One Bad Week and 3 Road Losses by 5 Points Total

[Bay Area Billiken]

That's where the 2006-07 went awry.

You all know what happened- the bad week at the beginning of the A-10 season that resulted in losses at St. Bonaventure and at home to Duquesne, and losing the 3 road games at Houston, at UMass, and at Dayton by 5 points in total, two of them (Houston and Dayton) by 1 point each.

SLU doesn't get any mulligans, but win those 5 games, and SLU would have been 25-8, 12-4 in the A-10, and this poster could have made a very strong and compelling argument that SLU would be dancing in the NCAA. Of course, given what happened today with that NCAA field, SLU might have been in the NIT Sock Hop with that record anyway. Then I would really be crying foul.

This shows that each and every game, especially each and every conference game is precious.

I could write all the rebuttal arguments to the above right now.

This has been a tough, frustrating season. Being a Billiken fan is almost like being a Cub fan (which I am not).

The season is over, and there is an empty feeling.

Let's get the needed recruits and move forward to next year. There's always next year. Hope springs eternal.

[RUBillsFan]

I keep wondering about those games as well. I think winning those games would have gotten into the NCAA tournament. Of course then we would have been seeded differently in the A-10, probably #2 behind Xavier and we would have had a 1st round bye. Maybe then we could have won the A-10 tourny. I dunno. The Dayton loss is what really kills me b/c if we win that game then we are probably in the NIT and I can keep watching the Bills play this year. Hopefully players like Kevin, Tommie, and Luke use this season to motivate them for next year.

I think we can be just as good next year as we were this year record wise and if we get lucky win those close games instead of losing them. Maybe then we can make the NCAA tourny.

Starters

G-Lisch (another year of experience = better)

G-Liddel (same thing, more experience = better)

G-Danny Brown (I really think he should start over Polk, Polk is too undersized, Danny is a better shooter, hopefully more minutes for DB will make him better)

F-Luke Meyer (again more experience = better)

C-Bryce Husak (certainly not as good as IV, but he showed promise toward the end of the year, IV wasn't as good as expected this year, so I think a switch to BH isn't as big a downgrade as it seems)

Bench

G-Polk (more experience = better, he gives us speed/change of pace off the bench, subs in for Tommie/Lisch at PG)

G-Dustin MacGuire (good shooter off the bench, subs in for DB/Lisch at SG)

G-Anthony Mitchell- (probably won't play much, maybe he'll get minutes if someone gets in foul trouble or in blowouts)

F-Adam Knollmeyer (showed signs of ability last year, will get big minutes at PF and C hopefully he improves as the year goes on)

F-Marcus Relphorde (subs in at forward, will probably get decent minutes b/c of lack of other big men, hopefully he makes the most of them)

I think Brad needs to go 9 deep next year. Looking at it, with Lisch and Liddel, we can still be better next year than we were this year.

[billikenfan05]

I am sick to my stomach right now thinking how close we were to a postseason.

I agree completely with RU

Lets get all the players to subscribe to the UB "Get Better 3pt % in 3 weeks or Less" As seen on tv program!

"I was on fire, I was hotter than a pistol" Jason McElwaine

If theres no SLU basketball in heaven I'm not going!!!!!!

Official Billikens.com Sponsor of Chris Sloan and Billiken Volleyball

and Official Billiken.com Online Video Guy

[slu72]

Our road in the A-10 is not getting easier. Some teams made big strides this year and others will next year. Really don't know what kind of recruiting year the rest of the league had, but there are a lot of good players returning. Yes, we have TL, KL, and LM (who hopefully will not have to play the 4)beyond that a whole of question marks, such as the still unknown JUCO PF and his little brother JUCO PG.