Kyle Cassity story (SLU-Kennesaw State story)

[Guest BillikenReport]

Was surprised how bad Cassity's shooting statistics were before yesterday's game.

http://saintlouis.scout.com/2/922581.html

[Billikan]

Thanks for posting. Nice article!

I was astounded by the variety of seemingly negative posts after the last game. I can never really tell who is a Bills fan on this board beyond the core group. Many are not but pretend they are so outsiders will be confused about the negativity of Bills fans.

That being said, we have won 3 games and our youngsters have shown some flashes of real fine play. We have made mistakes but please all of you who are so critical of every little play--please watch a bunch of basketball and you will see a lot of bad play by supposedly good teams and virtually none of them are as young as our Billikens.

Stay positive folks--we have very good players with excellent coaching and the future is bright and the present is pretty darn good. That win against Nebraska will look better as the season goes on. They handled TCU pretty easily and scored 90 points.

[Guest BillikenReport]

Thanks for posting. Nice article!

I was astounded by the variety of seemingly negative posts after the last game. I can never really tell who is a Bills fan on this board beyond the core group. Many are not but pretend they are so outsiders will be confused about the negativity of Bills fans.

That being said, we have won 3 games and our youngsters have shown some flashes of real fine play. We have made mistakes but please all of you who are so critical of every little play--please watch a bunch of basketball and you will see a lot of bad play by supposedly good teams and virtually none of them are as young as our Billikens.

Stay positive folks--we have very good players with excellent coaching and the future is bright and the present is pretty darn good. That win against Nebraska will look better as the season goes on. They handled TCU pretty easily and scored 90 points.

One of the developments, I think, after three games is that all five starters are averaging 10 or more points per game.

One of the big questions coming into this season was who was going to be able to score points besides Kwamain.

So far, we've seen basically everybody contribute in that department. Kwamain, to his credit, has shown that he can step up and take over like he did in the second half against Nebraska or he can defer to his teammates and set them up for baskets.

[DoctorB]

I must respond to this: I was one of the guys wondering who would score... I admit my pessimism for all to see....

33 points from Cassity and Salecich -- WOW! again what a fun game yesterday. Cassity was really terrific, way to go Kyle. He got several big rebounds in the first half, and his passing on the perimeter is really crisp. Christian has no fear from downtown. He often shoots from 5 feet beyond the arc, and makes it! these guys are gonna be terrors in 2 years. Femi was a tiger and if he can add some boost off the bench -- well, his defense is going to improve and it's already pretty good.

I am eating crow here and confessing: I am stunned by the development of this team since the St. Elsewhere game. Stunned. Yes, many issues, especially on defense and when confronted with the press. Yes, I know there will be rough games. blah blah blah. But the fact of the matter is this: what a joy to see such amazing potential in this squad that is 100% underclassmen. Kennesaw was not so bad, and their athleticism is a lot like what we'll see in the A10. I think they would have a good chance to beat Nebraska.

How good can the Bills be by the end of Feb. this year, let alone in spring 2012??? Right now -- well, I feel MUCH better than 2 weeks ago. What a difference we are seeing!!!

And it's all without our top recruit!!!!! giddy-up!

[cheeseman]

Thanks for posting. Nice article!

I was astounded by the variety of seemingly negative posts after the last game. I can never really tell who is a Bills fan on this board beyond the core group. Many are not but pretend they are so outsiders will be confused about the negativity of Bills fans.

That being said, we have won 3 games and our youngsters have shown some flashes of real fine play. We have made mistakes but please all of you who are so critical of every little play--please watch a bunch of basketball and you will see a lot of bad play by supposedly good teams and virtually none of them are as young as our Billikens.

Stay positive folks--we have very good players with excellent coaching and the future is bright and the present is pretty darn good. That win against Nebraska will look better as the season goes on. They handled TCU pretty easily and scored 90 points.

I agree with your post - it is amazing that people want to pick out one or two plays by a player and then trash the other 30 minutes of his play. KC had a very good game - had he gotten the ball in on the two 5 second calls he would have played a flawless game - as much as I like KC I an not ready to say he is JC.

Also, I heard Frank C say today that if the Bills beat Miss. Valley on Tuesday then they will be 4 -0 for the first time since Larry Hughes was a Billiken - sit back and enjoy - one of the reasons it is so tough being a Billiken fan is that some can not be happy unless they have something to whine about so they never get a chance to ever bask in success.

[slu06]

This was my first time seeing the Bills this year and I think my friend summed up the situation pretty well when he said, "They are going to have their ups and downs this season, but you can see the talent out there." For example, we block the first three shots (I thought WR had 3 in a row...) from KSU and get a steal. Then, we convert 4 layups to go up 8-0. After that start, I thought we would cruise. However, a 3/4 court 1-2-2 trap really threw our guys for a loop. I'm assuming coach wanted the guys to break the press a certain way (i.e. passing) because in the second half the guards must have heard me and decided to dribble the ball up court (and then we had cutters going to the basket for some easy layups). I hope this was the case because we looked pretty bad picking up our dribbles in awkard spots, didn't come to the ball very well, and were settling for jump shots when we didn't turn the ball over. During this time our lead was cut significantly. Still, this was a great win considering it was a 1pm Sunday game and the guys were coming off a big win against Nebraska (relatively speaking). I thought this could be a trap game and they way we were able to overcome turnovers and scoring droughts as well as hit 3's against a surprisingly good KSU team makes me feel good. Also, we will win a lot more games if WR decides to just dunk it all the time and continue to run the break.

I think we'll beat ISU this Friday and then have Harangody and the Irish give us a few things to work on before conference starts.

[billiken_roy]

while i am excited about the obvious potential of this roster, i will save my 09-10 crow meal for after the siu game. at that point we will have played iowa state, northwestern/notre dame, georgia and siu in succession in a matter of 9 days. if this team weathers that with say one or no loss(es), then i will really get excited about the now instead of the when.

i will say i have been very please with some of the developments in just a matter of a few days. salecich's defense has improved considerably, cassity's offensive approach is a 180 degree turn, mitchell came out as a distributor instead of an allen iverson wanna be yesterday, which imo is an improvement for the team even though he has the talent to be both, remenkun keeps narrowing the gap in performance between him and willie/conklin, femi has changed his offensive focus, etc. to be able to make those advancements in a matter of games instead of seasons is actually very exciting regardless of the level of opponents.

the one thing i dont think we have seen yet and i am afraid to say might now show up until next year is the true backup for mitchell. jordan seems to have the physical makeup and ball skills for it, and salecich might have the mindset and savvy for it but not the ball skills (besides, why would we want to take that shooting mindset away), but the truth is the team seems to come down quite a bit when mitchell leaves the game.

[willie]

while i am excited about the obvious potential of this roster, i will save my 09-10 crow meal for after the siu game. at that point we will have played iowa state, northwestern/notre dame, georgia and siu in succession in a matter of 9 days. if this team weathers that with say one or no loss(es), then i will really get excited about the now instead of the when.

i will say i have been very please with some of the developments in just a matter of a few days. salecich's defense has improved considerably, cassity's offensive approach is a 180 degree turn, mitchell came out as a distributor instead of an allen iverson wanna be yesterday, which imo is an improvement for the team even though he has the talent to be both, remenkun keeps narrowing the gap in performance between him and willie/conklin, femi has changed his offensive focus, etc. to be able to make those advancements in a matter of games instead of seasons is actually very exciting regardless of the level of opponents.

the one thing i dont think we have seen yet and i am afraid to say might now show up until next year is the true backup for mitchell. jordan seems to have the physical makeup and ball skills for it, and salecich might have the mindset and savvy for it but not the ball skills (besides, why would we want to take that shooting mindset away), but the truth is the team seems to come down quite a bit when mitchell leaves the game.

I don't think Jordon's handle is that good. I think Rick knows this and wants him to shoot more.He said something to that effect on the postgame show.

[billiken_roy]

I don't think Jordon's handle is that good. I think Rick knows this and wants him to shoot more.He said something to that effect on the postgame show.

willie i think his handle is fine. i think his decision making is suspect. some of his pass attempts yesterday were of the "what was he thinking?" variety. if rickma says "just shoot it" he can probably grasp that quickly.

[Duff Man]

willie i think his handle is fine. i think his decision making is suspect. some of his pass attempts yesterday were of the "what was he thinking?" variety. if rickma says "just shoot it" he can probably grasp that quickly.

JJ had one pass to the invisible man who was wide open in the corner where I'm pretty sure he was thinking, "That's where I'd have been..."

I agree his ball handling is fine. I haven't seen anything to indicate he can drive to the hoop like KM, but the combo of CS and JJ has been adequate when KM is out.

[cheeseman]

while i am excited about the obvious potential of this roster, i will save my 09-10 crow meal for after the siu game. at that point we will have played iowa state, northwestern/notre dame, georgia and siu in succession in a matter of 9 days. if this team weathers that with say one or no loss(es), then i will really get excited about the now instead of the when.

i will say i have been very please with some of the developments in just a matter of a few days. salecich's defense has improved considerably, cassity's offensive approach is a 180 degree turn, mitchell came out as a distributor instead of an allen iverson wanna be yesterday, which imo is an improvement for the team even though he has the talent to be both, remenkun keeps narrowing the gap in performance between him and willie/conklin, femi has changed his offensive focus, etc. to be able to make those advancements in a matter of games instead of seasons is actually very exciting regardless of the level of opponents.

the one thing i dont think we have seen yet and i am afraid to say might now show up until next year is the true backup for mitchell. jordan seems to have the physical makeup and ball skills for it, and salecich might have the mindset and savvy for it but not the ball skills (besides, why would we want to take that shooting mindset away), but the truth is the team seems to come down quite a bit when mitchell leaves the game.

Roy, look at what you wrote - 4 games in 9 days against 3 BCS opponents not at home and you need a 3 -1 or 4 -0 record for those games before you get excited! Lets be serious if we go 2 -2 we should all be happy - I agree you can hope to win all of them but lets be serious. If someone had told you that we would be 6-2 at that stage of the season you and everybody else would have said man that would be a great start.

[billiken_roy]

Roy, look at what you wrote - 4 games in 9 days against 3 BCS opponents not at home and you need a 3 -1 or 4 -0 record for those games before you get excited! Lets be serious if we go 2 -2 we should all be happy - I agree you can hope to win all of them but lets be serious. If someone had told you that we would be 6-2 at that stage of the season you and everybody else would have said man that would be a great start.

cheeseman, if we want to approach a 500+ season, yes i think we need to be 3-1 or 4-0 in those four games. personally i dont think the a-10 is as weak as many "experts" have written this year. we may not have a top 16 like team like xu has been the last few, but i think we have more across the board strength in the a-10 then we have had in recent years. and if we dont want to be 6-10 or 5-11 in the conference, we need this team to be able to step up in the games like these upcoming games. otherwise i fear my above 500 record prediction isnt going to happen this year.

actually i did think we would be 6-2 after 8 games with only losses to to notre dame and georgia when i made out my predictions. but then after the very inconsistent showings in the games thus far, i am questioning that now.

last i didnt say i wouldnt be happy with a 2-2. the team is young and i accept that. i expected a barely over 500 season. all i am saying is that if we are thinking upper echelon a-10 and post season. that would be crow eating.

[Postcard]

while i am excited about the obvious potential of this roster, i will save my 09-10 crow meal for after the siu game. at that point we will have played iowa state, northwestern/notre dame, georgia and siu in succession in a matter of 9 days. if this team weathers that with say one or no loss(es), then i will really get excited about the now instead of the when.

i will say i have been very please with some of the developments in just a matter of a few days. salecich's defense has improved considerably, cassity's offensive approach is a 180 degree turn, mitchell came out as a distributor instead of an allen iverson wanna be yesterday, which imo is an improvement for the team even though he has the talent to be both, remenkun keeps narrowing the gap in performance between him and willie/conklin, femi has changed his offensive focus, etc. to be able to make those advancements in a matter of games instead of seasons is actually very exciting regardless of the level of opponents.

the one thing i dont think we have seen yet and i am afraid to say might now show up until next year is the true backup for mitchell. jordan seems to have the physical makeup and ball skills for it, and salecich might have the mindset and savvy for it but not the ball skills (besides, why would we want to take that shooting mindset away), but the truth is the team seems to come down quite a bit when mitchell leaves the game.

What's an Allen Iverson wannbe? Is that someone that took shots away from your precious Kevy last year?

[billiken_roy]

a score first distribute second point guard. he was not that last year. he was that in the games this season until yesterday.

and that isnt all bad to be that. iverson is going to the hall of fame and took his sixers to the nba championship with that mindset. i just dont think that is what rickma has in mind when he coaches basketball. now there is a time and place i would guess he will tell the kids, "ok, kwamain gets the ball and everyone else stay out of his way" (i.e. last shot).

but all in all it is pretty obvious that rickma is pushing this team to be a blended offense with more than a couple of scoring options. thus, a true point guard mentality with a thrust on involving everyone appears to be the best thing that this team will succeed with.

it's ok posty. you can learn a lot if you hang around here.

[brianstl]

I would say the better scoring distribution has more to do with players not defering to TL and KL than with the way KM is distributing the ball. It was hard for KM to work everyone into the offense when some people didn't want to shoot.

[Billikan]

cheeseman, if we want to approach a 500+ season, yes i think we need to be 3-1 or 4-0 in those four games. personally i dont think the a-10 is as weak as many "experts" have written this year. we may not have a top 16 like team like xu has been the last few, but i think we have more across the board strength in the a-10 then we have had in recent years. and if we dont want to be 6-10 or 5-11 in the conference, we need this team to be able to step up in the games like these upcoming games. otherwise i fear my above 500 record prediction isnt going to happen this year.

actually i did think we would be 6-2 after 8 games with only losses to to notre dame and georgia when i made out my predictions. but then after the very inconsistent showings in the games thus far, i am questioning that now.

last i didnt say i wouldnt be happy with a 2-2. the team is young and i accept that. i expected a barely over 500 season. all i am saying is that if we are thinking upper echelon a-10 and post season. that would be crow eating.

"if we want to approach a .500+ season we need to be 3-1 or 4-0 in those four games"--Wow! let me try to break it down--First we play Iowa State which is an extremely talented team of experienced players with tough big guys and one of the best players in the country--Then if we play ND they are one of the top seeds in the Big East with a deep experienced squad and the player of the year in the Big East a year ago who is one of the truly dominant big men in the country. Northwestern is good and deep but lost its star although it still has fine players it is not as good at it would have been with Coble. Georgia is a big strong SEC team which has had issues but has great athletes and plays tough at home. Finally, we have SIU--a deep team that handled us pretty well last year when we had two of the biggest scorers in Billiken history. And somehow we need to go 4-0 or 3-1 to have a .500 season. If we had Ellis since the start of the year then I think that 3-1 would be possible and with some real good fortune 4-0 would be at least in the discussion, although unlikely. For being so negative about the team you are a person who is creating huge and unrealistic expectations--I assume so you can then criticize them. This is a very young team--don't ruin the progression and building of a team by putting them in an impossible place where they cannot succeed in your eyes--unless you just want to say I told you so when they do not go 4-0 or 3-1.

[NH]

cheeseman, if we want to approach a 500+ season, yes i think we need to be 3-1 or 4-0 in those four games. personally i dont think the a-10 is as weak as many "experts" have written this year. we may not have a top 16 like team like xu has been the last few, but i think we have more across the board strength in the a-10 then we have had in recent years. and if we dont want to be 6-10 or 5-11 in the conference, we need this team to be able to step up in the games like these upcoming games. otherwise i fear my above 500 record prediction isnt going to happen this year.

actually i did think we would be 6-2 after 8 games with only losses to to notre dame and georgia when i made out my predictions. but then after the very inconsistent showings in the games thus far, i am questioning that now.

last i didnt say i wouldnt be happy with a 2-2. the team is young and i accept that. i expected a barely over 500 season. all i am saying is that if we are thinking upper echelon a-10 and post season. that would be crow eating.

If we go 4-0 in those games we will (assuming we beat the delta devils) be 9-0 with wins over Nebraska, Iowa State, Notre Dame, Georgia and SIUC. Forget 500+, at that point I will be thinking NCAA. I would be ecstatic if we went 3-2 in those games and would be satisfied with 2-3. Im expecting 1-4 (win over SIUC).

[drkelsey55]

If we go 4-0 in those games we will (assuming we beat the delta devils) be 9-0 with wins over Nebraska, Iowa State, Notre Dame, Georgia and SIUC. Forget 500+, at that point I will be thinking NCAA. I would be ecstatic if we went 3-2 in those games and would be satisfied with 2-3. Im expecting 1-4 (win over SIUC).

This is about the way I see it too.

[billiken_roy]

If we go 4-0 in those games we will (assuming we beat the delta devils) be 9-0 with wins over Nebraska, Iowa State, Notre Dame, Georgia and SIUC. Forget 500+, at that point I will be thinking NCAA.

i agree. remember i predicted the team would go 16-14 so for me to "eat crow" they would have to do better than that. not sure why i am taking flack for this. unless you all are saying that a 500 record is something unbelieveablely great. i think that is about where we should finish.

[NH]

i agree. remember i predicted the team would go 16-14 so for me to "eat crow" they would have to do better than that. not sure why i am taking flack for this. unless you all are saying that a 500 record is something unbelieveablely great. i think that is about where we should finish.

no but for you to say we need to go 4-1 in those games in order to be 500 is a bit ridiculous. I think we could go 1-4 and still win 20 games.

[brianstl]

All I know is we need to beat SIUC at home. We don't lose to SIUC in our house.

[RB2.0]

I was astounded by the variety of seemingly negative posts after the last game. I can never really tell who is a Bills fan on this board beyond the core group. Many are not but pretend they are so outsiders will be confused about the negativity of Bills fans.

Don't take this the wrong way Billikan, but this quote from you is a little ridiculous. Think about it. We barely draw fans to the game and draw even fewer to this board. How many people do you really think take the time and energy to post on this board to trash the Billikens? Seems pretty far fetched when we can hardly generate interest in the team from outside the core group of fans. Personally, I would stop considering anyone who has a legitimate criticism of the team as someone who is not a fan. The most critical fans I know are the biggest SLU fans. They are also the most realistic.

Obviously, winning is the only thing that changes all this. You can have marketing programs out the @$$ but nothing will put butts in the seats like a nice 6-0 record and a win over ND in Chicago. I'll be at both games

[cheeseman]

Don't take this the wrong way Billikan, but this quote from you is a little ridiculous. Think about it. We barely draw fans to the game and draw even fewer to this board. How many people do you really think take the time and energy to post on this board to trash the Billikens? Seems pretty far fetched when we can hardly generate interest in the team from outside the core group of fans. Personally, I would stop considering anyone who has a legitimate criticism of the team as someone who is not a fan. The most critical fans I know are the biggest SLU fans. They are also the most realistic.

Obviously, winning is the only thing that changes all this. You can have marketing programs out the @$$ but nothing will put butts in the seats like a nice 6-0 record and a win over ND in Chicago. I'll be at both games

I would bet our fan attendance is well over the national average so your comment about we barely draw fans to the game is off base.

[cheeseman]

Don't take this the wrong way Billikan, but this quote from you is a little ridiculous. Think about it. We barely draw fans to the game and draw even fewer to this board. How many people do you really think take the time and energy to post on this board to trash the Billikens? Seems pretty far fetched when we can hardly generate interest in the team from outside the core group of fans. Personally, I would stop considering anyone who has a legitimate criticism of the team as someone who is not a fan. The most critical fans I know are the biggest SLU fans. They are also the most realistic.

Obviously, winning is the only thing that changes all this. You can have marketing programs out the @$$ but nothing will put butts in the seats like a nice 6-0 record and a win over ND in Chicago. I'll be at both games

I would bet our attendance is well above the national avg. so to say we barely draw fans to our games is off base.

[cheeseman]

cheeseman, if we want to approach a 500+ season, yes i think we need to be 3-1 or 4-0 in those four games. personally i dont think the a-10 is as weak as many "experts" have written this year. we may not have a top 16 like team like xu has been the last few, but i think we have more across the board strength in the a-10 then we have had in recent years. and if we dont want to be 6-10 or 5-11 in the conference, we need this team to be able to step up in the games like these upcoming games. otherwise i fear my above 500 record prediction isnt going to happen this year.

actually i did think we would be 6-2 after 8 games with only losses to to notre dame and georgia when i made out my predictions. but then after the very inconsistent showings in the games thus far, i am questioning that now.

last i didnt say i wouldnt be happy with a 2-2. the team is young and i accept that. i expected a barely over 500 season. all i am saying is that if we are thinking upper echelon a-10 and post season. that would be crow eating.

If we enter conf play 6 games above our loses all we have to do is hold serve at home and we will have a better than 500 season and that does not count the chance of winning a couple of road games which is not impossible.