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romar has been special the entire time. folks just didn't recognize. lorenzo romar bad boy for life

i was at the game i still can't believe we won. it was truly unbelievable. i almost got up and left early because every time we came back we would shoot outselves in the foot with a bad pass or a rushed shot. that was the most agonizing thing about it. thanks to houston for providing us with every opportunity to pull that game out. the hearts that our guys show night in and night out with the limited talent we have is truly remarkable. we took it to another level tonight considering we didn't have reggie and tom and we won with the lineups we were putting out there. a salute to the billikens. bad boyz for life

word on the street is that slu is hot after antoine tisby, a juco forward from allen county in kansas. any info on him? bad boyz for life

b. roy, you're right. drejaj is loaded with heart, but he also looks like he's loaded with donuts and cheeseburgers as well. for him to become close to a full-time player at the c-usa/a-10 level, he has to knock off about 15 to 20 pounds. i think some of those ankle issues have come from carrying too much extra baggage this year. watching him and ian lumber up and down the court like a couple of pillsbury doughboys against louisville's gazelles was a little unsettling for me. if he gets his weight back down and regains a little step, he should be o'kay. still not certain i want him as our full-time point guard next year, but we may not have a choice. i heard that the foster kid from chipola is quite a player. the chipola website lists him as 6-4 and 205 pounds. that may not be a bad "alternative." dwayne and luke go against each other on saturday. it's too bad vashon and borgia haven't met before. vashon has too much talent for this borgia team. in past years, this would have been quite a game. bad boyz for life

I apologize, a.j. I just couldn't resist.

I would not get too worked up over what a dummy like gordon writes. remember, this is the same idiot that wrote something to the effect of "do people want to admit that jimmy (i'm barely holding on to my starting sport for a .500 college team) mcKinney is better than larry (averaging nearly 20 points a game in the NBA) hughes?" it's hard to take someone who writes something so blatantly ignorant too seriously. the only person who would probably believe such babble might be a.j. arete. bad boyz for life.

maybe if liddell had signed with mizzou, you would have been more impressed. you're getting to be a little obvious a.j. bad boyz for life

what you don't mention is that reggie is a shooting guard while jimmy is a point guard. compare jimmy's assists to turnovers to josh fisher. (even after josh's big turnover streak in the last week), it is still pretty good, plus he is scoring more points. still, put me down for the jimmy in a slu uniform crew. he will be a nice fit. for one thing. he will learn how to play defense again. that has become the worst part of his game. he can't guard anybody. that's why he got those two fouls. he couldn't stay with blasingame. they had to take him off of dee brown and pace of syracuse ate him alive. reggie couldn't guard a statue when he got to st. louis, now he's making game-saving plays on defense. imagine that. bad boyz for life

tyler's old man went to mizzou. his dad's friends in columbia are reportedly telling him not to send his son to mizzou because they are disgusted with what's going on with the program. at this time, it looks like tyler will give mizzou a courtesy visit because of his dad. if he does indeed commit to mizzou, then we all know that something went down. Again. bad boyz for life

he's like one for his last 13. bad boyz for life

he was a walk-on from collinsville, i think. or was it edwardsville. i think it was collinsville because i'm getting visions of purple. (insert punch line here, folks). help me out b. roy bad boyz for life

i think you will continue to see reggie blossom as a leader as time goes on. it took marque four years to ascend to that role. you couldn't get two word out of marque when he got here, but he would always smile. by his senior year, he was openly demonstrative on the court and a vocal leader. I think you will especially see that next year because he will be the senior leader along with tom and izik. although its clear that reggie is our best player, the leaders of this team are josh and chris. chris is the vocal and emotional leader while josh has been rock solid (the last two games notwithstanding). they have taken the mantle nicely from marque and reggie will take the baton from those two along with izik and tom. as you mentioned, this is a year of transition for him because it's the first time in his college career where he is the main guy and all of the responsibility that goes with it. next year, he'll be completely ready for it because he's gone through it already for a year. once the season ends. i look for reggie to take ownership of the team in preparing for the 2005 season all the way up to next march when he heads us to the big dance. as we've seen from most of our seniors in recent years (j. love, mo, marque, kenny and Josh), they have played the best basketball of their careers as seniors. that only makes me even more excited to watch what he does next year as a senior with the talent he has with another year of experience of being the man. bad boyz for life

i believe the coach's name was ray degreef. bad boyz for life

Congratulations on the success of the salukis. i hope you run the table. darren brooks is one of the best players in the country. he does everything for that team and more. p.s. - i bet you thought you were going to get a classless response to your classless post. bad boyz for life

ike is better than drejaj, though.

reggie is already 15-20 pounds heavier than he was when he arrived here from villanova. that is why he is leading the league in scoring right now. despite the fact that he is in a 3-point shooting slump, he is still scoring because he is taking the ball to the basket and scoring on shot jumpers, drives and post-ups. he does turn it over a little, but that was his problem all along that he needs to improve on. reggie is fine, he is one of the top shooting guards in the league. the problem is that he is all we have when we start playing the upper echelon teams (especially on the road). opposing teams have been rotating numbers of athletes on him to tire him out. last nite, they had four different guys guarding him, ending with carney who is 6'7" and a great athlete. we need other guys to score. he is carrying us fine, but he needs help. we've been stuck in this one-horse rut for years and that is not the answer to winning consistently in c-usa, especially now because the league is as strong as ever. izik was having a good game, but brad won't let him play. he must have something against izik. it makes no sense for him to play less than 20 minutes a game against the most athletic teams in the league. he had 10 points in 18 minutes on saturday. he was the only one who can get anything done inside without having his shot swatted. brad is going to have to come to some kind of understanding about playing izik. playing a marginal player like drejaj, who is no offensive threat for nearly 30 minutes against these athletics league teams is simply ridiculous. we won't be anybody that's any good, especially on the road. bad boyz for life

He also went for 30+ against against a good st. charles west team and hit the game-winner at the buzzer. sounded like a horrible night for borgia. a running clock too? WOW. DeSmet must have really been on fire that night. i've seen kalicak play before. he has a nice game for 6'7". He's definitely a swing player.

when tom crean took the job at marquette, their program was ina state of mediocrity. marquette was a .500 team during his first two years. dwayne wade becomes eligible during the third year, robert jackson comes back from mississippi state for one year and a few good locals stay home and voila, you have a final four team. so you see, when crean took over, marquette was "light years" away from going to the final four. but they went anyway. when dick bennett took over at wisconsin, the badgers were an also-ran in the big 10 conference. they were the whipping boys for the michigans, michigan states, illinois', indianas and everyone else. dick instilled a tough, disciplined brand of basketball and the badgers became a winning program and eventually a final four team in 2000. and this was without players with big-time names and reputations coming into college. one of the starters was a transfer from a Division III school while another came from a Division II junior college. I think it's safe to say that wisconsin was light years from the final four when dick bennett took over. by the way, his top assistant and right hand man for that entire tenure was brad soderberg. unless your are a big badger fan like UB, you would be hard pressed to name any one of wisconsin's starters on that team. i know people won't have a problem naming the top players for michigan state, north carolina and florida, who were the other three teams in the final four. when bruce webber took over at SIUC for rich herrin, the program was in pretty bad shape. SIUSalukis, I ask you, did you envision in those early days that SIU would become a Sweet 16 team four years later. Were you thinking Sweet 16 when the team was 14-14 and Kent Williams was thinking about transferring. Were you thinking Sweet 16 when DArren Brooks was redshirting and wanting to transfer to moberly to be with his High school teammate nick benson. or when stetson hairston went to prep school after a sub-par senior year at belleville east. i think it was pretty safe to say that the salukis were light years from the Sweet 16 when Bruce Webber took over the program. Don't you think? it aldo didn't hurt when rolan roberts got run out of virginia tech for his "problem" and bruce took a chance and was rewarded. i'm not going to say that the billikens are going to a final four, but i'm definitely not going to say that it's impossible either. when you spout off otherwise, it sounds so uninformed and ignorant. Brad is laying down a solid foundation for success over the long haul. It doesn't happen with a bunch of one and out guys. It takes a group of four-year guys who develop and mature over the course of their careers. They made the NIT last year. Although we don't know what will happen this year, the team is clearly better than last year. And the local recruiting class has been very good and hopes to get even better (three of the top four seniors in town have signed and the top junior is a good possibility). Now, there's a new building on the way in the next few years with a chance to grab a little east coast exposure in the a-10 (hasn't hurt dayton or xavier one bit). in the past 10 years, SIU has been to the NCAA tournament five teams and made the NIT a few other times. In that same span, SLU has been to the NCAA Tournament four times and the NIT two times. So, you see, while the Salukis have been in the tournament, the Billikens haven't been just sitting around twidling their thumbs. They've done a few things as well. i welcome your response now that you're a little more informed than you were about45 minutes ago. bad boyz for life

salukis, why are you on this board anyway. nobody is hating on siu's program. we know how good they are and respect the success that the salukis have enjoyed in postseason play. you may even enter the top 25 if you can win at wichita state this week. if you want to come on here and talk smack, we can go there. yes, there's a chance that we may lose road games at charlotte, uab and memphis. those are three teams that could easily go at least 15-3 in the mvc this year or even better. you just keep dominating the indiana states, drakes, illinois states, bradleys (without gilbert), and evansvilles and be happy with being the top dog in an top-heavy league full of scrubs. we saw what happened when charlotte came to your place a month ago(good bye home-court winning streak). that's just a one-game occurence for you. take a visit to the shoe, freedom hall, bradley center, pyramid, hilton, mchale center,in one year. who have your toughest nonconference road games been against this year, wisconsin-milwaukee and wyoming. decent teams, but hardly georgia tech or dayton. while we may not do as well against sms, i think slu has a winning record against the salukis in the past 10 years or so. you can check on that. (I've got a lot more.) shaw was a saluki from the word go. he was a top local recruit, the salukis had to have him and painter did a great job. when he was hired to replace bruce, there was no question where matt was going because he had built a good relationship with matt. he will be a great player. instead of taking on jason maxiel or curtis withers (remember him?), he'll deal on the likes of paul davis and najeeb echols. the same thing happened with drew richards and sms. they were in on him from the beginning and they were rewarded for their loyalty with drew's commitment despite the fact that schools such as marquette, texas tech and other big 12 and big 10 schools came hard. drew stayed true to barry and his staff and will be a bear. slu fans are hoping that the same thing happens in the lisch recruitment. they have been on the case hard from the beginning and now the big boys are starting to swoop in when they figured out what we've known all along. billiken roy has been touting lisch on this board before he played a high school game. bad boyz for life

b. roy, a school can only see a recruit a certain number of times during the season via ncaa rules. i think the number is four or five. the slu coaches have already seen him a number of times, and are close to their legal limit. i know i saw brad at the belleville west tournament over thanksgiving. these coaches you are seeing now are probably seeing kevin for the first time at althoff, therefore, you will continue to see them throughout the rest of the year.

st. dominic has a freshman kid name adam kiel who is about 6-6 and 240 pounds. he is already a load. hopefully, he can get a few more inches of height. vashon has a good 6-5 freshman named leon powell. i kind of like the 6-7 kid from jefferson city helias named knollmeyer. a little soft, but quite skilled and still growing. billiken roy, do you know about the 6-6 freshman at althoff who is not playing this year. i heard he is supposed to be really good and very athletic. i think he played on the same aau team in illinois with the rudy kid from mascoutah and the madkins kid from cairo (another good 6-6 freshman). we may not be in the running for tyler hansbrough, but i his brother ben should not be out of the question. he's pretty good. bad boyz for life

lots to cover, sorry for length in advance nice win heading into the most difficult stretch of the season. i loved seeing five players score in double figures, plus we outrebounded a team that led the league in rebounding margin. *tom was awesome. his intensity is off the charts. i thought his most impressive plays of the game were his one-handed tip-dunk that did not count and when he dived out of bounds to save a loose ball and keep a possession. that rouse kid must have been crazy to elbow him. what was he thinking? i think he has scored in double figures in every conference game. *we have a good TEAM. 18 assists on 21 field goals is good basketball. guys are playing their roles and they love playing with each other. when i see subs coming out of the game and starters are halfway on the court to greet them and pat them on the back, that is a team that truly cares about each other. those are the little things that help us compete against the monsters in our league. *it looked like izik came to play today. that kid is so long and athletic. he was really crashing the offensive glass today and i loved to see that. teams should not be able to zone us effectively when he is in the middle. 10 points, five rebounds and good defense is more than acceptable. when izik brings it, we are really good. *many people in the stl are missing something pretty nice. this is a hard-working team that gets positive results through sheer will and effort. good kids as well. can't believe that people aren't turning out for games. at least the people who show up have shown their appreciation. where i sit, not only do they go wild when reggie drops a long trey, but when sloan takes a charge, tom crashes the boards or when drejaj and fish stalk opposing guards. i think people will start coming out again. *we play so FREAKING HARD. i enjoyed burwell's column today about our defense. they play every defensive possession as if they are protecting a one point lead in the final seconds of the game. over the course of 40 minutes, that kind of intesity will wear on you. *the charlotte game will be doubly tough now because UAB just beat them at Charlotte. NOBODY wants to lose two consecutive conference home games. hang on folks, things are really going to get interesting in the following weeks. *The belleville east tournament was fun to watch. i saw bruce weber in the house, too b. roy. he was trying to hide out in the corner, you could not miss him with that bright orange sweater he had on. lisch is a special player. i think he scored something like 20 points, but i thought west defended him pretty well. last night, he made some amazing passes to teammates and his defense on xavier price was tremendous. i think x scored only four points and that was when lisch was out of the game. the night before, X played a tremendous game against centralia (28 points and 10 rebounds), but Kevin shut him down. but west has too many other weapons. i think they can really make some noise in peoria if they make it there. matt shaw is a horse and dentmon from carbondale is excellent (i think he was the mvp of the whole deal). the kellerman kid is okay. he shoots it pretty well, but he should be doing much more at 6'7 at the high school level. he has improved over last year. *what are the stats of travis parker of sms west plains. *robert faulkner played at peoria richwoods. they made it to the final four a couple of years ago. he played with shaun livingston for two years before he moved over to central. good luck to the bills on this tough road stretch. JLo, i'm waiting. bad boyz for life

just looking through some stats of other slu recruits and i noticed that mani messy is averaging about two minutes a game at seton hall this season. sounded like we had a good chance of landing him last year (he was at our louisville game) and he would have figured in the plans, but his peeps wanted him to stay close. now, they can all come to the hall and watch him sit. too bad, i saw him play in prep school during my travels back east. he is just as athletic as jj, but maybe more skilled. oh well. i hope to be at the belleville east tournament tonite to see k. lisch play. sounds like X went off last night on centralia. hope to mmet billiken roy at the game. a few juco names to chew on: Travis Parker from Southwest Missouri West Plains and Vu'shun Newborne from Chipola, Fla. I believe that is where Tom played. Dwayne looked great at the mlk shootout at the savvis the other night. He seems to have his quickness back. He's the point guard we need because he can pass, run the show, penetrate, harass the ball and shoot the ball from deeeeep. Tommie got a double-double against cahokia against a box and one defense. I love how he and dwayne understand the game. they can get their own points, but they both understand that it's a team game and they get their teammates involved in positions where they are most effective. both of them have big-time basketball IQs. that's how you win games. hope tommie qualifies. having dwayne, tommie and reggie suurounding the perimeter would be something else. toss in luke, dc and anthony and you have a very competitive situation in the backcourt. has anybody seen lorenzo gordon from mineral area play. he seems to be putting up some big numbers. there's a brief note about him in the stl american this week. But the best news of the week: JLo is a free agent once again. bad boyz for life

a 10-6 conference record would make us 17-10 going into the c-usa tournament. it may not be a lock for the ncaa, but i would like our chances very much of getting to the dance if we accomplished such a league record. it would definitely put us in the top four and our league is pretty good this year and highly rated as well. if we go 10-6 in cusa (a big if may i add) and win a game in the league tournament, i'll throw out hats in the ring for NCAA consideration with full confidence. bad boyz for life

also add to the line great defense on their leading scorer mosley.