UMSL game observations

[billiken_roy]

Half time video - she was incredible.

my daughter asked on the way home, "how would one figure out they were going to ride a unicycle, stack bowls on their foot and flip them to their head to make a living?"

she has a point. there is nothing on the ACT test that indicates someone would excel at that.

[Dungeon Yankee]

a couple of more observations

1) mitchell is quick as lightning. however if you overplay him to his right, you can neutralize some of that speed. he has to learn to be just as explosive to his left. also he gets careless with the ball at times

2) cassity has the potential to be a great shooter. he seemed tenuous at times when he had an open shot

3) cotto looked awful. i'm sure he is bertter than that. i got the impression he had the first game jitters

4) reed should play more. his presence on defense will be awesome. and he is as good as the rest of the bigs on offense

5) thompson has a lot of work to do, but I think he will be fine with time

[satrap]

We are going to struggle this year and mightily. It's going to be a bitter blow to Liddell and Lisch the older, since they deserved better. None of the freshmen are close to being as good as they were at that point in their careers.

Mitchell could be solid this year, but he will have his major slumps.

Cassity is interchangeable with hundreds of DII and DIII guards. This is not a slight on him or any of them- they're good, just not A10 upper division guys.

It's going to be tough to watch this team get absolutely mauled in it's first five games and on the road this year.

[Box and Won]

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?

Didn't he call him Alex or something like that? Cassity passed up too many open shots, IMO. There were 2-3 opportunities in which he had a great look but didn't take the shot.

What was up with all the empty high-roller seats? I was under the impression that they had all been sold. That was the biggest disappointment to me - the students showed up in full force but the fat cats couldn't be bothered to show up for the first game.

The students were awesome - lots of enthusiasm, which was great to see. Hopefully it will rub off on the rest of our fans.

Bernie reports that the band has procured new conch shells from Hawaii.

For all you out-of-towners: You guys are going to like Mitchell. He was fantastic.

I think Cotto just seemed nervous. Hopefully he will calm down and be able to play his game.

I thought Reed and Thompson both showed the plusses and minuses of having freshman big men. I think they will both be great as they gain more experience.

Traffic flow seemed pretty decent after the game.

Looked like there was a lot going on around SLU beforehand. Triumph Grill had a beer tent set up outside and a band was playing. We saw the Vashon drumline marching down the street, which was very cool. Stopped in at The U. for a sandwich before the game and the place was mostly full. Buffalo Brew House was packed - don't know how the crowd was at Pappy's. A new pizza place is just about to open up near Olive and Compton, which should be cool.

The NCAA banners have been hung up - they're the same ones from Scottrade. They did manage to add our 2004 NIT appearance but forgot 2003 for some reason.

We need to sell more season tickets. Way too many empty seats on the ends. Way too many opportunities for opposing fans to get tickets.

Seriously, how great was it to have everyone ON CAMPUS for basketball? It just makes you feel so much more connected to the school.

[MB73]

Big disappointment to me, the three new big men, vs UMSL, contributed very little, thought they were here to get us an inside game for a change.

[billiken_roy]

a couple of more observations

1) mitchell is quick as lightning. however if you overplay him to his right, you can neutralize some of that speed. he has to learn to be just as explosive to his left. also he gets careless with the ball at times

2) cassity has the potential to be a great shooter. he seemed tenuous at times when he had an open shot

3) cotto looked awful. i'm sure he is bertter than that. i got the impression he had the first game jitters

4) reed should play more. his presence on defense will be awesome. and he is as good as the rest of the bigs on offense

5) thompson has a lot of work to do, but I think he will be fine with time

dont equate blocking shots with awesome. it is a good head start, but 5 blocked shots a game doesnt negate 5 layups given up imo. reed has a lot of work to do defensively. as to "as good as the rest on offense"

i also dont agree with that. did you feel real confident when willie was on that foul line? how about when the umsl center who was 5 inches shorter and probaby an additional 2 inches shorter on wingspan, was blocking his shot at the basket?

willie reed has big time potential. there is no doubt about that. but what we saw vs a horrible harris stowe team compared to a mediocre d2 umsl team will only be exagerated more when he goes against xavier and umass. he needs to work hard in the weight room and concentrate in practice on learning the true fundamentals of man to man defense. it is pretty obvious that willie reed has never been coached before imo. he is a true diamond in the rough at this point. and i too believe he can turn into a monster. but he is going to get dominated by equal sized experienced posts this year imo unless he finds religion in practice and the weight room very fast.

[billiken_roy]

We are going to struggle this year and mightily. It's going to be a bitter blow to Liddell and Lisch the older, since they deserved better. None of the freshmen are close to being as good as they were at that point in their careers.

Mitchell could be solid this year, but he will have his major slumps.

Cassity is interchangeable with hundreds of DII and DIII guards. This is not a slight on him or any of them- they're good, just not A10 upper division guys.

It's going to be tough to watch this team get absolutely mauled in it's first five games and on the road this year.

i see your point on cassity to a degree, on the surface he didnt contribute a lot to the box score. but i am telling you this kid is refined far more than ANY of the freshmen at this point. he isnt as good athletically or scoring as mitchell, but you need to watch him more when he doesnt have the ball and how he takes control of the team during breaks and lulls, etc. cassity is not a d-2 player by any means. as he grows and gets more confidence, this kid could is going to be really good imo.

[billiken_roy]

We need to sell more season tickets. Way too many empty seats on the ends. Way too many opportunities for opposing fans to get tickets.

Seriously, how great was it to have everyone ON CAMPUS for basketball? It just makes you feel so much more connected to the school.

i too was wondering what is up with the no show? sad for the historic first game to blow off the game. i sat with my son in his seats up in the alps seats and it was packed up there. rowdy group. i enjoyed that! i'll be back in my seats next game though.

it indeed was neat on campus. i happened to park in the lindell garage last night because we knew we were giving my daughter's best friend who is on the slu softball team a ride home for the weekend after the game and i didnt want to try to drive against the traffic so we had to walk up laclede with the students, and that walk back to the grarage after the game was truly neat as it was shoulder to shoulder all the way to grand it seemed. that is cool beyond belief and i admit i thought i would never see that. great job students keep coming!!!

[Taj79]

I have to admit that it is nice to see some expectations racheted down. These are freshmen for crissakes. They will take their lumps. Inconsistency will be their initial trademark. The last time we had such a "great" class, Claggs and Highmark and Smith and Winfield won FIVE games. 5! And Grawer was out the door. Granted, our next huge class was a tremendous success, but that was led by a McDonald's All-American, whom some ranked the #2 recruit in the whole country. One and done. The legend. We don't have that now although I believe the respective whole sum of the parts will be better in the long run. But there are growing pains. For all the great that was the season of the Hughes, those he left behind were huge disappointments in my book. I'd rather see a team composed of a roster like the Clagg years, not the Hughes YEAR. Reproducable and renewable results.

Yes, the two main guards cut their teeth on the RM system last year, and I still believe that will keep us in a lot of games. But this is one non-conference season where talent development is going to be the key. That is why the schedule sucks for the most part. Self confidence is easy to destroy and very hard to regain. Ask Dwayne Polk.

The campus atmosphere and the in-house arena atmosphere sound great. Wish I was there.

[Billikan]

We are going to struggle this year and mightily. It's going to be a bitter blow to Liddell and Lisch the older, since they deserved better. None of the freshmen are close to being as good as they were at that point in their careers.

Mitchell could be solid this year, but he will have his major slumps.

Cassity is interchangeable with hundreds of DII and DIII guards. This is not a slight on him or any of them- they're good, just not A10 upper division guys.

It's going to be tough to watch this team get absolutely mauled in it's first five games and on the road this year.

For those of you who are out of town or could not get to the game please do not think that this opinion is anywhere near the mark. Cassity is obviously a very good player who is a true freshman. To suggest he is not a D! player is an absolute insult and a ridiculous statement. I have no idea what the agenda of this poster is but to attack two of the best freshmen we have had in years after their first game is a joke.

[TheA_Bomb]

my daughter asked on the way home, "how would one figure out they were going to ride a unicycle, stack bowls on their foot and flip them to their head to make a living?"

she has a point. there is nothing on the ACT test that indicates someone would excel at that.

She was probably forced into this job by the Commies in the People's Republic. We pay her to perform at SLU the money goes back to Red China they buy more US debt with it and slowly take control. This halftime show is a commie plot. They want your fluids.

If she is from Taiwan, disregard everything above.

[Dungeon Yankee]

it indeed was neat on campus. i happened to park in the lindell garage last night because we knew we were giving my daughter's best friend who is on the slu softball team a ride home for the weekend after the game and i didnt want to try to drive against the traffic so we had to walk up laclede with the students, and that walk back to the grarage after the game was truly neat as it was shoulder to shoulder all the way to grand it seemed. that is cool beyond belief and i admit i thought i would never see that. great job students keep coming!!!

had the same feeling walking up toward the laclede garage. some of the students were even singing the billiken fight song and chanting s-a-i-n-t- l-o-u-i-s. don't ever remember that sort of thing before. an on campus stadium/arena can do wonderful things for student/fan enthusiasm.

[brianstl]

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!

It would have been nice if someone would have thought about getting the Baby Billiken outfit cleaned before they put it on that kid.

[bhayes520]

The whole pre-game introduction show was great.

The actual game was disappointing.

I'm glad we have a point guard that can score. It's nice to play offense with 5 players instead of 4. Can't wait to see Kwamain, Kevin and Tommie on the court at the same time.

Hopefully Ruben bounces back next game. We can get away without him against UMSL I guess, but he needs to be part of our offense off the bench if we're going to be good. His shot is just too valuable to only play 8 minutes. I get that he wasn't effective last night, but he is going to need to play. Hopefully he improves his passing/ball handling skills over the year, because they don't appear to be very good right now.

Paul played because Ruben stunk, and Paul can hang onto the ball better. He went about 4 rows deep after a loose ball.

Barry hit his free throws, and had 9 boards, but he probably should have had 29. I don't think he ever was taught how to box someone out. But other than Thompson (who hardly played...), he appears to be the only one with the ability to hit a free throw.

Cassity played alright. I'm skeptical of him being our solution for backup point guard. Stat sheet has him credited for no assists and one turnover, but I didn't feel like he was very comfortable controlling the ball, and he had a couple bad passes as well.

Conklin didn't get fed the ball inside nearly enough. Tommie played about how I would expect him too. After the freshmen would pass it around a couple of times without finding any open looks, he would get the ball and try to create one.

Can't wait until Willie puts on some muscle.

[brianstl]

Overall, I was underwhelmed last nice. I don't get the hate on Cassisty. He is gong to be pretty good. Mitchell was pretty impressive. Tommie's shot will come around. I was disappointed by Conklin overall, but he did somethings that give me hope for this year. His footwork is very good for a freshman four. I think he might have been a little nervous. Reed and Thompson both have a long way too go. They have the tools, but they will look lost early in the season. Thompson needs to go up stromg with the ball down low, instead of trying to get pretty like he did at least once. Cotto just wasn't right last night. BE looked like the BE from last year. That is not a good thing. PE is what PE is. He has a role to fill on this team and he fills better than anyone else on the roster can right now. We missed Kevin last night, but it shouldn't have affected us that much.

We will get a better idea about the whole team after Kent St.. I don't want to base too much on a game that SLU didn't game plan for and one that we were missing our best player.

[satrap]

For those of you who are out of town or could not get to the game please do not think that this opinion is anywhere near the mark. Cassity is obviously a very good player who is a true freshman. To suggest he is not a D! player is an absolute insult and a ridiculous statement. I have no idea what the agenda of this poster is but to attack two of the best freshmen we have had in years after their first game is a joke.

Guys, I'm not "hating" on him or attacking him. Nor am I suggesting he is not a DI quality player. I am only suggesting, albeit very early, that he will not be an upper level A10 guard.

This is the point of boards such as this: observation without character assassination.

[billikenfan05]

thats a link to a better video of the halftime show.

SHE WAS AMAZING! I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT IN MY LIFE!!!

The pyro before the game was crazy! I agree they need to do it more.

It was really cool to see the baby billiken again! I hadn't seen it since I was little, it was very nostalgic for me.

[brianstl]

Does anyone know why there wasn't a banner for the CUSA championship?

[DirtyRican]

The mini Billiken was really cool. The atmosphere in that place was awesome last night.

Now we just need to get Rickma those blue and white checkered pants those two guys had on. Those pants are

awesome and would go well with the black turtle neck.

[billikenfan05]

The mini Billiken was really cool. The atmosphere in that place was awesome last night.

Now we just need to get Rickma those blue and white checkered pants those two guys had on. Those pants are

awesome and would go well with the black turtle neck.

Mini billiken is not the perferred nomenclature, baby billiken please.

[TheA_Bomb]

I've been advocating an idea for years and now that we are bringing in an Aussie it may come true. I think we need a Koala that we clip the ears to look like a Billiken and run it around on a leash at the games. Koalas look like Billikens and it would be great fun for all the kids.

[Billikan]

I've been advocating an idea for years and now that we are bringing in an Aussie it may come true. I think we need a Koala that we clip the ears to look like a Billiken and run it around on a leash at the games. Koalas look like Billikens and it would be great fun for all the kids.

A mascot would be interesting but the Koala is one of the meanest, toughest and most bad tempered animals out there. Might be a good role model for the players but we would not want to have it out of a caged area and particularly around the kids.!

[kevinfootes]

Mini billiken is not the perferred nomenclature, baby billiken please.

I can't wait until the return of the Vess soda can!

[TheA_Bomb]

A mascot would be interesting but the Koala is one of the meanest, toughest and most bad tempered animals out there. Might be a good role model for the players but we would not want to have it out of a caged area and particularly around the kids.!

can't be mean they are so cute eating euclolyptis all day.

[brianstl]

I can't wait until the return of the Vess soda can!

The Kiel Bear can't be far behind.