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Originally Posted by Chiefspants
To the contrary, St. Louis and Wichita State have been performing at a similar caliber for the last few decades. Since 2006, Wichita State has only averaged 1.5 more wins per season than SLU and both teams only made the tournament in each of the last two seasons.
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And their levels of tournament success are the same, right? Little bit of a difference there.
WSU has been a consistently good basketball program for about 15 years, starting with Turgeon taking over and continuing with Gregg Marshall. Who is an excellent basketball coach and has proven he can reload his roster and continue to find success. Jim Crews still needs to show he can do that for SLU.
Side note: Marshall was my favored choice to replace Anderson when he left for Arkansas.
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Originally Posted by Scott Pilgrim
I would say the biggest change in the program was the on campus arena/practice facility. that building has changed everything and it aint going anywhere. the current freshman class is as good as all but one of RM obviously they are not the minutes due to starting 5 seniors (the one great RM class) but they are shining when out there. I would bet the farm that SLU will be back in the tournament not next year (losing 5 seniors starters does that) but the next. with Mizzou's generally weak non conference schedule there is no reason not to do a 1-1-1 one game in both home arenas and one in Scot trade or more than likely the dome. lot of money to be made for both programs
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The class that had Willie Reed and Kwamain Mitchell in it was pretty excellent for SLU. Either of those guys would have contributed for this team as a freshman and played more minutes than Manning or Barnett.
As far as the bolded part, here's the thing. Mizzou is going to play 12-13 nonconference games as part of its schedule year-to-year.
1 of those is going to be the Bragging Rights Game against Illinois. More on that in a minute.
1 of those is going to be part of the SEC/Big 12 challenge. This can be home or away.
5-8 of those will be home games to fill out the home schedule and complete a season ticket package. 5/year are locked down as pure home games. On years when Mizzou isn't competing in a preseason tourney of some sort (because of NCAA limits), they fill the schedule space with home games.
3-4 will be held open to compete in a preseason tournament
2 will be used for ongoing home-home series with other big conference teams like UCLA or NC State. Previously, they held 1 game for this in the nonconference schedule, but are planning to do 2 moving forward because the conference schedule isn't as strong.
That doesn't leave room for a home-and-home series against a midmajor.It's a numbers game. If it was a 2 or 3 for 1, Mizzou could have enough flexibility to do it. But it's not -and should not - going to commit to a home-and-home with an in-state mid-major, especially one that has been as inconsistent as SLU.
Not when the opportunity cost is sacrificing the scheduling flexibility to participate in a strong preseason tournament or not having a slot to play a home-and-home against teams like UCLA or NC State.
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Originally Posted by Rams Fan
2010-2011 was a season straight out of a hell. At least two of the team's top players were involved with alleged rape(which I believe turned out to be a false claim of rape as Mitchell was cleared and redshirted that season) and that was Majerus' only season under .500 as HC in 20+ years as a HC. Ever.
I think Crews has made huge strides in recruiting. Yes, the recruiting class from last year isn't great, but that's due to staff not recruiting in the fall due to Majerus' absence.
SLU has 3 commits so far for next year, 1 of which should be an immediate upgrade over the projected starting center next year(Manning or Agbeko). Next year, Crews has to show how SLU can play with his players. Losing Jett, Evans, Loe, and McCall is definitely a huge blow, but I think at least Loe can be replaced(I like how he's progressed, but that doesn't mean he isn't replaceable). Losing Evans might hurt more than Jett, but Jett's defensive game is pretty damn good. And his offensive game has improved as well.
Losing Barnett shouldn't be a problem either, though he has played better as of late.
But, there's no reason for Mizzou to play SLU, unless it's at a neutral court(i.e: Sprint Center, though it would probably be predominantly Mizzou basketball fans).
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Next year and the year after will be very tellling for Crews. He must prove he and his staff can recruit unranked players who play well above their ranking.
Reynolds and Roby at least have some other respectable offers (LSU, Iowa, Vanderbilt - all coaches who can ID talent).
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Originally Posted by Rams Fan
There's absolutely no benefit for Mizzou playing SLU in St. Louis, even at Scottrade.
I do agree with your point about Chaifetz Arena, though. It creates a much better atmosphere for SLU games. While it usually doesn't sell out until later in conference play, it at least seems more filled than playing at the larger Scottrade Center.
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You're exactly right. That benefits SLU, not Mizzou.
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Originally Posted by Scott Pilgrim
What's the point of playing any game? It helps recruiting in St Louis because it will get lots of attention more than the bragging rights game because in St Louis Illinois is not nearly as popular as SLU that's one positive... It's a great rpi game that's 2.
And it actually gets you prepared for the conference schedule which obviously Mizzou needed. Only drawback is you could possibly lose the game but is losing to SLU really a negative pre new arena era made since now not so much
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Only on Billikens.com can you sell the idea that a Mizzou/SLU matchup would get more attention than Missouri/Illinois... a nationally branded rivalry game that is on prime time ESPN every year. Get out of here with that stuff.
We'll see how popular SLU is next season. And we'll see what its RPI is next season.