aj_arete Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 I guess we'll see a decrease in traffic here. Anyway, my memory goes back to what Brad Soderberg was saying last year when someone asked him about the struggles Quin was going through last year. Brad stated that there are just some years when NO MATTER what you do, you're unable to reach a group. Looks like Brad has one of those groups... It'll be interesting to see if Brad and his staff can win the respect of his players back... It ain't looking good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 What do you think has happened from one year to the next that Brad has lost the team? There hasn't been that much of a change in personnel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 22, 2004 Author Share Posted December 22, 2004 For one, Chris Sloan would never let these guys lay down. Fisher was also a strong leader. Reggie Bryant is an extremely talented player, but he's no leader. As for Izik, I'll be glad to see him gone... As to where the leadership will come from next year, it's scary, but it might have to come from Polk and Lisch. I know both are young, but I can't see anybody else on this roster fitting the bill... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Makes me wish that Sloan would have taken a medical redshirt after severely injuring his shoulder during his freshman year... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 We'd better figure out who is going to score next year. As bad as our offense is this season, next year we will have zero (0) scorers. Our top returning scorer AND rebounder is Drejaj. For those that have seen them play, who has/had more scoring potential entering their first year in the program Meyer or Lisch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 embarassed by the good teams, Let youth have it's day. What the hell has happened here? We returned three starters and supposedly upgraded our athleticism. Our players cannot be this far below D1 level talent, can they? Keep RB on the court but let's see the others like LM, DC, DP, DB, BH, IV, JJ. We've got to establish some sort of base for next year, which could be equally as long if we're counting on two freshman to be our saviors. God, am I dreading conference schedule. Still going to Charlotte on the 15th. You going Tarheel Billiken? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 I thought that Danny Brown's play was one of the few bright spots of last night's game. He defended well, showed good quickness and athleticism and added some scoring pop. Why not start him - at this point, what could it hurt? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 lisch would be the best player on this team by far. think of it in this manner. i have never seen x price outplay kevin. i have never seen mike dale out play kevin. you all saw dale last nite. price starts and plays big minutes for purdue. kevin had 35 again last night. he was matched up against one of the besst sophomores in the area, robbie rudy (who also scored 20). also, for those concerned about kevin's missed free throws and overall performance at the shootout, he is 35-39 on his free throws since the shootout (in 4 games)and has scored 26, 25, 37 and 35 in those four games. i also believe that liddell is better than anyone on this current team as well. we need to pull in a couple of inside players that can play ahead of ian and bryce and justin. that is our key to next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Why would you want to start him at the point over Polk, unless you think Polk is not our future point guard? In my opinion the sooner this becomes Polk's team the better we will be. Now if you want to take Dreja place thats fine by me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleacherBum593 Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 I don't think he was advocating that Danny B start at point guard, but that he should be a starter "at this point" in time. From what I've seen, he's probably one of the more athletic guys on this team and will be getting increasing playing time as the year goes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Sorry I misread his post. I agree.Give him a couple of starts, nothing to lose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Yep, that's what I meant. Brad seems to be happy with his play as well, as evidenced by his quotes in the P-D this morning. He was also very complimentary towards Luke, who I thought had some shaky moments before settling down at the end. I would prefer to see very little of Drejaj from here on out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 "kevin had 35 again last night. he was matched up against one of the besst sophomores in the area, robbie rudy (who also scored 20). also, for those concerned about kevin's missed free throws and overall performance at the shootout, he is 35-39 on his free throws since the shootout (in 4 games)and has scored 26, 25, 37 and 35 in those four games" Luke Meyer scored 34, 28, 29, 33 in a four game stretch that included 23-5 Chaminade. As for one player outplaying his counterparts, Grant Agbo owned Kalen Grimes in high school. A guy's high school stats is not necessarily a precursor to future offensive success. What matters more is how a guy scored those points. You already know all this, this is really for those out-of towners who may be getting all excited just because a kid averaged 30 in high school. Luke is a slasher who is getting stripped on a regular basis/ He's playing with absolutely no confidence right now. Kevin is more explosive and has more tricks in his offensive bag -- you can't just take away the drive and render him ineffective. Liddell is much more athletic than Luke and has a significantly better handle but there is still the danger that the a good defensive team could just take his drive away. He needs to get out in the open court to thrive. If Coach utilizes his young players' strengths and develops a more holistic approach to offense rather than "they just need to execute in the halfcourt", then they will be successful. If he doesn't, they won't. I'll be very interested in the approaches both Pinkel and Brad take with their teams next season. They're in very similar situations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Lisch and Lidell sound to be great improvements for the team, however I am very concerned about not only this season, but next season. Scoring is a big problem and we lose what little scoring we have after this year. I see that Price and Dale both average under 5 points a game. Assuming that Lisch's college game is better that that of these 2 players, should we expect 10 points per game average from him as a frosh? (That output was generally expected from Polk this year) I see that Lisch gets to the line a lot (10 times per game in his last 4). To do that in D1, you need the ball. I am a bit concerned that we will be starting 3 players who need to have the ball in their hands (L,L,P). Will we have enough ball to go around? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 I watched most of the game last night but did finally start channel surfing since my wife tired of my yelling at the TV. The truth also was I could not take it anymore. In regards to all of the above posts - AD from what I saw had a terrible game - he turned over the ball and his shooting is still something that is not consistent. Now that being said, I am not dumping our situation on him - enough blame to go around. Highmark said during the game when Frank asked him what does Brad do - coach will give the playing time minutes to those who earn it in practice so you will probably see changes. My only concern with that is I think Brad is giving the minutes to those who earn it in practice the problem is they are not capable of producing during the game. How does coach sort this out in his mind and values system? I heard Doherty on KFNS today - with Frank and Bryan - say that what he learned from his experience at UNC was that just because his intensity worked at ND does not mean that it will work everywhere. He now knows that he needed to take a situational approach with each player based on their age/maturity. He said that players who are juniors and seniors can respond to hard nosed approaches better and that freshmen and sophomores need a little more understanding and slack. If Brad recognizes this then he can put the younger players in for more minutes and see if they perform or not in games. We need to develop who our team will be next year - another bad year would be a killer for the program and Brad. IO - he has never developed the way he was expected - as far as I am concern he should get fewer minutes and let JJ and Husak play more. IO has not performed enough in his time here to garner the right to stay in - same applies to TF. I am not saying they are terrible players just that they are not our future and that is what we need to focus on now. Newborne has spurts but overall his play has been inconsistent - I am not sure if he is simply having adjustment problems to the pace of D1 ball or what but Brad has to decide if he is part of our future or not and if he is then leave in there to see if he can come around or not if not than give him fewer minutes - seems to be happening already - and regulate him to substitute minutes. Once again - there is no senior leadership on this team - Brehms I am not taking shots at RB but simply saying that not all people thrive well in leadership roles - it is either in their nature or not. Nothing to be ashamed of. The key senior leaders should be AD and IO - they have been here 3 years but they have never elevated their play to that status. My advice to Brad is the future is now - let youth be served. This can still be a season of value if we can play .500 ball for the second half of the season with our young players. I would consider that a real positive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Is it just me, or do most of Newborne's scoring spurts seem to occur at the end of games when we're already losing by 20+ points? I hope he's able to adjust to the DI game - preferably sooner than later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 i too cant wait to see how brad "combines" the talent and needs of lisch, liddell and polk, not to even mention meyer and brown who i think are also very viable players that need more opportunities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 very good post cheeseman. i agree with the thoughts about reggie. he is an excellent second option that can kill the opposition. any bets how freaking awesome he would have been with marque? even last year with josh and sloan taking the grunt work, josh was such a strong ballhandler and could strongly go to the basket that defenses had to respect that and thus reggie was so open on the wing in the first half of the season. however, to put him in the position of being the man, it just doesnt appear to be in the cards. drejaj is getting ripped again today, and he indeed had a bad game, but the bad game imo was izik last nite. at least 3 times i remember him being outrebounded by the much smaller saluki. at least 3 times i remember just horrible turnovers on bad passes and traveling. the last bad pass he made stopped our mini run to open the second half where we had cut it to 9 and had the ball. we get a score there, who knows what happens. instead the tide turns back. the problem with the youth taking over though is that imo, the bigger concern is still our inside play. there was hope after the oakland game that maybe johnson would break out. he has went back to the johnson we saw the other games. someone tell me if ian or bryce looked better last nite? i didnt think they did. the point is, while we can throw in danny brown and luke meyer and darren clarke in place of drejaj and bryant, the fact of the matter is that they arent as big of the problem as frericks, newborne and izik imo. and there is no way that ian, husak and johnson are going to give us much this year in comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 speaking of newborne, does anyone else grit their teeth now when thinking of coach soderberg's statement when defining newborne in the offseason, "with vashun newborne we will immediately be a better team?" i admit after the first time or two i saw him in practice i was impressed as well. but why hasnt that translated better to games? i still dont think he is a power forward and would be better served on the wing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 22, 2004 Author Share Posted December 22, 2004 but I'm thinking Luke Meyer will need a couple of years to make a solid contribution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 i'm thinking he could be it with some direction and show of confidence now. luke meyer never played scared in high school. what happened in the last 7 months to change his on court persona? i understand it is a step up, but still, that is an aspect that one would think would be embraced, nurtured and encouraged, not put in the closet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 Speaking of Izik/rebounding, why didn't Frericks get much playing time in the second half? I thought he played fairly well when he was in there, and he never got into foul trouble. And I don't know what Tom did to improve his free throw shooting so dramatically, but I wish he'd share his secret with the rest of the team. He's been money at the charity stripe this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 if coaches are reading, why not go find some old tom kleinschmidt video and lock luke meyer and danny brown in a room for about two days and tell them not to come out until they turn into tom kleinschmidt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2004 Share Posted December 22, 2004 i just assumed that brad was going to go with youth and the upper classmen were out. it was a statement to the seniors imo. playing "fairly well" is not what we came into this season expecting from tom frericks. i for one expected a beast that would be the all conference center. right now i am having bad dreams thinking of hicks and maxiell coming to play the billikens and our inside players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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