Pistol

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.

Kelvin Lee is still the head coach at Chaminade. His first season was 1997-1998, my freshman year there. He replaced Steiner, who started at DeSmet that year. It's a shame they lost last night. That's all right, though, better to lose now than in the playoffs- hopefully this matchup will return then.

It's true that we are picking the best of a lackluster bunch, but when the numbers are that negligible, why go for the high average? Varner made his teammates better in practice and did a lot of little things that don't show up on a stat sheet. Eberhardt doesn't make anyone better, does little of anything while he's out there, and surprises you by having anything besides fouls and turnovers on the stat sheet. I still go with Varner.

I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say, Go Red Devils! It's rare to see my alma mater ranked this high to start the season. I fear that might be too high. I know McCluer lost early, but which is the better squad in your opinion? Any idea if SLU has shown interest in Beal or the younger Boga? By the way, it is incredibly hard to keep up on STL high school sports from out of town because of the absolutely dreadful stltoday.com. I checked the schedule/results for Chaminade's first two games and it only has last year's schedule listed. This isn't surprising; whenever I tried to check soccer and football scores, I was lucky if they were less than two weeks old if feature articles weren't written about a more recent game. The paper was always pathetic, but I at least expected someone to be keeping the terribly-formatted website up to date. As bad as the paper is here in Cincinnati, it does a good job with high school and college sports coverage.

Haha- wow, it was a rough night. Is that the official box score, by the way? That's hilarious.

Varner, hands down. He could hit the occasional open shot, even though he was cold pretty much his whole senior year. He had that game-winning shot against Washington when we played them at Savvis and his whole family was in the crowd, the one game they came in from Utah for that year. He also set the hardest screens of any SLU player I can remember. If there were an All-American practice team, Varner would be on it. He never missed a shot, played tenacious defense, and rolled out of his punishing screens to hit jumpers. I don't know why that didn't translate into games, though. He was also an outstanding guy to have around- nice to a fault, never negative, 4.0 student (a company paid for his Stanford MBA straight out of SLU). I have never seen what Newbourne or Eberhardt bring to the table for us.

6 fouls to 1. Someone with video tell me if they're legit fouls or if once again we're getting screwed by the refs in Carbondale.

28-20 on a pair of Mullins free throws. Illinois just lost by 2 to Clemson. Had the ball with 8 to go and couldn't get a shot off.

Mine too - I think we flooded it.

The sound skips sometimes for me, and the video is just terrible.

In other action, -BC tops Iowa at home by 2 on a pair of missed free throws by Iowa's Brommer. This would have been nice for the RPI if that still mattered to us. -A very young Ohio State (no seniors) won their first road game of the season at Miami. -Alex Tyus had yet another nice game as Florida easily beat FAMU. -Illinois and Clemson are tied with about 7:40 to go. -Mizzou is stomping Arkansas-Pine Bluff 44-22 at half. -Purdue and Duke are about to tip off.

I think this is last year's GWash game, v2.0. I might not make it through the whole thing.

Trick question: same guy. Just got his second foul.

Can't get KSLG on a Mac- go figure. Airball by Eberhardt from 3. Sheesh. TO by SIU, so we have it back. This is about as high scoring as soccer.

SIUC: 63 SLU: 51

Thanks, Ute- I said in another post that a coach needs a solid 3 years before he can truly be evaluated. I wish I had this perspective to back it up. I guess we just live in an age of instant gratification and short memories. SLU fans have waited decades for a good program- what's a little more time? Give the man a couple years. If anyone can do it, he can.

I was lambasted on here a few weeks ago for criticizing the Blue Crew for not getting its act together and needing to be eliminated/overhauled/reimagined. To those who gave me the "Take it easy on them, you jerk, they try hard" lectures, please download The Hives song "Hate To Say I Told You So" and play at full volume. Seriously, Google Apps derailed the Blue Crew trip to Carbondale? That's the biggest nerd excuse I've ever heard. If this were the World of Warcraft club, I would understand that a computer program glitch can mess things up. However, it is possible to support sports without the internet. I hope these kids realize that human beings have supported athletic competition for thousands of years without virtual assistance. Good leadership would have a list of Blue Crew members' names, emails, phone numbers, and addresses and could therefore make some calls and/or knock on some doors. Plus, there couldn't have been that many kids going, so this would have taken very little time. I guess this bumbling group just took emails.