thetorch

Brett Thompson see this thread - http://www.billikens.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/d...orum=DCForumID3

Wonderful game and finish. I haven't been this hoarse since Louisville. This win goes to DP and Luke. They not only played great ball, they were leaders on the team. Dwayne and Luke pulled the team together after timeouts and during breaks in the late stages to keep the guys focused and they both kept Tommie from running out of the arena and taking a dive off the poplar st bridge. I would say Tommie was sick tonight except for the alley oop dunk he made in the first few minutes. Tommie was on fire during our opening run, he was blocking shots, tipping balls, rebounding getting steals and then the dunk really fired him up. After the break he was stone cold, like he went to sleep or something. Did he think the game was won or something? Although SMS played tough physical D most of his mistakes were self induced errors, ie dribbling off his foot, throwing balls away, not protecting his dribble. After a couple mistakes he went off the deep end and was out of it offensively the rest of the game. He did stay active on defense and the boards though. Ian had a great game. He is still visibly frustrated from not being able to get the ball down low. He works his tail off to get position and gets only a handful of shot attempts. He was getting murdered inside, SMS really plays physical and that Bilyue is a dirty player. Every time one of our guys was bring down a rebound Bilyeu was getting in kicks, kidney punches and elbows. No wonder we had a hard time holding onto the ball. Still with all that Ian managed to put up some decent numbers. Don't give the refs credit for reviewing the play. They were ready to walk out. It is a rule you have to check replays on last second shots when available no matter what.

Biondi has talked on and on for years about building a top 50 program but he has never given the support needed to build such a thing. The arena is a big step, but our budget must increase greatly if we want continued success. I doubt that will happen. Biondi will continue to go cheap. Until we see some changes regarding the budget I think Biondi deserves the brunt of criticism for lack of success with the basketball program not Brad.

>I think Sign Guy should make a sign that reads: "If your >from Poplar Bluff: You might be a redneck" >Sign Guy only about 3,000 people at the Scottrade will want >to hurt you but I'll have your back so you won't have a >problem. might????????????

No. Hinson seems to alienate a talented player every year. Frazier could easily start on that squad or at least get major minutes off the bench. Hinson had him not playing at all.

I asked around to some people at Lutheran St Chuck about Trinity. Hill dominated their game last night. If we are recruiting anybody on Rosary it is him. Arends is not close to a D-1 player.

Who cares about Bernie? Despite his so called "influence" in the market the second we win ball games he will write glowing stories about us. As long as we don't win he is down on the program and won't be around. He is not a supporter at all so just let it be. His predictions for two upcoming games on tonights program were - Mo State by 19 over SLU North Carolina only by 12 because they will play scrubs the entire second half. Also Hansborough will score more points than the entire SLU team while he is on the floor and will have Vouyoukas on the bench 3 minutes into the ballgame. He gives way more cred to Illinois, Missouri, and the Valley than he does SLU and always will.

Great notice on the Carolina game. That screws up my plans. Wonder how much i can scalp my tickets for?

No offense but the Knicks have very little talent. Put Lee on a decent team and he is riding pine. Frye has been out since late Nov, Cato is out now. Curry is a perennial underachiever. Lee has very little competition for his position and Thomas is still starting Jeffries, a soft 6'11 wanna be shooting guard, over him. Nate Robinson can be nothing but a decent role player, right now he is a shoot first pg at 5'7, that won't work on any team but the Knicks. Lee for being a top 5 recruit out of HS, hasn't shown much at either the college or pro level besides being a role player or bottom of the rotation guy.

I haven't seen him play for a couple years. This is Thames first year and he thinks he can really grow a program up there. For those who don't know Trinity is on Redman and Bellefontaine Rd about a mile or two east of 367. Team has been bad for years but Thames believes he can snag some kids from the north city, jennings, and the north county area who would not have considered Rosary without him there. If this is legit I will check this kid out next Friday.

I am still upbeat about the season. We have done well without our star playing up to his capabilities. We have a strong non con schedule and with the weak A-10 we should be able to win 20 games and put ourselves in line for a tourney bid. I still am nervous about the Bills future though. Lack of signings in the fall did not get our fans off to a raucous start to the season. I want the Bills to make the dance every year, not just this one. I fear for the future past this immediate season.

The return of Ian and SLU defense finally decides to show up.

>We allowed this crap team to put 44 points up against us is >one half? Who were we kidding? > >I would like to hear the Kool-Aid's crew reasons why we are >getting blown out by a 3-6 team. 16 points in the second half for UOP. We have won this game despite your chicken little act.

We are quickly getting run out of the gym. They are on fire from outside. We need defensive adjustments now. This would be a terrible loss. Still have to like improved play of Vouyoukas.

No D = no fast break = a loss for Bills. Gotta man up.

We've played a couple teams at the dome, KU, K State, Illinois, and Mizzou. We were the home team at least twice.

- NYU What two-time All-American and future member of the St. Louis Hawks competed in that game? - Ed Macauley Name the two other men who were named All-Americans in the history of the men's basketball program. - Bob Ferry and Dick Boushka Who was the coach of the 1947-48 national champion Billikens? - Eddie Hickey You should have added when was the last time the Bills won a conference championship? - 70-71 MVC Who coached the above team? Bob Polk Who were the two teams the Billikens beat in their NCAA appearances in the 90's? UMass and ? What conference that SLU played in has the most NCAA championships? - While SLU was a member Metro, overall CUSA What set of twins led SLU to two wins over Louisville in one season during Louisville's run of dominance in the early 70s? - Robin and Eric Jones Who was Ron Ekker's claim to fame before SLU hired him, and what university did he come from? He was from West Texas Name all the starting point guards for SLU from 1980? Johnson, Pee Wee, Roder, Newberry, Footes, Winfield, Macauley, H, Macauley, Walker, Fergerson, Perry, Fischer, Polk

Rhode Island beat Utah 85-84 in OT Cincy beat Temple 80-71 USC beat George Washington 74-65 West Virginia pounded Duquesne 85-54 VCU beat Richmond 68-54 Wright St beat the Bonnies 59-57 Dayton beat Grambling 58-49 Fordham beat Penn 77-60 on the road Davidson over Charlotte 79-66 Creighton beats Xavier 73-67 Louisville over St Joes 74-64 The Richmond and St Bonnies losses are inexcuseable. If they wanna play like that then join the leagues that Wright St and VCu play in. The Charlotte loss comes very close to this level too. Rhode Island and Fordham had nice wins. Kudos to them. Us and Dayton took care of business that we should. The A-10s premier team loses to the Valley's 3rd or 4th best team ths says it all. 3 games against middling Big east teams and we can't pull off one game. No doubt the A-10 will lose its lone top 25 team this week, and we don't deserve one. The A-10 has 4 maybe 5 good teams. The rest are extremely weak. If we want an at large bid SLU will have to run the table, and with road games against Dayton adn Xavier that wil be hard to come by. This is a one bid league right now and at this juncture the A-10 has nothing over the other east coast and midwestern mid major conferences like the MAC, horizon, mid con or the colonial.

Went to the game tonight to check out Brandenberg and see how he would do against Alfred Nelson and Chaminade. Chaminade managed to pull off the win 50-48 after a seesaw battle with Desmet. Nelson dominated inside for the first 3 quarters. He routinely posted up on the 6 inch taller Brandenberg successfully and did a good job against the desmet big man blocking 3 of his shots. Nelson finished with a game high 19 points. Brandenberg showed flashes of skill but was unable to finish around the basket. He had 7 points and probably shot about 20%. I wish Brandenberg had the touch that his chubby teammate Wessling does in the post Brandenberg has an array of post moves and is aggressive enough, he just couldn't get the ball in the basket. He didn't hang on to the ball very well either. He has some very good passing skills for 6'11 HSer. Even though Nelson led Chaminade in scoring the player I was most impressed with was 6'1 soph Brandon Lockhart. He scored 15 including the final 6 points of the game for Chaminade. Desmet tried to take control in the 4th quarter and Lockhart carried his team to victory attacking the basket against the much bigger Spartans and hitting a huge 3 with a minute left to seal the win. Lockhart really controls his team well in the half court and is a deft ballhandler and passer. He has kind of a slow release on his shot and didn't hit too many of his jumpers but he was able to get to the hoop at will throughout the game. Lockhart had a number of deflections and a couple steals on the other end as well. Really smooth kid.

No one on North takes many outside shot besides the real small guys because they don't have to. Strong 6'4 guards with handles and who are quicker than everyone else on the court can and should get to the basket anytime they want.

My father said Vashon looked ugly tonight. Gym class basketball. Bonner apparently has a lot to work on.

From a team standpoint though we'd be in the same place, struggling to field a tourney team even in the valley, at this point it is much harder to win in the valley than the A-10. I still don't want to be in the valley. It is better for the future of the program if we truly can be successful if we can separate ourselves from local rivals Mo St and siuC, no matter how many NCAA berths they get they still carry the tag of mid-major, we still don't. Now give the A-10 a couple more down years and we might be wishing the national pundits were calling us mid major but I hope that doesn't happen.

I would compare Roundtree more to Tommie than John. I really think Roundtree is the better player, better handles, better drives. John has a nice pull up jumper and like Tommie Roundtree needs to develop his outside shot, but John is not much farther ahead. I hope we get both to be honest.

I don't agree about Booker. He has decent athleticism, not great. He doesn't play big and considering he is not that tall, 6'6 without real long arms or big hands he will never be a top 30 player much less a top 150 player. At best a poor mans Leon Powell.

This is definetely not the conference that put two teams in the elite eight a few years back. The LaSalle loss at home is atrocious and their seems to be one of those types of losses almost nightly by a team in our league. More than half of our conference is horrible. Hopefully this will allow a Bills team that isn't as good as i thought it would be to rack up 12 wins in conference and take a 20 win season to the selection committee.