Nate Latsch

>According to rumors circulating around the Net, Price hasn't >qualified yet. I haven't been able to confirm the rumors, >myself. Nate? I haven't heard anything about Price in a while. I know several local kids are taking the ACT this Saturday. - Nate

SLURadioBoy, The Post-Dispatch All-Metro boys basketball team comes out tomorrow (Friday). That is all I'm allowed to say at this time, but I encourage all Billiken fans to pick up a copy of the paper. - Nate

I agree with you about Sargent sitting in the corner waiting for the ball. That's how I will remember him from the times I saw him this season. I have never talked to Sargent about the football/basketball question, so I don't know what he wants to do in college. Lisch is supposed to go to the Nike Camp in Indianapolis this summer, so if he plays well he won't be a secret to anyone. But it will probably be too late at that point for other schools to start pursuing him. - Nate

Roy, The Eagles tryouts were more than two weeks ago -- the same weekend as the Missouri Class 4 and 5 final four. I was there for the Sunday session with the U-17 age group -- Frank was not there as far as I could tell -- and I wouldn't say Kevin Lisch dominated the kids there. He looked good, but to be honest, I expected more out of him. Arthur Sargent looked really good. He was knocking down shots from all over the floor. - Nate

Luke Meyer was recruited to play small forward. At least that's what he told me. - Nate

I don't know that Price is any more gifted than Liddell. I know he has the rep as a great dunker, but in the games I've covered I haven't seen him dunk once. Liddell has had a couple nice dunks in games I have seen. I think Liddell and Price are probably pretty close in terms of athletic ability. Liddell might even have the edge because he might be a little taller and definitely plays taller than Price. - Nate

>knowing that, he must think tommie has something more than >sheer physical talent because in my estimation, he backed >off more physically gifted players to go after liddell full >steam. Who did Soderberg back off to "go after Liddell full steam?" I'm not sure who you could be referring to. Ahearn maybe? (JUST KIDDING, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME) I don't think there are many players out there more "physically gifted" than Tommie Liddell. My 2 cents on Tommie: He doesn't have the killer instinct you'd want from a big-time player. He needs to be more aggressive and if that day comes, look out. With Tommie, that will mean the difference between a decent college player and the next Dwyane Wade. It's his choice. - Nate

>of the players i have seen this past year in high school and >aau ball, the only high school player i would take before >tyler hansborough is shaun livingston. I agree.

Luke Meyer was a McDonald's All-American nominee, along with more than 1,000 other boys basketball players throughout the U.S. and several players from the St. Louis area. There is no one good enough from St. Louis to be picked for the game this year. The next best chance for St. Louis to get a McD's All-American might be Hazelwood Central sophomore Alex Tyus. - Nate

The East St. Louis-Vashon game is at 7 p.m. Saturday, not noon was previously thought. There was some talk about this on KFNS this morning, so I just wanted to clear that up. - Nate

I haven't seen Evans play during his recent stretch of strong performances, but I don't think he has lost all of his athleticism. It's hard to say how close he is to what he was before, but he seems to be getting healthy. It's a tough situation, because the kid has been hurt for most of his final two high school seasons. He's definitely a project for somebody and has a huge upside. - Nate

Tommie Liddell (East St. Louis) will take on Dwayne Polk (Vashon) at noon at Vashon next Saturday (a week from today). It should be a great game. I am working on a story on Terry Evans. He told me the other day his knee still isn't completely there yet. If you look at his game-by-game stats, you'll see he is playing a lot better lately. He made four 3-pointers in a big game against Jennings the other day. The only scholarship offer he has right now is from South Alabama, but he is talking to a couple other schools. He did not mention SLU as a possible destination, but if the Bills offered he'd have to consider it. - Nate

>analysis on a single highschool coaches opinion. I remember >a few years ago when McKinney was about to graduate, >Desmet's head coach loved to state that Jimmy was the most >"complete" St. Louis area ballplayer since Jo-Jo-White. This >was going on during the "love-fest" between Desmet and >Vashon where neither would criticize the other. Basically, >he was saying the Legend wasn't a good shooter. Kevin Walsh watched Luke Meyer score 76 points in seven quarters last week, so of course the coach is going to be impressed. Walsh has seen a lot of good players come through the Metro Catholic Conference the last few years -- Southwest Missouri State's Blake Ahearn (DeSmet) and Tamar Maclin (CBC) included -- so if the coach says Meyer was as good as those guys than the comment carries some weight. Meyer isn't as good as David Lee or Jimmy McKinney, but he's definitely impressed a lot of people with the way he has played this year. A very good basketball evaluator told me recently that Borgia only really has "one and a half players," talking about Meyer and sophomore PG Alex Moosmann. For Meyer to average 29 points a game with the entire focus of every team Borgia plays, that's pretty impressive. The way Meyer is piling up points -- knocking down mid-range jumpers and working off screens -- makes those statistics even more impressive. He's not just scoring in the post off of players five inches shorter than him or taking 15 3-pointers a game and knocking down three or four. Before this season I wondered if Luke was good enough to contribute to SLU early in his college career. After seeing him a couple times this winter, I think he'll be a steady contributor off the bench for four seasons. I don't think he has the "star" potential of a Tommie Liddell or Dwayne Polk, but I think he'll help SLU win games as a role player. - Nate

I've also heard from a source close to Lee that he will leave Florida after this season. That's not surprising, considering when he was a high school senior he frequently talked about leaving after two years and even slightly (though probably not seriously) considered skipping college. I've talked to several people about his NBA prospects. It's tough to figure. He is 6-foot-9 and has added muscle and strength, but he still isn't a reliable perimeter shooter. Now, he's probably one of the best passers and rebounders in college basketball for his size and is more athletic than taller forwards, so it's tough to tell how that will translate to the next level. Hopefully he'll be a late first-round pick and go to a good team where he can prove himself coming off the bench for a couple seasons and have a long NBA career. If he falls to the second round, he might be bouncing around the NBDL and Europe for a couple years. - Nate

Next season Borgia will have three guys playing Division I basketball: Luke Meyer (SLU), Sky Frazier (Southwest Missouri State) and Josh Warren (Southern Illinois). - Nate

I talked to a couple coaches who told me Luke should do well in SLU's offense, because he's so good at working off screen and knocking down that mid-range jumper. - Nate

Borgia's current coach, Dave Neier, won his 400th game recently. DeGreef is the school's all-time wins leader with more than 700. Pretty impressive stuff. - Nate

There will be a story on Luke Meyer in tomorrow's Post-Dispatch. - Nate

>i have no problems with frank c, stu durando and nate >latsch. Thanks, Roy. But I don't deserve mention in the same sentence with those two. On a side note: I am writing a Luke Meyer feature for Tuesday. - Nate

There is no truth to this rumor, according to DeSmet coach Bob Steiner. - Nate

Kalicak would be a very good addition as a walk-on. He's definitely not a post player, but anytime you can add a 6-foot-7 kid with guard skills — he can shoot, pass, jump — without using a scholarship, it's a great addition. The last I heard about Kalicak was that he was hoping Tulsa was going to offer him a scholarship. At the beginning of the season he had offers from two lower-level Division I schools out east, but he was waiting for something better. Don't be surprised if Kalicak winds up on scholarship -- as a freshman. (I'm just throwing that out there as something to think about.) I don't think David Ward would be able to contribute much (if he were to walk on). He's most likely a Division 2 guy somewhere and he's had a rough season. In one game I watched he went scoreless; in another, he had two points on a pair of garbage-time free throws. Ward has some skills but he's only 6-6 and he doesn't play any bigger than that, as opposed to guys like Kalen Grimes, Matt Shaw and Randal Falker who are similar in size but play like they are several inches taller. - Nate

>The undersized PF who outplayed Grimes everytime they >matched up? We could use someone like him. Grant Agbo is leading Truman State in scoring, but I don't think he would have been a good fit for SLU. The Bills could use Agbo's former teammate, Mike Strobbe, who is now at McKendree. Strobbe was 6-foot-7 (Agbo was 6-5 or 6-6) and a muscular 240-250 pounds. Strobbe is one of the best rebounders I have ever seen in high school and could have brought strength and toughness to somebody. If not a school like SLU, he should have been recruited by some of the Missouri Valley schools. - Nate

The best of the four Vashon freshmen on varsity is supposed to be a 6-foot-5 forward named Leon Powell. - Nate

I've seen some pictures that show it was some sort of a strange star-shaped nipple piercing. No, I'm not going to post links. But I was shocked it wasn't some kind of a pasty or tassle covering the thing. Janet is 37 and basiclly an afterthought these days in pop culture. This act is more desperate than Madonna's "kiss" with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilara (sp?). But it worked -- for now. Janet Jackson is more than Michael's younger sis today, though she will get a lot of backlash for this. I hope this stunt doesn't help her sell albums. - Nate

> the pass off the >backboard was espnlike Roy, You realize he wasn't trying to do that, right? But it was a great play, even though it was unintentional. Of all the players on the floor, he was the only one who had enough sense to try to get that loose ball. If he wouldn't dunked home the rebound, that would have been one of the best high school highlights anyone would have ever seen. Tommie looked good last night. He had a couple crossovers and drives to the basket that were big-time moves as well. He showed more athleticism in warmups than I realized he had -- and I always knew he was a great athlete. - Nate