Billikan Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Just got back from the game and I must say that a number of us who were there thought this was the best overall game we played in many years. The defense was absolutely fantastic. I was concerned that the defense we demonstrated in the exhibitions would carry over but they looked like a completely different team tonight. The effort was just outstanding. TSt. is a very athletic group which will score plenty of points but we just closed them out at every turn. Our depth will really help our defense because everyone will be fresh all the time as we rotate players in and out. Offensively we shot the ball fantastic in the second half and overall the shooting was fine. KM is still rusty but he hit a couple of pure 3s in the second half off of great passes. Cody Ellis looked like the guy we recruited and the Cody who played two years ago. But he is a much improved defender and rebounder. Wow--if he can play like that it will be a huge boost to this team. McCall looked like the player from last year and made some absolutely brilliant finger roll layups from mid range. His defense was much better and so was his passing. It is almost impossible to describe the difference between our team tonight and the team I watched in the exhibitions. I give the coaching staff huge credit. They really had this team ready to play tonight. Go Bills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintLouBlue Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Fun game to be at. Thought the student section was great. Lots of positives even with some shooting struggles from KM, and DE being pretty much non-existent on the offensive end. Game seemed to have a better flow tonight then the two exhibitions as it didn't seem like there was as much experimenting with lineups especially at the beginning. Hopefully the play continues. Definitely have a couple of difficult games on the horizon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Amazing that two of our best players have crappy games and we still blow the opponent out. When is the last time that happened? I too was very concerned after the exhibition games; this just didn't seem like the same team. Great game tonight - Cody may be back, Conklin making instead of missing the put backs, Loe looked good, the tremendous trio of KM, JJ, and MM is really impressive on the floor together, CR looked good. All that said, this is just one game, probably an off night for Tenn State. SIU-C will be tough even if they are down this year. Washington will be tough. In 8 days we'll have a much better idea of how this team really plays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Great game tonight. Shows once again why its important not to get to low when they play bad or get to high when they play well. We held serve tonight with a game we had to win. The next 6 are going to be critical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Pelican Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Very pleased with Cody Ellis's game tonight. Yeah, looked like the guy we were hoping he'd be. Shooting AND rebounding. Interesting that Evans' "disappearance" didn't matter at all tonight. I've never been much impressed with Remekun, and he'll never be Willie Reed but he looked much better tonight. I know KM had an off night shooting but our guards are going to be fine. It's the bigs that you never know if they're gonna show up. At least for tonight they came to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 A step in the right direction for Cody. Still would like to see him make some shots when we aren't winning by 20. The behind the back kick out from the weakside post was a thing of beauty. Kwamain still needs to find his stroke but his presence on the court is palpable. Managed to get 8 assists despite shooting 13 times. Conklin's shot continues to improve. If we have a more balanced scoring load this year he might lead the team in scoring. He'll average double figures on the year. Remuken looked great. Really putting out some effort on the defensive end, altering shots, tipping passes. Only had 2 blocks and a steal but he disrupted 7 or 8 other possessions easily. One play he ran the length of the court just to close out on a TSU 3 in the corner, completely disrupted the shot. Very active on offensive glass as well. Jett didn't do much offensively but he was on Covington for a large part of the game and shut him down. Played inside on a guy 6 inches taller than he was. Impressive. Loe only had 5 points but played much better than the exhibitions. He was getting after it, was on the floor a couple times and made a nifty hustle steal at mid court. McCall still stands around too much but he didn't miss a shot from the field. Evans couldn't find any seams to get to the basket today. Hung around the perimeter too much. Never looked like he was into the game. Great atmosphere with the lights, a full student turnout, the classy tribute to Easy Ed, and of course the chinese bowl lady. I can't recall any Guy mistakes either. As close to a night of perfect Billikens basketball I've seen in a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 -did tn st have a coach? holy cow -we looked really good, lets do that 37 more times in a row Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbizzle09 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 A step in the right direction for Cody. Still would like to see him make some shots when we aren't winning by 20. The behind the back kick out from the weakside post was a thing of beauty. Kwamain still needs to find his stroke but his presence on the court is palpable. Managed to get 8 assists despite shooting 13 times. Conklin's shot continues to improve. If we have a more balanced scoring load this year he might lead the team in scoring. He'll average double figures on the year. Remuken looked great. Really putting out some effort on the defensive end, altering shots, tipping passes. Only had 2 blocks and a steal but he disrupted 7 or 8 other possessions easily. One play he ran the length of the court just to close out on a TSU 3 in the corner, completely disrupted the shot. Very active on offensive glass as well. Jett didn't do much offensively but he was on Covington for a large part of the game and shut him down. Played inside on a guy 6 inches taller than he was. Impressive. Loe only had 5 points but played much better than the exhibitions. He was getting after it, was on the floor a couple times and made a nifty hustle steal at mid court. McCall still stands around too much but he didn't miss a shot from the field. Evans couldn't find any seams to get to the basket today. Hung around the perimeter too much. Never looked like he was into the game. Great atmosphere with the lights, a full student turnout, the classy tribute to Easy Ed, and of course the chinese bowl lady. I can't recall any Guy mistakes either. As close to a night of perfect Billikens basketball I've seen in a while. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Guy made a correction with about 2 minutes left to play. Overall, a great first game for the Bills to have. Everything flowed well, the defense was sublime, and Cody proved to us that the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. It is always nice to have a total laugher to start the season. Really nice to see KM dish out 8 assists, especially on a night where he was struggling to score. Still, even with his shooting struggles, he hit 2 really, REALLY nice treys in the 2nd half and probably could have scored at will if RM didn't clear the bench as early as he did. Just a great start to the season! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Pelican Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Guy had a correction in the first half too. It just wouldn't be Billiken basketball without Guy's corrections. I've come to enjoy them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB2.0 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Great game. This is the type of score that will give us some respect. An absolute trounce. Well done Bills, well done. People outside this board will respect this. Yes. Finally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 In the past, teams like TSU often times gave us heartburn and heartache. To take them apart like this is a promising start. Now go down to SIUC and get that all important road win out of the way. Another toughie on the sched we might have overlooked; Loyola handled #20 UCLA pretty easily last night at Pauley. My guess is with the depth we have, we're gonna see guys, ie DE, have games where they seem out of it, but then someone else steps up to pick up the slack. Really promising to see CE in double figures and being tough on the boards. Hopefully, he becomes our version of Butler's Heyward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Pine Jim Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 In the past, teams like TSU often times gave us heartburn and heartache. To take them apart like this is a promising start. Now go down to SIUC and get that all important road win out of the way. Another toughie on the sched we might have overlooked; Loyola handled #20 UCLA pretty easily last night at Pauley. My guess is with the depth we have, we're gonna see guys, ie DE, have games where they seem out of it, but then someone else steps up to pick up the slack. Really promising to see CE in double figures and being tough on the boards. Hopefully, he becomes our version of Butler's Heyward.Nice post, good observations. With our depth someone will seemingly get lost in the shuffle every game but we have the players to overcome individual bumps in the road. A win in Salukiland and we are on our way to some momentum ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 guy called evans Dwight the last time he entered the game also. fantastic game. billikens played very very good. the best thing to take away from the game is the composure the guards showed vs that stifling defense tenn st played the first half. in all likelihood, tenn st expects to win their games on turnovers, mistakes and fatigue that defense would create. when it didnt happen last night, the billikens dominated as tenn st's offense was pure playground beyond that. i was very pleased with remeken's rebounding. he went after balls with a passion i dont remember previously. having cody ellis play like the freshmen version last night was also huge. last the billiken defense was spectacular. a textbook example of denial defense. thanks to SLU for the pregame reception. nice. band with a number of new songs. all done well. as usual. the student section was spectacular. true 6th man,. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 The depth of this team is outstanding. Here is what we got from our starting 1 - 3: Dwayne Evans got 2 pts. Cassity gave us 6 pts. Mitchell was 3-13 from the field. ... yet we crushed the opposition. Eleven players scored. This was a team win. Awesome start to the season. I feel confident Kwamain will eventually find himself this season and that Evans and McCall will return to form. This team can be so much more than what they showed us last night. That's the cool part of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Pine Jim Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Probably inspired by the return to relevance of CE, the Chinese unicycle/bowls lady gave a midseason-sharp halftime performance. Fun at the Fetz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 In the past, teams like TSU often times gave us heartburn and heartache. To take them apart like this is a promising start. Now go down to SIUC and get that all important road win out of the way. Another toughie on the sched we might have overlooked; Loyola handled #20 UCLA pretty easily last night at Pauley. My guess is with the depth we have, we're gonna see guys, ie DE, have games where they seem out of it, but then someone else steps up to pick up the slack. Really promising to see CE in double figures and being tough on the boards. Hopefully, he becomes our version of Butler's Heyward. Good point. In the past we have other OVC schools or similar level other conference schools come into St Louis early in the season and we lose or it would be dangerously close. IE: Austin Peay, Tenn Martin, Ark-LR, Louisiana Tech, etc... This was a nice convincing win on the team that will probably finish in the middle of the pack of the OVC. Nice to see how deep we are. This probably the deepest Billiken team I ever witnessed since I followed the Bills since the early 70s. We had better teams but none this deep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 -is there a link to the post game presser somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slubilliken09 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 In the past, teams like TSU often times gave us heartburn and heartache. To take them apart like this is a promising start. Now go down to SIUC and get that all important road win out of the way. Another toughie on the sched we might have overlooked; Loyola handled #20 UCLA pretty easily last night at Pauley. My guess is with the depth we have, we're gonna see guys, ie DE, have games where they seem out of it, but then someone else steps up to pick up the slack. Really promising to see CE in double figures and being tough on the boards. Hopefully, he becomes our version of Butler's Heyward. Great post. It was great to see our Billikens not play down to a team and rather beat them... Handily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Probably inspired by the return to relevance of CE, the Chinese unicycle/bowls lady gave a midseason-sharp halftime performance. Fun at the Fetz. I can't watch that lady; makes me too nervous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Man Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 I was most encouraged by the solid play of Eliis and Remekun. We're so much more suited to take on the big dogs if we get significant contributions from those 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 KM- He'll obviously be fine. There won't be too many games where he shoots that low of a percentage. Also with 8 assists he showed that he's going to majorly contribute every night. Definitely great having him back to break the press. MM- Looked better tonight. He's money with that floater. Really hope he continues to assert himself on offense. He can definitely be a solid scorer. JJ- Quiet game but played really good defense and had another big time block. He goes to the rim strong and that's going to be important against some of those bigger teams. KC- Played well. Hit a couple 3's. Did a little bit of everything. Was solid on breaking the press last night. It won't really show on the stat sheet, but he's going to have a big season. JB- Didn't look great trying to break the press, but he hit a 3 and looks like our best free throw shooter. That could be important down the stretch in games this year. You can go offense/defense with him and JJ when we need to hit our free throws to ice the win. Also, I could see RM riding the hot hand with him at times in the season if he's knocking down shots. CE- He showed flashes of being back to normal last year before he got hurt. Obviously he needs to prove that he can do that consistently, but he looks like he has his confidence back which is huge for a shooter. Definitely playing tougher and harder. CR- Definitely like what I saw here. He looks way more comfortable out there than last year. Like someone said earlier, he didn't have a ton of blocks but he altered a lot of shots. Will be very important when be play guards who like to drive to the basket. RL- Hit some shots. Played tougher and harder. The pick and pop with him and KM could become almost impossible to guard. DE- Quiet night but it was tough. This was the type of team that he couldn't create much of a mismatch against. He never really played the 4 so he couldn't post anyone up, but the 3 with too athletic for him to blow by to get to the basket. Still absolutely think he'll be in the top 3 scorers for us. BC- He looks like he's definitely hitting his shots now and that's so key. He plays tough enough and hard enough that he can score despite being outsized sometimes. This team has the chance to be special. I don't think we've won in Carbondale since Hughes put up about 40. Don't know when we won before that. Need to go in there and take care of business and then prepare for a huge test in Washington. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
For-DaLove Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 I echo what everyone else has said. Good, solid win. Thats a good first step towards a successful season. Looking way far ahead, I can't wait to see our guards go up against X. I've said it before and I'll say it again, we have the best backcourt in the conference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartanBilliken Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Anyone else confused as to why it's taking the SLUBillikens athletic website SO LONG to put up video highlights of the Tennessee State game? Kinda ridiculous... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbofive Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Anyone else confused as to why it's taking the SLUBillikens athletic website SO LONG to put up video highlights of the Tennessee State game? Kinda ridiculous... i find myself in a state of discontent over this quandary as well. gotdammit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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