Quality Is Job 1

If Jamal Johnson had transferred to SLU out of juco instead of the Florida school he went to for a year, then Spoon's 1993-94 and '94-95 squads would have been killers! We might not be lamenting the program's lack of a Sweet 16 or deeper run.

By "we," I mean the consensus. I would never suggest any opinion here is unanimous! Therefore, I don't feel I need to "correct" anything. Also, I thought the team could be better in 2019-20, considering all of the unknowns, but I didn't think it was probable, because of the same factor.

You're kidding, right?

Roy, I'm probably older than most of the posters here, but I'm not old enough to have watched Robertson!

Couldn't Jordan Goodwin have played D-1 football if he had wanted?

The official scorer isn't one of the statisticians. I don't know exactly how it's handled at the college or pro levels, but I have been both for high school basketball. The official scorer records field goals made, fouls, and free throws (made and attempted) for both teams and is technically a game official. Each team can have a statistician who records the remaining stats for their own team's players: assists, rebounds, steals, blocks, turnovers, and field-goal attempts. Sometimes it's a coach or team manager who fills that role.

You're making a different argument. I'm not making a value judgement on guys who stay at a school for four years; I'm saying fans rarely see guys play at one school for four years anymore.

We're hoping Gibson Jimerson will be a 5-year Billiken.

No, because he didn't use up all four years of his eligibility; so I didn't count him.

Tip-in, not dunk.

I was more impressed w/ Daly than Powell, but....

On average, every program in the country loses two players per year. No coach can rest easy. Can you imagine how it would be if there were still 15 available scholarships, instead of 13? I wonder what percentage of athletes there are who play out their full 4-year eligibility for one school anymore. Davell Roby is the most recent Billiken, and he was the only one in his class. Before that Mike Crawford and Reggie Agbeko stuck it out. There's a two-year gap between Roby and the double-double tandem of French and Goodwin. Three guys in four years.

Is the WhatIfSports website still around?

Hard, maybe, but not impossible. We didn't expect the 2019-2020 Bills squad to be better than the previous year's, considering the losses, but they were (are — the season wasn't supposed to be over yet).

Sounds good, particularly if BC is improved in 2020-21.

The 2019 (-20) Boston College game was part of the Gotham Classic; I doubt BC will be playing at SLU in 2020.

@Pistol, the concluding sentence of the blurb on French contradicts the opening statement. Is it something you overlooked removing as you edited?

Except a runner-up loses its last game. No, a 5-game winning streak at the end of a season means an NIT Championship.

For that to be the case, then by or around that date, SLU will have to announce someone's departure or retirement.

Venue schedules won't permit. The season is over. There will be no 2020 champion. "I can see clearly, now...."

So he can have more kids?!

I saw one — I'm not polling a bunch! — that said through March 30. The Final Four is in April. That's the reason I said it wouldn't surprise me if the NCAA attempted to do something like that. It's still a big deal for Atlanta, for NCAA records and history, and for the schools with a legitimate chance at a championship. The NCAA Championship hasn't always been a six- or seven-round affair with 64-68 teams. Has anything since World War II caused cancellation of an NCAA championship? Maybe they'll figure out a way to salvage something. I don't care all that much if they do or if they don't; I'm just saying I wouldn't be surprised if they were to attempt to salvage some kind of championship.

I wouldn't be surprised if they put together a BCS-Championship style 4-team tournament to be played in Atlanta during the Final Four weekend regardless of what happens to the preliminary rounds.

That would be a novel solution: to have some kind of tournament during the summer. It would be really weird, though.

I agree with you, but I suspect that the administrators' fear is that someone among the players, coaching staffs, officials, essential staff, media, and immediate families may carry the contagion. 2020 is supposed to be the year of perfect vision, but now we're not seeing anything.