billiken_roy Posted June 2, 2004 Author Share Posted June 2, 2004 it is my belief that when the opposing 3 is too big for our stable of guards to defend, izik will have to play the 3. we know he is athletic enough to do it. is he focused enough? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 Roy ... you didn't say Ross Varner did you? PLEEEEAAAASE. I think one reason you don't see an improvement over last year is that your value of Sloan is way high. We lost CS and RV inside ... We have added 1 year of experience to IO, IV, JJ and TF. WE have added VN ( who in my opinion can't be much worse a PF than CS. It will be hard to rebound worse for sure ) and a skinny inexperienced 7 footer BH. Just the extra years experience for the above 4 is normally huge. I am not knocking CS ... he had his strengths ... but he was not a good PF ( sorry ... just the facts ) I also think his leadership towards the end of the year was poor ... to much whining and pouting for my tastes. Read my post towards the end of this thread ... I can't imagine we will not be better. Add to it the fact that we know UB is a fantastic game day coach. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted June 2, 2004 Author Share Posted June 2, 2004 skip said, "WE have added VN ( who in my opinion can't be much worse a PF than CS.)" that statement defines my concern. i truly do not think newborne will be an improvement over chris sloan. what sloan gave up power forward skillwise he made up in running the floor, help defense, etc. things that dont show up on the stat sheet. maybe newborne will be up for that and improve on the normally expected power forward stats. but like i said, i just am not expecting much more than something between ross and q. i hope i am wrong. still even if newborne ends up being charles barkley, that still doesnt explain why we have almost zero pursuit of inside players with established skills and size. why? there is no reason for only signing one legitmate inside guy in two years (frericks) and besides that everyone else is a flyer of sorts. it just has me baffled as it is obvious this staff can recruit by taking one look at the guards/wings they have landed. i'm not trying to be negative, just conversational and painfully honest in what i see (or dont see). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 I think the problem is in numbers ... first there aren't as many talented big men as there are gaurds and wings ... next the top 4-10 think they belong in the NBA which moves the next tier up to the Dukes and KU's of the world. How many schools on our level ... ( 1 NCAA appearance in how many years ) have great or even good big men. BS is only on his 2nd real recruiting class ... so that leaves us with JUCO's which we know are hard to get into SLU. or freshman. Now tell me how many schools at our level ... had good or even decent freshman big men last year. Forget our level how many good freshmen big men were there in the country. Good big men take time. I guess my question is ... we haven't done a good job compared to who? Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 I agree with your question there ... I think that when the opposing three is the dominant player ... we will need the right strategy as a team to defend him. I trust UB in this area. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted June 2, 2004 Author Share Posted June 2, 2004 just quickly glancing at the recruiting rankings for the teams around the country at clark francis' site, "hoopscoop", i see that in just the a-10 and conference usa that louisville, memphis, richmond, dayton, tulane, fordham, east carolina, umass, and marquette all have at least 2 inside players coming in next year higher ranked than just our one inside player. charlotte, houston, south florida, xaiver, st joseph's, and st boneventure all have one ranked inside player that will probably compare to newborne in skills if not better. also the likes of missouri, creighton and valpo have more than one quality inside player coming in. if crieghton and valpo can find em, why cant we? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 I guess we will have to see how good they are. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted June 2, 2004 Author Share Posted June 2, 2004 well you asked the question assuming there was a volume problem. i agree that we really dont know how good they are until we actually play the game. my whole point again is that it seems our numbers are very unbalanced. and even in a year we signed more than one inside player, there is a twist to the signing. i.e. izik and ian are foreign players with no reps. husak an obvious building project. jj a late spurning by a big 12 team. it just makes no sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 I share Roy's belief that we have not done as well recruiting inside players. I think, in general, the staff are doing a fine job recruiting, but the success at landing quality of inside players is lacking to date. Ian is going to be a fine player, but foreign players have historically been a stop gap approach to recruiting. I cannot think of a program that has been consistently successful relying on foreign players. Yes we are getting JUCO big men but until we start getting these guys as freshman, I will not consider the corner turned on this issue. I think the recruiting, players, and coaching we have in place makes us a potential tournament team. When we turn the corner of landing the big guys we want, then we become a team that can make a run in the tournament. Mmaking a run is the challenge for the program now. Our last two coaches have gotten us to the tournament (something Coach has not done yet). For Coach to separate himself from them, he needs to develop a team that can make a run. He has plenty of time to do it, but Husak is not the guy who will take us there. I don't consider these thoughts to be pessimistic, but rather an observation on the state of recruiting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted June 2, 2004 Author Share Posted June 2, 2004 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 Brad has praised Newborne for his defense so he is an option at defending the 3 as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 >Brad has praised Newborne for his defense so he is an option >at defending the 3 as well. 3Star makes a good point when discussing the 3 next year. Brad specifically mentioned Newborne's defense and ability to play the 3 in his comments at the time of the signing. IMHO Brad is not the kind of coach to mindlessly puff a player. His comments on Newborne bear revisiting for those who think he won't contribute much next year: http://slubillikens.collegesports.com/spor.../042304aaa.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 imo, the jury is still out on Brad's first two years of inside recruits. IO has less than three years game experience. A strong, consistent performace by IO will be critical this year. But will IO be playing on the wing or at one of the post spots? JJ, with added strength, gets a real shot at significant minutes this year. We will have a better idea of his progress by Dec31. TF is a keeper. A nice recruit even with his injury history. IY is a skilled big man, who just turned 19 a few days ago. Next season is still a development year. Measure his production after his junior year. What SLU coach ever said "BH is the guy to take us there"? imo, BH will be just one piece of the puzzle. Let's measure his contribution after his junior year. Sure SLU has missed out on some inside recruits the past two years. Few schools get everybody they wanted. It's a two part process: recruiting players and developing players. A year from today will be a better time to evaluate the quality Brad's inside recruits! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 Most of the schools you mentioned as having 2 ... were either just in the tourney ... oir in Marquettes case a year removed from the final 4. Though I must admit the numbers you show are more than I thought there would be. I still will be surprised if many of them produce much in their freshmen year. I think that IV is a big time recruit. Add him to TF and we have 2 very good big men in 2 years. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 They've made a living off of foreign players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted June 3, 2004 Share Posted June 3, 2004 The Zags have had some success with foreign players. The first year that I became a fan and it was the year they beat Stanford in the West Regional, they had a little PG who I believe was from one of the islands. Right now, Turiaf and he is probably their top returning player. However, to say that they live and die with foreign players is kind of a stretch. I mean outside of Turiaf, their star players have all been home grown...players like Matt Santangelo, Ritchie Frahm, Casey Calvary, Dan Dickau, and Corey Violette just to name a few...all USA born players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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