An unfortunate new view of SLU

Having a friend in St. Louis and a free weekend, I decided to pack up my wife and a friend and take a road trip for the Marquette-SLU game the other week. The actual driving could not have been more boring. After Rockford, I believe the actual grade of the land must not have fluctuated once for about 5 hours. I have driven through Iowa before, and this part of Illinois is worse. We passed through Normal and Bloomington and Springfield and Atlanta... Atlanta? To pass the time, my buddy and I decided to look at an Atlas and see just how many names of towns Illinois has ripped off. A short list: Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Detroit, Omaha, Trenton, Camden, San Jose, El Paso, Paris, Rome, Cairo, Glasgow, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, etc. etc. etc. Who thought it was a good idea to name a town El Paso, Illinois?

Another side note... Springfield, Illinois has by far the worst Taco Bell I have ever stepped foot in. We waited at least 25 minutes for our chalupas, burritos and gorditas, and the place wasn't even busy. It was also very dirty. If you happen to be driving through Springfield for some reason, please avoid the Taco Bell. There's a nice looking Cracker Barrell right across the street.

At any rate, we got down to Saint Louis, and had a really nice time. One highlight was a great microbrewery with an interesting (European-influenced) menu. Schlafley's is the name of the joint. I highly recommend it. Try the coffee stout-- excellent. We had a very nice time, and I really liked St. Louis.

The game was anything but great. Diener was out with a stress fracture, most of our players were deathly sick with the flu, and MU couldn't hit a shot to save itself... except Novak. Somehow, we came back and won in double OT, which was improbable, but a welcome outcome.

My biggest beef about the game was SLU's band. The band played the drums fairly loudly DURING game action. For example, when we were at the FT line, the drums drummed. When our shot clock was running down (which seemed to happen often, considering how inept we played), the drums drummed. In fact, the conductor actually conducted the drums to do so. I have never EVER seen this happen before, and I have to think this is a violation of Conference USA rules, or at the very least, bad sportsmanship.

In addition, during a timeout, the meager SLU student section pathetically chanted and pointed at our fearless leader with the stress facture. It was something along the lines of, "Hey, Diener, Hey Diener, YOU SUCK!" All I could think about was how much we would be ripping them apart if that sucky Diener was healthy and playing.

I used to really root for SLU. It is a Jesuit school very similar to Marquette. It is located in the middle of a city very similar to Milwaukee (Midwest middle-sized, beer town). Although it doesn't have nearly the basketball history Marquette does, it has had some good years in the past. Well, after reading the Billikens' message board bashing Marquette at every turn (they claim Marquette "betrayed" them by joining the Big East-- whatever), after seeing the unsportsmanlike conduct of the SLU band, and after listening to SLU's pathetic 63-person student section, I'm rethinking my silent fandom.

Bottom line is that we host SLU the last week of the season. This may be the last time we play in a few years. It will be Diener night... I mean Senior Night. I am really looking forward to that game. We will see just who it is that sucks then.