bsheldon

Predicting what this team is going to do is tough--although not quite as tough as it was prior to CE arriving. Early in the season and prior to the Bowling Green debacle I had hopes for 9-7 in conferencce and an overall record of 18-12. I was a spineless weasel and upset at that point and made a bet with a friend that we wouldn't/couldn't win anywhere near that many games with 14 being the winning number for him. I have already lost that bet. Then CE arrived and we have been a whole other team. I have erased that BG game from my memory. My buddy and I have re-bet (double or nothing) and I am looking good for it. We only need 16 wins for me to win. At this point I am pretty confident in my early season predictions. 4-4 from here on out (which means we have to beat one of the upper echelon teams at least once) and an overall record pre tourneys of 18-12 keeping RM's streak of never having a losing a season alive.

I know it is a "what if" statement, but it is interesting to think about. We have 3 conference losses--two of which were overtime losses on the road--both of which we should have won. How sweet would a win in Charlotte look now after what they have gone on to do? Anyway, my point is: We are coming along very nicely. Lets hope we can learn quickly how to hang on to a lead and win. If we can pull out a few more games down the stretch and get hot come conference Tourney time--who knows maybe we can make some noise there. Granted we have a BRUTAL schedule the rest of the way. Finishing .500 in the remaining 8 games would be quite an accomplishment. The team just seems to keep getting better and better. With essentially the entire team back next year and at least 2 very talented Freshman coming in, next year is looking like it is going to be real, real fun. Now lets hope we can schedule some decent OOC games early in the season to help test us early and boost our RPI for a solid positioning for the 2011 Dance.

Thanks. That is what I understood to have happened.

Sorry if this is/was covered in another thread. I did see elswhere a couple of days ago where someone listed when the fouls happened for the CS and the Bonnie player (forgot his name.) A buddy of mine just called from the road and said that Slaten was raving about it on 590 right now. My buddy is coming home from Rolla so reception was going in and out. He called me--expecting me to know what is going on, and I don't have a clue. Slaten is saying that the Bonnies supposedly had two guys foul out incorrectly instead of just the one who scored all of the points late in the game?? Does anyone have anymore info on what really went down?

"we are ahead by 10-15 points and there are 8 minutes left in the game and instead of milking the lead down to KM taking the final shot to see if we win how about we continue to try and outscore the other guys for 5 more minutes and run the score up to our advantage by 20?" Gos--excellent quote. In the GW game in particular we allowed them to push us out further and further away from the basket as we initiated the Offense. This just lead to us passing the ball around on the perimetr for 30 seconds and then heaving up a prayer as the shot clock expires. Once maybe even twice is forgiveable, but they had to do it what seemed like 10 times in a row. We will learn to put teams away and how to win games as we mature. Hopefully we pull out a couple of upsets in the coming the weeks (brutal stretch of the schedule) and finish strong in Conference Tourney. I'm already excited about next year.

I think we go undefeated at the Fetz the rest of the way with our only remaining losses to Dayton and Richmond on the road to finish the conference schedule at 13-3. Someone had mentioned this ridiculously lofty record several weeks ago and it was looked upon as crazy stupid and silly dreaming la-la land. I was one of those whose said outright no way in the world do we finish anywhere close to that. Now I am hopeful that it IS possible--though unlikely. At the beginning of the year or even at the beginning of conference play--right after the Bowling Green debalce and pre CE and pre Jon Smif--he was still Jon Smith then, I thought .500 in conference would be a stretch and a GREAT performance. No longer. 9-7 is the worst we should finish and that assumes losses at home. We beat Richmond at the Fetz and we keep getting better by the day--probalby at a higher rate of improvement than other teams due to our age and the CE adjustments. So, anything is possible. Again, I am hopeful of a 10+ conference win season and a deep run in the tourney. Who knows we could win the stinking thing and punch a ticket to the dance. It is just one 4 game hot streak. We average enough open look misses in a game to beat anyone if even half of those start falling. Again I am rooting for a 13-3 finish until that is no longer possible and then I will be on the 12-4 bandwagon and so on. Go Bills.

Fair enough. There were some NBA prospect talk on here early in the seson. Hence, the reason for my reply.

Let's not get out of hand w/ WR. He is talented for sure and a very goot big man to build a program around, but he not ready for the show quite yet--he needs at least 2 more years of development, weight room, and time at the table to even be considered for the big time. That is a whole other level of size, strength and talent. WR is not on the level of those in discussion here. Again, I really like Willie and am one of his biggest fans, but lets be a bit realistic here, at least for another year or two--fingers crossed.

I'm with Billikan on this. Great post slufanskip. I couldn't agree more.

I'll take holding them to 90 as long as we have 91 at the end of the game. Obviously, not going to happen, but I really don't care what we hold them to. Defense hasn't really been our problem--putting the ball in the hoop has been. We are getting better at scoring by the day so lets hope for a solid game in the 60-70 point range with a comfortable margin of victory. My prediction 64-56 Bills. With them closing the double digit lead in the last 2 minutes by putting us on the line. Heck, we held Charlotte to 52 points in regulation and they averaged over 80 a game at home at that point. Expecting us to hold GW to a low score is probable: under 60 is likely, under 50 maybe under 40 unlikely, under 30 extremely doubtful, under 20 fugetabowtit. Again as long as we hit our open looks we should be good.

Awesome! Thanks. Lets hope we have sound for this one. And would a picture that is actually watchable too much to ask for? I guess, it is free. Again thanks for the info. I'll be in front of the laptop for sure.

Let's hope everyone does here on out and skywalker smif coninues to get better by the day. I think GW might start to figure it out after his 4th eyelevel visit to the rim dunk.

nh, In what ways is it innacuarate--besides the prediction of GW by one? SLU will win this one by 8 pts. It seemed rather spot on--it left a few things out like the fact that CE can hit a 3 with the best of them. Perhaps they haven't seen KC in the last few games drive to the hoop--but still it's point is valid. And CR dies have a nice little 10-15ft jumper, but it isn't like he gets 5 of those a game.

The A-10 is the best option right now for the Bills--by far. Barring some imaginary conference the A-10 is where we need to stay. Yes there are issues with the conference for sure, but it is WAY better than the Valley. Rivals.com did their braket predictions and FIVE A-10 are on the list. How many Valley teams you ask? One. The mandated conference champ. I do feel that MUCH more needs to be done from a marketing standpoint with the A-10. The conference had some excellent wins this year--the national press ahs picked up on it a bit. The A-10 is basically the best 1 or 2 non-big Six basketball conferences in the country. I feel they need to market themselves as such. THE basketball conference. It would make recruiting a bit more easy--the star baksetball players at these schools are the school heros--because most of the schools don't have football. It was just a random on the fly thought, but you get the idea of where I am going. There needs to be more marketing of the A-10. Heck most people here in St Louis had never heard of Richmond and still don't realize that Mizzou lost to them and that we beat them. I took some friends to the Fordham game and they had never heard of them--neither did I for that matter until a few years ago--same can be said for several of the conference teams. Agian, there needs to be more effort made to get the word out about how good of a BASKETBALL conference the A-10 is. Obviously what will help the most is improvements to some of the schools' prgrams. It is really a divided conference with really good teams at the top with good facilities and really bad teams at the bottom with really bad facilities. SLU needs to be on TV more. Channel 11 should carry all of theri games. Winning will hopefully bring that soon. As far as SLU's travle schedule goes--tough. Deal with it. It is part of the job. I understand Rick wants it to be better, but take a look at teams out west--RM should know, they travel just as far geographically as we do to go to their conference games. They might get charted flights, I don't know, I do understand his position on this, but he needs to not make it public. It seems like whining, or even bad mouthing your own conference. Neither is helpful. BTW RI is one of the teams doing right by themselves and the conference. If the rest of the programs were at that level, I don't think the trvel thing would be nearly as big of an issue.

doowop, as thicks pointed out he hit one last night--I think the only one he shot from the elbow--a nice 16 footer and I keep thinking there was another one from the wing, but am not 100% sure. Regardless he has done is several times this season. As far as looking uncomfortable--1 possession I recall vividly--I had a great view. He had a guy on his left hip and all he needed to do was spin to his left hand, and power it up for an easy deuce. Instead he spun to his right hand--right back into the defender and it brought in help from that side as well and he tried to elevate and fade above both guys--he was short with his shot as it was challeged. Maybe uncomfortable isn't the correct term--how about "fluid." But I think that is fair to say about all of our guys down low--even Willie. He is a good athlete with great dimensions, but he isn't quite silky smooth in all of his moves down low yet--it is coming. 2 more years of practice and time in the weight room will help also. Willie puts up some awkward shots from time to time--especially when the d pushes him away from the rim a bit.

That would suck-especially to a program like St Mary's--a fine program that is having a great season right now, but not exactly a perenial sweet sixteen school. If we lose him to a Kentucky, FL, Syracuse, etc (even AZ or Pitt) that is one thing, but to a program at similar or lower level than us would be tougher to swallow. Fingers crossed.

Keep up the good work--the aluminum foil was hilarious. The guy I go to games with is an ex D1 player (he played in the big dance 2 years) and he said the usual yelling and arm waving stuff never did a darn thng to him. I asked about the peek-a-boo technique and he wasn't so sure that he wouldn't be at least a little distracted by it. BTW he shot 84% from the line for his career. Again good stuff--keep it coming.

As much as I too like some "light-skin-throwin-it-in" also, I would much rather see a Jon the "antigravitaionalist" Smif throw it dow simply because he has farther up to go than Cody and he appears to get higher. Plus he seems to hang up there for a while--wicked ups. Heck if you really want to get nit picky JS kind of qualifies as "light skin" too if you really want to push skin BS. The fellas could be purple with green dots, if they can throw it in, I am a happy man. It is a change from Spoon years for sure. I remeber the year ESPN came to campus for Midnight Madness (maybe '95 or 96?) and some of the guys were trying to dunk mini-balls for the camera and were failing in West Pine. There wasn't a player on the team that could dunk back then. Our bigs were like 6-4 and stocky and our guards didnn't have the ups. Times have changed. I am sure we have by far more than can than can't now.

Agreed. I had a guy at work over hear myself and my usual fellow Billiken fan chatting it up like usual and he joined in for the first time--because it was on CH 11 last night. Not a bad game to have on either--it made us look real good to a casual fan. I doubt Joe Public knows how bad of a team Fordham is. Plus there was a decent crowd and the students need to be applauded for not only showing up in good numbers but for being creative and a bit rowdy--good stuff for sure. I loved the peek-a-boo free throw technique--it worked too they were lights out from the line at the other end of the floor in the first half. It was greatly appreciated and something SLU basketball can use more of.

For the record, we THOUGHT he was going to play the whole year early last year. Obviously that didn't happen and we were not sure he was going to get cleared for this semester (if at all) until about a week before it acutally happened--a whole 3 weeks ago. Heck, we weren't sure he was coming at all this time last month--there was speculation that he may say screw college and play pro in his homeland. Plus, we didn't know if he passed his classes or if he scored high enough on tests or whatever until about this time last month. But I do get you point that his was ordered with everyone else's and that Walk-ons obviously can't be ordered at the same time. Thanks for you patience and for answering this trivial question that truly has nothing at all to do with how well the team is playing.

Fair enough. I understand things take time and have to go through proper channels for $$ and also branding and liscencing issues, but it is still a bummer that he was singled-out and excluded. He works just as hard as everyone else--perhaps harder in the early going just to ensure a spot on the team, and I for one feel he should have just as official jersey as the rest of the team--complete with his name on the back.

So how many months does Darren have to be on the team until he a jersey with his name on it? He has been in all the team literature since the beginning of the season--unlike Cody. Again, not getting a jersey ordered or not "being able to" doesn't really hold water as a reason. There are numerous screening places in St Louis alone to get a name put on a jersey. Is there a real reason or rule that anyone knows of as to why he doesn't? If we don't know we don't know.

I would buy that if Cody Ellis was still wearing a generic Jersey, but he had his name on his a few days after his plane landed. Plus i guarantee that I (or anyone capable of using a search engine or even opening a phone book) can find someone to put his name on jersey in a matter of hours. If that truly is the reason, it is pretty lame. I am sure Darren was thrilled and could probably care less, but it just looked bad--especially to a couple of guys that i brought to their first Billikens game who are huge Mizzou fans and I have been trying to tell them that we are not a second rate program, and then, bam, a guy steps on to the court in a jersey that could be bought in the fan store. Again, I personally don't think it matters one bit, but it is just a bit odd and there has to be a real reason besides we couldn't get it made or ordered or some other lame excuse. It might actually be a rule of some sort--if it is that is what it is, I would like to know.

Is there any reason why? It seems like that would be cheap--Heck they are already giving $40,000ish to the scholarship players we can't buck up the $10 to get his name put on the jersey for a kid that is working just as hard as the rest of the team? I don't know it just seems poor taste. I heard it commented on in the stands by a couple of people.

Excellent point. You may be on to something there.