SLUMS81

Bob Ramsey and Earl Austin Jr. look like they live and die with the Bills every game. If you watch them during the game, they react to the good plays and the not-so-good plays just about the same way as most fans do. There is no reason to fixate on them.

Bob Gresick, a radiologist in town. SLU undergrad 1977, Med 1981. Fan as long as I can remember. Went to my first game in 1960, have been to most of the home games since then. Seats in 116.

My two cents worth: 1. Tommie Gun 2. East Side Glide

Kennesaw played us about as well as their personnel allowed. They played us in the same way we have played against physically superior teams - slow the game down, shoot at the last second of the shot clock, collapsing pack-in defense. We looked frustrated in the first half. The second half showed how great a difference it makes when we can make 3-pointers.

We don't judge college programs based upon the players who go on the the NBA. In the same way, we should not judge Vashon (or any other high school program) based on the college careers of their graduates. The fact that Vashon is competitive on a regional (and on occasion, national) level year in and year out probably reflects the quality and depth of the players, and the level of coaching they receive. Are we saying that Vashon is less of a program because of a lack of consensus all-stars?

JJ also played a solid game tonite. He is becoming a factor on this team.

Awesome job by the lady Bills!

Brad sounded optimistic tonite at the Billiken club meeting. Main points discussed: 1. SLU finally has the personnel to actually play up-tempo. 2. 4 possible point guards - DP, TL, KL, AD. He indicated that DP is the starting point guard at the present time. In transition any of the above who has the ball can and will act as 'point guard' during a fast break. Will be hard to keep TL and KL out of the starting lineup. 3. IV is becoming a dominant player in the paint, will be very much involved in offense. 4. Brad would not mind going with a 4-guard system depending on who we are up against. 5. JJ getting better, still inconsistent. Obi still in the process of rehabbing the knee, needs to lose weight. May or may not redshirt. Exhibition games do not impact option to redshirt. 6. Will sign 1 player this fall, hoping for a 4 and a 5 in spring signing period. Would love to sign a ready-to-start JUCO 4, acknowledges that every other program would like that type of player. 7. Up tempo game makes recruiting easier. Discussed what 'up tempo' really means during a game, and mentioned Michigan State as an example.

A very nice compliment to our soccer program, the quality of our facility, and the St. Louis Sports commission.

SLU played hard, had some excellent chances against Duke. Duke is a very good team, a little more team speed than SLU. Duke had alot more scoring chances than SLU. SLU currently has goalkeeper issues. Very nice crowd, great atmosphere.

Interesting discussion. An acquaintance of mine used to be a member of the sociology department at Washington U. The Sociology department was eliminated several years ago because it could not generate enough grant money/income to pay for its own bills. This was at a university with a multi-billion dollar tax-exempt endowment. Can the SLU endowment fund be used to fund academic departments within the university? If the endowment is considered sacrosanct, then money contributed to the endowment fund is not going to benefit any one individual faculty member or department within the university. Money contributed to the arena will produce a direct, tangible asset for the university. I do not know what my annual contribution to the SLU annual fund accomplishes.

Ben H. has suddenly become a hot commodity because he was offered by an upper-echelon program. Recruiting gurus tend to rate a player based on which schools have shown interest in that player. Many posts on this board have expressed strong disagreement with the concept of basing a player's ranking on his list of campus visits. It is interesting that Ben H. is now considered a big time player by some posters on this board for the same reason - that he was recruited by a big time program. I do agree that Brad and his staff should not waste time, effort and scholarship offers on players who for whatever reason are not interested in our program.

I would phrase your point in reverse: when we really are something, then we will get the top flight kids to come here. Until then, we will have to continue trying to find effective players under the radar.

After last year, a lot of teams might consider SLU as a cupcake. We had a lot of close, 'quality' losses last year - all of which added up to a miserable season. We will have a young team this fall, and a slightly softer nonconference schedule with more wins than losses prior to conference play might prove to be a good thing.

Nice news. A job well done by our student athletes!

Why should we think that Dustin is Brad's 'first choice'? There have been several players to whom SLU has "offered" who don't seem to want to come and play for the Billikens. It's not like Brad can simply select which all-star player he wants to complete his lineup. DM seems like an enthusiastic young man with a work ethic and basketball skills who is excited to come to SLU. It is now up to the coaching staff to best utilize his skills.

Do you think that Brad can't tell the difference between an excellent player and a mediocre player?

I guess that's why it's easier to recruit if you are a top-echelon school, and an easy tactic for opposing coaches to use against SLU when competing for the same players.

I am assuming that Brad would tell recruits about their future teammates, and how the recruit would complement the existing players.

As has been stated before, with a solid group of players at every other position, why would a power forward not consider SLU a good opportunity? Hopefully this will convince the PF recruit from Houston to commit.

Jim Nantz tonite made several nice statements about St. Louis as a venue for the Final Four. Hopefully we will see a mens Final Four (or at least a few more regionals) in a reasonable time frame.

If his name were Tylercic Hansbroughvedic, and he was from Croatia, he would probably be a projected NBA lottery pick already.

PB's supporting cast played very well last nite. TH by himself probably would not have won the game. Everyone else elevated their game. I don't think too many high school teams could have beaten PB the way they played last night.

Is it something about SLU that prevents a guy like Romar from landing top echelon recruits in significant numbers? Why is it considered 'overreaching' to pursue bigtime players when he is a SLU coach, but not overreaching when he moves to UW?

Great job by Lorenzo! I wonder how many SLU fans still think he can't recruit?