This is a make or break month for the Bills

[ACE]

IMO this month will determine whether we will remain an NIT team or make the leap to NCAA Tourney team. What we do with this last scholarship and Tommie's situation are huge. If we get a mediocre recruit and Tommie doesn't make it, I'm afraid we are no better next year. If Tommie comes through and we get that impact JUCO power forward, we'll have a shot at dancing next March.

This is an exciting time. Are the streets talking?

[Sheltiedave]

The impact power forward is the critical find, as we need some serious rebounding and banging help. Tommie's situation is out of Brad's control, but the power forward is in his crosshairs. If we take care of business, losing Tommie for a year of prep school will not be a critical hit.

Brad has had a good deal of recruiting rabbits out of the hat in his first two years, pulling Izak and Drejaj, then Tom F last year. Two starters recruited a year = a good bench and NCAA tournament. We have point guard locked down on offense, defense, and on the bench. The same goes for our center position. The shooting guard is covered by Reggie and Darren. The large gap with the forwards is our Achilles at this point.

[slu72]

if we don't find a slasher/banger this spring, we're still going to be mediocre whether TL comes or not. Look at the dance and how the PF's have such an impact on the game. They open up the floor on offense because you have to respect their slashes to the hoop and their ability to rebound offensively. I'm still a little worried about PG, not about Polk as he appears to have been a steal, but he is a frosh and there is that learning curve thing. It would have been so nice had Morris made the grade, we'd all be breathing a little easier. But even if we are forced to land a PG because of TL's situation, we'll still need the PF to get beyond the NIT. I think with a healthy TF and a respectable PF our front line could be really something next year. And if IO continues to develop at the 3, you are causing some real match up problems.

[billiken_roy]

while i would hope and i believe the best answer is to find the next coming of anthony bonner out there somewhere. i believe that ian and frericks with justin johnson and husak as back ups would suffice. my point is, we wont collapse if we dont find one. and i sure as hell dont want to be giving a scholarship to someone just to fill a spot. either the player is capable or dont use it.

[TheGoat]

Broy, I tend to agree with you and it just begs the question as to how many more games we would have won (and potential Dance implications it would have had) had Tom been healthy all year. My guess? I say with a healthy Tom, 3 we would have had AT LEAST 3 more wins if not more.

[slu72]

Broy, I agree too. Don't just give it to another...ah....dare I say JJ. And that is hard to say, because I still believe the jury is out on him, however, he wasn't much help this past season and we need a contributor not another 6'7" spectator. My point was if we don't land a contributor, and he doesn't need to be another AB, we're still kind of stuck in NIT purgatory. We lost a lot this year in JF and CS especially in terms of experience and heart if not in athleticism. My hope is for a JUCO PF who can pull down 7-10 boards and be an addition to TF on the inside. If we find one, I think we make TF, who is offensive minded, even more of a scoring threat. Also, this guy is going to have to be a decent defender given the strong PF's playing for CUSA's top squads.

[Billiken Law]

I say with a healthy Tom, 3 we would

>have had AT LEAST 3 more wins if not more.

Huh? What games would SLU have won with a healthy Tom? Does Tom provide 25 extra points against Cincy? Louisville? The record was actually pretty good minus Tom (losing only to Cincy twice, who was clearly superior to SLU in those games) and L-ville, who SLU never had a chance against), including the big win at DePaul

[3star_recruit]

This Newborne kid is put together.

http://www.chipola.edu/pictures/athl/baske...ola%20men12.jpg

[Mobile-iken]

And he could have his #33!

[Schasz]

The Iowa and Marquette references in this Lisch article. Haven't we been led to believe that Kevin had pared his decision down to SLU, IL or ND?

[billiken_roy]

goat, with 3 more wins (assuming they were in the regular season) we would have been in the ncaa tourney last year.

imo, tom frericks is/was the biggest pleasant surprise we have gotten as billiken fans in a long long time. i expected him to be formidable. but a healthy tom frericks can be a double double every night. who was our last double double inside guy? bonner? anyway, i could see frericks and ian playing together. brad tinkered with it a little bit last year. the key is how much ian works this summer imo. because one or the other or both will have to step up defensively and take a quicker player. maybe justin johnson sees the light. my gosh, one would think that the obvious whole to fill would inspire him to no end.

[billiken_roy]

while i too have been disappointed in justin johnson, i still believe he can become a major player. he is exactly the physical dimeinsions we need and obviously is a good enough athlete to actually become the power forward that we havent had but maybe twice in the last 15 years or so (bonner and jamal johnson). since he is only going to be a sophomore, it is far too early to give up on justin. if justin would have just stepped into the spot and took off, that would have been an incredible find. there is a reason he was there for the taking and we have to be patient while brad digs out the gold in that mine.

[billiken_roy]

the iowa reference was a surprise to me as well. marquette was on the list long ago, but i know for a fact that the lisch's and althoff were real disappointed when crean and/or his staff stood them up last summer when there was a special workout scheduled for slu, marquette, illinois and siu to view. all four had promised coach leib to either show or send an assistant. only brad showed and weber sent last minute regrets. no word from crean or painter.

[billiken_roy]

billiken law, let's not forget the mysterious bout with asthma/circus fever tom suffered in december that was severly limiting his minutes he could play in december. he played 12 minutes vs west virginia, 13 vs arizona, 19 vs sms, and 19 at marquette. all four loses that imo a healthy frericks playing 30+ minutes has to make a major difference in all four games.

[cheeseman]

Tom F was not a rabbit out of Brad's hat - he had a full year to recruit him. IO clearly has not be the find some thought he would be - at least to date so getting another middle of the road player in place of TL will not help our sitution. I agree that AD was a good find on short notice.

[Sheltiedave]

Cheeseman, Brad has a better handle on filling needs than Lorenzo had, I think. Tom plays a very physical center and loves to bang. He also was a dominant player on both sides of the ball when healthy, which has not been the case with any other JC transfer at SLU in the past five years. I would still go with a rabbit just due to his unexpected dominance. (I was projecting 7 pts and 5 rbds a game.) We still need the dominating banger on the other side of the lane, so teams don't abuse us when they have two bangers, or Tom gets in foul trouble.

[former_d1]

I went to the kc opening rounds. Every team there that had a good pf or 5 that could bang. Pacific had a great inside player. If a team no one has really heard of can have one we should be able to find one.

[former_d1]

is a game that jumps to mind. we should never lose a game to them.

[StLouBlue]

I agree that we should be able to have a good PF, I disagree with your point that we should find one. Every school in the country is looking for the 6'7" to 6'10" polished player--physically developed & with solid offensive & defensive games. I won't say that it is impossible for us to recruit this player, but there is a lot of competition for these players. Also there are not a lot of these kids locally either--Grimes & Shaw(incoming freshmen, will see how they actually do), Faulkner & Frazier(redshirted this year) and Muse & Kern--academic problems. I hope JJ continues to develop into our PF. I was disappointed that he didn't earn more minutes this year but I hope after 2 years he should be ready to step up and should earn serious minutes at the PF spot.

Development of players will probably be the key for this team, especially big men. It seems like there is always a good selection of guards out there either high school or JUCO, but PF & C are always tougher to come by. With JJ, Husak & IV, I think if Brad can show he can develop these players then we should be looking at some pretty special teams in the next few years.

[Quality Is Job 1]

How can you blame a kid for wantig to take his full allotment of all-expenses-paid trips?

[billiken_roy]

word i got is that kevin isnt interested in taking the trips. dad is "suggesting" it to try to make sure that kevin sees the big picture accurately. he is not saying slu isnt right, just wants kevin to realize what is there so later there is no second thoughts.

[tseugnekillib]

If you are really not interested in a school, but take a paid visit anyway, you are just taking a paid visit opportunity away from another player. Colleges are allowed "x" number of paid visits (18 maybe). If a player visits just to be visiting around the country, he is keeping other players at home.

[Major Majerus]

Is that a chaw of t'backy in his cheeks?

[3star_recruit]

Maybe, maybe not. If you aren't a player the school is interested in, they won't be paying for your visit even if they haven't used their full allotment of visits.

Do you really believe the top 100 schools paid for 1800 recruits to visit their campuses last year?

[tseugnekillib]

The point was.....while the school might be interested in the player, if that player had no interest in that school but makes a visit anyway (to see the country and to get out of his hs classes), he is wasting the school's money, and a paid visit that a second player could have taken.

No, I don't think all of the top 100 used all of their paid visits, whatever the number. I think the 5/8 rule may be limiting visits.