RUBillsFan

I wish the NBA and the NFL would just pony up and create minor league systems rather than using college sports as de facto minor league systems. That way kids who just want money and want to make it to the League can go play in the minor leagues and kids who want an education can go to school. Schools should be in the education/research business and not in the minor league sports business. I know a lot of talking heads would whine about the loss of talent and would say that the quality of play would take a big hit, but my opinion is who cares? College sports fans are mostly fans because they went to whatever college or have some connection to the college and therefore have a rooting interest in the team. Kansas fans will root for Andrew Wiggins because he plays for Kansas. Very few fans outside of Wiggins friends and family will root for Kansas because he plays for them.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is probably a little bit of a lag between how well a team performs on the court and how that translates into recruiting. By the time Butler made those runs, most high school juniors and almost all seniors had already either picked a school or had a short list of schools. Therefore, their wouldn't be affected much by Butler's final four runs.

I've noticed this phenomenon reading Scout.com articles from other team's sites. It seems like a lot of the Scout team "reporters" are really fans that report on the team. Ben W. (SLU's Scout.com writer) goes out of his way to not be a fan.

My pick is McBroom. The other newcomers will all be freshman meanwhile McBroom has a year of DI under his belt and a year of practicing with the team. I expect him to get the most minutes out of any of the newcomers as well. I think he will be the 1st guard off them bench or potentially a starter with Jordair maintaining the same role he had last year.

Let's break this thing down: SLU enrollment: 13,785 per Wikipedia Per your stats (8.29% international . 91.71% domestic, roughly 4.15% Hispanic and 6.63% African American) Domestic: 12,642 total (roughly 525 Hispanic and 838 African American) International: 1,143 World Population (per wikipedia): Non-US: 6,782,728,000 US: 316,272,000 (50,477,594 Hispanic and 38,929,319 African American) That means that 0.00001685% of the rest of the world is attending SLU and 0.00399719% of the US is attending SLU (0.00104% of US Hispanics and 0.0021526% of African Americans). Meaning a US person is over 200 times more likely to be attending SLU than a foreign person (a US Hispanic is over 60 times more likely and an African American is over 120 times more likely). I realize this analysis is flawed, but this is all a long way of saying that overall the population of foreign students at SLU is pretty insignificant.

SLU Men's Basketball ‏@SaintLouisMBB4m Jim Crews will join Randy and D'Marco on @101ESPNFastLane today at 3:45 p.m. http://101sports.com or 101.1 FM in #STL. #Billikens

Meh. These teams will likely be the dregs of the A-10. I don't have much interest in them. Fordham will likely be improved. Gaston was talented, but injury plagued last year and I think they may be better off without him. Jon Severe sounds like he is talented and I wonder what he is thinking going to Fordham. Will be interesting to see if he sticks around at Fordham for 4 years (Jio Fontan, anyone?). I think GW will miss Kromah a lot and will likely be worse than last year. Richmond will be about the same. The Bonnies moment in the spotlight was gone last year after losing Nicholson. They are irrelevant again. Glad SLU was able to finally exercise their Olean demons.

When are Jesse and The Rippers scheduled to play Chaifetz?

I am using Crome. The link changes color when I mouse over it, but nothing happens when I click.

I'm guessing this has to do with all of the ads on SLUBillikens.com vs no ads on Billikens.com. I would think Billikens.com gets a similar amount of traffic.

SPOILER ALERT regarding the result of the gold medal game:

Just realized that Cody's Aussie squad will be playing Russia in Russia for the Gold. I'm picturing this:

I noticed an twitter conversation between Pope and McBroom. Having some kind of connection there can't hurt. No one likes doing laundry. Austin McBroom ‏@AustinMcbroom10h Doin laundry is NOT fun Austin Pope ‏@ThePope_LOE11h @AustinMcbroom man on everything!

Earl Austin Jr. ‏@earlaustinjr1h Had a chance to speak to Davell Roby briefly today. Says he's very excited and looking to becoming a Billiken.

Well, I would probably rather see Cody advance than the USA team. I don't care about Canada at all, so I was hoping for a USA smackdown on them so USA and Australia could both advance. If you look at the talent on the USA team, there is no reason they should have lost to Australia or Canada. Very disappointing that they represented our country with that performance. Sort of like those early 2000s "Dream Teams" that did poorly in the Olympics and other competitions. Edit: Also, mods please ban kshoe for hating America. Thanks.

Not happy with the USA performance, but I'm glad Cody gets to move on.

Updating Kwyjibo's post from earlier (based on these results I think some of your numbers were off as well): Canada beat Czech 87 - 56 (+31 point differential) US -> +94, +43, +18, -9 = 146 total (3-1 record, last game vs Canada) CA -> +15, +94, +9,+31 = 149 total (4-0 record, last game vs US) AU -> +28, +17, -9, +9 = 45 total (3-1 record, last game vs UAE who lost to both Canada and US by 94) This margin of victory thing could create an interesting scenario where Australia is up big say 90+ points on UAE, but could be fouling to extend the game and run up the score.

Yes, I meant 4-1. Didn't realize there were 5 games. As a US citizen I want them to advance and as a Billiken fan I want Australia to advance so it sounds like I just want USA to pound Canada in the to dirt for that to happen.

Damn. I really liked the idea of getting Macura because of the reports of him being an excellent shooter. Now that some big boys are jumping in, I think it is only a matter of time before Minnesota offers and he'll end up there.

Does anyone know how the tie-breakers work if USA, Canada, and Australia all finish 3-1 with losses to one another?

Kind of odd that it would be scheduled that way. Do you think it being on a Monday has to do with TV?

12-17 really isn't that bad of a record (for a buy game opponent). Some of SLU opponents last year for reference: North Texas: 11-19 Tennessee Martin: 7-21 Eastern Illinois: 11-20 Loyola Marymount: 10-22 SIUE: 7-18 Duquesne: 8-22 Fordham: 7-24 Rhode Island: 8-21

Actually Yale was 198 in RPI last year according to RPIForecast.com. Not great, but certainly not an RPI killer like some of the 300+ RPI school we have played in the past. They return 4 of 5 starters as well so there shouldn't be a huge drop off. Further everyone has actually heard of Yale (even if it is for academics rather than athletics), so I would expect better attendance than a game against North Texas or Tennessee Martin.

Agreed. I've been ignoring everyone's signatures for so long I forgot they even existed until Rich broached the topic.

Cody Ellis ‏@codyellis242h Tough loss to Canada today. Gotta beat the U.S. tomorrow to stay in medal contention. #UniRoos The Aussies lost to Canada. Doesn't look good as far as them advancing any further.