UMSL game observations

[Billikan]

1. This building is just fantastic. It will be really loud when we get a full house and are playing well.

2. The band is great and the music is really loud!

3. A full house of students and they were pumped. Many stayed til the end and danced with the band playing after the game. Go Blue Crew.

4. The local radio signal is AWESOME! Driving home I had the post game show on and it was clear as a bell. In past years I could barely hear it at all and it would go dead on me. It will be wonderful to listen to games. By the way, in case you did not see the announcement, KPLR is televising 5 games.

5. This game was very tough to watch. UMSL basically stalled the entire game and just ran full speed at the basket at the end of the shot clock or threw up some prayer three pointers and some were answered. They are pretty quick and athletic but We should have beat them by at least 30.

6. Than the lord for Mitchell. With Kevin out we needed someone to step up and hit a shot. Except for KM it looked like the old days under BS where we would work the ball for open shots and then miss them with no one guarding us. I was very depressed by our shooting. In warmups we were hitting everything but once the game started it was like there was a lid on the basket.

7. Cotto played like a freshman player who thinks he is in the NBA. He looked like a player who want to make sure he gets his shots and he was wild and out of control and not good on defense. He will be an interesting project at guard. Coach basically benched him in the second half after his horrible first half.

8. Tommie had a very nice game but his shot is off.

9. Eberhardt rebounded well because no one was bigger than he was.

10. Reed continues to show us that he has the potential to be a big time player and rebounder. He made one Unseld type outlet pass that was great. He just needs seasoning and more muscle. Brett struggled at times as our big centers always seem to do when we play teams with basically four guards and a forward. He was out of his element but he hustled.

11. Cassity continues to impress with his court saavy. When KM went down hurt it looked like he would have to play point for the rest of the game.

12. Overall a W but with Kent State and BC coming in I think we better buckle up because we are in for hard times if we do not play and shoot better than we did tonight. We really need Kevin--and he needs to light it up from outside for us to even have a chance.

[jp18]

Game wasn't very good to watch. But to quote the great Tommy Boy, "I have seen some things in my day, but that halftime show was awesome." The guy next to me summed it up well - words won't do justice to what we just saw when we go to describe it to someone tomorrow. I really think that was the highlight of the night. Basketball was not great.

[davidnark]

It wasn't pretty, and it wasn't the pretty kind of win we all expected to see. Of course, it was basically Liddell and a bunch of freshmen playing against a quick, seasoned (albeit small), and well-coached UMSL team with nothing to lose. It should be clear to everyone that Eberhardt and Eckerle are roll players, and this team is going to win or lose based upon the play of Lisch, Liddell, and the 6 main freshmen. Here are my thoughts and comments:

-Does anyone know if Femi John is going to be redshirted?

-Kwamain Mitchell looked like the best player on the court tonight. He is a drastic upgrade from Dwayne.

-I was surprised at how nervous Cotto looked tonight. He looked tentative and scared, which is drastically different than the Cotto I have seen to date. He looked like this was the first time he has played against guys with comparable quickness.

-Cassity looked comfortable in the system. It would be nice if he looked for his offense a little more.

-Liddell played well, but if his outside shot was falling this game would have been a bigger blowout early on. (We really, really missed Lisch's offense)

-Coach has pegged Thompson and Reed very accurately--Reed is a big-time talent who needs to get a lot stronger. Thompson has good basketball skill but needs to improve his speed and quickness.

-Overall, it will be fun to see this group grow and develop; however, we need Lisch to get healthy real fast.

[billikenfan05]

2 injuries in 2 games. Time to tear down chaifetz!

[drkelsey55]

Good showing by the students!

[davidnark]

-Does anyone know if Femi John is going to be redshirted?

Nevermind, Timmerman has answered the question in the affirmative. http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/billiken-...slu-basketball/

[kevinfootes]

12. Overall a W

YOU CAN'T COUNT THIS AS A WIN!!!!!!

Sorry, we had to read that a million times after the Quincy game a couple of years ago.

[redbirdfan]

I didnt see the "blue Light" shining tonight!

[kshoe]

Game wasn't very good to watch. But to quote the great Tommy Boy, "I have seen some things in my day, but that halftime show was awesome." The guy next to me summed it up well - words won't do justice to what we just saw when we go to describe it to someone tomorrow. I really think that was the highlight of the night. Basketball was not great.

Agreed. She was awesome and unfortunately got the loudest cheers of the night.

[kshoe]

Nevermind, Timmerman has answered the question in the affirmative. http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/billiken-...slu-basketball/

Overall I think its a good thing. It'll spread the classes out and given Femi's young age it'll in his best interest.

After watching the team tonight, I suspect most that had 20+ wins will want to revise their predictions. There simply is no such thing as a guaranteed win when 6 freshman are playing a lot of the minutes.

[3star_recruit]

Billikan,

We don't have a chance against Kent St. and BC this early in the season with the freshmen still feeling their way. I also don't see us being competitive in our first road game at Nebraska. I understand that this was really just a glorified practice game but when you score 48 against a team that lost by 58 last week to an unranked Kentucky team, there's a bunch of stuff you need to work on.

Fortunately there's at least 8 teams on the non-con that just aren't very good and we get to play them after the kids have some game experience. As long as we're decent by January we can afford to be up and down against this weak non-conference schedule.

This doesn't apply to the UMSL game but I want to institute a rule right now for the rest of the season:

You are not allowed to play the "we're too young" card in games where our freshmen get dominated by other freshmen.

[moytoy12]

Billikan,

We don't have a chance against Kent St. and BC this early in the season with the freshmen still feeling their way.

I'm sorry, but this is kind of ridiculous to say.

[moytoy12]

Before we all panic, here are a couple of additional observations:

1. We didn't have KL.

2. KM is really really good. He's going to free KL up tremendously on the offensive end, which will free up TL. These 3 guards give us a shot in any game.

3. Willie is going to be damn good.

4. We had a ton of open looks, they just weren't falling.

5. For as close as the score was, it always felt like were ahead by 20+ points.

6. The sky isn't falling.

7. Have I turned into Billikan?

[TheA_Bomb]

For those lucky enough to attend here is what the out of town fan experienced:

1. toastedrav.com the site that carries 101.1 live feed didn't work

2. you had to sign up for CBS CSTV online coverage for $9/mo to watch the game and it didn't work for most people it only worked for 2 people that ordered it on this board the rest of us were probably charged for every single time we rebooted and reentered our Credit Card info just to find out it didn't work

3. Gametracker was freezing up

4. while all this frustration was occurring we learned that SLU was losing to UMSL early on which nearly caused me to detonate

5. You guys are bragging about this half time show that we didn't get to see and have no clue what it was

6. we missed the pyrotechnic dance troupe and clowns on stilts

[3star_recruit]

I'm sorry, but this is kind of ridiculous to say.

When RM refers to "not being real good right away" and more specifically "bloodletting", "shellacked" and "train wreck" which teams did you think he had in mind?

Just because I agree with the coach that this team will get destroyed by good teams early doesn't mean that we won't be good late.

[Malibubill]

I'm sorry, but this is kind of ridiculous to say.

Agreed. That is the beauty of the freshman. For better or worse, you don't know who is going to show up night in and night out - the freshman who plays like a freshman or a freshman who plays up to his potential. That is why predicting victories this year is so difficult - each game will be an adventure. But the fact that they are freshman and the future is bright will make it easier to enjoy the roller coaster.

[moytoy12]

When RM refers to "not being real good right away" and more specifically "bloodletting", "shellacked" and "train wreck" which teams did you think he had in mind?

Just because I agree with the coach that this team will get destroyed by good teams early doesn't mean that we won't be good late.

Malibubill is dead on.

At any given time we have more talent on the court this year than last year. KM, TL, and KL are going to keep us competitive in a lot of games. After one game, it's ridiculous to say we don't stand a chance against Kent St. or BC. We may end up getting beat badly, who knows, but to say it so matter of factly is silly.

[3star_recruit]

After one game, it's ridiculous to say we don't stand a chance against Kent St. or BC. We may end up getting beat badly, who knows, but to say it so matter of factly is silly.

It has nothing to do with one game. It has everything to do with us not matching up with the personnel of those two teams.

[GoBills]

We shall see. The Bills obviously rely a lot on Lisch and having him 100% is huge. Get this one out of the way. Hope the kids are more comfortable. Teams often play up to the competition, so I wouldn't be surprised to see better performances. And let's not forget the next two opponents have to go on the road. Maybe they have an off shooting night. Sloppy play throughout college basketball is very common this early in the season. I'm not ready to concede the next two games as losses just yet.

[jjray]

It has nothing to do with one game. It has everything to do with us not matching up with the personnel of those two teams.

I love what Mitchell brought to the table tonight and the potential of the other players RM has landed but the reality of the situation is that we could lose to any team on the schedule from here on out. KM plays like a vet but beyond that the team is a work in progress (which is no knock against the players). I'm excited about the potential ... that is unlikely to be realized this season. I for one dialed back my expectations many weeks ago. Rick Majerus is building something special. I'll wait for it to come to fruition in two years.

[Box and Won]

The halftime show was AWESOME. The reactions from the student section were hilarious.

I can't believe that no one has mentioned the other highlight of the evening - the return of the Baby Billiken!

[TheA_Bomb]

Dude stop teasing me about the halftime show. What was it?

[kshoe]

Before we all panic, here are a couple of additional observations:

1. We didn't have KL.

2. KM is really really good. He's going to free KL up tremendously on the offensive end, which will free up TL. These 3 guards give us a shot in any game.

3. Willie is going to be damn good.

4. We had a ton of open looks, they just weren't falling.

5. For as close as the score was, it always felt like were ahead by 20+ points.

6. The sky isn't falling.

7. Have I turned into Billikan?

I sure disagree with #5. To me the whole 2nd half felt like we were one quick UMSL run from the most embarassing SLU loss in my 30+ years.

[HenryB]

Dude stop teasing me about the halftime show. What was it?

Half time video - she was incredible.

[billiken_roy]

interesting game actually. i was surprised our defense was not the rickma man to man we played last year. if you looked close it seemed more like brad's pack defense. a lot of sagging and allowing the perimeter passing. we did nothing to keep them from running the clock down imo. so not sure if we can guage much from last night defensively. it appeared to me we were content to cut the game down to 9 second runs.

that said, as much as i like reed's potential, he might be the worst inside defender we have had in a long time. yes he is a shot blocker, but he doesnt move his feet and if he is out court any degree of dribble skill will beat him. reed also was blocked last night at least three times by much smaller players. he needs the weight room badly. he is a highlight film when he has four feet of space, but lean on him and he isnt going to get it to the rim. still i love his athleticism and at least three times he caught mitchell and cassity passes that husak and heinrich would not have caught.

conklin was strangely very ineffective last night imo. a team like umsl that has no stand out inside players should have brought conklin to the forefront and to be honest he just didnt do much.

as davidnark pointed out, cotto was not good. played out of control when in the game and then it seemed like he then pouted on defense. i would have benched him as rickma obviously did as well

eckerle played a lot and i have no idea why. i didnt see why other than the kid busts his a$$ every second he is out there. i do respect his effort tremendously, but this back injury or whatever the deal is, has made him a step slower and he is the same ineffective offensive player he was last year. let the guy get healthy if he is hurt.

thompson hardly played so cant really comment. for what he played i thought he did ok, nothing stood out negatively imo. i guess he was just a victim of not enough minutes to go around. i was intrigued by him and reed playing at the same time. didnt really accomplish anything, but i liked that rickma gave it a look.

cassity played not to screw up it seemed to me. nothing really wrong other than the one time he got stripped at half court, but he just played tenative imo. he played off his man more than anyone else did on the team. i dont know if it was a matter he was helping because his man wasnt supposed to be a factor or what, but there was no ball denial coming from cassity last night that i saw. he obviously is wise beyond his expectations and runs the point fine and plays great off the ball and such, but he just needs to look for more offense imo. the fact he got the nod with lisch sitting, proves he has rickma's confidence, now he needs to capitalize on that.

barry eberhardt actually had a better game than the box score indicates. he was without the best rebounder on the floor last night, he was the best defender on and off the ball last night. he made his free throws. i think he should have looked to go to the basket more than he did when he got the ball. if we get the barry we saw last night every night i would be happy with that.

mitchell was probably the most consistent player on the floor. he made a few big baskets when things would get tight. he plays hard all the time and takes a pounding under the basket. if this kid progresses he is going to be a flat out star by the time he is a senior. think of marque as a freshman. there is no comparison. mitchell is a far better player now than marque was as a freshman. i would have liked to have seen mitchell drive to the basket more. if he would have done that, my bet is the umsl players are not in the push it out denial as much as they were. of course without lisch or cotto on the floor to kick it to it wouldnt have helped much.

tommie showed glimpses of offense that is national quality stuff. had one move in the lane where he jab stepped, stepped back and then crossed over and just cut his defenders ankles off. he had more open looks he passed on. i think he has to be able to hit that 10 footer after he beats his man to be the offensive leader we need. last night he didnt even look for it much. oh, i will point out for those that crucified me and stlhi last week, tommie played power forward last night most of the last 5 mintues of the game. why? because the matchup allowed rickma to do so. not saying we should do it all the time, but if the matchup is there, it is an obvious tool to use with this team to allow cassity to get in the game with mitchell, lisch and liddell.

non game stuff:

lisch not being on the floor definitely was worth a lot last night. if lisch doesnt play, we are in trouble.

i too was extremely impressed by the student turnout and enthusiasm. keep it up kids. i am sure you all are having a ball.

i was impressed where the band had a second to grab the music on the three choice song and play "livng on a prayer". man our band sounds great in that arena

anyone see the zipper down the front billiken blue heavy jacket in the billiken wear store? only $80 imo it is a steal. nicest billiken wear i have seen maybe ever. i understand they only have those few on the rack, i hope they still have next week and i am kicking myself i didnt grab it last night.

i enjoyed the fireworks during the lineup announcements. i wish we would do it more often.

is guy phillips the worst ever? last night when cassity hit the shot in the corner i am not sure what he called him first, but it wasnt kyle cassity. i dont think guy knows we are the white team. i dont think he understands basketball. he hasnt improved in 15 years. why doesnt the athletic department see this?

gosh the arena is great.

let's hope kevin is ready by next week.