p diddy

Most juco power forwards are bad free throw shooters. Beggars can't be choosers and we really need some help on the frontline.

earl did say that he would be disappointed if we did not get lisch because the slu staff has done the best job of recruting him the past three years. we were there and laid down a solid foundation with kevin and his family when kevin was off the radar and now everyone else is getting in. he also said that if we are going to go to the next level, we have to hold off these high-profile teams to keep a top hometown kid and kevin represents the best opportunity. i took that to mean he ours to lose. bad boyz for life

word on the street is that the hansbrough family has already been told that harvey will not be back as an assistant coach. harvey has also done some stuff away from the court that hasn't endeared him to the good folks of boone county. if harvey is indeed let go and he feels like he was screwed, i can't wait to hear the song that he starts singing. this could be better than listening to stevie wonder. bad boyz for life

by the way, mike dale is a big time talent who can blow up in the valley at siu. he's a 6'5" guard with all kinds of offensive skill. he was a prop 48, i beleive. he lost his way a little bit at belleville east, but he seems to be doing fine now. he's a major talent. i watched him go absolutely crazy in the belleville east tournament in three games. he may have averaged 40 points that week.

don't be insulted with speculation. that's just part of the territory with recruiting. it goes on all over the country. shaw could have easily followed painter to purdue, much like josh followed lorenzo to saint louis from pepperdine. the "vultures" came hard after marque perry and maurice jeffers when spoon left. romar's best recruiting job in his three years was keeping those two from going elsewhere. it also works in reverse because we lost the hollins kid (7 footer) back to the west coast after lorenzo left. can't blame the kid for going back home to LA although if he had stayed here, he would have least experienced what it would have been like to play on a winning team. that hasn't happened yet in his two years at ucla. we did gain our 7' project (bryce husak) when the coach at elon was fired and he was released from his letter. andre iguidala (sp?) is an arizona wildcat today because nolan richardson was fired at arkansas. the true vultures are circling around columbia waiting to see what happens with that ncaa investigation. slu is even part of that speculation because jimmy mckinney is from here. there were a lot of vultures circling around waco, texas after last season. those kids (lucas, roberts) did not get that kind of recruiting interest coming out of high school than they did when after the ncaa slapped baylor with the postseason ban. bad boyz for life

watch for the name alan daniels of fort smith (ark.) in that game. the streets have been talking about him a little bit. bad boyz for life

i wasn't being negative. i was having a little fun. i know how important kevin's recruitment is to this program and i know everyone on the board will be just a little uptight until he signs the lol. i just don't know how to use the smiley face key on my computer. bad boyz for life

sorry, did not want to insult kevin by mentioning that a potential recruit might be on campus with him during the same millenium. bad boyz for life

SIUSalukis, will chris lowery get the siu job? word on the street is that bruce webber is pushing for it.

word on the street is that vas'shun newborne from chipola is making his visit next week sometime. not sure if it is the same time as kevin's visit or not. that's all i have for now. bad boyz for life

since when did we get the idea that we had a bad non-conference schedule this season. obviously, we can get better competition for our "buy" games at home, but otherwise i cannot complain about our nonconference slate at georgia tech (Final 4) at West virginia (nit), big east at dayton (ncaa) at kansas state (big 12) arizona (perennial top 10) not their best year in 2004 at smsu (mvc finals and 19 wins), loaded team, but underacheived butler (rebuilding), but avg. about 24 wins the previous six years. add to that the c-usa conference slate which included six ncaa teams, including road games against the five teams that tied for the league title. what on earth do we want. in 2003 west virginia (home) at butler (ncaa sweet 16) siuc (mvc champs) dayton (home) at arizona (ncaa, final eight) smsu (home) at kansas state (big 12) cusa schedule the only difference i see from the past two years was the savannah states and nc a&t's and that can be easily rectified. the schedule is plenty good enough with a mix of one or two superpowers, a game or two against teams from the top six (bcs football conferences), a couple of top mid-major programs, our annual game with dayton and a rugged conference schedule. i imagine next year will give us more of the same. yes, we have duke next year, but don't forget that we had a team on the schedule this year that won AT Duke. bad boyz for life

i wonder if earl austin jr. watched the show. they spent a lot of time talking about his uncle when he was a high school star in louisville. bad boyz for life

you're right. but the point i'm trying to make is that there were several teams that were capable of getting to the eilte eight and xavier and st. joes were two of them. not a lot of people picked alabama either. that's just the nature of college basketball these days. probably nobody had nevada going to the elite eight and they nearly got it done. before the tournament, people would have been shocked, but after seeing the talent and athleticism that they put on the floor, i don't think people would have been too surprised if they had beaten georgia tech.

david west was a senior last year for xavier. he was only the AP national player of the year. i think xavier did pretty well after his graduation last year. xavier has been fielding excellent teams with top players for years, a.j., i think they will continue to be good after the graduation of sato and chalmers. finn, doellman and cage are pretty good players to build around. st. joes loses nelson, but the other four starters are back. they won't exactly be terrible next year. a.j. i hope you are not suprised with what st. joes and xavier has done in the tournament. billy packer is suprised because he is just plain ignorant.

adam knollmeyer is playing with the eagles' 16s. he has a younger brother who plays for the 15s. he's about 6-4 or 6-5. there is a lot of talent in the younger classes, especially the freshmen.

I love you, brehms. bad boyz for life

i don't think our non-conference schedule was that soft. our "money" games were bad teams that deflated our strength of schedule and that can be easily rectified, but otherwise: arizona: perennial power, not a great season for them, but it's still arizona. one of the biggest names in the sport dayton: NCAA team on the road georgia tech: top-flight acc team (top 10 most of the season) on the road west virginia: still alive in the nit (on the road) smsu: won 19 games and made valley finals (again, on the road) butler: rebuilding this season, but coming off sweet 16 season and about 24 victories a year for the past five years. kansas state: big 12 team that we've lost to four consecutive times. add those games to the loaded conference schedule which included two meetings with cincinnati, memphis, charlotte, depaul (ncaa teams) and marquette. if this is a "weak" schedule, i'd hate to see what a strong schedule is for slu. bad boyz for life

ouch too, those three ass-whippings from romar must have really stung. bad boyz for life

you can also point out that bob steiner did not like larry hughes personally and it was no secret. when hughes was a junior, steiner voted for jason frillman for mcc player of the year instead of larry. he was the coach at chaminande back then. steiner is a good coach, but he looked like a fool then when he pulled that and he really looks like a bigger fool now. bad boyz for life

i really have give a salute to the crowd at last night's game. i heard it was about 5600 in attendance, but you would have thought it was 15,000 in the house. boy, it got loud in there. when AD hit that winning shot, we were all falling over each other. the atmosphere was great. i really enjoyed the family arena. i can't wait until we have our own building. i was also encouraged by the play of darren clarke. you can tell how good he is going to be in the future if he continues to work hard. he's a keeper. sometimes, you just have to have a little patience with freshmen. he's a talented kid. can you believe that we have a chance for 20 victories? did anybody notice on the radio games that when drejaj makes a three, earl always yells BA-DA-BING! We must make some signs for home game for AD, one of the toughest kids i've ever seen in a billiken uniform. burwell's column on him this morning was a great read. The Billikens Bad Boyz for Life

no, i do not have to research my information at all. it's all there in my little head. i think we all would love to stay in the c-usa as it stands now because it has moved into the top shelf of conferences in the nation, but we all know that is not possible because of football. i personally hate it that the league is breaking up because of football. the new c-usa will be a major drop off. every team that won the c-usa tournament is leaving for another league. no remaining cusa teams have won the tournament. NOBODY on this board from my memory has said that the a 10 is better than the cusa, but it's a good quality league that is in the top 10 and the addition of slu and charlotte makes it better and more competitive. it's not a top five league, but neither was the cusa before this year. if richmond (who won at kansas) makes it in, they will get four teams in the ncaa today. that will be just as many as the big 12 and more than what the big 10 and pac 10 will get. as for the billikens have produced two winning seasons and two postseason berths and appear to have a direction for the future with solid standing. from what i can see, sodes seems to be trying to do what bennett did at wisconsin. he is trying to reach his goals through hard work and no short cuts. to be in it for the long haul, it may take some time, but the results are so far so good. if slu continues to upgrade our talent and athleticism, the program will flourish. you take short cuts, that success you have initially is just fool's gold. a solid foundation seems to be laid down with several veterans back, the reopening of local recruiting pipelines, a new building and a few young players who can develop. if this continues, slu should enter the a 10 with a team that should be ready to challenge for the conference and get into the ncaa. i don't think slu fans want to see a repeat of the years when we would go to the ncaa and have great success, yet drop off the face of the earth when key players (claggs, highmark, H, or Hughes) leave the program. we lost marque and kenny and we had a better record instead of dropping off big. that's the progress i like.

cheesycow, there's nothing wrong with a.j. having an objective opinion about liddell or any other player. as a matter of fact, i agree with him on several of his points. he is probably a billiken fan as well, but he still looks at things through black and gold glasses. with that in mind, his objectivity sometimes comes off as playa-hatin'. he may cheer if slu does something positive, but he has enough of that mizzou fan in him that has to keep little brother in his place. it is so transparent that we all recognize it to be pretty condescending. and he has been like that on this board for as long as i can remember. hughes is not as good as mckinney, perry cannot hold mckinney's jock are just a few of the highlights. there's nothing wrong with being a mizzou fan. i take it you are a tiger fan as well, but i haven't challenged you on this board, haven't i. if a.j. want to question liddell's passivity on the court, that's fine. I think he should be more selfish, myself, but he is a point guard and that is how he approaches the game. i've watched paulding play for four years and he's spent much of his career deferring to others, whether it was kareem, arthur, clemons) you have to prod him to take over. on television, the same is said about gordon of uconn and he is probably the best shooting guard in the country. some kids just need a little prodding to get the best out of him. liddell is in that category. he can be as good as he wants to be and he will be the one who determines that. if a.j. wants to question that, cool. that's fine, but he went beyond and that's when he gets his ass kicked on this board. but to question a kid's will to win and question why he would consider going to slu and the a-10 because he is stepping down was downright ridiculous. bad boyz for life

a.j. don't EVER try to bring down a challenge like that to me. you will always come out second best. why you put yourself in a such a lightweight position time after time is beyond me. if you want a few atlantic 10 players of more recent vintage: Jameer Nelson: National Player of the Year (2004) David West (Xavier): National Player of the Year by some media outlets (2003) J.R. Bremer (St. Bonaventure, '02): starting guard for the Boston Celtics in eastern conference finals Cuttino Mobley (Rhode Island, Final Eight '99): Houston Rockets, one of the top shooters in the NBA. Lamar Odom (Rhode Island, '00): Miami Heat, Top 10 pick James Posey (Xavier, '98) NBA starter Romain Sato (Xavier '04): better than Rickey Paulding Marvin O'Conner (St. Joseph's '02) Scored 38 points vs. No. 1 seed Stanford in NCAA Tournament game. Tyson Wheeler (Rhode Island): Ask the Kansas Jayhawks (Paul Pierce, Lafrentz, Gregory) how good this guard was. Pepe Sanchez (Temple '01): starting guard for argentina's team that whipped the USA All-NBA team last year. there are others on the list who were simply outstanding college players such as: lynn greer (temple), mark karcher (temple), lionel chalmers (xavier), rasaul butler (lasalle), lamont barnes (temple), lenny brown and gary lumpkin (xavier), shawnta rodgers (g. washington) i know you've probably never heard of any other those players. a.j. as you can see, all of these players played in the a-10 in the last five or six years. when you lack so much knowledge about a certain subject you always find yourself in a situation where you look extremely stupid and foolish. or as i stated before "ignorant and dumb-assed" any time you want a little more knowledge, don't hesitate to ask. bad boyz for life

a.j. arete, you've been slamming slu players for a long time, but i have to call you out on your silly posts regarding liddell. to say he does not have the will to win and the implying that he signed with the a-10 because he doesn't want to be big time has to be the most ignorant, dumb-assed comments i've ever seen on the billiken board. and considering your body of work for stupidity, that's really saying something. i guess players like jameer nelson, david west, mark macon, eddie jones, aaron mckie, marcus camby and countless others "settled' for the atlantic 10. you obviously don't live in the state of illinois like the some of us like jalensdad and billiken roy. you don't take your team to the SuperSectionals of the Illinois Class AA Tournament TWICE in your career without having the "will to win." in the state of illinois, you have to go through sheer hell just to get to the state tournament. a sectional title in illinois is the equivalent of winning a state title in missouri. sure, tommie needs a fire lit under him at times, but not having a will to win just reeks of being the ultimate playa-hata. maybe he didn't sign with a certain big XII school because he didn't feel like taking a payoff and going with an underachieving, low-character bunch that quits when things start getting tough. you need to check yourself, little man. i apologize to the rest of the fine billiken board posters, but i'm not going to let some damn fool who obviously has some kind of agenda continue to slam our boys for no reason. i'm out

SIUSalukis, go give 'em hell in the ncaa tournament next week.