3star_recruit

Vashon's sophomore 6'6 jumping jack.

Finding 6'8 wing players that average 25 ppg in high school --like Adam Morrison did -- is incredibly hard to do. And even if you find one you're going to beat out the big boys to get him. Gonzaga is a proven program on the rise so they were able to do just that. Next year is such a big year in the life of this program. It could literally mean the difference between landing a "program maker" recruit, like Leon Powell is shaping up to be, or staying in our holding pattern.

I saw him play over the summer two years and he looked like a promising big man -- ran and jumped well, above average rebounder, well put together at about 6'7 230 lb at the time. He was injured most of his junior season and transferred to Oak Hill for his senior season. Most of the Illini message boarders have been underwhelmed by his performances at Oak Hill and were glad when Bruce Weber cut him loose. Reportedly has never gotten back to the level he was playing at his sophomore year. I have no problem with taking a flyer on an athletic 6'8 big. Beggars can't be choosers.

Justin Fuehrmeyer, who is a better ballhander than Ben Hansbrough, had difficulty bringing the ball up at times against the V so I know Ben is going to have problems. He needs to keep his turnovers down in the 3-4 range.

Tyler is going to get his 25+ points. So Bluff only has to score another 30 or so knock off the V.

Why were you surprised? The only thing that is extraordinary about this Vashon team is their defense. Johnny Hill and Kenny Daniels are thei4 only outside shooters. And Leon Powell, at 6'6 180 lb, is their primary inside threat. This may be Floyd's best coaching job. He's manufacturing baskets in the full court like Whitey Herzog used to manufacture runs without the long ball. If and when Vashon plays Poplar Bluff, if Bluff can get the ball inside to Hansbrough, there really isn't anything the V will be able to do to stop him.

Has since the Wisconsin days. Our talent is just as good as Marquette's w/o Diener, though, so he's way off base here. P.S. Being an improved team at the end of the year is only meaningful when you're pretty good to start with. Hopefully we can get out the blocks quicker next year.

I hope so too. But keep in mind that it will have to be a "sleeper". If you believe the recruiting web sites, there aren't any uncomitted high major PF prospects in Minnesota.

First one to 35 wins.

You can't stop these two teams, you can only hope to contain them!

Strong athletic programs help increase enrollment and loosens the pockets of alumnni who are sports fans, increasing the pool of money for things like research centers and law school buildings. It happens other places -- why not SLU?

"And if Brad's goal is too build from within and not use JUCO guys, why does the lack of these "majors" apply? Just curious." Because this was a change of tactics that Brad announced this season. We got burned on a couple of juco recruits not qualifying the last couple of years because they didn't have enough transferrable credits.

Bernie paints with broad strokes because he's too lazy to do any actual research. Frericks and Reggie never being healthy, the underclassmen struggling to adapt to a new system, Newborne being a tweener and the decision to play Drejaj 25 minutes a game are not the product of a lack of commitment by the administration. Brad has been pretty enthusiastic about the players he's signed the last two classes. But do the pieces fit? Should we be focusing on players that actually have experience in the system that we want to run? Those are type of questions Bernie should be exploring. That is, if he was really interested in writing about SLU basketball.

Yeah, I'm not sure where the head case stuff is coming from. All the staff has said is that he hasn't put forth the type of effort in practice they believe he's capable of. I'd bet there are people on this board that aren't put forth the type of effort in their jobs that they are capable of but I wouldn't call them head cases.

We definitely need a 4. Izik has owned Memphis in at least three of the games he's played against them but he is graduating. If we can find a decent power forward, whoever does the schedule should get on the phone with Clueless Calipari immediately to add Memphis to the schedule next year.

http://slubillikens.collegesports.com/spor.../030205aaa.html

Whoops, my bad. Scratch him from the list.

My guess is that the freshman team will come from the following list: Darius Washington, Juan Palacios, Leemire Goldwire, Jihad Muhammad, Ryan Amoroso, Tom Hammond's kid who plays for East Carolina and the Gomez kid who plays for Tulane.

So let's say Doug schmoozes the hell out of the Post. What positive stories could they write about SLU that would actually interest readers? "SLU is looking for donations." "Lisch and Liddell are coming." "Lisch had a successful surgery." Those stories have already been done. I'm sure we'd all like to see more recruiting news but for a major newspaper, the recruitment of a mid-major power forward is not newsworthy.

Bernie should have his Springsteen fan club membership revoked. Holding a grudge is very uncool.

"Your reaction has been to encourage players not to atend SLU, not to play for Brad" Huh? I have no idea what you're talking about. I doubt any of the board regulars do either.

nm

Steve, I'd ask the athletic dept before I'd do anything like that. A message board that discusses the Billiken program is one thing -- a site dedicated to a single player is another.

"You rip the players." You must be mistaking me for somebody else. You've "ripped" more players (and posters) in the last 2 months than I have in three years.

Unfortunately his squad lost 95-83 to Laurinburg last night. Tommie scored 16.