observations on SS game

[Billikan]

I know this may sound crazy but I think tonights game may be the best toal team defensive effort I have ever seen by a Billiken team. We had a few breakdowns at the end of the fisrt half and in the last 5 minutes when we were up almost 30 but overall we were intense, smart and agressive on defense and eveyone who came in the game was solid.

Our freshmen are getting better by the game. Still some mistakes but many nice plays. Cotto had his best game with some good shooting early and a couple of really nice passes. He still made a few mistakes but those are all correctable. Our young bigs played well and the running block from behind by Reed was a thing of beauty.

We played HARD!!!!!!!!! It was beautiful to watch!

[Soderball]

1. Savannah State makes you look good. Just like we made SIU and UDM and Nebraska look good.

2. I agree we can take something positive away, mostly that we won. This team needed a win badly, our froshies were pretty sapped after that grueling road trip.

3. We made an INCREDIBLE amount of mistakes. MORE PRACTICE PLEASE! Finals first though.

4. Willy started, and Ruben came in early and often, creating some early-game offense for us, though when we are the Bills, what we call offense is what others call a drought.

5. Need more work, several weeks until Vegas, i'm hopeful we will do well.

6. If these guys didn't play hard for 40 minutes, Majerus would never let them see the court.

Go Bills.

EDIT: Does anyone know the details of SSU's Michigan and Bowling Green games, what the hell happened? there's no way this team managed these feats, at least not the team I saw.

[billiken_roy]

the billikens played well, but sav state was really bad. probably the softest defense we have faced in a long time, they couldnt shoot, and didnt even try to rebound most possessions. they looked like a team that needs a break if you ask me.

reed just keeps getting better. what he lacks in upper body strength seems to be offset in athleticism. and what really impresses me is that he seems to be in the right place at the right time a lot. he is the surprise player of the year imo.

mitchell sure makes a lot of unforced errors. that needs to stop before conference play.

cotto showed some of the flashes of the offensive brillance that he was in high school.

[jjray]

One of the few positives I took out the ugly SIU game was Willie hitting an open 12'. He hit another shot away from the basket against SS. Had no idea Willie's offensive game extended beyond 3' from the basket. This guy just improves by leaps and bounds each week. Getting Cotto more involved is crucial going forward this season IMHO. Teams appear to key defensively on Tommie and Kevin daring the rest of the Billikens to beat them. 8-10 points per game from Cotto would really help to take the pressure off Tommie and Kevin.

[Cowboy]

-i had a few positives from this game

-i thought BE showed a lot more in this game than he had in the previous few, more aggressive was the key

-we moved the ball real well in spurts

-using WR effectively to break the press if that continues that is a real nice option

-Rick played WR and BT at the same time against the smaller team, i liked that

-we did have too mnay to's and missed some open shots

-SSt did not look too good, maybe that was us, but i am guessing they played a different game at mich

-i'll take a win, let the kids study for finals, and move on down the road

[Billikan]

1. Savannah State makes you look good. Just like we made SIU and UDM and Nebraska look good.

2. I agree we can take something positive away, mostly that we won. This team needed a win badly, our froshies were pretty sapped after that grueling road trip.

3. We made an INCREDIBLE amount of mistakes. MORE PRACTICE PLEASE! Finals first though.

4. Willy started, and Ruben came in early and often, creating some early-game offense for us, though when we are the Bills, what we call offense is what others call a drought.

5. Need more work, several weeks until Vegas, i'm hopeful we will do well.

6. If these guys didn't play hard for 40 minutes, Majerus would never let them see the court.

Go Bills.

EDIT: Does anyone know the details of SSU's Michigan and Bowling Green games, what the hell happened? there's no way this team managed these feats, at least not the team I saw.

Why not take away from this geme that we played much better defense than Michigan against them? Our defense was fantastic with almost no open shots or even slightly open shots. On the other hand, we ran the offense and got Kevin a number of wide open shots that he missed and Ruben missed many wide open shots after he hit his first two. If we had been shooting better we would have won by 30-40 points. It drives me crazy that even when we win and play a magnificent defensive game all you want to is complain.

[DeSmetBilliken]

EDIT: Does anyone know the details of SSU's Michigan and Bowling Green games, what the hell happened? there's no way this team managed these feats, at least not the team I saw.

Not sure about the Bowling Green game, but I looked up the box score of SSU's game against Michigan last night. Simply put, they shot the lights out in the first half, which gave them a 20 point lead at the half. SSU shot 71% from the field including 5-5 from three point land in the first half against Michigan. By contrast, Michigan shot 31% in the first half, going 0-8 from three. SSU cooled down in the second half, shooting 33%. Michigan out-rebounded SSU 21-8 in the 2nd half and overtime.

[kshoe]

Why not take away from this geme that we played much better defense than Michigan against them? Our defense was fantastic with almost no open shots or even slightly open shots. On the other hand, we ran the offense and got Kevin a number of wide open shots that he missed and Ruben missed many wide open shots after he hit his first two. If we had been shooting better we would have won by 30-40 points. It drives me crazy that even when we win and play a magnificent defensive game all you want to is complain.

Billikan, just curious as to what you thought of the officiating last night. This board has a collective "the officials are out to get us attitude" but last night was a case of home cooking if you ask me. Clearly didn't matter in the outcome of the game but I hope people realize it when it happens.

The biggest positive I took from the game was Cotto on offense in the 1st half. Not only did he hit the two 3s but he created opportunities for others. Also glad to see Willie Reed starting and us winning our first tip of the year!

[Guest BillikenReport]

Billikan, just curious as to what you thought of the officiating last night. This board has a collective "the officials are out to get us attitude" but last night was a case of home cooking if you ask me. Clearly didn't matter in the outcome of the game but I hope people realize it when it happens.

I could hear the Savannah State coach talking to the refs. He had some interesting things to say.

[Westy03]

Billikan, just curious as to what you thought of the officiating last night. This board has a collective "the officials are out to get us attitude" but last night was a case of home cooking if you ask me. Clearly didn't matter in the outcome of the game but I hope people realize it when it happens.

The biggest positive I took from the game was Cotto on offense in the 1st half. Not only did he hit the two 3s but he created opportunities for others. Also glad to see Willie Reed starting and us winning our first tip of the year!

Yeah those refs favored us bigtime, a few times I just laughed to myself at how bad some of the calls were. I thought Cotto played real well also and not because he made a couple of shots but the effort he was giving on the defensive end and also his shot selection was a huge improvement. You could tell Rick was real happy with his play. The 2 on 1 in the second half with Cotto and Tommie was a great play, wish someone could get that on youtube and post it.

[bonwich]

Report, please report what the coach was saying.

The fouls were heavily in our favor at least in terms of calls, but as the game wore on, SSU was slapping and bumping virtually every time we brought it down, and in some cases -- especially with Kevin handling the ball and getting bumped -- I thought the refs actually let a lot go.

I saw us get away with a couple travels and on one of our blocks the hand-slap was audible. But I also saw someone -- Conklin, I think it was -- sprawl across the floor after a flagrant shove that wasn't called. It also appeared that double dribble is no longer a violation in the college game.

Anyway, there was a huge foul disparity, but wouldn't that be expected when one team doubles the other's score?

[Billikan]

Billikan, just curious as to what you thought of the officiating last night. This board has a collective "the officials are out to get us attitude" but last night was a case of home cooking if you ask me. Clearly didn't matter in the outcome of the game but I hope people realize it when it happens.

The biggest positive I took from the game was Cotto on offense in the 1st half. Not only did he hit the two 3s but he created opportunities for others. Also glad to see Willie Reed starting and us winning our first tip of the year!

I commented to my wife that I thought the officiating was not good. On the play where their guy was going in for a lay up and the ball stuck in the rim, he was fouled by Kevin pretty hard with no call. The player got a T when he complained and their coach went ballistic. Clearly, I thought we did fine with the calls but there were a lot of fouls on them in the last 8 minutes or so that just went uncalled. I think it might have been because their coach was complaining so much. But I will say that we played better fundamental defense than I have seen in years and we were not fouling as much. It was as if the whole team had watched the tape of KM guarding Rice and they just tried to pressure the ball, deny the pass to the wing and stay in front of their men. Casssity and Cotto in particular seemed to really improve their fundamentals on defense.

By the way, because I sit in the second row at center court I can hear a lot of what goes on the the guy who was dealing with the 35 second clock seemed like he had never seen a game before. He would reset the clock constantly even when there was not a change in possesion. He looked like a student but the refs were not happy and the coach was not happy. I guess he never played any ball and does not understand the rule but he really needs some training. When the coach was trying to find out who was handling the 35 second clock the guy was silent and would not admit he was handling it. someone else at the table had to tell the coach who was doing it. It was acutally pretty funny but in a close game when we are on defense it could come back to bite us.

[Soderball]

Why not take away from this geme that we played much better defense than Michigan against them? Our defense was fantastic with almost no open shots or even slightly open shots. On the other hand, we ran the offense and got Kevin a number of wide open shots that he missed and Ruben missed many wide open shots after he hit his first two. If we had been shooting better we would have won by 30-40 points. It drives me crazy that even when we win and play a magnificent defensive game all you want to is complain.

How am I complaining? I'm happy we won, I didn't even comment on our defense. The Bills' problem is our offense. Savannah State gave up a ton of unforced turnovers. Good teams won't do that.

[brianstl]

How am I complaining? I'm happy we won, I didn't even comment on our defense. The Bills' problem is our offense. Savannah State gave up a ton of unforced turnovers. Good teams won't do that.

Defense was a problem on the road trip. Kevin looked to be back in form defensively last night. I guess when we head to Vegas we will find out if it had more to do with the opponnent or if he is back for real.

[brianstl]

Billikan, just curious as to what you thought of the officiating last night. This board has a collective "the officials are out to get us attitude" but last night was a case of home cooking if you ask me. Clearly didn't matter in the outcome of the game but I hope people realize it when it happens.

The biggest positive I took from the game was Cotto on offense in the 1st half. Not only did he hit the two 3s but he created opportunities for others. Also glad to see Willie Reed starting and us winning our first tip of the year!

Last night I thought we got all the calls early. By the time the officiating started to swing the other way we were basically in control of the game. It was very similar to the way the SIU game went and in both instances it was bad. It probably didn't end up making a difference in either game, but it shouldn't ever be an issue.

[AB34]

The officiating was horrible. My wife and I couldn't believe how much they were letting go. As bonwich mentioned, there was one play where the SSU guy pushed Conklin the entire way down the court and then delivered a forearm to his back after they were in the post. We got away with a few things too, but this crew was atrocious (as with all the others so far this year).

I counted at least two double dribbles that were not called. A few travels were let go, but they called more this game than any other so far.

I"m happy with the defensive effort, but the offense needs to pick it up. 54 against this terrible of a team is not good. Especially when we got up by 20 and SSU was taking shots less than 10 seconds into the shot clock.

Bottom line though is a win is a win and let's get a couple more before Vegas.

[RB2.0]

The officiating was horrible. My wife and I couldn't believe how much they were letting go. As bonwich mentioned, there was one play where the SSU guy pushed Conklin the entire way down the court and then delivered a forearm to his back after they were in the post. We got away with a few things too, but this crew was atrocious (as with all the others so far this year).

I counted at least two double dribbles that were not called. A few travels were let go, but they called more this game than any other so far.

I"m happy with the defensive effort, but the offense needs to pick it up. 54 against this terrible of a team is not good. Especially when we got up by 20 and SSU was taking shots less than 10 seconds into the shot clock.

Bottom line though is a win is a win and let's get a couple more before Vegas.

The most important thing in games like this against awful teams are the following:

1. Get the win.

2. Build confidence by winning by a large margin

3. Don't get anyone hurt

We did all 3. I'm happy despite the poor offensive output. Good win.

[isotope]

I agree with brianstl. I thought the officiating in the SS game was very similar to that in the SIUC game. In both games, it seemed to me the officiating was very much in favor of the home team; however, after both games had been decided in the second half, the refs tried to even out the fouls so that it would not looks so lopsided in the box scores. I am a true billikens fan, but it angered and embarrassed me that this was occurring though we were winning. I would much prefer to see good officiating of all games.

I do not see what Kyle Cassity brings to the team. He is getting quite a bit of playing time relative to some of the other freshman, and he has contributed almost nothing. Am I missing something with Kyle? In another thread, someone made the comment that Cassity might become one of the best players on the team. I don't see that happening based on his performance to now (relative to the performances of the other freshmen).

[jimbofive]

I do not see what Kyle Cassity brings to the team. He is getting quite a bit of playing time relative to some of the other freshman, and he has contributed almost nothing. Am I missing something with Kyle? In another thread, someone made the comment that Cassity might become one of the best players on the team. I don't see that happening based on his performance to now (relative to the performances of the other freshmen).

Aside from not being able to hit the broad side of a barn (2-15 FG on the year, 2-11 from 3) I think he's playing pretty well. Taking care of the ball for the most part and making good passes to set up teammates. Would be nice to see everyone on the team hit the outside shot a little more consistently. No one's hitting better than 35% from 3 and as a team, it's only 29%. But opponents are only shooting 28% out there, so take what you can get, I guess.

[Major Majerus]

I agree with brianstl. I thought the officiating in the SS game was very similar to that in the SIUC game. In both games, it seemed to me the officiating was very much in favor of the home team; however, after both games had been decided in the second half, the refs tried to even out the fouls so that it would not looks so lopsided in the box scores. I am a true billikens fan, but it angered and embarrassed me that this was occurring though we were winning. I would much prefer to see good officiating of all games.

I sat with Dr B and we both thought we were playing Cinci; pushing, shoving, constant hand checks; they were mugging us with their press. The officials allowed so much for them, but when we got physical too, they sort of swallowed their whistles. Call the game close, and we are at the 1 @ 1 line midway in the 1st half and they are forced to give up their press. I agree with the disparity on the # of fouls; I don't agree that it was unfair. I listened to Rammer on the way home and wondered what game he was watching. I'm in the corner near the floor by the student section, so I get to see all the blood underneath. Kudos to our guys for not backing down from the contact. If you listened to Rammer and Earl, this was not a team to take lightly; they were stunned at the margin of victory before the final junk minutes. Good win, imo.

[DoctorB]

I did not think the officiating was in our favor at all. They got away with many, many fouls against us, especially the press.

As for SSU, they were simply terrible on the offensive end. Absolutely brutal. They went about 14 minutes in the first half with one bucket. They were one of the most inept, pointless offenses I have seen in a long time, I have no idea who they beat or how they stayed with Michigan, except that as one post said, they shot like fiend-- even pigs find a nut once in a while.... Against us they made dozens of terrible, brick shots and looked completely lost out there. Was it our "great' defense, or just a flat and poorly coached team on a long road trip?? Who did they beat, anyway? And why were they touted as such a "dangerous" team? For a while, I told the Major, I thou=ght they might break our notorious 20-point record from GW last year.

RE: Cassity--he sees the floor very well and makes passes that are sometimes ill-conceived, sometimes brilliant, so good that the scorer finds them too hot to handle. If Cassity can shoot the ball, he will certainly contribute, and he will also be in the weight room with Willie and the others, and may still be growing.

Cut this kid a break, OK? Remember some of our recent players as freshman: Sloan, for one, could hardly score; Luke did very little as a freshman (and really bulked up through lifting); and how about old Bryce? I never thought he would see minutes in Division I when I first watched him in pick-up, he literally had zero offensive ability. People grow up, they get better.

[GoBills]

Good observations on Cassitty. I can see the talent even if the results haven't been there yet. He handles the ball well and looks pretty quick. Looks like he knows how to pass. His shot looks mechanically good and he has a pretty quick release, they just haven't fallen yet. From what I have seen of him, it looks like everything is just a little off, but close to being effective. Keep in mind that he is making a huge jump up in competition from small town high school. I believe once he gets a little taste of success, you will see this kid improve and make bigger contributions as the season progresses.

[billiken_roy]

I agree with brianstl. I thought the officiating in the SS game was very similar to that in the SIUC game. In both games, it seemed to me the officiating was very much in favor of the home team; however, after both games had been decided in the second half, the refs tried to even out the fouls so that it would not looks so lopsided in the box scores. I am a true billikens fan, but it angered and embarrassed me that this was occurring though we were winning. I would much prefer to see good officiating of all games.

I do not see what Kyle Cassity brings to the team. He is getting quite a bit of playing time relative to some of the other freshman, and he has contributed almost nothing. Am I missing something with Kyle? In another thread, someone made the comment that Cassity might become one of the best players on the team. I don't see that happening based on his performance to now (relative to the performances of the other freshmen).

the only thing that cassity doesnt do (at this point in his short career) is score. he is the most fundamentally sound player of the freshmen except for maybe conklin. if cotto had cassity's game to go along with his shooting, you'd have the best player on the team.

[billikenfan05]

I don't know how many people knew this but Horace Broadnax, Savannah State's coach was on the Georgetown team along with Patrick Ewing that was upset by Nova in the NCAA championship. They were replaying the game on ESPNC today. I thought it was kind of an interesting bit of info that I should share with the board.

[moytoy12]

I don't know how many people knew this but Horace Broadnax, Savannah State's coach was on the Georgetown team along with Patrick Ewing that was upset by Nova in the NCAA championship. They were replaying the game on ESPNC today. I thought it was kind of an interesting bit of info that I should share with the board.

Georgetown beat Sav. St. 100-38 today.