bonwich Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 We will resist commentary on Mizzou's last season, but this does point out that Oakland played the then-highly-ranked Tigers quite closely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 She deserves a few months on the job before picking nits like that. I think the first real test will be the initial promotional campaign for this season and, more important, the ongoing PR as the season progresses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 First you say that you believe that, among others, the games with Iowa and Southern Illinois will flip next year, but then you say that SLU at Iowa will not be returned (make up for "hosting" the Hawkeye's in the NIT, perhaps?) and that I'm right on the SMS/SIU alternation. Which is it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 iowa is not to be returned according to my source. and apparently you are right that slu is afraid to play sms and siu in the same year. that is terrible imo. if i ever hear a slu official complain about mi$$ouri being afraid to play us i will be sure to throw this in their face. so i guess as long as we have a contract with siu we wont play sms. ugly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 yes and no. yes she hasnt been on the job long, but in the same sense, i still get the stealth operations feelings that has long confused me. it would seem that could be corrected by one internal memo and would have nothing to do with formal programs and such. i.e. "hey everyone, feel free to talk about our billikens and anything associated with the billikens." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 I do not think anyone has answered my question about the Gonzaga deal--are they going to play at Gonzaga twice (2004-5 and 2006-7) for the one Savvis game (05-06)? Gonzaga has gotten 2 for 1's from other teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Southern Illinois is this year; is SMS or SIU up next year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Here is the deal, and nobody has told me this but is a compilation of many things I have observed. The regular season is 27 games long. We are playing in the A-10 which is not as strong RPI wise as CUSA. We are playing 16 games in the A-10 (10 against teams once and 3 teams twice). Total of 8 home games. This leaves 11 games to play non-conference. In order to increase revenue it is desirable to play at least 15-16 home games a year. Lets say the # is 16. That leaves 6 games (3 at home in any given year) that can be "home and home" and 5 that need to be "buy" games. Neither SMS or SIU will agree to be buy games. If we plan on playing the Gonzaga, Marquettes, Depauls, K-States and Iowas of the world there is not much room for playing both SMS and SIU. Remember, we are already playing in the A-10 which is weaker, RPI wise than CUSA, so playing 2 MVC teams in your precious few home and home games is not optimal. If, given the choice, you should play the team that is consistently higher in the RPI. The RPI is king. Now, what I don't get is why we are playing teams like UWM and Oakland in a home and home series. Hopefully that is the abberation and not the rule. I can explain UWM because of Brad's connections with the state but Oakland? The situation is different from Mizzou's in that A) the fans don't really care about the SMS-SLU game as evidenced by lack of attendance increase while MU-SLU provided 2 sellouts and a crowded dome SLU is in a perilous RPI fight where we have few road games to give while Mizzou plays in the RPI friendly Big 12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 As KShoe points out SLU will play a 16 game schedule in the A-10 while playing 3 teams twice. Remember that those games are Dayton, Xavier, and Rhode Island. Playing Dayton and Xavier are going to help the RPI and Rhodey is getting better (although they are losing three key seniors--maybe 4 if a 5yr senior loses an eligibility battle--at the end of this year. According to their beat writer they have a number of close recruiting battles on good players that will play out this fall). Anyway, while the A-10 will be likely be weaker than C-USA, what is most important is what the A-10 is to us (doubling the impact of Xavier, Dayton, and Rhode Island) rather than simply looking at the A-10 as a whole. SLU will get a better SOS boost than playing a balance schedule. SLU already has enjoyed this in C-USA and because SLU plays Marquette, Depaul, and Charlotte twice they will yet again have a better SOS with conference teams than if they were playing a balanced schedule (this was particularly true in the old National v American format). Also, I think UWM is a team that is looking to improve its schedule and have been quite underrated. I think they are a good team that SLU should beat and that is good scheduling. The Panthers are even moving away from their campus arena to play their games downtown at Marquette's old court (the old MECCA, now US Cell) in order to widen their fan base. NOW there's an idea! If it is true that SLU is going to be playing yet again in downtown Milwaukee (although a few blocks south), it would be a cool game to attend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 i agree with your thinking kshoe. and i agree with your concerns on oakland and uw-milwaukee. obviously the hawaii series is for the players benefit. i know that the first thing kevin lisch was bragging about at school was that his first "trip" was going to be to hawaii. thus, the recruiting advantage that series provides. also, i am thinking there is a kid on the hawaii roster that is from this area. not sure but something tells me that is the case. thus hawaii probably wanted an area game for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 a better A-10 RPI than most it still won't be as good as the CUSA RPI we have enjoyed, which is pretty much what you said. I think playing UWM is a great choice (as was Butler the previous two years) of a team to play as they have very high W-L record. Thicks once argued with me and I later changed my opinion on after testing it that you are better to play a team with an RPI of 80 and a very high W-L % than a team with an RPI of 70 with only a .500 record because of the intracacies of the RPI system. What that argues is you should prefer to play the dominant teams in mediocre to bad leagues instead of the bottom dwellars (aka K-State) for excellent leagues. The only real problem with entering a home and home with a UWM vs. a K-State is you know for sure K-State will have an RPI around 100 but its hard to tell what the RPI of a UWM or Butler will be a couple years down the road. Butler's RPI was poor by the end of last year. Plus the name recognition you get from beating a big-bad Big 12 team vs. beating a very good team from the Horizon argues for playing the K-States of the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 no area players on the Hawaii roster, but their veteran head coach Riley Wallace is originally from the Jerseyville area and I believe has a brother (Loren) that coached at a few of the big name high schools in central Illinois. former Bills assistant, Jackson Wheeler, is a long-time Hawaii assistant after leaving Grawer's staff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 bonwich, if SLU has contracted to play Gonzaga at the Savvis on December 12, 2005 (date = my guess) how much of their current 2004-2005 marketing budget and current time should SLU be spending promoting that single game which is almost 15 months away? How would you handle it? I'm assuming we will hear alot about the new A-10 conference late this season, plus the 2005 home games with Gonzaga and Iowa starting next summer. (btw, wife and I really enjoy your Food Section work in the P-D) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 hawaii also has a previously high ranking high school all american in julian sensley i believe. a reason to come and watch anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 In putting out the press release announcing the non-conference schedule (which, by the way, we were saying should happen out here about two weeks before they did it), it would have incurred a marginal cost of, say, $2.39 of staff time to include in the press release that the Zags would be coming to Savvis in 2005. And the U. could continue to build interest in the Zags game at a similar cost per mention at every conceivable opportunity between now and 2005. It's the same principle that has a beer company putting its logo on, say, a NASCAR racecar. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
former_d1 Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 We were close so we got a game out of it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
former_d1 Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 I second this. If you are going to pay grambing to come, I would much rather see semo, sms, etc... Teams with local almuni bases that would start coming over a few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iggy Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 I heard that it's impossible to beat Hawaii at their place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 Home-court advantage is something that is statistically identifiable. Use Ken Massey's computer ratings , Hawaii has not enjoyed a great home advantage for a few seasons (very much like the Billikens) but they did have a significant one for a few seasons. Their home court advantage ranking for the last six seasons: 02-03 152 01-02 177 00-01 88 99-00 17 98-99 39 91-98 127 They would average out to above average but not top 20%. This is similar to the Billikens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 >Southern Illinois is this year; is SMS or SIU up next year? Since you have an informant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 29, 2004 Share Posted September 29, 2004 it was my belief from the info i got that siu was next year again. i.e. we would finish our contract with the saluki's then we would be free to negotiate a deal with sms following that. however the belief is that brad doesnt want to play both at the same time, so if we sign with sms, then the salukis would be out. i wasnt told the above scenario specifically, but reading between the lines that is the way i read it. i think it sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatsasaluki Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 SIU closed the season with an RPI of 25, which I believe was a tad bit higher than SLU's. PS- this year's team is going to be better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 why are you responding to me? i have consistently said we should play siu and sms every year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.