ILbillikenfan

Are you sure? I thought there was a restriction to selling beer if arenas are a certain distance from campus.

Did anyone else realize that when we play these guys next it is Super Bowl Sunday? That is a bummer because that game possibly could have had a big draw.

The last 3 minutes of this Duke game have been super sloppy!

Those are not my sentiments...I go to every game, and have for 4 years. These are just the thoughts of many friends I have, and many kids that used to be in Blue Crew and what they say now.

haha. I think you are talking to the wrong people here. We are the students that go to every game. We aren't the casual ones who don't come. I was just giving perspective on why they don't. Whats the biggest buzzkill after pregaming a case of Natty? A 48-46 win over Savannah State with a 25% shooting performance, including 2-15 from 3.

I think it is easy for graduated professionals to judge how the student turnout is poor. These SLU kids are in college, this is supposed to be an amazing experience while we are here. Put yourself back in these shoes. Would you rather go watch a team that has had TWO successful meaningful games in the last four years (UL and Iowa) or hang out with your friends, go to a Greek event, or go to a bar? These kids don't have the desire because frankly, there isn't much to be desired. Comparing us to XU in terms of students may seem fine, but they have made the NCAA tourney how many times recently? These current students at SLU have not experienced that. Also there have only been about 5 games that occured while students were actually on campus. One of which was Eastern Illinois where we looked shakey at best. What would make you want to come back to watch that? I used to think our student base was terrible too, and that you could still go to the game then go out, but beers are too overpriced at the game, and it takes FOREVER to catch a bus back to campus. Also what Bluecrewfinance said is right. There is NO promotion for games. When I talk about it in class, most kids have no idea there is a game tonight. That is clearly no the students fault. WINS = ATTENDANCE bottom line. Whining about it isn't going to bring us wins.

What I heard on 590 the fan from Ramsey was that Soderberg said he believes sometimes he gets to emotional and upset during the games. Ramsey was repeating what Soderberg said during his show on Monday. He said that he thinks too many coaches yell at that players too much during the game and that it is pointless since the players should already know what to do since they have been coached the entire week. I guess he is sticking to his word and trying to mellow down? (This topic game up because Slaten was jabbing at Quin Snyder because of his antics during the Kansas game.)

Do we have any? We are constitantly lethargic, and any team that W/L every other game is just offbeat. Is Brad capable of getting the kids up for games? Its pretty clear we are bad and the beginning of games and coming out of half time.

I think the probability to win would be even higher considering we lost last game...

Teams are supposed to have a feel for their own rims at home right? Obviously we don't. This is two home games in a row where our touch is terrible. When our center, who doesn't play more that 5 feet from the basket, goes 3-10 and 4-10 there is a seriously problem on the horizon. (granted I think Ian played strong tonite) Iowa shot us out of the building tonight. They hit every open look they had, it was impressive, but if we just hit HALF of the open looks we got, we would have won this game. It looked like Iowa got here yesterday and had a shootaround (at Savvis), and we on the other hand, were here all week and shot around at West Pine and clearly couldn't make a shot at Savvis. Isn't there ANY WAY that we can maybe get practice at the Savvis? We get to these rims and this court and it looks like we have an away game feel every time. I also think the fans were awesome tonight, but it goes to show you that excitement and encouragement do not make shots drop.

I don't think it is a knock on Tommmie's instinct. He is a freshman. If you tell him to just play and take shots he will. If you tell him to play D and be extremely selective and get the ball to IV, like we do, then he will.

I think every single team we have played this year has disrupted our offense heh. Tonight we just could not get shots to go down. Tommie struggled and we went down a bit with him. On a side note, JJ looked good, and the last defensive set with the two blocks was impressive. I think the hardest part about the Iowa game will be the fact that we will have to win two in a row. Did anyone else notice that CHICAGO STATE HAS NOT PLAYED ONE HOME GAME?

From what I saw on the stat sheet tonight, we only made 3 fg's in the second half. Absolute struggle tonight. In many ways, it is a good thing that the crowd was very sparse.

For once I actually got a ref's attention last night. I kept yelling at him, and finally he looked over and I said "You can be our hero tonight! And said we loved him." He laughed at me and then shook his head up and down and put his finger over his mouth as to gesture it was a secret haha. He was the black haired guy, seemed pretty cool. Usually the refs just stare into space when we yell at them.

I think the JJ really stood out tonight and played a damn good game. Also we can't win that Iowa game because that would constitute two wins in a row.

I want to first say that I have been here for 3 and a half years, the exact same time as Brad. I have witnessed other SLU coaching eras, but when reading this post, act as if all you have seen is Soderberg's current stint. We NEVER win the close game. Ok, I lied a bit. Without Marquee we never win the close game. My freshman year we were 4-7 and lost 6 games by less than 3, then we realized that if we gave the ball to Key he could go amazingly make a game winning shot. Louisville, UNCC, Tulane, Depaul, name it he did it. Fastforward since he has left, and we have played 20 games decided by under 5 points. Of these the most memorable game that we won was clearly Iowa in the NIT. Can Soderberg draw up a play to win/tie a game? Tonite with 20 seconds down by 3, I think the logical answers are: let Tommie drive and then foul, or go for the three. Our play was to let Polk run around aimlessly, not pass once, and have a 3-30 three point shooter chuck one up??? Thats the play? I have just grown tired of the "we played well", "we hung in there", "we are so close". If we are going to be a great team, like Brad thinks we can be, THESE games, on OUR floor, in OUR house must be won.

Super random tangent, but I saw your ESTside name. I just saw Darius Miles out tonight. (Don't want to say where heh). Is he hurt or something? Any ideas why he is back in town and not with the team? I only said hi to him and didn't get to ask what was up.

I'll be there, heh. Usually I just wear SLU stuff and stay indifferent, or just dress to go out to the landing afterwards and find the girls that are depressed that their team lost hehe.

It would be pretty clever if you could use some sort of reference to "Tommie Boy" the movie.

Does anyone else have a gripe about how much Soderberg substitutes players in and out? It is hard for us to get anything going with the constant in and outs. Also if someone makes one mistake they get yanked. For such a young team, how does this help confidence? It makes us so nervous to make mistakes on offense that is hurts more than it helps. Today in the first half it was mass subs, and we were horrible. In the second half TL, KL, DP, IV, and AD played for an 11 minute stretch uninterrupted and we blew Kennesaw out of the water during that time.

As far as scheduling goes, I don't know what our schedule is like compared to the rest of the A 10 (14), but all I know is that we are only 1 of 4 of those teams at or below .500.

Anyone that mentions that maybe LM needs more PT is already waranting a great deal of criticism from me.

OK, I must add a semi related Varner story that is very random. My freshman year, the Blue Crew had a post game party and somehow we managed to invite all the players. Needless to say we were highly intoxicated and at about midnight, in walks Varner. We all offered him shots and treated him like a party favor. He declined the shots and beer and asked for a glass of milk haha. Classic SLU moment for me, pouring a glass of milk for Ross Varner.

I give a lot of credit to Ole Miss. They played well tonite. I think people put a little bit too much stock into their one huge 50 point loss and our lone road win against Oakland. They are not a "bad" team.

IV really needs to grow up stronger with the ball. These guys are fouling him a lot, and he is faster than them, but he continously uses that one handed left hook.