billiken_roy

because at 5 am my choices of tv are pretty limited sportswise. i want to see highlights and find out what happened the day before. sportscenter is the best available at my healthclub.

at this point i believe the above is what is happening. i find it hard to believe coach ford hasnt identified a new asst coach yet. but if it is a coach not currently on staff that coach is free to see whatever kid he wants at any time until he is under contract. i would not be surprised if this goes on till school starts. it isnt against the rules and other programs do it. why not us.

as i admitted last week, i am just a casual hockey fan that is sucked into the blues run this year. that said, i religiously watch sportscenter every morning from 5 am to at least 6am and i see hockey highlights and inclusion of the top 10 for nhl stuff all the time as well as barry melrose commentary on what they are showing. it just seems to me that yestereday, the western conference finals would have been worthy of some sportscenter time. especially since they spent about 10 minutes on some sort of strong man feature, (i turned the sound onto the next tv to watch national news until that nonsense was over). i say this is more of a slap at the midwest by espn than a slap at nhl hockey. even the announcers for the game yesterday were so biased for the sharks. how many times did they play that first rush by the sharks hitting the right pipe and the announcers pining "how different the game might have been if only......" of course they failed to mention the blues did the same just a few minutes later. the left and right coast media strongly desire the boston vs san francisco (san jose) matchup. pisses me off and i hope it is pissing the blues off as well.

up early for the daily exercise and while jogging on a treadmill watching sportscenter. i was expecting tarasenko's penalty shot on the "top ten". nope. i was expecting a big analyse of the game from barry melrose nope. not a word mentioned for the entire show. no doubt the coasts dont want to talk about the blues.

as much as i am excited about hargrove, he is not liddell. liddell would immediately be our best player imo. he is a french that can jump higher and quicker and shoot a little from the outside.

only for sures assuming no injuries or S's (after two straight years, we are all thinking it) is goodwin and french. after that they got about 6 weeks to make the impression. i say assuming jimerson is the shooter we all think and dream about is in the lineup. perkins and hargrove together gives us more size to compete defensively under the basket. so i will take those five and lewis, thatch and collins are off the bench. those will be the only double digit minute guys imo. (this all assumes no more solid players to the roster this year. p.s. i am against the phrase, "starting is for high school". anyone that believes that never played high school or college sports. they all would almost die to be one of the starters. it is a major motivational and/or discipline tool. a coach can try to play that its not important, but he/she is likely just ducking tough media questions or lying to his players because he doesnt want to explain his/her tough decision.

guess i should have used blue font

i cant wait for your player by player comparison of the billikens vs umass. you must really follow recruiting to know the umass recruits so well.

at best i could be labeled a "casual" blues fan. i know enough to probably hold a 2 minute conversation. during the playoffs, i watch when i can for only the blues once they are out, i dont follow a bit. i was switching back and forth last night between the blues, the braves (cardinals) and the bucks/raptors. most of my time was probably on the blues. to end the game like it did really made me feel cheated and p!ssed off i even watched. definitely wished i would have watched more of the greek freak in hindsight.

which reminds me, i heard you on sirius 94 the other morning on the way to work.

who is his mother?

22 is the one that really caught my eye. so where does brandon miller go to high school?

old bad news bears with walter matthau the sponsor is chico's bail bonds.

for those of you that know the younger aau scene better, who is the bigger kid for bradley beal elite in the video? he appears to be a nice nice player.

Young Larry appears to be the makings of a shooter!

i like his focus and he sure wears his uniform well. i'd go for it.

best thing french can do is learn to make free throws and continue to develop an in the lane shot. it seemed to me if he couldnt dunk it he just pretty much threw short range rockets straight at the basket. get some touch man! just accomplishing free throws and a little touch out to five feet probably adds about 6-10 ppg.

im not holding my breath. while he indeed had a couple of nice moments making a key 3, he ended up at 28% from the three and 29% overall. i would hope we will shoot better than that in the future.

in hindsight that is likely more on headcase gordon.

a big roll of the dice just as bell is/was. however both have loads of potential since you cant teach 6'11". At this point in the year with the cream of the grad transfers gone, i say this is a worthy endeavor. judging by his twitter statements, he seems very enthused about coming. fingers crossed the injury continues to heel and he defies all.

just curious if anyone knows where the area rising sophomores (hughes jr, burden, martin, etc) playing this summer?

when justin love graduated from slu, he got hooked up with the suns in the summer. the amount of time the suns spent on him and the other rookies increasing his range and refining his shot was unbelieveable (got that straight from his father). he became a very very good shooter just from that one summer. unfortunately he didnt make the cut, but then had a fabulous career in china and russia and europe and now back here more or less in retirement working as a special education teacher and coach at mascoutah high school. the point is, the pros will work with the player on the needed skills. i feel if javon is healthy, he is stronger, bigger and just as athletic as justin love was back at the same point. so javon as hoosier pal says above, will get his shot and who knows. regardless, he is going to be playing for pay somewhere.

unless you are a guaranteed 1st round pick, one is probably better off being a rookie free agent than getting drafted. you and your agent could pick the situation that gives you the best chance to succeed. playing hurt the end of the conference season sure wrecked javon's perception by the pros it seems.

i think both would be long term projects. worthy projects simply because of the size alone, but i will be surprised if they arent a substantial step down from french when they sub in next year. i love what they present for down the road though very much. we need a big that can play big minutes immediately imo. i guess we are getting ahead of ourselves somewhat. coach ford needs to close the deal on diarra this weekend first.

golden doesnt necessarily play in the lane. he's able to get the ball at the 3 line and shoot and is fairly good on the dribble for a big man. i do not envision either bell or diarra being successful against the likes of golden. at least not anytime in the rest of golden's college career. the bonnie big, ( assume you are referencing osunniyi) is also extremely athletic and mobile. he doesnt have the range golden has but he would be a tough matchup vs bell or a diarra type as well. french is the matchup vs either of these guys imo.