TheChosenOne

Justin Tatum was also a massive as a player at SLU, so that likely does not help his cause. Having a son that is an elite prospect certainly does.

I am done with this staff, I heard a few of them are in Augusta, GA golfing, wtf... I saw the St. Louis Eagles 16u are 2-0 at Peach Jam's Sweet 16 after day #1. Sounds like the Eagles have a lot of talent coming thru the ranks the next couple of years. Hopefully Justin Tatum and Corey Frazier are talking about the Billikens to these kids. I read a report that mentioned 2015 shooting guard Chance Ellis for Team Scan (NY) playing well out there and holding a SLU offer.

+1. With the depth we have in the post I have no problem taking a flyer on this kid. I have never seen the kid play, but it does not seem like this is a big reach. Sounds like a kid that going into his senior season of high school has a solid skill set for his size, but really needs to add some bulk.

With the depth we have (assuming Reggie and Tanner are close to what we expect) I have no problem taking a bit of a project especially given he is local and wanted to be a Billiken. With the talent in the Eagles pipeline, cant hurt.I will definitely try to catch him this coming winter. I am going to try to get out to some high school games this year to check out the local talent.

I am interested to see how Tatum does as a coach. I was a freshman at SLU working for Coach Romar when Tatum was asked to move along. He was a team cancer and it was tough to find a good quality in the guy. Apparently he has really matured.

I saw CBC play at Chaminade this past winter and McCaw probably was the best player for CBC that night, but he was also bombing 3s early in the game. He definitely has a ton of length and was real disruptive defensively getting steals and forcing TOs in addition to hitting the 3. He also seemed to play with some cockiness. I thought CBC kind of backed down after they got a nice lead and Chaminade started to battle them which is surprising given that CBC was mostly upperclassmen and Chaminade had a lot of youth on the court. I came away questioning how Doby was a high level recruit. Jayson Tatum was definitely the best player on the court that night. Barnett was more comfortable on the perimeter shooting 3s and did not attack the paint as much as I expected given his size and the overall youth of Chaminade in the post. Granted he did hit a number of 3s, but he had a distinct size and athleticism advantage that he could not take advantage of. I had heard that their coaches had a real tough time getting consistent effort from their kids especially in practice (even getting them to show up at times) which is kind of pathetic considering the experience and success of McCormack. Those are my thoughts based on one game, so I really have not gone and seen the kids play.

Has anyone heard anything concerning the recruitment of CBC senior Jordan Barnett and where we stand with him? I saw his high school teammate Patrick McCaw has increased his profile this summer playing with a team out of Chicago and was rated in the ESPN Top 100 at #87 (Barnett is at #86 in the same rankings). Is there any interest in him from the Billikens? His top offers appear to be from Okhlahoma State and Virginia Tech.

Didn't someone mention a somewhat high profile transfer with local ties that could be a possibility or is that off of the table at this point?

Based on what I am seeing he seems like a highly regarded player with significant interest from high level programs. It does seem like of the entire list of offers listed some were no longer committable offers (I think that is the term Nick Saban uses). Some of his offers may have been part of a package deal that included Leron Black and Chris Chiozza. I know Mizzou offered a group of Memphis kids from '14 when they hired Ryan Miller last summer (left within weeks of being hired) that included Black, Chiozza, Anton Beard, Marcanvis Hymon, and likely Roby at some point since they are listed as having offered him. However at this point there was no offer there for him at Mizzou.

I would think so, that trio from White Station is real solid with Black, Chiozza, and Roby. I like to see that we have some length and athleticism lined up at the guard position.

Exciting to see the success Crews and staff has had recruiting. I think Mizzou's top priority for 2014 has been 5 star shooting guard Devin Booker, son of Melvin, although it seems unlikely they can beat out Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan regardless of his father. With Booker being the priority and them getting a commitment from a 4 star guard from Cali earlier this weekend I don't think Roby was an option for Mizzou. Maybe at one point offered as a package deal with Black. Don't understand why they would dip back in the transfer pool with this bench guy from Louisville.

Nice get and great to see the Tatum family showing some love! That can't be a bad sign!

I think most people likely have two or more colleges that they are fans of; the college you grew up a fan of and then the college/colleges you attended. With SLU not having a football program it increases the likelihood of the fan base having multiple allegiances. For me I am in the dreaded position of having a rooting interest in both SLU and Mizzou, so I get to see both fan bases talk trash about the other while enjoying both programs consistently let me down.

That is true, we certainly cannot with any credibility tell a guard recruit that he will step in and start from day #1 nor expect to be handed significant minutes.

I just don't see the depth at the guard position that should be used as a reason for a combo guard like Randy O. to look elsewhere. We have 4 guards on scholarship. Two of them are starter/all-conference caliber players while the other is a transfer that due to size is likely limited to the point guard position and a 5th year senior that due to limitations is likely more of a small forward. I think looking at the depth at guard, Randy would have a chance to compete for minutes as a freshman. His size and versatility is something we don't have outside of Jordair and McCall at the guard position.

That is not exactly a stacked depth chart there. Obviously Mike McCall and Jordair Jett are big time players and will play significant minutes, but Barnett has not shown the ability to be a significant contributor leading up to his senior season (nice hustle player and team first guy) and I am not sure what to expect from Austin McBroom (although at 5'9, 165 he is likely limited as to the versatility he can provide). This would give a kid like Randy Onwuasor with good size and strength for a guard the chance to come in and compete for minutes from day #1.

Dr. Chaifetz gives around $600k a year to the university for the naming rights to the arena, he is not T. Boone Pickens. That is a significant amount of money, but I feel like people may overstate his giving. For the 2010-11 season, our basketball expenses were a little under $3 million which puts us in the company of programs like Fordham, Bradley, Duquesne, and Rhode Island. So if "money will be no object," he and the other significant donors better step up their game. This hire along with whether or not we get a bid from the Big East will determine the future of this program.

Cody Ellis has had a really nice career at SLU and he deserves a great ovation on Saturday afternoon. It is frustrating that people take pleasure in ripping a college kid for having a bad game, but that is the unfortunate result of social media. I just hope Cody realizes the people tweeting that crap to him and his girlfriend are not true SLU fans (it sounds like most are Xavier fans anyways) and that we are behind him (most of the Billiken faithful have no idea what twitter even is). I hope he puts last night behind him and goes out and lights it up Saturday afternoon. Not to go against the point of this thread, but how could one say that Cody Ellis does not flop?

And their food is diarrhea inducing...

While all of that and the current success doesn't hurt, I would think the biggest reason Fox likes us is due to the market size of St. Louis. Rick Majerus dying before the season and the team bonding together and playing in his honor is a great story, but it likely won't be talked about much 5 years from now. Adding Saint Louis University and the St. Louis television market would add the most to the footprint of the conference (in comparison to schools like Richmond, Creighton, or Dayton). Not sure how accurate, but one list I found that listed the top 100 television markets has St. Louis as the #21 tv market in the country while Richmond was #58, Dayton #64, and Omaha #76 (for comparison, Indianapolis is #25 and Cincinnati is #34). Assuming the money wins out (Fox) as is usually the case, I like our chances!

Haha, that is good. I would imagine the rest of the SEC is wondering why exactly they added Mizzou and baseball season hasn't even started yet.

That was a foreign trip with their best player and dirt bag Mike Dixon too. Mizzou is not a good team and the numbers will show that by the end of the season. Very similar to some of the Quin Snyder teams of the past. Heading into mid-February has there ever been a more wide open college basketball season than this year? March Madness is going to be real interesting and I could envision any team that gets in making a run to Atlanta. There is not going to be much difference between the 10 seeds and 2 seeds. This appears to be a great year for our Billikens to make a repeat trip to the dance especially if we keep up this level of play.

I agree. I recall some posters mentioning that Rick had to convince Crews to take the job in the first place. Is it understood that Crews does in fact want the job over the next 3-5 seasons? If he gets the job I think we need to step up as a program and give him the funds necessary to sign some top flight assistants that can recruit.

Roy, I would rather have that discussion with you than on that board. This is just my opinion, but I will say Soderberg was a good man and really quality assistant coach, but I felt like he was unable to handle the pressures of being the head coach and leader of a program.

The players obviously really like Soderberg when he was the assistant and Chris Sloan and others campaigning for him was largely regarded as a reason he was given the head coaching job. This is reason enough for me to put little stock in the opinions of 18-21 year old kids. I doubt those same players and the players that played for him when he was the head coach would have glowing things to say about him.