What have we learned so far?

[Billikan]

The answer to this question IMO is as follows:

1. If we can't make shots we cannot beat a good team, particularly on the road--probably no great relevation--predictible before we played any games.

2.If our opponent has a tall shot blocker--like the exhibition team and like WVU--then our inside game suffers greatly because Sloan, Frericks, et al seem to "take it to them" in the belief that thay can score anyway. The result is blocked or altered shots and missed opportunities.

3. Our new players do not understand the concept of the defense. Reggie seems to be willing but he is not in the face of his player on the outside--last night his man had several wide open long shots that killed us. JJ does not understand that he has to adjust his approach to defense depending on who he is guarding. If he is guarding Pittsnoogle then he needs to be on him like glue at the 3 point line and yet he can't rush at a person who can penetrate who will then drive around him for a layup. Tom F. often seemed out of position and he forgot that Pittsnoogle was a 3 point shooter. They will all learn and seem willing to hustle but it is apparant that our defense is not as good as it needs to be.

4. The margin for error is very narrow--they hit some wild shots and we messed up several opportunities on the break where Reggie and anthony just threw the ball away. I give credit to the coach at WVU--putting Pittsnoogle in the post against Varner and having him shoot jump hooks was a complete change from their normal game plan. Nevertheless, if we just make the easy shots and make our free throws we win this game. That being said, we will see much tougher opponents in the near future and the effort and execution that would have won the game last night will not be enough in the future.

5. I truly hope that Ian is a player because it was obvious last night that we are short at least one competent inside player who can defend and rebound. the problem will be that it might take Ian 10 games to get comfortable and then the season will be almost over.

6. Reggie B. has the potential to be a beautiful offensive player but he seems to be floating around a lot on offense. I think he will be a big scorer for us as the year goes on.

7. Tom Frericks' health is a major concern. If he can't play big minutes, particularly before Ian arrives, we will not be big enough or tough enough on the inside to challange anyone.

8. Sloan, Josh, and Anthony played very hard every minute but at times chris and Anthony did not play smart. We need those 3 players to step up every night--a burden on them, but a reality.

9. The optimistic predictions re the season record are in serious jeopardy.

[davidnark]

>9. The optimistic predictions re the season record are in

>serious jeopardy.

We lost a close road game to a Big East opponent who played a very good game, and our likely leading scorer was playing his first game in over a year.

Neither the good nor the bad predictions are jeaopardy right now.

[StlCardinal]

Although Reggie looked pretty good offensively after he shook off the rust, I was less than thrilled with his defense. He's going to be a liability if he's going to play his man so soft off the ball like he did last night. As his man was making cuts and trying to get open, it seemed like Reggie was always 3-4 steps behind him. Maybe he was still adjusting to playing D-I basketball again, but it looked more like he was just saving his energy for the offensive end. That's unacceptable. It doesn't matter if you score 15 ppg if your man scores 20 on you. Hopefully Brad will get him to learn to love playing defense like every good Billiken should :-)

[SluSignGuy]

I agree. SLU, as Taj pointed out, has never done well on the road. I expect us to be 3 and 3 by next Saturday. But hopefully we will pull one out.

The game by game predictions are harder than season predictions I think. I never want to predict Billikens are going to lose, which is irrational, but I never really think about all the losses I predicted for the season, when I was probably thinking more rationally. Those loss have to come from somewhere.

I doubt I will come close to winning the game by game prediction contest, too much heart to predict losses...or just plain stupidity

Steve

[Billikan]

You may be right but as I analyze the schedule it looks like we have 10-12 really difficult games against high quality opponents--many on the road. We will not win any of those games if we do not play better than we did last night. Don't get me wrong, however, I am a diehard fan who will be there for the Bills under all circumstances. I am just concerned that we all may have been too optimistic about how fast and well the new players would work into the lineup. I pray that I am wrong and we win 20+ games!!!!

[stchuckbilliken]

I agree with your assessment and would like to

add a few of my own.

- Reggie B needs to understand what the "motion offense"

is about and play it.

- I don't think we can count on IO this year.

- The same for RV. Brad needs to put JJ in and let him

him play, mistakes and all. By Jan. - Feb. we will have

a nice inside player.

- We will need to win a lot of games this year with the defense.

[billiken_roy]

i think mistakes are not what keeps justin out of the lineup. effort is. last night, justin made mistakes as i pointed out in other posts. however, last night, it seemed like we got the hardest working effort thus far from justin as well. result, justin played more and especially during crunch time. it is apparent to me that brad cares very much about effort in his playing time dishes. if a player is putting out 110% (especially on defense and on loose balls) he will get his opps. let's hope justin keeps putting out consistently and learning and practicing "bradball" because i totally agree that justin is an athlete that can develop into a nice player.

[Tonka]

It's way too early in the season to make hard predictions on how the season will be. But, if I remember correctly, there were many more optimistic people about this team than there were conservative thinkers and then of course there was a share of negative people. The optimistic people were pretty straight forward in their points, and now it seems like a lof of people are thinking they were speaking with their hearts. Hopefully, you people will still be correct in your initial thinking. I tend be cautiously optimistic, most of the time that is.

I want to put a question to you all. I like many others think Brad is and will be a very good coach. I seem to remember some people saying he was a great coach. What do you guys think up to this point right now? Just curious. If he is in fact a great coach, then I would think we would do better than last year. I was just looking at last year's schedule and then I looked at the future games this year. Many of you said our schedule was easier than last year. If you look at the first three games, the other non-conference games and the conference games we play this year, our schedule is easier than last year. Many of you also said this year's team is more balanced and over all a better team. The reasons people gave were that Izik, after fixing his heart / stamina problem, will be better also have another year in the system. We all said Frericks would be better than K Brown. We said Fish would be solid if not better this being his senior year. Drejaj would have another year in the system. Sloan would be even more improved than he was the second half of last year. RB, while not Marque, will be an offensive threat. So, if in fact, you look at the schedule, this more balanced team, and another year under Brad's belt - what are the expectations now? I see some taking back their original thoughts, others saying we will be below .500. If Brad is a "great" coach, this schedule is the same if not easier than last year, we have a more balanced team - then shouldn't we be better than we were last year? Just something to ponder and chew on.

We have seen so far that Brad can recruit. Is it too early to make a call on him beyond that - wanted to get your thoughts.

Also, Roy, great point on the first three games hurting us in WV. I was thinking the same thing. I was against such an easy first three games. I understand, Reggie being out, but it doesn't prepare you for what's ahead and can give you a false expectation of your team. I would have liked to have seen 1 easy team and the other two games more difficult. I think even if we lost one of the first three at home, we'd be better off going to WV on the road. Our RPI would be better and so on.

[billiken_roy]

you made the statement that you think we should be better than last year. just because our record is better or worse doesnt mean that the team is better or worse. dont forget to take into account our opponents and the schedule. they are both different as well.

imo, by years end the team will be better than last year's team, however i will be surprised if the team record is better. i think conference usa is better and i think our december schedule will be tougher than last year as well.

but to make a call on brad vs brad last year based on the first 4 games is pretty tough call. personally, i think he is the best all around billiken coach we have had in the 25+ years i have been following the team. spoon was probably a better floor coach, and as crazy as it sounds, romar was probably a better recruiter (his close but no cigar results attest he could get players attention. had he not been as good as he was he might have stayed away from chasing the big fish and gotten better end results. does that make sense?) but overall, brad is better at all facets of the coaching needs, recruiting, game coaching, practice coaching and player development. he also seems to be the coach that seems to care the most about the players off the court and their future. great? i wont call him that yet. good, hell yes. i would take him over the golden boy down the road anyday.

[SluSignGuy]

>would take him over the golden boy down the road

>anyday.

Roy, I think you would let Bill Clinton coach this team over the Golden Boy down the road.

Steve

[billiken_roy]

steve, i wouldnt let slick willie pick up my garbage let alone let him near my beloved billikens.

[SluSignGuy]

Hey, Spoon was good with putting on that good 'ol Gosh Didly Darn Southern Charm... Maybe an Arkansawian can pull it off!

Steve

[billiken_roy]

slusignguy said, "Maybe an Arkansawian can pull it off!"

he already has numerous times and probably continues to as well. that is his problem. :-)

[SluSignGuy]

Props for that one, props.

Steve

(God this message board is distracting, I should be reading, but I am sorry, there is only so much you can break-down a theory, b-jezus)

[willie]

Be carefull how you use the name willie''

[billiken_roy]

my apologies! if it is any consolation, without a shadow of a doubt, i would vote for you for president before i would ever vote for the "other".

[brehms13]

I agree. I couldn't quite understand last night as well. I was looking at the team and they didn't seem prepared to handle a big team. I thought Reggie's turnovers were crucial because he was doing too much passing. I believe that if he has any hope of being a leader on this team, he's gonna have to be prepared to shoot the ball and pick up the scoring slack.

I Didn't realize that Frericks' Asthma was that bad. The other guys, Fisher, Sloan and Drejaj, Reg, Johnson, I believe would have faired better, if they stayed out of the hole. Reg has an outside game, why we didn't see it i'm unsure. Everything that was taken in the inside was either turned over or blocked.

I think they should develop and master the skill of double teaming big men until Ian does get back and hopefully when he gets back he'll be able to add some pressure in the inside.

I think this was a learning game, the rallied at one point, I don't think I can base this game as an example for the rest of the season. I certainly hope not.

As stated by Taj I guess Reg still has some rust to shake off!

[brehms13]

Again I agree. I don't know how many times I yelled defense isn't played from behind your man. I didn't see Reg's game at all last night. The points he put up weren't his best, he's capable of more(meaning better shots and defense). It will take some getting used to but he has to step up on the defensive, that's no question.

[kshoe]

effort is his problem, at least not on the court. I don't think he has dogged it for one second while playing in actual games. He's probably had less than 30 minutes of action all year for petes sake. Why he wasn't put into the game earlier last night while Varner was being killed on the defensive end was beyond me.

I realize those that watch practice have had a bad thing or two to say about him but on the court he has given 100% from everything I've seen and I hate the labels people like to give a kid just because of one or two comments on this board.

If this team is going to be any good we have to get production out of JJ and IO. Neither can contribute sitting the first 15 minutes of the 1st half on the bench. Its time to play our talented players and see if they can hack it.

[3star_recruit]

As erratic as the defense last night, if our guys shoot 45%% from the field and shoot 75% from the line, we win the game, even with West Virginia shooting 56% from the field. We've got to start shooting the ball better.

[Billikan]

I do not understand how you can say with such certainty that our schedule this year is weaker than last year. West Virginia is much improved, Georgia Tech is much much improved, Dayton is playing great, K State is improved, Cinn is improved, Memphis is as good or better, Louisville is probably better, we play SMS on the road, TCU is much improved, Marquette looks to have filled in well for its losses and Diener is much improved, Charlotte is much improved, DePaul looks better--Arizona is loaded but has a short bench--but so do our Bills! The only team that I see on the schedule that would at first glance look like they are not as good would be Butler and we know they will give us all we can handle.

In fact, because of the improvement in the play of our opponents, I believe that this year's schedule is much tougher. We have 3 easy games plus EK, a tough win. The rest of the schedule is up in the air.

Your post is interesting in that it reflects our modern desire to judge a coach on a few games.

The truth is that IO is not the player we thought he would be. On the defensive end we miss KB much more than we thought we would at the beginning of the year. TF has not demonstrated the stamina to be a major contributor. Our "scoring guard" has played one game in almost 2 years. Yet you want to now rate the coach as mediocre or great after 4 games in his second season after a first season when he accomplished some remarkable things. Let's judge him when next year's recruits are sophmores or juniors, not when he has a patchwork lineup of players with limitations.

[Tonka]

Billikan, either you did not read my post correctly or I did not express myself correctly.

The first line of my second paragraph says, "I want to put a question to you all". Usually when somebody says that, they are generally asking a question. I then go on to say " I like many others think Brad is and will be a very good coach". That generally means that today I think Brad is a good coach and in the future I think he will be good as well. I then ask, "What do you guys think up until this point right now" and hence your comment about the modern desire to judge a coach on a few games. Is that so out of line to ask everybody's opinion about that? People put in their two cents about how the Billikens were going to do this year prior to one game being played. There is a contest going on about predictions for each game and that started prior to any regular season games being played this year. RB was talked about prior to ever putting on a Billiken uniform. Izik was judged and talked about how good he was going to be this year even after having a horrible year last year. Frericks was talked about being a beast, prior to ever putting on a Billiken uniform. So, is my question about Brad being good versus great that out of line to ask? Especially, when I even say "up to this point right now". I then ask "if it's too early to make a call", which is another question to everybody since message boards like this never seem to suppress anyone's opinions.

As far me saying with such "certainty" that our schedule this year is weaker than last. I didn't realize that is how I came across. I was stating how others were saying the schedule was easier this year than last and went on to say why they stated that. I should have put that in quotes as not to confuse you. I would bet though that at the end of the season, our SOS will be similar to last year at best and probably a tad bit easier. I am basing that off the first three games, and the conference play and who we play twice this year and who we played twice last year. I think December's games are a wash between the two years and equally as hard. So, I do THINK that the SOS at year's end will be similar to higher. And, I am not saying that with "certainty".

By the way, what do you read in my post that says anything about mediocre? I was posing a question.

As far as IO, he is exactly the player I thought he'd be. I said all along that expectations for him were too high. I then go on to say, how he proven he can recruit.

I was wanting to get everybody's opinions on Brad up to this point because judgement is cast everywhere else and unlike Reggie, JJ, TF, DC, Coach has been around for more than "4 games".

[Billikan]

If you are not asking for an appraisal of the coach after 4 games this year then I misread your post. Obviously, I think everyone believes he did a great job last year under difficult circumstances. So if your question relates to last year then he was great. If it relates to this year, which I think is the more reasonable reading of your post, then I say it is way to early to judge anything.

[billiken_roy]

kshoe, i totally agree with what you are saying about the games. however, anyone who has played for any decent coach at any level knows that playing time is earned at practice, not the games. my comments about efforts for the game should have been results rather than efforts. sorry about the misuse of words.

[slufanskip]

To do that we need an inside game.

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