Billiken4life5

5 point swing as conk misses a bunny off a great pass and RI hits a three at the other end...missed layups kill you

I could be wrong but I remember last year's Mardi Gras game against Dayton being an afternoon start...3 pm?

As far as Rick taking the blame...off the top of my head I can think of him saying he's an idiot for not playing Paul more against Georgia, that it was dumb to schedule the Duke game right before finals, and that he worked the kids too hard over one stretch (I believe Christmas break). I think Rick has made his share of mistakes this year but there is still very few coaches I'd rather have at the helm than him. With losing WR and KM though I'm not sure anyone could have coached this team to a winning season.

Turnovers are discouraging but a 32-23 edge on the boards is great to see especially with Cody out. Also winning the pts in the paint battle

Anyone have another video stream for the game? I'm not getting the link in the other thread to work.

+1

I think a lot of the frustration about KC comes from his inconsistent play. The guy shows flashes of being a great player (great defender and passer, good shooting stroke, and enough size to drive to the basket) but he doesn't have the aggressiveness to do it consistently. He constantly teases fans with short spurts of great play. I wasn't able to watch but first half of the GW game sounds like another example. At times he looks like he can be a go to guy but he refuses to try to take on that role. The Dayton game at home last year kind of epitomizes him. The first half he was horrid. He clanked several layups and had several turnovers. And as a team we score I believe 17 pts. The second half he comes out stroking it and shoots us back in the game from beyond the arc. KM banked in the long one for the tie but KC jumpstarted that comeback.

Hard to say whether losing KM or WR has hurt us worse but imo we win the Portland, MO State, and Rhode Island games with WR because rebounding killed us in all three games.

I think KC will probably be all conference this year. Then next year I could see CE, KM, and WR all being all conference.

We are getting progressively worse. Loe just scored his first points of the game and he was supposed to be one of the biggest recruits in SLU history. Frustrating

Obviously understand your point that you can't play someone who's not producing but it seems as if kids these days have a different mind set. Competition used to bring the best out of kids but now sometimes kids only well if they're comfortable that they'll get our minutes. Several posters have mentioned that Rick has had a quick hook whenever a player makes a mistake this year and that could be causing some of our players to play not to make a mistake rather than playing to win. I think at some point you have to figure out your top players and stick with them through the good times and the bad times. It seems to me like one of the problems with this team is that the roles aren't very well defined (very much a result of losing KM and WR). For example, if there's ten seconds left and we're down two who are we going to? Or who's our starters and who are our role players? We know PE is a sparkplug off the bench and to an extent we know Conklin is a bruiser but besides that no one seems to sure.

I'm not usually one to question Rick because of all the success he's had but there have been some things this year that have made little sense to me. I don't understand our lack of zone defense when it could help us make up for our small size inside. Packing the middle in a zone could help our rebounding but Rick has never been a zone coach. The offense is more perplexing to me. It doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of rhythm to it and whenever a team zones us we just pass the ball around the perimeter until we turn it over or the shot clock gets low. I was at Bowling Green Saturday and whenever we were actually able to get it to the high post Conklin and Evans were able to do some good things. Our offense against man seems too dependent on ball screens for a team that doesn't have a whole lot of guys who can finish at the rim. Nothing seems like it is in unison. Like we'll have one guy setting a screen to free up someone else but our other three guys are standing around allowing the defense to help off easily. The thing I can't figure out is this team's shooting, in particular the Aussies. Ellis, Loe, and Christian were all supposed to be great shooters and other than Cody last year I just don't see it. Maybe the athleticism of defenders here is getting to them but I think a lot of it is probably mental and they've lost some confidence from playing for Majerus because they've never played for a coach that is this hard on them. Hopefully they find their shot and come out of this year mentally stronger.

Thought the same thing

I heard they were both on campus and practicing today but planning to redshirt...you would think SLU would make some sort of announcement if this was true though....but we've expected slu to say something before and it hasn't happened..

I wonder if Kwamain played this semester if he could take enough classes over the summer to get back on schedule to graduate...I would agree that if Willie is readmitted and does play, which is a huge if, KM would have a hard time watching the Bills start to get on a roll without him.

In terms of recruiting if you can get 3 quality players out of a class it's a good year and if you can get 4 I would call it a great year. So if you look at our classes: Juniors: KC, KM, WR all above average players. BC can be a valuable role player if he's backing up quality bigs. So overall I would say this class is a success. Sophs: Verdict is still out. I would say CE and Jake Barnett are the keys. Everyone's down on Cody but when's the last time we had a frosh average double digits like he did last year? I think eventually he gets back to being a prime time player. This year has shown Cory Remekun isnt ready to be a scorer in D1 but he would also be a valuable body off the bench. Also he's so young he still has time to develop. CS has definitely regressed and hasn't shown many signs of life lately. If Jake Barnett is as good as Majerus and us expect then this class is at worse average. If JB isn't as great as we think and Cody doesn't pick it up then this class is pretty poor. Think we would have all liked to seen another quality big in this class but just can't make a ruling on this class yet. Frosh: Looks like we have four guys that can really play and will be fun to watch for four years. They look like four guys that could be the core of an A-10 championship team. I'd say 2 out of 3 years Rick has done very well and hard to tell the other year.

+1 Last year's team was pretty average until the break when we got Cody and finally had a legitimate third scoring option. Although we have a better supporting cast this year around KM and WR if they come back we still need Cody to be a double digit scorer if we want to be top 2 of the A10/ncca team

Forgot which ESPN analyst it was but one of them said that a good boy's high school team could beat a WNBA team. Take it for what it's worth

+1 for the leadership skills. KM is obviously a very good player but I think the intangibles he brings to the table is something this team is desperately missing right now. A steady hand in crunch time and clutch shots might have given this team a few more wins already.

high scoring, good offensive rebounding, veteran team...sounds like our worst nightmare..

Awfully small lineup with all three of the pgs in but imagine trying to guard all that quickness when were on offense...

I'm a soph so wasn't around for Kwamain's frosh year. I was wondering how people thought JJ/MM compare to Kwamain as a frosh. RM's comparison of MM to Kwamain with a jumpshot is what brought this to mind for me.

Intentional fouls whenever a player is shoved in the back has really been a point of emphasis for refs the last two years so even tho it wasn't particularly dangerous not surprised at all to see it called. Regardless, Tinsdale's decision was what cost Illinois the game not the call. He lets him go it's a three point game with thirty seconds left. Even if it hadn't been an intentional it would have been a four point game and Mizzou hit their last few free throws. But whenever you sub as little as Illinois did and play a game at the pace Mizzou does your players are going to be exhausted at the end of the game and tired players make stupid decisions.

Board, CHRISTMAS HAS COME EARLY. All we wanted was this year to finally be the year we break into the ranks of the elite but according to MO state fans we are already there. I love my bills but calling a win over us beating an elite team just screams that your team doesn't beat many good teams.

oh so tempting...