Pistol

I have a Rams-related question for the board: Did anyone listen to KLOU 103.3 after the game yesterday? I was listening on my way back to Cincinnati from St. Louis until the signal faded, and one of the guys on their postgame show (I think his name is John) was absolutely lambasting the Rams' coaching staff and front offices, particularly for the "PATHETIC" (he said that, in caps, about 150 times) display honoring Georgia Frontiere. He also screamed that Jim Haslett should be fired immediately upon the lights coming on at Rams Park on Monday. It was entertaining stuff- who is that guy, anyway?

I like the idea of having the student tickets built into the ID cards, too. I guess it would work just like the meal plan. They'd go to the arena and scan in. That also makes it a lot tougher for students to sell their tickets off, and hopefully prevents their Dayton friends from getting in the place.

I wish they would put these tip-off club meetings on a conference call so out-of-towners can call in. It would be cheap and easy. I'm interested to see how the radio deal works out. Is it likely that broadcasts will be blacked out online on the station website (whatever it will be) because of CSTV?

I grew up in St. Louis and have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I agree with cheese on this one; Slaten's never sold me on anything except the fact that he does have severe anger management issues, emotional instability, poor decision making skills, and a big mouth. I can't deny the fact that he drives strong ratings for these stations. I just wish someone in charge at 1380 had the guts to acknowledge that there are more important things than money. I wouldn't want to tie my reputation or my station's reputation to Slaten's name in any way, even if it meant more ad revenue.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/st...FF?OpenDocument Sometimes I'm glad I don't live in St. Louis- not often, but this is one thing I won't miss.

If this was a ban, it technically shouldn't exist anymore, as the "X" rating no longer exists. It was replaced by the MPAA in 1990 with NC-17. Because the rating was never trademarked, anyone can use it and it is now basically a marketing tool for adult films. Don't ask me why I know this, I'm just kind of a film buff. I never heard of a ban like this on campus (which would be ridiculous for so many reasons). However, the BBC (Billiken Blockbuster Cinema), channel 22 on the cable that students get with on-campus housing, had films that it refused to run. I don't know what the specific reasons were for not playing certain films, but there were a number of films that were banned by whoever ran the station or the University itself. The BBC claimed to be student-run and took suggestions from students and occasionally released statements that it could not play some of the suggestions, such as the "American Pie" movies, but never said why. It's probably smart not to give a reason why because it is impossible to justify censoring films to an audience that is guaranteed to be above the minimum age to view them.

Plus, isn't the booking and management of Chaifetz Arena handled by Comcast's sports/entertainment venue management subsidiary?

That's him.

It was actually France and Spain- I know they played one game in Nice for sure. And no, Josh had been with the Spanish woman (Patricia, now his wife) long before that trip.

Definitely not him. His IP addresses have been blocked (which is why he used me yesterday). Plus, he injects his signature style into every post. It's pretty obvious when it is him.

The exhibition games are considered a foreign exhibition because they're in Canada, so they are exempt. I think the new rule is that you can do one of these tours in place of playing exhibition games. A few years back ('02-'03, I think), SLU traveled to Europe and played some exhibition games in France. SLU still had exhibition games that year, and I think the Euro trip was actually over the summer. As for the rest of the schedule, two DII teams, one transitional team (SIUE), and a lot of other garbage games- not very impressive. They are in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off and have XU in the first round, and that is a solid field. Assuming they lose to XU, they'll probably get Fairfield and the others in the losers bracket should be Chattanooga (could see them twice) and Seton Hall. If they win, though, that tournament will be a big RPI boost (Memphis, USC, and Va Tech round it out). Other than that, the games against Cal and Georgia are the only ones worth anything. Mizzou will be an interesting team this year. I think their performance will say a lot about Anderson- and his chances of keeping his job. He has an easy schedule, now he needs to win some games. The problem with their roster (as explained to me by someone who follows them much more closely) is that their biggest talents are sort of wild cards. I'm still more intrigued by them this year than I have been in a while. And they might also have fewer season ticket holders than SLU at this point. I only saw a couple TV games held there last year, but the crowds are better for the Friday night roller derby events at Cincinnati Gardens than they have been in Columbia.

I have a letter from Metz to deliver regarding the schedule. Before reading this, I want to make a few things clear: 1. I am not Metz. 2. Metz is a buddy from SLU and he emailed this to me, "Could you please post this on Billikens.com." 3. Do not ban me for posting this- there's nothing offensive (it's pretty close to the sentiments expressed by most posters, anway). 4. Don't hold this against my credibility. 5. Say what you will about whether he should be banned or not, but he's always entertaining (and is a good case study on message board users taking things too seriously). "Metz was right. The Athletic Department couldn't schedule a doctor's appointment, and lo and behold, the Grand Opening of the Centene Court at Chaifetz Arena at Saint Louis University of the United States of Father Lawrence Biondi of the Society of Jesus will be against the University of Missouri-Not-in-Columbia-but-the-local-campus-in-St. Louis-Tritons. Local station CW11 won't even broadcast this game, so so much for the grandeous dreams of the student body and alumni who were wishing for ESPN GameDay coverage, Dickie V body surfing among the twenty students and the 90 year-old trombone-playing priest who has been in the SLU Band longer than head coach Rick Majerus has been alive and watching Erin Andrews being schmoozed by members of the kicked-off-campus Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, who have sworn their vengance against Saint Louis University - in this life or the next. So much for Digger Phelps rocking a Billiken Blue tie and matching highlighter, while watching Hubert Davis struggle to pronounce "Chaifetz." So much for finding Reece Davis hung over a Humphrey's barstool at 3 am while the bartenders scramble to get their digital pictures of him uploaded and sent to the editors at Deadspin. We aren't going to win many games this year, Joe Billiken. In fact, the odds of us losing because of overlooking the Tritons (whatever the hell that is) are greater than preparing to host an Atlantic Coast Conference school in Boston College -- a team that has to face both Duke and North Carolina twice this season. Wouldn't that be a better scenario? Opening up a $100 million facility against a brother Jesuit school and not a subsidiary campus of the University of Missouri system? SLU continues to amaze me. I have a sore neck from shaking my head at the 2008-2009 basketball schedule. It is a joke and I hope UMSL waxes our Centene Court with us. Thanks for the great schedule, Chris "Dismay," AD."

Haha, I forgot about that part. His quote about moving there is great, too- Chesterfield was getting "too snobby" for him. He's just so down-to-earth. What better way to combat those Chesterfield snobs than to move to a slightly less snobby area across the river? "Move to St. Charles: Our McMansions and balloon frame houses are a little less expensive than Chesterfield's McMansions and balloon frame houses." And the megachurches have a few more square feet, as well. For as much as he stresses details, the man lacks a certain degree of self-awareness. And as fair as I thought the article was, they were pretty easy on him about his single dad image. Perhaps they didn't have anyone in attendance at any of Troy's high school games, where Kevin would routinely be ejected from the gym for screaming at the refs from the middle of the front row. Never have I been more embarrassed for a high school athlete than I was for Troy the few times I saw him play.

What an amazing combination- Kevin Slaten and born-again evangelical. All the pieces are in place for the world's most annoying human being.

Even a Pacific team that was down didn't kill our RPI. We at least tried to create a solid schedule with them; Pacific has been a consistently top-tier non-BCS program, even if that was its first rebuilding year in a while. MB73 says it perfectly: Liberty, SC-Upstate, Samford, Savannah State- they're not going anywhere, and we're not trying for any kind of decent competition by including them. It is utterly pointless to have them on the schedule (and I said it before- no, I would not have taken a spot in that Vegas tournament to play 2 awful teams in order to play DePaul and possibly one other decent team).

Most scheduling isn't done as far out in advance as you say. There are the home-and-home contracts that could lock you in a year or two ahead and early-season tournaments that require more advance notice, but most non-conference scheduling is done between March and August for the coming year. That's why you see websites like the one that is essentially a classified ad for teams looking for games (can't remember the name of it, but it's been posted here before). The process involves a lot of phone work by the coaches and a few others in the AD. There are years like Brad's second season (2003-2004) that are mostly set ahead of time, and that one was mostly because of long-term contracts and home-and-home contracts; the non-conference schedules in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 were very similar. It's not like that every year, though, and most of our games this year are one-year deals. In May's case, I don't think he had a hand in any of this scheduling. I'm guessing this was mostly the work of Majerus and his staff, and it is reflective of comments he made several months ago that he wasn't going to load this year's schedule with big-time opponents.

Excellent points. It's almost a chicken-or-egg scenario: no one wants to see a 9-21 team, but no one wants to see Savannah State or USC-Upstate. And it's not like we're going to be a 20-win team with this dreadful schedule, either. I guess I would have hoped for something in between, like our schedules in recent years. I just want to see the program at a point where we can have a schedule like what XU has this year and compete with everyone on it. XU loaded their schedule last year, won their way into a 3-seed, and didn't lose until they played the 1-seed, UCLA. They've built a program that is legitimately competitive every year in the regular season and NCAA Tournament, and that's where I want to see SLU. If they did it, so can we, but not by playing the worst schedule possible.

Robert Morris had an RPI of 135; IPFW was 218. That one is by far the worst RPI represented on the schedule (Toledo: 187).

That's my point- they don't have any real buy games (I put it in quotes to be sarcastic). Those 3 MAC schools, IPFW, and Robert Morris are just their weaker games, which shows just how good the schedule is. They actually lost at Miami last year by 2, so I doubt they'll be coasting at any point this season.

I hate to plug another team on here, but Xavier has a fantastic schedule this year (side note: they've pretty much become the model program for SLU in every way possible, and I hope the two AD's have a very open line of communication). They have Auburn, Cincinnati, Duke (in NJ), Butler, Virginia, and LSU (in the middle of the conference season, similar to what they did with Tennessee last season). The "buy" games are IPFW, Toledo, Miami-OH, Ohio, and Robert Morris- none of which will bury the RPI, and 3 of which play in the very competitive MAC (XU playing 3 MAC teams is similar to what we could be doing with the Valley- SIU, Creighton, and MSU every year). On top of that, they're in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off the weekend before Thanksgiving, taking on Mizzou in the first round and the winner of Fairfield-Virginia Tech if they beat the Tigers. The other half of the bracket has Memphis, USC, Chattanooga, and Seton Hall. That's a tad bit tougher than this car dealership-sponsored dog and pony show we've got in Vegas. This is exactly the type of schedule I would want SLU to put together in the future- a strong early-season tournament, no RPI destroyers, 3 teams from a geographically-close conference, the big state school rival, a minimum of 6 BCS-conference schools (likely 8), and enough road games to construct a tournament-ready team. My one minor complaint is that there isn't much of a marquee game at home- Butler is probably the closest- but they have enough neutral sites and national TV games to mitigate that a little. http://goxavier.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/...-08-09-Schedule

You make a lot of excellent points here. I see absolutely no reason whatsoever to play teams above 225 in the RPI. We can replace these, like I said before and most would agree with, with more regional buy games (SEMO, UMKC, soon SIUE, etc.) because those schools have both better RPIs and some local interest, as well as games against consistently good teams in small conferences and any teams from BCS conferences. Kent State and UMBC don't bother me on this schedule, but there's no reason to play Samford, Savannah State, NC A&T, Liberty, or USC-Upstate (and no, I wouldn't have taken a spot in that poor man's early-season tournament just to play DePaul). Brad did a good job of making sure there was at least one big-time game on the home schedule. He also did a good job filling out the schedule with teams from BCS conferences like Ole Miss, K-State, WVU, Iowa, and UNC and the programs from non-BCS conferences that are always tough like Butler, SIUC, Gonzaga, Hawaii, and Pacific. Scheduling is one area where I was in agreement on Brad ("Playing a tough schedule makes a tougher team") and was rarely disappointed with our schedules while he was here, even if I would have made a few minor changes. Majerus still should have him beat in every other department, though. There's no doubt in my mind this is how Majerus wanted the schedule. We have a young, inexperienced team under a coach who is obviously taking his time building a program. I think he wanted a lot of home games and a lot of weak opponents, and that's what we got. He claimed last year that we'll play a soft schedule this year but that down the road he wants a loaded schedule and will use his countless connections to do it- we'll see if he stands by his word, but so far he hasn't lied. Before conference play, we only play 3 road games and two neutral site games. The games are all in streaks, too, so I think he wanted long stretches of being at home, getting comfortable, and learning. From a fan's perspective, this is my least favorite SLU schedule of all time (since I started following basketball in the Clagget-Waldman-Highmark days). From Rick's perspective, I hope this is part of a master plan and is not going to happen anymore.

The UMSL game will count toward the overall record, but will not count for the RPI.

68, I wouldn't necessarily push for us to play anything other than the best of the Valley teams, and as you say we've got that with Creighton and SIUC (unfortunately both on the road this year). The problem I have with this year's "buy" games is that there is no interest in them for the fans. We're not going to get alums from those places coming to St. Louis for the games. If we're going to play these buy games, we might as well make it SEMO, UMKC, Evansville (bottom of the MVC won't hurt RPI), or others that have at least geography or some other decent reason to play them. Regarding my comments about games I'd want to drive to, my problem was not so much the cities we play in this year, but the fact that almost all the closest games to St. Louis (and Cincinnati, where I live) are on weeknights. I looked at the front page of billikens.com to check out where we'd be playing, and determined that Detroit, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis (which we don't have after all), Carbondale, Dayton, and even Olean were all realistic drives for me. All of them except Detroit are on weeknights, and Detroit is on Thanksgiving weekend. I'll still make Dayton because it's an hour away, but I have to rush out of work to get there on time. Xavier is even on a weeknight, which is fine except that it might limit my pre- and post-game partying. And I wouldn't hope to be in the Valley to have more driveable games; one of the main reasons I like the A10 cities is because I know people in a lot of them and could stay with friends in places like Pittsburgh, Dayton, and NYC, but I wouldn't exactly be chomping at the bit to drive to Valley cities. The Valley cities are boring and I don't know anyone in most of them. The thing about C-USA was that even though we'd never drive to Hattiesburg, Houston, Tampa, Greenville, Birmingham, Charlotte, Dallas, or New Orleans, we still had Memphis, Chicago, Louisville, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati- all within 5 1/2 hours of SLU.

Yeah, I remember the Retrievers of UMBC coming out of the America East to get into the Dance. Still, that name alone puts a ceiling on that program (or at least will always affect perception).

As far as the schedule goes, it looks like we will take a big hit in the SOS department and will not be a factor in the RPI unless we go damn near undefeated. South Carolina-Upstate and Maryland-Baltimore County sound like the made-up schools in Blue Chips. Selfishly, this schedule is pretty much worst-case scenario for me as an out-of-towner. Most of the reasonably close (driving) cities to Cincinnati are hosting weeknight games: Carbondale, Pittsburgh, and even Olean, NY. And the game at Detroit is on Thanksgiving weekend. Dayton is close enough to make on a weeknight, so it looks like that one and the Xavier game will be the only feasible ones for me- and it looks like most St. Louis-based fans will have a tough time driving to even one out-of-town game. Also, what happened to IUPUI? Weren't we going to play in the Jungle this year? We could have had a great SLU crowd in a gym that seats about 1250.