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It's All About the PG


Billiken75

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Agree on all accounts. Just curious - do you miss Rickma now?

no. he insisted it was crews as the coach. he is the one that quit recruiting and creaming his roster annually. last year's seniors, this years senior class and this year's junor class should have been rickma recruits. as i have said over and over and over since rickma came to town, he was a very effective practice and game coach. what i didnt like is the way he treated his players and in particular creamed the roster. i wont comment on this again on this board. bring to a pm if you want to discuss. i dont need acie going ballistic again over his love of his life.

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Of course RM quit recruiting effectively for at least the last year he coached the team. How could he have done it?, all you had to do was to watch him during a game in one of the last years. The man was dying and could well have passed away during one of his last games. Of course he had to let some things go just in order to muster whatever was left of him for his last season's games.

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RM was dying hind sight clearly tells us that - we all so giddy with the lofty play we were seeing none of us saw it but we should have. As for RM picking Crews as the coach - he may have brought him in with the idea that maybe he would take over during the season if he was unable to complete it but to say he wanted Crews to take over permanently is unsubstantiated. He knew that it was not going to be his decision. The problem was that May has feet of clay.

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For a PG to be good, you have to have options for the finishing part of the assist. We don't have that. I still think the greatest, true PG in my SLU history was H Waldman. What made him great? Scott. Erwin. Donnie. David. Carl.

Single season record holder? Jim Roder. What made him great? Monroe. Roland. Anthony. Redditt.

Career assist leader? Josh Fisher. What made him? Longevity. Four years of starting. His best season will soon drop off the top ten single seasons in assists for SLU.

To watch H Waldman play was like watching the ballet or poetry in motion. A half-court, one-bounce bounce pass for a layup by a streaking Scott Highmark. Plus he could shoot the three, rebound, and make free throws.

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For a PG to be good, you have to have options for the finishing part of the assist. We don't have that. I still think the greatest, true PG in my SLU history was H Waldman. What made him great? Scott. Erwin. Donnie. David. Carl.

Single season record holder? Jim Roder. What made him great? Monroe. Roland. Anthony. Redditt.

Career assist leader? Josh Fisher. What made him? Longevity. Four years of starting. His best season will soon drop off the top ten single seasons in assists for SLU.

To watch H Waldman play was like watching the ballet or poetry in motion. A half-court, one-bounce bounce pass for a layup by a streaking Scott Highmark. Plus he could shoot the three, rebound, and make free throws.

That is only part of it. A "good" PG is a leader, can play defense, direct the offense, and make it easier for his teammates to score. I don't think we have a single player that fits that profile.

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For a PG to be good, you have to have options for the finishing part of the assist. We don't have that. I still think the greatest, true PG in my SLU history was H Waldman. What made him great? Scott. Erwin. Donnie. David. Carl.

Single season record holder? Jim Roder. What made him great? Monroe. Roland. Anthony. Redditt.

Career assist leader? Josh Fisher. What made him? Longevity. Four years of starting. His best season will soon drop off the top ten single seasons in assists for SLU.

To watch H Waldman play was like watching the ballet or poetry in motion. A half-court, one-bounce bounce pass for a layup by a streaking Scott Highmark. Plus he could shoot the three, rebound, and make free throws.

I disagree. Crawford and Bartley would benefit greatly having a quality PG to set them up for good 3-point looks. It would also open up a lot more good scoring opportunities for MY and AY. With the absence of somebody to direct the offense, it seems everybody else handles the ball way too much.

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I've long subscribed to the theory that in the 4 major sports, you absolutely need quality at

Football: offensive line

Baseball: starting pitching

Basketball: point guard

Hockey: goalie

A point guard needs to be

-fearless

-capable of creating his own shot

-capable of drawing help defenders and finding open teammates

-capable of hitting open 3s

-adept at navigating full court pressure

-solid defensively

If you don't have someone to fill this role, you will not be successful against good teams not matter how many other pieces you have.

If you don't have at least 2 guys to fill this role, you will be extremely vulnerable (see: the Mo State game when Kwam was out).

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Stupid thead

imo

we don't have good point guards.

We don't have good bigs.

We don't have good wings.

We don't have good coaches.

We don't have a good PA announcer.

We don't have good concession food and beer.

We don't have good cheerleaders.

We don't have a good student section.

We have a great arena.

We have a good band.

Other than that it is 1983 again.

Agreed.

Mods - Please lock this thread.

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Agree on all accounts. Just curious - do you miss Rickma now?

no. he insisted it was crews as the coach. he is the one that quit recruiting and creaming his roster annually. last year's seniors, this years senior class and this year's junor class should have been rickma recruits. as i have said over and over and over since rickma came to town, he was a very effective practice and game coach. what i didnt like is the way he treated his players and in particular creamed the roster. i wont comment on this again on this board. bring to a pm if you want to discuss. i dont need acie going ballistic again over his love of his life.

oh hey roy, you still around here? Thanks for the shout out... what can I say, I like winners - RM and the most successful run in the modern era of SLU hoops. Sure, I loved it. On the other hand, you will always have the memories of your beloved Sodie :wacko:

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Again, in the first interview I heard on radio by Frank Cusamano of RM after he was hired our new head coach, RM described his basic philosophy in saying that his most important players on the floor at all times are his 1 and his 4. In hindsight, our best were KM and BC. I fully agree and can honestly say that outside of Bonner, I had never personally watched a really good 4 at SLU - and certainly do not recall a team which centered around our 1 and 4. To all those previously stating that both are needed, I agree. Now, for the sake of discussions on this Board, I would think a PG is more important if you are only allowed one and not both. And yes, KM, JJ and MM would single handedly win us alot of games (and possibly make us a Tourney team) but watching AG, MN and BJ get beat like a drum on defense, I am not that confident especially when we would play the better competition. BC, CE, RL and CR were definitely needed to come up big during key games and/or stretches of games. Unfortunately, our bigs are going to take longer than we want to develop. In the meantime, I say let them develop on the practice floor but not splitting 40 minutes each game.

A few more comments:

1. WR has not that good his Freshman year.

2. RL was real soft his Soph year as well as his Frosh year

3. Ian had his breakout year after his Soph year - not before.

4. MM was a combo guard who was a great combo guard but not good at dribble penetration and assists - we had a big drop off after KM graduated.

5. RM cannot be blamed for his lack of recruiting after the Michigan State near miss

6. We are not good but we are better than 1983

7. MB73, check your computer because each time you list the names of our better bigs, you computer inexplicably also list Grandy Glaze. Please get your computer fixed.

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Is the assumption of the thread that Reynolds is not a PG? Or that he sucks as a PG?

For what it is worth his ast/to numbers so far are 3.0/1.7. While that isn't a great ratio, it certainly not bad. KM averaged 3.0/2.5 his soph year and MM averaged 2.4/1.3 as a soph.

I am not saying ast/to is the only way to measure a PG, but it is usually a good indicator. MR is not as good as KM or MM defensively, but I would say he is average at worst on D. Maybe slightly above average due to his hustle. Steals certain don't reflect how good of an "on ball" or "help" defender you are, but they are important. MR leads the team at 1.7 per game. KM and MM both averaged 1.4 their soph year.

I know the stats I have quoted are a small sample size, but to me, MR has looked adequate at worst. Crews has experimented with letting others guys bring it up, but I would say MR has handled the majority of those duties. I'll pay closer attention tonight.

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@Rise and Grind: agree. I didn't go into all aspects only one. Didn't want to write a novel for the disinclined.

@Ace: I do not disagree with your second part re: guys who shouldn't handle the ball do. Excellent point and i cringe every time Yarbrough rebounds and dribbles the length of the court. I am not so certain on the first part. I think you are right on both Crawford and Bartley but the sample size makes me question whether or not it can be sustained. For now, it appears so.

I don't see either Crawford or Bartley as long term players for D1. I think both, off the bench as snipers ala Carl Turner or Brad Relaford, would work better. Less court time, more and bigger impact. As it is now, we need them on the court more and doing what they do more, which is giving us exactly what we are seeing given a lack of overall team talent/cohesion.

Wichita State. More Deaux.

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Our three players 6'9" or taller have totaled 23 rebounds in 6 games. I'm not sure a point guard is going to solve that problem. More EFFORT is needed on the boards. Reggie, Ash, and Milik all have individually grabbed more boards than the three Tall Blues combined.

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Our three players 6'9" or taller have totaled 23 rebounds in 6 games. I'm not sure a point guard is going to solve that problem. More EFFORT is needed on the boards. Reggie, Ash, and Milik all have individually grabbed more boards than the three Tall Blues combined.

i am not going to make excuses for our bigs in that, yes, they need to do alot better, but I am not sure it is because of lack of effort. Instead, they lack weight/size, strength, foot speed and are still adjusting to the pace of the game. Louisville and Moorehead State are hopefully just bad matchups at this point for RA, AG, MN and BJ. Again, stop playing them so much in these situations.

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Louisville and Moorehead State are hopefully just bad matchups at this point for RA, AG, MN and BJ. Again, stop playing them so much in these situations.

Ah, not sure what you are suggesting, putting Reggie, Austin, Matt and Brent on the bench means we play - Milik? at the 5? Reggie is our third leading rebounder.

I was an undersized '5' in HS. Effort IS the key. Find a body, put your flank in him, hold your position. If you are under muscled/under sized, the refs will see the pushing that moves you out of the way. I find our Tall Blue's simply standing flat footed when a ball is in the air.

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Ah, not sure what you are suggesting, putting Reggie, Austin, Matt and Brent on the bench means we play - Milik? at the 5? Reggie is our third leading rebounder.

I was an undersized '5' in HS. Effort IS the key. Find a body, put your flank in him, hold your position. If you are under muscled/under sized, the refs will see the pushing that moves you out of the way. I find our Tall Blue's simply standing flat footed when a ball is in the air.

I am not saying do not play Reggie, Austin, Matt or Brett at all - instead I am saying to play them less. If we play 5 guards at times, then so be it. If that means Ash and/or Yacoubou, then so much the better

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No we wouldn't, because Crews is still the coach.

It is relatively pointless to talk about player needs when the problems clearly won't be solved until the current coach is gone.

Fortunately those players were groomed by Majerus, fortunately the first 2 years Crews did know to leave well enough alone. At the end of the 2nd year you did start to see some cracks (Duq & Dayton games) .This is all Crews show now.

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  • 1 month later...

Folks, credit Coach Cheaney and Coach Bronson for the new simplified offense they installed and thanks to JC for stepping back and allowing them to put some life into this sinking ship. As I said a couple days ago, most of these kids can play and would do well at other A10 programs. A player is only as good as the system they are playing in. Still please get rid of Crews because he will undoubtedly get credit if the season somehow looks like we have turned the corner.

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