Quality Is Job 1 Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 slu72, I apologize for diverting the topic of your "hot stove" thread so far away from the topic. In this thread I will reintroduce it and reply to your points. >Okay let's open the hot stove season. What the Bills need to do to make the dance next >year or in keeping with our mascot...the Icon of what ought >to be.... > >>Recruitment of a Juco PF who can start now >>A healthy Tom Frericks-don't schedule any games after a rodeo >>A more assertive IO, take it strong to the hoop also shoot that mid range jumper the D gives you. RB can't be the only go to guy >>JJ to develop strong over the summer-see #1 >>AD to get some minutes, make that a lot of minutes, at PG over the summer >>DP to be ready for D-1 ball, from what you guys say who have seen him play, he ain't far away and will step up immediately, but, he's still a frosh >>TL to qualify...if he doesn't, land a JUCO pg >>Darren Clarke has to develop over the summer into a scorer, again RB can't be the only go to guy >>Have IV stay in St.Louis and play in the Bonner league >>Find two guys to replace JF and CS's leadership and heart >>A much better out of conference schedule > >Would this be a lineup that would give us a chance at the >dance: > >DP pg >RB #2 >IO #3 >JUCO PF #4 >TF #5 > >or if TL qualifies start him instead of IO, I think that >would be scary...starting two frosh against CUSA level >talent? >>Recruitment of a Juco PF who can start now I believe Brad Soderberg will get his man. I'm not worried about it; I'm just waiting to see who it will be. >>A healthy Tom Frericks-don't schedule any games after a rodeo Tom Frericks will be a consistent scorer, averaging double figures. >>A more assertive IO, take it strong to the hoop also shoot that mid range jumper the D gives you. RB can't be the only go to guy While I do believe SLU needs more than one offensive threat AND that the Billikens will have more than just Reggie Bryant next season, I don't know if it will be Izik Ohanon. I think Ohanon will average double figures (around 10 ppg), but that could come from his scoring nine points per game nine times out of 10 and having one outburst of 19 points once every 10 games. >>JJ to develop strong over the summer-see #1 I suspect we'll be waiting yet another year for Justin Johnson to put it all together (I hope he proves me wrong and tells me to my face when I see him next summer). >>AD to get some minutes, make that a lot of minutes, at PG over the summer Anthony Drejaj will be a leader -- possibly the heart and soul of the team -- but I don't think he'll be the point. When AD is in the game, look for at least one of the other ballhandling guards -- (in order of preference) Dwayne Polk, Tommie Liddell, and Darren Clarke -- to also be in the game. >>DP to be ready for D-1 ball, from what you guys say who have seen him play, he ain't far away and will step up immediately, but, he's still a frosh Dwayne is the least of my concerns. As a Floyd Irons-coached player, he'll be ready to go from day one. The main question is: how much will Polk grow during his Billiken career? I've noticed that Div. I players from Vashon seem to have fully tapped their potential in high school and, while performing reasonably well, don't have much upside. Now, Anthony Bonner was an exception to that trend, so maybe Dwayne will be too. >>TL to qualify...if he doesn't, land a JUCO pg I believe Tommie Liddell will qualify. I won't contemplate any other outcome. >>Darren Clarke has to develop over the summer into a scorer, again RB can't be the only go to guy. Capital D will be just fine. He was just a freshman this season. >>Have IV stay in St.Louis and play in the Bonner league I agree that Ian Vouyoukas should be around the team and should play in the Anthony Bonner summer league, but I also think he should go to a big man camp and should also spend a couple of weeks away from St. Louis scrimmaging with more accomplished big men. The competition he'll face from local bigs won't prepare him well for the Conference USA swan song. >>Find two guys to replace JF and CS's leadership and heart That will work itself out, but I think Tom Frericks, Anthony Drejaj, and Dwayne Polk will be major motivators (hey, Polk has never experienced losing when healthy, so I think he'll instill a hatred of losing in his teammates. >>A much better out of conference schedule No doubt. >Would this be a lineup that would give us a chance at the >dance: > >DP pg >RB #2 >IO #3 >JUCO PF #4 >TF #5 > >or if TL qualifies start him instead of IO, I think that >would be scary...starting two frosh against CUSA level >talent? It's probably too early to speculate on lineups and rotations. I wouldn't worry, though, about Liddell and Polk both starting as frosh. If Coach Soderberg believes the Bills can win with them out there, then we'll see it, and if not, we won't. I suspect Liddell will start the season on the bench and work his way into the starting lineup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsWin Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 I've heard that IV is headed home for the summer as he hasn't been home since he came to STL last August. I would expect him to be playing in Greece this summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Thicks, I really like your idea of both IV and BH attending a big man camp as I believe both would benefit from this experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Baniak and Heinrich did it at SLU. Not sure what it did for them but it couldn't hurt. Wished IV was staying in StLouis though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 I think big man camp dramatically improved Chris Heinrich's fundamentals. I think he was an excellent (if slow) defender and did a decent job rebounding. I think the negative spin he gets on this board about his hands are overstated. The games I watched in that era (admittedly only 2 or 3 per year) consisted of Chris working hard on positioning and making a good target only not to get passed to. Now, he may not have got those passes because of his hands, but I sure would have liked to seen better entry efforts. Good passes can help overcome "bad hands" anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 I was also a big Heinrich fan and thought he slowly, but steadily improved. I wish I coulda said the same about Baniak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 other than the constant attention of the strength coach, i doubt if playing at west pine and the bonner league will equal the competition ian will see playing for greece's top international team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 i will agree that heinrich was better by the time he was senior than what he was when he started at st louis. i also agree that matt never improved a bit during his time at st louis. the two of them were the most underachieving recruits the billikens ever had imo. they could have and should have taken the billikens to great heights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alameda bob Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 If you were from Athenia, wouldn't you go home for a once in a lifetime chance to see the Olympic Games come to your city? I was in Greece for a couple of weeks last year. I love the history and culture there, and am keeping my fingers crossed that this is the best Olympiad ever. The people there deserve it to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 I don't know IV's specific plans. However, I recall the coaching staff saying that they wanted IV to (1) lose a few pounds this summer and (2) work on his jump shot. IV has a habit of fading back on his 12-15 footer. They are working with IV to elevate straight up with his jumper and eliminate any fading with the back and shoulders. I don't see where playing in the Bonner league is a "must" for Ian. My quess is a couple of months at home with his parents and younger brother, plus taking in Athens' Olympic scene, will do his mind more good than running up and down the Bonner League court rarely touching the ball! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 When Heinrich was a senior, Romar said that he was one of the best defensive post players in the country. Pretty good praise for a player who wasn't too gifted athletically and pretty high praise from a coach you seemed to think highly of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 i am not denying that heinrich was a good defender. imo from day one he was a rock defensively. my b!tch with heinrich came on the offensive end. rarely dunked a ball. only caught the passes that were perfect passes. and then that was assuming heinrich was perfectly still when the pass was coming. the number of 3-4 footers he missed made me crazy. he should have progressed to be big country reeves. he ended up being chris heinrich. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 Heinrich was not that highly regarded coming out of high school. Why do you think we got a 6-11 player out of the Philly/Penn area. The kid was limited athletically and worked his a$$ off. He was much stronger defensively as a senior than he was as a freshman. The same can not be said for Baniak, who came in with loftier expectations out of high school. Matt was quite gifted athletically. If he played with as much fire as Heinrich did, he would've been a hell of a player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 IMHO Baniak fell off the face of the earth once Larry the Legend matriculated to the NBA. Matt showed lots of promise his Frosh year that went unfulfilled the remainder of his Billiken career...you'd get no argument from me that he was much more highly touted recruit than Chris was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted April 1, 2004 Share Posted April 1, 2004 the way i heard the heinrich recruiting story is that hughes got him. he was on larry's nike camp team and larry saw a big rebounder for himself and introduced the thought of him coming with him to the billikens. spoon as usual did nothing to find the kid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolbeans Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 >I don't see where playing in the Bonner league is a "must" >for Ian. My quess is a couple of months at home with his >parents and younger brother, plus taking in Athens' Olympic >scene, will do his mind more good than running up and down >the Bonner League court rarely touching the ball! that's interesting! I wonder if his little brother is a basketball player, and if so, in the future we could recruit him onto our team...just a thought. His little brother is probably my age (almost 15)!!! I do think that he should play on the Greek olympic basketball team, and I agree that the Bonner League might not do him much good...he does have to lose some weight, though...maybe like 5-10 pounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 i dont mind if ian doesnt lose any weight, but that baby fat has to be turned into solid muscle and transfered to his chest and shoulders. then you'd have something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolbeans Posted April 4, 2004 Share Posted April 4, 2004 >i dont mind if ian doesnt lose any weight, but that baby fat >has to be turned into solid muscle and transfered to his >chest and shoulders. then you'd have something. I agree with you totally!! Ian needs to redistribute his weight to his upper body. The result would be something amazing!!!! he is my favorite player on the team! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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