TheChosenOne

For those of us not on Instagram, can someone relay Walsh’s finalists? I’ll hang up and listen.

I looked it up, so I’ll share what I wasted the past 15 minutes looking at. Based on Pomeroy, Indiana State’s defense was in a range (ranked 114th) where you saw some elite teams that feature top offenses paired with meh defenses. I was expecting it to be worse, but somewhat similar teams would include Illinois (#3 offense with the #80 defense, #10 overall) and Alabama (#2 offense with the #111 defense, #14 overall). I enjoyed watching both of those teams this past season (and as a Mizzou fan that’s not easy to say haha). If you were to continue down there were some other teams built in that same mold last season including Baylor (#15 overall, #6 offense, #72 defense), Kentucky (#23 overall, #7 offense, #109 defense), and Florida (#26 overall, #12 offense, #94 defense). For comparison, based on Pomeroy, Indiana State was #38 overall, #13 offense, and #114 defense. This is all based on last season, I think if I went back I’d see some programs that fit that more regularly like Gonzaga and presumably some of the programs that have more frequently relied upon the freshmen blue chippers like Duke, Kentucky, Alabama and Baylor of late, etc. After 5 more minutes of digging, I’m not sure that assumption is correct as Gonzaga has had better defenses than I remembered, but lowa is a program that has fit that elite offense with mediocre defense multiple times in the recent past which surprised me (Oregon as well).

I’m liking this TMZ esque info! I’m no longer on social media (for some reason the algorithms thought I only wanted to see well endowed young women hit golf balls), so I didn’t know that about Thatch, disappointing. Nor did I know that about Gillmann and Crawford. And Crawford is married to a former women’s hooper, right?

Thanks for the info, @cgeldmacher. Any chance you want to do this every quarter or so?!?! @billikenfan05 can update us on the guys who have gone the social media influencer route.

Pulling for a kid from Vianney might be tough for me hahahaha. But, if he is one of the athletes who was getting jerked off by the school nurse, I could probably come around.

One can enjoy and celebrate Jayson’s success whether because he is from St. Louis, went to Chaminade, or apparently because he is the son of a woman who went to law school at SLU and a man who played basketball at SLU, etc. while also acknowledging it is has close to zero impact on SLU. I view it as more of a famous St. Louisian and a proud one at that as he is legit one of the top few players in the NBA and still so young vs. having much true relevance to SLU. I follow him closely because I went to Chaminade and have a relationship with their coach so I get to hear about Jayson and the things he does outside of basketball including continuing to be involved with their program in different ways, I’m not sure how big of a fan I’d be absent that connection. Based on just how elite he has become I’d probably still be a fan and follow closely, but certainly not as much. And the SLU ties don’t move the needle for me, so I understand why folks who aren’t from St. Louis have their opinion.

I refuse to hear a defense for the baseball field not being better than the local high school fields. Honestly, I thought similar about the soccer field (not the same comparison) when the locker rooms were under the bleachers, so I am glad that new facility was built for the program.

Done! Laser tag for days, son!

Am I the only who thinks Hurley coaching in the pros would be a disaster? I don’t think his shtick would go over real well with grown men making millions of dollars.

Right. I don't think many folks have much issue with the premiere basketball academies with legitimate coaches that are linked to legitimate academic institutions in some form. And that being the route for the elite recruits who are no doubt capable of pursuing a professional basketball career. The questions for me come when you go to the lower tier basketball academies that have substandard academic and athletic facilities run by questionable individuals that are potentially selling a bill of goods to kids who are more marginal prospects enticing them to leave their traditional high school. We saw it locally with an institution in SLU's backyard that many of us who went to SLU had no idea existed and it was even able to poach a player from Chaminade and other local programs. Those are the places I have significant concern about because it is easy to question the motives and whether they are providing a benefit to these players while presumably taking their money. It is also really strange to me that these "sketchier" academies are primarily filled with International players. I just don't know enough about it, but I fear there is not enough oversight of these places and whether they are actually serving these kids and advancing their careers.

Yeah, it’s hard not to be of that same opinion. I suppose the only caveat being that I’m less concerned about expanding the tournament. But, I’m certainly concerned about the future of college athletics. I was all for players being paid, but all of the subsequent lawsuits while certainly valid seem to have us in a place where it is tough for fans to know what the future landscape of college athletics looks like and it seems unlikely athletes outside of football and basketball will benefit from that future. Oh well, like you said, at least we have an exciting season coming our way as we wait to see where things go. As NIL got out of control it became so bizarre to have boosters funding it, so having it come from the school made sense, but what will the impact of that be? It’s wild to me that boosters across the country so aggressively threw $ into paying players to the level it got, some people have way too much $.

Holy smokes, I missed that! That feels like something that would have happened when @Pistol and I were at SLU with an athletic department that was not overly competent nor adequately funded in their defense.

Great genetics no doubt! And doing a quick search, I see he scored a 33 on his ACT before entering high school!

Has anyone seen the Jackson Cantwell kid from Nixa compete in track and field? He is putting up some incredible numbers and as just a sophomore he might challenge a record that many viewed as unbreakable, Michael Carter going over 80 feet back in 1979 (Ryan Crouser was more than 4 feet behind that with his best being over 77 feet). Cantwell recently broke the sophomore record throwing over 74 feet which put him in the top 10 of the all-time list. I work with a few guys who are really into track and field, so they have been marveling over his results since last spring.

I needed something to prevent me from working, thanks for posting the link! First at bat I saw was a 2-run home run to make it 13-10 with 2 out in the bottom of the 8th.

Thanks for posting, that is great to hear! And you know local hoops fans are going to be grabbing tickets to see Avila and presumably a team that can light it up offensively. We are not getting tickets again, so if anyone wants to kick me some tickets, that would be appreciated haha!

Am I the only one completely fine with Fletcher not coming to SLU?

The past few years I’ve been going to Pizza-A-Go-Go on my birthday, pretty solid spot in south city and I like bringing my own booze. La Pizza is probably my favorite local pizza spot, but there are some solid options out there and I seldom have bad pizza (here comes the IMO’s responses haha). Living out in Chesterfield my regular spot is Faraci’s. I saw Roy mention Peel, great spot too.

Thanks for posting, interesting to see the numbers (23.3%!). It will be nice to have that COVID year essentially out of the equation. I know and understand the intent of it, but it harmed a lot of high school players and in connection with NIL has really made things crazy the past few seasons. Personally, I would like to see some transfer rules, but do not expect to see that happen anytime soon.

And finally a power forward with the prototypical power forward size! He had a lot of big-time programs recruiting him just two years ago. Pus, he would have received quality coaching at Miami, spent two years in an ACC strength and conditioning program, and competed against some dudes day in and day out. I think this is the profile of transfer we should expect to see a lot of for programs at the level of SLU.

Huge get!

Oh, I get it which is why I never bought the all 5 are coming talk. The power brokers on here probably should not have been making it seem like a slam dunk. Ultimately we got the prize and a tremendous coach, so I fully expect him to still build a high level roster without those 3.

Yeah, I am really excited about adding Avila, but it does seem like adding him and Swope from their starting 5 was the minimum expectation. A lot of the connected folks on here were implying we’d be getting all of them. Ultimately I am pumped with the hire and Avila, so who cares, but what you point out is true. Now let’s see how Schertz builds out the rest of the roster.

This is becoming a great St. Louis thread! I do appreciate the line above “daddy’s would never be brave enough to come out of the stands and fight us” referring to adults fighting high school kids as bravery haha.

FedEx announced a 5 year $5 million per year NIL deal with Memphis athletics. That seemed like a logical next step in all of this. Again, we are still in the arms race phase of NIL. While I assume at some point this all slows/normalizes/formalizes, that isn't going to happen anytime soon.