Pistol

1. Not really. He's said all along what a natural PG Mitchell is and we've got Lisch and occasionally TL will bring the ball up. The thing about this team, with Lisch, Liddell, and a bunch of freshman, I don't think the roles are going to be as easy to define as 1-2-3-4-5, especially with the guards. Plus, Cotto is billed as a shooter so I'd think he's being molded into a 2. 2. I don't think anyone said Reed would be redshirted, just that he was going to be at the end of the rotation. I think the comment was that one of the bigs we're trying to sign for next year is a probable redshirt candidate. 4. Wouldn't the freshman count be 8 this year, and 4 next year (7 sophs, with D. Lisch leaving)? I believe he said the fall and spring classes would be 3 and 1 or 2 and 2. 5. Probably just meet and greet. That's what it was last year. And why do we always have these meetings, banquets, and events on weekdays? They don't make it easy to support this program from afar.

First post that made me laugh out loud in a while. Great stuff. Kshoe and Box, great news about the potential hosting of a Final Four by SLU instead of the Valley. That would be huge. I know the next three are Detroit, Indianapolis, and Houston and I think 2012-2016 will all be announced next month. In response to Bauman, the Associate AD's name is Kosha (pronounced "ko-SHAY") Irby, just so you know who that was. He had a marketing/event management spot for a few years, took a job with South Florida for a year, and has now been back for 2 years or so in his current role. I want to say he played CB on Memphis' football team in college. Thanks to all for the reports. I still would like to see some kind of line for us out-of-town Billiken Club members and season ticket holders to get a live feed, but these write-ups will have to do for now. I'm optimistic for this team in the long run, if not so much for this year. Majerus and his staff seem to have put together a special class this year and hopefully that's the foundation for the future. I feel bad that they're 3 years behind Liddell and Lisch, but there's nothing that can be done about that now. I'm also happy to hear that Majerus thinks he'll land 2-3 more this fall instead of an all-spring class. I tend to agree that the JUCO route isn't always the quick fix people think it is because you generally get guys with spotty academic histories and who are hard to evaluate. I think the all-freshman route is generally the way to build a stronger long-term program and we should be chasing a high level of talent. Majerus' constant bringing up of academics sits well with me, too; I've had to argue this with Ohio State fans ever since I moved to Cincinnati, but I'll always believe that academics need to be emphasized in every program and I feel a lot better about supporting clean programs. I'm glad that just because Rick Majerus is a "name" coach doesn't mean he's a win-at-all-costs kind of guy.

If it ever happens, they won't even start to consider it until the economy gets a lot stronger. I'm not opposed to football, I just think now would be a bad time to try and get that off the ground. This article is pretty interesting, mostly about Big 12 programs and how they're dealing with tighter belts on boosters: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/sports/21boosters.html

It doesn't take a fourth grader 2 1/2 years to get attached to something, just saying.

Yeah, I was going to ask about that, too. I hate to see recruiting classes built in the spring. The best players generally sign in the fall and it's hard for anyone to be optimistic when they hear that our next recruiting class will be an all-spring one. We've had little success with spring recruiting- remember that guy Soderberg?

Nark, in case you haven't read it, I recommend Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs for his chapter about the media. He's worked for a number of newspapers and magazines and his chapter on the media is a great perspective and one part of it is about "why sports writers hate sports." His argument is that like anyone else, they enter a job as a sports writer with a lot of enthusiasm but that it quickly dies. They have to deal with egotistical athletes, coaches, and management on a regular basis, very seldom see any sports figures stray from typical boring answers, have less access the higher the level they cover, and so on. But the worst part of the sports writer's job, he says, is that they no longer have an identity other than sports as far as their friends and family are concerned, and all people will ever want to talk about with them is sports. This makes for surly, bitter sports writers who now treat their jobs more like a grind and less like the exciting job they thought it would be. Anyway, the point is that a guy like Jim Thomas is rare and if the Post-Dispatch ever wants a SLU beat writer with some passion, then it will have to hire one of us. Timmerman's not bad, but I agree that he's not great, either. I don't know how much of this is on him and how much of this is on his employer for limiting how SLU will be covered. His blog is great to have, but the updates aren't nearly as frequent as I'd like to see (during the season, Dustin Dow updates his Xavier blog for the Enquirer pretty much daily, and usually multiple times on game days). I liked Stu Durando, but he also wasn't a guy I'd consider passionate about his job. He was even-keel and down to earth and at a lot of practices- just couldn't be considered a true SLU cheerleader like Frank, Earl, or Rammer. I wouldn't expect to see a true SLU fan in that beat writer position anytime soon.

This is how I would divide up the 200 minutes: Lisch: 95 Lidell: 95 Mitchell: 1 Conklin: 1 Thompson: 1 Eberhardt: 1 Eckerle: 1 Cassity: 1 Reed: 1 Cotto: 1 John: 1 Lisch: 1 Majerus needs to find a way to turn Liddell and Lisch into Bugs Bunny-like athletes who can play every position at every minute. I agree with Roy in that those two very well might average 38 minutes barring injuries. The occasional early foul trouble will be just about the only thing that I'd want to take them out for. I hope their summer conditioning was productive. OT: Has anyone recommended the nickname 'D-Lisch' for the younger Lisch brother yet, as in the first part of "delicious"? I normally hate the stupidly simple first-initial-first-syllable-of-last-name nicknames, but this one has potential. It's not the most, um, masculine nickname out there, but it would be hilarious to hear an announcer say, "Deeee-lish!" Say that with the voices of David Alan Greer and Damon Wayans from their "Men On..." skits from In Living Color in mind and you get the idea. Chris Farley demonstrates in the first few seconds of this video: http://funnyvideooftheday.blogspot.com/200...ler-as-old.html

But TWO fouls?! Come on.

Great videos, thanks for posting. I can barely remember what it's like to have our beloved SLU in the NCAA Tournament. I was a junior in high school when we ran through the C-USA tournament to get there and lose by 3 to Utah. It's been too long. One thing I noticed about the Wake-SLU video: look at the graphic at the bottom at 2:28 - we had 8 fouls to their 2 with under a half minute to go. I can't say I remember every play of the game, but it sure seems like they were protecting the #1 seed in a second-round game.

So why was the minimum $150 for my renewal this year?

True, but ego management is the biggest concern at that point. He kept them all happy and playing well for years. That's not easy to do with so many prima donnas, or in a game like baseball with all the streaks players experience in a 162-game season and then playoffs, not to mention in the highest-pressure market in the world. When you look at his time with the Yankees, they let him go for not winning the world series. He was still coming in first in the AL East and getting in the playoffs every year. That's a high standard, and so far Girardi isn't meeting even Torre's worst there.

It's a shame because Romar mustaches and eye brows or Soderberg bald head wigs would have made great giveaways. Majerus sumo suits might be too expensive to hand out.

Got it. You had my hopes up there for a second, but I just misinterpreted what you meant. Seriously, though, it would cost almost nothing to have a conference number for us to call into, enter a passcode given to Billiken Club members, and listen to the meeting live. I would do that.

In his only 3 full years with the Cards, he managed a winning record with a very weak roster. Go back and look at the roster from 1991-1993; it's nothing LaRussa could win with, that's for sure. 1990, 1994 (strike), and 1995 were all partial years with the team for him and dragged his overall record with the team barely under .500, but we also had minimal talent on those teams, too. I don't need to go into what he did with the Yankees (4 WS titles, 2 AL pennants, 10 first-place finishes in 12 years, etc.) because those were such great teams. Still, winning 4 championships in 5 years, including 3 in a row, is tough to do anywhere. Great manager, class act. I like Joe. Sorry to change the subject from soccer, by the way. I'm surprised to see the US men losing to T&T; maybe they took one off mentally after clinching. I just read the article about the next go-round for the St. Louis area's bid for an MLS team, pretty interesting who they're up against: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/st...9E?OpenDocument

Just curious, why Torre? He seems like one of the most likeable guys in baseball, and a heck of a manager. I wish they hadn't picked up Manny because he's probably my least favorite player in the history of baseball. He's everything that's wrong with sports rolled into one. I wish him nothing but the worst. Obviously, I was torn on the Dodgers this year. Go Rays.

What do you mean by this? Will it be broadcasted via conference call (I should get credit for that suggestion!) or something?

Someone in St. Louis told me it was going to be around-the-clock Christmas music until January 1 (probably because they don't need to pay anyone, just put that stuff on cycle), and then it will switch over to sports. She heard this because she's out of her mind and has actually been listening to the Christmas music, and I guess it was a message on the station. So if Bernie is correct, will our games just cut in on the Christmas music, or are we just not going to get the first half of the season? More importantly to me, will out of towners be able to listen live online or will it be blacked out because of CSTV again?

By Tom Timmermann ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 10/15/2008 The watchword for the St. Louis University basketball team this year is "new." New as in brand, spanking new Chaifetz Arena, and new as in eight incoming freshmen among 12 players on the team. And while new is a good thing when it comes to facilities, it's not necessarily good when it comes to personnel. "It will be challenging, no question about it," coach Rick Majerus said. "It will be very difficult. You don't want to be young, you don't want to have freshmen (having to contribute), but we are young and all we have are freshmen. But they seem to be a group of guys with passion for the game and appear to be committed to it." Majerus, of course, is no longer new, having had a first season that was challenging for everyone as his players struggled to master his complex offense. SLU finished with a 16-15 record but lost four of its final five and failed to reach the postseason for the fourth straight year. Only two Division I schools, Presbyterian and High Point, have more freshmen than SLU, but learning the offense should go a little more smoothly this season, since the team's two cornerstones, Tommie Liddell and Kevin Lisch, have had a year to master it and the freshmen were chosen by Majerus with his offense in mind. Last season, the only other person in the program who understood Majerus' offense was senior manager (and now assistant coach) Alex Jensen, who played for Majerus at Utah. There should be fewer confused looks this year. The only other players returning are senior forward Barry Eberhardt, a junior college transfer who was up and down in his first season, and guard Paul Eckerle, who was essentially a walk-on last year who Majerus gave a scholarship to and ended up making significant contributions. But Eckerle has been bothered all summer with a back injury and Majerus doesn't expect him to be available for the start of practice on Friday. Though Eckerle figured to be getting less playing time this season behind the influx of freshmen, at least he had experience. That means that at least two freshmen will be in the starting lineup when SLU opens its season, at Chaifetz on Nov. 14 against Missouri-St. Louis. Point guard Kwamain Mitchell seems likely to be one, and the other will be whoever emerges among the collection of big men: 6-10 Brent Thompson, 6-9 Willie Reed or 6-6 Brian Conklin. Though, as Majerus is fond of saying, "Starting is for high school. Everyone is going to play."

ESPN just released an article about the team: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3644739

Individual workouts can include up to four players and one coach, usually an assistant. I am not sure what the calendar restrictions are on these but I don't think there is a calendar restriction on training/conditioning sessions with the strength and conditioning coach. Also, more than four players are allowed to get together on their own to scrimmage if no coach is present or was involved in the scheduling. Players that have passed NCAA clearinghouse should be eligible to go on international exhibition tours, so I'm pretty sure most of our incoming freshman could have gone if the team did one this year (like they did several years ago in France and Spain). I agree that this wouldn't have been a good preseason for that, though.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/st...C1?OpenDocument Didn't see this posted anywhere else. I'm sure most have read it, but it's nice for us out-of-towners. Anyone have any thoughts on the write-up? Seems a little thin to me.

There's a trickle down effect when times are bad. That's when fat cats like to share. There's a burden to bear, and that's going to get spread around to as many people as they can manage to tag. I haven't seen much of a trickle down effect when times are good (the cleaning lady wasn't going to pull down $125K if a few of her customers had a great year). I didn't see hedge fund managers, investment bankers, or all the other big-swinging d***s sharing much when they were taking home 7-to-10 figures in a year. But when it all comes down, everyone- everyone- gets taken down. Amendment: I don't want to get into politics on this board, really. So to lighten it up, I'll give a concession to the trickle-down set: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/reaga...y_trickles_down

So basically we're not allowed to discuss anything other than final scores? Might as well just read Timmerman's write-up in the P-D. Why mid-December, when the non-conference schedule is halfway over? We have games before that and most of them count. Two more months is too long for me. We've been waiting too long, and it's just about time to see this team again. You seem to be missing the fact that the whole point of a message board is so that we fans can get together and discuss all the finer points about our favorite team. These might vary in tone, quality, and quantity, but I think there is a lot more than scores to discuss in a meaningful way. And who cares if we're not Duke, UCLA, or Gonzaga? We didn't come to billikens.com by accident. Feel free to reply, if by chance you sign on again before mid-December.

I've got you beat by a hair. I'm down 32.0% YTD. I just ushered in my 401(k) from my former employer to my new one, but it's down the same either way. Fortunately, it's not killing me because I'm 25 and don't have a ton in there. I do feel bad for my parents' generation, though. As for board content and traffic, it's the quiet before the storm. We've let it build to a fever pitch before the season in prior years but with minimal quality information- this year, people are laying low a little bit and waiting for things to get going. That's my theory.

http://www.metrotix.com/ Go to select venue (option 3) and pick Chaifetz Arena. The second option is basketball, and you can "select a performance" from a drop-down menu on the right. The only prices listed are $28 and $32, and it says tickets go on sale Saturday, October 18 at 10:00 A.M. Looks like times still are yet to be determined, as all dates have 11:59 as the game time.