Duff Man

I count 19 home games. Up 1 from last season (or 2 not counting Illinois-Springfield). You're getting an extra game (or if they drop an exhibition game, you're trading a game that doesn't count for one that does). 1 NOV-12 SOUTH CAROLINA-UPSTATE 2 NOV-14 SANTA CLARA 3 NOV-24 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 4 DEC-2 VALPARAISO 5 DEC-5 NORTH TEXAS 6 DEC-15 UT-MARTIN 7 DEC-19 EASTERN ILLINOIS 8 DEC-22 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 9 DEC-28 SIU-EDWARDSVILLE 10 DEC-31 NEW MEXICO 11 JAN-4 SAVANNAH STATE 12 JAN-10 MASSACHUSETTS 13 JAN-19 RHODE ISLAND 14 JAN-31 BUTLER 15 FEB-2 DAYTON 16 FEB-16 CHARLOTTE 17 FEB-19 VCU 18 FEB-27 SAINT JOSEPH’S 19 MAR-9 LA SALLE

Schedule with 2012 KenPom rating NOV-12 South Carolina-UPSTATE 132 NOV-14 SANTA CLARA 264 Nov-19 vs-Texas A&M (CBE Classic) 114 Nov-20 at CBE Classic (Kansas 4, Washington St 88) NOV-24 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 230 Nov-28 at Washington 54 DEC-2 VALPARAISO 147 DEC-5 NORTH TEXAS 159 DEC-15 UT-MARTIN 334 DEC-19 EASTERN ILLINOIS 302 DEC-22 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 142 DEC-28 SIU-EDWARDSVILLE 306 DEC-31 NEW MEXICO 19 JAN-4 SAVANNAH STATE 173 JAN-10 MASSACHUSETTS 72 Jan-12 at Temple 46 JAN-19 RHODE ISLAND 202 Jan-23 at Duquesne 128 Jan-26 at St-Bonaventure 52 JAN-31 BUTLER 110 FEB-2 DAYTON 65 Feb-6 at Fordham 273 Feb-9 at Richmond 105 FEB-16 CHARLOTTE 154 FEB-19 VCU 40 Feb-22 at Butler 110 FEB-27 SAINT JOSEPH’S 68 Mar-2 at George Washington 171 Mar-6 at Xavier 51 MAR-9 LA SALLE 64 Anything worse than 12-2 OOC is a disappointment. They'll do well to replicate last season's 12-4 A10 finish. 11-5 wouldn't be a disaster provided the conference is a strong as advertised. 23-7, plus an appearance in the A10 semis should get them into the dance. They'll probably have to go undefeated OOC and then win the regular season A10 title (finishing no worse than 27-3) to get a top 4 seed. Yes, they have a slim margin for error, but it's also set up for them to become a national storyline if they can just get to 6-0.

I'm not sure this is a good game to size up Grawer's chops as an in game tactician. This game certainly reflects well on Grawer, but more for his character than for his brilliance with the Xs and Os. It took some nerve to suspend Footes for this nationally televised game. Granted, he does get props for successfully shortening the game with the 4 corners offense and limiting SIU's inside advantage with the 2-3 zone, but those were tactics employed out of sheer desperation due to a depleted roster. SLU won this game because a. their undisciplined shoot-first point guard shot out of his mind b. SIU had poor shot selection in the first half and let SLU hang around c. they were lucky as $hit Grawer's 4 corners strategy worked great in the first half, but in the 2nd half, the offense sputtered, and the bulk of the points they did score were not from any coherent offense, but from the chaotic playground antics of Orlando Stewart. By my count SLU scored less than 10 points in the 2nd half from the half court offense (excluding the plays where Orlando just comes down and scores without passing, and the play where Big Mel hit a smooth baseline jumper like he was Pat Ewing - when Grawer by all accounts did not want him taking that shot). and let's be real...Rich Herrin is no Pete Gillen...a good coach would not have let the one player who was beating them just hold the ball at mid court like they let Orlando do over and over. A good coach would have employed some kind of half court trap and forced the ball out of Orlando's hands. Also, in the final minutes Grawer totally coached them not to lose and almost cost them the game...Orlando's magic steal and run to the corner 3 was shot in complete defiance of Grawer who was telling him to reset and milk more clock. When, you're down 1 with 2:30 to play and your best offensive player has an open 3, you take the shot. When someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES! Then on the next possession they get multiple offensive rebounds and fine themselves with a fresh 45, down 1 with 1:05 to play. Obvious 2 for 1 situation. Grawer clearly calls a play from the sideline, which apparently involved a risky pass into Melvin Robinson who nearly turns it over. They blow the chance for a 2 for 1 and are lucky to even get a shot off (a contested long 2 that Stewart misses). SIU rebounds and by the time SLU fouls the game clock is down to 17 seconds...but SLU had 3 fouls to give, so the clock ticks down to 12 by the time SIU is forced to shoot a 1 and 1...meanwhile Grawer subs Tadysak (1.74 RPG) in for Skinner (5.63 RPG)...SIU misses the front end, but gets an offensive rebound. Out of sheer luck they miss again, and the rebound goes to Stewart who goes coast to coast and hits a ridiculous playground shot. If SLU has a timeout remaining, they probably use it...we'll never know if Grawer would have been able to draw up a successful play or not, but he certainly wouldn't have drawn up the play that actually won the game. Again, give him all the credit in the world for having the balls to suspend Footes in the first place, and for having his undermanned team believing they could beat an oppent than ran them off the court a month earlier. You can't fault Grawer too much when he was forced to play a bunch of guys who weren't used to being out there. This game certainly makes me proud that Grawer was our coach.

at one point he moved south and became a drifter...for a while he was holed up at Orlando Stewart's apartment...just getting high all day watching Lando channel Eddie Hazel...

the epic sequence following the ill advised Travis Tadysak outlet pass The Larry Bird-esque steal and run to the corner Get the ball to Orlando, everybody get the fuok out of the way you're missing out if you don't watch the whole thing...

Crews was the first coach to get an at-large bid to the dance out of the MCC...going 23-4 in the 1988-89 regular season (2 pt loss @methdale, 6 pt loss @ Wake, 8 pt loss @ X, 11 pt loss @ Kiel on Gray/Douglass Sr night). There's so many things that go into maintaining a successful D1 program...for whatever reason, Crews wasn't able to adjust to the changing dynamics in D1 heading into the 21st century. That being said, he had a solid 11-year run where he went 210-121 with 4 NCAA bids. When he's had talent, he's been able to get it done. I get that people are concerned about the recruiting gap, transfers, etc...but we don't want to panic. At this stage of the game, our best recruiting tactic is to win. We'll be poised to make the dance again in 2013-14 with players already in the program, and ideally we'll have a loaded recruiting class in 2014-15, possibly along with a transfer or two that new coach brought with him to bolster the remaining 5 of Carter, McBroom, Drew, Glaze, and Manning.

Some places use live cameras to monitor who is at the door when they have to buzz people into the building. The expense of recording is relative to how many cameras you're recording, and how long of a window you're keeping the data before it deletes. You're going to have to pay someone to install and maintain the system, as the hard drives in the DVRs will eventually go bad and need to be replaced, not to mention you have to employ someone to be on-call to pull the data when needed. So there is a significant amount of overhead involved, and while I'm sure there is some potential for taxpayer money to be used, nothing is going to happen until the local businesses in a given area step up to the plate and pool their resources for the good of the neighborhood. Case in point: The Loop has just this month gone live with their cameras http://universitycit...the-delmar-loop

Fun Fact: Mitt Romney's cousin coached in the first ever NCAA tournament in 1939.

back in Dillard's day, we had the twin towers of Big Mel and Travis Tadysak

I already backed off my original statement...which was an exaggeration...and clarified my point "Quitman Dillard was a good kid who played hard, but he was never more than a role player on a average dysfunctional team. He was never the kind of impact player that Conklin evolved into his senior year." "I guess technically speaking he was more than a role player...but when you lose 14 of your last 15 games, and shoot 38.8% from the field on the year, what difference does it make?" "Dillard's talent level was that of a role player." "We don't need to split hairs in regards to what constitutes a role player. The context was his placement ahead of Brian Conklin in Broy's ranking. I'm calling that an absurd statement, and somehow I'm in the minority." and to be clear, I don't mean "role player" to be a diss...merely a distinction that a player was not a 'star' or 'difference maker'. I should have said Dillard would have been a role player on a good team. That's really what I meant but I failed to articulate it properly. When I call someone a role player who is obviously more than that (e.g. Kyle Cassity in 2010-11) I'm really saying they're better suited to play a supporting role rather than a lead role. A more apt term to describe Dillard's contribution those 2 seasons would be that he was a 'good soldier'. a. the tall blacks got bounced b. it's july, and there's a drought of actual news to discuss, thus it's only a matter of time before a wildfire of debate erupts regarding the merits of Billiken players past/present/future moving on to the case of Jamal Johnson v Brian Conklin.../sarcasm

You want to talk effective FG percentage? Fine. Let's provide some context. 1990-91 1991-92 Note how he was amongst the worst eFG% of the regulars. Conklin's 4-year career eFG% was 51.1%. Only 2 regulars on last year's team had an eFG% under 50% (Evans 48.0% and Jett 47.9%). Just because you say it doesn't make it true. I'm not going to dispute that since I'm sure some people had unrealistic expectations (was he hyped as some kind of stud transfer?), but I never felt that way about him. I'm sure many fans appreciated him as a fairly decent athlete who played hard every minute he was on the floor. I have yet to see this argument. Broy doesn't seem interested in backing up his claim. I concede you can make an argument for Jamal Johnson on the basis that we was a skilled offensive player who could have been all conference had he been around for the 1994-95 run, but there is no such hypothetical scenario where Quitman Dillard could replicate what Conklin accomplished in 2011-12.

You should call him our best player for the 2011-12 season, because that's precisely what he was. http://www.sports-re...louis/2012.html Scroll down to the bottom. The advanced metrics think Conklin was our best player by a significant margin. A subjective panel of voters agreed with that assessment and voted him first team all conference. He had a monster year. We had more talented players (with Kwamain being the most obvious example), but over the course of the 34 games Brian Conklin was the most productive player. He scored in double figures in 30 of the 34 games, and the 4 exceptions were double-digit home victories. He scored 25 against Washington and Oklahoma, 20 at New Mexico, 19 at X, 19 vs the Bonnies, and 23 on his senior night vs X. Even when he struggled from the floor he still managed to get to the line where he shot 80% on the year. You have to go back to Mo Jeffers in 2000-01 to find a Billiken who eclipsed Conklin's 2011-12 production at the stripe.

We don't need to split hairs in regards to what constitutes a role player. The context was his placement ahead of Brian Conklin in Broy's ranking. I'm calling that an absurd statement, and somehow I'm in the minority. Dillard's talent level was that of a role player. High energy, run the floor, crash the offensive glass, finish transition layups, hit open 3s. He wasn't a player who created scoring opportunities on his own. The only reason he became the leading scorer was because our other (better) player (Footes) had off the court issues. The following year, Dillard was the 2nd best player (behind Highmark) on the worst Billikens team of the last 25 years. Conklin was best player on one of the best teams of the last 25 years.

You're cherry picking facts. While he led those 2 teams in scoring by a slim margin...he also led those teams in shots attempted by a huge margin. Leuchtefeld was named 2nd team All-MCC. Dillard was not recognized at all (not even the newcomer of the year team). Footes was the star of the team, but was plagued by disciplinary issues (his suspension opened the door for ). It's not like opposing defenses were keying on Dillard. For the record this team averaged 78.7 points and allowed 79.1 - points came a lot easier back then relative to Conklin's era. This team went 5-23 (0-11 in the loaded Great Midwest) and had many players quit or get kicked out of school mid-season. I remember Dillard hitting a big game tying 3 in a loss @DePaul, does that make him clutch? I guess technically speaking he was more than a role player...but when you lose 14 of your last 15 games, and shoot 38.8% from the field on the year, what difference does it make? Again, I'm not trying to knock Dillard - he played hard, got the most out of his talent, and was a bright spot on troubled teams. Conklin was all those things too...but unlike Dillard, Conklin was first team all-conference for an NCAA team.

Not sure why this battle is taking place in the New Zealand thread but in what effing universe is Brian Conklin ranked behind Quitman Dillard in anything? How has no one else shot this down yet? And who is Quentin? Brian Conklin just finished one of the most remarkable seasons in Billikens history, and does not deserve to have his accomplishments marginalized. Obviously AB is the man. I'll take double D over Conk as well, but it's open to debate. Jeff Harris can be successfully argued either way. Over the course of his 4 years, Harris was move valuable than Conklin over his 4. No problem with that. Jamal Johnson is iffy. He played one year for a team that went 16-14. His best game was the first game of the season against LSU. If you stack Jamal Johnson's year against Conklin's senior year... JJ 12.9 PPG 46.4 FG% 51.4 FT% 7.1 reb 1.6 ast .9 blk .5 stl BK 13.9 PPG 52.1 FG% 80.0 FT% 5.7 reb 1.2 ast .7 blk .3 stl Sure BK had a better supporting cast...he also LED HIS TEAM TO THE NCAAs and dominated Xavier...twice. No doubt JJ was more talented but what exactly are we trying to measure here? BK's Billiken career is clearly more distinguished than JJ. Quitman Dillard was a good kid who played hard, but he was never more than a role player on a average dysfunctional team. He was never the kind of impact player that Conklin evolved into his senior year.

Which phase involves cleaning up DeWitt's mess and how many millions of taxpayer dollars is it going to take?

Right...that's much more fair and appropriate...comparing Glaze - a guy most of us have never seen play* outside of preseason scrimmages and garbage time - to the leading scorer of the effing Dream Team why stop there... Kwamain : mini-Jordan Ellis : mini-Bird Evans : mini-Mailman Jordair : mini-Pippen McCall : the second coming of Isiah** Loe : kiwi-Laettner Remekun : mini-Admiral Manning : basically a white Patrick Ewing Barnett : mini-Mullin Drew : mini-Drexler and obviously Keith Carter is the Black Stockton *I realize you're just referencing an old scouting report that compared GG to Sir Charles...but you can't simultaneously be outraged over a Blake Griffin comparison while sanctioning an even more ridiculous one **in this alternate universe Isiah and Jordan are homies and Magic's retired ass stays home

[OT] Finally what? Is George Bluth hosting a ribbon cutting tonight? Oh...they just released new revised artists renderings (now with Budweiser sign!) for the scaled down Ballpark Village Sports Bar. I'm having difficulty keeping track of all the different Ballpark Villages renderings that never happened... 1) Mixed Residential/Commercial development, with pedestrian views of the playing field 2) Mixed Residential/Commercial development 3) Commercial Development with Centene as anchor tenant 4) Commercial Development with Stifel Nicolaus as anchor tenant I'm not sure which one of these plans required them to run off the Bowling Hall of Fame - that building remained intact in the original plans (PDF). Granted, you have to give the CODASCO boys credit for 'finally' scaling down the project to a level where something might possibly get built.

101.1 is not KFNS - the interview is online http://www.101espn.com/category/shows-thefastlane

http://articles.dailypress.com/2012-05-31/sports/dp-spt-teel-column-atlantic10-20120531_1_vcu-and-butler-bradford-burgess-ncaa-tournament

Going forward, there will be 14 teams and things can go back to they way they were.

Sorry, I guess I just googled the article based on your first post that didn't include the link and ended up at yesterday's story and somehow associated that with your post.