Billikens_Fanatic Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 I didn't realize that you were pleased with the team's performance this year. Maybe my expectations going into the season should have been as low as yours. Then, I'd be happy with a couple of guys trying and a 2-7 team. I did overstate myself, however. Drejaj wears his heart of his sleeve, and occasionally I see Polk play with emotion. Now, it IS possible that the other guys care, but if they do: 1. they don't show it and 2. they don't play like it. As to your personal insult (which facillitates any intelligent discourse), I do play basketball regularly and have been to practically every home game over the past four years as a student. I'd be happy to discuss other possible reasons for this year's failure should you so desire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinfootes Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 and he loses any contested ball. How often does he get tied up for a jump ball or simply lose it altogether. He sometimes doesn't even look at the basket when he's shooting. maybe you shoould watch him or move down from the cheap sets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Fanatic....do you really think SLU's players came out of the locker room for a team photo and decided on their own to put their jerseys on backwards? Do you really think that? btw, I believe Frericks has his jersey on backwards as well, look again at the neck line. My view was that only Luke Meyer had his jersey on correctly so as to identify the team. It appears the players surrounding Meyer are purposely opening up toward him so that the "Saint Louis" is easily seen. imo, somebody in SLU's promotions group completely staged this poster/picture. Look again and tell me what you think! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 I believe 3-Star is on the mark here. There were opportunities for Polk to either attack the basket or hit jumpers in transition. However, he pulled up to wait for his teammates to catch up and then they ran their half-court sets. I also agree that Polk's effectiveness is being stifled when running half-court sets. An ex-Billiken assistant once told me that Polk would never prosper under Brad. When I told him that Soderberg promised to go more uptempo, he stated that Brad would never changed because that is all he knows how to do. I countered by saying that Brad ran an uptempo style in Division III... But I think this coach knew Brad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brehms13 Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Well actually the shirt backwards thing wasn't a marketing strategy on SLU'S part..yes the guys intentionally wore their shirts that way. Reg started this last year with the team pictures at SLU. There told to have fun at the photo shoot, so they do. Reg turned his Jersey around last year and was the only one on the picture who did so, because he felt he was new and wanted to be recognized. It was in fun, it's definitely not to show personal interest in his stats etc...if it were, he would never pass the ball, ... we wouldn't be talking about this issue right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brehms13 Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 What positive is said to the players, about the players...what positives does the coaches have to say about the players...there's no enthusiasm, who would be enthused getting yelled at all the time...these guys aren't happy....and sooner or later they may stop caring but to say they don't care right now, I don't agree. Why would they even play?? I know for one Reg doesn't have to if he doesn't want to.. if the players didn't care, they wouldn't stay playing for a team who is 2-7, who the coaches constantly ridicule, who the media and fans doubt, why would they put themselves thru this, if they didn't care...these guys have options, for none of these players is Basketball their only option in life. I'm inclined to believe they care, or they wouldn't even waste their time. I said it before, I'll say it again..What was expected...did the coaches not know the talents of their players when they recruited them. Reg wasn't recruited for Defense, so why do have articles where coach says he wants Reg to be like Marquee and let his defense lead in his senior year...The players are who they are, if we stop trying to make them something they're not, we wouldn't have this problem. Fisher was a quiet leader, he didn't have to yell, he lead quietly, Chris lead with passion and loudness, no one ridiculed them, but Reg gets those same critcism. If we were winning, no one would ever bring these things up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluSignGuy Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 > An ex-Billiken assistant once told >me that Polk would never prosper under Brad. When I told >him that Soderberg promised to go more uptempo, he stated >that Brad would never changed because that is all he knows >how to do. I countered by saying that Brad ran an uptempo >style in Division III... > >But I think this coach knew Brad... That is very interesting...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted December 19, 2004 Author Share Posted December 19, 2004 >"( JJ is the real deal. Coach has to play him. He gives a >legit low post presence. Tom and Izik are inconsistent >inside on the offensive end. JJ is probably our best >offensive rebounder and he plays solid D. He looks energized >and more into the game now that he is getting regular >minutes." > >3 rebound--------2 pts-------23 Min----------I don't >understand your post. I credit him with 5 boards. Twice he fought for offensive rebounds that Dayton lost out of bounds and we got it back. Goes down in the books as a turnover by Dayton but he forced them. Here is a kid who played sparingly 2nd half of last year, has not played at all this year before the Oakland game. He impacts the game when he enters, give it time to translate into the stats. Stats don't tell the whole story in short samples. Only over time are they a solid indicator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLU_Nick Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Billiken Roy you said you saw TL in the hallway. I bet he is kicking himself now. Last year we looked like we were a team on the rise and now we are back in the basement. He sees the other kids at Hargrave going to Pitt and other places and he starts for Hargrave and is committed to SLU. Im sure he's looking forward to play for a 2-7 lackluster team. Lisch as well. Didnt he get recruited by Notre Dame. Next Year, I say, just start all freshman and sophomores. The Line up Polk Lisch Liddell JJ Bryce Or we should just start 4 guards. I know its comical but our guards are all pretty talented and all about the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 I agree that JJ needs some more minutes ... but lets not annoint him all-world just yet. He had 1 good not great game and 1 mediocre game. He was not a difference maker yesterday. He had 3 bords regardless of what you credit him with. Every player does things that don't show up in the stat sheet. He played good defense but was non existent offensively. I don't understand why we can't make offensive adjustments. You can't beat a zone if you casually pass the ball around the top with each player taking a couple of dribbles. The ball has to go in to the high post get kicked back at and rotated around quickly ... You have to make the defenders work and start scrambling ... Watching our offense against a zone there is no question as to why we cannot get an open look. Reggie hits two quick threes and then gets to take a rest to cool down? I'm confused. I have been a DP supporter big time ... but if he is not going to break down the defense by penetrating and then finding the open man when the D collapses ... I'm not sure why he is in rather than AD. Hell I could stand around and swing the ball around the wings. Anyone not happy with IO's overall play this year ... I'm confused again. What are you watching? He is averaging 10.8 ppg shooting .494 from the field and 70% from the line to go along with 6.9 rpg. Yes he needs to go stronger to the hole, and I'd like to see him dunk more and not put the ball on the floor as much on the perimiter, but overall he is having a good season. Our fans are DEAD ... they can't get excited during a close game even down the stretch ... but by god if you throw them some empty cups they get riled up. Reggie needs to get back to catching and shooting ... he is heasitating and shooting off the dribble more often. He is at his best when he catches and shoots. Part of this I understand because with our slow motion offense he or anyone else rarely get an open look from 3. If we are so good defensively ... than how come our opponents seem to get wide open looks from the 3, but teams that are not as good as we are defensively can prevent us from getting the same looks. Could it be that an 8 year old could stay7 with the ball as slow as we move it. Hell I don't know why they don't bring those little time out chairs out on the court with them. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 IO is a senior and has played for the 3 years he is here. He is suppose to be a leader and not crumble at crunch time - ala Fish or CS rock solid play - not happening. AD is fine at times but he can not play big minutes. Polk tries to drive but when he does nobody is open because they stand around so much. I agree the ball movement is poor and not even close to crisp. I think RB would get more shots if others tried to get open rather than standing around. The fans are not the problem - they cheer when given something to cheer about - the team just continues to disappoint so therefore the fans sit waiting for the collapse because that is what has always happened before this year. If Brad can not adjust his coaching style then he is at fault but the bigger problem I see is that Brad has to put his best team on the floor - the younger guys with RB. TF - sick or not is playing just terrible. Actually, the new recruits are probably licking their chops thinking they can get big minutes as freshmen. VN is slow and is always the last up the court - at least it seems that way. Brehms - if Brad is yelling all the time then that is not a big concern ( all coaches yell) but if he is making fun of the kids then that is a problem. My big question about Brad is that he talks about how a kid is making progress and how he will play them more but then his actions are not true to his words - that wears thin with kids/players. My son played soccer for a high school coach who preached those who put out at practice will get the playing time - it did not take long for the team to see that simply was not true. Those who worked hard at practice but were not gifted athletes did not ever really get any playing time - even small minutes. What I saw the coach did wrong was mislead kids - they knew they were not the most gifted players and he would have been better off being honest with the kids by telling them that I expect everyone do their best at practice so each of you can get better but to win we have to go with the best players. Kids could have accepted that and moved on but once they realized that no matter how hard they practiced nothing was going to change they saw the coach as phony and he ended up losing kids. Brad has to be honest with the players - if DC really has improved that much from last year as he says then reward him with playing time if he has not improved then be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 It doesn't matter what is happenning, Bills fans rarely cheer outloud. The entire crowd ought to be on their feet for the last few minutes of a tight game ... it does give the players extra adrenaline ... Neither Fish nor Sloan was consistently rock solid at crunch time ... they each had their moments both good and bad. IO is not a superstar ... but he has played solid this year. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 in brad's defense, he is paid to coach the team, not entertain on a talk show. now if they want to change his contract and set up a post game brad soderberg show that he is compensated for, i.e. rick pitino at louisville or calipari at memphis where they are paid to specifically perform on a post game show, then we got a b!tch when he doesnt show up. but anyone that has ever played organized sports knows that the best time to address the team is immediately after the game when incidents and examples are still fresh in the minds. sorry, i have no problem with coach wanting to talk to his players first. if we had a decent radio deal, rammer and earl would comment for 15 minutes or so after the game and then coach would come out for 30-60 minute show that he could take calls etc. but the lost voice of the billikens is more concerned with getting to the autofixit show on time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 davidnark said about drejaj, "He hit some nice shots in the first half, but when the game was on the line he airballed two threes, missed the front end of two one and ones, and turned the ball over. He has fallen apart down the stretch multiple times this season." it is my belief after watching the billikens thus far this season and the fact that brad hasnt taken drejaj from the mix at specific moments that you comment on, that the fact is, there is no one else that will step up and try. if that wasnt true, i can guarantee you that drejaj wouldnt be the guy with the ball taking those shots. drejaj appears to be the only one with the guts to try to make stuff happen. the only one with the p!ssed off attitude "you arent going to beat me". unfortunately, he isnt talented enough to finish. until our seniors start acting like seniors. or until one of our talented underclassmen step up, it seems we are stuck with drejaj trying to overachieve. not his fault. the b!tches should be with those that have more talent that dont have the balls to take over. not with drejaj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 i agree with everything said. does anybody think we would have lost that game if we had josh and sloan on the team? while they werent stats mongers, they played with guts and desire and did all the things that made teams win. other than drejaj, there doesnt seem to be a lot of that on this team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Man, it just makes me furious to see people like you trying to hurt our recruiting. I don't know what your agenda is but you are obviously not a Billiken fan if you want to discourage good players from playing for the Bills. How does a team get better unless it recruits better players? This team, so far, has been a disappointment--so what you are saying is that no recruit should consider the team and those that have committed whould be sorry they did so. What a joke of an attitude! Remember the last Grawer year when we were 5-23--the teams that followed became some of the best and most exciting teams of the modern Billiken era two and three years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 slumn1 said, "What a stupid comment! Obviously you do not know any of the guys. You do not understand how it eats at them when they make a mistake, miss a shot, lose a game, or sit on the bench and watch their teammates lose not being able to do anyhing about it. If you have ever played the game you would undestand that the SLU players go through all of these emotions." if what you said is true, then why havent we seen it yet? if there is all this emotion just sitting there dying to make a difference, surely by now they could have made that known in practice and earned a chance. brad told us at the meeting tuesday nite that pt is wide open someone just has to step up. i am waiting for the billiken messiah to appear this season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guest Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 actually, lukes jersey was on the right way becasue his uniform was messed up early in the year when they were taking pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 First, Liddell and Lisch didn't sign on to play with Frericks, Bryant, and Ohanon, three current starters, plus, Drejaj who is only going to be here one year while the new recruits are at SLU. Consequently, next year's team is going to look quite a bit different than this year's team. I seriously doubt that Kevin and Tommie are kicking themselves over our record now. If anything, they should be looking at the early play of Polk, Brown, Johnson, Husak, and Meyer and feeling like the four years that they are here will be years with pretty talented players. More than anything, given the team, Liddell and Lisch could very easily be starters in their freshman season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 while we are all disappointed with the final results of the schedule thus far, there is no reason to believe that it continues. the likes of lisch and liddell might be the missing ingredient. look at our predictions for the season. there is no way that so many people could be so far off that the fact is that the team is just terrible. the real fact is that the key to the team is missing. one maybe two pieces to the puzzle. think about it. we lose basically sloan and fisher from last year's team and we fall off the face of the college basketball map? no way that should happen. it isnt like larry hughes just left the team to go pro. we should have easily replaced sloan and fisher. so dont panic. if brad hits on at least one of these last two schollies to go with tommie and kevin, we will be fine. btw, when everyone got home from the game did you happen to see taj gray playing for oklahoma? taj gray was a romar recruit that almost came to slu. he would have been a nice guess as to the answer to perplexing puzzle. it brings up billiken rich's statement a while back about lorenzo killing this team. as much as i loved coach romar, the fact is, this senior class is all stop gaps from coach soderberg reacting to lorenzo leaving. it should be romar's best group of players as seniors. not one romar player is left on the team. it explains a lot about our seniors imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 lisch was marvelous last nite vs cahokia. pretty much a one man show vs the very athletically talented cahokia team. i was glad i had the chance to watch the althoff game to allow me to sleep last nite after the billiken debacle. here is the box score from the althoff game. http://prepsports3.stltoday.com/basketball...vent202566.shtm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted December 19, 2004 Author Share Posted December 19, 2004 I agree with your comments AJ. The proof will be in the pudding next year. This year maybe Brad can hold onto the argument that he lacks the horses to surround Polk to run. For me it is red herring--Polk, Bryant, D. Brown, J. Johnson, I. Ohanan look like about as good a group to run as we have had at SLU since Larry's crew. Next year with Liddell and Lisch, that fig leaf shall be gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted December 19, 2004 Author Share Posted December 19, 2004 >> I agree that JJ needs some more minutes ... but lets not annoint him all-world just yet. << Certainly would agree Skip. I am only comparing JJ to Billiken forwards of recent past and current crop ... not a very high bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 I've been desperately trying to think of a handful of basketball coaches who drastically changed their offensive approach after they got better athletes. Unfortunately, I haven't been successful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 b_roy "in brad's defense, he is paid to coach the team, not entertain on a talk show. now if they want to change his contract and set up a post game brad soderberg show that he is compensated for..." if there is not something in our contract with our radio broadcast partner for a post game chat with the or a coach, why is it ever done? out of the goodness of the coach's heart?? the university receives the rights fees for the broadcast, I would be shocked if there is not something in the contract saying we will have a coach on after each game. If someone knows the details of that arrangement and I am incorrect, then I apologize. maybe it does not have to be the h/c, but if there is a trend that UB only appears after a win, I would find that interesting. "coach the team" has many responsibilities outside of X's and O's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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