thetorch

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After the game I usually see Blue Crew members on buses or waiting for them outside the old kiel entrance. Today there was a blue crew member (I saw his shirt) in the back of the bus yelling profanities at Arizona fans and threatening them. I had to restrain a couple people from getting on the bus to physically confront this person. I love your group and what you do at the games and one bad apple does not spoil the entire barrel but in this case this guy was way out of line and several of his buddys on the bus did nothing to stop him from yelling. I have to tell you I was embarrassed to be a SLU fan after hearing and seeing such a display of poor sportsmanship as that.

Pssst Steve In college you don't have to go to every class. I found many more frivolous reasons to skip classes than to watch the Billikens while I was in school.

With our shooting woes he would be a great addition.

Izik appears rattled, he has had chances to take short jump shots but he looks around for a defender and then the oppurtunity is gone. Izik loses control on drives, he still has not acclimated himself to the physical US style. He always just looks for the foul. The amount of times he has gone to the hoop this season, I believe he has only drawn one foul. That is unacceptable, he has to physically take it to the other teams. He has not learned how to do that. If I was him I would take it to the basket and dunk, he twists and turns and pump fakes and scoops, and the ball goes out of bounds rather than in the hoop. Once he gets by his man just go up for a dunk, if you take it strong you will draw fouls, cutesy stuff do not get you any calls. I would like to see Izik in the postmore as well. He has awsome post moves, he just has to finish or draw fouls. Izik is no Kenny Brown, but he has worked hard on the defensive end and rebounded slightly better. I have not seen Izik get beat this year without putting up a decent effort.

I'm concerned more about Drejaj than Reggie. Both of them always look for dribble penetration rather than shooting around screens. reggie may be able to get this but we know he is prone to alot of penetration in spite of the fact he is such a good spot up shooter. Drejaj on the other hand I would do well to use his screens more, his penetration causes too many TOs while his hot road shooting is what we needed last night.

Zona plays a little different than these guys. Channing is their big man and he has a straight up post game. I think frericks can push him around. I like our matchups against Zona more than the ones tonight.

I don't think Frericks asthma was keeping him on the bench. Every time he was in WV put their inside guys on the perimeter and he is just too slow to handle mobile big men. Despite others on this board who believe Ross is a great hard working player, I have to say that enough is enough. Play JJ, we know what Ross can do and that is very little. WV is not that strong in the post but they ate up Ross. The only thing Ross brings to the game is 3 pt shooting. Otherwise he is hurting the team. Its great that he tries hard but at some point skill is needed and he has none.

KMOX sucks, they cut in on the pbp every 2 seconds for station ID down the stretch, very hard to keep up with the game. -- Bryant finally caught on, but to late, finished with 12 points. Played well on defense, but needs to play within offense. -- Sloan struggled on offense, but rebounded tough, fouled out. -- Drejaj brought them back to 2 down, but then went quiet for the final 10 minutes. -- Johnson was strong on defense, and hit a couple shots down the stretch. -- Fisher had a good game, scoring in DFs, normal effort by him. -- Izik really dissapoints, hardly got in. His minutes in the 2nd half were good on defense but did nothing on offense. -- Frericks was strong for short stretches but he could not match up against their mobile big men. -- Varner was his usual self, made a couple shots, played hard but was beaten on defense repeatedly. JJ will get his minutes by the end of the season, he is superior except for 3 point shooting. -- Hunt played small minutes. -- Clarke no minutes. WV shot 55% from the floor. Unacceptable. Team relied too much on dribble penetration, Bryant and Drejaj have to learn to play off the screens.

The KMOX feed sucks, they keep cutting in for station ID during play.

Bills have messed up several layups and fast break oppurtunites. Those really hurt.

We had cut the lead to two 42-40 but WV went on a 5-0 run while JJ missed two FTs. Bills have the ball with 7:12 left.

Down by 14 now down by 5 WV Timeout with 10 left. Johnson and Izik are playing well inside together on both ends.

Varner just shot an airball. Timeout Billikens with 11:37 left. Bills going strong with lineup of Fisher, Drejaj, Bryant, Varner and Johnson.

Bills on a 7-2 run comeback time.

Bills shooting a little better to start. We cannot penetrate without getting blocked. Varner continues to be outmatched by Pittsnogle. WVs top scorer Schiaffino has woken up and taking it to Fisher now.

I think Frericks can play, but WVs big men play on the perimeter, Frericks just cannot keep up with them that is why he is not in there. 10 O boards for the Bills one of the few good points.

Bills got better from the field in the last couple minutes, but we are missing free throws badly, SLoan is 1-3 and Drejaj missed a one and one that ould have put us down by threee. Sloan did have a strong putback and Varner hit a big 3. Bryant got his first basket as a Billiken with a drive by two WV players. We are lucky to be down by just 8. This game could be out of reach by now if ot for our defense, especially fisher. WVs top scorer has just 5 points, his game average is well over 20 ppg. Varner and Frericks are struggling against their bigs who can go inside and out. Izik has been really bad, 3 TOs, as usual makes great moves to the basket and then loses the ball somehow. He must finish. Bills shooting 7-27 from the field and 3-6 from the FT line. Sloan and Drejaj both have 5 points. Obviously we have to shoot better to win this game. A strong start is imperative, WV's hot shooting could put their lead in double figures. I think that could put the game out of reach for the Billikens.

Bills really struggling on offense. Bryant is 0-3, Sloan just got blocked twice on the same possession. Fisher has shut down their leading scorer on the other end but WV's bigs can go outside and shoot, their two big guys have 13 points mostly on the perimeter. Frericks is out now with 2 fouls. Bills shooting 4-22 from the field 6 TOs.

Bills have missed at least 5 layups, cannot do that on the road. Varner is getting torched inside, but Tom cannot giuard on the perimeter.

So far the refs are letting them play. The big man Pittsnogle for WV has 4 points and has beaten Ross twice. Drejaj has 5 points and Sloan had the other bucket. Frericks played for a little, but is out again. WV has gone to a big lineup and is back in a zone defense.

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Mo is still listed on the Kansas Cagerz roster. Their season does not start for awhile, he may be in Europe for the offseason. I perused the minor leagues looking to see if Mo was maybe in the CBA but I only found Anthony Bonner. He is second in the CBA in rebounding with 10 a game and leads his team, Great Lakes, in scoring with over 17 ppg. Great Lakes has been the doormat in the league for a couple years but AB has them in second place with a early 5-3 record on the season.

Stu said Coach was considering using a 3 guard lineup to start the game tonight. The paper also has Varner and Sloan starting at the forward spots. I don't remember West Virginia being that much of a post oriented team, their big guy was kinda skinny and could play on the perimeter. I would like to see Frericks out there starting instead of Varner though, and I don't know if I like the 3 guard. We do not have enough guard depth, really in crunch time we have 3 guards that should be out there, we cannot count on Hunt or Clarke yet if ever this year. We have slightly more depth inside and I would like to see Izik if healthy given a chance to start in a big game and see what he can do.

Marque will be on TV next week on NBATV at 3 pm if you want to see him in action.