SCUS game observations

[Billikan]

Interesting game in terms of the development of the freshmen. Reed is getting better and better. He really wanted to take it to the 7'3" guy. Nice dunks and some beautiful mid range jumpers on screen and roll and flair plays. That is something we have not seen by any center in forevver.

Brett T played an excellent game and he also wanted a piece of the big guy, who even though he was thin has a chance to be really good if he can put on some muscle. He has a beautiful touch from the line and he is very long. I love the fact that Brett is better almost every game--good evidence of the ability of our staff to develop big guys.

Conklin just keeps on doing the little things that win games but do not show up on the scoreboard. He clears out, boxes out, tips balls and just plays tough. His pass on the alley oop dunk to Willie to start the game was terrific.

KM had 0 turnovers and he is really hustling on defense. With Cassity and Eckerle out with injuries he had to play more minutes and he played well.

Tommie did not shoot the ball particularly well from distance but he overall had a great game. Excellent rebounding in traffic and good defense to go with some nice stop and pop jumpers.

Kevin was his typical self on defense and he handled the ball well. Not many shots but he will strart hitting soon.

BE had some nice plays -- on great block on a help play and some not so great plays.

We missed Cassity's ability to move the ball and set up the defense with penetration but we got the job done.

For those who say we should have won by 40--this team gave BC all they could handle on BCs court down 8 with a few minutes to go and they played South Carolina tough at their place.

I am just pleased we got the win and the kids are getting better. We will need to shoot better if we want to beat Liberty.

[drkelsey55]

Interesting game in terms of the development of the freshmen. Reed is getting better and better. He really wanted to take it to the 7'3" guy. Nice dunks and some beautiful mid range jumpers on screen and roll and flair plays. That is something we have not seen by any center in forevver.

Brett T played an excellent game and he also wanted a piece of the big guy, who even though he was thin has a chance to be really good if he can put on some muscle. He has a beautiful touch from the line and he is very long. I love the fact that Brett is better almost every game--good evidence of the ability of our staff to develop big guys.

Conklin just keeps on doing the little things that win games but do not show up on the scoreboard. He clears out, boxes out, tips balls and just plays tough. His pass on the alley oop dunk to Willie to start the game was terrific.

KM had 0 turnovers and he is really hustling on defense. With Cassity and Eckerle out with injuries he had to play more minutes and he played well.

Tommie did not shoot the ball particularly well from distance but he overall had a great game. Excellent rebounding in traffic and good defense to go with some nice stop and pop jumpers.

Kevin was his typical self on defense and he handled the ball well. Not many shots but he will strart hitting soon.

BE had some nice plays -- on great block on a help play and some not so great plays.

We missed Cassity's ability to move the ball and set up the defense with penetration but we got the job done.For those who say we should have won by 40--this team gave BC all they could handle on BCs court down 8 with a few minutes to go and they played South Carolina tough at their place.

I am just pleased we got the win and the kids are getting better. We will need to shoot better if we want to beat Liberty.

Iwondered why we did not look as good on offense last night, but I think you hit the nail on the head. Cassity has a very possitive affect on our offense, even if it doesn't show in the stats.

Barry shoots well from 10 feet but might as well give up from the new 3 point line.

I think Willie learned a lot from the 7'3" junior center, even though the center wasn't the greatest. Willie got pushed back to the basket a lot and I am sure that he knows he needs some more weight. Brett was harder to push around.

Looking forward to friday night, just hope we fill the arena a little better. Not many students, semester break?

[Box and Won]

The game had the feel of a preseason game.

Kevin Slaten was sitting a few rows behind us.

[cheeseman]

The game had the feel of a preseason game.

Kevin Slaten was sitting a few rows behind us.

What do you expect - it was school nobody heard of and students were not on campus. They played hard against us and we shot poorly in the first half. I curious to see just how good Liberty really is and if we can improve our shooting.

[Box and Won]

What do you expect - it was school nobody heard of and students were not on campus.

Didn't say I didn't expect it. It was just an odd atmosphere.

[SLUAvtr]

Iwondered why we did not look as good on offense last night, but I think you hit the nail on the head. Cassity has a very possitive affect on our offense, even if it doesn't show in the stats.

Barry shoots well from 10 feet but might as well give up from the new 3 point line.

I think Willie learned a lot from the 7'3" junior center, even though the center wasn't the greatest. Willie got pushed back to the basket a lot and I am sure that he knows he needs some more weight. Brett was harder to push around.

Looking forward to friday night, just hope we fill the arena a little better. Not many students, semester break?

You know, it's funny you both mentioned that, because at one point I turned to my buddy in the band and said that our offense looked way off tonight, and I think it's because Cassity isn't in there. It just looked off the entire night. I think that's Cassity's intangible. He just makes everyone around him BETTER. Hope he's back tomorrow night, as we're going to need him.

[Cowboy]

The game had the feel of a preseason game.

Kevin Slaten was sitting a few rows behind us.

-i hope you didn't get slugged

-isn't the first game after finals always kind of ragged, and with the frosh we played last night coming off their first finals, i'll take the win and let them prepare today for liberty

-was good to hear rick on the postgame

-did anyone notice the blue light we were supposed to be able to see for miles? i did not

-i hope they get the sound system figured out

-2 rebounds for willie in 26 minutes, so in the last 2 games that is 2 rebounds in 51 minutes, last night he access to at least a couple i noticed and he just did not get to it

-we are going to have to make 3's consistently at some point to win some upcoming games

-50% ft's needs work as well

-holding them to 38pts is good

-we did a good job of avoiding fouls yet still being aggressive with the limited bench

-rick has all kinds of things he can coach with this team at this point

[SShoe]

-did anyone notice the blue light we were supposed to be able to see for miles? i did not

I did...it's not impressive.

[Box and Won]

-i hope you didn't get slugged

Nah, he didn't have a purse with him.

Actually, he was very well behaved.

[kshoe]

I did...it's not impressive.

Simply put, the blue light sucks. Maybe if I was looking straight down on the arena from a helicopter it would be distinct, but otherwise its just a blinking blue light not all that dis-similar to what you'd see on a radio tower, but less visible.

[Cowboy]

Simply put, the blue light sucks. Maybe if I was looking straight down on the arena from a helicopter it would be distinct, but otherwise its just a blinking blue light not all that dis-similar to what you'd see on a radio tower, but less visible.

-i guess my expectation gathered from Fr B's description that after a win we would walk out into a sea of blue light is not going to happen

-would have been cool and perhaps unique

[MusicCityBilliken]

Simply put, the blue light sucks. Maybe if I was looking straight down on the arena from a helicopter it would be distinct, but otherwise its just a blinking blue light not all that dis-similar to what you'd see on a radio tower, but less visible.

You mean its not like the light you see from the Pyramid Resort and Casino when driving into Las Vegas from the north about 50 miles out at night on I-15? Maybe the good Father needs stick in a higher watt bulb

[FromDaEastSide]

It was pretty quiet in the arena last night, during the 1st half of play all I could hear on the Billiken Defensive end of the court was a guy about 8 rows behind our bench. Yelling at TL3 and KL to get up in the face of the ball handler.

[RB2.0]

You mean its not like the light you see from the Pyramid Resort and Casino when driving into Las Vegas from the north about 50 miles out at night on I-15? Maybe the good Father needs stick in a higher watt bulb

Isn't it called the Luxor?

Anyway, yea, I agree the Blue Light could be really bad @$$ if it was bright as hell. Some sort of blinking strobe that you could really see for miles.

Glad we got the win, but we looked awful in the first half. The offense just needs to score more points. Not sure what the factor is as I am watching on the tiny little computer feed so maybe those at the games can help me out. There is just no reason we should be scoring only 55 against USC Upstate and expect to win any games in conference.

Willie Reed is so darn good. Its so exciting to watch him play

[MusicCityBilliken]

Isn't it called the Luxor?

You are correct. Anyway, it was impressive when I did it a few years back.

[Cowboy]

It was pretty quiet in the arena last night, during the 1st half of play all I could hear on the Billiken Defensive end of the court was a guy about 8 rows behind our bench. Yelling at TL3 and KL to get up in the face of the ball handler.

that guy was certainly getting attention

i think he was giving rick some coaching hints during his rant as well

i did not hear/see him after half time, maybe the meds kicked in

[moytoy12]

-rick has all kinds of things he can coach with this team at this point

Let's hope he doesn't overcoach them this xmas break.

[FromDaEastSide]

that guy was certainly getting attention

i think he was giving rick some coaching hints during his rant as well

i did not hear/see him after half time, maybe the meds kicked in

He was not in that seat for the second half. Did he move to the other end of the arena?

[MusicCityBilliken]

Let's hope he doesn't overcoach them this xmas break.

You are right. Remember last we had that long break and RM killed the team with mega practices. Then the team goes to DC to face GW and the rest is history

[moytoy12]

You are right. Remember last we had that long break and RM killed the team with mega practices. Then the team goes to DC to face GW and the rest is history

I think RM even admitted trying to cram too much coaching into the players' heads last year during this time.

[cheeseman]

You are right. Remember last we had that long break and RM killed the team with mega practices. Then the team goes to DC to face GW and the rest is history

Should not happen again because we will be playing more games during this period. Last year we had a full two weeks of now games.

[bauman]

I think RM even admitted trying to cram too much coaching into the players' heads last year during this time.

Ok, but here's two ideas that the players should be able to absorb w/o much trouble:

Come out at the beginning of games with some fire in their bellies-be overly aggressive for the first 2-3 minutes, no matter what-we can't keep scoring 4 pts in the first 5 minutes of most games; and

Do something other than passing the ball around the perimeter for 20-25 seconds a possession-penetrate and shoot or kick the ball out to an open player who can hit a three. We did this a few times in the 2nd half (KM at least twice, TL & KL once each). TL continues to play passively on the outside for much of the games, only infrequently driving to the basket. He is too good to just pass the ball around when a drive to the hoop is available.

I know we have a lot of new players, but our standard offense seems to be so simple that the halftime junior high teams could easily master it.

While I'm on the subject of improvement, how about WR (who I love) becoming a little more aggressive on the boards-I watched him being way too passive regarding that aspect of the game last night. Also, KL, LOOK FOR YOUR SHOT-you're too good a shooter, even on a bad night, to turn into a perimeter passer. It seems if KL misses his first outside shot he becomes reluctant to shoot-come on Kevin, you're the best outside shooter we have-if you miss your first shot or two, keep putting it up there. KL should not be relying on a free throw in the last two minutes of the game to get into double figures, especially when playing 38 minutes.

[slufanskip]

Ok, but here's two ideas that the players should be able to absorb w/o much trouble:

Come out at the beginning of games with some fire in their bellies-be overly aggressive for the first 2-3 minutes, no matter what-we can't keep scoring 4 pts in the first 5 minutes of most games; and

Do something other than passing the ball around the perimeter for 20-25 seconds a possession-penetrate and shoot or kick the ball out to an open player who can hit a three. We did this a few times in the 2nd half (KM at least twice, TL & KL once each). TL continues to play passively on the outside for much of the games, only infrequently driving to the basket. He is too good to just pass the ball around when a drive to the hoop is available.

I know we have a lot of new players, but our standard offense seems to be so simple that the halftime junior high teams could easily master it.

While I'm on the subject of improvement, how about WR (who I love) becoming a little more aggressive on the boards-I watched him being way too passive regarding that aspect of the game last night. Also, KL, LOOK FOR YOUR SHOT-you're too good a shooter, even on a bad night, to turn into a perimeter passer. It seems if KL misses his first outside shot he becomes reluctant to shoot-come on Kevin, you're the best outside shooter we have-if you miss your first shot or two, keep putting it up there. KL should not be relying on a free throw in the last two minutes of the game to get into double figures, especially when playing 38 minutes.

I don't care if KL misses his first 9, he ought to be shooting #10 first open look he gets

[Billikan]

Ok, but here's two ideas that the players should be able to absorb w/o much trouble:

Come out at the beginning of games with some fire in their bellies-be overly aggressive for the first 2-3 minutes, no matter what-we can't keep scoring 4 pts in the first 5 minutes of most games; and

Do something other than passing the ball around the perimeter for 20-25 seconds a possession-penetrate and shoot or kick the ball out to an open player who can hit a three. We did this a few times in the 2nd half (KM at least twice, TL & KL once each). TL continues to play passively on the outside for much of the games, only infrequently driving to the basket. He is too good to just pass the ball around when a drive to the hoop is available.

I know we have a lot of new players, but our standard offense seems to be so simple that the halftime junior high teams could easily master it.

While I'm on the subject of improvement, how about WR (who I love) becoming a little more aggressive on the boards-I watched him being way too passive regarding that aspect of the game last night. Also, KL, LOOK FOR YOUR SHOT-you're too good a shooter, even on a bad night, to turn into a perimeter passer. It seems if KL misses his first outside shot he becomes reluctant to shoot-come on Kevin, you're the best outside shooter we have-if you miss your first shot or two, keep putting it up there. KL should not be relying on a free throw in the last two minutes of the game to get into double figures, especially when playing 38 minutes.

Kevin was 1 for 6 from three point land. He did put up shots from outside.

[billiken_roy]

Kevin was 1 for 6 from three point land. He did put up shots from outside.

however 3 of them were shot clock running out desperation shots as well.