Pistol

Or that we have injury problems. The backcourt is going to have Goodwin, Thatch, and Lewis leading the way. Yuri as a freshman should be a really solid backup. I'm not hanging any hopes for this season on him getting big minutes. Just hoping that he, Jacobs, and Jimerson get meaningful developmental minutes and bring something we need to the floor.

New GT big on the wire: Fringe top 100 recruit in 2016, played sparingly at Arizona State, went to San Jacinto College (TX) for his sophomore year and averaged 8.4 PPG and 6.5 RPG. He went to Mississippi State for his junior year but didn't play at all. He wasn't hurt. They just didn't play him. He graduated this weekend and put his name in the transfer portal two days ago. He's immediately eligible, with two seasons left. I'm not sure about fit here - he's 6-10, 260 and we already have two huge dudes coming in - but he does have a few years of age and experience on them, even if he didn't see game action this year. He also doesn't free up a 2020 scholarship for us. I also have questions about why he didn't fit at MSU; it makes sense for future eligibility not to play at all once it's clear you're not going to see meaningful time, but how didn't he at least crack the end of the rotation? There's more to the story here. Doesn't help that he's deleted his old Twitter account and started a new, extra salty one: And that he spit on UT fans on his way out of their arena: He clearly needs a fresh start somewhere and has some potential. Not sure that he's the "difference maker" we need, though.

This is one of the few basketball-related things I think I'm totally irrational about. I concede that the bottom-third teams in D-I kill our ratings and that casual fans don't know the difference, but I hate seeing D-II schools on the schedule. Hate it. @RUBillsFan is right and I'm completely wrong. I just don't like it. Rick Majerus' 500th win game against Illinois-Springfield. We played a terrible game. He was furious afterward, but had to stand there and pose with the team and pretend to be happy. Look at these guys' faces. Maybe Conk and Cassity don't care but the restraint on the rest of their faces says "We're about to go back to the locker room and get reamed." Again, I concede that a 500th win over Coppin State or Stetson isn't that exciting, either, but at least they're allowed to make the NCAA Tournament.

By the way, Xavier released the entire nonconference schedule yesterday. We released ours on August 24th last year. Sigh.

We have more to schedule than we did last year, when we had the back end of a lot of home-and-homes: Houston, Oregon State, Butler, and - I think - SIUC, although that one typically gets renewed. We have Seton Hall coming our way this year, but more dates to fill than we would've a year ago. We also had four games filled by the Barclays Center Classic - Troy, Pitt, Central Arkansas, and North Alabama - and I'm not sure if we'll have another "tournament" event this season. So last year at this time, we had some buy games to fill and ended up with SEMO, NC Central, and Appalachian State. We started the 2-year deal with Seton Hall on the road. We found a neutral site game with FSU. We had four games covered by that tournament. We had to fill a couple exhibition games. And then the rest was already set. That means that there's a minimum of 3 additional dates to fill this year, more if we don't have a tournament-style event, and the bigger challenge is we're trying to find power conference opponents to replace Big East, Pac 12, and AAC opponents. We're basically at the worst level of college basketball when it comes to scheduling. We're not looking to be a buy team and take a bunch of road dates for money. We have to fill 18 dates for season ticket holders. We're a loss threat for power conference schools without giving them a NET rankings boost, plus we don't have a marquee program name to fill seats, so we're not a particularly attractive home-and-home partner. We're also not in a position to take a 2-for-1 or other lopsided deals. I saw how hard it was in my years to schedule games. It's only gotten worse since then for programs that aren't in power conferences, especially the ones that aren't filling buy games.

Most active head coaches played college basketball. The difference is that this new wave also happened to be NBA stars. It's not like these guys need money. Career earnings: Juwan Howard - $151.5 million Patrick Ewing - $125.2 million Anfernee Hardaway - $120.5 million Jerry Stackhouse - $84.4 million I guess you could say that guys like Fred Hoiberg, Chris Mullin, Avery Johnson, Clyde Drexler, Isaiah Thomas, and Dan Majerle could also be lumped in here, but only a couple coached at their alma maters and their hirings were a little more spread out. What's interesting to me about this wave is that with the exception of Stackhouse, they're going back to their alma maters and there seemed to be a lot of public pressure to hire them, but also that I can't imagine any of them have too much respect or concern for the NCAA itself. I'm not saying I think they're dirty, but imagine being a guy who made 9 figures in the NBA and then being told you can't buy a player's lunch or whatever. I'm wondering if having big-time stars come through the coaching ranks in college will put additional pressure on the NCAA to reform some of its rules. The pressure keeps increasing every season and having legitimately beloved superstars return to coach their college teams could create an additional wave of fan outcry to change some things, especially if they prove successful.

Ford chooses his words carefully. A "difference maker" is whatever he says it is, and gives him a reasonable argument for doing whatever he ends up doing with the last scholarship. Right now, the leading candidate for the scholarship is Brandon Courtney.

Hargrove will be competing in the high jump in the IL state meet starting today. He has won previous meets, including sectionals, with 6-8 each time. He has cleared 7 feet in practice. He's been doing this event for just a couple months. To put his ability in perspective: -His current jump of 6-8 would be an all-time SLU track and field record, indoor or outdoor. Granted, it's not a long and storied history, but still. -That same jump would put him in the top 5 at the A10 championship meet pretty much every year. It wouldn't win most years but would be good for second in quite a few. -The A10 indoor record is a freakish 7-6.5, set indoors by a George Mason high jumper named Tony Barton in 1990. This technically didn't occur while they were in the A10, but I guess the records carry over to the new conference? Seems cheap. Anyway, he missed the 1992 Olympics; that jump was his all-time personal record. He competed internationally quite a bit and was the top US jumper for a while. -The A10 Championship outdoor record is 7-0.25 and the indoor record is 7-1.75. The former is the only time 7 feet has been cleared outdoors at the A10 championship meet. -The IL record is 7-3.5, and the all-time HS record is 7-6. -IL Class 3A is usually won with a jump of about 6-10, give or take. With his current jump, he will likely be a top 3 jumper at state but would need another couple inches to win (most years). tl;dr - Terrence Hargrove has a legit shot to win the high jump at state this weekend, and with just a couple months of practice ever would be the all-time best high jumper at SLU. It's amazing to think what he could be doing had he been training in this event for a longer period of time.

Not sure yet. Perkins played in the NJCAA all-star game in Las Vegas this past weekend. He was a starter for the D-I team and Chris Duarte, former SLU recruit, won the MVP but no box score has been published yet. Jimerson was at Busch Gardens in Tampa yesterday. I'm guessing they'll both be at SLU pretty soon.

The list of potential GT bigs keeps shrinking. Recent transfers: Sylvester Ogbonda - Georgia Tech to Ohio Cian Sullivan - La Salle to Hartford Micaiah Henry - Tennessee Tech to South Carolina Aleksandar Dosic - Marist to Wright State EDIT: Jalone Friday - Abilene Christian to New Mexico State As for who's left, Shakur Juiston (UNLV) and Kerry Blackshear (VT) are clearly the top two candidates and will have a spot wherever they want to go. Others: Anastasios Demogerontas (Northern Illinois), Shaquillo Fritz (Arkansas State), Eric Hamilton (UNCG), Romani Hansen (Savannah State), Tyrell Harper (Savannah State), Kelvin Jones (Idaho State), Dusan Kovacevic (Davidson), Kyle McKinley (Louisiana Tech), Collin McManus (Penn), Emmanuel Olojakpoke (Akron), Demola Onifade (Delaware State), Patrick Szpir (Chicago State), Alonzo Tyson (Colorado State), Jalen Williams (Furman). Am I missing any? Ford said he'd only use the last scholarship if we can find a "difference maker" and most of those guys don't fit that description. The first two do, obviously, and a few more are probably worth a scholarship but most would be reaches.

It's also going to depend on the matchup. Bell and Diarra, if they indeed play a decent amount, aren't going to be chasing Golden out 22 feet from the basket. I'm not counting on them for a lot this season, though, and would be thrilled to be proven wrong. Fun fact: Hargrove averaged 3.3 blocks per game as a senior in high school. Carte'Are Gordon averaged 2.0 BPG (Hargrove averaged 2.4 BPG that season, as a junior). He also pulled down more rebounds as a senior, 9.0 RPG to Gordon's 8.3. There are some other factors at play in these numbers - it's just interesting to note.

Cayo is 6-6. Hargrove is 6-7. Santos-Silva is 6-7 and obviously much bigger and stronger. Mobley is no longer at VCU. Douglas is 6-9 but thin. Ward, an incoming freshman, is also 6-9 and about 200. There just aren't many situations where A10 teams will run two bigs at the same time who will offer a major size and strength issue for Hargrove next to French. Hargrove is lean and inexperienced but otherwise will be able to defend most of his assignments without major headaches.

With French in the lineup for the largest opposing big, there aren't many PFs in the league to worry about. Dayton can run Toppin (assuming he returns) with Jordy Tshimanga, a 6-11, 270-lb. post who becomes eligible this year. They also have Moulaye Sissoko coming in as a freshman and he's got some size. Duquesne has a decent frontcourt if Baylee Steele (juco transfer) is a good second piece to Michael Hughes. I could see GW starting freshman Chase Paar along with Arnaldo Toro this season, and Hargrove would be giving up some size to either of them. Same with Khalea Turner-Morris and Tre Mitchell at UMass, or Cyril Langevine and Jermaine Harris at URI. We obviously have problems guarding Golden, but Richmond doesn't have a second big that would give Hargrove trouble. St. Joe's and Bonaventure have some decent returning size, but their second/third bigs are going to have to make big leaps this season. Basically, there aren't many frontcourt combos that would be a major problem for French and Hargrove playing together. Hargrove would give up some beef to most of them, but his length and leaping ability are up with the best in the conference.

Another great read here.

ESPN also has not one, but two excellent pieces from Greg Wyshynski, an excellent hockey writer. The first one linked there is especially good.