thetorch

But in that last game where he got decent playing time he had much better numbers.

Yawn I don't care if Columbia is named best Trailer Park in the country, it is still a Trailer Park.

Morris shot in the low 80s last year. Frericks was a good ft shooter for a big man, low 70s CLarke I imagine can shoot them but will be inconsistent his first year. Ian had decent ft numbers and got to the line frequently at WJC. He probably shot in the 70s. No idea on Bryant but he is a good shooter with experience, he should be able to ahndle himself at the line.

I don't think we have anyone on this team that can match Jeffers athletic skills, his size and his body. There are no Mos on this team. If you are talking about a Jeffers type impact, meaning a guy who has been decent in his career but takes it to a much different level his senior season I think that has to be Josh Fisher. Josh has a similar skillset to Mo except he is a couple inches shorter, sort of a mini-mo. Josh has been the best defender on the team for a couple years now, but his offense has always been inconsistent, though he has shown flashes. Josh has the skills to do it, he can penetrate, shoot and handle, plus take his man inside with his body. It would not shock me if Fisher had a breakout season and led this team in scoring with 17-18 a game.

Man I would have hoped fund raising would be going a little better than that. We are not anywhere close to what we need. This is going to be a tough sell for the University. This seems like poor planning to me, why would they plan on putting the arena on a site where a landmark building is that just went through millions of dollars of renovation? Even if they did want to sell it would take alot of dough to get them out of there.

We do have some depth at big, but they are all new save Sloan, and who knows how they will pan out. If there is a high quality post man available i would take him and then focus all efforts on a wing like Liddell. The idea for this recruiting class is to cover all the bases, ie geta small guard and wing player and a post player. Big man rotation in 03-04 PF - Sloan, JJ, Izik, Varner C - Frericks, Ian, Varner Big Man rotation in 04-05 PF - JJ, Izik C - Frericks, Ian, Husak PF is one spot where we lose alot of depth after this year. If a top player is a vailable who will sign with us why not offer him now? Match him and JJ up next year and see who wins the starting role.

AB played the 5 the majority of the time though. They ran Tadysak, Ivester and Entwhistle out there from time to time but in crunch time AB was always the 5.

Sloan was a HS pg and was a top 100 player on at least 1 list. Earlier in his career he was always a tenacious defender on the outside, but lost his shot and was just to slow to handle the ball and dribble against college competition like he did in HS. He has big time heart and that is why even though he had never played down low before he has gone there and excelled. With his shot back now he is a credible PF in our league. He is a consummate defender on the blocks and outside, his rebounding and post play leave a little to be desired but he is still learning the position and will be better at those aspects this year. Shaw is totally different from Sloan. Even though he is undersized liek SLoan he has played the post his entire life. He is a decent defender and rebounder and has good offensive skills and a decent short range jumper. He is also an explosive guy on the blocks, I have seen him make dunks in traffic and at an Eagles game he dunked on LaMarcus Aldridge, a top 5 player who is 6'11 and beefy. He is definetely a prototype PF, really nothing like Sloan. I am anxiously awaiting JJ's appearances on the court for SLU. There have been some questioning on the board regarding the space between his ears but like P Diddy said his effort in the weight alone has impressed upon me that will not be an issue. Has SLU ever had a 6'8 true PF with athletic skills, that one panned out as a decent player, and was not forced to play the 5? I can't think of any save for possibly Carlos Skinner, but JJ sounds much more talented than him. He may need some time, which we can give him with Sloan here, but I really see him as being a premier PF in whatever league we happen to be in a couple years.

Seinfeld references ;-) The conference issue is easily settled, if we end up in a worse conference than we are now, which would be any of the following; a depleted CUSA, MVC, or shudder to suggest the MAC, Mid-Con, or Horizon. we are totally screwed. A catholic league, big east/CUSA merger, or CUSA in it current form are the only good alternatives we have. Anything else would be a disaster, some more bearable than others but still disasters.

bump

That is a tough one, maybe waiting on Dennard would have been the smarter thing to do. Two reasons not to do that 1. Can't get his grades together who knows if he could last at SLU. If Brad upon meeting him thought he would eventually be able to qualify before the year and been able to hack it a tSLU wouldn't he have offered? 2. Last year we were recruiting till tha last minute and lost time on this years recruits. I am not surprised that maybe he was a little hasty to get this recruiting class over with and not lose any ground on next years. Kyle Kirk, I have heard he is going to CBC, is this true?

Xavier has already committed to Purdue. Cuonzo Martin formerly of EStL High is an asst there. I think Xavier has also transferred to Belleville West(?) and will not be playing for O'Fallon this year.

I also voted yes bump

Good post, let me add a little to it if I may. I think there is another agenda among the people who are always wishing SLU "give up" and join the valley. Namely it is Mizzou and to a lesser extent Illinois fans and supporters. Conciously or not there are people who just give lip service to SLU, but try to keep them down because they don't want another elite program in the area competing with the big boys not only for recruits but also media attention. They only think of us as little brother and beleive SLU has its place below the two big schools and it should stay there. Lets face it even though SLU is the only hoops game in a large metropolitan area SLU fans are very outnumbered by their Mizzou and Illinois counterparts in the area. To these people SLU is nothing more than a diversion if that. Pushing for SLU to sign mediocre area players just because they are from the area serves several purposes for them. One it keeps the pressure of of them to sign these players. Two it effectively keeps SLU below them in terms of on the court play. And three it enables their programs to recruit more effectively if a local recruit ever becomes big enough to warrant a look from Mizzou or Illinois. Upsetting this would, depsite Mizzou and Illinois fans objections, have a huge effect on their programs. If SLU can become a program on par with Illinois and Mizzou it means there is another mouth to feed and the available talent in the area becomes more spread out. It will always be in there best interests to keep SLU's program down. SLU joining the Valley would be their dream scenario, we become a virtual non-player in the area and they get their pick of recruits, get more fans and more funds, and more media exposure.

Please stop denying that you are connected to the Ahearn family. We know you are and it doesn't really matter. Mrs. Douglass was up front enough to acknowkledge her affiliation, maybe the attitude with which you have been greeted with here is because you have not. Lets get this straight though, does anyone know for a fact that we have not offered a schollie to Shaw? No one does, until Mrs. Shaw comes on the board saying SLU has not I think we have to beleive what little reports we have, that SLU is in the running for Shaw's services. That said while we do need a strong local recruiting base, Shaw may not fit into Coach Brad's plans because of his size. I don't think we should have Coach change his team around just because there is a good local player who could play at SLU. If he doesn't fit into the system we should not be going after him. All indications are that we are going after Matt Shaw.

Mrs. Douglass or can I call you Gidget, I am in the market for a new T-bird but your husband has been kinda hard on price. Can you talk to him for me, I just think he is being unreasonable, I mean the T-birds are just sitting on the lot, no one is buying em but he just won't budge. Thanks

Frericks sound like a keeper. You are right it has been a great while since we have a had a big man who is willing to mix it up and can be a rebounding force. Heinrich might have been close but he had athletic limitations. I think we are correct in assuming that Brad is going to be recruiting big, physical Big 10 style players. Guys like Frericks can exploit alot of teams that are soft in the CUSA.

Rodamn an undersized PF, Sloan fits the bill, but not a tenacious rebounder. Shaw would fit into that mold better. Izik can be Adrian Dantley, Fischer/Drejaj can be dumars. Too bad we don't have an Isaiah.

Just a quick look at the board I see about 20 threads on the first page and only 2 have anything to do with mizzou. And one was started by a mizzou fan. The longest threads were about the billikens and of course aj's thread. Mizzou is going to come up on the board every once in a while when talking about area recruits like grimes and so forth and about SLU playing mizzou. Other than that mizzou doesn't come up. Any small metion of tigers and the 3 or 4 tiger fans show up and continue the discussion towards mizzou. Without this clemons thing going on mizzou wouldn't get mentioned more than a couple times a month. Frankly I find mizzou discussion's mostly irrelevant and I have no idea why mizzou fans come here other than to bother us. I have no interest in going to tigerboard or anything else like that, although I do like to trade jabs with tiger fans on stltoday forums.

Clemon's was spending his sentence at a halfway house called REALITY House???????? Of course Alden will cover his a**. If/when Ricky comes up with these allegations Alden won't want to stick around for the lynch mob, he will high tail it off to another school, off scot-free leaving Quin to burn. It would be poetic justice, someone finally putting the screws back on Quin.

They are our in state rivals, we should hate them. I hate mizzou for the same reason I hate the Red Wings or Cubs. I get to exert some of that animosity every year when we play those teams but in the case of Mizzou who won't play us the hate just continues to fester. Of course the fact that Mizzou is usually better than us is another reason to ahte them. That won't be a reason much longer though.

She can't be any worse than her brother. How hard must it be for Jill to recruit around here. The program gets no ink, deservedly so, and they play in that matchbox. I think the new arena and facilities will help the womens program even more than it helps the mens. It also must be hard to have a D-3 program right next door that could consistently beat your team.

Anybody have any info about Evans. I heard he got hurt in Indy and had to leave. Is he a floyd McClain waiting to happen or was this just a minor thing?

nm

You may have a skewed view of those early years. His talent for his first 5 to 6 years was horrendous. Something that you cannot even imagine now. You know how Mizzou does not play us because they are scared to lose to their little neighbor, well we had to do the same thing back then only we had to stop playing UMSL because they were killing us. Lets just say Drew Diener would have been the MVP of many of those teams year in year out. Any coaching irregularities I have to attribute to lack of any talent on the floor.