bsheldon

It is up--I just watched it. From the TV angle you can't quite see how sick it was. You see him just remove the first guy's jock but you really see how far laterally he moved on the second guy. He went right at him to the seft side of the lane and then jumped away from him to the right side of the rim to lay it in. I was right behind it in sectin 108. It was truly sick.

It did look like he tweaked it a bit. At first though, I thought he was playing up that he hit on the arm when he shot it. The ball left his hand very ugly-like. I thought he got hit on the arm, but after he ran down flexing his arm--apparently he just tweaked it somehow. All seemed to be ok though. He scored several times after that point. All of his points came late in the game. He even shot another 3 late that just rimmed out. So, I think he is fine. Maybe just a minor stinger (pinched nerve) or something. Who knows for sure--with the physicality of last night's game it could have been anything and happened at anytime.

side bar on last night's game. I finally figured out the Kwamain chant to OLE', ole'-ole'-ole', OLE', OLE'. Hilarious. I joined in evertime after I first heard it early in the game. It is fun. KWAMAIN, kwamain-kwamain-kwamain, KWAMAIN, KWAMAIN!! Let's hope we have 3 more victories to sing it at.

Count me in. Me and my old man--who I more than make up for on the yelling front--will venture down to 108. We sat there for the IN St game--great seats. I caught myslef biting my tounge a few times at last night's game, due to the crowd around me--two elderly couples and two families with little ones. I got plenty out though. I'll be the loud, fat, bald guy with glasses next to little old man. I know, not nearly specific enough.

I think it was the BC blocking call. Although he chould have, should have had the same reaction on the CS one. Conklin's was the one that set me off. I looked down to see what RM was doing and he was all the way down at the end of the bench where Willie was getting his leg worked on. (Willie cramped up pretty bad and had to get it worked out--he could hardly walk for a little while, it was his right calf. Obviously, he came back in and was fine.)

+1

bonwich I like the "just in case" policy. Just because you bought season tickets, doesn't or sholdn't mean you own that seat. It should mean you have purchased the right to enter every game of the year--not necessarily the exact same seats everytime--especialy if you did not infom them that you were coming to the game. Simple fix--tell them you want your seats and they are yours--viola. Easy. Now everyone is happy. You forgot to tell us, well, sorry, per our policy, we sold your ticket to someone willing to pay more not to sit in the upper corners, but as a cuourtesy to our season ticket holders we have these (just in case) seats reserved for you. Everyone happy. Plus more money for admission--better seats cost more. What is the sense of empty seats? I understand this not being a problem when we only average 4,000 people a game, but hopefully next year, when seats are in demand their entire seating policy needs to be revised. Can we dump METROTIX??--PLEASE!! First of all $4 a seat charge is BS, and they don't have access to all of the seats that are available. The upper sections of the upper bowl--I think row L and above are not available for pre-purchase, but only for walk-ups. So for the Xavier game I called to try to get the cheap $12 seat that I always do and they did not have any. Plus the few $16 seats they had were gone. So, it seemed like almost a sell-out if you were buying tickets ahead of time. I shell out the stupid $8 to Metrotix and buy 2 $20 seats--which are not any better than the $12 seats I always had before. Then I get to the game and there are hundreds of seats availble for $12 at the door. REALLY stupid. If I weren't so jacked for game, I would have been PO'd--big time. Again if I were a casual fan, I would tell SLU to kiss my backside and they were not getting anymore of my money. I was out $48 bucks for what should have been $24, like usual. How hard would it be to have workstudy students manning the phones at the box office and selling the tickets right there instead of getting raped by metrotix? If SLU gets a cut of that raping fee--fine dump them and charge that small percentage for pre-order fees--say $1 a ticket or something, but not $4. This also seems like a no brainer. Add the students actually in the box office selling tickets and selling truly BEST AVAILABLE seats and we have a perfect seating policy that makes sense to everyone, gives everyone a fair shake at best seats, fills in all the seats that show up on TV, makes the most money for the arena, attacts and keeps the most new fans to the Bills experience and on and on... Again this all seems like common sense to me.

I, too, was begging for us to get the ball inside more. They did have 2 bigs, but both had 3 fouls somewhat early in the second half. They couldn't stop Willie, They did do a good job defending the pass into him though. Several times we seemed out of sorts on the offensive end. What happend to the High low from CE to WR? I haven't seen that in a few games. It was AWESOME to see CE on the post. I don't know if it was him that finally figured out that he is 6 foot freaking 8 and 240 pounds or if one of the coaches had a flash in the brain to that fact, but it was effective and one of the many reasons why we pulled this game out. Again, he was real solid against guys that were smaller than him--great, great stuff. Refs were as bad as I have seen. Not only the BS ticky-tack crap--which was really out of place with banging and dowright collisions taking place the rest of the time with no calls, but there were a couple of obvious travels that they missed. There was a stretch early in the second half where I had to question what conference they were from, where they are alumni from, and what building were we playing in--it was a brutal stretch of about 5-6 in a row against the Bills--several of which were iffy at best. They did have a couple of "make-ups" later in the half though, but that doesn't make it right, the old saying two wrongs... or in this case many, many wrongs don't make a right. Crowd was great for as few people that were there. A few times it was really loud in there. I can't wait for next year when we are filling the place regularly. It is going to be deafening. We couldn't hit the water if we fell out of boat from the outside last night. It has been a long and strange trasition that KM is now, by far, our best outside shot. We need someone else to take that role desperately. Not that I want KM to shot any worse, but he needs to focus on doing all the other things he does to make us win--control the offense, bring the ball up against pressure, continue to drive to the bucket, keep making the open 3's and oh yeah keep making all the game winning plays that he seems to do every other game now. He shouldn't have to shoulder that burden also. Wed is going to interesting--perhaps not pretty and not a whole lot of fun, but very interesting. Two defensive minded clubs going at it. Points will be a premium, every possesion will be extremely valuable. Turnovers will be killers, Free Throws will be even more important. Winning team's final score may not break 50. I hope I am wrong, but doubtful. They lost to Cornell twice by 3 points with the scores 48-45 and 50-47. We MUST make some shots from the outside. If CE comes back to the form he was a month ago, KM plays like KM, and WR has another big game, I see us winning this game and going to the finals. Jon Smif returns to the Bills after a several week lay-off replacing Jon Smith and scores double digits. DY--gets his first points of the season and the place goes crazy. Go Bills!

I'll meet you at Vito's Wednesday at 7:00 to collect. 4235 was the official attendance. My guess was 4000-4500 during the game--so pretty good guess. As far as the seating policy goes--it is just bizarre They had a line all the way out the door, down the steps and on to the giant SLU sidewalk and they were sticking people up in the corners--telling us these were the best available. I was excited that we might actually have a fair turn out. When I got to the window I could plainly see through the windows and into the arena--all empty seats. Then I was told I can put you in the middle of 217? Didn't make sense, but I still held out hope. I asked for anything else--I really wanted 108 or 109 where we sat last game. She said no, but she had 4th row of the other corner. Why not offer that as "Best Available" to begin with? Then I walked into the area--maybe 3,500 tops--TONS of open seats everywhere and we are stuck up in the corner. Section 108 and 109 were no where near full--perhaps season ticket holders seats that were not used?? Regardless, the section we were in (as was the case for every section in the building) was no where near full. We didn't sit in the exact seats of our tickets--nor did anyone in our section. We all left spaces and used seats for jackets. Three rows of empty seats in from of us. Again none of it made any sense. I understand holding season ticket holder's seats and I would be furious if I had season tickets and was told we sold your seats and you have to sit up in the nose-bleeds (not that there is a bad seat in the building) but they do need to make a bit of a change in their policy. Perhaps--"We will hold season ticket holders' seats up until 24 hours (or any other appropriate time frame) before the game. If you do not contact us and tell us to hold them for you--we will sell them to walk-ups." As I type this, I realize that next year, when I will be a season ticket holder, I may not like this proposed rule as much, but would totally understand the rule. If I didn't tell them I wanted to use my tickets--someone else who does want a good seat should get to. I really would have no problem with people wanting to to go the game and getting good seats--it only makes sense. As it stands anyone wanting to experience the Bills for the first time is stuck up in th corners with no options to buy better seats. I have brought several new people to games this year and have made at least 2 converts. Last night I was supposed to have another newbie at the game, but his wife got sick. I would have liked to get good seats, as it stood the 4th row of the corner upper deck wasn't bad at all, but not like what I have moved down to early in the year. Again, with loads--literally at least a couple thousand seats in the lower bowl and at least that in the center sections of the upper bowl--I would like the opportunity to sit in those--as would hundreds of others, I am sure.

So, no news on Loe? Anyone?

"Fun game inspite of our cold spells. Like to see us come out firing. How can we eliminate long scoring droughts?" At the beginning of the second half we had good looks--just missed 5 in a row. At the 5 minute mark they switched to a zone and we settled for 3's. We didn't even try to get the ball inside for 5 possessions in a row. Willie was out for this part and no other big was getting good position. Plus JJ was the only one actively looking inside during that stretch. I think the dry spells are a by-product of our youth--it just comes with the territory. We missed some good looks-just like we have all year. The biggest issue I see is we quit attacking the rim--(not that we are know for that.) When our shots from the outside go dry we have to take the ball to the hoop and maybe get fouled and get to the line. KM is the only one who does this regularly. I honestly don't know if KC or CS have the quickness to do it all the time--it really depends on who they have guarding them. Ususally it is guys that are every bit as quick or quicker than them.

Yeah, I yelled out "no" when he released it--only to be pleaseantly surprised. If he can add that to a regular part of his repitoir he should be geeting more floor time than he is. He had a really good game. Also I was very glad to see the "get willie out so they can't foul him" strategy employed down the stretch.

X is going to be fine--both against the gophers and in the next couple of years. I did some pretty hard research before our game agaisnt them this season. They have an amazing class of recruits coming in. I don't know if anyone is going to be close to Love or Crawford (tall order) but it was something like a 4-star recruit and 3 3-stars thrown in for good measure. They are all 6-5 to 6-9. They will remain tough for quite some time to come. I think X has a shot at the elite 8 this year. Pitt is up and down--when they are on they can beat anyone and I mean anyone, but they have only been like that for a handful of games all year--enough to worry anyone. However, I think X beats them if both teams play to their "normal" level. I feel KSt is a bit overarted and they haven't exactly been stellar down the stretch. Take away their win over Baylor 2 months ago and the game they lost at home to KS and there isn't a whole lot to brag about down the stretch of their regular season. They did have 2 nice games in their tourney though. It would be a huge win for X if they could pull it off. UW vs Marq was one of the picks I struggled with in the first round--I ultimately went with our old coach for sentimental reason. Plus, they are playing well. I honestly feel Marq wins though. I am hoping WU can keep their hot streak going. That being said--NM easily advances to the sweet 16 out of that group. They are a team that doesn't get much press, but they are very, very good. They will test WV before ulitmately falling to them in a close game. Ironically another game I struggled with was the ND vs OD game. OD is a very good team. ND has been hot, but I took a flyer on OD--they beat VCU a few days ago so I let my billiken connection to the CBI with VCU carry my decision. I think there are 3 games in the west that were tough picks: Vany vs Murray st, FLst vs Gonz, and butler Utep. Ultimately I think Butler prevails, as does Vandy, but I took a shot with FL st. One of the talking heads said something a few days ago about them that I can't remember now. Richmond has a rough draw--I think they beat St Mary's through shear will of anderson and gonzalvez alone. Nova will be a real test. If Nove goes flat and they get by its Baylor. I really like Baylor despite them losing to KSt last week. Temple has one heck of a tough 1st round games, I feel cornell is scarier than Wisc. Cornell can defend similar to Temple and keep this game in the 50's. If that happens it only takes one of their many good outside shooters to get hot from 3 land to make this very scary. Temple has the better athletes and should prevail, but this game worries me a lot. After that they will beat Wisconsin, which I just don't think it really that tough. And then they face KY and the party ends. My final 4: West: Syracuse-easily Midwest: Mich St (I refuse to pick KS, TN & Gtwn are too up and down, MD is way too reliant on one player, I just don't feel Ohst has enough bigs to go deep, So Izzo is who I was left with, plus Lucas can and will take ovr games.) South: Baylor (Nova too inconsistent down stretch, and Duke won't get it done yet again) East: KY I really think WV is the team to beat in this region, but Wall will make sure they advance. I will be rooting for WV though--which for sure dooms them

"In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir, gopher'. " Best Post in a long time.

I too want to avoid another Valley thread, but it was mentioned at least a couple times on Monday when the game was announced that they travel well. I was just commenting on that. Yes a Tuesday game --especially with the late start is a bit tough--like we both said we couldn't get more than 90 students who life a few hundred yards away to come to the game.

The other comment I have on the attendance--I thought the Valley fans were supposed to travel so well? Sure there were a few ISU fans there, but nothing really--maybe 40 tops. Granted we only had about 3,500 and only about 90 students and it is our house in our backyard, but still they didn't travel well at all. I guess another rumor about how great the Valley is is dismissed.

It was fun game. The second he made the steal, I stood up and yelled he's gonna dunk it! My dad couldn't believe that he can dunk. It was awesome. His move in the lane was sick. He got the first guy up in the air, went around him, went right at the other big man defender and jumped to the side to stretch out to lay in it. One of the best I have seen in a SLU jersey for quite some time. Willie denied Lathan--That guy has some ups, but not enough for the big man WR. Willie had a nice dunk in th first half where they knocked it out of his hands and he re-caught and then just threw it down as if to say, "How dare you knock the ball out of my hands." He dunked it from being basically flat footed. Willie has gotten so much stronger with the ball. Late in the second half he had it under the basket and just got absolutely tomahawked by one of their guys, right in front of the official, and he still powered it up and in--with no whistle. We heard the skin slap clear as day and we were 15 rows up. I guess that is taking "the hand is part of the ball" rule to the extreme. These guys are getting more and more fun to watch. Go Bills!

"if we would be playing road games and not getting the 2012 tourney out of it i would say that is a waste of time and money. this is a great investment in the program with our players all being so young." Well said.

Great analysis of the game. I had almost the exact same thoughts. Rick isn't activiely involved during the game in sending players in and out--I am sure it is planned ahead of time with the assistants. He seemed oblivious to who was on the court and didn't seem care one way or the other. He just stood at the time line and coached constantly. It did seem a bit random sometimes. A couple in particular I thought were ill timed--a guy just have 2 good trips up and down the floor on both ends and gets yanked. I guess the message is you are getting your minutes despite how you play. So, don't worry about messing up or doing spectacular because your playing time will not be affected by it. The one trip Willie skipped was after about a 4 minute stretch with no whistles. He was tired--as were several players at that junction. He was really dogging it. Cory was at the timer's table checked in about 45 seconds before the 8 minute break, but the next whistle didn't come until about the 5 minute mark. This was the junction of the game where both teams tried to run a few times. Cody has a lot to improve on this offseason. He has no post game to speak of and a guy of his size and quickness it is almost a shame. If even a couple of his 3' fall, we aren't having this conversation though. He just had a rough night shooting: 1-8 from behind the arc. Willie dominated the paint--period. He is getting more and more fun to watch. KM was KM--the best player on the floor as is the case more often than not. Conklin had some real good minutes. He had a few rough breaks under the basket with his shots not falling--a couple rimmed out on him. There is no denying his intensity and his leadership on this team. The energy level of the whole team goes up when he is on the floor. The best part last night was when KM got clobbered pretty good when they were fouling--Brian grabbed our guys and ran them away from what could have been an incident. He usually starts the incidents--great move on his part. Bottom line though, 3,500 people was very disapointing. It has been several months since the place was that empty. A bit embarrassing for what is supposed to be an up and coming program--one that is supposedly making their way into the big time. It did get loud on several occasions though. The 8:00 start is a bit tougher than 7:00 for sure. Where were the students?? How much do they charge for the students to get in?? What else are gonna do on a Tuesday night--play X-box? Terrible turn out. most the ususals who were there were great though--very energetic and rowdy. I must admit I didn't go to everygame when I was there, but I had to walk the the metrolink station and head to the Keil--as I will always call the place. I really hoped that we would have won by 20, but it was comfortable enough. We settled for outside jumpers when they switched to the zone at about the 5 minute mark and missed 5 in a row--very similar to the start of the second half--we missed 5 to start. If we had made even 2 of those after they went zone the game would have changed completely and we would have coasted to a double digit victory. Such is the state of Billiken basketball right now. Young and a bit inconsistant within the game. But they make it fun. Heres hoping word gets out about next monday and people come out and we put 7000 in the building. I was shocked by some of the over/under bets on Monday of 5,000--I definitely would have lost--big time. I also think this CBI is a statement expereince for our program. Winning the whole damn thing sends a big F-U to the NIT committee and says to college basketball community as a whole that watch-out we are for real and will be coming for all of you next year. Lets hope Rick can finally get someone of substance to play against us in the non-conference and we start conference play with an RPI in the top 50.

Go Xavier!! I obviously want the A-10 schools to do well. Plus Minnesota doesn't really deserve to be there in my opinion. Plus, I don't really feel like Xavier is our mortal enemy. Sure they are the top dogs that we aspire to be in our conference and during conference play it would be nice to see them lose a bit more often, but they are a great program that will continue to be so. I think they kind of got a rough draw with Pitt in the next round, but such is life in the tourney. We can only wish and look in from the outside. I also am very pationately rooting for Richmond to beat St. Mary's--from the Loe aspect of things--this of course assumes he still is deciding between St Mary's and us. Combined with the fact that they are a team we beat and they are in our conference--it is one of my easiest decisions as to who to root for in the first round. Villanova will be tough in 2nd round. Temple is the team with the best draw to get to the sweet 16 in my opinion (despite getting hosed with a 5 seed.) Cornell scares me more than Wisconsin. Cornell can shoot, they take care of the ball, are obviously intelligent, and if they get hot from outside--could be dangerous. Having to face KY is a tall order for anyone, but at this level everyone is going to be stupid good--just the way it is upposed to be. Again though, KY can be beaten--Temple beat 'Nova this season. So, anything is possible. To me this is not like rooting against the Cubs--which a a no brainer.

While on the subject of Recruiting, does anyone have any concrete info on LOE? St. Mary's making the dance and us getting kicked in the schnuts by the lowly NIT has me a bit worried that if he were on the fence between the two of us it may have swayed their way. Total specualtion on my part. Does anyone know anything? Loe would at the very least make WR better because of practicing against someone bigger than him on a regular basis. At the best, who knows? He could become a real force. We will all keep our fingers crossed about MM and DE. Hopefully these kids are as good as we hope they are. as for McLemore, he looks like he could be the real deal. The thing that impressed me the most was his assists. It showed me he has real basketball knowledge. Also, from a highlight real--you don't get to see how many bad shots he took to get all of those buckets. Apparently by his stats, not too many though. Obviously many, probably most of those baskets don't happen at the D1 level with much bettr defenders on him. He certainly isn't going to drive the lane for a dunk or lay-up like he did with ease against kids that are 6 inches shorter than him--D1 he is the short one in the paint. Remember JJ averaged 27 points a game in High School--about 22 less than he averaged this year (much less minutes of course, but you see my point.) Again , though he looks like a real solid player and it would be awesome to have him, but it doesn't appear to be in the cards. If you had the opportunity to go to, UNC, KY or even a Louisville, would you go to SLU? I refuse to list KS, because...well that is a whole other issue) I don't think so. No use crying over spilled milk.

You may be right. I never thought about that. Sounds a bit scary if you ask me. D1 will only be schools from the big six and everything else is D2 or some other name similar to what they did with football. The next 5 years are going to be interesting to see what happens to colleg sports. The BCS debacle has to end--sooner than later hopefully--there really is no reason for that awful system. Plus the rumors/facts that many of the major conferences (BE, B12, B10, Pac10) are looking to restructure and it may be a whole different landscape all together in a few years for all college sports--ofcourse driven by the money of football mostly and secondarily basketball.

ANyone hear it? Did he say anything outlandish?

Great questions and tons of good responses so far. Jon Smif ultimately has the most room to improve. As I have to agree he is probably the mostly purely atheltic player on the team--seriously wicked ups. Now can that be turned into great basketball skills? That is the question. He made great strides this year. If he hits the weight room and continues to work on his game, he can be a really good player--potentially all-conference in a year or two. Cody I think also has a ton of room to grow. We have seen what he has but now we will see what he can become. I think he can up his intensity level on both ends of the floor and become more than just an outside threat. If he can develop some balls skills and be able to take the ball to the basket and get to the line on a regular basis--watch out. Also, on the othe end--he is going to be guarding big men who play a totally different style of game than from where he came from. I am sure he is aware of the adjustments and weight room training he needs to do. Cory just needs to keep doing what he did this past year--keep getting better. He came a long way this year in his whole game. 20 more lbs and he will be a force. Combine that with his nice 12-15 footer and he will be very dangerous. WR hit the weight room and keep working on your game. His post game is miles ahead of where it was last year--keep that improving. He now has a nice lefty baby hook--keep working both hands and keep getting stronger. Of course, free throws--start over--completely abandon your current approach--get a new routine and practice it everyday from now until erternity. He had a great year and he still has more potential. CS--must become the shooter we all thought he was going to be. Plus tougher on the defensive end. Otherwise he may see his minutes suffer. Also work on ball handling so KM doesn't have to be the only player to bring the ball up the court against a press. KC--probaby our most improved player--(him or JS) Stay aggressive and he should be fine. Work on ball handling to spell KM agaisnt press would be a major plus. BC--Just keep working on the his skills. He can score and occasionally does so with a little flair. If he can continue to knock down mid range jumpers and stay healthy on the post he is a good player on the offensive end. He has toughness to spare and he needs to keep up the intensity which I dont see being even the slightest bit of a problem for him. He may not be a 15 point a game guy--ever, but he is a very solid player that can get you some points by design as well as some scrub-offensive glass buckets. Plus if WR can never hit a FT, he may be our go-too big down the stretch in close games. I think his biggest asset will be his ability to beat up on opposing bigs--especially if they are their go-to guy. He is quick enough and tough enough down low to hang with most bigs. JJ--his o game is just fine--keep his head in it on the D end and he will be fine. He must develop a comfort against the press like KM has. KM never has any problbems bringing the ball up the court, if JJ can get to that point too he iwll be a big asset to the team. Keep Shooting! I love his mentality on the offensive end. KM--I'm not sure what more we can expect him to do--except maybe get an assist or 2 more a game, but not a knock at all. He drove to the bucket to score and usually did. Again no problem with that. With our motion offense--it doesn't all go through him so the assists get spread around in the set offense. His shot from 3 got better as the season went along. If he continues to shoot well from outside and keeps driving to the bucket on a regualr basis--he is going to be fun to watch in the next couple of years if he improves even a little bit.

Anyone listening to this? I'm stuck at work.