Lord Elrond

Wash U is in a conference with schools it regards as its academic peers: the University Athletic Association (aka, the Egghead Eight) with Brandeis University, Carnegie-Mellon, Case Western Reserve, Emory University, New York University, University of Chicago, and University of Rochester. Lots of academic credentials there. When Johns Hopkins was in the conference, it was known as the Nerdy Nine.

You guys decided not to delay the podcast in case a highly anticipated announcement comes to pass?

Is that because Chris May believes dragging things out makes them easier on people?

Pillow fight time! What a thrill for us Billiken fans!

ISU is playing its way back into the game…

We also haven’t paid for the top recruiting class in the nation next year…

Were the 24th largest TV Market, much bigger

Major strikes against Drake: TV Market size of Des Moines, IA is #67, not in a major conference, they better win if they want in. If Southern Indiana loses, major strikes against them: TV Market size of Evansville, IN is #107, not in a major conference, they better not lose. If you’re not in a major conference, the smaller your TV Market size, the higher your NET needs to be if you don’t win your conference. I guarantee everyone on the selection committee has that information readily at hand. (Of course they will deny it if asked, but that’s BS).

I should add, I dug a little in Shun’teria Anumele. She’s scored 1562 pts in her high school career, nearly all of them in her final 2 years. She only played 6 games as a freshman, and had to sit out her sophomore year entirely due to issues with transferring, so all those points came in her final 2 years. Obviously an incoming freshman has to adjust to D1 play, but that’s a lot of scoring talent there.

Our roster for next year as I understand it today: Players who are out of eligibility: 4 - Kyla McMakin, Julia Martinez, Camree Clegg, Nafatoumata Haidara Players with 1 year left: 5 - Kennedy Calhoun, Tierra Simon, Marcavia Shavers, Peyton Kennedy, Bri Johns Players with 2 years left: 3 - Mia Nicastro, Brooklyn Gray, Isabelle Tillett Players with 3 years left: 1 - Ashleigh Connor Incoming Freshmen 3 - Mia Bergstrom, Hannah Wallace, Shun’teria Anumele So room for 1 more player from the portal, or other incoming freshman/JUCO player. Obviously Kyla McMakin and Julia Martinez are the starters we need to replace, and Camree Clegg contributed off the bench, primarily as a 3 pt specialist. Most interesting of the freshmen to me is Mia Bergstrom (St Viator in Arlington Heights, IL), who led all Illinois high school players by a large amount in terms of 3 point shots made. Shun’teria Anumele (Royal HS in Brookshire, TX) has gotten good reviews, but I haven’t seen her play. Hannah Wallace (Cardinal Ritter, St Louis, MO) will be the local favorite obviously (nice to see inroads in recruiting local players).

There was a meet and greet back in Nov, and I was able to talk to Jimmy Colloton, and he mentioned that Nafatoumata Haidara had injured her knee, they hoped she would get into some games in January, but that obviously didn’t happen. Also, she was on track to graduate, and was going back to Mali with a degree at the end of the year regardless of if she played or not. A 6’5” player able to play would have helped the team, but it is what it is.

It counts now, but if they get bounced down, it goes to Q2

Peyton Kennedy did announce earlier this year that she was coming back for her 5th (Covid) season. Bri Johns also is coming back. With the 3 incoming freshmen, that leaves one opening in the portal. I would say grab someone tall who can rebound.

Bad shooting day by the Billikens leads to the end of their season. Got to improve shooting, especially from 3, and rebounds. Hope Nuk is ok.

Too many misses down the stretch

Opps, 4 pt game

There you go, 2 pt game

Running low on time, need to score points

They haven’t cleaned the portapotties in a week, and the bathrooms are locked? Doesn’t really make me want to head down for a game, to be honest. I would need to bring a stadium seat, any snacks or drinks I might want, and now bring my own bucket to go in?

That doesn’t even mention the computing advantage @The Wiz has on me. Look at the best I have…

Ah! But @The Wiz also first points to turnovers, and we forced 17 against VCU while only giving up 11, and scored 6 more points off those turnovers. There’s your margin of victory. So that, plus hitting 90% from the free throw line (19 of 21), makes up for the rebounds not going our way, and the fact that they outshot us from the field. That is what makes the CPU of @The Wiz’s computer happily dreaming of Electric Sheep tonight (shoutout to Phillip K. Dick).

It will be Rhodey tomorrow, Rams down St Joes 57-47. We split them in the regular season. Let’s send them home in the semifinals for the second year in a row. Giving Tammi Reiss extra time to prepare for her coaching assignment for the USA in the Olympics in Paris sounds patriotic, right? . 12:30pm on CBSSN

65-63 Billiken win! VCU took command early in the 4th, but SLU fought back. With 44 sec left, Peyton Kennedy nails a 3 to go ahead, Julia Martinez steals the ball with31 seconds left, the it’s foul time, Kyla McMakin goes 4-4 from the line. VCU hits a 3 with .2 sec left, but it’s a SLU victory! Commentators saying what great leadership by Julia Martinez. Peyton Kennedy 22 pts on 7-10 shooting, 3-6 from 3. Attack and advance! SLU wins the TO battle and gets 6 more points on turnovers, and there’s the win.

34-29 Billikens at the half, Billikens winning both TO and rebounding battle, game has been back and forth, Billikens took command in the 2nd with a 13-1 run early in the 2nd.

Chris May sounds like a good candidate to me