Adman

And think... He did all of this recruiting out of West Pine Gym. No shiny Chaifetz Arena. No $1 million locker rooms. We owe a lot to Rich Grawer.

A lot of fun today. Wow, were they flying. A lot of posts about the great games Jimerson and Nesbit had. Right on. But don’t forget Yuri, another double double: 10 pts, 12 assists, and just one TO.

This is a middle of the pack A10 team. With Perkins out for year and Linssen out or very limited, two of their projected top five/six are out. We have some depth but not enough to be more than a middling, inconsistent team. If Linssen comes back to full, maybe we make a run. Otherwise… we don’t have the horses.

Jerry Palm at CBS Sports has us a 1st Out, but with a NET of 43. Things could be worse, for sure. Need to take care of business rest of year. https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/bracketology/

Same is true for Okoro. The number of bunnies missed is mind boggling.

It should be 50% of the time. A top 50 program would be in it about that often. If you’re in top 40, you’re virtually in yearly. Top 50 is the goal and despite large investments, we’re not there yet.

Agree with your post except for the BenFred point. I think it was a fair column and my antenna is always highly sensitive to what you perceived. Ford has got to win. He and his players are doing an awful lot right. But it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in becoming a perennial top 50 team unless you can find a way to close games you’re up double-digit. I think BenFred would be right in the middle of a Billiken bandwagon if we’d just give him a reason.

Three double digit leads late in games the last two weeks. Three losses. At home. It’s hard being a Billiken fan.

Yes

I programmed ESPN+ through it last week. Works well.

For those of you with Samsung smart TVs with Samsung TV Plus, you're good to go. Navigate to Samsung TV Plus, then tune to Channel 1159 - Stadium. All set at 9pm ET / 8pm CT from ExtraMile Arena in Boise, ID.

Fun game to watch. Lots of action. Felt like a hockey game at times, believe it or not. Lots of skill. Go Bills!

Yeah, horrible. The game thread was the only way to know score.

Yeah, I saw that. Sounds like all cash. Hope not. Also hope settlement is large… agree, not optimistic. Happening too fast. More leverage close to start of trial. But let’s see…

I wasn’t able to watch. But 8 turnovers for Yuri? I know he also had 8 assists. But he’s got to take care of the ball. Yikes.

Here’s the game story from the Post-Dispatch. This was an epic fail. Even tougher teams coming up for them, too. https://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mizzou/kansas-city-roos-roast-mizzou-on-tigers-home-floor/article_bc7a666a-101a-5650-8321-828ada073f22.html

Logically, totally agree. Why would they give the lower seeded winner from the previous round the home field advantage over the higher seeded team who had bye? Totally illogical unless there was a field availability or travel issue. When coupled with SLU's crazy-good attendance throughout the season, seems even more like a no-brainer. But I just haven't heard that all teams with round 1 byes are guaranteed home field in round 2 (nor that this is official in SLU's case.) Any soccer experts know the reason why teams who received round 1 byes in previous years did NOT get home field in round 2?

The game is on 11/21. Not sure if guaranteed at home. Here's the entire bracket. https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/soccer-men/d1/2021

Agree this won't go to trial. Disagree on the settlement amount for two reasons: - STL is asking for $1B+ which is not an exaggeration. The actual amount of damages may be closer to $2-3B which includes part of the appreciation of the Rams' value since leaving STL. This has been allowed by the circuit court judge. And this is all before punitive damages. If the jury believes the damage has been particularly egregious, it could be multiplied 5-10X. Yes, it would be appealed. But STL has way more leverage than $250-500M. - If the ESPN reporting of the other day is correct (and I have no reason to believe it is not,) there already has been an offer made by the defendants to settle at numbers considerably above your guess -- at just under $1B and over $1B. And while Team STL is not commenting on this, it is obvious they've turned it down. As to whether Kroenke will have enough liquidity to pay (if we win,) and what he'd have to sell, there's an open issue as to exactly what costs he agreed to indemnify for his cartel partners. Is it legal costs only? (ESPN reported it to be 8 figures currently. Given 5 years of legal expenses and about 65 defendants, good guess would be $50-75M+.) Or is it legal costs PLUS actual and punitive damages (likely $1B+.) If legal costs only, he's plenty liquid -- though he's obviously trying to weasel out of it. If it's ALL costs, yes, he'd have a problem on his hands. As I read the ESPN story, I believe it is legal costs only. But I welcome attorneys on the board to weigh in on this -- and whether my ballpark estimate is in the neighborhood.

Yeah. Sorry. Much of my post was responding to various other posts and wasn’t directed to you! Apologies.

Not sure I agree. There’s a way for the nfl to sweeten pot to Chargers to sell to local St. Louis interests. And while they may not like a quasi-Green Bay scenario, when they stare at a judgement in the $2B range multiplied by perhaps 10 when punitive damages are applied by plaintiff happy stl city jury, they may do it anyway. By the way, just getting the nfl to put a team here in the Dome is WAY undervaluing our ask. It’s that, plus a new stadium, plus some cash. Dreaming? No. The stakes on this are huge from NFL standpoint if they lose in court. Beyond upwards of $20B, they risk precedent on relocations, PLUS the potential reopening of anti-trust exemptions. They really don’t want that. Don’t forget: the relocation guidelines created by the NFL - at issue in this case - were expressly written at the direction of the Federal appeals judge at the end of the Al Davis / Oakland Raiders relocation suit. The judge told them you better go write guidelines now to guide relocation behavior between the owners - and between the owners and markets they serve. And if you don’t, he’d haul the NFL and owners back to court to discuss their anti-trust exemptions. Oh yeah, there’s the bad PR value on top. Plus the legal fees that keep getting bigger that Stank wants to back out of. That’s why simply a team WAY undervalues the settlement value.

Agree with this. It's time to get to the Dance... not a transition year. On related topic - support for the program - he's in very good shape. One of the best buildings. Recent multi-million $ investment in renovated locker rooms for men and women. Basketball budget around the midpoint of Big East schools. Now a Champions Center to the tune of another $20M that is currently fairly rare among non-Football schools - opening in about a year. It's time to win. Then a move to the Big East.

Indeed. I'd say most or all of the Big East will have to raise their games to keep pace with us.

You’re right, no doubt. But I don’t begrudge this at all. When they offered to take on this case, not only were they doing it 100% on contingency, they knew full well the NFL would come a-blazing and throw all the most expensive legal resources at it they could, stretch it out as long as they could, ultimately requiring the STL attorneys to finance 5-years in prosecuting the case. That’s before appeals. I’m not an attorney, but I gotta believe their investment in this - again, all on their dime - must be north of $20M. Good for the attorneys - if they win. If a new team is involved, perhaps equity is (or would be) part of the comp.

Yes, yes, yes. For all the reasons you mention. The Chargers would be a better and quicker solution if the NFL can sweeten the deal for Spanos to sell to local interests. He needs a deal he can't refuse.