Quality Is Job 1

>I think it is obvious ... if you are going to call someone >lazy be man enough to do it to their face ... the internet >does not give you the right to disrespect someone >annonymously. I don't think saying someone is lazy is disrespecting them. Furthermore, why doesn't the Internet give someone the right to "disrespect" someone anonymously? I think you're mistaken. > Lazy isn't constructive criticism ... and directed at you, >you probably wouldn't think it was either. If someone is underachieving or is unprepared for some challenge or assessment they knew they were going to face, then to tell them they're lazy IS constructive criticism. Maybe, just maybe, it might provoke them to do what is necessary. Again, I'm not saying Tom Frericks is lazy.

I'm not going to say that Tom is lazy, because I have no basis for that; however, I can't dispute the posters' claims that Brad said (or implied) that Tom is lazy, because I wasn't there. On the other hand, one of the Tip-Off Club meetings I attended featured Angres Thorpe's telling us that he had to attend especially to Tom because he came in much further from playing shape than expected. But what I'm really curious about is why you insist this poster must tell Tom to his face in order to be correct. Is Tom going to haul off and slug the guy for saying it? Does Tom's response have any validation of the poster's claim? If Tom postures to intimidate the guy, does that mean Tom isn't lazy; if the poster feels too scared by Tom's imposing stature to approach him to make a constructive criticism (but one with the potential to be perceived negatively), does that prove Tom isn't lazy? Lastly, just because Tom plays hard -- and when hurt -- doesn't necessarily mean he isn't lazy in the off-season. Many people try very hard during a test (examination), but when they should have been spending the bulk of the semester studying and reading, they were playing Nintendo.

...but there's still a long way to go this season. If this year's squad can get to around 10 wins, then comparisons to the 1991-92 team would be unfair. However, at this point, it does appear that this year's team is nearly as snakebit as the '92 team. The '92 team, though, suffered more from defection and injury than this team.

...former Missouri player Jason Sutherland. Just because he played for one of my teams didn't make him not a dirty player. I didn't care for him, and I wasn't particularly fond of Derek Grimm, either.

>I'd not put them in the same catagory as Cincy. I don't >root against teams like Charlotte, Illinois, Carbondale, and >the like. They are all rivals of SLU to a certain extent >but I' save my hatred for the true scum like Cincy, Memphis, >and Missouri. Hating Illinois seems a bit too much like >sour grapes and outright envy........ I don't think you and I are on the same page. I root for Missouri; Illinois is a rival of Missouri; ergo, it's somewhat painful to see Illinois playing so well (and having the team "shoved" down my throat because the St. Louis media covers it like a home team) when Missouri can't match it. It doesn't matter that Illinois isn't like Cincinnati. Frankly, my dislike of Cincy isn't as strong as my dislike of Illinois. Your last statement is ludicrous. I've considered Illinois a team I like to dislike for over a decade, whether the team is good, mediocre, or bad. Illinois hasn't typically been as good as it is this year, so how can it be envy?

As a Mizzou fan, I view Illinois as a "hated" rival. It's just a choice. I'm a homer. As a resident of St. Louis, Mo., I "pledge" allegiance to the city's Div. I school (SLU) and the state's primary (non-regional) school (Missouri-Columbia). I don't live in Illinois, so I don't consider Illinois "mine." It doesn't have anything to do with perceptions of the program; whether the U. of Illinois is clean or dirty will not affect how I feel about the school. And while I'm displeased about the mess Missouri has brought upon itself -- it has left a bad aftertaste and caused my enthusiasm for the program wane quite a bit -- I still follow the team very closely and want the program to be successful while cleaning up its act.

...is to force that team into about 25 turnovers (and then convert those TO's into buckets. Alas, the Illini are very good about taking care of the ball. This has been a very hard season for me: my two favorite teams, SLU and Mizzou are mediocre at best (horrendous at worst), and two of the teams I like to dislike (Illinois and Kansas) are strong NC contenders. This might wind up being worse than 1996-97, when neither SLU nor Mizzou played in the postseason.

After the Billikens "shock" your Bearcats -- for the second time this season -- in Memphis in a couple of months, you won't have to worry about the Bills anymore, as the Parolees from the Queen City will slink off to the middle of the Big East pack for the next five years while the Billikens go to the A-10 and dominate. Farewell.

Haven't I read here someone comparing Danny Brown to Maurice Jeffers? That would be great. It looks to me that Brown may keep one of the local stud recruits on the bench next season (or limit that guys playing time).

The only way to create an opening for Anthony Bonner to be an assistant coach is for one of the current assistants (Angres Thorpe, Anthony Beane, and Jason Grunkemeyer) to move up somewhere. With the Bills' having a poor season, it doesn't look like many schools will be hot on the trail for one of Brad Soderberg's ACs. What I heard from Bonner, as I semi-reported a few weeks ago, is that he plans to put his name in for a position at any level. If he's at the high school level in a couple of years when the Bills' ACs become hot commodities after deep runs into the NCAAs, then SLU can offer AB a position that will be a step up from the position he'll have at the time.

He's just a freshman. He's still the Bills' point of the future.

There's no way that anyone can consider St. Charles to be rural.

The "real" Triangle andToo does not have a space between the "and" and the "Too." The one with the space is the imitation. All you have to do is look at the post counts. The no space one has over 1,000, and the spaced-out one has just a couple.

It appears that the master caricaturist, Triangle andToo is trying to put words in my mouth. The third part of my above question is not "my thought." Leave it to Too to make it look like I want Brad Soderberg to be gone from SLU prior to the 2007-08 season. No that's what he wants; I was just trying to clearly understand his cryptic thoughts.

Are you saying we shouldn't even give it a thought, because Kramer will definitely play for his dad at SLU, are you saying that we don't want him to play at SLU because he won't be good enough to play on an A-10 level, or are you saying that Brad Soderberg won't still be coaching at SLU (though his contract extension is certainly long enough for him to still be there) for Kramer to be in the picture? What DO you mean?

Izik Ohanon dunked against Oral Roberts on a nice pick-and-roll, the feed coming from Dwayne Polk.

I don't know how old he is, but I do know he's a 9th-grader at St. Charles West. That would probably make him 14 or 15.

Remember the first Tip-Off Club meeting when Angres Thorpe praised Meyer and Brown for their mental toughness? I'm sure they haven't lost that, but they are freshmen and will defer to the upperclassmen.

>>I'm scared for next year's game when KL and TL are around. Saint Louis will probably take a hiatus from playing Southern Illinois for the next two years while they have a two-game series with SMS, or something like that. You probably won't see Lisch and Liddell until they're juniors.

Even Frank Cusumano, today, is all over SLU for not getting young Mr. Dale. How can he not realize that it isn't plausible for the Billikens to have recruited Dale?

You're mistaken. Brad Soderberg has completed two years as the head coach and is in his third year as head coach. He was an assistant coach to Lorenzo Romar for one year prior to his becoming head coach. He's in his fourth year here. Brad could not have gotten Darren Brooks and Stetson Harrison (seniors), as they signed LOIs while Soderberg was still Dick Bennett's assistant at Wisconsin (before Bennett retired early in the season). Even if they signed during the late period, Brad was just getting settled in his new position as Romar's assistant. Mike Dale failed to qualify and paid his own way at SIU as a freshman. It's a lot easier for him to do that at a state school in the state where he is a resident than at Saint Louis U. Randal Falker and Matt Shaw chose SIU over SLU (and other schools) for reasons that are out of Brad's control. Your claim doesn't hold water, in my opinion.

Then what do you suppose is the reason that Darren Clarke isn't playing? He isn't injured, apparently.

It does seem a little slow, but it is working.