Panic or patience?

[Billikan]

For anyone who has watched the Bills for decades last night's game was not even in the top 50 worst Billiken basketball performances. For fans of a more recent vintage--there have been plenty of stinkers over even the past 10 years.

Yet, despite the fact that we have played without best player and our best inside defender most of the posters on this board are in total panic mode or even worse--complete despair.

So the question of the day is -- Panic or patience?

I am not at all sure that we all understand the impact of losing a hall of fame type coach is on the psyche of a team. I do not pretend to know that answer but I feel certain that it has to be a bigger factor than most of us realize. Then we lost our best player and our "coach on the floor" point guard on top of losing the coach.

Yet if you look at the preseason pick of posters here -- most of the expectations for this team were sky high in terms of wins and postseason success. We need to remember it took RM 5 years to build a team that could compete at a very high level and he had to have a little luck --meaning no significant injuries-- in order for us to accomplish what we accomplished. I think a lot of the super negative comments are from posters who predicted this team to be super team and their expectations blinded them from seeing that we are not a super team if KM is not playing. Frankly, CR is also a key at this point because he is our only legitimate shot blocker--not counting Evans who can get some blocks but is not going to be an intimidator and he has been guarding a lot of perimeter players so he is not underneath the basket.

I have said for years that shooting is the keep ingredient in upset scenarios and we saw last nigh a shooting exhibition by SC that was over the top. Great defense can help prevent shot attempts and push people into places where they do not want to shoot but if shooters are making wild shots, long shots and shots on the run it makes the team look invincible.

Yet, our failure to be composed on the offensive end and the lack of structure on defense or offense is the most troubling aspect of the team's performance.

In answer the the question--I must say I want to have patience but without KM in the lineup it is hard to see how we are going to be able to beat good teams. Let's hope that this game is a blip on the radar but I am not optimistic that we can beat even a team like A and M under the circumstances unless we take care of the ball and shoot well. No panic but real concern!

[majerus mojo]

Great post.

I guess it's better to get this beatdown out of the way now before going into A&M Monday. If I would have gone into that game with the expectations I had pre-tip last night... let's just say I would not have wanted to be stuck in KC/enemy territory for the aftermath.

Expectations lowered, but hopefully we can still regain some composure and scrap one out vs. A&M, take our licks vs. KU. Hard week of practice. Let's go.

[White Pelican]

It doesn't matter if we have panic or patience. We're gonna see how it all plays out. I will say that I'm a big fan of Majerus and evidently I've still underestimated his abilities.

I was expecting more than a few bumps in the road this year for all the obvious reasons. But I didn't expect to come out to a home game against a not well known opponent and see our team play like it was thrown together last week and didn't bother to hire a coach.

[Taj79]

Absolutely patience. People overlooked or lessened the impact that losing Conklin would have. We all believed our guards were capable of holding on for Mitchell's return. And we cannot fully understand the intangibles a personality and expertise that a Majerus brings to the table. Then toss in Remekun's unavailability and we suddenly have a larger issue.

Again, this OOC schedule will be a develomental one at best. Who is the inside threat? Can we hold on for Micthell's return? is Remekun more than just a body? Does Ellis start or stay comfy off the bench? Can McCall be a true point (I have concerns on this because Jett obviously needs the ball to do what he does best which is drive and if McCall is driving, who's the off-guard shooter?) Can Barnett contribute? Glaze? Manning? Lots of stuff to be answeresd w/o the complications of injuries.

I said it was likely good to have a weak OOC. But pay me now or pay me later. You can fuok up the OOC and redeem yourself in the conference. You can fuok up the conference and redeem yourself in the league tourney. No matter how bad we are, we are still better than four teams in this conference so we'll have the Barclays opportunity I believe.

We weren't going undefeated to begin with and having this happen sooner is better than later. Despite our returning core, there are enough questions looming to make finding answers quite an effort. No panic, but a kick in the panst if you think you can sacrifice hard work.

[wgstl]

If we cream tam and play a good game win or lose to ku, we will somewhat get over this pathetic game

[Billboy1]

I think there is room for both. On one hand we all know the talent is there but on the other we are seeing the leader who doesn't know how to use it. Truthfully, if KM and CR both played last night the outcome might have been a little closer but the end result would not have changed.

[Scoop]

_{I believe our Bills were smelling the roses, buying into the hype and riding some post season press. This A & M game is huge. Buckle down and just get a W and then keep Kansas respectable. Hope CR is ready to go.}

[Billiken Rich]

Mostly the panic is due to the nature of the loss. Majerus would've ripped the throat out of Jett or Mccall If they abandoned his offense and went one on one. He would've disembowelled Grandy for not knowing where to be on defence.

Conklin was great but not god. Mitchell was a bigger problem, I think. God bless Corey but I don't see his loss as being large part of our problem last night.

I blame the coach. Most old time coaches are worried about their legacy. Crews is already screwed in that department. Has anyone actually met the man and taken stock of him? Does he really want to be here? Those that were worried about him doing great with Rick's recruits and then leading us into long term mediocrity might be the real chicken littles here......

[BACKHANDtheRICAN]

PANIC.

Talk about disorganization....we couldn't even inbound the ball on any baselines passes the ENTIRE game. WTF.

[Clock_Tower]

Then toss in Remekun's unavailability and we suddenly have a larger issue.

Can McCall be a true point (I have concerns on this because Jett obviously needs the ball to do what he does best which is drive and if McCall is driving, who's the off-guard shooter?)

Taj. In response to both you and Billikan, I never thought we'd be using the absence of CR as an excuse for losing a home game to a mediocre team. At best, CR is our back up center. With RL, CE, JM, GG (and dare I say DE as the risk of upsetting Skip), we should have had no problem at all last night. Our bigs simply got outworked and none of the Santa Clara's bigs are elite players.

As to your second point, I have been saying this for years. Our team has not had an outside shooter since KL graduated. Yes, RL and CE can both shoot the three pointers. And yes, MM can normally shoot from the perimeter (though not last night) and that a healthy KM can shoot from the outside (too bad he cannot play now) but even with them we don't have a consistent perimeter/mid-range threat on this team who is clutch. The last few years, Cassity and Salecich (sp?)were to bring this element but didn't. Then, we thought JB would bring this element but I see no sign of it. Then, we thought a combination of all the players (from KM to MM to CE to RL) can collectively do this job as alot of posters have said while providing stats of our team's 3 point shooting ability. Sorry, I just don't see it. Good teams need clutch players and we, quite frankly, don't have a clutch player outside of KM. Last year, BC turned into a clutch player and if we are to have success this year, then someone needs to step up. If not, I am lowering my prediction of wins down to 17 or 18 games. Maybe I am being too hard on the team if MM was injured last night and will become healthy again soon. And at times, CE has shown the ability to step up and hit the shot -- I truly think the loss of RM has hurt CE more than anyone. No way does GG start over CE with RM on the bench. And at times, RL has come through when needed and DE is usually solid but this team needs to find a leader -- clutch or go to guy -- and I, for one, did not see him on the court for us last night.

[slu72]

More than anything last night was the "lost" look on offense. Ok, as Timmerman said, we didn't defend well either, but still nothing on that floor last night resembled our offense from last year. Is it the lack of RM or BC? BC because we could go into him and when teams figured out he was a legit scorer from in there, he'd kick it out. Bottom line, it just looked all so smooth last year. And last night it looked all so discombobulated. No spacing, no good screens either on ball or off ball. And remember, RM likes/prefers/teaches the on ball screens, whereas, Crews said he preferred the offball variety. Is there suddenly confusion? Stick w/ RM's scheme, please, it's what they know. Defense? Yes, anyone can get hot on any night, but for most of last year we disrupted those guys, save for the UMass game.

Billikan says he thinks a lot of us are upset because our predictions have already been wrecked, to some degree, maybe. But most are upset over the coaching, or lack thereof, last night. RM would never allow a team to go on a 6 to 8 point run and NOT call a time out. Nor would he not make some kind of substitution just to get the message across that you play D or you're not playing. This is all about the commitment from the HC. RM's commitment was never in doubt, BB was the man's life. I saw no passion from JC last night, and this was a Bob Knight protege. Knight would have been throwing chairs, biting the heads off of snakes, and ripping the doors off of bathroom stalls if his team quit like the Billikens did last night.

Who knows, maybe it is the headbands that lost it for us last night. Looks aren't cool, guys. Wins are.

[slu72]

Yes, I'm panicked. This is Billiken BB we're talking about here. And from a totally selfish viewpoint, I want to go to another NCAA game and feel the same pride we did last year in Columbus.

[WVBilliken]

Bad game for SLU but the team we lost to is a pretty good team. Get CM & KM back & we are OK. In the meantime we need to have some guys step up. I think they will starting with Texas A&M. Hope we have CM back.

[majerus mojo]

Bad game for SLU but the team we lost to is a pretty good team. Get CM & KM back & we are OK. In the meantime we need to have some guys step up. I think they will starting with Texas A&M. Hope we have CM back.

Coach Majerus? Yea, that would be nice.

[David King]

Full on panic mode here!