Tonka

It will sure be interesting, that's for sure.

I completely disagree. Ash is more than an athlete. He is the best defender on the team and also the best rebounder of any guard other guard than Tommie Liddell in the past 15 years. He doesn't always get credit for his defense, but in many games last year it was discussed by opposing team's play by play guys that he makes his man work for absolutely everything. Yes, he went away at times, but most did last year. I will agree with you that his offense was very frustrating at times, but even then he was second on the team in scoring. His turnovers are also frustrating, but the whole team is a turnover machine. I will give you this, Ash has severely underperformed from what I expected from him and what I believe he is capable. I think he has the ability to be an all conference player, but he has not even come close to showing it. If he does not finish up this year with an average of 12 points and 5 rebounds, then I will step up and say he has become a complete enigma and perhaps one of the biggest enigmas we have seen in a number of years. There is no way he is the 4th best 2/3 on this team as 3star states.

I want to believe this, but I am having a hard time finding that true. Yes, Crawford didn't play as many minutes as we might expect, but it was still almost three times what Ash played. I have no idea what is going on, but it is puzzling. Ash averaged less minutes than anybody on the team. Only playing him 6.83 minutes a game is puzzling. He may not have played well when in there the short amount of time he was given, but it's not like everybody else on the team was stellar. Even if you want to see what else you got, I can still find no justification for giving Ash less than 7 minutes a game and the least amount of minutes on the team. I would think something had to be going on. In regards to Reggie, we knew he was going to play very little. He told me specifically after the first practice that he would play significantly reduced minutes in the Bahamas to allow his foot to completely heal. I, too, wish that Reggie would get better at converting the shots around the basket, but he is also our best rebounder. If you look at everybody's rebounds per 40 minutes played, he was significantly better than anybody else.

That was funny! I couldn't agree more!

That could very well be the case, but we cannot draw that conclusion yet. Look at the lineups and minute allocation.

I keep reminding myself that these games mean nothing and that lineups and minutes played mean nothing. However, that is oh so hard to do! I can't for the life of me figure out why Crews does what he does, but in all fairness to Crews I used to feel that way during early practices with RickMa. The difference is that I had a ton of confidence with Rick. Crawford has looked very good so far this summer and then gets limited minutes. Welmer, who I think is going to be a nice player gets significantly more minutes than anybody else on the team. For the second game, the walk-on gets a nice amount of minutes. Ash is only averaging about 7 minutes in the first two games. The only thing that would confuse me more is if Eagleton showed up and got some minutes while on crutches.

Bishop really needs to develop in my opinion as this team really needs a point guard. The small sample size I have seen tells me he can bring the ball up the floor and distribute the ball. Will he learn the system fast enough and will be able to play defense as needed though? I have stated in other threads, as have others, that defense is really the key this year. I believe we will have more options to score this year, but we have to step up the defense significantly or we won't win 15 games. Defense is Billiken basketball. In the past 20 years, if you look at points against we have finished in the top 25 in the country - 13 times. We have finished in the top 50 - 17 of those 20 years. The three years we did not finish in the top 50, we finished 66th ('00-'01) and 83rd ('06-'07) - then last year we finished 159th - almost twice as high as our worst points against in the past 20 years. While points against doesn't tell everything, it says a whole lot when your offense finishes in the bottom 6% of all of college basketball in points scored. Adding Bartley back into the mix actually muddies the water even more. Marcus can be an offensive threat but his defense was not very good last year. Crews hasn't shown us he can identify a smaller rotation and to that, he really needs to find the best defensive players and make sure they are getting solid minutes.

I see what you are saying in regards to "winning" being winning games. So, does that mean there is only a handful of D1 players that are considered winners each year and that is the NCAA Champions? Or, are conference champions also winners? How about the conference tourney winners? Honestly, just trying to understand what you are saying.

Standing Ovation, DocB! Great post about Kevin! Kevin was about as good as they came and history will prove that as well. Kevin was 6th ALL-TIME in Billiken History in Points scored. Kevin was 7th ALL-TIME in Billiken History in 3P%. Kevin was 2nd ALL-TIME in Billiken History in 3P Made. Kevin was 2nd ALL-TIME in Billiken History in 3PA. Kevin was 8th ALL-TIME in Billiken History in steals. Kevin was 4th ALL-TIME in Billiken History in minutes played. Kevin was 9th ALL-TIME in Billiken History in games started. Not to mention that Kevin was a fierce defender who Rammer named the "Honey Badger" and Rammer is never wrong. Like Doc said if you look at leadership, student athlete, and all around character - and then add in the stats, there weren't many better Billikens in school history.

Would you rather have a kid like Gordon for four years or Jayson Tatum for one year? Not saying he would be around for four, but if he were.

Would love to land this kid. He's already ranked well nationally and I would expect that his stock will rise even more in the next year or so.

Brian, my understanding from those close to Cook is that we really never had a shot at him. His Mom felt there are better coaches for him than Crews. When I asked a very close friend of his if he thought we had a shot at Tyler, he just laughed and said we have a much better chance at landing Tatum. So, I know you asked Diddy, but that is what I had heard from people very close to the family.

I think he will and I think he definitely would have had he played with the Legend like Baniak did.

That makes sense. It's disheartening when we really have such a small group to even consider.

Agreed, Baniak should not be in the conversation.

torch, I trust your opinion. Have you seen this kid play or are you going off things you have read. From the highlight video I watched, he's a 6'6" kid that can stroke it from the outside.

Yes and then their first game in the Bahamas is on Saturday. Did anybody ever find out if any of the games will be streamed? I would doubt that they would be, but you never know.

Thanks, Brian. I agree on the individual performances as it's too small of a sample size. As I stated in another thread, folks claimed Jolly would be an offensive threat going into last season.

I also don't think our recruits have been as bad as some people make them out to be. 3star, I agree on Welmer. From what I have season, he runs the floor very well for a big man and he can shoot. He's very lengthy as well. As we all know, it takes big men a couple years to really develop. I think we will all be pretty happy with this year's recruits in the long run. With the team we have, we should be able to create some mismatches for teams. I am curious how the coaching staff is going to put together lineups and it's going to be fun to watch these kids develop.

Didn't that happen to Christian Laettner?

It's very early to tell. I went to the first practice and have heard from people that have been to each of them. I think they will all get time in the beginning, but I would hope that he would get down to a 9 man rotation at some point. However, I thought that last year as well and it never happened. Jolly and Reynolds haven't shown much in the very small sample size so far, but I guess that could change.

Was he predicting you would get HIV?

And this is why the men of yesteryear were real men. Unfortunately, most of those men have sadly been dying off.

I mentioned the players being adults. I have no issues with tough coaches. As I stated before, if a kid cannot mentally and physically handle tough things I am not sure I would ever want them on my team. In sports when the testosterone is flowing from both the players and the coaches, you got to expect a certain amount of out of control stuff. I don't think it needs to be sarcastic and demeaning, but I have no issues with a coach laying into their players when necessary. I get what you are saying, but I just don't think it's realistic. Like others have said, most all of coaches do it.

I keep searching the thread and for the life of me can't find anybody that said these kids need to be stroked or anybody that was calling for political correctness. I might just be overlooking something though.