Billikenbooster

looked to be limping a bit in the game, and his man was ON FIRE when they took their lead. His passion is genuine and his heart is unquestioned, but it seems the guy who I thought was going to be our defensive stopper isn't getting it done. He had Kirkland in the Cincy game as well. Hope we can get things improved for him with help or better assignments. Reggie did well on Carruth. This is a big game Sat nite. Hopefully the students will come out and cheer the guys on. How ja lik dem appels, booby boy? Yo man IV did it, eh?

Jason Grunkemeyer (thanks for helping me, roy, with the spelling) said they were concentrating on prep school kids, and they wanted someone that could contribute right away, not develop down the road. Don't think that when they get their man, it will be anyone we have heard of around here. mhg

Your post prompted me to check the stats. I looked at blocked shots on the Billiken team stats page. Below are the stats for this season for those players with more than one blocked shot. The stats are calculated by me and listed as blocked shots/40 minutes. If there are any mistakes in the math, they are mine. BH 2.5 IV 1.2 DP .52 TF .48 DB .3 VN .29 IO .2 My take on these stats is that in this one category of defensive prowess, the two players you single out are leading the team far and away over the rest of the team. Far better than the other two 'bigs', IO and TF. Clearly shot blocking is not the only yardstick of defensive ability, but one that is quantifiable. For comparison, I went through career stats as best I could for SLU. Here are some representative statistics for career blocked shot leaders for the Bills. Melvin Robinson, '91 3.3 Anthony Bonner, '89 1.1 Abdur Rahiin Al Matiim, '84 2.7 Chris Heinrich, '00 1.6 Matt Baniak, '00 1.6 The stats page does not list Al Matiin's stats for '85, the year he had 46 total blocks. The year stats page does not list blocked shots for '01. There are no stats listed as far back as '80, Kelvin Henderson's best year, with 68 blocked shots. mhg

Dribbler- Any more takers on the Tip Off Club initiative to sponsor the caches' offices at the new arena? I think this is a great idea. I believe I have another interested member for you. I don't know how to PM via this board, so if you could email me, I'll fill you in. mhg

David- As to #5, Jason Lueckmeyer (sp?) at the Tip Off Club meeting on Tuesday night said 1-they need to really get hits on both these scholarships, and need people who can contribute now, 2-are looking for 4 year players, and 3-would like a solid 3 pt shooter and a big man, (I am thinking a 4 rather than a 5 type man since we have BH and IV for two years.) Brad had two years to get up to speed recruiting-wise with the sudden departure of Romar. This is a key year for him, and he has signed on two high priority local recruits he wanted desperately. Three if you include Polk. These last two this year are HUGE for him. mhg

Sagaring poll has Charlotte at #61, at 10-2, with a schedule rank of 273 out of 332 D1 schools. SLU is 249, at 3-11, schedule rank of 91. If I understand how Sagarin works, according to this poll, UNCC would be a 15 pt favorite over the Bills in a home game for Charlotte.

Greetings from the TO Club meeting tonite. Looks like no one else was going to run out and post so here goes. Don't shoot the messenger. First up was Dan Donigan. Was already speaking when I arrived, so I only got part of what he said. We will host A10 Championships this year. Vidad is doing well in France, got a red card right after going in in his first game. Has a 3 year contract, a Bosnian coach. Is in contact with DD and others on the team. Jill Pizzoti herself came. Lots of injuries, big weekend at home Fri and Sun. Sun game on TV, Diener is starting, the Mia Johnson girl is in the top ten in scoring nationally among freshman. Wants to graduate, and then play in the WNBA. Jason Luetkmeyer (sp?) spoke for the men's team. DP practiced today should be able to play this weekend. The dude that hurt him from Cincy winked to our bench after he hit him from behind to force the injury. The team was off 2 d, coach was out recruiting. Tom is out til Feb, not til he is symptom free and then some. (My observation...he did not look comfortable before the game while we were warming up) AD-elbow injury in his shooting arm. injected, out few days. Recruiting-really watched his words here. 2 available, really happy with how our 2 committed are doing now. need players who can help right now. not kids who need to develop. looking for 4 year players, looking increasingly at prep schools. after a while said they would like ideally a tall 3 pt shooter, and a bigger kid. if they don't get a player that can fit the bill, especially someone who can contribute right away, they will hold the scholly. last words...can't miss on any scholarship player. BH very pleased with his effort, contribution. DC inconsistent, partially his fault, partially not. injured alot, misses alot of time in practice. IV will go to Greece again this summer, play on the U-20 team. LM odd man out. has a slow delivery on his 3 pt shot. happy with his effort. JJ inconsistent. spoke of him as with DC. inconsistent in his everyday approach to the game. Josh, Marque P, Chris S- all were very consistent and practiced hard 2 h each practice. JJ still figuring that out. Then came the Dribbler- he spoke for Cheryl, our AD who didn't come since she was ill. Spoke only on fundraising, proposed the Tip Off Club commit to sponsoring the outfitting of the Men's and Women's Locker Rooms. Figured that would take 13 members pledging $5k each. $1K/year for 5 years. He already got one pledge tonight! I think it is a fitting way for the Tip Off Club, the bball booster group to show its support for the program in a coordinated way. Just need 12 more, or 24 folks to do $500/year. Last Tom Kelso, strength and fitness coach. Started at U of Florida as asst, was head til Spurrier became Head Coach and brought his own man. since then has been at SEMO, U of I Chicago and arrived here October/2004. Has 250 athletes in his program. Will have about 4k sq ft in the new facility. has at most 2500 now. Really will be satisfied with the space at the new gym. All that I could remember and write down. Well attended on a dreary wet evening. Especially while getting nauseous watching Louisville dismantle Southern Miss right over the coaches' heads on the TV at Humphreys.

there was lots of opportunities to let them have it tonite, wasn't there? Did each of those guys get their attitude from the ref Valentine School of Attitude? Each one seemed to take turns staring at the bench, itching to toss someone. And they were each adept at making the bad calls to force comments from the faithful. What was with all the walking calls. They would never get a look from the NBA. Good job by the band, especially with the local singer. Great job. Again. What was the end of the game chant for the opposing team. the flaming female anouncer was hawking some sponsor cr-p while the band was doing their thing. Can you repeat it for us? mhg

Isn't this an old article? I remember reading something like this last year at least. At the time it received a mild negative response. When you are losing this kind of stuff gets bigger play. I bet this took her ten minutes to fill out a survey. The record and performance of the team on and off the court should be the only yardstick she is measured by, and it sure isn't good right now. We need to give Ms Levick some time to put her imprint on the SLU program. Her first priority was to get Brad a contract extension and it was done. Her next priority is the building. Of course it would be easier to find naming rights people if the bball squads were 10-2 right now. Let's give her some time to sort this all out. I'm sure it will get done. mhg

Don't you think when we have a player or two who can consistently hit from outside, those drives will be more successful? They seemed to always have more than two people down low whenever we drove. Being on the road, we certainly didn't get many breaks from the refs. Thought Ed Hightower didn't have one of his better games. mhg

was even wrong. She said it was cold and blustery all day! What was she thinking? Yes the band was outstanding.

We'll surely go higher as they go by total points. When we add two more recruits we will advance. Should rate by average, so there would be a fairer gauge of a school's quality. A school that loses five players and replaces them with four 1.5 average quality players is rated higher than one with two recruits with a 3.0. I would rather have two higher than five 1.5 any day. mhg

It intrigues me that those wishing to see Ms P leave are more likely to be relatively new to the board. Very few posts in the past. I find this refreshing, and like to know that we are attracting young blood into the mix. I just hope there isn't some 'ballot stuffing' going on here, a few who wish to see the end of the Jilliken era getting their friends and family to echo the feelings of those few. Personally I don't care one way or the other about her, but I do care about the women's program, since I believe the success of the new arena depends alot more on the health of the women's volleyball and bball programs than the men's. I have faith in the health of the men's program, and the new arena will help tremendously. It is the other two programs that really have the greatest statistical financial impact on the athletic programs of SLU. mhg

Pooh! I thought he had crawled back into the sea, with the other serpents, snails and slugs. Oh, well. Just have to ignore the posts as I have in the past. Please, everyone, let him post and don't respond. It only encourages him. mhg

This isn't the real 'Tangle the Truth'. The original one put a space between 'and' and 'Too'. This one is 'Triangle andToo', an imitation, but just as stupid. mhg

If it isn't a reality, I bet it won't be due to it not having merit or a financial basis of merit, but due to the litigation over the TIF suit involving the entire surrounding area in Midtown. Not knowing details, I am only speculating, but the articles in the Business Journal have recently spoke to the lawsuit over the TIF including the sports site. mhg

I do think Brad might have difficulty recruiting running type players if the running players he now has (DP) aren't allowed to push the ball upcourt and put pressure on the defense quickly. He doesn't have a full contingent of team mates to implement that fully yet, but he should be allowed to develop his skills now. Thought there were some moments in the Dayton game that we saw glimpses of a running type game, when IO, VN, DB and Reggie played together, I think. The sad thing is that this year was such an opportunity to take the metro area by storm without hockey, Rams are down, no baseball...it would have been sweet. mhg

Have to disagree with you on Danny Brown's D, Roy. He was on their big scorer and Brad couldn't wait to get AD back into the game. He doesn't have that intense D yet. got picked off big time twice in a row. Agree with the rest, though. Especially about SSG. Really thought we had to have a good game for Steve. Band was superb at half time, the horn solo was outstanding. Well done. mhg

JJ really looked good tonight. Played hard, within himself, seemed comfortable, rather than the dear in the headlights we saw last year. Moved well without the ball. I sat back and looked at this game, and it certainly did not look like a 1-6 team vs an 0-6 team. Both had great energy, intensity and determination. We started a three guard team with RB, AD, and DP. Vashun had a tough nite. Seemed for a while we would never get past 17 pts, then went on a 9 point spree that energized us. Well done, boys. Keep it up. mhg

Sagarin poll ranking 263. We aren't even one of the top teams with only one win. There are TWENTY teams with one win ranked higher than us, one of which is Austin Peay. Did anyone else see Tom F coughing on the court during the GU game Sat nite? His asthma must really be bothering him alot more than we think. Tip Off on for tomorrow nite, right? Let's turn out and support the team. Good questions, but show we are still the fans.

This team is not that bad. Sorry. They haven't given up on themselves and we can't give up on them. We are fans....short for fanatics. When a team is going bad, look for the good. When they are going well, look for the things we need to do better. Right now this team IS playing hard...just not in synch, and not offensively cohesive. 2-3 shots fall for us or a few of theirs miss and we are at .500. On 1380 tonight coach said we had a good practice tonight and they just need to shoot their way out of it. My personal opinion is that the seniors have to show the leadership that falls to seniors, and I want to see the coaches determine who their players are going to be and stay with them. I like Meyer, and believe he deserves more time. I also think when a team is hurting like this, they need some set plays that they can go to from time to time to make sure they get the best looks possible...set screens for shooters, or inside penetration with dishouts to open men. UWM is a good team. They aren't undefeated for no reason. They were fast, had a great idea of what to do with the ball on offense, mixed up their defenses well, and played hard the whole game. Our schedule is started with good teams without the household recognition.

That's funny, but I thought that one of the reasons we were able to come back from that 12-0 start was the play of Luke Meyer. He is all over the place, looks toward the basket bringing the ball in instead of away. Sure he needs to bulk up and get some stronger, but I thought his play was one of the bright spots from last nite.

Seems to me that Polk sounds like the leader on this team right now. Says all the right things...positive attitude, bringing that winner's mentality to the game. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/st...eason+struggles

When you pop them they can scar. We have some scars from the Triangle and Too debacle. Much wasted time and energy on that nudnick. I'm more of a watcher, it will get better kind of a guy. Bills fans have to be that way. We can't hope for a quick fix. The Legend was fun to watch and hope for the future, but I don't think the program OVERALL was better for having Larry with us for one year. I would much prefer to anticipate KL and TL, watch them grow and carry us higher. Just my preference. mhg

Ignore him. Eventually pimples go away.