Quality Is Job 1

>Is that your opinion or is that based upon inside knowledge >regarding coach's thoughts on the issue? It's a mixture of the two. While I haven't picked Brad's brain on the issue, I have seen a few practices and heard Brad's remarks to the team. Nor have I seen Clarke play a whole lot, but when I have seen him play (or scrimmage), the other squad has tended to be able to put up quite a few points.

...is that he doesn't provide what Coach Soderberg wants on defense. He's a sieve. He's even less effective on defense than Reggie Bryant. If he were more effective defensively, he'd be the answer.

Actually, I suspect the opposite will happen. Because Kevin Lisch doesn't wow folks with the spectacular and reportedly is an acquired taste, people will be down on him and Roy will continue to defend him. I still say Tommie Liddell is the best incoming recruit, anyway.

I don't agree with your premise. This team will go as its seniors do. Tom Frericks needs to step up. Reggie Bryant needs to take charge and lead. Izik Ohanon needs to be consistent and eliminate mental lapses. Drejaj's performance doesn't/won't define how the Billikens do.

The season is NOT a wash. This team IS better than its 1-6 record. We cannot just mail it in.

>I think Brad is doing a very credible job just keeping >peoples' heads in the game. Remember, the 91-92 team had >McGlother walk off the court and quit, Melvin Robinson quit >in January, Ryan Grant wash out due to a debilitating >medical condition, and Carlos Skinner and Julian Winfield >transfer out after the season. I have seen no quit in this >team. I believe the sequence went as follows: Melvin Robinson quit, transfering to Arizona St. Carlos Skinner quit; Ryan Grant lost the rest of his season to a recurrence of a knee injury; McGlother Irvin quit; Rich Grawer was fired after the season; Julian Winfield and Kevin Grawer transferred.

> But isn't it true our RPI would be inflated somewhat as >the teams like ORU and Hawaii's RPI will go down once they >start to play their conference schedule? We don't care what happens to their RPI. We care about what happens to their winning percentage.

When calculating a team's RPI -- specifically the opponents' winning percentage -- the games against the team in question are removed from the winning percentage. That is, Gonzaga's record may be 7-1, but as it pertains to SLU's RPI, they're 6-1. Another way to say it is, for SLU's RPI, what is the winning percentage of the opponents for every Div I game they've played except SLU.

Post a link to the published media reports you refer to. That would go a long way towards alleviating the concerns of those poster who objected to your post and justifying your posting it.

I removed the thread because there was a considerable outcry against it and I was persuaded that the information exposed in the posts would be hurtful to the recruit and his family, regardless of where he may wind up.

AB was in the house at MS-Berkeley this afternoon. Our head coach, Gerald "Dink" Jones (Eastern Illinois), was a teammate and classmate of Bonner and Anthony Jones at Vashon. Also, Bonner has a niece at the school. AB came to help with our varsity. Because some kind of miscommunication led to the failure of every single JV player to stay after school for practice, I was able to watch Bonner's interactions with the team. He's definitely a coach in the making. In my opinion -- as I've stated in the past -- SLU should make sure that Bonner coaches for Saint Louis University; they should do whatever it takes (legally). I won't publicly quote what Bonner told Dink while I was standing there with them, but I'll say that I won't be surprised if we see Bonner working with the Billikens in some capacity next year.

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We're frustrated, but you're technically correct. This Billikens squad is more talented than its record seems to indicate. Is it possible they've been playing to the level of their competition, somewhat? Will they play Gonzaga and Iowa close -- on the road? Can they get enough shots to fall to pull off a surprise in Conference USA? Is anyone confident enough that they'll do it? Two years ago, the Bills were langushing at 9-12 (or so) and went on an eight-game winning streak to earn an NIT bid (and were even on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament); it's still possible for the Bills to make some noise. Heck, until they're eliminated in the C-USA Tournament, there's always a chance for them to make the NCAA Tournament. However, with every loss (unless they go on an extende winning streak), the hope appears yet dimmer.

http://www.billikens.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/d...&conf=DCConfID1

I'm surprised that Romar would play Bennett; he told Frank on the air a few weeks ago, in response to Frank's question when Washington would play SLU, that he won't play SLU as long as Brad is there (here).

>Insert your own SLU offense comment here.;-) We do more before 6:00 than the Billiken do in two games!

...have the Billikens been involved in over the past three seasons for you to conclude that walk-ons don't play even then?

Two key words in my statement are "might" and "poor-man's." I'm aware that Johnson hasn't matched what Anthony Bonner did his first season. Some of that is because JJ has more talent and experience in front of him than Bonner did, and some of it is because JJ hasn't figured things out yet. He has the physical tools and skills to be a solid forward for the Billikens, but he's not ready mentally. I'm hoping he matures enough to fulfill his potential before he runs out of eligibility (or flunks out or decides to transfer/gets run off).

Justin Johnson might be the Billikens' poor man's Anthony Bonner.

Dwayne Polk is not left-handed, so if the defense lets him go to his strong hand, he should do so. I'm sure he can go the other direction, too, but he does most everything except shoot free throws and jumpers with his dominant hand.

it doesn't make sense to me to whip the crowd into a frenzy during the timeouts, because it doesn't carry over when play resumes. When commotion is approriate in accordance to the action on the court, THEN try to rev up the crowd. In general, I sit quietly during the timeout and start making noise when the action resumes.

http://www.billikens.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/d...&conf=DCConfID1

It's not that the Bilikens have to play in a new arena to win; rather, if they have an attractive on-campus facility in which they can control their dates and draw more students to the games to create a college-basketball atmosphere and appeals more to recruits than West Pine Gym/Bauman-Eberhardt Center, then the team will probably win more -- home and away.

...then why do almost all teams win more games in their own place than they do in other buildings?