Billikan
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Posts posted by Billikan
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when we were rated as ninth in the country in their preseason analysis!
Well, many folks who are friends of mine who have not been to many games have attended either the Butler or the VCU games and many have commented that we look like a team that could be in the top 10 in the country.
In terms of our exceptional play on both ends for extended periods of time in each of those games against ranked opponents it is hard to argue with that conclusion. Last night was particularly impressive with us playing against a very tough and athletic team and we really dominated the game. I was in shock when looked up at the scoreboard and I saw that we were up 69-42 late in the second half. This past 7 or 8 games may be the best play on a sustained basis that I have ever seen from a Billiken team. We are incredibly tough on defense and our offense is so versatile that any one of 5 or 6 players can lead the team in scoring on a given night with no ego from any of them. Very impressive.
I noticed that Luke Winn, the college BB expert at SI has us rated at 22 in the country in his new Power Rankings on SI.com. I think that is pretty close to correct in terms of our national ranking but if we win on Friday we should move up.
A few stories on last night's game--
First, the "slunatic" with the basketball on his head is not me but he is a good friend and a 40 year fan of the Bills. He wore that outfit in Columbus and was treated like a Disney character by fans of many teams who wanted his picture and to be in a picture with him.
Second, I am close to the court and I almost leaped over the scorer's table at that ref who decided late in the second half to make all of those calls against us. the worst thing about him was that he was so arrogant and appeared to almost be angry at SLU and intent on making calls against us. It seemed a little ridiculous.
Third, I was close to Rammer when he came up and shouted at him. I loved that Bob just gave him the brush off llke he was a gnat on a summer day. I was thinking that I had never seen in person or on tv a ref confront the radio guy--has anyone ever seen that before.
Every fan I know was really nervous about the game last night and our ability to win the game. My son was there with friends who do not follow the Bills and after watching warmups by both teams they said to him that this game is going to be a slaughter--VCU over SLU--my son said to them it is not how you look in warmups but how you play as a team and execute on defense and he was very prophetic because the Bills did exactly that. I am on cloud 9--lets keep the winning streak going! Go Bills!
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Do you see him recruiting well? I have no idea but it scares the crap out of me to take a chance on him for the longer term.......
I have personally not come to a conclusion on this issue but I will say that the players like him and he is much easier to live with than RM, both in terms of the players and in terms of the AD. He is pretty mellow and very into this team. The recent results have been the result of great game plans and in game adjustments with fantastic defense for the most part. I am not opposed to hiring him for the next 5 years if the team finishes the season strong and he can get some high profile players to keep an interest in the Bills. The key, of course, is the ability to close which escaped Soderberg for the most part and really escaped Romar except for a couple of players. I know we have had a number of very good players show an interest to date and we do not have a permanent coach. They seem to like our players and our staff but can we close on them. I am not sure anyone knows.
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-source?
I can confirm this.
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Not sure where you saw Crawford was ranked 27th but he made the Jr All Star team so he's top 12. As for his game against Kokomo(one of the best teams in the entire state) he just flat took over. He hit clutch shot after clutch shot including a deep 3 to send it to OT. He followed it up with a 25 pt 11 rebound performance against Hamilton Heights. Heights features former Kansas St commit Alex Etherington who is also the brother of Indiana player Austin Etherington. In the game Etherington had 13 in the first half then Tipton moved Crawford to Etherington. Crawford held Etherington scoreless and once again took over in the 4th. Not sure where people got that he was a front court player either. He plays a lot of PG for his hs team but will be a 2/3 in college. His stats through 17 games are 28.5 ppg and 9.8 rbg. People are now talking about him for Mr. Basketball. If he leads his team to a State Championship then that might happen.
This all sounds fantastic. Please do not take all of these posts seriously. We have a number of posters who believe that the facts will never get in the way of a good opinion--meaning their opinion! Bills fans will welcome young Mr Crawford with open arms and it sounds like he will be a crowd favorite because over the years we have always loved guys who hustle their butts off! Thanks for keeping us updated.
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Sorry F05, but WV has a legitimate question based on years of Billiken experience that sadly has become the norm. I second the question.
If you read the article, he was playing against a very good team which lost 57-56 to Crawford's team. He had 35 points! You know he had special defenses geared to stopping him employed all over the floor. The article says he is a candidate for Mr Basketball in the state of Indiana and he is the type of player who hustles constantly and dives on the floor for loose balls. Why not give the young man credit and welcome him to the Bills with open arms. No one knows for sure how he will fit in long term but why be negative at this early point?
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The way I see it, there are three categories of college basketball player: 1) the instant contributer who adds to your team immediately and gets better throught the years, hopefully, peaking his senior year (see MM & KM), 2) the developer who sits the bench the first year, or two, or three, but works hard and eventually develops into a solid contributor (see CR), 3) the bust who mysteriously and somewhat quietly transfers after a year or two (see CS).
I don't think that there is any way a bunch of guys posting messages on a fan website can have any real way to know which category a high school kid, that none of us have seen play live, will fall into in three years. I know my crystal ball is on the fritz. Let's just cross our fingers and, since we are a catholic school and we can get away with it, pray that these guys end up in at least category 2, possibly even 1.
Comparing these guys to the busts of the past is just as pointless as comparing them to MM, JJ, KM, CE, etc. I'm sure someone could have made a case that each of those guys were comparable to a guy who was a bust at some point in our history, but that's not what happened. The only way to find out for sure is to let it play out.
My thoughts exactly! Different players develop at different time in their lives and some seemingly exceed what appears to be their maximum potential in high school and some do not. Let's just let them play and practice and compete and not set any limitations or make any judgments at this early point.
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The staff may not be shedding tears but they won't have to deal with the massive hole in our lineup in 2 years after 8 of our top 9 players graduate. The new coaches will.
I'm not saying we should have kept him on as I have no inside info whatsoever, but I do wonder if a coaching staff that planned on being here two years down the road when he was going to likely get 30+ minutes per game would have the same view.
+1
And to all the Crews supporters out there, fair or unfair, Carter's leaving is a huge negative on Crews and whether or not he is retained as the permanent coach.
Unless you know the inside scoop as to what was happening on the team, in practice and off the court, you have no business whatsoever speculating as to the "huge negative" of the coach or anyone else. There is a story here that will probably never be told because teams keep things quiet--for good reason. I was given the full story in confidence and will never report it to anyone but your uninformed speculation and unwarrantted criticism is false and is typical of much of what is posted on this board--unsupported speculation.
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I counted our strength this year as the three. Loe. Ellis. McCall. Mitchell. Barnett. We haven't lit it up from there yet at all.Short of McCall's 25-for-50, 50%, our gunners are lacking. CE 36%. JJ 36%. RL 25% and JB 33%. The fact that JJ is shooting the same poercentage as CE is concerning; ofg course JJ's only attempted 11 whereas CE's launched 68 attempts.
What has worked for me over this run is the intensity of the defense we are playing. That's what's won games and lessened our focus on our shooting woes.
Overall, we seem to be increasing our intensity on defense and our discipline on running the offense over the past four games which makes us much harder to play against even if we are not hitting our 3 point shots. I hope and pray that our shooting improves when we get in conference against the best teams because if it does we will be extremely hard to beat. The future looks bright but the truth is that good shooting can make a team look great and bad shooting can hold back a good team from being great.
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For those of you who missed the game last night that is a shame because the first half was possibly the best all around defense and offense performance I have ever seen from a Billikens team in terms of execution of the game plan and the crowd was really fired up. The only issue was that we missed a lot of open shots.
In terms of the coaching staff I have to give them huge props for a great game plan and the fact that the team was really ready to go from the first minute. Some on this board have been very brutal in their criticism of coach Crews but he lead the team to a very masterful victory. I am lucky enough to have seats close to the floor and had close seats in Columbus for the Memphis game. In the first half the look in the eyes of the NM players looked just like the Memphis stars-- disbelief when they learned that even if they executed their best quick athletic move they were not open. Our guards were magnificent in terms of on ball AND help defense but the best job of all was done by DE. We can talk about Josh Fisher and Kevin Lisch but no one ever did a better job one one one with a big athletic guard than DE last night. He was stuck like glue going over screens and controlling his hard drives to the basket. He also blocked an outside jump shot! One of his most athletic plays was to soar high to block the shot of the 7 foot center when he was called for a charge. Cory R was also great and had three impressive blocks. In terms of our execution of the schemes established by the coaches and individual effort by the players this was the best defense I here ever seen in a half of a Billiken game, particularly against an athletic top 20 ranked team.
On offense, we created constant open shots in the first half but we did not hit a lot of open shots. We made mostly lay ups or inside shots. If we had hit even half of the open outside shots we would have be up by 30-35 at half.
Part of the problem on offense is the fact that KM is still very rusty. The fact that we won big with him really playing wel below his true ability on offense is a remarkable and encouraging development he will sharpen up and make those open shots an lay ups.
Overall, considering all of the adversity and injuries and the passing of our HOF head coach, I am very impressed with the way this team and the coaches have come together. We are a tough out for any team in our league. But many teams in the A10 are playing very well. We need to win that home game against Butler to keep up the profile of a truly good team that can beat ranked teams. This still has the potential to be a great season. JJ is becoming a great passer and MM is becoming a great defender. JB is a valuable guy off the bench and Cody is playing tough. RL has developed and played well yesterday against a huge center. If he can just shoot better he will be a dangerous weapon. His passing from the high post is excellent as well. DE is a stud defender and rebounder and he can score in bunches when he is really on. CR is a perfect example of the need to be patient with big guys because they often develop more slowly. With John Manning improving and recovering from his illness he will be a valuable big guy off the bench.
Happy New Year to all Billiken fans!
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A lot has happened since the end of last season and much of it not good (RM, the injury to KM and the departure of Carter) so I get why a lot of people are a bit negative about the state of the program.But let's keep an eye on the big picture... Crews is not RM, but few are, so I am not sure what people were expecting from an interim/replacement coach. The pool of assistants to draw from in the past would have been a hell of a lot worse. Looking at RM's assistants - would Moser, or Jensen been much better? Without KM playing I doubt it. Going back further - Anthony Beane? Angres Thorpe? Didn't Sodie have some guy named Grunkermeyer? And who did Spoon ever have that you could have turned the program over to? A couple of guys who I think became high school coaches? A very young Jay Spoonhour? Outside of Randy Bennett, we haven't exactly had a lot of assistants who have gone on to become head coaches. A case could be made that Jim Crews is the most accomplished assistants we have had.
With the loss of RM and KM there figured to be one game that we were supposed to win that we would lose. I thought it might be Valpo or North Texas, but it turned out to be Santa Clara. It was one game. It is time to get over it.Look around college basketball, a lot of upsets happen early. There is time to recover. The losses at Washington and Kansas didn't surprise me, so we're really just one game behind where we could/should be. Everybody will feel a lot better if we beat New Mexico. It will be a tough game, but I think we will be slight favorites. We should win, we must win.
There is a lot to look forward to. The return of a healthy KM will make Crews look smarter and will make everybody else on the team a little better, that's what an excellent point guard can do. While the loss of Carter was kick to the junk as far as the future, I don't think it will have much impact for this season. Jake Barnett is turning into a quality 8/9th man, so we will be fine without Carter when KM returns.
While it is hard work being a Billiken fan, it is still an exciting time to be a Billiken fan. I thank RM for leaving us some outstanding players to watch - JJ, MM, CE and KM. I have enjoyed watching the development of CR and JM. We still have an opportunity to make the Big Dance for the second consecutive season. How often has that happened in program history? Once in the Spoonball era? Let's make the Dance, get in the Big East and land a quality coach after the season. Doc Chaifetz was in the house Saturday so that was a great sign. There is a lot to look forward to. It will be especially sweet if the program can make the Dance after overcoming so much advesity. I am looking forward to seeing it all play out.
Merry Christmas b!tches... it's time to enjoy some more eggnog!
Merry Christmas to all of our SLU family! Very nice post! It gives those of us who are glass is half full fans who bleed blue a nice warm feeling! Thanks
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I thought I have read on this very website that Jordair has like a 42" vertical. If that is a fact then I would love to see him dunk once in awhile. Today he had a real opportunity.
i think you are out of town and never get to see a live game but there are times in warmups where the whole team goes to dunking and JJ often makes spectacular dunks!
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i just hope that crews doesnt screw up much more finishing out the season. imo, he was not a good hire as an asst let alone put in charge. cant we just let him wrap ankles or sell 50/50 tickets the rest of the year and let mitchell coach the rest of the season. first player coach in ncaa history. another first for the billikens.
When it comes to your repeated and inane supposedly expert posts on everything Billiken I thought I had seen everything but this is a new low even for you--the person who was the biggest Sodeberg sycophant on this board. You should hope some day to achieve even 20% of what Jim Crews has accomplished in his profession.
As far as his stint with the Bills is concerned, he came here at the last minute as a personal favor to the coach who lost a key assistant as we were getting ready to play our first game. Last year Coach RM told me personally how much he appreciated the fact that Jim had joined the staff and how much he thought he added to the mix in terms of coaching and preparation. Then the coach gets extremely ill and no one knows whether he will ever be able to coach again but hope springs eternal so we decide to hire an interim coach and the one on the staff with the most experience and success, by far, is Jim Crews. Is he perfect? No Is he RM? No, emphatically. But he has kept things together during this difficult time and I for one see considerable improvement in this team's execution over the past few games. But for some reason you feel you can just insult the man, bellittle him and crap on him like you did with RM for years because you are so self important that you are above everyone! I will say it again--you are not a Billikens fan-- You are a Roy fan who will support the Billikens when they do things the Roy way. If I never read another one of your posts it would be wonderful!
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I'm not sure it would have made any difference, but the program clearly had a gag order on Majerus health right up to the point where Carter was enrolled. I can't blame him for feeling like they pulled the wool over his eyes.
I try hard not to respond to any posts on this board at this point because I despise the constant negativity but I must ask if this comment about Carter is pure speculation or do you have inside information. I suspect it is the former and I just cannot understand why people insist on posting their own speculations and musings as facts on this board.
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I like the idea of Bryce Drew far more than I do Leitao. If we're gonna go with a retread I would suggest Jay Wright or Tommy Amaker.
Porter Moser has Il-Chicago at 7-3 after beating Miss. State last night. Could be worth a look if they win the Horizon league or get close. His recruiting class there was very solid.
Gregg Marshall is not a realistic option in my opinion. Wichita St is a great job.
Porter is the Coach of Loyola of Chicago
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Am I the only one that thinks it might have a little cold hearted for SLU to announce he won't be back at SLU if he makes some sort of miraculous recovery? I don't know if his girlfriend is hoping against hope, or if RM's saying once he gets fixed he wants to coach again. Strange situation. Heck, Utah stuck w/ him thru two prolonged absences. We couldn't even do it for one.
This comment is completely uncalled for under the circumstances. The AD and the school have been in close contact with representatives of RM and have received regular reports on his health. This announcement was fully coordinated with those folks. Pray for Rick to recover but don't rip the school when you don't know any of the details.
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SLU sent out a press release to confirm it.
Thanks for everything, Coach. I won't soon forget that weekend in Columbus.
I could not agree more. That weekend in Columbus was magical and the team played its heart our against two really talented team and got one tough win and almost upset a no 1 seed. RM was quirky and a bit odd off the court but on the court and at practice he was a one of the best I have ever seen. What a shame that his health cut short his career.
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For anyone who has watched the Bills for decades last night's game was not even in the top 50 worst Billiken basketball performances. For fans of a more recent vintage--there have been plenty of stinkers over even the past 10 years.
Yet, despite the fact that we have played without best player and our best inside defender most of the posters on this board are in total panic mode or even worse--complete despair.
So the question of the day is -- Panic or patience?
I am not at all sure that we all understand the impact of losing a hall of fame type coach is on the psyche of a team. I do not pretend to know that answer but I feel certain that it has to be a bigger factor than most of us realize. Then we lost our best player and our "coach on the floor" point guard on top of losing the coach.
Yet if you look at the preseason pick of posters here -- most of the expectations for this team were sky high in terms of wins and postseason success. We need to remember it took RM 5 years to build a team that could compete at a very high level and he had to have a little luck --meaning no significant injuries-- in order for us to accomplish what we accomplished. I think a lot of the super negative comments are from posters who predicted this team to be super team and their expectations blinded them from seeing that we are not a super team if KM is not playing. Frankly, CR is also a key at this point because he is our only legitimate shot blocker--not counting Evans who can get some blocks but is not going to be an intimidator and he has been guarding a lot of perimeter players so he is not underneath the basket.
I have said for years that shooting is the keep ingredient in upset scenarios and we saw last nigh a shooting exhibition by SC that was over the top. Great defense can help prevent shot attempts and push people into places where they do not want to shoot but if shooters are making wild shots, long shots and shots on the run it makes the team look invincible.
Yet, our failure to be composed on the offensive end and the lack of structure on defense or offense is the most troubling aspect of the team's performance.
In answer the the question--I must say I want to have patience but without KM in the lineup it is hard to see how we are going to be able to beat good teams. Let's hope that this game is a blip on the radar but I am not optimistic that we can beat even a team like A and M under the circumstances unless we take care of the ball and shoot well. No panic but real concern!
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Don't let Bay Area Billiken fool you, this game against Santa Clara will be a cakewalk. By cakewalk, I mean at least a twenty point beating.
From everything I can learn from reading and talking to folks this team is completely different and better than last years team. Their best players were either injured or suspended for much of the year. To judge their quality just look at their team from two years ago. We had better be on our game, particularly defensively.
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This game worries me, I wish we would have scheduled USC Over Yonder instead.
They're not even a directional school, if we don't win by 20 at home, I'm quitting on the season
With two starters out for sure and a new head coach in his first game, I will be delighted if we play well and win the game without regard to the score differential. This is no cupcake!.
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http://www.teamranki...ens/projections
I love this website. I can spend hours playing with this.
This site is pretty interesting but the most amazing thing of all is that they have the Bills projected as a (hold your breath)---2 seed in their preseason bracket. Wow!
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This is harder than it looks--It would be much easier with KM in the lineup from day 1-- I worry that we will lose a game or two early that we would not have otherwise lost if KM had been playing. If that happens and if we are slower off the mark in the conference because of a need to smooth out the play of our guards with KM back then we could lose a game of two in conference we did not expect to lose. Then if we make the tourney we get a fairly medium seed like an 8 or a 9 and have to play a 1 in the next game.
Let's hope I am a ridiculously pessimistic dog!
Regular season 23-7
A 10 tournament 2-1
NCAA 1-1
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We should all stop speculating about RM and his contacts with the coaching staff, etc. His representatives haveinsisted on no contact whatsoever and no contact has occurred.
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I have coached Mike and can tell you that the Billikens are getting a special player. As someone else showed he is a great golfer and goes to State every year which has cut into his AAU. He's kind of been under the radar because of this. A little about his game, he has played literally all 5 positions for his HS team out of need but will play the 1-3 this year. He is very polished offensively and has no trouble getting his shot off. His mid range is his best thing right now in my opinion but he can get hot from outside. Had an 8 three pointer game over the summer. He is currently the winningest player in Indiana right now with 67 wins in three years. He's lead his team to back to back Semi-States. Last year as a Junior he had 40 points and single handedly kept his team in the game against Bowman Academy a school with 5 D1 players. He should break the all-time scoring record at Tipton pretty early in the season. Tipton has produced some very good players. Derek Elston who currently plays for Indiana, Ethan Jacobs who currently plays at Colgate, Matt Waddell who was all-big ten at Purdue in the 90's and Kreigh Smith who played for IU's 1987 National Championship team. People think Mike is the best of the bunch. Some big schools were starting to get in on Mike but Mike fell in love with St. Louis and wanted to choose before the season so he can concentrate on winning a State Title. He's also #1 in his class academically and made the Junior All Star team. I think you guys are really going to like watching Mike play.
Thanks much for this post. Billiken fans will welcome him with open arms and it sounds like he could become a fan favorite. He is coming into a great situation in terms of the quality of the team coming back next year so he will get the chance to play on a very good team yet if he can prove he can score and defend at this level I have no doubt he will get some quality time over the next couple of years and will fight for a starting job eventually. The fans on this board who often know absolutely nothing about a player like Mike often go overboard in the commentary, good or bad, so please ignore those comments.
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By rule, these are always closed to the public.
Remember the Lindy's cover....
in Billikens.com Main Board
Posted
If we could somehow pull out a win against Butler at their place then we should be in the top 20, but even if we lose and compete as we usually do I think there is a strong argument for us to move into the top 25!