Quality Is Job 1

DePaul and Marquette are not the only teams to worry about. Cincinnati, Louisville, UAB, Memphis, and Charlotte (5 teams) are the teams, along with DePaul with the strongest chances of getting at-large bids. The Bills trail all of them and are ahead of Marquette. Neither Marquette nor SLU is currently in position to get into the NCAA Tournament without procuring C-USA's automatic bid. TCU and Southern Miss are also teams to be wary of during the Conference USA Tournament.

That's correct. Brad said that if he had had timeouts remaining, particularly on the second one-and-one chance, he would have put Ian in for rebounding purposes then called timeout to make his offense-defense substitution.

Brad Soderberg did explain his reasoning regarding timeouts on his show tonight. He said he would like to have his full allotment of second-half timeouts for the last two minutes of the game, if possible. However, he sometimes feels it's necessary to call a timeout earlier in the game to suppress a run. He said that he fears if he doesn't call the timeouts he called yesterday, the Bills may have trailed by 15 or 16 points rather than eight. Is it better to go into the last two minutes of a game with no timeouts trailing by six or have three timeouts left trailing by 16?

Coach Soderberg said on his show tonight that he hopes Tom Frericks will play against Marquette Wednesday. He got three extra days of rest.

ABC showed Missouri-UNLV all the way to the end here in St. Louis (it's about time Missouri played the way I expected!). Probably the only parts of the country that watched that game all the way through were in Missouri's and UNLV's areas of "natural" interest.

>6. After watching UNCC take apart a supposed great defense >at Louisville in scoring 77 points and then watching the >game today, I concluded that we must truly have one of the >best half court defenses in the nation. It is truly >amazing!! Actually, in addition to SLU's stalwart half-court defense, the main thing that held Charlotte some 35 points below its scoring average (please correct me on that number if I'm mistaken) is SLU's half-court offense. Brad Soderberg said during the post-game interview that he emphasized the point that, if the Bills were to win, they would have to keep the game in the 40s to low 50s. At Brad's insistence, the Bills slowed down the game and limited the number of possessions. Brad said he knows it's not particularly a very fan-friendly way to play, but they needed to do it to win. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

...they don't practice in their game uniforms do they?

...didn't you know that SLU's games are broadcast on KMOX (1120 AM)? Most of the games are there, but if not on KMOX, they're on KFNS (590 AM) -- the all-sports station. Today's game was on KMOX.

We can expect some bumpy moments early, as it takes all but the few freshmen in the stratosphere of a Carmelo Anthony, Larry Hughes, or Mike Bibby a while to digest the change in the pace and rigor of the game from high school to college, but by the end of the season Dwayne Polk will be solid, at least. He's already been taught the fundamentals very well and may adjust to Div I ball more quickly than most frosh. Jimmy McKinney was a significant contributor from practically the very start at Mizzou last year, so I think we can expect a similar contribution from Polk, McKinney's one-time backcourt mate. Remember, Polk has contributed to two state-championship teams and is a strong contender to get another one this year, so he's not going to accept losing -- not even as a freshman.

That's what I've suspected all along.

Perhaps you spoke too soon.

Billikens blow a 21-point first-half lead to lose 70-68???????????????

I copied and pasted but didn't change ALL of the pertinent information in my haste. The deadline was supposed to be 6:00 p.m.

You are not correct. "Learn and use" is a compound verb. It does not require commas. The compound verb is modified by "the proper syntax." Do you recognize the difference between the following two sentences? 1a. Learn and listen to God. (wrong) 2a. Learn and obey the Ten Commandments. Changes: 1b. Learn to listen to God. (correct) 2b. Learn to obey the Ten Commandments. (changed meaning) The second version of Sentence 2 presumes that the addressee already knows the Ten Commandments but isn't obeying them. But the first versiou suggests that the addressee doesn't know them yet. Furthermore, to say just, "Learn the Ten Commandments," suggests obtaining knowledge that might not be used. Any questions?

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There's nothing wrong with the sentence, "Learn and use the proper English syntax." I suppose you want him to say, "Learn to use the proper...," but that changes the meaning of his sentence. His sentence prescribes two steps: 1. Learn the proper syntax; and (in case you've already completed Step 1) 2. Use the proper syntax.

Possible stress fracture.

I don't question the players' heart or desire to win, though I might agree that their confidence is down. Well, the reason that the Billikens lost these last three games (and also the reason their confidence is down) is that they played three straight games against very good teams on the road. Fans of teams typically fail to give their team's opponents credit. It's always: "We didn't this; we didn't that; blah, blah, blah." The Bills lost because they played good teams. They didn't play their best games, but that's because their opponents were prepared and had a hand in preventing them from playing their best games. The Bills turned the ball over a lot in the last two games because their opponents were quicker (and better prepared). The players didn't get worse; rather, their opponents got better.

While SLU has had virtually no success against SMS, but has a winning record against Southern Illinois. I would not say that SIU spanks SLU regularly.

1. Charlotte isn't any better than SLU. 2. SLU played Charlotte close at Halton (68-62). 3. Charlotte has never beat SLU at Savvis.

TF missed several shots around the basket that I would expect him to make. Also, he and Chris Sloan were hesitant to go up with the ball around the basket among Memphis's shot-blocking trees.

I also think a win at DePaul will be very tough, but it IS possible. I don't really think the home game against DePaul is a 50-50 game. Neither is the Charlotte game. I've got a best-case scenario of 7-1 (Louisville is flashy, but I think they'll go down at Savvis just like they did last year). The worst-case scenario is 5-3, with losses at DePaul and Cincy and to Louisville.

When the Billikens pull off the upset tomorrow, let's applaud the team for playing a great game against a very good team to get a great victory rather than disparage Memphis and John Calipari. I don't want to hear any of that "Calipari can't coach" or "Memphis was overlooking us" junk.

"who was the last NCAA mens team to finish undefeated (any division)"