Kahok Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 I always hesitate to post,but here goes. We are always optomistic about our team, but the fact is until we get the Woods, Whites, and Lees from the area we will always struggle. What would this team look like this year with Lee and Mckinney? We are putting a lot of pressure on Liddell but remember he is barely a top 100 player and that is only in some magazines. We say well the gurus are wrong alot of times, if that is the case the Dukes,Arizonas, of the world would never have a final four team. We think Brad is a good recruiter, looking at this team tell me who is good. We have local recruits coming in that's a start, but remember not many teams win with a point guard that is 5'7" or 5'8". And every team in the country has athletic wing players. We lost out on Price and I don't care what Mr. Roy says he was the best local player and Grimes is the second best. If we want to attract the best local players then we have to do one major thing. We have to televise every game to the local communities and I don't mean through cable, not everyone we want to recruit has the availability of cable. We need to televise on a local station that reaches all of the local communities. All kids want there friends a family to watch them perform. We need the local big businesses to step up and provide internships for the kids during summer. We have the Alumni to do this. We need to have a Phys. Ed. degree program or sports management degrees. Contrary to many here that believes that coaching is not a worth while endeavor, many of the athletes that are being recruited would like to make coaching or athletic management a career. Ok Mr. Roy tell how far off base I am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 I am a person who does put significant stock in expert ratings, but I believe from first hand observations that Lidell and Polk are top 75 caliber recruits. Polk fell off the rankings due to injury, and Tommie missed the rankings because he elected not to participate in AAU and Nike Camp this summer. When Polk is fully healthy, he most closely resembles Dee Brown of Illinois. In what way? He will nearly always be the quickest and fastest player on the court, he has great leaping ability, and he has a great handle and ouside shot. Liddell will bring an overall athleticsim (with basketball skills) that we haven't seen since Jeffers. The one thing we are still lacking is a super strong and athletic power forward along the lines of Bonner or Jamal Johnson. If Brad can find such a player this spring, we could be really, really good in a year or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Lee and McKinney were not required to beat West Virginia last night, better shooting was. Northeastern beat these guys on their home floor by shooting 43% from the field and 52% from three and there isn't a single top 100 player on their squad. We got open shots, we just didn't make them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kahok Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 You are right, we didn't need anybody on the inside. We had all of the scoring we needed from our inside people. And you are right we didn't need the scoring that Mckinney would have given us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 You come in and give your highly critical comments and argue about the quality of our recruits and then if someone says we could have won the game if we had just shot the ball better-- your response is a derisive diatribe that misquotes what was said. If you don't like the Bills, that's ok, but ignorant scarcasm does not advance the discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kahok Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 I was not being critical of the recruits, read the entire post I was saying we need to find ways of keeping the best players here. I offered my opinion on how we might keep the best here. 3Star didn't read the entire post either, if he had he would have seen I wasn't critical of our recruits but of the ones that got away and a possible solution for keeping them. And keep your criticism to your self unless you can make suggestion on how we can keep the best from leaving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kahok Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 I didn't mean to intrude on your private domain, it won't happen again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Law Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 are you really serious on thinking that Lee and McKinney (among others) would have picked SLU if we had a PE degree? Yikes! Can I get a little of what you're smoking? The only way Lee would have picked SLU is if we could have gotten Hef to loan us some of his "reserves" if you know what I mean. That's why Lee picked Florida, not for PE. One of his teammates is dating a Playmate (Vitale was drooling over her during the Arizona game). How does SLU compete with that? Go down the list of other programs, I doubt many have kids majoring in PE - Duke and Michigan State sure don't and there are many others similar. I do agree with your comment about the games being on a better TV station. I have the dish and cannot watch Bills game at home and I live 2 miles from campus. That's just wrong. The biggest key to keeping local kids at home and bringing in top recruits from elsewhere - winning. Plain and simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Until we are winning consistantly, David Lee types aren't going to stay home and play for us. That is Brad's challenge: get us near the top without the highest tier of athletes. If we are a consistant top 25-50 team the addition of a david lee or Dwayne Wade or Larry Hughes can get us to the final four instead of just to the top 25. If you have a strategy for Brad other than winning, call Brad. I'm sure he'd appreciate your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Do you know anything about David Lee or his decision? I know him well. He comes from a very wealthy family and like most wealthy kids he was intent on going to college away from home. He was wowed by Billy Donovan and the beautiful blondes at Florida. For a long time after he gotr there he really did not like Donovan but he has a knockout blonde girl friend. We must recognize that some kids will never stay home no matter what we do. I am delighted that we got Liddell, Polk and Meyer. It seems like Coach Brad is intent on getting excellent local kids and fill in with others as needed--the only approach that is reasonable in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 if you think price is the best local player, you arent seeing area high school ball. he might be the most athletic, but last time i checked, high jumping wasnt the only determining factor to basketball skills evaluation. now if you want to say he has the most potential, i might join in that argument on your side. no doubt young mr price is an exciting talent when he wants to be. but that said, i have never seen xavier price out play kevin lisch, tommie liddell, justin dentman or his now teamate jb jones. and that is just the players on this side of the river. you had a good post until the price line. that ruined your point. no way i would take price ahead of liddell. it isnt even close. but i have no problem with you saying we have to continue to get more talented players. i think we are and have been gradually doing that. the problem is that slu has also continued to upgrade their schedule and their conference and our opponents are improving at a pace probably higher than what the billikens are. thus the appearance of "lesser talent". but top to bottom of the roster, i still say this team has talent. more so than 15-20 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 liddell might have better basketball skills right now than jeffers ever had as a billiken. that isnt a knock on jeffers, that is my esteem of tommie. i cant wait for next thursday at the shootout. his coming out party imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 brad lost out on grimes and shaw and according to you price. he gets at least 2 of the recognized top 10 local players and in a lot of opinions, the best in liddell. i am not sure what you expected. as davidnark stated, we need that bonner clone. get that and imo it is a very good recruiting class with 3 out of 4 top locals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonka Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Some interesting points made here. I agree with the fact that some kids just don't want to stay here. It's hard to compete with big state universities that a lot more to offer in a lot of ways. I can see why a recruit wouldn't want to play for SLU. Hopefully that will change in the future for some, but there are others we will never get no matter how good we are. I do think SLU needs to start taking more risks on high school players out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Bob Ramsay before making the claim on our talent being the best in the last 15-20 years...I wonder where Bullit Bob ranks this year's talent, as we already know what he thought about last year. Kahok...good to see you post again. You do make some good points, and no one will argue that we must continue raising the talent bar. I cannot comment on the local kids but it does appear to me that Coach Soderberg is trying his darndest to improve the program. Don't be bashful about voicing your opinion, as you seem to be a fan just like the rest of us. By the way, what kind of basketball team do the Kahok's figure to have this year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 .... stick around long enough to be a burden. Dissenting opinions are welcome. Attacks can be expected. Blood loss never gets to the critical point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p diddy Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 kahok, where on earth did you get the idea that xavier price was the best player in the area. that's what happens when you read too many magazines and don't go to any games. liddell has outplayed price in just about every head to head match up since they were freshmen. there is no comparison. someone had a post a few weeks back that had an old hoopscoop top 50 listing with polk's name on it when he was a sophomore. when he got hurt, his ranking dropped. that's natural since he was 5'9". that's good for us. if you look at the post-dispatch top 10, the bills signed three of those players (liddell, polk, meyer, who by the way is averaging about 30 a game.) a fourth player on that list (kevin lisch) reportedly has slu quite high on his list. I watched him play last week against belleville west and he torched west for 36 points and shut your almighty xavier price down for three quarters. when he fouled out late in the game, the whole house gave him a standing ovation. that included the west fans, who are intense city rivals. i know because i was sitting up high in the middle of the belleville west section at the time. i've only seen this kid play a few times and he's the best in the area in my opinion. so if you are not satisfied with getting three of the 10 players in a loaded senior class this year, with a strong possibility of getting the lisch kid the following year. i don't know what you want. if brad can put this group together and find another post player or two who can play, our future looks good. bad boyz for life p.s. word on the street is that troy slaten left arkansas state. anybody know for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 belleville west's own coach, billy schmitt, has recently said that price isnt even the best player on the west team. i totally agree as i think both jones and sargent are better. kahok, you need to get out to the games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 This is from the Jonesboro paper from a while back: 'Sophomore guard Troy Slaten has decided to leave ASU, Nutt said after Monday night’s game. 'Slaten, a transfer from Southwestern Illinois College, did not score in ASU’s exhibition games. He did not play against Ole Miss and did not dress out for the West Alabama game. '“He came in last week debating whether he wanted to stay. He’s just trying to find more minutes,†Nutt said. “We don’t apologize for wins, we had a great win over Ole Miss and we did what we had to do to win the game. I love Troy and I wish him all the luck in the world. Hopefully, he’ll find what he’s looking for and I think he’s going to transfer at semester.â€' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 boy that is one headache i wouldnt want on a team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Perhaps Troy Slaten will go back to SWIC/BAC and redshirt the second semester. If he gets a medical redshirt year for this year, and plays at SWIC next year, he will still have two years of D1 ball. If Troy wants to play 35+ minutes per game, maybe UMSL is the spot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kahok Posted December 4, 2003 Author Share Posted December 4, 2003 My last post, but I wanted to clarify. I am not dissing any of our recruits. I like what we got. I guess I am the only one who is tired of seeing a Brent, Morris, Stepanovich, thru a White, Woods, Mckinney, Lee, leave the area and help make other teams better. Am I the only one that wants to see young kids in this area wearing Bills tee shirts instead of Missouri and Illinois shirts. My original post said that we needed to have, 1. Bills games on local stations not Cable. 2. Need summer internships. 3. Could use degrees in Phy. Ed. and Sports management. No we will not get everyone, but by creating a desire to play for the Bills at an early age will help us recruit the best of area players. Yes I go to high school games, and yes I have season tickets to Bills game. yes I still have my Grawer power painters hat. I will leave your website to the best Bills fans and not the unknowledgable fans like myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonka Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Kahok, why would you leave? Why would you feel uninformed? You don't really believe that a lot of the people on here are as informed as they like to think they are.? You are entitled to your opinion as much as anybody else is. And the majority of what is stated here is just that - opinions! Just because somebody says soemthing with conviction and five others jump behind them, doesn't make them correct or make you any less informed. I can't tell you how many times I've seen posts and bandwagons of people agree about things that were truly incorrect or based on a 100% speculation. Stick around, have some fun, and don't let some of these people bother you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 i agree with tonka. i would love for you to stay around and frequently argue basketball. that is what makes the board exciting. just because we disagreed with you you are taking your keyboard and heading home? come on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted December 4, 2003 Share Posted December 4, 2003 Stick around. I agree our charter cable deal stinks. I don't know about the pe degree though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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