Billikan

I think it would premature to suggest that Carter can start ahead of MM and JJ but he looks like the kind of player who can blossom and be a significant contributor by year end. He looks like he eventually can be a big strong point guard who can really control a game and be an effective defender.

Although in the past some on this board have questioned our recruitment of so many guards, we are really blessed to have such quality depth when our best guard and most important player now has gone down with an injury. Against the big time teams it is impossible for this not to set us back a bit and we may lose some games we would have won, particularly on the road like the game at Washington. But the fact that KM was out for an entire year when MM and JJ were frosh will make this a whole lot easier to survive because they are true D1 guards with athleticism and saavy. The real wild card at this point is a question of how quickly KC will adjust and become a real contributor. I, for one, was surprised at how big he looked at the Fanfest. He is listed as the same size as MM but he is bigger, possibly much bigger and he also looks stronger. He clearly has good instincts and looks to be a young guard who understands that a big effort is required on the defensive end. With a key player hurt it opens an opportunity for others to step up. MM and JJ have already proved they can play and if KC can mature quickly and plays like he did in some very big games in high school we may all be very pleasantly surprised. Also, JB has to step up and play some solid minutes and hit some shots for us to be really competitive against good teams if any of our top three guards get in foul trouble. The whole situation kind of gives me an upset stomach but it also will be pretty exciting to see how the team handles losing its best player.

I feel pretty sure that the reason that they were on different teams is because they are now by far our best two bigs--meaning guys at 6'8 or taller-- and they were split up to try to balance the teams. Both had great summers and are much better in terms of their interior games and toughness. They played against big time players in practice all summer and they look much more confident. Rob will play a lot more in the low post and will take his man off the dribble. Cody will do the same and both will still exchange in inside outside situations. With Evans they are a very versatile three man inside crew. I am sure Manning and Remeken will get pt but make no mistake, these three guys will be the key to our inside game, particularly on offense.

I can confirm this as a fact. RM and his representatives have requested that all be kept quiet and confidential. Federal law even requires that under any circumstances. The top folks at the school do know the situation. We should all pray for RM and his speedy recovery.

In response to NH and other over the top negative posters: Bill McClellan of the PD wrote an article this weekend about politics and used a phrase I thought was very clever-- COMPULSIVE OUTRAGE DISORDER! You and others on this board seem to suffer from this when it comes to Billiken basketball. We are coming off of maybe our best year in the modern history of the program--clearly it at least equals any other season in modern Billiken history and the weekend in Columbus was fantastic--we played very good teams and played well and almost won both games. For many of us who were there it was the best few days we ever had as Billiken fans. Pretty much the entire team is back and better and stronger with a couple of nice freshman recruits. We get hit in the gut with a health problem for our head coach but we still have an outstanding team and fortunately continuity with Coach Crews who is a very good x and o coach and the players like him. Yet you and others like Torch are outraged that we do not have a full long term staff in place and ready to go. You are outraged that within a few weeks we have not added completely new assistants. Why not try to fight the COD and just support the team and let things play out a bit over the next few months? Panic is never helpful in any situation nor is a sky is falling attitude. On the other hand, contrary to others on this board, my view is that a positive and supportive attitute is always a good thing in life and this situation is no different.

I don't often post anymore because there are so many ridiculous posts on so many topics unrelated to Billiken basketball that the board has lost its original purpose. But when I see such a stupid post like this one it just drives me crazy. Wake up! We had not one but two former head coaches on the bench and we were able to elevate one who was well liked by the players and who has had some real success in the past to the interim top spot. I have spoken to many folks in town and out of town who were amazed that we had a coach of the quality of Jim Crews on our bench who could take the reins. The fact that our assistants are considered top notch enough to get interest from other programs is a sign of a successful program. I hope Coach W stays because he seems like a real good guy. Lets try to support the team when it was hit with a tough punch in the gut when the coach who coached his heart out in Columbus against supposedly superior teams encoutered some serious health problems. Go Bills!

This is great news all around. Rob will be immersed in an incredible experience playing against big time players in practice and in games. He will get to play in other countries, with games in Brazil against big time teams like Brazil and Greece and then off to Olympic qualifying in Venezuela. Even if they don't get to London this will be a fantastic life experience for Rob and he will come back more mature and seasoned. Cody will get to play and practice with some of the best young players in Australia and he will be tougher and more experienced when he gets back to St. Louis. These experiences will help build their basketball IQ and their all around games.

Also a nice development is the hiring of the new assistant women's basketball coach. She has great credentials and sounds like she is a great recruiter. It would be really nice to see our women's program start to have some real success!

I am not good at posting links but I saw a reference to Yahoo Sports and their evaluation of Butler's chance to win the A10 next year so I read the article and two "experts" said that while Butler will be very good they pick the Bills to win the conference. It is nice to see we are getting some national recognition. Our games in Columbus were great for our image as a team that can play with the big names!

I read a lot about him on the internet from articles over the past two years and he looks to be a great all around athlete--a star football player in high school as well as in basketball in California. He must be tough and he is a pure shooter, which is something we can always use because we get so many open shots. He will have a year of hard practices before he ever reaches the court for a game so he should be good and ready by the 10th game or so of the following year. It does seem like all the players who have to sit out come into the early games with some rust. Let's hope all of his playing time as a frosh will make him game ready. Go Bills

This is the best analysis I have seen on this entire subject. Big men take longer to develop than guards. Good guards are essential to compete at a high level in the modern college game. If you can get bigs who are like Anthony Davis that is great but the Bills are not likely to ever attract those "bright lights" type of one and done big men. But Rob Loe has excellent potential and he has improved greatly and gotten stronger since he arrived. He will be even better next year and he is still only a junior so he has two years to become a super developed big man. Dwayne is absolutely fantastic for his size and he is as smart a rebounder as we have ever had in terms of getting to the ball out of his area and contesting with bigger players. Cody played much better this year, particularly on defense. Cory was much better against Michigan State and as a senior I think he will give us at least 10 productive minutes a game. Then you have two sophs who are getting better. Manning is a true big man with real size and an aggressive attitude, only exceeded by Grandy in terms of toughness. I suspect Manning will play more this year but no one should give up on Grandy. With all of these players coming back and only two are seniors I can ask those of you who are just negative to be negative to point out a deeper and higher quality group of big men that we EVER had coming back for a year. I cannot remember a better and deeper group, and I suspect that eventually our young man from Indianapolis will be a fine 3/4 man before he graduates as well.

this is a ridiculous discussion--as often seems to happen on this board. Look at our team this year with all of the guards we had--any NCAA team worth its salt has at least 4 good guards and usually want to have excellent players "in waiting" for when the first teamers graduate. this young man seems to be not a good but a great shooter with a ton of potential for the furture. He will sit out next season and practice against KM, JJ and MM--that will only make him better. When he becomes eligible he will be a soph but will be stronger and more mature. He will have a natural running mate in Carter and we can expect him to get minutes behind JJ and MM, depending upon the matchups. Having a pure shooter come off the bench is a wonderful luxury. We can expect him to be a starter in his junior year when we will need him most and he will have two years as an experienced guard on a good team. Our bigs are well set up for next year with Cody and Cory as seniors, Loe and Evans as juniors, Manning and Glaze as sophs and our Indiana swingman Drew as a frosh. The following year we will still have Loe, Evans, Manning, Glaze and Drew and several open scholarships to use on other big men as we see fit. In fact, we are set up very well with a lot of talent and it will be spread among various classes. I actually think this is a fantastic addition to our team and all of the BS is just that.

It all depends on salary and position. If he is moving up the ladder in salary and in position on the staff then that is usually the way that assistants advance in their careers.

It was moved from Monday night to Sunday night and I, for one, am very happy because there were several other big events scheduled for Monday. This will free me up for the banquet! Let's get everyone there!

See the school's website for details. We need a big crowd there. All of us who were in Columbus should really get out the folks. The team deserves a standing ovation! I cannot edit the title--the event is now scheduled for the 6th!

From what I have read and looking at his stats this young man sounds like a taller California version of Kevin Lisch. A little under the radar but a fine player and shooter who is an excellent student with a very high basketball IQ and he averaged 23 points, 6 assists, 6 rebounds and 5 STEALS! Sounds like he could play the 3 if necessary against some of the three big guard lineups in the A10. In the short term I do not see what everyone is talking about with regard to the panic about having no big guys. In fact, Loe is really coming on, will only get bigger and stronger because he is only going to be a junior, Ellis is playing much tougher and will have a summer to get bigger, Cory R is maturing nicely and I expect him to have a much better senior year. He showed his toughness and athleticism against Michigan State. DE plays much bigger than his size and rebounds well and he is only just finishing his sophomore year. Manning is just a soph and is big and getting bigger and has excellent potential. GG is big and tough and could give us minutes in a pinch, and he is only a soph. Drew will add a nice athletic 3./4 man who has a huge wingspan and can shoot and rebound. My view is we should sign the best player we can find who will fit in with our system regardless of whether he is a "guard" or not.

with all due respect, the circumstances with Kowal were very different. I am not really sure how hard we actually tried to get him but assuming what you say is true, our team was very unsettled at that time and we had not yet had a big year and had not had a whiff of the big dance much less played a number one seed very tough in the second round. This team has great chemistry and clutch players who execute the game plan and are very experienced in the system. They have had very nice success and are poised to continue that success next year. The circumstances are totally different imo.

I have read these posts with interest because I wonder where all this talk is coming from. I have no direct inside information but I would be shocked if our staff is interested in Shopshire. I know they turned down a better player in the past who wanted to transfer here late in his career for the reason they did not want to disrupt the chemistry on the team. As the coach from Villanova said on TV during a commentary on our win over Memphis--Rick M is a great coach who needs kids to be in his system for two to three years before the team gets really good because of the complicated nature of the offenses and defenses that he runs. Once he gets those building blocks in place then he can recruit young players to build on the success. I thought that was a very insightful comment based upon what we have seen. No criticism of Tommie or Kevin is intended but the year that RM arrived both of them looked lost at times. I thought Kevin would have been an even better player if he had played four years under RM because he fits perfectly with what RM is trying to do defensively and he would have adapted his game to the offensive schemes over time. But to bring in a player for only one year and try to get him minutes on a veteran team with all of its starters back in the positions that he would play and several bench players who would be in front of him as well it seems crazy to try to get this new guy to fit in and assimilate all of the nuances of our offensive and defensive schemes, particularly after he spent 4 years with Pitino in a completely different scheme. I would much prefer to use any possible scholarship for a frosh who could develop into a star player in our scheme over a few years. If we could find a juco who would be eligible at SLU--possible but unlikely--who was big and tough and could help us then I would prefer that as well.

KC is a perfect Majerus recruit. He is an excellent player who is smart and wants to defend but he did not get much notice by the big schools. I predict he will blow up and be a great player for the Bills no later than his junior year. It might happen sooner but our three tough and highly skilled guards from this year's tournament team will not give up minutes over the next two years without a hell of a fight! The fact that he was the point guard for an undefeated team in the biggest class in Ill until they lost by 2 points in the state championship is impressive, as is his reasonably high shooting percentage, including from 3 point land. I feel for him because he had his worst shooting game of the year in that game and they lost by 2 points. But he will undoubtedly come in very hungry and excited. JB will have to really work hard this summer to keep those Kyle C minutes that seemed to be ready for him to take over next year. It really is ironic that Porter got an oral commitment from this young man before he was really known and RM came in and signed him before his fabulous senior season even started. Porter really needs a whole new group of players and a tough talented point guard from Chicago would have been a nice building block. I can't wait for next season's first practice!!!!!!!!!!!!

I heard several of the pundits on TV, including the coach from Villanova, talking about our team very favorably and saying that our athleticism is underrated. One went so far to say that our team is athletic and the coach is playing a game when he poor mouths his roster, etc. The fact is that many of our guys are very athletic and we have smarts and quickness. If you watch our dunking in the warmups and see KM way over the rim or JJ ripping down the rim or even Manning getting way up, it is a myth that we do not have athletic players. I agree with Roy that the coach is really commenting on the NBA chances of his kids, regardless of how he says it. I actually believe that Rob Loe has the best chance for the NBA if he can improve as much from his soph year to his senior year as Conklin did. If he gets stronger and can hit the open 3 more consistantly, he could be a big time player. His defense improved so much this year that I was amazed!

You obviously were not at the games in Columbus. Everyone who was there talked about how impressed they were by the fact that our team was obviously not intimidated by the moment. In both games our guys played with toughness and intensity. If anything, it was clear that both teams we played we frustrated by our defense and could not believe they could not run and gun. With a fantastic season and great play in the BIg Dance--why do you want to insult our team?

He is a very good friend of mine and we were together at the pregame pep rally and at the game. He is crazy as heck and a huge BIlls fan. We have been going to games for over 40 years. He ended up with a big picture in his outfit on the front page of the Columbus newspaper. I do not believe he has ever posted on this board. It was amazing to see the reaction of the fans to him, even fans of other schools wanted to have their picture taken with him. We were cheering like crazy at the Memphis game and he gave them the SLUperman curse and we won the game. He had to go back to St Louis on Saturday but I told him that him not being there with his powerful curse caused us to lose! He is a great guy and a big fan!

Thornton is a weasel. I was at the game close to the court and he complained about every play to the refs even after his whole team went to the bench. And if he was touched he fell down like he was shot. As far as the MSU fans are concerned, we were right next to some jerks who trash talked from the opening tip and were incredibly dismissive of the Bills as if we were crap on their shoes. Bills fans were very enthusiastic but respectful of everyone. I would never allow a relative to even visit that school. What a bunch of classless morons. The tone is set by Izzo who is an incredible crybaby from the opening tip. I hate the guy classless bunch all around!

With all the talent we have coming back and the two new guys who are not only excellent players but also are playing for excellent teams and will know how to fit into a winning atmosphere with other good players--next year really looks good. If Manning can really progress over the summer I can see him getting real minutes in the rotation with Brian graduating. With Loe and Ellis putting on muscle and Evans getting bigger and stronger--adding an improved Manning to the mix will give us a nice mix of bigs, much like RM's teams in Utah--with Rob and Cody as potentially excellent 3 point shooters who can also defend and go into the post as necessary. Both Carter and Drew are reputed to be athletic and good defenders so they will help make practice a real battle. Go Bills!

If your analysis is limited to scoring then I agree with you that KM has not reached his level of production from his second year. However, particularly in the second half of the year, he has become a better all around player and a solid defender. He also has made some really big plays at key times in games when we really needed them. Next year, after a year working with McCall and JJ, he will be the sage leader of a very good team.