3star_recruit

The final margin was close but we were down by at least 7 for about 32 of the 40 minutes. Depaul was in the control the whole way.

I don't think Drejaj was in the game and Polk was being delayed from coming to the ball by a UAB defender.

JJ, those numbers are deceving. About 10 of Vouyoukas and Newborne's points occurred because of runouts and secondary breaks not by pounding the ball inside. When you break UAB's pressure pressure, as we did on several occasions, you're going to have the opportunity for a layup/short jumper or a couple of free throws. As for why Izik didn't play the same minutes he did in the first half, you got me.

It's just Brad's mindset. Apparently it was more important to set up his defense than it was to set up his offense for the last shot.

Roy, didn't you the see the UAB defender jumping in between Polk and Luke? That took a precious two seconds off the clock. Brown was halfway down the court already. Instead of Luke waiting another second for Polk to break free, he took off down the court. It was a tough decision for a kid who just began playing regularly to have to make. Those things happen.

Also, we had a different coach and a fresh outlook after Claggett and Highmark's freshman year. Next year we'll have the same coach with the same philosophy and the memory of last season's failures fresh in his mind. If I was the coach I'd go chill in Hawaii for a week to get my spirits back up.

If upside meant anything to Brad, Drejaj wouldn't still be playing 25+ minutes a game. A lot of people are jumping on this game as proof that Danny is better suited as a future starter and Luke should be a role player. Do you really think that Brad is going to erase Luke's performance in the past five games from his memory just because Luke didn't look so hot in this game? He had that some slow release and modest jumping ability when he was scoring and rebounding in those other games.

Polk was trying to get the ball but there was a guy jumping between him and Meyer preventing him from doing that.

I've accepted that Brad is going to stick to his half-court system come hell or high water and being a great athlete doesn't really give you an advantage the way Brad grades offensive players. Being in the right place at the right time, hitting the open jumper and keeping turnovers down is what will endear you to the coach. The only place where Polk, Liddell and Brown are going to run the break on a regular basis is in the minds of Billikens.com posters. I believe its way down the list of offensive priorities.

Polk has been playing 30 minutes a game as a freshman even though his shot has been off for the vast majority of this season. Now that his shot has come around, I expect him to play similar minutes as the incumbent point guard next season. Drejaj has played 25+ minutes a game every season he's been here. Coach will lean on Drejaj for senior leadership as he does with all his experienced seniors so Anthony will be in the rotation. If Kevin Lisch was not coming in next year, I would pencil Drejaj in as a starter (not the decision I would make but I'm trying to think like Brad here). Hopefully Lisch will be ready to go by fall practice and Drejaj will be a sparkplug off the bench. Brad is a system coach and in his opinion Luke Meyer has the best grasp of his system. Now that Luke has gotten the opportunity to prove he can score at this level, that may spell bad news for Danny Brown. Not only is Danny competing against Meyer but if Tommie Liddell qualifies, he basically brings everything to the table that Danny does, plus he's a better playmaker and rebounder. Newborne, who is a great practice player, is our de facto power forward. Hopefully he'll have more success rebounding against the smaller A-10 interior players. JJ has survived being kicked off the team earlier this season and will be an upperclassman so I expect him to be a solid contributor off the bench. IV is our only legitimate post threat so he will be counted on to play mega minutes next year. Husak's job will be to play good interior defense, swat some shots and box out while IV is getting a breather. Any offense we get from him is gravy. Other folks have covered Clarke's situation already. If Coach finds this 6'5 three-point specialist he's looking for, I expect the kid to redshirt to maximize his minutes over his 4 year playing career. I don't have much confidence in the staff finding a high school power forward who's able to quickly grasp Brad's offense and strong enough to beat out upperclassmen. We don't exactly have a history of bringing in power forwards who are ready to play right away.

Group hug :-)

Sure they were. Between 1945 and 1960, the Billikens were one of the top programs in basketball.

Here is central theme of Nark's initial post in Bernie's forum. "The reality, however, is that SLU has a limited number of scholarships and can't sign every local player who might have great success in college. I would bet very good money that Bernie couldn't tell you the status of Gordon's eligibility out of high school, the number of scholarships SLU had available that recruiting year, and the number of players SLU had returning at that position on its roster." But instead of addressing the substance of the post and similar themes in followup posts, Bernie goes into "SLU is a substandard program and is lucky I even mention them" mode, which has nothing to do with what's being discussed. That's what turns so many SLU fans off.

"Ohanon was pushing guys over on his way to the hoop," Huh? Ohanon is the biggest finesse player in the conference.

There are about 10 of those guys in all of Division 1.

Izik started today and he still did his thing. The guy starts putting it together at the 11th hour and now we have to face next year without him. Are we cursed or what?

Well, we won the first half if not for the zebras. That's really the best you can hope for given our personnel.

Heck, the powers that be will probably having him do a Sweet Sixteen after the job he's doing protecting one of their cash cows.

Anything to help the upper echelon teams save face. You guys know the drill.

From Brad's comments, I think he's interested in signing the best shooter he can in the spring, rather than the best all-around player. For that reason, I doubt Brad is interested in either player.

By honor roll I meant 3.0 students -- at least that's all it took to make the honor roll when i was in high school. If you take a 2.5-2.6 student from a St. Louis Public School these days I can almost guarantee you he isn't getting a passing ACT score.

If we're using the Stanford/Gonzaga model and are targeting honor roll high students then we've really got to start hititng underrecruited states like Wisconsin and Minnesota really hard. There are very few D-1 caliber bigs in the St. Louis area, and the ones the PHL produce are usually going to come with grade issues.

Former Vashon center Curtis Muse made All-Conference Honorable Mention as a freshman at Mineral Area College. Glad to see the kid staying on track academically so far.

Roy, I can pick a four game stretch earlier in the season where his numbers are just as good as the four games he's played off the bench, if you want to compare apples to apples.

I'm not going to condemn a referee for admitting his bias. I just don't want him blatantly giving into that bias during a game.