Burwell Column with SLU

[SluSignGuy]

Column starts about the braggin rights game then ends with this....

Then on Thursday night, we might have an even better show, with the green but growing St. Louis University Billikens continuing their demanding nonconference schedule with a home game against eighth-ranked Gonzaga. There are a lot of reasons why this game ought to fill up Savvis, starting with wide-eyed SLU supporters getting a vision of what the future could look like when a Jesuit school of modest background dreams really big.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few has turned the Zags into a legit top-10 team, and he comes to town with the biggest attraction of the week in tow - the leading scorer in the country, 6-foot-8 superstar Adam Morrison.

Morrison is a brash kid with moppy hair, which falls across his face like sweaty black streaks, and the wispy new growth of facial hair on his lip - we hesitate to call it a "mustache" because it is probably the thinnest, ugliest mustache in basketball since Larry Bird sported that faint, blond growth back in the early '80s.

Feel free to make fun of the hirsute stylings of Morrison, but at the end of the night, when he's probably dropped 30 or 40 points on the Billikens (he has a 28.5 average), you'll probably end up dropping your jaw in awe and shaking your head in amazement, because the kid is worth the price of admission. Former SLU head coach Lorenzo Romar called him "the best player in the country" after Morrison lit up Romar's Washington Huskies for 43 points two weeks ago, flicking in jumpers off the glass (just like Bird), pounding the boards (just like Bird) and shooting that nerveless jumper that starts near his right ear, but seems to always end up swishing through the nets (yeah, just like Bird).

[AKZAG]

Adam did recently cut his hair - at least back to a Prince Valiant cut. But the pseudo-'stache is sticking around for a while.

Looks like you are lining up a good crowd for the game. I hope they all fall in love with your program and back it to the hilt - although I have to root for a Zag victory first.