we won because

[Billiken Rich]

We won because you stayed home and didn't bring your negative aura to Scott Trade Center. You should help the winning streak by staying away until they lose again. Just kidding, Broy. But do you really think RM said, "ok, we're gonna' play Sodieball tonight"?

We won last night because we had a week off to get our dead ass legs back underneath us. Our schedule has been brutal against better than expected opposition.

For the record NO ONE would be even remotely bashing our coach if he hadn't been constantly talking about the lack of talent on this years team. I didn't do a preseason pick this year because I figured it would be brutal without Ian. Coach M may not care or may be trying to make a point by using the press but he's really come off looking like an a-hole.

In any case, it's a good win. Danny's shot at the 1st half buzzer made me the happiest I've been this year.

[dewey33]

We won last night because we had a week off to get our dead ass legs back underneath us. Our schedule has been brutal against better than expected opposition.

For the record NO ONE would be even remotely bashing our coach if he hadn't been constantly talking about the lack of talent on this years team. I didn't do a preseason pick this year because I figured it would be brutal without Ian. Coach M may not care or may be trying to make a point by using the press but he's really come off looking like an a-hole.

In any case, it's a good win. Danny's shot at the 1st half buzzer made me the happiest I've been this year.

I totally agree with you Rich....my only issue all along with Majerus is that he constantly uses excuses, none of which has to do with him. I do think we have enough talent to be competitive in the A-10. But they have been playing apprehensively and tired...I am so happy the post-game remarks were about how the players stepped up and not about the coaches had this great game plan!

[upsaluki]

Good win for you guys. Awful choke job for us. It's always a tough game in your house, but last night was especially bad since we had a win that we essentially gave away. Good luck on the rest of your season.

[bonwich]

I thought the same thing about the new arena - I have always tired of watching visiting teams' fans sitting so close to the floor. Not 2 years but next year that will change. If things go as planned, visiting teams won't even have a chance to buy a tix except for the few tix their school will get as a courtsey.

To clarify, I meant SIU©, which won't be back for two years and which, other than (S)MSU, is the bane of us stalwart fans who hold season tix behind the basket at the Kielvistrade.

To life, to life, l'Chaifetz!

[JaleJarr]

I guess you have missed Billikan's, Buaman's, JaleJarr's, and Tdell's post over the past month. There have been others, too.

I don't know why you guys say I'm bashing. Informed dissent is my take. I would question any coach who

publicly states winning is not priority one. As to the question of making changes to the game plan or

acquiescing to the available talent, look no further than the comments of Coach B on the post game radio

show. He stated that they wanted to draw and kick. He also stated they wanted to open the floor to allow for more penetration. These are all the things I stated the team needed to do. I felt that style of play was more suited to the personnel. I hope these are things to come.

[brianstl]

I don't why you guys say I'm bashing. Informed dissent is my take. I would question any coach who

publicly states winning is not priority one. As to the question of making changes to the game plan or

acquiescing to the available talent, look no further than the comments of Coach B on the post game radio

show. He stated that they wanted to draw and kick. He also stated they wanted to open the floor to allow for more penetration. These are all the things I stated the team needed to do. I felt that style of play was more suited to the personnel. I hope these are things to come.

Wow they had a week to practice and they added stuff to the offense.........imagine that. I have never heard of a coach doing that. You think they might add more before the Loyola game?

[JaleJarr]

Tommie & Kevin...12-14 from the line.....

Tommie and Kevin 0 turnovers for the game.

[JaleJarr]

Wow they had a week to practice and they added stuff to the offense.........imagine that. I have never heard of a coach doing that. You think they might add more before the Loyola game?

Quite possible, but I hope it doesn't involve Dwayne Polk and Paul E. taking the shots as the shot clock is low.

[Parks 68]

My guess is that we always had that kind of an offensive approach available to us but the kids were having trouble adjusting to how to run it under RM's overall expectations. Our talent level is not high - after TL and KL it drops off pretty fast. Luke is a great role player but not to be confused with being talented, Paul is a freshman who continues to make freshman mistakes - at least tonight he shot less, Dwayne - fast, but can not shoot nor can he be counted on to shoot FTs - did you notice that RM took him out when we had the ball late in the game so he would not be the one getting fouled, Bryce, was eaten up in the first half and the first part of the second but somehow he got it together somewhat during the last part - he is not athletic at all, BE - who knows on him the jury is still out with the same on Marcus. No we are not a talented team - we are a team who can win some games if the kids all stay in their roles and play tough defense. Finally, Billikan - you have been the biggest whinner of the them of all this year. Why am I not surprised to hear you now claiming that you were right all a long and how RM finally woke up. This has been a learning process and in a learning process it takes time with 2 steps forward and one back all the time. If we follow this game up with a nice effort against L of Chicago then we may have gotten over the hump and improvement will be seen at a must faster pace.

Cheesman,

Couple of thoughts on your comments. Indeed KL and TL had a good game. Kevin is BACK. His confidence shooting the ball is what was needed. Both were agressive to the basket. TL s fade away jumpers were not necessarily good shot selections, just demonstrations of great talent. Those are really tough to pull off and he did it not once but several times. Good for him.

KL was back to scoring off the dribble and TL was taking players off the dribble (it is both of their strengths). Did you notice that neither KL or TL were shooting coming off screens (the RM trademark).

Your observation on BH is half right. Have you just noticed he is not a Kevin Garnett? That doesn't mean he is not effective. The man is a presence in the lane, make no mistake about that. Falker wished he'd never seen BH as he wore him like a suit defensively when he was in, a really high energy defensive effort on BHs part. That big wing span of BH was always working denying the ball. He missed several shots with that big hand in his face. Bryce kept him in check when he was in the game.. Falker ate BEs lunch when he was given the job. Bryce handled him quite well. BH did get out manouvered a couple of times but he is 7 feet tall and not expected to have the quickness of a PF like Falker. Plus the fist half was very good for BH offensively, I believe he scored most of his points in the first half. In the second half, he contributed defensively more than offensively.

BH needs to work on his left handed touch under the basket. That is one of his best moves, he just needs to finish. Also, when Falker was climbing on his back, he was also half fronting BH, the guards need to recognize that a nice fading pass to the basket will let Bryce score easily and make the Falkers of the world look bad.

PE surely make some freshman mistakes, a thrown away ball in the second have that was a critical posession. Fortunately, SLU was making defensive stops when it counted and we recovered. I felt for the kid when he hit the floor and the SIUC player actually rolled his hips over PEs head and neck. Man, that could have been serious.

Overall, this was a good game against a tough team. Our shooting percentages went up to where they need to be and our defensive effort was good. Now we need to move forward and keep up this overall effort. The Ws will come.

[slufanskip]

We won because we hit 51% of our FGs. For the life of me, I can't see where we did anything different to get there. We just hit 'em. We had very tough defense in our faces -- Tommie was hitting fadeaways that seemed really unlikely, and Kevin was tossing up shots like the one where he created just an inch of separation. Last three games, they didn't fall. Today, Kevin and Tommie go 11-18. Easier shots? Didn't look like it to me.

I think we got calls at the end of the game, but the fact that SIU© had only one team foul after 10 minutes in the first half -- in an away game -- said something about the refs, especially Mr. Bleach Blond. (Anyone know his name? He missed 3-4 blatant calls in a row.)

That said, kudos to SIU© for their fans. Ultimately crappy night, and they show up in droves, some of them from 100 miles away. It'll be nice when they can't buy 2,000 seats 10-20 rows from the court in 2 years.

PS -- I'll lay odds that our crack (-addled) scoreboard crew screwed up on keeping track of timeouts in the second half.

PPS -- Eckerle took 2 shots to the head. His head bounced off the floor, and then the guy landed on top of him and slammed it into the floor again.

PPS -- Hey, Skip: Can't you drive in the snow?

After 3 1/2 years of living in the Upper Penninsla of Michigan you'd think so, but the fact is I couldn't get out of my subdivision. I drive a Miata (please go easy on the fat man jokes. I have a giant shoe horn and a can of Pam to help squeeze my ass in the car.) and there is a large hill leading out that I couldn't get up. I had it made on the first run, but another car as stalled 3/4 the way and I had to stop. Trust me I tried over and over.

[slufanskip]

We notice the screw-up on the timeouts too. It definitely happened at one point but not sure if it was ever corrected.

I agree that the calls went our way down the stretch but man SIU got away with murder on the moving picks. Falker was never set on any of those yet they had the guts to call one on BE. The lack of an over the back call on SIU was pretty amazing too.

The Shoes also noticed that Skip wasn't in the house. Wonder if he was with Roy watching the Althoff girls basketball game.

are you kidding, I'm on the far opposite side of the fence than Roy on this one. Kshoe you made 2 close up TV appearances. One was a real close up, your mug fillng my 61" tv was scary as hell. Willie was in the backgound on one.

[JaleJarr]

We won because we hit 51% of our FGs. For the life of me, I can't see where we did anything different to get there. We just hit 'em. We had very tough defense in our faces -- Tommie was hitting fadeaways that seemed really unlikely, and Kevin was tossing up shots like the one where he created just an inch of separation. Last three games, they didn't fall. Today, Kevin and Tommie go 11-18. Easier shots? Didn't look like it to me.

Is it easier to hit the shots you want to take or the ones the defense wants you to take? Tommie and Kevin were

creating separation which allowed for them to take shots in rythmn.

[jjray]

Good win for you guys. Awful choke job for us. It's always a tough game in your house, but last night was especially bad since we had a win that we essentially gave away. Good luck on the rest of your season.

You guys should have blown us out in the first half. If another Saluki had stepped up besides Shaw, we would have been down double digits in the first half. Even so, you guys were up 9 with 5 to play I believe. But this team has shown the ability to close furiously so it was not completely unexpected that we made the charge we did at the end.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Is it easier to hit the shots you want to take or the ones the defense wants you to take? Tommie and Kevin were

creating separation which allowed for them to take shots in rythmn.

I thought both Tommie Liddell and Kevin Lisch played excellent games and were the difference in getting this win. SLU's guards were better than SIU's guards.

If Coach Majerus changed the offense a bit to better utilize TL and KL's talents, then positive kudos go to the coaching staff too. Both TL and KL were able to get separation to get off their shots. Both of these guys are talented players that any college team would want to have.

It was a good team win, a much needed win on multiple levels: recruiting, positive local and regional publicity, even some morsel of national publicity via the ESPNU broadcast.

[billiken_roy]

I thought you were at your daughter's game?

got snowed out and i had already given my tickets away.

[billiken_roy]

We won because you stayed home and didn't bring your negative aura to Scott Trade Center. You should help the winning streak by staying away until they lose again. Just kidding, Broy. But do you really think RM said, "ok, we're gonna' play Sodieball tonight"?

it has nothing to do with soderberg. in fact i for one am thrilled we are playing majerus defense instead of the pack. it is the offense that has bothered me. it has everything to do with turning lisch and liddell completely loose instead of making them look inside first. what amazes me is that kevin and liddell are extremely unselfish, if the positive opportunity to get the ball inside outweighs their own personal opportunity they both will get it inside.

lisch and liddell are this team and they have to be free to initiate the direction of the team. now if we had van horne an doleac running the two inside spots, then i agree with the prior mentality.

[GOSLU68]

It is ridiculous to say we did nothing different and Biancardi admitted after the game that we switched to a drive and kick offense-- an offense that obviously benefits Tommie and Kevin. The fact that RM changed is amazing and a good omen. His public statements were just the opposite.

The thing that bugged me the most is that rather than admit that RM might be running the wrong offense for this team many decided that it must be that we have no talent and no players--a ridiculous proposition that was proved false tonight.

There is the possibility that RM is playing his own game and playing the local media; how many times does he have to say Tommi is a little soft going to the hole? Did this suck in Lowery? Because Tommie drove to the basket more in this game than any in recent history.

If we shoot 50% and hold the opponents to less than 60 points we will have a chance to win every game we play; but iS thiS up TEMpo baLL?

[JaleJarr]

There is the possibility that RM is playing his own game and playing the local media; how many times does he have to say Tommi is a little soft going to the hole? Did this suck in Lowery? Because Tommie drove to the basket more in this game than any in recent history.

I thinks this goes back to the Sam Houston game. Tommie had only 4 points near the final 7 minutes of the game. He scored 13 points in the final 7 minutes being aggressive and attacking the basket.

[davidnark]

it has everything to do with turning lisch and liddell completely loose instead of making them look inside first.

What is the basis for your belief that Majerus has not given them freedom to create offense? Perhaps the players were struggling, not the instruction. Was Kevin given unlimited rein during the first three games when he seemed to be able to shoot and score at will and then shut down for the next seven? Didn't Kevin struggle through short stretches of the last two seasons--did Soderberg change his coaching during those stretches?

BTW, everyone was scared to death that Majerus wasn't going to given Tommie adequate playing time because of defensive issues. By my quick calculation, Tommie has averaged 38.7 minutes per game over the last three games.

I like this team, and I like these players. However, the reason we went down to the wire with a down Carbondale team is because we simply aren't very talented. We have two quality offensive players, two or three role players, and a really bad bench. We need at least four or five real offensive threats--not two--to be consistently good at a high D1 level. Spoon's two good teams in the early 90's had five guys who were legitimate scoring threats (Claggett, Highmark, Waldman, Dobbs, and Carl Turner) and several nice role players up front. We need to get back to that depth of offensive talent, hopefully with even bigger and more athletic players.

[JaleJarr]

What is the basis for your belief that Majerus has not given them freedom to create offense? Perhaps the players were struggling, not the instruction. Was Kevin given unlimited rein during the first three games when he seemed to be able to shoot and score at will and then shut down for the next seven? Didn't Kevin struggle through short stretches of the last two seasons--did Soderberg change his coaching during those stretches?

BTW, everyone was scared to death that Majerus wasn't going to given Tommie adequate playing time because of defensive issues. By my quick calculation, Tommie has averaged 38.7 minutes per game over the last three games.

I like this team, and I like these players. However, the reason we went down to the wire with a down Carbondale team is because we simply aren't very talented. We have two quality offensive players, two or three role players, and a really bad bench. We need at least four or five real offensive threats--not two--to be consistently good at a high D1 level. Spoon's two good teams in the early 90's had five guys who were legitimate scoring threats (Claggett, Highmark, Waldman, Dobbs, and Carl Turner) and several nice role players up front. We need to get back to that depth of offensive talent, hopefully with even bigger and more athletic players.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7564646

Enter at your own peril. Look who makes the list at #4

[brianstl]

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7564646

Enter at your own peril. Look who makes the list at #4

Goodman wasn't a fan of the Majerus hiring when it happaned. I am not suprised he still isn't.

[dewey33]

What is the basis for your belief that Majerus has not given them freedom to create offense? Perhaps the players were struggling, not the instruction. Was Kevin given unlimited rein during the first three games when he seemed to be able to shoot and score at will and then shut down for the next seven? Didn't Kevin struggle through short stretches of the last two seasons--did Soderberg change his coaching during those stretches?

BTW, everyone was scared to death that Majerus wasn't going to given Tommie adequate playing time because of defensive issues. By my quick calculation, Tommie has averaged 38.7 minutes per game over the last three games.

I like this team, and I like these players. However, the reason we went down to the wire with a down Carbondale team is because we simply aren't very talented. We have two quality offensive players, two or three role players, and a really bad bench. We need at least four or five real offensive threats--not two--to be consistently good at a high D1 level. Spoon's two good teams in the early 90's had five guys who were legitimate scoring threats (Claggett, Highmark, Waldman, Dobbs, and Carl Turner) and several nice role players up front. We need to get back to that depth of offensive talent, hopefully with even bigger and more athletic players.

Success in game planning is about adjustments....the first three games we were unscoutable (new system, new personnel)....then teams had film on us while we were trying to get used to the system.

Last night was a big step in the season long chess match that is college basketball. RM adjusted to his personnel's strengths and the way other teams were playing us.

We knew he, his staff and the team was capable of this, we were frustrated that we weren't seeing it.

[Majerus Magic]

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7564646

Enter at your own peril. Look who makes the list at #4

Rick is a Terrible coach. He's lost everything. He's washed up. He can't coach in today's game..........

We get it. Seriously, we get it.

[brianstl]

Rick is a Terrible coach. He's lost everything. He's washed up. He can't coach in today's game..........

We get it. Seriously, we get it.

If this season turns around and we finish strong, remember it was Rick changing that led to it. It won't be the fact that players became comfortable in his system. At least that will be the take of some on here.

[JaleJarr]

Rick is a Terrible coach. He's lost everything. He's washed up. He can't coach in today's game..........

We get it. Seriously, we get it.

You're right about everything you posted above. I guess I was looking for a little confirmation.

You and Brian seemed to take the approach that Majerus is infallible and the player are not

maxing out. I was attempting to show you that other people were seeing some of the same things

I were. If I have gone too far I will tone it down.