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My wife and I will be there. We are looking forward to seeing the usuals and hopefully many others will make the tournament. It is an enjoyable time if you enjoy college hoops.

This entire golf episode is certainly an interesting development and one I do not understand. For personal reasons I prefer golf but I do not know or pretend to know what is best for the school's atheletic program. I know Ed fairly well but have not talked to him since these developments. He enjoyed coaching the golf team and was looking forward to being in the A10 because he felt SLU could be more competitive. I know he also enjoyed his entire Billiken experience. Occasionally, when I would go to a basketball practice we would meet there and talk Billiken hoops. "MysteryMan" raises an interesting point about this being a bogus post by somebody with an agenda who is posting under Ed's name. I am not sure that can be ruled out because this is out of Ed's character. However, he may also be so frustrated that he wanted to post his side of the story. I do know the loss of Ed will be a loss to the University.

At times I read some of the posts on this board and I am perplexed why I read them, but after reading this post and following comments, it is all worthwhile. This could be made into a comedy routine it is so good.

I agree that the university administration was letting the program deterioate and I may have been placing too much blame on Ecker but he was the pilot or driver who almost took the program over the cliff.

My wife and I will be there. I am looking forward to a long run into the tournament.

Did you ever hear of Ron Ecker? He almost ruined the basketball program singlehandedly. In the 50's and 60's attendance at Kiel was near capacity at times. In the 70's the program was allowed to deterioate and then Ecker almost ruined it.

They did have something. I received a notice even though I don't live in the D.C. area. I don't recall the details but I forwarded it to my brother in lives in Alexandria, Va.

He characterized it as a "come to Jesus" meeting. I got the impression that this was the last chance. If JJ did not commit and deliver know he was going to the end of the bench and that was going to be the last anyone heard or saw of him.

I was at the tournament and I remember you telling that story. It was great. Two other stories and I don't know if this was you but after the Bills beat So. Miss in the first round, Huggins was walking around the floor and somebody hollared for Huggins' attention. He looked up the Bills' fan shouted that we would take them down the next day. Huggins looked at the guy like he was nuts. The other story relates to the obnoxius Cincy fans. Before the game they stopped in some bar near the Pyramid and were screaming Cincy cheers. After the game we were in the same bar and they all came in very depressed and my wife then started screaming Billiken cheers. They did handle it in good humour.

I am glad you mentioned that game. I remember being there and there many annoying Memphis fans at the game, especially one ditzy blond. She kept screaming about when Memphis would go into the zone press which they eventually did and that is when the Bills blew them out of Kiel.

In his post game radio interview Soderberg said that Dwayne is only 5 of 35 from 3 pt land and he wanted another outside shooter.

I just returned home from the game. JJ hit 3 or 4 shots from 15 to 17 feet. Unfortunately he missed a 1 or 2 from 2 feet but was fouled on one of them.

I generally agree with all the comments about about DM. One observation that I will add is that the Edwardsville team was fairly well set before he appeared and he seems to be having a difficult time fitting into their system. It was very apparent that for the most part the guards were not making an effort to get the ball to him.

There is no alias on my post, my name is listed.

I don't know what Pizotti's input was in bypassing Lori Flannagan but if she was instrumental that part of the A.D. search and then Levick received the A.D. job, it is ironic that one of the first things Levick did was to fire Pizotti.

After reading these posts I thought I would add some comments. Pizzoti lived close to me and I got to know her on a personal basis because I saw her on a regular basis when walking my dog. What was interesting was that when I saw her around the neighborhood she was always very cordial and pleasant. If I saw her at any SLU event her attitude was don't bother me because you cannot do anything for me in this situation. I thought the comment of Billsboys about Lori Flannagan being a protector of Pizotti was interesting in that Lori does not have any responsibility for women's basketball according to her bio on the university website. Apparently that program is directly under the supervision of the A.D. As a sidenote to this I know personally that Pizotti personally blamed Flannigan for her firing and quit talking to her before she left. Finally on an unrelated note to the Pizotti situation, I just heard on the news that a Nike corporate jet has a nose gear problem and is flying around the airport near Portland using all fuel before it attempts to land.

Distant cousins?

Regarding H.S. All Americans, the absence of St. Louis players is due to several reasons. One is the growth of high school soccer in other areas of the country the improvement of the quality of play in those areas. Another reason these selections are often political. It should also be pointed out that the last couple of years the top ranked high school teams in the U..S. have been from the St. Louis Metro Catholic league, namely, Chaminade and C.B.C. Also St. Louis continues to have several players on the National Under 18 team that practices in Bradenton, Fl. Another point to remember is that St. Louis is still a hot recruiting spot for many major universities for men and women teams. Anoter point is that in the national tournaments the St. Louis teams continue to do very good. St. Louis may not dominate like they use to but there is still very good quality soccer here.

Soderburg did say that he received word yesterday that a power forward he was recruiting committed some where else.

Another comment about JJ. At the basketball banquet last night when Brad reviewed each player he was very strong in his statement that the success of next season will depend on how JJ comes through. At another point in his talk he stated that he felt he was guilty of over-hype of the past years team at the beginning of the year. He continued by saying he will not do that again the next year but notwithstanding that, he felt confident in telling the attendees at the banquet he was felt next years team would be very good.

That reference to Andy Woods crossed my mind when I read it but I did not know he worked for SLU as the SID. There was another doubt in my mind because I didn't think Andy Woods was the Mizzou QB, who was the son of Harriet Woods. On other irony is the interest of Felicia Houston in the Schiavo case. I think I know which way Harriet Woods came down on that issue.

The P-D story suggested that he was "black balled" in the coaching community.

Illinois was not found guilty of the direct allegations regarding Thomas being provided with a Blazer but they were found guilty of other infractions penalized, including a probation. Another irony of the story is that Pearl made the taping of the conversation with Collins who is not the coach of Ill.-Chicago who is in the same league with Wisc.-Milwaukee. Collins still refuses to shake hands with Pearl when the two teams play. I think it doubly difficult for Collins now because Wisc.-Milwaukee always beats Ill.-Chi. The P.D. had a good story on this entire situation last week.

I don't think the knock was that he could not recruit but that his recruiting priorities did not fit the SLU situation. Maybe he would have started landing the top prospects but during his first few years, after he lost the top of the breed, he was left with some fringe D-1 players.

To make matters worse the Memphis newspaper used this quote as an entry into the humour of the C-USA coaches. The other quote was from Huggins after he received the coach of the decade award in C-USA. It was something to the effect that who else were they going to choose. All other coaches in conference have been fired or quit and he was the only one who lasted ten years.