X?

[BLIKNS]

Thought I read somewhere that Xavier was going to visit DT and Western Illinois,does anyone know if this is correct?

[slu72]

Whose DT, Dayton, Detroit Mercy?????Jeez, I don't want him playing against us in the A-10.....

[crymdg2]

DT is Derrick Thomas who used to be an assistant here under Spoon. He is now the coach at Western Illinois.

[slu72]

Little B'roy, you think he's going to sign with us?

[crymdg2]

I guess it all depends on his reasons for transferring. If the issue is playing time then I see no point in him transferring here, as he will be behind Liddell, Lisch (Both of whom have outplayed him time in and time out in the past) and Polk. Now if the issue is not wanting to be away from home, then I'd say come to SLU. Either way I am all for him coming here if he wants. We can never have enough athletes in my opinion. Plus it will only enhance our local appeal to the community around us, and hopefully put some more people into the seats.

[p diddy]

word on the street is that we took a pass on X. instead, he will sign with DT at Western Illinois.

bad boyz for life

[crymdg2]

I've heard from a very close source that X told him that Soderberg said he would disrupt the team chemistry. Now whether or not that is true I don't know. That could be Price blowing his own horn too, I don't know. But Price apparently told this person that he dominated when they played. Again not sure if Price is telling the truth, but my guess is that he saw everyone ahead of him and didn't want to compete. If his desire is playing time, and he wants to be the star then I say let him pass and good luck to him. Oh well.

[SLURadioBoy]

Well that's too bad. I was hoping we could get him signed and possibly help us out, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. I thought we could use his athletisism, but if he's the kind of player that doesn't even want to try then we're probably better off without him.

"Praises we sing, to you our alma mater,

Praise to the white and blue.

Our hymn shall ring, in tribute strong to you,

We hail Saint Louis U."

Official Billikens.com sponsor of Andrew Latimer

[3star_recruit]

"But Price apparently told this person that he dominated when they played."

Considering that Lisch and Liddell aren't here yet, I don't find this hard to believe at all. Danny Brown's the only guy we have that has any chance of staying with Price in a pick-up game.

When it comes down to it, Price isn't a half-court player and would feel confined by our system. But he could be just the shot in the arm that gets Derek Thomas's fastbreaking squad over the .500 mark.

[crymdg2]

I completely agree, when you talk about Brown being the only one being able to stay with Price in a half court game. This is why i question the validity of this statement. I am content with Lisch, Brown, Polk, and Liddell. I really hope they lead this team into a new and exciting era of basketball.

[tseugnekillib]

I would have taken XP; however, I had reservations as to what makes him happy. Transferred from O'Fallon to Belleville West for his senior year in high school and then just one year at Purdue. Where ever he signs, it will be his fourth school/coach in four years!

[SLU_Nick]

Is anything official yet? is he certainly not coming here. I still want him. If Brad thinks he has enough talent he is dead wrong. Team chemistry? WE ARE COMING OFF A 9 WIN SEASON.

[billiken_roy]

if he truly is "dominate", he wouldnt be ending up at western illinois.

[billiken_roy]

slu nick, you are dead wrong if you think we are lacking in guard talent. guard experince, yes. but the stable of meyer, brown, polk, lisch and liddell will be the envy of a lot lot lot of schools soon. our lack of talent has nothing to do with our guards.

[slu72]

This makes absolutely makes no sense. Would Dean Smith have sent MJ packing because he was dominant in practice, or Carmello Anthony, or Larry Hughes, or ________________(insert name of your favorite dominant player)? How the hell can a dominating player be bad for team Chemistry? Unless he's trash talking every time you pick up the jock strap he just faked you out of, or putting the moves on every player's girl friend, or generally being an arrogant obnoxious sob, I can't imagine any reason for not adding a dominant player to the roster? Hell, we need players who dominate. Tiger Woods dominated and look what happened to the rest of the PGA, they got better. Canseco took steroids and started hitting HR's, and how many followed? If UB denied X a scholie because of dominance over the players working out with him, we're in serious trouble until we get a new coach....this ain't little league and we're not looking for a team made up of Miss Congenialities. Some of you guys are speculating X couldn't dominate DB. Who knows that for sure? And what if he did, is that a bad thing? Hell no, just the opposite, we could have added a better player. And despite what others suggest here, we ain't exactly loaded at the guard position when we don't have one player returning who averaged double figures, shot the 3 consistently, penetrated effectively, and demonstrated any kind of leadership. There has to be more here than meets the eye, because no coach worth his salt would turn away a dominant player.

[StLouBlue]

The fact that someone is saying X was dominant when he did his on campus visit is not surprising. He was probably playing a one on one or two on two type pickup game. This is very different than playing a set offense or defense in a 5 on 5 situation. I don't know anything about X other than what I have read on this board so all of this is speculation. Maybe X is the type of player that wants the ball to create, this does not work very well in our motion offense, especially with having other scorers coming in. Maybe X takes off too much on defense, doesn't like to pass, etc, there are a lot of reasons for why he would not be a good fit here, even if he dominated a pickup game.

I still trust Brad's judgement on the players he wants to bring in and if he decides X (or Ahern) is not his type of player then that is okay with me. I guess my thought on passing on X is that Brad is not going to hold back 3 scholarships and we will see him bring in at least one more player before school starts.

[willie]

I agree with the statement that I will trust Brads judgement on players he wants to bring in as long as he gets results. This is a bottom line business. If 2 years from now this thing isn't turned around then brad's situation needs to be evaluated.

[mystery_man]

"This makes absolutely makes no sense. Would Dean Smith have sent MJ packing because he was dominant in practice, or Carmello Anthony, or Larry Hughes, or ________________(insert name of your favorite dominant player)? How the hell can a dominating player be bad for team Chemistry?"

Slu72,

Just to answer your question without knowing anything about X specifically, look at Allen Iverson. He is a dominant player who is horrible for team chemistry. He cannot co-exist with any talented, athletic players (see Jerry Stackhouse, Tim Thomas, Larry Hughes, and now Chris Webber) but is at his best when the entire team revolves around him and is composed of role players (ala Eric Snow, Aaron McKey). If you had a team with Lebron James and Kobe Bryant as your backourt you'd be an idiot to bring in Iverson as well. That seems to be the case here. X, according to others on this board, would have added depth and competition but not a clear-cut upgrade. Hence if the issue truly was chemistry I can understand not brinning him in.

[billiken_roy]

slu72, x saying he was dominant and actually being dominant are not necessarily the same. i have been watching price play for 5 years. he is not dominantly better than the guards we got and he definitely is not better than the guards we got coming. again, as i said above, if he was that much better than what we got, he wouldnt be ending up at western illinois.

[slu72]

Willie, I agree if he was an Iverson headcase type...leave him alone. What is of concern is, and I may be wrong here, but he would come in pretty much at a level slightly below TL and KL but above what we already have(I know B'roy doesn't agree with this and I've got to bow to his knowledge since he's seen them all play). So let's give him the third "best" and the point being why are we turning our back on adding more talent? My caveat is; if he is an obnoxious trash talking sob who no one wants to play alongside then let him go. But to say he's not coming because he dominated those he practiced against just doesn't make sense to me.

[crymdg2]

OK, maybe I need to further clarify my use of the word dominant and where the source of it came from. When I said X looked dominant that is not from someone elses viewpoint that is straight from X's mouth. A teenager, who is desperate to be the star, is not going to say oh I blended in or there were a few people better than me. Of course they will say that I was the best, and that everyone else was below me. We all know that Price would most likely be the 5th or 6th guard on this team had he come here. My guess, his words of being dominant are in attempt to hide the fact the Soderberg was honest with him in telling him that he wouldn't be the star.

[billiken_roy]

no way he is the 3rd best if thrown into the mix of the existing billiken guards and lisch and liddell. that is unless the competition we are judging is high jump. but i thought we were talking about basketball. i wouldnt trade a single one of our guards for him even up.

[slubbfan]

I'll trade Drejaj for him straight up right now. I also would question whether LM is better than him. When I saw X play he got beat by KL every time they played but I honestly don't think X was that far behind.

Maybe I don't have an eye for talent but after 1 year of D1 practice, and KL coming off a couple injuries, I wouldn't be surprised to see X give KL a run for his money.

The only reason I can think of not to get X in the door right away is that he has an attitude problem. After seeing DC run off and JJ benched I am concerned that Brad finds a reason not to like a kid who doesn't dress, act, and look like Chris Sloan. I'm just observing from 300 miles away though...

slubbfan

[slu72]

you may have hinted at something a lot of us have had in the back of our minds but were afraid to say. Not proposing we offer the Ricky Clemons of the world, but the days that every athlete has a crew cut and wears a letter sweater are long over. Got to admit we out of towners are shooting in the dark here about X, but he was good enough to get a big 10 scholie from a successful veteran coach and his designated successor, who proved to be a pretty good judge of talent at SIU, you got to think he was good enough for SLU. Now we hear, he's not better than LM, DP, or DB? What big time programs were offering them? And on top of all this, didn't we offer X a year ago? Wasn't 'Zo in hot pursuit from the time he was a freshman? For a team coming off a 9-21 year and going into next year on not much more than a wing and a prayer, it appears we're taking a pretty haughty attitude. Hope we don't face Western Illinois in the future and he burns us for 20 or so.

[billiken_roy]

read my posts today on the subject matter. i never once included drejaj in the discussion because drejaj and price would have never been on the roster actively if price had transferred to slu. in effect, price would be taking drejaj's place.

as to your comparison with meyer, i will take meyer's work ethic and smarts plus he is a darn fine player as well, over price's raw athleticism. but even if you are taking price over meyer, you still have four other players in front of him.

as to lisch's injury, all indications are he is recovering nicely. and everyone is telling me that in this day and age not think he wont recover completely unless he either shortcuts rehab or has additional setbacks. knowing the lisch's, neither will happen.

btw, i stood next to kevin over the weekend and it is my guess he has grown at least two inches. he is at least 6'3" if not 6'4". the other parent that was with me during the conversation swears that he is 6'1" and kevin and he stood back to back and kevin was at least 2" taller.