Giving Credit

[moytoy12]

Just wanted to give some credit to UB and the team. I have been critical of him, not unduly i don't think, but definitely critical. Whatever is going on at West Pine, I like it. I think certain subtle coaching moves have been made (rotation, new wrinkles on D) and the players have stepped up as well.

To UB, the coaching staff and the players, job well done over the last two games, let's keep it going. Even if we lose 1-2 games before the A-10 tourney, I like how the team is coming together and think that we could do some good things in the A-10 tourney.

I'm still concerned about the recruiting and hope we land some JC's or impact late qualifiers for next year.

For the record, i still don't know if UB is the man for the job (i'm sure the same could be said about me by my bosses ). But he does deserve some credit for the last 2 wins, as do the players.

[slu72]

As a charter member of the ABC (Anti Brad Coalition), I second Moytoy's commendation. Two really good wins just when you thought this team was in the crapper. Still, we have to see how this season plays out...if we don't make either post season tourney there's going to be some screaming for his head on a platter and this little run will be long forgotten. Then if by May the cupboard still looks bare, "we're not giving schollies to save face types", it's gonna be a long freaking summer. All that said, I hope they win out and land in the dance.

[SLUDrew]

If he is to be questioned after losses to some of the dregs of the league, then he must be commended for beating some of the better teams. In fact, I think the gameplan is what ultimately beat GW on Saturday. I liked the defensive matchup he employed as well as the timely switches from zone to man and vice versa.

I would like to see some wrinkles added to the offense. For example, the set he play he called before the half lobbing the ball to Tommie was a thing of beauty I wish we would run sets more often. Too often we are left with forcing Tommie or Kevin to create something on their own.

[billiken_roy]

actually this is a perfect team not to have set plays. both tommie and kevin are superior creators. polk has the ability to do some nice things just because he is so dam fast. luke is a master of finding open spaces and being a safety valve of sorts and actually is very very strong driving with his left hand.

ian is the softy, but even he is a superior passer for his size. i just wish he would get mean like he was last year when he got the ball 4 feet from the basket.

[nostatic]

Very difficult to run any set plays against a team like GW. UB ran a couple in the opening minutes of the game when GW was playing man to man and picking up at the 3 point line. That's how we got some quick feeds to IV for baskets. After that GW started to extend and got in their trapping mode. Very difficult to run set plays when there are 2 traps in this possession, then 4 traps in the next possession. Then it's time to depend on the players to see the open man, make the proper pass, and hit the open shot (LM, BH).

This was a game where UB had to trust the players' judgement. You knew it wasn't a good idea to drive baseline on GW. Everyone tried (and you have to keep trying - you can't just say "GW wins, no baseline drives"), but the players with their heads up pulled that dribble back and got out of the corner before the trap came. Some did not (see DB), and we got in trouble.

Thought the defensive game plan was very good and the players made very good decisions (most of the time) to keep the turnover total down. Congrats to all.

[StLouBlue]

I agree, in watching these last 2 games, you can see the positives in the moves Brad is making and in the team executing them. I am also glad to see Brad using zones once in a while as a change of pace. On Saturday in the 2nd half, once SLU took the lead, they went to a zone a couple of times and it really seemed to throw GW out of sync.

It was a fun game for some recruits to see, I hope this translates to some verbals and LOIs though. When does high school basketball wrap up? I would guess most kids are waiting till the end of the season at this point before committing.

[NashvilleBilliken]

I forgot if it was it was GW or SJU, but right before the half Brad switched to a 2-3 which forced the turnover. I thought that was a great move.

[billiken_roy]

most of the high school players that we know that the billikens are recruiting are juniors and sophomores. the juniors wont likely verbal until this summer at the earliest.

[SLUDrew]

I know I sound like a broken record on the issue but our lack of variety on defense has made us one of the easiest teams to gameplan for in the whole conference. Until recently, we played a pack d come hell or high water, and teams slaughtered us from the outside. Now a 2-3 isn't designed to stop outside shooters either, but at least a team cannot come down, have one guy run off a screen or two, and shoot a 3 without a Billiken within 15 feet. At least we are giving them something to think about.

In addition, maybe now that he is willing to use a little more of his depth, we can let Tommie, Dwayne and Kevin, jump out a trap once in a while. Three different defense in one game may be a lot to ask though.

[StLouBlue]

I agree, I was hoping that Brad would have been mixing up his defenses since the start of the season. If I had to guess why he didn't, it would probably be (1)spent a lot of time with offensive changes and didn't want to also throw at players defensive changes, (2)until team started executing the base defense--man pack defense--didn't want to throw out other defenses and (3)realized defense was too predictable to conference teams so switched.

This is part of why I still want to keep Brad around, because he is showing some flexibility in his coaching. While it has sometimes seemed it has taken too long for us fans, I still think he is continuing to improve as a coach. I don't want to start over with an assistant or a little experienced head coach again.

This would probably be a good question to ask tonight on his radio show.

[Hardball]

It is kind of hard for me to give credit to a coach that should have been changing it up all year long instead of just in the last couple of games. It is like praising your 12 year old because he repects his elders. Isn't that what you are suppose to do! The same can be said for playing his bench players. I almost feel like he was told by someone to change your ways or else. Whatecer the reason success is what matters and two wins are certainly better than two loses.

[Tonka]

UB definitely deserves credit. I just can't for the life of me figure him out. That's not a knock on him in any way. I just understand why he does things sometimes. He definitely will forget more about basketball then I will ever know, but he does perplex me at times. One example, is Husak going like 4 or 5 games straight with 0 minutes and then seeing time at St. Joseph's. Did BH really have horrible practices that long and then all of a sudden really step up? I am guessing that's what happened, but sometimes it's hard for me to see.

[slu72]

Yeah, the BH issue has been perplexing all year. He doesn't seem to be the dog house type of player, ie selfish, unruly, etc. You would have figured he'd have averaged at least 5mpg all year, especially since we were so thin on reliable bigs. But who really knows. Just good to see him coming on a little bit now. He had solid games, for him, against STJ's and GW, so hopefully this continues. We are going to need him down the stretch.

[NashvilleBilliken]

On the radio show last night, coach said Bryce has demonstrated more aggresion and confidence than he has ever seen. BS said he's never seen Bryce get the ball in the lane and dunk it...EVER (practice or game). Brad's confidence in Bryce is growing and I'd look to see him get more minutes.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Last night, Coach Soderberg also said (and I paraphrase), "Bryce, if you're listening, I implore you to give us more of that!"

I think the issue with Husak's playing time has been matchups. Soderberg has wanted to play him only when there was a big (tall AND wide) that he could match up with defensively.

Personally, I think that the coaching staff needs to come up with a scheme that allows Husak to contribute and exploit his height advantage even if there are nothing but mid-size players on the opposing team.

[willie]

I couldn't agree more. Bryce has given us great energy the last 2 games. By my count he has 5 blocks in very modest playing time. Maybe you play some kind of zone with Bryce guarding the basket. I agree with Thicks it's up to the coaches in how to figure it out.