SLUMS81

There is nothing wrong with the CC. It is an asset to the University and to the athletes who benefit from it. The physical facilities box is checked. Time to focus every effort on NIL funding. Looking forward is all we can do at this point.

Under Majerus, the Billiken whole was significantly better than the sum of its parts. Hopefully the SLU power brokers can recognize that the opposite is true under the current regime. Until these last 2 games, I was wondering whether the players were either unwilling or unable to do what the coaching staff wanted them to do. At this point, we are an embarrassment to the A-10. Let Tate and Harriman take over for the remainder of the season.

Players are literally now being offered millions on their NIL deals. The NCAA is concerned for the sanctity of college basketball by making sure someone like Magassa has never received an unauthorized Euro in his life. Amazing.

Even the bluebloods can have difficult years when they are in rebuilding mode. A couple of questions as we contemplate blowing up the program: Is TF responsible for the BVF recruiting /signing budget? Is Chris May? What % of D1 coaches do we think could take our current roster into the NCAA tournament?

Great job, ladies!

Do we think Travis might try and recruit BV back to SLU?

Steph Curry, Pete Maravich, Michael Jordan, LeBron, Kareem, etc : are they in the basketball Pantheon because they somehow had better coaching than their teammates?

A very successful old school coach. Not sure he would be as successful given the current recruiting and coaching climate.

Regular season would determine seeding, ranking and possible bye rounds.

The NCAA needs to open up the year-end tournament to every D-1 school. Give byes to the top teams. This would only add a couple of rounds to the event. Every single team would have at least a chance. Big boys would still get their precious money.

First game in a few hours, and these guys are even cleared yet? Seriously?

If there is enough room in midtown for a Top Golf, I would think there might be space for a medium size baseball/ softball stadium complex.

Maybe overly optimistic, but if an athlete in a non-revenue sport is impressed with the new Center and tells his friend the basketball player, SLU might stay on that prospect’s recruiting radar.

No interest from Mizzou?

A couple of years back I texted a question to one of the TF-Rammer radio shows. I asked TF whether it was easier for him to teach a scorer to play defense, or to teach a defensive specialist to be a scorer. His answer was basically that scorers are born, not made and that only a small percentage of defensive specialists can be coached into becoming significant scorers. He then said that in the same way, it is difficult to convert a natural scorer into a strong defender. Our problem last year was defense, not offense. Our traditional home court advantage was neutralized by our lack of defensive intensity.

Regardless of last season’s results, this was going to be a major rebuilding off-season. This looks like a fairly solid group of newbies. I am willing to watch this team evolve this coming season. Even the blue bloods need time for their 5 star recruits to gel.

Some Billiken loyalists might object…

Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarrone

Larry Hughes basically was our offense, did it all including the point, for 1 legendary year. Marquis Perry was no slouch at pg.

On paper we should have been much better last year than we were. 10 minutes of high effort per game won’t get it done against legitimate competition. Nothing new here, but Twitter tweets and previous year’s statistics don’t win games. If our newbies bring consistent intensity, we may be as good as if not better than last year.

Maybe he got a better NIL offer to play football somewhere.

Another problem with the point guard not using the pick well is that it forces the big to move a foot or two to try and intercept the defender - in full view of the zebras, who may then call a moving screen.

I wish the NCAA would just have every D1 team play - would add at most 3 rounds, probably increase revenue and we could stop our constant complaining about the selection process. Never gonna happen, but oh well…

Maybe we could convince Jim Boeheim to become the assistant head coach. Quite a track record.

The band, dance team and cheerleaders were on the Today Show this morning. Hopefully this will bring us some much needed good karma.