RUBillsFan

Illinois really hasn't been anything special since Bill Self / the players Bill Self recruited left. In the last 10 years (which goes back to the 4th year after Self - when likely majority of his recruits were gone), Illinois finished an average of 7th in the Big 10. Even before Self Illinois was hardly a consistent top Big 10 team. They only finished 1 or 2 in the Big 10 5 times in the 25 years under Henson & Kruger before Self.

I'm a little worried that this is going to be like Frank's Tatum thing and the "good news" is going to be that his final 2 are SLU and Illinois. Despite everyone assuming as much, I don't think Goodwin has announced anything publicly and the last update from him was his final seven.

I get the sense that the Eagles want kids to go to the perceived highest level program that they can. That makes the Eagles look better because part of their recruiting pitch is getting kids exposure to get recognized and play high level college ball. Right now they do not perceive SLU as a high even level program for their top talent, but see it as a good place for their lesser talents. Ford & Co need to win consistently and make the NCAAs consistently to change that perception. Hopefully Tate can help with that and help the Eagles recognize quickly that SLU has stepped up their game.

It will be interesting to see how the Aussies fare against USA. An upset seems impossible, but maybe they keep it close-ish and, hopefully Lisch has a nice game. Seems very likely now that AUS will finish 2nd in Group A. They already have wins against France & Serbia who are the only teams besides AUS & USA to have wins through 2 games. Side note: AUS was ranked 11th in the world after the 2015 FIBA Championships, France was 5th and Sebria 6th. The issue they'll have in the knockout stage is that Group B seems to have stronger non-USA teams (Argentina (4th in FIBA rankings), Lithuania (3rd), and Spain (2nd) (still a threat despite the upset Croatia pulled). Therefore, AUS will have their work cut out for them into order to get a medal, but finishing 2nd in Group A would still be a big help since it puts them on the opposite side of the bracket as USA. The Croatia upset could help them as well if Croatia finishes 3rd in Group B, then AUS draws them in the 1st knockout stage.

Welcome to the board. Your question is probably best answered by @SluSignGuy. I know there is a way to change user names because a couple of posters have done so in the past.

I guess I didn't word that quite right. The roster that Ford inherited is pitiful and much worse than the Majerus inherited roster. Although even with Lisch & Liddell, that roster was not going to make it anywhere. I meant that the program had been bad / mediocre for much longer and didn't have a 3 year NCAA tournament run in its recent past to help lure recruits. Therefore, I'd say overall the program is in better shape now than when Majerus stepped in.

This. I doubt Ford makes SLU a top 10 team ever. That being said, the fact that Majerus was molding a team of underrated players into a top 10 squad and he had a bigger hole to dig out of meant that it was going to take him longer to build. Majerus took the long route because quick fixes such as JUCOs and transfers would not have been able to learn his system the way he wanted. Ford seems to be all about getting as much talent as quickly as possible which hopefully leads to a quicker turnaround (though I don't see the end result being a top 10 team).

If you're assuming that other players would have followed Tatum to SLU, then his supporting cast is not "monkey - blind kid - grandma." Given what happened with Ben Simmons and LSU last year, I don't think you can say with confidence that a Tatum led SLU team makes the tournament without any other talent on the team. Now if your argument is that if we had Ford a year earlier, he got Tatum to commit, and we were able to add some other talented players because of Ford and Tatum, then I think you have an argument. However, the two are completely different scenarios.

Grad assistant position is open...application info here: http://hoopdirt.com/job/graduate-assistant-st-louis-university/

It is an overly simplistic view point to group coaches into X's and O's guys and recruiters. There is a pretty wide spectrum of awful to excellent in each of those categories. Further, there are some coaches who coach defense very well, but can't coach offense (Sodie IMO was good at D, bad at O; Majerus was transcendent at D, and just okay at O) and vice versa (think Mike D'Antoni). Some coaches have "systems" and must recruit certain types of players to fit their "system". Others try to develop their system based upon the talent they have.

ESPN article on A-10 arenas http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/17145766/atlantic-10-venues-ranked-according-difficulty SLU is ranked 7 of 14. Rankings seem to be heavily weighted to recent success which makes them pretty flawed. I'm sure you could run a statistical analysis of how teams perform overall and then measure the boost they get from playing at home which seems like it would be a more objective measure. There is also a fan poll to vote for which you think is the toughest: http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/115742/vote-which-atlantic-10-venue-is-the-toughest-place-to-play Naturally, you should vote for Chaifetz.

If people want to see merchandise at stores / online with the new Billiken logo on it, they should contact the customer service departments of the various sports apparel providers and ask for it. If the stores see a demand, they will stock the merchandise. Complaining about it on a message board might raise awareness, but it is not going to accomplish much.

Are you including Conklin and Majerus in that statement? Those two absolutely deserve to be in.

My wife would approve of your thriftiness choice of diapers (Target brand, I believe) and your choice of receiving blanket (the muslin ones are great). I approve of the T-shirt.

Based on these criteria Brian Conklin and (I assume) Rick Majerus (under a separate category) would be eligible for the 1st time this year (also Kyle Cassity, but IMO he doesn't have the resume to warrant serious consideration). Other men's basketball players who aren't currently in the HOF, but perhaps may warrant consideration: Tommie Liddell III - 8th all time in points (probably not in due to off the court factors) Luther Burden - 15th all time in points Carl Johnson - 20th all time in points Virgel Cobbin - 1,000 point club, 4th all time in 3pt made Jerry Koch - 2nd all time in rebounds Ian Vouyoukas - 1,000 point club, 1st all time in blocked shots Josh Fisher - 1st all time in assists, 2x in NIT John Kilo & Gary Lamps - only Academic All-America honorees with previous eligibility who aren't currently in the HOF (do not appear to have on-court contributions that stack up) John Bennington (head coach) - 4th all time in wins, tied for 4th longest tenure (7 seasons), 2nd all time in winning % (min 50 games)

This website lists contact info for almost everyone in the athletic department including the new men's basketball staff: http://www.slubillikens.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=210011524&DB_OEM_ID=27200&DB_OEM_ID=27200 Department of Athletics Mailing Address: Chaifetz Arena3330 Laclede Ave.St. Louis, MO 63103Phone Number: 314-977-3177 Chris May, Director of Athletics 977-3167 [email protected] Travis Ford, Head Coach 977-3170 [email protected] Will Bailey, Assistant Coach [email protected] Van Macon, Assistant Coach 977-3168 [email protected] Michael Wilson, Video Coordinator 977-3255 [email protected] Megan Centers, Office Coordinator 977-3170 [email protected]

Correction...it actually a fart not a sigh. Gus doesn't know the guys on the current roster. Let alone a former recruiting target who chose a different school. Although we'll still get the pleasure of hearing Gus botch Kostas Antetokounmpo's name at least one game a year since he chose UD.

As someone who had a baby compete (and lose) in the most recent race, I'll throw out that that focus / timing is the most important thing. You can have the fastest crawling baby in the world, but once they are out on the court lined up with 20 or so other babies they'll be very easily distracted. Mommy is 20+ feet away at the finish line, so their focus is going right to the baby in the lane next to them. If it is nap time or meals aren't planned properly, then your baby is toast as well.

Don't get me wrong, I love having an article about the Billikens on SI.com. However, this Q&A provides absolutely nothing. Ford's answers are very bland or just "coachspeak". I don't buy for a second that it was solely about finding a great place for his family to live. SLU likely offered him the most money or very close to it and the best opportunity to potentially make more in the future. Obviously he is not going to say that though and talking about the importance of family sounds good to everyone.

I was wondering about Crawford too. I was thinking more along the lines of him graduating and being eligible to play right away at another school as a graduate transfer. I'd hate to see him go because that would mean we lose likely one of the better players on the team next year. He also seems like a great student and person off the court who represents the program well. That being said, it would make a ton of sense for him to transfer if he wants to play for a winner. This team is not being built to contend next year, but rather for the following year when Crawford is gone anyways. In the right situation, I could see Crawford transferring to a low / mid-major (Horizon, MAC, or OVC team) with NCAA hopes next year and where he fits with the team's needs. Again, I don't want to see this happen. However, given the choice between an extra year of Crawford with a bad team and adding a very good piece for the future, I'd probably go with the future.

Zips fans getting their Saints mixed up.

If you count Bess, Henriquez, and Foreman as part of the 2016 recruiting class along with Johnson and Moore, is this the most talented class in the history of SLU? Not saying that they are the best or will be the most successful. I'm just thinking purely in terms of talent. Bess and Henriquez were both 4 star recruits. I do not think SLU has ever had 2 4 stars in one class.

Another sort of benefit is that having 3 scholarships taken by guys who have to sit next year means more playing time for the rest of the roster. None of this Jim Crews crap where we play 13 or 14 guys and it is hard to get a feel for which guys are promising. We are likely going to suck next year, but at least some useful pieces (JB will get plenty of experience (hopefully) and there will be little question about which guys aren't cut out for A10 level play. It will sort of be like when freshman year McCall and Jett played a ton and then we added Kwam the next year. The experience of playing a lot likely made McCall and Jett much better than if they had to sit behind Kwam.

I did some analysis of Ford's non-conference schedules from 2015-16 at OSU going back through his UMass days to his final year at EKU 2004-05. Here are some findings: -Ford has played 2 exhibition games more often than 1 (I'm assuming only 1 exhibition means a closed door scrimmage). However, 3 out of the last 4 seasons, his teams only played 1 exhibition game. My guess would be that we will continue the trend SLU has seen with 1 exhibition and 1 scrimmage (if anyone cares). -The exhibition games seem to be typically against local schools (OK Panhandle, OK Baptist), but he did play Cambpellsville (his first coaching gig in KY) a couple of times in exhibition games. My guess for exhibition opponents would be the typical schools (UMSL, Harris Stowe, Fontebonne, Rockhurst), but I wouldn't be surprised if we see an exhibition against Campbellsville as well. -Most common non-conf opponent was Tulsa (all while he was with OSU). I'm assuming this is just a regional rivalry game, so wouldn't expect SLU to play Tulsa, but you never know. There are lot of regional series (ex Boston College and Boston U while at UMass) and regional buy games (Central Conn St, Dartmouth vs UMass, Central Ark, UTSA, North Texas vs OSU). Therefore, I'd expect SLU to continue series such as the SIUC series and potentially add MO State (more on that later). I also wouldn't be surprise with buy games against the likes of SEMO or SIUE continuing. -His teams played Savannah State 5 times (1 at OSU, 2 at UMass, 2 at EKU). Last time was 2009, but we've seen SLU play Savannah St before, so it wouldn't surprise me if they are a semi-regular on the schedule as buy game. -OSU played MO State 4 times (10, 11, 12, & 15). Resuming the series with MO State seems probable sooner or later. -OSU played Arkansas Pine-Bluff 4 times (09, 11, 13, 15). Again, we've seen them on the SLU schedule in the past and this is a probable buy game opponent. -OSU played Virginia Tech 4 times (10, twice in 11, and 12), but two of those games were in early season tournaments, so I don't think that is predictive. I was looking for other major conference opponents that were regulars on his schedule, but I don't see any. Most seem to be just a 2 game series. Maybe we can get some Big 12 opponents given Ford's history there. TLDR - Again, I'd expect a similar schedule to what we've seen in the past.