No Mike McCall?

[Quality Is Job 1]

I apologize if this was discussed elsewhere — no way I'm going to wade through the GDT! — but where was MM today?

[slu72]

According to Nark nothing to be worried about. He was on the bench but didn't play.

[Quality Is Job 1]

According to Nark nothing to be worried about. He was on the bench but didn't play.

Okay; so that makes me wonder if it were a disciplinary issue or something like a minor injury.

[davidnark]

Okay; so that makes me wonder if it were a disciplinary issue or something like a minor injury.

I think it was a team violation kind-of issue, but I expect this is the last we will hear of it.

[davidnark]

I think it was a team violation kind-of issue, but I expect this is the last we will hear of it.

In the press conference, Majerus apparently said it was a "personal academic issue," but I was told that no one will have eligibility issues.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Thanks, Nark. It sounds like he was late for an exam, or something.

[thetorch]

Majerus had no comment when asked if McCall would play against Ark St.

Not a school thing, not a team thing. Personal academic standards set by McCall, he didn't live up to them. He and Majerus decided he need to sit.

Jett also was hurt. Probably won't practice for a couple days nut nothing major right now.

[Pistol]

Majerus had no comment when asked if McCall would play against Ark St.

Not a school thing, not a team thing. Personal academic standards set by McCall, he didn't live up to them. He and Majerus decided he need to sit.

Jett also was hurt. Probably won't practice for a couple days nut nothing major right now.

Jett landed very hard on that one blocking foul that sent him to the line in the first half, right before the last media, I think.

Glad to hear it's nothing serious with McCall.

[slu72]

The McCall situation leaves one w/ the impression RM's dead serious when he talks about academics and is not just paying it lip service. Good to hear it's not an eligibility issue.

[billiken_roy]

mccall sitting gave us the opportunity to see more barnett

and that wasnt pretty.

[willie]

I don't agree. Granted he didn't shoot well but he got 2 or 3 tough rebounds on his first rotation. When he played at the end it was with the walk ons. I still think he will be a contributer.

[SLU_Nick]

Agree with Roy on this one. McCall >>> JB

[slu72]

He's definitely looking like an all conference player for sure.

[Billikan]

mccall sitting gave us the opportunity to see more barnett

and that wasnt pretty.

As somebody is such a huge and unrelenting fan of KC, even when he plays terrible, I really think it is ridiculous that you rip Barnett after last nights game. He has has a tough start this season with so little playing time after a year off but I thought we saw some better things last night for sure. He was playing very hard and hustling all over the floor. He has some excellent rebounds and handled the ball pretty well until he was burdened with playing for almost 10 minutes with a walk on point guard who could not do anything on either end. But he never quit hustling and he hit a three. Give the kid a break!

[slufan13]

As somebody is such a huge and unrelenting fan of KC, even when he plays terrible, I really think it is ridiculous that you rip Barnett after last nights game. He has has a tough start this season with so little playing time after a year off but I thought we saw some better things last night for sure. He was playing very hard and hustling all over the floor. He has some excellent rebounds and handled the ball pretty well until he was burdened with playing for almost 10 minutes with a walk on point guard who could not do anything on either end. But he never quit hustling and he hit a three. Give the kid a break!

I agree. I still think he'll be a solid contributor by his senior season. Majerus constantly hypes everyone up, but we believed every word RM said about Jake. He always plays hard and once he gets more comfortable out there, his shot will come around.

[West Pine Jim]

I agree. I still think he'll be a solid contributor by his senior season. Majerus constantly hypes everyone up, but we believed every word RM said about Jake. He always plays hard and once he gets more comfortable out there, his shot will come around.

I liked BC three years ago and suffered with his continual missed layups and now we love his dunks, leadership, etc. I like JB and I think he will be fine with more seasoning, same as BC.

[MB73]

As somebody is such a huge and unrelenting fan of KC, even when he plays terrible, I really think it is ridiculous that you rip Barnett after last nights game. He has has a tough start this season with so little playing time after a year off but I thought we saw some better things last night for sure. He was playing very hard and hustling all over the floor. He has some excellent rebounds and handled the ball pretty well until he was burdened with playing for almost 10 minutes with a walk on point guard who could not do anything on either end. But he never quit hustling and he hit a three. Give the kid a break!

Agree.

I take some shots at things and am critical... some of it is for fun... but I NEVER criticize the kids in this manner.

NEVER, EVER. It is not right. Some of them read this sh*t.

They are out there playing hard, busting their ass, SLU athletes 24/7/365 and they pay the price.

Almost NONE will turn pro, they spend so much time in team related activities, lose a lot of their focus on studies, social life, a LOT of things.

People who never did this do not understand the sacrifice, and vastly OVER ESTIMATE the value of the free tuition and room and board.

It is much less valuable than you think considering a 40+ yr working career that follows their graduation.

There are a lot who are very competitive and accomplised but now reflect that it was not worth it.

So, I SAY, do NOT criticize the players like this, no ugly stuff, just an an occasional observation.

To say "that wasn't pretty" about a player is low-life-jealous-petty-punititve-crap from someone I honestly thought had some class.

Jake, good luck to you, you will be fine, soon you will be pumping in 3's for us do not be affected by loserRoy's or other's crappola.

[joe_davola]

Agree.

I take some shots at things and am critical... some of it is for fun... but I NEVER criticize the kids in this manner.

NEVER, EVER. It is not right. Some of them read this sh*t.

They are out there playing hard, busting their ass, SLU athletes 24/7/365 and they pay the price.

Almost NONE will turn pro, they spend so much time in team related activities, lose a lot of their focus on studies, social life, a LOT of things.

People who never did this do not understand the sacrifice, and vastly OVER ESTIMATE the value of the free tuition and room and board.

It is much less valuable than you think considering a 40+ yr working career that follows their graduation.

There are a lot who are very competitive and accomplised but now reflect that it was not worth it.

So, I SAY, do NOT criticize the players like this, no ugly stuff, just an an occasional observation.

To say "that wasn't pretty" about a player is low-life-jealous-petty-punititve-crap from someone I honestly thought had some class.

Jake, good luck to you, you will be fine, soon you will be pumping in 3's for us do not be affected by loserRoy's or other's crappola.

If he is tough enough to play for Majerus (and I'm a huge fan of Majerus), then he is probably tough enough to take criticism from a random internet message board poster.

[jbizzle09]

I think it is legitimate to be critical of JB at this point. The fact is, he is not a freshman, or even a JUCO transfer. He is a D-1 transfer, and a transfer who was a starter for his previous team, and led that team in scoring. He is also 22 years old, and did a year of prep school prior to going to college. He is pretty much the same age as Conklin and Mitchell (both just a couple of months older) and is actually older than Cassity.

I bring up the age to make a point. He is not a 'project' type of player. He was brought in to make an impact when he was eligible. He was supposed to be ready. And having a full year to practice with this team was supposed to help him be ready. However, when this season started, he was out of the rotation. When people see that, they have to wonder if he is a player who will make an impact, based on expectations when he transferred. Also, when he does play, eyes immediately swing to him to see how he is doing. Critiquing him is inevitable due to his particular situation.

Hopefully he will become a contributing player, if not this season, then next. And, to be fair, we have only seen him play 57 regular season minutes, much of which were junk time. However, he has played some middle-of-game minutes this season (LMU, Vermont, Al. St.), and much of that time he has not looked comfortable. And just because you get some minutes with walk-ons and freshmen, it doesn't mean that is the reason you aren't hitting jumpers or layups.

[jbizzle09]

I don't understand the vitriol directed at Roy for his post. I don't see anything that was over the line or ugly. In Timmerman's latest post, he was also quite critical of Barnett, and he quoted Majerus, who seemed even more critical of him. Roy didn't take a personal potshot at Jake, he just made an observation. And it is an observation quite a few others have made. It is one thing to disagree with Roy re: JB, but there is no reason to attack him just for making an innocent comment about what he saw on the court.

I mean, if we want to play that game, couldn't someone point out that Billikan was being overly harsh with his words towards Daly. He said Barnett 'was burdened with playing for almost 10 minutes with a walk on point guard who could not do anything on either end.' Heck, Daly could be reading this message board RIGHT NOW. How dare Billikan say such terrible things about him?!?! THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Where are our standards of decorum on this board?

See how silly that is? Roy said nothing wrong. Neither did Billikan. However, if one wants to perceive some kind of slight or wrong, well...it is quite easy.

[showthebill]

I agree with Jbizzle. He played like ######. He shot below 15% and had a brutal turnover when he came in the game early. If he can't take this comment then I think that answers all my questions on if he will make an impact in D-1 basketball

[Billikan]

I don't understand the vitriol directed at Roy for his post. I don't see anything that was over the line or ugly. In Timmerman's latest post, he was also quite critical of Barnett, and he quoted Majerus, who seemed even more critical of him. Roy didn't take a personal potshot at Jake, he just made an observation. And it is an observation quite a few others have made. It is one thing to disagree with Roy re: JB, but there is no reason to attack him just for making an innocent comment about what he saw on the court.

I mean, if we want to play that game, couldn't someone point out that Billikan was being overly harsh with his words towards Daly. He said Barnett 'was burdened with playing for almost 10 minutes with a walk on point guard who could not do anything on either end.' Heck, Daly could be reading this message board RIGHT NOW. How dare Billikan say such terrible things about him?!?! THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Where are our standards of decorum on this board?

See how silly that is? Roy said nothing wrong. Neither did Billikan. However, if one wants to perceive some kind of slight or wrong, well...it is quite easy.

My point about Roy is that he was ultra patient with KC when he was playing less than perfect and many on the board--not me-- were criticizing him. Barnett has had some of the same issues we saw at times with KC early in his time here on defense and he is now a pretty good defender. KC had times when he could not hit a shot or would not take a shot and Roy was his biggest defender. There is no reason to take shots at Barnett when he is working hard. Maybe, as the coach suggests, he is trying to be perfect and that is causing him some problems but I would bet that as smart as he is he will figure it out. I did not name Daly. He was hugely overmatched by their star starting point guard who was in the game until the bitter end, as you would expect with a walk on. He also played about 10 minutes so in the last 5 minutes he was probably tired. He seems like a very nice young man and is well liked on the team.

[slu72]

Back to McCall for a moment. Any more on whether this is a serious situation, ie not making it academically, or really just an issue between him and RM regarding his academic progress? I know we're shrugging it off as minor, but sometimes where there's smoke there's fire. In McCall's case I'm hoping it's purely smoke. And I don't think Broy should be chastised for his comments re JB. When he was signed/transferred we were led to believe this kid was the real deal. And why not? He led a MAC team in scoring his frosh year. Heck, I think he was even TU's captain. Not sure why this hasn't translated well at SLU, but the fact is he's been a little disappointing up to this point.

[Taj79]

Timmerman's latest blog is interesting as Majerus credits Barnett with "paralysis by analysis." Which means he's thinking about it and not just doing it. I still expect him to be fine. He's only a sophomore in playing time so there is time left on his clock. Sure, he's a third-year sophomore but those facts are complicated by 1) sitting out a year, and 2) playing in as complex a system there is for as complex a coach there is. Please recall that some had JB an all-conference performer raining threes from the parking lot. Just goes to show that "curb your enthusiasm" is a decent motto. Given those obviously-misplaced accolades, one can see where observers and observations like roy's come from.

Again, in another thread, I asked about transfers in general and Jake in particular. Was wondering how we got him and why he chose us over anyone else. Anyone?

The best news is we don't "need" him to be all-conference right now.

[brianstl]

I liked BC three years ago and suffered with his continual missed layups and now we love his dunks, leadership, etc. I like JB and I think he will be fine with more seasoning, same as BC.

Conk really isn't a great comparison. Conk was playing hurt for most of his time here. Conk's injuries were the main reason for his struggles.