cgeldmacher

Maybe you're right, but is Hankton really taller than French?

Because some stadiums have had trouble growing grass the way the team would like given the design of the stadium. St. Louis's group altered the design, but making it so that the overhang would have translucent panels. This will, presumably, help the grass grow better, but I'm concerned it will turn the area where the fans sit into an oven.

Also, does anyone know if these soccer stadiums are getting other business like concerts? If so, I wonder if it could take away from the money SLU brings in from Chaifetz.

I'm a little concerned about balancing the need to help grow grass on the field and not baking your fanbase beneath the overhangs. They said they changed the overhang material to translucent panels. That sounds like a greenhouse situation to me. No fans will hang onto their tickets if their expected to go to games in the summer in St. Louis when its 97 degrees and the area under the overhangs is hotter than that.

Blues support doesn't seem very front runnerish to me.

Great quote from Momma Bell. She gets what the value of a scholarship means to her son and her family. Love that she mentioned a "four year scholarship" which in my mind translates into "he better get his degree out of all that free college" and that she expects him to be here for four years. Looking forward to seeing Momma Bell behind the bench for all four years of those years.

I love that (1) he has a lightning quick release, and (2) that a large portion of this video he's creating his own shot.

We've had three decent multi year stretches in the past 35 years. Two of the three were led by local talent. As Pistol points out, RM did it without much local flavor, but that was just his way. The other two were driven by Bonner, Gray, and Douglas and by Highmark and Clagget (there may have been some more locals on that team that I'm not remembering right now - Luchtefeld was sort of local). We certainly don't need local talent to be good, but if we have a better chance with local guys and the talent pool here can be deep more often than not, then why not do what Ford is doing and develop a solid local recruiting base. I'm thinking we are just entering our fourth stretch of success in the last 40 years and this team will be made of a bunch of local guys.

It's a progression. Travis has worked SLU into the conversation for kids that may have not looked at us in the past. Now the next step is success on the court. If we do that and start to look like we may be turning into a Gonzaga, Villanova, or Xavier, then we will start getting the 4 and 5 star guys regularly. I also think that Travis is brilliant with framing the local recruiting as guys "staying home" and "playing for their home town." This theme is making its way around the area, and people are starting to buy into it.

Usually, I agree with most of what you say, but saying that Travis, Steele at Xavier and Weber at K-state are making a mistake offering a guy seems a bit over board as far as an opinion goes. These guys make millions making the right calls on these recruits. I would tend to trust their judgment. I'm sure these guys and their coaching staffs are seeing things you are not.

I think that's what our team has been the past two seasons, because of losing some of our skilled guys to various "issues." I'm not convinced that bully-ball is Ford's preferred style or what he recruits to. I expect that the new class of guys this year and future guys that Travis brings in will play a different style than what we've seen recently. They'll still be coached to play hard defense and rebound, but I don't expect to continue to see bully-ball.

Lynn Frank

Google? Sorry, that's the popular response right now on this board.