billiken_roy

nm

first off, jeffers wasnt a bad shooter. he is a better outside shooter than anyone we had on the team last year. second, i always took brad's statements about clarke being a difference maker as an eventual difference maker. a freshman difference maker would mean he is the equal of larry hughes. nothing i have read leads me to believe clarke is on that level now. he has the physical abilities to lead us to believe he can be mo jeffers or claggett or love someday. at least that is the approach i am taking with young mr clarke. now if he comes in next year and is the conference usa newcomer of the year, i will be happy to take back my comments, but personally, i expect him to be a typical very good freshman next year. moments of thrills but just as many times where you wonder why he is on the floor. think of drejaj last year. that would be a good typical good freshman season.

i think what billiken law is saying is that if the prospective recruit would have taken at least the basic classes that would transfer to a 4 year school like math, english, history, etc., then there is still a chance that the recruit would be at that level needed to transfer the needed classes that would fit into a major program at slu. however too many of these kids waste their two years at jucoland taking basketball 101, bowling, archery, swimming, etc to have any of the transferrable credits needed to be on pace to graduate in the required time.

senators giving advice and guideance on sports.........as in senator "sammy sooser and mike mcguire" kennedy? give me a break. they need to worry about how to work with president bush to fix the economy and let college basketball take care of itself.

thanks steve if you take braun and baniak's minutes played for the two years they played together, you will find that their rate of defensive rebounds and blocked shots per minutes played are almost identical. i simply do not remember baniak being any kind of defensive stalwart while playing for the billikens. he wasnt a slouch, but imo neither was braun. actually i guess the fact we are arguing about which two billiken underachievers was less inept is stupid. i move we drop the discussion.

my interpretation of clarke (i admittedly havent seen him play, but based on the reports read at recruiting sites) is a vision of what maurice jeffers might have been as a freshman. before he matured for two years in juco ball. of course that means clarke probably too has a little maturing to do with his game.

one more thing, my comparison to baniak is as much one of a non-contributor so to speak as it was to his specific style of play. i was never a heinrich booster. i still cringe remembering this 6'10" 270 lb man afraid to take up a shot and draw a foul. with his size alone he should have been dominating in the middle offensively. what is surprising is he wasnt afraid to throw it around defensively, so why disappear on the other end? when i think of what heinrich should have been, i think at least big country bryant in his days at ok state. in fact sheer strength and size should have put heinrich ahead of bryant. however, i dont think any of us will ever think of chris heinrich production in the same category with bryant.

since steve has removed his billiken past stat link, i cant research it, but if you look to the years that chris braun wasnt injured, i bet you will see he was one of the highest if not the leader on the team in blocked shots and defensive rebounds per minutes played. while i dont consider chris' billiken career a big success, and i tend to agree he played weak, (especially his final season when he was hurt) he held his own defensively and under the boards. if i was picking a defender between braun and baniak, i would take braun.

when brad was saying it was a game or two from being complete, no way he was talking about dates. opponents maybe, but my guess is conference usa determines the dates and locations of the conference games and i bet that hasnt been released yet.

shaw is a pure power forward. the problem is he is only 6'6" tall. but as a comparison to sloan, even now i dont consider sloan a power forward. he is a wing playing underneath and giving it his all. shaw is much more physically ready to play under the boards than maybe chris sloan is right now let alone as a freshman. the advantage sloan has is his out court ability and the quickness to guard the guards as well as the forwards. i dont think matt could cover conference usa guards. last, i dont want this to be taken as a swipe at chris sloan. chris sloan is one of my favorite players. i love his attitude and savy. if it needs to be done, count on chris to take it on. if only everyone had chris sloan's mental approach.

nm

everything i have read about all of these "bigs" is heinrich clones. count me in the "i gotta see it first" group. i still believe that only morris makes much of an impact. fericks will do laborous duty, but will go unnoticed. clark will have to battle the numbers for p.t. and the other two are just numbers at this point. i hope they all prove me wrong, but whatever impact we make next year will likely be because of bryant and improvements from returnees imo.

of course with a few well placed calls to a number of neighboring jucos and maybe 10 summer classes..........sorry, for a second i thought i was in columbia.

as a powerforward, there is no comparison. shaw is a pure power forward. unfortunately as tseugnekillib states, he is only about 6'6" tall. i have not seen any wing skills from shaw to even think he could play outside. sloan is an never has been a power forward. he is a small forward playing inside and doing a credible job at it. this past year we saw chris start to make more of his outside shots as well. what you get from shaw is a player that plays all out. rebounds and defends and runs the floor very well and jumps very well. i am struggling for a previous billiken he compares to. maybe a more offensive minded david robinson?

i got the goods today. thanks!

my understanding is he would have had he passed the ACT. the greek should have loaned him some points (i understand the greek got a 30 on the ACT!) too bad since dennard apparently is a good kid and a fantastic basketball player. maybe he will still head this way after his juco days are over.

gray will be a juco sophomore at redlands community college in oklahoma. he is about 6'8" tall and 220 lbs. he was a second team juco all-american last season as a freshman. only marcellus somerville was rated ahead of him last season as a juco freshman.

i also wonder if slu might still be in the hunt for taj gray. he had to like more than romar to have considered slu before.

grimes was/is not a slam dunk for the illini. they only have 2 scholarships to give next year is my understanding and shaun livingston is their top priority for sure. the fact illinois has an abundance of power forwards already probably didnt put kalem at the top of the list for the other prospect for illinois. i am convinced grimes is still interested in slu. if he wasnt, i find it hard to believe that slu wouldnt have grabbed shaw by now.

of the minutes that i expect fish, drejaj and morris to play, from what has been said and written about brandon, i will be surprised if morris ever plays and is not the point guard whenever he is on the floor. i am picturing a more athletic john redden.

guys, easy on the irish flaming. the lisch parents are both irish alum! ;-)

nate, i totally agree with you about jackson's athleticism. he is extremely gifted. but if friday nite when i watched the eagles play, i had $1 for every time aaron made a fundamental mistake like a wasted dribble, letting his man go baseline, approaching his man on the wing straight on instead of from an angle and then watching a less athletic player blow by him, one handed sloppy passes, etc. i would have easily paid for most of the people watching admission price. imo, from what i have heard coach brad say on many occasions, "i will take a basketball player over an athlete anyday", i personally will be surprised if aaron ever becomes a billiken. that all said, aaron is definitely a diamond in the rough.

someone was telling me at the conference tourney this past year that when grawer was the coach, digger phelps was in town for something and digger was asked if notre dame would be successful if they came to keil to play. phelps said, he thought so, but he would want to know who the irish would play at keil before saying for sure.

good to hear from you 3 star. btw, i was talking to a parent of a belleville west player this morning and the west fandom isnt as excited about xaiver price coming to west as i expected. personally, i think price and jones might be the best backcourt south of peoria and probably will only be bettered by peoria central's and west aurora. i asked this parent about arthur sargent, he said dont be surprised if sargent doesnt make a big splash this year as he emerges on the west varsity. imo, west looks very good for next season.

again, against a zone press, if you dont have a marque perry, you are committing basketball suicide to expect anyone to dribble through a "well organized Press". you beat a press by passing ahead of the trap and that means you want your most savy players on the court not necessarily the best dribblers. drejaj is a good dribbler, but he was not as good as fisher. i agree fisher favors his left hand, but he has the ability to go right as well. he had the ball stripped from him last year less than anthony did. as to morris, the word i got is that he would have to be shot to lose the ball. i expect he will be in the game if we are facing a full court man-to-man defense. who's expense morris' presense will be could vary from game to game imo.