Quality Is Job 1

volfan wrote: >Rumors circulating around the campus at Arizona State say >Pizzotti has been selected to lead the Tigers in '04-'05. >Obviously just rumors; what's anyone else heard? Lobo wrote: >I haven't heard anything, but I speculated that once Woolard >got settled at USF he would make her an offer. What do Doug Woolard and USF have to do with Memphis? I also wonder how the rumor got to Arizona St. Lobo, are you well-versed on what's going on with the USF women's program? Is there some reason Woolard would want Pizzotti to coach the women's team at USF? It's not very common that AD's would try to get coaches from various sports at a former school to follow him or her until there is a natural termination, is it? It's not the same as a head coach taking assistants to a new location.

1994-95: Erwin Claggett, H Waldman, Scott Highmark, Carl Turner, Carlos McCauley. 2004-05: Reggie Bryant, Anthony Drejaj, Darren Clarke, Dwayne Polk, Antwan Alexander, Luke Meyer. I think the '05 backcourt will be a little deeper and tougher on defense. On the strength of Bryant's scoring ability, it will probably be just as effective on offense. I think the only advantage that the '95 backcourt has over the '05 backcourt is experience, particularly at the point. Waldman was a senior and Polk will be a freshman. If DP is steady and doesn't commit many turnovers, the '05 backcourt has the potential to be better than the '95 backcourt, especially if Clarke contributes. Drejaj and Alexander will be key components.

SLU has been to the NCAA Tourney four times (not three times) in the past 25 years. Also, what do you mean about leaving Romar out? He's included in the poll.

Let me piggyback off of SLUms81's post and say that 10 years ago the Billikens were coming off of an NCAA Tournament appearance with Evan Pedersen and Donnie Dobbs (6'3") departing as inside players, David Robinson and Donnie Campbell (both 6'6" junior college transfers after their first season at SLU) and 6'4" rising sophomore Jeff Harris returning and 6'8" juco rising sophomore coming in at the inside positions. They returned to the NCAA Tournament in 1995. I would take the 2004-05 frontcourt (Izik Ohanon, Tom Frericks, Justin Johnson, Ian Vouyoukas, Vas'shun Newborne, and Bryce Husak) in a heartbeat over the 1994-95 frontcourt. The Billikens will make the 2005 NCAA Tournament on the strength of strong senior seasons by Ohanon, Reggie Bryant, and Frericks and the upgrade in team athleticism and depth and increased familiarity with Brad Soderberg's system.

...and my answer may be different. Brad Soderberg is very promising, and I think he'll be on top after a while, but his tenure of two years hasn't been enough for me to consider him the best Billiken coach of the last 16 years (I don't go back as a fan 25 years).

If that's the case, then I guess Jill Pizzotti won't be on SLU's search committee for the new athletic director. How is that search going, by the way?

They've made a living off of foreign players.

Make sure you stay connected to Billikens.com.

Roller coasters, I can handle; hang gliding, doubtful; scuba diving and snorkeling, out of the question. It's primarily because I don't enjoy swimming and can never get relaxed and comfortable in the water, if I can't stand with my feet on the floor and be head and shoulders above the surface. My main fear with things like skydiving and hang gliding are the possibility of equipment failure/malfunction. Roller coasters seem safer.

Anthony Jones was 6-2, and Donnie Dobbs was 6-3. Dobbs was more effective offensively and defensively as a forward than Jones.

Thanks. Please keep us abreast of when the guys will be playing pick-up ball in West Pine this summer. I'd like to get down there to watch on occasion.

Still, you would never catch me doing it. I went on a cruise in my teens, and though snorkeling was one of the activities available to me, it was nowhere near on my list of things to do.

>Grawer was the last coach to recruit this well locally but >he never got a player from East St. Louis and only one to my >knowledge from Vashon. Aside from the two additional Vashon players already mentioned in this thread, you should count Monroe Douglass and Roland Gray, who both attended PHL schools, and you must count Erwin Claggett, from Venice, Ill.

Please tell me they have a thousand safety measures in place and an emergency team standing by! Do you have to sign a waiver? That just doesn't sound right.

While I would be happy if SLU gets Dennard Abraham, a potential problem would arise. There would be five players due to graduate in 2007: Justin Johnson, Darren Clarke, Ian Vouyoukas, Antwan Alexander, and Abraham.

I hope everyone had a pleasant Memorial Day. P.S., since SLU has already gotten a verbal committment from Kevin Lisch and I'm confident he'll honor the committment, a visit to Duke by the young man would only serve to help SLU, as every rating service would bump Lisch up 20 places just for his name being connected to Duke, so it's too bad Skip's rumor isn't true. Skip, are you sure you don't sell used cars? ;-)

My "c'est la vie (nm)" was a joke -- a double ententre. I was agreeing with the statement, "c'est la vie" (French, meaning, "that's life" or "such is life" -- or, as Triangle andToo puts it, "so it goes..."), but I also wanted to present the correct spelling of the phrase, in case anyone were interested. I'm sorry that some of you vulgar, ditchdigging tards (Shakespearean insult in jest) weren't able to pick up on my feeble effort at humor. I promise you, folks, I let at least 90 percent of the grammatical and spelling mistakes on this board slide. Heck, I even let around 20 percent of my OWN mistakes stay on the board, so please stop jumping on my case.

Roy, that sounds great. Can you provide a link, or is it a subscription site? I'd like to save that and would prefer to save the original over your copy.

...yes, Roy, I know you said the same thing, but I admire how succinctly Lobo expressed it. It's not that I don't like how you expressed it, either, but, since you're a legend around these parts, you don't really need any more praise :-)

...j/k A-bomb. Seriously, I don't think Schasz comment was referring to you, A-bomb.