cgeldmacher

This was a poll of coaches, so, opinions are opinions and can't be right or wrong, but just debated. However, some of our rankings seem to be born out of coaches being uninformed. History/Tradition - #12 really? We have less history and tradition than George Washington, LaSalle, St. Bonaventure, George Mason Media Exposure - #7 Didn't necessarily disagree until I saw that St. Bonaventure is #6. Do they even have a local TV package? Budget/Resources - #3 I was actually happy to see that coaches considered us to be 3rd best in this category. Recruiting Base - #9 I think this comes from the other coaches not recruiting or expecting to get recruits out of our City or region. If they looked closer, I think we would have ranked higher. Facilities - #3 Only disagreement here is that I cannot see how we aren't above Dayton. Our arena is better, and our overall facility is better

You are correct. I was wrong. Carrawell got drafted by the Spurs in the 2nd round, but never played a game in the NBA. Still, getting picked in the 2nd round is a pretty good comment on a guy's level of play during his college career.

I've said this before, but I love thinking about it. Three years before Hughes committed, Jahidi White (6'9") out of Cardinal Ritter sat at a table with a SLU hat and a Georgetown hat in front of him. The scheduled time for his announcement came and went. After about twenty minutes, he reached down and grabbed the Georgetown hat. His mother, sitting next to him, looked shocked and disappointed. If he grabs the SLU hat, then I think Chris Carrawell (6'6") goes to SLU two years later instead of going to Duke, and Loren Woods (7'1") goes to SLU instead of going to Wake Forest and later Arizona. Both were teammates of White at Cardinal Ritter. That would have meant that when Hughes played his one year at SLU, he would have had Woods at center, White as power forward, Carrawell at small forward, and Jamal Walker as a point guard. That's at least a final four team if not a national champion. Outside of Walker, all four other guys each played several seasons in the NBA.

Many of those are afternoon games. It certainly wouldn't conflict as we are going to with the Blues.

We got good local players last year. We didn't this year. This shows that getting the best local players, or some of the best local players, to stay is not a given even with Ford's great recruiting. The 2022 class seems like the next best shot we have to pull in a good class of local guys. My point was that if we have had sustained success all the way up until those guys are committing, then we should get a good group of locals and are in a position to continue our sustained success. It was more a comment about the timing of it all rather than how good that class is. Also, if a guy is "special historically" I don't count on him staying at home even if we are a higher level program. I'm happy with making success out of guys like Goodwin, Yuri, Hargrove, etc. than to be always holding onto hope for the elite guys.

The only play by play guy in all of college basketball that would potentially do something like that is Rammer. Love it.

So, it seems to me that this is the class that would turn us into a Xavier type program if we have sustained success over the next few years. Win first, snag guys out of this class with the help of our esteemed former player Mr. Hughes, and then become the sustainable top program we've been waiting for. I think that has to be Ford's plan when looking ahead.

If KMOX lost the Blues, the there would be no conflicts on KMOX since the baseball and college basketball seasons don't overlap. We may not be a priority for either KMOX or 101.1 as far as marketing, but we wouldn't be getting bumped from our normal station constantly if we were with KMOX.

The Poachmaster General Think I'm stealing this from someone else who used it on this board.

With all the excitement surrounding the new players that have come in, we're spending an awful lot of time talking about a guy that didn't do much of anything for us last year. Guys who are pushing for Jacobs to get more playing time or expecting more from him seem to be basing their thoughts on dunk contests and games where no defense was played. The reality is, whether anyone wants to admit it or not, that the best case scenario for the Billikens this season and in future is for other guys we have to outperform Jacobs and get the minutes. If Yuri can be the play making point guard that we think he can be early on, and he takes Jacobs' minutes, that's good for the team. If Thatch can increase his scoring output while providing what we know is far superior defense to what Jacobs can provide, that's good for the team. If Jimerson can shoot his way into minutes on the court at the expense of Jacobs' minutes, that's good for the team. If Hargrove's high flying blocks start altering the other teams' shooting, and he adds some impressive dunks at the other end such that he gets minutes at the three instead of Jacobs, that's good for the team. I certainly don't want Jacobs to fail. I want him to succeed and be an option for Coach Ford. However, I would prefer our other options to reach their potential more so than I am hoping that we will need to count on Jacobs for minutes.

It's going to happen 15 times? Seems like it will be hard for the station to say that it's the "Home of the Billikens." That sucks. Good research, Cowboy.

I'll trust you on this one, as you always have good info about what our guys did at the high school level. I seemed to remember that Evans was more of a slasher in high school and developed into the guy we remember (rebounder/defender) when he got here.

We can talk about more than one thing at a time. I have to kill my lunch hour somehow.

From the video I've seen and his size, he seems to me like a Dwayne Evans type with possibly more athleticism. I think if he became that prediction it would be the outer end of what we could hope for.

Probably not allowed by NCAA rules, but I wish SLU could hire his mom for the marketing department. She is quite eloquent with the tweets.