satrap

That is a great conference, seriously. The only thing missing is Fordham

If I didn't despise the Southwest, I would feel sorry for them. It's absolutely hilarious that the crash happened this way, with Hinson having a pretty stellar career record, and now this. It was obviously going to happen this way; what did people expect, a record BETTER than Hinson's??

Fordham is great. I would love for my daughter to go there eventually. She won't.

I was fooling around on their website the weekend we played them. Rose Hill Gym has been renovated in the recent past- it's old part is the outer edifice (which is beautiful and the only reason it's still used). So the reason for small crowds has nothing to do with the gym. A new gym would be a money pit and is out of the question, probably.

Free time would have nothing to do with their absence, but it's still a decent point. I was listening to Rammer before the team left for Fordham a few weeks ago and they were staying well north of Fordham- I can't offhand remember were but it starts with a T, on the Hudson river. Anyway, you are right as far as it goes for the young athlete. If a young man is normal, he doesn't care much about visiting NY, at least as far as I remember my youth.

Are you a Fordham grad?

Ok, OK. Maybe not "impressive" for a gym. But I do so like limestone buildings, which all buildings should be....

Is that right? Wow, fairly impressive, even though it has little to do with Fordham directly. I would be proud for my children to go to Fordham and think it's a great school. Rose Hill Gym is an impressive edifice. But if we are talking about "weak" links (even though I don't really believe in the concept)........

Actually, you are confusing distance with geographic logic. In a huge country like ours, you are probably going to have some large distances between conference teams. But the Big 12, which ranges from Columbia to Boulder, or the Pac 10 from Seattle to Tempe, or the Big 10 from IA City to State College all have state to state continuity i.e. all the states border each other with no "skip" areas. This makes them at least somewhat sensible i.e. logical. I'm sure the MVC meets these criteria and I assume almost every other conference does. The A10 gap between MO and Ohio is pretty large. I think, also, that better teams don't make a better conference; the Big East is huge, powerful, and no more compelling to me than any other conference and less than most.

As a Mizzou alum, and rabid partisan (I am a SLU season ticket holder because I love college BB) I am skeptical of MA's genius. He's fine. If he leaves, I would not lose a second of sleep- IF MU hired Chris Lowry. I am a huge partisan of the Gene Keady coaching tree..

I know, but come on: can you imagine that Evansville, Drake, InSU, and whoever else he mentioned aren't "holding up" their ends? It's more like there is more sex appeal with his other suggestions, which there is but is of no consequence.

I think it was a good article in the sense that it's provocative, but a weaker one in the sense that it's insulting as hell to a huge number of fans, athletes, and adminstrators. First of all, a conference should NEVER expel a member who wishes to be a part of the fun; this isn't a Darwinian contest- it's ostensibly a cohesive collection/collective in which ALL members add something, if not equally (i.e. Fordham in our league). The MVC is every bit as good as it was in any year, whether the on court success says so or not. Conference success is measured in more than just wins and losses. Your point about SLU and the MVC is right on, and people have never admitted it: SLU is just not a great cultural fit (although Creighton is a similar school). I personally think the A10 is a good, athletic, well coached conference and am glad we are part of it, even though it is a conference that is geographically goofy.

I know. The network does a really good job of covering the games, too. Steve Lappas, their lead analyst, is actually quite gifted at his craft. The overall network, though, is very weak and relies on alot of repeat programming i.e games from the night before. I can't see it adding a cent of value to any cable package, and Charter needs billions in added value.

I have two tickets for tomorrow's game, free to the first person to PM me. You'll have to pick them up @ my Chesterfield home due to the lateness of the hour.

It should read that, indeed, and I'm surprised she would have had anything to do with that wording, since I presumed whe wanted absolutely nothing to do with RM- at least at the time he was hired. Weird....

Neither one are great, obviously. The weird thing is how KL, a much, much, much better player than TL, came into the season fat and out of shape, a state which has been largely uncommented on. He has been better recently, but his attempt at adding muscle was an overall calamity. TL is a drifter.

I don't know. There's a tough .500 noncon/con and there's this year, with the wins coming over dreck, BC notwithstanding. Our wins over UMass and GW were good wins too, though, and I'm not completely negative; it's just that our noncon was very weak overall, so our record should be worse...

We beat Stanford , NC, and USC, what are you complaining about?? Err, it was Samford and University of South Carolina-Upstate and Carolina A and T?? Never mind. One overlooked thing, which I have convinced myself of, is that KL is out of shape and slow. Is ANYBODY else seeing this?

I just read the article on the internet. It's just a homer newscaster's opinion, and it's not all that controversial. In fact, the article pretty much REintroduces us to the conventional wisdom that prevailed when he was hired: He has a plan, Brad was a nice, clueless dork, RM has a resume that's going to bring great recruits flocking, etc. It could still come true (though I would bet large amounts of money that SLU will never dominate even the A10), but it's also true that any of the "excitement" over RM's hiring has long since faded, both in the electronic media and the stands.

I can see how KC was a very good Class A player - good size and smarts, for sure. But he's really up against it in a major bball conference with his relative lack of speed. I don't see how this is going to allow him ever to contribute significantly.

Kevin is OK, a decent player. He can be a good shooter, of course, but he's lost a step from what he had as a soph and he looks relatively out of shape on the court- soft. I really thought he would be an excellent player by the time he was a Sr, up from very good as a soph. He's now just pretty good and his overall game has regressed. Again, I think he's out of shape.

http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2009/0...tate/153351.txt After reading about his transfer here and there, the Bills were better off never signing him, and he probably just should have played out his career at UMSL or the like...

I am least fond of Coach Majerus and wish he would have never been hired, but it would be impossible for a game like basketball to pass almost anyone by. It's just not that complicated and Coach is a bright enough guy by all accounts.

I never really critiqued him in the past, because you didn't have to; even when he wasn't statistically impressive, his floor presence was. Now he is just mostly awful.

Kevin is horrible. His only effective move is mid-spin, where nobody- including himself- knows exactly where he is going and thus there is anticipatory excitement. The rest of his game is blecch.