booyaa87

LOL, so true. I was pointing out to my buddy last night that the only coach, between both teams every game without a suit on, is RM.

I don't remember anyone saying we should dump gatorade on RM. Last time I checked we have a team made up of all frosh and sophs and only have 9 players on the team. All wins are good wins.

agreed. RM's salary has nothing to do with anything, but it gets brought up over and over again.

One more note on blocks. Willie blocked 40 shots last year. As prev mentioned he has 28 season to date and 60 is probably a reasonable expectation. Ian is the SLU all time leader in blocks with 135, Wille could crush that number sometime during his junior season barring injury.

Kelvin Henderson holds the single season record with 68. Willie has 28 through 13 games. We have roughly 18 games left. If he continues to get 2 per game, he'll approach that record. The team record was actually set in 06-07 at 142. So far we have 68 blocks through 13 games. Once again if we have approx 18 left, if we continue to average 5 per game that record is in danger of going down. I gotta believe our blocks per game will go down in A-10 play though.

There is our manditory weekly mention of RM's salary. I honestly think that there are a lot of people on this board that dislike RM simply because of his salary. It gets old, seriously.

I have agree on CS shot looking less then fluid. You don't have to be a great player or shooter yourself to tell that. His shot is flat and he doesn't use his base. Sorry guys, it is an opinion. I am not saying he will never have a good FG%. It doesn't hurt him as much on FT's because he is strong enough to get those up without using his base. 3's, at least for now, appear to be a different story.

He got on Cory twice too. bigtime. He really got after him after that terrible baseline turnover Cory had in the 2nd half. It seems like everyone noticed this tonight. KM was showing some serious leadership.

+1, This is very true. Refs favored SLU tonight for sure.

Back from the game, a couple observations Team Defense was really bad tonight, especially in the 1st half. The next step in Willie's development will be better recognition and handling of the double teams. He is still hesitant on where to go with the ball when the double team comes. One more note on Willie, tonights game really displayed how his offense really fuels the rest of his game. The lack of offense effected his rebounding and defense. He is usually all over the boards and a hawk for blocks but was well below his season averages in those categories. Willie also needs to learn not to let his offense effect the other aspects of the game. I was really hopeful that KC would gain confidence after those first couple buckets, but when he air ball'd the 3, I knew whatever confidence was built early was gone. Femi can't hit the ocean from the pier. JJ's aggression on offense is nice. I know everyone is upset about his defense, but the fact that his only has 2 turnovers in the last 2 games is impressive, especially considering he was the primary PG vs a very good Missout St. team. Not too many Frosh PG's that could run the point against a top D1 team and only have one turnover. I really like Remekin's energy and continued improvement on defense. He stuggled with the basketball in his hands tonight, hopefully he can get over that. KM is a pure stud. Not much else to say, he has been red hot from the field in his last two games. This has to be one of the worst FT shooting team in the nation statistically.

Getting ready to hit the road for the game. I bought the tix yesterday and got 14th row, so I am guessing it will not be a full house even for the ND/NW game. I'll post some pics when I get back.

I can probably shed some light on ISU's team. I am a lifelong ISU fan living in STL and decided to get season tickets when SLU hired Rickma and have become a SLU fan too. I get the ESPN full court ticket every season and watch 20+ ISU games per season. Of course, everyone is right about Brackins. He is a stud. But he isn't limited to just a post up game. His greatest asset is his ability to step out and hit the 15-18 footer. He can score from anywhere, I think there was a game his freshman year where he hit 8 or 10 3's against Baylor. Of course his most famous performance was last year vs. KU when he dropped 42. I think a big key to the game will be LaRon Dendy. He has been out with injury after playing in the 2 exhib games and the first non-conf game. He has a true big man body and will cause us major matchup problems inside. As much as I love BC's grit, he will be overwhelmed by Dendy's size. Our other tough spot will be trying to match up with Marcus Gilstrap. He is a 6"7 SF with great athletic ability. This is his first and last year with ISU as he played JUCO for a couple years and lost a season to injury before coming to Ames. They are petitioning the NCAA for one more season, but we all know how that will probably go. Gilstrap also has an NBA body and has a scorers mentality. He loves to slash to the basket. Think Tommie Liddell skills with more muscle and 3 more inches of height. I guess KC will guard him, but I think he will be overmatched. In the backcourt SLU is equal to if not better than ISU. Diante Garrett is a lanky PG with great BH and passing skills but an inconsistant outside shot. The main 3pt threat is Lucca Staiger (had a similar story to Cody Ellis, but had to miss a whole season due to NCAA clearing house), but Lucca is not versitle. He is a spot up shooter through and through. He doesn't contribute a whole lot more than his ability to shoot. SLU is very good at defending the 3, so he shouldn't give them a problem unless they find themselves sagging in on Brackins and Dendy. After Staiger they have a couple of unproven players. Christoperson is a guard similar to Eckerle/CS and thier back up PG Colvin was very highly touted out of HS (ESPN top 100), but has yet to break out. In the end, I think ISU's front court is too big and too strong (Especially if Dendy plays) and the Cyclones win 65-52. Next season, this is a team SLU beats (Brackins will be gone), but they are not there yet.

Right, because any other coach in the country would have no problem leading a team with all Fr. and So., in a season where his top recruit isn't on the floor, to a winning record. What a joke, the team is young but they have talent, if anything it will be realized that he can still coach when they somehow manage to go .500 with the youngest team in the entire country.

Here are some quick thoughts on the newcomers Salecich - Very solid all around player. His game reminds me a lot of KL. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying he is or ever will be as good as KL, but his game reminded me of him. I was kinda surprised to see that he was the primary PG when KM was out of the game. He played great on defense, is an absolutely awesome passer and has a sweet shot. He looked comfortable bringing the ball up and driving to the hoop, but looked uncomfortable when he was dribbling at an idle on the perimeter and scanning the floor. Doesn't play like a frosh. John - Similar to Salecich you can tell he has experience. The full season of practice served him well. He is very strong and confident on offense. He crashed the offensive boards a couple of times and was able to keep the posession alive. Jordan - I was so relieved to see that he is not a shoot first PG. After seeing that he posted 28 ppg in high school, I was worried we had another Cotto on our hands. He looks like a quick player with good ball handling skills. Made a very nice pass to Smith in the 1st half. I think he should be the back up PG, but for tonight that role belonged to Salecich. Smith - He is like a slightly shorter version of Willie from last year. no question. Did a nice job though. Obviously he needs to get much stronger, but he wasn't afraid to stick his nose in some of the rebound battles. He really benefitted from some really nice passes from Jordan, Salecich and Mitchell. Not sure he has much of a post game, time will tell. Remekin - Surprised to see him start and was a bit more tentative than some of the others. I don't have a lot to say about Cory, he didn't do anything inparticular to impress me, but he didn't look lost out there either, and that is pretty good considering it was his first shot at D1 basketball. He is our 3rd strongest big, so that should insure him plenty of playing time. Reid - Looked the most scared of the frosh. Came out in the 1st half and crapped his pants, air ball, turn over, poor defense, etc. He came out pretty quickly and didn't return until the 2nd half. In the 2nd half he looked more comfortable, he hit a shot and ended up adding a couple of free throws as well. Not sure where he fits. I guess he is a SF, but isn't as quick as most SF's will be in the A10. His shot looks decent, he is going to have to be a dead eye shooter in order to make an impact on the team imo.

Any idea when the game will tip off? Never been to a Volleyball game and have no clue how long it takes. Anyone know who the starters will be?

bummer, I am sure those kids are good, we need a big.

Got mine as well. Hyped about it too.

I don't have mine yet. Has anyone recieved thier season tickets?

Wow great game, one of the best I've seen in a long time. Nice to see a kid like Kevin, with walk on type talent, to come up with 27 points and hitting the huge buzzer beater to keep this team alive. If Kwam would have played in the home game, the bills would be 6-3.

research from the University of Denver ranks Saint Louis the country's fourth-youngest team as calculated by average age.

We'll see about that. I don't speculate on redshirts too much can change. Wasn't Willie Reed supposed to be a redshirt?

I was bored today so I decided to jump on ESPN.com and read up on our incoming recruits for next season. They have write ups on all 4 players and it sounds like they are good players. One problem. No big men in the group. Yea we signed two 6"7 kids, but they both weigh less than Willie Reed (under 200 lbs) and ESPN calls both of them Small Forwards at the D1 level. So will Thompson, Reed and Conklin be out only big men for next season? If so, we could be in trouble. You can't survive with a roster of only 3 big men. What if one gets in foul trouble? Also, I think everyone has noticed that Thompson and Reed get winded pretty quick. How is that going to work? Is ESPN incorrect in calling these kids SF's at 6"7, 185-195 lbs?

I am glad to see the doom and gloom is the minority. This was a good recruiting class and the players will only get better with time.

I honestly don't care if he knows what former players that he only coached for one season are doing after the have left. I really don't. Perhaps if he'd recruited them or known them for longer, he'd be more in touch with them. Ok, so you are closer to the current situation than most of us and clearly feel like RM is a detriment to this team due to his treatment of players and indifference about what they do after they leave SLU. I have two questions for you: 1. Based on what you've heard, Would you consider RM: worse, the same or not as bad as Bobby Knight on his treatment of players? 2. Where do you see this program in 3 years? A roster full of really good players that will get into postseason play? A roster full of really good players that can't get into postseason play due to the personality of thier coach? Will we likely have a new coach, I assume you are not the only one that has noticed his poor treatment of this kids. Obviously nobody knows for sure, but you can probably make a more educated guess than we can, since you are an insider.