Tip Off Highlights

[Billikenbooster]

Ms Levick-WOW. Everyone was impressed with her enthusiasm and energy. Gearing up for th big fundraising push for the stadium. She is picking what will be in the building...practice facilities, offices, wgt rooms, etc....while working with the multipurpose aspects of the building.

The asst AD was grilled on the change in the point system. It was changed to allow credit for the non bball gifts to get credit, but never was it addressed how these points would benefit anyone but the bball issues, unless there is an NCAA Finals in the future for soccer or such. It seemed a bogus logic explanation to me.

There are 8 slots left for anyone wanting to go with the team to Paradise Jam in November. Call Jim the asst AD tomorrow if you are interested, he will have cost and timing info for you.

Ms Levick is in temporary housing at the moment...a SLU dorm!

Coach Thorpe was the main speaker about men's bball.

Reggie may have had a stress fracture of his foot, but is better now.

Frerick is in the midst of a strenuous conditioning program. Arrived out of shape. It appears that he is Coach Thorpe's personal project right now.

AD has lost some wgt.

Spoke a lenght and glowingly about VN. Three times mentioned how he is a tough kid, tough kid, tough kid. He will fit in like Sloan did. Guarded the 2 to the 5 in Junior College. 6'5".

Feels that they will not redshirt anyone this year.

If pressed to hame the starters, he hedged and hedged, would only mention 6...RB, TF, DP, IO, AD, VN.

When asked how they are adressing IO's inability to finish his plays last year, he said the coaches thought he would show million dollar moves, the finish with a 2 cent shot. IO is working out with the big men, they dug up some football pads to put some hits on him in practice, to help him to adjust down low. He sees IO playing more as a 4 than a 3.

Of the four new players, all are lefties except Danny Brown.

DB-very athletic, long arms, 6'3", raw. Heard about him at the end of July. He did not want to go to JuCo and didn't want to go to Air Force Academy.

JJ-235,

BH- 7'1" 275 # needs to get more aggressive, increase his confidence.

IV has lost wgt maybe 15#, is more aggressive.

Practice starts 10/16. there will be a meet the team event. more to come later. Next Tip Off Club 10/18 (or whenever the third Tuesday is)

DC- wgt up 12#, chipped bone in his thumb, playing now.

Recruiting= had a player in this week, two more in the next week. Not sure what they want right now. Probably a 4 or a 5. Feel set at wing for now.

DP is a true point guard who can distribute well. Stated that he is Reggie's best friend now, as he understands his role on this team.

Good turnout, lots of questions, solid direct answers from Coach. I am really pumped now and can't wait to see how this team plays out. Saw Terrence there, and Dribbler. Can't wait for 10/16.

[davidnark]

Thanks for the great summary. Did Ms. Levick provide any details regarding the latest schedule for the arena funding/construction?

[Billikenbooster]

only thing close to a schedule was that she wanted to be up to 'full steam' in three months. No one challenged her as to what that really means, or if that was just a round ball estimate on time.

She was given some slack here, IMHO. First meeting, promised to come back, seems she will be more accessible, visible than previous inhabitants of the position.

She admitted there was a bump in the road when DW anounced he was leaving, and until she was named. She mentioned after the amount of time she has spent meeting with coaches, meetings related to the facility has taken up the most amount of her time. She realizes this is a high profile activity for her and her staff. This and retaining UB are important to her.

In relation to recruiting, Coach Thorpe mentioned that the local area is still their most important recruiting area, but that they are increasingly looking east of here in anticipation of the A10 relationship in the future. He said there aren't many facilities like ours in the east. What specificly he was referring to here he did not mention.

mhg

[jjray]

>>In relation to recruiting, Coach Thorpe mentioned that the local area is still their most important recruiting area, but that they are increasingly looking east of here in anticipation of the A10 relationship in the future. He said there aren't many facilities like ours in the east. What specificly he was referring to here he did not mention.<<

Who in the A10 plays in a pro style arena? Only A10 game facility I have been to is at GW and I'm sure Steve will tell you that it is more of a beefed up high school gym. Xavier, I would imagine, has the nicest facilities (on campus) which are supposed to be similar to what we are building on campus. Not sure where St. Joe's plays.

[Taj79]

Not sure what he means here either ... Dayton has really nice setup ..... own their own arena although it is what I would call "close to campus" but not exactly on campus ... also has office space, practice faility and so on. I'd say Dayton's stuff is top notch plus the fans there are about as rabid as anywhere else. That's why they get the play--in game ... nothing else to do in Dayton in the dead of winter. Xavier is probably second and makes up some huge grond with the Cintas Center. I know many of us have held up that facility and the way to go. Either it or the Petersen Center at Pitt are nice examples to follow.

I believe UMass has a nice facility as does Richmond. Temple built a new arean, the 10K seat Apollo but Temple is located in arguable the worst section of Philly possible. St. Joes plays in a scaled down version of Butler's Hinkle Field House ... seating like 3,000 folks max. I think Rhode Island has some nice stuff but have never been there or seen it on TV. The rest, including GW, are more like what you have described. And we all know about Charlotte.

With us and Charlotte, the A-10 goes to 14 teams. I think they need to lop off some of the slackers if they want to maintain a positive path forward. I've always felt 12 teams was max managable. I'd guess that the four bottom dwellers who might be axed in the future (providing the Papal Conference dies on the vine) are Fordham, Duquesne, St. Bonnie's and LaSalle. Of course, no matter how bad Fordham is, you can still get into New York and attempt to recruit it as long as "coming home" is an option. Its why the Big East admitted South Florida ... they lost the sales opp that playing Miami was and needed a door to keep the fertile Florida recuiting option open.

[Schasz]

I would also offer my thanks for the Tip Off highlight report. Good to learn that our new AD has ideas for getting the fund raising needed to make the new arena happen soon.

[brehms13]

Good Report!

I'm really glad that the coaches are looking to the East to at least start some recruiting. I know St. Louis' area will be the school's main focus but since we are relocating to the A10 conference it would be crazy not to look on the east for players.

There are several teams that I've seen play and have been in their arenas and are nice. Temples arena is nice, Dayton, UMass and more.

I just can't wait for the season to get underway, I have my satellite underway, my radio subscriptions and internet access, so I'm prepared for the games.

I know I'm expecting Ian and Isaac to play better this season, from what I hear they're well on there way.

[Billikenbooster]

"I know I'm expecting Ian and Isaac to play better this season, from what I hear they're well on there way."

regarding IV and IO, do you mean what you are hearing from the Board, or what you are hearing from others. Would love to hear that the guys on the team agree that the bigs are better this year, especially IO.

mhg

[cheeseman]

What specifics did the AD mention for raising money - I saw none mentioned in Billikenbooster's summary - I do concur that he did a good reporting job - thanks for the update.

[Quality Is Job 1]

I didn't get to meet Cheryl, and I arrived a few minutes late and missed some of the new athletic director's remarks. She said that she "just walked out of" the new facility she helped establish at Santa Clara, so she knows some things about getting it done.

She said the first priority is basketball, but it will be a multipurpose facility. She said that, if SLU had all the money in the world, the facility would include practice facilities (the decision whether to have practice facilities or to simply make sure the teams have ample times allotted for practice hasn't been made). Furthermore, if SLU had more "all the money in the world," the facility would include the offices.

She wants to expand the list of suitors for purchasing the naming rights. Also, besides naming the building, the naming rights to other things (she didn't specify) will be up for grabs.

That's about all I can remember (that hasn't already been covered in this thread) on CL's discussion of the arena.

[3star_recruit]

Well, we know they've got some ballers in Maryland and New Jersey.

[kwyjibo]

URI recently built the Ryan Center which is a lot like UMass's Mullins Center except smaller. Neither one are huge Ryan is 7,700 and Mullins is bigger at possible 10,500.

Most importantly they both have plenty of bathrooms(this is for Roy). The Ryan has 7 women's bathrooms (and 3 men's). Both Massachusetts and Rhode Island have laws that say public facilities have to have twice as many women's toilets as men's toilets and urinals (after time-motion experts found that women take 2-4 times as long to use the bathroom as men).

[willie]

How does the Billiken Roy urinal sound??? Just kidding Roy... Seriously I think they will be making a big mistake if they don't include a practice facility and offices in the new building. To me the greatest need in the new building are those two. I could live with playing games at Savis but we must have a first class practice facility and new offices.

[billiken_roy]

i agree with willie, if we dont include offices and practice courts all we have done is avoid paying bill laurie rent and made it easier for the students (who virtually get free tickets anyway) to come to the games. no way i spend tens of millions of dollars for that. do it right or dont do it.

[billiken_roy]

in the old days, we used to debate whether the shoemaker center in cincy was an idea facility to model an "if i could build it it would be" facility on campus. i constantly noted that the shoemaker center only had two restrooms. one on either side and when the place was packed it was hard to even go to the john.

[kwyjibo]

I also remember you making similar comments about Freedom Hall.

You are right though that the amount of bathrooms is an important part of facility amenities. I missed a whole key half-inning at a baseball game recently trying to get in a quick stop. I only brought it up because the Ryan center having 7 women's bathrooms on one circular concourse is quite noticeable.