Clock_Tower

Totally agree. Believe we will watch Bell develop and add to his game each year. Bell has the skill, the hands, the mechanics (just look at both his form and his results at the FT line) to have a nice mid range game. 3 point shooter? No. No need.

Not sure. Believe phone records, texts, emails and calendars will confirm what we suspect - the NFL encouraged Kroenke to move to get football back in LA - and not the Jaguars, Chargers, Raiders, etc. and if so, the laundry will be out

Yes. I like French and I like Bell but I don’t really like them together in that neither had a midrange shot. French w 4 guards (including Perkins) was a good lineup. Same with Bell and the same 4 guards. And while I believe French and Bell will both improve over the summer, i do think French and Marten may really click this season. Looking forward to it.

Loop Trolley was a great idea - for Joe Edwards. And as much as I want Kroenke to sweat and to pay- I also want the same for Jerry Jones and Roger Goodell

Shelti As always, appreciate the research and insight. Also found the stats Compton mentioned were quite interesting. And recall, a big's production is dependent upon the other 4 guys around him. And with a PG like Yuri, look out. Understand that the level of competition Linssen faced was likely lesser quality, at the same time, he took the shots -- and he made the shots. Making a FT for Valpo or UNC Wilmington should be the same as at SLU. And looks like he scored more points than French, in far less minutes and with far fewer shots. And most guys become better players their 3rd and 4th year as opposed to their first 2. And I don't think Linssen came to SLU in order to be the backup to Bell and just hope he can beat out Diarra. A mid range shot from one of our bigs would be huge for stretching defense for French, of course, along with perimeter shooting from Jimerson, Perkins, Hargrove, Jacobs and Markhi.

Linssen. Sounds like most believe he could be our most immediate impact guy for us. Yes, he fills a need, has experience and we had less depth with our bigs than our forwards. Diarra is the unknown. He could really step up and keep Marten on then bench or not. Marten appears more of a 5 than a 4 b/c of his shooting. I do, though, like 10.5 ppg, 2.7 fouls per game, 4.6 rebounds per game an his getting to the FT line 93 times and making nearly 70% Lorentsson. The obvious comparison is Cody Ellis being a similar height, good shooting foreign player. CE, tough, was always a forward with some guard skills (shooting). Lorentsson, though, appears to be a guard (dribbling, passing, shooting) with some forward skills (interior play, rebounding). To me, this would be a big difference. It would also put him in the more crowed field of Jimerson, Perkins and Goodwin. Perkins, though, was not much of an interior player and while Goodwin is so intense and can play anywhere on the floor, maybe Andre can find room at the 4 in that none of our bigs (Diarra, Bell, French and Linssen) have a perimeter shot. Markhi. Sorry, I still cannot figure out who this guy is. Who he might be similar to. What are his strengths/weaknesses? Can he dribble? Can he shoot? Does he create his own shot or do best with a screen? Is he best in transition or set pieces? Thatch also plays great defense. Goodwin also rebounds like no one else. Does he have another great skill?

We are all excited to welcome and watch our new guys contribute to this new team. I have names, heights & weights, and scant other information which I copied from Pistol and others. Each player has made every shot attempted in their video clips and have rebounded/blocked shots without a single foul called on them. Go figure. Last year, most of our guys were local and had been seen by quite of few of us MBMs - who were largely correct but we were still wrong in some respects. We were wrong b/c the leap from high school to college is really bigger than we sometimes remember. Also, guys played certain positions or styles of play in high school b/c their team needed them to and b/c they had success based largely on their superior size, skills and talents. With that said, I would like to hear from everyone what they believe our new comers' natural positions really are, what their natural and best strengths, whose games they might be similar to are and finally what positions/current players they will challenge for playing time. Markhi Strickland - SF, 6-6, 190 - Miami, FL (Victory Rock Prep) - AAU: Florida Vipers (Under Armour Association) - Committed: Saint Louis (9/30/19) Offers: Saint Louis, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Loyola Marymount, New Mexico State. Interest: VCU, Georgetown, DePaul, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Michigan, LSU, Georgia, Central Florida, Princeton, Drake, Toledo, Florida Atlantic, Towson, Florida Gulf Coast. André Lorentsson - PF, 6-8, 205 - Gothenburg, Sweden (Marks Gymnasiekola, Skene) - Committed: Saint Louis (2/26/20) Offers: Saint Louis, Davidson, New Mexico State. Interest: UC-Davis. Marten Linssen -PF6-9 - 250 lbs - Germany to Valpo to UNC Willimington

I thought Shaft was Dwayne Evans? Fred too?

Yes. And because you can speak for all women, I can speak for all frustrated older guys who relied upon and changed their ways based upon the whims of sexist, mysogenist feminists whose actions actually demeaned and oppressed female ballers. What were the progressives of the 1980s and 1990s thinking? And did I miss the vote? miss the women's movement to rid the country of the term "Lady" with respect to college sports? And speaking of female ballers, they do need our help and protection because their ranks are and have been dwindling fast due to an even larger enemy: volleyball

Ok. When I was in college, the progressives required us to call women collegiate athletes with the term Lady. Lady Bills, Lady Tigers, Lady .... The presumption of Billikens, Tigers... referring to the men by default was considered offensive and sexist. Confusion existed in the 1980s and 90s. Guys like Roy and me complied. Now the use of the term Lady is sexist and offensive? No confusion anymore in 2020? So the “default” term of Billikens means men? And such defaults of presuming male is not sexist but is progressive? Good grief. Save me from the good people!!

Nope. I have an I Phone

Valkommen hem till oss -- Welcome to our house -- Saint Louis University!

Well said. Both Bell and Linssen can make their FT's so we now have options - especially at the end of tight games.

Nope. The streets are talking and I just heard all is well. Turns out the suitcase of cash we dropped off contained Euro's and Andre said no -- prefers good 'ole American dollars. That God for Dr. C!!

Love the signing! Guten Tag Herr Linssen!!

IMO, the only way "all sides understand that that's the expectation" is for Russell to sign and agree to be a healthy redshirt. Seems like a good deal. Work on his education, be part of the team, spend time with his cousin, have a 2 year gap between the two to give him the opportunity to be our starter for 2 years, COVID 19 uncertainties for this season exist, huge improvement over SEMO.... The problem, though, again is that Coach Ford might instead want a big/transfer to help next year. Maybe Ford is not so comfortable with Diarra as the back up to French and Bell. And yes, while I am skeptical of Fred's basketball future at SLU, all signs point toward him not giving up - and SLU not giving up on him either.

You could be right. I haven't watched Russell. If he can challenge Yuri for time, maybe replace Yuri b/c of his apparent better shooting, then fine - lets sign him. But if Yuri plays 32 mpg, then I am not worried about the remaining 8 mpg - especially for a guy who will sit behind Yuri for 3 years. 2 years is a different story - as I believe we should sign a PG next year so that Yuri is a JR and our heir apparent is a Freshman. And as they say, there is nothing worse for a college program to sign a local player and then have him become disgruntled. If we want Nick Kern and if we want a Vashon pipeline, then let's not take a risk and ruin this pipeline with an undersized guy who might get 8 mpg. Play both Yuri and Russell? No thanks. If both Yuri and Russell are only 5'10", I am not interested in such a small backcourt. And as far a good shooting, no one has pleaded for more/better perimeter shooters than me, and while I am suspect of some high school shooting percentages, even assuming Russell is as good as advertised, I point out that Tay Weaver struggled at times and could more easily be defended/shut down this past year - not because he lacked skill - but b/c he was/is only 5'10" and help side defenses showed teams could more easily recover. Further, Tay got pushed around in the lane - and Russell would be no different. Are we giving up on bully ball? Hope not. So who are we replacing Weaver with? 6'5" Jimerson and 6'8" Lorentsson. And moving either Jacobs or Goodwin back to their PG roles (our team roles were scrambled this past year due to the unexpected losses of both Fred (1 of the Big 3) and Jimerson), together with incremental improvement due to an additional year of age/experience will help ensure our offense flows better without Yuri.

I believe you. I've been to Omaha and their baseball stadium (which is nice) a few times, but never Witchita. If worse, then it must really be bad.

My only point is that men's football and basketball carrying all the other sports is no different than what is found in life generally. If every team, major, arts department, drug, airline flight had to be self sufficient, we would sure have a lot less than we do. Whether to serve a notion of fairness, equity, equality, to fulfill a mission/purpose, satisfy a public good or to prevent government regulation, this is common. The arts would not exist/survive without subsidies. A large amount of all majors would be eliminated and tuition prices adjusted based upon the true cost of education. Non-revenue sports would not survive without football and men's basketball. BTW, I hear U of Cincy is cutting their soccer programs due to lack of funding from conference/COVID 19. What do Universities do with the all the millions made on the backs of certain and few football and male basketball players? Not pay the salaries of University Presidents who have always been well compensated but to fund golf, tennis, lacrosse, baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball, swim, water polo, wrestling, women's basketball, cross country, track & field athletes with their education, training, facilities, coaches, travel and league fees. Pay the kids everyone screams -- to which I say, they already have been.

Yawn on any signing of Russell. No Pitbull for me. Weaver has long been replaced and wasn't all that much anyway. If we cannot land a transfer/big, then I would rather save the scholarship.

NH That's life though. Approximately 10 majors cater to and education to most students at an entire university and yet all students are suppose to pay the same tuition and then the schools take this money to subsidize the other less popular majors. It has to be so much cheaper to educate a business major than a science or engineering student. Music and drama departments and dance recitals are money drains. Many schools fund entire departments upon government funded research. Within the pharmaceutical industry, a handful of money making drugs provide most of the revenue for and subsidize all the other hundreds of drugs and research which arguably are equally important. Airlines (prior to COVID 19) made most of their money on certain lucrative flights/routes which subsidize flights to less popular cities and more remote areas. I could go on but life is full of examples of the few generate the most.

Sounds like Omaha

Funny! You’re probably right! Do you or anyone else know where/with whom Bess worked out to get ready last year? Do most coaches (Ford) work their guys out at school after their season is over? Do teammates usually volunteer to practice with guys like Bess? Bess had to finish school/complete exams (or I assume most want to graduate/complete their courses) and not all guys have $ and transportation for private sessions.

Thanks for the clarification but why would a player not be allowed to play and practice with his college teammates over the summer? Its the NCAA which puts restrictions on being a pro rather than the NBA puttings restrictions on being a college player.

Willie In 2019, guys had until the end of May to return to college - and therefore could not be part of the summer program and still be able to return to school. If the draft does not take place until August 1st, I don't think there will be ANY summer program this year because usually the guys need to be drafted/signed/paid before they play. French and Goodwin (along with Perkins) would do well to get evaluated, to get feedback and to get more comfortable with the process they will go through next year. But IMO, this is a bad year to get drafted - and an even worse to leave college early. Obi is a lock and will get his money - assuming a full 20-21 season and assuming no cut backs due this year's shortened season. If no finish to this year's season and if money is diverted to veterans and caps are put onto new/rookie player salaries, then even Obi might want to stay another year -- worse things have happened than staying in college with your friends, pursuing the NCAA Championship you were denied this year and making your millions next year. And taking the chance that no career impacting injury occurs and playing another year in college in exchange for passing on 1/2 to 3/4 of your millions would not be criticized by me. But to leave early for guys like French and Goodwin would be reckless and foolish. Neither will be drafted and neither are as far along as Javon Bess was (though he unfortunately was not healthy)and their ability to make an NBA roster is based upon performance in the summer league/multiple workouts - which this year will be shortened or non-existent.