Hardball

Schaz I agree with you regarding our shooting consistency but who recruited the players that can't shoot. I don't care if Liddell was playing adequate defense or not he is one of our best players. Brad did not have a problem identifing Liddell to take the last shot to win the ballgame the other night so why pull this nonsense. Chew his a$$ out at halftime or a time out. Slu is not deep enough to play the mind games Brad wants to play. This team has no direction. One night player X starts and the next game another player X starts. I relly don't care what anyone thinks of Danny Brown but how do you explain barely seeing the light of day for games and then starting the St.Bonnie game and lighting it up. Brad let's not have any consistency lets start a another guard who can't throw it in the ocean if he was standing on the shoreline. Here is really how obsurd last night really was. Does anyone think Brad will be able to stick with the discipline of Tommie? How long to you think JJ,Danny Brown or Meyer would be in the doghouse for last nights performance? Liddell will be back in the starting line-up for the next game therefore making last nights debacle useless. If Liddell starts the next game what has Brad done but keep one of our best players of the floor for a game we could have one.

Why would Brad sit Tommie almost the whole second half and then put him in with 2 minutes to go down by 10. If you are going to make your point.... MAKE YOUR POINT. Have the guts to see your decision playout. Does not make any sense. But then again neither does Brad. I would take Moody in a heartbeat.

Not sure you recruit players to be backups. You get better by recruiting people who are better than what you have today or at least push the players you have today. I can not really see Bryce pushing Ian that much in practice.

How about getting a real four to play defense. Or play JJ and use his 5 fouls and see if they can make their freethrows. This four guard offense is a waste of time against the good teams.

Ace, I agree a four guard line-up is not going work in the A10. I blame the coaching staff for not getting the right players. This coaching staff has had three years to get a four and has not accomplished it yet. I see four types signing at all the schools around us and were are "holding" schollies. It just does not make sense. While the four guards may work against UMSL and Maryville it will not against the A10.

Cheeseman, I felt last year the job was going to be DP regardless of how he played. However for the last third of the season we saw more of AD and less of DP especially at the end of the games. I just do not understand the thinking of just handing the PG job over to DP. If you look at last years stats between AD an DP there is not much difference. Both played about the same amount of minutes, both shot bad but AD shot better from the 3 and the freethrow line, AD had more steals, they were witin 2 assisits of each other, AD had more rebounds. How can anyone argue that it is a no brainer that DP should get the PG job instead of AD? With all this being said I believe the best starting line-up from the group that we have would be TL playing the point, KL at the 2 and DB at the three. The coaching staff better be careful not to disregard practice performance and hand out starting positions based on preconceived reputations. Just my IMO

Skip, More than one person has stopped by practice and has said AD is playing great in practice maybe even the best. Should we just hand over the job to whomever just because we think he is better than AD?

How about just play your best players. If no one can beat AD out in practice they don't deserve to start. Don't hand the job over w/o competion like we did last year with Polk. Make them earn it!!!

Thanks for the update. I think AD should start but we will not win many games with a 4 guard line-up.

1. How much has Ian improved? Won't really know umtil the games start. He has to stay out of foul trouble or we are in big trouble. 2. Is Tommie Liddell the next Larry Hughes or the next Corey Frazier? Somewhere in the middle. My question is his style compatable with Brad. 3. Can Dwayne figure out how to score at the college level? I think size will hurt. Can't really shoot therfore people sag on defense and this negates his speed. Also I agree with some he has trouble finishing. 4. Is Kevin Lisch Travis Deiner or Jeff Gaona? Closer to Travis, The real question is how close. 5. What are Danny Brown and Luke Meyer's roles on this team? Danny should be the first 2 or 3 man of the bench. Luke I like the RS idea. 6. Will we get anything out of the four spot? No. Will be our achilles heel all year. 7. To run or not to run. I think we will start running but will BS go back to the old style after we loose a couple of games by double digits.

Roy, Why do you keep bringing me into this. I have been a long time follower of SLU and this board but never really had a reason to post until you took a shot at a local (Missouri) kid. That's it PERIOD. I think your childish obsessive compulsive behavior is ridiculous and has no merit but that's your perogative. Just as it is you choice to bash the SLU SID department every chance you get or the PD. I have not commented on many other subjects because I don't think most people on this board can be very objective. For anyone who says we could not have used Ahern over the last couple of years is not being objective. Yeh some can bash the kid (headcase), his father, then his family and finally his AAU Mentor but what good does that do. I am not as convinced as most of you (nearly everyone)that we are going in the right direction. Yes I like TL,KL,DB and Ian but other than that I believe we have real roster problems. It concerns me that SLU cannot get a qualified four man the last three years. I sell plastics for a living but I can tell you this if you gave me three years starting today I could recruit a four man better than any we have on the roster today. We have passed on many I believe could have helped us at SLU. But I am not sure anyone wants to hear that. Roy claims he would not make the Oppland 2-1 deal. I say I would take that deal all day long. I would have taken Shaw before Grimes but we didn't do that either. I happen to like what LaSalle is doing. There is a great article on CBS Sportline on how they will be decent this year but really really good next year. Their coach has a philosophy on how to put a team toghether while I am not sure ours does. I am not sure anyone wants to talk about that either. It bothers me that people on the board say AD should not get any minites but I don't think people want to talk about that either. Unca has stated that AD has man handled KL in some practice sessions he has observed but some still say play KL. How do you do that? Are we just going to hand the starting position over to him like we did Polk? I am prsonally getting tired of getting beat by SIU,SMS,Austin Peay,SEMO..... but I don't think people want to talk about that either. We have no philosophy but to recruit local players and I don't think anyone wants to talk about that either. So now that I have taken the leap and registered I will post when a subject interests me. If thats ok with you Roy.

Roy, Your comments do not offend me at all nor will they keep me from commenting on a basketball topic that I find interesting. You see I happen to think you don't know the first thing about basketball. Therefore your opinion on Ahern the basketball player never concerned me. My original point was and still is what is the motivation for taking a shot at a STL kid period. If Ahern grew up on the east side of the river would you still have the same resentment? The original post was not "the one that got away" or "Don't you wish we had him now" just the suggestion of a good article about Ahern. It was your remark that minimized the importance of the FTHW skill. A skill that cost us at least countless games last year. Your opinions are obvious as it relates to Ahern. What is also obvious is your objectivity on the subject. Your insistance that we could not have used him the last two years is ridiculous but as I said before tiring and predictable. People on this board are never going to agree on Ahern. A bigger question for me is who is evaluating the talent. If Ahearn could not help us how about Oppland from Valpo? How about Tatum of SIU? Would any of us really rather have Newbourne for two years than Shaw for four? I remember when we were better than SIU. Now SIU has multiple NCAA appearances in a row and we are 9-21. I believe we have bigger questions to be answered than could Ahern have help us.

My My My are we a little touchy on this subject. I never said anything about playing for the Billikens just noting that the Ditech man continues to take a shot at a St. Louis Kid. Torch, Hinson's team made the NIT and we were 9-21. Maybe they were better than we where. Don't you think he could have gardnered any minutes for our 9-21 team? The question has always been could Ahern have helped us not started for us. Ahern may have only played 20 minutes but he averaged double digits and was the second leading scorer on a team that went to the NIT. Who cares if he started. Heck we had players playing 24, 27, and 28 minutes a night that could not get to double digits. As a matter of record. our starting PG shot only 57% form the stripe. Also Ahern's 38% from the 3 was better than anyone on our roster last year. Let's see a double digit scorer. a 95% freethrow shooter and a 38 % 3PT shooter can't get any minutes for our 9-21 team. Do you subscribe to the Belleville Newspaper too?

Well said. Thanks for taking the high road. This is my whole point in my original post (not to stir up the past). But why would any of us take a shot at a STL kid. Billiken Rich and Billiken Roy seem to have some personal vendetta against the kid. Heck for that matter why would anyone continue to knock Drew D. All he ever did was to decide to come to a school we all think is the best option in our Midwest. But I guess now some will spend the next 10 years bashing Drew the player. Just doesn't seem right.

I'm sorry Roy who did you say you played for? Just what I thought!!!! Free throws aren't important? Who are you kidding. Hey...when I have questions about the Belleville's Newspaper circulation I'll give you a call.

Hey you forgot Slaten, VTIME, Tringle and TOO......... And really I dont care what you think about the Ahern kid my problem was with YOUR smart ars response. The whole thought of taking a swipe at a St. Louis kid to make a point that has been beaten like a dead horse...is tiring and predictable.

If Ahern was so slow how did he score all those points on us two years ago? I know you would rather have DC. Get a clue. I for one would have like the free National publicity for SLU especilly comparing anything we have to what Duke has. It provides free Pub for our school why not take it.I hope one of our current players (KL,TL,DP) could compete for a National title in some statistical category.