billiken_roy

it p!sses me off that one has to read the article to know that saint louis university also offered. the title makes no mention of slu event though we are on even footing.

my son called me today from school, after watching some of the billiken practice and told me that polk was just splendid tonite. second, marque's line in the spurs vs mavs game: 19 minutes played, 3-3 from the field, 2-5 from the line, 1 rebound, 3 assists and 3 steals. matched tony parker's line. go marque!!!

it was a joke! steve doesnt care.

on this board.

if steve donates $30 million dollars before next tuesday, i will vote for kerry. priorities take precedent.

give us $25 million from a private donor and $35 million from the taxpayers and add that to the existing $12 million allready there. my math says we are done. there is no comparison.

rich, i was the first on this board to champion cheryl levick. however, by now we should have seen her remove the leashes and turn her staff loose. nothing has changed at this point. i attended her signing press conference/luncheon and was tremendously impressed. but like i said, show us something. steve told me not to comment on cardinal talk on this board.

willie, you forsee a number of biblical like events in the previous post. "president kerry speaking?" i can only assume the next president of your rotary chapter is also named kerry, or possibly kerry collins will be there to address the washed up quarterbacks of america convention. "the beatles in concert?" i guess you could mean ringo and paul individually?

billikan, no disrespect, but we have more or less been hearing the same song now for quite awhile with no new information. when pressed for "how close are we fund raisingwise?" we always seem to hear the same $10-12m number and have always been led to believe we need about 5x that to start. it is nice to hear there is a committee in place, but forgive me and i assume most everyone else, if we arent too excited at this time for what seems to be a slipping dream. if they want to get the area pumped up again, they need to give us a sign. a solid real sign. blind faith only goes so far.

i hate to be the chicken little, but imo unless a billiken "bill laurie" shows up with just an unbelievable donation ($25-30 million would be nice) i just dont know if this thing is going to ever happen at least not anytime soon. it is my opinion that right now is not a good time. father biondi is also trying to build his research center, plus replenish the general endowment after the stock market crash of the early 00's took almost 30% of the value of the fund. third on that extremely tough list is not a good position to be in. i sure hope we dont compromise our vision of the arena and build a scaled back shoemaker center instead of the improved cintas center. if anyone has been to cincy to see both facilities, they know what i am talking about. as much as i would love an on campus facility, i dont want a glorified high school gym either. do it right or dont do it at all.

hughes didnt play much for washington in the beginning of the pre-season, with some tendinitis in his knee. however the two games before this one were very good games and probably had he not been kicked out so early in the game would have had another good game last night as well. imo, he has shown in the boxes the last week as the best player on the team. larry is in his walk season for the wizards, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. i think larry is still only 24 or 25, so still not in his prime.

bauman, if you remember, i was mr skeptic on newborne all summer long. but i am ready to eat my helping of crow after seeing him at the midnight practice. i agree completely that he has a lot of skills and surely should be a part of the lineup for huge minutes. i only mention the possibility of his not starting to illustrate the flexibility our latest roster exhibits as compared to years past. if vashun has the quickness to stay up with the cusa small forwards like banks and garcia, we got a gem that is for sure. the only concern is his more or less tweener size. while we were hoping for a power forward, he appears more suited for the wing sizewise, but the likes of chris sloan, jeff harris and donnie dobbs have all thrown such typecasting in the trash before. in this instance though, mr newborne appears to have more outside skills than the aforementioned trio, thus, i think he has to play the wing. he may lose out on some offensive rebounds, but i trust he will make up for it on the defensive end since the pack man to man keeps all the players close to the rim to hawk rebounds.

i think it is a great point that we are arguing over positions with who has the MOST credentials for once. here is clarke apparently competing at three spots for time. probably wont start, but that versatility makes him all the more valuable. newborne came in as what we believed to be the next pf. while it appears izik will take that spot, newborne is good enough with the ball and shooting wise to slide over to the wing and will get mucho minutes at probably both spots regardless of who starts where. in truth, our point guard spot is also well defined. we have the previous year all-state guard in dwayne polk who will end up probably making us dream for the fantasy match race with david burns and you have brad's returning just put me out there grinder anthony drejaj. not like we are trying to convert a wing to the spot or grabbing david ferguson at the last minute to play the point. by all accounts, ian has greatly improved, thus tempering our concerns over tom frericks all too often illness/injury of the week and his tendency to foul occasionally. all in all, one has to feel pretty good about the upcoming billikens. of course it just wouldnt be right to not point out that in it's last season of existence as we knew it, this might be the toughest conference usa ever. thus while it might be a better team than we have seen in awhile, they are going to play better teams after january 1 than they have seen in awhile as well.

3 star, i reported after the first practice the turnovers and less than grasped aspects of the pack man to man and motion offense. i believe someone else other than nick has posted the same. but my point is that unless polk steps in from day one showing the maturity of isiah thomas, we know the value that brad soderberg has for maturity and strong leadership and doing all the right things not shortcutting any drills in practice etc. if polk is doing all those things every day, then i agree, he will start. if not, then i believe he will send a message with drejaj. to be honest, the first night, if i came in with no preconcieved notions of the team or the players and watched that first practice, darren clarke would have been my choice if someone would have asked me to point out the probably point guard. brad used clarke to demonstrate all the drills, clarke worked hard, and more than held his own on any scrimage situation. cant say the same for polk. again, i am stating that polk has to be the starter eventually. just way too much talent to hold back. but brad's track record isnt one that hands it over to a freshman. and when anthony beane stopped thicks in his tracks at the billiken club meeting and made sure it was known that polk isnt the starter yet, that spoke volumes imo.

david, while polk promise four years of excitement, if you think dwayne will not double our turnovers from day one compared to last year, imo you are looking with a blind eye. the night i watched practice polk turned the ball over more than the rest of the squad combined. again, some of that is simply because of the nature of his play and his teamates not being used to it, but still some of it is reckless as well. does reckless and brad soderberg go together? i understand the apprehension of giving the keys to drejaj as well, but at this point in time, he is less scary protecting the ball than young mr polk.

ik agree with willie. the first game is next friday. no time to plan a "first look" that has a chance for success imo. if they had one now, it would be hastily put together and you can probably count on lackluster turnout. if the billikens dont want to have a midnight madness, they need to start a new tradition where on a certain day (halloween for instance) every year there is a blue white introductory scrimmage/show. again, i am thinking out loud here, when does the levick influence show? i am not asking cheryl to plan anything, but she does have a staff doesnt she? i see same ole same ole in marketing the program.

i never said the reports were disappointing. what we are hearing are reports that his athleticism stands out. however, my own view of his first practice was one of a lot of turnovers (grants not all his fault) and not fully grasping the pack man to man and the motion offense. i.e. he is still learning. thus, imo he will gradually win the spot.

shouldnt you be in class?

since we arent hearing any overwhelming reports about dwayne polk in practice, unless drejaj is still injured, by the time the first real game rolls around down in the virgin islands, i expect anthony to be in the starting lineup. that said, by the time the season winds down in memphis, again assuming no injuries, young mr polk will be driving the car by then. the question imo us who will play the other wing. will they go small and throw clarke out there, will they go bigger and play newborne on the wing? imo that is the lineup question to decide.

hoopscoop is indeed a members recruiting site. he throws crumbs out daily, but you need to have a membership to get daily recruiting news and clark francis' rankings. fyi, if you decide to "join" clark sure loves the kentucky schools. and doesnt give much respect outside of the traditional power schools. in the summer when liddell had his one week flirtation with las vegas, francis raised tommie in the rankings. when tommie withdrew that, clark then lowered tommie's ranking. he has never had kevin lisch very high in the rankings. i dont know. i have a gift membership from a friend of mine, i wouldnt pay out of my pocket for hoopscoop.

oh i am sure the new "varner/deiner" will eventually emerge.

assuming that hargrove plays an evening game, this is the perfect illustration of why i like the billikens playing afternoons on saturdays.

tonka, imo, newborne is nothing like jeff harris. i dont know if i ever remember jeff harris shooting something from more than 10 feet out. i think newborne is a legitimate wing that can step out and make an outside shot as well as put the ball on the floor. i stand by my comparison to quitman dillard who had a nack for the ball, could shoot from the outside and wasnt afraid to go get us a rebound.

i have to admit that i am amazed we havent heard words about tommie being seriously persued by the wolves. with less than 3 weeks until signing day, i am seriously getting excited that tommie is going to be a billiken....again. you have never let us down before p diddy. the words on ian and newborne and izik are extremely encouraging as i believe they are the heart of our potential. those three exceed expectations, this is going to be a very good billiken team. the one thing i saw about danny brown that concerned me, and this is nitpicking, but when brad was talking about the 3 phases of a screen and how it is to be set and the parties all react, danny was the only guard/wing that seemed to want to short cut that procedure. he may not have even known he was doing it, but brad made a big deal about detailing how important it was for the guy to fully use that screen. danny was not doing that friday nite. my guess is that considering how brad is so detailed and all about doing it right, danny will get the message though. i am still amazed he was found and available. the basketball gods were looking down.

while his quickness will be vital against the likes of louisville and uab, his still relatively small body will be a detriment. pick your poison. drejaj not as fast, polk not as strong.