R.I.P. Justin Love

[CBFan]

Rest In Peace Billiken great Justin Love.

Thank you for the great memories.

Thank you for sticking around town and being part of our community.

My condolences to the family and friends for their shocking loss.

I hope there is a moment of silence in Justin’s memory for the season opener.

[courtside]

Very, very sad. Justin was top class on and off the floor. 

 

[Billiken Rich]

4 hours ago, dlarry said:

Horrible news. 
He sure was fun to watch.

 

As a guy in his 40s who drinks too much and doesn’t have the healthiest eating habits hearing news like this sure puts a scare into you. 

Ditto from a guy in his 50s

[AlumniFan]

I am stunned. This is so sad. What a great guy.  To be taken from his family and all of us so young.  Hard to process.  I remember his father in the stands with his hardhat. Makes me stop and reflect on how valuable each day we have is.  RIP Justin. Thanks for the memories. 

[RUBillsFan]

15 minutes ago, AlumniFan said:

I am stunned. This is so sad. What a great guy.  To be taken from his family and all of us so young.  Hard to process.  I remember his father in the stands with his hardhat. Makes me stop and reflect on how valuable each day we have is.  RIP Justin. Thanks for the memories. 

Assuming fans are allowed at games, SLU should absolutely have a game honoring Justin Love.   Have Billiken hardhats be the giveaway with Justin’s number on them and raise money for a heart disease charity throughout the game.  Video montage of his career highlights  and teammates talking about him at halftime.  Etc. Let’s do it @Brian Kunderman

[DeSmetBilliken]

I’m watching the 1998 game against Kansas. One of Justin Love’s first games for SLU. Man, he was so good.

[DoctorB]

Wow, this is really sad, my condolences to the family and friends, and his players and colleagues out at the school in IL.  Much too early, this is really sad to hear about...

  He was terrific that one year especially, 1999-2000, which was one of my first years at SLU, and a great run;  Justin brought a lot of energy onto the floor.  Over the years he's still one of the best scorers we've had in my time at SLU, a great shooter! More importantly: Justin was a good guy, happy and generous in spirit.

[Box and Won]

9 hours ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

I’m watching the 1998 game against Kansas. One of Justin Love’s first games for SLU. Man, he was so good.

Had he not missed a few games in his junior season, he would've had 1,000 points...in two years.

He was such a great representative of the program, on and off the court.

[billiken_roy]

13 hours ago, crymdg2 said:

Justin was an all time player and an even better person. I'll never forget him making a 12 year old kid feel like the most important person in the room after a game. RIP

 

Justin's father, Charles Love, was taking the picture, thus the reason only his mother, Gloria is in the picture.  I dont know if you all noticed, but Justin is holding his Mom's hand in the picture.   One of the things I realized that year after becoming acquainted with the Love family, is how close and loving the whole family was towards each other.   They were obviously a close family and Justin was without a doubt brought up right by Charles and Gloria and made him the great young man he became.   

Years later when watching him coach at Belleville West, I sat with his wife Katie at the game and could tell that Katie and Justin were doing the same great job with their three kids who were just a joy to be around as well.   This is a family all should want to become someday and the one great thought i keep having yesterday and today is what a great example and role model Justin was to the kids he was around at both Belleville West and Mascoutah.   

I work in Mascoutah now and the town is in shock and the amount of great stories and memories I am hearing is very touching.   Justin will be greatly missed.   

[The House That Rick Built]

A shirt/donation fund has been set up at Mascoutah high school. The shirt says Love Strong and is $14 to purchase for shipping, but donations can be accepted. 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfv-Em_AsYER-e_otxEr9X_xlE19RZWRkzbQVei1k9Jh6aKJw/viewform

[billiken_roy]

there is a good stu durando story today at stltoday.   i especially liked the story Coach Romar told about Justin guaranteeing his Dad they would win to get to the championship and then he having maybe the greatest game of his career to insure the billikens would win so Charles Love wouldnt make the trip in vain. 

Romar also has some nice tweets on twitter about Justin.   

[slufanskip]

So Sad. Condolences to the Love family. 

in the 98-99 season The Billiken Club sponsored a trip to the Memphis game. We flew down the night before and stayed at the Peabody, My main memory of the game was Justin just going crazy. We lost the game but he scored 30+ points. If I remember correctly we scored 89 points that game with a great second half comeback that fell just short. That was in a season where we probably averaged just over 60. 

[kshoe]

1 hour ago, slufanskip said:

So Sad. Condolences to the Love family. 

in the 98-99 season The Billiken Club sponsored a trip to the Memphis game. We flew down the night before and stayed at the Peabody, My main memory of the game was Justin just going crazy. We lost the game but he scored 30+ points. If I remember correctly we scored 89 points that game with a great second half comeback that fell just short. That was in a season where we probably averaged just over 60. 

A buddy and I drove down for that game and the drove back to St. Louis that night after spending some time on Beale Street (we had a different mentality back in college). I have the same recollection that he was just awesome and almost single handedly won that game for us. 

[Pistol]

2 hours ago, slufanskip said:

So Sad. Condolences to the Love family. 

in the 98-99 season The Billiken Club sponsored a trip to the Memphis game. We flew down the night before and stayed at the Peabody, My main memory of the game was Justin just going crazy. We lost the game but he scored 30+ points. If I remember correctly we scored 89 points that game with a great second half comeback that fell just short. That was in a season where we probably averaged just over 60. 

 

57 minutes ago, kshoe said:

A buddy and I drove down for that game and the drove back to St. Louis that night after spending some time on Beale Street (we had a different mentality back in college). I have the same recollection that he was just awesome and almost single handedly won that game for us. 

Love had 33 that night, a career high. SLU lost 92-89. Skip, you're correct - that was not a typical game for us that season. We scored 85 against Evansville and 80 against Cal State-Fullerton but otherwise never topped 80 and only scored 70+ in four other games. That was Spoon's last season and we went 15-16.

[slu72]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Justin chose SLU because he wanted to play a season with the Legend. Then Larry decided to declare, but Justin kept his commitment to SLU when he could have begged off. I can’t recall where I heard or read this, but I think it says a lot about Justin’s character. He kept his word when he could have taken the easy way out to stay and play on the WC. 

[cgeldmacher]

So sad.  Justin is a guy I wanted to see walk out on the floor every time we have a game where we honor all the basketball alumni.  I wanted to see him as a old man, if I was still around, and tell my grandkids what a great player he was.  You'll be sorely missed in the Billiken community.

[Box and Won]

1 hour ago, slu72 said:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Justin chose SLU because he wanted to play a season with the Legend. Then Larry decided to declare, but Justin kept his commitment to SLU when he could have begged off. I can’t recall where I heard or read this, but I think it says a lot about Justin’s character. He kept his word when he could have taken the easy way out to stay and play on the WC. 

That's how I remember it as well.

[billiken_roy]

it also was huge that Romar was coming.    when he was making his choice it came down to the Billikens and Pepperdine and at the time Romar was the head coach at Pepperdine but had just announced he was taking the SLU job and then brought Justin Love with him.   the Love family liked Romar a lot.  

[Billiken Rich]

1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

it also was huge that Romar was coming.    when he was making his choice it came down to the Billikens and Pepperdine and at the time Romar was the head coach at Pepperdine but had just announced he was taking the SLU job and then brought Justin Love with him.   the Love family liked Romar a lot.  

Thought that was just Fisher.  I had no idea Love was a Pepperine recruit........

[billiken_roy]

24 minutes ago, Billiken Rich said:

Thought that was just Fisher.  I had no idea Love was a Pepperine recruit........

Love had yet to choose between the two.   Fischer had.  Thus the difference.   

[brianstl]

Just so sad and really makes me think about my own mortality.

[slu72]

28 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Just so sad and really makes me think about my own mortality.

You get to my age u think about it more than one should. 

[Quality Is Job 1]

4 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

it also was huge that Romar was coming.    when he was making his choice it came down to the Billikens and Pepperdine and at the time Romar was the head coach at Pepperdine but had just announced he was taking the SLU job and then brought Justin Love with him.   the Love family liked Romar a lot.  

This doesn't ring entirely true, Roy.

Justin Love committed to SLU and played his first season under Spoon: 1998-99, the year after Hughes.  Maybe Romar had tried recruiting Love to Pepperdine, but when Love chose SLU, there was no way of knowing that another year later Romar would become SLU's coach.

It was definitely Josh Fisher who had signed with Romar at Pepperdine and followed Romar to SLU (and had to sit out a year, which he nearly lost in eligibility, until Pepperdine finally agreed to grant him a waiver).

[slu72]

50 minutes ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

This doesn't ring entirely true, Roy.

Justin Love committed to SLU and played his first season under Spoon: 1998-99, the year after Hughes.  Maybe Romar had tried recruiting Love to Pepperdine, but when Love chose SLU, there was no way of knowing that another year later Romar would become SLU's coach.

It was definitely Josh Fisher who had signed with Romar at Pepperdine and followed Romar to SLU (and had to sit out a year, which he nearly lost in eligibility, until Pepperdine finally agreed to grant him a waiver).

I agree. I did the years and it didn’t jive w/ Romar’s arrival at SLU. 

[TheA_Bomb]

J. Love was one of my favorites.  Dude had an electric smile and could score.  His dad was awesome that season wearing the Kevlar helmet with "hard work" (I think) written on it and just going wild at the games.  I think J. Love married a Baby Blue as well.

I went to see him in some semi-pro league in Oklahoma City (2001, 02, 03. or 04 I forget) once when I lived at Ft. Sill, OK.  I had about 4 people there in SLU shirts we cheered for him and I'm pretty sure he saw us in the crowd of about 200+.  Kareem Abdul Jabbar was the opposing coach that night.

That 2000 Conference USA Tournament was great and in my senior year.