thetorch

We've had more strong defensive guards than you think. Macauley and McCall were very similar. They would guard the pg usually and once that guy gave up the ball they would never get it back. Other guys would get steals because the other team was forcing passes to whoever they were guarding. 1 on 1 just shutdown on ball it goes Fisher, Redden, Jett, Frazier, and Biles. Thatch is working on getting on this list. Mitchell was really underrated defensively. We just forget about Lisch I think. Lisch was maybe the best all around Billiken guard ever. Played the highest combined level of offense and defense night in night out. Another underrated guy was Jeff Leuchtefeld. His Sr year he went up against the opposing teams best player every night, he was a ballhawk. Leuchtefeld went from walk on to All conference for the season, not just an all tournament team. Roder was nice, he's been mentioned. Pee Wee Lenard too, he was flashy and made some mistakes 1 on 1 he was very tough to score on, especially against a bigger guard. He was picking pockets if the player he was guarding was over 6'2.

I think you were sitting next to Guy Phillips' parents.

Thatch already rivals McCall, Jett, Frazier, and Mcauley as a freshman on defense.

About once a month I call his show, use a fake name ask to talk about some dumb topic and then get on the air and tell him he's the worst pa announcer ever. They usually cut me off. If he think he is witty that day he keeps me on the air and argues with me. I can never seem to get on when he has Tucci in studio with him though.

The previous years the stats went too fast. You couldn't read it all before it went to the next one. I noticed in preseason they changed it, much too slow now.

Besides last season playing in France, where he was the least successful in his career, Mitchell has seemingly always played a step below where he could and also in some very backwoods locales. If you look up this Russian island, it is very nice, picturesque. The russian leagues are financed much better than the leagues in eastern europe and the baltic states. I guarantee Mitchell is flying in private jets to and from games, not riding in buses. The Russian leagues also pay at a higher rate. I also think Mitchell is comfortable being the highest paid player on a lower level team and dominating, than playing in a higher league and making slightly more money while not getting any playing time.

I knew I forgot someone.

I haven’t done this in a couple years. Davell Roby - Plays for Basket BRNO in the Czech Republic NBL, same league Kwamain Mitchell was MVP in a couple years ago. So far his team is 3-6 in the NBL and 1-3 in the Alpe Adria Cup, a play in for the EuroCup comprised of teams from Czech, Austria, Poland, & Hungary. Roby is a starter and averaging 10 points, 2 assists and 4 rebounds. Brno is the 2nd largest city in the Czech Republic with a population of 377k. Markos Psimitis - Plays for Dafnis BC in the Greek B League, 3rd highest league in Greece. Dafnis is a small suburb of Athens. I couldn’t find any relevant stats although the team is in 2nd place in its group at 5-1. Ash Yacoubou - Plays for KK Skrljevo in the Croatian A1 Liga. Ash is the star of the team, leading in scoring at over 16 ppg while shooting 41% from 3. Ash also plays in the Alpe Adria Cup and his team defeated Roby’s a couple weeks ago. Roby scored 14 in their matchup while Ash had 22 in the win. Skrljevo is just 1-6 in the A1 league but 2-0 in Alpe Adria Cup. Dwayne Evans - Evans continues to play for Ratiopharm in Germany. He has been with the team for 5 seasons. Ratiopharm plays in the Bundesliga and is also participating in the Eurocup currently. Evans is averaging about 9 points and 7 rebounds while starting at SF for the team. Ratiopharm is currently 1-5 in BBL play but 3-3 in the Eurocup. Mike McCall - After jumping from D-League teams and a couple shortlived stints in lower level clubs in the US McCall has found a home in the BBL for the Manchester Giants. The British Basketball League is making a push to be more relevant and paying much higher wages now. McCall’s Giants are 2-4 in league and McCall is 2nd in scoring at 15 ppg, along with 4 boards and 4 assists. The Giants have an active social media accounts and almost post as much video as the Aussies do to follow McCall. Kwamain Mitchell - Has had a varied and successful career in upper level leagues. He’s played in Poland, Latvia, Croatia, Czech, & France. Now he has joined Vostok 65 in the Russian Superleague 1, the 2nd highest league in Russia. He plays in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk which is located on an island above Japan. Mitchell is scoring over 14 ppg, 5 assists, and nearly 3 steals. He is as usual among the league leaders in all those categories and his team is in 2nd place at 6-2 on the season. Ian Voyoukas - Ian continues to toil away as a reserve on very high level teams in Europe. He currently is a backup on Panathinaikos in the Greek A1 league and Euroleague. They are currently 4-0 in A1 play and 4-2 in the Euroleague. His teammates include high level vets like Nick Calathes, Deshaun Thomas, Stephane Lasme, Keith Langford, Sac Kings washout Giorgois Papagiannis, and Greek Freak brother Thanassis. Ian is a deep reserve only getting run time in A1 play, averaging 5 points and 4 boards. It is pretty easy to find stats and keep track game to game of our numerous players in Australia. Rob Loe is a starter on the struggling Taipan Cairns team, he is putting up 8 points and 5 boards on a bad defensive squad that is 1-6 on the season. Jett and Conklin both play for the Illawarra Hawks who are 3-5. Conklin leads the team in scoring and rebounding at 16 and 6. Jett averages 13 ppg and is 3rd in the league in steals. Jett started the season 20-30 LBs overweight and doesn’t appear to have lost any weight yet. Lisch plays for the Sydney Kings, alongside Andrew Bogut. Lisch averages 15 ppg and continues to be the premier perimeter defender in the league for the 5-2 Kings. The NBL has really raised their profile in recent years, and tend to run their league as a more successful basketball version of MLS, attracting some high level players who would have otherwise retired from competition. This has left Lisch, Conklin, and Jett as secondary stars in the league as opposed to a few years ago when they were all MVP winners or candidates. Cody Ellis tried to hook on with an NBL team in the preseason but was unsuccessful. His career in the top Aussie league may be over and it doesn’t appear that he has a desire to leave his family and play in Europe. Reggie Agbeko also appears to have retired from organized play, he was in the top league in Denmark last season but I can’t find that he hooked up with another club this year.

EKU is really really bad but this is still a great road victory. Kendra Wilken led all scorers with18, including a couple runs of 6 and 8 consecutive points. She's been benchbound stuck behind upperclassmen her whole career in the post. She was a top STL area recruit out of HS. Maybe she is ready for the spotlight now.

The last minute against SEMO should not last 20 actual minutes.

Semo could win this.

Fordham game is an exhibition. City college athletics is on par with Maryville or Webster.

Claggett and Highmark were poor 1 on 1 defenders but they played good team defense, read passing lanes, clogged the middle on drives, forced guys to their weakside. The effort was always there. I've yet to see that from Isabell.

I sit in the top row. I'm clearly in 2 of his videos. Is he using a selfie stick or something?

Isabell's attempts have been contested too. Most of our other 3s have not. Isabell is a scoring guard, Russell Westbrook type. He doesn't facilitate offense other than his own.