kmbilliken

I'm just glad we're still recruiting. We have one scholarship left and it sounds like we're going after 4 players we know of. Gone are the days when we're holding our breath on a players decision hoping to fill our scholarships and always ending up with two unfilled.

Sounds like Biondi may be making a few phone calls to get some of this schools to play us. "Hey I just spent a million on a coach and $80million on an arena, help a fellow Jesuit out and play us"

No way SLU finishes 3rd in the mvc last year. Creighton, SIU, Wichita State, and Missouri State were all better than us last year. We would have been 5th at best. I'm a billiken fan all the way and have been for a long time, but those teams were all better than us.

DD was only 6'2 and what a fun player to watch. He would take it at anybody. He shows you can have effective power forwards without the standard height if they have the muscle, moxy and moves.

I find that very interesting. Would you give an example of what you've seen with regard to this board impacting recruiting.

Nate, are you saying because someone posts on this message board they won't follow a kid's career if he doesn't come to SLU it's going to influence his decision on coming here? I hope they're smart enough to figure out that's true about fans at every school they're looking at. Do you actually think things said on this board have an impact on recuiting?

I saw Mitchell play against Alton at East Side. Hopefully it was his an off game for him because he was nothing special. He wasn't even one of the better players on the court. He couldn't shoot, couldn't hit free throws and didn't show consistent intensity on the defensive end. He didn't show any impressive inside moves either, but I don't recall him having the ball inside much. He looks 6'3/6'4. I had heard we were after him so I watched and couldn't understand why. He did run the floor well, but missed a dunk on the only break he had. He did show one flash when he was defending in the open court giving a real effort and causing the ball handler a problem, but that was about it. The guy looks athletic and if he turns up the intensity a couple notches has potential as a defender, but looks like a real nonfactor on offense. I don't see where he fits in except for offering practice depth for next year. I don't think we're going to redshirt him and have 7 players in one class and if theses other players are as advertised I don't see where he fits in after next year except in the same role unless he developes into a shut down defender.

I like this move,whatever the behind the scenes reason was for it. BS always waited until too late to move on to plan B. It's mid June and RM makes the move to plan B in time to convince him he was plan A all along. Face it, there are a lot of good coaches, good recruiters and good schools with historicly better programs than ours. You're not going to get all your targets. You're lucky to get half of them and RM's already got half in the bag. All offers seem to be to high quality recruits with Suggs being the most coveted. If two out of the four commit you call Suggs and let him know there's one left for whomever takes it first and you hope it's him. Unless he gives you some indication he's leaning towards SLU it doesn't make sense to hold it in hopes of landing him if another one of your targets wants it. Now you could hold it if you're satisfied with the five you've got and don't mind letting one go unused until spring and weigh your possibilities then regarding potential juco recruits. Worst case scenario then is you elect not to use it and have 4 scholarships for 09 instead of 3.

I wonder how many of the top two level seats they plan on having. They may not sell those out. I've been going to all the games since 1978 and a season ticket holder since 84 and I'm not paying for those. If they wanted a one shot psl I'd consider it, but no way on an annual basis. Anyone on this board going to buck up an extra $3500 per year per seat or $2500?

The art of recruiting at our level involves quite a bit of strategy . When to you tell the tier 1 kid if he doesn't take youe offer by Friday you can't guarentee him you'll have a scholarship available. If he doesn't take it offer the tier 2 kid. When and how you do that may determine your success as much as your ability to sell the program. I have faith RM knows how to play the game.

well said, VTIME

Some guys just know how to get things done and do it.

I think kshoes right. The construction was well under way before Majerus ever came into the picture. If there was a significant change wouldn't there have been an announcement and some pr generated?

around 78-79. The days of Kelvin Henderson and David Burns(still the second best Billiken I've seen). The first big game I remember is playing Mizzou at the Checkerdome. Tight game, but we lost.

I wondered last week if FJ was a possible plan B. I think this may be an indication he is. RM said he was on the trail of a good PG & SG. If he didn't offer FJ, he mustn't be at the top of the list. He may be playing recruiting chess right now, calling the prime target and telling him he needs a commitment now or he's going to go with another fine prospect that has already indicated his williingness to come. I don't think the top prospects are going to be able to keep RM dangling the way the could BS because of RM's stature. I think they'll have this class wrapped up by mid September at the latest, even with 6 to offer.

Everyone seems to agree the conference needs to get rid of the bottom teams, but how do you do that. Anybody know how these leaque agreements work? Is there a buyout clause?

Any body think John might be a plan B player on RM's list, angling for better players?

Even if he doesn't get the Suggs and Brandenbergs, he seems like he'll have a plan B waiting in the wings and not to scramble for warm bodies or let scholarships go unused. These are 17&18 year olds and you can't always tell who is going to end up being the best player so you always want to use you scholarships if thre's a good prospect available. They may end up being better than the top prospects.

I quess we can now forgive RM for being 45 minutes late. He was obviously taking care of business.

My impression of Joe Wiley is he wouldn't exagerate his role in the hiring process to try to make himself look important.

Luke is one of our top 3 players until somebody proves otherwise. If that happens it would be a great developement for the team. Even if it does, he will still be on the floor more than half the game and at crunch time.

It sounds like a reasonable explanation to me. Why didn't they did that interview the day he was fired? Does anyone know who the four players he had pratice were? I assume Tommie was one, per TDell's previous post. I would assume Kevin would be another since they're the top two players and he wants to get to know them to make sure they will stay. Two others I would bet would be Bryce and AK to see what he's got in big men. Luke and Dwayne are both going to be seniors so you figure they'll stay and there is plenty of film on them to evaluate.

There is no point in comparing. Anderson was hired earlier in the spring and had time to recruit. If you want to compare, see what happens in the fall signing period.

BM's change of tune is an indication it wasn't animosity towards the school. He was just saying put up or shut. Biondi put up and BM gave him credit for it. Got to give BM credit for that.