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Kyle Cassity On Senior Night


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From Yahoo! Sports - On The Spot:

Guard Kyle Cassity lost his starting spot at the start of February to sophomore Mike McCall, who was providing more offense. SLU coach Rick Majerus offered Cassity a start on Senior Night, but Cassity turned him down. Cassity told Majerus that it was more important to win, and he didn’t want to upset the flow of the nine-man rotation Majerus has developed during the season. “You don’t want to change what’s working,” Cassity said. “We won. That’s all I wanted to do.”

I would say this is pretty noble of KC. Not that he deserved to start, but at least he knows what's best for the team. I know on this board we have been hard on him this year, but at least he acknowledges his new role on the team, and the importance of keeping a winning system. It can't be easy being put on the bench your senior year, but he has apparently kept a great attitude about it, and that's a solid trait for leader, even if he doesn't play as much. Any thoughts?

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He and Conk are both class acts. Remember that Conk did everything he could to get Cody Ellis ready even though, at the time, he was effectively training Cody to take his spot. We are VERY lucky to have two guys like Brian and Kyle as Billikens. I am proud of both of them. Their attitude and behavior will take them much farther in life than basketball ever would. Congrats to both of them!

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He and Conk are both class acts. Remember that Conk did everything he could to get Cody Ellis ready even though, at the time, he was effectively training Cody to take his spot. We are VERY lucky to have two guys like Brian and Kyle as Billikens. I am proud of both of them. Their attitude and behavior will take them much farther in life than basketball ever would. Congrats to both of them!

Ha. I totally forgot about that. Looks like it made both of them better. Good point.

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Back to the topic at hand -------- what did anyone expect from Cassity? All along, his best assets have been those that are hardest to measure, hardest to discern, least likely to appear in the line score. This is likely his best attribute and if you don't think guys like this play a role over the years, just look at what's being said about UCLA in Sports Illustrated now.

As for Conklin training Ellis to take over his spot, are you serious? The only candidates on the current roster for that role are Remekun and Glaze. I for one do not expect Ellis to ever take over for Conklin because the style of game is just no where similar. Evans is our defensive boards dominator, not Conklin so you likely won't see Cody stepping in there. All we really want him to do is wall off his man and let Dwayne clean up. Conversely, just because Ellis is 6'8", don't expect him to change his game and move onto the low blocks next year. Evidence? Cody attempted 231 shots this year of which 70% of them (161) were threes. Brian attempted 259 shots and all but two of those were traditional field goal attempts.

I maintain that despite early rumblings that next year's team will be even better than this year's, this year's runs its engine on complimentary parts working towards the greater good of the team. You need an inside game to create and/or open the outside game. Having easier shots on the exterior comes from the hard worker on the interior. Finding that part for next year is going to be more difficult than folks currently think.

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As for Conklin training Ellis to take over his spot, are you serious? The only candidates on the current roster for that role are Remekun and Glaze. I for one do not expect Ellis to ever take over for Conklin because the style of game is just no where similar. Evans is our defensive boards dominator, not Conklin so you likely won't see Cody stepping in there. All we really want him to do is wall off his man and let Dwayne clean up. Conversely, just because Ellis is 6'8", don't expect him to change his game and move onto the low blocks next year. Evidence? Cody attempted 231 shots this year of which 70% of them (161) were threes. Brian attempted 259 shots and all but two of those were traditional field goal attempts.

I think with the Conklin Ellis thing is referring to multiple reports that Conklin took extra steps/time in practice Cody's freshman year to make sure he understood the system better. At the time, it was seen that he was basically helping out the player that would take a lot of his minutes. Dwayne wasn't on the team yet.

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Okay, true to that SignKid but Conk was, in my book, providing upperclassman leadership in taking the new guy under his wing and getting him acclimated to the in-place sysytem. Plus Cody was not only a foreigner, but ten games delayed by the NCAA Clearinghouse so the course was certainly a crash course. I would also think that the minute Ellis came into the gym and gravitated to the three point line, a smart cookie like Conklin would have known the two were not competing for the same role or position. If I'm practicing jump hook sinthe paint and my competition is throwing up 19-foot bombs, I certainyl know we are not in the same area code.

Both Cassity and Conklin were integral parts to restarting the program, just as Majerus and Mitchell are. Proud to have them in the Billiken family.

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-taj, take a moment and remember the roster, who was playing and the level where BC was playing in those days and that BC was a soph and he was going above and beyond to help CE and BC could have lost minutes to CE by helping him but he did at the benefit of the team, that is what i remember of that situation alumni fan is referencing, not every player is going to go to those lengths to help a teammate that could take their minutes

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@ cowboy & alumni fan --- I am not arguing and in hindsight might have misunderstood the original reference. I was not there and do not recall the original situation. I am not surprised that either KC or BC would do this for anybody on the team, I see them as those kind of guys.

Focusing on the direct competition which seemed to be implied between the two for playing time was my bad. But alumni fan said "(Conklin) was effectively training Cody to take his spot." So there's the lead I followed. Being Cody is 6'8" and Brian is 6'6" I can understand all of us thinking that way in just a side-by-side visual comparison but I am still of the belief that a savvy basketball observer would have immediately dismissed the two playing the same role on the same team. Their games are complimentary, not similar.

Knowing what very little I do of BC and Kc up close and personal, I am still not surprised by either's action in either context.

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Okay, true to that SignKid but Conk was, in my book, providing upperclassman leadership in taking the new guy under his wing and getting him acclimated to the in-place sysytem. Plus Cody was not only a foreigner, but ten games delayed by the NCAA Clearinghouse so the course was certainly a crash course. I would also think that the minute Ellis came into the gym and gravitated to the three point line, a smart cookie like Conklin would have known the two were not competing for the same role or position. If I'm practicing jump hook sinthe paint and my competition is throwing up 19-foot bombs, I certainyl know we are not in the same area code.

Both Cassity and Conklin were integral parts to restarting the program, just as Majerus and Mitchell are. Proud to have them in the Billiken family.

I think you are missing a big piece here when discussing that timeframe. When Cody came to the team that January, WR was also on the roster, and was firmly entrenched. Thus, even though Cody and Conk didn't have the same skill set, per se, Conk could see the possibility of losing a lot of minutes in the future. If you remember, down the stretch in January and February that year, Cody and Willie were getting the bulk of the minutes at the 4 and 5, and Conk's minutes were greatly reduced. For all he knew, he would end up being a bench player his final two seasons. It really did look like that was going to be a possibility for him. Kudos to him for not letting it effect him personally and being a true teammate to Cody.

.

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I don't mean this as a criticism of Kyle as a person or really in any manner. Kyle's move was completely in character. Pass the ball, don't shoot it. Defer to MM defer to KM defer to whomever. Given the choice Kyle will demure.

It's been frustrating to watch, not because I don't like Kyle, not because I think he's a bad guy, not because I have some insane vendetta like some here, but only because the kid obviously has talent.

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kyle and conk are in graduate business school, and as far as my sources know, are not headed to the lakers or celtics...but they'll probably be managing money or selling insurance to a lot of the folks in the stands this season...they've got a future...most college basketball players don't...good luck to them!...

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@bg --- you can't say that, you can't extrapolate on the what ifs. What I think is true is thi s-- Conk woul dbe where he is because he has no quit in him and he would have achieved a parallel state to now. maybe not as dominant or as key, but a work ethic like that does not quit. You heard Majerus on Senior Night, he coul dnever have kept himself from using such a warrior as the Bonecrusher.

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God, people are really serious about basketball now. We get three of the best racks of the year posted and not one follow up comment.

I'm with you. Please tell me those are really the new staffers at FH and not just some pics you found on the net.

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