bsheldon

Not even with your D*%k. Wow, that is impressively frightening. It's stash really brings out the colors of the butterflies on it's shirt.

I guess it depends on whose #'s you use. ESPN has JM at #19 C. They also have JJ at #45 PG in country and MM at #57. RL at #39 PF and DE #148 SF.

I agree with you. Nelly never came to mind at all. It was simply lunatics that are nuts about SLU--hence SLUnatics.

Hilarious. Dating yourself a bit, but as I got it, I guess I am doing the same. Again, funny stuff. BTW, I couldn't agree more.

Wow, that list was kind of disapointing. Some of those were just bad. There were only a couple that would even options in my opinion. Slunatics is by far the best choice and would be my vote as well.

Good news davidnark. A healthy BC is a very good thing. McCall is supposed to be the real deal. He played at a very high level last year--hopefully he lives up to expectations and can contribute right away. That is a bold statement that we will not see any drop-off when KM sits--I hope it is true. If it is, we will be a real, real good basketball team. The new and apparently improved JJ seems like someone who can come in and give the rest of our guards some competition for playing time. He will hopefully be a guy we can count on for several minutes a game to give some of the others guys some rest. I really hope that both MM and JJ contribute mightily right away. This will allow KM to not have to play 30+ minutes every single game. We definitely need KM to be 100% come conference time and post-season. These two should help keep him sharp in practices and give him some rest during the games. I have been surprised how Loe has been written off for this year--or at least not really expected to contribute much this season. There was so much talk about him several months ago when we were all hoping and praying that he would become a Billiken. There was a lot of talk about how much he can help the team and be a starter almost from day one. Now it seems just the opposite. It seems someone said he was thin and didn't look that strong or something and now it appears he will not help the club much if any this year. Strange. I am expecting big things from him this season. He may not dominate the boards, or even block many shots on D, but simply being 6'11" down low can't be a bad thing for us and if he truly can shoot like advertised and proven in last year's U19 tourney (something like 45% from 3) he can really help us spread out the D of opposing teams. Again, awesome news about CR hitting the weight room.

excellent post Billikan. Same for you shoe. I appreciate the comments on what people have seen at the pick-up games. Thanks for sharing Westy and Doc. Sure, it may not be the caliber of a report that would come from an NBA scout watching the NCAA Final Four game--because obviosuly some guys give more effort than others, but you can still ususally tell who has the goods and who doesn't. Plus just looking at the frames of some of the guys is helpful--especially guys who started their careers real thin or a bit plump. Again, most guys don't go 100% in these games but I bet there are some times when some brilliance shines through. I used to love to watch H, Highmark, Claggett and company go at it at the rec. You can tell who has talent to a certain extent.

Now you are asking for miracles. Seriously, though, it would be real hard to be worse. They both have to get at least a little better in that department. I doubt either ever becomes a 75 or even 70% FT shooter, but fingers crossed for 60% out of those two.

Great to hear that CR hit the gym. He made great progress last season. It wasn't nearly the drop off late in the season when WR sat as it was early. CR was really good on the D end and started to hit some short range shots. If he added a 10-15 lbs he should be even better.

CS was real solid on the D towards the end of last season. He had to learn on the job. Our incomiong Frosh may not get that luxury. They have experienced players in front of them. It truly may be next year before they truly "get it" on that end of the floor. As much fun as it is to look forward to 2011-2012 season and how good this team will be, I will focus on the here and now. If we don't really get any major contributions from the the frosh this year--we should still be better than last season as everyone returning should be better. Really, any contributions we get from any of the new recruits will be icing on the cake already. This is one of the best things about having such a young team last season--we really get to watch these guys for their whole careers and experience the beginning of a whole new era of Billiken's basketball as RM leads this prgram into national prominance. It is a fun time to be a Billiken's fan.

Road games are good for RPI. Playing good teams is good for RPI. Playing good teams at their place and winning is great for RPI. The basic formula is 25% team winning percentage (WP), 50% opponents' average winning percentage (OWP), and 25% opponents' opponents' average winning percentage (OOWP). For the 2004-05 season, the formula was changed to give more weight to road wins vs home wins. A team's win total for RPI purposes is 1.4 * road wins + neutral site wins + 0.6 * home wins. A team's losses is calculated as 0.6 * road losses + neutral site losses + 1.4 * home losses. For example, a team that is 4-0 at home and 2-7 on the road has a RPI record of 5.2 wins (1.4 * 2 + 0.6 * 4) and 4.2 losses (0.6 * 7). That means that even though it is 6-7, for RPI purposes, it is above .500 (5.2-4.2). This "weighted" record is only used for the 25% of the formula that is each team's winning percentage. The regular team records are used to calculate OWP and OOWP. As always, only games against Division I opponents count in the RPI.

Here is a link that gives a nice analysis of the team. http://collegehoopsnet.com/109-iupui-2010-11-basketball-preview-168709 Another good game on our schedule.

I couldn't agree more about the GA game. It is a monster for us. MSU will get what it has coming to them. I am going to try to make that game. There definitely needs to be a SLU contigent in the crowd. I just hope we have a good showing at Duke. Sure, I hope we win, but that may be asking just a bit much. As long we are competitive--honestly I hope we really make a great game out of it. This is by far the best shot at national exposure this season before the Dance.

Good point, I kind of overlooked them. They won 25 games last season. They ahve 2 of their top three scorers back as well. They have a solid program.

Excellent point. As the Billiken program evolves into a national player and a regularly ranked team, many, many things about the program will change right along with it. As the old saying goes, "Winning changes everything."

While I agree that a lot if not most pre-season picks/guesses end up being wrong, but I find them fun to debate and talk about--isn't that the point of this board? Yes, we did much better than the talking heads expected last season--lets hope they do it again this year. I also hope that your last line is correct and that we do in fact lay waste to the rest of the conference. However, I am banking on a split with X this season. If this all holds true, we may be looking at the top 2 or 3 spots in the conference. Again, we won't know until it all happens. I think anywhere from 8th to 1st is realistic and most of those spots with relatively similar odds of happening. Say maybe something like: 1st 5% 2nd 10% 3rd 15% 4th 20% 5th 20% 6th 15% 7th 10% 8th 5% Looking at that, that might be skewed a bit to the low side for simplicity. Again, I think we will finish near the top of the conference this year. We do have a much harder conference schedule this year than last--having Temple and Richmond on the road and X twice.

Has anyone seen WR or CR recently? Did either bulk up at all? WR really hit the weight room hard between his freshman and sophomore years--he added something like 20 pounds. I was hoping he put on a few more this offseason. CR really could benefit from a few L-B's as well.

Fingers crossed that BC can stay 100% this year. He had several games last year that he really shined. I don't know for sure those were just games he felt good or what, but I can only guess he will play better when healthy. CS has to be better this year than last. He needs to have confidence in his shot. He is the returning player that logged a ton of time last year. He started to take the ball to the hoop a bit late last season. Let's hope he finds and keeps his shot and continues to stay aggressive with the ball. If he doesn't improve his shot, he may see his playing time cut a bit. Last year we only had one back up guard. This year there will be competition for playing time.

I agree--5th is a real possibility, but that would probably mean that would had to have had an awesome OOC season with probably only one or two losses. Again that is totally possible. The only thing I am sure of is that it will be fun. 5 getting in would be great. 3 out of those five winning at least one game would be even better. 1 of those 3 making the sweet sixteen or beyond better still. Hopefully this is the season where the conference really takes a big step forward--building on last season's success and press. The biggest thing the conference needs is a team besides X to win a couple of tourney games.

I agree--hence my optimism. But really you have to win on the road if you want to be considered a top team. That is what it takes. I think we take that step this year. Could we end up finishing 6th--it's possible, but so is finishing 1st as was suggested in the "best-case/worst-case" ESPN article. I will stay optimistic until the play on the court leads me to be otherwise.

Here is another link that predicts how this guy thinks teams will finish in conference this season with a little synopsis of each team. http://www.collegiatehoops.net/2010/07/a10-basketball-preview-and-prediction.html He seems to have the same feeling that other predictors do--that somehow we will not improve over last year's team despite having essentially everyone back and a top-notch recruiting class. I tend to disagree with this view. Plus he never mentions a single player, just Majerus. Hopefully, at least a couple of our guys will really stnad out this year and get som national attention. KM obviously comes to mind. Here is how I see the conference shaking out: 1 Temple 2 SLU 3 Xavier 4 Richmond 5 Charlotte 6 Duquense 7 Dayton 8 Rhode Island 9 George Washington 10 St. Joseph's 11 LaSalle 12 UMASS 13 St. Bonaventure 14 Fordham The only lock in this group that I will gurantee is #14. Temple returns two studs and with their D they are the team to beat. I picked SLU second mostly out of optimism, but I do think they will be better than last year and we finished 4th last season. The next two spots were kind of a toss up, but X always finds a way so they got the nod. They do have a couple of massive holes to fill though. Richmond has one of their own. Another reason I felt good picking SLU ahead of both. Charlotte will fill the next spot--kind of the top of the second tier. They return their studs and I think Major will be the real deal. I picked the Dookies next because they just weren't that bad last year and they return their main guns. Dayton, well this is just kind of where they fit in. They may finish one, two tops, spots higher and may also finish one spot lower. I just don't see them being in the top 3 or 4 with their knack for under achievement or over hype--whichever year after year. Plus they have a few major holes to fill. Rhode Island is another team that just kind of fit here in the standings. I don't see them winning close to the 26 games they did last year. They lost their studs. They have good recruits, but conference is too tough to win a lot of games with Freshman. I think GW is best of the last tier of the conference. They weren't awful last year and seem to have the least amount of problems as the rest of the bottom of the conference. St. Joe's is a team that is almost starting over. Really good recruiting class that I think is a year away. LaSalle was desimated by injuries last year and this season is going to rely on youngsters. Umass lost their stud and is rebuilding St B similar to Umass, but not as good Fordham, well its Fordham. They will be better than last year, but still in the cellar. Teams with real shot to underachieve: Dayton--obviously, RI, and X--meaning they may not win conference. Teams with real shot to overachieve: SLU--believe it, Charlotte, GW, and ST Joe.

The point was his damages (or loss of earning potential over his career) by not going to grad school. So say with just a Teacher's certificate and his present degree he would start at 35K. But if he had a master's degree to go with that he could demand and rightfully get 40K to start. Amortized over his career, say 40 years and that gap becomes a large chunk of change that could potentially be shown to be his losses because of the NCAA's actions or non-actions that were in effect ruling against him and his ability to play ball and have one year of grad school paid for. Without that year paid for he states he could not afford to go and thus his career earning potential is detrimentally affected. Now, I am not a lawyer, but I have seen them on TV, so this must be accurate. Seriously, though, this is just a theory and total speculation on my part. As I said earlier we really don't know any of the facts for sure and have only heard SK's side of things as NIU and NCAA have been tight-lipped.

+1 well said.

If you finish the sentence...a lawyer will spin it into something. They can see dollar bills in anything. I honestly have no idea the $$ value, but then again it is divinity so can you really put a dollar sign the true worth? (I am sure a lawyer can.)

As Torch said above, by them not ruling they effectively made the decision. By dragging their feet, Sean got hosed out of a year of free tuition to grad school. Yes he can still go--maybe, if he has the money and the grades, just like anyone else. But his intentions were to play ball and have a year of it paid for. Since the NCAA didn't make a decision the opportunity for him to do that has passed. As the deadline approached they could have said: --"Yes" you are clear. --Or "yes" you can enroll and join the team but are still under investigation (better still not tell him he is under investigation and continue to do so behind closed doors if they seemed necessary--keeping it out in the open may not have helped him at all as a school isn't likely to take him on their team with the cloud over his head.) --Or simply said "no" you can not enroll and here is the proof as to why. It is not like the NCAA hasn't retroactively punihsed teams or players for deeds that happen in the past before--that is 99% of their punishements. They could have continued their investigation and if something was found, take the appropriate actions then. Again, by doing nothing the NCAA effectively did do something, something very detrimental to person's future.