Pistol

I don't think the engineering program is a highlight of SLU's advantages over Marquette in a conversation about basketball programs. How many D-I players care about that? "Sorry, Coach Williams, UNC is nice but there is a much, much better engineering school in Rolla, Missouri."

Typical SLU fan attitude. You and Roy should petition the AD to establish a "silent section" for tough guys and geriatrics. I'm guessing this would also be the section that would have the highest number of people leaving early to beat traffic, such as those who left with 2 minutes down by 6 (surely these old folks remember just a few years back when we were down 9 with less than a minute against Houston, tied it on a tip by Phil Hunt, and won in OT).

It was gone by the time my representatives (i.e. parents) picked, but I like that section- next to the students, and surprisingly close to the floor. I have a few buddies down there as well. Maybe if there's an opening next year, I will.

Good response, Bonwich. I'm glad to see you participating and even leading. I agree that it isn't about us diehards, but I disagree that cheerleaders did much for the casual fans. I see no difference between the overall fan cheering now than I did in the Scottrade Center and when we had a full cheerleading squad, and it's actually louder because of the more appropriately sized arena. The fact is that we have too many fans who are content to sit there with their arms folded and mouths closed. It's always been that way at SLU games. I don't understand it because it looks so boring to me. The older fans aren't like this at other arenas. I go to a lot of Xavier games here in Cincinnati, and everyone gets into it throughout the game. It also helps that they have what appears to be a more across-the-board fan base in terms of age. We basically have the students and the alums of decades ago. When I go to the games, I don't see many more recent alums like me (20s, 30s, or even 40s), who are more likely to come in bigger groups, be loud, stand up, cheer, and buy more beer to help the whole process. The examples you give are well-established traditions that these schools do every game. Yeah, we could use a cue from our band to get going with certain ones, but we still don't need cheerleaders. We need fans who know how to show that they care and more young fans.

That was my whole point, yes. We need the other filler because there isn't enough impressive history to sell the fans on, and those bits don't get the crowd into it anyway, unfortunately.

I don't understand your response- aren't we on the same page? I want people to show support throughout the whole game.

Yes we do. The dance team now serves a dual purpose. It's better that way, as I had no need for 85-pound girls and balding guys (seriously, why are male cheerleaders always balding in college?) standing in the way and literally spelling out how they want the team to play. Cheerleaders are about as useless as fans who don't cheer. Good riddance to them. And seriously, Bonwich? You need cheerleaders to lead your cheers? You can't applaud a good play or scream at a ref without a little pixie in Keds giving you the go-ahead? That's either sad or creepy. There are no excuses, people. Roy's right, we pay a lot for these seats. That gives us a license to show our support, and if you don't like it, that's what HDTV is for.

The kiss cam is a fixture at most big sporting events anymore. It doesn't bother me too much, makes for some funny moments. Same with the celebrity look-alike; I've only seen that a few places and seeing a familiar face compared to a celeb every now and then makes the misses worthwhile. I wouldn't mind doing more nostalgic stuff, but you seem to be ignoring the fact that we don't have a lot of nostalgic stuff to do. Look around at the banners. This program is very limited historically. If we are doing remember-when highlights every timeout, we're going to be digging pretty deep into "Hey, remember this slightly-above-average team?" territory. That would be more small-time than any kiss cam or celebrity look-alike contest. And yes, I can imagine the ovation a Donnie Dobbs clip would get- mild, respectful applause. They showed a Hughes segment during a timeout during the GW game, and it didn't get much of a response from the crowd. If anyone's going to get it, it's him. Face it, people are going to be louder during those fun little timewasters than they are during some Billiken Legends thing. The way this team has been playing, a non-basketball diversion is more helpful for the crowd's mental health than a reminder that there were actually better teams before this one.

That struck me about Beal when I saw him, too. He had 28, all in the first half, against Pattonville in late December on 11 attempts from the field. He's efficient. They're going to be good for at least a few more years. That's exciting as an alum because Chaminade was always the basketball doormat in the MCC until Kelvin Lee established his program.

Thanks for the tip, Doc- always looking for a good read. I just put it on hold, but unfortunately the Cincinnati Public Library only has one copy so I could be waiting a while. What is the cut-off point for the "youngest generation" that the author discusses? I couldn't figure this out from the website. I'm 25, and I saw a lot of these spoiled, entitled, imbalanced, stupidly-named kids coming up through school, but I get the idea it keeps getting worse. My brother is a grade school teacher and sometimes the hardest part for him is having to sit there and bite his tongue while awful parents tell him that their awful child is really special and seeking the right way to express himself or herself. He'd love to look across the desk and tell them that their child is not special to anyone but them, of average or below-average intelligence, and emotionally unstable because of their lax parenting. On the other hand, STLHI makes a good point above. Whatever your political leanings, it's undeniable that a young generation rallied together unlike anything since the late 60s to get their candidate into the White House. A lot of it may have been done 'virtually', but they still banded together and moved in the same direction. It's also true that the younger generation's wimpiness is largely due to their baby boomer parents (and possibly now grandparents), who raised them this way- and divorced at a rate of near 50%. So as much as I believe the youngest generation has a ton of embarrassing shortcomings, let's not forget who's wagging the finger.

From what I've seen and been told, Hannah generally starts at the 4 and the tall, skinny kid (Gross) starts at center. Hopefully Hannah recovers quickly so Chaminade can lock up its third straight MCC title with his help.

I think the report on Temple is shut down Dionte Christmas and you'll have a chance. He's averaging almost 22 PPG, and the next guy averages about half of that. He looks like a heavy favorite for conference player of the year (I am not sure about his NBA prospects). I just don't see it happening tonight. We're such a poor road team that even if Lisch is able to shut down Christmas to any degree, I don't see us getting enough done on the offensive end to win.

Apparently at least one writer from the Cincinnati Enquirer thinks it should be Xavier: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2009012...30005/1055/NEWS

http://prepsports.stltoday.com/ssi/prep/st...AA?OpenDocument Sounds like it was a good one. It says Hannah is out two weeks with a sprained ankle- when did he sprain it?

Oh yeah, the Chicago Invitational Challenge. It's at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, about an hour from downtown with normal traffic. Xavier actually won the 2007 version of that, with wins over Kent State and Indiana. Dayton won this year over Marquette in the final. Seems to have a pretty decent field every year- and the A10 dominates. If history means anything, then we should top ND for the 2009 title, right?

Anyone else watching this? Also, Northwestern pulls off a huge upset at Michigan State.

http://goxavier.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/s.../011909aaa.html Looks like they're already announcing early-season tournaments for next season. Any word on if SLU will be in one? By the way, Xavier is also currently demolishing St. Bonaventure up in Olean. It's 68-40 at the under 8:00 media timeout.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/statistics?s...&league=nba 4 of the top 10 FT shooters by percentage are foreign-born. 10 of the top 50 are foreigners. I had some trouble finding a percentage or number of foreign-born NBA players this season, but I found that there were 76 on active rosters in April 2008, or about 17%. So I guess the math says that the foreign guys are bringing the average up a little bit.

Just bring home a win for the Red Devils for me. And a rundown of what you see tonight would be nice, too. Too bad Majerus and the boys will be up in Philly so he can see Beal and Co. and I know he's made comments in the past about always paying attention to "wherever Luke and Paul came from."

So there you have it. Nice work, kshoe. I think we can all agree that Kevin is a great kid, hardworker, is tough and has played through injuries, and an outstanding student. I think we can also agree that he's had a nice career here but has regressed (for one reason or another) a little bit this year and hasn't played well in our losses. I don't think these facts are mutually exclusive, nor do I believe his regression is related to effort. A strong finish to get the numbers back on track and a lot of conference wins for the squad is not out of the question.

No, you must be mistaken- I wasn't trying to get through the drive-thru at Del Taco, we were in line at the Good Pie and also considered Vito's, Triumph, and Buffalo Brewing. I think I saw some Larry the Cable Guy fans eating fried chicken in the back of a truck and chasing down a stray dog.

I wasn't trying to sway anyone's opinion with the anecdote about his driving around the gate to get into that lot. I was just telling what I thought was a funny little story. If anyone takes it to be an extra insight into his complex character, that's fine, I don't care either way. I'll put it this way- I'd rather have a good coach who makes the occasional jerk move like that instead of a mediocre coach and poor recruiter who doesn't.

Possibly, but the commenter on Timmerman's blog pointed out that we don't have a natural backup for Mitchell next year. I love Mitchell's game and want him to play as many minutes as possible, but who gets the PG job done if he goes down with an injury? That would have been Cotto but now looks to be a backup-PG-by-committee deal.

Did anyone else have trouble getting a table at any of the restaurants close to the arena? We showed up at the Good Pie at 6:30 expecting a relatively smooth meal with plenty of time to get to the game, but they had a 45 minute wait. So I told my family to wait while I checked out the other places; Buffalo Brewing had at least a 45 minute wait, Vito's was 40 minutes, and Triumph was an astounding 90 minutes. I guess this is good for the area, but it was damn frustrating when we've never had to get to the dinner spot more than 90 minutes before tip. Anyway, after waiting for three older couples to sit and talk for a half hour after finishing their food (some people can look so nice and be such jerks), we sat down about 7:25 and got to the arena with 19:20 left in the first half. I never thought I'd miss the tip.

I don't think it was made clear that it is a different person from the official scoreboard operator. I know the guys that run it and they get tired of people criticizing them for something that they're not even doing.