Post-game thoughts

[The Pelican]

I thought we played well. I hate when we lay an egg in the last few minutes in the game. I feel like we lost again to TOs and missed FT in critical minutes. The frosh are improving and look more comfortable. Nice to see Ellis and Conklin play well. It is frustrating to watch it slip away.

[Westy03]

Turnover turnovers turnovers. A lot of them weren't even forced. At least Ellis got on track

[White Pelican]

A very winnable game. Built up nine and ten point leads and let them slip away. WAY too many turnovers. Hate to lose a game that should have been won. Not much good to take away from this game except that our outside shooters seem to be finding their strokes, especially Cody Ellis.

[Billikenbooster]

Tomorrow is Colorado State, rpi of 166 before game with Ole Miss. Should be a competitive game, hope we can lick our wounds and come out sharp. KC concerns me in that he did not contribute much on paper. Box score did not indicate his minutes. We really need him going forward, with or without KM and WR.

mhg

[Westy03]

Tomorrow is Colorado State, rpi of 166 before game with Ole Miss. Should be a competitive game, hope we can lick our wounds and come out sharp. KC concerns me in that he did not contribute much on paper. Box score did not indicate his minutes. We really need him going forward, with or without KM and WR.

mhg

Cassity did not have a good game. He really needs to step up his game is we want to be above .500 this year. It was real nice seeing Ellis and McCall using that pick and roll. Ellis looked real good on his shot today. Welcome back Cody

[billiken_roy]

cassity hasnt been right since the ankle sprain. he really needs two weeks off. well that wont happen until sometime in march or april.

[jjray]

Cassity did not have a good game.

Nor did he have a good game yesterday (3 pts, 1 rb in 27 minutes) ... but we didn't need it. Today we needed it. Cassity has an amazing ability to disappear on the offensive end of the floor. I would like to see coach reduce Cassity's minutes if and when Kwamain comes back. Maybe that will light a fire under Kyle's rear and prompt him to be more assertive with the ball.

[bk18]

The governor got a custom shirt made with the Billiken logo. I thought that was very cool.

[STL Hoops Insider]

Kinda thought that Bills just werent athletic enough to stop penetration. Just a bad matchup for them. Great job shutting down their big guy though. You shut down a big avg 20ppg and thats something that the Billikens havent been able to for years, maybe since Voyoukas.

[RB2.0]

Love seeing Conklin man up like that. Outside of those two stupid fouls at the end of the game, he played fantastic. Hopefully he can play it forward...

Freshmen look good. I can only imagine how much better we'd be with KM and WR. Everyone on our team right now is a role player in desperate need of a star. With those two stars back, we could be decent in conference play.

Ankle injury or not, KC sucked. If he's not healthy enough to help the team, he should not be out there. He contributed largely to the collapse at the end of the game. You cannot miss those two FTs, nor 3 wide open 3's. Majerus needs to sit him if his poor play is blamed on the ankle.

[AlumniFan]

Nor did he have a good game yesterday (3 pts, 1 rb in 27 minutes) ... but we didn't need it. Today we needed it. Cassity has an amazing ability to disappear on the offensive end of the floor. I would like to see coach reduce Cassity's minutes if and when Kwamain comes back. Maybe that will light a fire under Kyle's rear and prompt him to be more assertive with the ball.

I think he is playing wounded, but he is just too much of a gamer to sit. That is where the coach needs to intercede. We will need him during conference - IF Kwamain returns to the team, there is still a significant chance he redshirts. We need Kyle's leadership and effort. Rest him until conference if necessary, but he is an important part of a successful Billiken team.

[Billikan]

A very winnable game. Built up nine and ten point leads and let them slip away. WAY too many turnovers. Hate to lose a game that should have been won. Not much good to take away from this game except that our outside shooters seem to be finding their strokes, especially Cody Ellis.

We had a bunch of unforced turnovers that really killed what was a terrific effort by the whole team. I disagree there is not much good to take away. We played very hard against a bunch of big tough guys that looked like they were 25 years old. The zebras did not help either (It was amazing to see the one guy who has killed us for years at home turn up in Mexico and kill us again!) But our team never quit and if we could make a few free throws and protect the ball better we are starting to look like a decent team. From my view the glass is more than half full but we still have a way to go!

[NH]

We had a bunch of unforced turnovers that really killed what was a terrific effort by the whole team. I disagree there is not much good to take away. We played very hard against a bunch of big tough guys that looked like they were 25 years old. The zebras did not help either (It was amazing to see the one guy who has killed us for years at home turn up in Mexico and kill us again!) But our team never quit and if we could make a few free throws and protect the ball better we are starting to look like a decent team. From my view the glass is more than half full but we still have a way to go!

Honestly, we were as good as Southern Miss. They were more athletic, we were much more skilled IMO.

[billiken_roy]

Honestly, we were as good as Southern Miss. They were more athletic, we were much more skilled IMO.

they were bigger and stronger, but i wouldnt necessarily say more athletic.

i agree with billikan. take the turnovers away we win this game going away. that will come with maturity. it would have been nice if the zebras had called it both ways. those turnovers were a lot about getting manhandled. i.e. fouls. yet we had far more fouls called against us? nonsense.

but all in all that was a pretty good game for about 37 minutes.

it was great to see ellis scoring but even better was seeing him bend his knees and play defense.

jett and mccall just keep getting better.

[NH]

i agree with billikan. take the turnovers away we win this game going away. that will come with maturity. it would have been nice if the zebras had called it both ways. those turnovers were a lot about getting manhandled. i.e. fouls. yet we had far more fouls called against us? nonsense. .

How do you define athletic? I think about jumping ability and quickness. JJ, DE, CR and MM are our only guys you could call above average athletically in that sense. KC would be included in that if not for his ankle injury.

RL and CE are both slow. BC is not quick either and has absolutely no lift. PE is shot after his knee. CS is average athletically.

[For-DaLove]

I missed the game earlier so I figured I'd watch a replay of the first half, which I'm doing right now. I noticed that that we had a 7 point lead at the 4:17 mark of the first half and Rick gave Jordair a rest. As soon as he left the game, their pressure defense killed us and forced a couple of turnovers in only a matter of minutes. Southern Miss had cut the lead to 1 by the 3:15 mark. I think it's pretty clear that in order for our offense to be successful right now, we need to have JJ and MM on the floor at the same time. I'm sure Majerus and most fans already realize this, but I just found it interesting.

[Billsrmajic]

Overall, I for one was really pleased with today's game. We defintely blew it in the last two minutes, but I'm looking at this as a glass half full guy. Obviously it was a game we could have (should have?) won, but watching the game as a basketball fan I came away feeling that we have improved so much from the games in November. As with any team, players have good and bad games. All of the guys (with the possible exception of Salecich) have played well at times, and poorly at other times. It was great to see Cody and Brian play so well today, and frustrating to watch Kyle play poorly.

But what I'm talking about isn't individual improvement, but rather improvement as a team. We are moving the ball and spacing ourselves so much better offensively. We still have the dreaded 5 minute stretch when we can't score, but overall our offense looks much better. Guys are shooting with confidence. The freshmen are improving rapidly. The pick and roll worked so well today, which led to the slip screen giving us some easy layups. I'd say Rick and the coaches have done a great job of improving our offense in the last month.

Defensively we're doing a better job of both individual and help defense. Our defensive rotations are much better. Cody and Rob still kill us with their slow feet, but their effort has definitely improved. Post defense has definitely improved since early in the season. Overall, I'm very impressed with the improvement we've shown over the past 6 weeks, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. Before Willie and Kwamain left I thought we had a chance to be a Top 25 team. A month ago it looked like we were closer to the bottom 25 than the top. But the way we've been playing lately is closer to the way I thought these 10 guys would play this year. We've definitely got room to improve, but I'm excited to see what the next 30 days brings.

[joe_davola]

cassity hasnt been right since the ankle sprain. he really needs two weeks off. well that wont happen until sometime in march or april.

Not sure if the ankle had much of an impact on the 2 free throws that he bricked...

[kmbilliken]

The difference in this game was team speed. They were faster which caused us to be a half step too slow causing many fouls by getting to positions a half step too late and using arms too much as they were going by. The speed also contributed to the turnovers. We could have won this game if we either cut the turnovers to 15 or are even in fouls. But we can't win with both the foul differential and turnovers.

Overall, we're getting better. If Jett and McCall can get the turnovers under control they will both be very good players. Loe and Evans both have a lot of potential. If Ellis and Conklin have found their games we've got a shot at being .500 without KM and WR. Maybe even a couple of games over.

[bk18]

The difference in this game was team speed. They were faster which caused us to be a half step too slow causing many fouls by getting to positions a half step too late and using arms too much as they were going by. The speed also contributed to the turnovers. We could have won this game if we either cut the turnovers to 15 or are even in fouls. But we can't win with both the foul differential and turnovers.

Overall, we're getting better. If Jett and McCall can get the turnovers under control they will both be very good players. Loe and Evans both have a lot of potential. If Ellis and Conklin have found their games we've got a shot at being .500 without KM and WR. Maybe even a couple of games over.

Athleticism. They got us on too many blocking fouls and "+1's" due to there superior athletic ability.

[billiken_roy]

The difference in this game was team speed. They were faster which caused us to be a half step too slow causing many fouls by getting to positions a half step too late and using arms too much as they were going by. The speed also contributed to the turnovers. We could have won this game if we either cut the turnovers to 15 or are even in fouls. But we can't win with both the foul differential and turnovers.

Overall, we're getting better. If Jett and McCall can get the turnovers under control they will both be very good players. Loe and Evans both have a lot of potential. If Ellis and Conklin have found their games we've got a shot at being .500 without KM and WR. Maybe even a couple of games over.

i disagree. jett and mccall were the fastest players on the floor and they had the majority of the turnovers.

the turnovers were the result of being manhandled. they got beat to hell the entire game. that is why the whole differential in fouls is astounding.

[MB73]

i disagree. jett and mccall were the fastest players on the floor and they had the majority of the turnovers.

the turnovers were the result of being manhandled. they got beat to hell the entire game. that is why the whole differential in fouls is astounding.

Thats how I saw it, too.

We got smacked around, but they called the fouls on us.

Our bigs got in foul trouble, 2 fouled out. So did Cassity and a few guys had 4.

SO Miss shot 30FT's we shot 13.

[billiken_roy]

Thats how I saw it, too.

We got pushed around, but our bigs got in foul trouble (Ellis, Remekun, Conklin), 2 fouled out. MO Miss shot 30FT's we shot 13.

both conklin and remekun had just stupid fouls. there is no excuse for them to be committing those dumb fouls especially in the second half when the pattern to the calls by the zebras has already been established.

[Major Majerus]

A very winnable game. Built up nine and ten point leads and let them slip away. WAY too many turnovers. Hate to lose a game that should have been won. Not much good to take away from this game except that our outside shooters seem to be finding their strokes, especially Cody Ellis.

Slip away is the operative word. I never saw so many guys lose their footing and slip while dribbling/cutting. I wonder if the humidity was so great the traction was @#$%&*. All those turnovers were "unforced." I think we win without'em.