cheeseman

BB, you have a short memory or filters own - many have pointed out when KL has a bad game. I also agree that if you think that LM has the same up side as KL your are way off the mark. By the way, what qualifies you as some sage bb person?

BB - I got to tell you that I did not appreciate your racial tone comments - I have never seen anyone on this board ever talk about a player as good or bad based on his race. You can take that nonsense and put where the sun doesn't shine.

Maybe the issue is people are talking to him and not his father. I wonder if his father has any big sway over him? I know when you talk to a kid about where they want to go to school they all often start naming big schools far away and then when it gets closer to the decision time, Dad who has simply let the kid talk up to now often drops the bomb about money, distance, etc. and all of a sudden a school close by jumps up and becomes the choice. Not sure if this is the case with Tyus - just a thought.

I know everybody keeps saying look at the second year of when Claggett and Highmark were here - we only went 500 or close and then we caught fire the last two years. Yes that is true but lets compare this team to that team. The last two years had H. Waldman to handle the ball and shoot from downtown and Robinson to rebound. I think Dobbs was also still there for one year. Who do we have to come in on the white horse next year - DM, a freshman with no D1 experience - sorry he is not going to solve our shooting problem next year maybe a couple years down the road. If Brad does not find some impact JUCO or Prep players to come in and improve our interior defense I am not sure we can be as good as Spoon's second year when we went dancing. I agree that KL could be the guy that steps up and fills the perimeter shooting problem, but where is the inside help?

Overall the rebounding was rather even - the problem was that they go so many lay ups/put backs/ and hit key 3s. I agree our D was pathetic.

Obviously you did not see who was the only one protecting the ball last night - it was DP, he had a 4-1 assist to TO ratio. KL's play last night was up and down and AD did not have his best foot forward either. TL showed up in the second half and IV did not control the interior.

Perhaps some of this could have been avoided if we had played our young players more last year to prepare them. By holding off until the last 5 or so games, our young players did not get the seasoning from that terrible year they should/could have gotten. I agree the sky is not falling but clearly this team should be showing some growth from all this pain soon. The win at Oakland was good and the UNC showing was promising but when do say they have been battled tested enough this year? - if this kind of stuff is still happening by conference play then I will be wondering about a lot of stuff.

I hate it when Mike Shannon does it during Cardinal's games. It makes me want to throw a can of Campbell's soup. Did he write you back?

Beating Oakland was not expected - expected is a little strong.

72 - DP was taken out of the UNC game in the first half because he had two fouls - at least that is what the announces said. You are correct you have seen only one game and I understand that where you live is the factor for that - I applaud you going up to Chapel Hill. That being said, I have seen every home game and all the televised games and while the first half at UNC were not DP's finest moments, he acquitted himself in the second half and has played well for the most part. Before anybody says this is off the topic let me point out that it is difficult to discuss this topic since it requires people to express their thoughts by supporting with examples of specific players which by the very nature causes people to respond to the examples. So far, given the topic in IMHO, all the responses were topical.

Roy, during the post game show on Saturday, Brad was very complimentary of DP's defense that night. I know you are suspect of his defense but really from what I have seen, he plays well - everybody has a bad night now and then but generally he does pretty well.

The problem at the UNC game was that if KL was going to replace anybody it was going to be AD and AD had the hot hand. Coach has made it clear that DP is his pg and that others that play it at times will strictly be because DP needs a breather or is in foul trouble. I am sorry but I disagree that DP's playing in the second half at UNC caused us to loose that game - he played just fine and made some very key baskets. Many - including myself have always said that KL's time will come from AD and unfortunately for KL, AD is shooting the lights out with the ball. This is the issue not coach not rewarding KL. He simply is stuck behind a senior who is excelling at the moment. Given AD's past performance, he probably will not be able to keep this torrid pass up and KL will get his minutes again. After all, he is a freshman and is playing big minutes as it is compared to what other freshman have gotten with Brad in the past at SLU. As far as the UNC crowd's thoughts - who cares, they saw one half and they are going to be forming opinions of players from that - sorry, that is not right nor would it be right for us to do it for them.

It would make no sense to start an A10/MVC Challenge - it would only fuel the cooks who want to pretend that the A10 is not a big time conference. If you even do something like this it would be best with the Big East.

So if they update every night, then the A10 #7 ranking includes the 4-3 A10 record from last night. So even though the conf. lost 3 games and won 4 then other conf. must have done worse or else we could not have moved up.

Afan - you are the one blowing a gasket. Let me point one more thing out to you - a board like this is for the purpose of someone as yourself making some kind of an observation based on or not data and for someone such as myself to respond to what you post. If you do not want people to read, consider, and make comments then don't post just read.

Afan - look at what you just posted - you are concluding that we are getting off to slower starts in the second half by showing that we have scored 4 fewer points total in the second half than the first to date - that is virtually the same!

Afan - why post stats and offer an interpretion (by the way I never questioned their accuracy) if you are not willing to have people respond to how you are using them. I just simply drew a different interpretation and tried to explain why and how. By the way, go back and reread your original post you do in fact say that we are getting off to better starts in the first half than the second.

How can you have two "rookies of the week" and multiple "players of the week"? or did I read it wrong?

When did this site get updated - did it include last night? I am not sure the St. Joe and Dayton losses were that bad - I agree it would have been better if they won but who they lost too were not terrible teams.

Afan - your stats don't prove we get off to a fast start in the first half - all it shows is that the other team is also off to a slow start. I disagree, our scoring early in the game has generally been slow.

From your response I take it he is not their pg? Have you considered TL on him?

2nd half starts are like the begining of the games - we have generally started slow in games so I am not surprised to see the same occur at the begining of the second half. It probably is nothing Brad is saying or doing just the nature of the team - I do think that at UNC, they might have come out and wondered a little about when they were going to wake up from their dream so the slow start in the second half did not surprise me. Then they woke up and realized that it was not a dream and got down to business. What bothers me more is that IV seems to have developed foulitis recently. If he is on the bench this is a big problem for us.

Give me a little help - can you provide some stats on him - size, speed, shooting %?

Don't get so cocky about Ole Miss - I also feel better about a possible win down there but they will be very upset about their lose last night. As Brad said, road wins are very hard to come by - this is the first road win since 2003 at Dayton for us so they have been rarer than hen's teeth. Like I said - their performance tonight and at UNC is very encouraging but I am not ready to place the Miss. game in the win column yet. Earlier I said they had to win 2 of these 5 games - JSU, UWGB, UNC, Oakland, and Miss - 3 would be GREAT!. Now they are in a position to do just that but it won't be easy. If they can win at Miss that will give them a 5-3 record with home games against Kennisaw State, Iowa, Chicago State and Gonzaga. The worst they do is go 2-2 and 3-1 is possible (not easy but at least doable)in this stretch. That would send us in to conf. play at 7-5 or 8-4. Most of us would have taken that in a heart beat this summer giving the tough games we had scheduled. If they loose at Miss. they end up 6-6 or 7-5 not as gaudy but once again not the end of the world given last year. Oakland,Miss, SIU and UWG were never considered easy games, Iowa, Hawai, Gonzaga, and UNC were considered very high hills to climb. Given our young team and lack of a pf - our preconf. record could have easily been 4-8. The point I am trying to make is that the team and Brad are doing a great job so far and a NIT or even a NCAA bid are not out of the question - but I don't want to count my chickens to before they hatch - sorry for both chicken references.

Thanks - after I hit the submit it occurred to me I might have been wrong on RB - thanks for correcting that.