GDT: St. Ambrose

[billiken_roy]

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.

while i agree that it appears mccall plays better when he has the ball, i dont agree that makes the billikens better than having cassity handle the ball. cassity makes far fewer mistakes, he is a coach on the floor and he is the best passer on the team. he is actually the natural point guard imo. add to it that cassity is not as good of a shooter as mccall (mccall might have the fundamentally best looking shot on the team) it makes no sense to weaken the billikens overall to cater to mccall. mccall needs to understand he is the third (maybe fourth with jett in the mix) point guard on the team and maximize his strengths to be a wing.

[Duff Man]

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.

The difference between that game and this game (besides Screech's hair), is that in 2009 freshman combined for 103 minutes while in 2011 we had just 9 (all from Manning).

[Quality Is Job 1]

The difference between that game and this game (besides Screech's hair), is that in 2009 freshman combined for 103 minutes while in 2011 we had just 9 (all from Manning).

I still think that the real issue is that the Billikens are too nice. They lack that nasty streak to put pedal to metal and stomp on "inferior" opponents by 35 points. But they won't simply let someone punch 'em in the mouth without fighting back, so when Washington comes to town, the motivation will be a lot higher. KM needs to model that nasty side (on the court), because the sophomores don't have it yet.