davidnark Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 Dwayne looked fabulous today. He looked like the best player on the floor for either team. There was a huge dropoff whenever he left the game. IMHO, much of this year's success will be dependent upon Dwayne's ability to stay healthy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 i agree dwayne was the best player on the floor. the little right handed runner he hit in the first half on the baseline was pretty tough. remember he is left handed. he needs to be a little more wary of driving into the basket in the half court game. he isnt going to have a lot of success with that and got caught under the basket a couple of times with no where to go. as good as polk looked i thought vouyoukas was that bad. he looked totally lost, couldnt hit a free throw, i will scream the next time he takes it up weak under the basket. their is no excuse for him not being able to convert those 3 footers and draw the fouls. if he is that weak, get his a$$ to the bench. frericks looked more like the frericks of last year imo. at halftime he had 6 rebs according to the jumbotron. so he had to have had a double double. i thought clark, brown and drejaj had good moments and overall did well. luke meyer never really did much today. and husak and izik were fairly worthless as well. newborne played well again. the first 10 and the last 10 mintues the billikens played well on both ends. the middle half of the game wasnt much to watch though other than polk's lightning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guest Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 Did you hear a final yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 13, 2004 Share Posted November 13, 2004 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted November 13, 2004 Author Share Posted November 13, 2004 Drejaj didn't impress me at all today. His outside shot is still generally bad, although I am sure he will have a handful of games in which he will catch fire. I can also think of at least three bad passes he made--he must still drive coach crazy. Anthony was best when he was penetrating and finishing or dishing in the lane off of his penetration. I wasn't anywhere near as dismayed by Ian as you were. There is no excuse for his poor free throw shooting, but it appeared to me that he was getting grabbed everytime he touched the ball. I agree that Newborne was impressive again today. I thought Danny Brown looked real good, especially finishing in the open floor. Clarke showed that he can handle the ball against a little press. It is unfair to criticize Husak. I left with three minutes left in the game, but prior to that I don't think he played more than two minutes. He at least grabbed some boards and hit a free throw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted November 14, 2004 Author Share Posted November 14, 2004 Polk had 13 points, 1 rebound, and 6 assists in 32 minutes. Newborne had 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 1 assist in 25 minutes. Tom had 11 points and 7 rebounds in 19 minuts. Ian had 8 points and 3 rebounds in 16 minutes. Danny Brown and 7 points, 2 rebounds, and 4 assists in 17 minutes. As a team, we outrebounded them 43-21. We shot 54% from the field, 66% from the line, and 25% from 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mobile-iken Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 You left with 3 minutes left? Trying to beat the crowd out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 i agree the drejaj had 3 bad passes. however, he also had the three best passes of the game that should have resulted in dunked 3 point plays if not for ian's worthlessness at the basket. husak came in for the last 3 minutes and was a totally non factor. sorry, at 7'9" or whatever he was compared to that team, he should be effective. he wasnt. put him away until next year and hope he continues to work hard. the hole on this team is not our guards. we can agree or not on drejaj, but the fact is, drejaj, polk, bryant, brown, newborne, meyer and clarke will all do fine in their roles. this team needs two of ian, izik, frericks and husak to step up. right now, the only one showing anything and that isnt much is frericks imo. and remember, the two games we have played we had tremendous size advantages and couldnt capitalize on that. heck mike oppland looked better than any of our inside players. that is sad as oppland is smaller than sloan ever was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted November 14, 2004 Author Share Posted November 14, 2004 Trying to leave before my 5-month old decided it was time for a mood swing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted November 14, 2004 Author Share Posted November 14, 2004 I think Mr. Polk had at least three passes that were as good as any Drejaj made today. I still have no idea how Dwayne managed to get the ball to Izik on the one nice play Izik made today. Regarding Drejaj, we will have to agree to disagree. I just don't see how a large chunk of our guard minutes can go to a guy who still cannot shoot the ball from outside of ten feet. Both Clarke and Brown showed good intensity today, and both are more athletic and better shooters than Drejaj. You are way too hard on Ian. His finishing could improve, but it is really hard to finish when you are constantly being grabbed and pushed. Tom and Newborne struggled to finish a few times for the same reason. Between Coach Thorpe's comments the other night and the progress I have seen in practice, I am confident Ian will be effective this year. Bryce would have had to put up a double-double today to impress you; you have dogged him from the moment he committed to SLU. I have not idea what is going on with Izik. He looked terrible today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mobile-iken Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 That's a good reason for leaving early. But I doubt all those other people that left early had any reason at all...I guess it's a pet peeve of mine, I hate seeing people leave early, especially when they block my view! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheesycow Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 how many threes were attempted? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 both newborne and frericks converted their 3 point plays, ian wasnt even close. for his size, he is soft. he needs to get his butt in the weight room and get real serious about getting strong, or he is a 4 year deal that will head back to greece. right now he is not an nba prospect imo. my problem with both husak and vouyoukas is we need help on the inside now. neither appear to be much now, however i will agree that ian is miles ahead of the two. of couse both can turn into something simply because of their size, but i am very disappointed they are not further along yet, especially ian. not because it was assumed that they would progress further, but simply because of the team need to have them contribute now. this team is as good as ian, tom, bryce and izik will take them. a final word on drejaj, he can shoot. we have seen it before. sure it has been streaks, but he can shoot. i am not the least bit worried about drejaj. plus dont forget, at this point in time, he is obviously the best defender on the team. that alone will negate your wish. he will play and play a lot until someone else steps up and defends as hard as he does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted November 14, 2004 Author Share Posted November 14, 2004 8 threes were attempted. Drejaj was the worst offender, going 0-4 from three. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 broy said, "meyer... and husak and izik....were fairly worthless" roy, it's going to be a long season for you if you can summarize meyer's second ever college exhibition game and husak's first ever appearance at Savvis....as "fairly worthless". relax roy and try a little patience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted November 14, 2004 Author Share Posted November 14, 2004 Man do we watch the same player and see different things. Drejaj is a good defender with good intensity (especially when defending on the ball), but he is often times guilty of lagging too far off his player and giving up an open outside shot. I don't know how he could be declared our "best defender" without an argument. His shooting is not OK; his form is poor for a shooting guard at this level. Except when he gets in his ocasional zone, the ball comes never comes off his hand well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 two posts in a row where you call Ian worthless. Thank goodness Ian's mom didn't get this website from Unca. We all know that the strength of this years team and coming years will be the guard play but there are very few college big men that can consistently dunk on players for three point plays. the few that don't go to the NBA end up in the ACC and Big 12. The combination of Tom and Ian this year will do just fine assuming no injuries. Combined today they played 35 minutes and had 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting and 10 rebounds. I was not at the game so I have no idea how eye-pleasing it was but those are not bad numbers. Roy, I think you and a lot of people take for granted how hard it must be for 18-19 year old 7 footers to move around. The coordination for many of these guys is late developing. Both Ian and BH will be ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 would "contributed little" have been more acceptable? maybe i should have said, meyer, husak and izik all played. and without any comment their non-contribution would have been understood? i dont know how else to describe their time in the game. because they did nothing. contrary to what you might think, i am fairly happy with the outcome today. i am just pointing out that in two games, our inside players have done very little and the teams we have played havent had a single inside player that could make our team. seems like they should have done more. on meyer today, nothing he did was bad. he just didnt stand out or contribute much. i have said many times i believe luke will be a player for this team this year and have a contributing role. if i distrespected luke with prior comments i apologize. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 who's the better defender? potentially clarke, bryant, polk, and brown should all be better. they are all far better athletes. but right now, none of them are as good defenders. i have seen far worse forms shooting the ball than drejaj. his form is not as good as bryant and polk agreed, but again it isnt terrible. he wouldnt have the green light to score as much as he does if it was as bad as you portray. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 as i said, i understand they are projects and might both turn into players. but the fact is this team needed solid inside players now. you are correct to be able to take the defender up with him and still dunk it is nba like, but still he should be able to occasionally at least convert that. like is said, both frericks and newborne did today. i want ian and husak to be good billikens and still believe they will someday, but i am not holding out hope that when the billikens play the championship game of the cusa tourney this coming spring that either will be in the game going down the stretch. sadly it appears we will see newborne playing more pf than what he should imo. i hope i am wrong and over the next month or so, either izik or ian step it up. by god we need it if this is going to be a top cusa team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 >i agree dwayne was the best player on the floor. the little >right handed runner he hit in the first half on the baseline >was pretty tough. remember he is left handed. he needs to >be a little more wary of driving into the basket in the half >court game. he isnt going to have a lot of success with >that and got caught under the basket a couple of times with >no where to go. I agree with most of what you've said, Roy. I, too, found Polk's insistence on driving into a crowded lane perturbing. He did it two or three times. He also made some good forays into the lane. Furthermore, he once went coast-to-coast on a one-man fastbreak and got a layup -- he went past all five Truman players on that play. Polk is right-handed, but he shoots jumpers with his left hand. He frequently shoots with his right hand around the basket, so don't be overly impressed by that. The one baseline teardrop in the first half that Roy is referring to was quite pretty, but earlier he had attempted a similar shot and hit the side of the backboard. The most impressive part of his game was his passes to bigs who had sneaked behind the zone defense. Considering his smallness of stature, I'm amazed at how he can ferret out those passes. The Billikens haven't had such a point guard since H Waldman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheltiedave Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 Roy, I believe our most heralded recruiting class ever went 5 - 23 their freshman year, driving Grawer to the Clayton sidelines. High school big men McD AAs stuggle to transition to college play at times, so don't have a coronary over projects not blooming into dominant B10 centers after one year. It just won't happen until another two years down the road, which is when the basket ball prognosticators figure Saint Louis will be making some serious noise on the national scene. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 From one who hasn't seen nearly as much of AD as you SL guys have, I have one observation on his shot. In his Freshman year his form looked a lot better than it did last year. When I saw him in Charlotte and a few times on TV it seems his right elbow just flares out to the side. Looks very awkward. I didn't see this his freshman year. Course haven't seem him this year so don't know what to make of him. Most disturbing news from above posts is IO's lack of contribution. If he doesn't step up this year, well, the NIT may look like the unreachable dream. I just don't get it with him. At times he looks awesome others like he's lost out there. But he's the key for this years team. Of course we could go to a 3guard set up. Broy don't be too hard on LM. This kid's got to make the adjustment of being 'da man at Borgia, where he's really in the flow of things, to being a bit player right now who comes in cold and probably doesn't get the time to feel comfortable. Again, not having witnessed any of this, take it for what's it worth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guest Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 she has it! By the way Billiken Roy-I was talking to the Billikens fund raising department and found out what you donated last year....pathetic!!!! We need help now for a new science building, arena etc and that's all you can do? Put you back in your living room, give your seat to sdomeone that can help out NOW...your pathetic!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted November 14, 2004 Share Posted November 14, 2004 anybody told you how much B-Roy donated last year. That being said, however, it wouldn't be hard to find out within a range how much any Billiken Club member donated as they publish all Billiken Club fees by member class ($150-$299, etc.) in the athletic department annual report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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