3star_recruit

The game is at 7:30 pm. Desmet is very stingy at home, allowing over fifty points to a team only once this season. Should be a tough test for "The Force".

And I see opposing guards shutting down Drejaj's drives easily. I think that's a much better measure than who won a suicide in practice.

That's what I've heard as well. Hope Luke is ready to play significant minutes at the three next year.

"We have hung with so many more athletic teams before." And we will continue to. But athletic teams that defend well, like UAB, Cinci and Louisville will continue to eat our lunch. One of these reasons I think we will excel in the A-10 is because the size and athleticism of their wings is a notch lower than what we currently face. Game after game after game of facing 6'4-6'7 run and jump athletes is killing our perimeter players.

AD wouldn't win a foot race with any 6'1 guard in our conference. He's a warrior, but the guy is slow.

I've already got the tape out to record the East Side/Belleville game. It comes on at 10 am on the St. Louis side, too. Roy, do you really think that ALL of our guards can hold their own against the best guards in the country? Bryant and Fish have shown that capacity but Drejaj has struggled mightily on the offensive end all year. He's slow and short for a two guard and he shoots a set shot. Those things aren't going to change.

Our guys were busting their tails out there. The reason that UAB was quicker to the ball is because ... well, they're a lot quicker. If we play them 10 times, UAB will still be quicker to the ball.

Next year there won't be any Ross Varner or Phillip Hunt out clause. He's going to have to play inexperienced players a bunch of minutes despite how much he seems to detest it. That can only be a good thing. Now is the time to break away from his Tony Larussa "young guys don't know it what takes" mindset, while he is still a relatively young coach. That's really his only glaring flaw.

That's coachspeak. We didn't get trounced because of "toughness". We got trounced because we have two very athletic players, Bryant and Fish, and UAB has nine.

The reality is there will probably be five bids in this conference. That is the good news. The bad news is that Louisville, Cinci, Charlotte, Marquette and UAB seemed to have already locked up the five bids. We needed two out of three on this trip to make our case and that isn't going to happen. Other things that this game revealed: Drejaj is a warrior on defense but if he is our starting point guard next year, we are in deep trouble. Every coach in the conference will watch this game tape and press him in the backcourt. Terry Moore hates Tom Frericks. We can't play the rest of the conference schedule with 7 guys playing 95% of the minutes when the likes of UAB, Louisville and Cinci rotate 9 guys. Phillip Hunt is a great kid but putting him in the game immediately results in a four on five situation on offense. When Izik gets pushed in the back and leans in either direction, a travel will be called. JJ needs to play THIS YEAR.

I'd envision Bonner as primarily a big man coach, not the heir apparent. Beane is more qualified to be a college head coach than Bonner is.

Borgia plays in the semifinals against Pacific tomorrow at 2:30 pm.

I'm enjoying the season regardless of whether we make the NCAAs this year or not. It's only a matter of time. The reason we've been in a holding pattern the last four of years is we haven't had any true D-1 depth beyond our starting five.

"Yes, we have Polk, but he's a Frosh." So? Andrew Lavender's a frosh. I think Polk is better than you think.

"I think you will probably play underachieving Mizzou in the first round of the NIT." You have to above .500 to get an NIT bid. That appears to be beyond the Tigers right now.

These are some impressive RPIs from top to bottom. No sub 200 weak sisters here. http://www.kenpom.com/conf.php?c=CUSA The mission for our Bills is pretty straighforward. We've got to beat any many teams ahead of us in the RPI as possible. A win versus Louisville or Cinci would be huge. Easier said than done.

You speak the truth - that's why this spring signing is so important. I don't care if the power forward the staff signs is 6'6, he just needs to be quick enough and strong enough to defend his position. Maybe Newborne is that guy. Jeff Harris did the job at 6'4.

Basden was too quick for Izik. Didn't you see the offense for defense substitution that Coach was doing with Izik/Drejaj at the end of the game? We're still a year away from addressing our perennial problem with defending quick small forwards on the perimeter.

Despite the play of their forwards, we had these guys right where we wanted them with 2 minutes to play, down 60-58. Reggie was coming around the screen to tie the game with a jumper when Drejaj inexplicably threw the ball into a crowd of three players in the paint. Charlotte got the turnover and scored on us before our defense could get set. I know Playa feels terrible about it so I'm not going to harp on it. He'll make up for that miscue somewhere on this road trip.

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:rqj71...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 "Vas'shun Newborne, a resourceful 6-6, 220 pound power forward from Chipola J.C. in Marianna, Fla., has been a steadying influence for the Indians this winter. Newborne played well for Chipola at the recent Florida JUCO Shootout. While he's not a breath-taking athlete, Newborne is a cerebral player who finds ways to be an opponent, be it with his defense, rebounding, passing or shooting. This season, Newborne averages 10.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists for a 17-2 Indian squad. Newborne has good touch inside of 10 feet, and he's willing to give up his body on the defensive side of the ball. According to Chipola Head Coach Chris Jans, St. Louis and Northern Iowa have offered Newborne."

Forget the web site, watch Indiana's games. Moye plays either small forward or power forward.

He was a great college player but he wasn't a high profile recruit. No name juco guards like Warren Busby, Lincoln Glass and Robert Yanders were ranked higher.

Mo Baker wasn't high profile.

No, but Montgomery recruited Shaw to Stanford. Matt didn't want to wait until the spring to see if would be accepted.

Roger Powell is 6'6 and he plays a lot of power forward for the Illini.