slufan13

Grandy is developing a decent jump shot in practice. Not sure how that will translate to games.

You could be right. I wasn't able to make it to the open practice, but I've heard a couple things in the offseason: - Grandy was told that he can't just be the energy guy anymore and he put in major work in the offseason. - Lancona is a Cody-like player and is being personally mentored by CE while he is still here. Don't expect him to see Cody-type minutes or even play at that level but he should fill part of that role as a stretch 4. - Barnett is much improved. I think he'll see pretty good minutes this season. - Manning is looking good but he looked good last preseason too. He's playing with more confidence now though and he is being counted on to contribute. - Haven't heard much about Agbeko. Supposedly they really like what he can do both handling the ball, rebounding, and scoring, but he might not be up to speed with the college game for a while. - Evans, McCall, and Jett all improved all-around. McCall is taking better control of the offense. - The coaching staff loves what Crawford brings to the table but I'm not sure where the minutes are this season. I think he's going to be a really good player down the line. - I think Yacoubou is going to be a really good player next year, but I never know what to expect when a guy has to sit out a year. - McBroom is the fastest guy on the team and he's very aggressive shooting the ball. But I've heard that his defense is well behind what was expected of him. I wouldn't read this and expect it all to be completely accurate. It's just what I've heard through a couple of decent sources.

From what I hear, Lancona will see the most minutes out of the freshmen

Rothstein had almost the exact same tweet at this time last year.

Roeckle got hurt against UConn. Came out of that game early and hasn't played since. Don't know what the injury is. 05 might know. Manning got a little time against Central Arkansas too. Looks like he's just getting back into game shape. Hopefully he can be at full strength by the end of the season. Don't know anything about Lee but I'd guess he's hurt because we used about 6 subs last night and he obviously wasn't one of them. I don't see how you can go from a starter to not in the top 17. Hard to really get a feel for the game last night because we played the last 40 minutes a man down with the lead. Excited to see how conference play plays out. Non conference game @ VCU on Sunday and a game @ Louisville in late October. Other than that the schedule doesn't look too tough going forward. Dayton is undefeated but they haven't played anyone and we get them at home. Would like to see a top 16 seed again, but that will probably require winning at least the regular season A10 Title and a run in the A10 Tourney.

Being an insider, I can confirm that both will happen.

I was there. Skip wasn't again (at least that I saw). Hopefully he's ok

Tough to skip a class that meets once a week but if I have the permission of billikens.com, I think it'll be ok.

I have class til 9. Hoping to either leave early or catch the end. I'll be following the score. Sucks that I haven't missed a game in years but this is the one I have to miss.

These 3 pass for the sake of passing. They don't seem to have much of an intention to actually move the ball forward. Graydon did a lot of that too when he played defensive mid.

Roeckle injured. Kohring in along with Hildago. Twitter said Hildalgo started over Graydon but gametracker says Graydon started and Hildago came in for Ray Lee after Roeckle's injury

Looks like Graydon starting at outside mid. Ray Lee at CDM

We need a 3 point shooter. We finished 11th in the A10 in 3 pt % last year and still won the conference. Imagine what we could do if we had a knock down shooter or 2.

ESPN already released that schedule. We're not on it. I just assume they had incorrect information on the podcast or they meant regular ESPN/ESPN2

The double OT game vs Dayton a couple years ago was on ESPNU but I do believe this will be the first one on ESPN or ESPN2. Not sure if they said that

ummm? http://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24582#entry376839

Only reason we could lose at Vandy is because of that stupid court with the benches on the endlines. We're more talented and it's Christmas Break so I wouldn't expect a hostile environment although NH could tell me wrong. Wisconsin is pretty tough. Wichita St is tough but I like being at home. Also playing on the 1 year anniversary of Majerus' death. Maybe a little more to play for? Indiana St worries me a bit actually but we shouldn't lose.

Graydon shouldn't be playing defensive mid and he does push up sometimes, but I've seen him just pass the ball backwards to Tyler David way too many times. He may not be able to push forward constantly, but I'm so tired of seeing him actually go backwards with the ball when no one is around.

Dating back to last game we've scored 2 goals in roughly 220 minutes. Is Graydon still playing Defensive Mid? If so, that needs to change quickly. You can't always compare box scores but Cincinnati did beat Evansville 2-0. We beat Cincy 4-0. No reason why that game should have even gone to OT.

Hey there were probably 30 or so people....

Back on topic, underrated weekend for the Billikens. NIU is an underrated team in my opinion and it's the first of many Friday/Sunday weekends. Shouldn't have any trouble with Cincinnati on Friday. NIU beat Cincy 3-0 last week so it'll be interesting to see how we stack up against each team.

Not that anyone on here cares but I thought I'd mention that my alma matter Gibault High School (high school of Chris Braun if anyone wants to remember him) defeated local and national powerhouse SLUH in soccer tonight for the first time ever. Something like 20 straight losses so nice to get a win. Gibault had won 3 straight Illinois State Championships from 2005-2007 while I was there, but we never beat SLUH. Enrollment of 200 against an enrollment of 1400. Again I know you guys don't care but I had to tell someone.

It'll be alright

If Manning can come back, I wouldn't be surprised to see Tyler David play the CDM and and Graydon move up to CAM. I would be very happy with that lineup. It actually looked to me like Raymond Lee moved back to CDM in the 2nd half when Minors came in the game. Lee played some CB his freshman year and I know it's different, but at least he has some experience playing as a more defensive player. I kind of liked that lineup with Graydon up at CAM and Minors playing on the wing. He's got more speed than Lee in my opinion and he works well with Graydon. Graydon absolutely needs to push forward more even if he's playing the CDM. Pretty sure Sweetin just plays wherever he wants on the field. I know it's not really like that, but it's how it seems. I like Heskamp pushing up on the wing because he recovers extremely well, but he was too far in the middle of the field in my opinion last night. He might actually be the best on our team at putting in a cross from the endline. Him and Maglasang worked the give and go extremely well last year with Heskamp getting the ball at the endline and sending in a cross to Kingsley or Kirsto. I'd really like to see that him again this season especially with all the targets we have up top. Francisco has no business being out there. He must have shown something great during the Madrid trip because I see no reason for him to be playing. Adnan just doesn't get it and he's better served as a guy coming off the bench anyway with his speed especially against tired defenders. Kristo makes the rest of the team significantly better. He doesn't just "win" every header, but he flicks it on to a player in an attacking position. If Kristo gets the ball in the box, he's going to get space for a shot and if he gets space for a shot, it's going in. Agree that I would have hoped to see some freshmen at least get a look at the end of the game. It's early in the season but I do somewhat worry about the depth on the team. Kohring seems to be set as the outside mid that comes in late in the game with the lead. He did that last year and in both games this season. Hildago has some experience and I'd like to see him out there more as sub but not sure who he comes in for in the midfield. None of us like Francisco and I know Adnan can score, but he's a senior now and he still doesn't get it so. I do like Jair Minors coming in on the wing and I'd even be okay with him starting. Also I assume the preseason games don't count but Graydon does have 3 yellow cards in 3 games. So even if he just has 1 so far on the season, we certainly don't need him accumulating the cards and having to sit out a game. The card last night was an awful decision by the ref, but he's still getting too many cards in my opinion whether they're for reckless fouls or for constant arguing.

http://www.highschoolcube.com/highlight/reggie-s-dunk-on-st-thomas-mor-32233