slu72 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Watched a little of the WF IU game. Matt Roth was IU's leading scorer w/ 12. Checked out his stats. He's hitting .433 on the season from 3 pt land. Too bad Cell phone Kel stole this one from us. It would have been nice to have a shooter this year. Hopefully, Cotto starts lighting it up soon. As a side note, I've sensed some doubts about KC's shooting. He was never considered a marksman anyways or was he? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westy03 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Watched a little of the WF IU game. Matt Roth was IU's leading scorer w/ 12. Checked out his stats. He's hitting .433 on the season from 3 pt land. Too bad Cell phone Kel stole this one from us. It would have been nice to have a shooter this year. Hopefully, Cotto starts lighting it up soon. As a side note, I've sensed some doubts about KC's shooting. He was never considered a marksman anyways or was he?Cotto needs to work on his defense first in order to get consistent minutes. As far as Cassity, I have never seen him play till this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Cotto needs to work on his defense first in order to get consistent minutes. As far as Cassity, I have never seen him play till this year. I hear ya and understand. I'm just wondering if it's hard for Cotto to improve his defense if he is only in the game for 2-4 minutes and is so petrified to make a mistake that he is overthinking and not performing on the defensive side. Would it be better for Majerus to admonish Cotto, but leave him in the game to see if Cotto heeds Majerus' teaching. We sure could use a shooter out there and if Cotto is allowed to play through his defensive slip-ups, I wonder if we would get more production from him on both sides of the court. just a thought... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbofive Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Watched a little of the WF IU game. Matt Roth was IU's leading scorer w/ 12. Checked out his stats. He's hitting .433 on the season from 3 pt land. Too bad Cell phone Kel stole this one from us. It would have been nice to have a shooter this year. Hopefully, Cotto starts lighting it up soon. As a side note, I've sensed some doubts about KC's shooting. He was never considered a marksman anyways or was he? Supposedly he has a great midrange game, but we haven't seen it on display, mostly 3-pointers from what I've seen. I think he definitely displays good court awareness and passing, he's just a bit slow and his shot isn't falling. I think he needs to use pump fakes, jab steps, etc. to penetrate a bit and either get into his range for a shot or make one of his good passes to an open teammate. Problem is, any guard that can't shoot from at least close to the 3-point line is gonna get Polkafied on defense, i.e. Rodney Dangerfield levels of disrespect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westy03 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I hear ya and understand. I'm just wondering if it's hard for Cotto to improve his defense if he is only in the game for 2-4 minutes and is so petrified to make a mistake that he is overthinking and not performing on the defensive side. Would it be better for Majerus to admonish Cotto, but leave him in the game to see if Cotto heeds Majerus' teaching. We sure could use a shooter out there and if Cotto is allowed to play through his defensive slip-ups, I wonder if we would get more production from him on both sides of the court. just a thought... I tend to agree with you, im just going on what Majerus has said. Also, I think Rube is going to get some extra minutes on this homestand against a lesser opponent. Plus we dont see what goes on during practice either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Watched a little of the WF IU game. Matt Roth was IU's leading scorer w/ 12. Checked out his stats. He's hitting .433 on the season from 3 pt land. Too bad Cell phone Kel stole this one from us. It would have been nice to have a shooter this year. Hopefully, Cotto starts lighting it up soon. As a side note, I've sensed some doubts about KC's shooting. He was never considered a marksman anyways or was he? i watched cassity a number of times last year. i never came away with the impression he was a shooter but i never felt he was slug shooter either. he made enough shots and with good form that i figured he would be just fine on his open opportunites. the misses i have witnessed this year look good. they just havent went in. i think his shot will be just fine eventually. what i did see last year when kyle was still in high school was a total general on the floor that could get to the lane and distribute plus loved to get up and down the court. not greyhound up and down, but he pushed the ball and was the engine to his state tourney pinckneyville team. plus he guarded the opposing teams best player every game i saw. i am a huge fan of his based on what i saw last year. and i have high hopes for him, but the player i saw last year isnt playing for the billikens yet. this kyle cassity seems to be a lot more apprehensive and cautious on defense and definitely not as agressive taking charge on the offensive end. i pretty much assumed getting cassity would allow lisch and liddell to hardly play any point this year and kyle would be mitchell's backup as well as a wing backup. the actuality appears to be that when the going gets tough, lisch and liddell have been the primary point guards to start the offense. but that doesnt mean that kyle wont turn into that. think luke meyer. luke's M.O. in high school was the engine on his team as well. however it took pretty much the whole freshmen year for luke to really even establish himself in the rotation and thereafter he just kept getting better and better. i would bet that cassity will be the same. but darn we need that step up now!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbofive Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I tend to agree with you, im just going on what Majerus has said. Also, I think Rube is going to get some extra minutes on this homestand against a lesser opponent. Plus we dont see what goes on during practice either. I know what goes on. Majerus asks Ruben to walk on his back and Ruben gets scared and then Rick shows him his peepee and then everybody cries and Ruben doesn't play. But he's probably just not playing tough enough D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I tend to agree with you, im just going on what Majerus has said. Also, I think Rube is going to get some extra minutes on this homestand against a lesser opponent. Plus we dont see what goes on during practice either. Good points re: the upcoming games and practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I hear ya and understand. I'm just wondering if it's hard for Cotto to improve his defense if he is only in the game for 2-4 minutes and is so petrified to make a mistake that he is overthinking and not performing.... hmmm we've never seen that before since rickma took over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I know what goes on. Majerus asks Ruben to walk on his back and Ruben gets scared and then Rick shows him his peepee and then everybody cries and Ruben doesn't play. Well, that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 hmmm we've never seen that before since rickma took over. I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw your post above about cassity not looking the same. Great minds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Cotto needs to work on his defense first in order to get consistent minutes. As far as Cassity, I have never seen him play till this year.That's what gets me. Cassity looks out of his league on the defensive end against smaller, quicker guards. Paul E. has lost a step and was never overly athletic to begin with. These two guys are contributing next to zero on the offensive end. Cotto has an upside. He's the one guy on the bench capable of lighting it up from the outside (which our offense desperately needs). It frustrating to watch so I can't imagine how Cotto feels about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 That's what gets me. Cassity looks out of his league on the defensive end against smaller, quicker guards. Paul E. has lost a step and was never overly athletic to begin with. These two guys are contributing next to zero on the offensive end. Cotto has an upside. He's the one guy on the bench capable of lighting it up from the outside (which our offense desperately needs). It frustrating to watch so I can't imagine how Cotto feels about it. i have to back rickma on this one. i agree cotto has bigtime offensive skills, but he hasnt even come close to showing it on the floor and couple that with the very mediocre at best rest of the game, no way i push his minutes up just because he has the most potential to do it offensively. either he has to become the offensive player he was in high school to allow rickma to overlook his shortcomings currently for the rest of his game, or he has to bring up his overall level of production on both ends and minimize all mistakes to allow him the minutes to let the offense gradually come out. now if he was coming in and hitting shots from all over well then you can afford to blake ahearn him some. but thus far that isnt the case. now granted that might be rickma restricted, but still, cant just blindly let him play if he isnt consistently doing the overall job or at least tearing it up scoringwise. thus the reason cassity and eckerle play ahead of him. they dont score anymore, but they do more of everything else right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbofive Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 i have to back rickma on this one. i agree cotto has bigtime offensive skills, but he hasnt even come close to showing it on the floor and couple that with the very mediocre at best rest of the game, no way i push his minutes up just because he has the most potential to do it offensively. either he has to become the offensive player he was in high school to allow rickma to overlook his shortcomings currently for the rest of his game, or he has to bring up his overall level of production on both ends and minimize all mistakes to allow him the minutes to let the offense gradually come out. now if he was coming in and hitting shots from all over well then you can afford to blake ahearn him some. but thus far that isnt the case. now granted that might be rickma restricted, but still, cant just blindly let him play if he isnt consistently doing the overall job or at least tearing it up scoringwise. thus the reason cassity and eckerle play ahead of him. they dont score anymore, but they do more of everything else right. I dunno, I like Eckerle, but I feel like he needs to be put out to pasture pretty quickly. He's just not on the same level as those other guys anymore, and it could very well be due to a persisting back injury. I just don't expect his shots to fall when he takes them and that's hard to watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I dunno, I like Eckerle, but I feel like he needs to be put out to pasture pretty quickly. He's just not on the same level as those other guys anymore, and it could very well be due to a persisting back injury. I just don't expect his shots to fall when he takes them and that's hard to watch. i am not arguing with you. i have never been an eckerle top fan. especially when it comes to offense. i am only defending rickma rotation thinking. i dont think anyone expects eckerle to out minute cotto for their slu careers. but i would never advocate the thinking "let's let cotto play because he can probably shoot better than everyone else". cotto has to step up and do the other things that eckerle does right to steal those minutes or else he needs to go nuts scoring for real in the limited time he plays to show it is worth putting him out there without the other attributes refined yet. until he achieves one or the other, i can understand rickma's decision. hey if you look at my season prediction where we picked the billikens won loss record and then picked the player that would have the single game most points, i picked cotto. so i too think he is a scorer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OC Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Six Inches!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbofive Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Six Inches!!! A monumental 100th post, good sir. I have a feeling that Majerus wanted to show the refs what six inches was after all that hand-checking from SIU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaifetzRocker88 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Watched a little of the WF IU game. Matt Roth was IU's leading scorer w/ 12. Checked out his stats. He's hitting .433 on the season from 3 pt land. Too bad Cell phone Kel stole this one from us. It would have been nice to have a shooter this year. Hopefully, Cotto starts lighting it up soon. As a side note, I've sensed some doubts about KC's shooting. He was never considered a marksman anyways or was he? Washington (IL) High School has another outstanding guard to pay attention to if you're up central Illinois' way over the holidays. I remember spending a week there one night, as the old saying goes. I'll get back to you on the name of the player, but he's a good one. EDIT: Dyricus Simms-Edwards is the Washington player. Has a chance to be one of the better central IL prospects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtside Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Watched a little of the WF IU game. Matt Roth was IU's leading scorer w/ 12. Checked out his stats. He's hitting .433 on the season from 3 pt land. Too bad Cell phone Kel stole this one from us. It would have been nice to have a shooter this year. Hopefully, Cotto starts lighting it up soon. As a side note, I've sensed some doubts about KC's shooting. He was never considered a marksman anyways or was he? Nothing against Matt Roth, who would have been a helpful addition to SLU, but he's played in 3 close games this season and in two of those didn't score more than 3 points in either one. It's a bit early for stats, and all stats are relative to some extent. But as I said, Roth would have been a helpful addition to SLU, and more so as his years progressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 That's what gets me. Cassity looks out of his league on the defensive end against smaller, quicker guards. Paul E. has lost a step and was never overly athletic to begin with. These two guys are contributing next to zero on the offensive end. Cotto has an upside. He's the one guy on the bench capable of lighting it up from the outside (which our offense desperately needs). It frustrating to watch so I can't imagine how Cotto feels about it. Cotto will get better with a more disciplined approach to the game and some improvement on the fundamentals of his defense. He takes way to many chances and leaves people either wide open or with another player having to help on his man which leaves someone else open. So far, he has not been lighting it up and he has missed some open shots that would have really meant something. But he is a freshman so we all should be patient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 Cotto will get better with a more disciplined approach to the game and some improvement on the fundamentals of his defense. He takes way to many chances and leaves people either wide open or with another player having to help on his man which leaves someone else open. So far, he has not been lighting it up and he has missed some open shots that would have really meant something. But he is a freshman so we all should be patient. I know we all talk about the fact that Cotto hasn't "lit it up", but that's a little hard to do when he's averaging just over 10 min a game (which is a little skewed with 24 min coming against Nebraska). In the one game when he got some minutes, he shot 4-8 from the field (2-5 from 3 pt range). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I know we all talk about the fact that Cotto hasn't "lit it up", but that's a little hard to do when he's averaging just over 10 min a game (which is a little skewed with 24 min coming against Nebraska). In the one game when he got some minutes, he shot 4-8 from the field (2-5 from 3 pt range). I hate for us to be debating a freshman who has played only a handful of games. He will play and he will get better and he will understand the fundamentals of defense and hopefully he will hit open shots with the game on the line. (As I recall, one of the 2 for 5 was a shot that banked in from over 20 feet!) Why not give the staff some credit that they know how to coach! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 I know we all talk about the fact that Cotto hasn't "lit it up", but that's a little hard to do when he's averaging just over 10 min a game (which is a little skewed with 24 min coming against Nebraska). In the one game when he got some minutes, he shot 4-8 from the field (2-5 from 3 pt range). I hate for us to be debating a freshman who has played only a handful of games. He will play and he will get better and he will understand the fundamentals of defense and hopefully he will hit open shots with the game on the line. (As I recall, one of the 2 for 5 was a shot that banked in from over 20 feet!) Why not give the staff some credit that they know how to coach! Good god Billikan, everything with you is a jab at the coach, a jab at the team, etc. All I'm saying in rebuttal to the "he's not lighting it up argument" is that he hasn't had the opportunity to light it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOSLU68 Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I know we all talk about the fact that Cotto hasn\'t \"lit it up\", but that\'s a little hard to do when he\'s averaging just over 10 min a game (which is a little skewed with 24 min coming against Nebraska). In the one game when he got some minutes, he shot 4-8 from the field (2-5 from 3 pt range). debating a freshman-considering what Conklin and KM, BT are getting in minutes I would like Reed and Cotto to be the sixth and seventh men off the bench instead of BE and PE. BE has flashes at the offensive end and one or two games actually rebounded well but PE must be injured and should not play until his speed returns. I don\'t mind PE not shooting much but would like Cotto and Reed to give the opponents something else to worry about. I would like to see Reed, BT and Conklin in the game at the same time with either of the three KM, TL, KL not necessarily in that order Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BillikenReport Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Dyricus Simms-Edwards is the Washington player. Has a chance to be one of the better central IL prospects. I think he was at SLU's Elite Camp this summer. If so, he didn't do anything to stand out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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