Old guy

I know that the market is not a topic of interest to the vast majority of this board. I also know that a few of the posters in this board have begun to realize that NILs depend on donor's will to use their money for this purpose. Believe it or not this recognition is a great advance. Yes, the NILs supply is not infinite, some may even understand that even the powerhouse schools may have a limit for NILs. That said, today April 3, 2025 marked the largest single day losses in the market since 2020. The Dow was down -1566.10 . You (plural you) can interpret this anyway you wish, to me, this is not good news for abundant NIL availability. Please remember the phrase "dead cat bounce" as something you need to rule out the next bounce up.

There are two truths that should be evident: 1. Donors can do anything they want with their money, and this includes determining how it will be spent by the school. 2. Any school that wishes to stay alive as a higher education venue should restrict expenses to the level of their income plus the profits achieved by their endowments. Of course, this places the endowment managers in a situation where they should try to make as much profit as they can from the endowment, but also requires that they maintain the endowment's principal safe. These two goals are very difficult to achieve simultaneously. It is very difficult to anticipate the non endowment level of income that will be received by a school in any given year.

Hope we are more efficient avoiding injuries next season. A major negative factor for SLU this last season was injuries, particularly when they happen during practice. We need to do a better job preventing injuries during practice next season.

That is exactly why the current NIL money sinkhole cannot last.

Welcome to the Bills Quentin Jones.

Welcome to the Bills Paul Otieno.

If the heavy drinking does not help, I suggest praying. You could start with the well known prayer that goes like this: "Lord, help me change what I can change, and accept what I cannot change..."

Congratulations Jordan Goodwin, we all have been rooting for you. Well deserved.

Leprosy is still alive and well. It has never been a very infectious disease and direct contact is required for infection. There remain active leprosariums here and there in the world, where people with advanced leprosy are interned until they die. This is a disease with a very slow progression, it takes years upon years to kill those who have it. And yes, there are effective medications to treat leprosy. The book and movie "Mortorcycle Diaries" which describe an early part of the life of Che Guevara, has a fair amount of material about his visit to an active leprosarium, it is worth it of your time to read the book or see the movie.

I am glad to see that my posts have created a lot of discussion about issues like ethics and compassion as they impact the current world of college basketball. I have been called a troll, so be it, but the kind of discussion my posts sparked is healthy. I see no problems with transferring Thames to an academic scholarship, and I see no problem with having him help train the new players ass they come in. I object strongly to the strong belief on miracles exhibited by many board members. But refusing to see reality, raw as it may be, is not my problem, it is their problem which in no way diminishes their right to express their personal opinions, as I have also done over several posts. All the best to everybody, a good discussion, insults and all, is always stimulating.

You are missing the following points:\ 1, No one knows what Thames disorder is. It may be because a full diagnosis will cost more than their guidelines allow. You do not have a clue either about what he has, except that it produces severe cramps. And no, Thames condition is not resolved, you can bet on this. 2. Prayer did not stop the spread of the black plague in the Middle Ages when 40% of the population in Europe died from it. 3. Schertz job is to put together winning team, not to show compassion to the players. He will do what he will do when he does it.

Pray all you want, you are talking about the state of medical care in the XII century, the time of the black plague and the crusades. Do not forget the incense, the more the better. By the way, the XII Century happened well before the founding of the Jesuits. As I mentioned in my prior post there are scores of "orphan diseases." These diseases are hard and expensive to diagnose and have no treatment because it costs lots of money to develop any effective treatment for any newly defined disease. A disease that may have a few hundred people suffering from it in a countrywide or even worldwide basis will never cover the expenses for developing an effective treatment or even the diagnosis, it is wasted money. Pharmaceutical companies will never recover the development costs for treatment or even the diagnostic expenses of "orphan diseases." Money is king. You do know this but probably do not like to accept it. Without a treatment that works, Thames is not a player, he is a charity case. Reality has to be accepted as raw as it may be, in order to get where we all want to go. You can throw all the money you want on charity case players and not move an inch from our usual 4th place or so in the A10 by the end of our season. We will never see SLU winning an NCAA Sweet 16 until we sweep all non playing players / charity cases out of the roster. Let's do as Majerus did, keep charity cases out of the basketball team, and donate your charity money to a worthwhile charity like the Shriners.

I like your post, but tell me please, do you knot what Thames' medical diagnosis is? Do you know what the treatment for his condition is? Do you know if there is an effective treatment for his condition? You do not know because, no one in this board knows. I am not against Thames, I like him and I like the way he plays. But I also know that a basketball team is not, or should not be, a charitable organization. I do not want to hurt Thames but without a diagnosis or an effective treatment available I think he has no business being an active team player. Does this give a factual basis for my opinion as far as you are concerned? And by the way, there are "orphan diseases" well described and identified in the medical literature. These are diseases that affect very limited numbers of people, so few in number that there are no medications developed or in development for the disease they have, therefore the label "orphan diseases." Does Thames have one of these "orphan diseases"? I do not know. I suppose that makes this and my prior posts in this topic an opinion.

OK people, you have to ask yourselves what a good basketball team is. In my opinion, a good basketball team is an instrument carefully fashioned to win games. This goal needs players that can play their hearts out whenever they are needed, and integrate their play with the team in a way that they do win. However nice a player is, if the player is restricted in any way by physical conditions he just cannot fulfill his primary goal. A good basketball team is not a "feel good" team, it is a machine that wins games. Majerus' management of the Bills is a case in point, he got rid of people that did not or could not play the way he wanted them to play. He was strict in that way. The games Crews won he won with Majerus' team. The team he built afterwards was not up to Majerus' standards. Let's not talk about the next coach. He did win a lot of games, but quite often managed to lose the games he had to win, despite early leads. Ford was a colossal waste if money as a coach. He could sell himself quite effectively but that was his main strength. Schertz has to be as hard and single minded as Majerus was if he wants to lead the Bills out of its eternal 4th place at the end of the season. Feel free to disagree with me, but Thames cannot play more than a few minutes each time he plays, he is a good player that cannot play more than a few minutes per game. This is not something I am making up, we have all seen him crumpling down to the floor during a breakup run. He wants to do it and knows how to do it but his body just does not let him do it. This is not disliking the man, it is simply stating that because of unspecified medical reasons he just cannot play enough minutes per game. I would see nothing wrong in changing his status from player into some kind of assistant level that allows him to keep his scholarship (no NILs) and contribute to the team. But I do not see him staying as an active player.

A player that we should not retain is Thames. If we know anything about his condition it is that he cannot play for more than a few minutes before he goes down. You cannot keep a player like that is very limited in their amount of play. I like Thames and wish it was otherwise but he just cannot play competitive basketball.