Womens Basketball 2023-2024

[3star_recruit]

53 minutes ago, billikenbill said:

The upcoming recruiting class/portal additions will be the make or break class for the Tillet regime. Last year’s class of single digit scoring jucos is giving the lack of results one would expect. Recruiting has to improve greatly or it will be back to the drawing board soon.

I like the young guards Coach Tillett is bringing in.  She brought in a high-scoring guard and a defensive stopper.  That might be enough to win playing small ball. But she sure would make her job easier if she can land a quality big in the portal.

[Lord Elrond]

2 hours ago, billikenbill said:

The upcoming recruiting class/portal additions will be the make or break class for the Tillet regime. Last year’s class of single digit scoring jucos is giving the lack of results one would expect. Recruiting has to improve greatly or it will be back to the drawing board soon.

There are good recruits coming, a commitment from a big or landing one in the transfer portal will help. One of the major issues starting with the last year of Lisa Stone and continuing through to this year has been bad 3 pt shooting. We are shooting FG’s overall about the same as our opponents (.399 SLU vs .403 SLU opponents), but for 3 pointers we are not matching up at all ( .268 SLU vs .337 SLU opponents).  We make 5.2 3 pointers per game vs 7.4 for our opponents, which is a huge deficit. Oh for the days of Rachel Kent hitting 40% on threes for the season!  On our current team, Peyton Kennedy and Kyla McMakin are the starters who shoot the most 3’s, 57 and 58 respectively, with around a .380 percentage for both of them, which is good. None of our other starters shoot many 3’s, which is good because Julia Martinez is third on that group with .286, Kennedy Calhoun is .235 and Brooklyn Gray is .231. The real issue is that our 3 pt specialist of the bench is Camree Clegg, who leads the team with 59 3pt attempts, but only hits at .254. Time to give her minutes to Ashleigh Connor and see what the redshirt freshman can do. She hit over 40% in high school, time to see what she can do in the A10. Just a few more made 3pts a game would be a big help. We do have some good shooters coming in next year too (Mia Bergstrom).

[slu92]

3 hours ago, billikenbill said:

The upcoming recruiting class/portal additions will be the make or break class for the Tillet regime. Last year’s class of single digit scoring jucos is giving the lack of results one would expect. Recruiting has to improve greatly or it will be back to the drawing board soon.

I agree with all of this. Overall at SLU Coach Tillet is a sub .500 coach. Last year got very lucky/hot at right time of the year to make NCAA…great story, however they were 16-17 and blown away by TN first round. 
THE issue is two fold as much as I don’t like Chris May or Janet Oberle they are just the results of a bigger issue. Until Fred is gone and the board is turned over with people that really understand sports and what they an do to a university and a community, this thing ain’t changing. Tillet will be gone one way or another in 2/3 years by losing and being canned or winning and bolting. She has been set up to fail by the dumb AD. All he had to say last year was how happy he was team got hot, testament to coaches, record wasn’t ideal but let’s just roll with it…instead he promoted and hyped Tillet up as the next Pat Summit. That’s because he is a front runner, loves attention himself, loves getting meaningless awards at MAC and loves media guys stroking him off, he is a user. Now once Tillet becomes a liability for him he will distance himself from her like the Grand Canyon. It’s the same cycle with the AD. Not his fault he’s just the end result of leadership not having any idea about an athletic department and what that structure needs to look like to actually win and be consistent. 
I’m over why can’t people realize how bad Chris May truly is at his job and that just because a person has lasted her entire career at one place and is the #1 cheerleader she’s qualified as a senior athletics admin and people think everything is fine, not ever Chris and Janet’s fault….whatever. Please believe whatever fantasy you want to believe because nothing changes, if nothing ever changes. 
SLU is its own worst enemy and even if we get a new mbb and wbb coach and keep AD and his lackey, it won’t change big picture. Athletics department and BoT needs a come to Jesus moment now. 
Smart leadership would ask the likes of a Highmark, Robertson, Kavanaugh, Wiley, McDermott and a few other high level type alumni’s, local/national media folks like a Joe Buck, Kristin Folkl, etc to evaluate and fix this department. I think Bob O is awesome man but he doesn’t know anything more than what Chris May feeds him. Same with Conran. Now if we wanted advice about hospitality or legal affairs that’s a different story! Bob O and Joe C are not dumb people AT ALL, sports just arent their expertise. Just get the right eyes and opinions on entire department! It’s not that hard SLU and move this thing forward nationally like it rightfully can and should be! No reason why in this town mbb shouldn’t be sold out most nights. 

[billiken_roy]

33 minutes ago, slu92 said:

Until Fred is gone and the board is turned over with people that really understand sports and what they an do to a university and a community, this thing ain’t changing. 

i've been saying this for years.   not defending our coaches, but now with this NiL b.s. the overall money being fed to the whole athletic department is not even close to the needs to compete in D-1 sports.  particularly the revenue sports.   i would hope the significant drop off in attendance would clue them in.   either we pay the piper or we might as well head to D-3.  

ironically i think our BoT thinks SLU is some sort of academic champion.  we continue to fall in the u.s. news and world report rankings academically and in reality SLU might be an above average at best academic institution.   

i agree with 92.   raising the face of academics will draw more students and with that more high academic students.  the end result is a win win for both athletics and more importantly the school as a whole.  

[3star_recruit]

1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

i've been saying this for years.   not defending our coaches, but now with this NiL b.s. the overall money being fed to the whole athletic department is not even close to the needs to compete in D-1 sports.  particularly the revenue sports.   i would hope the significant drop off in attendance would clue them in.   either we pay the piper or we might as well head to D-3.  

ironically i think our BoT thinks SLU is some sort of academic champion.  we continue to fall in the u.s. news and world report rankings academically and in reality SLU might be an above average at best academic institution.   

i agree with 92.   raising the face of academics will draw more students and with that more high academic students.  the end result is a win win for both athletics and more importantly the school as a whole.  

I couldn't pick the face of academics or athletics at any of the successful mid-major programs from a lineup.    When other programs win, we talk about how brilliant their coaches are and how much better their players are than ours.  The only time I hear any AD talk is when we're talking about our own school. 

It's just assumed that if other teams are winning in any given year that means their AD is awesome.  However, I go to many a mid major message board.  Rarely is anybody happy with their AD.  I don't know if their displeasure is sour grapes because they didn't make the NCAA tournament or confirmation that all but a tiny percentage of ADs are mediocre.

[billikenbill]

2 hours ago, slu92 said:

I agree with all of this. Overall at SLU Coach Tillet is a sub .500 coach. Last year got very lucky/hot at right time of the year to make NCAA…great story, however they were 16-17 and blown away by TN first round. 
THE issue is two fold as much as I don’t like Chris May or Janet Oberle they are just the results of a bigger issue. Until Fred is gone and the board is turned over with people that really understand sports and what they an do to a university and a community, this thing ain’t changing. Tillet will be gone one way or another in 2/3 years by losing and being canned or winning and bolting. She has been set up to fail by the dumb AD. All he had to say last year was how happy he was team got hot, testament to coaches, record wasn’t ideal but let’s just roll with it…instead he promoted and hyped Tillet up as the next Pat Summit. That’s because he is a front runner, loves attention himself, loves getting meaningless awards at MAC and loves media guys stroking him off, he is a user. Now once Tillet becomes a liability for him he will distance himself from her like the Grand Canyon. It’s the same cycle with the AD. Not his fault he’s just the end result of leadership not having any idea about an athletic department and what that structure needs to look like to actually win and be consistent. 
I’m over why can’t people realize how bad Chris May truly is at his job and that just because a person has lasted her entire career at one place and is the #1 cheerleader she’s qualified as a senior athletics admin and people think everything is fine, not ever Chris and Janet’s fault….whatever. Please believe whatever fantasy you want to believe because nothing changes, if nothing ever changes. 
SLU is its own worst enemy and even if we get a new mbb and wbb coach and keep AD and his lackey, it won’t change big picture. Athletics department and BoT needs a come to Jesus moment now. 
Smart leadership would ask the likes of a Highmark, Robertson, Kavanaugh, Wiley, McDermott and a few other high level type alumni’s, local/national media folks like a Joe Buck, Kristin Folkl, etc to evaluate and fix this department. I think Bob O is awesome man but he doesn’t know anything more than what Chris May feeds him. Same with Conran. Now if we wanted advice about hospitality or legal affairs that’s a different story! Bob O and Joe C are not dumb people AT ALL, sports just arent their expertise. Just get the right eyes and opinions on entire department! It’s not that hard SLU and move this thing forward nationally like it rightfully can and should be! No reason why in this town mbb shouldn’t be sold out most nights. 

I agree with all of that.

[billikenfan05]

There are a LOT of people talking about SLU womens basketball like it’s the men’s program. Stone took this program from bottom of the barrel with no history and made it to a program competing for a league title most years in the league. She just couldn’t get it to an NCAA and rightfully was parted ways with(believe she was going to retire the next season). Could she have done what Tillett did? We’ll never know. But Tillett did something that had NEVER happened in SLU WBB history, so she gets credit for that. This notion of getting hot at the right time just doesn’t vibe with A10 womens basketball. It’s a 1 bid league. Every team is playing for the A10 tournament championship, so let’s throw out the “got hot” narrative. Did the first half of this season concern me? Yeah. I’m anxious to see how they do in conference. I don’t love that the lost a winnable home game against a top conference opponent. She gets 4 years to prove her system can sustain success. Although she probably gets more leeway as far as falling short of an A10 championship as long as they can prove they are the class of the A10. 

[Lord Elrond]

47 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

There are a LOT of people talking about SLU womens basketball like it’s the men’s program. Stone took this program from bottom of the barrel with no history and made it to a program competing for a league title most years in the league. She just couldn’t get it to an NCAA and rightfully was parted ways with(believe she was going to retire the next season). Could she have done what Tillett did? We’ll never know. But Tillett did something that had NEVER happened in SLU WBB history, so she gets credit for that. This notion of getting hot at the right time just doesn’t vibe with A10 womens basketball. It’s a 1 bid league. Every team is playing for the A10 tournament championship, so let’s throw out the “got hot” narrative. Did the first half of this season concern me? Yeah. I’m anxious to see how they do in conference. I don’t love that the lost a winnable home game against a top conference opponent. She gets 4 years to prove her system can sustain success. Although she probably gets more leeway as far as falling short of an A10 championship as long as they can prove they are the class of the A10. 

As someone who sat through all the games last year, I can say that they are a much better team than they were last year at this time, when they lost 60-47 to Loy-Chi, which was their only win in a 1-15 conference record.  

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

6 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

As someone who sat through all the games last year, I can say that they are a much better team than they were last year at this time, when they lost 60-47 to Loy-Chi, which was their only win in a 1-15 conference record.  

Yes, but we'll see how the conference turns out.

[Lord Elrond]

8 hours ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Yes, but we'll see how the conference turns out.

Fair enough. But it wasn’t just “Lucky in the tournament” last year. Coach Tillet got them to improve consistently game by game last season, which was plainly visible each game for those of us who were there to see it. There were not a lot of us who saw it, judging by attendance last year.  But by the time the conference tournament came around, I was believing in them. 

[billikenfan05]

17 hours ago, Lord Elrond said:

As someone who sat through all the games last year, I can say that they are a much better team than they were last year at this time, when they lost 60-47 to Loy-Chi, which was their only win in a 1-15 conference record.  

You're right. I watched that Loyola Chicago game cover to cover in person as well. It was so terrible that there is just no way winning the A10 Championship was lucky or "getting hot".

[brianstl]

22 hours ago, slu92 said:

I agree with all of this. Overall at SLU Coach Tillet is a sub .500 coach. Last year got very lucky/hot at right time of the year to make NCAA…great story, however they were 16-17 and blown away by TN first round. 
THE issue is two fold as much as I don’t like Chris May or Janet Oberle they are just the results of a bigger issue. Until Fred is gone and the board is turned over with people that really understand sports and what they an do to a university and a community, this thing ain’t changing. Tillet will be gone one way or another in 2/3 years by losing and being canned or winning and bolting. She has been set up to fail by the dumb AD. All he had to say last year was how happy he was team got hot, testament to coaches, record wasn’t ideal but let’s just roll with it…instead he promoted and hyped Tillet up as the next Pat Summit. That’s because he is a front runner, loves attention himself, loves getting meaningless awards at MAC and loves media guys stroking him off, he is a user. Now once Tillet becomes a liability for him he will distance himself from her like the Grand Canyon. It’s the same cycle with the AD. Not his fault he’s just the end result of leadership not having any idea about an athletic department and what that structure needs to look like to actually win and be consistent. 
I’m over why can’t people realize how bad Chris May truly is at his job and that just because a person has lasted her entire career at one place and is the #1 cheerleader she’s qualified as a senior athletics admin and people think everything is fine, not ever Chris and Janet’s fault….whatever. Please believe whatever fantasy you want to believe because nothing changes, if nothing ever changes. 
SLU is its own worst enemy and even if we get a new mbb and wbb coach and keep AD and his lackey, it won’t change big picture. Athletics department and BoT needs a come to Jesus moment now. 
Smart leadership would ask the likes of a Highmark, Robertson, Kavanaugh, Wiley, McDermott and a few other high level type alumni’s, local/national media folks like a Joe Buck, Kristin Folkl, etc to evaluate and fix this department. I think Bob O is awesome man but he doesn’t know anything more than what Chris May feeds him. Same with Conran. Now if we wanted advice about hospitality or legal affairs that’s a different story! Bob O and Joe C are not dumb people AT ALL, sports just arent their expertise. Just get the right eyes and opinions on entire department! It’s not that hard SLU and move this thing forward nationally like it rightfully can and should be! No reason why in this town mbb shouldn’t be sold out most nights. 

Hard to believe that 30 years ago Debbie Yow was running the athletic department with Jamie Pollard and Linda Moore as her assistants.  Pollard is still the AD at Iowa St and Linda Moore was one of the main people responsible for making the X Games a huge TV property.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

53 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

You're right. I watched that Loyola Chicago game cover to cover in person as well. It was so terrible that there is just no way winning the A10 Championship was lucky or "getting hot".

I think beating Rhody and UMass back to back days involved a bit of luck to be honest. I was at the tournament and there were so many chances in the UMass game where things could have gone sideways.

[MusicCityBilliken]

It all came together Feb/Mar.

From Feb 1 through the A10 Tourney they were 10-1.

That's peaking at the right time, not luck.

The few games I watched on Espn+ back in Nov/Dec to the season ending games, it was a totally different team.

[Lord Elrond]

43 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

I think beating Rhody and UMass back to back days involved a bit of luck to be honest. I was at the tournament and there were so many chances in the UMass game where things could have gone sideways.

There’s always some luck to winning a tournament. There was also great coaching and great playing (Julia Martinez 17 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists, 4 steals) when it counted.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

1 hour ago, Lord Elrond said:

There’s always some luck to winning a tournament. There was also great coaching and great playing (Julia Martinez 17 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists, 4 steals) when it counted.

Julia and Brooke playing out of their minds the back half of the season really did make such a difference. 

[billikenfan05]

1 hour ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:

Julia and Brooke playing out of their minds the back half of the season really did make such a difference. 

Brooke was defensive monster from jump street here, she didn’t just start playing out of her mind. That was her career trajectory. Julia is frenetic and chaotic as she is talented. Julia’s season trajectory was as much a reason for the turnaround as it was a biproduct of the entire team coming together. 

[Lord Elrond]

17-16 Loy-Chi over SLU at the end of the 1st qtr, Billikens started out cold, but got back into it. SLU has given up 8 TO’s, got to clean that up, and 7 fouls. Things to clean up, but they are in the game.

[Lord Elrond]

40-33 Biilkens lead at halftime. TO’s are 13-11 with SLU giving up more, but points on TO’s 17-16 is pretty even. SLU winning the rebound battle 14-9, and shooting 62/50/71. Keep going Billikens!

[Lord Elrond]

55-54 Loy-Chi after 3, the Ramblers went through a stretch where they couldn’t miss. Peyton Kennedy and Brooklyn Gray each have 4 fouls, Kennedy Calhoun 3. Gotta work on not giving up the fouls.  Still a 19-13 rebounding edge for the Billikens, need to keep that up and minimize TO’s.

[Lord Elrond]

Crap, 74-72 loss. Refs jobbed them on a late call, ball went out on Loy-Chi but they called it off of SLU.

Ultimately too many fouls on SLU, too many turnovers.  Brooklyn Gray 19 pts on 9-11 shooting, but she fouled out, as did Peyton Kennedy. Kyla McMakin 11 pts, Julia Martinez with the double-double, 12 pts 14 assists (and 7 rebounds). SLU wins the rebounding battle 31-20, but lost on turnovers and fouls. Gotta work on that, doesn’t matter how many times they force a turnover if the give up more, a lot of them were on bad passes. 

[Pistol]

43 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Crap, 74-72 loss. Refs jobbed them on a late call, ball went out on Loy-Chi but they called it off of SLU.

Ultimately too many fouls on SLU, too many turnovers.  Brooklyn Gray 19 pts on 9-11 shooting, but she fouled out, as did Peyton Kennedy. Kyla McMakin 11 pts, Julia Martinez with the double-double, 12 pts 14 assists (and 7 rebounds). SLU wins the rebounding battle 31-20, but lost on turnovers and fouls. Gotta work on that, doesn’t matter how many times they force a turnover if the give up more, a lot of them were on bad passes. 

Refs jobbed them a few times in the last few minutes.

[Lord Elrond]

15 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Refs jobbed them a few times in the last few minutes.

Unfortunately correct. SLU really needed to stop them in the 3rd, but Loy-Chi couldn’t miss no matter what. Gotta stop getting so many fouls, or SLU needs to roll more players into the game to spread the fouls out among more players.

[Lord Elrond]

Missed the first half due to other commitments, UMass 38, Billikens 33. From the stats, too many turnovers and UMass took advantage. UMass also shooting near 50% from 3, need to defend that better. I’m starting to get concerned, time to put it in another gear. Got to clean up the turnovers.

Interesting, on the halftime show they had on the UMass AD and Chancellor, and it was all talk about finding a better conference affiliation for football, but it also sure sounded like if it took moving all sports to a new conference they were open to that. The only driver seemed to be football, every other sport would have to adjust if needed.  Also, it was brought up that their new Chancellor has experience with moving athletic conferences, when he was with UIC he helped get them into the MVC. Sure sounds like they want to do something, but again the driving force is football, not MBB at all.  UMass fans apparently are mad Delaware is going to CUSA as of July 2025.  There was some comment about how Delaware had to add women’s hockey to make this happen, not sure why, but it was used as “other sports have to do whatever is required to assist” in getting into a better football situation.

[Lord Elrond]

60-57 UMass after 3, Billikens flirted with the lead but couldn’t get there. Still losing the TO battle, 14-10, but UMass has capitalized well on scoring off turnovers, their 6 points there is the reason they are leading by 3. Billikens got into early foul trouble early in the 3rd. Peyton Kennedy with 18 pts including 4 3pters.