ian

[p diddy]

as i said in my pre-game post, if we let the big boy eat, we will be fine. SIU had nobody that could contend with ian. he was dominant. the spent the whole second half double and triple teaming him. a very good effort by the big man.

it was a solid win against an opponent that we needed to defeat on our home court. with both teams coming back from long weekend road trips, i really wasn't expecting a thing of beauty. Just get the win and that's what happened. the schedule gets rougher with four of the next five on the road against some tough competition, so we really needed to win this one.

to our siu poster buddy, "whatsasaluki" you didn't seem to have that same swagger and cockiness this week that you had last year when darren brooks and stetson hairston were still around and beating us by 30. you took pleasure in putting down our "little" program. we still love you. just don't take that a** whipping personal. we just needed a little James Brown in our life tonight. THE BIG PAYBACK!!!

p.s. good luck in the valley. I think coach lowery will have them contending before its all said and done.

bad boyz for life

bad boyz for life

[billiken_roy]

ian is fast becoming a national player imo. last night was just a huge performance. falkner is a nice player and shaw and foster there to help and he wasnt phased a bit. amazing what a little conditioning will do! and he can still get better!!!!

[kshoe]

Yes Ian has trimmed down and gotten stronger but to me the biggest difference is he has grown into his body. 18 year old kids that are 6'11 are seldom coordinated and often downright awkward. Simply growing older and becoming more comfortable with his body has done as much to improve his game as anything. From day 1 he's had basketball skills (passing, court vision, etc.) and now that his body has caught up he really is a force.

[Slumn1]

It sure is a good coach didn't listen to you Roy or he never would have signed Ian!

[willie]

If I was Brad I would spend todays practice working on passing out of the double team. SIU did a good job of doubling down on Ian in the second half. Our spacing was not good and too many times he had to throw the ball out front. We need to send people to the basket and inside the elbow to make teams pay for the double. I think Ian is a great passer and can beat the double he will see more and more.

[slu72]

DB and TL can have subpar games yet we still manage a W. Don't know why some were knocking AD, 12 pts ain't bad. KL knocking down the 3's that's a real good thing. I'll take a 26-19 W over SIU. They've been beating us like the proverbial red headed step child. This was a good W, I had it as a loss in my predictions, so the Bills are now 14-15 on my nuclear clock.

[3star_recruit]

You might be thinking of SMS. We're 3-3 against SIU in the last six games.

[Billiphan]

Good point. Some people like IlliRoy dont realize that big men sometimes take a little longer to progress and mature. Ian could contend for Conference honors this year. I guess some people can't evaluate talent like they think they can. Go Bills. Good win. Let's keep getting better.

[billiken_roy]

i was never against the signing of ian. i was emphatic every time i posted about ian deficiancies that he had vast potential. my posts centered on debating what he was LAST YEAR. people would say he was great. i would say he could be great but wasnt yet and was out of shape and physically weak. big difference.

now he has lost about 40 lbs and is stronger and amazingly he is performing like everyone said he did last year. big difference.

[Billikan]

I often agree with your analysis but I must say that over the last two years I have been saying and arguing with you that Ian has nice skills and needed to just to get some seasoning and toughness and he would be a force for the Bills. Two years ago you basically said he was worthless and we wasted a scholarship on a stiff. Last year, early in the season, you basically said the same thing. Then when Tom went down and Ian played more and better you grudgingly agreed that he was better but still not very good. For once, I would like to see you say you were wrong about Ian.

[billiken_roy]

billikan said, "over the last two years I have been saying and arguing with you that Ian has nice skills and needed to just to get some seasoning and toughness and he would be a force for the Bills."

billikan, you even said, he "needed to just to get some seasoning and toughness". i.e. he wasnt great before.

that is/was my point. everyone was raving about his play when i agree he had potential, but without conditioning and strength he wasnt there yet. if he hadnt finally woke up and gotten into the shape he is now, he likely still would be underachieving. i commend ian on mentally maturing to the point he finally did the things off the court needed to finish his body to the point he has become the player that many said he was before now.

[willie]

I agree with Billikan. You were much harder on Ian then you are currently saying. I accused you of saying that Ian was in the same car as Jason Edwin when they ran over your dog. You really could admit you missed one. I'm willing to admit that so far this year I've been wrong on Dreja,he definitely deserves to play.

[billiken_roy]

oh i am not denying i didnt like ian as a freshman and a sophomore. i continuously said he wasnt worthy of pt. but especially last year, i also inserted potential language in my posts.

had ian not gotten into shape, i would still be dogging him. he was overweight and physically weak. my points always dogged him about his conditioning. now that he has gotten into shape he isnt even the same person.

so i guess what i am saying is yes, i admit i was extremely hard on him. and yes, i did say he was a wasted scholarship considering the shape he was in. however, i also said many times what he could become if he got into shape. and anyone that thinks he would be doing the same production this year in last year's body (let alone the freshman one) imo is not being honest.

[mystery_man]

Roy,

The point you consistently missed on last year was accusing Ian of being lazy and not working. The physical specimen that is Ian this year was not a 3 month summer transformation but a 3 year work in progress. The evidence of his progress was there, but like so many others you wanted to see the results overnight and refused to acknowledge the slow maturation of his body. You consistently stated "If Ian would only put....hours a day in during the summer he could dominate." He had been doing so all along, but a 17 year old 6'10" body takes a lot longer to build and tone than a 5'11" 35 year olds due in part to physics and metabolism among other reasons.

[slufanskip]

It didn't take Ian maturing to get into shape ... it took time, and there is no way he lost 40 lbs. You make it sound like he was lazy and didn't work hard at it. I disagree. IMO ... you have been way off about what it takes to get a body into the best shape. As he continued to play he became more confident and aggressive and that is the biggest difference. Yes he is in better shape, but the difference in his game is his confidence which has made him more aggressive. As a starter last year he avg'ed 10 and 7. Not bad for a soph. center.

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[billiken_roy]

i admit i am not an expert of conditioning, but one would think the opposite is true. that a teenager would adapt to a rigorous physical workout schedule faster than the 35 year old. i believe that this summer he got serious for the first time.

[mystery_man]

Roy said, "i admit i am not an expert of conditioning, but one would think the opposite is true. that a teenager would adapt to a rigorous physical workout schedule faster than the 35 year old. i believe that this summer he got serious for the first time."

You are wrong on both accounts. It would be easier for a 17 year old to improve his cardivascular conditioning but not his strenth and muscle mass, which is primarily what you were always complaining about Ian lacking. On your second point, I'll choose to take the word of Brad, the strength coaches, and the gradual results that were evident all along over your unfounded hunch that he didn't take things seriously.

[tseugnekillib]

friend broy, here's what you said last December:

1) after watching Bryce play 2 minutes in his first college game, you stated he was "worthless",

2) in mid-December you stated that IV would not contribute in 2005

(second half of last season),

3) in late-December you stated that "the thought of going into the A-10 with IV and BH as our post players was frightening"!

Broy,for the record, you started to come around on IV after the Iowa game, and after IV made a reverse lay-up on a baseline drive at your end of the court against (?????).

If this board still had its history of previous post, I would get you the exact dates and times! In fact, I would bet my next six social security checks to a jelly donut from Mallo's that you made the above three statements.

Broy at least you came around on IV....I think poster bauman is still in denial!

[kshoe]

I can only speak from my own personal experience on this matter but as a freshman through senior in college I went to the gym every day and slowly but surely increased my bench press from 135 to 250+. It was a very slow process measured in less than 5 pound increments per month. Unfortunately I don't go to the gym nearly as much now as I used to but every once in a while I get on a three month kick and when I do the improvement is dramatic and although I start around 170 now could get back to 225+ within a couple months. It truly difficult for many 17 and 18 year old bodies to get physically stronger.

We are all glad that you are on the Ian bandwagon now but its unfair for you to twist your previous criticism into some sort of "I was just upset he wasn't using his abilities to the fullest and I knew all along he had the potential to do this if he just tried harder." We've all missed on our player evaluations from time to time so don't be afraid to admit you missed on Ian.

[billiken_roy]

oh i admit i never said, "i knew all along". after the way he showed up for the season last year, i truly didnt have much hope he would turn out. i could understand coming his freshmen season out of shape, but one would have thought he would have saw the light that year. that all said, huge kudos that after last season, he did finally see the light and came to school this season ready to play and in the best shape of his life. i now truly believe he will fulfill the promise that the rest of you saw two years ago.

[billiken_roy]

going to the a-10 with the freshman/sophomore ian would have been frightening. he is no where near the same player. my main contention all along was that he had to change his body to succeed and he now has.

until he did, he would never have been the force he is now.

[slufanskip]

The point is Roy ... he didn't finally see the light. He saw it all along and was moving towards it.

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[dewey33]

Roy--

I feel your accusations of Ian's laziness were unfounded....and unfair.

He has played basketball 12 months a year since he was a senior in high school, at a very high level at that....his teams with Greece routinely finish ahead of the USA in international competitions (but thats another story).

The deal is that he has matured physically, emotionally and skillwise like any other basketball player does...I think he only 20 still.

Marque Perry, Josh Fisher, Chris Sloan, Anthony Drejaj were all much better players as juniors than they were as freshman.

Ian is a stud...Brad has said it from the beginning...it just takes young bigs a while to develop.

[cheeseman]

This discussion of Ian made me think of a couple of related things: 1. If Ferricks does not get hurt where would Ian be today - not the player he has developed because he would have missed the chance to mature as a player from the experience he gained last year. 2. Look at his play last year - he steadily got better and showed Brad that he could redesign his offense through him. The points I am trying to make is that we are far better off because of the experience and work that Ian has done the last two years and if Ferricks had not gotten hurt, Brad would never have given the minutes to Ian last year to spur his development - sometimes you have to go with the youth upside over the experienced known.

[slu72]

hate to jump on the bash Broy bandwagon, but you were hard on the kid. Can't recall specific posts as did tsueg, but the general tenor of your posts about him were on the negative side of the ledger. But in your defense, you pretty much had KL pegged from four years ago.