Random thoughts / questions / concerns about the B-Ball Program

[bsheldon]

1) What happened to the Slunatics? good turn out last night, but no energy at all. No introduction by Guy--he probably just forgot. No big head signs, no paddles, no drums, no balloons, foil, not even any activity during opposing teams free throws in the secon half. what gives?

2) on the Guy subject...well that has been covered.

3) A disturbing pattern I have noticed over the last few seasons: everytime anyone does the tiniest thing wrong they are immediately yanked from the game. Kind of tough to stay aggressive like that.

4) With the above it is very tough to find a level of comfort with steady lineup. I don't know if there was ever a the same 5 guys together for 5 mintues during the game last night. Line-ups simply seems to be willy-nilly. If you mess up at all, sit and let someone else play until they try a pass that doesn't work and then yank them and try someone else.

5) I have no idea what the purpose of our offense is. Many, many times this season we end up with all 5 players outside of the 3 point arc deep into the set and shot clock. This makes us stupid easy to defend. I am not sure what is going on.

6) The guys all seem unispired and confused. It is like they are just going through the motions and are not having fun at all. It is a bit disturbing to watch. There were about 3 times last night where we grabbed just a bit of momentum and everytime laid an egg on the next pocession. Only once or twice did we score on consecutive pocessions all game.

7) Jett can't guard any quality D1 point guard off of the dribble. Staten had his jock several times last night.

8) Loe has absolutely no offensive post game.

9) CE still can't defend down low.

10) what in the world happened to CR? I guess WR really did mean more to this team than I thought was possible. CR came on real strong late last season. He had many real nice games. This year when we needed him much more, it just isn't there. Maybe it is the hair?

11) Has anyone from the band ever been up in sections 208, 209 or 210? The sound is simply awful. The miked sound beats the real sound by about a full second, so what you get is a garbled mess.

12) Speaking of the band, does noone know that bleaching blue is a bad idea. Our colors are royal blue and white, not sky blue and white. Get some new shirts people.

13) Good to see the anthem sung. Last night was a bit slow, but still nice to have it sung instead of just played.

14) What ever happened to the t-shirt launcher gun the billiken used to have? Get a new one or fix the old one.

15) Can the young guy who announces all of the break activities cut his hair or at least get it the heck out of his face during the promos/activities. It is a bit embarassing.

16) Props to the kiss cam guys last night on finding the 3 dayton guys sitting together--hilarious.

17) Does Larry hughes have his jersey hanging in the rafters? If not, why not?

18) Can we get some new/different activites during the breaks?

19) Sorry to say, but last night may have been the highest attendendance game all season. Decent turn out--I don't know for sure but would guess 6-7000 range. The only other big name program left on our home schedule is Xavier and by the time we get to them we will probably be about 10 games under .500 and not that many people will care.

20) Can anything else go wrong for this program? It truly is tough being a billikens fan.

[Bobby Metzinger]

12) Speaking of the band, does noone know that bleaching blue is a bad idea. Our colors are royal blue and white, not sky blue and white. Get some new shirts people.

That can probably be directly attributed to a lack of funding. I'm sure those guys have washed those same shirts for five, six seasons in a row now. The band isn't to blame on that.

[Quality Is Job 1]

17) Does Larry hughes have his jersey hanging in the rafters? If not, why not?

I love Larry Hughes, but there's no way that he deserves such an honor at SLU. Before I'd raise Hughes's jersey, I'd raise Anthony Bonner's (I think it has been already), Erwin Claggett's, Scott Highmark's, and even Jeff Harris's (well, not really). He wasn't an All-American. He wasn't the conference player of the year. Why should he have his jersey raised? But he was a great Billiken for his one year; I don't deny that, and I'll always be a Larry Hughes fan.

[Bobby Metzinger]

I love Larry Hughes, but there's no way that he deserves such an honor at SLU. Before I'd raise Hughes's jersey, I'd raise Anthony Bonner's (I think it has been already), Erwin Claggett's, Scott Highmark's, and even Jeff Harris's (well, not really). He wasn't an All-American. He wasn't the conference player of the year. Why should he have his jersey raised? But he was a great Billiken for his one year; I don't deny that, and I'll always be a Larry Hughes fan.

The more we can convince our recruits that coming to SLU can be a gateway (no pun intended) to playing professional basketball, the better. Having Larry in our camp (coming to banquets, practices, etc) can only help us. Remember when Majerus said he was going to have guys like George Karl come in and talk to our guys? Has anything ever happened like that? Has it been publicized? Even though Larry isn't a true SLU man, the fact that he was the National Freshman of the Year is pretty remarkable.

[P.B.]

17. He only played one year, it was a great year but you need to do more then that you have your jersey retired. Him playing in the NBA doesnt matter if he is in the rafters or not. The best player I have ever seen but needed at least 2 years, probably 3 to get that honor

[bonwich]

1) School isn't in session. If I remember threads from the board, those were alums sitting in the student seats, save for our dear 05 and his pals and a few others.

6-7) This merely looks like a repeat of last season, as all the new players struggled to comprehend "the system." It's just another group of new players. (Jett appears to be the lostest of the group IMHO.)

11) I would invite 1 or more band members, or their mixing board person, to come sit in 110 during the National Anthem (orchestral version). You'll pick up the problem almost immediately.

19) 7,621 announced. Compared with 6,754 for Bowling Green. I never got back to the thread from a couple days ago about how attendance is counted, but the significant attendance of Dayton fans in the end zone and the full student section would have seemed to indicate more than +900 over BG, although that full student section was probably a lot of people who simply left other sold seats. In any event, last night seemed to me to be a lot more crowded than the Bowling Green game. (Maybe it was just kshoe's increased volume .)

[FromDaEastSide]

17) Does Larry hughes have his jersey hanging in the rafters? If not, why not?

The three other All-Americans from SLU have a jersey raised because they also graduated from SLU.

[SLUAvtr]

12) Speaking of the band, does noone know that bleaching blue is a bad idea. Our colors are royal blue and white, not sky blue and white. Get some new shirts people.

That can probably be directly attributed to a lack of funding. I'm sure those guys have washed those same shirts for five, six seasons in a row now. The band isn't to blame on that.

You are kind of correct. Yes, that has something to do with it, so go take it up with the powers that be. It also has to do with the fact that companies/vendors that we have been using/used in the past, either discontinue the color we need, or, stop making rugbies altogether. The royal blue we used to get was a victim of the latter, and it just hasn't been the same since.

11) Has anyone from the band ever been up in sections 208, 209 or 210? The sound is simply awful. The miked sound beats the real sound by about a full second, so what you get is a garbled mess.

Sorry to say, but a lot of this comes down to all around acoustics of the building. There are many things that contribute to how we sound, and sorry if you're not privy to this, but in case you aren't aware, we're in an arena, not a concert hall. When everything starts to hit up into the upper seats, I'm fairly certain you're getting bad echoes, etc. due to the bad acoustics. We've known since day 1 that it wasn't going to sound right in certain areas due to how the arena was built, but we try to make it the best we can.

Also, the placement of where the guy mixing the sound is horrible. From the band's perspective, he's up, and over to our immediate right, ABOVE the band, in possibly THE worst spot for him to try and mix the sound. Not sure how this can be fixed (probably can't and won't), but I agree, he needs to go around and listen.

Sorry if this sounds condescending, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth after the past couple of games, and I'm venting a bit. At least the band can say we ALWAYS show up for a game, no matter what!

[bonwich]

Sorry to say, but this comes down to all around acoustics of the building. There are many things that contribute to how we sound, and sorry if you're not privy to this, but in case you aren't aware, we're in an arena, not a concert hall. When everything starts to hit up into the upper seats, I'm fairly certain you're getting bad echoes, etc. due to the bad acoustics. We've known since day 1 that it wasn't going to sound right due to how the arena is, but we try to make it the best we can.

Again, section 110, during the National Anthem. No echoes. Just a very bad mix. Bass drum and trumpet descant are hypermiked. (During the game, with ambient crowd noise, The Band generally sounds terrific in our section, with only an occasional weird mix. Nonetheless, if you don't already, I think you should have someone wander around to all the various seating sections in real time and try to balance the acoustics better for all attendees.)

And although it's is, in fact, an arena, the U. appears to be making some pretty good bucks marketing it as a concert, um, facility. This is second-hand from some of our music critics, but after a very rocky start, the Chaifetz-management people appear to be adjusting to the ins and outs of the place's acoustics when they host concerts.

[P.B.]

Band sounds great in 105, do you guys take requests?

How about Trick Daddy - Take it to the house

[SLUAvtr]

Again, section 110, during the National Anthem. No echoes. Just a very bad mix. Bass drum and trumpet descant are hypermiked. (During the game, with ambient crowd noise, The Band generally sounds terrific in our section, with only an occasional weird mix. Nonetheless, if you don't already, I think you should have someone wander around to all the various seating sections in real time and try to balance the acoustics better for all attendees.)

And although it's is, in fact, an arena, the U. appears to be making some pretty good bucks marketing it as a concert, um, facility. This is second-hand from some of our music critics, but after a very rocky start, the Chaifetz-management people appear to be adjusting to the ins and outs of the place's acoustics when they host concerts.

Duly noted for the anthem, and I have to agree, yes, it sometimes does sound hypermiked. We actually just had a discussion last night of backing away from the mics a little, since the sound folk tend not to know exactly when to back off/turn up the volume at the right time. I'm pretty sure they usually just leave it at normal mix volume, which tends to be on the higher side, and if you sit right on top of it (a la solos, etc.), it'd come out blaring. Unfortunately, your suggestion of a "roamer" during playing is a double-edged sword. Reasons being: a.) There are only a handful of people in the band with ANY sort of sound mixing/sound equipment knowledge that can even begin to remotely be of any use to get that sound right, which brings me to b.) we're all there to play. I certainly would rather be playing (and Mike would want me to be) than being the "roamer", and c.) I'm pretty sure SLU doesn't employ enough sound personnel to commit someone to do this. I could be wrong, I'll bring it up to Mike, but don't count on this one.

The other problem with the marketing it as a concert facility comes with the fact that many, if not all of the concerts that go through Chaifetz, have their own, dedicated sound personnel who know every in and out of the music that is coming through the system. (And I know this first hand, as I had my own gig band, and if you have your own, it makes a TON of difference) The band doesn't have that luxury, albeit it sucks because it'd be awesome, but we make the best with what we have....hmmmm, sounds a lot like what my time with and around SLU has always sounded like...

[courtside]

5,6,7,8...Your expectations of Freshman against good teams is way too high. 78 minutes of Frosh last night. Check back in two years and see if some of those things have changed.

[J.J. Loscutoff]

At least the band can say we ALWAYS show up for a game, no matter what!

Amen to that! Game in and game out, the band brings its A-game.

[bonwich]

I certainly would rather be playing (and Mike would want me to be) than being the "roamer", and c.) I'm pretty sure SLU doesn't employ enough sound personnel to commit someone to do this. I could be wrong, I'll bring it up to Mike, but don't count on this one.

Have Mike call up Pete Herbig and see if Pete would come out of "retirement" for a while. (I'm pretty sure Mike's and Pete's SLU and/or The Band tenures overlapped.) I think they'd both get a big kick out of it.

[Box and Won]

The three other All-Americans from SLU have a jersey raised because they also graduated from SLU.

Hughes wasn't an All-American.

[Pistol]

4) With the above it is very tough to find a level of comfort with steady lineup. I don't know if there was ever a the same 5 guys together for 5 mintues during the game last night. Line-ups simply seems to be willy-nilly. If you mess up at all, sit and let someone else play until they try a pass that doesn't work and then yank them and try someone else.

5) I have no idea what the purpose of our offense is. Many, many times this season we end up with all 5 players outside of the 3 point arc deep into the set and shot clock. This makes us stupid easy to defend. I am not sure what is going on.

6) The guys all seem unispired and confused. It is like they are just going through the motions and are not having fun at all. It is a bit disturbing to watch. There were about 3 times last night where we grabbed just a bit of momentum and everytime laid an egg on the next pocession. Only once or twice did we score on consecutive pocessions all game.

7) Jett can't guard any quality D1 point guard off of the dribble. Staten had his jock several times last night.

8) Loe has absolutely no offensive post game.

9) CE still can't defend down low.

10) what in the world happened to CR? I guess WR really did mean more to this team than I thought was possible. CR came on real strong late last season. He had many real nice games. This year when we needed him much more, it just isn't there. Maybe it is the hair?

13) Good to see the anthem sung. Last night was a bit slow, but still nice to have it sung instead of just played.

15) Can the young guy who announces all of the break activities cut his hair or at least get it the heck out of his face during the promos/activities. It is a bit embarassing.

16) Props to the kiss cam guys last night on finding the 3 dayton guys sitting together--hilarious.

17) Does Larry hughes have his jersey hanging in the rafters? If not, why not?

20) Can anything else go wrong for this program? It truly is tough being a billikens fan.

4. "Starting is for high school." -Rick Majerus

5. Completely agree on this one. The offense last night and in many other games seems to be "cross half court, stand, pass it around the perimeter, and wear the shot clock down under 10." We're way too easy to guard. We don't even look at the post once most possessions. Aside from the occasional Jett drive, we never seem interested in penetrating the perimeter. Oh yeah, and we don't shoot well so we can't get away with this crap.

6-8. I chalk a lot of this up to the fact that the freshmen are having to do a lot this year. Yeah, they were good recruits but they aren't McDonald's All-Americans. Give them time; I think they're all very good. The other half of #6 is not having your floor leaders out there; we don't have stars or leaders and that's taking its toll on a bunch of role players and freshmen being asked to do more than ever without the two key guys creating offensive opportunities for them.

9. He doesn't guard anyone well anywhere.

10. I also expected more out of him. He was skinny and young last year but he rebounded like his scholarship depended on it. I know Majerus said he feels beaten down because his friends were all gone, but that doesn't seem like enough of a reason to play with less intensity than last year (and he'll get 1-2 of those guys back soon).

13. I couldn't care less who does it as long as it's good; the band is fine.

15. "Get a haircut"? How old are you? The guys who do this are goofballs and aren't very good but they'll never pay anyone to do this.

16. Disagree completely- look at what happened to the Blues with this earlier this season. It became a big local gay rights issue, and I wish we'd stay away from it. Plus, it amounts to "Ha, Dayton fans are gay," which is something intelligent people grow out of by middle school, high school at the latest. The Dayton fans behind me hadn't grown out of this mentality, and that was embarrassing.

17. No one-and-done, no matter how good, deserves a retired number.

20. Please don't ask that- our program might take it as a challenge.

[bsheldon]

SLUavtr: thanks for the detailed responses about the band. I truly enjoy what you guys do and appreciate it a ton, but I was just trying to make some suggestions for areas that might need improvements. I was venting a bit after watching the Dayton the game, if I sounded as if I were dogging the band, I assure you it was not my intention and I apologize. (as has been mentioned the trumpet solo on the anthem totally drowns out everything else.)

The reasons for Larry not being in the rafters are valid and I agree.

I never said the kid who does the break activities wasn't any good, its just that he looks like cousin it. If that makes me sound like an old fogey, so be it, its my opinion. I guess I could keep it to myself, but again I was venting a bit--no disrespect meant. For the record I'm no where near 40 yet. Also, I like this kid a bit more than the uber-excited, top 40 DJ sounding, kid from the last couple of years.

Pistol: hilarious reply to #20.

As far as Jett's inability to guard the dribble, I must in all fairness state that Staten is a stud--one of the top guards out of highschool last year, and Jett really doesn't have the inside shot blocking help behind him that he should. I was really hoping Jett and McCall both looked at guarding Staten as a real opportunity, kind of a statement or a chance to prove a point a bit, based on his credentials. Maybe they did approach it like that and he is just that much better.

As far as #16, yeah, I did think of that when it happened, but the guys ont he screen played it up pretty well and seemed to have fun with it.

As far as staring is for high school--I agree with that to a point. I am not really talking about the starting lineup as much as during the game itself. Anyone who has ever played any team sport can tell you, you develop a comfort level with team mates as you become familiar with how they play. It the basis for the phrase "teams gelling" or "coming together" or "chemistry" or any other phrase that you will hear uttered by sportscasters at any given moment. We don't seem to have even a vague idea of a regular lineup. At any given time it can be almost any possible comibination of many different players. Pick 5 players as your team and stick with them for a bit--what harm can it do? Sure, still sub guys in a bit here and there before the scheduled breaks to give some rest, but give 5 guys a chance to get familiar with one another. Again, just a suggestion and with the way things are going now...

I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel on the season. Heck we are tied for 3rd place in the conference right now, only one game back. But it looks like things are about to get even more ugly in the near future.

One point I don't think I mentioned was CS's play. what happened between last season and this? His game improved pretty much all season last year and he was a real good defender, took the ball to the hoop semi-regularly and his shot started to come around just a bit. Others on here have called him a liability, while this is harsh it's hard to argue with. He seems to have had the same off-season training regimine that CR did.

[SLUAvtr]

SLUavtr: thanks for the detailed responses about the band. I truly enjoy what you guys do and appreciate it a ton, but I was just trying to make some suggestions for areas that might need improvements. I was venting a bit after watching the Dayton the game, if I sounded as if I were dogging the band, I assure you it was not my intention and I apologize. (as has been mentioned the trumpet solo on the anthem totally drowns out everything else.)

No prob, I apologize if a little frustration leaked through on my explanations, like I said, that Dayton game and the games before that left a bad taste in my mouth, but seriously, sorry if it was stern. Suggestions are always welcome, especially since I usually set the mics up before the game anyway, so if I can pass any suggestions along to the sound guy(s) or the band memebers, either directly or via Mike, it's most appreciated.

Have a good rest of your Friday, and the weekend!

[FromDaEastSide]

Hughes wasn't an All-American.

According to the SLU Media Guide he was an All-American in 1997-1998

Other 3 All-Americans are up in the rafters, Macauley 47-48 and 48-49, Boushka 54-55 and Ferry 58-59

[dlarry]

15) Can the young guy who announces all of the break activities cut his hair or at least get it the heck out of his face during the promos/activities. It is a bit embarassing.

17) Does Larry hughes have his jersey hanging in the rafters? If not, why not?

15) I just cant believe they got the kid from Lords of Dogtown to work at SLU games.

The kid directly to Heath Ledgers right

17)Everyone else answered this but...... It looked to me like Larry Legend ate himself out of the league. Dude was looking hefty

[billikenfan05]

15) I just cant believe they got the kid from Lords of Dogtown to work at SLU games.

The kid directly to Heath Ledgers right

GREAT REFERENCE!

[Box and Won]

According to the SLU Media Guide he was an All-American in 1997-1998

Other 3 All-Americans are up in the rafters, Macauley 47-48 and 48-49, Boushka 54-55 and Ferry 58-59

1997-98 AP All-Americans

1st Team

Mike Bibby Arizona

Antawn Jamison North Carolina

Raef LaFrentz Kansas

Paul Pierce Kansas

Miles Simon Arizona

2nd Team

Vince Carter North Carolina

Mateen Cleaves Michigan State

Pat Garrity Notre Dame

Richard Hamilton Connecticut

Ansu Sesay Mississippi

3rd Team

Michael Dickerson Arizona

Matt Harpring Georgia Tech

Trajan Langdon Duke

Lee Nailon Texas Christian

Bonzi Wells Ball State

Hughes was an honorable mention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_NCAA_Men%27s_Basketball_All-Americans

[FromDaEastSide]

The Media Guide does not mention that LH was just Honorable Mention that year. Just that he was listed as an All-American.

[Quality Is Job 1]

The Media Guide does not mention that LH was just Honorable Mention that year. Just that he was listed as an All-American.

Hughes was a McDonald's All-American coming out of high school; perhaps that's what the SID was referring to.

[Taj79]

Graduate and get your jersey retired. I think that's what Coach K requires even to hoist your name on a national championship banner. Maybe that has changed but I always heard he wouldn't put Laetner's name up in Cameron until he graduated. Works for me ---- never on one-and-dones.