The Wiz

Source is a Fox Sports interview tonight with Ian.

Draft Express under the heading --2006 NBA Draft Early-Entry List--says Ian will not return next season. He will test the NBA and not get drafted because he " ...does not possess the necessary combination of athleticism and size required of an NBA center. HOWEVER-- Their sources in Europe report he is likely to return to Greece to take a large contract offer from a first division team once he realizes he has no chance of being drafted.

We had our meeting today. The meeting started out with an arena update. No new news. One tidbit I hadn't heard before was that the student section was going to be about 1000 seats. Interesting, in that a number of suggestions revolved around increasing student participation to increase the energy levels at games. 1000 seems low to me. Also season would start in 08-09. No mid season moves. They liked the idea of Straight A tickets vs cheap gen adm tckts. (felt they were giving away the product--didn't want to be like the Steamers) I did point out, as was mentioned on the board, that empty seats don't produce revenue. Other items discussed (some from this board) were More SLU gear-Better quality and readily available More quality giveaways--Jerseys, Pins, and yes bobbleheads More publicity on the Billiken Club Brad should get out into the community more. Beer--Consensus was that it should be permitted @the new arena--SLU currently undecided on the issue. Game day promos--Most thought we should do away with the cheesy promos such as running up stairs for a sandwich or chasing a $20 bill. People liked the bigger giveaways such as the tuition giveaway by making baskets. More company and group nights--Not just cheaper seats but packaging with food and souvenirs. Besides a straight A night, also a HS senior night -giving out SLU info to prospective students. SLU's feeling on marketing is that this is a 2 year effort. Once we move into a 10,000 seat arena the marketing effort will be minimal. The marketing guy was very pleasant and seemed interested and said they would try to incorporate some of the ideas and suggestions. We will see.

A lot of good ideas. I especially like the Straight A tickets for students. You not only fill Savvis with some new fans (students and the adults who bring them) but you market SLU also. Those A students may be your future student base. In any case, I will forward the above ideas and we will see what happens. You may continue to submit them till noon on Tues. I will post the results Tues night.

Tomorrow afternoon (Tues), a few season ticket holder/supporters will be meeting with Reggie Garrett SLU's marketing and promo guy. If any of you have constructive ideas or suggestions I would be happy to pass them along.

Battlecat- The program I use has nothing to do with odds makers. After the point spread is determined it then calculates the win probability. It is just another way to quantify the numbers. For example, our chances of winning today's game are about the same as throwing a 3, 5 or 7 on 1 roll of the dice. Just a different way of looking at outcomes.

moytoy-- You are correct. The neutral site should have ballooned spread to SJ by 6. The fact it is only 4 means we have closed it by 2 and should do better against them this time. In any case, we definitely need to bring our A game and get off to a good start against them.

The win probability on that Cincy game a few years ago would have been under 10%. As for St. Joe, the spread the first time they played us at home was--SJ by 2. The fact that it is now SJ by 4 on a neutral site means it will be tougher to beat them. Hopefully Brad can make the necessary adjustments.

nm

nm

62% chance of LaSalle winning

nm

nm

nm

Melchior-Luxembourg @ NU

Joe Herber-Germany@UWV More notable players-- Ben Allen- Australia @Indiana JP Batista -Brazil @Gonzaga Vukusic-Croatia Hachad & Cote-Canada All 3 @ Northwestern Cespedes-Canada @Gonzaga Pocius-Lithuania Boateng-England Both @Duke

According to the NCAA, there are 402 international players on Div I teams. In the A-10, two notables besides Ian are Bonsu(England @GW)and Lasme(Gabon @ UMass)

nm

Only if they put in Peyton Jacks.

Closest game of the year. Might be overtime. This might be a game where the coach, the crowd or the refs make a difference. Go Bills

I usually like to post early on the next game. But I am going to wait till Sat morning to post because this one is extremely close. If I had to call it today, I would say Bills by 1 with a win prob of 50 to 51%. Since both teams are done until Sat., things will not change dramatically. BTW, I didn't do too bad on the Dayton game either.

nm

We would be favored over Duke here??????? I don't think so. Duke would be favored by 15 at Savvis. Win prob. 9%

Replying to SS earlier concerning my record so far......... Game Projected Actual Diff UMSL SLU W(no spread not SLU by 35 n/a enough data) Maryville SLU by 23 SLU by 29 6 EIU SLU by 17 SLU by 24 7 HI HI by 15 HI by 18 3 SIU SLU by 1 SLU by 14 13 UWM UWM by 7 UWM by 11 4 Jac St SLU by 14 SLU by 16 2 UNC UNC by 12 UNC by 12 0 Oak SLU by 3 SLU by 7 4 Miss SLU by 6 Miss by 13 19 Ksaw SLU by 15 SLU by 14 1 Zag Zag by 9 Zag by 3 6 Chi St SLU by 14 SLU by 6 8 Ia SLU by 1 Ia by 10 11 Bon SLU by 9 SLU by 2 7 GW GW by 9 GW by 5 4 Mass SLU by 1 SLU by 2 1 Rich SLU by 2 Rich by 11 13 X X by 17 SLU by 5 22 St Joe St. Joe by 2 St. Joe by 15 13 Ford SLU by 7 SLU by 10 3 RI RI by 1 SLU by 5 6 X X by 5 SLU by 14 19 Day Day by 4 ????? Overall, straight up 17-6 Most of the misses have come in league play. This is probably because of parity within the league. While this makes it harder to predict games it is great for competition. If one of the arguments for coming to the A-10 was to find a competitive league, this is it. Except for a couple of teams on the bottom and GW at the top, teams are very even. "It is a truth very certain that when it is not in our power to determine what is true we ought to follow what is most probable" Descartes

We are fairly even with Dayton. Therefore playing @ Dayton gives them a 4 pt advantage.