Quality Is Job 1

However you spell that man's name, he wasn't on the Under-20 squad for Greece. I imagine he's too busy playing (touring, practicing) with the Olympic team of the 2004 Games' host country.

In eight games, Ian averaged 7 points, 4 rebounds, 18.5 minutes. He shot 47 percent from the field and 47.4 from the line. I don't think the competition is quite as good as Conference USA, particularly up front. I'm somewhat curious about why Ian's playing time dropped off during the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

http://home.earthlink.net/~terrancehicks/2..._vouyoukas.html

Steve, you have your own site. If you want to create SluSignGuy at billikens dot com, you can do that.

Do you believe that the "guys that have been playing non-stop overseas" have been playing on the same team? I can't believe that the other players on the Greek team have been playing any more basketball than Ian has been playing as a member of the Billikens. Vouyoukas has started every game during this tournament, and at times he's gotten significant playing time, but over the last two games his time has diminished drastically. Is it because the quality of his play has fallen off, or is it because he's not well (is sick/injured)?

They're all under 20.

You didn't post the dates of those games in your post, and I wasn't really paying attention, so I didn't make the connection.

The time between December 21 and 29 includes Christmas. Finals week is usually the second week of December, isn't it? December 21 is a Tuesday, and Christmas is on Saturday. I say, look for there to be a game on December 11 and then a break until the next game on December 18.

I can't speak on the links (Steve can change that by adding the link to the template), but I can tell you that there's no way for there to be a sign inside the board that tells you that you have a private message, because that's something embedded in the script. However, you don't have to go to the user menu to find out if you have a NEW private message. If you click on "conferences," the Lobby will alert you if you have a new PM waiting. You may want to bookmark the Lobby (Conferences). For me, because I "Mark" the board manually, every time I read the board and mark it as read, I'm sent to the lobby.

...as reported by a caller to the Bottom Line on KFNS. It was apparently a preventive measure. According to the caller, Hightower's daughter also had surgery.

It's too bad that Kevin Slaten has such a prominent forum in which to express his views, but those who could definitively refute him do not.

"Don't talk while I'm talking!" (while he walks all over you).

...on the dispersions/aspersions matter. Let me amend the statement to say that I don't want to disparage either man.

, just because he's made some mistakes in the past doesn't mean I want to dismiss everything he says as lacking credibility. How can I resolve this "rift" without casting dispersions on either man? Well, basically, I think they just misunderstood each other. What I need to know is what words were actually used. In the absence of that knowledge, I speculate that the word that was used was "recruit" (the verb). I imagine the conversation went like this ([span style=color:black]parent[/span], [span style=background-color:black;color:white]recruiter[/span]): [span style=color:black]Are you recruiting my son?[/span] [span style=background-color:black;color:white]Yes, we are.[/span] [span style=color:black]If you became the head coach, would you still recruit my son?[/span] [span style=background-color:black;color:white]Yes, I would.[/span] The problem with this seemingly innocuous conversation is that "recruit" means different things to each person. To the parent, [span style=color:black]recruit means "offer a scholarship", "sign," "bring to the program."[/span] To the coach, [span style=background-color:black;color:white]recruit means "evaluate," "form a relationship with," "consider, in light of the several other recruits we're considering and who are considering us."[/span] If such a conversation took place between Slaten and Soderberg, there's no doubt that the egocentric Slaten, who probably believes his son is one of the best players in St. Louis, believed that Soderberg was saying he definitely wanted Troy Slaten to be a Billiken regardless of whoever else was available. What is everyone else's thought?

Unfortunately, Slaten refused to say what Brad lied to him (and "the other parent") about. He gave hypotheticals, but he didn't provide any evidence that Brad lied to him. Therefore, I'm inclined to choose Soderberg over Slaten in this battle of "he said/she said." Slaten's credibility isn't unquestionable.

Despite qualifying academically, Troy went the juco route before going to ASU. Perhaps former_d1 can supply more analysis.

Kevin Slaten spent some time talking about college coaches and the recruiting process, and he talked about his personal impressions regarding his son's recruitment. He said that he dislikes Bruce Webber and Dickey Nutt the most because, not only did they lie to him, but they also gave him strange responses when he "called them on it." He counted Roy Williams and Bob Knight as genuine guys. He mentioned that Quin Snyder lied to him. The conversation went on, in a different direction, and he said some things about SLU -- some positive, some critical -- but then he drew to a close and said that he doesn't think highly of Brad Soderberg because Soderberg lied to him. I have trouble believing that. I wonder what Brad could have said to Slaten that he construed as a lie. I'd call and ask, but I don't want to talk to him, based on how he's treated callers in the past. If anyone else here has the courage to accost Slaten on the air, please ask why he has a negative opinion of Soderberg and why he came to that opinion.

I shudder to think where the Billikens would have been (or would be) without Tom Frericks. Also, I believe Vas'shun Newborne, who's already in SLU, as of this summer, will be a significant help to the team. They're both juco transfers: did Brad "waste his time" recruiting them? These things happen everywhere; it does little good to dwell on them.

The best thing about Ian's game today is that he was on the floor at the end of the game. He entered the game with 3:23 remaining and scored a basket, drew three fouls, and hit three out of four free throws.

He was asking Unca Sodaberger if he was being serious about "overhearing" a conversation between Coach Soderberg and Coach Thorpe about the triangle offense -- at White Castle, no less.

Vouyoukas played 10 minutes a game this year. With improvement, he should be able to handle 12 to 18 minutes per game this year. I expect him to average 15 minutes per game this year, and he'll play every game. That means that he'll "replace" his own minutes, plus five of Sloan's. Also, I don't expect Vas'shun Newborne to play as many minutes as Chris Sloan did last year. Besides, don't we expect Tom Frericks to play more minutes per game this year than he did last year? If so, then that would mean fewer minutes for Vouyoukas and Husak unless they come from somewhere else.

Greece defeated Serbia & Montenegro 72-59 today, establishing itself as the favorite to win its preliminary group. Greece's remaining preliminary opponents are Ukraine (winless so far) and Lithuania, which lost to Serbia & Montenegro yesterday. Ian Voyoukas appears to have had a pretty good game. In 24 minutes, he logged 10 points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals, two turnovers, and three fouls. After three games, his averages are 9.7 points and 5 rebounds in 19.7 minutes per game. (Those numbers probably would have been higher had he not been saddled with foul trouble in Game 2.) For comparison, a year ago, playing with pretty much the same team and against pretty much the same opponents, Ian averaged 4.7 points and 4.5 boards in 10.2 minutes per game (and those numbers are skewed by his 20-point, 11-rebound outburst in 28 minutes in the final game -- without that game his averages were 6.6 min, 1.6 points, and 3.2 reb.). IV translated that into 10.5 min, 2.2 pts, and 1.7 rebs for SLU last season. If Vouyoukas's summer 2003 to summer 2004 increase in production is reflected by a similar increase from his freshman season to his sophomore season, then the Billiken frontcourt should be in better than decent shape in 2004-05.