thetorch

He really got killed on a play inside. Turiaf hit him in the face.

nm

Same old same old for the Bills. Reggie has 10 points. Izik and Tom active on the boards but they are in foul trouble and cannot convert off boards. No one but Reggie can hit the side of a barn. Newborne has been the best defender. Extremely poor ball control by the Bills.

that is the way it is played on the road.

Reggie heating up.

Bills with a small lineup. Still can't guard them.

Izik is out with 2 fouls, strange lineup in, Clarke, JJ and Husak have all had minutes early.

The frosh sits on the road, Brad wants to have TOs under control. We will see if Drejaj is the answer.

Ron Ekker, unbelieveably, is now an asst coach for the Orlando Magic. The fact that the man can still be employed in the NBA goes a long way in explaining the downfall of that league and the best US players as a whole.

For people curious on this kid he is a very undersized PF. Thinking this kid will acquire ball skills to play guard at another level is a pipe dream, he is an inside banger but a good one at that. There have always been ?s regarding his age. Of the several people I have asked about him only one has asserted he is the correct age to be a junior and not 18 or 19. BBall people from neighboring schools that I know swear he is older than his class at least a year if not more. The only one who has said he is 16,17 or thereabouts has been a teacher at Jennings. Watts could very well be a body love DD type player but like DD he will have to go the JUCO route. It can be difficult to get a kid from Jennings to qualify for D-1, case in point Akins will most definetely not be at Nebraska next year.

Roy Qdoba is actually a very decent place. I think they are just starting to put them in this area. There is one by my house, Lindbergh and New Halls Ferry, which of course is not exactly in your neck of the woods. Those shots were not that difficult, any self respecting bball fan should be able to make layups. Sometimes I think they put total spazzes out there to rig the contests. In nearly 2 decades of watching these contests I have seen a handful of people with actual skills participate. I'm very afraid that we may see the dating game again this year. I almost had to walk out of the arena during that trainwreck. Memo to marketing these things should be scripted!!!!! You cannot give the mike to some Joe blow and expect he/she to be entertaining.

Randy Reed (K State Star) coaches at McCluer North. North didn't have such a great game last night against Jennings. The football players still didn't appear to be in the rotation that heavily though.

I will be getting out to see several McCluer North games this year so I will report on the progress of their impressive frosh. He is a half brother of Carrewell. North has a very deep team this year with their top scorers back from last year, they will probably win the sub north and contend in districts.

First off the city schools are attrocious. Kids have to work twice as hard to get the scores necessary to get into decent colleges. Then asking those kids to juggle schoolwork while playing a sport will be doubly difficult for them. Polk and McKinney are the exceptions to the norm. Also Vashon does have a track record of fielding players who do not have what it takes to make it acedemically. Irons has improved on this point in the past few years but in the 90s and 80s you were hard pressed to find a kid who could be a decent student and not a complete headcase coming out of Vashon. Case in point you cite Joel Shelton and Lorenzo Gordon. Both of those guys had rough adjustment periods with college. Neither of them had the grades to remain eligible throughout their first year. I give a lot of credit to both for working through and becoming successful students and ballplayers, especially Gordon who is excelling at Illinois St on the court and off. Curtis Muse last year, he has high D-1 talent, but he has had poor grades throughout his hs career at RG and Vashon. This is not an indictment of individual players, more of the system in place with the city schools. Until there is a huge change there all the kid coming out of there will be scrutinized and for good reason.

oops, I was looking at yesterdays game where he fell one assist short. Impressive having back to back games like this.

Disagree slightly, Husak has the green light to take those shots. Frericks and Vouyoukas do not, simply because they do not have the ability to make an 18 foot jumper. No way in 100 years either of those guys take shos like that, if they did Sodereberg would have been all them. He was not all over Husak for doing the same thing.

He did have 3 clean blocks, add another one on the early foul and another that I believe they credited to Izik as a mistake. He altered shots on almost every possession he was in the game. Brad said he was a force on the defensive end this summer and he showed it yesterday. He may be a McCilvaine yet.

Who knows what the reasoning behind this announcement by Floyd are. Floyd and Bernie are really good friends too, why wouldn't he give it directly to him? Puzzling. Only thing for usre is known, Floyd does things to enhance his own credentials and ego, at the detriment of everyone else, players, fellow coaches included. Bobby Hill is an athletic dynamo but Macguire and Leonard seem a better fit. As always there is a chance that grades will be a problem with a Vashon player, it is possible that this will just go away but we really cannot afford to piss off Irons or his program, he has a juggernaut at Vashon. In all his years he has never had as much talent, overall as he does now. Losing out on players a few blocks from campus will not be good.

Before writing off Husak as a little triger happy lets point out that plays were run for him on those 15-18 footers. He can make ths shots, why else would there be plays for him there? With yesterdays shooting display Bryce's offense could have been a decent alternative. He has a lot to work on offense along with coordinataion and conditioning but right now as a redshirt freshman he is a big factor on the defensive end.

Reggie is definetely not a vocal leader or a take charge personality but last year he had the sack to take the big shot and be the man on offense. Soderberg has made it a point to push Reggie on the defensive end this year, I question the wisdom of that move. Reggie cannot be our defensive stopper, nor anything approaching that. This responsibity may be hindering Reggie's approach on the offensive end. Our seniors just don't seem to be the leader types. Izik and Reggie just aren't those types of guys and Tom seems a more introspective player, he can get fired up but about his play. More than once when the team was huddled up yesterday and Polk or Izik were bring them together Tom was lingering outside not paying any attention. The leader on this team will have to be Polk. He is not there yet, but game by game he is getting closer. We will be a good team by the end of the season when he has settled into his role as floor leader but until then we may have a rocky time, especially if our shots fall at a 30% clip.

Now they are only giving him 9 assists. Still he has improved leaps and bounds even from a good season last year. The wiz are in a weak division and have the makings of a decent playoff team. Hughes if he keeps it up could be an all star if not this year than next.

Really what difference does it make who starts? It is about minutes and Drejaj is getting plenty. He is a solid pg but Polk has the ability to be spectaucular, ex, his pass to Izik yesterday for the dunk. Drejaj has been the best perimeter defender so far this year, his role should be the defensive stopper on the outside. I am not sure if he is considered this as yet as Soderberg is pushing for Reggie to contribute more on defense. Drejaj has done a fine job, he is a more than adequate 3rd or 4th guard for a high major team.

>for those of you still a little skeptical about the real >skills of kevin lisch and tommie liddell and how they will >measure up to college ball, i noticed that in purdue's first >game, xaiver price started, played 31 minutes and by the box >score looked like he was at least the 3rd best player on the >team. Of course taking another view, you have Grant Agbo who consistently beat up on Kalen Grimes playing off the bench for truman St.

I'm excited we have all these playmakers, now we need someone who can shoot the ball.

I don't care what kind of contract we have Billiken basketball will never be on the air in drive time for KMOX.