billikenfan05 Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 "I was on fire, I was hotter than a pistol" Jason McElwaine If theres no SLU basketball in heaven I'm not going!!!!!! Official Billikens.com Sponsor of Chris Sloan and Billiken Volleyball and Official Billiken.com Online Video Guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NashvilleBilliken Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 Big win for the conference. Drew Lavendar is a hell of a player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealisticBilliken Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 Just checked out the Top 25 rankings and Dayton was the only A-10 team to get any votes for either poll, with a grand total of 2. How does anyone expect this league to be a 2 bid conference with the futility of non-conference play? I suppose if Dayton or Xavier go on a run, they could possibly make it as an at large team. I know the common response will be "STOP BEING SO NEGATIVE, ITS STILL EARLY!!" but come on, noone has done it thus far, and does anyone see the A-10 conference schedule swaying any tourny selection committee minds? A-10 teams have been blown the heck out in nearly, if not every, Top 25 game they've played. From a purely objective view, I hate to say it but I don't really see any way we make the tourny without winning the A-10, its just too weak of a conference. If we had a 9-3 record goin into C-USA play, I would definitly say we would have a shot at this point, but not the A-10. We have no chance at any more marquee wins, we have 2 blow out losses to top 25 teams, and play in one of the lower mid-major conferences. Someone please show me a way to make the tourny now that makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 Way too early to predict how many bids the A10 might get. The wild card here is what happens in the one bid conferences end of the year tourneys. If for example int he Horizon Butler does not win the tourney then that conf gets 2 bids if Butler wins they get 1 bid. This is just an example that will play out in several other conferences. Everytime something like this happens, the pool of at-large berths is decreased and it makes it harder for the A10 to get at-large births. Let the season progress and we will see what is happening around the country and in the A10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 lower mid major conferences ... I'd love to see your rankings of the mid majors Official Billikens.com sponsor of H Waldman Official Sponser of the Stemmler and Ahearn could and would have helped club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 ... and Fran Fraschilla was echoing what's being said above. That essentially its " a down year for the A10." He was making this statement in relationahip to Xavier's record and schedule to date. He said that short of next week's KState game with the return of Huggy to Cincy, the Illinois game was X's only real chance of posting any noticable wins on its ledger to impress the selection committee should they fail to win the A10. One would also have to assume that is true for anybody in the A10, including us. It IS way too early to call but with all the talk going that way, the justifications for making the A10 a one-bid conference have already been planted. At worst, my opinion is that its a two-bid league in the making. I think with the tournament in a non-home court environment (i.e NOT Dayton and NOT Cincinnati), any one of maybe three or four teams could win it. If the winner of the AC Tourney is the #1 seed from the season, then I think it will be a one-and-done. However, if its a #2 or #3 or whatever seed, and the #1 has a twenty-one or twenty-two wins records, it could mean two. I didn't watch the whole game and what I saw did not make me want to jump up and say Lavendar is that super, but it was painfully obvious that this is not the same Illinois team we have become used to over the last few years. On the other hand, I did not see anything that made me go "wow! Who's gonna beat Xavier this year?" Duncan is still Duncan and is a guard in a 6'10" body. Doellman has not changed much over the four years he's been there. Burrell is still way too streaky and seems thisclose to being a head case, and Cage is Cage. The subs were nothing to crow about and Johnny Wolf is still the worst example of a Divison 1 scholarship player that side of Randy Pulley. What frustrates me most is that we beat them twice last year with essentially the same team we have now. I doubt that happens this year but it demonstrates to me how close one nice recruit added to last year's roster would ahve been and how much that would have meant. I also caught the beginning of the USF/Wake game. Wake's center went from averaging something like one shot a game last year in 3.8 minutes to some sort of early season monster on the boards and in the scorebook. I thin his name is Visser. Anyway, just goes to show that hope springs eternal still for guys believing in unknowns like Bryce. Of course, that's elsewhere and this is Billiken basketball ...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 just a reminder realistic, polls have nothing to do with ncaa bids. watch the rpi. anything under 40 is almost a sure thing. that is the best guage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 shows the lack of preparation that these announcers do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealisticBilliken Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 Agreed. but to further solidify my point, we don't have any sub 40 rpi teams correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealisticBilliken Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 l Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 .. Ijust didn't post it because I couldn't remember all that he said and I couldn't remember the rest of the schedule for X. Franny did say that the win over Nova was a good one, but then went down the schedule showing what they had done against who. I think he also mentioned that losing to Creighton was a bad one, with Cicny being good or bad, depending on if they won or lost (I think they lost). In any case, what he was saying was that because the A10 is so "down" this game was the last chance they had, along with beating KState, because the rest of their season would be the poor, poor, decadent A10. His conclusion was that based on where X was at that point, they had to win out over both the Illini and KState to counter IF they don't win the A10 automatic bid. Again, another guy planting the seeds for the mid- and low-majors getting one bid only. And someone has already pointed out the fact of what happens if Butler is upset in their tourney. You can't leave the Bulldogs out based on their work to date but no way two from the Horizon merit consideration. To me, its the big boys posturing for the big boys to maintain club membership. I also heard seven from the Mountain West. The rich get richer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 31, 2006 Share Posted December 31, 2006 Who are the 7 from the Mountain West? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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