3star_recruit

Sorry, Roy I wasn't really familiar with any of the kids besides Tommie, Darian Luster, Demario Smith and Mark Howlett. Tommie had an off shooting day but at least he pounded the glass and played stellar defense. The latter three were horrible in just about every facet of the game.

As I fully expected, Althoff beat Oakville by 20+. It was close for three quarters thanks to poor shooting by Althoff in the 2nd and 3rd quarter but eventually their speed wore down a mediocre Oakville squad and the 4th quarter turned into a forced turnover and layup drill. Lisch wasn't pouring them in from outside like he normally does but he got his customary 25+ off of drives and from the line. The best way to shut down East St. Louis is to turn Tommie into a jump shooter and that's what the well-coached and fairly athletic Quincy squad did. East Side is the 2nd most poorly coached team I've seen this year, the other being Hazelwood Central. Tommie would beat his man off the dribble and pass it to an open teammate only for Luster, Smith, Howlett, etc. to throw up a brick. When someone other than Tommie handled the ball East Side was prone to turn the ball over. Demario Smith and Darian Luster's post defense was nonexistent. When Tommie tried to take over the game by beating his man and taking the shot himself, two Quincy defenders often went up with him to contest the shot. To make matters worse, Tommie couldn't hit a free throw to save his life. It just wasn't his day.

Quincy has a very good team this year, Roy. I believe they will give East Side some trouble.

Jarod led Desmet to a 5 point victory over arch-rival Vianney tonight. He seems to be getting more and more confident with each passing game. Tonight he was seven for seven from the free throw line and really moved well without the ball. Most of his buckets were are on short stop and pops in the paint but he did have a nice flush in transition that put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter. Jarod was really active on his defense, tipping balls with his long arms and contesting Vianney jump shots. He's gone from being a cautious role player to Desmet's best offensive and defensive player in just one month. Impressive.

"The only reason I can come up with for the playing of Ross is that there is no point to trying to coach up JJ right now as the coach has determined that Ian V. is going to jump ahead of him in the rotation in 2 games" Coach would never admit that but I think that's exactly what is going on. Brad almost sounded like Ian's agent in the preseason.

"JJ has not yet proved to me that he is the answer." He may be, he may not. We KNOW Ross isn't.

"But, I think that strategy cost us some games." What games?

"As far as JJ and DC are concerned neither have showed me anything to suggest they should be getting more minutes." At what time in the last three games have they been given a legit opportunity to show anything?

"I can think of for sitting JJ at this point in the season and giving his minutes to Varner is that Coach has decided Ian shall be ahead of JJ in the rotation when he becomes eligible after 1 more game" I think you nailed it. Also, if DC doesn't play now I don't see how he will ever play, with Tommie and Luke coming in next year.

Our increased offensive output had nothing to do with Ross Varner. It had EVERYTHING to do with Tom Frericks staying out of foul trouble and our guards posting up their guards and getting to the line.

Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and Kevin Johnson were all flashy team-oriented point guards. Don't knock flashy.

There's nothing wrong with flashy play -- as long as it's within the team concept.

"or does this just say we havent had any point guards to speak of for the last 15 seasons?" That's pretty close to the truth. We need a dynamic point guard almost as badly as we need a post player who can score.

http://prepsports.stltoday.com/ssi/prep/st...+Normandy+Tourn Dwayne Polk scored seven points but unofficially was in double-digits for assists, as the stellar point guard propelled Vashon up and down the court. "We have a point guard who transcends scoring," Vashon coach Floyd Irons said. "We get the ball inside and our kids play very unselfishly and that's the key to our success." Late in the first half, Polk stole the ball and fed Franklin with an alley-oop dish that the Mizzou-bound football player finished with an impressive dunk for a 44-21 Vashon lead. Polk was a showcase early, blowing past a defender with a lightning-quick crossover dribble that awed the big crowd. "That was a ball and head fake," Polk said. "I got it from watching tapes of 'And One Basketball.'"

I think Quin and his staff could prosper as personal trainers. They stink as basetball coaches, though.

Vashon will face Ritter. We've got family in from out of town the next 7 days so I'm probably going to miss the final.

I don't expect you'll have anything to report in the finals either. Vashon hasn't had a competitive game with any team in the St. Louis area this season so the starters never play a full game. If he gets hot from three he might score 20 but Polk seems perfectly content to dish out assists and play pick pocket for the two quarters he's out there. Alex Barnett is a nice offensive player but he plays matador defense. He would drive Brad crazy.

We haven't had anywhere near the talent base required to develop several good players. Floyd McClain - injured and left the program, Jason Edwin - flunked out, Randy Pulley - flunked out, John Seyfert - homesick transfer, Ryan Hollins - opted out of LOI, Nick Kern - didn't qualify. If we could retain our players, our coaching staff would at least have a chance of developing them. Drejaj and IO are only 2nd year players so I'm not exactly ready to slit my wrist over their "lack of development".

If Polk is told to stop breaking the defender's ankles to accommodate the motion offense, we all need to go to Brad's office.

"Brad had a year to address this problem or at least coming problem and apparently did not do so" He addressed it, but he addressed it with non-impact freshmen. That's fine 2 years from now but Frericks and Sloan have to step it up NOW.

We're going to lose against good teams with Ross playing that many minutes so it's not like Brad is risking anything by playing JJ/Izik instead.

"Sloan isn't broad and strong enough to be a true power forward and isn't athletic enough to be a true small forward" Nah, he's just athletic enough to dunk on Memphis and Arizona :-)

Chris Sloan has been solid from January of last season through the first three games of this year. After that Chris Sloan was kidnapped and replaced by an impostor. I will not rest until I find the real Chris Sloan!

"If JJ gives a lackluster, lazy effort in practice, then make him stay after and run his a## into the ground. Do this every damn practice until he's so tired of it, he'll show up to play. This isn't pee-wee basketball" That's how Bobby Knight has handled some talented players in the past according to bios I've read. It's certainly something to consider, at least until we add more depth next season.

"otherwise when they are at the same level in 3 years that they are at now ... some one will say " Why didn't Brad force them to learn and play the game correctly ... he just can't develop players" Learning the job and doing the job don't have to be mutually exclusive. That's the point of "on the job training". Winning isn't the most important thing, it's the only thing. Teaching JJ and Darren "how to play correctly" is secondary. Their high school coaches should have taught them that for the most part. Tommie, Luke and Dwayne all have excellent fundamentals.