GOPBilliken

Shooting around at the rec today were a few guys that played ball at East St. Louis with Tommie and while I was waiting for the next game, I was chewing the fat with them about SLU and Soderberg and how when Soderberg comes to a recruit's house (which I found hard to believe), he tells them not that they are going to be an impact player or play a huge role on the team, but that they are going to have to adapt to his system (which is a joke), and that they are going to have to be a role player or whatever. This is according to what Tommie Liddell told his buddies from the East Side. Here's the point -- no 18 year-old kid in America wants to hear that. They want to be Kev-in Durant or something or DeeWayne Wade and be an immediate impact player, and for some reason, Soderberg doesn't want that. So what do we get? Adam Freaking Knollmeyer and Dustin Freaking MacGuire. Great. Just freaking great. That was the last thing I wanted to hear today.

I am very unhappy, 72. You should be too. I had my dancing shoes ready to go this season. I had them polished at the airport and everything. All you guys should be unhappy. There is NOTHING positive we can take from this season. NOTHING. FIRE SODERBERG.

Jesus H. Christ, you are all idiots. For next year there needs to be one simple change: a new coaching staff. I cannot believe you all still back Brad Soderberg. He has had his chance here at SLU, and what do we have to show for it? 2 NIT bids in five years? Pathetic. The NIT means nothing to me and probably millions of other college basketball fans. It is a parting gift, a consolation prize. It has no value. No one remembers who won the 2000 NIT, but everyone can tell you MSU -- not the gay MSU-SMS, but the Michigan State -- won the 2000 NCAA Tournament. Soderberg is the one person that I would go up to and punch in the face just because he deserves it. What are you doing coaching a Division One basketball team?!!?!?! Jesus Christ, you are awful. Go back to the high school or CYO ranks. I cannot believe you people. You think 20 wins is sweet and we should throw the Billikens a goddamn ticker-tape parade down Market Street. Open your eyes. You people are the stupidest bunch of people I've ever seen in my life. Realize that this coach has dragged our program to the lowest of lows. What recruits? What are you talking about? Our program is horrible. We have no school spirit, no Nike gear for the students to wear to the games, this is totally fuc*ing unacceptable. I have fuc*ing had it with SLU and the total lack of pride and accountability for the way our University is perceived by the media and potential students. It all starts with our money-maker, basketball, and right now, our program is costing us dearly. You people who come on here and talk about how much money you are donating are like the people in the Old Testament who give money in an attempt to buy their way to heaven and show how pious they are, when in fact the church elders just spent it all. You are giving your money to thieves and crooks....can you honestly tell me one concrete thing your money has gone to? Obviously not recruiting trips or a private plane for Soderberg to go to New Orleans or the South Bronx or South Central to find a 6'9, 250 lb banger. You guys are idiots. FIRE SODERBERG

OH MY GOD. IF YOU EVER COMPARE ORLANDO TUCKER TO LUKE MEYER I WILL COME TO HARRIS STOWE AND I WILL PISTOL WHIP YOU. YES, PISTOL WHIP YOU. ORLANDO TUCKER IS AN AMAZING BLACK ATHLETE. YOU CANNOT EVEN BEGIN TO COMPARE THE TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ORLANDO TUCKER IS A MONSTER ON THE GLASS, QUICKER THAN MEYER, TOUGHER THAN MEYER, STRONGER THAN MEYER, HAS A BETTER SUPPORTING CAST THAN MEYER, A BETTER COACH THAN MEYER, BETTER ASSISTANTS THAN MEYER, BETTER TRAINERS, FACILITIES, WATER BOTTLES, SHOWER HEADS, TOWELS, LOCKER ROOM, DIRECTOR OF BASKETBALL OPERATIONS, STUDENT SUPPORT, CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP, SHOE CONTRACTS, BOOKSTORE GEAR, adidas WARM-UPS, HAND-EYE-COORDINATION, STUDENT-TRAINERS. ORLANDO TUCKER TO LUKE MEYER IS COMPARING A BOEING 777 TO A TURBOPROP. OPEN YOUR EYES BEFORE I PISTOL WHIP YOU.

FutureBilliken commented on Alex Mooseman: Moose wanted to come, but Brad didn't want him. ok, so who does Brad want? And why is he being picky? He is obviously a stickler for kids who have no body mass, don't lift weights, don't condition themselves properly to handle three games in three days, don't have the body to be a Division One basketball player, have no desire or determination to accept any kind of leadership role on and off the court, can't make grades (Dixon, Obi Won Kanobi), accept the type of mediocrity that is demoralizing and destroying our program and pretty much just walk the ball up the court to await a devastating mid-court GeoWashington trap on Friday night. The brand of basketball at Saint Louis is embarrassing, horrible and downright disgusting. The coaching philosophy is a pat-on-the-back philosophy and that needed to stop when Soderberg was a JayVee assistant in BumFuc*ing, Iowa. Soderberg cries "oh, it's mentally and physically demanding for our kids." Bullshi*. You are the head coach of a Division 1 NCAA basketball team, not St. Sebastian of the Sioux City CYO league. If your players can't handle it, well, I would say go out and recruit players who can, but obviously we have a head coach who goes out and barfs at a players door before he can even ring the doorbell because he knows Chris Lowry was in there the day before baking cookies with Momma. To the old school people on this board who hate me and want to come hunt me down and kill me or give me a wedgie or something horrible, chew on this --- Soderberg is far and away the worst head coach in college basketball. Could he come up with plays to beat the trap against GeeDubbs??? The answer is no. He was out-coached by Karl Hobbs, and he was out-recruited by every college coach in the country. That loss proved that our ineffectiveness to recruit a 6'9 250 lb gorilla athlete who can handle the physical demands of college basketball has cost us an NCAA berth, an NIT berth and I hope it has cost Brad Freaking Soderberg his job. He is HORRIBLE. Open your eyes and realize an NIT berth is not IS NOT what our program set out to do this year. IS NOT. No school sets out to win the NIT championship back in October when the gyms open up. No school posts pictures of MSGarden all over the walls to motivate the troops to get to the NIT semis and championship games. But SLU sure as hell can't put up pictures of the Georgia Dome on the walls because we don't recruit players who want to get to the Final Four. We have a coach who thinks Adam Knollmeyer is going to be a physical presence. I know at least ten guys at the Simon Rec center who would beat him soundly in a game of one-on-one and could even spot Knollmeyer 10 points in a game to 12. Dustin MacGuire maxed out on bench press at 135 lbs., according to a friend of mine who is on the baseball team. 135 lbs. That's pathetic. All of you people need to realize we are going nowhere and Brad Soderberg cannot turn this program around. We need a miracle DeeWayne Wade-type player to rescue us from the depths of Hell. Lisch is not the answer. Liddell is not the answer. Voyoukas stopped being the answer when he sprained his ****** warming up before Randall Faulker made him look more and more like the "first-round draft pick" you all thought he could be. Our program is in free-fall. I would suggest you open your eyes and do whatever it takes to oust Soderberg. Now.

Finally back from working a late-night shift at Humphrey's and from what transpired on Friday night, the following conclusions can and probably should be made: 1. No one on this board should make an excuse for the way we played - fatigue obviously was not a factor for the talented Geo Washington players. We had guys probably hitting a wall out there, but that's because of the ineffectiveness of our coach to recruit and position himself with a deep bench. Luke Meyer, the heart and soul of this team looked like he had just finished up a tour of duty at Tet in 1968. Ian has nothing left and we played like chickens with their heads cut off. GeoWash had their way with our offense. The camera man didn't have to angle a shot at our basket for a stretch of six minutes. 2. Our head coach, coaching staff and anyone else involved with Billiken basketball needs to be fired and fired immediately. Our program was embarrassed on national television and heads need to roll. I would have rather bowed out to Duquesne on a last-second shot than to get our asses handed to us by GeoDubbs. We looked like a second-grade JayVee team out there. 3. Mediocrity cannot be accepted anymore at SLU and an NIT berth should be declined by our school. The NIT is a laughing stock. This isn't a reward for a good season, people. Whoo hoo! The NIT! Great, grand, marvelous. Unless we win it, why even bother with the NIT. 4. Clean house. Now. Get an assistant with some SEC pedigree, some recruiting prowess in the deep south and the playgrounds of the South Bronx and South Central and New Orleans. Someone who brings a little tenacity to the sidelines and a new attitude on campus. Soderberg is a joke. What he has done to this program should not be tolerated. It is time for him to go. 5. Adam Knollmeyer and Dustin MacGuire should be thanking the Good Lord Jesus H. Christ that they are D-I scholarship players in mediocre D-III player bodies. Compared to the athletes that GeeDubya has, Knollmeyer looks like a freaking midget/troll out there...and that was against GeeDub's Garbage time. Can't wait 'till next year and our new coach.

Scary to think that a UMASS team at probably 20% almost beat a SLU team at full-strength. Regardless of this being an upset, I saw a guy throw up into a bucket on the UMASS sideline. Bring on the Hawks.

Who is this Hammonds guy? I watched the Valley semis last week when MSU was playing and usually schools will send tapes into the network promoting their schools, Hammonds sends in a spot for his resort in Branson. So much for touting MSU's wonderful space cadet program.

Big Ten HQ's are in Chicago...home of...Northwestern. I don't think people think much on this board. I realize NU is in Evanston, so it's like Wash U in relation to St. Louis. Kind of city, kind of suburb. I think the Valley has no other choice...where would they move to, Springfield, IL?? Moline?? Cedar Rapids??

"We can afford to waste this one?" We have wasted scholarships on pretty much everyone except Liddell and Lisch. If you don't believe that, get off this site. Bryce Husak and Justin Johnson are not even D-II basketball athletes and they should be thanking the Good Lord Jesus Christ everyday that someone gave them a chance. Waste a scholarship. That's something we've been doing with pretty much every kid on our team. Match up the best D-II, D-III and NAIA teams in the country and I bet they give us a run and probably beat us.

Being a fellow Peorian, I do feel bad for Shaun Livingston and his Joe Theismann-like injury (sans the 15 yard loss on the play), but he's gotta be playing with some curses from Duke fans and Illini fans. If you remember, he wore an Illini shirt and hat to school at Peoria High on signing day, then switched to Dooke gear before he made his announcement, then said 'screw you' to both programs and went pro. I watched this kid probably a dozen times in Peoria and here at the Shootout and he is a great player, but probably won't be one of the great 'straight-outta-high-school' products. He should have gone to college and let Coach K or Bruce Almighty Weber fine-tune his game a bit. He's got the mind for the game, but didn't have the body to handle the abuse of the NBA. His constant injuries are a testament to that. You want to feel bad for the kid, and you can't turn back the clock and have regrets on what roads you take, but I'm sure that without the millions of dollars Livingston is making, he probably regrets not going to school. Maybe all this wouldn't have happened. In 3 + seasons with the Clip Show, he's missed 71 games (almost an entire seasons worth of injuries). He's out for the remainder of the season, probably most of next season as well. Not good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Ghupxbj9g&eurl=

Um, let's not go that far...when you have bench players who are McDonald's All-Americans and could probably start at any D-I school. I don't have any pity for Duke University's basketball woes. Duck Fuke. GO TERPS! STRAW-BURIED!!

IV, Lisch and Liddell should have thrown their jerseys on Soderberg's desk and told them they wanted Wendell to start in their place....

Durant will be gone after this year for the NBA riches. He probably doesn't even know how to spell U-T. And please, don't go digging up his ACT scores. I'm just commenting on how this one-year thing means that Durant and scores of others are basketball players, not student-athletes. It's a joke. Make them go four if you're making them go one. Why stop at one?

What hasn't Soderberg ruined in his tenure here at Saint Louis University? Consider the source.