early saturday rambling roy in all lower case, no initials, who couldn’t care less about spelling and grammar errors.

[billiken_roy]

a few last week took exception with me calling out some of the mbm’s. you missed my point. i don’t mind disagreement and debate. in fact i welcome it. that is the reason i came back to billikens.com, create honest debate and discussion. however, i don’t like efforts by a few to discredit me or others with out of context old quotes and personal attacks. there are a couple of posters that do it constantly. i am not the only one that gets it from the two of them. i really think they are the real toxic “contributors” to the board. however they are indeed creative and effective writer’s and unfortunately they get plenty of nodding mbm heads when they do post.

those that this past week wanting to ignite the big east discussion, i say if the big east isn’t interested in treating saint louis university as a full and equal partner, i still say we are better off where we are now in the a-10. if the big east wants us, pay our exit fee from the a-10 and pay us for our NCAA credits we have coming and give us full share of big east TV and ongoing NCAA credits. if not, we should remain in the a-10. to join the big east without an increase or even a stay even revenue position would be flat out stupid in my opinion. the basketball program is the sole bread earner for our athletic department, and to switch to a conference just for the prestige is not a good business move. it has to be right fiscally. i still say if you look at the top 80% of the a-10 membership, the a-10 is very healthy. the effort we should be championing is getting the entire a-10 to be pushing for a stronger a-10. ask for minimum standards of all programs in attributes like attendance, facilities and budgets across the board in all sports. it would be very apparent then who is serious about being in the a-10 and making the conference better. my bet is those not willing would run to the likes of the patriot league and we would solve our wants and be an as strong if not stronger conference than the big east.

the ofallon shootout last week was very good. not only did I get to see young mr tatum for the first time (WOW!) i really enjoyed seeing cook and the althoff kids. they are all slu worthy. the big manchild at vianney, carte’are gordon, earns watching soley because of his freakish size and athleticism for his young age (freshman). however, my view is that he has a long way to go basketball wise. he is a specimen, but someone needs to teach him basketball.

those of you that havent seen jayson tatum play. please go. from a high school basketball standpoint it is historic. When you consider the full package, i say he is the best local high school player i have ever seen. was beal a better outside shooter? maybe, but tatum can go inside. was darius miles a better inside player and more explosive? maybe, but tatum can shoot outside. he can pass, he plays defense. he makes free throws. he is the real deal. man would he make us a better team immediately. i remember spoon telling us during larry hughes senior year in high school, “folks, larry hughes isn’t going to be a good player, larry hughes is going to be a great player. and he will be the best player the second he comes to saint louis university”. coming from low balling charlie i was shocked. but he was right. that one year of hughes was a fun year and hughes took the billikens that the previous season was the worst I had seen since grawer took over to a fantastic team that went to the second round of the ncaa solely on larry hughes back.

that is exactly what i say about jayson tatum. he is that good. he is that ready to be “the man”. east st louis was beating chaminade through the first three quarters. then jayson took over. 16 points over the next 5 minutes or so. just about every rebound. numerous steals. his play said, “no way we are going to lose”. ended up with 42 points for the game and a win.

before this past week, i was saying that tatum was a cross between shaun livingston and dirk nowitski. but torch and i were pm’ing this week and he mentioned his father compares jayson to the legendary connie hawkins. the hawk was one of my childhood idols of the nba and aba when i still enjoyed professional basketball. his autobiography “foul” is likely the root of my hatred for all things iowa as hawk had such a horrible experience while at iowa before entering the aba. for those of us old enough to remember connie hawkins, i am betting i created a sense of urgency to think about this comparison. but i like it. and i agree with it. thanks torch.

by the way, east st louis has a boat load of talent. tillmon is the real deal. he out played cook and i thought cook was very good (cook would be the willie reed we are missing if he put on a billiken uniform). tillmon will be THE PLAYER in two years when he is a senior. sadly not much use to talk about him or any of the east st louis players until that school proves it can provide these kids with the needed education to go straight to a D1 school and qualify academically. i suspect most if not all will have to go the juco route from talking to an east st louis teacher at the game saturday. too bad, they are loaded with athletes. athletes that could play at a high d1 level. the real crime of the whole tony young fiasco is that tony was all about the academic priority and pushed hard for the kids to realize they had to do the job in the classroom. after years of an entire community refusing to face the academic mess of that school district, that is a hard battle to face by yourself with parents, assistant coaches, street agents and misplaced values of an entire community that only want basketball. I suspect that has more to do with tony being suspended than tony yelling at players at halftime.

donovan franklin at ofallon had a splendid game for ofallon. he is legit player and would be able to play for this current billiken team imo. from what I heard he will likely be at a mvc school next year. probably be another player where in two to three years we are asking, why the billikens didn’t recruit him.

Great job by ofallon running this event. since the big shootout in st louis died, many of us basketball diehards have been thirsting for this event. i am looking forward to next year. the rumor throughout the crowd was that next year will feature althoff vs chaminade. and the second rumor was that tillmon will move from east st louis and then enroll at althoff. put tillmon on the floor with goodwin, gooch, ferguson and bateman and that is a lineup with 5 division one players. of course remember chaminade has three with cook, gladson and the remarkable tatum. and tatum is the difference maker. But I don’t think chaminade would run away with a game with this dream matchup.

the dayton game tueday night was so disappointing. that win was there for the taking. i truly didn’t understand the need to play everyone when our opponent had a short bench by necessity. i believe had we matched them with an 8 player rotation we win easily. but subbing the other 5 from our bench gave dayton the talent advantage too far into the game. just don’t understand the way the minutes are being doled out. most say we are building towards the future, and seeing everyone is essential to making future decisions. but cant a coach do that building and evaluations in practice? shouldn’t the players earn ALL playing time in practice? if practice means nothing in getting game minutes, what’s the incentive to work on the game in practice.

those still trumpeting barkley as our point guard of the future, i don’t see it. he is making some shots. And he has some drive moments, but his floor awareness overall is not good. he is the biggest offender of dribbling side to side and backwards. versus dayton, so often he gave up floor space and got pushed towards center court and then ash would have to come out and bail him out. ash. me turnover had to bail him out. the use of a screen remains a mystery to young mr bartley. hey, he has street talent and as i have said before, he has that great length that would be a great advantage from the point. but honestly roby has indeed shown more as a possible point guard convert than bartley. the real answer is likely not on campus yet and hasn’t decided to wear billiken blue at this point yet. maybe the answer doesn’t come for another year. did i mention how good tatum was with the ball and how well he also passes? magic johnson was about his size during his national championship days at michigan state. yarborough could be his greg kelser.

i have been a big yarborough cheerleader for a couple of months, but he has not played well for a few games now. i suspect a lot of that is about the surprise is over and opposing coaches are coaching against malik now each game. still i believe he has the potential to be a very good billiken. i hope he continues to work on his outside shooting and ball skills as i think he would be a great weapon from the wing. i pray we find the parts that will take the “4” tag from him. right now because we have no one else better and the other players we put on the floor to try to be competitive says he has to be our power forward. but if by malik’s senior season he is still playing power forward i fear what the overall team strength will be as that means all these boatload of bigs we have on the roster now and next year will have all been somewhat bomb’s that forced mailk to stay at the power forward spot. someone step up please.

as to ash, i am as disappointed as everyone else. whats so frustrating is you can see the talent. you can see his incredible speed. his aggression (god knows this team needs aggression). the explosiveness to get steals and rebounds. however more times than not he seems out of control and the billikens come up empty. now what i am hoping for is maurice jeffers 2.0. if you all remember when maurice first came to slu, he was ok, but didn’t really knock our socks off saw the talent and athleticism, but it too came infrequently. however his senior year it all came together and he was a legitimate star. drives with huge dunks, three pointers, excellent defense. he was fantastic. The “who’s your messiah now? (thanks bob ramsey) moment is a lifetime highlight and a legendary moment. simply for the fact that ash has shown he has the tools, maybe 2015-16 is ash’s maurice year? btw, i saw mo has accepted a high school coaching job. congrats to maurice jeffers. and thanks for the memory mo.

to end off the court, i noticed the prerecorded music has been less the last few games. thank god. i hate it. the one hockey diddy they play occasionally where the fans glassy eyed start thrusting their hands up and down irritates me to no end. nothing else they play pre-recorded seems to get the students faces off their phones, so let those of us that love the band enjoy the band. besides, think of the tip off vs dayton, anyone that couldn’t feel the excitement of the moment when the band was blaring “seven nation army” is dead. something’s wrong with you.

Last, hey events staff. don’t give the kids the balloons. they totally quit that second half when you gave them the balloons to play with. if you want to give them a toy to remember the night, wait till the game is over. it is pretty apparent this current student section doesn’t have the focus to watch their phone, make a balloon hat AND cheer and make noice for the game. true it could have been a great tool to distract dayton. the kids didn’t understand they were supposed to use balloons that way.

[BigMouthBilliken]

a few last week took exception with me calling out some of the mbms. you missed my point. i dont mind disagreement and debate. in fact i welcome it. that is the reason i came back to billikens.com, create honest debate and discussion. however, i dont like efforts by a few to discredit me or others with out of context old quotes and personal attacks. there are a couple of posters that do it constantly. i am not the only one that gets it from the two of them. i really think they are the real toxic contributors to the board. however they are indeed creative and effective writers and unfortunately they get plenty of nodding mbm heads when they do post.

those that this past week wanting to ignite the big east discussion, i say if the big east isnt interested in treating saint louis university as a full and equal partner, i still say we are better off where we are now in the a-10. if the big east wants us, pay our exit fee from the a-10 and pay us for our NCAA credits we have coming and give us full share of big east TV and ongoing NCAA credits. if not, we should remain in the a-10. to join the big east without an increase or even a stay even revenue position would be flat out stupid in my opinion. the basketball program is the sole bread earner for our athletic department, and to switch to a conference just for the prestige is not a good business move. it has to be right fiscally. i still say if you look at the top 80% of the a-10 membership, the a-10 is very healthy. the effort we should be championing is getting the entire a-10 to be pushing for a stronger a-10. ask for minimum standards of all programs in attributes like attendance, facilities and budgets across the board in all sports. it would be very apparent then who is serious about being in the a-10 and making the conference better. my bet is those not willing would run to the likes of the patriot league and we would solve our wants and be an as strong if not stronger conference than the big east.

the ofallon shootout last week was very good. not only did I get to see young mr tatum for the first time (WOW!) i really enjoyed seeing cook and the althoff kids. they are all slu worthy. the big manchild at vianney, carteare gordon, earns watching soley because of his freakish size and athleticism for his young age (freshman). however, my view is that he has a long way to go basketball wise. he is a specimen, but someone needs to teach him basketball.

those of you that havent seen jayson tatum play. please go. from a high school basketball standpoint it is historic. When you consider the full package, i say he is the best local high school player i have ever seen. was beal a better outside shooter? maybe, but tatum can go inside. was darius miles a better inside player and more explosive? maybe, but tatum can shoot outside. he can pass, he plays defense. he makes free throws. he is the real deal. man would he make us a better team immediately. i remember spoon telling us during larry hughes senior year in high school, folks, larry hughes isnt going to be a good player, larry hughes is going to be a great player. and he will be the best player the second he comes to saint louis university. coming from low balling charlie i was shocked. but he was right. that one year of hughes was a fun year and hughes took the billikens that the previous season was the worst I had seen since grawer took over to a fantastic team that went to the second round of the ncaa solely on larry hughes back.

that is exactly what i say about jayson tatum. he is that good. he is that ready to be the man. east st louis was beating chaminade through the first three quarters. then jayson took over. 16 points over the next 5 minutes or so. just about every rebound. numerous steals. his play said, no way we are going to lose. ended up with 42 points for the game and a win.

before this past week, i was saying that tatum was a cross between shaun livingston and dirk nowitski. but torch and i were pming this week and he mentioned his father compares jayson to the legendary connie hawkins. the hawk was one of my childhood idols of the nba and aba when i still enjoyed professional basketball. his autobiography foul is likely the root of my hatred for all things iowa as hawk had such a horrible experience while at iowa before entering the aba. for those of us old enough to remember connie hawkins, i am betting i created a sense of urgency to think about this comparison. but i like it. and i agree with it. thanks torch.

by the way, east st louis has a boat load of talent. tillmon is the real deal. he out played cook and i thought cook was very good (cook would be the willie reed we are missing if he put on a billiken uniform). tillmon will be THE PLAYER in two years when he is a senior. sadly not much use to talk about him or any of the east st louis players until that school proves it can provide these kids with the needed education to go straight to a D1 school and qualify academically. i suspect most if not all will have to go the juco route from talking to an east st louis teacher at the game saturday. too bad, they are loaded with athletes. athletes that could play at a high d1 level. the real crime of the whole tony young fiasco is that tony was all about the academic priority and pushed hard for the kids to realize they had to do the job in the classroom. after years of an entire community refusing to face the academic mess of that school district, that is a hard battle to face by yourself with parents, assistant coaches, street agents and misplaced values of an entire community that only want basketball. I suspect that has more to do with tony being suspended than tony yelling at players at halftime.

donovan franklin at ofallon had a splendid game for ofallon. he is legit player and would be able to play for this current billiken team imo. from what I heard he will likely be at a mvc school next year. probably be another player where in two to three years we are asking, why the billikens didnt recruit him.

Great job by ofallon running this event. since the big shootout in st louis died, many of us basketball diehards have been thirsting for this event. i am looking forward to next year. the rumor throughout the crowd was that next year will feature althoff vs chaminade. and the second rumor was that tillmon will move from east st louis and then enroll at althoff. put tillmon on the floor with goodwin, gooch, ferguson and bateman and that is a lineup with 5 division one players. of course remember chaminade has three with cook, gladson and the remarkable tatum. and tatum is the difference maker. But I dont think chaminade would run away with a game with this dream matchup.

the dayton game tueday night was so disappointing. that win was there for the taking. i truly didnt understand the need to play everyone when our opponent had a short bench by necessity. i believe had we matched them with an 8 player rotation we win easily. but subbing the other 5 from our bench gave dayton the talent advantage too far into the game. just dont understand the way the minutes are being doled out. most say we are building towards the future, and seeing everyone is essential to making future decisions. but cant a coach do that building and evaluations in practice? shouldnt the players earn ALL playing time in practice? if practice means nothing in getting game minutes, whats the incentive to work on the game in practice.

those still trumpeting barkley as our point guard of the future, i dont see it. he is making some shots. And he has some drive moments, but his floor awareness overall is not good. he is the biggest offender of dribbling side to side and backwards. versus dayton, so often he gave up floor space and got pushed towards center court and then ash would have to come out and bail him out. ash. me turnover had to bail him out. the use of a screen remains a mystery to young mr bartley. hey, he has street talent and as i have said before, he has that great length that would be a great advantage from the point. but honestly roby has indeed shown more as a possible point guard convert than bartley. the real answer is likely not on campus yet and hasnt decided to wear billiken blue at this point yet. maybe the answer doesnt come for another year. did i mention how good tatum was with the ball and how well he also passes? magic johnson was about his size during his national championship days at michigan state. yarborough could be his greg kelser.

i have been a big yarborough cheerleader for a couple of months, but he has not played well for a few games now. i suspect a lot of that is about the surprise is over and opposing coaches are coaching against malik now each game. still i believe he has the potential to be a very good billiken. i hope he continues to work on his outside shooting and ball skills as i think he would be a great weapon from the wing. i pray we find the parts that will take the 4 tag from him. right now because we have no one else better and the other players we put on the floor to try to be competitive says he has to be our power forward. but if by maliks senior season he is still playing power forward i fear what the overall team strength will be as that means all these boatload of bigs we have on the roster now and next year will have all been somewhat bombs that forced mailk to stay at the power forward spot. someone step up please.

as to ash, i am as disappointed as everyone else. whats so frustrating is you can see the talent. you can see his incredible speed. his aggression (god knows this team needs aggression). the explosiveness to get steals and rebounds. however more times than not he seems out of control and the billikens come up empty. now what i am hoping for is maurice jeffers 2.0. if you all remember when maurice first came to slu, he was ok, but didnt really knock our socks off saw the talent and athleticism, but it too came infrequently. however his senior year it all came together and he was a legitimate star. drives with huge dunks, three pointers, excellent defense. he was fantastic. The whos your messiah now? (thanks bob ramsey) moment is a lifetime highlight and a legendary moment. simply for the fact that ash has shown he has the tools, maybe 2015-16 is ashs maurice year? btw, i saw mo has accepted a high school coaching job. congrats to maurice jeffers. and thanks for the memory mo.

to end off the court, i noticed the prerecorded music has been less the last few games. thank god. i hate it. the one hockey diddy they play occasionally where the fans glassy eyed start thrusting their hands up and down irritates me to no end. nothing else they play pre-recorded seems to get the students faces off their phones, so let those of us that love the band enjoy the band. besides, think of the tip off vs dayton, anyone that couldnt feel the excitement of the moment when the band was blaring seven nation army is dead. somethings wrong with you.

Last, hey events staff. dont give the kids the balloons. they totally quit that second half when you gave them the balloons to play with. if you want to give them a toy to remember the night, wait till the game is over. it is pretty apparent this current student section doesnt have the focus to watch their phone, make a balloon hat AND cheer and make noice for the game. true it could have been a great tool to distract dayton. the kids didnt understand they were supposed to use balloons that way.

Regarding the pre-tipoff music, anyone else feel like the intro video is terrible? The music is awful and not even loud enough to hear. Last year was not that good either with the batman theme. My freshman year they played Seven Nation Army in the video and the place always seemed electric. Hope next year the selection is better

[Taj79]

Thanks for the high school update. Lots of names to watch for in there. See who goes where and how many we miss on/get. Sounds like the talent base in the metro area is quite on the rise.

Again, let me say I disagree with your assessment of Bartley. I am in the pro-Bartley camp and while I too see all his warts and mistakes (I rated his Dayton performance "putrid") I see a bright future for him. Of course, that means gaining weight, gaining knowledge and gaining skills -- the raw talent seems to be there. But he has to want it to work for it. Will he do that? Only time will tell and another 'can't wait.'

A word of caution ---- many of us mbms on here make wide-ranging statements about Gillmann in the weight room, Bartley in the weight room and Jolly in the weight room. Then say things like Conklin summer and Jett doing this or McCall getting defense religion like that and all is automatically the case with every other kid in the program. Will that happen? Don't know and can't really predict. Only time and results will show how that plays out.

To automatically assume it will happen is absurd. Each kid is different. And if we default to Manning in the weight room lo these last three years ..... meh.

[slu72]

I have nothing to base this on, but I still think getting JT is a stretch. He's the cream of the '16 crop, and you can bet certain coaches will be knocking the hell out of SLU compared to what they can offer him for that one year. I'm not talking cash or cars here, since it appears we'll have to pony up the stipend as well, but they'll be downgrading us on this year and possibly next calling us a dying program. It will take a rare individual to say, "the hell with you elites," I'm gonna go help out the home team for my one and done year." Just saying it's gonna be hard for him to turn down the bright lights and playing on the main stage the bigs offer.

Back to reality, I just hope we show something today that resembles an orderly and disciplined approach to the game. I'm tired of seeing screens broken off before they're set, or when they are guy's giving up 3 feet between the ball and the setter. Also, to work the ball for good shots rather than seeing guys get impatient and driving willy nilly for the hoop. And would love to see one of the bigs emerge as a contender on the inside. I've given up on JM doing this, so it's gonna have to be RA, BJ, or AG. A lot of playing on the inside is attitude, see BC, CE, DE, and RL as examples. BC always had the 'tude but not the skills at first. CE and RL came along very well on the inside. Not saying they were beasts but they weren't international wusses either by the time they got to their upper class years.

RI's on a roll and this could get ugly early. Let's hope not, because at this point this team at the least needs to play competitive games. Ok, they can't close the deal, but still it's nice to stay in the contest, rather than just go thru the motions which happens in a 20 point blowout.

[Taj79]

Anybody see where the NCAA is back to rumbling about making freshmen ineligible to play their freshmen years ala Alcindor, Walton, Rogers and the prehistoric times? Plus coaches want a 30-second shot clock. Interesting times.

[kmbilliken]

I have nothing to base this on, but I still think getting JT is a stretch. He's the cream of the '16 crop, and you can bet certain coaches will be knocking the hell out of SLU compared to what they can offer him for that one year. I'm not talking cash or cars here, since it appears we'll have to pony up the stipend as well, but they'll be downgrading us on this year and possibly next calling us a dying program. It will take a rare individual to say, "the hell with you elites," I'm gonna go help out the home team for my one and done year." Just saying it's gonna be hard for him to turn down the bright lights and playing on the main stage the bigs offer.

Back to reality, I just hope we show something today that resembles an orderly and disciplined approach to the game. I'm tired of seeing screens broken off before they're set, or when they are guy's giving up 3 feet between the ball and the setter. Also, to work the ball for good shots rather than seeing guys get impatient and driving willy nilly for the hoop. And would love to see one of the bigs emerge as a contender on the inside. I've given up on JM doing this, so it's gonna have to be RA, BJ, or AG. A lot of playing on the inside is attitude, see BC, CE, DE, and RL as examples. BC always had the 'tude but not the skills at first. CE and RL came along very well on the inside. Not saying they were beasts but they weren't international wusses either by the time they got to their upper class years.

RI's on a roll and this could get ugly early. Let's hope not, because at this point this team at the least needs to play competitive games. Ok, they can't close the deal, but still it's nice to stay in the contest, rather than just go thru the motions which happens in a 20 point blowout.

I agree with you on Tatum. We're shooting ourselves in the foot by not showing significant progress. I've got to believe if Tatum saw we had a freshman class that is showing it can play and be a good group of juniors when he gets here so he would have the support to make a good run in the tournament in his one year of college ball, he would be a lot more likely to come. Tatum is going to sign before the start of next season. So if the improvement comes next season, it's too late unless he plays with these guys over the summer and likes what he sees. It's not like with Hughes who was bringing a part of his nationally successful AAU team with him unless he can bring in Cook and another top player. Why come here if you're just scratching to make the tournament. He will want the opportunity to make a real run and turn this town on. If we don't have the supporting cast to do it, why bother?

[almaman]

Anybody see where the NCAA is back to rumbling about making freshmen ineligible to play their freshmen years ala Alcindor, Walton, Rogers and the prehistoric times? Plus coaches want a 30-second shot clock. Interesting times.

WTF? so would that coincide with one and done? IOW we would never see the best in college again?

[jbizzle09]

a few last week took exception with me calling out some of the mbm’s. you missed my point. i don’t mind disagreement and debate. in fact i welcome it. that is the reason i came back to billikens.com, create honest debate and discussion. however, i don’t like efforts by a few to discredit me or others with out of context old quotes and personal attacks. there are a couple of posters that do it constantly. i am not the only one that gets it from the two of them. i really think they are the real toxic “contributors” to the board. however they are indeed creative and effective writer’s and unfortunately they get plenty of nodding mbm heads when they do post.

those that this past week wanting to ignite the big east discussion, i say if the big east isn’t interested in treating saint louis university as a full and equal partner, i still say we are better off where we are now in the a-10. if the big east wants us, pay our exit fee from the a-10 and pay us for our NCAA credits we have coming and give us full share of big east TV and ongoing NCAA credits. if not, we should remain in the a-10. to join the big east without an increase or even a stay even revenue position would be flat out stupid in my opinion. the basketball program is the sole bread earner for our athletic department, and to switch to a conference just for the prestige is not a good business move. it has to be right fiscally. i still say if you look at the top 80% of the a-10 membership, the a-10 is very healthy. the effort we should be championing is getting the entire a-10 to be pushing for a stronger a-10. ask for minimum standards of all programs in attributes like attendance, facilities and budgets across the board in all sports. it would be very apparent then who is serious about being in the a-10 and making the conference better. my bet is those not willing would run to the likes of the patriot league and we would solve our wants and be an as strong if not stronger conference than the big east.

the ofallon shootout last week was very good. not only did I get to see young mr tatum for the first time (WOW!) i really enjoyed seeing cook and the althoff kids. they are all slu worthy. the big manchild at vianney, carte’are gordon, earns watching soley because of his freakish size and athleticism for his young age (freshman). however, my view is that he has a long way to go basketball wise. he is a specimen, but someone needs to teach him basketball.

those of you that havent seen jayson tatum play. please go. from a high school basketball standpoint it is historic. When you consider the full package, i say he is the best local high school player i have ever seen. was beal a better outside shooter? maybe, but tatum can go inside. was darius miles a better inside player and more explosive? maybe, but tatum can shoot outside. he can pass, he plays defense. he makes free throws. he is the real deal. man would he make us a better team immediately. i remember spoon telling us during larry hughes senior year in high school, “folks, larry hughes isn’t going to be a good player, larry hughes is going to be a great player. and he will be the best player the second he comes to saint louis university”. coming from low balling charlie i was shocked. but he was right. that one year of hughes was a fun year and hughes took the billikens that the previous season was the worst I had seen since grawer took over to a fantastic team that went to the second round of the ncaa solely on larry hughes back.

that is exactly what i say about jayson tatum. he is that good. he is that ready to be “the man”. east st louis was beating chaminade through the first three quarters. then jayson took over. 16 points over the next 5 minutes or so. just about every rebound. numerous steals. his play said, “no way we are going to lose”. ended up with 42 points for the game and a win.

before this past week, i was saying that tatum was a cross between shaun livingston and dirk nowitski. but torch and i were pm’ing this week and he mentioned his father compares jayson to the legendary connie hawkins. the hawk was one of my childhood idols of the nba and aba when i still enjoyed professional basketball. his autobiography “foul” is likely the root of my hatred for all things iowa as hawk had such a horrible experience while at iowa before entering the aba. for those of us old enough to remember connie hawkins, i am betting i created a sense of urgency to think about this comparison. but i like it. and i agree with it. thanks torch.

by the way, east st louis has a boat load of talent. tillmon is the real deal. he out played cook and i thought cook was very good (cook would be the willie reed we are missing if he put on a billiken uniform). tillmon will be THE PLAYER in two years when he is a senior. sadly not much use to talk about him or any of the east st louis players until that school proves it can provide these kids with the needed education to go straight to a D1 school and qualify academically. i suspect most if not all will have to go the juco route from talking to an east st louis teacher at the game saturday. too bad, they are loaded with athletes. athletes that could play at a high d1 level. the real crime of the whole tony young fiasco is that tony was all about the academic priority and pushed hard for the kids to realize they had to do the job in the classroom. after years of an entire community refusing to face the academic mess of that school district, that is a hard battle to face by yourself with parents, assistant coaches, street agents and misplaced values of an entire community that only want basketball. I suspect that has more to do with tony being suspended than tony yelling at players at halftime.

donovan franklin at ofallon had a splendid game for ofallon. he is legit player and would be able to play for this current billiken team imo. from what I heard he will likely be at a mvc school next year. probably be another player where in two to three years we are asking, why the billikens didn’t recruit him.

Great job by ofallon running this event. since the big shootout in st louis died, many of us basketball diehards have been thirsting for this event. i am looking forward to next year. the rumor throughout the crowd was that next year will feature althoff vs chaminade. and the second rumor was that tillmon will move from east st louis and then enroll at althoff. put tillmon on the floor with goodwin, gooch, ferguson and bateman and that is a lineup with 5 division one players. of course remember chaminade has three with cook, gladson and the remarkable tatum. and tatum is the difference maker. But I don’t think chaminade would run away with a game with this dream matchup.

the dayton game tueday night was so disappointing. that win was there for the taking. i truly didn’t understand the need to play everyone when our opponent had a short bench by necessity. i believe had we matched them with an 8 player rotation we win easily. but subbing the other 5 from our bench gave dayton the talent advantage too far into the game. just don’t understand the way the minutes are being doled out. most say we are building towards the future, and seeing everyone is essential to making future decisions. but cant a coach do that building and evaluations in practice? shouldn’t the players earn ALL playing time in practice? if practice means nothing in getting game minutes, what’s the incentive to work on the game in practice.

those still trumpeting barkley as our point guard of the future, i don’t see it. he is making some shots. And he has some drive moments, but his floor awareness overall is not good. he is the biggest offender of dribbling side to side and backwards. versus dayton, so often he gave up floor space and got pushed towards center court and then ash would have to come out and bail him out. ash. me turnover had to bail him out. the use of a screen remains a mystery to young mr bartley. hey, he has street talent and as i have said before, he has that great length that would be a great advantage from the point. but honestly roby has indeed shown more as a possible point guard convert than bartley. the real answer is likely not on campus yet and hasn’t decided to wear billiken blue at this point yet. maybe the answer doesn’t come for another year. did i mention how good tatum was with the ball and how well he also passes? magic johnson was about his size during his national championship days at michigan state. yarborough could be his greg kelser.

i have been a big yarborough cheerleader for a couple of months, but he has not played well for a few games now. i suspect a lot of that is about the surprise is over and opposing coaches are coaching against malik now each game. still i believe he has the potential to be a very good billiken. i hope he continues to work on his outside shooting and ball skills as i think he would be a great weapon from the wing. i pray we find the parts that will take the “4” tag from him. right now because we have no one else better and the other players we put on the floor to try to be competitive says he has to be our power forward. but if by malik’s senior season he is still playing power forward i fear what the overall team strength will be as that means all these boatload of bigs we have on the roster now and next year will have all been somewhat bomb’s that forced mailk to stay at the power forward spot. someone step up please.

as to ash, i am as disappointed as everyone else. whats so frustrating is you can see the talent. you can see his incredible speed. his aggression (god knows this team needs aggression). the explosiveness to get steals and rebounds. however more times than not he seems out of control and the billikens come up empty. now what i am hoping for is maurice jeffers 2.0. if you all remember when maurice first came to slu, he was ok, but didn’t really knock our socks off saw the talent and athleticism, but it too came infrequently. however his senior year it all came together and he was a legitimate star. drives with huge dunks, three pointers, excellent defense. he was fantastic. The “who’s your messiah now? (thanks bob ramsey) moment is a lifetime highlight and a legendary moment. simply for the fact that ash has shown he has the tools, maybe 2015-16 is ash’s maurice year? btw, i saw mo has accepted a high school coaching job. congrats to maurice jeffers. and thanks for the memory mo.

to end off the court, i noticed the prerecorded music has been less the last few games. thank god. i hate it. the one hockey diddy they play occasionally where the fans glassy eyed start thrusting their hands up and down irritates me to no end. nothing else they play pre-recorded seems to get the students faces off their phones, so let those of us that love the band enjoy the band. besides, think of the tip off vs dayton, anyone that couldn’t feel the excitement of the moment when the band was blaring “seven nation army” is dead. something’s wrong with you.

Last, hey events staff. don’t give the kids the balloons. they totally quit that second half when you gave them the balloons to play with. if you want to give them a toy to remember the night, wait till the game is over. it is pretty apparent this current student section doesn’t have the focus to watch their phone, make a balloon hat AND cheer and make noice for the game. true it could have been a great tool to distract dayton. the kids didn’t understand they were supposed to use balloons that way.

I have to call you out, Roy. You say this, yet all you are doing is posting excessively long screeds once a week and then bailing. You aren't embracing debate or discussion. You are essentially posting a column to the board and then whining about readers' comments in your next column. You aren't engaging with anyone on this board except via PM.

[slufanskip]

I have nothing to base this on, but I still think getting JT is a stretch. He's the cream of the '16 crop, and you can bet certain coaches will be knocking the hell out of SLU compared to what they can offer him for that one year. I'm not talking cash or cars here, since it appears we'll have to pony up the stipend as well, but they'll be downgrading us on this year and possibly next calling us a dying program. It will take a rare individual to say, "the hell with you elites," I'm gonna go help out the home team for my one and done year." Just saying it's gonna be hard for him to turn down the bright lights and playing on the main stage the bigs offer.

Back to reality, I just hope we show something today that resembles an orderly and disciplined approach to the game. I'm tired of seeing screens broken off before they're set, or when they are guy's giving up 3 feet between the ball and the setter. Also, to work the ball for good shots rather than seeing guys get impatient and driving willy nilly for the hoop. And would love to see one of the bigs emerge as a contender on the inside. I've given up on JM doing this, so it's gonna have to be RA, BJ, or AG. A lot of playing on the inside is attitude, see BC, CE, DE, and RL as examples. BC always had the 'tude but not the skills at first. CE and RL came along very well on the inside. Not saying they were beasts but they weren't international wusses either by the time they got to their upper class years.

RI's on a roll and this could get ugly early. Let's hope not, because at this point this team at the least needs to play competitive games. Ok, they can't close the deal, but still it's nice to stay in the contest, rather than just go thru the motions which happens in a 20 point blowout.

JT is smart enough to make his own decision without being affected by negative SLU talk. He knows SLU ... where we are, where we've been, and I am sure has his own thoughts on where we are going. If he doesn't choose SLU it won't be because someone else told him SLU was a poor choice.

[Westy03]

JT is smart enough to make his own decision without being affected by negative SLU talk. He knows SLU ... where we are, where we've been, and I am sure has his own thoughts on where we are going. If he doesn't choose SLU it won't be because someone else told him SLU was a poor choice.

[JohnnyJumpUp]

Anybody see where the NCAA is back to rumbling about making freshmen ineligible to play their freshmen years ala Alcindor, Walton, Rogers and the prehistoric times? Plus coaches want a 30-second shot clock. Interesting times.

I thought is was just the PAC-12, not the NCAA

[almaman]

I have to call you out, Roy. You say this, yet all you are doing is posting excessively long screeds once a week and then bailing. You aren't embracing debate or discussion. You are essentially posting a column to the board and then whining about readers' comments in your next column. You aren't engaging with anyone on this board except via PM.

right or wrong here's for your continued weekly screed, the more to read on here the better. i have no life so the more lively this place is the better - VCU trolls of course

[Duff Man]

i don’t like efforts by a few to discredit me or others with out of context old quotes and personal attacks. there are a couple of posters that do it constantly. i am not the only one that gets it from the two of them. i really think they are the real toxic “contributors” to the board. however they are indeed creative and effective writer’s and unfortunately they get plenty of nodding mbm heads when they do post.

I wouldn't expect the guy with over 22k posts on a forum to enjoy having his version of reality discredited, especially to the acclaim of other seasoned posters. When trolls post nonsense in their first post, we should ignore it. When "trusted" long time posters post something outrageous (could be you, could be me), it deserves to be challenged, or else it becomes de facto re-written history. There are many different tribes (along many demographic lines) within the overall Billikens fanbase and they all carry their historical biases. We're not going to agree on everything.

I assume I'm one of the two "toxic 'contributors'" and I'll take that as a compliment. I'll put my 600+ posts up against your 22k+... I use out of context old quotes for comedic purposes, not as personal attacks. I'm sorry you don't have a sense of humor. While you were checked out (I'm sure you had perfectly good health/personal reasons for doing so, don't take this the wrong way) during the greatest run in the modern history of the program, I was documenting it for us all to remember.

edited to add: In hindsight, I was not one of the toxic contributors...my mistake

This new weekly format suits you well and I enjoy reading it. I also enjoy busting your balls on ridiculous statements - like when you casually threw Kevin Lisch in with Hughes and Evans (but not Jett) as the standard by which future Billikens should be measured.

re: Big East

The A10 of 2012-13 was the most ideal conference SLU has ever been and most likely will ever be part of - and it coincided perfectly with the best team in the modern history of the program - resulting in a sweep of the conference championships. The planets were aligned, but it was never going to last...

As much as I like the A10, it's trending away from midwest and back towards its east coast roots. If the Big East expands and we turn them down, Dayton is a lock to leave the A10 (ideally it's SLU and Dayton that are invited). I concur we should not make any concessions that would put us at a competitive disadvantage in the new conference, but at the same time we should not request anything that wasn't granted to the last batch A10 teams who switched. I'm pretty sure Xavier and Butler didn't get their A10/Horizon NCAA credits made up by the C7. Drive a hard negotiation but don't alienate the current Big East schools by acting like we'd be doing them a favor.

re: Jayson Tatum

Awesome recap. Thank you. Anyone know if the SLUH game is sold out yet? What's the line for tickets?

re: Dayton game

the dayton game tueday night was so disappointing. that win was there for the taking. i truly didn’t understand the need to play everyone when our opponent had a short bench by necessity. i believe had we matched them with an 8 player rotation we win easily. but subbing the other 5 from our bench gave dayton the talent advantage too far into the game. just don’t understand the way the minutes are being doled out. most say we are building towards the future, and seeing everyone is essential to making future decisions. but cant a coach do that building and evaluations in practice? shouldn’t the players earn ALL playing time in practice? if practice means nothing in getting game minutes, what’s the incentive to work on the game in practice.

Nodding in agreement to the point of beating my head into my desk. I don't like to overreact to 1 game, but I do think 2 games is a fair sample to dissect. The Fordham and Dayton games were an opportunity to string some wins together. Instead of being at a high point, we're at a low point. I'll feel better if they play Rhody tough today. It's critical that young teams finish the year strong and we're running out of games.

re: Bartley

He needs to play more and he needs to stay out of foul trouble. We really need to find out if he's the PG of the future, cause if he's not - we need to find one fast. I agree he's got flaws, but he has skill, vision, length, and an outside shot. At worst he's a solid bench player. I'm still hopeful he'll develop into the answer at PG. That might be wishful thinking, I admit.

re: Yarbrough

He's in a shooting/finishing slump and a lot of that is that opposing coaches are game planning for him. He needs to play with guys who can receive bullet passes and finish. Agbeko specifically. Those 2 need to play together.

re: Ash

Interesting comparison to Mo Jeffers. Let's all hope you're right. I'm as critical as anyone of Ash, mainly because he's older and more athletic than pretty much everyone else on the team. I'd like Ash to take the transition aggression down 1 notch and turn the perimeter shooting aggression up 2 notches.

re: the Band vs piped in music

I understand that culturally the kids of today are increasing into the pipped in pre-recorded music over live performances. It's a mistake to deny it, but also a mistake to encourage it and make it worse. Some is okay, but the band part of is what makes the game day experience bearable even during the losing seasons.

[slufan13]

Regarding the band: I don't think the band has the same effect as it did maybe even 5 years ago, but the piped in music is terrible. The students are lethargic as it is, but outside of maybe like one song, the piped in music isn't changing a thing. I'd honestly scratch it all together.

My only knock on the band is that they don't do the S-A-I-N-T L-O-U-I-S thing as much anymore. I remember when SLU beat Dayton in 2OT about 5 years ago, the band was playing that constantly and the entire student section and arena were getting into every single time. Too many songs now that don't really have an effect on the energy of the crowd IMO.

[jbizzle09]

I assume I'm one of the two "toxic 'contributors'" and I'll take that as a compliment. I'll put my 600+ posts up against your 22k+... I use out of context old quotes for comedic purposes, not as personal attacks. I'm sorry you don't have a sense of humor. While you were checked out (I'm sure you had perfectly good health/personal reasons for doing so, don't take this the wrong way) during the greatest run in the modern history of the program, I was documenting it for us all to remember.

I can guarantee you are not one of the two "toxic contributors" he is talking about.

[Duff Man]

I can guarantee you are not one of the two "toxic contributors" he is talking about.

He specifically called out behavior I've been 'guilty' of, and he didn't mention animated gifs of fingers impersonating masturbation, so who knows?

[JohnnyJumpUp]

Regarding the band: I don't think the band has the same effect as it did maybe even 5 years ago, but the piped in music is terrible. The students are lethargic as it is, but outside of maybe like one song, the piped in music isn't changing a thing. I'd honestly scratch it all together.

My only knock on the band is that they don't do the S-A-I-N-T L-O-U-I-S thing as much anymore. I remember when SLU beat Dayton in 2OT about 5 years ago, the band was playing that constantly and the entire student section and arena were getting into every single time. Too many songs now that don't really have an effect on the energy of the crowd IMO.

I think in the right gametime situation, piping in the following song could really bring the crowd their feet. Thoughts.....

[Bay Area Billiken]

Erik Frede and Abu Bakr on Today's Telecast.

Neither are known commodities out here on the Left Coast.

[Old guy]

Thank you Roy, excellent HS player review.

[thetorch]

I have to call you out, Roy. You say this, yet all you are doing is posting excessively long screeds once a week and then bailing. You aren't embracing debate or discussion. You are essentially posting a column to the board and then whining about readers' comments in your next column. You aren't engaging with anyone on this board except via PM.

By posting Roy is creating debate on basketball topics. Some posters want only to debate about Roy not basketball. He's not trying to be the topic of discussion yet some posters just can't seem to drop it.

[Duff Man]

I initially thought it was kind of self-pompous and lame on principle, but I have enjoyed the weekly broy columns and the discourse it sparks.

So often - and nowhere is this evidenced further than the GDTs - you have people firing off hot takes in rapid succession based on a small and disproportionately fresh sample of data - that it's refreshing to have a slower paced discourse where the collective "prisoner of the moment"* thinking is diminished.

*in the words of Tim McKernan

[jbizzle09]

He specifically called out behavior I've been 'guilty' of, and he didn't mention animated gifs of fingers impersonating masturbation, so who knows?

True, but he's had a long-standing beef with the two I believe he's mentioning. Also, I wouldn't say you are someone who has rankled the feathers of other posters like the two Roy has issues with.

[jbizzle09]

I actually don't mind Roy's weekly columns. I agree, they lead to discussion and provide for additional content on the board. At the same time, I find it a tad bit hypocritical to type out that you are fine with debate and disagreement, while simultaneously complaining about those who disagree with your takes, when you aren't interested in actually engaging in public discourse or defending your positions. That is what really stuck out to me.

The thing is, I totally empathize with Roy. This board got to a point where I was absolutely done with it and didn't want to participate anymore. I know that's what happened with Roy, which is why I am actually glad that he's made his way back and is providing his opinions once more. I guess I just want him to become more engaged and be a part of the board publicly. He offers a unique point of view that makes the board better, whether you agree with him or not.

[Quality Is Job 1]

I think it would be nice if Roy would shorten the title of his thread and make each one unique. A rambling post is one thing, but a rambling and repeated title makes it difficult to figure out which thread is up for review, particularly when the same title appears more than once on the first page of posts.

"Through the eyes of Billiken Roy, Vol. 100, Issue 17" would offer clarity, and a date would make it even clearer.

I might even be willing to take out an ad in that "publication." Well, except that I highly doubt the intended audience for the publication (Billikens fans) overlaps very much with my target market.

[Bills By 40]

By posting Roy is creating debate on basketball topics. Some posters want only to debate about Roy not basketball. He's not trying to be the topic of discussion yet some posters just can't seem to drop it.

+1