recruits

[slufanskip]

I concur with Pdiddy ... except on the point that KL would have been a starter last year. Now ... I only saw him twice, so maybe I am wrong.

The guards will be pretty much interchangeable in a half court set, but DP is the point guard and will be the point guard until he graduates. He will be the one receiving the outlet and distributing the ball on most breaks with Kevin, Tommie and VN, Obi or JJ getting down the floor to finish.

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[3star_recruit]

"There's a leadership void, as there was last year, and the big question is who's going to lead this team?"

I've got an even more fundamental question than that: Who's going to hit open jumpers? The entire season rides on finding two players who can consistently do it.

[billiken_roy]

because i have seen them both play about a million times. lisch should have been the metro player of the year last year. nate and his boys f'd that up badly. no one was near the player that kevin has been actually for the last two years.

[billiken_roy]

i would have had him starting alongside of fisher already.

[Cowboy]

I certainly hope our team improves from last year in every aspect but my concern is with BH and BS. How could BH not get minutes on a team that was 9-21? and what makes us think he will get minutes this year? I realize IO's minutes are up for grabs in the front court, but I am still puzzeled by BS not playing BH last year (maybe I should get over that and wait to see how this yr goes).

Also, for all you folks saying AD,DB,DP,LM,KL,TL will get minutes, we only play 5 guards/wings, so someone is left out of the mix.

[jjray]

Ian was playing over 30 minutes a game in the 2nd half of the season so that only leaves 10. We were also playing Izik at center with regularity so I can see how it happened (i.e., no pt for Bryce). Actually, I'm not concerned about the situation. Besides Ian and Bryce, we have two other guys on the roster with the size to play center: JJ and Obi. Landing Obi really gives us depth and more options across the front line. The question is how quickly the kid heals and gets his body back into game shape.

[willie]

I agree that somebody will be left out of the main rotation. As much as I would like it to be Dreja that probably won't happen unless he just doesn't do anything this summer to stay in shape or work on his game. As I stated earlier Polk is your point. Liddel and Lisch will play if for no other reason then they are freshman and must play to develop. That leaves Brown vs. Meyers. Let the competition begin.

[billiken_roy]

if brad's habits continue, it will be whoever is putting out the least in practice.

[3star_recruit]

All of these kids have good work ethics. So hopefully Brad will be forced to put the most talented kids on the floor.

[VTIME]

Polk is not a pg. Last year was his first year playing pg. Liddell actually played pg in high school. Liddell is the pg, Polk and Lisch will play the other two guard positions, with whoever the two post players are. Wouldnt hurt to see some 4 guard lineups every once in a while.

[Nate Latsch]

>lisch should have been the metro player of the year last

>year. nate and his boys f'd that up badly. no one was near

>the player that kevin has been actually for the last two

>years.

Thanks.

I'll throw my 2 cents at this "debate" ...

I'm not sure why you guys are even discussing who will be the point. Dwayne Polk, Tommie Liddell and Kevin Lisch can all play point guard and will likely continue to play point guard at times. The three are interchangeable and will only make each other better.

What you should have is a team that can handle the ball very well, move it around and get it to where it needs to be, run in transition if the opportunity is there and be able to match up well defensively because there are three different-sized kids (approximately 6-5, 6-2, 5-9).

I can't wait to see what this team can do with the three of them on the floor together.

- Nate

[billiken_roy]

and what is even more scary is that the two main backups, brown and meyer are also different sized and different styles that can also give the opposition something else to think about. overall, while the experience or lack thereof will be a factor, it is hard to argue about the depth of talent we will have at guard/wings the next 3-4 years.

[3star_recruit]

"I'm not sure why you guys are even discussing who will be the point. Dwayne Polk, Tommie Liddell and Kevin Lisch can all play point guard and will likely continue to play point guard at times."

Because open-ended arguments create board traffic so we can post here endlessly in times of boredom ;-)

[cheeseman]

Great thread - 1. AD - as I have said before, if he is seeing big minutes next year we are in trouble. I am sorry but his slow and can not shoot. I see him playing when Brad wants to slow the game down or he needs somebody to come in and play some physical defense for a period of time. AD will be like RB last year - a senior who simply not able to play at the level needed - while in RB's defense it was injuries that caused that for AD it will be his physical limitations. 2. LM will probably get to play early on but his minutes will start to be decreased as the season goes on - same holds for DB. Now I am not saying that LM and DB will not get to play all I am saying is that they will not be playing 25-30 minutes a game. 3. I agree with those of you who say that our guards are interchangeable and we will probably see more of that blurring of roles throughout the season - that will be a good thing. 4. DP - he is the pg - I don't care if he ever played pg in h.s. or not - he was recruited for that purpose and Brad knew that he wanted to get KL and TL so he is not going to change horses now. He had a plan and he will play it out. By the way can some one tell me how many 5'9" sg there are playing D1 ball? 5. IO and RB's points - I have no worries that they can be replaced. RB was as someone said missed many games and had several subpar games so to say his 12 pts per game will be hard to replace is just not true - yes he avg. 12 pts but he was not in enought games to have impacted our 56pts avg. IO - he had his moments but he also had his droughts - I have no doubt that we won't even be thinking about him by Dec.

I am looking forward to this coming year and while I am not sure how many games we will win - I do believe the team will grow and play more exciting bb.

[slufanskip]

Polk is the SLU pg. and I don't see it changing. There were times last year when he didn't look good ... but hell who could look good at the point in our motionless offense. There were times I thought a players shoes must be stuck to the floor. No one could hit an open shot ... including DP. It is very hard, almost impossible to penetrate out of a half court set when the opponent has no respect for your outside shot. He simply backs up a step. Polk looked good running the break ... finding the open man and pushing the ball up the floor. With the team they have coming I would think they will try to push the ball quite a bit more. It is easy to see why you want Polk receiving the outlet and pushing the ball up the floor for Tommie, Kevin, Danny, Luke or VN to finish rather than the other way around. Once they are in a half court set ... the guards are interchangeable.

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[billiken_roy]

small wings

the bynum kid at georgia tech was very effective as an off guard.

uab used two waterbug guards the past few seasons.

those come to mind very quickly.

the fact that liddell is much taller and kevin much stronger gives the billikens the advantage of being able to let polk play a wing if needed and still guard the probable smaller opposing point guard. same if any of the other guards are in the game with polk.

[p diddy]

Pro Black,

Marque Perry and Josh Fisher were not point guards when they showed up at slu either. marque played a swing role and josh played a lot of small forward in high school. both were quite good for us for a long time.

when travis diener was a freshman, he played a lot of 2-guard because cordell henry was still there at the point with d-wade at the 3.

as a said before, when you have a number of guards who can pass, catch and shoot with good basketball IQ's, it doesn't matter who runs the point in a motion offense. DP, TL and KL are all quite capable of getting it done. they are good guards of various size and various skills, but they know how to play the game. luke works well without the ball in the motion and danny brown is the best athlete. throw in AD's grit and we have a nice situation in the backcourt for years to come.

it took the nation most of the year to figure out that deron williams was illinois' point guard and not brown, although all three were quite capable of taking the reins. dee is a good point guard, but williams is just better at the position.

not playing point guard at vashon really hurt the careers of shelton and mcKinney. when mizzou tried to play jimmy at point, it made little sense because jimmy is a 3. joel was strictly a small shooting guard.

lorenzo did pretty well at washington with a 5'7" shooting guard masquerading as a point guard. conroy was the point, but nate had the ball in his hands most of the time. dwayne has way more point guard instincts than nate, who is just a dominant athlete and physically stronger than most guards.

bad boyz for life