Can we agree on Xavier, Butler, and Creighton

[BillikensWin]

I have made this point about SLUH elsewhere but Missouri State which is 200 miles from St. Louis has a larger presence in the city than SLUH does. When we last played them in STL in 2010-2011 we had more fans in their student section than they did. And by a wide margin.

Within the last year or so they lost their softball coach to a D2 school in Georgia. That is not big time. If you want a school that has a lot of dusty men's soccer trophies from 1960, then SLUH is for you. Otherwise pick any other reasonable option.

Softball is less than relevant in this.

[BillikenRich]

I have made this point about SLUH elsewhere but Missouri State which is 200 miles from St. Louis has a larger presence in the city than SLUH does. When we last played them in STL in 2010-2011 we had more fans in their student section than they did. And by a wide margin.
Within the last year or so they lost their softball coach to a D2 school in Georgia. That is not big time. If you want a school that has a lot of dusty men's soccer trophies from 1960, then SLUH is for you. Otherwise pick any other reasonable option.

Wow, touchy in Springfield aren't we? Southwest Missouri State didn't play at SLU last year. Do you recall why that was? Your coach reneged on a home and home and your program will never be invited back. You may have a great softball program. I've no idea. Other than the ladies actually playing the games not too many people care. Mo state fans were mistakenly given general admission seating once, a few years back. I think that about as relevant here as your basketball program is.........

[CaseyGarrisonforPrez]

I have made this point about SLUH elsewhere but Missouri State which is 200 miles from St. Louis has a larger presence in the city than SLUH does. When we last played them in STL in 2010-2011 we had more fans in their student section than they did. And by a wide margin.
Within the last year or so they lost their softball coach to a D2 school in Georgia. That is not big time. If you want a school that has a lot of dusty men's soccer trophies from 1960, then SLUH is for you. Otherwise pick any other reasonable option.

Wow, touchy in Springfield aren't we? Southwest Missouri State didn't play at SLU last year. Do you recall why that was? Your coach reneged on a home and home and your program will never be invited back. You may have a great softball program. I've no idea. Other than the ladies actually playing the games not too many people care. Mo state fans were mistakenly given general admission seating once, a few years back. I think that about as relevant here as your basketball program is.........

We don't play anymore because we straight up owned you all. We had to rearrange our schedule for a singular season and asked for SLU to give us a one year continuance. This is when this absurd notion of us backing out came up. I don't know if it was made up by Biondi, Majerus, or the AD. Or perhaps all of them. But you know that isn't the truth. We'd gladly play anyday of the week as we have in the past. And we have won.

SLU's relevence in basketball post- Charlie Spoonhour reads like this: last season and one year when you had Larry Hughes and Kenyon Martin had the misfortune of getting hurt which gave you a CUSA tournament title. That's it. Otherwise you have been a leech doing nothing but taking from whatever conference you have been in, Great Midwest, Conference USA, Atlantic 10. I can't even remember them all because they have changed so much. Meanwhile we have been achievers in our conference. Going to Final Fours, going to the College World Series, and getting a Sweet 16 in basketball.

Yes I straight up do not like SLU. I despise them with the power of perhaps 1,000 suns. But I let logic dictate my argument for your schools merits in a supposed new Catholic conference. I do not let emotion cloud my argument. I have facts.

[BillikensWin]

They bailed on the return game. How hard is that to understand?

Home and home means both teams get a home game. Mo. State got theirs, SLU did not.

Is Mo. State in the discussion and nobody knows about it?

[whiteandblue77]

Is Mo. State in the discussion and nobody knows about it?

Fans from Wichita, Carbondale and Springfield are why I hope to hell Creighton gets an invite.... can't belive a Bear fan would call anyone a "leech on a conference" this year... they were winless pre-conference and Creighton dropped 10 rpi points after beating by them by 22 in springfield.

[BillikensWin]

Is Mo. State in the discussion and nobody knows about it?

Fans from Wichita, Carbondale and Springfield are why I hope to hell Creighton gets an invite.... can't belive a Bear fan would call anyone a "leech on a conference" this year... they were winless pre-conference and Creighton dropped 10 rpi points after beating by them by 22 in springfield.

I think that pretty much sums it up. 2 years ago, SLU went 12-19 when they decided they'd rather make a political statement than win basketball games, so I'll go easy on records.

[Iceman]

It's convenient to forget that the relationship between the NCAA and NIT hasn't always been the same, and that far fewer teams used to get postseason berths. St. Louis has numerous NIT appearances during and around the 1950's. Those are arguably more prestigious than an NCAA bid now. St. Louis decidedly has a better history than VCU. VCU can only claim to have been better, and not by that much, since both teams have been playing. Over the last 20 years they really aren't that different except for the Final Four run.

Were you even alive in the '50s? I wasn't. Next!

Did I say I was? The point is just that St. Louis does have a better history, to say otherwise is, in my opinion, quite wrong.

You've got to be kidding me. Are you delusional??? How does St. Louis have a better history than VCU? VCU has played basketball 58 FEWER years than St. Louis, yet has been to 57% MORE NCAA tournaments. St. Louis has never even made it past the second round of the NCAA tournament. And before the hamster wheel in your head starts spinning and thinking "well, they done been to tha Regional Final and the Regional Semifinal back in the the 50s!"..........stop, do some research, and realize that in 1952, the tournament started in the Elite 8. They won the first round and lost in the second round. And, in 1957 they lost in the first round, then lost in the consolation game (the tournament had a different structure back then). They've won just 4 NCAA tournament games in history, and 3 of those have come since 1995. Yeah, that's some "history". St. Louis didn't win their 2nd NCAA tournament game until their 80th year of basketball. VCU's program didn't start until 1973. Yet, by their 12th year, they'd already made the tournament 5 times and won 4 games. SLU didn't win their 4th NCAA tournament game until.........oh yeah, that's right...........LAST YEAR..........their 97th year of basketball. Tell me again o' wise one how SLU's history trumps VCU's. SMH.

Next time, try using facts to support your statements, rather than hyperbole and opinion.

[Hoya]

Great game between Butler and Gonzaga last night in case you missed it. Might have been the overall best game of the season. I can't wait to have Coach Stevens and Butler in the league.

[NJRedman]

Actually, I wouldn't mind havimg UNLV to pair with Gonzaga instead of VCU. However, since that might not happen, I rather go with VCU any day over Dayton and St. Louis

Any school with a FBS football team should be off the table. That should remove UNLV and BYU from consideration. Both Saint Louis and VCU would be great adds. If we were considering 13 teams then they could both join.

With Gonzaga, we're almost better off working to help the WCC improve their programs (to compete with the Pac-12) and put together a future partnership. Maybe start with Thanksgiving and Christmas mini tourneys. Jump start the old Cable Car Classic with San Francisco and other WCC's. The WCC has a presence every Pacific coast metro area. San Diego, 2 in Los Angeles, 3 in SF-Oak-San Jose metro (4 once Pacific joins), Portland... plus Salt Lake (WCC can live with BYU football I guess) and Gonzaga (which has play in Seattle).

Problem is, the WCC is nothing w/o Gonzaga. Doing a series w/them like a "challenge" would look very mid-major. Most of them play in small high school gyms.

Exactly. We should set up a "challenge" with the Pac-12. They are also a TV property of Fox, a power conference and are easily beatable. If we can beat on them every year we can set ourselves up publicly as a national BBall power conference.

[jkc_dawgs]

If there was a "challenge" with the Pac-12 right now, this is how I see it going down from the best game to the worst.

Butler vs. Oregon
Creighton vs. Arizona
Marquette vs. UCLA
Georgetown vs. Washington
Villanova vs. Stanford
St. Louis vs. Colorado
St. John's vs. Arizona St.
Xavier vs. California
Providence vs. USC
Seton Hall vs. Washington St.
Dayton vs. Oregon St.
DePaul vs. Utah