Pistol

I'm in the same boat. I'm probably going to head down there for the Friday game, especially if they play UK. They should be able to get by Alabama A&M without too much trouble. I'm less than an hour and a half from UK and my girlfriend's uncle and his wife are UK alums- she was a volleyball standout there in the early 80s so there's some interest on both sides for this potential second round game. It's just a matter of how willing my girlfriend will be to drop the law school studying for one night...

I'm not going to get in the middle of the bickering here- just have one thing to say: in college basketball, a coach probably deserves 3 years to be properly evaluated on how well he's doing his job. We're not even through 1 1/2 with Majerus. Things are not perfect; we are not a top 25 team. These things take time and I love the freshman class- his first true full recruiting class. It will be more effective to evaluate him once he's had a few classes and we start to see the results on the floor. I think there's a number of positive signs that we're going in the right direction. A loss at Detroit sucks and probably shouldn't have happened but by no means is it a sign that Majerus is a bust.

Yeah, I guess that might be it. We held him about 10 points under his average but he still scored a few big buckets late and they won by 3. I could have sworn we used it another time and won, but maybe I'm mistaken. I think back to the studs we played and we always had someone able to shut them down- Fisher on Wade, for example. Thanks for the refresher.

I remember Soderberg successfully shutting someone down and winning by using a triangle and two defense once a few years ago. He credited his father for the idea, as he always used 'gimmick' defenses back in the day in Wisconsin. Does anyone remember who he did this against?

Yeah, California Love just uses it for the intro and hook, though. Tupac wouldn't dream of letting an auto-tune or vocoder touch his flow. Frampton used a talk box on his guitar and was a pioneer of a sound that has been used in a lot of creative ways, so no complaints there, either. Most rappers are using the auto-tune or vocoder as a substitute for vocals, not just an effect. That's where I have to draw the line. Lil Wayne is so much better without it. When T-Pain was on SNL recently (in the Blizzard Man sketch) I didn't even recognize his voice- I've never heard it before.

I second that. He's lyrically smarter and more entertaining than any of the other huge names in rap. I also like how he puts his stuff out there for everyone to have and spread around- he works constantly and releases more new material than anyone, and demand is stronger than ever. I wish more artists would take his approach instead of letting their labels screw consumers. They make most of their money touring, anyway. I could do without the whole autovoice/vocorder fad, though. T-Pain has wrecked rap in that way and now everyone is experimenting with it. I want to hear human voices again, not robots. Did you go to the last one? How was it?

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news...er-art-to-shame It's not on the Chaifetz website yet, but it looks like Wayne will be returning for another big show in St. Louis. What struck me as interesting is that he's playing the main arena in most cities on this tour and Chaifetz is considerably smaller. Didn't some players and recruits go to the last one? It has to be a nice sell when big names like this are playing the home court twice in under a year. And I'm sure we've also had recruits drawn by Stevie Nicks, Barry Manilow, and Carrie Underwood. The variety is probably good in bringing a wide range of people into the new arena, not to mention their money.

Heartbreaking loss for Romar's squad last night vs. Florida, but a fun finish to watch. Brockman missed a putback that would have tied it at 85, fouled and Florida's player made 1. They fouled Washington immediately. Thomas made the first and purposely missed the second- Brockman got the rebound again and missed a desperation fade away. I would have liked to see Romar get that one.

Worst officiating I've seen in any game yet this year, especially in the first half. They must have gotten a memo at halftime that they're making it too obvious. Nark pointed this one out in the game thread, but when Tommie had the shot in the corner, the Nebraska defender landed on him- no call. Conklin shakes off his man to get the offensive rebound, so the defender does his impression of Conklin's backpack to prevent a put back and, of course, Conklin gets called for the walk. I had been groaning about the lopsided calls before that, but this one sent me into a fury that Buffalo Wild Wings has not seen in a while. Conklin is an absolute monster. I stand by everything I said about this kid the first few minutes I saw him play vs. BC. He treats every possession like it's the last one he'll ever play. Watching Oregon get hammered by UNC on another screen reminded me that they should already be regretting not sealing the deal with this kid from their own front yard. He was getting hacked, pulled, and pushed all night (not called, of course) and didn't let it deter him. For that, I'll let his few defensive lapses slide. They scouted Mitchell well, I have to hand it to them. But Mitchell still looks like our PG of the future and handled that suffocating press and half-court trap well for the most part. All of our guys did, for that matter- not perfect, but better than I expected. 13 turnovers against what they saw is respectable for a mostly freshman team. The shots just weren't falling for Lisch and Liddell. It wasn't one of their best shot selection nights, either. But the good ones didn't go in for the most part, and that's a tough break. Tommie needs to take it to the dish more. He got through traffic a couple times and in his easy way got a couple layups- I don't know why he doesn't do that more often. With even a pinch of killer instinct in him, he'd be a guaranteed 18 points a night. I love the rebounding (can't believe he only had 6) but he's got to assert himself more. Eberhardt was a non-factor. Every time I even noticed him out there, he was getting beat for rebounds or passing up easy shots. Reed and Thompson weren't the players we hoped/expected they'd be against a shorter team. I like their presence on the defensive end and I know a lot of that doesn't show up in the stat sheet. They still need to battle more for rebounds and work to exploit matchups. This is another place where it would have helped to have halfway-decent officiating. Then again, they need to get used to the physical play they'll face. Thompson didn't play much, though, so it's tough to judge him on this one. Cotto seems to be gaining confidence and he wants the ball out there. He looks like he's rushing it, though, and occasionally forcing his shot (how about that long two he banked in?). Cassity looked all right, if a little overmatched. He still didn't cough it up easily, and I'm surprised to see him getting over 20 minutes when he didn't even step in against BC. Sek Henry of Nebraska is a nice player, easily the best on the floor last night. Velander deserves an Oscar for the flops he took. I can't believe we let Cookie Miller hit four buckets- he didn't even look like the 5-7 he's listed at. Tommie and Ruben had a couple chances to block his shots and they let him go, I don't get it. For as much pressure as we saw, they only turned it over 6 times. That's way too low, and after watching us play BC, I know we have the defensive ability to play way, way better than we did last night.

I can't imagine why, either. The package costs $99 for the entire season- even if it's more for a bar with all those TVs, that's ridiculous not to buy it.

I was shocked at how no other bars besides Buffalo Wild Wings have ESPN Full Court in the Clifton area of Cincinnati. There's at least a couple dozen bars within a mile radius of me and I have to settle on BWW, whose food is grossly overrated and whose restaurant seems out of place there. Oh well, the price I pay for being a Billiken fan. BWW Employee: Buffalo Wild Wings. Me: Hi, do you guys have the ESPN Full Court package? BWW: I don't know. Hang on. [1 minute passes] BWW: What game? Me: I'll probably be the only one asking to watch this, but Saint Louis-Nebraska at 8:00. BWW: Hang on. [2 minutes pass] BWW: Is that football or basketball? Me: Basketball. BWW: Hang on. [2 minutes pass] BWW: Yeah, we got it. Also, to the other out-of-towners, this is SLU's only ESPN Full Court game this year, so get out and see them while you have the chance. Places with DirecTV and DISH should also get the Fox Sports Midwest broadcast.

When I was in high school in the St. Louis area (class of 2001), Cameron Holloway was doing a pathetic job of covering high school sports. I've been to enough places to know that high school sports have been covered less in St. Louis than in most other markets, regardless of size. I can't judge the past few years so well since I've been gone but it was always lousy. I had classmates that would write and email him asking to cover some of the major games in the area and he usually didn't respond or gave a response like that condecending one he gave you. There are enough slow sports days to give the preps their dues, but is it possible that they are part of the reason SLU is getting treated like a second-class citizen?

Wow, that response from them is eye-opening. So if SLU's decent non-conference games are getting lumped into weekly theme articles and if less significant non-conference games are getting ignored, I can only assume that most of Mizzou's and Illinois' non-conference games are getting passed over as well. Can anyone verify this for a curious out-of-towner? Mizzou games that deserve a "no" from the almighty Cameron Holloway: Prairie View, Chattanooga, Fairfield, Oral Roberts, Arkansas-PB, Murray State, Stetson, SIUE, Centenary, Coppin State. Illinois games that deserve a "no": Eastern Washington, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Jackson State, Chicago State, Detroit, Eastern Michigan. If these games are getting write-ups and SLU's aren't, then Holloway is lying through his teeth that space is at a premium. SLU-Nebraska or SLU-BC, no matter what the P-D staff thinks of them, are more compelling games than any of the 16 that I just listed. Not to mention: This is the only DI team and only major newspaper in St. Louis- it is unacceptable that SLU not be covered. I understand that this is a crossover season, but there's only so many articles you can write about how the Rams are terrible, who the Cards will decide to pass up offering, or some of the other junk they try to pass off as news.

Nebraska 57, SLU 52 Lisch leads all scorers with 17.

I just looked, too. Still not there. I'm kind of surprised that it's not one of them since it's an ESPN Full Court game.

Could this be a game that shows up on channelsurfing.net?

Are Mac users out of luck on this one?

He's the one who went to Hargrave, right?

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/st...E1?OpenDocument St. Louis at Nebraska The Billikens (2-1) go on the road for the first time this season, after knocking off an ACC team for the first time in seven years. The Huskers (3-0), picked to finish ninth in the Big 12, have held their first three opponents to 37 percent shooting from the field and 49.7 points per game. SLU's opponents are shooting 39 percent from the field and averaging 53.0 points per game. Is this seriously all there is for the Post-Dispatch's pregame write-up today? Is it even in the paper? They didn't even spell out "Saint," the one thing Biondi asks them to do. The link was buried online under Timmerman's blog entry (very good, but not in the paper) and an article about SLU soccer.

I saw that Ken Pomeroy is not doing the RPI anymore, just his own Pomeroy ratings. That is the one that has us ranked 17. In the actual RPI, we're in the 30s.

My mistake, I misread it- the previous thread was about the pregame write-up, not postgame. That's pretty pathetic, too. Would have been nice for the thousands of households that get the P-D each morning to see a pregame write-up. Maybe some people with nothing to do that afternoon would have gone down to check it out.

I think the trends are heading in the right direction for that to happen. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be sure to thank the older alums for carrying us through all those years...as soon as they wake up. Wouldn't want to interrupt nap time. I have to assume that's what's going on, anyway, when I see the older folks sitting their with their arms crossed and heads tilted down a little bit and not moving at all. The younger fans, like me, weren't around during the worst years. Had I gone to SLU back then, I would have done my part. I got on board as a kid watching Claggett, Highmark, and Waldman and haven't looked back. I don't really care how bad we used to be and neither should the old folks. They should be excited about the current state of things and where we're headed. Plus, $450 a ticket is a lot for us young alums to throw down for a season of SLU games. If we're going to invest that kind of scratch, we want a vibrant atmosphere to go with the on-court product.

There should be more SLU coverage than there has been in a long time. There should be more now than at any other point in the year, as fall sports are in the playoffs and winter sports are starting up. The soccer team is in the second round, the volleyball team is the best in school history, and basketball has a big-name coach in a new arena and is a totally different program than ever before. The thing that shocks me is that the BC game write-up did not appear in the print edition, according to what people on here are saying (I live out of town). It's online, but like all SLU articles online, you normally have to do a little digging. On the Sports main page, there are subsections for More Sports, Sports Forums (Rams, Cards, Bernie, Blues), Cards, Bernie, Burwell, Rams, Blues, Goold, Mizzou, Prep Sports, and Gordon. Unless a SLU headline pops up in More Sports, it requires using the top sports tab and scrolling over to SLU. That's fine for us because we're all familiar with the site and know where to look; casual fans might not know that. For a while, they didn't even have Billiken Beat listed under Sports blogs. The material is all there but it takes some effort to track it down; it's frustrating that the local paper isn't doing the local DI program any favors. It would be nice to have articles out there for everyone to see, and to have the chance for casual fans to catch an article and maybe a little more interest in the team. SLU sports only have a sort of cult status in the P-D and on stltoday.com, so only the passionate few see what's being written.

Yes, so a jump ball could change who gets it to start the second half. Still, whoever wins the tip has the potential benefit of one extra possession in the game, as Soderberg used to emphasize with his OER and DER calculations.

I think Burwell has for the most part said a lot of good things about SLU when he mentions it, the one exception being his article about how they should go to the Valley (I think he now knows he was wrong). I'm glad to see at least one mention of SLU in the P-D these days.