kmbilliken

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.

I agree. We need a jc guard who can play the point and handle the ball. Every team needs two players capable of playing the point. Assuming KM can contribute immediately the addition of him and a juco point quard would be a great improvement. A juco big would also be a great help. We can't count on all these freshman to come in and contribute immediately. The jucos ussually have some transition time, but less than freahman.

I also agree. MR said we would be running more. Haven't we been hearing that for 3 years without it happening?

MR isn't quick enough to play the 3 and hasn't shown the rebounding or inside play to merit the 4. The problem is nobody off the bench has stepped up consistently. If someone does they get major minutes. Until then its status quo. On the flip side, the season is very young and it's hard to evaluate the new guys in this short span. There's plenty of time for one of them to step up and show they belong in the mix.

The problem is we are short on ballhandlers. KL is ok, but really a shooting quard. TL is too loose with ball to be the primary ballhandler. PE doesn't appear to be a point quard, so we're stuck with DP. We really could use a juco as point quard in next years class.

I don't think MR will contribute much this year. I don't think he has the skill set to contribute at 2 or 3. He just doesn't look quick enough and seems a bit slow in getting off his jump shot. I think for him to stick and contribute here he's got to hit the weight room and work on his post moves. He's got the body to develope into a 4 and is quick enough to play there.