Joe Yates, followed by Debbie Yow, followed by Doug Woolard, followed by Cheryl Levick. I still believe that Rich Grawer was the true saviour of the Billikens and the SLU basketball program. My 4 undergraduate years coincided with Ron Ekker's 4 years at SLU. There was no Billiken mascot, until my roommate and I sat in Ekker's office our Senior year and refused to leave until he let us restore the Billiken. There was no pep band (and the current SLU band is one of the very best pep bands); there was a rent a band of some sort. We formed our own renegade band in the dorm to play at the games on the other end. There were no cheerleaders; there were the Billy Lou Strutters. I was on the SLU campus the summer that Grawer arrived and heard him tell someone that he wanted to get a band that played next to the opponent's bench. For a time the old Alumni Trumpeteers were resurrected. Cheerleaders returned. The games moved back to Kiel Auditorium, which was a great venue for college hoops. Conventional wisdom at the time of Grawer's dismissal was that he could not get SLU to the next level. Part of that was due to NCAA gerrymandering on Selection Sunday, as one Grawer team won 25 games and another won 27 games. Those records should have resulted in NCAA bids. One of those teams was 24-9 on Selection Sunday and relegated to the NIT; another was 23-9 on Selection Sunday and again went to the NIT. I hated to see Grawer get fired, but I was happy and pleasantly surprised shortly thereafter when Charlie Spoonhour was hired. Charlie Spoonhour was revered at SLU. He was a good bench coach. He went to the NCAA largely with Grawer's recruits. Then he landed Larry Hughes and made another NCAA appearance. Hughes left after one year, and Spoon resigned after the following 15-16 disappointing season. After Spoonhour resigned, Lorenzo Romar was hired from Pepperdine. Romar has proven to be a good coach. He was not there long enough at SLU, only 3 years. IMO, his chief problem was going after all those blue chip West Coast recruits that he was unable to land. Continuity is important, and SLU has not had it. Plus, SLU has played in a much, much tougher conference over the years than Gonzaga. A fairer comparison would be comparing SLU with Marquette and DePaul.

I meant to say that St. Mary's beat USF twice.

I am planning to go to at least some of the WCC Tournament in Santa Clara. Even though Gonzaga and St. Mary's have had great seasons, the tournament is really up for grabs. Among the 3 Bay Area arch-rivals, USF beat Santa Clara twice this year, Santa Clara beat St. Mary's twice, but St. Mary's beat Santa Clara twice. All of them were close games except Santa Clara's blowout win at St. Mary's when the Gaels were dead cold. St. Mary's and Gonzaga get byes into the semi-finals on Sunday. USF would have to win 4 games, while Santa Clara would have to win 3 games to get the NCAA automatic bid. I think St. Mary's will get an at large bid if Gonzaga wins the tournament. Gonzaga will be in the NCAA irrespective of what happens in the WCC Tournament. But the problem for St. Mary's could be if someone else wins this thing, like host Santa Clara. Then the Gaels would be on the bubble because there are questions as to whether the NCAA would take 3 teams from this 8 team conference.

I think this year's trouble is a product of Lorenzo Romar leaving after only 3 years, missing out on recruits for various reasons, nonetheleast of which is that St. Louis University is in the Midwest and not on the West Coast, going after the wrong recruits, allowing those that could have been signed to go elsewhere (like SIU and SMS), and the injuries to Seniors Reggie Bryant and Tom Frericks. My biggest concern is that the old Billiken Jinx has not made an unwanted reappearance. Negativism breeds more negativism. Next year will hopefully be a better year.

Someone from St. Louis should respond to Bernie in Bernie's Press Box. His column is way off target and very skewed. 1. Citing Lorenzo Romar. IMO Romar is a good coach. But at SLU, Romar kept recruiting prime West Coast players and not landing them: Jamaal Sampson (1 year at Cal), Chuck Hayes (Kentucky), Ryan Hollins (signed with SLU but allowed to go to UCLA when Romar left, and now playing limited minutes there). Sure Romar is getting players at Washington, BUT WASHINGTON IS ON THE WEST COAST! Romar signed Vashon's Nick Kern, who would have been that elusive power forward, but you all know that tragic story. Irrespective of the reasons, the cupboard was bare when Romar left SLU. 2. Academics are an issue. No one has said that only Rhodes scholars can play for SLU. But SLU does not have a P.E. major, and that seriously hampers SLU's ability to get some JUCO's into SLU. It is ok for Bernie to cite Gonzaga. But Gonzaga has built a strong program with good continuity of coaches. Gonzaga gets 4 year players out of high school. Gonzaga's success has allowed the Zags to recruit and sign some prime players like Morrison. And although this year the West Coast Conference is up overall, in general over the years the WCC was not nearly as strong of a league as at least the upper echelons of C-USA. The WCC is composed of 8 private schools, 7 of them Catholic schools. There are no programs now in the WCC like Louisville, Cincinnati, or Memphis. The point is that Gonzaga built its program by winning in the weaker WCC and then doing well when it got the chance in the NCAA Tournament. This is not meant to take anything away from the Zags. But the situations at SLU and Gonzaga have not been the same. This latest firestorm with Bernie seems to have stemmed from Bernie not having or ignoring the facts re Lorenzo Gordon. The SLU supporters were more than justified in calling Bernie on that one. 3. No SLU supporter wants the Billikens to be 8-20 with an RPI of 207. This year has been a big disappointment. But better days have to be around the corner. It does not help the cause to have the main columnist in the city's only paper taking these shots at SLU. When I was at SLU during the Ron Ekker Era, we at least had Bob Burnes in the Globe-Democrat to try to defend our honor in print and on KMOX.