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Non Con Sched (Official Release)


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 8, 2006

Men’s Basketball Contact: Doug McIlhagga

BILLIKENS HOST TAR HEELS TO HIGHLIGHT NON-CONFERENCE SLATE

Missouri State and Mississippi visit Savvis Center

ST. LOUIS—The Saint Louis University department of athletics today announced its 2006-07 men’s basketball non-conference schedule highlighted by the Billikens entertaining North Carolina at Savvis Center on Fri., Dec. 22. The Billikens will face four teams that earned NCAA Tournament bids and four that received NIT invites last spring. SLU also will face regional rivals and Missouri Valley Conference powers Southern Illinois and Missouri State.

“We spent more time analyzing scheduling and its relationship with the RPI in an effort to provide the best schedule possible in our quest to make the NCAA Tournament,†Billikens head coach Brad Soderberg said. “We believe that we have a good blend of top teams like North Carolina with other programs that are traditionally strong within their leagues. Now, we need to go out and take care of business by beating some of those top teams.â€

Saint Louis opens the regular season against Quincy University on Sat., Nov. 11, at Savvis Center. After the home opener, the Billikens play a demanding six-game stretch that begins at the Shelby Metcalfe Classic at Texas A&M during the weekend of Nov. 17-19 in College Station. SLU will face 2006 NCAA invitee Texas A&M, NIT qualifier Louisiana Tech and Lamar. The Bills return to Savvis to entertain Houston on Sat., Nov. 25, and will return the date to the Cougars in January. The Bills close their November schedule by visiting Loyola (Ill.) on Wed., Nov. 29 and open December by visiting defending MVC champion Southern Illinois on Sat., Dec. 2.

Saint Louis closes 2006 by playing five of six games at Savvis Center. Former Billiken assistant coach Derek Thomas leads his Western Illinois club into Savvis on Sat., Dec. 9, before SLU goes to defending Big West champ Pacific on Tue., Dec. 12. The Bills host Tennessee-Martin on Sat., Dec. 16, and Missouri State on Mon., Dec. 18. All-America candidate Tyler Hansbrough leads the Tar Heels into Savvis on the 22nd, and SLU closes out the month by entertaining Ole Miss and new head coach Andy Kennedy on Sat., Dec. 30.

The Billikens begin their second season in the A-10 in January with those dates still to be announced. SLU will play home-and-home games with Dayton, Rhode Island and Xavier. The Bills will also host Charlotte, Duquesne, George Washington, La Salle and Richmond. Meanwhile, the Billikens’ other road games are at Temple, Saint Joseph’s, St. Bonaventure, Massachusetts and Fordham.

Saint Louis played a challenging schedule last season with its schedule strength rated 88th in the RPI. In its inaugural season in the A-10, SLU finished 16-13 overall and tied for third in conference play with a 10-6 mark.

The Billikens will play two exhibition games at Savvis Center on Fri., Nov. 3, against Missouri-St. Louis and Wed., Nov. 8, against Harris Stowe University. Season ticket information is available by calling (314) 977-4SLU or by visiting www.slubillikens.com. Single-game ticket information will be available at a later date.

— www.slubillikens.com —

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Western Illinois seems to be the only real RPI-killer on there, but they should be better this year. Tennessee-Martin and Lamar aren't great ones, either, but wouldn't really hurt unless we lost. The one that surprised me was Quincy- are they even a D1 team? I don't get it.

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i wish the quincy and tennessee martin games werent on the schedule, and two more rpi worthy teams were there (something in the 150-200 range or better) but all in all that is a decent schedule.

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lamar cant be helped as they are in the tourney.

since western illinois is a regional team, i can live with it. plus, derrick is an old friend of the program and there are a few local kids playing there.

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but if we cant get them, play the regional teams like a western illinois or semo or eastern illinois, etc. that is my point. dont bring in tennessee martin and dont bring in a division II school that wont even count on the final record.

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it seems to be that scheduling the Quincys, tennessee-Martins, and Western Illinois of the world do not make a whole lot of sense but I understand the constrictions an athletic department must be under. What happened to the rumored game with Utah State? That would have been much better to me then at least Quiny.

So, these are last season's RPIs: Quincy University -- no rank (not an NCAA Divison 1 school); Texas A&M #44; Louisiana Tech #74; Lamar #191; Houston #49; Loyola (Ill.) #137; Western Illinois #318; Pacific #87; Southern Illinois #37; Tenn-Martin #224; Missouri State #22; Ole Miss #151 and of course the big boy UNC at # 14.

Saint Louis finished at #103 (at least in the rpi I looked at on ESPN). Granted, just because they had these scores last year doesn't mean that it will be just as good or just as bad, but the home schedule is not that impressive in my book: Quincy, Houston, Western Illinois, Tenn-Martin, Missouri State, North Carolina and Ole Miss. I'l take the last three but the first four I could do without with maybe an exception for Houston. I do like bringing Derek back and maybe this game will show just how many of those "great" players we let get away to Western as Vee likes us to believe.

Based on this schedule, we cannot affort to lose any of those first four home games and it would behoove us to win two of the other three. It would be even greater if we could knock off the TarHeels and I think that's doable right now. Winning two of three at the Metcalfe Classic, splitting the Illinois games in Chicago and Carbondale seems reasonable although winning on the road has been tough for this program, don't like the idea of playing at Pacific and see that as a loss and can only hope for a win at Houston in the return game. If we go 6 and 1 at home say, and 3 and 4 on the road, the non-con record is 9 and 5.

I think that's doable what with a returning backcourt and a true big man in the middle. That might be too optimistic for me for my buddies like skip to believe. Hopefully, this is the case and we see one of the three freshmen big guys contribute or JJ has that long-awaited epiphany. Maguire gets a role and DB and DP get better. Can't wait.

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They may be regional but last year Eastern Illinois has an RPI of 309 and SEMO was 313. Absolute killers. Tennessee Martin, on the other hand was 224. While last year is no guarantee of what will happen this year I'd much rather play one team ranked 224 than two teams 300+. Regional or otherwise.

This schedule is very well done from an RPI standpoint, i just wish we had a new home and home contract with a BCS school...

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If you are going to go on the road you want them to be at least decent teams. Last year UMKC had an RPI of 264 and SEMO was 313. That is just bad.

UMKC was better back then and even had an NBA caliber player (Dumas i believe).

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I'll still enjoy the Quincy game. They are always very competitive. They're returning their leading scorer, Ryan Walker. They also have two big men with D1 experience. They have 6-10 Cody Stoneburner who played behind Tyler Hansbrough on the STL Eagles and had 3 D1 offers (Nebraska, Tulsa, and Evansville), but still chose Quincy. They start 6-3 combo guard Cameron Murkey from Gateway Tech. He'll be extremely pumped to play against old PHL rival Dwayne Polk, and old AAU teammate Tommie Liddell. I can't forget about 6-1 Marlon Jackson from Moberly C.C. He was arguably their best player, and was a major factor in them being one of the best JUCO programs in the country for the past two years.

This won't be an easy win for the Billikens.

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Oh, come on! I guess the Bills will struggle to get any win they can this year. They'll be lucky to win a game! Even if Quincy is destined to win the Div. II championship, if the Billikens are any good -- good enough to compete for the Atlantic 10 championship -- they should win handily, with every eligible player on the roster playing, including Peyton Jacks and Wendell Bennett.

Just because you like the players on the other team doesn't mean they're good enough to give a quality, focused Div. I team a particularly hard time.

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Am I missing something or is it not strange that we are playing Houston twice considering it is not a conference game? I don't think they were involved in the tourney at A & M. Is it that they could not find someone to play a game and Houston had the same problem and we are just going to play them twice? Whats the reasoning behind this?

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The Billikens certainly better respect Quincy (and UMSL and Harris-Stowe). They can't lolly-gag. But Quincy shouldn't be able to beat SLU at SLU if the Billikens are healthy and play an average game. An Anchorage win at home over any jet-lagged Div. I team doesn't suggest that it's particularly likely that a Div. II team -- even a championship team -- could beat a healthy and focused top 100 Div. I team.

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