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Former Billikens Updates


thetorch

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4 hours ago, thetorch said:

Long seasons. Their end of season tourney goes into the fall and then regular season starts at the beginning of the year. He was playing against Ash last season.

I’m confused, a year ago Roby was graduating from SLU, did he join a team midseason then?

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6 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

I’m confused, a year ago Roby was graduating from SLU, did he join a team midseason then?

So Roby was playing for this team by August in the Copia tourney.  Euro teams have a regular season and then a tournament season.  Regular season can run from December to May or June, Tournament season from May to September.  It isn't very intensive, at most they play games twice a week, sometimes once every two weeks.  So Roby is playing in the Copia Tourney now, and he played in last season, so this is technically the start of his 2nd season.  Regular season consist of 24 games, plus playoffs, Copia is maybe 14 games, so a season may be 40 weeks or so with a couple weeks overlap.

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8 hours ago, thetorch said:

So Roby was playing for this team by August in the Copia tourney.  Euro teams have a regular season and then a tournament season.  Regular season can run from December to May or June, Tournament season from May to September.  It isn't very intensive, at most they play games twice a week, sometimes once every two weeks.  So Roby is playing in the Copia Tourney now, and he played in last season, so this is technically the start of his 2nd season.  Regular season consist of 24 games, plus playoffs, Copia is maybe 14 games, so a season may be 40 weeks or so with a couple weeks overlap.

Gotcha, thanks for the info. I tend to lose track of guys, so I’m glad someone is tracking the Billikens in the pros.

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Thank you @thetorch for the post of the former Billiken players it is a great read.

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9 hours ago, thetorch said:

I bet Ian despite being a bench guy makes 80-100k easy, maybe more, maybe much more.

Cory, Roby, Ash, might only 3k-4k a month, maybe less.  Its tax free and room and board is taken care of so.  Their teams can almost play year round or have 3-4 months off.  So they are making a middle class salary.  Again that is if they get paid, which sometimes it is hard.

Evans and Mitchell probably make much more.  I bet Evans makes 60k a season in Bundesliga and they usually pay all your money.  Mitchell plays for a rich owner and the Russian usually pay well.  He has an international star rep so he should be upwards of 80k, possibly more.

Conklin hustles real hard playing multiple leagues.  He may get 80-120k in Australia, another 30 in Puerto Rico and then may make slightly more when he plays in Europe.

Jett and Loe make less than Conklin I would imagine.  NBL has strange cap rules.  1.1 million soft cap, natives can make a great deal if you are a star and only count 150k against the cap, but your cap numbers cannot be more in salary than 400k for any 5 players on the team.  Loe could be 45-60k and more in the NZ league.  Jett makes more than that probably 60 and another 20 in NZ.

Lisch is an Australian citizen so he can make more than most players.  He's a top guy, all star, former MVP.  With perks he could pull in 250k, maybe not that much.

Reed makes 35k.

McCall in the British league probably pulls in 40-50k, maybe less.

No idea on Ellis.  Can't be that much 2-4k a month but I think his family owns the team so he may get paid more and do other jobs.

 

 

Cody is also working for his dad's company that deals in school supplies I believe. I think he mentioned it on the podcast but I can't recall for sure.

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I thought the European salaries would be higher. I remember years ago some posted Roland Gray was making $160k playing in Spain. I also heard from a friend of Chris Heinrich that he was making big money playing in Europe. I also remember it being reported Bonner was making $500k playing in Russia. Was all that just urban legend?

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27 minutes ago, kmbilliken said:

I thought the European salaries would be higher. I remember years ago some posted Roland Gray was making $160k playing in Spain. I also heard from a friend of Chris Heinrich that he was making big money playing in Europe. I also remember it being reported Bonner was making $500k playing in Russia. Was all that just urban legend?

The most any player gets overseas is 1-3 million and most of those are in China.  There are a few former NBA caliber players who can command 1 million per in some leagues but that is few and far between, less than 50 players.  Years back it was different, not as many guys were willing to overseas.  Pay was better.  When AB was playing he was a top ten player in Europe and played in the top Russian and Italian leagues which at that time, fall of communism were flush with cash.  Salaries and what guys actually get paid are two different things as well.  Heinrich was playing in the top German league and he did get German citizenship at one point so he may have gotten paid 6 figures for a while, but he wasn't getting room and board, or no taxes either.  I may be slightly conservative on some figures but I'd say Lisch makes the most of our former players, then Mitchell, than probably Evans.  I'd say only those 3 have a chance of playing for 1 team and making close to 6 figures.  Conklin plays for sometimes 3 teams a year to make that much.  Guys in the b leagues like Ash, Roby and Remuken are making typically much less, but it is tax free and beats working at a desk.

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It's not an easy lifestyle but if you can do it, it can pay off.  Especially since English speaking countries are starting to get together more high profile leagues.  McCall would be out of pro ball if he had to play in a foreign speaking league.  Kwamain had a very hard time at first, but skill won over his peers.  Most of the players aren't getting rich but they might be making more than they could being a teacher or policeman or working in an office at an entry level.  A friend of mine played at Mo Bap in the late 90s, early 2000s.  He was decent, was all conference but its D-2.  He played in a couple USBL teams in the states and then got hooked up with a connection in the UAE.  Played two seasons there and ended up playing in the Middle East for 10 years.  Some teams robbed him but for the most part he made between 50-65k for 9 months.  Hang out in the States for 3 months then go back.  Teams paid for most of his everyday expenses and no taxes meant he banked probably 75% of his earnings.  He's a personal trainer now, works 30 hours a week maybe, invests wisely but for the most part lives off that income he banked.  Not bad for a kid from Pagedale.  

Its sad if you look at Willie Reed.  If he would just suck it up and go overseas he could play till he was 35, get a financial advisor and retire.  He's one of the 400 best basketball players in the world and I make twice as much as he does running a grocery store.

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8 hours ago, thetorch said:

It's not an easy lifestyle but if you can do it, it can pay off.  Especially since English speaking countries are starting to get together more high profile leagues.  McCall would be out of pro ball if he had to play in a foreign speaking league.  Kwamain had a very hard time at first, but skill won over his peers.  Most of the players aren't getting rich but they might be making more than they could being a teacher or policeman or working in an office at an entry level.  A friend of mine played at Mo Bap in the late 90s, early 2000s.  He was decent, was all conference but its D-2.  He played in a couple USBL teams in the states and then got hooked up with a connection in the UAE.  Played two seasons there and ended up playing in the Middle East for 10 years.  Some teams robbed him but for the most part he made between 50-65k for 9 months.  Hang out in the States for 3 months then go back.  Teams paid for most of his everyday expenses and no taxes meant he banked probably 75% of his earnings.  He's a personal trainer now, works 30 hours a week maybe, invests wisely but for the most part lives off that income he banked.  Not bad for a kid from Pagedale.  

Its sad if you look at Willie Reed.  If he would just suck it up and go overseas he could play till he was 35, get a financial advisor and retire.  He's one of the 400 best basketball players in the world and I make twice as much as he does running a grocery store.

Willie made $3.5M the previous three years...if that’s sad I don’t want to be happy 

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11 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

 

I do like the element of surprise when it comes to the interviews.  However, I think it would be kind of cool if you posted who you're lined up to interview on here and sort of crowd sourced questions for the interview subject.  Understandable that might be difficult / impossible to do logistically.  Also, understandable that you wouldn't be able to use all of the questions as the best interviews sort of flow naturally as the go along and one question leads to another.

For example, (no idea if you address this in the interview) I think the most interesting element of Cassity's SLU career is that he sort of took a back seat down the stretch his senior year to benefit the team.  His minutes / usage went down as we saw more Kwamain, McCall, and Jett.  Would be very interesting to hear about that from his perspective.

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On 5/17/2019 at 10:51 PM, Old guy said:

The thing that is sad about Willie is that the money he made basically evaporated. I doubt he still has significant money stashed away. Keeping the money you make is oftentimes harder than making it.

You may be right but how the heck do you know Willie's financial situation?  It seems like you are stereotyping, based on almost nothing......  

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On 5/16/2019 at 4:30 PM, thetorch said:

up his 2nd season with BRNO in the Czech Republic League.  He averaged 12 points, 4 boards, and 4 assists for the 11-25 BRNO. His team was the last squad to make the playoffs, but lost in the play in game.  League playoffs will end this week and play will begin again the Alpe Adria Cup. Roby’s team is once again the same group as Ash’s. BRNO is 2-4 in seed play which begins again shortly.

 

 

 

I may have said this a while back but I really wish I had known he played in Brno. Spent a week there in December and it would have been cool if he had a SLU fan in the seats

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/19/2019 at 10:16 PM, billikenfan05 said:

 

Is he drinking a Yuengling?

good beer but very overrated. When ever I’m in the south I bring some back because it’s a crowd pleaser but with so many Micro brewery’s around Yeungling isn’t the find it once was.

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9 hours ago, dlarry said:

Is he drinking a Yuengling?

good beer but very overrated. When ever I’m in the south I bring some back because it’s a crowd pleaser but with so many Micro brewery’s around Yeungling isn’t the find it once was.

So overrated.

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10 hours ago, dlarry said:

Is he drinking a Yuengling?

good beer but very overrated. When ever I’m in the south I bring some back because it’s a crowd pleaser but with so many Micro brewery’s around Yeungling isn’t the find it once was.

yeah, we had a 18 pack of bud light but we killed that in the first hour. I have family in Nashville they bring me some when they come in to town so I always have it in my fridge. Some people like it, some don't 🤷‍♂️

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15 hours ago, dlarry said:

Is he drinking a Yuengling?

good beer but very overrated. When ever I’m in the south I bring some back because it’s a crowd pleaser but with so many Micro brewery’s around Yeungling isn’t the find it once was.

This is a good take. I like Yuengling, but I used to make a point to drink it when available. Now between microbreweries and bringing back Spotted Cow from Wisconsin, I sometimes forget about it.

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46 minutes ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

This is a good take. I like Yuengling, but I used to make a point to drink it when available. Now between microbreweries and bringing back Spotted Cow from Wisconsin, I sometimes forget about it.

Spotted cow will always be the best.  

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5 minutes ago, wgstl said:

Spotted cow will always be the best.  

Agreed, I worked as a contractor in that brewery and tried a few of their other brews I like the two women bock.  I recommend visiting the town of New Glares for a tour.

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34 minutes ago, CBFan said:

Agreed, I worked as a contractor in that brewery and tried a few of their other brews I like the two women bock.  I recommend visiting the town of New Glares for a tour.

I’ve bought their sampler (Spotted Cow, Moon Man, Totally Naked, and Two Women) before, and it’s good. Spotted Cow is still the go-to.

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