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Billikan

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  1. UAB has almost everyone coming back and has several new recruits. I was very impressed by the scheme that they used and the intensity of the defense. However, teams have now seen the scheme so they may not "sneak up" on teams like they did late last year. Nevertheless, we play them on the road and it will be very difficult to beat them on their home court. I am amazed that Cinn. is not getting more respect. With Whaley and White the Bearcats have added two players that were top 10 nationally in high school and they have more experience now. I think they have to be the team to beat in the conference. Marquette is getting huge respect because of the final four run but I remain skeptical that they can so easily absorb the loss of Wade and Jackson. In particular, I think that Diener benefitted greatly from Wade's ability to penetrate and dish-- often he was double teamed leaving Diener open on the perimeter. Also, Jackson took up a lot of room in the middle which helped their other big men. Another issue is whether Novak can shoot like he did in the tournament with more attention and close guarding. He has numerous wide open shots because of Wade. I would never pick Marquette over Cinn. this year.
  2. If your just look at the rosters of last year and this year, I really think we have upgraded our team. Bryant will come close to scoring as many points as Marque and he is a better 3 point shooter. No one will ever match the one on one quickness off the dribble of Perry but we have otherwise improved our posiiton at guard. Fischer will be a year more experienced and stronger. Drejaj will be stonger, more experienced and a better shooter than he was early in the year last year. Clarke will give us a more athletic player off the bench who can defend and play the point, if necessary. Hunt is an experienced player who we can use in the pinch off the bench and he will not hurt us. I like our guards and the only thing that could change that would be if Bryant is not as good as he was last year when I saw him in practice. Our inside game has improved as well. Again, we lost a key player in Brown and his rebounding and hard nosed defense will be missed. However, he was mostly a liability on the offensive end and he was a terrible passer out of the post. Chris Braun, a player with a lot of potential, never really got it going. Now we have a stonger and more experienced Sloan who has really developed into a scorer. We have Fericks--a tough hard nosed defender who by all reports can score a little inside and is a decent passer out of the post. We have IO who has put on weight and will be a much better player this year. At 6'9" he will create tremendous matchup problems with his quickness. I think he will be much better with a year of practice and games under his belt. Ian V., our freshman from Greece, could be a very nice player by the end of the year. Missing 10 games will put him behind like IO last year but from everything I hear this young man has "skills" --our first 6' 11" player, or ayone over 6'8" who has had such skills in more than a decade. IO also meets that description. The reamining 3 inside players are question marks. JJ has bulked up but can he play competitively in our league? Varner might give us an experienced hand off the bench but he will really be a valuable part tiem sub if his long lost outside shot has returned. It sounds like Bryce will redshirt but I wonder is we should have him play in light of the 10 game sitdown by Ian. Overall, I think this team is better. Will it win more games? I doubt that we will win more that 16 or 17 because any more wins would require a number of upsets on the road, a prospect that I do not think is in the cards this year. We play Cinn., Dayton, Marquette, Ga. Tech, Memphis, Charlotte, DePaul, Tulane, UAB, TCU, West Virginia, and SMS on the road. We have 15 home games with Butler, Arizona and K State out of conference and tough conference foes like Marquette, Louisville, and Charlotte. If we win 12 home games and 5 or 6 on the road-- you would have a great year. I am currently predicting 17 wins. I might change my tune when I get a look at this team in prectice and in the early season games.
  3. My guess is that Calapari will love this new arrangement in the short term because he will get 22-25 wins a year and will make the big dance as a relatively top seed. The whole new conference is weak in the bb area with the loss of Cinn, Louisville, Marquette, DePaul, Charlotte and the Bills. If he wins all of those games and wins the conference or the conf. tournament his lowere RPI will not matter. Also, I am sure he will still schedule some big money games--he is a darling of some of the tv execs. His recruiting is stong and his ego will be stoked by the big win seasons. He will probably tire of it after 3-5 years but only if he sees a better opportunity. He left a mess at UMass and I would bet he will leave a mess at Memphis.
  4. Roy, you are right about the fact that somehow the St. Louis sports media knows less than it should about our Billikens. I think part of the problem is directly related to the fact that except for the Cardinals this is a fair weather fans town, including most of the reporters. You noticed that when we had some big wins a number of the local media, like Bernie, took an interest for the first time in many months. Also, most reporters want to concentrate on the pro sports because those sports will give them more credibility nationally and could provide them with the ability to "move up" the ladder in the profession. However, I am guardedly optimistic about the next few years. It seems like the local media has started to respect our coach and his accomplishments in a short time. the addition of at least 3 local players next year should help promote local "human interest" stories. that should also be true with our foreign players. Let's hope that our SI staff is up to the challange. Winning a few games early will go a long way in creating interest. If we can hold our own with Arizona on our home floor that would help as well.
  5. I have known Doug for years and he is one of the good guys. He works hard and he is a terrific representative for the conference and for our city because he offices here. I have no problem with the MVC--it is a nice conference but it does not have the national recognition of an A-10 and I think the Bills should aspire to be in the highest rated conference possible.
  6. Steve, thanks for all of you hard work in keeping this board alive. It is a fantastic way for Bills fans to keep in touch and learn about developments in Billikenland! As indicated earlier, I assume that all of us got the letter announcing the big deal on Oct. 30 at the West Pine gym. My guess is that this is sort of a belated Midnight Madness where the team is introduced, etc. Unfortunately, I have a dinner to atend that night so I wil not be there. I would appreciate it if those who do attend give us a summary. I found it interesting that although the coach closed practice he did allow Stu Durando to attend and comment. It sounds like the practices will be a war--I have no doubt that they will be intense based upon last year. Let's hope it toughens up the team and we have a great year!
  7. I will never forgive Ekker for his conduct in the last year. the cheerleader thing was a debacle for him personally but on the court I hated to watch him quit on the team. He would sit on the bench and do nothing--no coaching--no cheering--nothing. It got to the point that I was yelling across the floor to try to get him out of his chair. No matter what the circumstances I never can respect a coach who quits. Don't think for a minute that this guy was anything other than a bum! With regard to the court club, I have one distinct memory--The Missouri game!! We were all gathered at the Arena Club for the luncheon and we waited and waited for Norm to appear as promised. After about 45 minutes of waiting Norm appeared and announced to the gathered group that he saw no reason for him to do anything to help SLU basketball gain any credibility so he had nothing to say and stormed out. For the first time in my life I became a Missouri basketball hater and it continues to this day. David Burns went out that night and put on an incredible one man show and the Bills almost upset the Tigers. After that game Norm swore he would never again play the Bills and he never did.
  8. If that is true, and I would guess that the coach would still not mind the freedom of an intimate set of practices with his new players, then why haven't we heard anything. If there is to be some big event we all need some notice so we can set our schedules. I am very skeptical at this point that they have anything significant in mind.
  9. I have a daughter who is currently a junior at BU. She is in the physical therapy program that is rated as one of the best in the country. In terms of the academics, I think that a number of the specialty programs at BU are excellent and it is a huge school--approximately 35,000 students making it one of the largest, if not the largest, private schools in the country. The overall entry qualifications of the typical freshman students would be slightly higher at BU than at SLU. In terms of basketball, BU has been improving in the past few years but the team looks more like that team from "Hoosiers" than a major college basketball team. That is accentuated by the fact that BU plays its home games on campus in a bandbox gym that looks like a large high school gym. I know that the leaders at BU are very anxious to be more recognized and they are investing millions of dollars in expanding the campus and building very nice new high rise residential buildings so the students can live on campus. BU is definately a "city" school, and although the campus is large, and it is next to the Charles River, there is very little grass and a major street, Commonwealth Avenue--and the "T"--a rail based mass transit--runs right down the middle of the campus. In many ways, in terms of its appearance, BU reminds me of SLU prior to the street closings and the campus upgrades. The difference is that BU is a much bigger school. The main sport is ice hockey. I would think that BU would be extemely interested in joining a new, more significant conference like the A 10. In terms of basketball history and credentials, the Billikens are head and shoulders above BU. This will be interesting.
  10. My guess is that the coach wants to have the players to have total concentration and he wants the freedom to "push" and criticize individual players in an atmosphere that does not include outsiders where the players might feel embarassed. Also, he knows that this team may not look too good thee first week because we have so many new players and he may not want people coming to conclusions about the team so early. I am very disappointed because I usually go to a couple of practices during the first week but I will give the coach the benefit of the doubt because he has done some really good things since he arrived.
  11. If they are out now the tickets have been distrbuted almost a month earlier than last year-- that is great! I have declined to participate in the Mo Valley spitting matches-- I for one can not understand why there is so much emotion and interest in an issue that is nothing more than theoretical guesswork when it comes to which team is better, who would beat who, etc. I do not think that we as fans, or the school administration, have any interest in seeing our Bills in the Valley so let's let it die and treat these long boring messages from the Valley proponents like we would those of the idiot Too--ignore them! I am disappointed that practice is not open yet because I have always attended a couple of practices in the first week. In a week or so we can all be talking about the play in practice, etc. Go Bills!
  12. If I recall correctly, one of those games was Houston on the road where we played terrible and lost a bad game. We played well when Chris was a major factor later in the year.
  13. With all due respect it is insane to talk about Chris Sloan "going to the bench"! His nonstatistical contribution to this team is unmatched by any other player. He is one of the best on ball/ plus help defenders I have ever seen. His intensity is fantastic, he is a hard nosed rebounder and his offense has really developed. He is the most important player on this team!! Others will score more but for us to win Chris will need to play his best! By the way, based upon what we have heard about his international experience I seriously doubt that JJ could even play ahead of V, our large and athletic freshman. I watched a number of practices last year and I think JJ has potential but I for one need to be convinced that he will be an important contributor for the Bills.
  14. I have never been a big fan of Bob Ramsey. He is like most St. Louis media--he loves a winner and he bashes anyone who does not think like he does. He is so opinionated on his radio show that it is ridiculous. As a Billiken announcer he is fine on a game where we are winning and playing well but it is just plain torture to listen to him complain if the Bills are not playing well. Earl Austin has a much better feel for the game and the difficulties in playing against good athletes, even if they play for a lesser team. I think one of the problems may be that BR does not really understand basketball and he views it like a fan from afar-- one who loves dunks and does not really want to appreciate the beauty of a solid screen or great help defense. The fact that he is now advocating the MV confirims what I already believed--He is not really a big Bills fan--he just like the idea that he is the announcer on D1 basketball. He is also naive. the "trips" to the MV cities would be long. Our firm has offices in a number of those cities and it is very difficult to fly to any of them and the prices for flying to places like wichita are much higher than a Southwest flight to BWI. As a ling time fan I agree with the administration 100%. Go A-10.
  15. I can understand the argument made by those who think we should join the Mo Valley in terms of the closer geography and the possibility that some of the games--SIU and SMS and Creighton may draw some nice crowds. What I cannot understand is the fact that those people seem to ignore the fact that no matter how you paint the picture the Mo Valley is a significant drop down in competition, RPI rankings and national exposure. If we have to move--and that seems to be a foregone conclusion--then the school needs to try to move to the best--highest ranked--conference that would be available. In my view, the A-10 is the best available. Also, in terms of exposure, playing teams in New York, Pittsburg, Cinn., Philadelphia, Mass., etc will give our Bills a much better opportunity to have exposure in national markets that have a lot of the people who make decisions re television matchups, invites to tournaments such as the NIT, and overall positioning in the basketball picture nationally. In addition, as was demonstrated by our signing of Drejaj, we can recruit in the east and although I know that the staff is concentrating on local players, exposure on the east coast will help us in recruiting those areas. In terms of success, we have seen from coach Romar that romancing the west coast recruits will not pay off in the short or long term. On the other hand, we can sucessfully recruit in the midwest and the east--particularly if we get more exposure there. Peoria, Ill., Springfield, Mo., Carbondale, Ill., Omaha, Neb., Wichita, Kan., Evansville, Ill. and small towns in Iowa are very nice small cities with a solid small town midwestern approach to life. But playing in those towns will give us almost no national exposure and If we do not win the conf.tournament it may give us little chance of ever going to the big dance because of the low RPI numbers. I think the school is on the right track with the A 10. We sure do owe Xavier for all of the times in the Grawer era when they broke our hearts in the conference tournament. However that payback will be very tough because Xavier has become a power and it recruits very well. Bring on the A 10!
  16. I agree that we are OK is we don't have injuries. Hunt's greatest value is his experience as a Billiken and his knowledge of the offense and the system. I agree he could fill in in an emergency.
  17. Unless there is an emergency it would be crazy to have Chris Sloan guard the other team's 2 guard. That would elimintate his strength as a defensive rebounder and cause him to run and chase around screens when he is at his best when he is a hard nosed one on one defender with a forward and the help defender down low in the post. If Sloan is playing 2 guard on offense or on defense then we are short of guards! I do agree that he could defend most 2 guards with his quickness and tenacity.
  18. With all due respect, and I love Sloan to death and I think IO has tremendous upside, neither of them can ever be expected to play one of the two lead or shooting guard positions. we have 4 "guards" of substance--Fischer, Bryant, Drejaj and Clarke. If we play a three guard offense that means we have only one sub for three positions. If one of the 4 gets hurt then we have three guards. Absent injuries, I agree that we have enough depth. If we have to play without one of them then we will be vulnerable to teams like UAB who wear out the guards by the end of the game. I like Hunt but there is a reason he was not recruited as a scholarship player at the D1 level-- except for a couple of minutes at a time he cannot play guard at the D1 level, particularly on the defensive end.
  19. My understanding is that Matt visited our Bills this weekend. Anyone have any information on the visit?
  20. If Morris was as good as we thought he might be in running a team then we probably have lost something for at least the first year. I do not think the staff would have recruited him if they did not think he could play significant minutes--20-22 per game. The real loss is in the lack of depth. If one of our guards--Drejaj, Fisher, Bryant or Clarke should come up with an injury then we would be down to 3 guards--most coaches would like to have 4 available in the event of foul trouble or fatigue. This may also affect the entire rotation. The coach has demonstrated that he will make changes on the fly--but I would guess we may see less of the 3 guard lineup now. IMO The starters will be Bryant and Fisher--with Drejaj as the third guard in a 3 guard offense and as a key backup if we play just 2 guards. Clarke will probably get more experience now that Morris is gone but I would guess, that unless the coach decides to play him at the 3 spot for matchup purposes, he will be the fourth guard off the bench at 6-12 minutes per game. If we play more of a 2 guard offense then I would think that Sloan and IO will play a lot together--and against some teams we may see them as the only two "bigs" if IO continues to develop his defense. Playing IO at the 5 occasionally would create tremendous matchup problems for big somewhat slow of foot centers. After a couple of drives to the basket I would expect that the other coach would have to react and bring in a smaller, quicker player. Also, the interior rotations will be very interesting. Is Frericks a lock at the 5 spot? Who will be the first two bigs off the bencH? JJ? Ian? Varner? The rotation will probably not often go beyond 4 guards and 4 "bigs". Of all of the Billiken teams that I have followed over more than 30 years I think the makeup of team that will play regularly at midseason is more up in the air than I can ever remember. Fall practice and the early games will be very interesting to watch to see who comes to the forefront.
  21. As we approach the new season I believe that our team this year will be better offensively than it was last year even though we lost Perry. My reasoning is as follows: 1. Our total guard scoring between Bryant, Drejaj, Fischer and Clarke will easily, collectively, make up for most of the points scored by Perry. I would suggest that their scoring averages-conservatively- will be as follows: Bryant 14.0 Drejaj 8.0 Fischer 9.0 Clarke 5.0 Total= 36 ppg This compares favorably to the total average of Perry, Fischer, Drejaj and Diener of last year 38 ppg. 2. Our inside scoring should improve with the development of IO, the consistancy of Sloan and the increase in the offensive skill of our inside players--particularly Fredricks, Zorba, JJ and Varner. Our seven foooter cannot be counted on this year. We must remember that our "bigs last year had the following scoring averages: Brown 6.9 Sloan 7.6 IO 4.9 Braun 3.4 (sad!) Varner 1.6 Total= 20.5 I would suggest that Sloan and IO will score more than last year--I would think that IO could average 9-10 points per game. My prediction of scoring averages--conservatively--for the bigs: Fredricks 5.0 Sloan 9.0 IO 9.0 Zorba 4.0 Varner 3.0 JJ 4.0 Total 34.0 This means that this years team will score about 70 points per game vs. last years team that scored about 60 points per game. My conclusion is that we will be better on offense we will be more exciting to watch with better athletes and more depth. This leads to the inescapable conclusion--If we want to beat talented teams we will have enough offense if our defense and rebounding are good enough to keep us in the games. We have 3 players who are tough, hardnosed defenders in Fischer, Drejaj, and Sloan. Key questions: 1. Can Fredricks be a tough enough inside defender to replace KB who was terrific late last year agains wuality opponents? 2. Can IO improve defensively and use his athleticism to get rebounds over the rim? 3. Can one of the new inside big men give us a presence on defense and help in rebounding? Bottom line--If our new unseasoned big men can hold their own on defense and on the boards we will have a very competitive team that could be fun to watch. Go Bills!
  22. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments--we will need some top 100 talent--but you can have top 100 talent that is not ranked that way by the so called gurus. Also, with the international players they might be very good but they will never be ranked in the US unless they play here in high school or at the camps. So far I trust Brad to bring in players who have talent and who fit the profile of what he is looking for in a hard nosed team player. It will be interesting to see who blossoms out of these new players.
  23. Is Price really a better player than Liddell? Based upon what I have heard and read I thought Liddell was the better player. You have obviously seen them both several times--what is your opinion?
  24. Nark, I am delighted to see that you would be very happy with the four local players--I would be very happy if we could land those or similar players. However, I question your comments in light of many comments you made last year re our need to recruit top 50 and top 100 players. I recall that you said it was a must for the Bills to get several of those ranked players in order to compete in D1 basketball at a significant level. I think there is a chance that none of these players will be ranked for the reasons that others have mentioned. I for one do not care about those rankings because the people doing the rankings admit they are influenced by what teams are recruiting them, the aau team they play on, the attitudes of the "gurus" and hangers on who frequent the camps, etc. My point is that we could have an excellent recruiting year and yet not be ranked nationally at all. Nark, it appears that you now feel you can live with that -- but it sure seemed last year that you were pushing the rankings as the key indicator of a good recruiting class.
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