Wendelprof

I didn't take his comment as trying to tell other people on the board what to do. I took it is a gentle reminder that we should always use common sense and be respectful of others, even when writing on this website. We are writing about St. Louis University sports, a Jesuit institution. One might get more members of the fanbase to participate on the website if one treated everyone as if we were talking to them face-to-face as opposed to hiding behind the anonymity of the internet. That's how I took his well written comment.

It had to have been tough on Larry Hughes II to be a Billiken. No doubt most everyone viewed and analyzed him, to some degree, as "the son of Larry Hughes, one of the greatest Billikens of all time," not as "Larry Hughes II." He never really had a chance as a Billiken to be accepted for who he is as a basketball player. No doubt he felt like he was constantly being compared to his father, whether that was actually the case or not. Transferring to another school will give him a chance to stand on his own, to be evaluated for who he truly is. My guess is that's what's he's hoping for: a chance just to be "Larry Hughes II," not "Larry Hughes, II, the son of Larry Hughes, one of the greatest players in program history." Every kid deserves that chance. I hope he gets that chance wherever he ends ups.

My first game of the season. I don't know the actual attendance, but all things considered, I thought it was a fairly respectable crowd. Unlike some board members, apparently the average St. Louis sports fan hasn't given up on the Bills yet. Go Bills!

Man, I agree there is a place for tough love, but some of you can be pretty harsh. In the Loyola game, didn't he hit the big shot with about a minute to go that ended up being the shot that put the game away? And given our roster over the years, who else would you have had on the court at the end of the game to take such a shot if someone had to take it? Come on guys, give the players a break. It isn't fair comparing them to players on other teams. The only other options are other players on the Billikens. Using that standard, while I've been disappointed at times that his shot hasn't fallen, I'm still glad he's been a Billiken.

Anybody in a position to comment on the two yellow cards for the benefit of those of us not watching the game? Pretty tough to win when you are the underdog and a man down.

I respectfully disagree. That's what the Santa Clara fans should be thinking: "St. Louis should be a good test, but one we should win if we are going to be as good as we are hoping." Our team is still learning a new system, with a new coach, and new teammates. That takes time, and the timing they need to develop on the court takes game conditions that can't be duplicated in practice. This team should be significantly better come the start of conference play, and even better at the end of the conference season. We don't need to win this game to be as good as we hope they will be.

Wiz, You wrote "this game is winnable" - but isn't each game winnable if the ball bounces the right way? Does your computer model give the chances of us winning it? If we played them 10 times, does the computer think we'd win all 10 games? I agree with you that this is very tough game to open the season. They are a veteran team that returns all their key pieces. We are a new team stiil seeing how well our pieces mesh. I think it is a great first game because it will show us how much work we need to do to become the team we want to be, but I'd be surprised if we come out of the gate ready to beat a team like Santa Clara. As you wrote, maybe in December, or after the conference tournament, but not out of the gate. And that isn't taking into consideration Avila's rust and any lingering effects from his injury. I hope you are right, but I'm not ready to drink the blue kool-aid this early in the season.

Courtside, As an out-of-town fan always welcome and appreciate your comments concerning the men's and women's soccer games. Quick question if you have a moment. Last year I was flying through Lambert, and I bumped into a couple all decked out in Billiken's soccer gear (parents of one of the other players). They were flying out for a men's soccer game somewhere on the east coast (North Carolina?). They mentioned that one of the Billiken's top recruits had hurt his knee and was out for the year. They said that probably doomed the offense for the year as no one knew where the scoring was going to come from with him out (and unfortunately that turned out to be pretty accurate last year). I think you've referred to a kid named Moore. Would that be him? I think there was an ealier thread that mentioned he hurt himself again this spring and hasn't played all year. I hate to ask about a player's health, but if you feel comfortable talking about it, can you elaborate on his injuries and what the chances are concerning his recovery? Sounds like the offense has really missed him.

In football, a player can play in up to 4 games and still redshirt. Apparently that rule does not apply to the other sports, but some are asking why it doesn't. https://sports.yahoo.com/docs-ncaa-considering-applying-football-redshirt-rule-to-athletes-in-all-sports-154903963.html#:~:text=In football%2C for instance%2C a,all others aside from wrestling.

It is never too late if the right donor steps forward. Admittedly, however, with each passing day the chances of that happening diminish.

Another possibility is he was just saying that his first concern was whether he had ruptured his achilles tendon. I tore mine playing basketball. The test some doctors use for a ruptured achilles tendon is whether you can lift the foot. If the achilles tendon is completely torn, you can't. Inasmuch as he's not a doctor, I'm not sure I'd put too much weight on what he said about his worst fear. I think all of us who have played sports can remember an injury where our first fear was much worse than the injury turned out to be. Let's hope that's the case for Avila as well.

Thanks for posting the link. I enjoyed the read. At the bottom of the article there's a link to donate to support the UNews. I donated. As an out of town fan I prefer supporting the UNews to paying for the Post-Dispatch articles about the team.

I was never "all in" on Coach Ford because I was never convinced he was much more than a great recruiter. It is early on, but I'm quickly going all in on Coach Schertz. He may not be able to achieve everything we'd like, but I think he truly understands what a coach should do: recruit the right kind of kids for SLU, coach them up to the best of the coaches' abilities, and make sure (to the best of one's abilities) they have the chemistry so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I don't know how succesful he'll be on the court at SLU, but I back him, his approach, and his philosophy 100%.

So long as there is improvement in the program, it will be a good year. We need to get the program moving in the right direction again. It has plenty of preseason momentum. Let's just enjoy the ride and support the new coach and players. Best to judge the season after it is over.

Private higher education is a unique "business." First, it has to compete against public education. I don't live in Missouri, so I have no idea what Mizzou's tuition is, but let's assume it is $10,000/yr. If SLU's tuition is $40,000/yr, that's a $30,000 difference. Some students don't really need any help making up that difference, so you can charge them full tuition and it won't make a lot of difference in their decision-making process. Some students, however, won't have the resources to pay full tuition but they are the type of student the university would really like to have as a student. The university then has to try to reduce the difference between the student's "other" options. Maybe SLU can't give the student a full $30,000 scholarship (the whole difference), but if the student lives in St. Louis, by attending SLU the student could live at home and not have to pay for housing in Columbia. So maybe SLU offers the student a scholarship of $20,000. Yes, that's still $10,000 more than Mizzou, but the student could stay in St Louis (a better place to live in many peoples' minds) and not have to pay for housing. So one way schools use scholarships is to try to make the school more competitive with a prospective student's other options. Schools also want "good" students. Good students both academically and personally. Schools often will throw in a little extra scholarship money to try to get the type of student the school wants on campus and wants as an alum. How a school spends its scholarship budget is a complicated process. Those are just a few of the factors that I assume most schools take into account when allocating their limited scholarship dollars. Congratulations to FromDaEastSide and his daughter. Sounds like they are excited she is attending SLU - and that SLU is excited to have her as a student and future alum. Two of my kids attended SLU. They got a great education while they were there, they took advantage of all that SLU had to offer, and follow the school as loyal alums now. I hope your daughter has a similar experience.

Small world. We went out to the stadium early to get the full Olympic experience. There were a number of food trucks and restaurants in the area. One of the volunteers told us the best place to eat around the stadium was the gift shop/restaurant for the St. Etienne soccer team (right next to one end of the stadium). There were lots of picnic tables around the shop where you could sit, and eat and drink, whatever you ordered. We found an open one and sat down for dinner. 5 minutes into it, we realized the table next to us was the Schulte clan. Met his father and countless relatives. They couldn't have been nicer. What great ambassadors for St. Louis University, St. Louis, and the USA. The father had great memories of the Billikens blog. Go Bills, Go USA.

Talk about happy accidents. My wife and I hiked the Camino de Santiago in Spain last summer. We enjoyed it so much, we decided to hike a portion of the French Camino this summer. We made our plans months ago, making sure we stayed away from the hassles of Paris and the Olympics. The French Camino starts in a little town, Le Puy, France. We decided to start our hike August 2nd (the day after my wife's birthday). We thought we'd spend a few days in Lyon before heading to Le Puy. We just realized tonight that the final group stage game for the US men's soccer team is in Saint Etienne, a small town about halfway between Lyon and Le Puy. After spending some time on the internet canceling hotel reservations and making new ones, we bought two tickets to the game Tuesday night. Any other Billikens going to be there?

Can't we just enjoy the ride and cross that bridge when and if we get to it?

Interesting - but not real encouraging - article on the recent NCAA meetings and the power conferences vs the rest: https://sports.yahoo.com/with-the-future-of-college-sports-uncertain-one-thing-is-clear-an-official-and-permanent-split-of-ncaa-division-i-is-here-123034315.html

[This is in response to Old Guy's posting about SLU official NIL policy] There's always the official, written policy for legal purposes, and then there's how the entity operates. Sometimes the two are fairly aligned, sometimes not. My assumption is all schools are saying one thing and doing another, not necessarily because they are intentionally misrepresenting the situation but because the landscape is so new and is changing so fast they are just trying to stay competitive.

Not that it is a controlling consideration, but at most universities these days the "free tuition" starts at 50% and goes up with each year of service. And I have a vague recollection that the board discussed this years ago, and someone posted about NCAA regulations that overlap. I wouldn't assume he will be on a non-basketball scholarship.

Hmm, did someone find a Billiken bone near Grand Ave way back when?

Hate to be lawyerly, but I assume the contract language has a lot to do with the earliest date SLU can make the decision, assuming they are leaning towards terminating the contract. Assuming the buy-out drops each year, the key is when "the year" ends. I assume it ends after "the last game." The last game of the conference season or the last game of the season, including the conference tournament? What's the contract say? Assuming the buy-out amount drops with each passing year, there could be quite a bit of money riding on these last few days. If a million dollars or more is riding on the extra few days, at this point my guess is the school would wait the extra few days. Again, all this depends on the language in the contract, a document that none of us has seen. It really is unfair to criticize the school without knowing the exact language and terms in the contract.

Pepperdine announced about a month ago that the athletic director, Steve Potts, would be resigning at the end of the semester. This will permit the new AD to hire the new coach. I assume the new AD will appreciate that opportunity.

Soderball, couldn't agree with you more (yes, I'm old enough I was at many of those games) - but that wasn't about hate and looking to spill the opponent's blood; that was just good old-fashioned passion for winning and the crowd getting caught up in the excitement as well. But we need a team that plays with that passion and desire, and more importantly, coaches who put them in a position to win. I'm not sure we have that combination currently. Hard even for passionate fans to get passionate about this year's performance.