3star_recruit Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 The reality is there will probably be five bids in this conference. That is the good news. The bad news is that Louisville, Cinci, Charlotte, Marquette and UAB seemed to have already locked up the five bids. We needed two out of three on this trip to make our case and that isn't going to happen. Other things that this game revealed: Drejaj is a warrior on defense but if he is our starting point guard next year, we are in deep trouble. Every coach in the conference will watch this game tape and press him in the backcourt. Terry Moore hates Tom Frericks. We can't play the rest of the conference schedule with 7 guys playing 95% of the minutes when the likes of UAB, Louisville and Cinci rotate 9 guys. Phillip Hunt is a great kid but putting him in the game immediately results in a four on five situation on offense. When Izik gets pushed in the back and leans in either direction, a travel will be called. JJ needs to play THIS YEAR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 Amen to your final statement. We don't need to worry about any bracketology the rest of this year. It's time to start seeing what we have for next year. Play Justin Johnson and put RV where he belongs...on the end of the bench. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 I love the consistent effort Chris Sloan puts forth every night, but these last two games have really exposed the fact that we don't stack up with the best in the conference at either forward position. Southern Miss, UAB, and Charlotte each have at least three or four forwards who are 6'6"-6'8", lean, and athletic. The scary thing is that we haven't even seen Cincy, Louisville, and Memphis, each of whom has even better and more athletic power forwards. We need to get JJ involved this season, and we need to sign an athletic power forward this spring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoat Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 Well, if it is JJ or others, we really need someone to step up and take the load when Tom comes out of the game. There just seems to be no inside presence when he is on the bench. I know that Ross can scrap and fight and play his heart out, but in the post he is no Tom. Also, it looked to me as if when UAB wanted to run, we ran, and they wanted to run all night. I don't feel like we are that kind of team and it certianly showed toward the end of the game when Reggie and Chris couldn't lift their legs off the floor. I was really hoping and waiting for the pace of the game to slow down, but it never really did. Now I know that this was not the reason we didn't win the game, but we are NOT a run and gun team like they are/were tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 Unfortunately, it is not just Ross Varner who is overmatched. Chris Sloan would be the perfect role player off the bench because he cannot rebound, block shots, and finish with the upper echelon of power forwards in the league. He does a damn good job of hiding this fact through hustle and smarts, but his god-given ability doesn't stack up with the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheA_Bomb Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 I listened to the game and the post game. I like Sodeberg alot but I didn't like his comments tonight, "The better team won" "they are light years ahead of us in toughness" "I've been saying all along that we are soft in some areas" Very harsh. When I heard that Hunt was in early in the game I thought that Brad was trying to match up with UAB's quickness and perhaps that DC and JJ would soon follow. That didn't happen. Why not DC before Hunt? I don't get it. He will be pushed around on Defense and can only hit wide open 3s on offense. Coach did say after last year's humbling experience the loss to USF we went on an 8 game tear. If this team is good they will recover and be ready. I'm not sure if it is a good thing to have a whole week before Memphis. On one hand you can game plan and prep on the other you walllow in a bad loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted February 1, 2004 Author Share Posted February 1, 2004 That's coachspeak. We didn't get trounced because of "toughness". We got trounced because we have two very athletic players, Bryant and Fish, and UAB has nine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoat Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 but without that "coachspeak", what is Brad gonna say? "We really only have two guys that can play consistently on any given night, and when you shut those two down and adequately contain the rest, we are actually quite easy to beat". C'mon, he has to say that stuff, plus you through in enough verbal jabs toward the team, and you would be surprised how much that gets under the guys' skin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 I think the coach was saying that, in a game that was called like the referees swallowed the whistles with regard to the tugging, holding, scraping and overall mugging by their outside players on defense and on all of them on the boards, our players did not step up and play tough> Earlier this year I thought this was one of the toughest Billiken teams I had ever seen. Tonight Reggie, Josh, Anthony and at times IO--all played soft when fouled and pushed. The result was a ridiculous amout of turnovers and a huge number of wide open, ahead of the field easy layups. I would bet that this was the most layups eveer given up by at Brad S. team. I think we can recover and have a winning season but the Big Dance is history, particularly with Marquette beating Louisville and UNCC beating Cinn on the road. Unless we win the conf tournament, we will not be chaosen ahead of any of the top 5 in the conference and if they look at head to head we have already lost to the 3, 4 and 5 teams. I still love the Bills but it was a painful night! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 you guys about setting your expectations high after they won against teams they should beat. While I was hoping to be wrong, I think it's safe to say that SLU is a middle of the road CUSA team again. However, SLU will be in good shape if they can knock off Memphis. As I stated before, SLU only needed to win one of these three road games. This talk of them winning two or three wasn't very realistic, especially given SLU's dismal history at Birmingham. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 This game was discouraging ... we played without much intensity and UB knows it ... yes they are more athletic ... but they outhustled us and when we got down on the scoreboard ... we got down in spirits and it showed. The refs were letting the holding and pushing go ... it seemed we were defeated in our own heads early in this game. The reality is ... the only way we beat UAB is with the refs calling a tight game. I remember 2 specific occassions where they got offensive rebounds and we had 3 guys underneath and no one came close to putting a body on anyone. We were just standing around. I am dissapointed in the effort the Bills put out against UAB Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted February 1, 2004 Author Share Posted February 1, 2004 Our guys were busting their tails out there. The reason that UAB was quicker to the ball is because ... well, they're a lot quicker. If we play them 10 times, UAB will still be quicker to the ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 >Our guys were busting their tails out there. The reason >that UAB was quicker to the ball is because ... well, >they're a lot quicker. If we play them 10 times, UAB will >still be quicker to the ball. I have to agree with this statement. I love Josh but he is not the quickest PG around. We miss Marque more in a game like last night. Next year when UAB comes to Savvis, it will be interesting to see Polk, Bryant and Liddell on the court at the same time for our Bills. We should be quicker, more athletic, more skilled with the ball. Then again, maybe UB sits all our freshmen for a hazing year like he has done with JJ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 I disagree ... I missed the first 13 or 14 minutes as Sportszone only had 1 charter feed so we couldn't get the game until SPUMAC was over but IMO the Bills were standing around and we didn't block out on defense. I thought our effort was lackluster. If we can't win because they are much quicker and more athletic ... than lets just cancel the season. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted February 1, 2004 Share Posted February 1, 2004 >>Our guys were busting their tails out there. The reason >>that UAB was quicker to the ball is because ... well, >>they're a lot quicker. If we play them 10 times, UAB will >>still be quicker to the ball. > >I have to agree with this statement. I love Josh but he is >not the quickest PG around. We miss Marque more in a game >like last night. Next year when UAB comes to Savvis, it >will be interesting to see Polk, Bryant and Liddell on the >court at the same time for our Bills. We should be quicker, >more athletic, more skilled with the ball. > >Then again, maybe UB sits all our freshmen for a hazing year >like he has done with JJ. Anthony Drejaj didn't ride the pine last year. Therefore, I'm not concerned that Dwayne Polk and Tommie Liddell will have to sit out most of the year just because they're freshmen. If they work hard in practice and are committed on defense, they'll play, because the only options in front of them are Anthony Drejaj, Darren Clarke, and Reggie Bryant. Reg will get heavy minutes, but the rest are up for grabs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.