Prediction Contest

[Westy03]

I could not agree more. It just drives me crazy watching Polk push the ball down the floor,just stop and not look to make a play. Take the ball to the hole,look for a secondary cutter,do something besides just stopping and turning your back to the basket.

I agree with both of you. Actually during the game me and Jimbo were talking about this topic. I really dont see what Polk brings to the table. He has tremedous speed but doesnt know how do use it effectively. Maybe he still has the Soderberg way drilled in his head on the fastbreak, who knows. I think he should get minutes against certain matchups but to start him and having him play over 25 minutes on a consistant basis is a recipe for disaster for our offense in my opinion.

[NH]

Reg. season 18-12 conf tourney 1-1 NIT 1-1 final 20-14

[NH]

Wow Roy, you are ready to make that call on just the UMSL game. I believe there are minuses to Polk's game, but he does not get the credit he deserves as a defensive player. I would to like to see some more steals from him, but I also think steals can be a very overrated stat.

The way Majerus has talked about Polk leads me to believe he will be in the starting line-up.

DEFINATELY agree I mean come on, Eckerle plays one game against a division 2 opponent and has a solid game but polk is a SENIOR which is definately underestimated and he has played, (and sometimes played well) against much higher ranked opponents. Polk needs to be more aggresive sure but may I remind you of the MO ST game last year. Dwayne was everywere and we would not have won if it werent for his coast-to-coast drive.

[Westy03]

DEFINATELY agree I mean come on, Eckerle plays one game against a division 2 opponent and has a solid game but polk is a SENIOR which is definately underestimated and he has played, (and sometimes played well) against much higher ranked opponents. Polk needs to be more aggresive sure but may I remind you of the MO ST game last year. Dwayne was everywere and we would not have won if it werent for his coast-to-coast drive.

One decent game in 3 years. I say you let other players get a shot at his minutes. Im not saying bench him the whole game but reducing his minutes will help the team and I believe make him more effective.

[Bay Area Billiken]

24-11 overall;

21-9 regular season, 10-4 nonconference, including big home court win over SIU; 11-5 A-10, including big home court win over Xavier;

2-1 A-10 Tournament;

Majerus Magic puts SLU on the right side of the NCAA Tournament Bubble on Selection Sunday, but we have to sweat it out.

Win 1st round, lose 2nd round of NCAA Tournament.

Let us all hope (and dream) for this good of a season. My only real concerns are at the Center position and the depth, but both are significant concerns. As usual, I have high hopes for SLU.

I'm looking forward to seeing SLU in person against IUPUI on 12/29.

[Bay Area Billiken]

IMO, the biggest key of all to the upcoming season is that SLU must protect the home court and win at home. If SLU can do that, the NCAA gravy comes from winning a handfull of road games. There are some tough, but winnable road games on SLU's schedule.

SLU has always had problems in Springfield, MO, and with the right side of my brain, I have that one down as an L. I hope I am wrong there, believe me. It would be great if SLU under Rick Majerus could grab control of that series once and for all.

I have SLU splitting the road games at Charlotte (W) and Duquesne (L). Both could be SLU wins. And who is to say that SLU cannot win at Dayton and at GW, where I have SLU going down? I have the road game at St. Joe's down as an L too, but SLU won there last year, and I see no reason why SLU cannot win there again. It's just that it is so hard to win on the road.

And please, no more devastating upsets like that fatal first week of conference play last year on the road against the Bonnies and at home to Duquesne. My crystal ball does not see something like that happening under Coach Majerus. Those were just RPI killers right out of the shoot.

Is there some type of dark cloud hovering over STL and raining down injuries on the STL teams? Good grief, first the Cardinals fought injuries all year. Then the Rams have been completely destroyed by the injury bug. And the Billikens keep having their share of injuries too. SLU, wih such little depth in terms of numbers alone, can ill afford more injuries. Injuries hurt last year big time. I hope for once that SLU can get through a season without more of these injuries rearing their ugly heads. It is hard enough as is to win on the road in college basketball, much less when your best players are not in the lineup.

[Billikan]

25-10

Wow! I respect your opinion and that is a very optimistic prediction. I sure hope you are right.

[Quality Is Job 1]

imo, the best point guard we have had since waldman is pure wing kevin lisch. that says a lot.

How soon we forget Josh Fisher, SLU's career assist leader. Fish was the catalyst for the last two Billiken forays into any kind of postseason tournament.

[thetorch]

How soon we forget Josh Fisher, SLU's career assist leader. Fish was the catalyst for the last two Billiken forays into any kind of postseason tournament.

Fish made incredible strides especially in his senior year. His first 3 years were plagued with inconsistency. He also had Perry there, who manned the point a good deal and always brought the ball up in traffic. Fish in his first 3 seasons would make mistakes with ball handling, poor passes, weak turnovers, and poor shot selection. His defense always made up for alot of mistakes on the other end. He really put it together his final season.

Waldman gets a little overrated at times. We remember his full court bounce passes and his 3 pointers from 40 feet but defensively he was iffy. How many times do you remember Waldman breaking down his man off the dribble?

Polk getting posted up is a rare occurrence. Granted it should happen more often but it doesn't. D-1 pgs don't know how to post up effectively. There may be a handful of guards with a post game playing right now. Lower level college guards are more well versed in certain aspects of the game. It didn't shock me to see the UMSL guard post up Polk effectively. It just doesn't happen at the higher level. Guys don't know how to do it and coaches won't run the play for them.

[philliken]

22-8 Regular season.

First round bye in A-10 tourny

2-1 record in said tourny

10 seed in NCAA

1st round upset of 7 seed.

Losing 2nd round to the tough 2 seed.

[GW]

23 and 7 regular season, 2 and 1 conference tournament, 1 and 1 NCAA. 26 and 9 overall.

Yes, I am very optimistic...

Here's how I arrived at this. I feel that this year's team, talentwise, is comparable to last year's. The only significant loss to the team was Ian- a big loss to be sure- but this is balanced by better overall depth, an extra year experience for the remaining players, and (hopefully) better health. Last year's team won 19 games (not including quincy), but the conference is probably improved this year so let's say that a "comparable" team would now win 18. With Majerus, those 18 wins become 23. That's right, I am adding 5 wins for Majerus alone. 5 extra wins are not that hard to come by. Who sees a Majerus coached team losing to St. Bonaventure or Duquesne like last year? There are 2 wins right there. For what Majerus brings to the table, the additional 3 wins should be achievable.

Come tournament time, the team will then have a season of experience in Majerus's system and will be far more capable than early on. With Majerus's post-season history and experience, it is quite possible to see them winning the conference tournament and/or sneaking into the sweet sixteen.

[philliken]

23 and 7 regular season, 2 and 1 conference tournament, 1 and 1 NCAA. 26 and 9 overall.

Yes, I am very optimistic...

Here's how I arrived at this. I feel that this year's team, talentwise, is comparable to last year's. The only significant loss to the team was Ian- a big loss to be sure- but this is balanced by better overall depth, an extra year experience for the remaining players, and (hopefully) better health. Last year's team won 19 games (not including quincy), but the conference is probably improved this year so let's say that a "comparable" team would now win 18. With Majerus, those 18 wins become 23. That's right, I am adding 5 wins for Majerus alone. 5 extra wins are not that hard to come by. Who sees a Majerus coached team losing to St. Bonaventure or Duquesne like last year? There are 2 wins right there. For what Majerus brings to the table, the additional 3 wins should be achievable.

Come tournament time, the team will then have a season of experience in Majerus's system and will be far more capable than early on. With Majerus's post-season history and experience, it is quite possible to see them winning the conference tournament and/or sneaking into the sweet sixteen.

That is almost spot on to my thinking and why I put them in almost the exact same spot. One less win - but ending same spot. Well said.

[Taj79]

I cannot believe the optimism on this board! Let me set a low-ball basement floor here. And let my detractor have at it.

Wins Expected: NC A&T, HBap, Detroit, Furman, Pacific, LBState, SamHouston, Loyola, IUPUI, Dayton (home), Temple, La Salle, Richmond, GeeDub, Fordy, the Bonnies. Equals 16

Losses: Pitt, Mo State, Kent, BC, GeeDub, Dayton (away), Umass (away), Charlotte, St. Joe's and Duquesne. Equlas 10 losses.

Swing games: SIU, Rhode Island, Umass (home), and Xavier. Equals four either way.

Best: 20 and 10.

Worst: 16 and 14.

Either way: 1 and 1 in conference tourament which won't improve unless we get one of four top seed byes. Best case has us at 10 and 6 in conference. Don't see that as a top four finisher. Could be.

I think 21 - 11 gets us NIT bid. Whereas 17 - 14 we stay home.

Rationale: Vouyoukas is a large gap to fill. Never mind his ppg and rpg and other things, who do you feed in the post that is a threat, thereby making outer defenders collapse and open up a shot for Lisch? Who shoots the jumper if it ain't Lisch? Still don't see a second exterior option. Another issue with no interior threat is that centers don't bother with a man-to-man defense but slough off and clog lanes so Tommie can't drive. Ala Lasme at Umass last year. One game does not a season make. How will Eberhardt acclimate to D-1 play? Husak might improve, but it will be no where near what Ian was and to expect some quantum leap is foolish. Relaphorde and Mitchell will need adjustment time and Knollmeyer is the same as they are having not played last year at all. Teams adapting to new systems usually exhibit learning curves. And I'm thinking the adaptation to Majerus' will take a while.

Scary thought: Lisch gets hurt and Liddell fails to adapt to Majerus. Lisch has played two years and had some relatively major bumps and bruises, the trend has been set.

[moytoy12]

I cannot believe the optimism on this board! Let me set a low-ball basement floor here. And let my detractor have at it.

Wins Expected: NC A&T, HBap, Detroit, Furman, Pacific, LBState, SamHouston, Loyola, IUPUI, Dayton (home), Temple, La Salle, Richmond, GeeDub, Fordy, the Bonnies. Equals 16

Losses: Pitt, Mo State, Kent, BC, GeeDub, Dayton (away), Umass (away), Charlotte, St. Joe's and Duquesne. Equlas 10 losses.

Swing games: SIU, Rhode Island, Umass (home), and Xavier. Equals four either way.

Best: 20 and 10.

Worst: 16 and 14.

Either way: 1 and 1 in conference tourament which won't improve unless we get one of four top seed byes. Best case has us at 10 and 6 in conference. Don't see that as a top four finisher. Could be.

I think 21 - 11 gets us NIT bid. Whereas 17 - 14 we stay home.

Rationale: Vouyoukas is a large gap to fill. Never mind his ppg and rpg and other things, who do you feed in the post that is a threat, thereby making outer defenders collapse and open up a shot for Lisch? Who shoots the jumper if it ain't Lisch? Still don't see a second exterior option. Another issue with no interior threat is that centers don't bother with a man-to-man defense but slough off and clog lanes so Tommie can't drive. Ala Lasme at Umass last year. One game does not a season make. How will Eberhardt acclimate to D-1 play? Husak might improve, but it will be no where near what Ian was and to expect some quantum leap is foolish. Relaphorde and Mitchell will need adjustment time and Knollmeyer is the same as they are having not played last year at all. Teams adapting to new systems usually exhibit learning curves. And I'm thinking the adaptation to Majerus' will take a while.

Scary thought: Lisch gets hurt and Liddell fails to adapt to Majerus. Lisch has played two years and had some relatively major bumps and bruises, the trend has been set.

Good post Taj. I agree with much of what you say.

[slufanskip]

Fish made incredible strides especially in his senior year. His first 3 years were plagued with inconsistency. He also had Perry there, who manned the point a good deal and always brought the ball up in traffic. Fish in his first 3 seasons would make mistakes with ball handling, poor passes, weak turnovers, and poor shot selection. His defense always made up for alot of mistakes on the other end. He really put it together his final season.

Waldman gets a little overrated at times. We remember his full court bounce passes and his 3 pointers from 40 feet but defensively he was iffy. How many times do you remember Waldman breaking down his man off the dribble?

Polk getting posted up is a rare occurrence. Granted it should happen more often but it doesn't. D-1 pgs don't know how to post up effectively. There may be a handful of guards with a post game playing right now. Lower level college guards are more well versed in certain aspects of the game. It didn't shock me to see the UMSL guard post up Polk effectively. It just doesn't happen at the higher level. Guys don't know how to do it and coaches won't run the play for them.

Torch I'm in 100% agreement with everything you said. Especially the Post Polk up thought ... it almost never happens. I started out a big fan of Dwayne and still am a big fan of his attitude and leadership, but he is best suited as a role player (though not because he gets posted up) due to the fact he brings almost nothing to the court offensively. Like other posters have mentioned even when he is out front on what could be a break ... he pulls up and waits for the offense, from there he contributes nothing in a half court offense. Against certain opponents ... spot up shooters who aren't adept off the dribble and aren't extremely quick ... ir Ahearn he can be very, very effective and against a team that presses alot he can help, but other than that his contributions are limited.

[willie]

When Brian Grawer played for Missouri I thought he would get killed on defense. I thought every team would post him up and get him out of the game. It never happened. It's just not part of the college game.Should be but it's not.

[MusicCityBilliken]

Here is my prediction>>

Regular Season>>>24-6 (loses to Pitt, Kent State, @GWU, @UD, @UMASS, @Duq)

A10 Tourney>>>>>2-1 (1st round bye with us losing to URI in the finals)

NCAA>>>>>>>>>1-1

Final Record>>>27-8

now let me run, I need my grape kool-aid

[Westy03]

Here is my prediction>>

Regular Season>>>24-6 (loses to Pitt, Kent State, @GWU, @UD, @UMASS, @Duq)

A10 Tourney>>>>>2-1 (1st round bye with us losing to URI in the finals)

NCAA>>>>>>>>>1-1

Final Record>>>27-8

now let me run, I need my grape kool-aid

Put down the pipe

[TheA_Bomb]

Regular Season 20-10

Conference 10-6

3-0 in A10 Tournament

1-1 NCAA Tournament

[The Wiz]

19-11 reg season

10-6 conf

1-1 A-10

1-1 NIT

21-13 Final

losses--Pitt, Mo St, Kent, BC, SIU, @GW, @Day, Xav, @UMass,@Char, @St. J

The Wiz

[bauman]

19-11 reg season

10-6 conf

1-1 A-10

1-1 NIT

21-13 Final

losses--Pitt, Mo St, Kent, BC, SIU, @GW, @Day, Xav, @UMass,@Char, @St. J

The Wiz

Wiz and Taj79, absent injuries I just can't see us losing to Mo St. and UMASS and probably not Charlotte or GW either. All four lost most of their top players and we now have RM to school those coaches.

Hope I,m right! We gotta be optimistic-the season hasn't even started yet!

[jimbofive]

Wiz and Taj79, absent injuries I just can't see us losing to Mo St. and UMASS and probably not Charlotte or GW either. All four lost most of their top players and we now have RM to school those coaches.

Hope I,m right! We gotta be optimistic-the season hasn't even started yet!

Piss on Mo St almost as much as Stanley Burrell.

[AMDG]

23-7 Regular Season

[The Wiz]

Wiz and Taj79, absent injuries I just can't see us losing to Mo St. and UMASS and probably not Charlotte or GW either. All four lost most of their top players and we now have RM to school those coaches.

Hope I,m right! We gotta be optimistic-the season hasn't even started yet!

I have the away games of GW, UMass & Char as losses but close games. (which is why I have GW &U Mass as wins @ home) If we played Char @ home I''d give us a win. If we develop early on those 3 away

games could fall into the win column. The Mo St game will be tough not only because we are away but we play them early in the season. If we beat them it would be an upset---not a major upset but still an upset.

The Wiz

[bauman]

I have the away games of GW, UMass & Char as losses but close games. (which is why I have GW &U Mass as wins @ home) If we played Char @ home I''d give us a win. If we develop early on those 3 away

games could fall into the win column. The Mo St game will be tough not only because we are away but we play them early in the season. If we beat them it would be an upset---not a major upset but still an upset.

The Wiz

Wiz, not trying to start an argument, just a discussion. Not sure anyone would consider winning at Mo St. an upset. Of the two rankings I have seen (see the Rivals listing us at 59 and the CHN which had us at 71) both had MS well below us and for good reason-they lost their top 3 players while we return 4 of 5 starters (although I don't see 1 of those 4 as much of a contributor).

Lets just win it and let it be considered whatever.