Billikan

I thought the same thing in watching Tom F. He made some nice agressive moves to the hoop and made the shots. For the first time I could see a true option down low. Let's hope he can stay out of foul trouble and keep his breath. He also had some tough rebounds in traffic. As to Ian, I have seen him several times and he has a very nice little jump hook down low. He is a little slight in the upper body but he has strong legs and he should be able to hold his position. I am not sure he is ready for prime time but he looks like he could be good once he adapts and gets stronger. IO has actually looked more under control in the last two games and I would think he will be in the rotation if he can defend. His problem is defense and Coach Brad will just not play people for long stretches unless they play tough defense. Our other player at 4, Chris Sloan, has always been a favorite of mine because of his hustle and his grit and determination. However, I think he did not play as well or as smart and he is capable in the last 3 games. Let's hope he can pick it up over the next few weeks!

At the bottom of the article it indicated he gave Arizona a 2.3 for the SLU game. Almost flunking!

I really thought that Anthony did no have his normal enthusiastic approach to the game on Sat. Was the injury before the game? If not, those things are killers and I would be very concerned that he could be out for some time. Let's hope he will heal quickly. We will need him against Butler!

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I may be wrong but as I watched Anthony it seemed like he had the flu or some kind of cold. He looked listless and weak. He seemed to be trying hard but he had no energy or enthusiasm--the best indication of someone who is trying to gut it out.

Very little more need to be said about this situation other than to go to the "bottom line"! It is naive to believe that nothing happened at MU in the Clemmons situation. It is naive to believe that top players in programs like MU do not get a few friendly "donations" from boosters. The only reason this is still alive is because the "vow of silence" taken by all players who are paid was dented somewhat by the taped calls with the wives of MU administrators. No one in the NCAA is truly willing to do anything to clean up the sport or stop the payments. The "bottom line" is the all important focus. The only time they do anything is when they have to deal with direct sworn testimony like in the Chris Webber situation or in the Tony Cole situation. The NCAA will hammer those it does not like--see Jerry Tark and Jim Harrick. The NCAA will protect all others in order that their gravy train not be derailed. Ultimately, the entire situation at Missouri will be swept under the rug--by the school and the NCAA!! Then all the MU faithful will say that the program was "vindicated"!

You are right--the best possible team as to balance would have been the one that got away when Upchurch committed and then the summer program idiots blew it and he did not get in. We needed Upchurch to help Bonner match up with the two monsters inside for Xavier--remember Hill and Stong!! But now I think if we can get an enforcer and one of the two youngsters turn out ok in the middle we will have a fairly balanced team that has stong guard play--and absolute necessity in today's D! wars. As to Zion--they were two deep at every position with super high quality players. I guess they recruit by telling players they will compete every day against top talent and telling the moms and dads that they will stay out of trouble and go to church at least twice each week. I know that Oak Hill has had some great teams but I think this may be the best ever. My son noticed within 30 seconds that the look and feel of the last game was so much different than the earlier games because of the incredible talent of the players. Wow!

I was most impressed by the coach at the Billiken Club meeting who said that Ian had improved dramatically since the beginning of practice this fall. He will need some upper body strength to go against the big boys but he clearly has the potential to be an excellent big man. It will probably not happen this year because everyone seems to need 10 games or more to get back to game shape and the propper feel once they have been sitting out. With regard to BH, everyone seems to forget that he is a voluntary redshirt who is lifting weights and trying to improve. Even if he cannot play big minutes until his junior year--almost 3 years from now--if he is then stronger and more talented, at 7 feet plus he will be a big help to our team. It is worth the investment to see if he can be the real thing.

I may be wrong but I think that Livingston could be a 30 point per game scorer if he decided to concentrate on scoring. he has a nice touch from 3 and he is silky smooth off the dribble, very tough to guard going to the basket and he would draw a lot of fouls. With a nice free throw touch he would get 10-15 of those per game. Right now he seems content to set up his teammates. They are undefeated against a tough schedule so I would guess he won't change his approach. By the way, I thought that Belleville West has a very nice team with quality across the board in the starting five. They play hard, shoot well and defend. If our man Lisch had 36 against this group then he needs to come be a Billiken. I can see he and Polk and Liddell as our three smalls playing at the same time once they get aquainted. I am also extremely happy about Meyer. Let's get that enforcer and we are on out way to big things in the new arena.

As I sat and watched the shootout yesterday I tried hard to make comparisons between the various players in similar situations and I came to some conclusions: 1. I am more and more confident in the ability of our coaches to evaluate players. Tommie Liddell is a very nice player who really understands the game. His "feel" for the game is just terrific. He made some of the nicest--simple but perfect--passes I have ever seen in high school. He also competes hard and he has extremely quick and strong hands on defense. At the end of the game he took on the role of an inside scorer and he made some nice baskets over much bigger players. I came away very impressed. The stats do not do him justice. On a better team he would have had a dozen assists and I believe he had at least 5 or 6 steals although he was only credited for 3. Comparisons--Monroe Douglass--last year many were saying we should recruit Monroe--he seems like a nice young man and he hustles but he is not close to the player that tommie L. is at the point or in any other position. He does not look like a big time D1 player. Xavier Price-- also seems like a nice young man and he put his body on the line taking it to the basket. He is on a very good team and he does not stand out but he looks to be a solid player--not a point guard as some have suggested and he may be a bit short to play the three so he will be a two. There is no way I would take him over Tommie Liddell. Kalen Grimes--He of the monster body--I would take him in a minute. He seems to have improved since I saw him last although he still appears to be out of shape. If he would buy in to Brad's system and got in shape and worked hard he would be perfect for our team next year. I never saw whether he can do anything other than dunk or put back offensive recounds because he never made any moves whatsoever because the ESTL defense was suffocating him even though they were much smaller. Superstar comparison: Livingston-- a superior talent who controls a game singlehandedly--he reminds me of Penny Hardaway who put on one of the best shows ever at the Shootout. I can't say he is better than Penny but he is close. His no look passes and his FAKED no look passes were a thing of beauty. He also has a beautiful rotation on his shot--particularly his free throws. If he is not one and done at Duke I will be amazed. Brandon Rush-- by far the most spectacular player of the long day. He is different than his brothers in that he works to get his teammates the ball and he plays defense. He has a beautiful outside touch and he leaps like Vince Carter. He had two offensive rebound dunks that were highlight film variety. The first was you garden variety NBA style leap above the box, grab the ball with two hands and then throw it down over bigger players. The second was truly amazing. He was on the wing and passed to a guard who drove for a layup. As he put up the ball my son--who played college ball--pokes me and says watch this-- as the ball spun out on the layup Rush elevated over everyone and caught it with one hand just below the rim. He then cradled it, turned it over and went higher to slam it down. absolutely amazing!! I seriously doubt that this young man will ever play college ball. He is much better than either of his brothers. As he bulks up over the next year and a half he will be unstoppable! The entire Mt. Zion team: this must be the most incredible collection of high school talent ever. The guards are awesome high flying quick players who can shoot the three ball. all of the players are athletic and play within the system. My son and I concluded that if you could take this team and continue with the same group in college that you would reach several final 4s and would probably win a championship. Kent--Because of the talent of the Zion team the Kent team did not show all of its talent but they also had three or four absolutely terrific players. Their point guard--going to Siena--played strong, tough and smart--he would be a nice addition to any team. Wright, the wing player is a terrific long range shooter and a nice all around player. He will help DePaul. No way that I would say he is better than Rush. Although he did not do very much in the game because of the talent all around I thought their no. 22, a kid that is going to clemson is a very talented player. he has easy NBA three range and he leaps like a pogo stick at the rim. The Aldridge kid from Texas looks smooth as silk and once he bulks up he will be and NBA player. He is about 6'11" and runs the court extremely well. His team includes what may be the most inept group of guards that I have ever seen on a good team with a dominant player. I blame it on the coaches but the players need to take some blame. In the first half which ended in Peoria leading 40-19, the guards would repeatedly take the ball and drive to the basket while throwing up prayers that were either blocked or missed and lead to a fast break the other way. aldridge was never involved and these kids seem to not know he was even in the game. It was ridiculous. In the second half when they finally realized that they were getting killed, the guards finally started to pass it to him and he scored 25 in the half. You can really understand why some top kids go to prep school. they will get better coaching and the team will work as a team rather than have terrible players while trying to get their points ignore the star. All in all, I find that this is one of the best days of the year for a basketball fan in St. Louis. It was great fun!

I was sitting with the relatives of an asst coach at Hazelwood Central and because they learned that I am on a school board they wanted to know the rule about Kalen's ability to transfer if MU went on probation and I informed them of the new rule that was established in the Baylor situation. They seemed relieved.

Can we expect to see Brad and the staff at Saavis? I hope the team does not travel until Friday--probably not because it is exams week.

I see that CBS Sportsline has Georgia Tech ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation on its RPI list. Based upon their wins--dominant against the No. 1 and No. 25 teams--I agree with that ranking and I wonder how they could be as low as 10th in the polls. Let's hope our Bills can execute the game plan and play with cool heads on the road. If not, I see a blowout! this could be our toughest game of the year!

What title?

The two beefs--Kleiza and Bryant hit those shots! Are they really two of the better 3 point shooters?

Did you watch this game? Making the strategy in the first half even worse in the modern era is that those gunned up shots were not even three point shots. Most coaches emphasize that you should take 3s or get the ball inside. MU took many intermediate shots while ignoring the inside guys. The reason they got so many rebounds is because they were massively bigger than anyone Indiana had on the court. With Leach out with an injurt MU had no one that could even contest a shot. The bottom line is that MU won because they had some great athletes and some widebody inside players who made some great plays down the stretch and their 2 big men made miracle three pointers. This win had nothing to do with any coaching adjustments. I apologize to the rest of the Bills followers for using MU as an example on this board. Next time I will use someone else so we can eliminate MU debates.

If you look at our roster for the next two years, and factor in our recruits, we should be fine at guard at wing and at center if Ian and Bryce can develop. I really expect Ian to be a factor next year and Bryce the year after if he can hit the weights. Practicing against Ian and Tom will make him better and tougher. After watching a bunch of games over the weekend I came the conclusion that for our remaining scholarship we should find the biggest, toughest, meanest 6'8" enforcer 4 man that we can find. If you look at our roster it is the only thing missing. Unfortunately, there are not too many of those players out there--and even fewer that are ready to step right in against top competition. Let's hope that our coaches can find a diamond in the rough that the big boys don' appreciate!

Our recruits next year will include a point guard from Vashon--Polk ( who incidentially was 7 for 8 from three point range in a game against a chicago team this weekend)- and Liddell, who everyone says can play some point and is a great ballhandler and distrubitor. The next year, if we can convince the young Mr. Lisch to join ur Billikens, we should be in great shape. I heard an interesting comment by an announcer over the weekend--he said that any good D1 team needs at least 2 excellent point guards and possibly 3. the gist of his comments were that you can play two point guards at the same time and you need quality backup ballhandlers for late in the game when foul trouble or fatigue may affect those who have played big minutes.

On Sat. I attended the Bills game and then watched the MU/Indiana game on television. What struck me after watching the two games is that coaching truly makes a difference in college bb. For example, Brad made a brilliant strategic move from the beginning of the game--he had all 4 smaller players sprint to the other end as soon as we put up a shot. It left only our 5 man to offensive rebound but it completely shut down the Arizona fast break and made them play against our half court defense which is one of the best in the country. He also broke the mold, particularly in the first half, and he let the open man shoot the ball regardless of the time left on the shot clock. Reggie obviously has a green light and he hit some nice shots. Our defensive strategy and effort was truly magnificent. Reggie still need to get up on shooters--rogers hit several wide open threes when Reggie was guarding him and they switched Drejaj to guard him and He never got another open look. But overall it was a thing of beauty. I will also give credit to Lute O.--he saw that his team was affected by our defense and their inability to get anything in transition so he went to a frantic run and jump defense that double or triple teamed the ball with tall athletic defenders. We did a nice job limiting the turnovers but we gave up a couple of layups off steals--the Varner giveaway was a killer-- and they seemed to get more energy from the whole situation. Also, Lute and his staff do a great job working the refs. The biggest ref was basically greeting Lute and his players like long lost friends. At time outs he would go over and talk to the Arizona players like they were friends at a reuinion. That ref made numerous 50/50 calls and several that we not even that close aginst us and he clearly hates sloan who he glared at on several occasions. I sincerely doubt that coach Brad could have done anything to change that situation. I assume that Arizona had the right to select the refs under the contract. It does stink that we seem never to get any calls in our big games at home. Then I watched the worst coaching exhibition I think I have ever seen in the MU/Indiana game. Missouri was unstoppable inside early but they threw up shot after shot from outside. They ignored their advantage and played into the hands of Indiana. Bracy Wright killed them with shot after shot from outside and the Hoosiers built a nice cushion. That continued until late in the second half when MU finally located some big guys--and they hit 2 miracle three point shots. But Indiana's game plan down the stretch was an absolute joke. Somehow, Bracy Wright did not even touch the ball in the last five minutes. the other players on Indiana were basically ignoring him and throwing up prayers from deep like an AAU all star game where they wanted to get their points regardless of the effect on the team. On the whole, it was a terrrible game, with terrible coaching that was won by a few nice plays by great athletes at the end.

This is very interesting and expected. This confirms what we have said all along re Billiken Basketball and the requirement that the players be real students. Congrats to our Billikens!

I agree that Floyd was probably only using the comparison and suggesting that the MU recruiting gets a great deal more scrutiny than the Billikens. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt in light of his nice comments earlier about Polk coming to SLU and Coach Brad. At the present time there is significant "smoke" surrounding the MU program so many see "fire". Unfortunately, anyone involved in the recruiting at MU, and the coaches who were involved on behalf of the kids, will be under the microscope for a while.

I assume this was a joke! The last thing we need is cancers like Troy Slaten and his father. His father is one of the biggest jerks that I have ever met. In the past he has been violent and abusive. It is a wonder that Troy could have as much success as he has had. I wish him luck but not in a Bills uniform.

The imbecile MUFan2000 or whatever he is now takes the cake as the dumber little brother of the idiot TOO! I will never again read any of his idiotic an immature drivel and I would propose that no noe else read or reply to his junk. As with all idiots, he will eventually lose interest and go bother someone else!

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Arizona is coming off a loss to Fla. and plays #9 Texas and Marquette in the next few days after the Bills game. They could easily be overconfident and looking past our Billikens. This will be their first game without Fox who was a dominant force on the boards. If we play good defense, rebound ferociously on the defensive end--they have leapers that jump over people for offensive rebounds--and hit a decent % from 3 point land and the free throw line then we have a chance. I would never pick a win if I was thinking about it in a cold calculating manner but my heart tells me we can win this game. Remember the games against Cinn., Louisville, Kansas and others over the past few years. Go Bills!