Piss poor effort

[VTIME]

The best play of the day was the guy running from the endline up to the top of the stairs in 27 seconds. Liddell's dunk was nice. Ian's alley oop was cool? Why did Polk only play a couple minutes in the second half. Why dress Luke Meyer if he's not gonna play. Doesnt Obi need to lose some weight? Why was Obi at the 3 pt line the whole second half. Why dont they use Liddell as the pg when Polk is out of the game, because no one else seemed to be able to handle it. Drejaj can somewhat, but he really has no speed to elude anyone. In the first half you could see how Liddell gets lost without the ball in his hands as I have been saying since April. In the second half he forced his offense and it came. Where was Lisch's jumper. Where was everyone's jumper. The best shooter tonight was Justin Johnson. Way to JJ. Thats his role. Knocking down open midrange jumpers and he is weapon off the bench. Vashun hit a couple midrange jumpers in the first half and had the layup to beat the buzzer. Matt Regan was going nuts and they consistently scored inside in the second half and outplayed SLU. Aaron Steinke played well and maybe could've walked on at SLU. Especially since he's as good as any of the walk-ons and is playing without a scholarship at Maryville.

[FIBatSLU]

Glad to see my efforts at least were appreciated! The rest of that beer was mighty tasty. I am gonna be sore tomororw

As for the team's play, I was upset that we didn't beat these guys by more. One thing that I noticed is that we seemed to be having trouble breaking their press smoothly at different points in the game. It seems that we don't have a guard, besides Polk, with the speed and ball-handling skills to dribble out of press situations as we have had in the past with Reggie and Josh Fisher. KL may just need some more experience, which I am sure he'll get.

I think that Obi just looks uncomfortable out there. I have no idea why he was touching the ball outside the paint, let alone around the perimiter. He's quite possibly the slowest player I've seen up and down the court in my four years at SLU... even slower than IV in the last couple years. Thankfully, he looks like he's in good shape this season.

In my experience watching SLU basketball, we always seem to play to the level of our opponent. We can hang with or beat teams like Arizona, Louisville, Marquette (with Deiner) and then suck it up against teams like Oral Roberts or the EA All Stars. Although despite their play, they have shown some great moments of promise for this upcoming season. Nothing we can do except get up on our feet and cheer 'em on.

[Billikenbooster]

I guess you guys never heard about showing up your opponent? Have you been reading this board at all?

Obi is obviously hurt, limps after two or three trips down the court, and very overweight. This guy was all state as a jr in Texas. Let's lighten up, see what plays out. He will certainly be red shirted, and if not, will barely see the bright side of the scoreboard all season.

There is no point guard on this team. There obviously is a maze of possibilities. Looks to me whoever has the ball in the middle of the court as we come down is the point guard. In the second half of a blow out like this you don't want front line guys hurt, you play young guys to give them a chance to get their legs.

Luke Meyer just got the cast off his foot four days ago. He can do some drills, but isn't ready cardio-wise or orthopedicly to play competitive bball yet. He may be ready for E Ill, depending on game conditions. You dress him cause he is on the team and deserves to dress out, but he wasn't going to be used.

When you're playing a walk on, a freshman recovering from and injury, another freshman, a sophomore big man, and another sophomore, the play is going to be ragged.

My only gripe with the game was the horrible outside shooting. Really would have liked that to show up better, especially in the first half. The key to this season is improved outside shooting over last year. If we don't have that, then they will continue to double IV and we are back to square one. KL looked smoother with his shots than against UMSL, and I think we'll be ok, but I am concerned.

mhg

[slu72]

Have to agree with Booster here. Can't judge them too much considering who played the second half. But the outside shooting 0-14 or so from the 3 is not encouraging in the least bit. This team to win has to be able to knock down 3's. IV picking up 3 fouls in the first half is worrisome as well. Who did he have to foul, their tallest guy was 6'5"? Now every team is entitled to a bad night, but nada from the 3 ain't gonna cut it for a team that looks like it's going to play small. 24 to's we can probably attribute to newness. But the keys for any shot at success for the Bills are: 1.) Stingy D, 2.) take care of the rock, 3.) IV avoids foul trouble, 4.) Improve our outside shooting. Like many of us have said this team is going to be a continuing work in progress.

[davidnark]

At least one of Ian's fouls was on a questionable offensive foul call. Coach was smart not to play Ian because this game was the type of game in which a big man could get injured.

[Billiken Rich]

If Ian was playing against a girls team he'd probably chanrged with assault. The charge would've been acceptable against a beefier opponent and I believe that we were in the double bonus at the time and we had only 2-3 fouls called on us to that point.

I don't think the effort was that piss poor to borrow a hockey analogy, we were playing old time Blues dump and chase offense and they were using a neutral zone trap. Ugly, ugly stuff. Jacks as point guard isn't the same as Redden or Hunt from years past.

JJ is just not a defender. I can't say why but he isn't. Is it a rampant case of Edwin's disease?

[TheGoat]

JJ or VN are going to have to step up at some time in the EIU game if only to spell the four guards for minutes here and there as they have a bigger lineup.

[VTIME]

If Ian had just dunked those balls he wouldnt have got called for those fouls. Going through them like that will be a charge call all season. Going over them which he was fully capable of from that distance and with a running start he would've avoided the charge calls and they would be AND1's and on Sportscenter Top 10 in the morning.