Bay Area Billiken

I haven't had time to read all this thread. Miklasz's statement, if said, at minimum, was in very poor taste. He should be ashamed of himself. This Dr. Chaifetz is giving $12M to SLU. One of these days, in the hopefully not so distant future, SLU will again be playing in the NCAA. Then what is Bernie going to say?

Get them (the NCAA) to consider the game a win for SMS? Rubbish. SLU won the game, period. I knew this would rear its ugly head again. These Mo. State folks will not let it rest. Again they are paranoid about getting another NCAA snub. If they take care of business in the MVC Tournament and don't get ousted by Wichita State in the quarterfinals, they are probably in the NCAA anyway. This whining, sniveling Mo. State stuff has gotten beyond old and stale. These apologists are trying to stand the rulebook on its head. Maybe SLU should simply drop Mo. State from the schedule once and for all. This series benefits Mo. State much more than it does SLU. If there is a need to play a Missouri Valley school, replace Mo. State with old rival Bradley on the SLU schedule.

How many loyal supporters do those Grays Harbor Chokers have? We are Cho-kers!

Illinois College Blueboys Loras College Duhawks Coe College Kohawks Manhattan College Jaspers St. Ambrose Fighting Bees Illinois-Springfield (UIS)Prairie Stars Marshall Thundering Herd High School: Lamar(Colorado)Savages Pittsfield (IL) Saukees Rock Island (IL) Rocks Ft. Madison (IA) Bloodhounds Columbia Hickman Kewpies

SLU has a fighting chance at an NIT bid if it doesn't win the A-10 Tournament and get the automatic NCAA bid.

UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs is in a class of its own. Then there are the UC Irvine Anteaters. When Stanford changed its nickname from Indians to "Cardinal," the student body supposedly actually voted for Fighting Thunderchickens, but that was not allowed. Loyola Ramblers is an interesting one too. How about the Central Missouri Mules and the women's team, the Jennies?

I agree that it would really help SLU's NIT chances to win at least one of these 2 remaining road games. And, of course, SLU must hold the home court next Wed. and beat Richmond. There are two newer NIT gremlins, the one that was implemented last year to give automatic NIT bids to (lesser) conference champions that don't win their post-season tournaments and don't get NCAA at large bids. That was implemented last year, and cost something like 6 bids. Then there is the reduction in the field from 40 back to 32 teams. There is also the issue of teams ahead of SLU in the A-10 standings with worse RPI's like URI, St. Joe's, and GW. SLU can say it beat SJU and GW and split with URI. Another thing, there used to be a de facto exception re the NIT to let the New York Area teams in the NIT if they had at least .500 records. St. John's and Fordham both are over .500 this year, albeit with ordinarily non-qualifying RPI's: Fordham is 14-11 with an RPI of 119; St. John's is 15-13 with an RPI of 124. And Fordham did beat SLU in The Bronx this year. This all being said, the real goal remains to win the A-10 Tournament. This season's results show that SLU can play with any of these A-10 teams. It is not an impossible dream to win the whole thing.

Quite frankly, for Karraker to make this claim about SLU and the Ohio Valley is ridiculous. These guys are talking heads that must be saying these things hoping to get a rise and to get people to listen. How are their ratings? Do these guys know that SLU is 17-10 and 7-6 in the A-10? No, that is not what we want, but the sky is not falling either.

Congratulations to all involved. Where's Bernie?

Is Flyphan comparing notes with Bernie M.?

Per the St. Joe's website, this Temple v. St. Joe's game is at the Palestra. I've read that Phil Martelli believes that Big Five games should still be played at the Palestra.

Two SLU wins in a row, and he's writing about the Blues. Doesn't the Bern know that he has to accept the good with his perceived bad? And where's Bernie at the time of his beloved MVC's need?

Lunardi has Illinois and Michigan State both out. Michigan State has an RPI of 31; Illinois is at 44 per kenpom.com and 42 per realtimerpi.com. Michigan State is 6-6 in the Big Ten; Illinois is 7-6. Usually, an above .500 record in the Big Ten gets you in. I think they are both in right now. USC inexplicably lost a big one last night at Pac-10 bottom feeder Arizona State.

And the whining and sniveling about the Mo. State loss at SLU has resurfaced, almost two months after the fact, as fully expected just as soon as Mo. State went into the midst of its annual late season fold. See Bernie's Pressbox at stltoday.com. Surprisingly, Bernie M., MVC apologist that he is, didn't cut the Mo. State whiners any slack on this one.

Mo. State takes a big home hit. Mo. State lost by 11 at home to Winthrop of the lowly Big South Conference (Conference RPI 29 of 32). Although Winthrop (RPI 76) looks like a good team, its conference is near the bottom. And the MVC took a hit too, falling behind the Big XII in Conference RPI. The MVC is now 7th there. Mo. State's RPI dropped to 40. Bradley is at 42 going into its Bracket Buster game at VCU.

I sincerely hope another Ice Age is not on the way. I don't think it would be allowed to get anywhere near that far.

I remember being at the old Kiel on a Monday night for Oklahoma City. I don't remember the snow, but it wasn't a SRO crowd. Of course, in those days, most crowds were in the 2,000's.

Their RPI is 8. Does anyone objectively think SIU is the 8th best team in the entire country? I want to see the Common Sense Index. I remain skeptical re the Salukis, not that they are not a good team, but not the 8th best team in the country. And I'm not impressed with Shaw, having seen him play in person once and on TV. IMO, SIU has 2 players, Tatum and Falker. And Falker is an undersized Center at 6'7". This being said, I'm much more concerned with our team right now.

Maybe so re Shaw. But when I saw him out here against SMC, he had 2 points, was 1-5 from the floor, 0-2 from 3 point land with an ugly brick, 2 rebounds, and 4 turnovers in 34 minutes. I've also seen him throw up some very ugly bricks on 3 point attempts on TV. I'm sure Shaw is better than when I've seen him play. But I would still take Luke Meyer over Shaw.

Why don't we put the whole MVC in the NCAA, all 10 of them? After all, look at those RPI's. Look at those power ratings. Maybe the MVC should be moved into the NBA. Seriously, I think the MVC is a 3 bid league this year. The exception would be if someone other than SIU, Creighton, or Mo. State wins the MVC Tournament. And we know what happened to Mo. State's bid last year.

Because of recent tournament appearances and newfound name recognition, more than real talent or merit, I can see SIU getting say a 5th seed. As for a #4 seed, as in tacit recognition that SIU is among the 16th best teams in the country, it says here that the Common Sense Index better be consulted first. Shaw had a bad game when I saw SIU in person. I know he is better than he played out here against SMC, but come on. He's not much more than a role player. I'd take Luke Meyer over Shaw, even giving the 1 or 2 inches. SIU's players are Tatum at guard and Falker, an undersized Center at 6'7".

My thoughts below may have gotten lost in another thread. I'm curious about what other fans think. As previously stated, I am not a member of the Kool-Aid Club. Nor am I ready to join the ABC's. Perhaps there is a third, centrist party, the Disappointed Dilemma Group. That's where I'm at right now. And you know about the horns of a dilemma. Which way should we go? I don't know right now. It isn't as crystal clear as it was, say in 1982, when it was painfully obvious. Does the current coach have solid inroads into that Class of '08? What are the real chances of the current coach signing solid recruits from that class? Does the presence of the current coach's son in that class enhance SLU's chances of recruiting success there? If the current coach is gone, there goes the son's influence, if he has any.

I know. I'm a Doubting Thomas re SIU. SIU is a good team. I don't think SIU is the 9th best team in the country. And I truly don't think they are that much better than SLU. I have seen both teams play in person, twice in the case of SLU, once in the case of SIU. And I've seen both play on TV. I think a team with a couple of good big men would beat SIU, assuming they have decent guards that can handle the pressure defense. What about the Jay Bilas Common Sense Index? But hey, if you think SIU is that good, pick them in your NCAA brackets. I'll at least wait to see the identity of their opponent.

In the MCC, teams usually had a traveling partner and played 2 road games on the same trip, followed by 2 home games, etc. SLU would play Oral Roberts and Oklahoma City on the same trip.

Yes. I've been in Marquette's old on-campus gym. I've seen the old Kennel too at Gonzaga. SLU hoops has been on a slow decline since Spoon left. I agree that the right coach can win at SLU. Rich Grawer and Charlie Spoonhour wrote the blueprints about how to have success at SLU. Grawer recruited some very good players. Spoon was an excellent bench coach. Both of them had their bad years, but overall they were both successful.