slu72

CE is playing an excellent game. Those passes to BC were Fernandez like.

We are a lot better team with JJ in there than KC. Granted he's subject to the ugly TO now and then, but he's got an all around much better game than KC.

The announcers said we took 30 shots compared to Charlotte's 24. We got 5 offensive rebounds and had only one less rebound than Charlotte. We've had like 8 TOs by my count. We're shooting like 40%. Difference between now and November. Our rebounding seems to be getting better. We're being less careful w/ the rock. Our shooting percentage is down by over 10%. As for D, we're struggling against anyone who takes it inside and creates either a shot or an assist. It's our shooting, or lack thereof, and more TOs that are simply killing us.

Anyone else think JJ is our most improved player?

What the hey, put Barnett in. He can't shoot any worse than what we're seeing from the regular rotation.

WOW. BC may be gone. Nope. We got away w/ one.

7 TOs. What has happened to this team?

Ok, Big Al, this one's all on you. I gave it my best shot on Wednesday but failed. Now it's your turn. Last night I was tempted to head on up to Charlotte, but that was quickly nixed by the little woman, so you'll be flying solo.

I didn't find it on First Row Sports. I have CBS Sports (via Uverse) but it wasn't listed and I'm in the right region for Charlotte. Looks like another game staring at the computer screen and listening the Rammer and Earl.

Willy and I discussed Kshoe the other night. Willy just shook his head. :ph34r:

Yeah, and after that you can shuck some corn w/ Barbara Hersey. Maybe even put the team in short shorts. We've got good scorers they just need to get some to drop like they did in Nov.

Wow, 20,000 posts. That is a big part of one's life. Do you win a prize, like if you're the one millionth customer at Piggly Wiggly? Congrats, Broy, we are all not worthy.

Well, I do seem to have a losing effect on my favorite teams. 2007: First trip to Fenway since '87, Sox lose to the Blue Jays- ugh 2007: First trip to Giants stadium since '96, Giants lose to Cowboys- suicide watch. 2009: Back to Fenway, Sox lose to Yanks- Purchase bullets at Walmart 2010: Eye witness to 2nd miracle in Meadowlands. Lose to Taj's Iggles in worst way. Take cab to Brooklyn bridge but Latvian cab driver talks me down in Latvian. 2012: First trip to Fetz, Bills lose to another team from Cheesesteakville. Thought about joining the Mississippi Polar Bear Club, but opted for beer and wings at Showme's. Their beer is colder than an iced over Mississippi. Only win, 2011 back to Fenway in August. Sox down Yanks in extra innings. Life is good... until the trip to the Fetz. Back on suicide watch. You might be onto something, Pistol.

Same here, Jim. See my OT post. A W would have been great, but I guess I'll have to come back for that.

Well, I still can't scratch this item off the old Bucket List, "See the Bills win at the Fetz." Guess, I'll have to make a return trip. I'll try and make this post as short as possible. And if no one cares about an old alum's trip to his alma mater, go to another topic. 1. Humphries- Thanks to Broy and a few other old boy members, I finally got to meet a bunch of posters. Always good to put faces w/ names even if they're board monikers. Thanks for taking the time and hope we can do a reunion with better results. One funny story, when I entered Humphs and had no idea what anyone looked like, I asked the woman who ran the place if she knew Broy. She said no. Then I figured she might know Bonwich. So I mentioned his name she got alarmed and said, "the food guy from the PD"? "Yup." She went into panic mode and replied with an "Oh, sh++, not tonight!" Scared her needlessly as Joe was a no show. 2.) The campus. Walked around and came away impressed. Haven't been there since '83 and the changes/improvements were significant. Say what you want about Fr. B, he's created one of the nicest urban campus settings I've ever seen. 3.) The Fetz- For thos who haven't been there yet, GO. It's a gem. We had tickets in a suite and they were nice. The other 4 folks who went with us had tickets in the lower bowl, and we joined them in the second half at some empty seats. Shame on you ticket holders for not using them. We were 4 rows back of the press table, and it was unreal being that close to the action. Funny story 2: On how 2 lower bowl tickets became available. One of the guys in our group helped a guy who was attending with a handicapped person, man in a wheel chair, to enter. The guy asked my friend if he had tickets and he said yes. The guy then said, I'll bet there not as good as these and handed him two to the above mentioned seats. Thought that was very nice of the guy. As an added note, one of the locals I went with said he's going to look into buying two of the lower bowl seats as he was thoroughly impressed. Pretty good since he's an Illinois undergrad and dental school alum. He said, the band was worth the price of admission alone. Gotta agree, I've heard a lot of pep bands and we've set the bar high. 4.) The Crowd- I'd have to say there were 9,000 plus. The suite we were in was fairly full. But the ones on either side of us were jammed to capacity. However, the people in the suites were really subdued. Casual fans or free loaders? It was a little like being in a church or a movie. After we moved to the lower bowl it was much better, but still I could swear the med school must have donated some cadavers to boost lower bowl attendance. In defense of the cadavers, our group of 6 were jumping up and down, screaming, etc and not one of them said, please, sit down. Of course, dead folks can't talk, right? Overall crowd reaction was enthusiastic, but the Fetz is the perfect setting for driving visiting teams crazy if the fans really get into it. Am sure some of that was due to not having a big student section, but still it would help to get some of the lower bowl folks up and at 'em as well. 5.) Dr. Chaifetz sighting- As were filing out I caught a glimpse of the great man himself standing on the court shaking his head in disappointment. He made eye contact with another guy and shrugged his shoulders. I immediately thought, SLU's got 'em a Jerry Jones.. SLU bb is in good hands as long as he stays committed. Overall, a great trip. The loss sucked, but it was fun seeing my old stomping grounds and meeting a bunch of old Billiken.com friends after all these years. Sorry, I couldn't have met more of the older bunch, but there's always the next time.

Ditto that.

The only consolation we can take out of these 3 losses is we haven't been blown out in any fashion. Except for the lousy play in OT against UD, this team has hung tough. That shows we can hold our own but we don't know how to close. I thought the missed FT's against Temple were as big a culprit as Temple hitting some tough 3s. They just seemed to come at critical times and turned +'s into to 2 -'s. One's got to assume there are going to be A-10 games where hitting FT's at the end is going to be a must. Kind of worried we don't have it in us right now to do it.

Nothing's gonna come as easy as we all thought. If the A-10's shown us anything just about any team can beat any team on a given night. Remember Fordham beat Harvard. Taj Mahal's prediction is a over the top, however. No doubt to feel secure about a bid 11-2 the rest of the way is the goal. 10-3 a maybe. 9-4 we're on the wrongside of the bubble. One thing to consider is how we finish the season. If we suddenly go on a roll and close w/ 10 straight wins and get a couple in the A-10 tourney, the committee will take that into consideration. We've heard any number of times that they give a lot of weight to how a team closes out their season. That said, the real question is "can we go 11-2 or 10-3" the rest of the way? Good question. Anyone got the answer? I've felt ever since the Loyola game we've not looked like the same team we were in Nov. In Nov we were SHARP. Crisp passes, good screens, hitting open looks, making FT's, tremendous effort on D. So the good BB is in there. RM has to find a way to pull it back out of the closet. It's kind of funny with all the complaints heard about KC, but the Bills looked the best when KC was at his best, ie putting up and hitting 3s, driving to the hoop on occasion, in charge of a very efficient offense. He's now gone back into his rabbit hole and sucked the team in right behind him. Guess that means he's a key player and if he doesn't want to re-emerge then maybe it's time to make a change. On my way back from St. L last night I caught the Pitino show from UL. His team's having the same problems we are right now. And if anyone thinks RM's brutally honest about his players, well, he's minor league compared to Pitino. And if you think RM's got no connection to the fans, he doesn't hold a candle to Pitino. One guy called suggesting a line up change and Pitino basically told the guy to FOff. We play for our players not for the fans was his exact comment, end of call. But RP said, even though he's short on talent this year, it still comes down to the players busting their a++ in practice and sticking to his game plans. I think the Bills have gotten away from their game plans since Nov and somehow they have to find their way back to doing just that.

Poor FT shooting and some amazing 3s made by Temple did us in. Another factor was the one Temple big was making life hell for DE and BC in the first half. If I'm right we missed a couple of first FT's on 1-1s 's that killed us. Big guards are going to a problem for us.

I purchased two tickets to the Temple game that I'll be giving away to two nephews of a St. Louis native who'll be travelling with me to St. Louis from Charleston for Temple game. We lucked out and got seats in a suite. Also, his dad and B-inlaw are going, their first game this year, with some tickets from friends. Let's fill up the Fetz on Wednesday and show Temple what a Billiken home game's all about. Broy, send me a message so we can set the pre game times, or call me on the cell. We're leaving tomorrow.

What's bothersome about CR is that toward the end of his FR year he was actually playing fairly well. Then last year he slid and this year he's slid further. Either he's not putting in the work or he plain doesn't care about getting better. I think when he was recruited it was based on potential not actual achievements. He was younger than most FR recruits and I think PM and RM said with a redshirt year we can make him into something. Unfortunately he didn't get the rs year, or much else from being active for 3 years.

Geez, Al, I would have given you a ride. I used to stuff about 8 guys into my VW for the keil trip. You'd have been up front in the trunk, but still it beats walking on a cold night. I still expect X to get their act together sooner than later. They've got a lot of talent. What they're missing right now is their swagger because of the Skyline brawl. Then again, maybe their swagger was based on Holloway's embracing the whole gangsta philosophy and the wraps have been tightly tied on that package. The thing I wonder about X is how does this affect future recruiting. Their BB program was the jewel centerpiece of the whole university. You can bet coaches will bring up the brawl thing and the mentality that fostered it. C. Mack's the culprit here as he should have squelched this before it got totally out of control.

Good summary, Wiz. I'm guessing Temple was coming down off their Duke speedball and UD took advantage. Although UD ain't your father's UD anymore with Miller at the helm. Anyone missing the great Brian Gregory, who's now working his magic down at GT? I don't know if I'm ready to crown SLU the class of the league until we get a few more quality Ws under our belt. It begins w/ Temple on Wednesday. UD gave 'em there wakeup call and we should expect the Owls to come in here very focused and clear headed. All that said, we should have beaten UD at the SWV dome had we played our normal game in OT.

How good's the Wiz? He had us by 21.

I'll give JJ my vote for nicest surprise player of the year so far.