Pistol

I didn't say we have to play the toughest schedule possible- I said that we should. It's just my opinion. George Washington was the easiest example that came to mind, and it works that they play in the same conference as us, so we can keep that variable the same. I'm not going to sift through every schedule in the NCAA's to make a point. I just like the hard schedules. Skip is right- get rid of the bottom few, and get a few of the best teams every year, and we've got a nice non-conference schedule.

He said he likes to schedule tough for the reasons I mentioned above. He does not want his team or schedule to be soft by the time we get into conference play. Even if the A-10 were at its best, he would still play a hard non-conference schedule. Keep in mind that just a few years ago there were a lot of games on the schedule that were lined up before he started. The first couple years Brad was here, he looked at the buy-in games as just buy-in games without really considering the difference between playing an RPI 175 team and a 275. That's why we wound up with junk like Savannah St., a game he apologized for scheduling.

You have to get into the tournament, sure, but look at George Washington this year. Their record was incredible, but they wound up with an 8 seed because they didn't play anybody, and therefore didn't beat anybody. Two more losses and they're out altogether. Teams that play a weak schedule early generally fade late. George Mason was an exception this year, and everybody was on the Colonial conference bandwagon around selection time.

He should make it as hard as possible. That way, you get the best competition before the conference season, more exposure by playing bigger programs, and better learning experience for the players. It isn't all about the SOS number. Sure, you might lose more than you win, but no one gets better playing cupcakes.

I know it's way too early for one of these, but billikens.com favorite Andy Katz has given his top 25 as of this month. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2491073 I have a few reasons for posting this: 1. He has UNC as #3 and Texas A&M as #10. You have to like that for non-conference action. 2. The Valley is represented with Wichita State at #21 and Creighton at #22. The A-10 has no representatives and probably doesn't deserve one (though he mentions Xavier and UMass, but says he needs more convincing they can be a top 25). Does the Valley deserve these two, or is Katz just giving the conference some love (conservatively ranked in the 20s) for the Valley's showing in the dance this year? 3. Romar's Huskies are #19 even after losing a probable top 5 pick in the NBA draft because of an amazing incoming freshman class. I know this subject has been beaten to death lately, but the man has proven he can recruit, and we can only speculate what he would have done with another couple seasons at SLU.

Pinnock was the key to their success, not taking anything away from Carl Elliott. If I had to choose which one to bring back and play against, then this is probably the better situation. Either way, though, GW won't quite be what they were last year. We should take them this season.

My mistake- no Iowa. I forgot I've been out of school for a year now.

We know UNC, Iowa, and Ole Miss are coming to town, and we're going to Loyola-Chicago. I can't think of any others off the top of my head. Isn't there a preseason tournament in Texas that we'll be part of? I can't find anything about that one online, but I remember something about us and Texas A&M in it.

He is on a daily regimen, and I know he'd like to run this year if our scheme heads that direction. He'll be a Greek god by the beginning of the season.

>Good points. Do you think Saint Louis should have a coach >from the area, maybe as an assistant or something. Was the >opening there for Bonner or did he have to pursue other >options like his ABA team. Some guys I would like to see >get a shot are Claggett, one of the Maplewood guys, Randy >Carter, Jahidi White, or Floyd Irons. Who are the many >Vashon players that we signed that didn't qualify? Kern and >who else. Our coaching staff is set for now. We have a former SLU player on the staff in Jamall Walker. If positions open up in the future, I have to think that a couple names you mentioned will be considered, but not Floyd Irons. While that would be a nice pipeline to Vashon talent, would Vashon be what they are without him? Second, he has a very good gig there with the coaching job, administrative job, nice program, great gym, etc. He'd be leaving a lot to take a job with SLU and a likely cut in pay. Plus, he's not a guy that would become our head coach, or that other programs would hire out from under our head coach. Finally, I think that Floyd might carry just a little too much baggage for SLU. He's a good coach, but not exactly a low-maintenance guy that's used to being an assistant to anyone.

He's in much better shape than he was freshman year, and knows where he'll need to be for the draft next year. He's not as toned as some of the other guys who worked out, but I don't think he's let himself go. He's also got tree trunk legs. Ian's "weight problem" isn't a problem and should not be a concern.

Does anyone know if there's any way to watch the game online? I know sites like ESPN and Yahoo have the Gamecast, but it's not great for soccer. Free video or audio would sure be nice for someone stuck in an office...hey, the NCAA tournament did it this year.

It's a closed-doors event. Unless the recruits are really impressed with campus and want to come back and visit, we have our hands tied. It's better to have it here than not, but it isn't a recruiting event. Because Kramer is playing, though, Brad can sit in the seats. I don't think he's allowed contact with any players, though.

There isn't much reason to believe that JJ will step up at all, so I think we should move on and develop AK and Obi to have a legitimate 4 in the lineup. Luke needs to get some minutes too, and if he can start consistently knocking down a baseline J, he will have a lot to contribute to this team. He was Mr. Intangibles with the team last year, and we were a better team with him in the lineup. He's best as a swing, though, and shouldn't have to start as a 4. Danny has a lot to offer offensively, and like many have said already, needs to be able to harness his ability and know what he can and can't do in given situations. Hopefully Walker will be a nice guard coach and can help him with that. If he turns it over less, he'll see some serious minutes this year.

This will be a good fit for Bonner. Will the team actually be playing at the Heights (I'm sure they won't because there's no seating there), because there is no info on the venue they'll be at. They'll probably be at the Family Arena or UMSL. Doesn't the logo, colors, etc. look curiously like the St. Louis Swarm of a few years back? It's still ugly.

Yeah, Fisher and Sloan were both huge assets to the program, and Fish turned out to be one of the best PG's SLU's ever had.

Right, he didn't commit. He wouldn't have given a verbal because the late signing period was coming up, at which point he was signing with Romar (he was done with his visits and wanted to play for Romar). As soon as Romar began talks with Washington, Gray backed off. Call it exaggerating, speculating, lying- I'm not concerned about that. There really isn't a way to prove or disprove it, so I'm just reporting what I know, and not trying to start anything here. I also know that the production in his three years here doesn't show it, but we were a program on the verge until Romar left. Just another year or two with him and we would have seen some great things developing for SLU. I'm a Brad fan, too, but unfortunately the coaching change is always a momentum-killer.

Having seen him play plenty of times, Kramer is the real deal. He's a great shooter, has great smarts and court vision, and isn't great on D yet, but is constantly working on it- no doubt this is the area Brad pushes him to improve most. His stats from this past year, thanks to the slick new stltoday.com site, are as follows: 23.0 PPG 3.3 RPG 4.8 APG 1.4 SPG 55.8% FG% 43.8% 3FG% 84.4% FT% Keep in mind that he put these numbers up as a sophomore on a squad where he was the man, facing double and triple teams every night. A lot of current and former Billikens have scrimmaged with him, and said really great things about him as well.

Fair enough. But I never said it was a done deal, either. Plus, it was the late signing period and there isn't much point in giving a verbal commitment at that point anyway. All I'm saying is that he was literally within a day or two of signing when Romar got a call from Washington. Romar did the classy thing and told him what was happening, and Gray decided to go to Oklahoma rather than follow Romar out to Washington. I know he wasn't 'officially' part of that recruiting class, so we won't count him. But it's another example of how close Romar was to really building something here. That's what I wanted to get across.

Kern wouldn't have qulified, true. Gray hadn't officially committed to SLU yet, but had given his word to the program before Romar went to Washington. As soon as that happened, Gray backed off before anything was signed. It wasn't a Stemler-type situation where there were still visits to be made. The timing was just bad with the Washington job opening. Hollins was a nice role player at UCLA. His stats at SLU probably would have been better than they were there, maybe not a whole lot, but at least a little. He would have gotten more minutes and played an easier schedule. It's just speculation, but SLU isn't UCLA.

Got it- thought you meant today.

I don't think TK posted today.

Romar did have a nice class of Nick Kern, Ryan Hollins, and Taj Gray right before he left, and that's when we scrambled to put together a class of Izik, Reggie, Drejaj, and JJ. Not a bad class considering the time frame in which Brad had to do it, but Drejaj was really the only one to live up to (and exceed) his potential. Izik was too inconsistent (also recruited by Miami and others, ESPN said we could have a sleeper with him), Reggie was great on offense when healthy, but never healthy, and JJ seems to be the only real wasted scholarship in this class. Romar was a great recruiter, but came in second on so many guys while at SLU. With a couple more years, I think we would have seen his recruiting potential played out more, but at SLU, you need more time to build than at Washington.

And that was the problem, the way he worded it. He only had to say that he heard it from a friend of Ian's the first time, and people might not have reacted so harshly, taking it with a grain of salt and hoping he was wrong. By the way, TK and FromGreece are different people.

Out of those four names, Chris was the only one recruited by Romar. Brad got Tom from his Chipola connection (their coach used to play for him years ago), Reggie was his Villanova transfer (though the recruiting nod there goes to Gary Buchanan, who introduced Reggie to SLU), and Izik was Brad's first overseas recruit. Maybe I misunderstood your point, but those were Brad's guys, except Chris Sloan, who signed with Romar and played two years for him.