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Poor shooting question.......


gister

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I was wondering if our poor shooting has some connection to where the Bills practice. The West Pine gym is very tight with up close backgrounds for the baskets. Then, in most game situations, the baskets are out by themselves, with no close up background. You would think that making a shot would be the same everywhere. But when you look back over recent history, some players that were supposed to have good shots did not do well or at least did not shoot up to their potential. With the opportunity to practice at Savvis being so limited, do the shooters lose perspective when looking at the basket?

Of course when you go back to the Clagget years, that did not seem to be a problem. So maybe it is a non-issue. I'm just looking for some explanation for poor shooting when all indications are that we have some really good shooters on the team.

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that we have are KL from three point range and maybe Luke (but his shooting ability it more mid-range). Polk is not a great shooter, his top asset is his quickness, Tommie is not a good shotter and while I think Danny Brown could be a good shooter he's not there yet. Drejaj is incredibly streaky and will have some games where he's on fire but many others where he can't hit the barn.

Its a major stretch to say West Pine is hurting out shooting ability. As you said in your post it certainly never hurt Claggs and co, Diener shot fine when he was able to get his slow shot off and going back a ways John Duff never had any issues.

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i noticed last night how tenative lisch was. three separate times on the break he had the ball, the wings got to the elbow extended, and headed for the basket. the defenders left lisch and went to cover the passing lanes, lisch was left with an open shot off the dribble right in front of the free throw line. i have seen him drain that shot a million times and all three times last nite he didnt even look at the rim. lisch needs to let it fly. sorry cheeseman, lisch IS the best shooter on the team. he hasnt shown it yet, but that might be more attitude and confidence than anything.

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I agree that Kevin does not look like the shooter I have seen in high school and Tommie seems less agressive than I have seen in the past. I think this is purely a freshman thing. I said it may take until January until they feel comfortable and it looks like it may take a little longer. This brutal stretch with Hawaii, SIU, North Carolina, Gonzaga and Iowa will really be a baptism of fire for these young men. They will get better! Just look at Ian. I liked him from the day he arrived but his level of confidence compared to his freshman year is sky high!

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Kevin Lisch is a freshman. So is Tommie Liddell. It's too early to expect these guys to dominate and never falter, especially on the road against very good teams. I think the fact that the Bills didn't get blown out by 25 or more indicates that they could be a decent team this year. We need someone between Newborne and Johnson to step up to take some of the load off of Ian, but I don't think anyone will embarrass the Bills this year.

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This really does feel like it will be a much better year for Billiken fans. The only thing we seem to be missing in the way of becoming a darn good team is the ever elusive 4. I have to believe that is a prime target in our spring time recruit signing period. It will be fun to see how these young men progress over this year. They do have some tough non conference games coming up.

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it is my belief that a college coach only "redshirts" potential. they wont waste a scholarship for an additional season on someone they dont have high hopes for. i.e. imo, obi is the future until someone better is found.

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Roy, I never said KL was not a good shooter - all I said was that it was too early to start annoiting anyone as a good or bad shooter. If you did not know KL - you would have looked at his 1-5 the other night and said this kid could not shoot. The point is - it is a young season, young players, and lets not label anybody just yet.

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My only concern is where is Brad going to get this 4 - he talked last winter about trying to get one that spring - nothing, he talked about getting one this fall - nothing. I wish I could be as confident as you are that he will get one this spring. By the way, I guess you could say he did get one in Obi but he sort came from no where - was he signed after the spring period?

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cheeseman said, "If you did not know KL - you would have looked at his 1-5 the other night and said this kid could not shoot."

i disagree. anyone that is really watching lisch shoot can see it is about as fundamentally perfect of a shot as you will ever see. plus, you can see him create his own space. anyone that would make the above statement doesnt know basketball and shouldnt be watching the billikens, they likely would be at the fox watching "wicked".

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cheeseman, if i was recruiting a power forward for the billikens, i would be using the recruiting bullet of trying to get the recruit in question to see all of potentially very good players at every other position. if i was brad, i would be sending tapes or asking players to watch when they can to see for themselves that the recruit may indeed be the missing piece to the puzzle.

he couldnt do that before. ian hadnt reached near the level he has now, liddell and lisch werent here yet, it was hard to make that connection.

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nothing wrong with wicked. i too thought it was great. however, i believe that the lion's share of wicked fans dont know what a billiken is. but i would bet that the common interest folks subset that you and i are in is a pretty small subset.

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Roy Roy Roy - where do I begin - never mind it would be waste of my time. Let me just say that a 1-5 night is not a good shooting night. I am not attacking KL just pointing out that the season is 2 games old and to start labeling players is not productive at this time - can we at least wait until after the preconf. games? By the way, I am suppose to turn in my season tickets since I have no business following the Bills?

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Calvin Walls is a JUCO at Iowa Western that I know had SLU on his list at rivals. He is a potential 4 that could come in and play for us next year. He has been scoring between 9 and 19 pts a game, don't know about rebounds though because their box scores don't list that--only points. He started at WSU and transfered out because of a lack of playing time. Maybe a year at JUCO where he is getting his minutes and gaining playing time experience and he could be ready for SLU.

I am sure there are other 4's on Brad's list that could be ready to step into a major role next year, but unfortunately we don't have that list to follow those players.

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KL has shown nothing yet in regards to offense. But, so what. He's two games into his entire collegiate career. I think it will be hard for many on here to ever be objective about KL though. First of all, many hyped him for so long. Secondly, he's a good kid from all accounts and we all want to see him do well. It's way early to draw conclusions on him or anybody else in my opinion. The only thing KL has shown so far that lives up to his billing and that is his defense. His shot may look good fundamentally but in some ways that means nothing. Sure, you could say it will eventually fall but you never know. If KL is as good as most have said and is as smart as we've all been told, he will make adjustments, gain his confidence, and more than likely be a very good player.

I still think our preseason games did nothing for us. Is there any way to prove we gained confidence from them? One thing is for sure, they didn't prepare us even remotely for a player like Sensely of Hawaii. Not sure any preseason game prepares you for a player like that especially when you are lacking a 4, but I can guarantee no D2 or D3 school prepares you even remotely.

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I wouldn't call 5 for 8 from field, 2-5 from three for 12 points in his first college game showing "nothing on offense". Lisch was ineffective against Hawaii on the road, a team that Michigan State beat by 20+. I think that's more a testament to how good Hawaii is at home than it is Kevin's offensive prowess.

Once we get a few threes to go down, I believe the offensive floodgates will open because good shooting is contagious. I'm patiently waiting. As long suffering Billikens fans we've got nothing but time.

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