bsheldon

What a great win for a young team. Great growing experience. Now if we could we could have stopped anyone from driving to the basket and force just perhaps one jumper it wouldn't have been close. To the point. Who do you give the game ball to. KM is the easy choice. However both KC and CE--he is the real deal, played extremely well. I gotta give it to KC. He had a great game and hit some open shots and drove to the basket--showing the aggressivness we have been begging him to show. My vote, Kyle Cassity.

hell yeah!!

still no sound on the channelsurfing.net stream. The local radio fed through Duquene's home page is ok--but about 30 seconds behind, but not as far off as 101. I keep switching trying to find if one of them will sync up.

thanks again. good to know. I am off and headed home to watch the bills on this stream Go Bills.

Road woes are a thing of the past. It is the beginning of a new era of Billiken Basketball. Bills by 7. CS finds his shot and is money from the line down the stretch to ice it. Breakout game: 14 pts. BC loved being "the" go to big last game is out to keep his minutes up and puts up another superb game with 8pts 7rb. WR plays with real fire in his belly after sitting a game and is a machine, 7-9 from the floor with 12 boards and 17pts. CE does a little bit of everything again 6 boards, 3 assists, 12 pts--truly a solid player KM realizes he doesn't have to score everytime he touches the ball and has an assist bonanza as the other guys start making shots. He still scores when he wants to almost seemingly at will as there is more space in the offensive end. 11pts, 8 assists. Feel free to dog the ever livin' hell out of this tomorrow if I am wrong. Go Bills.

Thanks guys ofr the channelsurfing link. I like hearing the game on the radio, but unlike baseball where it is just fine, basketball needs to been seen. I hope the stream is decent quality. Has anyone used it before?

Bauman: Excellent post. I agree with everything you said with the possible exception bing the "(and will never be)." I for one hope you are wrong in this one regard. I have had this conversation with others before and I see no reason why SLU can't be a Xavier, Cincinnati, Louisville, Georgetown, Memphis, Pitt type program. Obviously, not Duke, NC, Kentucky, and as much as it pains me, Kansas type program based on history, rabid fan support and reputation. Again, I am not so foolish as to think we will contend for a national championship in the next couple years and stay in contention year after year, but I am hoping we become regulars in the big dance (ala Dayton) and occasionally make some noise once there. Perhaps a sweet 16 or a freak elite 8 run--why not? It is fun to dream. Again great post--I too am excited about the program's future based on the talent we currently have and the talent that is incoming.

Actually, I am pretty sure that was one of the main points of my original post--WR, KM and CE ARE stellar talents. We just don't currently have others that fit the "stellar" monicker, or any other word you want to use for exceptional, as of yet. Yes, we have a solid group of players that all contribute positively, and hopefully they will all continue to get better and may yet become "stellar" players in the next few years. I see a lot of potential. However, besides WR, KM, and CE I don't see any of the others guys getting much palying time for any of the teams in the top 25--which I assume is the common goal of most fans. I may be wrong on that. Some of you/us may very well be happy muddling along in mediocrity hovering around an rpi of 100-150 and missing all post-season year after year despite having a fancy new building and a highly touted, respected, and proven coach running things. Again, I am just hopeful we get better and the way to become a top program is to continue to bring in new players that compete for floor time year after year. By all indications RM has/is doing that--a very good sign of things to come in the near and distant future. As I see it, right now is a great time to be a Billiken fan. We are (fingers crossed) on track for another winning season--and potentially a winning conference record with a shot at making some noise in the conference tourney. Plus as we have discussed extensively, we have a whole bunch of young players that continue to improve every game, and by all accounts, we have yet another good recruiting class coming in (potentially great if Loe comes and lives up to the hype.)

Clock tower: Fair enough. That sounds right. I have just been so eager for RM to bring in some really stellar talent I hope for too much and set my expectations a bit too high I guess. +1 on the JR situation.

Tonka--brilliant stuff (liking johnsons and sucking up the stench) BTW--the trade lingo for bath or exhaust fans is a "fart fan" if that give you any ammo. JMM28--the funniest thing I have read in long time. (the towel comment)

Boyaa--thanks. Tourist and others: I am sorry if the tone of the original post came off mean spirited--it was not intended as that. I thought I was pretty clear that I really like current group we have and am excited to see them progress. I also didn't mean that CS has no value beside being friends with CE. He has progressed nicely. Again, though I just wish he could knock down a few more 3's a game--20% isn't exactly anythng to write home about. I was real high on him before the season and kept telling my friends to watch out for him. (I was having Highmark and Clagget flashbacks with threes dropping in from everywhere this side of half court.) That may be my fault to have had such high expectations for him, but he is not shooting well. I love the fact that we have one guy who is money from the line though and he is VERY valuable in that role. I hope to see him stay too. I simply meant I didn't see anyway that he is going to leave. I know I may have worded it poorly. Another thing I would like to point out about our young guys is this: I saw Willie last year and almost immediately said--that kid is going to awesome in two years if he starts eating, hits the weight room and sticks with it. Sometimes you can just tell when a player has it or not. I haven't really had that same level of excitement about any of freshman besides CE this year. Of course there are exceptions and I am hoping mightily that we have a whole batch of them right now--guys that are not great in their first year or two, but turn into great players by their Jr and Sr years--again fingers crossed. I see absolutely no harm to the program in recruiting players that will immediately challenge for playing time. Isn't that the whole point? Why would we purposely recruit players worse than the ones we have? It hasn't panned out well for the Rams. Plus having real good players competeing for floor time does two additional poistive things for the program. It makes everone put out absolutely 100% effort and it makes the guys you practice against everyday on the scout team that much better. It's a win-win. Again, my expectations or more correctly, what I was lead to believe by the Majerus hiring is that Biondi was serious about being a big-time program. That is what is takes--recruiting, recruiting, recruiting. You could give the worst 1st year middle school coach 8 all americans and he is going to destroy any coach in america who is coaching D2 pine riders. You have to have talent to win at the highest level. Did anyone see the link in here about the turnover of players at Kentucky? Calipari's record shows he knows how to win. Of course I am not saying that this is what I want to have happen, but there may be some collteral damage along the way. Again, I know it sucks--big time for those players. I don't want anyone to be forced off the team, but rules are rules and you are only allowed so many scholarships and I think some may leave on their own accord if they see no way to get any court time. And then there are the wildcards, like injuries and players that quit or transfer for any number of reasons. I really do like our current players and do hope to see them all playing together 3 years from now, but I don't know, nor does anyone, if that is going to get us where we all want to be--a perenial sweet 16 team.

I have read quite a bit about Rob Loe on this board. Any news? Are we still in a holding pattern until spring? Anyone heard anything about Jake Kreuser? (6'11" kid from Minnesota) I stumbled on him while cruising Rivals. Evans and McCall are for sure correct? If we get those 4 to come in with what we currently are working with, it is looking like it is a good time to be a Billiken fan. Yes, I know that if we have 4 more scholarship players coming in--some current players have to go. I know it sucks for the kids--majorly, but that is the price of running a winning program. I do not think this is a huge deal though. As much as I truly do like the kids we have now, there are several that are not lighting the world on fire that I will be sad to see go, but understand them leaving for the good of the program. Besides Willie, Mitchell, and Ellis, I don't see any absolute "can't lose" players or even players that will be that hard to replace their productivity. I think Salecich stays just by default for Ellis and potentially Loe. Fingrs crossed he finds his stroke. Femi and Cassity are both solid players, but neither is a a world beater and hopefully the kid from Chicago can take their minutes from day one. JJ is a scorer--in high school, but D1 is a whole other level. Sure he can shoot the ball, as great as he was, 5'9" is tough to overcome when you are usually guarded by a 6'3" guy that is just about as quick as you are. Plus he isn't very long, like Kwamaine appears to be. Smith is almost still too young and green to say a whole lot about--problem is he is kind of a "tweener." He is "only" 6'5". He doesn't appear to have the ball skills or quickness of a guard or even a 3 and is a bit small in every direction to play down low with the big boys. Of course I haven't seen him practice day in and day out in person to see what kind of athleticism he truly has. He may be a a raw talent that Rick really likes, but it hasn't really shown up on the stat sheet yet. Cory is a real nice player, not great at anything, with the possible exception of shot blocking, but not noticeably bad at anything. He may be aother the is still coming into his own, but as of yet isn't lighting up the stat sheet by putting the ball in the hoop. Conklin plays with a ton of passion and does a lot of hard work on both ends, but is similar to Cory in that he doesn't have any major flaws that I have seen, but also doesn't appear to have any major outstanding skills either. I am not too sure how much better he can get. Then there is the Jeff Reid situation. Sad. Keep your fingers crossed. We got good news recently that he is back in town. There for a while he couldn't do much of anything. Will he play again? Who knows. Someone else said he looks like the playyer we all hoped Cassity would be. Again, any news on his recovery? I can't see him playing at all this season and medical redshirt may be in his future if Rick truly thinks he is that good. Again, I am not trying to dog any of our current players as I am truly excited about the rest of this season. (after Saturday's victory--I was mortified after the BG debacle) I am really excited about what is to come in the next 2-3 years--especailly if these recruits pan out. Plus having try outs at the beginning of the season only makes the team better--again, rough on some, but it is the way of the capitalist and competitive world that leads to deep NCAA runs.