Billikenswin

So that justifies insulting our players and our coach--sorry, I do not buy that at all! Vandy just blew out Georgia Tech, a team on a winning streak and almost won at Texas which has played very well and beat North Carolina. Yet the fans here make it sound like we beat a division 3 team with an under .500 recond.

Is it possible for these things to get any worse. I just watched the game and was happy we gutted out a tought win on the road in a funky fieldhouse against a team from the SEC which almost never loses at home to an out of conference team in a game where our outside shooting left us and then I go the the GDT and I swear if you did not know better you would think this team is 2-12.--Moytoy is the champion of crap but many others rip the players and the coach and just post constant crap. What the hell is it with the fans who frequent this site? We are 12-2 with close losses to the 4th and 8th teams in the country. We are 4-0 on the road when many teams never play any out of conf games on the road in the other teams gyms. Our defense is spectacular--awesome and ridiculously good, maybe the best the the country--yet so many of you just spew bs constantly. Don't you think our team deserves better? I am embarrassed for our fans and out school to even read this junk.

Oakville won two games over the past few days over mc cluer north and Chicago Marshall. Gillman had 26 against MN in a rematch of an early season game won by MN. He had 29 against CM. I could not get stats on rebounds or blocks. Decater M won two games to win the consolation championship but I could not find any reported stats except that Bartley had 25 in the one point win over Springfield SE.

The tweets from the game said he got his third foul, and second ticky tack foul, at the beginning of the third quarter so I would guess that is why he sat out. We all need to understand that kids that tall at a young age will often have to take two or three years to grow into their bodies. I know the staff feels that he and Jolly have the potential to be contibutors in the future with some added weight and time working with the staff. As with our young guards it will be most interesting to see how they develop over the years. Based upon my earlier observations over the years it is really difficult to judge the talent of young big men when they play with less than stellar guards and with high school refs who often favor the smaller guys almost like they have some sort of need to even things out because one guy is much taller.

No one disagrees that we want the team to excel in every phase of the game and be the best they can be. But no team has perfect players, particularly perfect players coming off the bench. But we have tough hardnosed defenders who when they shoot the ball well can play with almost everyone. But the key is now and always will be the defense. I thought the rotation used for the Indy St game was excellent. We defended well continuiously and our offense was solid except for a bit of a down period in the second half of the first half. But that happens against good teams and we still won by 17 points in a game which everyone on this board thought would be a very tough game to win. I have been to practice and seen the frosh and they all have talent and potential but they are green and need more practice to understand our defensive strategies which are complex and difficult to pick up. They are working hard, as is Ash, and they will be players in the future but this staff really understands what we are trying to accomplish on the floor and they understand what it takes to get it done and they know how to use the players they have in the best way. Next year will be very different and I think very exciting in terms of how many new talented but green players we will need to integrate with manning, glaze, mcbroom and Ash and the then three sophs. But the staff knows that we now need to focus on this year and the rotation of the experieinced players so we have the best chance to win.

Oh boy, I am so scared. Can you really be as big of a jackass as you appear to be on this board?

Just back from the game and this was without a doubt the best game of the year for our Bills. When I watched Indy State dismantle and rout Notre Dame on their home floor I thought we would have a hell of a time beating them but our defense was excellent, our offense was efficient and we made threes and free throws. The result was a lopsided win against a solid team. But I am confused. I read the game thread and MOYTOY and BACKHAND are ripping the team and the players throughout until the very end. No one challenges them. After a loss we get a huge amount of hand wringing and complaining and even after wins people like Taj complain like crazy. But when we win a nice game by 17 points and play well the board is basically silent. What the hell is it with Billiken fans? We expect the moon and complain constantly. Our fans need a serious reality check.

It was posted here earlier that Oakville and DM are playing in the Collinsville tournament with games starting on Dec 26 at 10:30 and 2:30

I think he has been the victim of some very bad officiating on numerous occasions--at times he has not even touched the other player and he was called for a foul. the refs call him for ticky tacky fouls when guys on the other teams are submarining our big guys. He can get better but John has been extremely effective as a down low defender at times--and Loe is better this year as well in defending in the low post but he is not the deterrent that John is when he stands tall with his arms up.

It is absolutely astounding to me that you can so negative about a 9-2 team w close losses only to the 4th ranked and 11th ranked teams in the nation. And Masseys compilation has wisc at 2 and WS at 8!

He was never interested in SLUH. He went to prep school.

As my wife and I were listening to the post game show and the interview with Coach Crews we both immediately commented about he huge difference between RM and JC in terms of their approach. Rick was very willing to be highly critical of his players and name them while Jim is much more positive, particularly if we win the game. I know he is like other coaches in that he will push them hard in practice and during the game individually or in the huddle but he does not rip them on public radio shows. I prefer that style.

The bottom line is that virtually every recruit has some strengths and some weaknesses. Almost every high school player need a lot of work on defense, particularly the in your face defense that the Bills play for 40 minutes. But each of these three guards is athletic and they have some height that we have not seen much of over the past few years. One game in a big time atmosphere against a highly touted opponent on national tv cannot give us enough information to judge a player's potential but he did look very good at times and he clearly looks like a player we would love to have to work with our staff. He is also an excellent student. Also, in terms of who we did sign vs who we did not, this recruiting game is always a moving target because as one person drops off because they go to another school or we decide not to pursue them--another player can become a target when we did not think we had the opportunity to get them. The fact that some came to our attention later in the game does not mean they are not as good or even better than some we were pursuing earlier. I am very hopeful that these three young men will be great additions to our team over time and one or two may be significant contributors next year. But no one knows yet one way or the other so why not be positive and hopeful.

We can agree to disagree on this topic. I do think you are unreasonably negative beacuse you are caught up in the so called rankings which we all know when you get beyond the top 25 or so players are a complete joke. Your statement that our players are not of top 100 quality is subjective and has not played out on the court. We were up to 13th in the nation and over the past two years these players have demonstated they can play with, compete with, and beat teams with higher ranked recruits--not better recruits. No single player, particularly those outside of the top25 recruits does not have some weaknesses. I have spoken to a lot of folks who know a great deal about hs basketball in the midwest and they have great things to say about all three of our guard recruits--saying basicly that they are excellent players who compare favorably with players who are "ranked". Why not just be happy that we have these excellent players rather than post negative things about them on a Billikens board?

I do not get your theme here--these guys were not under the radar--they were offered by well known schools in BCS conferences including LSU, Oklahoma State, Creighton and a bunch of SEC schools. They play on excellent high school teams with outstanding teammates and their AAU teams are among the best in the country. These are fine players who selected SLU as the place they wanted to play ball and get an education. Why do you think we can't recruit top players who as guards also happen to be tall?

Thanks much for the updates. I saw the stats for Gillman and it appeared he played just a little more than half of the game. Nice to see that 7 out of 8 from the free throw line. I am happy about the potential of our inside recruits but I am extremely happy with our three guard recruits. They all seem to be big time excellent players and if you add in Ash next year should be fun to watch.

What a great joke for the holidays! I laughed hard at that one. "Constructive criticism" has never been the mode of communication on this board--the posters here love insulting posts as their preferred method of communication. And those posts come hard and unrelenting from the people who know the least about basketball but think they are experts.

For the life of me I cannot understand why you continue to post on this board for Billiken fans. You are not a fan and you are such a jerk that everyone thinks you are a fool. Why not find somewhere else to post?

Up close and personal several of those guys looked like they could be 10 year vets in the NBA!

I just looked Welmer up on Maxpreps and he is now listed at 6'9 and he has played one game so far this season -- he had 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals.

You are right but they looked like they were 32 years old!

How about Reggie?

As a 6'8 junior in high school he hit almost 50% on 58 three point attempts. That is a very good stat for a kid still growing and developing. He will have two years to refine his game before he gets here.

I have been to all the home games and the SIUE game in person and have seen all of the others on tape. It is amazing to me that you can't see what is going on with this team and the coaches. Our seniors are put in a position to succeed and they have played well in spurts but at other times they make stupid decisions, bad passes and most important- they shoot the ball like crap. Occasionaly, they hit shots and we look pretty good. Occasionaly, they handle the ball crisply and move it as instructed and we look great--i.e. the 19-2 run at the beginning of the game yesterday. But once we went to the bench we lost a lot of continuity, particularly on the defensive end and even a Rockhurst can come back on us like they did. Then the second half started and again we looked very good for about 5 or 6 minutes with a shutout on defense and some nice buckets. The bench then came in and we were disjointed but we win by 25. This team is not ready under any circumstances to give the freshmen big minutes. They are all nice players with excellent potential but they have yet to master many of the little things necessary for sustained excellence. The seniors know what to do but at this point they seem to all have lapses in concentration and the long range shooting just is not there. If we can clean up the mistakes--and last night was frustrating to see some of the unforced errors--and shoot the ball better we can compete with most teams in the country because our defense with our core group of players is still strong. But that is a big "IF". the coaching staff is searching for a rotation which can do just that and they are as frustrated as any fan with the up and down play from our seniors. In any event, it is way too early in this season to say just throw the frosh in and get them some experience. We need to get our seniors back up to the level of play from last year if we want to be as successful as most on this board say we should be in conference.

No one said all is well. But all is not lost either. There is such a fine line today between winning and losing in college basketball and a shot or two that go in can make all the difference--while a miss or two can set up a scenario for a loss like it did with our game against WS. I watch a lot of college ball on taped tv and many, many teams have terrble games when they are highly regarded. According to ESPN and the analytics, Creighton has one of the best offenses in the history of college ball and one of the best offensive players ever--yet they lost two games over the weekend. No team is perfect. We are not close to perfect but we are playing hard and hopefully things will fall into place with our shooting and ball handling. If they don't then we will have a mediocre year.