billiken_roy

slu nick said, "I think Polk definitely proved himself to be able to handle the point of what we saw of him last night. He was solid with the ball and I wasnt whispering to myself "dont lose it, dont lose it, dont lose it", like I do when AD dribbles. i dont know why you say this. did you make the same statements when marque perry had the ball? drejaj has had less tpg than perry had in each of his seasons as a billiken. drejaj would be just fine as our pg. the fact is that polk brings more to the table because of his supreme athleticism, but drejaj would have been just fine as our primary pg. slu nick said, "I echo what has already been said...and was wondering if anyone else wanted VN to throw one down hard. There were a couple times where he could of, and he did a lay up. He even missed a lay up when he should have dunked. Was he not trying to show up UMSL or something? Just Wondering" i just dont picture newborne as the dunk in your face type. as i have said on a few occasions now. i think newborne really resembles quitman dillard in style and production capabilities. and for those of you that remember, q was a supreme leader, always enthusiastic, and a very good basketball player.

too be fair on newborne and rebounding, he played only a few minutes at the power forward spot. to expect him to dominate reboundingwise from the perimeter would be asking a lot imo. i completely agree on ian. and anyone else question why izik was down the floor so often when we were trying to fast break? shouldnt he have been under the basket rebounding? occasionally one of the bigs might be out there if their man stepped out as well, but it seemed to me that izik was out on the break every time. i will watch closer next saturday for all three reboundingwise.

a couple of the baby blues need to get with the conditioning coach. to wear those belly shirts in their condition isnt good. sorry if that offends anyone, but well, it's true. second, the one tall girl is on the wrong team. jill needs size bad. i think the tallest baby blue who no doubt is very attractive and a good dancer, needs to be playing center for the jillikens! btw, i liked the mia johnson girl and the rest of the freshman were talented too for the jillikens, however they were so sloppy and made way way way way too many mistakes. jill has her work cut out for her. especially considering the lack of size they have.

brehms said, "I can't wait to get there.....believe me I'll BRING MUCH NOISE!!!!, hopefully all will understand, I just can't Keep quiet at anygame" brehms, lucky for you, most of the parents and family typically sit more or less behind the billiken bench. and except for the students, all the rowdy's are over there including skip and tonka who everyone in the building hears every game. my section plays lawrence welk music.

slulaw75 said, "I wish our Greek player, who I like, would work out in the gym--he still does not have strong hands and arms. He is a good athlete, but loses the ball easily in the crowd." first, slulaw, i think you are new. welcome to the board! second, i totally agree with the above statement. if ian wants to succeed in america, he needs to become a little meaner with the ball. when the likes of umsl can keep him from going back up and scoring while getting fouled, what is going to happen vs hicks and maxiell. get to work ian.

while polk is obviously raw, he is obviously supremely talented. imo, the only billiken in my memory as fast was him was david burns. he will be known (and dreaded) by the entire conference by march. i dont know what was up with reggie not shooting more. hopefully it was all about seeing what everyone else can do. it was obvious he could pretty much do what he wanted when he wanted. he too is not a question mark. drejaj is drejaj. as the backup guard and stellar defender, we know what we will get with him. luke meyer is a pleasant surprise and can only get better imo. we didnt get to see clarke last nite, but even if for some unsuspecting reason he isnt a contributor, we are obviously set at the guard spots imo. however, it bothers me that we struggled with the umsl full court pressure. my bets are that with the skills we have with the ball though, it wont be a problem. i have been saying for months that this season depends on our bigs. especially newborne and izik imo. after the couple of practices and last nite, i think newborne is more than expected, especially if we use him as primarily a wing. but the rest continues to be our question mark. while ian, izik and frericks had nice rebounding stats, in truth, with our size advantage, they should have been even better rebounding. none of the three consistently for the entire game showed up. there is our team. we get maximum stats from ian, izik and frericks, we got something. if they are so so, so will this team.

no static said, "Nice start for DP: 5 assists, 2 TO" while we saw spectacular glimpses of the talent of dwayne polk last nite (great passes, and speed, speed, speed) his defense was not very good. too often he was beat off the dribble. now for someone as fast as him, how is that possible? brad was also screaming at him to stay in the pack when his man did not have the ball. but overall, i thought dwayne did fine. no static said, "was Reggie really playing the point in the 2nd half?" sure seemed like he brought the ball up the floor against their press as much as anthony or dwayne. that said, if we have trouble bringing the ball up the floor and getting into our offense against the likes of umsl, i shudder at the thought of uab or louisville where the waves of better athletes will keep coming at us. right now, the second half is somewhat concerning to me because it really seemed the full court pressure was effective against us. no static said, "Were Ian and Tom on the floor at the same time at all?" they did play together in the first half for a stretch. nothing spectacular or negative to say about it. no static said, "How does Reggie only get 5 shots in 31 minutes? -- or were we spreading the ball around and shots were easy to come by?" i thought overall reggie just didnt fit in last night. there was no effort to look for him and when he did get the ball he really didnt seem to be the same reggie. it wasnt like he was being guarded by gary payton. still when the final buzzer sounded, reggie was at the top of the stat board. it goes to show you how good the young man is. but i want more offense going through reggie. no static said, "Nice first game for LM -- 4 pts, 4 reb, 1 steal -- assuming he came in at the #3?" luke was on the wing when he came in and i thought he did a good job. luke meyer is far better than i expected and will contribute imo. he did not look like a freshman imo. no static said, "It's a good thing when the two guys you figure are going to lead you in rebounding (TF and VN) combine for a lower total (7) than the two guys that lead the team with 8 each (IO and IV). Are they both physically stronger and more aggressive? If so, that's a big boost." frericks didnt play as much and definitely didnt look like the ferocious tom frericks of last year. ian did ok, but i aint reserving any place in springfield for him yet. newborne though was fantastic. again, i think he reminds me of quitman dillard. looks to score, hustles, i thought he played probably the best defense on the floor last night. if his rebounding stats werent that good, it is because he plays a very credible wing. he played pf a few times, but we cant hitch our wagon to his time there. izik was his usual inconsistent self. i thought in the first half izik played pretty good, to be honest, nothing he did in the second half stood out at all. while frericks didnt play with the gusto of last year imo, he did have 6 rebs in only 12 minutes. he also made 3 out of 4 ft's. all in all not a bad nite, the first 5 minutes were especially impressive. but then that attitude and style disappeared. the blue crew was fantastic! i sure hope the kids keep coming, their show was exactly what this program needs. i noticed that cheryl levrick was over amongst them a number of times smiling and talking to the kids. i really liked that. what's up with the baby blues new uni's? not sure if i like them or not. surprise surprise, problems with the microphones a couple of times when they went to the little in the stands stuff. i dont know if all of you noticed, but the first young lady they used for the triva question was also a baby blue. after the bit was over, she dashed down the stairs and was taking off her clothes before she got under the stands in an attempt to get ready as quickly as possible for halftime. she is a babe! the second young lady that hosted the dance contest was a cutie as well. imo both are an improvement over the sideline ladies from last year. i thought it might have been the best pre-season crowd we have had in a long long time. i am sure claggett days were as good or better, but i would guess the attendance to be the best since spoon left for a pre-season game. the students coming out like they did really made the place seem fuller. they should get all the credit. and whatever the campus did to get them out they need to keep doing it. this is what i took away from the game: i really like newborne. polk will emerge. luke meyer will contribute. our bigs have to get better. and our offense needs to get better, especially vs some pressure. last question, what was up with darren clarke sitting out?

btw, look out your window and tell me what color your sky is in your world?

my daughter just got home from school and informed me she traded it to a kid in her class for future considerations. i hope this kid going with us realizes how lucky he is to see the billikens up close.

if i scalp mine, i expect at least $500. but i too would let it go to a billikens.com reg for a laurel and hardy handshake.

i have one as well (son would rather sit in the student section than by me, wonder why?), but i wont have time to stop by o'tooles.

i dont think a frericks situation falls into the "message" category. he isnt the type of player that one would associate with needing to be sent a message. now if frericks wasnt hustling, or screwing off, or constantly messing up in practice, that is one thing. we know from the past year and justin johnson vs ross varner, he makes that message known immediately. however we are talking about ian vs frericks. it is my observation that one would think the message sending if needed would be the other way around not directed at frericks. as far as tom missing practices, i did qualify my response with injury exception. i.e. if frericks is injured or still recovering from an injury and that makes ian the better choice right now, i totally understand that. but if it is a matter of straight up tom vs ian, that is where my surprise comes into play. of course if it indeed is a message being sent to tom, the need to do such is also a surprise as tom frericks seems to be an all out guts guy to me.

unless it is an injury or illness thing, i seriously doubt ian would start over tom to send a message or plan for the future. i.e. ian just plain beat tom out. and it that is the case, knowing how hard frericks plays, this is unbelievable and good news because it would mean that ian has improved tremendously to be able to beat out frericks.

he has always rode me there. imo it is about the fact i am such a strong billiken fan and smitty is a mi$$ouri fan. you want to see something hillarious, go to any of the message boards there and type, mi$$ouri. it will post as "billiken roy's clever way to spell missouri" it does not post as mi$$ouri. smitty programmed the board to substitute that response. so i have taken to putting .. or spaces in between the letters and smitty cant keep up with it. bottom line, he is a a$$ that loves to play the typical tiger fan and put down the billikens whenever he can.

i do not think though that brad has any grand plans to hit the jackpot and move on. he has time and time remarked about what a good fit saint louis university and st louis is for his family. i truly believe he is not in it to be the coach of kentucky or north carolina or succeed coach k. he is in it for brad soderberg and his family. the fact he has kids that are a few years from college yet makes it difficult for his family to "want" to move as that is such a strain on the kids. i think brad is the saint louis university coach as long as saint louis university wants him to be the coach.

kshoe said, "it probably doesn't have some slick escape caluse that he can use the first time we have a real strong season." i would be shocked it that is the case. i would bet "separation language" is well defined for both parties. and if he is desireable elsewhere, even if there is a buyout provision, there is always a bill laurie type booster at some school that will buck up. imo every coaching contract today is pretty one sided to the coach. if not, we wouldnt see the movement that we see throughout the college landscape. the positive for the billikens is that it allows brad to promise future recruits that the school and he wants him to be the coach for that recruits possibly timeframe he will be a billiken.

burwell has pretty much been in the slu corner whenever he wrote about the billikens. the one time he didnt, he came back days later and publically retracted his comments in his next column.

i did a quick search on a few sports message boards, and i cannot find another single istance of the use of "fortuitous" on any other sports board. it is good you are bringing the level of vocabulary to a higher level here at billikens.com!

the missouri legislature has no business trying to force public schools to interact in anyway with private schools. however, the mandatory matchups with sms and semo would be nice to see.

slufanskip said, "Did anyone else notice SLU dominated today's Post sportspage" we damn well should considering it is the first game of the season, there is no hockey, and the baseball season is over. that said, i am surprised we didnt see 6 or 7 articles on the condition of the rams toenails or something.

i believed that 3 of them did/do. 2 already are selling cars. one more to go to clean the program.

i dont recall $nyder taking ownership to the problem. he claimed shoddy record keeping and mistakes by assistants that did things without his knowledge. since the report details illegal calls, visits, meals, lodgings, gifts and such going back to 1999, if he truly didnt know and/or it was shoddy bookeeping, he deserves to be fired for being so stupid for so long.

did he admit he knowingly broke the rules? if not, then he more or less said, "so what". btw, tseugnekillib is right. that is why the billikens always take a day off each week because there is limited time that can be spent with the players per the ncaa. so unless $nyder is telepathically working with those players, his statement is b.s.

but it is ok to continue to deny he did anything wrong when the evidence is amazing? no scrivener is right. if he wanted to gain any respect back he needed to come clean instead of "so what".

we are still in disagreement on the worth of izzy and soccer. so if you feel the need, i would always be willing to let a few choice words fly on those issues to make you feel more comfortable. btw, i dont think i have changed my position on anthony drejaj as much as i am beleiving from listening to brad and my son (he goes to a lot of the practices and i trust his judgement on talent pretty much)that dwayne polk is just ready now. if you go back and look at any post i have made on the point guard issue, it has always carried the thought that i believed that polk would end up the point guard. i.e. his athletic and basketball ability would eventually win out over drejaj's experience and guts and knowledge of the bradway.