cgeldmacher
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Posts posted by cgeldmacher
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2 hours ago, gobillsgo said:
would a move to the Big East affect our ability to play in Maui in a few years? Not sure if there have been any leaks on other participants, but they usually don’t let two teams from the same conference play. I think obviously you trade Maui for admission to the Big East, but hopefully we’d get another crack at Maui down the road
Playing in Maui once compared it playing a Big East schedule every year is not even close. I would take terrible non-conference schedules and no non-conference tournaments every year if it meant being in the Big East.
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22 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:
These are schools in different conferences because their primary doesn't sponsor soccer. Not exactly a 1:1 comparison for our scenario.
MAC discontinued soccer in 2022.
I agree that it is not a 1:1 comparison, but if we had the opportunity to get into a basketball only conference with Gonzaga, St. Mary's, VCU, Dayton, Wichita State, Memphis, Loyola, etc. I would take my chances with the A-10's rules. If they want to kick us out for putting our basketball teams in that basketball only conference, so be it. We'll find somewhere else for out other teams to play, maybe the Missouri Valley. In fact, if our basketball programs are in this new conference, the Missouri Valley might be a better landing spot for our other sports anyway under those circumstances.
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4 hours ago, brianstl said:
SLU debuts at 9th in this week's Top Drawer Soccer Ranking.
https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/men
This is off topic for this thread, but in another thread there was a discussion about SLU getting into a basketball only conference. Some posters had concern about being in a different conference than our other sports. To illustrate that this is not an issue, check out this list. West Virginia is ranked #2 in the soccer poll and their soccer team is listed in the Sun Belt Conference. Their other teams play in the Big 12. Also, #7 Western Michigan's soccer team plays in the the Missouri Valley Conference, even though their other sports teams play in the MAC. #19 Kentucky's soccer team also plays in the Sun Belt Conference.
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On 8/21/2024 at 4:59 PM, Adman said:
I'll be there... after a quick trip to Sonoma.
Sonoma or Sedona?
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44 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:
That's just how it works.
You can say this in a vacuum and you'd be 100% correct. But recent history of Billiken Athletics will tell you that the money invested in SLU basketball from 2015-2023 resulted in a whopping one NCAA Tournament bid.
It is not on fans to look the other way at 6 years of missed NCAA Tournaments that stunted the progress of facility upgrades across the athletics department. It's on Chris May to figure out a way to compensate for that lack of NCAA $$$ here and now, not ask for a good will extension based on ONE NCAA tournament appearance. The budget is a direct reflection on Chris May and his leadership decisions as it pertains to the Men's Basketball program.
So fundraising campaign, corporate naming rights, corporate partnerships, male prostitution. You do what it takes to provide your student athletes and coaches with necessary facilities to compete at the top level of this conference. The Field Hockey facility is a wonderful start, I could not be happier about it(well if it would have been finished by the promised date, but acts of God I understand). FIGURE IT OUT.
I have no issue with this argument. Not trying to put words in your mouth, but the idea that if we had spent our investable money in the basketball team more wisely, we would have more funds coming out of that program (tournament credits, additional tickets sold, etc.) to be used on upgrading all of our athletic programs makes sense. That argument wasn't raised until just now. My issue is with guys on this board picking every sports team we have at SLU, in different threads, and complaining that they don't have upgraded facilities. What's next, are we sacrificing our values because the track team doesn't have an indoor training facility.
Here's how all this gets fixed. Invest (wisely) in the men's basketball team. Let that team earn the needed money for the entire Athletic Department. Then begin the process of upgrading everything else. I'm pretty sure the bigger donors have been squeezed as much as possible at this point. The money needs to start coming from within.
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On 8/21/2024 at 2:33 PM, slufan13 said:
Yeah I totally agree. But not even talking in factual or hypothetical situations. This is a fan message board. Are people expecting fans not to want the very very best? Even Alabama football fans aren't ever satisfied. That's just how being a fan goes.
No. I don't want the absolute best for our tennis team if that pulls funds away from the sports I care much more about.
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On 8/21/2024 at 2:30 PM, billikenfan05 said:
Here’s the funny part, if Chris May had either not botched the last MBB hire or not extended Travis Ford, these facilities might have come along with a men’s basketball tournament win or two. But that didn’t happen, and that’s on CM. That’s a problem he created and needs to find a way to properly support his programs, it’s not on fans to look the other way.
That's not a bad way to look at it. It has to be a long term play. Invest in the sport that brings in the money (men's basketball) and then use the tournament credits we earn to upgrade the other sports. Upgrading tennis now doesn't help the overall AD budget in the future. Investing the men's basketball program now, does help all of the other sports down the road.
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3 minutes ago, OkieBilliken said:
I’m confused why people want to jump in to the tennis thread to say how much dont care about tennis. It’s probably not the thread for you. We had a record breaking year last year’s with both the men’s and women’s team and then our terrific coach got snatched away by a CRAPPY VALLEY school. I am not really okay with that. I want to compete for a conference championship in every sport. VCU can. Dayton can. Not sure why we shouldn’t try. But honestly if it pains you that a few people care about certain SLU sports and student athletes that you don’t, don’t take it personally. We are all on the same team, I think.
I do care about tennis. I play tennis, and it is/was the primary high school sport of two of my three children. Tennis is great. However, if Chris May had two million dollars of extra funds, and he had a choice to build tennis courts on campus or spend the money on basketball, soccer, or possibly part of the costs of new baseball/softball stadiums, I am going to choose those other sports every time.
- billiken_roy and slufan13
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9 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:
Dawg, do you know how sh!tty that lifestyle is? Any type of commute is an extra hour each way. Walk to Chaifetz, collect equipment, load equipment in transportation, drive over to Dwight Davis or Kings Point in Belleville, practice, pack up vans, drive to Chaifetz, walk back to apartment, and you still haven’t showered. Imagine getting to DD and it rains out of nowhere and you can’t practice, now you drive back to Chaifetz to get fitness or strength work in. These athletes aren’t getting full rides. Only full rides they get are bumpy ass rides in SLU vans every day to and from practice. You try to compete in recruiting A10 level athletes.
I do know how it is, because two of my kids played high school tennis at two different schools and both schools used Dwight Davis as their home court for practice and matches. For one of my kids, Dwight Davis was about the same distance away as SLU is. For the other, Dwight Davis was much further away. They often drove down to find out last minute that a practice or match was canceled. Neither of them were receiving any scholarship money from their high school to do this and only did because they enjoyed playing the game.
Having said all of this, I understand the challenges faced by our tennis players. However, they sign to come to SLU knowing this is the situation. If they are good enough to receive a scholarship (even a partial one) at SLU, that means they were also good enough to play for other schools. They chose SLU knowing that this would mean practicing and playing off campus. #spendthemoneyonbasketball&soccer
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By the way, are we going to do this with every sports team we have? By this, I mean complain on threads that this poor [fill in the blank] team is not taken care of by our Athletic Department and doing so is not in line with our values. I think we have heard complaints the facilities about field hockey (I know that is being fixed), baseball, softball, and now tennis in just the past week. I agree with slufan13's sentiments above. Let's take care of our marquis programs first. Our second priority should also be our marquis teams. Also, our third priority. Everyone else is in line after that. I frankly don't care if a kid getting a scholarship to SLU for tennis has to go to the very nice facilities at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center to play his or her sport. That kid is getting his education paid for by playing a sport that no one SLU attends or, frankly, cares about.
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2 minutes ago, ACE said:
I'm not sure I follow - UMass just left the A-10 for a much worse basketball conference because of football. New Mexico is in the MWC a league that plays football and has also been a good bball league. Every school that has a D1 football team, even if they have crappy teams, are chasing football first and everything else including basketball is secondary.
As a hoops fan, I hate it, but this is the current college sports landscape unfortunately.
I'm saying that some schools' sports teams are forced into a conference that isn't ideal based solely on football considerations. What was proposed above by Aquinas, which is something I have proposed as well, is creating a conference just for basketball teams, meaning each of the schools would leave their other sports in the conference they are currently in, but their basketball programs would leave for the newly created basketball only conference.
This happens much more than you would think for other sports. For instance, Fordham has a water polo team that competes in completely different conference since the A-10 doesn't have water polo. Davidson and George Mason have men's wrestling teams. Several A-10 schools have women's gymnastics teams. None of these are A-10 sports, meaning those teams all have to join and compete in different conferences. The point being that it is not unprecedented to have one of your teams in a conference that is different that the conference you are in for all of your other sports.
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13 hours ago, thetorch said:
That is a very specious argument.
No matter what we spend on Field Hockey that has nothing to do with Basketball spending. That is not how the AD works.
It is in the best interest of the university that if it offers a scholarship eligible sport to give that team at the very least the bare minimum needed to compete for A10 titles. We have more than enough resources to do that. Choosing not to do that puts the university in a bad light. You also have to call into question recklessly spending on a sport that is destined to fail. Why even compete? Just drop the sport. Offering a sport that has no chance of winning just to check a box or fulfill title IX guideline is a huge waste of resources for the school.
I disagree that is a specious argument. In fact this comment "(n)o matter what we spend on Field Hockey that has nothing to do with Basketball spending. That is not how the AD works," if flat out incorrect, not just specious. Are you suggesting that the Athletic Department does not have a budget or that there is no limit to what donors are willign to pay? Every business, and the athletic department is a business, has a certain amount of funds that it has to decide how to allocate. If money is spent on Field Hockey, it means that same money was not spent on either basketball program, either soccer program, or the baseball or softball programs. It's very easy to criticize and say the athletic department is being sexist by not taking care of our field hockey team and that doing so is not in line with SLU's values. I'm sure you will then complain about not having a new baseball stadium or complain about some sort of budgetary shortcoming on men's basketball spending.
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23 hours ago, ACE said:
Memphis, UMass and New Mexico all play football... not very good football, but they do play games.
Exactly, which means they may be forced into a conference that is not ideal for basketball, because they are trying to accommodate football. These are programs that may appreciate putting their basketball team in a better basketball only conference.
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On 8/18/2024 at 10:20 AM, Aquinas said:
I wonder what you all think about the possibility of forming a basketball only conference? Assuming The Beast doesn't expand. It would allow for a large national footprint. Gonzaga would be a must, with a core of SLU, Dayton, VCU and Loyola Chicago. Maybe St Mary's and St Joes.
I've been saying this for years. It solves the problem of schools that want to be in a certain league for purposes of football or all other non-revenue sports. I would try to get Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Wichita State, Memphis, Dayton, VCU, Loyola Chicago, Umass and then maybe St. Joe's, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Drake. There are probably several others I'm not thinking of that would thrive outside of the football conference they are forced into.
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On 8/17/2024 at 11:21 AM, thetorch said:
That's a sh*tty way to run an organization and not at all in line with Jesuit or NCAA values but OK.
So, are you okay with the athletic department diverting funds from the Men's Basketball program so that the field hockey team spending comes in line with Jesuit and NCAA values?
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17 minutes ago, ACE said:
Regarding the A10 v. the WCC
Last year, the WCC had 3 teams in the Top 100 NET
The A10 had 9 teams in the Top 100
WCC had two teams in the Top 25, the A10 had one.
And as crappy as SLU was last year, the WCC had FIVE teams worse... let that sink in.
Any league would love to have Gonzaga and St. Mary's, but not really sure I understand the love for the WCC overall.
Then let's poach Gonzaga and St. Mary's
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I firmly believe that most of the costs that have been driving up tuition for the past forty years are unrelated to the actual education that students get. I bet if you run a comparison of what professors were paid forty years ago up to now, you will see that this figure has probably kept up with inflation despite the fact that tuition costs have far outpaced inflation. The issue is that kids, and their parents (I include myself), decide on a university for reasons that have little to do with how well they are going to be educated. They need to see beautiful green spaces, flowers, gorgeous buildings, statues, lakes. They want to know that they will live in modern, state of the art dorms. They want expensive recreations centers (see the topic of this thread). They want to know that they will eat meals in something that resembles the food court at a mall. They big auditoriums that allow for entertainment to come to them. None of this has anything to do with their education, but these are the factors driving kids toward certain schools versus others.
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20 hours ago, Bizziken said:
So...tiki/beach theme night when Mason comes to Chaifetz this year?
Wow, that seems like a great student section dig.
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16 hours ago, thetorch said:
Correct. How did the WCC add better members than the A10?
Did they add members, or did their existing members just improve their place in the college basketball world?
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2 hours ago, SLURadioBoy said:
The vice presidential candidate is possibly going to play at SLU. That would be cool.
- brianstl and slubillikens43
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On 8/9/2024 at 6:41 PM, DeSmetBilliken said:
Here are some photos of the Billiken Shop in Juneau.
According to Google, The Billiken Shop is "permanently closed."
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2 hours ago, OkieBilliken said:
So Rhode Island took our place in the Jacksonville Classic. May have to do some scouting. Not exactly a powerhouse schedule either.
It's concerning that Rhode Island can bump us from a tournament we thought we were in, that we didn't have any sort of backup plan, and that we we not already have something solid if the Jacksonville thing was a question mark.
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Just did a bit of research to see what other A-10 schools are doing in their non-conference:
St. Joe - Villanova, College of Charleston, Virginia Tech
Dayton - Xavier, Northwestern, New Mexico State, Marquette, UNLV, Cincinnati, and the Maui Invitational (Good lord)
VCU - Boston College, Colorado State, New Mexico and the Shriners Hospital Charleston Classic
Loyola Chicago - Princeton, Tulane, San Francisco, South Florida (probably about as good/bad a schedule as ours)
Fordham - not fully announced, but they have confirmed St. Johns and Sunshine Slam (Clemson, Penn St., & USF)
George Washington - not fully announced, but have confirmed Marquette and Duke, wow
LaSalle - Temple and North Carolina along with Big 5 Classic
St. Bonaventure - Providence and ESPN NIT Tip Off
The other schools did not have schedule info out yet. I cannot imagine SLU has a harder time scheduling than any of these other schools other than Dayton. On top of the bad schedule, not getting in a non-con tournament was a big fail, regardless of whether there was one that fell through. This schedule is a massive fail.
BTW, last year Indiana State played Alabama and Michigan St. in their non-con schedule.
SLU Men's Soccer Thread
in Billikens.com Main Board
Posted
I feel confident that teams like soccer, baseball/softball, volleyball would compete just fine in the Missouri Valley.