Washington (Final Thoughts) & Valpo Game Preview

[Billboy1]

Crews is rusty?? With his experience and fact he was with us last year he should know when a timeout is needed and if a player(s) is/are doing something that needs to be corrected. His comments regarding what the players are doing are not those of a coach-he needs to be the one in control.

[SLU_Nick]

Really, Clock? It's a little early for that thought isn't it? I tend to usually be optimistic with the Billikens even during horrible seasons. However, I think still realistically this team can be very good. Like I said yesterday, this team just needs to clean things up.

Corey has shown some flashes of what he can do. DE had one bad game and I expect he will be more consistently good. KM may struggle for a few games, but I still think he has something big to prove. This is his last shot and his intensity will be nuts. MM is shooting great and not in his normal position. KC could easily have a second half of his freshman season as KM did his freshman year. We are too experienced to just fall down. I also said yesterday and I believe it to be true - Crews will get better. Three years removed from being a HC and running the show left him rusty and he was thrown into this role. It's not like he had the offseason to prepare.

We are still a tournament team - mark it down.

I am not sure what "the season is over" means but I still lean toward Clock in this one. It is just depressing to know that after all of the RM's ground work, which took 4+ years, the majority of fan base is 99.9% sure the pinnacle of this billiken basketball era was last season. The team has regressed, Conklin was a bigger loss than anyone thought, our recruiting pipeline is dry, we lost the chip on our shoulder, our defense no longer scares teams, our offense is anemic, and the "man in black" is not coming to the rescue.

The stark difference between this year's team and last years, might secure RM's spot as the greatest bball mind who ever lived.

The players seem to channeling the fan base as well. It feels like the players are just trying to "hold on" to any semblance of RM's apparition that still echoes in the rafters of Chaifetz. This is no longer RM's team and it's certainly not Jim Crews team. It is as if the players know they are playing at 80% of their ability, and try as they might, they just can't find that extra 20% without the big man barking at them in practice and from the bench. I feel so bad for the players because every last one of them bought into the system. This year was supposed to go down in Billikens history and be a discussion topic on here for years to come. Now it feels like the 2004 season. Yea, not sure what happened then either....it was in a word...forgettable.

Of course I am still going to watch every game but my excitement for the program I have followed for over 9 years is just simply gone and I am looking around for someone to blame. Alas, I am not finding that responsible party. Today all I can think of when I reflect on Billiken Basketball is right there in my avatar. The palpable absence of the big man with the big heart (even if that heart ended up being a size too big). Get well soon Rick. You have done a great service to my University.

Is this season over, maybe not. Did we reach the high water mark of performance last March...almost certainly.

-Nick

[MCMelton]

We play 16 conference games

The question originally was about non-conference games. I had records with 15 games, when there are only 14 non-conference.

[Quality Is Job 1]

I know there are occasional blips, but not usually more than one. It's critical to protect the home court and win around half of the road games to develop a resume deserving of a 6-seed or better.

Perhaps the Bills' chances of getting an at-large bid seeded higher than 7/10 or 8/9 won't completely disappear if they lose another home game or two, but I think their fans should expect them to win every home game unless one of the cream-of-the-crop comes in (and none of those teams is coming to Chaifetz this year).

[kshoe]

I know there are occasional blips, but not usually more than one. It's critical to protect the home court and win around half of the road games to develop a resume deserving of a 6-seed or better.

Perhaps the Bills' chances of getting an at-large bid seeded higher than 7/10 or 8/9 won't completely disappear if they lose another home game or two, but I think their fans should expect them to win every home game unless one of the cream-of-the-crop comes in (and none of those teams is coming to Chaifetz this year).

At this point, not many fans are thinking about getting a 6 seed or better. We are thinking about simply making the tournament which is what we thought about the past 12 years until we broke through.

For others like Clock, in no way shape or form is this season over. We haven't had our best player and its shown but if we find a way to hold our own the rest of the non-con at home we'll still be in decent enough shape that a top 3 finish in the A-10 will be at large worthy. We've got a long way to go, folks.

[kshoe]

The question originally was about non-conference games. I had records with 15 games, when there are only 14 non-conference.

Your right, I misread the question. My bad.

[eastsidejoe]

At this point, not many fans are thinking about getting a 6 seed or better. We are thinking about simply making the tournament which is what we thought about the past 12 years until we broke through.

For others like Clock, in no way shape or form is this season over. We haven't had our best player and its shown but if we find a way to hold our own the rest of the non-con at home we'll still be in decent enough shape that a top 3 finish in the A-10 will be at large worthy. We've got a long way to go, folks.

Listen Kshoe, don't try and tell me that we won't go undefeated the rest of this year. Number 3 seed baby.I'm just sayin.

[Clock_Tower]

I am not sure what "the season is over" means but I still lean toward Clock in this one. It is just depressing to know that after all of the RM's ground work, which took 4+ years, the majority of fan base is 99.9% sure the pinnacle of this billiken basketball era was last season. The team has regressed, Conklin was a bigger loss than anyone thought, our recruiting pipeline is dry, we lost the chip on our shoulder, our defense no longer scares teams, our offense is anemic, and the "man in black" is not coming to the rescue.

The stark difference between this year's team and last years, might secure RM's spot as the greatest bball mind who ever lived.

The players seem to channeling the fan base as well. It feels like the players are just trying to "hold on" to any semblance of RM's apparition that still echoes in the rafters of Chaifetz. This is no longer RM's team and it's certainly not Jim Crews team. It is as if the players know they are playing at 80% of their ability, and try as they might, they just can't find that extra 20% without the big man barking at them in practice and from the bench. I feel so bad for the players because every last one of them bought into the system. This year was supposed to go down in Billikens history and be a discussion topic on here for years to come. Now it feels like the 2004 season. Yea, not sure what happened then either....it was in a word...forgettable.

Of course I am still going to watch every game but my excitement for the program I have followed for over 9 years is just simply gone and I am looking around for someone to blame. Alas, I am not finding that responsible party. Today all I can think of when I reflect on Billiken Basketball is right there in my avatar. The palpable absence of the big man with the big heart (even if that heart ended up being a size too big). Get well soon Rick. You have done a great service to my University.

Is this season over, maybe not. Did we reach the high water mark of performance last March...almost certainly.

-Nick

Can this team turn things around?? Of course - we have all seen what the players can do both individually and collectively.

Will this team turn things around? We all hope so but I don't believe any of us have seen signs this year that this is an NCAA Tourney team.

Does this team miss Conklin? Sure, we don't have Conklin but we/this team needs to get over it. It's a fact of college basketball -- players last only a maximum of 4 years. SLU is not the only team to lose a guy like Conklin. IMO, our coach/team/players have the talent to replace Conklin's contributions but, to do so, we need contributions from CE, RL CR and JM. Collectively, and IMO with RM at the helm, we could have/would have replaced Conklin. Frankly, Conklin was a great player for us but even RM acknowledged his limitations (even on Sr. Night). Likewise, CE and RL are not your typical, strong-interior, American type power forward playing the 4 either but they are much closer to the RM's type 4 b/c of their perimeter shooting. Has CE and RL turned into the next Keith Van Horne?? No, they would sure do more what RM wants than what most college coaches (which apparently includes Jim Crews) want.

Crews is rusty? No time to prepare? Get serious guys. St. Louis Blues head coach Hitchcock admitted to being "rusty" but his rust disappeared after a few games. Same with RM who had been broadcasting but not coaching in years. And unlike Hitchcock and RM who were hired at times when they were not then coaching or part of the game, Crews was here as assistant coach all last year and knew the team, the players, etc. Also, no one had really seen RM much since April and I've got to believe that Crews knew that RM was having health issues this Spring. Correct my timeline but didn't SLU know in June that RM's situation was grave and that it was a real probability that RM would miss some/all of this year? If so, then didn't Crews have the chance to start handling team issues since June? Then, Crews was given the interim tag/promotion months before the season started. Even Crews would admit that he had sufficient time to prepare and to make this his team as opposed to RM's. Less than ideal situation? OK. Valid excuse? No.

The recruiting pipeline is dry?? Get serious. We have a freshman point guard whom RM called better than KM at his age, who has shown some real ability to play now and contribute to the team. One good contributor/future starter is not the sign of a dry pipeline At the same time, we also have another long-armed, 6'7" freshman who, like most freshman at the better D1 programs, is not going to see much action this year, who might redshirt (which might be best for both him and SLU) who many on this Board apparently want to run off the team with stupid rumors about a possible transfer. In addition, we have McBroom who is sitting out this year and who can/will contribute next year. In short, that's three (3) guys who are/will likely help. As to Sophomore Manning, he also has alot of potential, he also received alot of praise from RM, we have all seen moments of really good things from him. As to next year, I did not expect ANY recruits this Fall b/c of the uncertainty/interim coach... Do you want to rethink your comments??

Look, RM's entire system is run by the 1 and 4 players. He has said this over and over for years. Clearly, we/Crews are without our 1 (KM) and so would RM have been w/o KM for this first half of this year. Does this loss hurt this team? Sure. But we have the people to replace him. To me, the failures have been with what Crews is doing with the 4. RM was not about to enter this year without a plan/idea how to replace Conklin. IMO, CE and RL can and should be running RM's offensive schemes where they each can take their man to the outside, they can create mismatches and then feed the ball back inside to the other -- all things different than what Conklin/SLU could do last year. The loss of CR (a guy who has played only a handful of minutes in his 3 prior seasons for us) for 2 games is not an excuse. We all know that Taj and others had concerns about who would replace Conklin but I believe RM had a plan and that plan was NOT to expect CE and/or RL play the traditional American, interior game. Unfortunately, Crews is either not using that plan or unable to make adjustments to use their talents. In any event, the lack of production at the 4 is missing just like our team's perimeter defense (which has nothing to do with the loss of Conklin).