Billikenswin

Yes, entirely.

This picture shows that Andre is a legit 6’8” and he can get up—not like our best leapers like Fred, Hasan, Perkins, TJ, Jacobs or Marhki, but he is not A slug!

Markhi is definitely a high flier similar to TJ-in the open court dunks they are both worthy of highlight films. Markhi is more advanced than most frosh on the defensive end and he really hustles on all plays. He is a decent shooter and an aspiring 3 point shooter who appears to be a future scorer. In many past years he would have been a potential top 8 or 9 rotation guy but with our depth this year it will be a difficult task for him to break into the top 10 but it is possible. Everyone sees him as a significant contributor and potential star in the future after the big three graduate.

I know this might sound implausible but I have had the good fortune to attend some practices and I think one of our break out players will be Jordan Goodwin. He is playing so much better than he did as an arriving freshman and even better than last season—it is amazing that his shooting thus far this season is much much better than earlier in his career. His defense and rebounding are still excellent although I think he is now a better on ball man to man defender, and his leadership is truly something special to watch. Many other players are playing well— Yuri with much more confidence and he

I have had a chance to see Lorentsson play and he is head and shoulders better than the players you mention. He is a lights out shooter on the level of Gibson and he is a legit 6’8”. He has a good basketball IQ and fundamentals and he is not thin but he clearly has room to bulk up. We are a very deep team but he will challenge for minutes with the second five.

The word is that Fred is doing very well and he feels good as he works out at home. If he is healthy as reported, I believe he will be a big factor against some of our better opponents because of his great defense and pure strong athleticism.

Huge new recruit for Billiken men's soccer--Patrick Weah of the class of 2020--was a high school All American and has big time experience and success as a goal scorer and assist man. Kevin beat out some of the biggest programs in the country for this incredible young player.

It is funny that you say that--of course the videos are edited!--but when I talked to the staff after his visit the word was that it seemed like he never missed a shot the entire time he was here. His free throw shooting is great and as many on this board have said, the best way to significantly increase our percentages is to recruit and sign great free throw shooters. Although he is not a 5 it seems like a combination of he and Gibson will give us a tandem like Loe and Ellis!

Like all of the frosh and Perkins and Weaver he is drinking from a fire hose with so many different defenses to learn. He hustles, gives good effort and is reasonably quick.

I talked to Fred and he said he was cramping at the end of practice--which went for 2+ hours from 3:30 until about 5:45--and he said the trainers wanted him to rest and get fluids because the next practice was the following morning. I was able to attend that practice, the first official one of the year, and for those of you who are concerned about our defense based on the Billiken Maddness scrimmage I can assure you that nothing in that scrimmage was real. In the practice they went hard for 2 hours working ferociously on various defensive plays and set ups. Everyone was playing hard and the co

There were changes in the team in charge of student recruitment including the leadership. Many hours were spent developing new strategies and a lot of hard work went into this effort which was very successful. This was definitely not just a situation where SLU did the same things as in past years

I agree with your call for patience but I do see some differences. If you compare freshmen to freshman you could go either way as to which group is/was better. One distinct difference is the size of Bell. However, The key element of potential superiority of this years team compared to that team is the hard nosed defensive and rebounding trio of Upperclassmen Goodwin, Thatch and French combined with the experience and shooting of our grad transfer and Perkins. That group of 5 more experienced players had no equivalent on the 2010-2011 team. Go BIlls.

Javon Bess is in town for 30 days before he goes to camp with the Pelicans and I had an opportunity to talk to him for a while at practice. He is in great spirits and very excited to have a potential opportunity. He is working out hard and looks to be in great shape. He plays open gym with the guys and he said that Perkins was playing outstanding basketball and can score from almost anywhere on the court. As soon as school starts Perkins can join the team at practice. It is difficult to know how all the distinct new players will mesh but I have been watching early practice for about 40 years a

Perkins has completed his work at junior college and has been admitted to SLU. All is good.

You may be right but I can say Yuri looked very comfortable shooting the ball and I think he has the potential to be a much better 3 point shooter than 25 percent. To state the obvious--we won't know until well in to the season whether he will be an effective shooter in games.