billiken_roy

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.

nick said, "Doesnt everyone wish the season would just start so we could stop all this speculating" boy i agree with that. btw nick, welcome to the board. it is great to have another enthusiastic and strong poster to banter with. dont take any of our responses hard. if we dont respond that is when we dont even take you serious. so take it as a compliment!

i think they will start newborne from day one at the sf and on first substitution mr polk comes in and they go small. the first man out will be whomever screws up first or commits the most stupid fouls between frericks and izik. boy would i love to be wrong on that pessimistic view.

rich for the record, i have not said that polk will start from day one unless drejaj is unable to play due to injury. if i am the head coach, drejaj is my opening night point guard unless injured.

when thicks asked anthony beane tuesday nite "who does he see as the backup to dwayne polk?" coach beane's first comment was to make it clear that polk has not yet been named the starter. that drejaj and even clarke are very much in the running to be the starting point guard. coach beane also told us that they expect anthony to rejoin practice next week, i.e. his injury obviously is coming around pretty quick and drejaj will be in the mix from day one. as i have stated before, i do believe come march, dwayne polk will be getting lion's minutes, however, after watching practice the first night, i believe even more firmly that dwayne will not be the starter from day one.

jjray said, "I really hope this is what our Billikens become this year." i will be shocked if we become a fast break team this year. while i agree that the addition of dwayne polk and the subtraction of josh fisher leads us in that direction, you are assuming that dwayne is tj ford right now. i am still betting that dwayne doesnt even start for the billikens to begin the season. if he does, you may be closer to being right on the style of play the billikens will exhibit. but more than likely, the coaches will look to take advantages on situations more than they did the last few years and push the ball down the floor. everything will continue to be dictated by billiken defense and that kind of effort will likely still have the billikens somewhat in a holding pattern. people have asked me if i think that they will run more when tommie liddell and kevin lisch arrive? to be honest, it might increase the pace a little more, but the real key is having the players inside that can consistently stop drives to the basket, get every rebound and throw outlet passes. turn ian and husak into bill russell or bill walton and then we are off to the races. while you have to have the guards that can beat everyone down the floor and finish, which we will have with drejaj, clarke, polk, lisch and liddell, you have to have someone that can get them the ball in an advantage situation. plus, remember the pack defense demands that 4 of the defenders are inside the pack circle. outlet passes are tough to make to a guard standing 10 feet away.

nick said, "I don't think that asking the board to compare JF and DP was such an innane post." maybe not innane, but imo, unfair. josh is the all-time leader in assists for the billikens, and can arguably be called the greatest defender the billikens ever trotted out on the court. we havent even seen dwayne polk under the savvis lights yet. in four years, i will be happy to compare them. second, they are totally different style of players. polk is a rocket and as close to the example of today's point guard as they come, josh is physically an nfl safety who is a control player and a converted point guard. each has their merits. while there is no doubt that dwayne will have trouble defending bigger guards as they get closer to the basket and are able to use their size advantage, it is naive to believe that in the open court there are but a few guards in the country that might be able to run with our track star. the fact we have lacked anything close to dwayne's athletic skills for a long time (he might be the fastest billiken ever) ought to outweigh any doubts about what dwayne polk brings to the table. especially considering we have other guards very capable of filling the spots and insert in the case of matchup problems.

too be fair, it is my opinion that reggie bryant would school about every guard in the country playing one on one. so dont be too hard on young mr polk for that. dan brown is going to out muscle everyone on the team except tom frericks. the kid is just chiseled. so dont think much about that either. dwayne has an adjustment period to go through, but he is way too talented to not emerge eventually. dwayne is not a concern simply because we have good guards and plenty of them. our focus will be under the basket. so goes the billikens this year.

anthony said that the coaches believe that if they can play defense like last year, this team can be among the elite of conference usa. imo that is a huge statement. of course on the other hand, they lost their two best defenders from last year, josh and chris and they will be replaced by smaller polk and newborne. size and strength are important on defense. and one more thing that jill brought up, she mentioned that everyone likes the new strength coach and he is doing a very good job.

thank you for that unsolicited information about gagzaga.

thicks was taking notes, so i would expect him to give a better report, but i will try to recap as much as possible. jill and anthony beane were our guests. jill ran through the team and expressed how young the team is. 11 freshmen and sophomores. she said diener was a junior, but shouldnt she have gotten a redshirt year for at least one of the season ending knee surgeries? even though the team is young, she is optimistic about the year and expressed that they have a lot of talent compared to previous seasons. anthony first commented on current recruiting. he said they have two verbal committments, but nothing is final until november 10 when the signing date comes up. he mentioned that one of the verbals was recently on campus for a visit and all is well. (i took that to insinuate that liddell was in town however, he couldnt mention names) he said that they are searching for inside players for the last two spots and likely will use one of the scholarships for a high school player. the other spot they will undoubtedly hold until spring for two reasons. one, they are assuming they will need immediate help and that would mean a juco player. he mentioned that juco's rarely committ in the fall. second, it gives them time to see how all their new players and projects progress. if they believe that their returning roster will sufficiently cover the inside, they could still look for another high school player. that led to a discussion about ian and bryce, and he said they are extremely pleased in their development over the summer. i got the impression that he believes ian is a contributor now, however bryce probably still a year away. when asked about justin, he was very hesitant to comment. he said that justin knows what he did was wrong, and knows what he has to do to get back on the team. he is gone until the virgin islands tourney. after that, he will meet with coach brad and a determination will be made if he can rejoin practices. he spoke glowingly of polk. talked about all the advantages he will bring to the team and the offense. however, a later question when it was asked who would back up polk, he said nothing is determined that polk is the starter. he said both drejaj and clarke are competing for the spot as well. he then told us that they think drejaj might start practicing as early as next week. he mentioned that clarke really had a tremendous summer. worked extremely hard and has become a much better all around player. he mentioned how clarke was on very good teams in his high school days and wasnt used to having so much comparable talent around that played so hard all the time and last year was really an adjustment for darren. that all said, he is extremely pleased with where darren is now. he was asked about brown and meyer and said they are both such tough kids with great attitudes and quick learners that he will be surprised if they dont figure in the rotation somehow. he spoke of brown's great body for a freshman. he also told the story on how he came across brown while recruiting other kids over the summer. brown's high school coach knew that brown was not excited anymore to go to air force and when anthony mentioned they just had a scholarship open, the coach said well i just happen to know a kid that you might like. brad flew out to meet him and it all fell into place. all just a matter of being extremely lucky and being in the right place at just the right time. wow. thicks asked about newborne playing 3 or the 4 and anthony said that izik will probably see the lions share of the pf minutes. however, since newborne can both dribble and shoot better than sloan, he feels newborne is a great candidate for the sf spot with him also backing up izik. he also said depending on the team, izik might be the relief for frericks at center which would then mean newborne at pf and three guards. it all depends on the opponent. i asked about perry at san antonio, he said that he knows marque did not have a good game over the weekend, however he also knows that the spurs were not the only team that wanted to sign marque. he thinks marque is going to make it. dont remember much else. i didnt think we got any revelations to speak of at the meeting. as of now, we are going to go back to the second tuesdays for future meetings, however carl reminded mary alice that in november if we wait until after that november 10 signing date, the coaches can talk in detail about the signed recruits, so that might still change for november. there was a mention of possibly setting up a bus trip for the siu game. that sounds like fun. i hope we do it.