MB73
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Posts posted by MB73
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After further thought, I deem this to be inaccurate. You seem to be comparing what you remember about the 2010 class as seniors to the current sophomores (who are less than 10 games into their sophomore seasons).
Let's make it a fair apples-to-apples comparison. About a third of the way into their sophomore seasons, the 2010 class had Brian Conklin in a breakout year (first team All A-10!) and Kyle Cassity as seniors and Kwamain Mitchell (one of SLU's best ever guards), Cody Ellis (a gamechanger for SLU), and Cory Remekun as juniors. They carried the load, though Cassity's role diminished much later in the season and Remekun was always a role player, though he was a good contributor for post defense off of the bench. By comparison, this year all there is are Ash Yacoubou not quite living up to the transfer-year hype as a senior and Mike Crawford (steady, but not yet quite ready for stardom) and Reggie Agbeko as juniors. These upperclassmen are not carrying nearly as much of the load, putting a lot more weight of responsibility on the sophomores and exposing them a lot more to situations they don't yet have the experience to thrive in.
With that background established, let's now compare how the 2010 class looked in mid-December 2011 to how the current sophomores look now.
Loe = Gillmann
Jett =/< Reynolds
McCall =/> Bartley
Evans </= Yarbrough
Barnett < Roby
I would say that Austin Gillmann is on a trajectory similar to that of Rob Loe. Miles Reynolds is probably playing better and contributing more thus far this season than Jordair Jett did early in his sophomore season, when he could hardly be trusted not to turn the ball over. Marcus Bartley has been set back by the foot injury, which prevented him from taking advantage of the summer practice and exhibition tour, but Mike McCall could hardly sit Cassity down by this time in 2011 after leading the team in scoring the prior year. Milik Yarbrough led the team in scoring and rebounding as a freshman and is contributing considerably thus far as a sophomore -- still learning and growing into his role (which could eventually be as a star) -- whereas Dwayne Evans had yet to get his Shaft moniker by this time four years ago. Evans did begin to come on strong midway through the year, as he did as a freshman, but it took some time in each of his first two years. Davell Roby seems to have had his role diminished somewhat at the beginning of this season as compared to the latter portion of last season, but he's still in the rotation and has been coming on recently, while Jake Barnett warmed the bench at this point four years ago. And the fact that Brett Jolly is a sixth player in the class and the roster has fewer upperclassmen as the 2011-12 team further demonstrates why a little bit more patience is required of this group. Yes, other teams have underclassmen and still seem to be better, but do those teams have upperclassmen carrying a lot more of the load than these Billikens?
Agree, this is an intelligent assessment. A lot remains to be seen.
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MB in major D1 basketball, there can never be a 2 year hiatus in recruiting and development. Two year hiatus is pretty much a death sentence for any program.
Somebody is too blame. If not rickma because he was too sick, and not crews because he wasn't in control, then who? I guess you have to be blaming Chris May for allowing it.
There is no acceptable reason for a two year hiatus of any kind when the program finally had reached national respect.
Now we losing games to the likes of morehead state and playing buy games to the waning minutes of games. I really don't want to hear about our young roster. None of them appear to be the equal of evans or jett let alone larry hughes. That would have allowed me to be patient.
1983.
Nobody is to blame.
It just happened.
Majerus went out and got us a damn good team, but then his health failed, he was unable to do everything necessary to keep it going, and Crews tried hard with his recruiting during that period (despite not being a head coach) before Majerus passed away but most players do not want to go where the future head coach position is not clear (ever take a new job and you do not know who your boss is? not me.).
So the greatness that Majerus achieved then unfortunately left us with a two year gap.
The KEY to our ability to be successful as a mid major is to have a team deep with BIGS, as Majerus demonstrated.
No, I do not realistically think that we will return to the Majerus glory days.
I just think certain posters are way out of line and should not blame Crews for our current status, that our 6 sophs and 3 freshmen (all 3* and 2*) will get us back to a solid competitive level.
(you think Larry Hughes 5* types are in the pot for us?)
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So when do Agbeko Gillman Jolly and Neufeld start progressing like Conklin Ellis Loe etc?
Yarbrough and Welmer are underclassmen BIGS, too. You selectively left them out.
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Which years were the 2 year recruiting gap? Crawford and Yacoubou are two of our three best players so I assume you aren't talking about either of them
Did you happen to notice we only had one senior last year, and one (a transfer) this year?
Three upperclassmen, total, this year? One BIG?
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"Name the juniors and seniors on that team."
"Okay, we've got Mitchell, Conklin, Ellis, Remekun Cassity. Holy smokes, you're right! Those players are better than our current players, and I miss them."
TWO
YEAR
RECRUITING
GAP
WE
ONLY
HAVE
ONE
SENIOR
AND
TWO
JUNIORS
NOW
They had 3 key upperclassmen bigs, we have Reggie.
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So if I understand your point: We had better players then, so we were a better team.
I agree. Youth is not an excuse. Talent wins.
No. Nice try, though.
- We have a 2 year recruiting gap
- They didn't
- We have a shortage of experienced upperclassmen BIGS... Reggie is "it" and he has been injured, is behind schedule
- Conklin emerged big time his SR year, Ellis and Cory improved a great deal, too, junior year
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No thanks. The back and forth with you is worthless. You have no regard for facts and make up things on the fly to support your argument. Not worth it.
We had Conklin, Remekun, and Ellis, 3 very experienced BIGS.
Were they that good as freshmen? Sophs?
Conklin was a decent player but then his senior year was spectacular.
Ellis and Remekun clearly improved their junior year.
Unfortunately, the only BIG uppreclassman we have is Reggie, injuries have held him back a bit.
If we had those three experienced BIGS right now (instead of the 3 upperclassmen we have), we'd be a shoo in for 20+ wins.
But go ahead and whine.
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Meh, facts. Ain't got no time for facts.
Name the juniors and seniors on that team...
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How many seasons this bad back to back have TLR, Matheny, or Hitchcock had?
The point is that there are the same kind of loser fans/posters in every fan base, no matter what.
The 8-9 big experts on this board were all over Crews last year, his first year with his true recruits, freshmen.
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Minutes against Michigan St in Round of 32 in 2011-12
Seniors: 15.5%
Juniors: 31%
Sophomores: 53.5%
Minutes against Morehead St
Seniors: 17%
Juniors: 25%
Sophomores: 51.5%
Freshmen: 6.5%
Let's not act like there's some gigantic difference here. The excuse of being young is weak.
Irrelevant balderdash. OK, name the seniors and juniors on that team.
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The negative camp is made up of fans who are devastated by what they see from the program. They've looked into their crystal ball and determined that there's absolutely no hope for any aspect of the program and there must be a change — particularly the athletics director and head coach — and the sooner, the better. Anything that delays a change (short of an unlikely post-season bid) is an awful thing.
Good write up but I disagree.
The 8 or 9 constantly negative posters (the "rotation"), deep inside, seem to like that things are not going well. It makes them special in their minds to be against Coach Crews; many were opposed to Crews day one and now pour it on every chance they get.
It is the same with Matheny, (LaRussa before him), Hitchcock, and Fisher right now. It was hilarious to listen to the loser hoosiers call into Kevin Slaten years ago who emotionally all wanted LaRussa fired right now despite his success. It made the losers feel good.
It is a phenomenon in sports, frustrated men who "never made the team", feel better when they can second guess a 30 year veteran coach who interned under Bobby Knight. They think we can get a young superstar coach in his stead. They do not understand that in 50 years, we have only had two superstar coaches, Spoon and Majerus, and there was a lot of timing and luck with both, especially Majerus.
We had a 2 year gap in recruiting with Majerus's unfortunate health problems. Only the freshmen and sophs on this team are Crews's; 2 juniors and one sr, so for the second year in a row we are still a very young team with no uppreclassmen to lead.
We have one game that stunk... Morehead... the rest were predictable and we are 5-3. We now have a rotation, Yarbrough seems to possibly be back on track, we still can get 16-17-18 wins.
We shall see.
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unless youre being sarcastic, You sir, are an idiot
Sorry, but guess you don't understand sarcasm as the poster blatantly knew that Chris May wasn't the writer of that blog yet you decide to "show off your wit" and deduce why it cannot possibly be the SLU AD Chris May. Well done.
From now on, you are "Spaulding".
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Spud Webb won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest 30 years ago, too. But 5'7" guys are not usually the ones to depend on in that situation.
So Hanlen is another Bobby Knight, OK, you clearly have proven it.
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While you do make some reasonable "hold up" points, I would not use the size of the school or the amount of playing production as a point of emphasis. After all, Rich Majerus wasn't a particularly good player but was a hall-of-fame coach.
Majerus was an assistant coach first, what, 10 years? We have guys on here who want to hire Hanlen as head coach, now.
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Hanlen?
You think he'd be a dream hire?
A 25 year old to be our head coach?
Played for a small school? 9 ppg?
No goddam coaching experience?
Pay him big bucks?
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You really can't evaluate a recruiting class until the 2nd year. Say whatever you want about red flags being there while Crews was winning back to back outright A10 titles with Majerus' players, but the incoming 2014 freshmen was the first class Crews was able to recruit as the permanent coach.
Bigs can take longer to develop - but your 'star' guards and wings usually identify themselves by this point of their 2nd season...and who of the Reynolds, Roby, Yarbrough, Bartley crop look poised to challenge for all conference recognition?
At points during last season, I'd have said Yarbrough and maybe Bartley for his outside shooting and passing vision...but neither of those guys have progressed and have seemingly regressed.
Roby and Reynolds each bring different things to the table as combo guards, but neither look like the starting point guard of an NCAA tournament team - nor do they look capable of shouldering the offensive load. To me Reynolds is backup who can come in and make things happen in spurts, but so much of his game relies on drawing fouls...he needs to be able to absorb contact and finish because he's not getting those calls against good teams on the road.
Roby is intriguing as I do think he could be part of the rotation on an NCAA tournament team, and I do still like his upside...but offensively I'm not sure he's ever going to be at the level of a primary scorer or playmaker for a good team.
The verdict on Crews hinges on whether that 2014 class can get their sh|t together over the next few weeks and turn in a competitive A10 season.
Agree, that's where we are.
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You must admit the red flags are there.
Sure there is concern but it is too early to get ugly about this matter.
What a surprise MB 73 .the head of the Jim crews fan club is back ...you obviously have not watched the team the past 4 years
Yes, I have, but it seems you haven't understood anything about basketball in the last 4 years.
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Brutal.
No, of course we are not pleased with the last 2 games, but many of you, especially the "usual suspects", are way out of line, over the top ugly about this matter.
With your approach, about 150 D-1 coaches should be fired, right now.
This is only his second year with his recruits (now sophs & freshmen), still a very young bunch, they have plenty of time to figure it out, gel.
Give him a chance.
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No way. This will not happen in any of our lifetimes. As Brito said at the time, they were buying "stars and stripes in a bottle." Removing the connection to the historic St. Louis Brewery would compromise that image much more than it already has been. And doing that at a time when they are continuing to lose market share to both craft beer and trendy, retro all-American brands like Coors Banquet would make the opposite of sense.
Yes, way.
Significant per unit manufacturing cost disadvantage in the real business world with a global company = yes, in our lifetime.
And you believe what Brito said? Wow.
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Wichita State is a big game, we need to bounce back and show something. I think it is very possible.
Crews is solid IMO, and ask yourself who we could have signed coming into this year who went to new programs? Hurley? Smart? Howland? Barnes? White? Prohm? Mullin? Leito?
I do not think several of them would have been interested, and others I would not be interested in; and Crews is as good or better than some on the list for our situation.
SO Crews is fine until we see otherwise, he still has an incredibly young roster to develop with undeveloped BIGS. Some here still cannot understand the situation Crews was handed... one Sr. last year, now one this year with two Jr's. Try to think, even Morehead State had several senior and junior BIGS.
Sure, this year is important, we must show some improvement. I say, 16-17-18 wins is possible, then fine, we are on our way as best possible.
We shall see.(and do not "blame" Majerus for the decline in his recruiting... damn, the man's health was slipping away his last couple years here, recruits were wary, we were blessed to have him come here and turn the program around & take us to the dance)
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It's amazing how you have 3,208 identical posts. Do you have this saved somewhere and just hit copy & paste, then change a few words before hitting Post?
That was a bad loss, but it is not time to panic.
We still can win 16-17-18 and show progress with a still very young team (3 freshmen + 6 sophs). Many of you said that would be nice.
Now the same people panic after a bad loss. Sure, if we look that bad the rest of the year, it is time for Crews to move on.
But the ugly comments from mostly the "usual suspects" are uncalled for... at this point.
I like the way the same people place the blame mostly all on Crews and Jolly. I wonder about Yarbrough, with all that talent he has not shown much at all, some on here last year were worried about him leaving early for the NBA. And I expected more of Roby. And Bartley, though he is behind a bit with the injury. Everyone just slimes away at Crews and Jolly.
Crawford has stepped up. So has Reynolds. So have a few others to a lesser extent.
I agree if we look that bad a lot this year, then it's time for a change.
But I also think most of you are mistaken that we will then get a superstar up and coming coach to get us to the dance over and over and that he'll stay for a decade. Again, Majerus was a freak of luck, a gift, a magical occurrance.
NEVER PANIC.
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I feel like my examples went right over your head.
It's not hitting the "jackpot". It's hiring a good coach.
I feel like this all is over your head.
Crews is a good coach, stuck with a young roster with no upperclass depth last year or this year, his first true recruiting class was this year's sophs.
Give him a chance.
Sure if we get hammered a lot this year like last night... it is time to wonder.
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And WHY is that? That was the point of Rise and Grind's statement. Why is that? And for that matter, why do schools that I've hardly heard of, come in here and outplay us, and frankly outcoach and out-talent us too.
We lost a basketball game.
Morehead State is better than you understand, and we have very young BIGS, they had several senior and junior BIGS, and are much deeper than us.
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You would think the guy complaining about the lack of quality bigs would be upset with the coach who put together a roster lacking them and signed zero for next season. That would be the logical thought.
Majerus's health limited recruiting his final years and we were left shorthanded.
Crews recruited Yarbrough, Gillmann, Jolly, Neufeld, and Welmer... 5 BIGS in 2 classes.
Problem is they're all FR & Sophs. The Sophs are arguably somewhat behind schedule development wise so far.
Mid majors almost always need some upperclassmen BIGS to get there.
SLU v. Alabama A&M - Game Day Thread
in Billikens.com Main Board
Posted
Not an intelligent post: one stat? 8 games?
How many minutes did they each play as a PG, what was Jett's role compared to Reynolds who has been burdened with the majority of the point guard ball handling responsibilities, what was Jett's supporting cast (upperclassmen) compared to Reynolds, what offense did they run & how long was the offense in place (familiarity of the team with the offense), who was the competition for the 8 games, etcetera?.