slu72 fan

Yes, 6:00 at Humphrey's

Ask her at tomorrow nights's meeting. Tom if you're not able to attend, I'll ask for you and post it tomorrow evening.

I'm pretty sure I said that I assumed they were told to get out of the motion (passing) offense and attack the basket. I agree TL should have taken the one shot to the basket, it just points out the indecisiveness in the players. Hopefully, the upcoming practices will clear up some of this!

My GUESS is that the players were told to play rather than running his passing offense. Offensively, the difference in the last 4 minutes was that the kids took the shackles off and played.

Actually, he is a 4 that's being asked to play 5. While having some low post moves, his strength is 10-12 feet away from the basket. I spoke with his JC coach at the Missouri State game, who said he was being misused. He is a very good baseline shooter, and can hit the boards. He was our best player at Missouri State. My guess is that he's like everyone else on the team and very confused about how he's supposed to play. Anyone watching the games, can see there is a willingness to try and do what they have been told, but a real hesitancy in the play. Hopefully, over time this will improve. Although I admit, I'm beginning to wonderm if there will be much improvement this year. This is basketball, not molecular science!

And we stopped passing around the perimeter, and began penetrating. TL basically said, I'm getting to the basket.

This evening, the Lady Bills beat Missouri State 69-51 at Springfield. It marked the return of TL to the line-up. She led the team with 17 points and 9 rebounds. Anyone who has a few minutes should read the player diaries on Shimmy Gray's website. Hayley Leake's was terrific. Don't get me wrong, contributing to the Billiken Club helps get points for good seats at the new place, but the real reason is to support the student athletes. Reading Hayley's and Lauren's diaries are reaffirmation of the class of the SLU STUDENT ATHLETE.

I believe they still hope to have the building in March. That will give them April to move in, and May to start events. Last I heard they had a dozen or so events signed up for in May. Several graduations, including SLU, a comedian I think will be the first event, and several others I don't recall. Last I heard was that there are several events before SLU's graduation.

Repeating what I was told in an e-mail from the athletic department, the building is over 80% complete. They still have additional money to raise for the building. They are beginning to conduct off-campus interviews for the vacant AD position, but do not anticipate the position being filled by year-end.

Because they have absolutely NO confidence. Hopefully, it will get better. Where's Jimmy Chitwood?

Call Rachel Diener at the b-ball office and arrange for her to do it. This is a very normal request. Plus, you get to see Rachel.

Am I the only one that couldn't believe we didn't take a foul or two in the last nine seconds? I can't believe we have so many experienced coaches on the sidelines, and they allowed LBSU to take a shot without fouling. I saw in the paper RM was asked about it and indicated he was afraid we'd foul somone while in the act of shooting. You've gotta be kidding. We took a timeout to set our defense. Surely, we could have fouled at half court prior to a shot attempt. They actually got a pretty good look for the winning basket.

I've been to every home game, and I reported that TL was hurt. Her loss is enormous. The team has lost four games by 4 points or less, and another went into overtime. With TL, they would have only lost the Kansas game. She is so much better than any player we can put on the floor. She makes everyone around her, substantially better. We saw how the men were hurt by KL being subpar last year with the damaged hand, and we still had Tommie and Ian. There are no comparable Tommies or Ians on the women's team. In TL's absence, she starts 2 seniors and 3 sophs. Two of the first 3 off the bench are frosh and the other is a soph. Not meant as criticism, but you ought to try going to a game. TL is Shimmy's best shooter, ball handler, passer and floor leader. No doubt the Chicago girl leaving left a big hole, because Shimmy figured TL would move to her natural position of shooting guard. Now, we have to play the 2 senior guards that have huge holes in their games. Finally, to compare this to the men's situation is a bit of a stretch. Shimmy inherited nothing. The program has zero history, plays in a joke of an arena, has no support from the public or student body.

I hope, as does most of the posters on this board, that the team's execution will improve as they become more comfortable with the RM system. It looks to me like this team is already exhausted. With 10 games, including the exhibition and Memphis scrimmage, in less than a month, mentally and physically demanding practices and 2 hour walk throughs, these guys have to be gassed. I'm sure that has a lot to do with RM's substitution patterns, but I think he has beat this team to a pulp. Certainly, the performance at Kent sounded like a team with no energy. We've all seen these kids play, and they are not quitters. If they couldn't get back on defense, it's due to a lack of energy. The troubling thing is that the LBSU team is very athletic, and will put our team to the test. They played well against Washington and were in the game until the last 6 or 7 minutes. After that, we go to Boston on Tuesday. Our only chance there will be if they overlook us. Which good teams don't do, especially at home.

I think the other two were that you have to have a position, and can you create your own shot.

The schedule was changed by RM to give him time to install his systems. I believe this is fairly routine for a new coach. Seems to me that the majority of the people are giving the new staff the benefit of the doubt as it pertains to selling the program. RM has made it clear he doesn't want to be a part of that, but over time maybe his position will soften. The regulars are attending the games, but there's not much excitement. The team plays a very vanilla brand of basketball. Hopefully, with increased familiarity with the RM system and an influx of new talent, this will evolve into a more viewer friendly type of game.

He has two fingers taped together, and will for the remainder of his playing days.

Thanks, that's a terrific site.

I understand the disdain for MU basketball, but is this type of comment really serve any purpose? I've hated Missouri basketball, dating back to the time Stormin' Norman broke the chair at the old Arena when his team stole a game from the David Burns team, with his hand picked refs. He got booed off the floor, when the majority of the people in attendance were MU fans. So, I can appreciate the years of hard feelings towards MU bball. But, it is our state university and does serve some purpose beyond the basketball court. By the way, if you haven't visited the campus in the last few years, they've made some serious changes to it.

Actually, it was the same half dozen that were at the girl's game earlier in the day.

You got to be kidding, right? Really an all time low. Maybe our other athletes that are in town could have showed up. I guess that would be something like school spirit!! When my daughter played D-1, just a couple of years ago, you could always count on the other athletes to show up, unless they had practice. Not SLU, only when they're asked to be there to be introduced at halftime.

I agree with your comments, but am still very concerned with DP playing, the offense will continue to have problems. His lack of scoring and penetrating allows other teams to defend against the other players much more aggessively.

Just got back from the trek to Springfield. This was a game we could have won. We certainly didn't get many calls, but we didn't get homered as bad as usual either. Our inside players lack the confidence to attack the rim. Far too often, we work it into the post, only to have it kicked back out to a covered player. KL was definitely not looking for his shot tonight, until the end. Maybe his early misses hurt his confidence. We try to run KL off screens, but most of the time he has more than one defender to beat, because our other guards haven't shown the ability to score. TL was fine, he basically took what came to him. He played most of the game, and other than his ballhandling had a solid game. LM busted his butt and did all the dirty work, and was the only one willing to step up and take a big shot, until the last couple of minutes. One of the problems with this team is RM's reluctance to play BE and BH together. BE needs to play facing the basket. He's a different player when he can shoot the 10-12 footer. I was sitting behind his coach from JC, who said as much. I know we are thin up front, and RM is trying to get 80 minutes out of the "bigs", but we rarely have our best 5 players on the court at the same time. DP and PE were real problems. We play point guards that can't hit WIDE OPEN, UNCONTESTED shots. Heck, DP by my recollection, only took one shot. An open 18 footer in the last 3 or 4 minutes, and he barely hit the backboard to the side of the rim. PE forced a couple of shots and missed several open, uncontested looks. I'm not sure either of them had an assist, and they certainly don't breakdown defenses with penetration. Both had trouble guarding, they put very little pressure on Laurie, who was the difference in the game. He made big shots, a couple in the first half as the 35 second clock was expiring, handled the ball well and generally ran their offense. As an admitted uninformed fan, it seems to me, that we'll beat the not so good teams, beat a few OK teams and lose to the pretty good teams or better. We're always playing 3 or 4 against 5 on the offensive end. Hope I'm wrong, and a month from now, we'll be better due to the familiarity with the offense. Speaking for me, I'd rather see the 2 freshman play than DP, maybe they can develop into the players this team needs. DP gives it all he's got, but it's hard for me imagining his game changing much in the next 25 games. By the way, Danny Brown was in uniform and participated in the pre-game warm-ups. He seemed to move fine.

He hasn't gotten off the pine in the last two games, and clearly MR has moved ahead of him on a depth chart. Any thoughts on his immediate future with the team?

I was told by a AD staffer that she hurt it in "practice", which certainly could include a scrimmage. Doubtful that it was playing v-ball.