Game Thoughts (EASports)

[davidnark]

We lost by three (Varner missed an open three to tie the game as the clock expired.) I hope no one gets too worked up over this game. It was not as bad as it seemed. The following (in no particular order) are my thoughts and summary:

-We lost the game for one reason: WE SHOT 2 FOR 21 FROM 3 POINT LAND. That is 9%! We had equal opportunity misses. Fishers, Drejaj, Bryant, Clarke, Varner, and Sloan were all brick offenders.

-Coach was clearly preparing for Friday night's game. Ian did not play, and Reggie only played a few minutes.

-Darren Clarke played in crunch time. He hit two key free throws but missed a couple key threes. I still like his "look" on the court.

-JJ played his first couple minutes. He looked like he was really, really trying to do things Brad's way on the court. He hit a nice baseline jumper and had a nice steal.

-Sloan and Fisher were solid. Drejaj struggled on offense.

-EASports had a few guards who were unconscious from outside. They were repeatedly hitting threes from 25 feet and fall-away baseline jumpers.

-EASports had the best shot blocker I have ever seen. We jumped out to a big lead early, and this kid changed the game by blocking everything we threw up.

-Tom Frericks was a beast on the boards and again showed some decent offensive moves in the post. If it weren't for the NBA-All Star caliber shot blocker, he would have had a great offensive game.

-Izik disappeared. He was clearly intimidated by the shot blocker.

-Every team gets a shooting mulligan. I am just glad we had it today and not Friday.

[Schasz]

Nark,

Thanks for your analysis this Florida Billiken fan appreciates it. Now we play the next 3 without Reggie and the next 10 without Ian. I second your hopes that tonight was just a bad shooting night. We need to get off the a better start than last year, so hopefully there aren't any TN Martin type teams looming in our immediate future.

[Tonka]

David, I admire you pulling the positives out of this thing. I tend not to be able to do that right when I get home from the game. IO was very disappointing, and for a team that is not offensive minded to begin with, this does concern me a little. But, I'll follow your lead and try and not get myself worked up over this.

Okay, I just tried that and it failed. I'm worked up. Shooting was horrible, 3 point shooting was worse and free throw shooting sucked. IO has yet to impress me as a Billiken other than one game last year. Let's hope he shows up soon!

I agree about DC. I liek his look as well. His shot seemed horrible though. But, we can work on that.

[davidnark]

I just reviewed the box score. A couple of interesting stats:

-We outrebounded them 36-27.

-We outscored them in the paint 30-10.

-We only turned the ball over 10 times.

We did everything we were supposed to do to win the game except hit shots. Again, I hope this game was a shooting anomoly.

[davidnark]

I don't think Darren's shot looks horrible. His form is good and his shots miss just short or just long. That is a sign of a good shooter who is having an off night (in Darren's case, two straight off nights). Darren's defense looked good.

[jjray]

Give Darren time to get aclimated to the NBA style house that is the Savvis Center. I think he will be fine. It is Izik that concerns me. We needs his offensive production desperately.

[Mobile-iken]

Towards the end of the game (crunch time) the players in the game (For the most part, occasionaly Varner would come in on offense) were Sloan, Drejaj, Fisher, Frericks, and Clarke. Obviously our coach likes Clarke as much as we do!

The pants were much better, they actually had draw strings. Plus the players names were on the back of their jerseys. I think the uniforms just weren't ready 2 weeks ago.

[slufanskip]

My observations

TF ... he is a monster on the boards, this guy attacks the ball. He also has a nice touch and good offensive skills. He will easily be our best real big man in quite some time.

IO ... very dissapointing. Instead of taking the ball strong at their 7' center ... he just kept trying to put up fancy lob shots, and could not beat their 7' er off the dribble

CS ... I apologize for ever suggesting he should come off the bench. He was our only big man not intimidated.

JF ... looked good going to the hole

I wonder if we are going to check someone shooting a jump shot ?

1,715 blocks ... I think that is a world record / 915 on one player (IO) also a record.

2-19 ... did they think he was going to block those also?

[AlumniFan]

TONIGHT'S GAME (from a non-expert):

In a word, UGLY.

David is right on regarding the shooting. Maybe we were 3 for 21 from 3 point land, but it felt more like 3 for 51. We missed a lot of shots, a lot of put backs.

The EA Team shot the lights out. Every time they put one up that looked like a prayer...swish, it went right in.

Sloan is such a gamer. He plays to win, pure and simple. He is not out there to go through the motions, he wants to play. We are really lucky to have his drive and determination on the team.

#55 (Jones) from EA blocked at least 3 shots in the first several minutes AFTER we were up 9-0. I think this caused the team to lose some confidence. The program had #55 listed at 7-0, but he initially played more like 8-6.

Josh was aggressive and had some great shots in close. He is willing to take the ball to the basket.

We seemed to have a decent amount of rebounds in the paint. Frericks doesn't hesitate to mix it up underneath.

Varner may have been the only Billiken to hit a three, although he missed two wide open threes including one at the buzzer.

I thought Justin Johnson looked really good for the short time he was in the game. He was moving all over, played aggressive defense, had a nice steal. I hope he has addressed any discipline demons haunting him. He could be good.

Izik was far less impressive tonight, only got off a few shots.

Ian V. didn't play. Reggie played sparingly, but has a nice shot.

I'm a little nervous about Friday. If we shoot the ball like we did tonight, Eastern Kentucky will notch an early win.

NOTES:

Shorts seemed shorter (maybe the players got taller...?).

I would hate to be an opposing coach trying to talk over the band. My wife and I, sitting right next to each other, could not talk while the band was playing. Maybe that's a good thing...?

If they are going to print a 7:10 PM start, then they should start the game at 7:10 PM, NOT 7:00 PM.

[cheeseman]

I did not go to the game but here are my thoughts from reading the paper and all the above posts: 1. Clarke will get his shot going - he probably is not use to playing in a place like the SAVVIS. Shooting can be tough in a big open arena like that - not at all like he is use to in West Pine or in high school. 2. Glad to hear about TF - we need a powerful center. 3. Varner in the game at the end when it counts will always spell trouble - he is just not a very good player. It was a mistake by Romar to give him a scholarship but the good news is that he will graduate this year. 4. IO better get his stuff together - sounds like he has not improved from last year and made the necessary adjustments to playing in a more contact oriented style of bb. If he is going to play the way you have protrayed, Brad needs to get him out of there and play someone else - who I don't know but IO is old enough and been around enough to play better. We were all patient with him last year but the honeymoon is over.

[tdog]

I was told that Izik was trying to play on a sprained ankle last night. That would explain his lack of agressiveness and lack of playing time.

[Billiken Law]

I joined maybe 1500 of my closest friends in attending last night's game. Not good. The Bills started out well but EA went to a zone and nothing SLU did seemed to work. Didn't look like any offensive continuity (let the shot clock run down too many times) and shots from the permiter were not falling. Too many defensive breakdowns letting EA get open shots on the baseline, from 3 and letting them drive to the hole. Brad couldn't have been happy with that.

I guess the 2 positives to take from the game were Sloan's game on both ends of the floor and Frericks on the boards. Unfortunately, many of Tom's boards were off his own misses. The shot blocker did change things a bit but would it hurt to pump fake? Tom had a really nice move where he got the rock about 12 feet from the hole, backed his man up to about 4 feet and put it in. Why not go back to that?? Guard play was disconcerting and Izik didn't play with much aggressiveness.

This EA sports team was not nearly as good as the one the Bills took out last year. I mean Old Dominion laid 1060 on them. They only had 8 players and 2 of their better players listed on the roster, Chappell and Shirley, weren't in the house. With our depth we should have been able to wear them down, shotblocker or not in the paint. Considering Marquette's poor performance in their first game against St. John's on the Johnnie's home floor means they suck and probably won't win more than 10 games since how they play early in the season is indicative of how the rest of the season will go I worry about how well the Bills will do this year if they continue to play like they did last night.

[thetorch]

Izik probably had two sprained ankles.

Izik -- Very dissapointing, he was very intimidated by their big man. He passed up a dozen shots and went way out of his way to get away from him. After he got blocked a couple times he froze when he got the ball trying to find the big man. He has the physical tools, but Izik needs to work on his mental game on both ends of the court. Has to improve his defense and show some intensity to get out of Brad's doghouse.

Sloan -- Many times seemed to be the only Bill who wanted to play. Took over on defense at crunch time causing some loose balls at the end. Even so had trouble guarding their 3, he needs to be guarding the 4, he can't keep up with guys n the dribble. Was playing alot on the perimeter on offense too, his drives are not our best option on offense. Played very well inside on both ends, his rebounding is much better.

Frericks -- Played tough, had some good offensive moves but has to finish more. Even had a couple blocks. He will be solid in the middle, he did appear winded though at times.

Fisher -- Took care of the ball, was okay on defense. Still refuses to assert himself on the offensive end and always slows down the tempo, even though he does very well running the break and in transition.

Drejaj -- Like Fisher a streaky shooter, had an offnight and will have a few more of those. Excellent defensively, shutdown Price in the second half. Ballhnalding looked good.

Varner -- Nice effort, still if he is starting we are in big trouble. Never looks for a shot inside of 18 feet, gets in the way alot on the boards.

Clarke -- Played good defense, and handled the ball well. Still has got to make some shots to contribute in a meaningfull way.

Bryant -- Played sparingly, but made a nice jumper and was solid on D.

Johnson -- Definetely an athlete. Very long arms on defense, and quick. Seemed to be trying on defense, but is not quite grapsing the system yet. He likes to stick his hand in instead of facing up on his defender (Izik does this as well), which infuriates Coach Soderberg. Had a nice jumper from the baseline.

Hunt -- Played sparingly

[slufanskip]

IO was intimidated ... it was very easy to see that. But ... it is 1 game against a guy that was bigger and just as quick as he was ... not to mention an outstanding shot blocker.

I thought we did not take the ball at the big guy ... we tried to get cute around him. We should have gotten the ball inside ... pumped and gotten him to leave his feet and commit a couple of fouls early , instead we tried to lob it up over him. DIDN"T WORK. TF should have went strong at him also and made him use his body on him ... not just swat balls out of the air.

[tseugnekillib]

Izik, has been hampered by two sprained ankles. I have been told that he missed 4-5 days of practice in last ten days. Izik has the best offensive skills of any SLU big men. Perhaps those missed practices is what got Izik out of the starting line-up. Question is, when well he score consistently in games?

[Billiken Law]

I thought we did not take the ball at the big guy ... we

>tried to get cute around him. We should have gotten the ball

>inside ... pumped and gotten him to leave his feet and

>commit a couple of fouls early , instead we tried to lob it

>up over him. DIDN"T WORK. TF should have went strong at him

>also and made him use his body on him ... not just swat

>balls out of the air.

Once TF did take it at him and it worked. The big guy had no bulk (in fact the only stats he had were blocked shots) and when Tom posted up up and backed him down he got an easy bucket. I don't understand why they didn't keep running that play - it worked.

We're going to have trouble going inside when we play teams with shot-blockers with muscle like Maxiell, Brown and Jackson.

[slufanskip]

I bet Brad works on that and you see something different next time. I will be surprised if we see someone as adept at blocking shots as this guy was. He went to Ball St. and holds the record for career blocks in the MAC.

[Billiken Rich]

>I joined maybe 1500 of my closest friends in attending last

>night's game. Not good.

>This EA sports team was not nearly as good as the one the

>Bills took out last year. I mean Old Dominion laid 1060 on

>them. They only had 8 players and 2 of their better players

>listed on the roster, Chappell and Shirley, weren't in the

>house. With our depth we should have been able to wear them

>down, shotblocker or not in the paint. Considering

>Marquette's poor performance in their first game against St.

>John's on the Johnnie's home floor means they suck and

>probably won't win more than 10 games since how they play

>early in the season is indicative of how the rest of the

>season will go I worry about how well the Bills will do this

>year if they continue to play like they did last night.

Thanks for your support! We can start calling you Triangle and Too North.

Please take your selfrighteous Marquette boosterism with you on your journey straight to hell.

[Tonka]

You know I have been hard on Varner and harder on him than a lot of you liked, but I should probably direct some of my exasperation to Izik. I have heard great things about the guy and I have said great things about him myself. I know last year, he had stamina problems, and I know he has played out of position, and I know he had a sprained ankle last night. But, other than one game last year, what has this guy done. He still hasn't really stood out. His defense has always been lackluster and I'm not sure how much better he'll get on defense. I agree, that he does have some of the best offensive skills as a big man, and handles the ball extremely well. But, if we're going to be competitive this year, he has got to show up and show up soon! If he becomes the offensive threat we all hope for, it will make everybody better. Let's go Izik!

[davidnark]

The regular season has not even begun, and yet many posters are questioning the worth of Izik.

Last year, Izik was adjusting to a new country, a new team, and a new coach. To make matters worse, he had to sit out the first seven games.

Let's give him at least a half dozen regular season games this season before we question his worth.

[StlCardinal]

I know that many on the board, myself included, have placed high expectactions on Izik, but it might be a bit unrealistic to expect him to score over 15 points a game. He certainly does show a lot of potential, but if he was truly a great finisher and/or jump shooter, do you really think Brad would have been able to sign him so late last year? With the NBA focusing a lot more on foreign players, if he was that outstanding, he probably would have drawn their attention or the attention of a college basketball power. Right now, he's a raw talent, so hopefully Brad will be able to refine that talent into a solid college player. Maybe he'll turn it into a really dangerous scoring threat, but it's unreasonable to assume that he's going to be our go-to guy right away this year.