Could Ellis mean Loe will follow?

[jimbofive]

The only reason JR would not come back second semester is if he is in eligible to play because of not passing his classes first semester. This is a real possibility if he does not take the tests. This concussion must be really bad since he can not even be at the games due to the noise level.

Actually the classroom or practice could possibly be louder than the games. Maybe he has an affliction to hearing "Billiken Defense" during loose ball scrambles while we're on offense.

[Guest BillikenReport]

It is reasonable to bring up Reid or Smith as possible transfers because those guys have played less than everybody else.

It looks like Reid will become a medical redshirt, but his situation is obviously more troubling than a lack of playing time. Hopefully he is getting healthy and can do what he needs to do to return to school for the spring semester.

I'd be surprised if Smith doesn't redshirt next season. He probably would have this year if Ellis arrived on time or if Thompson hadn't transferred. Smith is a great leaper, but doesn't have the size to hold his position in the post like Remekun does. He has a chance to be a nice player for the Billikens in the future, but he has to get a lot stronger and put on weight.

Dwayne Evans seems to be more of a true small forward than Smith is right now, so Smith could be fifth in the two-man post rotation next season — or sixth if Rob Loe wants to be a Billiken.

[DirtyRican]

Actually the classroom or practice could possibly be louder than the games. Maybe he has an affliction to hearing "Billiken Defense" during loose ball scrambles while we're on offense.

That was a disgrace. SAE looked at me in disbelief after he said that. He should transfer to Fontbonne too!

[Guest BillikenReport]

That was a disgrace. SAE looked at me in disbelief after he said that. He should transfer to Fontbonne too!

Speaking of Fontbonne, did everyone see Daniel Lisch in the kiss cam last night?

Reminded me to look up to see how he is doing this season.

Here are his stats for his first year with the Griffins:

http://www.fontbonne.edu/athletics/teams/m...seasonstats.htm

[BACKHANDtheRICAN]

That was a disgrace. SAE looked at me in disbelief after he said that. He should transfer to Fontbonne too!

I dont know what I would want more...Loe coming to SLU next year or not seeing KC in a Bills uniform, EVER. Tough choice.

If we somehow get Loe, along with CE, McCall, KM, and WR...thats a talented starting 5 with some size.

[jimbofive]

I dont know what I would want more...Loe coming to SLU next year or not seeing KC in a Bills uniform, EVER. Tough choice.

If we somehow get Loe, along with CE, McCall, KM, and WR...thats a talented starting 5 with some size.

I have nothing against KC or anyone on the team, but if it comes down to Loe, maybe the best international prospect period next year, wanting to come here... somebody's getting a fruitbasket and great recommendation elsewhere. And I have no problem w/ that. We don't even have enough guys to practice right now. Keep on recruiting, RM.

Also, if we had that starting lineup, I mean WOW. We might see a Bills team that could actually score 75-80 per game. I don't know what the white dudes' defense will end up like, esp. w/ them being international players, but the black dudes in that lineup will have the speed and athleticism to get after it.

Fingers crossed, but just a relief to have CE here for now.

[SLUDrew]

I have nothing against KC or anyone on the team, but if it comes down to Loe, maybe the best international prospect period next year, wanting to come here... somebody's getting a fruitbasket and great recommendation elsewhere. And I have no problem w/ that. We don't even have enough guys to practice right now. Keep on recruiting, RM.

Also, if we had that starting lineup, I mean WOW. We might see a Bills team that could actually score 75-80 per game. I don't know what the white dudes' defense will end up like, esp. w/ them being international players, but the black dudes in that lineup will have the speed and athleticism to get after it.

Fingers crossed, but just a relief to have CE here for now.

I have to agree with Jimbo on this. If SLU has a chance to land a true center that is considered an elite international prospect, and who is being courted by Pitt, Arizona, and evidently Kentucky, then we find a way to get him on the roster.

[Archy McNally]

I just look at Femi and Kyle as two different kinds of players who play basically the same position.

Kyle does a better job handling the ball and passing, has a better looking shot (though he doesn't make as many as Femi does) and defends on the perimeter better.

Femi does a better job of scoring (making shots, getting hustle points off putbacks and steals), defending inside using his strength and rebounding in traffic.

Not sure who is the more polished player. One of the knocks against Femi was that he didn't get very good coaching in high school. They played on the same AAU team. Both have their strengths and weaknesses and both need to get better -- and will. Both look they will be solid contributors for four seasons, but unfortunately neither has shown yet that they will be big impact players for the Billikens.

I think that is a good synapsis overall as a player but to who is the better athlete, who would win sprints or touch the highest spot on the backboard, my money would be on FJ. I could be wrong, but that is what I think after seeing both of them.

I do think Cassity might be able to drive better because of a nice first step and his fundamentals/comfortability in doing so, but I think FJ has a higher ceiling.

[DirtyRican]

I think that is a good synapsis overall as a player but to who is the better athlete, who would win sprints or touch the highest spot on the backboard, my money would be on FJ. I could be wrong, but that is what I think after seeing both of them.

I do think Cassity might be able to drive better because of a nice first step and his fundamentals/comfortability in doing so, but I think FJ has a higher ceiling.

Comfortability? Sorry but that is the over statement of the year. I think if he had the same tenacity as KM or JJ he would do very well going to the hoop. He did it last night twice then reverted back to the ole dribble in, look lost then pull out.

[billiken_roy]

He did it last night twice then reverted back to the ole dribble in, look lost then pull out.

as opposed to your preferred femi john barrel into the lane and get a charging foul and a turnover twice last night. yeah. that makes a lot of sense. i'll take the protect the ball over an out of control turnover any day.

[DirtyRican]

as opposed to your preferred femi john barrel into the lane and get a charging foul and a turnover twice last night. yeah. that makes a lot of sense. i'll take the protect the ball over an out of control turnover any day.

I liked the play that Femi drew the charge on. He had an aggressive mentality. On a night when nobody other than KM or JJ looked to score or were hitting shots he went after something.

Protecting the ball? I didnt look at the stat sheet but over the last several games we have seen plenty of bonehead turnovers from KC.

That agrument doesnt hold water Roy.

[billiken_roy]

I liked the play that Femi drew the charge on. He had an aggressive mentality. On a night when nobody other than KM or JJ looked to score or were hitting shots he went after something.

Protecting the ball? I didnt look at the stat sheet but over the last several games we have seen plenty of bonehead turnovers from KC.

That agrument doesnt hold water Roy.

john's assist to turnover ratio for the season is .54. cassity's is 1.13. even salacich is less at .71.

you still havent explained why rickma, who is never bashful about sitting players or even worse, has seen fit to play cassity the lion's share of the minutes (5th on the team) as compared to either cassity or jordan, and seems to play cassity for the crunch time minutes all the time? while i am not a fan of rickma's interpersonal skills, i rarely question his game coaching and this isnt a one time isolated decision. this is obviously a season decision.

my point is that if you are going to tear into cassity, you should be ripping the lesser players jordan and john even more.

[DirtyRican]

john's assist to turnover ratio for the season is .54. cassity's is 1.13. even salacich is less at .71.

you still havent explained why rickma, who is never bashful about sitting players or even worse, has seen fit to play cassity the lion's share of the minutes (5th on the team) as compared to either cassity or jordan, and seems to play cassity for the crunch time minutes all the time? while i am not a fan of rickma's interpersonal skills, i rarely question his game coaching and this isnt a one time isolated decision. this is obviously a season decision.

my point is that if you are going to tear into cassity, you should be ripping the lesser players jordan and john even more.

KC has a full year under belt compared to those two to other guys. He should be more comfortable with the system and speed of the game. Rickma doesnt have any other options and KC will continue to lose minutes as the season goes on if he doesnt grow a pair.

JJ and FJ are fine, in the case of JJ that kid is not afraid of the action. KC should take notes.

[joe_davola]

john's assist to turnover ratio for the season is .54. cassity's is 1.13. even salacich is less at .71.

you still havent explained why rickma, who is never bashful about sitting players or even worse, has seen fit to play cassity the lion's share of the minutes (5th on the team) as compared to either cassity or jordan, and seems to play cassity for the crunch time minutes all the time? while i am not a fan of rickma's interpersonal skills, i rarely question his game coaching and this isnt a one time isolated decision. this is obviously a season decision.

my point is that if you are going to tear into cassity, you should be ripping the lesser players jordan and john even more.

I too liked the aggressive play of Femi last night even though he got the charge. To your point about playing Cassity over the others...I think big Rick thinks Cassity plays better D than the other two that you mentioned, and I agree with him. Maybe Cassity works his ass off in practice and that is the reason Rick likes him...who knows. I would probably guess, that if we were down by a few points and needed some 3s, he'd be putting a better and more aggressive offensive player in over Cassity. Well, at least I hope he would otherwise Cassity would be sitting at the 3 point line looking for someone to pass to as time ran out. I can't recall what Rick did against MSU..not sure if he stuck with Cassity when we needed some 3s or not.

[Billikan]

I liked the play that Femi drew the charge on. He had an aggressive mentality. On a night when nobody other than KM or JJ looked to score or were hitting shots he went after something.

Protecting the ball? I didnt look at the stat sheet but over the last several games we have seen plenty of bonehead turnovers from KC.

That agrument doesnt hold water Roy.

I must say that I absolutely hated that play by Femi when he blindly drove in and charged. There was no opening to the basket and for once the help man on Willie came over so a nice pass to Willie gives us a basket. I like Femi's toughness and his hard work but man he really needs work on his fundamentals. The guy from UMKC owned him early and Kyle came in and did a much better job. Unfortunatlely, they both have some very nice attributes and some serious flaws in their games. On a given night either can be a very nice contributor or, like last night, a marginal contributor who does some things well. My hope is that with time and more coaching from our great staff that they will both be much better a year from now. If not, out recruits will pass them up on the depth charts. I would also like to see what Reid could do if healthy and with about 20 more pounds of muscle.

[billiken_roy]

JJ and FJ are fine, in the case of JJ that kid is not afraid of the action. KC should take notes.

if jj and fj are "not afraid of the action" it would be nice if they start keeping themselves between their man and the basket when playing defense. oh, maybe you didnt realize that basketball is played on both ends.

btw, cassity is second on the team in assists second in steals, he has blocked shots while the more athletic john and jordan have no blocks for the season. as i said last night, no doubt cassity is not doing the job shooting. but in every other aspect of the game, he is the superior player right now.

[DirtyRican]

if jj and fj are "not afraid of the action" it would be nice if they start keeping themselves between their man and the basket when playing defense. oh, maybe you didnt realize that basketball is played on both ends.

btw, cassity is second on the team in assists second in steals, he has blocked shots while the more athletic john and jordan have no blocks for the season. as i said last night, no doubt cassity is not doing the job shooting. but in every other aspect of the game, he is the superior player right now.

I concede BRoyce, you win. I am just thankful to have the opportunity to go toe to toe with the best there ever was.

I have my opinions, you have yours.

Merry Christmas!

[mcglotherirvin]

you just said the other day that majerus got outcoached by cuonzo martin, a second year coach with a record overall that is barely 500. now you never question rickma's game coaching?

john's assist to turnover ratio for the season is .54. cassity's is 1.13. even salacich is less at .71.

you still havent explained why rickma, who is never bashful about sitting players or even worse, has seen fit to play cassity the lion's share of the minutes (5th on the team) as compared to either cassity or jordan, and seems to play cassity for the crunch time minutes all the time? while i am not a fan of rickma's interpersonal skills, i rarely question his game coaching and this isnt a one time isolated decision. this is obviously a season decision.

my point is that if you are going to tear into cassity, you should be ripping the lesser players jordan and john even more.

[billiken_roy]

look all i am saying is that beyond willie and kwamain, i dont see the point of calling out one player on this roster as the rest are pretty even in what they produce or dont imo. willie and kwamain are beyond just keepers. they appear they are going to be 20 year players (those that come along about once every 20 years or so) by the time their careers are over. the rest all have flaws and all have assets and it is far too early to make a career judgement at this point imo. until the rest start closing that gap it is hard to pick on one player on this roster imo. and i definitely think there are worse than kyle right now and contributing less to the team's success.

[billiken_roy]

you just said the other day that majerus got outcoached by cuonzo martin, a second year coach with a record overall that is barely 500. now you never question rickma's game coaching?

you cant read very well can you. go back and read again. go slow this time.

[joe_davola]

look all i am saying is that beyond willie and kwamain, i dont see the point of calling out one player on this roster as the rest are pretty even in what they produce or dont imo. willie and kwamain are beyond just keepers. they appear they are going to be 20 year players (those that come along about once every 20 years or so) by the time their careers are over. the rest all have flaws and all have assets and it is far too early to make a career judgement at this point imo. until the rest start closing that gap it is hard to pick on one player on this roster imo. and i definitely think there are worse than kyle right now and contributing less to the team's success.

Well, I think a lot of folks can see the potential of this kid and were hoping at this point (I know he is a sophomore, but still) that he would be further along offensively. At least I was hoping he would be. I think that is part of the reason folks are tough on him. The tools are all there yet he never seems to fully utilize them. If he would just be more damn aggressive, he would help himself out a lot more, as well as the team. Some think he should be kicked out of town, but I think some are just harsh on him for the facts I mentioned above. I mean, have you seen the kid's form.. he looks like Jimmy Chitwood...with the cousin 'ITT' hair of course.

[billiken_roy]

joe i totally agree and if the chicago duet's press clippings are for real kyle, femi, justin and christian are all going to be passed by. so they all need to improve. no one needs to be singled out. they all need to raise their game or risk becoming practice players next year.

[slufanskip]

if jj and fj are "not afraid of the action" it would be nice if they start keeping themselves between their man and the basket when playing defense. oh, maybe you didnt realize that basketball is played on both ends.

btw, cassity is second on the team in assists second in steals, he has blocked shots while the more athletic john and jordan have no blocks for the season. as i said last night, no doubt cassity is not doing the job shooting. but in every other aspect of the game, he is the superior player right now.

Lets do a fair comparison offensively between JJ and KC

Assists / KC - 1 for every 12.15 minutes played. JJ - 1 per 11.22

Turnovers / KC - 1 for every 13.66 minutes played. JJ - 1 per 14.5

Ratio / KC - 1.12 JJ - 1.29

Points / KC - 1 for every 5.29 minutes played. JJ - 1 per 2.90

FG% / KC - .373 JJ - .383

3 % / KC - .27% JJ - .42%

Free throws. KC - 7-11 for .64% 1 attempt every 29.8 minutes. JJ - 24-34 for .71% 1 attempt per 7.3 minutes on the floor.

Offensively there is no comparison between the 2. JJ is clearly the better offensive player regardless of how you look at it. So KC is not the better player in every aspect besides shooting. He creates less assists per minute and causes more turnovers per minute than JJ to go along with scoring just over half as much per minute.

[Majerus Magic]

Lets do a fair comparison offensively between JJ and KC

Assists / KC - 1 for every 12.15 minutes played. JJ - 1 per 11.22

Turnovers / KC - 1 for every 13.66 minutes played. JJ - 1 per 14.5

Ratio / KC - 1.12 JJ - 1.29

Points / KC - 1 for every 5.29 minutes played. JJ - 1 per 2.90

FG% / KC - .373 JJ - .383

3 % / KC - .27% JJ - .42%

Free throws. KC - 7-11 for .64% 1 attempt every 29.8 minutes. JJ - 24-34 for .71% 1 attempt per 7.3 minutes on the floor.

Offensively there is no comparison between the 2. JJ is clearly the better offensive player regardless of how you look at it. So KC is not the better player in every aspect besides shooting. He creates less assists per minute and causes more turnovers per minute than JJ to go along with scoring just over half as much per minute.

Skip, not saying you are wrong..just my own question here. Wouldn't be awesome to see the offensive stats for opposing player while they were being guarded by either JJ or KC.

Off topic: everyone talks about Femi's defense, but i don't see it.

[billiken_roy]

Lets do a fair comparison offensively between JJ and KC

Assists / KC - 1 for every 12.15 minutes played. JJ - 1 per 11.22

Turnovers / KC - 1 for every 13.66 minutes played. JJ - 1 per 14.5

Ratio / KC - 1.12 JJ - 1.29

Points / KC - 1 for every 5.29 minutes played. JJ - 1 per 2.90

FG% / KC - .373 JJ - .383

3 % / KC - .27% JJ - .42%

Free throws. KC - 7-11 for .64% 1 attempt every 29.8 minutes. JJ - 24-34 for .71% 1 attempt per 7.3 minutes on the floor.

Offensively there is no comparison between the 2. JJ is clearly the better offensive player regardless of how you look at it. So KC is not the better player in every aspect besides shooting. He creates less assists per minute and causes more turnovers per minute than JJ to go along with scoring just over half as much per minute.

good work skip. per minutes played. i can see that.

ok, now you answer the question then. why is rickma playing cassity more than twice the minutes as jordan then?