Pistol

He seems to have a good relationship with Calipari and the Memphis staff, based on these scrimmages we've been playing the past couple seasons. If it were close, I'd also be picking my buddies over an incoherent alleged cheater and the in-state big program that won't play me. I'll also be very, very surprised if a team with all sophomores and freshmen and a pre-med, potentially non-scholarship junior makes it into the NCAA Tournament.

I have to say, I like their chances vs. UConn. One of the reasons I didn't put UConn in the final four is that they're not the kind of team that can run away scoring on anyone (except 16-seeds). They play tough and play great defense but Mizzou will certainly give them fits, even if they don't pull out a win. Sweeping through the Big 12 tournament and now this- Anderson has them on an incredibly impressive streak. Most people (47%+ according to ESPN) picked Memphis out of that region, with UConn second. Mizzou could be a big spoiler.

All right, I'll take that one back. Not the other two.

I always rolled my eyes at that argument, too. I find that most people are geographically clueless, and most wouldn't be able to name all the teams in a given conference, anyway. So you get this mindset from people that it's so obvious that SLU should be in the MISSOURI Valley Conference and not the ATLANTIC 10 because of distance and they don't know enough else about the conferences to make that argument any better. It's fairly easy to shoot down with the outliers of any major conference and many of the smaller ones. The maps from Wikipedia for each conference (like the one STLfan uses above) also can be pretty eye-opening to the narrow-minded Valley fans.

I posted this in a recent thread and it seems relevant again (the Great West wasn't included but would have helped my argument): Another point on travel, to elaborate on a previous post about other conferences' geographic edges: The A10 is fairly geographically average when you look at other conferences. I think a lot of it is perception, as no one associates "St. Louis" with "Atlantic," though someone can associate "East" with both "Syracuse" and "Tampa." Distances of outermost points, as the crow flies: A10: St. Louis to Providence = 1023 miles Big Ten: Minneapolis to Pittsburgh = 661 miles (add a couple hundred extra for State College) Big East: Tampa to Milwaukee = 1121 miles; Tampa to Syracuse = 1123 miles; Tampa to Providence = 1148 miles Pac 10: Seattle to Phoenix = 1113 miles (add some extra for Tucson) Mountain West: Fort Worth to San Diego = 1161 miles; Fort Worth to Salt Lake City = 970 miles WCC: San Diego to Spokane = 1036 miles Sun Belt: Miami to Denver = 1715 miles ACC: Miami to Boston = 1258 miles Distances of outermost points, by car (air data harder to come by, so subtract a bit to get there): SEC: Gainesville to Fayetteville = 1028 miles; Gainesville to Lexington = 710 miles Big 12: Ames to Austin = 964 miles; Boulder to College Station = 1067 miles CUSA: El Paso to Greenville = 1900 miles WAC: Ruston to Moscow = 2266 miles; Ruston to San Jose = 2022 miles, and I won't even bother to do the math for any of these cities to Honolulu. Moral of the story: Before SLU joined the A10, it was a very compact geographic conference by most standards. Our inclusion just stretched it a bit, but nowhere near unreasonable levels when you look at other conferences. Sources: Google Maps (road) and http://www.indianindustry.com/travel-tools...calculator.html (air)

I would guess Patterson goes pro.

I'm well aware of all those things, as are thousands of others with access to Google. What I'm saying is that a 49-year-old basketball coach at a top-tier program is in a relationship with a 19-year-old girl, not just a "he slept with so-and-so" rumor. Also, just realized I was spelling his name wrong. Corrected. It's a shame about Harrellson; he could have been a real contributor here. It was a good point made earlier that he's living his dream and playing big-time basketball, but it's got to be rough dealing with diminishing minutes in that pressure cooker right now, seeing the coach's name in the headlines everyday, and seeing perhaps a bleaker 2009-2010 ahead.

Oh, it's Postcard. Thank God you're here. Is it possible that one thread goes by on this board without Postcard, tenthyearsenior, or cheesycow hijacking it and picking fights with people? Why are you here? Why don't you get back to being miserable elsewhere? If you have to know, I heard it from two former UK athletes who are in the same country club as Gillispie. They are the kind of alums who get courtside seats regularly from their friends in the program and boosters, very well connected in both UK and the Lexington area. They aren't blindly loyal, irrational, small-time fans, as are so many other UK fans. They have no reason to make these things up for me. They said a lot of people around there are getting tired of Gillispie's off-court behavior because of their lackluster season; otherwise, this is the kind of stuff the community would protect him from and turn a blind eye toward (which has always been off-putting to them, seeing players and coaches get away with bad behavior because they win). And I'm done, Postcard. You can get back to murdering puppies or towing cars or insider trading or whatever miserable thing you do.

I would bet a picture would be hard to find unless someone in the know in Lexington decides to run with it online. The current main squeeze is said to be 19. I wouldn't normally try to start a rumor but I trust my source on this one. Apparently he's dated a string of much younger ladies (not sure if they're UK students or not) since he's come to Lexington. I guess he's not committing any crimes and people were willing to turn a blind eye to his questionable dating ethics until recently, as his performance has not matched his pay. Murmurs of this may have started to pop up online lately but it might be a while before we get one of those classic Bruce Pearl boat pictures.

Word on the street is also that Gillispie is dating a much, much younger girl- as in, not quite drinking age. This also is supposedly a habit of his with girlfriend choices lately, and UK fans would let it go if he were winning.

Miles had actually given an early commitment to Xavier. Makes you wonder.

I'm disappointed it won't be held in Cincinnati or Dayton, but at least they figured out how to get more people there. The first round at the higher seed's home and the rest of it pushed back a day was a smart move- maybe I'll finally be able to get up there. But SLU will have to make it to the weekend for once.

They'd all be in the argument, but many believe Allen is still the most 'magical' venue in college basketball. ESPN called it the Wrigley Field of college hoops a couple weeks ago. http://sports.espn.go.com/travel/news/story?id=3937886

Bobby, saying "I wasn't sold on him until later in his career" is a dramatic understatement. I have no idea what screen names you were using on here at the time, but for the first few years of his career (and even before it, probably due to your xenophobia and therefore distaste that we signed a Greek) you went way, way beyond not being sold on him. Hyperbole has always been your thing, and you held nothing back in expressing your dislike of Vouyoukas. I have to give it to you- your criticism of Thompson is very tame by comparison. I just don't understand how you suddenly are pretending that Vouyoukas was the opposite of Thompson. You don't know Brett, and you know even less about what motivates him or what is going on in his head. I don't claim to, either, and I suppose we'll agree to disagree about his mindset and the end result. I think he'll stay, I think he wants to succeed, and I think he'll work hard with the strength and conditioning coach along with Rick's staff to improve his game. If he were to transfer, that would be short-sighted, as almost all freshman bigs have a long way to go from the start. It's the nature of the beast, and I'm betting Brett is smart enough to know that. His brother has even suggested those things on here in the past. I hope you get over the dual personality complex. It's all handshakes and laughs in public, and then it's all hate and vitriol online. Good luck on getting this new handle to last without saying something racist, challenging someone to a fight, or otherwise offending everyone and imploding.

Ha, I'm glad someone else finally noticed. He hides his identity about as well as Clark Kent.

Comparisons between Thompson and Vouyoukas are fair. Both are natural centers and similar sizes. Both showed flashes during their freshman seasons despite the fact that they would need a lot of strength and conditioning training after those seasons. Plus, I remember all the terrible things you said about Vouyoukas after his signing, during and after his freshman year, and throughout his career. Don't pretend you saw his improvement coming and were a fan of his.

This is hilarious and clever. Did you think of it? Comic genius. Marquette's Wade-era Final Four run couldn't have been better timed and it paid off with a jump to the Big East. However, Marquette has performed consistently well since joining that conference, has continued to draw huge crowds to the Bradley Center, has incredible student support, and the incoming class (easily one of the best in the Big East) suggests they'll continue to justify their existence in the Big East. I loved the rivalry SLU had with Marquette, and hated Crean and his staff with a passion. I miss playing them twice a year. However, I'd rather root for the school that is probably more similar to SLU than any other, and see them as a model of what SLU can achieve with its program instead of being jealous of their progress.

I would take Frease in that race if it were today. He doesn't make it look pretty, but he is a deceptively skilled big man. Don't forget he was a top 10 center coming out of HS (chose Xavier over UK and ND, among others) and Sean Miller called him, "The most talented recruit I've ever signed." He had a nice game against Wisconsin yesterday, too. I also like Brett a lot and think he's going to be just fine. If he works hard this summer, he'll be a much different player than what we saw this year. And we saw some good things- smarts, a nice touch, solid post moves. Saying "the game is too fast for him" shows a lack of knowledge about freshman bigs in this game.

And he was good for 20 and 10 a night in that stretch.

That's pretty much the opposite of what I saw from Tommie. He had NBA talent but was completely reserved personality-wise. He was tentative on the floor when he could have taken over at times. Never did I get the sense that Tommie thought he was a sure-thing pro, and I wouldn't have minded if he did once in a while.

Just making sure- there's quite a few of us here. Nark, I like it. That's what SLUH's principal said at high school night when I was in 7th grade, too.

I think I know who you are now. You are nothing like a Chaminade guy, and no girl who is familiar with the school would say that. But nice try.

To you and me, yeah, but to someone from outside this area? Might not seem like such a huge difference.

That would be a good one. Xavier would need to play a lot tougher than they have lately. Xavier fans worry every year that Dixon will leave Pitt for one of the few higher-status jobs in the country and that Miller will then fill that job.

I like TJHawk's response- though it may have been sarcastic, I can't tell. It would probably take way too long to explain and would involve numerous generalizations about the students of every St. Louis-area Catholic school (and there are a lot- this area has the highest percentage of Catholic secondary school students in the country) to come up with the stereotype she placed upon you. I'd be curious to hear what her perceptions of Chaminade guys are and why you fit the mold. When you get down to Chaminade, SLUH, CBC, DeSmet, Vianney, and the others, the differences probably seem like small nuances to outsiders.