A10 WBB Tournament Megathread

[thetorch]

1 hour ago, RUBillsFan said:

Whatever you do, DO NOT read the replies in that ESPN tweet that Tatum QTed.  Absolute cesspool.  I get not being into women’s sports, but I’ll never understand the level of sh*times a person has in them that they need to reply to something with that kind of garbage.

Billikens.com can get pretty bad at times, but those replies are a  reminder that relative to most of the internet this message board is the Garden of Eden.

One of the good things since the twitter takeover is the reporting feature has really opened up. I reported many of the tweets that were vile and they have been removed. I encourage others to do the same. These are college athletes not celebs or influencers and one picture should not be scrutinized in that way.

[Lord Elrond]

For the Brooke Flowers Block Watch (BFBW) - she’s up to 393, still in 20th place. However, Rebecca Lobo is 19th at 396, Nancy Mulkey 18th at 397, and Sam Hamson 17th at 398.  

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

35 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

For the Brooke Flowers Block Watch (BFBW) - she’s up to 393, still in 20th place. However, Rebecca Lobo is 19th at 396, Nancy Mulkey 18th at 397, and Sam Hamson 17th at 398.  

Depending on who we draw, hopefully she can add 3 or 4 more to climb that list. I think she is probably the greatest defensive player in SLU WBB history.

[Lord Elrond]

9 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Depending on who we draw, hopefully she can add 3 or 4 more to climb that list. I think she is probably the greatest defensive player in SLU WBB history.

For blocks, yes.  For steals, the old SLU record was 87 in a season, Julia Martinez has grabbed 116 steals so far this year.  All time though, she’s only second at 192 career steals, SLU career record is 202 by Jamesa Price, so she has a chance of breaking it this year, and definitely next year. So yes, I’ll give it to Brooke overall, but Julia can sure swipe some BB’s.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

14 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

next year

I know Julia has eligibility, but has she indicated she's coming back? Her appearance at the senior night post-game ceremony made me think otherwise.

[Billikenbooster]

Coach Tillett on KMOX at 945 today

[Pistol]

They've now won 11 of 12.

They won 3 of 4 games against the teams that were by far the top 2 in the A10 this season.

SLU's path was the toughest possible, with no benefit of upsets - they played a 6-seed that romped them earlier this season, and that team got to play 42 minutes from campus. Then the 2-seed, then the top seed.

They probably killed UMass' at-large hopes with that late regular season win, and killed their auto bid hopes yesterday.

Did the same for URI the day before, beating the A10's darling coach who somehow won COY over Tillett.

They did this with defense, effort, belief, and smarts. It's clear watching them play that they have a sense of their shortcomings and strengths.

Any team can knock off any team on any given night, but to do it consistently and to do it 3 times in less than 2 weeks against the best teams in the league is something different.

To outsiders who haven't been tracking them all season long like we have, their resume is going to include some inexplicable results. They're going to get a 13-15 seed, depending on how things break in remaining conference tournaments (the women's side is a little different in that most of the bigger conference tournaments played this weekend and most of the 1-bid leagues are in progress or about to get underway). If they do end up as a 15 and face someone like Iowa in the first round, that's a brutal draw.

But I guarantee Iowa would rather have any other 15-seed.

[Pistol]

48 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

I know Julia has eligibility, but has she indicated she's coming back? Her appearance at the senior night post-game ceremony made me think otherwise.

This is my #1 question around this team. Is she moving on to another school? Her career? Testing the pro waters?

[Cowboy II]

-I wonder what CTillett's contract has for a bonus on getting to the Dance?

 

[billiken_roy]

while julia is an excellent team player filling all the columns and she isnt as bad as she was last year, she is still an ugly shooter.  i cant see her playing wnba unless she can fix that.  she is improved but she still isnt a good shooter. 

speaking of iowa, i watched that after i watched the lady billikens, that clark girl is fantastic.   she is worth the price of admission.  

[billiken_roy]

i will admit i wasnt enthused about tillett's hire.   and for most of the season it appeared those of us pooing her hire were right.   but man they look good now.  no lady billiken team in my fandom looked as good as this team looks now. 

 so i will raise my hand and admit i was wrong.  

[HoosierPal]

 

[billikenfan05]

1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

while julia is an excellent team player filling all the columns and she isnt as bad as she was last year, she is still an ugly shooter.  i cant see her playing wnba unless she can fix that.  she is improved but she still isnt a good shooter. 

speaking of iowa, i watched that after i watched the lady billikens, that clark girl is fantastic.   she is worth the price of admission.  

What the fuok are you talking about? You’re using “not as bad as she was last year” yeah no , the back half of this season she was first team A10 and maybe POY. 

Nobody has said Julia could play in WNBA. 

They haven’t gone by Lady Billikens in over a decade. 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

1 hour ago, Pistol said:

Did the same for URI the day before, beating the A10's darling coach who somehow won COY over Tillett.

This is mind-boggling.

[Pistol]

4 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

This is mind-boggling.

For real. Rhode Island was picked third (barely; La Salle, URI, and Fordham were all within a few points) in the preseason poll and finished second.

SLU was picked to finish 12th.

URI did a good job to separate themselves from the pack and create a clear top-2 tier with UMass.

But come on. In terms of outperforming expectations, it's not even close.

Reiss had a lot of hype after she signed the lucrative contract extension before this season instead of jumping ship for a bigger program. She's already kind of a name, big-time college star, played in the WNBA, showed up in some basketball movies. The A10 loves her, I get it. She didn't deserve it over Tillett this season, though.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

3 minutes ago, Pistol said:

For real. Rhode Island was picked third (barely; La Salle, URI, and Fordham were all within a few points) in the preseason poll and finished second.

SLU was picked to finish 12th.

URI did a good job to separate themselves from the pack and create a clear top-2 tier with UMass.

But come on. In terms of outperforming expectations, it's not even close.

Reiss had a lot of hype after she signed the lucrative contract extension before this season instead of jumping ship for a bigger program. She's already kind of a name, big-time college star, played in the WNBA, showed up in some basketball movies. The A10 loves her, I get it. She didn't deserve it over Tillett this season, though.

Yeah the way things turned around mid-season after a disappointing end to the Stone era really should have cemented it. Hindsight, bringing the team to the NCAA for the first time (I don't know if it's like the NHL where it's reg season only) should have made her a lock.

[cgeldmacher]

From ESPN.com article:

Coach of the week: Lynne Roberts, Rebecca Tillett, Saint Louis

The Billikens earned the first NCAA tournament appearance in program history with their run through the Atlantic 10 tournament. They were the No. 3 seed, but their 17-17 record is deceiving. They've won 11 of their last 12 games, getting their second victory this season against top-seeded UMass in the A-10 title game.

 

Iowa's Clark wasn't the only one with a triple-double to secure a tournament championship Sunday; Saint Louis' Julia Martinez did it as well with 17 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists as St. Louis won 91-85 in overtime.

Tillett is in her first season at SLU after four years with Longwood; she led the Lancers to their first NCAA tournament last year. Tillett is just the second coach in D-I history to win an automatic NCAA berth in different leagues in consecutive years.

After a playing career with at William & Mary, Tillett coached at the high school level in Virginia for a decade before going to the college ranks. She took over at Longwood after being an assistant at Navy.

[billiken_roy]

46 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

What the fuok are you talking about? You’re using “not as bad as she was last year” yeah no , the back half of this season she was first team A10 and maybe POY. 

Nobody has said Julia could play in WNBA. 

They haven’t gone by Lady Billikens in over a decade. 

im so sorry i continue to call them the lady billikens if that offends you.  and your opinion of julia is rightfully yours.   good for you.  i suggest you skip over my posts concerning my thoughts on the lady billikens here forward.   better for your mental health probably.

[JettFlight5]

30 minutes ago, Pistol said:

For real. Rhode Island was picked third (barely; La Salle, URI, and Fordham were all within a few points) in the preseason poll and finished second.

SLU was picked to finish 12th.

URI did a good job to separate themselves from the pack and create a clear top-2 tier with UMass.

But come on. In terms of outperforming expectations, it's not even close.

Reiss had a lot of hype after she signed the lucrative contract extension before this season instead of jumping ship for a bigger program. She's already kind of a name, big-time college star, played in the WNBA, showed up in some basketball movies. The A10 loves her, I get it. She didn't deserve it over Tillett this season, though.

Tillett should have won it hands down. 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

15 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

im so sorry i continue to call them the lady billikens if that offends you.  and your opinion of julia is rightfully yours.   good for you.  i suggest you skip over my posts concerning my thoughts on the lady billikens here forward.   better for your mental health probably.

Roy, the problem here is not that 05 is offended, it's that the team is quite literally no longer called the Lady Billikens. It would be like calling the Anaheim Ducks the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim or the Rays the Devil Rays. This team goes by SLU Women's Basketball as the men go by SLU Men's Basketball.

[billiken_roy]

2 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Roy, the problem here is not that 05 is offended, it's that the team is quite literally no longer called the Lady Billikens. It would be like calling the Anaheim Ducks the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim or the Rays the Devil Rays. This team goes by SLU Women's Basketball as the men go by SLU Men's Basketball.

i do call them the "mighty ducks".   i also call Tampa Bay the "Devil Rays" and Cleveland "the Indians".   i admit to being the most politically incorrect fan in the world.   my right.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

5 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i do call them the "mighty ducks".   i also call Tampa Bay the "Devil Rays" and Cleveland "the Indians".   i admit to being the most politically incorrect fan in the world.   my right.

I mean, team identity isn't about political correctness, it's about respecting the team you support imo.

[JMM28]

Do we call the mens team the gentlemen billikens? The phrase "Lady ___" is just so grammatically incorrect. It offends by grammatic sensibilities. 

[RUBillsFan]

3 hours ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

I know Julia has eligibility, but has she indicated she's coming back? Her appearance at the senior night post-game ceremony made me think otherwise.

No inside info.  I think I remember Colin Suhre (on MMP?) saying that he expected Julia to return.  I also saw that she's in the PT program.  Isn't the PT program typically longer than 4 years?

If we're already looking forward, Brooke Flowers is out of eligibility which is going to be a massive loss.  She's such a dominant force on defense protecting the rim.  It'll be tough to replicate what they've been able to do on defense without her protecting the rim.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

16 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

No inside info.  I think I remember Colin Suhre (on MMP?) saying that he expected Julia to return.  I also saw that she's in the PT program.  Isn't the PT program typically longer than 4 years?

Yeah I think PT is 5 years, but I have no idea if the 5th year is more intense, requires more focus, etc. That could be a factor as well.