questions from last nite

[Billikenbooster]

should Danny Brown continue to start? His PT has gone down, and his contributions on the floor have diminished when he is there.

can BS work the refs? last year he embarassed himself when getting upset at the refs, but I dont see him working them as other coaches do to help ourselves. the foul on IV that was not called was a horrendous homer. the make up call didn't equalize it at all.

what is up with BH? not a minute? just as many called for increased minutes for JJ last year, just for his development, he should be getting 3-4 minutes/half for IV.

DP should just forget the 3. it's bringing us down.

how do so many teams hit 3s on us so well, with a team that preaches D like us, with a guard oriented team, it is unfathomable we should die by the 3 as we do.

things are never as bad as they seem after a loss, but I think these are some things we can ponder for the next few days.

mhg

[Billinikens]

I think DB has the game to contribute for this team and I'm not sure what has happened to him since the first couple of preseason games. He doesn't seem anywhere near as aggressive to me on the offensive end as he did early on, and even when he does make an aggressive move, he's out of control (i.e., last night's charge).

Not certain on BS working the refs. He certainly didn't get many calls to go our way last night, though......that was atrocious.

As for DP taking the three, you can hardly say that it is killing us when he misses two wide open threes. For one, he didn't take that many. Two, you don't get better looks than that very often in the half-court offense. Someone is going to need to start making some of those if we're to keep the defense honest on Ian. Passing up open three's is not the way to do that.

The real question about last night's game to me is:

We played very, very well when Ian went out in the first half with foul trouble, which was quite surprising. Specifically, Tommie asserted himself and was the best player on the floor. What happned in the second half? It seems he stopped being aggressive until the very end. Anyone else think that we need to find a way to continue to let IV have his touches, but not at the expense of Tommie's being aggressive as well? Tommie slashing to the hole with effectiveness or getting IV in position on the block seem to be our best offensive scenarios and could open up three's for KL, DP, LM.......(and maybe they'll start hitting).

[AlumniFan]

...the team's problem is exactly the same as last year: they CANNOT shoot the outside shots. Lisch missed, Polk missed, everyone missed. Hell, near the end, we were even missing layups...just like last year.

We are much more athletic this year. We have a better inside game. We have smart players. We have energy. But this is basketball where the objective is to put the ball through the orange metal ring. If you cannot do that in the final 5 or 10 minutes of the game when you are behind you will lose games. Period

[JaleJarr]

should Danny Brown continue to start? His PT has gone down,

and his contributions on the floor have diminished when he

is there.

Playing against inferior competition( the 2 ex. games and E. Illinois) will make most players look good. I cautioned those

who where blinded by the early stats that the true measuring wouldn't come until our boys were confronted by equal talent.

Danny Brown and others will need to step up if we are to be

competent this year.

can BS work the refs? last year he embarassed himself when

getting upset at the refs, but I dont see him working them

as other coaches do to help ourselves. the foul on IV that

was not called was a horrendous homer. the make up call

didn't equalize it at all.

It's hard to get calls on the road. I'm sure SIU have some gripes

about their game at SAvvis. The officials did a job on Ian no doubt.

what is up with BH? not a minute? just as many called for

increased minutes for JJ last year, just for his

development, he should be getting 3-4 minutes/half for IV.

Agree wholeheartedly. He is nowhere near stardom, however he could

give us at least 5 fouls and possibly change some shots.

how do so many teams hit 3s on us so well, with a team that

preaches D like us, with a guard oriented team, it is

unfathomable we should die by the 3 as we do.

Young players on the road sometimes play poor defense and won't

get the respect of the officials. A lot has been made of the 51

points UWM scored in the 2nd half, however a telling stats shows

UWM converted 26/31 fts in the half compared to only 2/8 in the 1st half. SLU by contrast shot 13/15. Defensively as bad as I thought the Bills played in the 2nd half, they in fact gave up 1 less fg 11/21in the half compared to the 12/27 they gave up in the 1st half. This game was decided somewhat by the officials with their calls

things are never as bad as they seem after a loss, but I

think these are some things we can ponder for the next few

days.

I'm more optimistic with this loss as Ian is proving to be the team's MVP and Tommie looks to be more assertive.

[Cowboy]

I am seeing the inconsistency of a young team, but the defensive breakdowns which we rarely saw concern me from a couple fronts-1-our margin for error is not that great that we can afford this to win games and I don't want to lose that mantra that we are tough to play against b/c we defend relentlessly, and 2-will UB revert styles.

I hope, again this is hope, that we find a couple people to regularly make 3's that can also defend (see above) as that will free the inside for IV.

I have been wanting BH to get minutes from at least the middle of Dec last year. It is my opinion BH should get time regardless of the makeup of the other team b/c as of right now, other than perhaps Obi, he is the only big to be here in 2 yrs and what (shudder to think) would happen if IV goes down?? Get BH some minutes in every game.

I hate the term "working the refs", but imo it is a fact of the way the game delevoped that is wrong. I would hope that a quality official would call the game not being influenced by the names on the front or back of the jersey or who is on the sideline. A foul/violation is a foul/violation in the first minute, last minute and everywhere in between. Naive perhaps.

[billiken_roy]

danny brown works when we are in rocket mode and running the floor. if we go to half court offense, it isnt brown that isnt working it is tne four guard thing. you could interchange brown, lisch, drejaj, polk, meyer, or liddell. it doesnt matter, the real question isnt should brown play less the real question is should 4 guards on the floor at the same time play less.

[SLU_Nick]

I know he has never had one in college. But I remember in high school him shooting lights out from behind the arc. If he could just put in 30% I would let him shoot. As of now, I regret swinging the pass to him for a wide open jumpshot.

VTIME whats going on? Are his mechanics still there? or what?

[cheeseman]

DB has lost his aggressive style because he has not shot well from the outside and he continues to take stupid charging fouls. The last two games he has at least 2 charging fouls called on him. That is a problem because not only do we get a foul called but we loose the points that the fast break should have produced and can result in a 4 pt swing. That being said, is anyone else seeing a distrubing trend here - we are fouling way to much and giving the opponent far to many free trips to the line - that killed us last night and happened at the SIU game as well.

[Billikenbooster]

Brad said at the tip off club that he had worked on DPs mechanics and that his shot should be much better this year. so far no go, IMHO.

mhg

[cheeseman]

DP seems to shoot well enough closer in than the 3 pt line - he simply can not buy a 3 pt basket.

[Scoop]

I knew we were in trouble when we shot so well in the 1st half and were only up by 2. Every one is right on. Why are they lighting us up from 3? JJ needs to play with Ian.

[VTIME]

He's pretty much lost confidence in it and is shooting it because he's open and not because he wants to. From midrange its fine, but he's got to shoot his way out of it. I also think he's looking over his should because Lisch is playing well. I would consider putting LM at te four so Liddell can start at the 3 and starting Lisch over Drejaj. Lisch gives the team another guard that make things happen and Polk wont have to work so hard and can maybe hit a shot. Also it frees Liddell up on defense and on offense he may still have a slower man who he can take to the cup or something of that nature.

[kshoe]

all of them.

I'm not sure why people are terribly concerned about our offense at this point. We scored 70+ points, shot 50% from the field and 88% free-throws. The issue is our defense in the UWM and Hawaii games. We aren't going to win many, if any games by giving up 80 or more points.

So what is the problem on defense? I think its a couple things. The 4-guard offense causes a bad mismatch on D as Tommie has to guard big, strong PFs and the rest of the guards are expected to pack the lanes and help, leaving wide open three pointers to any team that wants them. That strategy will not works against teams that can shoot so we've got to figure soemthing else out.

The other problem we had last night was UWM shot 39 free throws to our 19. That is an absolute joke and while a few of them came at the end of the game, the majority were in the middle of the 2nd half when UWM made the "run." Your comment about Brad not being able to handle refs is dead on. We got screwed big-time last night and the coach has to take some of that blame. The ticky tac fouls they called on Ian last night in the offensive end were awful. Although we were up by 2 at half with Ian on the bench who knows how much further we would have been ahead had the refs not taken him out of the game. Brad must do a better job with the refs.

[Billinikens]

Interesting analysis, kshoe. I'm curious, what lineup do you propose so that we match up better on defense? I suppose JJ is the more true 4 so he would be the natural choice. Do you like his defense enough for him to be trusted as a defensive upgrade? How do you see his offensive/rebounding skills fitting in? He seems to turn the ball over a lot and I've never felt he played very strong inside....

[SShoe]

K-Shoe is right in the fact we need to adjust our lineup for the defensive end. JJ and VN have been playing better and I think we need to consider the 4-guard offense a part of our problem. Our best lineup last night was IV, KL, TL, DP, and VN. We rebounded better and were still able to get things done offensively.

Overall, though I am upset we lossed, but I give credit to the UWM team as well. They missed nothing in the second half. They hit the stupid amount of free throws given to them and there is not much you can say when 30-ft three pointers go in from a guy who was previously 0-7 from 3.

[billiken_roy]

putting johnson in does one thing imo, puts liddell in a position he can excel at. liddell is not a pf and is getting beat to hell trying to defend guys 50 lbs bigger than him. that has to affect his total game.

the only other option that might make sense if it (the four guard lineup) is deemed "have to" is to play meyer at the 4th guard and sit out either polk or drejaj in order to move liddell to a more compatible match up.

[SShoe]

That's the biggest factor. I would like TL to be able to use those long arms on the perimeter instead of inside. One huge element to our lack of being able to defend the 3 is that teams are able to shoot over us. Tommie can get out and use his size to disrupt the shot and passing lanes.

[kshoe]

with Ian. Not as his replacement. Make Bryce Ians "normal replacement" and only in special situations should VN or JJ be playing with 4 guards.

Its a nice idea to play your top 5 guys and say thats the lineup but it is just killing us on the defensive end. Can anybody remember a Billiken team that gave up 80 points more than every blue moon?

Obviously my solution will lead to decreased minutes among the guards and I won't even get into who those minutes should come from but any lineups that decreases the minutes of Tommie and Kevin are going in the wrong direction.

[Tonka]

what happened to Liddell in the second half last night. in the first half he took over, but in the second half didn't seem to get the ball near as much.

I agree with KShoe about our offense. Suprisingly, I am more worried about our defense. Keep in mind though that if we run more teams will score more points against us.

It's interesting, Brad says he likes to run if he has the athletes to do it. Well, it seems we are compromising our defense in the process. In my opinion, Brad has got to get this team to step up on D. We are all worried about not having a legit 4 and because of that we will get schooled by teams with a strong 4. Well, we have legit guards and are getting torched from 3 pointers. I think this is in Brad's hands and I think he'll get it figured out. Let's hope soon.

[billiken_roy]

it is likely that a lot of the defensive lapses are occuring in an effort to help in the middle because of the mismatches this 4 guard thing creates. a guard is always guarding a linebacker.