GDT: St. Ambrose

[BACKHANDtheRICAN]

Sweet sixteen. Write it down.

[West Pine Jim]

Our defense was really weak today, often due to a lack of communication. I don't think we can play this many players and develop any continuity. I hate to say it but CE and JB can't be in the "top 8" right now. RL needs to pick up the pace as well.

[slufanskip]

I bet our KenPom rating is plummeting as we speak

I think it's 122

[The Pelican]

I think it's 122

I think that might be from last year. You might want to check that out.

[slu72]

You're kidding? We lost to Carleton's little USA cousin by 11? Now is it time to be concerned?

[slu72]

Guess I read all the above despair the wrong way. Sorry about the above post. It appears we beat Carleton's little USA cousin.

[Tonka]

These type of games are concerning, but I'll be more concerned when we actually lose a game we should have won. I'll be more concerned when our 8 man rotation has long scoring droughts game after game. Until then, it's really not worth giving too much attention.

I even read on this Board something about KM having a quiet game or something like that after the Stritch game. It was KM's first, real game back after a year out and he had 13 points, 5 assists, 2 steals, 1 block and zero turnovers in 23 minutes.

I understand this is Billiken basketball, but I think this will be a great season.

[GoBills]

Xavier only won their game by 3. The point is these games mean little. I'm ready for some real games.

[kshoe]

Just saw that Xavier won their game by 3 tonight. Butler, Arizona, and west Virginia all lost games to d2.

That being said, we sure as hell cant play like this during the regular season and hope to be good.

The defense has to be much better. We need to shoot threes much better. Kwamain needs to be the old kwamain. One of our two down under players needs to be a factor. Unfortunately it's not one of these things that needs to happen but rather all of them need to happen!

[Box and Won]

Xavier only won their game by 3. The point is these games mean little. I'm ready for some real games.

And I believe they lost to the same team last year.

[Cowboy]

-well, we have a few things to work on in practice, like offense, defense, rebounding, etc before tenn st comes to town

-i imagine the locker room after the game was a lively setting

[kmbilliken]

Sweet sixteen. Write it down.

Sweet sixteen. Write it down.

Sure thing if we were an NAIA team. Maybe even final four.

[Bizziken]

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but Carleton lost by 18 to LaSalle on Friday with their 2 best players.

[cheeseman]

After having been at the game and thinking about it, it seems to me that we need to develop an inside presence - we have the players to do that but for some reason they were AWOL yesterday. KM never got on track after picking up his 2nd foul early in the first half - he even got his 4th with a lot time left in the game in the second period. DE was a monster - he played the way we all expected him to do so this year based on last year's play. KC was fine but him and all the other players have to be more consistent with the 3 ball - 2 out of 16 or something like that was terrible - I think we shot under 40% for the game and you won't win many that way. MM had very uninspired performance again - hope he knows were the light switch is come next Friday. JJ was nothing to write home about either and JB - not sure what to make of him given all the hype. BC gave us what we should expect from him as a minimum this year. Before some of you "church ladies" starting whining about not panicking let me say that you can point out all you want about how AZ, Butler, X, and WV lost an exhib game - we are not them - we have to play with all the right intensity and skill we have to establish ourselves as a consistent performer. I have not given up on the team but if you don't think some of the same stuff we have seen these 2 exhib games won't rear their ugly heads during the season you are naive. We have to play right no matter who the team is so we can play right against all the others. By the way, do you take that GG did not play at all as sign that he will be redshirted or was he hurt or was it RM giving JM one last time to establish himself?

[pooch1918]

In the postgame yesterday Majerus expressed mild frustration that Kwamain still isn't the player he was two years ago.

[Tonka]

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but Carleton lost by 18 to LaSalle on Friday with their 2 best players.

Haha! This is great. Just what this Board needed - Carleton losing to LaSalle. I wonder how many people are on the ledge right now. Too funny!

[Duff Man]

My general observation is that aside from Evans and Conklin, everyone is struggling to find his role.

Kwamain is just not as sharp as he needs to be as the leader of the offense. He had a 3 go halfway down then out, missed an uncontested layup (that Evans put back in), and another driving layup that just didn't drop (on one of those 'screw it, I'm scoring on this possession' drives). He was frustrated with himself, his teammates, and the game in general.

Cassity had a dreadful shooting game. He had more missed FGs (9) than Jett and McCall's combined FG attempts (8). I applaud him for taking the open shots, but if the shot isn't dropping he can't be on the floor for 30 minutes.

Loe might be a great shooter in practice, and it's not like we have a great alternative at the 5, but he needs to let the game come to him and work for high percentage shots.

Jett had an alright game. He's playing under control. Needs to shoot more, especially when KM is on the bench.

McCall was like an invisible man for most of the game. Just one 3pt attempt. He needs to find his role as a scorer.

Ellis is playing himself out of the rotation. Glaze would be a better rebounder and Barnett a better shooter. Something's got to give...

Remekun is what he is. A reserve big man who can block shots and make a FG once in a while, but does not possess the basketball IQ to play a major role.

A pretty crappy performance overall, but I'm not going to be alarmed until we actually lose a game. Exhibitions are about evaluating players more than anything else. If Kwamain can shake off the rust, and one of our centers can step up and play quality D, everything else will fall into place.

[White Pelican]

I'm more than a little surprised that after all the extra practices AND the games in August, we don't look better. And I know they are exhibition games but maybe I expected too much.

I wish we had a better inside game but I'm resigned to the fact that our centers are soft. What really bugs me is the poor 3 point shooting by just about everyone. We're supposed to have bigs AND guards that can shoot treys, but they are ALL shooting poorly.

I DO continue to really like what I see out of Evans. I hope the rest of the guys get it together. We'll soon know.

[slufan13]

We'll be fine. BC and KC have been better than I thought they would be. KM will be a stud. JJ and DE have looked good. MM will figure it out. Don't know what to think about RL, CE, or CR. Gotta think that one of them will step up.

SLU 73

Tennessee St. 51

[GOSLU68]

Be one of the first 5,000 fans at Friday's game....

Starters KM, KC, BC, DE, RL will all be reliable so will JJ, MM, CE to lesser extent

After that if you get 2 steals, 2 blocks, 3 rebounds, or 5 points out of players 9-15 you

Have to count yourself lucky.

Those two exhibition teams probably guarded the three as well as our average opponent.

What surprises me is CE, JB, and MM should be knocking down stand alone surprise threes and we were

2/17 only because we made a couple late.

Best jump shooters in last game BC and Manning if that happens on a regular base we are toast

[dlarry]

After today, I gotta think St. Ambrose will be favored to win the CYC championship.

Agree. It's nice to see St. Ambrose become a basketball power. Usually the schools on the hill only concentrate on the CYC soccer championship

[jbizzle09]

Just as a point of reference, SLU beat St. Ambrose by a score of 61-47 two years ago. St. Ambrose actually had the lead in that game with about 7 minutes remaining before the Billikens finally pulled away. SLU ended up winning 23 games that season with a squad that was much younger and had much less depth. And to be honest, there were just as many people sh*tting a brick about that game as there are doing the same for this past one.

These were just exhibition games. It is hard to get a real feel for a team's success by how they perform in these games. The main purpose of the games is to get the rust off of the players and get them used to playing with each other in a competitive environment. I am sure that many of the observations made from these two games are on point and truly astute, but just as many are probably severe overreactions and much ado about nothing.

[For-DaLove]

Just as a point of reference, SLU beat St. Ambrose by a score of 61-47 two years ago. St. Ambrose actually had the lead in that game with about 7 minutes remaining before the Billikens finally pulled away. SLU ended up winning 23 games that season with a squad that was much younger and had much less depth. And to be honest, there were just as many people sh*tting a brick about that game as there are doing the same for this past one.

These were just exhibition games. It is hard to get a real feel for a team's success by how they perform in these games. The main purpose of the games is to get the rust off of the players and get them used to playing with each other in a competitive environment. I am sure that many of the observations made from these two games are on point and truly astute, but just as many are probably severe overreactions and much ado about nothing.

Just as a point of reference, SLU beat St. Ambrose by a score of 61-47 two years ago. St. Ambrose actually had the lead in that game with about 7 minutes remaining before the Billikens finally pulled away. SLU ended up winning 23 games that season with a squad that was much younger and had much less depth. And to be honest, there were just as many people sh*tting a brick about that game as there are doing the same for this past one.

These were just exhibition games. It is hard to get a real feel for a team's success by how they perform in these games. The main purpose of the games is to get the rust off of the players and get them used to playing with each other in a competitive environment. I am sure that many of the observations made from these two games are on point and truly astute, but just as many are probably severe overreactions and much ado about nothing.

I can always count on bizzle to make a logical post.+1

[The Pelican]

Just as a point of reference, SLU beat St. Ambrose by a score of 61-47 two years ago. St. Ambrose actually had the lead in that game with about 7 minutes remaining before the Billikens finally pulled away. SLU ended up winning 23 games that season with a squad that was much younger and had much less depth. And to be honest, there were just as many people sh*tting a brick about that game as there are doing the same for this past one.

These were just exhibition games. It is hard to get a real feel for a team's success by how they perform in these games. The main purpose of the games is to get the rust off of the players and get them used to playing with each other in a competitive environment. I am sure that many of the observations made from these two games are on point and truly astute, but just as many are probably severe overreactions and much ado about nothing.

That's very interesting! You are a great historian; thanks for the perspective. I have to admit that I was very frustrated after the game on Saturday. This helps put it into place. Although, KM needs to elevate regardless.

[thetorch]

I'm mildly concerned about our backcourt. Coming into the year I thought KM and MM would play together and could realistically average 30 ppg between the two of them.

It doesn't appear that MM knows what to do now. He's not playing off the ball very well. When KM is on the court MM is drifting to the corner and standing there. I don't think he knows his role in the offense.

For me either KM or MM must be handling the ball at all times. Let Cassity play off the ball. I really think MM in particuliar needs the ball to be a good player. KM can adapt more to being a 2, and Cassity certainly can. Letting KC run the point while KM and MM stand and watch is not getting the most out of our offense.