Nate Latsch Posted December 10, 2004 Share Posted December 10, 2004 Billiken Roy's observations (followed by my observations). BR: "game 2 lafayette vs madison memorial (wisconsin) my impressions of the game were that lafayette is really well coached as usual. the team plays hard and smart. kudos to coach porter. but to be honest, i dont get the matt lawrence thing. if matt lawrence wanted to come to slu, i wouldnt be enthralled. he is a nice player, but he isnt what you would expect mi$$ouri would chase. i guess chris sloan is a valid comparison bodywise and athleticism. lawrence might be a better shooter, but while i am not saying lawrence doesnt play hard, i dont think he plays sloanlike." ME: Wesley Matthews had a lot to do with Matt Lawrence struggling early. Matthews played better man-to-man defense than Lawrence has seen in high school basketball and, at 6-foot-5, was difficult for Lawrence to get around and made it tough for Lafayette to get Lawrence the ball in a position where he could do something with it. Though he didn't get many opportunities, Lawrence showed he can shoot the ball from the perimeter. Based on what I've seen from the Billikens this year, SLU could used a 6-6 (6-7) kid who can knock down 3-pointers consistently. Lawrence will struggle to get playing time at Missouri, because the Tigers have recruited several players just like him. Wesley Matthews is going to be a very good player for Marquette. Landon Shipley was playing with an injured ankle. It didn't seem to affect him too much during the game, but he limped into the media room afterward. Shipley is a good player, but didn't have a good game yesterday. BR: "game 3 jennings vs glenbrook north i was looking forward to this game to see the jennings kids, akin and watts. akin is 6'9" and headed to nebraska. i have been curious why the billikens did not go after a local 6'9" kid. on watts, i have heard he is really a nice player. the one guy on the stltoday.com prep sports board has alluded that the billikens should chase watts. giving that jennings has produced kelly thames of mi$$ouri and darren brooks at siu, it makes you look. akin did virtually nothing. i didnt see him block shots, rebound, score nothing. nebraska can have this kid. my gosh, go get a dose of attitude matthew. watts shows potential. he reminds me of the off guard that is at illinois chicago, cedric banks, only a better body. just a knack for scoring and the ball. however, he doesnt have much in the way of ball skills. right now he s a power forward stuck in a shooting guard body. but he is something to watch. he isnt my first pick, but brad would be wise to keep an eye on him." Me: There are reasons St. Louis University didn't pursue Matthew Akins. The biggest thing with Akins is that he is not as productive as he should be at the high school level, and he's been that way for several years. He hasn't signed with Nebraska yet, and I've heard he is likely go the prep school or JUCO route first. Sanijay Watts is a nice player, but BRoy is 100 percent correct when he states Watts is a power forward trapped in a shooting guard's body. You don't see many 6-4 power forwards in college basketball. He's a good player, but he needs to work on his guard skills to get serious looks from Division I schools. BR: "game 4 might have been the most intriguing game of the day. van-far, defending missouri 2a champions with 4 starters back vs civic memorial from bethalto illinois. players to watch, van-far had mike smith, a junior all-stater (in basketball and football) and dustin maguire the 6'5" player for bethalto that has been rumored is being wooed by slu. coach grunk was in the stands for the game. so probably some legitimacy to that statement. while i have seen maguire before and like him a lot, i have not seen mike smith before. i like mike smith a lot now as well. in fact, i would take smith before maguire. he exhibits more ball skills, and appears to be a pretty good shooter as well. plus, with that football mentality, there is no doubt he would come in and be a billiken defender immediately. i hope the billikens are pursuing smith as well as leonard, hill and maguire." Me: This was my first chance to watch Mike Smith and I was impressed. He entered the game averaging a triple-double (with assists) and he lived up to some of the hype I've heard about him. This game wasn't very fun to watch with a lot of missed shots -- it seemed like every time down the floor someone missed a 3-pointer -- but Smith, Maguire, Michael Elliott and Stephen Jones all looked good. BR: "game 6: francis howell central vs south oak cliff (texas) south oak came into the game unbeaten and #1 ranked in the state of texas. two huge athletic inside players. (the junior, darrell author is a supposed top 10 junior. i cant argue that supposition. he was pretty good) howell beat them. howell's guards were so much fun to watch. hustled their a$$es off, hit shots all over. created havoc on defense. it is a shame the two are small. the one, fhehrmeyer, i guess is going to sms, he will do well there. the other, parson is i guess a better baseball player and will go to austin peay to play baseball. again, just a fun game." Me: Dallas South Oak Cliff was sixth in the USA Today Super 25 preseason rankings, but now has three losses on the year. Darrell Arthur was very good and will be one of the top prospects in the country next year. Like Roy said, this was "just a fun game." It was nice to see Howell Central beat a team like that. Central will have a good test coming up in the Meramec Tournament. The Spartans are seeded third behind Webster Groves and Lafayette. "game 9 althoff vs archbishop o'hara as i said in my short post early this morning. the refs took the air out of the ball early by giving kevin lisch 3 touch fouls in the first 2.5 minutes. considering what we had watched all day long, the fouls were simply a joke. and they were the difference of the game. kevin isnt in foul trouble, i guarantee you he cuts walker's output in half. kevin has stopped a lot better than marcus walker many times. second, kevin was noticibly a mental mess (on kevin scale) thereafter. hell he missed 4 free throws. i have never seen kevin miss 4 free throws in one game in my life. i wish that game could be replayed, because althoff is a better team than ohara. still kevin gave the few faithful a glimpse of his offensive skills in the second half. the ohara team were taking turns guarding him and regardless of who guarded him he could get his shot whenever he wanted. as i said above on scheyer, kevin too has perfect form on his shots, and while he shot under 50%, everything was right there. my guess is he was really pressing since he was taken out of the game in the first half by the refs and couldnt play defense in the second half." Me: This was truly a shame for the folks who stuck around to watch this game. The refs let the kids play all day long (which could have resulted in some serious injuries because the games were so physical) and then Lisch got three ticky-tack fouls called on him early. The late start didn't help either. I thought Lisch looked like a "mental mess" (to borrow Roy's words) even before the game, because he seemed to be trying to hurry just to get enough shots to warm up properly. Had the refs let Lisch and Marcus Walker go at it, this would have been the best one-on-one matchup all day -- even though most fans wanted to see dunks and highlights instead of defense and fundamental basketball. It's a shame that happened. I stuck around to talk to people after it was over, but overall this was a fun day of basketball. Hopefully the event is able to attract a better field next year -- the ESPN game between Tyler Hansbrough and Greg Oden took two of the best players in the country away -- because I think that's what people really wanted to see. - Nate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate Latsch Posted December 10, 2004 Author Share Posted December 10, 2004 Another thing I forgot to add. I was sitting next to a respected basketball recruiting guy (not sure of his name) who really liked Daniel Lisch, Kevin's brother who is a freshman at Althoff. This guy said Daniel is going to be a really nice player. - Nate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 10, 2004 Share Posted December 10, 2004 i agree daniel will be good, but i think coach leib is pushing him along too fast. daniel isnt kevin at that stage. here's something to watch, supposedly the althoff freshman class is just loaded. size, skill the whole nine yards. imo, pat young, who was daniels grade school teamate, was better than daniel in grade school. however not the point guard that daniel is. it will be fun to watch the rest of the freshman class at althoff progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted December 10, 2004 Share Posted December 10, 2004 For those of you who were not able to be there I strongly agree with the comments about the referees. I was so upset that I wanted to storm the court. The refs ruined the game. If they had refereed the game before the althoff game at least 8-10 players would have fouled out. I stayed until the end because I had never see Kevin play before but it was a frustrating situation. Kevin was obviously pressing in the second half after sitting out virtually the first half. Yet I was very impressed with his demeanor and his tenacity. He plays hard and has a very nice mid range game. Overall, his shooting was off but if he had played the whole game I am sure he would have had 25-30 points. He is also a tenacious rebounder and defender although the fouls obviously made him a little more tentative. In an interesting twist, Kevin's brother, Daniel, was forced to play most of the first half and I was very impressed with his composure as a freshman. He was not intimidated and he played hard. Obviously, this is a family that has it together. We have heard a lot about the mom and dad but they really do deserve a lot of credit for raising some fine children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 10, 2004 Share Posted December 10, 2004 billikan, you are absolutely correct about the lisch family. that kind of kindness and consideration and politeness sadly are something that has become society exceptions over the years. rusty and kathy have indeed done a great job with their children. i heartly recommend everyone make a point of coming to the althoff vs carbondale game in belleville february 19 (they also play each other in carbondale january 7). other than possibly the collinsville tourney when you dont know how the brackets will fall, that is the only sure time that kevin will find an opponent with college quality guards he will go against. carbondale is loaded and i eagerly await that matchup. last, billikan, i can assure you, if you thought kevin played with intensity last night, you havent seen anything. he was no where near the player he normally is due to the fouls. i would love to have heard the refs and pickett's discussion after the game. any bets they dont ref the shootout again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonka Posted December 10, 2004 Share Posted December 10, 2004 Kevin say out the first half and still scored 13-15 points? He may not have played like he normally does, but I wouldn't say that was too bad? Let's hope Kevin isn't getting the Savvis jinx, as he will be playing in it regularly next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 He was off. I've never seen Lisch before, but let's just mark it off as a bad game and move on. I'm sure problack had a field day talking about how overrated Lisch is. Oh well, Lisch will just have to shut up the critics next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 aj, he did get 20 shots that were good shots. most were of the in and out variety and typically he makes another 5 or so of those. walker couldnt stop him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 it took Walker 26 shots to get 25, so I wouldn't crow too much about Walker either. I never judge a player on one game and I know I need to see more of Lisch. Maybe one day I will... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 For people curious on this kid he is a very undersized PF. Thinking this kid will acquire ball skills to play guard at another level is a pipe dream, he is an inside banger but a good one at that. There have always been ?s regarding his age. Of the several people I have asked about him only one has asserted he is the correct age to be a junior and not 18 or 19. BBall people from neighboring schools that I know swear he is older than his class at least a year if not more. The only one who has said he is 16,17 or thereabouts has been a teacher at Jennings. Watts could very well be a body love DD type player but like DD he will have to go the JUCO route. It can be difficult to get a kid from Jennings to qualify for D-1, case in point Akins will most definetely not be at Nebraska next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted December 11, 2004 Share Posted December 11, 2004 B-roy: any bets they dont ref the shootout again? yep, I'll take that one. Pollard will be there if he continues to ref (I would like to say officiate but that would be stretching it). He gets SLU games, he gets Mizzou games and I don't know why, as it appears he thinks he is the show, and always touching the players, very curious about that, does that mean they can touch (preferably with a good right cross) him? But I wouldn't want to ref either as the best case is half the people hate you with every call. He and the shorter of the other two are St Charles (MO) County sherrif deputies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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