Leaderboard

So with Javonte, Gibson, Fred, Parker, Pickett and Hargrove on the wing you guys think it will be hard for Thames to give Yuri a 5-10 min breather in which all Thames has to do is bring the ball up, initiate the offense with a pass and play solid defense?

Getting anybody who is significantly less than DeAndre Jones is pointless. That player can't help us.

The more I think about it the less I care about a back up pg. Lets get real if Yuri goes down for any significant amount of time are we really going to get a pg who could still guide us to the tourney at this point? Probably not. Like most teams in the A10 if we lose an all conference performer it's hard to have someone to step right in and carry on. Even if Perkins was healthy last year, I don't believe we'd have made the tourney with Jones replacing Yuri.

I agree. Even last year with Jones, how many games do we lose if Yuri is out completely? Jones was a + in my book, but if we have to rely heavy on a backup this season, the record will suffer. Dior Johnson ain’t coming here. The statement of “learn from Yuri” for a year and take over has earmarks of a less than desired point guard transfer. Give Thames a shot. If we don’t want to use him, then why give him a scholarship? He can learn for a year and then take over next year.

I tried to lump these ideas together for aggregation purposes. I got rid of guys who were just hired at other programs like Marcus Wilson and Butch Pierre, but kept most of the ones mentioned above and added a few. Former Players: Brian Conklin, Kevin Lisch (AC - Sydney Kings), Anthony Drejaj (HC - Linden HS), Danny Brown (HC - University of Health Sciences & Pharmacy in St. Louis), Corey Frazier (BBE, Overtime Elite, skill & development coach), Jamall Walker (AC - Grand Canyon), Larry Hughes (LHBA), Justin Tatum (HC - CBC), Erwin Claggett (HC - SLUH), Anthony Bonner (minister), Drew Diener (HC - Rockhurst) Former A10 coaches: Ashley Howard, Matt McCall, Jamion Christian Former Ford assistants: James Dickey (retired after OSU), Tim Maloney (HS), Steve Middleton (HS), Adam Ginsburg (AC - NYU), James Altman (AC - NYU) St. Louis area ties: Bob Sundvold (HC - UMSL), Jay Spoonhour, Jon Harris Retired/inactive coaches: Cuonzo Martin, Jim Christian, Bruce Weber, Kevin Stallings, Pat Baldwin Coaches on staff elsewhere: Barry Hinson (analyst - Oklahoma State), Matt Fraschilla (AC - Harvard), Joe Pierre, III (AC - Liberty) Did I miss anyone? Who else should we add who hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread?

Thames had an early offer from SLU, he certainly wasn’t brought in to just fill a roster spot. It seems like the one with a “small major” mentality is you... I, unlike you apparently, trust in our coaches ability to assess talent.

i sure dont remember this sort of stress by the masses when freshman yuri was thrust into the starting role in his second game. what's the difference? in fact we are only wondering about thames as a backup maybe 5-10 minutes a game. yuri became the college untested starter the second game? it isnt like thames comes with no high school pedigree.

If Thames couldn't go to a low major and average 8 and 2, we wouldn't have signed him that early. Phillip Russell left here and averaged 13.5 ppg and 3 the very next year.

Links! Program note: sorry if there's a drop in quality. As you'll hear in the episode, I have been homebound for the last 48 hours with an injury from a nasty bike crash Sunday. I recorded this from my bed under the influence of heavy medication. Big time respect to Momo for doing this interview. English is his second language and doing a zoom interview doesn't make things easier for him. I realized about 5 minutes into this interview this was a Peter heavy one. Partially due to me being medicated and my humor not translating across language barriers. So we mutually agreed I was more of a passenger for this. New interview with incoming SLU freshman big man @c1sse_momo4: -Starting basketball late -Playing in Monaco -How he ended up in Arizona -The meaning of family -Becoming a shooter -American vs. Euro game -Senegalese food (near campus!) SLU landed a gem in Momo. Check it out! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/midtown-madness-podcast/id1552953967#episodeGuid=2fc556bd-ec01-4f54-91e0-6da3286ddac3

Thanks, added those - except Muller (who swears he's retired), Haith (just hired at Memphis), Fly (just hired at Mizzou), and Lusk (I just think getting a power conference AC to take a non-power conference AC job isn't realistic without special circumstances).

What a fit that is. Holy cow

Its not so much about Trust at this point. Too much unknown between how healthy Perks is, same with Fred tbh. Along with Kramer and Kellen being true frosh, why gamble with that? Take the safe route, grab someone even if that players numbers aren't flashy, then hope Kellen or Kramer or Fred emerge and really take off with the backup position. Can you imagine the uproar if our issue next season is that we never got someone who can backup Yuri and pocketed the last scholarship.

Season 2 of the Midtown Madness has more or less come to an end. As we enter the Summer Peter and I would like to first thank @SluSignGuyfor allowing us to pimp our show on this platform and being incredibly supportive of our show and content. Second, this would not be possible without the posters, readers and lurkers of this message board. Billiken Twitter is growing by the day but this is still the major gathering place for die-hard Billiken fans and I would assume ground zero of our listener base. We would probably put out Billiken content regardless of how many listens or views we get, but not only does it make it easier on the psyche to know people appreciate your work but also it helps us attract financial support of sponsor(s) and isn't donated by listeners. Barring a magical decade run of multiple final fours, I don't think our show will ever be a source of steady income to either of us but running it in the black is a lot more sustainable than the red. Looking back to the past of the "relationship" Peter and I have had over the last 18+ years, I still have to stop and laugh that he's become my podcast partner and one of my closest friends. He has brought so much more to this little show than he gives himself credit for from his obsessive research of recruiting, to his knowledge of CBB from the inside out, general knowledge of the game, an incredibly patient on air sounding board board for my dumb references, humor and most importantly being able to reign me in on air and social media. @slufan13, I love you but I don't think you and I together would be having this much success. This next season has the potential to be one of the biggest in Billiken history and by virtue of the fact that we do better numbers when the Billikens are putting up Ws I cannot wait to see if our little show can ride that wave to a wider audience. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING US YOU MESSAGE BOARD MORONS. Personal and shameless section: I will always be 126% committed(inside joke of sorts) to this show as long as I have 90 minutes a week to devote to recording, but I can't overlook that I'm decent at talking on audio/video and would love to at least explore the possibility of a long term transition into more media with broader audiences as a career. So if anyone has any connections within St. Louis media I would absolutely appreciate linking me with them. Finally, I would be dumb not to at least post our social links to this (DMs are always open, welcome and appreciated): https://twitter.com/MidtownMadPod https://www.instagram.com/midtownmadpod/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjKU0PHmMCH70XutSS9NUAA Please drop us an Apple Review https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/midtown-madness-podcast/id1552953967 https://open.spotify.com/show/1p2II1i9LLMcyysnF9jfkg

Not ready enough to play 5-10 minute a game? Then why recruit him???

We face Havoc only once or twice a year. Most of the time we see token pressure on the ball as it is brought up court. That isn't an issue. The issue is running the offense. When Jones was running the show, it wasn't the same as with Collins. A few times Thatch handled that task of running the offense, and resetting the offense when the play fell apart. So will the second string Sr transfer PG from Eastern Illinois know our offense better than Thames or Thatch. I'd rather go 20-12 with Thames/Thatch than go 20-12 with PG Eastern Illinois.

It's not that I'm not giving Thames a chance - I have said I don't know. I've only seen a few highlights. I really have no idea how his game will translate as a college freshman. I certainly hope he's the answer. I hope every player exceeds expectations. I can't speak for others, my only point is that with one open scholarship, a PG or combo is the obvious spot to try to add some depth. I also understand, this probably is easier said than done with a very experienced team featuring a high level returning PG.

no, no. I dont want this to come across this way, and I even said earlier that if Thames beats out whoever we can get between now and November, great! But if Im a betting man, I'd say Thames will not be ready enough to rely on next year. This is simply because I believe most freshmen just aren't ready, especially early in the year when we play all these good teams. I want Thames to go in and compete for the back up job, not just hand it to him because well we didn't try and get a backup in the portal. I just dont see how we can trust every freshman because Yuri was able to play as well as he did as a freshman.

Im not sure what that is in response to? All I was pointing out was that we don't have anyone with experience at playing the point on our roster outside of Yuri. I would be 100% ok with getting a player who lets say averaged 3 points, 2 assists at texas St last year, as long as he actually played a decent amount of time at the point. At this very point in time I'm not to excited about having 0 players on our roster who have any sort of history at the point position. The few who we think * could * play a fee minutes at the point next year are either True frosh and neither are true PG's, or Fred who has a injury history. There were games last year where we needed a secondary ball handler like Jones to play a decent amount to win games. We didnt need Jones to score in these games, but manage the point along with Yuri or be a secondary ball handler.

if 3 star is good with it that's good enough for me.

I am hoping Parker like Perkins can create his own shot. That will take a lot of pressure off the back-up point guard who ever that is. I am for giving Larry Hughes Jr. the last scholarship instead of bringing in another pg that night not get off the bench.

Again it doesn't matter if the only PG we can get averaged 2 points 2 assists a game, its better than what we have currently. This is not to say Thames cannot be a better solution once the season starts, but why are we gambling on a frosh who seems to be positionless at this point in time. Along with Thames your other options are in the same boat, or have a history of injuries. Give me someone who has handled the point in D1 basketball. I don't need some glorified stat line to go with it.

Totally agree. Maybe the offense will still be slightly less efficient in those minutes but it will be well ahead of this past season. Obviously if Yuri went down for like a 2 month long injury, I don't think we can get by with Perkins in that role but not sure we could get by with a Deandre Jones either. By "get by", I mean stay firmly in the NCAA hunt.

Gause is 15 still during the July live period. He easily could've been a 2025. Skilled on offense. Rare hesitation package and pace for a kid his age. The more I look around the area... I think he'll end up the best prospect in the metro for 2024. Purvey is the most productive and Binion has the most potential. Side note: He's not a lefty, shoots with his right hand... just really good with both hands at the rim. I've seen another scout call him a lefty in the past as well.

That’s what I’m saying. I think Lewis and CStockard were just good players in our league. You could almost forget Levi played for VCU. He was a bench piece on a non-tournament team. He made like 3-4 wide open jumpers in KC. Other posters above hit it right on the head

Haith is headed to Memphis

Some others potentially worth an honorable mention: St. Louis area ties: Jay Spoonhour, Jon Harris Retired/inactive Coaches: Dan Muller, Frank Haith, Pat Baldwin, Kevin Stallings (also has STL ties) Coaches on staff elsewhere: Michael Fly (just hired as Director of Scouting & Analytics - Missouri), Paul Lusk (Assistant Coach - Purdue, maybe out of reach)

Nothing breaking, but a nice little update from our bff

I also put a lot of these names in a Twitter thread and ended it with this poll: Scroll up through the thread from there, and yes, we do attribute various users here as a source for some of the ideas.

Just adding to what Zac said, I sincerely thank everyone here for the support. I really appreciate everyone who listens to the show and interacts with the show's social media presence in any way. I can't believe what we've done in just about 16 months. We've got a lot more coming for you soon, even though we're in the summer doldrums. Another incoming player interview this week, another short but fun interview in the can, and tons of ideas. One of the things I want to tease here now is a summer mailbag episode. At some point here and on Twitter, we'll put out a call for questions and even if we aren't going to have perfect answers for everything, we'll at least give it our best shot and have some fun with that.

I see people occasionally complain about this board on Twitter. Those people are dumb. #1 message board in America In T-Ford Some of Us Trust p.s. Thank you both for the content. I’ve enjoyed hearing from the players/new recruits the most

The Red Panda is like Brett Farve when it comes to retiring but her act is incredible.