isotope

Number 32 on UMBC is a tremendous player. He was a real gamer, and the best player on the floor last night. I thought some of the calls against UMBC were not good. There were several touch fouls called in the 3rd and 4th quarter on their big men. The fouls did not appear to be very egregious, at least from my seat near the band. I can understand why some of the UMBC players were getting frustrated with the officiating. That doesn't excuse, however, the tirades the UMBC coach had throughout the night against his own players and the officials. I would not want to play for such a coach given his outbursts of anger. We are fortunate that Majerus does not express very often negative words or body language to the officials or his players during the game. It was not clear to me exactly why the official gave the UMBC coach the first technical foul. It appeared to me that the coach was not taking an inordinate amount of time to make his substitution, but apparently the official did not like the coach's attitude as he walked his bench. Does anyone know exactly what happened? One last thing - why did UMBC only have 9 players on the bench and only 7 players played until the last minute or two of the game? Their players were worn out by the end of the game when both teams were playing sloppy.

Great location! You should do really well for lunches during the week and before/after events. Thanks for taking a chance by opening your restaurant next to the University. Although some/many people like Vito's pizza, you might just take a slice of their pizza business based solely on what I see on your menu.

The beer is pretty good at Buffalo Brewing, and it is nice to support a home-town brewery. It is not a very big place, however, so pre-game crowds for them can be overwhelming. Pappy's has pretty good food at a reasonable price. Both places are good choices before the game, but both are small so can be overwhelmed by large crowds. Vito's does get crowded by people who are attending the Fox or symphony. The food is ok. Beer on tap is a little pricey. It is a little snooty to those who just want a beer and appetizer.

Thanks, I appreciate you helping me out.

Ouch. I should have proofread. "I think the costs of an education are...." Shame on me.

I think the costs of an education is lost on the public. I am one of the tenured faculty at SLU who willing accept a very low salary in order to teach and do research. It is disheartening to work hard at my profession and have students graduating from our program making more money than me after only a couple of years after their graduation. I know for a fact that my worth on the open market is two and a half times what I make at SLU right now. So why stay? Because I value education. Why not go to some public and private high schools in St. Louis where I would be paid more money than I am currently paid at SLU? I ask myself that question often. So yes, I can understand the angst of college tuition. What bothers me is that students don't invest themselves in their education. Each lecture hour is worth approximately $50 to $70, yet students skip class all the time. If my lectures are not worth attending, then shame on me. If they add value to the education, then shame on the student. Well... sorry. Enough of my rant. Just one thing. My bet is that the cost of a student's education at public institutions is higher than private institutions due to inefficiencies in their system, but the cost is shared by the taxpayer. This would be an interesting topic to investigate sometime.

Boy was that a disappointing finish. The only good thing in my opinion is that it gave Mitchell a chance to shoot some free throws in a pressure situation. He handled the pressure very well.

Thank goodness Barry is having a good game. This might be his best game of the year.

I am also not too impressed yet with the offense the Bills are running. Most of the ball motion is by passing along the perimeter followed by a pick by one of the big men 15 to 20 feet from the basket that does not really evolve into anything special. The one thing that I saw new this past game was the fake pick. The Bill player would fake the pick and then continue moving towards the hoop. This at least helped keep the defenders honest. It seems that until we get more drives into the interior, most of the offense will be out near the perimeter. This will forebode ill for us since our three-point shots are not falling to date.

Thanks for the info on the game tonight. I was just looking for such a webcast since I can't go tonight.

Sorry if I am rehashing an old topic. I have only become an active reader this past year and even then have been somewhat sporadic. Today's Post-Dispatch coverage was very good for the Billikens and the A-10. Sorry.

It is my perception that the Post-Dispatch coverage of SLU men's basketball is not high on the newspaper list to say the least and that we rank well below Mizzou, Illinois, and high school sports. This downward trend has been occurring for at least four or five years. The only reporter who has any interest in men's basketball is Timmerman. He does a relatively nice job through his blog site. I thought Miklasz was favorable towards SLU until I read Bernie's derogatory comment about SLU sports and alluded to the topic as trash or garbage (or something similar - sorry it was awhile ago that I read Bernie's derogatory comment). I no longer read Bernie's material in the Post-Dispatch for this reason. Perhaps he doesn't like the way SLU funds/supports its sports teams, but his derogatory comments about SLU ,and by association the SLU fans, turned me off. I thought he sociallized with Majerus. Is there so much more interest in Mizzou, Illinois, and high school sports than SLU basketball that we get almost no coverage?

I do not have a problem with what Nate did. He is a valuable member of the Billiken fan base and is trying to report on information that is interesting to us. I am not one of the paid subscribers for financial reasons, so I do not have a problem with Nate referring to his premium articles on the message board as long as he is not using the board solely as an advertising vehicle. He brings much more to the board than many posters.

I agree with brianstl. I thought the officiating in the SS game was very similar to that in the SIUC game. In both games, it seemed to me the officiating was very much in favor of the home team; however, after both games had been decided in the second half, the refs tried to even out the fouls so that it would not looks so lopsided in the box scores. I am a true billikens fan, but it angered and embarrassed me that this was occurring though we were winning. I would much prefer to see good officiating of all games. I do not see what Kyle Cassity brings to the team. He is getting quite a bit of playing time relative to some of the other freshman, and he has contributed almost nothing. Am I missing something with Kyle? In another thread, someone made the comment that Cassity might become one of the best players on the team. I don't see that happening based on his performance to now (relative to the performances of the other freshmen).

They are going to start streaming 10 minutes before the game (i.e., 12:55 PM Central Standard Time) according to their web information. Does anyone know if sport bars will be showing the game since it is being offered free online by Horizon? Also is there a particular sports bar that many billikan fans go to watch the out-of-town games? Would be more enjoyable to watch such games with other fans.

I don't comment often, but hate to see negative comments when they are unproductive or uninformative. If you are going to be derogatory about SLU and the Billikens then at least spell correctly - damn is incorrectly spelled in the context of your sentence!

Isotope is sitting in section 101 Row Q Seats 7 and 8 Decent seats, but am amazed at how narrow most seats are in the green section.

This might make alumni feel a little better. I am a professor at Saint Louis University and a long-time avid fan of Billiken basketball. Initially, as a professor who has been working at the university for longer than a decade, I was not even going to be given any extra billiken points while an alumnus would get 20 points. I argued unsuccessfully that at least I should be treated like an alumnus. They ultimately conceded by giving me 10 billiken points. Thus, I rank as "half" an alumnus. And of course, since an alumnus need only attend the university for two years to get this ranking, I am treated equivalent to a student who attended the university for one year. I find this frustrating in part because one of my colleagues and I talk up the games with our students, and my colleague frequently takes students with him to the game. I am also frustrated because I give a lot of extra time and effot to the university with relatively low compensation (though parents paying the tuition bills probably imagine that we are well paid - not true, pay is well below market rates) and it would be nice to at least have 20 billiken points as a perk. And now even though I pay $500 a year for parking on campus, they were going to charge all faculty and staff an extra $7 to park in the lot for each billiken event at the arena. I dropped my parking last week and am parking off campus in protest. Well enough of my rant. As SLU alumni, you hopefully realize that you are being treated somewhat fairly. And thank you to all the alumni who support the University. We have wonderful alumni assoicated with our department, which really helps us provide valuable opportunities to our current student body (e.g., internships, employment, scholarships). Go Bills.

This was the first time I had listened to Majerus on radio. I expected him to be rambling and somewhat incoherent based on numerous postings that I have read on this message board. What I heard tonight was entirely different. This man is articulate, well informed, and able to talk intelligently about multiple subjects. I thought it was an excellent 40 minutes of conversation. Perhaps those who continually write disparaging comments about Rick have an ax to grind but with no real substance behind their statements. Is there a way I can block such postings from showing up on my screen so that I don't have to continually wade through their comments in order to get to more substantive comments?

I agree with what Rick had to say in the interview. It is difficult for most non-athletic students to manage their time and studies before and during mid-term exam week. It is obviously much harder for the team members when they are gone so long during this period and focused on basketball rather than academics. I also agree Rick's comments about the negative effect that a weak team winning a conference championship can have on the sport by bumping a better, more consistent team from the NCAA tournament. Although this x-factor makes conference tournaments exciting, it does diminish somewhat the importance of regular season games. And I do not think it is hypocritical of Rick to be opposed to money-making conference tournaments since he is a beneficiary of the money rich sport system. Why should he not seek to be paid the market rate for good coaches even if he opposes the dynamics of the market? It would be similar to saying that anyone opposed to excessive deduction options on our federal tax system should not declare any deductions or credits on their own tax returns. I think there are too many tax deductions options, but I still declare all of the deductions for which I am eligible on my own returns.