Aquinas

Reggie Agbeko and Crawford are an inch shorter than originally advertised. Still a nice sized recruiting class. I can't wait to see Reggie and Tanner on the floor. Newbies: Achraf Yacoubou - 6’4” 210 (Transfer sits out this yr.) Mike Crawford – 6’4” 200 Reggie Agbeko – 6’7” 240 Tanner Lancona – 6’8” 230 Austin McBroom - 5’9” 165 (Transfer plays this yr.) Mike McCall - 6’0” 180 Jordair Jett - 6’1” 216 Jake Barnett 6’5” 205 Dwayne Evans 6’6” 230 Grandy Glaze - 6’6” 235 Rob Loe 6’11” 245 John Manning 6’11” 240

Evans has great footwork and he is quick. But u don't see him dunk with ease. Like Conk before him he is a great student of the game and is getting the absolute most out of his athletic skills.

Martin is listed on some services as a power forward. Looking at Martin's highlight video, it looks like he has the range and ball handling skills to play small forward, if he is quick enough to defend at that position. It doesn't take much imagination to envision him developing into a player like Evans with more hops and greater range. With time in the weight room and our coaching staff developing his inside game and defensive skills, he could be a beast.

Great answers! I am looking forward the first broadcast - can't wait to see how the new guys look on the floor. If we can win at that pit at VCU, we will be ready for the NCAA.

Did you hear anything back from Stinson? Mark

Crews said he can play a couple of positions for the Bills. I assume he is talking 2 gaurd and small forward. There won't b many minutes available in those spots this year, if everyone stays healthy. He could red shirt and take a year to put some muscle on that frame. He can be our next small forward, with the ability to stretch the defence with his 3 point shots, go inside and dunk. He is a gamer n natural scorer. I love the ability of these incoming players to get above the rim. All 3 can take an allyoop pass n slam it home. Something we didn't see last year. It is a good time to be a Billike n fan.

Joseph Young is a 6'2" shooting guard who was a 4 star recruit. Just finished his sophomore year, averaged 18 points per game last season for the Cougars while shooting 42 percent from three-point range and 87 percent from the free throw line. There is some question about whether or not he will have to sit out a year. He had to sit out a year after commiting to Providence and changing his mind to attend Houston. He would be an awesome addition. I don't have any feel for his defence.

I know Glaze is listed as 6'6", but he has always looked shorter than that or maybe just plays shorter than that. He seems to have the speed to gaurd a 3 on the parimeter. He might also do better posting up against a 3, though he hasn't shown any kind of shooting range. Maybe he will get some time at the 3 spot with Crawford in the 14/15 season. Otherwise he really looks like the odd man out.

So if there is a 9 man rotation it looks like 5 guards: Jett, McCall, McBroom, Barnett and Evans. Crawford needs to build a division 1 body. He will see little time behind Evans and Barnett, so I think he is a good candidate for a redshirt season. That leaves 4 big men: Loe, Manning, Glaze, and Lancona This is the area that will be interesting in the preseason and early season. The problem is Glaze seems limmited in what he can do, Lancona is a freshman, Manning is untested and Loe sometimes gets into quick foul trouble. If you bring Agbeko into the mix, you have a 10 man rotation and another freshman. Is the hand writing on the wall for Glaze or will he improve his game? Will these freshmen be able to make significant contributions their first year? If you go with a 9 man rotation, even with Crawford redshirting, one of these big men will sit.... Which one is it?

Post Article Ash Yacoubou, a 6-foot-4 guard who played two seasons at Villanova, said Saturday night he is transferring to St. Louis U. “I’m proud to say that I’m a St.Louis Billiken we’re gonna work hard and win big!!!” he tweeted. Yacoubou will have two seasons left and be eligible to play in 2014-15. It’s possible by then that SLU will be in the Big East Conference, where Yacoubou used to play. Yacoubou, who’s from the Bronx in New York, played in 31 games for the Wildcats last season and averaged 2.9 points. He shot 21 of 53 (39.6 percent) on 3-pointers. In his two seasons, he started three times. He had his biggest numbers in a game against Penn last season, scoring 13 points with six rebounds. (Tom Timmermann)

Ash Yacoubou “I averaged the highest 3-point percentage and field goal efficiency and was the best defensive player on the team and I also played well against Louisville and Syracuse and when I played 25 minutes I led the team in points and rebounds,” he said. Yacoubou was a three-star recruit and has been solid, but not a star for Villanova. He improved his shooting percentage from 33% to 42% and three-point percentage from 26% to 39% this season. Yacoubou also averaged 2.6 rebounds per game in only 12 minutes, which would equate to about eight per game over 36 minutes. -------------------- Yacoubou averaged just 12.0 minutes this season as a sophomore, up from 10.6 as a freshman, but he didn't play many minutes in the Big East tournament and did not play at all against UNC in the NCAA Tournament. He hit a high of 25 minutes in a December game against Penn, scoring a team high 13 points and grabbing a team high 6 rebounds, but after playing 21 minutes at Syracuse, his time began to dwindle. He did not play at all against Seton Hall and played single-digit minutes in all but one game after February 1st. He averaged 2.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 39.6% from beyond the arc (but just 50% from the free-throw line). Just saw this in the post: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/other/slu-picks-up-transfer-from-villanova/article_24396260-4e08-518d-bede-3aba9b9d42fb.html

We expect high standards from our coach, players and everyone associated with the Saint Louis University Billikens. I also believe that we should have high standards on our team Message Board. I love this board and for many, many years, it was the only source of information on our Billikens, especially for a guy like me who lives out of town. I have noticed that over the last couple of years and especially this past year, the language has become very trashy. It is almost impossible to find a page, let alone a thread that is not laced with foul language. The language filters are a joke. We should also keep in mind, that there are no age requirements for this board, so there are young Billiken fans reading this board. I would first like to ask posters to use some class and clean up their posts. The foul language doesn’t add anything to the content of a post. If this fails, I would like to ask the moderators to remove posts or posters who are working around the intended language filter. So I respectfully challenge the members and moderators of this board to raise the standards and reflect the same class that we expect of our Billikens.

Did Crews talk about Crawford as a 2 or a 3 guard? Does anyone think he is quick enough to be a 2 gaurd?

Is this cool aide or is this real? I love your comments and the highlight videos on Tanner. As others have stated he looks like a more athletic version of Cody. I think he will play right away, in part because of his skill set and in part because of the offensive hole that Cody left behind. He also fits our system like a glove. We should just keep in mind that Tanner is a rookie who has been playing against smaller and slower competition - Though your comments about him against top high school players is very encouraging. To succeed, he will not just need his offensive skills, but need to learn where to be on the floor and anticipate what is going to happen next, especially when playing defense. Just a hair late, a little confused or a little fatigued and you pick up a foul. One foul quickly becomes 2 and you are watching the rest of the first half from the bench. Maybe you have seen a lot of his defensive play and think he will be good from the start and if that is true… Awesome!!! I am really looking forward to both of these new big men as I think we are going to love watching them play Billiken basketball for years. It’s a great time to be a Billiken fan!

With a pure definition of interchangeable, none of our big men are interchangeable. What I am trying to forecast is the kind of rotations that Crews will use. So if we look at the starting 4 and 5 positions following last year’s precedent it will be: Glaze and Loe. Glaze comes out at the first opportunity and ….. who goes in? I think it will be either Tanner or Agbeko – depending on matchups and how well they develop. When Loe comes out Manning goes in. I don’t see Crews playing two long, lanky and a little slow big men in Loe and Manning at the same time. (There will be some exceptions.) Similarly I don’t think we will see a lot of Tanner and Agbeko on the floor at the same time because they are rookies trying to figure out where then need to be. They may play more together later in the season and will certainly play together a lot in future years (God willing). Loe and Manning are foul prone and our rookies are likely to be as well as they learn to catch up with the speed and size of division 1 basketball. For this reason I think all of these guys are going to get significant minutes. I think everyone on the board is looking at Glaze expecting little more than what we have seen to date. But he was a 3 star recruit and his improvement may surprise us. He certainly has enough incentive to improve. If however his offensive game remains limited, our new big men are going to get some significant minutes.

By stating that Loe and Manning are interchangeable, I did not mean to suggest that manning will drill 3 point shots, though he has decent range on his jumper. For that matter, Loe only averages about one 3 a game, which means he had a number of games with no threes. What I mean by interchangeable is when one comes out, the other is likely to go in, as I don’t think you will see both on the floor very often.

The holes created with the departure of CE and CR are opening the door for Tanner and Reggie. I can see Loe and Manning as interchangeable parts. It is hard to imagine both on the floor at the same time in a lot of games. Unless Glaze has a big improvement in shooting range, Tanner and Reggie should play a lot. Being freshmen and trying to catch up with the speed of the college game and the demands of man to man defense, they are going to have games where they get in early foul trouble. Tanner in particular is not going to get by with some of the stuff he did at the high school level. When we had trouble scoring this year it was often against a zone with a well disciplined athletic post player that made it tough to get the ball to Evans and if our 3 point shooters were all cold, they could double down on him and we got stuck in the mud. Fortunately for us there are not a lot of teams with disciplined athletic post players. The need for the 3 will give Tanner a great opportunity. The other thing that will be interesting to watch is the development of Reggie. Reggie gives Crews a new post up option. He is a much bigger target than Evans and if Evans gains more confidence in his 3 point shot, we could have a lot of fun.

I just want to thank Washington State for keeping Tanner on ice for us while we: Won the A10 Conference Title Won the A10 Conference Championship Won a first round NCAA game Finished in the top 20 in he polls. Oh yeah and had our interim coach named Coach of the Year. God is good! Thanks WSU!!!

Tanner looks like he was born to play in our system. This link shows a wider range of skills.

Welcome Tanner Lancona I am sure this is all buried in the monster thread somewhere, but I think a new commitment deserves his own threat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ-nj4NPiT Tanner is 6-9, 230 pounds, and initially signed with Washington State in the fall before his scholarship was released because the Cougars were over their limit of 13. Lancona is considered a three-star prospect by most recruiting services, and averaged 19 points and eight rebounds as a senior at Tesoro High School. He is capable of scoring inside, shooting from the perimeter and making crisp passes. Congratulations to the coaching staff!

Coach and player interview 2 years ago. Seems like a good kid. His biggest challenge will be learning how to play defence well enough to stay on the floor. http://reboundgh.blogspot.com/2010/12/expectations-high-for-agbeko.html

I don't know if someone already posted this highlight video. Alley-oop and Jam time!... with authority, something we have not seen in SLU basketball for a while.

I am not sure what SLU major would work for Mike, he is currently majoring in recreation, sport and tourism.

Watching whole team celebrate reserve Sean Duff's basket at the end of the New Mexico State game. You would have thought it was the game winning basket. Kudos to coach Crews for getting our reserves into big games when the opportunities were there. It is a great reward and a life time memory for guys who work very hard in the shadows.

I think drawing a charge on thier big man could be the very last thing someone does. That would be 7'5" 360 pounds of career ending car crushing force...... Give him the basket and race down the court for an easy 2 or open 3.