Pistol

I'd split it up into a North/East/Northeast division and South/West/Southwest division: NE: UMass LaSalle St. Joe's Fordham St. Bonaventure Temple Rhode Island SW: SLU Xavier Dayton Charlotte Richmond Duquesne George Washington Those are pretty even, and make the most geographic sense (if that is possible). The only tough one is St. Bonaventure, which isn't far from Pittsburgh. The others are all so close, and that's all the way across NY state- I had to draw the line somewhere, though.

I have no problem with this thread. They're the only program in the state bigger than ours, the post is marked OT, and they're having a very nice season so far. I think it's worth taking a look at. Plus, this is the first thread that's gone into how that other team is doing and it's already 8 games in. It's also worth looking at because we've been complaining all season about the pathetic local coverage we've been given; now that Mizzou is playing well, will they be able to justify more coverage? Granted, if a SLU post of this nature showed up on Tigerboard, they'd piss all over it, but I think this is still a worthy discussion. We're much classier than Tiger fans in general, aren't we? Nice analysis, TCO. I would contend, though, that Anderson and Majerus are not essentially at the same points of rebuilding as you contend. No matter what the mess was from the Quin Snyder fallout, he's still in his third full year. Nearly all the guys on the Tigers' roster are now his recruits, too. He's still had a number of off-court issues with his players, even if a lot of them weren't guys he brought in. His 'zero tolerance' policy was more a media-friendly phrase than an ultimatum. That said, I agree that there are some parallels to our roster, mainly in the large signature recruiting class for each coach. I still don't like that Mizzou didn't schedule more than one true road game. That won't exactly toughen them up for a solid Big XII this year.

I go to a lot of Xavier games and I know a lot of Xavier fans and alums. They absolutely hate the fact that we don't play them twice a year, especially since we both play Dayton twice. Invariably, when I bring up that I'm a SLU grad, the first thing they say is that it's a shame we don't play twice. I'm not saying it's an instant rivalry- they already have long-standing ones with Dayton and Cincinnati- but there is a lot of push for this to be an annual home-and-home. There are a ton of St. Louis kids at Dayton. We played them for several years leading up to joining the A10 and now play them twice, and it's usually a close game. I've been to 3 of the last 5 games we've played in Dayton and there are always SLU fans there and the place is always sold out for it. There's a ton of interest in this game every year.

Where did you get these numbers from?

Upon reading again, you might just be looking for when we play these teams on the road. Fair enough (all figures taken from official box scores): 2008-2009 At SIUC: 6285 2007-2008 At Missouri State: 6126 At Dayton 13435 2006-2007 At SIUC: 7188 At Dayton: 13435 (sellout number) At Xavier: 9735 2005-2006 (First A10 Season; did not play MO State) At Xavier: 10060 At Dayton: 13156 2004-2005 (Did not play MO State) At SIUC: 6621 2003-2004 At Dayton: 12353 (on New Year's Eve! This was a fun one.) At Missouri State: 6388 Any way you slice it, these are better places for us to go play. Dayton sells out the whole season and plays in a bigger arena than either Carbondale or Springfield. Xavier's capacity is about 10,250 and they almost always have over 9,000, even on weeknights. They sell out big games and season ticket holders in the lower bowl sign 5-year contracts. The fans are going to be there anyway, given how good the program has been for the past two decades.

This is from last season's totals: http://www.ncaa.org/stats/m_basketball/att...ball_attend.pdf 28. Dayton 50. Xavier 54. SLU 72. SIUC 77. Missouri State 100. Drake 101+. Illinois State- not listed because it only goes to 100. So there you have it. I can't believe the A10-Valley debate still rages on. If only those provincial minds of the Valley lovers could see the big picture.

The Star Spangled Banner is an incredibly difficult song to sing. It's set to an old British drinking song that was popular in the early 19th century, when Key wrote his long poem (the part we sing now is just a fraction of his poem). A lot of songs would make better anthems- easier to sing, nicer music, not British in origin - but this one is what we've got. Not many people are going to be good at singing it, and everyone puts their own take on the delivery. I say let the band play it before every game- it will be consistent, concise (we don't need anymore American Idol rejects or Bleeding Gums Murphy long notes), and sound much better than almost any solo performance.

Cal's turnovers probably had a lot to do with Mizzou's style, so I wouldn't take anything away from them on that. Also, to say they haven't played anyone but Xavier isn't true- Cal and USC are both Pac-10, not to mention USC was ranked for the first few weeks of the season. They also only lost to Xavier by 4, and would have won if they shot better than 49% from the charity stripe. I still think the overall non-conference schedule is weak and way, way too home-based (only one non-neutral court game away from Mizzou Arena). I'm curious to see what they do against the Illini and at Georgia. The way that they're scoring and blowing teams out is pretty impressive, and I'm envious, given how our beloved Billikens are lucky to hit 60 in a win or loss. I'm not a Mizzou basketball fan by any means but I am always interested in what they do since they're the biggest program in the state and I have to hand it to them for what they've done so far this season.

Kotys- showed up with her sister, who was arm-in-arm with Cards pitcher Brad Thompson.

I'm with you. I was always looking for reasons to take a two-hour break, but certainly didn't need one on Saturday night. This one doesn't even require leaving campus.

Yeah, I share your frustrations with the architectural short-sightedness of SLU, although some of those were before my time. I love the campus, love the layout, love the landscaping, but most of the buildings are non-descript, dated, or even flat-out ugly. And then the interesting ones around campus get torn down altogether. I've always loved art deco, but the Forest building is certainly a poor man's example of it. Plus, converting an old pharmaceutical factory/office building into an academic building is probably awkward unless they put some real money or great minds behind it, which I'm certain they didn't.

Do you think that 2008 was a better overall class than the class of 1997? What is the best STL area class of all time in your opinion?

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My mistake- I saw North Carolina after Florida in that article and thought it was a comma instead of a period. I'm sure mn will jump on that.

Ha, I couldn't have said it any better. SIU has built a nice program and I don't want to take any credit away from that, but those renovations can't come soon enough. Honestly, they should just build a new one instead of renovating- I never understood why basketball arenas had circular designs. Playing there is kind of like playing in the Thunderdome from the Mad Max sequels- dim lighting, dirty, dusty, dated, and thousands of screaming seedy characters. It does just feel nasty.

EDIT: You must not be Roy Williams, because along with Billy Donovan, Matt Painter, Bruce Weber, Bill Self, Mike Anderson, and Rick Majerus, Roy Williams has given Beal [a lot of interest] (this article is from today): http://www.illinihq.com/news/mens_basketba...r_bradley_beal/ Have you seen UNC's roster this year? They have a shot at an undefeated season. They are far and away the best team in college basketball and will be favored heading into every single game they play. They're basically a lock for a 1-seed barring massive injuries to several players. They are beating highly-ranked teams by bigger margins that those other highly-ranked teams are beating cupcakes. There are future NBA stars in that roster. And yet, this program - and most other major programs - see something in Bradley Beal that you don't. I think the NYC and Philly PHLs would be happy to have a kid like that. The vast majority of those players will not get offers from the level that Beal is. And I don't know who you are, but those coaches know more "about top talent in the country" than you do.

I guess I didn't read it like that. This whole thread, people have been talking about officiating and the atmosphere there. I read his last post not as cause and effect, but more like stream of consciousness, like this: 1. The arena is a dump. 2. We should be crushing these guys every year. Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't pick up on the causation. Probably could have used a paragraph break. But no, the arena itself is not the reason we're losing there.

No way! What are they using it for now? Wow, I need to get back to campus more- although I drove down Laclede 2 weeks ago and didn't even notice. Box, I know you're into building preservation but that Forest one probably could have been torn down. It looks terrible. I've never seen the inside, but that's an eyesore, even with the SLU logo at the top.

I wish it were easier to boot Forest Pharmaceuticals from that prime spot on campus. That's a good size of land that could be used for any number of things. I have no idea if this has ever come up in discussions between the administration and the company, just something I've thought.

From what I've heard it's a done deal. The lots around it give SLU plenty of space for new housing of some kind, which is desperately needed. However, another bar is now desperately needed. Humphrey's won't be able to handle the spillover. I also have some fond Laclede's memories, heading there after Humprey's on weekend nights to watch the hammered SLU students dancing and mingling with people who were obviously not students. Friday afternoon happy hours were also a staple, as I somehow managed to always down two small pitchers of beer and two appetizers for under $10. I think I also might have the record for being thrown out of Laclede's- I went there on my 21st birthday around midnight after beating the 21 shot barrier that evening. I somehow managed to show an ID, sat at a stool at the table by the door, knocked over about a half dozen empty glasses as my head and arms landed on the table, they all shattered on the floor, and was booted immediately. Of course, I have no memory of this but I'm told it was probably under 20 seconds all in.

Gotcha. I imagined watching the entire thing thinking that it wasn't real and wondering if that would have made it much different. That scene is great, the movie is full of them. When that guy is running around the arcade: "There's a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up over here if you guys wanna check it out....Donkey Kong kill screen over here," my girlfriend's frustration with their nerdiness boiled over: "Who are these people!?" She doesn't have the same appreciation for geek culture that I do. I am leery of any girls that do, though.

The King of Kong isn't a mockumentary! It's definitely real- that makes it all the more entertaining. Billy Mitchell seems totally fictional, but he's a true former Donkey Kong world champ who actually manufactures and sells his own hot sauce. I was disappointed this wasn't nominated for Best Documentary at the Oscars last year, but they seem to be intent on only nominating "big issue" docs anymore. http://www.avclub.com/content/cinema/the_k...ng_a_fistful_of http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/the_..._kong_continued http://www.avclub.com/content/newswire/the..._kong_continued http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/nect...migods_b_list/2

Is this a serious post? No rational person here would ever imply that a building actually affects a player's skill, but the way a team plays on a given night is absolutely affected by the surroundings. Atmosphere, fans, officiating- it all plays at least a small part in performance. Who said that Carbondale's gym actually made our players less skilled? Sounds like your basic interpretation of sports is skewed by video games or something. But we need you here to help us, since we "know absolutely nothing about the game." If you ever go to games, maybe you'd understand.

They took Michigan to the wire in OT in Ann Arbor. Granted, that was the only away game besides Clemson, but that is impressive for a team that was not winning any games a few years ago. I wouldn't want to sleep on anyone. That said, I still hope for a win of 20 or more.

Savannah State is still a D-I Independent. We played them a couple times recently one year after they moved up to D-I, I think in 2001-02 and 2002-03. SSU had 2 wins each of those years, and I have always thought of those two teams as the worst I can ever remember SLU playing. I'm pretty sure the second time we played them, we won something like 73-33- in Soderberg's first year. They went winless in 2004-05 (0-28), the first team to do it in 13 seasons. They won 4 games in 2003-04 but forfeited them later due to an ineligible player. This year, though, they're already 5-2 with wins over a D-II school, North Florida, New Orleans, Coastal Carolina, and Bowling Green, and losses to Michigan (by 2 in OT) and Clemson (by a lot). At first, I thought the Wiz was being conservative with a SLU by 11 prediction but now I think it might be pretty solid.