Bay Area Billiken

Also, is Tommie Liddell really a point guard? The A-10 TV announcers said Liddell played point guard in high school. Is that correct? He is playing a lot of the point now when Polk is not in the game. Is that Liddell's real position? It seems to me that he is more of a 2 or a 3. Playing the point does allow him to go one on one and take the ball to the hoop at times.

There is nothing like the Big Dance, perhaps in all of sports. I have personally seen the last 5 SLU NCAA games in Baltimore, Atlanta, and Cleveland. There was complete euphoria when SLU won first round games in Baltimore (with Claggett, Highmark, and Waldman) and Atlanta (with Larry Hughes). We should aspire for the NCAA. This being said, the NIT is still a good place to go too, especially for a young up and coming team.

Dayton has to come for a rematch at Savvis Center this year.

Jale Jarr, I think we are on the same page. There is a true power forward on the roster. Free Justin Johnson.

Per Ken Pomeroy's RPI calculation before Sunday's games, the MVC would easily get 5 teams into the NCAA: #19 Northern Iowa; #22 Wichita State; #23 SIU (that SLU beat by 14 points, and that lost to a D-2 team); #24 Missouri State; #29 Creighton. Will SIU's loss to a D-2 even be considered by the NCAA Committee? It does not factor into the RPI of SIU or its opponents. Unfortunately, the A-10 could well be a 1 bid league: #36 George Washington, if GW wins the A-10 Tournament. If GW does not win the conference tournament, then I would think the A-10 would get 2 teams. Right now the NCAA would cut off at #50 St. Joseph's, but we know St. Joe's (10-11) is not going to the NCAA unless it wins the A-10 Tournament. The MVC would have 1 NIT team: #64 Bradley. The A-10 would be loaded with NIT teams: #58 Temple, #73 Xavier (that SLU has beaten twice), #93 St. Louis U., and #97 LaSalle. If St. Joe's finishes at least .500, it could take LaSalle's NIT bid. Charlotte (#104) would be out per a pure following of the RPI, but Charlotte could get in the NIT. It would seem that a hot run by Temple could get the second A-10 NCAA bid. But we SLU supporters need our Billikens to beat Temple next weekend. And, of course, SLU needs to beat Duquesne first this week in a game that will likely cause SLU to take a big RPI hit just by playing the game.

Why did Wash U. deemphasize sports and drop all the way down to Division 3? That was well before my time. Wash U. is sometimes known as the Harvard of the Midwest. Yet the Ivy League has always been Division 1 in sports. At one time, both SLU and Wash U. were members of the Missouri Valley Conference.

There is an obvious flaw in the RPI system when an SIU loss to a Division 2 team does not count. I saw Wichita State struggle mightily to beat a sub-.500 USF team out here. USF was winning for much of that game and easily could have won it. There was not a lot of significant difference between those two teams. WSU was better, but not by a lot. I don't think there is much real difference between the MVC and A-10 either, except the A-10 is brought down by St. Bonaventure and Duquesne. SLU's own RPI is likely to take another hit this week just by playing Duquesne. SLU really needs to win that one. An MVC friend of mine noted that the Valley has benefited from Quin Snyder's apparent blind eye to in-state Missouri talent. There are Missouri bred players all around starring in the MVC.

Based upon what I've seen and read, it seems that JJ is the best true 4 that SLU has. He is not the end all answer on offense, but I think he is a better shooter than Newborne. It just hurts when SLU gets all these wide open shots and cannot put the ball in the basket. As some national analysts have noted, the lost art in college basketball is the ability to hit the mid-range jumper (for 2 points).

I wish that Coach Soderberg would let JJ out of the doghouse. We need him in games like yesterday's at Dayton. When a big 4 is needed, JJ is the best we have. I want the Billikens and the Coach to succeed.

Agreed. Although my Bradley alum friend is not high on Stemler, I think SLU could use another good shooter to go with Kevin Lisch.

Plummer went off early in the second half, scoring several times over Luke, who tried his best, but could not physically deal with Plummer. Luke Meyer is a fine ballplayer, but he cannot be expected to contain big, athletic power forwards in the paint and down on the blocks.

I, for one, would like to know what in the world Coach Soderberg's beef is with JJ? If it is practice, the fact is that some guys are just not good practice players. When I was back in the Midwest over the Holidays, I was able to see the Chicago State and Iowa games in person. I thought JJ played halfway decent ball. He hit some 15 footers. He rebounded. My thought was perhaps that SLU finally had that illusive power forward, or at least someone that could fill that role. JJ played some good games against some very good teams earlier in the year. Now I am a Luke Meyer supporter too. But Luke is not a power forward. What could anyone expect Luke to do trying to guard someone like Plummer? Newborne did some good work on defense against Plummer, but Newborne is a liability on offense, and no matter how much Coach Soderberg preaches defense, it still says here that you have to make baskets to win. How many wide open shots did Newborne miss today? I was so excited when we swept Xavier. I want SLU to succeed, believe me, and I do want Coach Soderberg to succeed too. I have 2 degrees from SLU. Constructive criticism should not be considered negativity.

Absolutely, the answer is yes.

SLU must win that road game at Duquesne. Period. Irrespective of anything else, that is a must win road game that will likely be played before a sparse gathering of only the most die hard of Duquesne souls. The LaSalle road game looks problematic. LaSalle has a very good player in Steve Smith. I'm not saying SLU cannot win there, but that will be a tough one.

Why we didn't score 50 points? How many wide open shots did Newborne miss? I know why he was in the game, because we couldn't stop Plummer. Could JJ have done a similar job on Plummer and maybe hit just 2 of Newborne's shots? If those answers are yes, then SLU wins this game. I still say, if you can't put the ball in the basket, you can't win.

This loss hurts bad for RPI and post-season purposes. We simply have to find a way to beat losing teams like Richmond and Dayton, even on the road. SLU is better than Dayton. I'm confident SLU will when the rematch at Savvis. SLU's weakness at power forward surfaced in the second half. Granted the guard, Roberts, hit 2 huge shots, the 3 at the end of the first half and the game winner with 3.6 seconds left. But Plummer at only 6'6" had a field day in the second half, with something like 10 points and 11 rebounds according to the TV announcers on the A-10 network. At the risk again of incurring wrath on this board, where is JJ? We need him, and it is painfully obvious when 6'6" opposition power forwards are taking us to the cleaners. It says here that it is time to extricate JJ from the deep recesses of the doghouse.

A winnable game got away. Roberts hit the 3 at the end of the first half; Roberts hit the big shot with 3.6 seconds left. Did Roberts push off (twice) on that game winner? I know it is sour grapes, but it looked to me like he did. But you can't expect to get that call at crunch time, especially on the road. One question for Billiken supporters: Why is Newborne playing ahead of JJ? When I saw JJ play in person during the Holidays, he looked pretty good. He could hit the 15 footer at least some of the time. He is 6'8" and should be able to put up some resistance against a guy like Plummer who is 6'6". I am a big Luke Meyer supporter, but Luke had little chance against Plummer, and then Newborne was summoned instead of JJ. Newborne can't seem to do much at all. He even missed a key free throw. He missed a lot of open shots too.

The perennial Billiken weakness has surfaced at the start of the second half: power forward. Plummer is only 6'6", but he is taking it to SLU. Do something now, Coach, before it is too late. You have alternatives on that bench. Get JJ out of your doghouse now.

Dayton is a sub-.500 team. Quite simply, Dayton is not that good, and SLU should win this game, even at Dayton. But SLU had way too many turnovers in the first half. The Billikens kept dribbling into traffic and turnovers. Let's hope for better play from SLU in the second half.

I thought Dayton clearly traveled at least twice on the same possession. The refs let Dayton shuffle their feet. What ever happened to traveling?

We should win this game, even in a hostile environment. SLU is better and has better players than the current Dayton team. Ian V. should be able to dominate against these smaller Dayton players. Please guard the guy from Iowa. Too many dribbles into traffic are hurting SLU. Let's hope for a better second half. The game is on NESN for DirecTV subscribers, Channel 623. This is a big game. We need it.

SLU also had some nice fast break baskets off turnovers, including one nice dunk and another beautiful reverse layup by Tommie Liddell.

They weren't milking the shot clock in the first half run, nor earlier in the second half, as I recall. I thought that was a welcome development, and it worked too. Frankly, the Billikens were able to take it to Xavier. Late in the game, yes, SLU was milking the shot clock, but that was when they were basically running out the clock like a football team runs on all 3 downs with a lead in the 4th Quarter.

I watched it on TV, and cannot say for sure. But the team was moving the ball much better and quicker, especially when they distanced themselves from X in the first half. I think it was probably the same or similar offensive system with better ball movement.

This poster has always been a Luke Meyer supporter. If anything, it was frustrating for me seeing him sitting on the bench. Luke is a gamer, much like a left-handed Chris Sloan, only 2 inches shorter. Luke makes things happen. Many loose balls seem to end up in Luke Meyer's hands. I'm very glad he is a Billiken. As he plays more, his shot will return. He has always been known as a scorer too. Even the X TV announcers today continually commented about Luke getting the loose balls.