AlumniFan Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 So you really like how SLU has signed under recruited players and developed them over 4 years but you're also worried we aren't signing top 100 players like vcu? So you want us to recruit under recruited top 100 players? Crews did an incredible job the last two years. His first real recruiting class is performing incredibly well considering the team they joined IMO. What are you looking for from crews that he hasn't delivered on? What should he have done differently? What coach is out there that could make this team and program better in the short and long term that SLU could hire? +1,000 People forget about some of Majerus' stinkers in terms of games and some of his recruits that did not pan out either. Majerus was a great coach, but he wasn't perfect and neither is Crews. If anyone is surprised by that, they are not being realistic. Last year, Crews played to win in the present; consequently, the freshman got very few minutes and it is showing this year, but who among us would have wanted Crews to forsake going to the tournament last year to develop TL, RA, MC? I think Crawford still has significant potential as a player and as a leader on the floor. Reggie may well prove to be a force in the middle (it would help if he could hold onto the ball), and Tanner can shoot the ball as well as play inside - BUT THEY ARE ONLY SOPHOMORES WHO BARELY PLAYED LAST YEAR! Roby, Yarborough, Bartley and even Reynolds have definitely shown upside, even without strong junior/senior play and leadership. Gillmann and Jolly (esp. Gillmann) are showing potential. Crews recruited them. He also coached three successive teams to make it to the 2nd round (3rd round for you purists), twice as head coach. I think he may also have won an award or two along the way... Bottom line: He may have a long way to go to prove he is Rick Majerus, but he also has a very long way to go to prove he is not worthy of leading the Billikens. I would strongly prefer Jim Crews to most of the realistic options out there. Now, if Bill Self or Roy Williams decides to change teams...I'll listen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I thought the ceiling for this team was ~20 wins and that we'd likely end up with 16-17 wins and a CBI level team. We won't sniff 20 and it's unlikely we'll even hit 15. We played about how I expected against Rhode Island. We played much better than I expected against GW. And we played much worse than expected against Davidson. So I guess we're about even... We didn't play good against GW. We had a hot shooting game. We have a normal shooting game we lose that game by 15-20. We didn't play good defense, we didn't rebound well, and we turned the ball over too much. We have never been trending up this season despite what some have wanted to believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Hopefully someone can find those posts. I hope it wasn't coming from Ben W. Does it really matter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I can't remember the exact thread, but when Reggie signed people on this board were incessantly raving about his "raw ability" so much they were conjuring up images of Neon Boudeaux from Blue Chips. Wonder if that's the problem...maybe we need Nick Nolte to fly down and teach him how to play. Regardless, we sure as hell didn't get Neon...hopefully we didn't give Reggie a fully loaded Lexus. Whoever scouted him had to have thought they were looking at someone else. His lack of court sense would have been apparent whether he was playing against 8th graders or top tier high school talent. But, people enjoy projects I guess and maybe in our recruiting predicament we have to take risks. This one was a bust. Do you remember the criticism of an underclassman named Brian Conklin...? Kid couldn't make a layup to save his life. I think he turned out alright as a Billiken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Do you remember the criticism of an underclassman named Brian Conklin...? Kid couldn't make a layup to save his life. I think he turned out alright as a Billiken. Conk averaged 6 points and 3.5 boards in 21 min/game his sophomore year. More points and boards in 1 less mpg than RA and TL combined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Do you remember the criticism of an underclassman named Brian Conklin...? Kid couldn't make a layup to save his life. I think he turned out alright as a Billiken. The kid was constantly playing injured and most smart people took that into account when judging Conklin. Are there some serious injury issues that aren't known to the general public about some current players? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjoelabs Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 For everyone defending Crews, Also here's just a minor difference between the 2010-2011 team and this team. That team finished 35th in defensive efficiency. This team is ranked 230th. That tells the story right there. As I said in my initial post here, the Bills always played D. Maybe they would only score 20 points but they played D. This is a total mess this year. The team may get 12 wins. Mid majors in 2015 are finding success 3 ways. Gem recruiting (maybe 1 here?)...GW finds guy in Japan! JUCO transfers (look at Early last 2 years at wichita) or the 5th year guys who are grad students and come for the 1 year. We might have one gem in the rough recruit and neither of the other 2 variety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCSLU Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Some coaches are best as head coaches, some as assistants. JC needs to prove himself. He did a great job taking MJ's team forward, but it's time for him to show his worth. HIs record at Evansville and Army are nothing to brag about....even if those teams have haven't faired well since his departure (we shouldn't compare ourselves to Army or Evansville). We've been willing to pay for excellence the past few years (MJ's salary, new on-campus stadium, etc), can't settle for mediocracy. Rebuilding is one thing, losing to Rhode Island at home, UT-El Paso, and by 30+ to Davidson is another issue. Recruiting won't get any easier next year, JC should have no more than 2 more seasons to make it work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Conk averaged 6 points and 3.5 boards in 21 min/game his sophomore year. More points and boards in 1 less mpg than RA and TL combined. Yes, he got playing time. Reggie played 5 minutes a game last year on a loaded team. I am obviously NOT taking anything away from Conklin - he is one of my all-time favorite Billikens - but I am trying to put things into perspective. Brianstl's "question" about serious injuries for Reggie ignores the larger point. Reggie, Tanner, and Crawford have not had a lot of opportunity to perform yet. They may all end up being terrible basketball players, but to call them terrible or a bust now is, in my opinion, both unfair and short-sighted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Yes, he got playing time. Reggie played 5 minutes a game last year on a loaded team. I am obviously NOT taking anything away from Conklin - he is one of my all-time favorite Billikens - but I am trying to put things into perspective. Brianstl's "question" about serious injuries for Reggie ignores the larger point. Reggie, Tanner, and Crawford have not had a lot of opportunity to perform yet. They may all end up being terrible basketball players, but to call them terrible or a bust now is, in my opinion, both unfair and short-sighted. I haven't called any player horrible. Just sophomore Conklin is a bad example to use for what to compare to any healthy current player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 The trend that concerns me more than the development of our players is our defense. We've fallen 225 spots in defensive efficiency. I'm sorry, but I don't care who we lost from last year, that's way too far of a fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I haven't called any player horrible. Just sophomore Conklin is a bad example to use for what to compare to any healthy current player. I don't want to argue, but you are missing my point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizziken Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 We didn't play good against GW. We had a hot shooting game. We have a normal shooting game we lose that game by 15-20. We didn't play good defense, we didn't rebound well, and we turned the ball over too much. We have never been trending up this season despite what some have wanted to believe. I thought we played pretty well for about 35 minutes against GW. Sure we shot well, but we've been underachieving in that category all season. For the most part we were hitting open shots. It wasn't until the end that BS stuff started to fall. Yarbrough and Bartley hit 2 that were fairly 'lucky' but overall we were okay. Our defense was pretty good if we didn't get a whistle against us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizziken Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Holy Lord, the level of insecurity, entitlement, and focused anger is reaching serious levels. Lots of people are engaging in the national passtime, first finding culprits for whatever bothers them (who has the blame), and then engaging in character assasination of these imagined culprits. Not pleasant stuff to read. I don't necessarily think people are 'blaming' anyone. Sure there are criticisms but there are a variety of factors that have lead us to this point. As I've said before, you can't blame a turd for smelling like $h!t. I don't 'blame' the coaching staff for our sophomore class being sub-standard. I don't even 'blame' the players themselves. Sometimes guys just simply aren't good enough. And I don't think it should be considered entitled to want/expect a winning season. I think Xavier and Gonzaga fans would be livid with a losing season. Hell, X fans were furious that they didn't make the Tournament 2 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I thought we played pretty well for about 35 minutes against GW. Sure we shot well, but we've been underachieving in that category all season. For the most part we were hitting open shots. It wasn't until the end that BS stuff started to fall. Yarbrough and Bartley hit 2 that were fairly 'lucky' but overall we were okay. Our defense was pretty good if we didn't get a whistle against us. GW outperformed their season average for fg%, 3pt%, and points per procession. I don't see the positives there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 I don't 'blame' the coaching staff for our sophomore class being sub-standard. I don't even 'blame' the players themselves. Sometimes guys just simply aren't good enough. Do you feel confident saying that the sophomores will be "turds" for their entire careers or are you saying that they have been "turds" to this point? I ask because I believe that it is too early to judge them, especially given A) very limited playing time last year and limited playing time this year due to the large rotation as the coaching staff (continues) to evaluate players. BTW - a large rotation has worked for teams in the past (e.g. Dayton last year). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB73 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 A bunch of brainless losers on here are making me ashamed to be a Billiken fan. Quit slamming our fine coach and please cease the brutal cheap shots at some of our players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizziken Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Do you feel confident saying that the sophomores will be "turds" for their entire careers or are you saying that they have been "turds" to this point? I ask because I believe that it is too early to judge them, especially given A) very limited playing time last year and limited playing time this year due to the large rotation as the coaching staff (continues) to evaluate players. BTW - a large rotation has worked for teams in the past (e.g. Dayton last year). It certainly is too early. I've posted that before. They aren't even halfway done with their SLU careers. But at this point, we have to acknowledge that a lack of productivity could be a distinct possibility. With our rebounding and shooting issues it says a lot that both Agbeko and Lancona aren't even seeing the floor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 It certainly is too early. I've posted that before. They aren't even halfway done with their SLU careers. But at this point, we have to acknowledge that a lack of productivity could be a distinct possibility. With our rebounding and shooting issues it says a lot that both Agbeko and Lancona aren't even seeing the floor. Fair enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizziken Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 GW outperformed their season average for fg%, 3pt%, and points per procession. I don't see the positives there. GW shot 4-12 from 3. I'm okay with allowing that. Outside of Garino's 6-8 from the floor we did pretty well on everyone else. Considering we haven't exactly been world beaters on defense, I felt that against a top tiered A-10 team we did decent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doowop Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Conk averaged 6 points and 3.5 boards in 21 min/game his sophomore year. More points and boards in 1 less mpg than RA and TL combined.TL and RA are not averaging 21minutes a game. If they did maybe they would average 6 points a game. RA is already a better rebounder than Conklin was as a sophomore. RA's high school coach said he was a very good player. Evidently he saw something in him. Conklin was the player of the year in Oregon and it took him two years to develop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doowop Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 The kid was constantly playing injured and most smart people took that into account when judging Conklin. Are there some serious injury issues that aren't known to the general public about some current players?Were Conklin's injuries more serious than Agbeko's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Were Conklin's injuries more serious than Agbeko's? Conklin had two bad wheels. They impacted his game in every way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjoelabs Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 A bunch of brainless losers on here are making me ashamed to be a Billiken fan. Quit slamming our fine coach and please cease the brutal cheap shots at some of our players. Or maybe you are Ostrich.... This was the worst conference loss in the ATLANTIC 10 ERA! And one of many poundings this year for a once proud team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 There are a lot of RA/TL threads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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