3star_recruit

"JJ wants to run and jump NOT bang" That's exactly the point - we're being outjumped, not outbanged. JJRay put it more eloquently than I could.

"If a 6'6" guy from Chuppala JC averaging about 10 points a game is the answer, I'll be surprised." Almost half of Newborne's rebounds are on the offensive boards. That's a better answer than we have right now. Heck, 6'7 240 lb double double machine Mike Strobbe at McKendree is a better answer than we have right now.

It isn't. Same problem, different team.

St. Louis basketball fans only cheer at their kids' high school games. Glad we got some local kids coming in next year -- hopefully they'll be some carryover from the high school fanbase.

The kid's trying as hard as he can, but Sloan didn't sign up to play power forward. I'd rather have a 6'6 guy who has been playing that position since high school rather than forcing a 6'7 wing to play up front. Maybe next year. It's GOTTA be next year or I'm going to freak :-)

It happens. And it will continue to happen because athletic frontline can just jump over our undersized frontline for rebounds and putbacks. You can see Sloan getting more and more frustrated with every game. Nice game for Mr. Vouyoukas in limited minutes.

I can see Lee having a long and productive career as an AC Green type role player -- 6-9, good athleticism, scores consistently from 10 feet and in, can occasionally hit the mid-range jumper.

Jimmy was a very good shooter in high school but so was Larry. When you nail 67 threes at a 41% clip against constant double teams, that has to be respected. http://prepsports3.stltoday.com/basketball...ts/TEAM0998.HTM

I've had the Kirk Penney/Brian Wardle comparison stuck in mind but whoever mentioned Tom Kleinschmidt on the board a couple of months ago probably paitned a more accurate picture. Luke is driving, stopping and popping the vast majority of the time, just like Kleinschmidt used to do.

Reg shouldn't have to to drastically alter his personality in order for the team to succeed. In fact, he's doing more than a lot of us expected. The key is Izik. We need double digits from him two out of every three games, not one out of three. Of course, Brad has to do his part and leave him in there.

When Newborne was a freshman at Howard College, he had team season highs of 16 rebounds and 9 offensive rebounds. Now that he is a sophomore at Chipola, Newborne is the leading rebounder on the squad with almost half of his total coming off the offensive boards. I'd argue that's exactly the type of player we need up front. Maybe he doesn't pass the size test, but he passes the production test. http://www.wjcac.com/howard_college_hawks_basketball2.htm http://www.chipola.edu/extrac/athl/basketb...-2004-stats.htm

Hopefully we can signNewborne at the 4 and call it a day. 6'6 220 lb is enough beef to handle the job if the kid really has a power forward mentality.

I don't see where jjray says we need to seek out another guard, Roy. He's just saying that Liddell qualifying is what will make next year special, not another journeyman power forward. I'd rather have JJ than Marquette's juco All-American power forward Marcus Jackson, who has been a non-factor for the Golden Eagles.

I totally agree with your assessment. College basketball is a guard's game.

"You're the only fan I know who gets away with thinking that it's a-ok for a team to be mediocre." Man, I must have been reading a different Billiken Roy the last two years.

Hey, you're the one who brought up our lacking a power forward. I was merely pointing out that Gregory hasn't brought in any legit power forwards either - Plummer is smaller than Chris Sloan and Alvarez averaged a whopping a 7 ppg as a junior. The fact that they have a lot of quality wings is great but they can only play three at a time.

So am I supposed to be impressed because they had five scholarships to give? We'll have five guys 6'8 and over on our roster next year. How many will Dayton have?

Brian Gregory doesn't have any legit power forwards coming in next year, either. And he loses Waleskowski and Finn.

Right now the staff has an offer outstanding to Chipola JC power forward Vas’shun Newborne. He's undersized at 6'6 220 lb, continuing a long standing Billiken tradition at that position :-)

Recruiting at the guard position has improved to the point where 6'5 Luke Meyer will be our "worst" athlete on the perimeter. And considering that Luke is just as athletic as Kirk Penney or Brian Wardle, that's still a pretty good combination of size and athleticism. Right now, we've got a 6'1 guard with Luke Meyer's athleticism playing 27 min a game.

You're very close to incurring the wrath of the woof gods.

"The problem is that our best atheletes ... and we don't have enough of them to knock off top tier teams consistently ... don't do the things we need done to win" My point is, Brad is going to have to play those players next year anyway. I agree that he should stick to his game plan if possible, but next year it won't be possible. We're going to have a bunch of young players and thanks to the process of elimination, some of them are going to play a lot of minutes.

Depaul doesn't defend like the last two teams we faced. It's a great opportunity for Reggie to get some open looks early in the game.

I'm in Izik's corner on this one. Hopefully we'll see him blossom as a 14-15 point scorer next year when Brad is forced to play him 30 minutes a game. Ironically, Izik only had one turnover yesterday. I remember a lot of posts in the offseason speculating who would handle the heavy ball pressure we'd see from quicker teams the likes of UAB, Cinic and Memphis. Apparently the answer this season is nobody. Polk and Liddell would definitely help in this area.

Agreed. The problem wasn't our guys going right back up after securing the offensive rebound. The problem was our guys don't jump as high as the guys blocking their shots. Maybe JJ would have missed the bunnies also, but I don't think he would have gotten his shot blocked repeatedly.