Tonka Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Billikan, I would like to get your thoughts on this whole situation. I know you are close to the situation and didn't want to say much all along due to confidentiality. But, now that it is out I was wondering your thoughts. Also, it was confirmed on the 6PM news on KSDK that it's just one semester. That is not what we wanted, but it could have been WAY worse. Assuming they both come back, this will still be a good season. This will force the others to step up big time and assuming all stay, next year will still be really special. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Billikan, I would like to get your thoughts on this whole situation. I know you are close to the situation and didn't want to say much all along due to confidentiality. But, now that it is out I was wondering your thoughts. Also, it was confirmed on the 6PM news on KSDK that it's just one semester. That is not what we wanted, but it could have been WAY worse. Assuming they both come back, this will still be a good season. This will force the others to step up big time and assuming all stay, next year will still be really special. I have intentionally not posted anything I know about the situation because I have been sworn to secrecy but I am not fully briefed on all of the details that everyone has been speculating about so I am not the best source of information in any event. As a fan of many decades, I now firmly believe that some person put a curse on Billiken basketball about 30 years ago. It is almost impossible for me to believe that when we were just a season or so away from having possibly our best team ever, at least in the modern era, that we lose two players who had the potential to be in the top five of their position--ALL TIME-- for the Billikens. Anyone who thinks that these players can be replaced by freshmen who have never played a game at D1 is smoking some really bad grass. KM had a toughness that we have never had in any point guard who could score and defend. Willie was probably the most athletic big man we have ever had. Remember--both had played only ONE HALF of their career for the Bills. This is almost as bad as the Upchurch situation--the difference being that Upchurch did absolutely nothing to deserve what happened to him and these young men obviously took actions to get themselves into a situation where they could be accused of wrongdoing. Make no mistake, this team will be nowhere near as good as the team we would have fielded. I agree with those who say that the coach will do a good job with this team and they may win some games that we thought they would lose. I personally thought it was a very questionable decision to schedule Duke this year with all of these matters undecided--and if we are even within 30 points I would be surprised. I would have scheduled that game next year only if we had the full team and the transfer. Clearly, the AD was blindsided by this decision or he could not have possibly thought it would be a good idea to schedule Duke this year. I am just sick to my stomach about the whole situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billikendave Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Clearly, the AD was blindsided by this decision or he could not have possibly thought it would be a good idea to schedule Duke this year. Billikan: This is staggering to me. So many thoughts come to mind.... How could Chris May have NOT been in the loop? Does anyone at SLU respect the Athletic Department? Our last one (name escapes me right now) got stepped over by Biondi when fired Soderberg and then quit. I really am begining to believe that SLU thinks of the athletic department as it did in 1980. Only us diehard fans view SLU as a D1 player. Staggering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Billikan: This is staggering to me. So many thoughts come to mind.... How could Chris May have NOT been in the loop? Does anyone at SLU respect the Athletic Department? Our last one (name escapes me right now) got stepped over by Biondi when fired Soderberg and then quit. I really am begining to believe that SLU thinks of the athletic department as it did in 1980. Only us diehard fans view SLU as a D1 player. Staggering. Or, the AD knew and said "It's Duke, I'm putting them on the schedule no matter what." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billikendave Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Or, the AD knew and said "It's Duke, I'm putting them on the schedule no matter what." a pure "buy" game against top teams at their place can be had. what benefit will a blood letting at Cameron do for a, now, very young team do? I tend to believe Billikan's take. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 a pure "buy" game against top teams at their place can be had. what benefit will a blood letting at Cameron do for a, now, very young team do? I tend to believe Billikan's take. That's a fair point. I also think there is some Duke kool-aid that AD's drink and will take the game if they can get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Or, the AD knew and said "It's Duke, I'm putting them on the schedule no matter what." When I talked to the folks at the Athletic Dept at the time the Duke game was scheduled everyone was really fired up about going down there and hopefully giving them a real tough game, although everyone knew it would be tough to win. There is no way that we have any chance at all to even make it close without Willie and KM. I personally thought we should have scheduled the game next year when we had our full team with experience and all issues were to be worked out and I told them so. They disagreed and wanted the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 They disagreed and wanted the game. Your description makes it sound like they were excited to be playing Duke and would have scheduled it no matter what. Regardless, if the AD was unaware of this or only superficially informed, that is a joke and deserves ridicule. Edit: On the other hand, maybe we are so conditioned to AD's having such power over the outcomes of athlete discipline that it's a good thing that a university board keeps the AD out of the loop. Of course, it's probably only good if the u-board treats the process and athlete fairly and doesn't impart its own agenda. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Your description makes it sound like they were excited to be playing Duke and would have scheduled it no matter what. Regardless, if the AD was unaware of this or only superficially informed, that is a joke and deserves ridicule. I do not believe that anyone thought we would be playing that game without Willie and KM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 I do not believe that anyone thought we would be playing that game without Willie and KM. Fair enough. You would know better than i. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2010andBeyond Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Same ol' same ol' over at slu. #### Biondi. He already got his $$ from Chaifetz, on to greener pastures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b.hayes Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Same ol' same ol' over at slu. #### Biondi. He already got his $$ from Chaifetz, on to greener pastures. It'll do us little good to have a $100m empty arena sitting on campus with a 12-18 basketball team. Not a criticism of the board decision, but if this mess leads to an abandonment of the progress the program should have been making (e.g. Majerus were to leave and we hired the next hot assistant from Robert Morris University's basketball team as our head coach who recruited the little brothers of Dustin Maguire and Adam Knollmeyer) then we are just really ######. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 It'll do us little good to have a $100m empty arena sitting on campus with a 12-18 basketball team. Not a criticism of the board decision, but if this mess leads to an abandonment of the progress the program should have been making (e.g. Majerus were to leave and we hired the next hot assistant from Robert Morris University's basketball team as our head coach who recruited the little brothers of Dustin Maguire and Adam Knollmeyer) then we are just really ######. We took a major leap forward by building Chaifetz. Another major leap by hiring RM. If this incident leads to RM departing after this year, or during the year, and the school makes a hire on the cheap, heads should roll as the new arena truly becomes a white elephant. I don't see that happening, but then this is Billiken nation we're talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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