Majerus Show Tonight?

[Cowboy]

i would take those games over the 6 buy games in a second. i am not as much about playing the top 10 as i am about not playing the bottom 10. that is what i am talking about. get rid of sacramento state, aT&T, etc. those are the menace to our schedule. but if we substitute 100-150 rpi like games, heck even 200 rpi games, those games will still likely be wins and will help our rpi better than the b.s. we passed off as a non conference home schedule this year.

every single season ticket holder should be emphatic about this. for the money we are now REQUIRED to pay per year we deserve better.

-damn good thing you don't speak for every single season ticket holder as i have a different view

[kshoe]

i would take those games over the 6 buy games in a second. i am not as much about playing the top 10 as i am about not playing the bottom 10. that is what i am talking about. get rid of sacramento state, aT&T, etc. those are the menace to our schedule. but if we substitute 100-150 rpi like games, heck even 200 rpi games, those games will still likely be wins and will help our rpi better than the b.s. we passed off as a non conference home schedule this year.

every single season ticket holder should be emphatic about this. for the money we are now REQUIRED to pay per year we deserve better.

The teams in 100-150 RPI range won't play you only at home. Once we go on the road to play those guys its hardly a should win game. Just look at Detroit this year or UW Milwaukee a couple years ago. Throw in narrow escapes against Pacific and Loyola and I don't like those series.

Either play a top 100 team home and home or play a buy game (obviously its better to play the Libertys of the world then it is the SC Updates) but don't schedule road games with the 100-150 because you may very well lose. That is my contention.

[Cowboy]

we were told numerous times about our recruiting disadvantages but also about the advantages the new arena having rickma and the increased involvement of father biondi to assist with scheduling.

now if you are saying those were all embelishments that's a new issue.

personally i do believe that rickma can lean on friends to force a series and i dont think there is a thing wrong with doing that. same with biondi and his network. we should use every avenue possible to enhance our program and when they dont cost us cash and only a little favor calling/giving all the better.

-i am saying it takes two to tango and like kshoe illustrates, regardless of how we think of ourselves, we are not an attractive opponent at this point

-i am saying from what rick has said the effort on scheduling is there, the answer on the other end is no

-if rick is not presenting facts, then my take on the situation is wrong

[kshoe]

The teams in 100-150 RPI range won't play you only at home. Once we go on the road to play those guys its hardly a should win game. Just look at Detroit this year or UW Milwaukee a couple years ago. Throw in narrow escapes against Pacific and Loyola and I don't like those series.

Either play a top 100 team home and home or play a buy game (obviously its better to play the Libertys of the world then it is the SC Updates) but don't schedule road games with the 100-150 because you may very well lose. That is my contention.

I'll also add in that when it truly comes NCAA tourney selection time a win over a top 15 team goes a whole lot further than 3-5 wins over teams ranked 100-150. The only way to get wins over top 15 teams is to find a way to get a few of them on the schedule. Roy, your method of scheduling may produce a marginally better RPI but it won't produce a better tournament resume.

[Bay Area Billiken]

I'll also add in that when it truly comes NCAA tourney selection time a win over a top 15 team goes a whole lot further than 3-5 wins over teams ranked 100-150. The only way to get wins over top 15 teams is to find a way to get a few of them on the schedule. Roy, your method of scheduling may produce a marginally better RPI but it won't produce a better tournament resume.

The best thing of all, on multiple fronts, is what happened Saturday night. Throughout the nation, the newspapers had this small blurb:

Saint Louis 57 #25 Dayton 49.

Some had an additional sentence re Kevin Lisch scoring 16 points.

SLU was in the papers in the SF Bay Area. SLU was in the paper in NYC. More wins like this, and the SLU schedule will take care of itself over time, IMHO. Agreed that it takes two to tango. My point is that while there will still be "Ducks" out there re SLU, the more SLU is on the national stage, the greater chance someone good out there will be willing to play SLU for that opponent's own benefit and national awareness. In other words, it would mean something to that hypothetical good appointment to beat SLU.

[billiken_roy]

The teams in 100-150 RPI range won't play you only at home. Once we go on the road to play those guys its hardly a should win game. Just look at Detroit this year or UW Milwaukee a couple years ago. Throw in narrow escapes against Pacific and Loyola and I don't like those series.

Either play a top 100 team home and home or play a buy game (obviously its better to play the Libertys of the world then it is the SC Updates) but don't schedule road games with the 100-150 because you may very well lose. That is my contention.

we should aspire to be able to win those series. butler does it. siu does it. if we cant be the equal of those programs than we suck.

personally i am offended that there are those of you that think we can only handle buy like games. that pisses me off.

and even if we do lose to a uw milwaukee or even a detroit on the road, i would bet it is offset by the other 4 better games we win and the net effect is better than 5 home buy games vs prarie state and at&t etc.

and yes they likely will want home and away series as well. again, i take that over the buy games. those road games are going help prepare us for future road games vs conference teams. just like the road games with nebraska, detroit and siu helped us this year.

[courtside]

PRESENTING

The Big East/A-10 Jesuit Smackdown

Marquette, Georgetown, SLU, Saint Joseph's

rotating home-and-home, two (each) games per year

Special events:

Pregame masses featuring performances by the St. Louis Jesuits (at least those who are still in the priesthood or undivorced) -- all coaches welcome regardless of their standing within their geographic archdiocese

Halftime sumo wrestling contests between college presidents

Any students caught rushing the court after the game subject to the Spanish Inquisition. (Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.)

Think of the possibilities!

The food critic can't even include "Free Food" in his presentation. No sale. Kids will only attend for free food!

[billiken_roy]

The food critic can't even include "Free Food" in his presentation. No sale. Kids will only attend for free food!

court, you have to like joe's monty python reference though. i smiled at that.

[NashvilleBilliken]

How does our current bigs success make it more likely for another big to transfer here?

The ability to develop a big man. Rick has shown STL that he still has the ability to develop talent in big men. If Booker wants to go to the pros, he may feel he needs better coaching. Not a knock on Lowery...who I now nothing nor care about (SIU is pretty meaningless to a guy in Nashville). Just a wild guess. At this point, playing time is going to be fierce at EVERY position.

[Guest BillikenReport]

The ability to develop a big man. Rick has shown STL that he still has the ability to develop talent in big men. If Booker wants to go to the pros, he may feel he needs better coaching. Not a knock on Lowery...who I now nothing nor care about (SIU is pretty meaningless to a guy in Nashville). Just a wild guess. At this point, playing time is going to be fierce at EVERY position.

I haven't heard anything that would indicate Booker is interested in transferring. He's done better since Roundtree left and he's got a bright future there.

[Iggy]

Let's get another home and home with West Virginia now that Huggins is there. He loves us and I love screaming at him.

[MusicCityBilliken]

Let's get another home and home with West Virginia now that Huggins is there. He loves us and I love screaming at him.

You know, Huggy would probably come in a heartbeat. Just have his buddy Spoon call for us to set this up. Then after the game him and Spoon can hit the town for some nocturnal activities.

[kshoe]

we should aspire to be able to win those series. butler does it. siu does it. if we cant be the equal of those programs than we suck.

personally i am offended that there are those of you that think we can only handle buy like games. that pisses me off.

If we had the past success of Butler and SIU then none of this would matter and I'd be making reservations for the NCAA first round sites right now. But we haven't and simply saying schedule home and homes with mediocre opponents doesn't solve the problem.

From a purely selfish standpoint I'd rather us play two home games against buy teams, allow me to go to two games, then us schedule a home and home against a team like Detroit that I don't care about when they come here and then I have to listen to on the radio as we play in front of 250 people in some gym. Throw in that we often lose games like that and I have no reason to want them on our schedule going forward.

[Billikan]

we were told numerous times about our recruiting disadvantages but also about the advantages the new arena having rickma and the increased involvement of father biondi to assist with scheduling.

now if you are saying those were all embelishments that's a new issue.

personally i do believe that rickma can lean on friends to force a series and i dont think there is a thing wrong with doing that. same with biondi and his network. we should use every avenue possible to enhance our program and when they dont cost us cash and only a little favor calling/giving all the better.

This is an interesting subject but the fact is that many top coaches do not want to play a Rick Majerus coached team. Coach is very close friends with a number of the top coaches in the country and it almost seems like the closer they are -- the more wary they are in playing against us. I had one coach of a top national program tell me that he loves Rick but he would hate to have his team play us because our defense can make a team look bad.

I know for a fact that Chris May is burning up the phone lines trying to schedule some of the top teams. I agree with those who say if we get better with a better RPI then teams may not be as reluctant to play us.

[bauman]

This is an interesting subject but the fact is that many top coaches do not want to play a Rick Majerus coached team. Coach is very close friends with a number of the top coaches in the country and it almost seems like the closer they are -- the more wary they are in playing against us. I had one coach of a top national program tell me that he loves Rick but he would hate to have his team play us because our defense can make a team look bad.

I know for a fact that Chris May is burning up the phone lines trying to schedule some of the top teams. I agree with those who say if we get better with a better RPI then teams may not be as reluctant to play us.

There is a lot to be said for both sides of this scheduling debate. Like Roy, I would like to see us scheduling so many "Little Sisters of the Poor" schools, while I agree with many of the points made by the other side of this argument.

However, I would like to offer anothe issue that I think needs to be considered. Like this year, we will be very inexperienced early next year. About 1/2 of our players will be new to SLU basketball-even FJ will suffer from not playing this year. In spite of 5 FR seeing playing time this year, we will still be short in the leadership area, with Zero Sr.s and one Jr. will limited playing experience. Because of this situation, I would still like to see a good number of "Buy" games to start the season to ease the new players into college ball. Especially given the already known opponents next yr. (ND, Northwtrn/IA ST., SIU-C, and MO ST. I think our new guys are going to need some "gettin to know you" type games. It seemed to work out ok this year with the FR class making a nice adjustment to college ball.

So in the long run I agree with Roy's desire for a tougher home schedule, but in the short run I would like to see us schedule a fair number of "Buys" to protect our W-L record. as we assimilate another large class of FR into the rotation.

[billiken_roy]

There is a lot to be said for both sides of this scheduling debate. Like Roy, I would like to see us scheduling so many "Little Sisters of the Poor" schools, while I agree with many of the points made by the other side of this argument.

However, I would like to offer anothe issue that I think needs to be considered. Like this year, we will be very inexperienced early next year. About 1/2 of our players will be new to SLU basketball-even FJ will suffer from not playing this year. In spite of 5 FR seeing playing time this year, we will still be short in the leadership area, with Zero Sr.s and one Jr. will limited playing experience. Because of this situation, I would still like to see a good number of "Buy" games to start the season to ease the new players into college ball. Especially given the already known opponents next yr. (ND, Northwtrn/IA ST., SIU-C, and MO ST. I think our new guys are going to need some "gettin to know you" type games. It seemed to work out ok this year with the FR class making a nice adjustment to college ball.

So in the long run I agree with Roy's desire for a tougher home schedule, but in the short run I would like to see us schedule a fair number of "Buys" to protect our W-L record. as we assimilate another large class of FR into the rotation.

just how did butler survive playing a decent schedule (only played three non conference games over 100 rpi's) playing mostly freshmen?

[WVBilliken]

I don't think we should play the BSC teams if they are not willing to play home and home series. Yeah, I want to see SLU play big-time BCS teams, but only on equal terms. If they don't want to do this then there are plenty of good mid-majors we could play home and home to help our RPI.

I would love to see us play Memphis to start with, but they are one of the few non-BCS teams who do not have to beg BCS teams to play them so that may not be an option for us. But how about Butler, UAB, Utah, BYU, Davidson, St. Mary's, Gonzaga, Western Kentucky, etc, etc. I'd especially like to see us playing more of the Missouri Valley and Conference USA teams. Build a schedule with quality mid-majors and a few games with BCS teams and we would not have to worry about ending up with a lot of wins but an RPI in the 100's.

And to the poster who made fun of Bob Huggins, I am a SLU grad living in West Virginia. Bob Huggins has been a "model citizen" since taking the head coaching position at WVU. He has had zero incidents and has recruited no junior college players. He recruited several quality freshmen this past year that look very promising. The guy is absolutely doing things right at WVU.

[brianstl]

I've been asking around and haven't heard anything on the Suggs front. I'm very doubtful it's him.

I heard that he may be thinking about Mizzou, but that could just be some wishful thinking on some Mizzou fans part. Magic, you would probably have the best sources on Suggs. I think he will end up being fine if he sticks it out at UW.

[Majerus Magic]

I heard that he may be thinking about Mizzou, but that could just be some wishful thinking on some Mizzou fans part. Magic, you would probably have the best sources on Suggs. I think he will end up being fine if he sticks it out at UW.

Just because I haven't heard doesn't mean it's not true. Just relaying what I know. I'll keep asking.

[GoBills]

The teams in 100-150 RPI range won't play you only at home. Once we go on the road to play those guys its hardly a should win game. Just look at Detroit this year or UW Milwaukee a couple years ago. Throw in narrow escapes against Pacific and Loyola and I don't like those series.

Either play a top 100 team home and home or play a buy game (obviously its better to play the Libertys of the world then it is the SC Updates) but don't schedule road games with the 100-150 because you may very well lose. That is my contention.

I agree completely regarding scheduling. There is no reason to play a school like Detroit on the road. Hopefully we won't see those kind of games anymore. I also don't understand why they scheduled three consecutive road games early in the season.