MB73

So you have said we could have landed a top notch high fallootin' coach for the money we spent instead of Jim Crews, now you say Porter Mosher? Implied. 24/7 you'll take any angle to criticize our fine head coach... hell, I looked at the soccer thread just to see if you posted anything negative about Crews.

Freshman BIG Jolly contributed this year. And if he gets stronger he will contribute a lot more. A 6'9" man near the hoop on "D" always comes in handy. We need to be deep at the "4" and "5" positions, as we will not get a 5 star center, will we? A 4 star? Do you think we will? No, so we need to recruit BIGs depth a la Majerus (again: Conklin-Remekun-Ellis-Evans-Loe-Glaze got us there!). Jolly needs to dedicate himself to getting physically stronger to be a significant presence for us inside. Will he? It is well worth it to find out.

Well done.

Best keep both. Best both stay.

All 6 were more accomplished coming in than our 6 bigs this year? I disagree. Not going to be doing the comparison on this board, but "no way" all 6 vs our current 6 coming in...

Nailed it.That's why programs like us need extra bigs, diverse, rotate them in and out. Conklin-Ellis-Loe (white) + Evans, Remekum, GG but they needed experience. Remember? Counter proposal: 1) Keep Jolly 2) Jimbo transfer to another message board

I hope they lose by 20 and Shaka's large nose (33% of his body weight-fact) is broken by one of his own players on an out of bounds loose ball scramble.

Our Billikens are not as bad as they appear on paper. There will be a big jump in productivity for our extremely young team. So many things went badly this year, we didn't jell. But the talent and coaching is there. If the 6 freshmen + Agbeko + Crawford return, there will be considerable improvement with a year under their belts. Stronger, wiser, so many lessons learned. (Though, IMO there are 1 or 2 freshmen that wouldn't hurt us badly to lose). Then Yacoubou, if he refrains from overextending himself and making mistakes, he could then improve significantly as well with the proper discipline. He is a good defender, brings plenty of offense, he tried to carry the team too often and got no help most of the time. I say, if we play the same weak OOC schedule, 20 wins, back to being competitive.

Balderdash. Ca-ca. Majerus went 12-19 in 11-12, then 26-8 the next. It's a good thing that some of the knuckleheads on this board didn't get their way, they would have fired him. Spoon 11-18 in 96-97, then 22-11. And this was far and away the most inexperienced team of all... so quit the whining.

all five starters, gone 6 BIGS, 3 freshmen, 2 sophs with very little experience, one senior role player, limited by injuries to boot (no experienced BIGS = always a disaster... think of Conklin, Ellis, Loe, Evans, Remekun, GG, when they got experience, then we made our run) 6 freshmen, 3 sophs, 2 jr's, 1 senior... a bad distribution of players, a result of the recruiting gap with Majerus's failing health. Sh*t. no senior leadership one junior who played well... though inconsistent so no upper class leadership no consistent point guard emerged from all of the candidates a few players who showed significant talent also tried too hard, led to turnovers and blocked shots Then, after the grand experiment of using a 12 man rotation failed to identify a solid 8-9 man rotation, the team fell apart the last 5 games, reasons unknown. We have enough talent (2* and 3* players this board was very pleased with when they signed) and strong coaching to have a good year next year (20 wins) and then to the dance the year after that... The same bunch of loser-whiners on here panic, throw mud, over and over and over... we shall see.

You have a hard time, period. Nothing but brutal, negative posts. What kids didn't buy in? Name them. You do not know. You "have a hard time..."

6 freshmen, at least 3 or 4 will be clearly better next year. Hopefully, 2 or so will take giant steps. 3 sophomores with little experience going into this year, 1 or 2 will be better next year, hopefully 1 will improve dramatically.

No way. Just the same bunch of lightweight whiners, over and over again.

Never panic. It was one of those years where everything went wrong. 5 of our 6 BIGS were freshmen/sophs with no real experience (over matched), most all players lacked the consistency for Crews to establish an optimal 8-9 man rotation, no effective PG developed, we stepped up but lost some big games against top teams in the final minutes, and some talented players tried to do too much and in so doing produced turnovers and / or got stuffed taking it to the hoop. 6th youngest team in D-1, I think, and we didn't jell. We folded in the stretch, that was disappointing, we were weary; physical, mental, and maybe a few players lost heart, were not on board. Our base of freshmen and sophs are as talented at this point as the same base teams for Majerus in the same years, some are solid 2&3 star players that most all of us were thrilled to get at the time. Will they improve? Some on this board say that getting older does not ensure getting better. WRONG, they will. Not all, but several, enough for us to improve. The biggest jump for players is usually from freshmen to sophomore year, and we had 6 freshmen who played extensively this year... that is good. And Agbeko and Crawford are sophs who showed a lot at times, and can be strong, productive factors. We shall see. Those who trash the coach and some of the players, those who have panicked, are not good Billiken fans. Next year, 20 wins, assuming the core players all return, assuming a similar out of conference schedule.

Your usual, ridiculous, approach to everything. It is certain that many big time, successful coaches in NCAA basketball have developed assistants who became strong coaches themselves. Sure, a few failed, like that assh*le Snyder. You always point to one minor example to make your outrageous point, is not acceptable logic.

I've never ripped a hard working Billiken player, criticism is ok, but real fans do not slime our players like several have done on this thread and others .

Brutal, some of the ugly crappola written by so called Billiken fans about a fine young high potential freshman big.

Uh, we did fairly well with Conklin, Ellis, and Loe... 3 NCAA's. And Gillmann and Jolly are high potential, just freshmen.

Of course I question some of the moves that Crews has made, but he is with them all the time, especially at practice, meetings, film sessions, gets feedback on them from his staff, and of course played and coached for Bobby Knight and then has been a head coach for 27 years in D-1. So how do you know what the bottom line is? If Reynolds didn't play the other night, I do not throw a hissy fit. Hell, Reynolds may have missed assignments the previous game, he might have screwed up in practice, he might have been deemed the odd man out when looking at matchups, or he might have pulled a muscle in warmups. I dunno. But neither do you. A new poster says Agbeko has been told that he should not take outside shots... that is OK with me, that is what we need, an inside scorer and rebounder. Some here are aghast. I think Agbeko is high potential for us his jr & sr years. I wonder 1) if it is true that he has been told not to shoot outside a certain rannge, is the same coach saying it is OK for Yarbrough to throw up all of those 15-18 footers? and 2) why hasn't anyone commented on Cheaney... isn't he supposed to be the one to mentor Yarbrough and other bigs? I am not saying that it is not Crews final decision, but I've noticed that some were excited about getting Cheaney, now no one associates or mentions him as our bigs do not perform optimally. It is all Crews.

It is not that simple, not that black and white, usually. A player or two who are disrupting the continuity of the program might be considered salvageable even after some conflict and is given leeway, then late in the season it is too late to make a move. Something like that, I have no info on what is going on. Or the same with an assistant coach. Our team is one of the youngest in D-1 with no jr/sr leadership, 5 young bigs, no PG emerged, we did not jell, the rotation is still a question mark... too many players did not step up with consistent production, some would have a few good games, then disappear. You do not know what happens in practice, who misses assignments in games, and most posters here primarily look at offense and do not account for some of our Billikens who play strong defense and those who do not. Now it appears there is something going on in the locker room or with the staff, and the last several games we have collapsed. Not good. But this can be fixed in the off season unless several key players for our future leave, which I do not think will happen. The bottom line is you do not know what the real problem is, yet you slime the coach on this board all day, on multiple threads, multiple posts. Some fan.

So you are saying that 100% of our bad season is directly Crews fault. 100%. How do you know this? You cannot know this.

A few tweaks, a few new players, and with the talent we have and the coaching we have we will be respectable next year. Again, it depends upon how deep the locker room issues are, but if the right players stay here and jell, we should get back to 20 wins next season, assuming a similar schedule. We shall see.

Give it a rest. 24/7 you make ass-of-self just pounding Crews. Every couple of posts on every thread you force in a Crews smear. It is obvious that something is wrong, I have no inside info but the team was making progress and now has collapsed the last several games, so I suspect there are players who are not on board and in conflict with Crews. It could be very deep, we do not know. Maybe a few are leaving and everyone knows it and it disrupts the team chemistry. We shall see. But you continue to place the blame entirely on Crews, and you have no way of knowing that other than your amateur petty observations. To think all of our 18 - 20 year old players are solid as a rock but the veteran successful experienced coach is the whole problem is assinine. Roby is a player, Agbeko has developed, Crawford has developed, Yarbrough is top notch but often out of control, as is Yacoubou. GIllmann and Jolly are freshmen bigs, we always knew they were high potential projects, not to be counted on yet, they need strength conditioning. No PG has emerged thus far, that has been a huge factor, unfortunately. I am disappointed, too, but wise enough to know that we should improve next year and I am not going to panic. Did Conklin improve after his freshman year? Evans? Loe? Ellis? Remekum? McCall? Sure they were Majerus kids, but let's see how these young Billikens do next year. So stop stinking up this board.

Absolutely. Huge. This hurt us much, much more, IMO, than most realize.

No, he won't (sigh). Every once in awhile you run into a guy like him who thinks he is sharp and witty and isn't at all, but just keeps going on and on and on...