Billikenswin

There were changes in the team in charge of student recruitment including the leadership. Many hours were spent developing new strategies and a lot of hard work went into this effort which was very successful. This was definitely not just a situation where SLU did the same things as in past years

I agree with your call for patience but I do see some differences. If you compare freshmen to freshman you could go either way as to which group is/was better. One distinct difference is the size of Bell. However, The key element of potential superiority of this years team compared to that team is the hard nosed defensive and rebounding trio of Upperclassmen Goodwin, Thatch and French combined with the experience and shooting of our grad transfer and Perkins. That group of 5 more experienced players had no equivalent on the 2010-2011 team. Go BIlls.

Javon Bess is in town for 30 days before he goes to camp with the Pelicans and I had an opportunity to talk to him for a while at practice. He is in great spirits and very excited to have a potential opportunity. He is working out hard and looks to be in great shape. He plays open gym with the guys and he said that Perkins was playing outstanding basketball and can score from almost anywhere on the court. As soon as school starts Perkins can join the team at practice. It is difficult to know how all the distinct new players will mesh but I have been watching early practice for about 40 years and this is the most athletic and potentially best scoring team I have ever seen from top to bottom. With all the leapers we have it will be hugely entertaining! Go Bills!

Perkins has completed his work at junior college and has been admitted to SLU. All is good.

You may be right but I can say Yuri looked very comfortable shooting the ball and I think he has the potential to be a much better 3 point shooter than 25 percent. To state the obvious--we won't know until well in to the season whether he will be an effective shooter in games.

I was fortunate enough to attend a recent practice and I agree with this analysis. Hargrove can run the court exceptionally well and he is a better outside shooter than most on this board give him credit for but I seriously doubt he will often be looking to post up in the low post like French or Bell. He definitely can score on the inside with quickness and jumping ability. I expect goodwin to post up more that Hargrove. He is getting better all the time at finding a spot on the low block and cleverly finishing at the rim. He will post up any smaller guards and possibly some of the talller ones because of his skill down low. Another observation, Yuri is a much better outside shooter than most on this board seem to believe. He is not a sniper like Jimerson, who in the practice I watched seemed to hit 70-80 percent on three pointers. That young man can really shoot but Yuri seemed to make a good percentage--maybe 40 percent from 3 and much better from the midrange. Go Bills

With so much information on social media and highly competitive recruiting from many schools, I think the staff at SLU will play its cards very close to the vest if they identify a possible recruit that fits in with our team. I do not think they believe there is any benefit in telling everyone who they are recruiting.

For those of us who have been fans for decades—and at times watched teams that did not have very good shooting—it is very exciting to see us add a young man who appears to be a pure shooter! With next years team we will probably see double teams on Hasan and teams helping on Jordan in the post and Yuri off the dribble. I can see passes out to a wide open shooter or two. If Gibson can hit those open shots it will open things up for Perkins and Hargrove as well. Then if JImmy can spell Hasan in the post and Fred can polish up his shooting we could be looking at a team with much more offensive firepower. If the new guys can defend—we know the returning 3 of Jordan, Hasan and Fred can be tough defenders then with Jacobs and Hankton we will have a deep and athletic team. Young with great potential imo. Let’s all show up for the banquet tomorrow night! Go Bills!

Gibson Jimerson was selected to play in this national all star game. If you look at the roster for the National game, which I has the best talent of the three all star games, the other recruits are going to many “name” programs, most are power 5 or the Big East. Nice honor for Gibson Let’s hope he plays well. Also, the word is that Jimmy Bell Jr played outstanding in a big all star game recently on the East Coast. We will be very young next year but I love the potential of our recruits and how they seem to mesh perfectly (on paper) with our returning players. Hope to see everyone next Tuesday at the Banquet.

He is all in and very committed to SLU, the business school, the basketball team and the university as a whole. All is good!

There is a plethora of misinformation on this board that often seems to somehow get a life of its own and is cited as fact when not true at all. This statement is false. Dr Pestello has done an excellent job of gaining the confidence of many major donors to the university including Dr Chaifetz and the Sinquefields, among others. He has also delveloped an excellent relationship with many of the top leaders and philanthropists in St Louis and in other cities who value and respect his leadership at Saint Louis University. He has played a key role in the highly successful fundraising done at SLU over the past three years and continues to do so.

I watched Bonner in several high school games and as a senior he was a 6’7” wiry strong super quick athlete who did not have much of a shooting touch but could defend like a demon and rebound like a fiend. I saw Hargrove play in his soph year when I went to watch Goodwin and I thought he looked like he had great potential as a high flying wing who could shoot the 3. At least in high school they had completely different game skills. I did get to go to practice a few weeks ago and when I first saw Gordon I thought of Bonner. He is bigger than Bonner was as a frosh but he is a sculpted athletic 6’8” athletic big man who can run the court, rebound and he has a pretty nice shooting touch. He is not yet the defender or rebounder that Bonner was but he is more polished offensively than Bonner was as a freshman..It will be fun to see how he develops with our other skilled and tough big men.

Thor is playing for Iceland in the U-20 European championships. He will come over in July after that competition..He is practicing hard and the games will be tough so he will be helped by the experience.

This is false. As with so much is speculated on this board.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Some of the basketball teams biggest and most vocal supporters who have made major financial contributions to Billiken basketball are on the Board. They go to games and are very visable fans in every way possible.

Many of the Board members are huge supporters of Billiken basketball and large contributors to the program as well. Conran, Sly, Fox, Phoenix, O'Loughlin, Kalsbeek and others attend almost every home game and many go to away games as well. Your implication is way off base.

I started going to Billiken games with my dad in the 50s and hardly have missed a home game since 1963 but I must say I am about as proud of our team tonight as I have ever been. With a depleted roster, and our star frosh out with injury and unbelievable bad calls from the refs, particularly after we looked to be in control in the first half, when we went down 10 in the second half and had so much foul trouble I was concerned we would finish with 4 players and lose by 25--, the fact that we played with grit and intensity and did not give up and ended up winning this game is a tribute to this team and the coach. I sit close and the technical foul was a joke. the ref was actually being aggressive with Travis and stirring him up and all he did was clap. Ridiculous! Amazing comeback and win with basically 5 players.

I have no idea how you get your information but I do believe you distort it intentionally to post falsehoods. the medical school has never been not accredited and several major medical schools have been on probation over that past few years. I never said it was not important and if you knew anything you would know that there are dozens of people working to deal with the paperwork and curriculum issues. You are lying about the locker rooms. You are lying about the campaign. if your source is a board member then he never went to a meeting and has no clue as to what is going on. There is not a single person involved in the leadership of SLU who does not want for the university to be better, stronger and thrive in the future. And in many areas, we are better than many of the schools you list. But SLU, like all of those schools, has its challenges and It also has to keep pushing and striving for more success in everything it does, including athletics. The glass is half full--and there is nothing wrong with saying we are doing well in many things but we have a ways to go in others rather than just ripping everyone involved at the university and pontificate and insult anyone and everyone who is involved.

This post is a perfect example of the trolls on this board who post things as absolute fact when they are in fact made up lies. You post so often that it is impossible for anyone to respond and correct each time but I will do it just this once and then I will be gone for a while. The folks at the med school are working hard to correct the paperwork and curriculum issues and are on track to get off probabation. But the untold story is that the school is doing very well with excellent applicants in large numbers, outstanding students and graduates who are receiving prestigious placements. The new $500M hospital and ambulatory care center are under construction and considerable new development will take place across the entire new Redevelopment area which was approved by the Board of A with SLU as the developer. the new locker rooms were paid for by private donors solicited by Chris May. The issues with the law school, which you blame on President Pestello, have nothing to do with him--he inherited those problems and is trying to deal with them. Law schools around the country of our ilk had an almost across the board reduction of 50% in applications due to the cut backs in hiring of lawyers nationwide and we all know of the various dean issues which had nothing to do with the current president. Another BIG LIE--"two brand new dorms that sit half empty"--In truth, the two new dorms are completely full with waiting lists and the students love them. Another BIG LIE--"big capital campaign..can't raise a dime" In fact, SLU is in the private phase of the campaign and will go public late in 2018 but it has been successful in the quiet phase and overall fundraising for the past few years has been close to or over record levels on an annual basis. But a private Catholic university like SLU has to do everything possible to be cautious with costs rising and net tuition revenue basically flat. The push/pull for funds from every part of the university makes it a major challenge to provide funds for needed projects and still balance the budget. We all would like to have unlimited funds for support of all athletic programs but at a school like SLU that will never be the case. However, SLU made a major financial commitment to this men's bb coaching staff and other parts of our athletic programs. If someone want to give SLU millions of dollars for a specific athletic need I am sure they will take it and apply it as requested. SLU is not perfect but it does many things very well and as a university it has a wonderful faculty, wonderful students and people who care. I am done for a while.

Who in the hell appointed you as the pontificator supposed expert on all sports at SLU for Billikens.com. You know so little but say so much-- over and over again- that it is truly astounding. We know you hate all things Billiken. Why not just give it a rest. This board is already so full of junk that many long time fans ignore it and say that it is now the home of trolls and idiots (of course there are still a few long time long suffering true blue Billiken fans but not that many as compared to the trolls). You have no idea what is really going on at SLU-and in fact there are many many good things happening. It is in fact a wonderful school with excellent students who really care about making a difference. These days and times are some of the most difficult ever in the history of private Catholic education and SLU is dealing with these complexities very well on many fronts. Your constant negative ignorant diatribes do not make them true just because you type words on your computer.

My last comment--you and most on this board do not understand how Title IX works. If the President of any University is involved or even perceived to be involved is attempting to influence this process he or she would be in incredible hot water and probably would eventually be fired. this is nothing like the real world.

The AD has absolutely nothing to do with any of this at all and the same is true with regard to President Pestello. they are not involved in terms of any actions, decisions or the process.

There is a huge amount of false information being posted about President Pestello on this board and at some point I may respond to the BS. But today I only want to say this: This process is dictated by the federal government and has been for some time. Many don't like it but that is a fact. The president of the university and many others including the AD have nothing whatever to do with the investigation, any delays or the decisions made. When the allegations are made, the University legal department and the title IX coordinator take over in terms of the investigation and the process. In this case, the university hired outside counsel to do a full investigation and present a report to the hearing officer. The President is completely out of the loop in terms of the investigation or the timing of anything done in the process. Any delays are directly attributable to the complexity of the matters involved and the time taken by the outside firm to do the preliminary and final report to the hearing officer. To suggest that Fred Pestello has intentionally delayed or been in any way involved in this process, or intends to attempt to influence the process, is ridiculous and false.

The title IX process proceeds on an confidential basis until concluded. As with any other group of students who might be involved in this type of process the University will not make public statements while the matter is pending and often do not make any public statements after the process is concluded. I feel fairly certain that nothing will be said publicly while this proceeds to a resolution.

They made 3 or 4 from about 23-25 feet and a 26 foot shot off the backboard. The key issues from my observations at the game were missed layups--shots that those players will make most of the time and missed free throws. If we clean up those two things, and part of the issue may have been a bit of first game adrenaline, we will be a much better and move effective team.