Bonner League

[p diddy]

Earl Austin has the times when our kids are playing in the summer league playoffs that begin today. we have a lot of kids playing. the schedule is listed on his website. www.earlaustinjr.com. I'm going to try to get over to Harris Stowe and watch them play today.

bad boyz for life

[slu72]

Earl Austin has the times when our kids are playing in the summer league playoffs that begin today. we have a lot of kids playing. the schedule is listed on his website. www.earlaustinjr.com. I'm going to try to get over to Harris Stowe and watch them play today.

bad boyz for life

pdiddy, as usual, coming thru with some good info about the Bills. Question though, I notice CS is playiing/staying in the SLU area. Where's CE? Australia? Hope he's working out w/ his dad. Also, Dwayne Evans getting an early jump on school? Good to see him playing in the Bonner. And note to CR, sit out. We need you healthy. Hopefully, there's a follow up to this post about how our kids did.

[STL Hoops Insider]

Christian and Jake got knocked out yesterday. Cory did sit out. Tony Young's team is out, as is Dwayne Evans. Kwamain and Willie play 2nite at 6:45. Expect NBA players Darius Miles, Maurice Baker, and Jared Newsome to be on the court for Team Takeover 2nite as well.

[Westy03]

I was bored yesterday so I decided to make it over to Harris Stowe to check out some of the games. I watched Christian and Jake play against a team that featured the one and only Tommie Liddell. Billiken fans are going to love the way Jake plays the game. Even in a summer league game he was fighting for rebounds, picking up his man full court, and pushing the ball every chance he had. This kid has a tremedous stroke from the outside with a great release and rotation. I really like his game. He guarded Tommie most of the game and you can tell Tommie was very frustrated that Jake was actually playing in your face defese. I think Tommie spent more energy complaining to the refs then he did trying to score. Christian made some nice plays, his shot didnt look very good but he drove the lane well and made some nice passes. I did notice that every time he drove the lane he went left, he never went right.

The second game I saw featured Kwamain and Willie. Kwamain was flat out the best player out there of all the games I watched. He threw down a one handed monster dunk on a fast break and then the next time down stopped on a dime and drained a three on the fast break. He got to the lane anytime he wanted. Still excited that we have him for another two years. He will make a push for all conference this year and player of the year his senior year. Kid is a freak athlete. On to Willie. Doesnt seem to me that he put on too much weight at all, which doesnt really concern me but there were a number of times where he did ask to come out because he was gassed. He probably only got 1 rebound and didnt really get back on defense at all. He had some nice post moves and some sweet alley-oops from Mitchell but that was about it. I guess he has been working on his ballhandling because he lead the fast break a couple of times and actually made some nice passes on the fast break. Shot a couple of threes that didnt look good at all. Overall he just didnt look interested in playing. Hopefully he has been attacking his summer workouts with more intensity.

Remekun didnt play his game because of a knee injury but he was there to watch some of the games. You could tell he has been hitting the weights pretty hard. Didnt get there early enough to watch Evans play. These games were actually a lot more competitive then I thought they would be. They had refs that were flat out terrible but I guess the did a good enough job.

[Westy03]

Also I briefly talked to a poster here but didnt get his name maybe he could add some of his thoughts.

[Scoop]

I was bored yesterday so I decided to make it over to Harris Stowe to check out some of the games. I watched Christian and Jake play against a team that featured the one and only Tommie Liddell. Billiken fans are going to love the way Jake plays the game. Even in a summer league game he was fighting for rebounds, picking up his man full court, and pushing the ball every chance he had. This kid has a tremedous stroke from the outside with a great release and rotation. I really like his game. He guarded Tommie most of the game and you can tell Tommie was very frustrated that Jake was actually playing in your face defese. I think Tommie spent more energy complaining to the refs then he did trying to score. Christian made some nice plays, his shot didnt look very good but he drove the lane well and made some nice passes. I did notice that every time he drove the lane he went left, he never went right.

The second game I saw featured Kwamain and Willie. Kwamain was flat out the best player out there of all the games I watched. He threw down a one handed monster dunk on a fast break and then the next time down stopped on a dime and drained a three on the fast break. He got to the lane anytime he wanted. Still excited that we have him for another two years. He will make a push for all conference this year and player of the year his senior year. Kid is a freak athlete. On to Willie. Doesnt seem to me that he put on too much weight at all, which doesnt really concern me but there were a number of times where he did ask to come out because he was gassed. He probably only got 1 rebound and didnt really get back on defense at all. He had some nice post moves and some sweet alley-oops from Mitchell but that was about it. I guess he has been working on his ballhandling because he lead the fast break a couple of times and actually made some nice passes on the fast break. Shot a couple of threes that didnt look good at all. Overall he just didnt look interested in playing. Hopefully he has been attacking his summer workouts with more intensity.

Remekun didnt play his game because of a knee injury but he was there to watch some of the games. You could tell he has been hitting the weights pretty hard. Didnt get there early enough to watch Evans play. These games were actually a lot more competitive then I thought they would be. They had refs that were flat out terrible but I guess the did a good enough job.

What's the Dx on Cory's knee? Sprain I hope?

[Westy03]

What's the Dx on Cory's knee? Sprain I hope?

Earl Austin said he tweaked it. So I would assume nothing serious

[SShoe]

I was bored yesterday so I decided to make it over to Harris Stowe to check out some of the games. I watched Christian and Jake play against a team that featured the one and only Tommie Liddell. Billiken fans are going to love the way Jake plays the game. Even in a summer league game he was fighting for rebounds, picking up his man full court, and pushing the ball every chance he had. This kid has a tremedous stroke from the outside with a great release and rotation. I really like his game. He guarded Tommie most of the game and you can tell Tommie was very frustrated that Jake was actually playing in your face defese. I think Tommie spent more energy complaining to the refs then he did trying to score. Christian made some nice plays, his shot didnt look very good but he drove the lane well and made some nice passes. I did notice that every time he drove the lane he went left, he never went right.

The second game I saw featured Kwamain and Willie. Kwamain was flat out the best player out there of all the games I watched. He threw down a one handed monster dunk on a fast break and then the next time down stopped on a dime and drained a three on the fast break. He got to the lane anytime he wanted. Still excited that we have him for another two years. He will make a push for all conference this year and player of the year his senior year. Kid is a freak athlete. On to Willie. Doesnt seem to me that he put on too much weight at all, which doesnt really concern me but there were a number of times where he did ask to come out because he was gassed. He probably only got 1 rebound and didnt really get back on defense at all. He had some nice post moves and some sweet alley-oops from Mitchell but that was about it. I guess he has been working on his ballhandling because he lead the fast break a couple of times and actually made some nice passes on the fast break. Shot a couple of threes that didnt look good at all. Overall he just didnt look interested in playing. Hopefully he has been attacking his summer workouts with more intensity.

Remekun didnt play his game because of a knee injury but he was there to watch some of the games. You could tell he has been hitting the weights pretty hard. Didnt get there early enough to watch Evans play. These games were actually a lot more competitive then I thought they would be. They had refs that were flat out terrible but I guess the did a good enough job.

Nice recap. I'm looking forward to seeing Barnett play. Sounds like a real player and a guy who is going to have a really nice impact on this team in two years.

Also glad to hear KM appears to be continuing his forward progress as a player. He's obviously a huge competitor and has a tremendous work ethic. Doesn't sound like the same can be said for Willie at the moment, but you never know.

[Westy03]

Nice recap. I'm looking forward to seeing Barnett play. Sounds like a real player and a guy who is going to have a really nice impact on this team in two years.

Also glad to hear KM appears to be continuing his forward progress as a player. He's obviously a huge competitor and has a tremendous work ethic. Doesn't sound like the same can be said for Willie at the moment, but you never know.

Im sure Willies work ethic is fine but he just didnt seem like he was trying at all. Maybe in the championship game tonight he will put forth a better effort.

KM only took a couple threes and made one of them but he is so quick off the dribble that he got a lay up every time down the court if he wanted it. The one bad thing that made me cringe is that KM plays these summer league games the same way he plays in college, which means he goes hard to the rack and usually ends up getting fouled pretty hard. I just dont want him to get hurt.

Barnett is going to be a really good player especially under Majerus and adding some strength.

Also, I dont miss Tommie's attitude on the team. Everyone knew that him and Rick didnt get along but yesterday was the same old story with TL3, bitching to the refs and not being aggresive. He could of dominated the game with all his talent but just didnt do it. Waste of talent

[bk18]

Also I briefly talked to a poster here but didnt get his name maybe he could add some of his thoughts.

Yeah, that was me. I would have the same things to say.

I don't think it would be wise for a big guy like WR to play 100% because big guys are more susceptible to injury.

It's hard to judge much because the style of game is very different. There is very little strategy and almost no organization. I think that this is what the league is for though. They don't need to worry about strategy now. It's just "raw" basketball.

It looked like KM was a 18 year old playing in a 14 year old league. He made it look EASY. Hands down best player.

He was giving 100% effort at times, but wasn't treating it like it was winter for sure. He had steals left and right, he hit 2 NBA range 3-pointers, and countless easy baskets. His fellow guard was pretty good and looked familiar, maybe from SEMO. Kwamain is ready to play. He looks strong, mentally ready, and his skills are looking better than ever. He missed a dunk and a fast lay-up, but I think it was because he wasn't taking it as serious as a game and just let some slop slide here and there.

I can't make too many comments on WR, just because I didn't see enough and he shouldn't be playing 100% anyways as I said above. I still think he needs to put on more weight. Overall, he looked pretty swift and agile though. He dribbled back off of a steal with great control and he had a few alley-oops from KM.

Barnett looks like a competitor. His strength is that "intangible" team defense. It's hard to describe, but he's really good at getting a hand or body in the way of other players (that he's not even guarding) trying to drive or dribble near him. He doesn't have the strength to play as a 3 against most teams, but based on his height, I wonder if he should use this season to put on 20 lbs of muscle and play SF next year. I think SG is a better fit for him and maybe he could just add 10 lbs of muscle instead and just be a big SG. but since we are going to be stacked at the guard positions, I thought he might have a lot more opportunity to play at the SF position. As we saw with CE, a SF that has the body to take it to the hole or stay back and hit the 3's a huge offensive threat that is nearly impossible to defend against.

[bk18]

Barnett is going to be a really good player especially under Majerus and adding some strength.

From my comments above, do you think Majerus should keep Barnett as a SG or have him get a little bigger so he can play SF. I know positions aren't concrete and there is fluidity between them, but defensively, if you are playing the SF position against most teams, you are going to have to be strong. There's a lot of strong players out there at the SF position and many would out-muscle JB defensively and offensively with his current build.

[Pistol]

I'm interested to see how the summer league reports translate once the season rolls around. Right now, they're playing free-form ball without Majerus' system having been implemented through intense, arduous practices, tape sessions, and conditioning.

Barnett has the advantage of getting a year to learn the ropes of the new system before actually stepping on the floor, so I'm not worried about him. If he's got the talent people are saying he's shown in these games, we could have a very nice player on our hands.

I'm still worried Willie's conditioning is never going to get where it needs to be. Two full seasons now and he hasn't gotten his wind all the way yet. Sure, guys are going to look sluggish at times over the summer, but is he ever going to be in the kind of shape that will allow him to play a full game and overtime late in the season?

Great to hear Kwamain is lighting it up out there. No worries about him. Maybe we can see slight increases in percentages and averages, and probably expecting anything extra would be foolish. This is his team.

Hope Remekun's knee is okay and that the right decision is made about whether to redshirt him this year or not (unrelated to the knee).

[Westy03]

From my comments above, do you think Majerus should keep Barnett as a SG or have him get a little bigger so he can play SF. I know positions aren't concrete and there is fluidity between them, but defensively, if you are playing the SF position against most teams, you are going to have to be strong. There's a lot of strong players out there at the SF position and many would out-muscle JB defensively and offensively with his current build.

Im not sure to be honest with you. He could play either position. He has the type of frame that putting on 20lbs would be pretty difficult, you can just tell. I would guess that he would split the minutes at both the 2 and 3 pretty evenly. Mike McCall will probably see most of his time and the 1 or 2 while Dwayne Evans will primarily be a 3. I could see Barnett playing both positions very well. He will be able to stretch the defenses with his deep range thus I would prefer him at the 3 with McCall getting the majority of the minutes at the 2 spot. It will be a good problem to have.

[DirtyRican]

Anybody going tonight? The Backhand and I have talked about running up there. Game at 6:30?

[slufanskip]

anyone going tonight?

[kshoe]

I'm interested to see how the summer league reports translate once the season rolls around. Right now, they're playing free-form ball without Majerus' system having been implemented through intense, arduous practices, tape sessions, and conditioning.

Barnett has the advantage of getting a year to learn the ropes of the new system before actually stepping on the floor, so I'm not worried about him. If he's got the talent people are saying he's shown in these games, we could have a very nice player on our hands.

I'm still worried Willie's conditioning is never going to get where it needs to be. Two full seasons now and he hasn't gotten his wind all the way yet. Sure, guys are going to look sluggish at times over the summer, but is he ever going to be in the kind of shape that will allow him to play a full game and overtime late in the season?

Great to hear Kwamain is lighting it up out there. No worries about him. Maybe we can see slight increases in percentages and averages, and probably expecting anything extra would be foolish. This is his team.

Hope Remekun's knee is okay and that the right decision is made about whether to redshirt him this year or not (unrelated to the knee).

I used to worry about this but with Loe, a presumably healthy Conklin and an improved Remeken I don't think it will be imperative for him to play more than 25-30 minutes per game. Add in the NIU kid and that really would be the case.

[BACKHANDtheRICAN]

Anybody going tonight? The Backhand and I have talked about running up there. Game at 6:30?

Is there a charge to get in and watch this summer league? Im gonna try to check out a few minutes

[slufanskip]

Is there a charge to get in and watch this summer league? Im gonna try to check out a few minutes

I'm going to go. It's at Harris Stowe correct?

I doubt there is much of a charge. If so, probably just a couple of bucks.

[Westy03]

Is there a charge to get in and watch this summer league? Im gonna try to check out a few minutes

Its free. The semifinals will be held on Monday at 6:45 and 8 p.m. The championship game will be played on Tuesday night at 7:15 p.m.

Sorry, I thought the finals were tonight. Im not sure which game Willie and Kwamain are playing in

[slufanskip]

Its free. The semifinals will be held on Monday at 6:45 and 8 p.m. The championship game will be played on Tuesday night at 7:15 p.m.

Sorry, I thought the finals were tonight. Im not sure which game Willie and Kwamain are playing in

thanks

[Number1SLUFan33]

Its free. The semifinals will be held on Monday at 6:45 and 8 p.m. The championship game will be played on Tuesday night at 7:15 p.m.

Sorry, I thought the finals were tonight. Im not sure which game Willie and Kwamain are playing in

kwamain and willie play at 6:45 is what i read on facebook

[SLU_Nick]

kwamain and willie play at 6:45 is what i read on facebook

Bump. Game Summary Anyone?

[BACKHANDtheRICAN]

Bump. Game Summary Anyone?

I was there for the 1st half. It was tough to really get much of a read on KM due to the off guard jacking up about 15 shots in the first half ...haha..im serious. As for WR, he seemed to get winded as quickly as he did last yr. He was winded at the 17 minute mark of the 1st half...i dunno, maybe he just wasnt motivated for that summer league game. But it was fun to see those guys out there before the season.

[Guest BillikenReport]

I was there for the 1st half. It was tough to really get much of a read on KM due to the off guard jacking up about 15 shots in the first half ...haha..im serious. As for WR, he seemed to get winded as quickly as he did last yr. He was winded at the 17 minute mark of the 1st half...i dunno, maybe he just wasnt motivated for that summer league game. But it was fun to see those guys out there before the season.

Kwamain missed just as many shots in the second half, unfortunately. I was told he finished with two points. Obviously that's not a usual game for him though he has had a few bad shooting games during his first two seasons at SLU.

Apparently all of the Billikens had a tough workout on Monday with the strength and conditioning coach where they had to max out on all of their leg work. So that could explain Kwamain's rough game and the lack of energy for Willie.

I thought Willie and Cory Remekun, whose team won that game, both did some good things. Willie didn't dominate the game, probably because of the size and bulk of some of the opponents inside guys, but I thought he did the things everyone is used to seeing -- some scoring, rebounding, dunking, blocking shots, etc. Remekun had a monster dunk in the second half which was good to see and you could tell by his added strength that he's not going to back down in the post.

Willie and Cory were guarding each other quite a bit during the game and Cory did a good job on the defensive end holding his own. He'll be a better defender and rebounder this year and be able to do more offensively, though I haven't seen enough of him this summer to confidently say he'll be a more effective scorer in the post. But Cory continues to get better and will be a solid backup in the post this season and could develop into a good player for his final two years.

[slufanskip]

Kwamain missed just as many shots in the second half, unfortunately. I was told he finished with two points. Obviously that's not a usual game for him though he has had a few bad shooting games during his first two seasons at SLU.

Apparently all of the Billikens had a tough workout on Monday with the strength and conditioning coach where they had to max out on all of their leg work. So that could explain Kwamain's rough game and the lack of energy for Willie.

I thought Willie and Cory Remekun, whose team won that game, both did some good things. Willie didn't dominate the game, probably because of the size and bulk of some of the opponents inside guys, but I thought he did the things everyone is used to seeing -- some scoring, rebounding, dunking, blocking shots, etc. Remekun had a monster dunk in the second half which was good to see and you could tell by his added strength that he's not going to back down in the post.

Willie and Cory were guarding each other quite a bit during the game and Cory did a good job on the defensive end holding his own. He'll be a better defender and rebounder this year and be able to do more offensively, though I haven't seen enough of him this summer to confidently say he'll be a more effective scorer in the post. But Cory continues to get better and will be a solid backup in the post this season and could develop into a good player for his final two years.

Kwamain had a horrible game. He had a couple of nice assists near the end but overall he couldn't hit anything. He had to have been 0-12, maybe worse. He made a couple of nice drives in the 2nd half but didn't finish either. I'm absolutely sure the weight room work took it's toll.

I thouhgt the same as Nate regarding Willie. He looked like Willie, nothing new.

Cory looked stronger and bigger and did a decent job on Willie, but he really doesn't have many offensive moves.

Jimmy McKinney was unstoppable. He was the best player on the floor yeasterday.

Gary Buchannon was also there as was I believe it was him ... Terry Evens from UWGB.

The games were fun and competitive. You could tell each team really wanted to win.