MB73

Bad year. It's been an unfortunate combination of dynamics this year with one of the least experienced, youngest teams in the nation. There has been no junior or senior class leadership or consistent contributions, we had very young, inexperienced not-ready-for-prime-time bigs, a true PG did not emerge, some players who seemed to finally shine also made far too many mistakes, we could never find the right rotation, and now I speculate that there is an end of season letdown as some players are not on board at this point, thus hurting the team's morale and commitment to win as a team to point to next season. An indication of this is the great "D" we played against some very good teams whereas that "D" was not consistent, especially of late. Again, I believe we are much better than our record indicates, and we will be back at 20 wins or more next year with the talent we have, and no, our freshmen are not sophomores now, not until next November. Those who are panicking on this board and pointing fingers and smearing our coach and certain players are embarrassing, are not mature or knowledgeable at all in their approach as Billiken fans.

You have no way of knowing this... why would you think we would get a better coach than Crews? Getting Majerus was a pure luck, good fortune, Majerus wanted a sunset coaching job at a Jesuit school, non power conference, in the Midwest to be close to his ailing mother: we win! I do not think there was anybody out there who would be better than Crews. Tell me, you think we could have brought in, "who", instead of Crews? Crews is solid, though there is obviously something wrong with this year's team chemistry of late, I assume a few players are not on board at all and thus we see this collapse with home blowout losses. I will say that this will be corrected over the off season one way or another and we will be a good team next year. I laugh when people all pile on a man with his strong background, experience and success but do not wonder if a few 18 - 19 year old players might be out of line.

We have too many players who do not know their role. Ideally a team will have 3 freshmen, 3 sophs, 3 jr's, and 3 sr's, with a few seniors starting, a few jr's, a soph or freshman maybe, and a rotation that is diverse, heavier towards the upperclassmen in the 8 or 9 man rotation. Everyone knows the pecking order, everyone has seen where things stand over the course of their college hoops experience. But because of Majerus' failing health we have a discombobulated 6-3-2-1 with very little experience, and the nightmare is that going into March 4th, we still do not have a clear rotation, players do not know their role. Freshmen expect to play more than in a usual scenario, everything about the rotation and each player's role is out of sync. To boot, few this whole time have excelled, and some who have done well have unfortunately shown other weaknesses or went out of control or missed assignments, so much of the rotation is still in questions. A team that has 3-3-3-3, the sr's know they are moving on, the jr's know where they stand for next year, and so on, and most accept where they are... it seems many players here right now are either not sure wtf is going to happen next year, or upset with their PT this year, resulting in my assumption that we have issues in the locker room, and the inexplicable big home blowout loss to George Mason: no intensity at all, especially on defense. We were not a team that was playing hard to improve for next year.

Stop it. No way we should be speculating names of players who might transfer. Sure, it is now apparent by the lack of effort (especially on D) that there are players who are on their way out, one way or another. And that affects the rest of the team to some extent, in this case maybe to a large extent. Blown out at home to George Mason tells us all of that. But throwing names out there on this board is not appropriate if you are a true Billiken fan.

Yep.

You would have to be promoted upwards 5 times to be a in the category of simpleton. This terrible loss is very disappointing to all of us, I am stunned, and there obviously is something wrong. I would guess some of the players are not on board with Crew's approach or something, perhaps they know they are not coming back. A few like that can really hurt a team. There is no way of us knowing at this point, maybe that is not the case, but losing this badly at home to a lousy team like George Mason means that some or all of the team quit. But Crews is not a simpleton, show some respect, watch your mouth, simpleton minus 5.

Irving and Rogers both deserved to be on the all time team, and yes, at the expense of some who were named. Most here are too timid, afraid about the handling of Yarbrough, he is almost certainly not fulfilling all of his assignments, let's let Crews and Cheney manage him. We just found out, for instance, that Reynolds never played man to man defense in high school, so he had to be held back for awhile until he was ready for A-10 action. There are reasons for Crews' actions. Again, ever seen coach Norman Dale when a player did not do as he was told?

Makes sense, interesting point... Reynolds had never played man to man "D" in high school with Okafor and White protecting the rim, it was all zone "D". I do not remember any of our billikens.com geniuses who criticize the rotation knowing anything about that when Reynold's playing time was down... see, let the coaches "coach".

I have found that many times, managers, coaches, leaders who are not "interesting" often excel more often than the charismatic ones. In business, watch out for bean counters, for instance, who are very charismatic. It is optimal of course when a charismatic manager, leader, or coach is also a smart person and effective manager of his business or team, like Spoon.

No, I cannot prove that each and every one of the 500 invaders did not loot, throw rocks, destroy property, burn down Ferguson. Wow, you are a real genius. Anyone with common sense knows the odds are that, some, even many, who were on our campus did. Outsiders were involved, massive funding from out of town was provided. So answer the other bullet points, you cling to a very narrow point on # 4. (sh*t, Spock just died!)

You responded to my post with juvenile attacks, and tried to switch it to a discussion about 1964. I asked you to answer the bullet point questions about Saint Louis University in 2014-2015. You keep asking about 1964. It is because you cannot answer the bullet point questions. Universities from all over are praising Pestello's handling of the situation? Oh. That is like when one poster here wrote that the NFL released figures indicating that their players do NOT have a propensity towards criminal violence, the topic focusing on domestic violence at the time, about 18 months ago. GREAT! The NFL says so! Or a limp d*ck shill leader yesterday saying the USA and the whole globe right now are under less threat of violence than ever in the last century. GREAT! Or our leader saying the economy is thriving, blah, blah (-$18 trillion... etcetera). GREAT! You have to be smarter than that, kid.

No, the publicity for SLU is not positive, nice try, it is mostly negative; sure some well spun articles will say so. Interesting how freely a few lightweights on here mock old white guys, that is OK.

You criticized my post with anger, called me a name, did not really respond to my post's content. I asked you to address the bullet point questions in the post, so go ahead, answer the questions, all of them.

There has been controversy, even lately, about the proper term to be used. So why is it such a big deal to you, douchb*g? (term for "ACE") "Predictably", you did not answer the bullet point questions because you cannot, and you twist it to a discussion of what my thoughts were when I was in grade school.

OK. African Americans. So I married an Irish American woman, then. And I think MLK deserves recognition, commemoration, especially as compared to the ones in question. So, answer the bullet point questions, then, ACE.

In the title of this thread, "disinformation"? The whole so called movement was based on disinformation about the Ferguson and Shaw incidents. What really happened, most of the protesters did not know. Most just just yelled out a chant based on simple disinformation filled statements they were taught, in many instances coached by out of town interests that help fund a lot of this . After awhile, ha, you can rationalize anything with some smart people in a room with some lawyers. So, now, the statue is going up in Clock Tower because during the negotiations, the protesters cited the fact that there were not enough African people depicted with our campus status. what did the protesters offer in return?And... why did we concede to the other 12 demands? why did we decide to do this in a few days, after which the protesters immediately left our campus? who did we do the deal with... we know some names of some organizations, but are they valid entities? What people represent them, where are they now, what assurances have we received? were any of the 500 invaders also ones who previously threw Malotov cocktails, looted stores, destroyed property, set fire to all of those buildings? Or, were all 500 peaceful, so they were not a threat? Those in favor, please answer these directly (sure). 97.5+% of the many, many people I have talked to, heard from, are embarrassed, even outraged, even quite a few lefties, they know what happened. Many cannot state it directly or they will be branded at work and that is awkward these days. The men who declared their withdrawal from further donations publicly were mostly > 60 types who had nothing to lose. Others hide in the shadows. Donations will still go down, but no reasons will be cited in most instances.

As tall and big boned as Gillmann and Jolly are, it is very possible for them to each gain 25-30 lbs of real muscle by their junior years. They would have to be on a very intense program and commit to it, and it is not at all an unrealistic goal. And yes the key is increasing their strength, not just their weight. SEE: the kind of program that David Lee committed to in his younger years. Will they do it? Most do not do what is necessary.

Nice win, we finally hit some clutch shots. Roby took charge, excelled, and Crawford nailed those FT's... if he misses, it is another bad day. We show signs here and there of jelling, but in fact we are still not consistent, as 2-3 players step up, 2-3 others slip. It is difficult for Crews to draw final conclusions and set a rotation, the only ones we can count on are Roby and Yarbrough (who has inconsistent games, too). After those two: We will rotate our three # 5's... sure Agbeko at the # 5 worked yesterday but it is not a long term approach. Those who already gave up on Gillmann and Jolly are wrong, though both need 25-30 lbs of true muscle with true increased strength. We need to set up Crawford and McBroom to shoot 3's, they both need more minutes We need to continue to develop Agbeko as an inside threat We need to harness Yacoubou, his mistakes and unsuccessful drives to the hoop kill us... if he plays under control, he will be a big plus Bartley is high potential, hitting those 3's helps his cause, but his ball handling is a problem Reynolds is too hot and cold, he needs to be worked into the lineup slowly If we hit our shots in a few other games, we win. This one, we did. Simple. Frustrating. This will be a good team, those on this board who constantly see doom and gloom are mistaken. I am not saying we will hit another NCAA run like our recent heyday, but we will be a good solid team.

Agree but I think in this context I mean a starter but an inside "role player" in that he would not a big star and scorer, just a 6'9" muscular banger focused on rebounding and intimidating the opponents in the paint, protecting the inside. A few garbage baskets as his reward, so about 8 -10 rebounds and 8 - 10 points per game, but helps the team more this way than with his stats alone. And someone who is ready to contribute inside as a freshman and start as a sophomore instead of us hoping he will eventually (sigh) gain weight and strength.

I have always, always said that the key to our program are the BIGS. Guards are easy. My first posts 7 - 8 years ago emphasized that that we never, ever have even had that strong power forward, not a star, just a role player, 6'8" - 6'9", 245 - 255 pounds, gets 8 - 10 rebounds a game, 8 - 10 points per game, a few blocks, protects the paint, the rim, intimidates. Sure a 7 foot, 260 lb. "5" is better, but let's not get carried away. Gillman and Jolley both have the potential to be very productive "5's" but only if they bulk up and increase their strength dramatically. A lot. This is not easy to do and cannot be counted on at all. Will either or both do so? Majerus got us numerous diverse BIGS, deep... we are now too young and too light and not strong enough to compete. Maybe next year. "Just a statue"? Same as the others? NO WAY, this statue will be the result of threats and intimidation. We suddenly agree in a few days to do all of this. Big difference. 500 marched onto our campus, sure many were civilized, but many who were involved in the looting and arson and rock throwing and other property destruction loomed, and thus 13 concessions were made to "I don't know who" but we made them to get them off our private property before violence erupted. So answer me, why did we concede to 13 actions at considerable expense to a group that invaded our campus for 6 - 7 days? Please tell me what we got in return. Who did we agree to this with, what are their names, does this include everybody, we had to lock down our campus for the distinguished prosecutor to speak on our campus Friday and he was outrageously interrupted by those who I think were advocates of free speech and an "open dialog". Many of you on this board disappoint me on this matter.

the letter was well written, what did you expect? he carefully finessed through the dilemma, addressed the large number of reasonable intelligent graduates who are opposed to the 13 concessions given to the intimidating campus intruders. but just one of the 13 was discussed. i'll bet the anti-police whatever they are will interrupt and protest and cause ugly trouble at mcculloch's slu speech... and here we have an appropriate use of the word "hypocrites".

moytoyboy you know less about sports than i even thought. a team might be winning big against a lesser foe but not executing certain aspects of the game plan so the coach has his top players work on a play or two on "O" or a defense to prepare for the next game against a strong opponent that also might have a different setup to deal with. in baseball, a team might be winning big going into the 8th but the manager sends the starting pitcher out there to work on his slider when he hadn't been using it much but the manager wanted him to get some work in to be used later in the season. if he has a reasonable pitch count of course. stats matter but if you go strictly by irrelevant stats to make decisions you are not a good coach (in your case, fan). (no i do not think crews "can do no wrong" but i think a lot of so called billiken fans on this board are overreacting and being unfair to say the least)

coaches keep their best team rotation in the game even when up 12 points with a minute to go, and it goes up as the opponent misses their 3's and the leader hits it's ft's, so a lot of these so called blowouts are not valid arguments against our staff. and sometimes a team is up just 8 points or so with a minute to go and it goes to a blowout sometimes. it depends. so going by final scores does not constitute a valid argument. and sometimes, especially in the early season, a team might be up 18 but the coach has things that he wants the best rotation to still work on for the future. and / or the freshmen are not ready to execute, have not earned the minutes by executing adequately in practice and that has to be clear to them, they need to earn the minutes. sure, i especially wish crawford had more minutes last year, so he could have better learned to be a factor as a 3 point shooter. lancona, i don't know. and agbeko was hurt a lot. mcbroom got some good minutes. so why the big stink? this lame whining about last year's substitution patterns is for low tolerance fans. drop it. sure it could have been improved upon, but we also wanted to win "now" and that is fine with most of us.

(from another thread): if crews gets hit by a truck, we have so many on this board who can step in immediately. come on, people: one of the least experienced teams in D-1, but to boot, we have not jelled, a clear rotation has not emerged to the frustration of all of us 6 bigs, 3 freshmen bigs, two inexperienced sophomore bigs, and a senior big role player... and bigs are the key to success in our situation we are getting very little production from upperclassmen, always an indication of major problems (yacoubou must be leading the ncaa in blocked shots "against") we all know this. we are all miffed that we are not further along. most teams by now, hell by january, have determined their pecking order for minutes, their rotation. not us. athletic teams can suddenly jell when the right combinations develop. hell we have arguments on here about who should play pg, putting agbeko at the 5, etcetera. frustrating that we cannot find that 8-9 man rotation and give the winners the opportunity to play together with confidence. give crews and the kids a break, we will jell and things will be better, hopefully this year. i am not of course in any way convinced we will match the magic of our past several years... but i think the talent and coaching will turn this around, soon.

if crews gets hit by a truck, we have so many on this board who can step in immediately. come on, people: one of the least experienced teams in D-1, but to boot, we have not jelled, a clear rotation has not emerged to the frustration of all of us 6 bigs, 3 freshmen bigs, two inexperienced sophomore bigs, and a senior big role player... and bigs are the key to success in our situation we are getting very little production from upperclassmen, always an indication of major problems (yacoubou must be leading the ncaa in blocked shots "against") we all know this. we are all miffed that we are not further along. most teams by now, hell by january, have determined their pecking order for minutes, their rotation. not us. athletic teams can suddenly jell when the right combinations develop. hell we have arguments on here about who should play pg, putting agbeko at the 5, etcetera. frustrating that we cannot find that 8-9 man rotation and give the winners the opportunity to play together with confidence. give crews and the kids a break, we will jell and things will be better, hopefully this year. i am not of course in any way convinced we will match the magic of our past several years... but i think the talent and coaching will turn this around, soon.