schedule rumor

[billiken_roy]

i heard a rumor last nite that north carolina will indeed play us in a home and away series in order to fulfill a promise to tyler hansborough to play a game near home.

[TEE]

that would be great, I guess we would go to Chaple Hill next season becasue TH would only be a frosh and UNC would maybe wan't the front end of that series at their place. quite a change for Roy Williams, last time he brought a team here he got beat and vowed never to bring a team back.

[STLfan]

If we go to UNC first and they come here the next year. North Carolina would be a fun way to open the new arena.

[Cowboy]

has Tyler qualified?

I have heard he has not.

[Taj79]

While I agree with your thought process, I think this would be a game that 12K seats could not hold. Even if it were the case, and the BiondiDome was up, I could see Savvis coming into play for this one and the extra 10K bodies and the money that would mean.

[TEE]

wow didn't really take the new arena into context.

if ground was broken this summer, big if, it might be ready for the the 06'-07' season, but savvis would be logical, because if we have a 13k seat arena that is potentially very hostile, with the angle of the student section behind the basket as steep as it is planned it would be like shooting into a wall of blue/white for visiting teams, UNC/RW would rather play a game a savvis, bigger crowd, tournament feel.

if we are as potentially good as we might be, play the game around xmas of 06, like the night before the MU/UI game just as the SLU/KU game a few years back.

[slu72]

What would be even better would be if Ben, if he's good enough, would be in Billiken Blue.

[thetorch]

We better wrap this up quick. Tyler will not be at NC for long if at all.

[willie]

If your talking about the NBA I remember the same thing being said about David Lee. College is a whole new ballgame.

[STLfan]

"if we have a 13k seat arena that is potentially very hostile"

Exactly why it would be better to play in our own arena if it is built by then. I understand the more seats in savis argument but if we are building our own place we should play all of our home games there. 13,000 is plenty big. That's what the Heanes Center in Columbia used to seat and they did fine in it for the past 30+ years. Even their new arena only holds 2,000 more than that. I don't see any reason why we couldn't play big name opponets at our own place.

[billiken_roy]

what will be great is we will have multiple options. 13k for most games, if the scheduling works we can move bigger games to the savvis (23k) or even the eddydome (a million).

[billiken_roy]

i loved lee in high school, but i think hansborough is so much physically stronger than lee was in high school. hansborough is as good right now as what lee is right now imo.

[willie]

Don't forget Lee won the slam dunk contest at the McDonalds game. All I'm saying is let's just wait and see how good he really is. {there was talk of Lee being the first white kid to jump from highschool}

[TEE]

if the arena is ready(hopefully) for the 06-07 season and we have a team such as UNC on the schedule I would hope that it would be in the new building, I also realize that sometimes games are played on "neutral" sites. I also know that trying to put together big games becomes a rather large fiasco when it really shouldn't. When you break it down it should be "yeah will play you at our place and will go to your place here are our dates, what are your's." Unfortunately sometimes you get too many cooks in the kitchen. Two examples, SLU/Mizzou: while Doug was still here the series was basically agreed to, Doug/Alden on board, Quin finally yielded. Something like playing at Columbia and the return game would be at the Dome, Laurie got involved and wanted the STL game at Savvis(his place) full well knowing that Quinn didn't want the STL game on SLU's floor. Second: a Dome doubleheader for this season as a final four tune up for the Valley and the Dome, SLU v. Notre Dame essentially agreed to, the next game took some work it was going to be Arizona and Duke, when CBS got involved for the TV they took it over and basically got Duke and Arizona to agree upon a 2 game series starting next year. Thus sinking the doubleheader idea

Those are just two examples of how screwed up scheduling a game in college basketball can become.

[cheeseman]

Unless we all start giving now to the arena it won't be ready for 2006/07. All the more reason to start giving something even if it is small to double down. The Universitas arrived today and has an article about the brick program - I have not had time to read it yet.

[billiken_roy]

no offense cheeseman, but us small timers cant build the arena. if some bigtime laurielike boosters dont step up, it will take 100,000 $500 bricks to raise the $50 million to start the project. the longer this goes on, the dumber slu looks for even announcing the project when they did without having the big donors done first.

[gister]

But you can't sit by and say that "I'm not going to contribute until most of the money is collected or until I see the big donors stepping forward". It all counts and the more contributors there are, no matter how small, the easier it is to convince the large contributors that there is a lot of interest out there.

[billiken_roy]

i will give my normal donation this year which is more than enough to buy a brick. however, i wont donate until i know how my donation will go towards my points and future seats selection process. because it would p!ss me off to no end to write the check, then later in the process they say if anyone (whether they have already bought or not) donates a different method they get more points or preferred seating.

sorry if that sounds selfish, but if i only have so much to give, and i will give the same amount each year, i have to play it out. the problem i see is this whole thing is either coming out in piecemeal in an effort to try to visit "the well" as much as possible, or else they are just making it up as they go along. either way isnt too impressive.

[cheeseman]

Gister - you are absolutely correct.

[Taj79]

... if UNC comes and we have the BiondiDome, then I want it played there and screw the extra seats.

But as someone above notes, scheduling can get interesting and money talks ... bullshat ... like opening our new home ... walks ..... I can see Roy bringing the kid home, but with as much cachet in his pocket as possible. And that cachet might be to get it out of our direct confines and into a "less hostile' environment.

If you played it at Savvis, all the front running St. Louis folks would show for the entertainment show and not be true Bills backers unless it got close to an upset and local support swelled for the "underdog." That's frankly a huge if and it plays better into Roy's desire for a less-than-completely-hostile situation.

[slufanskip]

Roy ... you don't really think Tyler is as good right now as David Lee do you?

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[tseugnekillib]

.

[AB34]

If they come, UNC should come here next year because we'd have no momentum from this season. And we can't sell out big game anyway. Crying out loud, we couldn't sell out the Mizzou-SLU game in 2001, and I don't think the KU-SLU game was sold out either. Arizona last year too. I know UNC may be a bigger name, but I don't think we'll pull 15+ for that game. I hope we could, but I doubt it.

All speculation anyway. Next year we've got Iowa and Gonzaga here and a road trip to Hawaii, which I would bet would include a stop at a West Coast school to pick up a game while traveling (UCLA, USC, USF, San Diego, St. Mary's?). Then I bet Brad schedules soft for the other four or five games, of which SIU or Missouri State probably will be one.

So I have a feeling this rumor won't come true.

[TEE]

MU/SLU at savvis in 01, a. 20,602 not a sellout but darn close.

KU/SLU at savvis in 98, 4 22,527 a sellout, more than MU/UI the night before.

[TEE]

not sure where the 4 came from, God I'm bored