kmbilliken

I thought in OT we were worn out and it showed. Our starters got more of a breather in the first half when RM did more subbing. When Dayton went smaller sitting 54 and rotating 41 in and out I don't think RM felt comfortable using AK and MR for defensive reasons. Also the game was on the line so RM played his best players more. I think that was the right call, but it killed us in OT. The only reason I can see not giving AM a shot is he's pretty turnover prone. Kindof like the old Danny Brown (who has greatly improved in that area).

Agreed. Shouldn't there be as rule, don't throw the ball to Bryce in traffic? When he has space he can get off his shot, which is a good one. When he is in traffic he seems to get stripped over half the time. His presence on defense is a plus. Eberhardt is probably still adjusting to D1 ball. Our history with jucos has usually been they do much better the second year. He's shown enough that I think he'll be a good player next year and servicable this year.

RM did a great job with halftime adjustments. We scored almost twice as many points in the second half. C'mon, we're Bills fans. We've seen plenty of bad times. What's a butt kicking here or there in a down season? We've got Rick Majerus as our coach, a new on campus arena we've been pining for for years, and the best recruiting class in years coming in with legitimate expectations it won't be a once every four years occurance. We've never had that. The calvary is on the way, it just won't arrive until next year. All this negativity is starting to sound like my exwife. She was an ND grad and bitched at me for years for being so loyal to a bunch of "losers". It got so bad I had to choose between the Bills and her. I made the right choice and I intend to revel in it.

I agree. They played hard and had pretty good defense much of the game. I've seen worse Billiken teams. Grawer's first and last years(although that did have Clagget, Highmark and Winfield). GW definately is a team we don't match up against. I've got faith in RM. He said it was going to be a tough year and he was short on talent. I think we'll show better the rest of the way. I also think we may win Saturday night. Even though we're down now, I've got more hope for the future of the program than I have since Spoon first arrived. The calvery is on the way, its just not going to get here until next season.

Didn't a bad shoulder also figure into that decision? As I recall he had surgery on it a year or two prior and it never came back completely. He could still play, but lost a little something in strength and shooting.

That is a strange schedule, only 4 games after Christmas. They forfeited one 11/27. They're supposed to play one 12/20 with the next one being 1/28. The whole thong sounds fishy. Its too bad because Reed was at at good school last year that had a shot to go to state. Too bad he gave that up for Milestone.

Anyone know what happened to the St. Louis players that transferred to the same school as Reed. Are they still there?

Luke is an excellent all around athlete. Just because he's not flashy doesn't mean he's not athletic. He has a nice combination of strength, balance, quickness and speed to go along with excellent hand eye coordination. No way he's below average.

Who are Leverette and Gutierrez?

The A10 could match up with CUSA during the stretch in which St. Joes and X both went to the Elite 8, but not year in and year out. Cincinnati, Louisville and Memphis were normally better than the best of the A10 and the overall conference was stronger. Consider after those 3 CUSA had Marquette, Depaul and Houston all schools that with solid traditions and often capable of putting top 25 teams on the floor. Has the A10 ever had that kind of depth?

75%? According to the Post-Dispatch stats page he's averaging 6.5 assists and 11.5 rebounds a game. That's impressive.

This game gives us hope. Before this game I was wondering how RM had coached Tommie and Kevin into mediocrity. They certainly showed their talent and confidence is still there. Maybe RM knows what he's doing afterall. It will be interesting to see if we can build on this with a W over Loyola.

I watched the Illinois/Arizona game Saturday. Only three are our players would see the court for either of those teams and I'm not sure any of those three would start. None of the rest would ever get a whiff of playing time. None of those three are stars. TL and KL are both good players having down years. Luke is having a solid year and is our best player right now. You can compete with three good players and a supporting cast of solid role players, but right now we don't have either. Perhaps BS knew how to get the most out of his players, but he sure couldn't recuit or evaluate talent and we're paying the price for that now.

I think he'll run off 2 of the rest and maybe all 4. The niceness seems to have left Billikenland. He better show results. What I don't get is he says he cares most about them as people, then as students and last as basketball players. It sure doesn't seem that way with his constant berating of them as players.

This goes to RM's these are nice guys but they suck as players theme. That's getting old.

I quess this coaching change is like all others. You've got to let him get his players in place with a couple years under their belt until you judge him. We all hoped he'd be able to come in and be able to coach them up immediately. That was a legitimate hope, since we had 4 starters returning. It still could happen. The thing that surprises me the most is RMs continous negative comments about the team. Is he trying to goad them into playing harder?

Is that total or per game average? Either way not impressive totals for his size and reputed skill level. Didn't he have a good summer? Is he shut out of their offense or continuosly double and triple teamed?

RM said at the beginning of the year his major emphasis was installing his prgram and winning philosophies to build for the future. If he needed to win immediately he would coach differently, but he wasn't going to do that. This is the rough road he warned about. The season is still young, as bad as it seems we need to let it play out. Liddell and Lisch will come around, Luke will be steady. I think Eberhart, Polk and Eckerle will be decent role players. Who knows what the rest will contribute, but with the above we ought to have a .500 season. With a little luck, maybe a shot at the NIT. One thing we have now that we haven't had since Lisch and Liddell signed is quality players on the way and hope for the future.

I know you're never as good as your best game or as bad as your worst, but this really has to make you wonder what's up. We obviously weren't ready to play. It'll be interesting to see how they respond Saturday and at Boston College.

Sounds like Derek Thomas is having a tough time at WIU.

That hype was really fueled by him winning the slam dunk contest in Illinois as a freshman. He could really jump and had some offensive skills, but didn't develope a complete game. Hopefully he surfaces someplace and gets a college degree out of it. He's capable of having an impact at some level.

I've seen him play the same amount as anyone else whose been to all the home games and watched the tv game. That's why I said it's still too early to tell. However, from what I've seen I don't think he'll be a three. Time could prove me wrong, but that's my opinion now. I haven't dismissed him as a player. He's got the body to be a 4. I think he has long term potential at that position and hope he hits the weights and works on his post moves.

The one thing AK did seem to be able to do is set picks. Now if he can just add some rebounding and defense to that he would deserve minutes. Still too early to tell with MR, but I think he needs to make it or break it at the 4. I just don't see the quickness or offense to play the 3. AM certainly appears to be athletic, but doesn't seem to have a feel for what he can do out there. Right now he's too prone to turning it over on offense. I think DB could certainly help at this point. Hopefully he'll be able to contribute soon.

North Carolina A&T won at DePaul. They play at Tennesee next. I doubt they can win there. They're 4-2 so that may end up being a decent win.

I doubt if its being whispered in the Lisch household. What's probably being said there is if you don't like the way you're playing, work harder at changing it.