3star_recruit

I only watch ball in the St. Louis area these days so I'll go with the following: Juniors 1. Alex Tyus Hazelwood Central 2. Jarod Leonard Desmet 3. Dustin Maguire Civic Memorial 4. Bobby Hill Vashon 5. Alex Moosmann Borgia 6. Stephen Jones Civic Memorial Sophomores 1. Leon Powell Vashon 2. Darrell Stokes Career Academy 3. Rob Rudy Mascoutah 4. Jeremy Felton Althoff 5. DeAndre Gilmore Cardinal Ritter 6. Zach Plackemeier Duchesne Note: The distance between Powell and the #2 spot in the sophomore class isn't really close.

I wouldn't worry about it. If they've gotten only $13 million after the holidays have come and gone, there's no chance of even a scaled back arena being built anytime soon.

"When SLU announced the plans for the arena there was no mention of a five year plan, but a two year plan." When SLU announced the plans for the arena, the team wasn't horrible either. I think we (fans and athletic dept alike) were really counting on this team to continue the momentum from last year so boosters would be in giving mood around the holidays. Didn't happen -- maybe next year.

I don't think it's a reach to project a 20 loss season for a team that went 2-10 out of conference. There are very few Tulanes left on the schedule and our offense has improved from wretched to poor. That isn't a recipe for going .500 in conference. We need an unexpected development -- Danny Brown has to start averaging double figures, Polk has to get hot from three, something along those lines.

Alex Tyus from Hazelwood Central is the best junior in the area. I think he may have slipped from Roy's mind because the chances of him going to school in-state are practically nil.

"Sounds like there is much dissatisfaction at the AD over this team's pay." You lost me here. Why would be somebody be dissatisfied with the newly hired AD because Brad's team is playing bad?

Nope, haven't seen Cass outside of the Shootout. I understand he plays for the Illinois Warriors, one of these programs were the AAU coach exerts a lot of influence over where his players go, so we have virtually no shot at Cass.

Kevin was 2 for 14 from three between those two games (1 for 6 at Marshall County and 1 for 8 at the Savvis), thus the description of him being an inconsistent three point shooter. The fact that Kevin is shooting over 50% from three excluding those two games doesn't mean anything to the national gurus because they weren't at those other games. The fact that he shot over 40% from three the past three seasons doesn't mean anything either, for the same reason.

The only reason I even bother with the gurus is to see who area schools are recruiting. I rarely find their "evaluations" useful.

Frank doesn't really follow high school recruiting. I assume Earl Austin wasn't around to correct him? I remember getting on the show a couple of years ago and telling him about Columbia Hickman's Lance Harris before the Shootout and he has no idea who the kid was.

"kevin had 35 again last night. he was matched up against one of the besst sophomores in the area, robbie rudy (who also scored 20). also, for those concerned about kevin's missed free throws and overall performance at the shootout, he is 35-39 on his free throws since the shootout (in 4 games)and has scored 26, 25, 37 and 35 in those four games" Luke Meyer scored 34, 28, 29, 33 in a four game stretch that included 23-5 Chaminade. As for one player outplaying his counterparts, Grant Agbo owned Kalen Grimes in high school. A guy's high school stats is not necessarily a precursor to future offensive success. What matters more is how a guy scored those points. You already know all this, this is really for those out-of towners who may be getting all excited just because a kid averaged 30 in high school. Luke is a slasher who is getting stripped on a regular basis/ He's playing with absolutely no confidence right now. Kevin is more explosive and has more tricks in his offensive bag -- you can't just take away the drive and render him ineffective. Liddell is much more athletic than Luke and has a significantly better handle but there is still the danger that the a good defensive team could just take his drive away. He needs to get out in the open court to thrive. If Coach utilizes his young players' strengths and develops a more holistic approach to offense rather than "they just need to execute in the halfcourt", then they will be successful. If he doesn't, they won't. I'll be very interested in the approaches both Pinkel and Brad take with their teams next season. They're in very similar situations.

Soderberg claims the losses are just a result of the team not executing. Just like Pinkel. And Martz. If a coach can no longer get his team to execute, he's lost a handle on his team. "I'm getting tired of saying all we can do is go back and keep working, but that is all we can do is go back and keep working. I'm getting sick of saying it and sick of doing it but that's our only option. I'm searching for answers." - Soderberg after the Dayton loss

"Give the guys on the bench their turn! Can it get worse?" Based on brehms comments about what's going on behind closed doors, I imagine things could get a whole lot worse. But I agree, giving the guys on the bench their turn won't be the cause. What's the deal with Martz, Pinkel and now Brad totally losing a handle on their teams this year? They're making Quin Shady look like Mr. Stability.

SEMO scored 68 points against SIU and only lost by 4. By the time we hear Brad do another radio interview, we may have forgotten what he sounds like.

I've been desperately trying to think of a handful of basketball coaches who drastically changed their offensive approach after they got better athletes. Unfortunately, I haven't been successful.

I agree, now that it's been firmly established that there's no plan in place to run. Might as well grind it out with Drejaj.

Polk's offensive game largely consists of scoring in transition and making high risk manevers in the lane to get his floater off (which technically isn't a good shot, so barely shoots it at SLU) There's no way he's going to average 10-12 ppg playing halfcourt 95% of the time. If Brad wanted to play halfcourt basketball he shouldn't have signed a fast break point guard. If he wanted a guy that could catch and shoot threes in a halfcourt set he should have signed Ahearn, not Clarke. Before the season: “With Dwayne Polk on this team, we’re not doing the job if we don’t run,†Soderberg said. “We need to devise a simple, solid plan for offensive transition. We need to run to win more.â€

Without the strong numbers that Bryant and/or Frericks put up in the the first half of last season, our wins and close calls would have been unwinnable/not even close despite the "toughness" of Fish and Sloan. Arizona would have been a blowout loss, the Butler game would likely have gone the other way (Bryant and Frericks combined for 29 points in that game), we would lost at Dayton (Fish was 1-8) the KState game never would have went down to the last minute and we would have lost to TCU, and the 1st Marquette game wouldn't have been close (Fish and Sloan were 3 for 8). There's this tendency to give Fish and Sloan all of the credit as "leaders" when Bryant and Frericks were doing a lot of the heavy lifting. It's like their immense value to last year's team is being discredited/attributed to Fish and Sloan because they haven't shot the ball well this year.

"no one has that "you arent going to beat me" attitude imo except for maybe drejaj," Double standard. When Drejaj has made poor decisions during a game this season, he still plays 30 minutes because of how much the coach values his defense. When Darren Clarke and Danny Brown have made poor decisions during a game, they've gotten a seat on the bench. You've got to give these kids confidence that they can mess up without being jerked out of the game.

"Drejaj plays hard and does some things well, but his poor shot selection, turnovers, poor free throw shooting, and inability to stop penetration by quicker players has KILLED US all year." If it wasn't for Drejaj's stellar defense against Oakland's leading scorer, our only win would be at Troy. He leads us in free throw shooting. He had 1 turnover today, albeit at a crucial time in the game. Brad's propensity to walk the ball up the court and run out the clock with a slim lead even when we've proven we can run against a team (Hawaii game and this one) has deprived the Bills of 2 extra victories. Of course, he will blame the players again, tell us how much he believes in the system and that these guys just have to make shots in the halfcourt set. Our coach appears to distrust young players more than Larry Brown. He would have lost the game if he was coaching Dayton because Brian Roberts would have played about 10 minutes and would rarely have the ball in his hands.

"I would tell Dwayne to take charge and find a way to score buckets--and I don't just mean down the stretch." Polk was setting up for his teammates what Coach defines to be a "good shot" -- an open 17-20 footer. They made them in the first half and missed them down the stretch -- again. The only team Brad's motionless offense has been successful this year is against the winless Oakland squad. As much as you and I would like for Dwayne to play with more abandon early in the game, we both know that isn't going to happen. Only Marque earned Brad's trust enough to for him to make that exception to his offense. As long as we're getting "good shots" for our shooting guards and frontcourt players, I doubt we'll ever see Polk shoot more than 5 times in the first half or make a high-risk maneuver in the lane. I rather see Polk turn the ball over 4 times trying to create something than see IO turn the ball over 4 times driving to the basket for another flip shot.

So many of Gibbons predictions have been so absurdly wrong that it isn't even funny. I'm still waiting for Duke's "Super Six" to live up to Gibbons' prediction as the greatest class of all time. I respect your talent evaluation of Tommie's game more than I'll ever respect Gibbons'. I'd like to believe that we have two impact freshmen coming in but its hard to predict how these things will turn out. Chris Rodgers was widely considered a top 30 recruit but he's never been more than a role player the whole time he's been at Arizona. Justin Gray was considered a top 75 player and he was a 1st team All-ACC as a sophomore. Curtis Withers, who Gibbons didn't even rank in the top 100, was the most effective power forward in CUSA as a sophomore. This is one topic about which the Coach and I probably agree -- public statements about what to expect from incoming recruits just set fans up for a major letdown. There are so many other factors beyond talent like injuries, loss of confidence and being forced to play out of position that tend to come into play.

I understand why an MVC team would have problems scheduling a top 20 team home and home when a Illinois or a Michigan St. can get a comparable team to accept a 2 for 1. But you'd think that a regional 2nd tier power like Ohio State or Oklahoma would be receptive to a home and home.

The guys had nine steals last night and ran off of almost every steal. We got some layups in transition and Reggie stuck some jumpers off of the secondary break before Oakland's defense was set up. We need to do more of that but its hard to generate that number of steals against quality teams by playing only halfcourt defense.

Frank just summarized what we were saying on this board 6 months ago.