BleacherBum593

Didn't see the following on the site today, so I posted it to bring everyone up todate on Mr. Beane. http://media.www.dailyvidette.com/media/st...r-2850790.shtml New ISU assistant isn't too unfamiliar By Todd Froemling DailyVidette.com For the second time in the past month, ISU men's basketball Coach Tim Jankovich made the first addition to his staff. And this one knows a little something about Redbird basketball, too. Anthony Beane is returning to Normal after a previous two-year stint as an ISU assistant under Tom Richardson from 2000-2002. Mike Jackson, who resigned less than two weeks after accepting Jankovich's offer, had been the first Redbird assistant, but returned to Michigan to be with his family after new Wolverine Coach John Beilein made it known he would take him back. Beane, meanwhile, spent the past year serving as the athletic director and heads boy's basketball coach at Soldan International Studies High School in St. Louis. Aside from his Redbird experience, he's also served as an assistant for programs like St. Louis University, SEMO and a few community colleges. One of Beane's biggest assets should be his recruiting ties to the St. Louis area. Obviously, the Chi-Town and STL markets are the two hot spots the 'Birds need to start pulling from to get back on top of the MVC, and this hire means one of those is more or less covered. As long as it's taking for Jankovich to put his staff together, you've got think he's being incredibly careful. That should mean that Beane is a near perfect fit for the program and would explain why he's being hired here for the second time. Hopefully no one needs to worry about him pulling a Jackson. If a guy will come back to the school that fired him just five short years ago, he probably really liked the job. And it'll be nice to have a familiar face on the sidelines after the complete coaching overhaul that took place last month. The only red flag on this guy is that he played for Kansas State. That brings the Wildcat count up to three (Zenger, Jankovich, Beane). If you see a petition to institute a "Spread the Purple" campaign from the Department of Athletics, DO NOT SIGN.

From what I just read - 32 confirmed dead in 2 buildings. Buildings were on opposite ends of the campus. 1 Gunmen is confirmed dead.

V - I can see how you arrived at your viewpoint. But, I don't agree with it. To exclude one class or classes of people is not right. For years and years now, the black community in St Louis has argued for equal rights, equal treatment, etc. To get to that point is going to require compromise to some degree by all the citizens of the Metro St Louis area. Do you agree on that? I guarantee you that if the Post had produced a "whites" only team, the black community would have staged protests about it. And IMHO they would be justified. But, its got to work both ways. You can't have your cake and eat it too as the late Greg Freeman told me. Since Earl is considered an "expert" in the St Louis community on high school basketball, Earl does a big disservice to every kid that plays the game of high school basketball in the Metro St Louis area by producing a list that only includes blacks and excludes players who are white, hispanic, asian, Bosinian, Greek, etc, etc, etc.

V- So in other words you wouldn't get the least bit upset if the Post had a "whites" only team?

I heard today that Mizzou used its only scholarship available this year to sign a 6-8 kid out of Bloomington. Unless Leon is going to walk on at Mizzou, there's nothing else available this year.

Anthony Mitchell makes it official - he's a Billiken http://slubillikens.cstv.com/sports/m-bask.../041107aaa.html

Diane - Thanks for all your hard work in moving the "Crew" forward. Hopefully, the next prez can continue to build on the foundation that you have put down.

Congrats to that young man for all the hard work that he has put in. Hard to believe that he is the first student since 1978 (excluding magnet school students) in the St Louis Public School System to be accepted at Harvard. But, then again it just shows how poorly the Public school system is failing the students of St Louis.

Brian - one area of recruiting that I've never seen discussed here as far as recruiting handicaps and I'm curious if people think it might play a role in a player not coming to St Louis. And that's the religious aspect of the University. Since I've never attended a class at SLU, I don't know the "culture" of being a student there. How much is it stressed (religion) to students? And how would that affect non-catholics?

Betsy Brookbank !!!!! I may have to start attending volleyball matches now

Props to Cheryl. She sounded kind of fiesty today. Ready to take on Bernie and the A-10. Conf. AD's meeting tomorrow and TV contract will be getting a lot of attention.

Thank you for the memory Wendell Bennett! He played for one of the best high school coaches in the nation, but didn’t have the talent to play as a starter for a Division 1 program. His dream was to study aviation and he came to St Louis to follow his dream. He walked on at St Louis U because of his love for the game of basketball and gave it his all for 4 years. I met him that first year as he rode the pines game after game. Nothing much said other than “how you doingâ€, “how’s it goingâ€. One player to one fan. Building a tradition of sorts between us. This continued on for the next 3 years. Class and Character. It’s a good measure of one becoming a man. And Wendell had it. As I followed Billiken Basketball over the years, I wasn’t really thrilled with the hiring of Brad Soderberg. I thought the AD short changed the process by hiring him instead of conducting a intensive search for a new head coach. But, I thought he should be given a chance to build a program. His program. He started out in a pretty deep hole. I thought Romar left a pretty bare cupboard when he upt and left for the west coast. Throw in an ancient practice facility and it’s a really deep hole to climb out of to build a program, to build up a tradition. You have to take baby steps to get there. Sometimes taking one step forward and two steps back. One step forward….. I thought we had started to lay the foundation with the signing of local products, Polk and Meyer. Followed by Lisch and Liddell. Followed by Maguire and Knollmeyer. But, all that changed last night. All the respect that I had for Coach Soderberg went out the window last night. Call me old school, but one of the ways that you build tradition into a program is to honor those who played for you. Senior Night. The time to honor your seniors who have given you their blood, sweat and tears to help build the program. But, what happens last night. Only 1 of the 3 seniors start. So much for tradition. So much for showing some CLASS. As the crowd grew restless in the second half, sitting down next to the Billiken bench you could hear the Blue Crew chanting for Soderberg to put Wendell in. Other fans joined in. The fans wanted to properly “honored†Wendell in his last appearance at home. No start, no appearance even with the team up by twenty. As the clock ticked down towards three minutes remaining in the game, still no Wendell. At the fifty seven second mark remaining in the game, Soderberg finally comes to his senses and puts him in. But, not before the coach has lost all my respect. One board and one point later, it’s all over. The one real memory that I’ll keep from this year will not be the last second basket against MO State. It won’t be the first half where we went toe-to-toe against the men wearing Carolina Blue. It won’t be the bada bing, bada boom ball girl of GW (who by the way gets my vote for A-10 Ball Boy of the Year). Instead, it’ll be the memory of Wendell Bennett, coming back onto the court after the game was over last night. After all the players had headed to the locker room and most of the crowd had vacated the Scott Trade Center. As I talked with friends after the final game of the year, saying our good byes till next year, one friend nudged me and said “Here he comes.†I looked up and there was Wendell trotting down the floor to our section, next to the Billiken bench, to say shake hands and say thank you for my support over the last 4 years. And that moment said a lot about the class and character of this young man that will stand out in my mind for years to come. Good Luck in whatever you tackle in life Mr. Bennett.

Skip - Wanted to pass on my sympathies and prayers on the loss of your father last week but I was blocked from posting. We were wondering why you weren't at the last 2 home games and now we know. Even Brian, the usher, was asking about you. But, never fear. We kept up the tradition of "Pasta Man" at the Dayton game. I even got a few chuckles (and reminders that I wasn't the real thing) when I yelled out "What time is it? PASTA TIME!" I'll gratefully turn it back over to you for Senior Night

Same article - another recruit that the Billikens are looking at - the shooting guard out of Penn. - DJ Kennedy

Roundtree Finds Home In The Valley -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave Telep ScoutHoops.com Feb 7, 2007 One of the top players in the state of Missouri made his collegiate decision Tuesday night. Torres Roundtree, a junior, picked one of the hottest programs in the Midwest. Life is good at Southern Illinois. Chris Lowery’s team is in the Top 25 and it recently accepted a commitment from a 3-star junior recruit out of Florissant (Mo.) McCluer North. Torres Roundtree, the brother of former ACC player of the year Chris Carrawell, is headed to Southern Illinois. Indiana State and St. Louis made pitches. Missouri and Illinois were in the process of evaluating him. The 6-foot-3 standout who averages 17 points and 7 boards said watching his brother persevere and eventually star at Duke helped shape him as a player. “It made me want to work a lot harder seeing that my brother could do it,†Roundtree said. “That really set the standard pretty high.†Southern Illinois’s affiliation with the hottest mid-major league in America was a major attraction for Roundtree who also wanted to be close to his family. “I wanted to go to a conference that’s competitive. People get looks overseas and kids get their degrees. I think I can play in any conference but I really like their league.†Roundtree could find himself playing a part-time role at the point mixed in with some time at the other two wing positions. His versatility is one of his calling cards. “I think they’ll run me at the point a lot but I might even see time at the two and the three. I think they’ll kind of just have me on the floor as kind of an athlete.â€

BF05 - Sorry to hear of the passing of your uncle. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family.

Well at least that's 1 more rebound than you had in your career.

I may have missed this posting, but I just ran across it today in the Belleville News-Democrat - Althoff star commits to St. Louis University Althoff junior Alisha Goodwin's academic and athletic career beyond high school is just about secure. Goodwin, one of the area's top guards, announced this week that she has given a verbal commitment to attend St. Louis University, beginning in the 2008-09 season. The 5-foot-9 Goodwin averages 18.3 points per game for the Crusaders. She should join current players Amanda Kemezys, Theresa Lisch and Lauren Woods as metro-east members of the Billikens. Lisch and Kemezys are currently at St. Louis, while Woods, a senior at Belleville East, will be a freshman next year. http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/sports/16544382.htm

Sorry Roy - I didn't mean you in particular. I just clicked on the last post of thread without checking. I'm just fed up with all the whiners around St Louis who complain, but yet aren't helping to solve the problem.

If you want a top 25-50 program, it's going to have to increase its budget. To do so takes $$$$ from its supporters. If your contributing, contribute more. If your not contributing, then start or stop whining like a little kid So stop bitching and start writing out checks to the Program. 'Nuff Said.

I agree that he was rushing his shot, but you got to like the fact that he wasn't shy about letting it fly. Once he gets one down,I predict he'll go on a streak. Maybe the best thing for his confidence is to look for a shot inside the arc. Get it down. Then move on.

I was at the game so I don't know about the call. I do know that V's idol was in the front row last night - Floyd Irons.

Agree that someone will come looking for her. Would it make sense to offer her an extension with a built in buy-out clause of say $1 million? The few times that I have had the opportunity to be around her, she impressed the heck out of me. To me it would be a prudent move to lock her up long term.

Roy - Do you know how many more years Shimmy is under contract?

Riddle me this - What's happen's to an employee of Fleishman-Hillard who is found (1) wasting his company's time surfing the internet and (2) ripping an institution that is a potential client?