It’s that time of the year when the campaign season kicks off. No, not Barack, Hillary or Rudy. The real campaign season is listening to the real guys who have a hard time telling the truth … basketball coaches.
That’s right, coaches. You see, this is that time of the year when you will start to hear coaches politic for the teams in their conference that should go to the NCAA basketball tournament.
The only problem is that many teams are not worthy. You will have coaches in a 12-team conference tell you that at least 8 to 10 teams should be in the tournament. Who’s kidding whom here? Most of these teams have nothing coming. This whole charade is about money. The more teams that one conference can get into a tournament, the more money the league and the school make.
OK, I can see that logic, but you do not have to have seen every game on ESPN to determine that there are not enough teams that merit such attention, especially those who are teetering on the .500 mark. Teams will get about $300,000 per round they advance. If a conference can get four teams in, they start the clock at over one million dollars before you even take a dribble. And with each round the revenue gets bigger.
This will be somewhat of a dry season for hoop fans when it comes to going to the tournament. Both Saint Louis University and Missouri will need to play out of their minds down the stretch in order to receive a bid.
Missouri was going to have a struggle no matter what. A new coach with not enough good players is not an ideal combination. Mike Anderson has made the most out of it, and some players have improved from previous seasons. It is still a work in progress. They still play hard, and seldom do they roll over and decide not to play defense. Look for Mizzou to be a difference-maker next season.
As for Saint Louis University, Tommy Liddell, Kevin Lisch and Dwayne Polk are all they have. That is not enough. They knew it going into the season, and things have not improved. Too many bad losses to bad teams in a bad conference will cost the Billikens.
The heat is on the staff. They have a number of scholarships, and they could ill afford to mess any of them up. There are some pretty good local high school players they need to get, but that will be hard considering they have not made the best impact so far. Don’t be fooled by what you hear on whom they will get. The Billikens are second or third on the wish list of some of these players. That won’t get it.
This has not been the best years for the Bills. Starting with being in a conference that made no sense from the start, to no real TV deal, to overall average teams are why SLU is having a tough time. With a new arena coming on line, here are a few suggestions:
Go to the boosters and solicit funds to buy your way out of the Atlantic 10 Conference. Whatever it takes. It’s not like these teams are that much better than the Bills, but come on. These are just teams with very little going for themselves. No tradition that anyone from St. Louis would care about, but then again I bet they would say that about St. Louis, which is why this marriage doesn’t work.
Once that situation is resolved, get the paperwork out to apply to the Missouri Valley. You Know the Valley. The conference that makes it headquarters in St. Louis. The conference that has its conference tournament in St. Louis and the conference that features nationally ranked teams on a regular basis. The conference where games are within driving distance for those who want to follow their team.
Yeah, that conference!
This should not be that hard for a school of such high academic values to figure out. The money you would save on travel to the East Coast alone would be one good reason to make the switch. St. Louis may even get a few more players from the area to stay, who knows? I know the current plan has been a failure. Let’s not turn it into a disaster. SLU is moving to the hot seat when it comes to local credibility.
The clock is ticking.