Billikenboy

Pass the ball Crawford!

Play ball! I cannot wait for this game. Not expected to win but we will get to see how much fight is in this these boys. Go Bills!

Nice half! Stop Davis and this game will get very interesting quick.

Not an educated guess, a very very credible source.

That's is exactly what I'm saying. No disrespect to Crews but todays game has passed him by. Read and react motion offense won't work when you have a variety of restrictions put on certain guys. Assistants pushed a bit and I guess JC saw the writing on the wall.

Same here I rather win each game.

MY is not the issue. He is only as good as the system.My mvp's last night were Cheaney and Bronson for the new offense

Folks, credit Coach Cheaney and Coach Bronson for the new simplified offense they installed and thanks to JC for stepping back and allowing them to put some life into this sinking ship. As I said a couple days ago, most of these kids can play and would do well at other A10 programs. A player is only as good as the system they are playing in. Still please get rid of Crews because he will undoubtedly get credit if the season somehow looks like we have turned the corner.

I think Verbal Commits does a good job of noting legitimate offers because the player profile can be updated by both the player and the school. They do check with the schools to record the date and status. You are right that as schools level of interest changes those offers may not be good ones but at least you know there was an offer from a school at some point. Knowing which recruiters are in the gym watching the kid is another way of verifying the interest level. Serious recruiters know they must be fully committed to being present to games for a potential recruit to consider them. Competition is fierce out here. The head coach being there is the best weapon in recruiting coupled with the official visits. If your school sucks you will never get the visit offically or unofficially. As for the star rating it is littered with mistakes particularly for kids with low ranking to start who may have made drastic improvements but the original analysis is still hanging there unchanged. Usually if the ranking is not changed before the senior year of the kid it will not be changed at all especially with ESPN and particularly with kids outside of the Top 250. That is when the eye test by recruiters comes into play. Kids rated as 5 star normally stay at that ranking because no evaluator worth his salt wants to admit he ranked a kid higher than his real potential. In the past many on this board have said JC loathed recruiting. That is true because almost every kid on the court today was brought in by assistants to JCs attention. Ultimately he decided on who to offer but the interest was already there. All the kids today have great potential so going back and looking at their rating or offers is a mistake because the real problem today lies with the coaching staff and who is at the helm. Alot of these kids you are calling non-D1 players in another A10 program would be producing and be far better players than what we are seeing in Billiken uniform today. Coaching has the biggest impact on a kids confidence to become better, working with a staff that understands the growing pains required to be better, and to use the individual talents of the kids. Staff must have a tried and true blueprint for a players development like a curriculum required of teachers with measuring sticks to quantify where the kid is in the development process. I do not see that happening here. For that they are failing in many statistics and kids having the most upside lack consistency. In a nutshell JC instructs these kids like any work situation we as adults are in to only do what he asks you to do regardless of whether it is a strength or weakness. Any deviation and there goes your playing time. Players spend more time and effort trying stay on the floor and not playing with their instincts. A PLAYER IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE SYSTEM THEY PLAY IN!

Cannot read too much into it but I actually liked this new lineup. Produce some defensive chemistry and you might have something on your hands. Or maybe not?

JC has lost the team is your something going on!

Without saying more I am sure Jolly is not the only storyline going on with this team!

Players have struggled individually due to getting up everyday to go out and fight for a coach they have no choice but to play for even though they do not want him as their coach. Crawford is amongst those that will surprise many as a player when Crews is gone. Interesting that Grandy and McBroom playing well statistically at their new schools.

The players stopped playing for Crews in 2014. Those that know the players know this. The kids don't like him. Pretty good percentage of Majerus players would tell you the same. Players in 12 and 13 ignored him and called their own sets. Players last 2 years have not been established enough to do the same. Interesting that statistically Grandy is averaging 13.1 ppg and 6.8 rpg on a 12-2 Grand Canyon team (17 points and 7 boards against SIUE...hmmmmm), McBroom 18.5 ppg, 2.5 RPG, 3.3 APG and 43% on a 6-8 Eastern Washington team. Wonder how many of current players Crews has locked up their games. Get rid of this guy now

Bigs not contesting at the rim is squarely on the coaching staff. Our bigs are instructed by the staff to stay on the ground and not go after blocked shots. "Play my way or don't get on the floor" Crews's strategy of breaking players down and rebuilding them to play a specific role is the primary reason players are not playing to their potential. I am unaware of a single player who likes playing for this guy. He has put in a read and react offensive scheme complete with a plethera of restrictions. Kids spend more thinking what they are not allowed to do then simply learning to run the offense instinctively. Get rid of Crews today and let Calbert take over. At least we will see the players compete for Calbert.

Guess those boys know the truth!

Big win for the Bills. Lets do it again!

Could care less who starts. Another matchup game....bball heads like me understand that! Win big and I will not say a word. Go Bills!

Instead of focusing on the kids individual development issues the focus should stay on JC. These young men are all in trouble development wise because of JC. SLU is not doing the kids or the program any good by staying the course. He is doing nothing to advance the program but the undercurrent is that the players do not respect him as a coach and are not playing for him. They know he cannot develop them and that he is not sure of what he is doing as a whole. Following RMs blue print was easy since those players knew RM and believed in what he was teaching them while developing their individual skill sets. Our players here are talented so the new plan must be designed to fit the personnel. JC lost this team at the end of last season and he is right back there again. Consider the game vs Morehead State, it would serve to note that if you run your players into the ground prior to the game after using that as punishment for the Louisville defeat they will come out sluggish as they did. I know what I said about JC last week and as more of you pay attention it will become glaringly obvious he needs to go now and the coaching turned over to Cheaney/Bronson in the interim just to finish the season. Coaching staff is afraid to point the obvious things the players need to get better at because JC an unapproachable hothead who beats by his own drum. He listens to no one or to reason. Sounds like someone doesn't it! Good luck keeping him around and expecting a different result on the court. I really had a hope that the kids would do better with their start of 4-0 but once we face real high level comp you get to witness how bad he is at coaching these kids and how much work the kids need. Getting outcoached is not pretty to watch. Who in their right mind would want to play for him!

Man, those boys look so young. Wow! Time really flies...RIP Coach Majerus.

Actually the reason RA went prep was because the NCAA did not clear him to play until September 2012 when he had already enrolled at prep. He had a slew of offers from Oklahoma, Lasalle, Fordham, Drexel an on again and off again offer from Bonnie s (Not sure what status of Bonnie offer at that time) St.Peters, Niagara, Canisius and a number of other d1s.

@ Slufan: Gimmick was a strong word. Rather then a single primary screener on ball side, you had multiple screeners. Actually a good tweak. My problem with it is something you haven't done much in practice, used in a scrimmage or game shouldn't be what you open up with against what could potentially be your strongest opponent of the season. If team had been struggling to score then fine, but to me the kids were already in an uphill battle. This just adds a bit more thinking to what the players have to contend with and could have played a part in why some players had subpar offensive games, even though L'ville played pretty good D. @ Clock: Didn't know a single attempted jumper has become hasn't done anything in 2 years and transfer talk. Come off the ledge, it is a long season. @ Kshoe: Pretty sure I never started any Duke and RA on this board. Even though I have added to it. Simple google search that has nothing to do with this board shows that however http://forums.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?30720-New-Recruiting-Target-for-2013-PF-Reggie-Agbeko-of-Buffalo-NY-(6-8-quot-225-lb-) As I have said before, RA's former AAU coach is a good friend so have known of the kid for a bit longer then most of you. My fault for being a supporter of him as I am with all the kids on the team. Why he hasn't become the player many projected him to be from high school and prep, I don't know but how many kids in the years made it to college and didn't have the careers the so called experts thought they would have.

So right you are SLU Coach!?

For the record I have been following Reggie and Ash since AAU so I have alot of info on who the kids are. For those SLU coaches on the board masquerading as bloggers, you are smarter than me in the game but the game is still outsmarting you. I wish the kids and you much success but you will not be successful unless you are just as critical of how you are developing these young men. It is definitely a team sport and that is what I loved about the NF game. Kids playing hard for each other. Hopefully you can spend your energy on harnessing that.

One can look at the NF game and this Louisville game to see the obvious difference. We barely ran any of our plays until the second half when things were getting bad. The gimmick is running an O that you and your players do not understand what the end result will be. Staff never knew what it would yield but somehow it would show itself. It never did and plan took all the major players out of the O from the start. I am done talking about that O. On to the next one! I do not have the answers but playing our game is the best starting point. Always has been.