Bilzz

Take this with a grain of salt, but a guy close to the program who feeds me info (sometimes correct, sometimes not) said about a month ago that SLU was vetting Blake Ahearn as a potential replacement if they moved on from Ford. Texted the guy today and he said he hadn't heard anything re: Ford.

I mean we can agree to disagree. I think Yuri overall took huge strides during the 2021-22 season. He entered the transfer portal amid rumors that Tennessee was offering him a $200k NIL deal right before SLU was set to have it's best season in a decade. Jimerson and Perkins unfollowed him on social media. He decides to come back with several NIL deals. Throughout the season he was constantly posting about one of his endorsement deals or clothing line. Again, maybe its just the new NIL landscape, but its a bad look when your team is underacheiving. Yuri is the best passer I've ever seen, but never struck me as an overly competitive player, at least no more so than the average college basketball player. This may be unpopular to say, but he did seem like he was phoning in at times this season, which I don't ever recall feeling during the 2021-22 season or during Goodwin's tenure. Is it fair to question the point guard and fourth year senior when a veteran team consistenlty blows 10+ point leads in the last ten minutes of a game? I think it's fair. The coaching staff's position should tell you everything you need to know. When he announced he was transferring last year, the staff was apocalyptic. This year they seem very okay with him moving on. The guys I talk to who are around the program consistently have gone a step further and said the staff is actively wanting him to move on. Again, I'm happy to agree to disagree, but I don't think my view of the situation is unfair.

Go back through his Twitter posts throughout the season and see how many times #Unknown shows up. It could be attributed to the new NIL atmosphere, but he wasn't worried about any of the crap in 2021-22 when he had his best season. Also, I don't really agree with your assertion that he was a "competitor and wants to win," at least no more than a typical basketball player. He was the de facto captain of an underacheiving that had a two-year habit of falling apart in the second half of games. He's not the gamer that someone like Goodwin was.

I'd be overjoyed if Gibson decided to come back. I don't know how anyone could want Gibson to leave. Yuri, I get. After he put his name in the transfer portal and the rumors with Tennessee started, I think he lost a lot of goodwill and was more focused on the clothing line than winning basketball games. This year also exposed a lot of issues with game management, even though he was still an elite passer.

Where was this reported?

I'd be okay if both sides moved on. He's a magician, but I think this year has really highlighted some issues with game management. Need some churn because the current group isn't operating at its peak.

Most of? Is Yuri gone for sure at this point? I know I heard him say that this would be his last college basketball season, but everytime I say that, I get people telling me he never said that.

Yep. I wonder if this is also geared towards getting Jimerson, Hargrove, and/or Yuri to stick around another year (or two in Gibby's case).

Roby has been at the summer practices.

Have to think it's not us given that we have one scholarship remaining and no back-up PG.

The 'ole Mizzou-Porter gambit.

Davion Bradford committing at 6:30 tonight.

He was sooooooooo slow in game action, though. He just never seemed like he could keep up with back end of the opponent's bench. I don't how we could justify giving him minutes on next year's team.

It still makes it hard to spread minutes out even if you subtract 5 from Okoro. Like I said above, I forgot Sincere Parker, so there's decent minutes there as well. I'm curious what others think the allocation would be if we devoted substantial minutes to another 4/5? Does this allocation keep everyone but Hargrove happy? Yuri: 35 Pickett: 20 Gibby: 25 Okoro: 25 Perkins: 30 Thatch: 20 Hargrove: 5 Parker: 10 Haase/Big: 25 Back-up PG: 5

That's kind of my point. I don't think Kramer, Hughes, or Thames get many minutes at all next year regardless of the big we bring in. I did forget Sincere Parker (who is expected to get minutes). I don't know how you can give 30 minutes to the new big without benching one of your contributors.

For those that have watched Haase play, is he a good enough passer to play with Okoro? Giving 30 mins to Haase or another new big does make the minutes difficult. You have 200 minutes to allocate a game. 30 minutes to the big does squeeze Gibby/Thatch/Pickett a bit. My best guess to make that work: Yuri: 35 Pickett: 20 Gibby: 25 Okoro: 30 Perkins: 30 Thatch: 20 Hargrove: 5 Haase/Big: 30 Back-up PG: 5

So Carr not committing while he was at Wake is good news, no?

I'm not endorsing fake classes in the slightest. I just think the "student-athlete" concept has been dead for quite a while and regardless of the mess of the current NIL system, I'm not opposed to college athletes in revenue-generating sports getting compensated outside of their scholarship (which may or may not have fair market value depending on the athlete).

Yes. With my help/notes and his tutor's help. My point here was that the class syllabus said a student could only miss 2 or 3 weeks of the 14 weeks of classes and he only made 2 weeks. A non-athlete student would've been kicked out of the class. Maybe this changes with the prevalence of remote work, but at the time it was pretty clear that the "athlete" part definitely came first. There was a Real Sports segment a few years back where they profiled a basketball player from UNC or Duke (can't remember) from 10/15 years ago who couldn't read. He didn't go to class and his tutors took his exams. He practiced reading with children's books at night. There's no way that degree is worth ~$200,000 to that man because he can't parlay it into future job opportunities.

I mean they really aren't "student athletes" in that sense. I was also a buddy and in a night class with a baseball player during my time at SLU. We were in a night class that ran for 14 weeks. Due to his baseball requirements, he only made 2 of the 14 in-person classes.

Well honor roll students don't generate revenue for the university, so I'm not sure that's a fair comparison. The solution I always liked before all this NIL stuff went like this: Every college athlete on a team gets a percentage of revenue generated by their program (say 10%). That money goes into a pool and is split evenly between all the players on the team. If your program doesn't generate much revenue, you don't get paid much. To compensate "star" players I would've allowed jersey sales with the player's name on the jersey. Individual players would have a portion of those sales go into their individual pots. So, in theory, Yuri's pot for 2021-22 would've been large than Traore's due to jersey sales even though they each would've received the same portion from the team revenue. All players would get their "education" for free, as well as a monthly stipend that would come out of their pots for walking around money. Players would receive the lump sum for their years at the university upon graduation from a university. If you transfer or don't graduate you forfeit your pot at that institution. I guess in theory you could expand the jersey sale idea to include some of the NIL stuff going on. I always liked this system because it provides non-professional college athletes a little boost to start their work lives and, in theory, would cut down on transfers.

That's true. My point being, the argument that players are "compensated" with their scholarships isn't always a fair statement. For some, absolutely, but for others who may not have the God-given intelligence/life skills of other students and got into the institution on athletic ability alone, I don't think that's fair. He or she is not going to receive the benefits of the $160,000 education is they can't translate it into marketable skills on the job market.

Honestly, on the open market the value of the degree for an athlete is not the same as it is for other students. I went to school at SLU during the height of the Majerus days and was good friends with one of the men's basketball players. As great of a guy as he was, he never went to our classes (even when the team was in town) and didn't really have any of the life or academic skills that would translate to being a good employee. He passed his classes due to help from tutors, but the degree for him isn't worth what it is for your traditional student. The argument that athletes are getting a $160,000 education as payment for the services has always irked me because the degree doesn't mean much if employers de-value it or it doesn't translate to the skillsets developed to get and keep a job.

Any insight or just a feeling?

Several people who are usually in the know have definitively said he's gone. He informed the coaching staff by text message after reassuring them that he was returning for several weeks. Javonte and Gibson (his roommate) have both unfollowed him on Twitter. Best to just move on at this point.