10 SPORTS BILLIKEN BRIEFS
Baseball Alumni Game SLU baseball will host its annual alumni game this Saturday, Oct. 13, at noon at The Billiken Sports Center. Admission to the game is free and batting practice wil begin at 10:30 a.m.
Men’s Basketbal Tickets on Sale Individual game tickets go on sale on Friday, Oct. 12. Individual tickets range from $12$32. SLU is offering a five-game mini-plan as well. The mini-plan, will be $99 for a General Reserved seat.
Men’s Basketball Fanfest On Saturday Oct. 13, fans will get a first glimpse of the basketball teams. The team will begin practice at 5 p.m. After practice the team will be around for autographs and pictures.
unewsonline.com
Atlantic 10 media day lays blueprint for Bills’ season
1. Saint Joseph’s 2. Saint Louis 3. VCU 4. Temple 5. Massachusetts 6. Butler 7. La Salle 8. Dayton
9. Xavier 10. Richmond 11. St. Bonaventure 12. Charlotte 13. George Washington 14. Fordham 15. Rhode Island 16. Duquesne
All Atlantic 10 first team: Kevin Dillard (Dayton), Chris Gaston (Fordham), Chaz Williams (UMass), Kwamain Mitchell (Saint Louis), Khalif Wyatt (Temple)
By TONY TRAINA Associate Sports Editor
Let the madness begin. Just days after rapper Jay-Z opened the Barclays Center with a sold-out concert, the Atlantic 10 hosted their men’s basketball media day in the new, $1 billion arena. Over 200 guests and media members were in an empire state of mind as they descended upon the new arena for a chance to see the coaches of all 16 teams together. Saint Joseph’s was picked to win the Atlantic 10, receiving 11 first-place votes. Saint Louis University followed close behind
though, receiving 10 firstplace ballots. Overall, six teams received votes to win the A-10. While SLU is an early front-runner for the league title, it will certainly be a hard knock life for them as the league added two traditional basketball powerhouses, and Temple does not leave the league until next season. Saint Joseph’s will welcome the return of all five starters from last season’s (20-14) team. Saint Joesph’s returns the best frontcourt in the A-10, led by NBA prospect C.J. Aiken. Likewise, SLU will see the return of four of their starters, only losing forward Brian Conklin. Of course, SLU is also
By CHARLES BOWLES Sports Editor
BILLIKEN SCOREBOARD
John Schuler / Photo Editor
L 2-3 W 1-0 Volleyball
W 3-1 Women’s Soccer
W 3-0 L 0-1
See “Atlantic 10” on Page 11
A-10’s new media deal By BRIAN HAENCHEN Staff Writer
The Atlantic 10 Conference has released its new TV package, which includes eight-year partnerships with ESPN, CBS Sports Network and NBC Sports Group. The agreements, which will begin in 2013-14, will provide over 192 total basketball exposures, including 146 men’s basketball appearance and coverage of both basketball championships. “Our commitment to basketball at the highest level has allowed us to leverage our national exposure in the best way possible for the Atlantic 10,” Bernadette V. McGlade, A-10 Commissioner, said in a statement released by the A-10 conference.”Par tnering with ESPN, CBS Sports Network and NBC Sports Network for the next eight years is truly a historic moment for the A-10 and its member institutions.” Up to 30 men’s basketball games will be broadcasted on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU, 54 on CBS Sports Network and 50 on NBC Sports Network. ESPN, which has sublicensed the men’s basketball championship to CBS Sports since 2010, will retain the rights to both the men’s and women’s basketball championship games. CBS Sports Network will carry the semifinals of both championships, while NBC Sports Network will produce the quarterfinals. “The Atlantic 10 is a very deep conference with a proven track record of success at the highest levels of the sport,” Burke Magnus, ESPN Senior Vice President of College
Sports Programming, said. “This long-term extension will continue to serve fans with the Conference’s premier content across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU into the next decade.” “The Atlantic 10 has been a terrific partner and we’re proud to continue showcasing action from one of the top college basketball conferences for many years,” Dan Weinberg, CBS Senior Vice President of Programming, said. “Our partnership has been an unquestioned success, and with the quality of basketball throughout the conference now stronger than ever, we’re excited to annually feature an extensive line-up of games.” The NBC Sports Group agreement includes a sixgame package for the upcoming season. Games listed on the original schedule as A-10 TV, including Saint Louis University’s games on Feb. 2 versus Dayton and March 9 vs. La Salle, will be featured on NBC Sports Network. “These agreements, which will allow our fans the ability to watch Atlantic 10 basketball on national television more than ever before, further separates and solidifies the A-10 as the best basketball-centric conference in the country,” McGlade said. “This deal also provides the A-10 increased control over future intellectual property rights and positions the league to be digital innovators. Having completed the national television agreements, my primary focus will now be on securing partnerships for the future A-10 digital network we are contemplating as well as our A-10 corporate partner program.”
Women’s soccer off to a sound start, loses to Dayton after beating Xavier
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Men’s Soccer
missing perhaps its most important piece, as coach Rick Majerus continues to recuperate in a California hospital. National media outlets in attendance, including ESPN’s Andy Katz, speculated as to if Majerus’ absence swung the pre-season voting in Saint Joseph’s favor. Interim coach Jim Crews will seek to fulfill the lofty expectations thrust upon this Billikens squad. There was certainly a palpable buzz around this season’s media day, as the A-10 further strengthened its position as the top basketball-led conference in Division I. To add to the
OCTOBER 11, 2012
Abbey Stock (20) breaks away from the Dayton defender on Sunday, Oct. 7. The women’s soccer team lost to Dayton 1-0, falling to 1-1-1 in conference play.
Returning home for the women’s soccer team had mixed consequences. The team won its first Atlantic 10 match of the season in dominating fashion at Hermann Stadium with a 3-0 victory over Xavier but followed it up with a 1-0 loss against the Dayton Flyers on Sunday. The Bills are now 1-1-1 in conference and are 3-6-3 overall. However, SLU does have four points in the conference standings, putting them in solid position after two matches. The Bills had a fantastic game against Xavier; they scored their first goal in the 22nd minute off a free kick. Alli Reimer kicked the ball to Maddie Gebauer off the free kick, who zipped it past the Xavier goalkeeper. Gebauer’s goal was her second of the year. The Bills scored their next 2 goals off corner kicks. In the 42nd minute, Jenny Hummert kicked the ball into the box and Kailey Pretzlaff easily collected the ball and put it in the net. In
the 59th minute, Hummert got another assist off a corner kick. This time Maddy Bush was there to score the goal, her first goal as a Billiken. However, the Bills faced a tough task as Dayton came into town. The Flyers controlled the game early and had a few opportunities at the net, but could not convert. The Bills did not gain possession of the ball for much of the first half. The game remained scoreless going into halftime. The Flyers, though, quickly notched their only goal off of a corner kick as Dayton’s Ashley Campbell gathered the corner kick and got the ball past the keeper. The Bills had two chances very late in the match. The first opportunity came when Gebauer’s shot at the 87:11 mark hit the goalpost. The second opportunity came off the corner kick when the Bills nearly got the ball across the line, but did not convert. Home fans groaned for a foul in the box, which would have resulted in a penalty kick, but no call was made. “Dayton is a tough team
at the top of the conference, they have some special players going forward,” Head Coach Kat Mertz said, “I thought we were giving them too much respect and not coming out and playing like we did on Friday night.” Mertz said that the last minute corner kick where there appeared to be a foul was a “referee’s call.” “On Friday we scored on [a] three-set piece so I thought we might have a chance with the last minute corner kick,” Mertz said. The women’s team will travel to Richmond, Va. on Friday to take on Virginia Commonwealth University followed by a match against the University of Richmond on Sunday. After the road trip, the Bills will return home to play Saint Joseph’s Friday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. in the “Kicks Against Breast Cancer” game. The Bills will wear pink jerseys during that game. “I think the schedule is a good schedule for us going forward, our goal is to make the A-10 tournament. We will take it one game at a time and VCU is next on our schedule,” Mertz said.
Wild Card: One game does not account for a season of planning Continued from Page 9
the fate of an entire 162game season. As Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones put it, “I think it’s stupid.” Baseball has always appealed to the statistic nerd lurking deep within all of us. The season is long and the sample size is grotesquely large (but that’s for another commentary). “The cream rises to the top,” as the cliché goes. A one-game playoff flies in the face of all that and throws away a seasons’ worth of careful scouting, planning and playing. Teams accustomed to playing in a series and battling through the dog days of summer are thrown into an arbitrary one-game gauntlet. Because of human error and baseball’s archaic antireplay laws written on stone
tablets, umpires decide a dinals played the Braves in game or two throughout the the National League’s Wild season. A team might have Card game. In that game an off day (even during the the Braves committed three playoffs) or make several errors, despite being the errors. But teams train to best fielding team in the get past these games beleague. Also in that game, cause they an umare small p i r e drops in a m a d e 1 6 2 - g a m e A one-game playoff ... a judgbucket. ment call The one- throws away a seaon an ingame playfield fly off removes son’s worth of careful call that all ability of many lathe teams planning and playing. beled as to play past questionanomalies able, to like blown censor a calls and few Georfielding ergians. rors. Any of those problems That fielding performight sway the one-game mance and that umpiring inplayoff just like any regucident were not exemplary lar season game. Unlike a of an average game. They regular season game, howwere anomalies, which ever, it really is game over, hadn’t appeared together season over. in 162 games worth of data. We all know the story Even so, they both contribby now: on Friday the Caruted to a team’s season end-
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ing. Most outside of St. Louis would agree-- it wasn’t right. The fans in Atlanta certainly let everyone know what they thought. Irate over the lackluster ending to their hero, Chipper Jones’, career, Braves fans threw trash and debris onto the field during and after their loss to the Cardinals. In a bit of irony, Jones did manage to reach base on yet another blown call from the umpires in the bottom of the 9th inning. Meanwhile, in Arlington, Texas, the Rangers played the Baltimore Orioles in the other wild card game. The Rangers had been having a rough two weeks at the end of the season, blowing a four-game division lead in the final nine games. After spending every day of the regular season in first place, they lost their division by one game on the last day and had to compete
in the one-game playoff. Baltimore went on to eliminate Texas, sending them home for good after an unfortunately timed two-week slump. The one-game playoff simply does not work for baseball. Under different circumstances, the additional wild-card team is a brilliant move. The two wild card teams should play each other in a best-of-three series. The team that wins two games first would go on to face the best team. Just a few slight changes will improve the game and keep the bitter taste of baseball injustice out of the mouths of the competitors and fans. Unfortunately for the Braves and the Rangers, the sour aftertaste will be an entire season long. For now though, St. Louisans can enjoy the sweet justice of another Red October.