2021-2022 Season

[Reinert310]

47 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

 

I don’t think it’s a given he’s going to play this year, and if he does, it will be late in the season. As a Braves fan, Mike Soroka ruptured his Achilles in June last year and was just starting to pitch in rehab games in late March. (After that he had a couple setbacks and ended up re-tearing that same Achilles just about a week. God forbid that happen to Ace.) I know it’s a different sport with different movements, but just because he’s about to start shooting again (also think they’re using “soon” pretty loosely here), doesn’t mean he’s going to be ready to go full game speed anytime soon. It’s going to be A WHILE before he regains any of his explosiveness that he’s going to need in games. I’m NOT rooting against him, it’s better for the league to have its best players on the court, I’m just saying it’s going to be a while, and that’s assuming his rehab goes perfectly.

[Reinert310]

23 hours ago, Reinert310 said:

I don’t think it’s a given he’s going to play this year, and if he does, it will be late in the season. As a Braves fan, Mike Soroka ruptured his Achilles in June last year and was just starting to pitch in rehab games in late March. (After that he had a couple setbacks and ended up re-tearing that same Achilles just about a week. God forbid that happen to Ace.) I know it’s a different sport with different movements, but just because he’s about to start shooting again (also think they’re using “soon” pretty loosely here), doesn’t mean he’s going to be ready to go full game speed anytime soon. It’s going to be A WHILE before he regains any of his explosiveness that he’s going to need in games. I’m NOT rooting against him, it’s better for the league to have its best players on the court, I’m just saying it’s going to be a while, and that’s assuming his rehab goes perfectly.

For the record, to follow up on this, following Nick Kern on Instagram, he had to posts to his story showing Ace. He’s at practice doing ball handling drills and “shooting”, but he’s still in a boot. He’s not running or jumping or jogging. He’s nowhere near even being ready to start practicing at full speed. He’s got a ways to go. I wish him nothing but the best, but just trying to put where he’s at into perspective.

[brianstl]

https://slubillikens.com/news/2021/7/7/mens-basketball-billikens-to-play-in-2021-cancun-challenge.aspx

Here are the official announcements.  We actually play IL St. on Nov. 23 and either Buffalo or SFA the next day.  That makes a lot more sense than opening against Buffalo if the goal is to have the two best teams in the final.

[HoosierPal]

12 minutes ago, brianstl said:

https://slubillikens.com/news/2021/7/7/mens-basketball-billikens-to-play-in-2021-cancun-challenge.aspx

Here are the official announcements.  We actually play IL St. on Nov. 23 and either Buffalo or SFA the next day.  That makes a lot more sense than opening against Buffalo if the goal is to have the two best teams in the final.

That's a big ouch for me.  Illinois State was the worst team in the Valley last season.  The article says they brought in 4 transfers, but they also lost four including Mahorcic who is going to Utah and Horne who is headed to Arizona State.

I have no idea how good they might be, but this game likely will end up as a Q4 game.  Playing SFA might sneak into a Q3 category when the season ends.  Buffalo has Q2 penciled in for now.

[cgeldmacher]

Why is it that we seem to have all sorts of trouble scheduling good non-con tournaments?  Is it an issue of us not bringing enough fans?

[Reinert310]

9 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

Why is it that we seem to have all sorts of trouble scheduling good non-con tournaments?  Is it an issue of us not bringing enough fans?

We were supposed to be in an excellent MTE in Orlando last year. Could be any number of reasons this year.

[Old guy]

1 hour ago, Reinert310 said:

We were supposed to be in an excellent MTE in Orlando last year. Could be any number of reasons this year.

The key words in this post are "We were supposed to be..." This year "we are supposed to be" in a not so good tournament.

[Reinert310]

1 hour ago, Old guy said:

The key words in this post are "We were supposed to be..." This year "we are supposed to be" in a not so good tournament.

That’s fine. But I wouldn’t say we have trouble scheduling good non-con tournaments when we were scheduled for the Orlando tournament just last year. It’s not our staff’s fault Covid hit. 

[Old guy]

I agree SLU's staff has no control over the virus.

[slufan13]

59 minutes ago, Reinert310 said:

That’s fine. But I wouldn’t say we have trouble scheduling good non-con tournaments when we were scheduled for the Orlando tournament just last year. It’s not our staff’s fault Covid hit. 

Last year was the exception

[johnbj14]

2 hours ago, Reinert310 said:

That’s fine. But I wouldn’t say we have trouble scheduling good non-con tournaments when we were scheduled for the Orlando tournament just last year. It’s not our staff’s fault Covid hit. 

More often than not, SLU is in a lower tier early season MTE. I love the program, and think the trajectory is pointing upward in a very good way, but Orlando would have possibly been the best field the team ever was in. It isn’t about doing it once, it’s about doing it every year. 

[Reinert310]

29 minutes ago, johnbj14 said:

More often than not, SLU is in a lower tier early season MTE. I love the program, and think the trajectory is pointing upward in a very good way, but Orlando would have possibly been the best field the team ever was in. It isn’t about doing it once, it’s about doing it every year. 

Agreed, but we’re not that far removed from Jim Crews. As long as we keep going the way we’re going, we’ll be just fine in terms of scheduling. I truly believe that.

[Fraz]

7 hours ago, cgeldmacher said:

Why is it that we seem to have all sorts of trouble scheduling good non-con tournaments?  Is it an issue of us not bringing enough fans?

Can’t say I’ll be mad spending Thanksgiving in Cancun and watching the Bills get some hardware!

[majerus mojo]

10 hours ago, cgeldmacher said:

Why is it that we seem to have all sorts of trouble scheduling good non-con tournaments?  Is it an issue of us not bringing enough fans?

I would wager this is the chief issue. Our fans are few and they don’t travel. How many would we expect in Cancun, or the Vegas game? We brought a couple hundred to MSG tops a few years back. 

[NH]

I am not so sure we have a bad track record with these tournaments? It seems a little weak this year, but more years than not I've been happy with what we get. 

2011: 76 Classic, good tournament
2012: CBE Classic, good tournament
2013: Cancun Challenge, good tournament
2014: Corpus Christi Coastal Classic, ok tournament (Miss State and TCU)
2015: Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational, ok tournament (Louisville)
2016: MGM Grand Main Event, solid tournament (BYU and Alabama)
2017: 2K classic, good tournament (Providence and Va. Tech)
2018: Barclays Center Classic, weak tournament (Pitt)
2019: Gotham Classic, weak tournament (BC)
2020: Orlando Invitationals, great tournament

 

[Compton]

4 minutes ago, NH said:

I am not so sure we have a bad track record with these tournaments? It seems a little weak this year, but more years than not I've been happy with what we get. 

2011: 76 Classic, good tournament
2012: CBE Classic, good tournament
2013: Cancun Challenge, good tournament
2014: Corpus Christi Coastal Classic, ok tournament (Miss State and TCU)
2015: Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational, ok tournament (Louisville)
2016: MGM Grand Main Event, solid tournament (BYU and Alabama)
2017: 2K classic, good tournament (Providence and VCU)
2018: Barclays Center Classic, weak tournament (Pitt)
2019: Gotham Classic, weak tournament (BC)
2020: Orlando Invitationals, great tournament

 

I agree. I don't think we have trouble scheduling good non-con tournaments. This year is something of an outlier to the downside. A tourney without P6 participation makes me think a couple of buy games wouldn't be too much worse and would be much easier to attend. 

2017 was VaTech. 

[Box and Won]

8 hours ago, NH said:

2016: MGM Grand Main Event, solid tournament (BYU and Alabama)

Man, I have no memory of this whatsoever.

[billikenfan05]

31 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

Man, I have no memory of this whatsoever.

I believe it was barely streamed. I remember us getting our a$$ handed to us by BYU.

[Scoop]

I was in the house. Got beat up by BYU. Almost beat Bama. Crawford stepped out of bounds driving to the hoop at the very end of the game. 

[crymdg2]

2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

I believe it was barely streamed. I remember us getting our a$$ handed to us by BYU.

Wasn't it a YouTube stream? Almost like a trial run of sorts prior to launching YouTube TV?

[Compton]

8 minutes ago, crymdg2 said:

Wasn't it a YouTube stream? Almost like a trial run of sorts prior to launching YouTube TV?

Whoa. Good memory. It definitely was. And I think it only became clear that it would be streaming there the day of or something. Kind of like how that random Tulane game in Arizona got picked up at the last second.

[wgstl]

Im really hoping this Memphis game is on a weekend. 

[wgstl]

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2021-07-08/college-basketball-rankings-how-power-36-shifts-after-key-nba-draft-withdrawal

 

Andy Katz has SLU as "under consideration" for his top 36 ranking

[Reinert310]

7 minutes ago, wgstl said:

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2021-07-08/college-basketball-rankings-how-power-36-shifts-after-key-nba-draft-withdrawal

 

Andy Katz has SLU as "under consideration" for his top 36 ranking

He also has VCU (no Bones, no Ace), ahead of the Bonnies. Take these rankings with a big fat grain of salt.

[wgstl]

2 minutes ago, Reinert310 said:

He also has VCU (no Bones, no Ace), ahead of the Bonnies. Take these rankings with a big fat grain of salt.

I didn't even see VCU on there the first time.  Well, seeing 3 A10 teams in the top 36 is normally a good thing, but ya that's way off.   But we wont see too many lists that mention SLU early on.