Pistol

The walk isn't too bad- probably 4 blocks or so (technically 3, but I'll round up). The safety is only an issue around the MetroLink stop itself, mainly because it's a poorly designed station. There are a lot of blind spots for pedestrians and most passing traffic would never know the station is there and be able to see a potential incident. I've never had any problems at that station or MetroLink in general, but then again I wouldn't take it alone if I were a college-aged girl. I would think if you're in a group, especially a group of guys, the worst you'd ever see is a homeless person asking for change. Seems to me that about 99% of the posters on here are male, and most probably don't go to most games alone.

Those are a lot of good questions. I'm not sure what the start of the animosity was, but Roy might be on to something with them butting heads while traveling the northern Midwest, talking to the same kids and going to the same events. Soderberg's staff was pretty much all Midwestern guys, though, and shared his frustrations with the Marquette crew. I'm not sure if it went any further back with the assistants, but Crean & Co. were jerks while both schools were in CUSA. Majerus seems to be oblivious to any potential hard feelings while he's trying to schedule every other Catholic school in D1. If there's any ill will left, it's all got to be coming from the Marquette side. I think a lot of the grudges played out on the floor throughout the SLU-Marquette series. It was becoming quite a rivalry. Even when they were highly ranked, we were a very tough opponent. Dwyane Wade's worst games as a Golden Eagle came against SLU and Josh Fisher. Unfortunately, those often became huge nights for Travis Diener and Steve Novak.

There's also tons of street parking in Midtown. Get there early and I'm sure that wouldn't be an issue. Plus, the meters only go until 6 or 7.

Oh man, there were. And I think I probably played or officiated at all of them at least once. Epiphany was my home court; that one isn't bad. I guess a lot of them are closed now after all the parish closings in the past couple years. But I'm pretty sure St. Boniface and St. Al's were the only two from my list that closed. The others are still hanging in there. South City also had a lot of those great gym-in-school-building setups, like Holy Innocents and Resurrection (both closed). I guess St. Anthony's is one, too, but that one is huge by comparison (and still has the lightboard signs from the days when it had roller skating and dances).

The other thing is that there wasn't even another event in the Al McGuire center that afternoon. It's not like SLU was bumped for a women's game- and if there was something going on that day, SLU should have gotten the Bradley Center. Every team that visits SLU gets at least one practice at Scottrade if they want it, and towels, water, and basketballs are provided. Some teams have opted for extra practices if they're in St. Louis an extra day or two and have used West Pine, and they were always provided with all the extra stuff they needed for practice- even a training room. The gym at Marquette where Crean and his assistants put Sodie's team in was on par with the grade school gyms where I used to play basketball in south St. Louis city- about the same as St. Boniface, St. Raphael, or St. Aloysius, but not as nice as St. Anthony, Epiphany, St. John the Baptist, St. Joan of Arc, or Our Lady of Sorrows.

What does Pat Tillman have to do with anything, and how does a comment about his death draw a bigger response than anything else in your life? I disagree with B-Law on just about everything, but it has been documented that Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Tillman http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5052200865.html The thing that bothers me about B-Law is the Marquette worship. Tom Crean is one of the biggest jerks in basketball. His petty dislike of SLU's staff (Soderberg era) was childish at best. When SLU traveled to Milwaukee, Crean's guys did everything in their power to make SLU's visit a pain. Instead of allowing the team to do its pre-game practices and walk throughs in the Al McGuire Center like all other teams get to, SLU had to practice in that dumpy 100-year-old gym on campus and they refused to put out towels or water. It seems trivial, but it shows the lengths Crean went to in order to try and screw SLU's coaches and players. Crean also frequently refused to shake hands with our coaches after the game. His refusal to extend basic courtesies that all coaches are expected to do is pathetic.

I'll buy that. I'm actually more in agreement with you than I originally thought I'd be. I'm not a purist and don't long for the game to go back to the way it was years ago- I just want to see it officiated according to the rules. I do think they let a lot of hacking go, and a lot of body-fouls on drives to the lane. I also don't like some of the bump checking that goes on during press breaks and 50-50 balls. Players should have to beat a guy to intercept a pass or grab a loose ball with quickness, not plowing him over. I'd also like to see the intentional foul rule called properly- too many times I see players not even looking at the ball and shoving guys in the back or grabbing legs for a loose ball or other infractions like that. They'd stop a lot of that cheap stuff if they knew it would be two shots and the possession to the other team. I don't know if a renewed emphasis on these means that every team will clamor for small guys who know how to create their own shot, but players will definitely have to adapt. All the NCAA needs to do during one offseason is tell the officials and programs that they will renew the emphasis on the foul rules in place. There will be a period where teams have to adapt, but players will be rewarded for skill. I'd also like to see more emphasis on shooting- no one can shoot a jump shot anymore. I see some of the percentages in college and the NBA and they just plain suck. My guess is that if they called the fouls they should, these would go up. The NBA could use the same upgrade in foul calling. When I watch it, I feel like it's a lot of standing around, then somebody drives and is beaten mercilessly on the way to the hole. The teams that run and play open court kind of stuff are more fun to watch (like the Suns) because the whole league seems to have forgotten how to run a half-court offense with multiple players. The other rule changes I'd like to see are traveling- that's a cliched criticism of the NBA, I know, but seeing them take 3 steps instead of 2 is just stupid- and when they call shooting fouls. So many times I see guys fouled at the top of the key and they just keep moving/running/dribbling after the whistle and put up a shot, and somehow get to go to the line. It's like, "Ooh, a whistle- better act like I'm shooting!" If he's not in the act of shooting, it's on the floor.

What do you mean by "cater to the style of Drake?" You want officials to favor one team over another because one plays a particular style? What about Drake's style makes it worthy of favoritism by officials? I've only seen Drake play a couple times this year, and they are fun to watch. The comments I read and hear are that they play a "throwback" style and are fundamentally sound. I do see that, but they also launch loads of three point shots, probably necessitated by the fact that they are nowhere near as strong or fast as most of the other teams they play. Anyway, if their style were rewarded by the officials with more generous calls, I think that would cause some major issues.

Who gets flip-switching duties when Biondi is out of town or missing the game for another reason? Does he have a second in command for this duty, or will he sell the responsibility on a game-by-game basis to a booster. I'd love to sit there, but I don't think I could resist the urge to flip it on and off the whole time. The idea of a big blue light that can be seen for a 15-mile radius at my command would be too much for me to handle. I'd be communicating in morse code to planes.

From a fan standpoint, the second most important thing in sports to winning is perception. That's why, as much as I detest the Mid-Major label, I don't want to be dismissive of it (the "who cares?" argument). As awful and unfair as the term can be, most armchair fans actually do figure there's some credibility to the term if the ESPN analysts are tossing it around in conversation. If I'm Rick Majerus and working my butt off to build a winner at SLU and one of my buddies over at ESPN gives SLU the dreaded Mid-Major label, that pisses me off as a guy who has to go out and convince teenage basketball players that we're the place to come play. It also pisses me off as a guy who has to fill seats at a new arena that carries with it high expectations. In my earlier post, I tried to point out a number of reasons the Mid-Major label doesn't make sense. If it is by conference, as a few in this thread have suggested, then what about all the exceptions? There's nothing High-Major about Northwestern, but they're in the Big Ten. There's nothing Mid-Major about Memphis, but they're in CUSA with a bunch of schools Jay Bilas would like to call Mid-Majors. There are plenty more examples, too. So I don't buy the conference argument because there are too many exceptions to make it work. Anyone who calls the A10 Mid-Major sure has a short memory- back-to-back national players of the year this decade alone, plus quite a few single digit seeds in the NCAA Tournament including a #1 in 2004 and a #3 this year. Roy, I think "BCS" or "Non-BCS" make a little more sense as you suggest, but the fact of the matter is that those aren't the terms the media and fans are using. Why use labels at all, though? Labels don't help make logical arguments. The problem is that no one understands what a Mid-Major is because there are too many exceptions, too many gray areas, and too many programs gaining and losing power regularly. So many of the same networks, analysts, and journalists that swore the A10 had lost its glory and was a Mid-Major conference the past three seasons were the ones adamantly stating the A10 is not a Mid-Major based on its performance this year. Instead of stopping to listen to the nonsense they're trying to sell as analysis, they just argue about which teams or conferences deserve a meaningless label. Even the terms themselves are either redundant (High-Major) or oxymorons (Low-Major or Mid-Major). People who know the game (like coaches!) absolutely hate the term Mid-Major and realize it's just a phrase used by ESPN and its peers to fill air space.

I heard a rumor today that Tim Floyd will leave USC for the LSU job, Jamie Dixon will leave Pitt for USC, and Sean Miller will then go back to his alma mater.

I never would have thought of his name for the Loyola-Marymount job. Interesting that one's on his radar because of his Midwestern roots, but more interestingly because L-M used to break scoring records regularly. I wonder if a program with their run and gun tradition would go with a guy not exactly known for high scoring affairs. Nevertheless, I hope he lands on his feet somewhere good for him and his family. He can be a successful coach at a number of places.

This is why 'Mid Major' is such a flawed and useless term. Here's why: Who serves as the Mid Major police? Who gets to thumb through the conferences and point at who gets tagged and who doesn't? Is it a team by team or whole conference decision? What's the bottom end of Mid Major (certainly Savannah State is the lowest of the low, so what do you call them?)? What about a program like Northwestern in the Big Ten- a BCS conference school that wouldn't have made the A10 tournament in our conference- are they a Mid Major even though they're in a BCS conference? I'd like to see the term "Mid Major" eliminated from basketball discussion. It's a cheap tool for the big money programs and their media supporters to keep the rest of the pack down. 330+ teams all compete for the same prize, so what's the point of slapping a big chunk of them with a label of perceived limitations when so many have proven undeserving of it?

I don't know why those guys would stay in Columbus- Bloomington's much nicer and that's where the school is- plenty of college town stuff to do. Eh, different strokes. I didn't see any impressive homes in Brown County, just one nice state park. Most of the homes were small and/or abandoned. A lot of people were heading for higher ground that day, too.

Honestly, has anyone on here ever met Blake? The kid is a total d-bag. There's a reason he had no friends from DeSmet; the seniors in his class actually boycotted their own school's games because he was so disliked. He's not a good person and his dad's even worse. Funny how these character issues never come up. I hope he never sees the floor in the NBA. I don't care if he plays in Europe or Asia or somewhere else overseas. That way I don't have to worry about seeing his name pop up in the press. This debate needs to end. It's been several years and our program is trending up. Would we be better off right now if we'd had Blake at SLU? No, we'd be in the same position.

I feel your pain. I don't think I've ever been close on my MSU predictions. Whenever I think they're down, they are in the final four. When I try to learn from that mistake, they bow out immediately. I would love to see that program spend a few years in the tank so I don't have to see their name again when the brackets come out.

Did anyone hear this? What was said? I still know so little about the new AD, and any insight would be appreciated.

3 of the 4 games right now are total blowouts at the half. UK is down 7 to Marquette with 13 minutes to go. I don't see them coming back. I'm just hoping Kent State scores the same or less in the second half to break/tie our record for futility.

To accuse me of being "happy when the Duke rape case accusations started" is sick. I thought you were attempting to credibly argue the Duke side, but you threw that out the window. I haven't just read perimeter info. How could you possibly know what I've read? I've been paying attention to college basketball, and therefore Duke, for a long time. I don't buy their squeaky-clean image, and there's a lot to back it up. Once again, no matter what beef you have with the reporter of that article, she states facts. Duke is a top 10 university and they admitted a kid who went to a joke of a high school and could only get a 2.3 GPA and a 15 on his ACT. I took the ACT in seventh grade as part of some program and beat his score by 3 points. And that was with virtually blind guesses on math and science. It is also a fact that Duke's team SAT is remarkably lower than the rest of the student body. A little bit is understandable, but 400 points is a lot. Duke has shown what its priorities are with basketball and academics. I think there are some other schools doing it right, like Stanford, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt. They have actually held athletes to high standards instead of admitting whoever they want and padding the team GPA with the grades of the walk-ons. Because of that, they all naturally have years where they struggle. When you don't compromise your university's academic standards for sports, that's bound to happen. If Duke is straightforward and admits "Yes, we have lower academic standards for basketball players but we don't care because it's a cash cow that we don't want to lose," then I have less of a problem. They instead pretend that the team is representative of the student body, which is a joke. There are plenty who are, like Scheyer or Battier, but there are plenty who would struggle to get in a lot of schools, let alone a top-10 university.

So who is his latest incarnation? I thought his IP address was blocked.

I had to drive through Columbus, IN yesterday to get to a bank meeting in Bloomington. I don't think there's much top secret info flowing up and down Indiana state highway 46. This guy is just a troublemaker. In fact, the only thing flowing down 46 right now is water- that state has flooding everywhere.

A bunch of cash and a package deal with one of the country's top recruits. If I were Floyd and had to take him in order to get the real player, it probably is worth it. He won't see the court much, but he brings instant publicity.

What does the writer have to do with it? Why take cheap shots at her? The fact of the matter is Duke had an incoming freshman basketball player with an ACT score less than half of what other prospective Duke freshman should have if they expect to have their applications even glanced at.

No, I don't. I guess I wasn't clear when I said they'd have jobs "a notch or two down" from where they are now- I meant that not only would their jobs be different, they'd be elsewhere and probably for less money. Chase has very little incentive to keep those well-paid Bear employees around. I mean, they just bought the Company for a fraction of what the building is worth. They call all the shots now. In addition to that, it looks like the execs aren't going to have those golden parachutes to save them and guarantee 8-figure departure packages. They deserve no more than the people underneath them at this point. I agree with the rest of your post, too. The "rules" were junk and they allowed these junk loans to exist in the first place. But I also think there was a false sense of confidence because of those ratings. And you're right, the important thing at this point is to make sure it isn't going to happen anymore.

I do. Not anyone at the top, whose decision making was ruled by greed, but the lower-ranking analysts and administrative people there who weren't making the decisions that led to this colossal mess. Even though there are plenty among the ranks of those I mentioned who knew better, there isn't much they could have done to stop what the company was doing. Bear Stearns was buying these mortgages in billion-dollar bundles, and not scrutinizing them enough on a fundamental level- i.e. that they were underwritten correctly and the individual borrowers could actually repay the mortgages. 'Who wants to actually sift through and make sure no one's in over their heads when you have Moody's and S&P stamping them with high investment-grade ratings? So what if no one's done due diligence, with ratings like those and an investment bank like ours, what could possibly go wrong?' Coming out of business school in 2005, my impression was that a job at Bear Stearns was one of the sweetest plums. You had to be at the top of your class, have a bunch of other impressive resume pads, know how to present yourself, and know how to kiss some butt to get that job (not to say everyone who works there is or was a butt kisser). Anyway, there are a lot of driven, highly qualified young workers there who might now be relegated to jobs a notch down from where they were. I do feel bad for the ones who had nothing to do with this debacle.