Billikan

This is a tribute to two things--first is Brian's dedication to get better and his incredible hard work in the classroom, off the court and on the floor to become a better and smarter player. The second is the coaching staff and its ability to "coach up" players to really compete at a high level. I don't know if it could ever happen--and it probably won't-- but I saw one of the national pundits picking Brian as the player of the year in the A10 about a week ago. The double and triple teaming has hurt his numbers recently but he is still playing very hard. When you compare where he was as a frosh to where he is now it is truly amazing. As I watched Kansas dismantle Baylor tonight I thought that Loe has the same potential for growth as Withey, the 4th year player for Kansas. He came out of nowhere this year as a redshirt junior and I could see Loe continuing to develop into at least as good a player with more upside on the offensive end if he continues to work hard and get much stronger. He seems to have the intensity but he just needs to add toughness and that will come with the confidence of being much stronger as he continues to build up his body. Go Bills!

Great minds, etc.--I was thinking the exact same thing about Henry and Tu and Lyons. Henry has only played a handful of D1 games but he must have done more woofing and insulting comments and body language than almost any player I have ever seen. I give KM huge credit for just playing his game and not getting caught up in the trash talk. It was a thing of beauty to see our defense and our ball movement and shooting during our 44-18 run. The rest of the game had a lot of bad moments and mostly I credit it to the matchups and possibly just to a bad game by DE. But he is just a soph and anyone can have a bad game. The trio of MM, KM and JJ had an incredible 5 minutes or so of defense when they forced turnover after turnover.

Gonzaga really laid an egg at St. Marys this week and was dominated in a huge loss. I would have to believe they will come in hot to get rid of the rotten taste they have from that loss. On the other hand, maybe they will have a bit of a loss of confidence!

A team we dominated-- Oklahoma--beat highly ranked Kansas State today!

Except for the fact that it might have given many of us a nervous breakdown, the mere fact of a good win on the road is super. It was particularly important for the timing. After three tough wins against good teams if we had lost a fourth in a row and gone to 1-3 in the conference the mountain may have been too hard to climb. When we went down 14 and were playing like dog cr@#, I thought we might come back but I had real doubts. When we went up 13, it appeared that what we all dreamed of last year, a quick and tough three guard lineup with KM,MM and JJ would finally come to fruition. That series of forced turnovers and excellent shots and passes made us look like worldbeaters. Then we took the air out of the ball and we looked like dog cr@# again! I give huge credit to those three guys and Conk and Ellis. That five was very undersized compared to the team on the court from Charlotte but they really prevailed with intensity and hustle. Go Bills!

No, he did not spill it but he was trying very hard to get the refs attention to clean it up before they started play. It was dropped by some guy walking through the opening by his seat! It looked like a huge mess from across the court!

You are now and have always been a complete jackass! Your comments over the years have been worse than outrageous! You are an idiot troll and you should never ever even suggest you are a Bills fan. JJ played his butt off tonight as did Evans. I was at the game you moron and I could see up close and personal how good this Temple team is. PLEASE GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK.

Timing is everything in life and tonight's loss came at a very bad time and it seemed like in the game every time we did something good then something bad happened. I will say that I was extremely proud of the heart and toughness of our team. Even when we went down by 9 and they hit shot after shot our team played really hard and with intensity. But the timing of some of our mistakes and misses -- and some brutally bad calls by the refs-- were really killers. That turnover by MM when we had cut the lead to one possession and the crowd was going insane was the biggest killer of all and I could see the whole play. He was fouled to get the ball loose and then as he was going to pick it up the guy grabbed him and held him--yet no call on either foul and they get a layup and we have to fight our way out of a hole again. They hit some amazing shots--over and over--that looked like they would be from a big guard in the NBA. Many of the shots were defended and they just shot over the defender. We really hustled on the boards yet we missed a number of layups and wide open putbacks--probably because we were rushing. I thought JJ played tough and hard as did KM. Charlotte is no pushover at all and we are playing at their place. I hate to say it but this next game may make or break our season. Go Bills!

Gary and Metz and your friends--You jackasses come out of the woodwork when we lose but never say a word when we win. We know you hate the Bills so why come on this board and pretend that you are fans. It is absolutely ridiculous that you try to make people who might come to this board as outsiders think you are legitimate in any fashion when you are not. Go away you idiots!!!!! It is tough enough to lose a hard game against a very good team without your totally worthless rants about nothing.

I have not posted often as a punishment to myself for being so upset and going ballistic after the LMU loss. But the tone of a great majority of the posts today are way over the top. This team is 12-3 and we definitely should have won the game last night but it was not to be. But losing to a senior laden Dayton team at their place in overtime when our big stars were in foul trouble the entire game is not the end of the world. However it is very disappointing and like the LMU game it will come back to haunt us at the end of the season, this time in the conference standings. My biggest concern in watching us cough up the lead last night is that it appears to me that KM is still not back to being the player he was before his suspension. His decision making on both ends really leaves a lot to be desired. As I watched their point guard eat us alive I thought to myself he looks a lot like what we expected from KM--quick, tough makes good passes, hits key shots and makes free throws. I have not given up on KM but that year off really hurt his play, sort of like it did to Barnett, who does not seem to be at all as good as the player we heard about when he first arrived from Toledo. Maybe we all, and the coaches have really underestimated how hard it is to sit out for a year and then come back and be very consistant, game after game, at the point guard position. I would hope that Coach M would sit down with a tape of the game with KM and really be like a father figure and explain all of the times where he played like a freshman not an experienced third year player. His shooting from 3 and at the line are particularly troubling and he missed several wide open layups. We need him to play much better! I also am stunned at the play of CR. In a game where we really needed him because of all the foul trouble I thought he may have played the worst game of his career. I have no idea what we can do to get him to understand his role and play his butt off! As the game got to crunch time I thought that MM and JJ looked a lot more like players who have played only a year and a half than they have since they arrived last year. But I still have very high hopes for both of them and I hope they do not lose their confidence and stop driving to the hoop. They just need a little more savy and control and they will be fine. I was also astonished to see MM throw up bricks from the line. It was almost like everyone in the game in OT was tired. KC has been discussed ad nauseum. I hope the coach has a similar sit down with him and shows him the tape so he can understand where he need to be more agressive. We will need him big time on defense against Temple and X so he really needs to get it together. People were saying that the Dayton game was important and it was, but no one can assume a win on the road against a good team. Now we have two games coming up that a keys to the season. We absolutely have to beat GW at home, no excuses. Then is the big game at home against Temple. If we can beat them here right after they beat Duke then the pundits will come back to us and say we have a chance for the big dance. If we lose that game and go 1-2 in the conference the hill to climb will look like Mt Everest. Go Bills

How bad is Colorado--they barely held on at home to beat Texas So. last night 56-51--when I read that score I concluded that Texas So must be pretty good!

I am a huge KC fan but his first year, most of the time he struggled on defense and I and others had concerns that he would never be able to defend at this level. But he has worked hard on his strength and his footwork and he is much better. There were times early when he could not hit the broad side of a barn and he was having ballhandling issues as a frosh but on all fronts he improved significantly. I agree that it is different in that Kyle was a true freshman and JB had played a year at another school. In some ways, if you remember the issues with our team when RM first arrived, even excellent players have trouble adjusting to RM and his precise requirements in game action and it might be easier to start learning those as a "clean slate" frosh then a player who has played in a different system for a year or two. My conclusion is that JB has a ways to go to become a real significant contributor but that is partly because we have such a good team with so many good guards and DE is playing more like an outside player than he did last year. I suspect JB will be much better by next year but time will tell.

My point about Roy is that he was ultra patient with KC when he was playing less than perfect and many on the board--not me-- were criticizing him. Barnett has had some of the same issues we saw at times with KC early in his time here on defense and he is now a pretty good defender. KC had times when he could not hit a shot or would not take a shot and Roy was his biggest defender. There is no reason to take shots at Barnett when he is working hard. Maybe, as the coach suggests, he is trying to be perfect and that is causing him some problems but I would bet that as smart as he is he will figure it out. I did not name Daly. He was hugely overmatched by their star starting point guard who was in the game until the bitter end, as you would expect with a walk on. He also played about 10 minutes so in the last 5 minutes he was probably tired. He seems like a very nice young man and is well liked on the team.

As somebody is such a huge and unrelenting fan of KC, even when he plays terrible, I really think it is ridiculous that you rip Barnett after last nights game. He has has a tough start this season with so little playing time after a year off but I thought we saw some better things last night for sure. He was playing very hard and hustling all over the floor. He has some excellent rebounds and handled the ball pretty well until he was burdened with playing for almost 10 minutes with a walk on point guard who could not do anything on either end. But he never quit hustling and he hit a three. Give the kid a break!

I agree with your analysis that it is really hard to be off of competition for a year and then come in and play only a couple of minutes. To get really sharp a player probably needs 10-15 minutes per game with quality players but with this team those minutes are just not available. JJ is playing excellent on both ends and it is hard for him to get more than 15-20 minutes. JB looks like Cody last year in terms of his outside shooting. Both came in with reputations as 3 point shooters but both Cody last year and JB this year seem to be shooting the ball on a flat trajectory without a lot of touch. Fast forward to this year and Cody has really regained his form and his touch. He is very confident and he just looks good out there on both ends. It would be my hope that JB can get stronger and by next year he will have a Cody Ellis type of "recovery" in his shot and his overall game.

I have some folks who sit behind me in the blue seats and they often bring friends or give the tickets to friends who are not regular followers of the Billikens. Often they are very loud about their "analysis" and comments on the players which are almost always wrong and often just plain stupid. At first, I used to turn around and try to correct them but it was a lost cause. I finally decided just to concentrate on the game and try to ignore them although sometimes they will make some idiotic comment that gets my son and I laughing hard. Of course, as I am cheering the team, talking to the opposing coach about his limitations and getting on the refs they probably all think I am insane!

You can bet that our former assistant had a lot to do with the invitation! He spent huge hours working with Willie.

The Portland coach Eric Reveno was quoted in the ESPN.com recap as follows: "We have played some good teams and they are the most skilled and toughest that we have probably played in terms of execution and just good basketball". The lead of the article is "Portland lost by 24 to top ranked Kentucky last week. Pilots coach Eric Reveno believes St. Louis is better" Reveno goes on to say that he does not think we could beat them at Kentucky but this is really high praise! Interesting stuff!

This was a very good win for the team and the fans. The coaches and the announcers said the players were still a bit tired from the long trip and then back to school and practice right away. We looked a little rusty at the beginning but when we subbed in MM, JJ and Cody we then played an excellent 10 minutes from that point in the first half. For about 10 minutes our defense was fantastic and we really shut them down until we were up 46-20 in the middle of the second half and we subbed in several deep bench folks at the same time. They went on a 13-4 run and tried to make a game of it. The front line players came back and brought order and we had a comfortable win. Some thoughts: 1. Our first 8 or 9 players really give us more quality depth than we have had in decades. The only guy in the rotation who still seems to be really up and down in Cory R and I still have hope that he will understand that he is not expected to be an offensive threat except for layups or dunks. 2. Our young guards, MM and JJ, are looking better all the time and really give us starter quality players coming off the bench which creates real matchup problems for the opposing coach. 3. Conklin and Ellis did not play big minutes but they had big numbers. They have both improved-- a lot! Ellis is more comfortable on both ends and Conklin is very aggressive in a much more controlled way than in past years. It is truly amazing what good coaching and a commitment to improve by the players can bring about in terms of quality play on the floor. 4. Evans played absolutely fantastic defense against their big time three point shooter and he made some beautiful drives to the hoop for scores over the inside defenders. He is also on a nice improvement trend and imo he still has room to get better. 5. Except for a few minutes early and when we subbed deep in the second half this looked like the team against Washington and the team that won the 76 Classic going away. That stupid LMU letdown game is ancient history-- I hope!!!!!!!

You will love your visit to the Fetz. It is a fantastic basketball venue! The crowd and the band will be rocking for the Temple game.

I should have waited 24 hours to post about this game. I was going insane watching it on my computer with a small picture and LMU slugs who kept complaining they never got any calls! Everyone makes good points about the long trip, etc. LMU played the game of a lifetime on offense for many of their players and shot the heck out of the ball, particularly from the free throw line. I am so used to seeing our guards frustrate talented guards on other teams it just amazed me that we did not defend well. Unfortunately, we now have to climb the mountain again and I felt like we just spent years climbing and we only got to see the sunshine for about 5 minutes! The Portland game is huge in terms of our fans, the media and the psyche of the team. We really need to bounce back and play a very good game. We owe them big time from last year and I hope everyone remembers how they dominated us. Go Bills!

I am no bandwagon guy! Just a diehard fan that died a thousand deaths tonight! The fact is that the next game, at Home against Portland is huge! We owe them payback big time for the thrashing they gave us last year! And they just lost to Kentucky, the No 1 team by about 10 points so they still have a good team. Our team needs to get back and regroup and play like we did over the first 6 games. Go Bills!

I do not question the schedule. This is a good team to play home and home to get us a tough but winnable game on the road. Road wins are huge. The plan was perfect and if we had won it would be excellent in all respects. Maybe I was fooled by how much we dominated good teams in earlier games. I will say that LMU made more "hero" shots in this game than I have ever seen against our defense. But I really though our defense could stop a team like this. UGH!

None of those losses came when we were ranked. None of them came when we had tremendous buzz for the program nationally. There is no way we will be ranked again because our SOS goes down big time by the end of the year. If we win all our games and beat Xavier then we will get back to consideration but I very much doubt that will happen. I should not even post at all because I am so disappointed in this team. I really thought we had more toughness and moxie. LMU was playing without two of its best players!

I will be at the Portland game just like I always am and will cheer my guts out for our team and out players. But I really thought that if we won this game tonight we had a chance for a real special season because the schedule sets up so well over the next month. The the team that I saw in the exhibitions showed up tonight. Sloppy bad basketball, lazy defense and no hustle for loose balls. Bad shot selection and our leaders in KM and KC played terrible defense against anyone who they guarded. Sure we will win some games and I am always an optimist but this loss really burst my bubble in terms of having a special season. I sure hope I am wrong--By the way, did you hear their coach say on the pregame interview that with a break or two the Bills could go to the Final Four!