majerus mojo

With last night's performance, Jordan Goodwin passed Willie Reed on the SLU alumni NBA all-time scoring list...a rather short list but an interesting one nonetheless
Ed Macauley  11234
Larry Hughes  10242
Bob Ferry      5780
Anthony Bonner 5594
Jordan Goodwin  767
Willie Reed     751
Bevo Nordmann   571
Robin Jones     370
Barry Orms      181
Marv Schatzman  115
Rich Nieman     113
DC Wilcutt       77
David Burns      23
NOTE: these are strictly NBA regular season numbers, no playoffs, no ABA, no BAA

Why are you comparing us to Indiana State? We were paying our coach more than they spent on their entire basketball program. We are not the same. 
Our soon to be all-time leading scorer is going to start his SIXTH year in a row at SLU. He isn't playing for free. We kept the nation's leader in assists on our roster for four years - he wasn't playing for free either.
 
We won't keep everyone, but no one is keeping everyone. College sports are different now, but we're a lot higher on the totem pole (and spend like it) than some people are making it seem

I was there. About what I expected. 

Probably 60-70 people in total, wide age range. I'm 28 and was older than ~15% of the room. 

Schertz accidentally went to the downtown MAC and didn't get to the Des Peres location until about 6. Troy spoke a bit, Chris May spoke a bit, then Schertz took the wheel. Good speech, dude is very funny, then he took a Q&A. Most of the questions were pretty worthless but he did drop a couple of noteworthy things:

1) Last year's ISU team was paid a combined 80k in NIL. Their market value today is as much as 2 mill. 
2) One of the recent recruits on campus brought their 12YO sister who made a fat joke towards Schertz - he found it very funny (as did I).
3) Gibby was scheduled for a visit to UConn this coming weekend before recommitting to SLU. We beat the two-time reigning national champion out for a transfer portal player, and arguably more importantly the two-time reigning national champion was interested in our shooting guard. Think about that next time anyone wants to talk down on Gibby. 
4) Coach is still VERY confident that we get commitments from RA and IS this week. I'm very confident that those commitments will open the floodgates. 
5) I asked coach 1 on 1 afterwards what he thought of the Billiken vs. "Team Blue" and it sounds like we can finally but that bullshite boring @$$ moniker to rest.  
6) Charlie Gitto's is his favorite restaurant so far. Had it during the MVC tournament. 

Jesus Christ.  It's an event at MAC West.  Quit complaining about everything, grab your checkbook and f'ing go.  I bet they let you in and take your money.  It's not rocket science.

If you are interested in the BVF, listen to Frank's interview yesterday with Troy.  He came out and stated that Caleb Love's agent called last year and said he wanted to come to SLU for $XYZ.  He was out of the budget.  But he would have been the Billiken's 2 Guard if the funds had been there.
He also said that there are only 4 people, the BVF Board, that knows exactly how much is in the BVF.  He also pointed out that any booster can go through the Billiken Exchange and pinpoint your money to a specific athlete.  The BVF isn't involved with that.  So the BVF isn't the whole NIL pot.
Billiken Loyalty Program was explained.  It is for Graduating Seniors that have been with the school for 2 years.  TJ Hargrove is getting a nice check from the Loyalty Program this year.  You can go to BVF and direct your funds to BVF Loyalty Program for TJ.
Segment 5 from 4/15.  https://590thefan.com/radio-shows/press-box/

I feel like there is maybe a little creative over-emphasizing on the uncertainty he had regarding SLU at the beginning and the value that he got out of him and May talking every day for the next few weeks. It's a smart thing to do because it makes him look like there was a larger chance he was going back to ISU and it makes Chris May look good. It's a win/win for him to cast it this way and all coaches are good salesmen.
I'm more inclined to believe that when Trilly and all the national media guys said it was close to a done deal shortly after they didn't make the dance, it was really done at that point.

Asking for a friend…....how do you change your screen name??

FWIW, on Frank’s radio show today, he was pretty confident Avila, Swope and Kent were coming. Plus, Turnbull and the 6’10 recruit from Canada. He also mentioned he thinks Jimerson is coming back and Schertz told him that his goal was to have a team of players 6’4”-6’10”.

I didn't throw the specific number amount out there because I'm not sure what those dollar amounts actually include. For instance I don't believe the higher number (it was crazy) has any chance of being accurate if we are just talking about what the guys will get this coming season, but it could very well be accurate if we are talking about the combined value of all the seasons included in the deals they sign.  I have a feeling the second number might be right when it comes to the total value of the compensation of what the guys might get next season, but I don't know how much of that is actual cash and how much of it includes the value of other stuff included in the deal for things like car leases.  So if you throw an actual dollar amount out there people might take it for something it actually isn't supposed to be without the proper context of what it all includes.  
 

It is amazing how smooth the last month has gone.  I'm not his biggest fan, but I have to give credit where it is due. 

-listening to the radio yesterday and the host was going through what some cultures believe about an eclipse and the one I thought best fits SLU is one of them believes it is the dawning of a new era, let's hope this era introduced on eclipse day  is very successful
-glad CJS mentioned defense and noted that in conf play this past season they were #1 in the MVC
-sounded like CMay started watching CJS in the 2022-23 season
-CJS listed the positives the SLU job has and I hope the donors start getting a much better return on their investment and a big THANKS to the big donors for making it all happen

You may well  be correct about May talking a lot about the donors in the Schertz conference. However, with Pestello getting ready to leave the presidency at SLU, there may well be other reasons for May to mention big donors by name. He may well have been trying to gain favor among the donors to maintain his post after the new president is hired. Of course this possibility is my opinion, not an established fact.
You are probably absolutely correct that the big donors took a much more active role in the Schertz hiring decision than before. Frankly I think the big donors filled a vacuum produced by Pestello's coming retirement, and we all should be grateful for what they did in the selection of this basketball coach.

I loved Fr Stark. It sounded as if he had the voice of God. But mostly it was because he came to my local parish to help say the funeral mass of my father who passed when I was at SLU. I will never forget that. 
 

Mike “fan” is Billikenbooster.

My guess is they are using it to match their website.  Ya know, because some young whippersnapper grabbed the billikens.com domain over a few decades ago before SLU had a clue about how to use the interwebs.

@Pakapablo. That brief biography of Josh Schertz was a wonderful reading, Thank you very much for posting it like you did. It gave me a level of understanding and liking of this man that I would not have ever reached if I had looked at him just as a coach of the basketball team. 
Again, much appreciated.