Champion's Center

[wgstl]

3 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Hotel Ignacio but this idea is intriguing. Now we’ve got the creative juices flowing! You wanna get nuts!? Let’s get NUTS! 

Did that not close down?  I thought it did with Covid.  Would answer that pretty easily. 

[billikenfan05]

2 minutes ago, wgstl said:

Did that not close down?  I thought it did with Covid.  Would answer that pretty easily. 

Well sh*t. Looks like it did. No wonder we haven't had visitors. Nowhere to stay! 

[wgstl]

Just now, billikenfan05 said:

Well sh*t. Looks like it did. No wonder we haven't had visitors. Nowhere to stay! 

lolz

[TheA_Bomb]

I stayed at Ignacio before, it was really cool and nice but smelled over poweringly like bug spray.  

 

[Adman]

Beautiful building. Great place to take recruits. Great place for the hundreds of SLU athletes.

Another big step forward. Now we just need NIL and Big Dance appearances. No small feat.

[billikenfan05]

2 hours ago, Adman said:

Beautiful building. Great place to take recruits. Great place for the hundreds of SLU athletes.

Another big step forward. Now we just need NIL and Big Dance appearances. No small feat.

The problem is of course timing. This was a perfect project 5 years ago. Looking it now, I don’t know if it moves the needle for men’s basketball. For all intents and purposes it’s just a renovation of the basketball offices. It’s major for the non-revs, don’t get me wrong. 

[wgstl]

26 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

The problem is of course timing. This was a perfect project 5 years ago. Looking it now, I don’t know if it moves the needle for men’s basketball. For all intents and purposes it’s just a renovation of the basketball. It’s major for the non-revs, don’t get me wrong. 

Yep. This tweet echoes it ( thanks WPB) 

 

 

[Lord Elrond]

27 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

The problem is of course timing. This was a perfect project 5 years ago. Looking it now, I don’t know if it moves the needle for men’s basketball. For all intents and purposes it’s just a renovation of the basketball. It’s major for the non-revs, don’t get me wrong. 

For the non-rev sports, the place is utterly fantastic. As far as men’s basketball recruiting goes, it doesn’t do anything. It’s like we were building the ultimate horse racing buggy to beat everyone, and while we were doing that everyone else discovered internal combustion engines. I do hope the student athletes enjoy it, it is absolutely beautiful, first rate. 

[DeSmetBilliken]

1 hour ago, billikenfan05 said:

The problem is of course timing. This was a perfect project 5 years ago. Looking it now, I don’t know if it moves the needle for men’s basketball. For all intents and purposes it’s just a renovation of the basketball. It’s major for the non-revs, don’t get me wrong. 

 

30 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

For the non-rev sports, the place is utterly fantastic. As far as men’s basketball recruiting goes, it doesn’t do anything. It’s like we were building the ultimate horse racing buggy to beat everyone, and while we were doing that everyone else discovered internal combustion engines. I do hope the student athletes enjoy it, it is absolutely beautiful, first rate.

These posts largely reflect my opinion here. This building is huge for the non-rev sports, but for the athletes who have the skill and ability to make big money via NIL, it’s not going to get them to SLU or keep them there. I could see it being a big help in getting the under the radar recruit that Majerus used to excel at getting, but is getting under the radar guys what Ford is good at? I don’t know. 

[SLUMS81]

Maybe overly optimistic, but if an athlete in a non-revenue sport is impressed with the new Center and tells his friend the basketball player,  SLU might stay on  that prospect’s recruiting radar.

[JMM28]

2 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

The problem is of course timing. This was a perfect project 5 years ago. Looking it now, I don’t know if it moves the needle for men’s basketball. For all intents and purposes it’s just a renovation of the basketball. It’s major for the non-revs, don’t get me wrong. 

“A day late and a dollar short” is on the May family crest. 

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, JMM28 said:

“A day late and a dollar short” is on the May family crest. 

There are over 400 student athletes at SLU. 15 (edit 17) play men’s basketball. (edit:  That's less than 5% of our student athletes)  This facility is much more than wins and losses for the men’s basketball team. It about supporting all of our student athletes and improving their experience at SLU. 

[Lord Elrond]

7 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

There are over 400 student athletes at SLU. 15 play men’s basketball. This facility is much more than wins and losses for the men’s basketball team. It about supporting all of our student athletes and improving their experience at SLU. 

Agreed, it’s a wonderful facility that all athletes will enjoy for years to come. That said, part of the reason for building it was the impact it would have on Men’s Basketball recruiting. The world changed. It’s most definitely not anyone’s fault at SLU by any means, Chris May said at the ceremony on Monday that this was 10 years in the making from first conception to yesterday. It’s just what happened. I truly believe it will benefit all SLU athletes greatly.

[DOC]

3 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

The problem is of course timing. This was a perfect project 5 years ago. Looking it now, I don’t know if it moves the needle for men’s basketball. For all intents and purposes it’s just a renovation of the basketball offices. It’s major for the non-revs, don’t get me wrong. 

It becomes a perfect project when someone comes forward with the money. NIL is 90% of basketball success going forward. Nothing else matters if you don’t have the cash. 

[Dr Bird]

yes NIL is important,  but every year a mid major or 2 will defy the odds.

Princeton had a great run without use of the portal and with serious NIL restrictions. 

Not sure about Florida Atlantic but I assume they have limited NIL funds too.

I like that our BVF is emphasizing retention of committed athletes with our limited NIL funds.

[billikenfan05]

9 minutes ago, Dr Bird said:

yes NIL is important,  but every year a mid major or 2 will defy the odds.

Princeton had a great run without use of the portal and with serious NIL restrictions. 

Not sure about Florida Atlantic but I assume they have limited NIL funds too.

I like that our BVF is emphasizing retention of committed athletes with our limited NIL funds.

What is the goal? To build a consistent winner or to be the little engine that could once a decade? Rick Majerus proved this school is capable of the former. God bless T-Rob but unless you have more information on the BVF, it hasn't tweeted in 5 months and has 311 followers. I know social media isn't everything, but damn at least you know be active.

[Lord Elrond]

24 minutes ago, Dr Bird said:

yes NIL is important,  but every year a mid major or 2 will defy the odds.

Princeton had a great run without use of the portal and with serious NIL restrictions. 

Not sure about Florida Atlantic but I assume they have limited NIL funds too.

I like that our BVF is emphasizing retention of committed athletes with our limited NIL funds.

That sounds like a great strategy for a few years, but as athletes graduate how are you going to replace your players with incoming freshmen if you are not offering NIL money? Seems like ultimately you will have a team of incoming freshmen no one else wanted that badly, to go along with players who left their old school either because they didn’t perform or had some other issue. Maybe you get lucky eventually, but that doesn’t sound like a path to sustained success.

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, Lord Elrond said:

Agreed, it’s a wonderful facility that all athletes will enjoy for years to come. That said, part of the reason for building it was the impact it would have on Men’s Basketball recruiting and woman's basketball, and men's and women's soccer, track and field, cross country, field hockey, volleyball ,swimming and diving, tennis, baseball and softball. The world changed. It’s most definitely not anyone’s fault at SLU by any means, Chris May said at the ceremony on Monday that this was 10 years in the making from first conception to yesterday. It’s just what happened. I truly believe it will benefit all SLU athletes greatly.

Fixed it for you. 

There is no 'fault' here.  This is a fabulous facility for the benefit of ALL SLU student athletes.  Men's basketball is less than 5% of the target for this facility.  Let's not ignore the other 95%.

[Dr. Holly Hills]

As quickly as NIL was thrust upon us, an act of congress or rules change can change the landscape again.  Overall, I think the CC was a good idea.  Probably not ideal timing, but in general a great facility for our student athletes.

[Dr Bird]

1 hour ago, Lord Elrond said:

That sounds like a great strategy for a few years, but as athletes graduate how are you going to replace your players with incoming freshmen if you are not offering NIL money? Seems like ultimately you will have a team of incoming freshmen no one else wanted that badly, to go along with players who left their old school either because they didn’t perform or had some other issue. Maybe you get lucky eventually, but that doesn’t sound like a path to sustained success.

Just asking, but are high school recruits outside the top 250 getting much NIL money?  I can certainly agree that we need to reserve some $$ for each incoming class, but the majority of $$ should be for key returnees. 

I admit I never understood CF's High School recruiting style anyway.  According to Pistol's and other recruiting reports on here, it seems like CF offers everyone and his brother.  How does he develop a relationship with a potential recruit when we offer dozens each year? 

Regarding the Champions Center, there may be parents out there that 1) know their son is not a future professional basketballer, 2) are satisfied with a full ride, and 3) like the idea that SLU has invested in facilities (Champions Center, etc) and programs to help ensure a lifetime of success. If so, the Champions center may help basketball even in the NIL era.

[courtside]

4 hours ago, wgstl said:

Yep. This tweet echoes it ( thanks WPB) 

 

 

Lol. That's easy for Mike Gundy to say since he's been a beneficiary of $325 million worth of facility projects since he began coaching at Oklahoma State over the past two decades. And, they recently unveiled plans for additional $325 million in new facilities upgrades.

What's changed? It's in your linked article. Many other schools built nice facilities too, to keep up with Oklahoma State etc...even Kentucky which was the school mentioned in your linked piece.

Uk's Stoops complained that Georgia is buying better players after UK's 51-13 loss to Georgia in football last weekend. Hmm...Kentucky has 2 league wins vs teams with a winning league record in 11 seasons. That's 2 out of their last 32 league games. Can't blame NIL for that too.

NIL money is separate from, and in addition to, facilities. 

Facilities and NIL aren't an either/or situation. Gotta have both if you want to be more competitive at the highest levels. The coaches in the examples complaining already have the facilities. They have the luxury of not needing both. Florida St., UCF, USF, UF all have 9 figure facility projects each, in the works  in just one state alone. Even Vandy has a $300 plus million athletics facilities project going on right now. Facilities projects aren't going away.

SLU needed a Champions Center in order to not get left behind with facilities. NIL $ is a different and separate need from that. SLU can walk and chew gum at the same time. This is of course if SLU wants to be competitive in Athletics.

The Men's hoops team has won 70% or more of its league games just 3 times in the past 18 seasons. And that's because of one of those four head coaches. NIL didn't have anything to do with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dr Bird]

1 hour ago, billikenfan05 said:

What is the goal? To build a consistent winner or to be the little engine that could once a decade? Rick Majerus proved this school is capable of the former. God bless T-Rob but unless you have more information on the BVF, it hasn't tweeted in 5 months and has 311 followers. I know social media isn't everything, but damn at least you know 

Without good data, how much $$ is enough?  Surprisingly we haven't had any major contributor transfer out due to greener pastures.   It's going to take a special coach or AD to rebuild momentum.

[JMM28]

10 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

There are over 400 student athletes at SLU. 15 (edit 17) play men’s basketball. (edit:  That's less than 5% of our student athletes)  This facility is much more than wins and losses for the men’s basketball team. It about supporting all of our student athletes and improving their experience at SLU. 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but SLU built an office building/student center. I didn’t see the stories but I’m sure the phrase “game changer” was bandied about. It isn’t. 

Facilities still matter but it’s hard to say that this changes anything when you have dog track baseball/softball fields 100 paces away from this shiny office building.

This is a decade+ old project that was a fine idea back in the early 2010s when it was hatched. Unfortunately it appears to be…a decade late and a dollar short. 

[TheChosenOne]

While not as negative, I was going to post something similar to JMM. This facility was needed. The support facilities at Chaifetz were not nice when it opened. Great facility obviously (I think the perfect viewing experience for college basketball), but the weight room, training room, locker rooms, offices, etc. were never top of the line. This new facility is not some game changer if you pay attention to college athletics beyond SLU. However, it brings us closer as did the locker room project a few years back (and soccer locker rooms even more recently). As courtside posted, you have to have the facilities and now NIL. It is easy for coaches at BCS programs to focus solely on NIL, their programs are bringing in wild television $ and already have better than pro level facilities for their players. Yet, you go to any BCS school and you will see construction for some athletic facility, that's just the game. Tip of the cap to those who made this happen, but this is the price of competing at the major level. Now, part of the facility issues have been addressed (where some of the programs actually compete is a bit embarrassing), but there will always be more and now NIL needs to be funded. It is foolish to argue that we have been in any way successful with NIL (focusing on current players only matters when we already had guys on the roster like Yuri and Jimerson, that strategy will need to change as we see the failures landing prep and transfer targets), so that needs to get fixed if we are going to compete at the level most of us want us to. No need to be negative, but also probably silly to pretend this is more than it is which is a nice new facility that was needed. Courtside could link a bunch of projects that would properly contextualize the world we are playing in. I think maybe SLU fans aren’t as aware and heck, we saw our primary athletic facility being West Pine Gym until 15 years ago.

[Box and Won]

Table stakes.