slu72

as in UB"s first fout years. Due to the LO0T PRINCIPLE (lack of offensive talent), UB's teams had to play exceptional D to have any shot at winning games. We simply could not afford to get in shootouts with anyone. This does not appear to be the case this year. We have three starters who averaged double figures last year. And hopefully all of them have improved their offensive skills over the summer. TL's outside shooting, IV more moves and the green light to step out, KL's 3 getting better. This gives UB a luxury he hasn't had in the past, so maybe he can play a guy who may or may not have the defensive skills or intensity he'd prefer. This thread on DB is really about UB's coaching philosophy and his willingness to changing it. His game has always been conservative. Now he's got the tools to play it a little looser and open it up. We should have a pretty good indication after the Tx A&M tournament which way he's going to do it.

very thankful....

We have two super area recruits, Tommy Lidell and Kevin Lisch....

He sounds pretty high on us and very complimentary about the players, but it seemed there was an undertone of skepticism whether or not UB will meet these expecations.

Face it not every player on the court is KL or LM or DP when it comes to defense. Coaches have to know whether they're gaining or losing when it comes to whose on the floor. If DB's scores twenty but his man puts in 30 he's got to sit. But if vice versa, he's got to play. Now it ain't gonna be pretty if DB's man is laying 20 on him, fans would be going "man he can't play a lick of D", but if he outscores his guy by 5, or 7, or 10 ppt's, he's helping us. Now if UB sits him to make a point about D, he hurts the team by reducing our offense. I think Hardball's suggesting that UB uses a shorter lease with some players...and it costs us on offense. I can't say whether this is the case or not, at times it appears he has done this. DB is clearly the third or fourth best offensive playmaker we have on this team, I hope he gets a fair shot at proving himself worthy of starting or at least getting 25mpg.

It would be nice, but have decided not to discuss or worry about recruiting issues for the next five months. Just gonna sit back, pop open a few cool ones and enjoy watching our 2006-2007 St. Louis University Bad a** Billikens shock the world of College Basketball.

on the PD site today. Basically, he's saying everything's in place for a breakthrough year for the Bills. Because of IV, this may be the best team we've had, and maybe better, since the '93-'95 Spoon teams. They didn't have a talented big. And while they could hit from the perimiter, if DB can execute against tougher competition like he did in the exhibitions, we have improved our perimiter game 100%. No longer can they gang up on KL. If DP can locate his shot, we become a very tough game for anybody. Also, TL brings a dimension we didn't have back in the glory days of Charlie... I don't recall any of those guards bringing the skill set and athleticism TL does. If we get average results from the bevy of 4's, teams will have to at least defend the position which was not the case last year, thereby taking pressure off IV. Maybe Iggy was right....we may be going 31-5...which would be a very deep run in March.

I'll go with Kshoe on this...Mea culpas all around.

I'd agree w/ Nark. However, DB maybe one of those guys that play better coming off the bench. They do exist. I'd like to see him start as he has a scorers mentality, he likes putting in points. Not having seen any of the new guys...a question for the Obi backers? If he's out of shape hows he going to match up with a quick, strong, athletic 4. Granted we don't see many in the A-10, but A&M has one, UNC has one, SIU has Shaw, UMass and X have good inside players. Just wondering can he defend and score against these teams if he's not in shape?

It doesn't appear from the stat sheets, DP's shooting ills have been cured. Could we now be looking at DB as the starting 3 guard? Too bad, I was hoping DP got it fixed over the summer. Would like to have seen his speed and D on the floor.

Alright, I went overboard. Sorry....Still, it would have been nice to land a couple of the guys we went after this fall. We didn't. I'm through slamming UB and will wait until the spring to see how all this plays out. You are all right, he must have done some good recruiting to get our hopes up for this year. Since, I wrote that last night after returning from a golf banquet, I think I pulled a Mel Gibson...I now humbly beg your forgiveness.

is that we went after 6 players who signed elsewhere. So obviously the staff believed these guys could help and wanted them locked up. We so far have nada....you guys who are talking about it's whose on the floor in two or three years...yeah, you're right. But I'm thinking the staff thought it was going to be 2-3 of the kids we lost. So, we go to the spring and do what we did last year. We offer scholies to question marks. That's a whole lot different than if we had signed some players ranked between 100-150....since, I don't believe we can pull from the top 100 yet. At least we'd have discussed their strengths and weaknesses, moved on and concentrated on this year. Now all we can do is hope this year turns out as good as we think. But in the back of our minds is what's next? Doesn't look like much right now. Sorry, UB's recruiting is abysmal, and unless it improves we're going to pay for it somewhere down the line. That's too bad,l as KL and TL should be dancing the next 3 years. They may do it this year, but w/o any kind of supporting cast, they may find it impossible to in year 3 and 4.

...even with the above post, you're still sponsoring me for the UBBKAC'ers?

Hmmmm, that kool aid must taste good, Broy. I gotta get me some of that for my golf game. Our options on the inside next year will be: BH, send him to big man school like we did Baniak and Heinrich, or the 3 frosh pf's are ready to play at the D1 level. If DB, LM, and DP all improve as they should, we will still be a very nice team after IV departs. REmember it's a guard dominated game. Having a good big is a rarity. I wouldn't expect on landing, even in the spring, a player that will be an improvement over our returning talent. HS players in the spring? Bottom feeding for a hidden gem. JUCO's? Sure a Frericks or Kenny Brown would be nice, but how likely? It's the 2008 class that's going to make him or break him. That and how the current team does this year. Expectations are high right now. We're not the only ones reading the preseason predictions. The consensus is top 3 in the conference, on the NCAA bubble, and a virtual lock, dare I say it, for the "Not In Tournament" extravaganza. I'd venture to say if none of this is realized and the recruiting cupboard is bare....that blue kool aid's going to taste awfully bitter this spring.

Kavon Lacey has a nice ring to it as well.

I'll go with Kueker...sounds like a basketball name...

1.) DB will be our most improved player 2.) KL will average near 15ppg, second team A-10 3.) TL and IV will make first team A-10 4.) JJ will be the lead man for minutes at the 4 5.) We will upset UNC at the Scott, Dicky V will put us on the cinderella watch, and SI will once again ackowledge our existence. 6.) We will beat St.Joes in Philly 7.) We will not sign a fall recruit, but in the spring he will land a JUCO big. 8.) We will average 66.2 ppg, and hold opponents to 61.4 9.) We will sweep Dayton 10.)We will be a 9 seed in the dance Please, pass the pitcher.....

Be careful there Nate, a phrase like, "when others choose to go elsewhere", could get you into a vat of hot blue kool aid with the UBBKAC'ers.

Good teams dictate the tempo, Broy. Granted playing slo-mo ball with Richmond makes it hard to crack 50 points, but as Skip says throw some pressure on them, force them out of a style they are comfortable with. Don't just sit back and let them set up to slowly eat up the clock. John Wooden was a master at changing and dictating the tempo of a game. Now granted he had some pretty good ponies to make things go his way, but look at UAB. Hard as hell to slow things down with them. I'm not saying we should be a 40 minutes of hell team, but we can speed things up on our end rather than get trapped in the other teams web. One of the reasons we had soooo much trouble w/ St. Joe's last year was Martelli figured KL was the only guy that could hit an outside shot. So he doubled down on IV and counted on us taking lot's of time to look for getting KL a good shot after our first option, ie getting the ball to IV, was eliminated. Result, we avg'd 38 points and lost both games. The team never got into any kind of flow and ended up standing around playing hot potato rather than basketball. I remember watching the tournament game, screaming at AD to push the frigging ball up the court after a St. Joe's basket. Nope, he just leisurely brought it up allowing St.Joes to get everything set up for another disastrous trip down the court. This year I'd like to see us after a basket have IV inbound to a streaking DP, DB, TL, KL or whoever just to take them out of their comfort zone.

You look at some of the best games we played last year and they were against teams that like to push it, ie get the scores into the 75+ range. UNC, Charlotte, GW, X....Now while the scores in these games weren't always in the 70's the Bills seemed to play these games well. Won a few and lost a couple of toughies. Contrast that to slowdown ball played by teams like St.Joes and Richmond. Arguably, one of our best games last year was vs Charlotte. As I recall, this was pretty much a race horse type game with both teams exchanging buckets at a good pace. Charlotte likes to push it and not waste a lot of time finding the open shot. The same was true against UNC in Chapel Hill, until we got homered at the end. The team looked comfortable moving at a good pace. Games where we seemed to have trouble, especially against St. Joes, was where we stood around and took shots w/ 2-3 seconds on the clock. I think these guys need to run...to establish a flow. Guys like KL and TL are used to this from there hs and prep school days. Also, don't think there's any question DB likes up tempo. He strikes me as very much a reactive type player, ie I'm open, I'm popping...not worrying about whose supposed to be coming off some screen. Point is I think we do better when Brad "releases the hounds" rather than have them all on a very short lease.

"I promise to love the Billikens and all things Billiken until the day I die." ????

Wish you hadn't bought up that plane crash thing...I'm superstitious about that type of stuff. That's why we shouldn't mention injuries either.

Not at all. I've liked this year's team all along. It's whats in the pipeline that worries me? As I've said, I hope the class of DM, AK, HD come on like gangbusters and smear egg all over my face. Remember, I'm sitting down here in Dixie with a whole bunch of Sky Blue clad Tarheelers telling 'em we're going to surprise the hell out of 'em on 12/22. Remember what Jimmy Bob Ray Carvelle said about the '92 election, "it's the economy, stupid." Well, I guess I'm saying "it's the recruiting...." I'll leave out the stupid part, since I don't feel you, Skip, Rich, et al are stupid. Now, if UB somehow manages to blow this season, and believe me I do not want that to happen, we Bashers will be out in full force pulling our guillotine down West Pine. God forbid, he says, "I'm Coach Stability, let them eat cake!"

Hey, you can't argue with the guy's logic. Good big man. TL and KL both improved. By the way one of the more impressive things I read this year, were KL's teammates on the AIA team voting KL the guy they'd most like to see on their college team. X is going to be difficult to knock off, but we did it twice last year with basically the same team. UMass, who knows how all those new transfers are going to meld into a team? Although, you've got to give Ford a lot of credit for getting those guys to Amherst. Wasn't one of them ACC rookie of the year out of VA? I do like his point about there always being a surprise or two in D-1 hoops. We were back in 93-94...why not again? I like our chances this year. The ingredients are there for a memorable season, now let's just do take care of business.

I welcome him...a fellow 72'er who started going to games the same year I did. Can't argue with that. Polk gave us some pretty good teams in those years...Jimmy Irving, Harry Rogers, The Ghost...keep the moniker.