SLUBALL

In case you have not noticed three point shooting was a glaring weakness last year. What makes this even more scary is our best shooter is gone (Reggie) and the only replacement is Lisch. At best we are back to square one.

Stop making excuses. He is better than two of our guards right now. How about getting the kid and reshirting him to build a program. AD will be gone next year and Ben would have been a great fit. I had no problem with Romar since he didn't take NO for a answer from anyone, like this staff seems happy to do. Romar had Grimes before he left. I am sure glad he did not take NO for an answer on him. I will not join all the Blue KoolAid drinkers who would rather have a kid that received one Division 1 scollie (our offer) over a kid that was offered by Mississippi State. Give me a break!!! Let me be clear, I don't have a problem getting DM but there are already questions whether he can guard the wing. Heck this is the reason we were told we didn't take....I won't even say it his name. If we couldn't get anyone else and it was late in the recruiting cycle you offer DM but not this early. Finally as for Ben not taking the SIU offer aren't we suppose to be better than any Valley school therfore who cares if he did not take SIU's offer. SIU is not SLU....thank Heavens.

Here are the issues. We have a High Major Prospect that can shoot the three less than three hours from our doorstep and there is not a link to SLU. Are you kidding me? Ben received an offer from a High Major school therefore what would make anyone think he could not get playing time at SLU. The kids reputation of playing hard and physical are a great match for the nights we will spend on the road in the A10. The reason I question the direction of our program lies in the fact that we were not even being considered by the kid.

This is another example of a guard who can shoot the three that we did not recruit, yet he is less than three hours from our school. It is embarrassing that a kid of this caliber does not even mention St. Louis University as an interested party. How can anyone think we are going in the right direction? I would have offered him way before McQuire.

My point was that the tolerance for losing is usually accepted at the beginning of a coaches tenure especially if fans see a grand plan in place. Therefore bulding the program and stockpiling the redshirt players at the beginning of a coaching change can be a huge advantage. But I am not sure anyone would want to now start redshirting players (Meyer) that could possibble help us win games this year for the future three years from now. I happen to think Darren Clarke would have been an ideal reshirt canidate.

I think that is a great idea. The reason SIU has enjoyed their sucess recently is because they believe in the redshirt philisopy. Gene Keady,Bruce Weber and Matt Paiter all believe in redshirting as a tool to build a succesful program. Although I believe it is a great idea it is also probbaly to late for Coach B to adopt such a stance since most fans will not tolerate another 9 win season. The time to have instituted the redshirt philiosopy was when he first took the job three years ago.

Is SLU that much better than SEMO? No. SEMO is better. They beat us by 20 on our own floor.

You have no clue what you are talking about. All you do is babble on and on and on.To suggest that the DM transfer is about taking avantage of a a lifestyle change is absurd. I wish we could all live in your world.

How come you bash Hill for transfering yet remain silent on the DM transfer. You can't have it both ways

Reggie averaged 12.2 pts per game and IO 11.8. That'a 24 of the 56.4 points we averaged as a team. 42% of our offense came from two indiviuals and you are suggesting injured newbies or players who haven't played any substantial minutes in a Billikan uniform as the answer. Pass the Kool Aid, please. As bad as you say Reggie was he was still our leading scorer. Who is going to give us 24 pts per game? You suggest Luke Meyer. CB would not even play him until the last third of the season. JJ couldn't average 6 pts per game because he will never get the minutes. If we can't win 10 games with RB and IO how are we going to win more without them? Just tell me the point production per player to get us out of the 50's?

It makes me sick to read the Kool-Aid drinkers washing of the downward spiral of our Billikens. As good of class as you may think the 2005 class is there still is only one shooter (maybe) in the class. And for those who think Dustin will be our 3 Pt Savior you will be disappointed. Who on this team are we going to count on to give us IO's and Regggie type point production? I hate to say it but we are in for a long season again.

Any plan to get some players that shoot the basketball?

I have one simple question. Why did Ahearn start playing? Did he start playing defense or did the SMS coach finally understand that you can't beat teams while scoring only 40 or 50 points in a game? Or did the local kids not get the job done? Who knows the real answer. This I do know...no team can win consistantly scoring in the 50's. I wish BS would understand this philosophy. We here uptempo but never see it. Guest, your description of the SIU game has left out some details. To suggest that SMS switched to zone just because Ahern came into the game does not take into account that SMS played a zone the entire secong half and Ahearn did not play at all. And oh by the way, SMS blew a 12 point second half lead and LOST. Someone other than Ahern wasn't playing defense. The argument about Ahern's defense is an old and tired one that no one can win because it is so subjective. Explain how with Ahern leading the team in scoring they finished the valley at 10 and 2? Was Ahearn playing defense then or wasn't he? The facts are SMS had a 7 or 8 game loosing streak until the "no defense playing" Ahern starting getting big minutes. Its about having a BALANCE in scoring and defense. SLU today has no BALANCE...it is all defense. You can not win playing in the 50's. Finally, if Ahearn is so bad on defense why did we not try to exploit his deficiences in our 2004 game? What SLU guard tore up Ahern's defense? One final question, why after all the bad press SLU recieved did Soderberg not expose Ahern's defense and win the 2004 game.

"As far as Ahern is concerned, everyone told me he could or would not play defense and his time at SMS has played that out - he spent time on the bench this year because of it even though SMS could have used his shooting. At this point, we are better off that Blake went to SMS." Does anyone really beleive that we are better off not having Ahearn for the last two years now that the kid we decided to take instead has left SLU. IMO as supporters of SLU we look like idiots when we continue to make these statements. It sounds like sour grapes. With comments like Cheesemans it is no wonder why people do not take us seriously as a group. How many games could we have used a player that could shoot and make free throws like Ahearn in the last two years. Ahearn's freethrows alone could have won us 4 or 5 more games. Heck we can't even play our number one PG late in the game because he can't make free throws. As for Ahearn not playing erlier in the year...It had nothing to do with his defense. KFNS's Slaten (if you can believe him) maintained for a month or so that the Southwest coach was playing all the local kids and SMS went on a 7 or 8 game losing streak. Ahearn started getting minutes and SMS started winning. I personally wathced him get 27 against Creighton, a team who almost beat West Virginia, on Fox. They finished the Valley winning 10 of their last twelve games and Ahearn was their leading scorer during that span. Therefore, to continue to make the statement that we are better off without him when the player we took instead has left is ridicolous. What is so hard about saying that SLU made a mistake on Ahearn. It was not our first and won't be our last. We took the wrong player(Clark)and move on.

Half empty in my opinion. We signed a player that had not recieved one Divsion 1 scholarship other than ours. He is packaged as a 3pt shooter we so desparatly need yet he shoots only 36% from behind the arc and plays with his back to the basket the majority of time. SLU signs another player with a severe enough injury that every big time school who was after him backed off. You can give Brad a free pass if you want but frankly I expect more. As for as DP,LM,DB. DP shot awful all year long especially from the three. Could not make a free throw at the end of the game. If you remember he was not on the floor for long stretches during the last third of the season. Word on the street is that with Lisch and Liddell he may be the third best PG. LM was so good it took the coaching staff until the year was half over to decide he was good enough to play. The jury is still out on his future contributions but he is defintly moving in the right direction. DB I like DB but everyone was ready to replace him with a guy that averaged 3pts a game for a bad Purdue team. Now you want to prop him up as a great find. You can't have it both ways. I am tired of losing and unless things start improving I don't see that changing in the near future.