ACE Posted December 7, 2003 Share Posted December 7, 2003 Earlier you seemed to think that some Billiken fans were expecting to much out of Bryant and tha he may not be that good considering he didn't start at Villanova. Have you changed your mind? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 I thought I said that we should wait on Bryant before making any grand proclamations. I never saw him play at Villanova, so I made no predictions about him. I only stated that his former head coach said that he had some defensive problems there. It looks like Brad isn't too pleased with his defensive effort at times. I saw Bryant in the first exhibition game and he surprised me with his athleticism and off the dribble skills. I wasn't impressed with his defense, though. Of course, he was awesome against Arizona, but one game doesn't define anyone. I must admit that I like his game and he's definitely the best offensive player on SLU by a long margin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 i think his defense is fine. his level of defense is probably wrongly measured against that of drejaj and fisher who are both incredible defenders. imo after watching bryant now for a few games, i think he is the equal of erwin claggett on both ends of the floor easily. claggett (who is one of my all-time favorites) never had knocks against his game by billiken fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted December 8, 2003 Author Share Posted December 8, 2003 Interesting. I seem to recall your main knock was that since he couldn't even start for Nova, he couldn't be as good as some Bills fans expected? Well, it looks like he can hold his own against the big boys of college bball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p diddy Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 why are you surprised that bryant is a good player? there have been people who have been saying that repeatedly who have gone to practice over the past year that he was an excellent offensive player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 about Josh Fisher and how he was tearing it up at practice when he redshirted his first year. While he's been a solid player at SLU, he's been a little disappointing on the offensive end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 I did say that. He wanted to go somewhere to be the Man. Considering that Villanova is a mediocre team in the Big East, I had my doubts about what impact he would have with SLU. Now that I've seen him, I like what I've seen so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 defense of Drejaj and Fisher. Reggie's shooting skills are better than I thought. He not only hit some sweet bombs but he hit from more than one shooting position. It irks me that great defense is undervalued by fans generally (and on this board) but even ESPN was hilighting Drejaj's and JJ's steals in the game. We have a very good defensive team that can beat anybody when the offense is working. Here's to crisp passing, solid screens and good shooting all the rest of the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 Reggie was great. Big thing is he's a go to guy. That was a clutch basket. My first thoughts; we played good D, had some trouble with their double teams (expect same from UC), and had not much of an inside game (who doesn't know that). JJ-very pleased. He could be the PF we've all drooled over. AJ-Love this kid Fish-seemed more in control of his game Sloan-got to love his fire Ohanon-Looks lost out there Varner-Same old same old Frericks-???, we can expect ups and downs. The free throws were very Brownesque. If Ian is an improvement over Frericks, JJ continues to improve, our front line play could be much improved come Feb/Mar. With the guards we put out there this could turn out good. Dare I say-----we could be dancing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 has he really been a "disappointment"? i think he has had the misfortune of playing in a star's shadow throughout his billiken career. first maurice jeffers and perry then perry the last 2 seasons. a disappointment would be what izik is slowly becoming. almost not even getting off the bench. but playing major minutes for all 4 seasons pushing perry to the wing, drawing the best player to guard each game, and now in contention for all-time marks in assists and steals doesnt sound like a disappointment to me. your remarks remind us of how every casual fan these days wants everyone to be the top bill star immediately or else discard him and go on to the next deer in the headlights youngster. sadly, most pro and college coaches these days adher to those wishes. i am glad josh has been a billiken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 slu72 said, "My first thoughts; we played good D, had some trouble with their double teams" we did? my boxscore said we only had 10 turnovers for the game and our guards had a combined 48 of our 67 points. what did your boxscore say? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p diddy Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 josh fisher never tore it up offensively in practice during his redshirt year. the last time you heard glowing things about a playing sitting out and practicing was when H Waldman was sitting out after his transfer year from unlv. he used to be awesome in practice and i remember drooling over the following year when he would be eligible. nice try, but people weren't talking about fisher in the same regard as they did waldman and bryant. by the way, he has been a really nice player for us. i think the failure of brandon morris to become eligible will hurt fish offensively because he is the only point guard on the team. with morris, fish would have moved to the wing in the 3-guard set and really looked to score. although i would like to see more offense, he has been fine. bad boyz for life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcoastballer45 Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 So what kind of numbers would you expect from fisher in his career scoring wise, coming from the point guard position. I'm wondering how many shots fisher has passed up in his career because he thinks they can still get a better shot or a specific play is ran for another player. I think fisher is looking for his shot this year and really hasn't had the opputunity to in the previous years. I would like to see him get more shots. I thought Anthony took way to many shots last game and maybe he should go the the pecking order and get the ball to the seniors when his shot is off. If his shot is on the throw it up Anthony, but when your shot is off give the ball up and stop dribbling so much. The game was a heart breaker but our bills have great heart and will be a good team. Keep it up. And can we please get some more fans to show up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 i dont want anthony to quit looking for his opps. one of anthony's greats attributes is his "no fear" attitude. if anthony had his legs at the last 10 minutes he would have hit a few of those misses imo. the problem is that anthony, fisher, and bryant are all playing 35+ minutes and a shooter needs his legs to convert consistently. another reason the failure of izik is killing us. izik gets 20-25 minutes of quality time that gives the 3 guards another 5 minutes each of rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcoastballer45 Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 Im trying to remember watching Fisher play out of control. He pushes the ball up the court hard and has a charge every now and then but he plays more in control every game then any player on the billiken team I think. Always has his hands in the passing lanes and I don't think he has had a bad reaching foul on defense all year. And 94% from the line I know its early but thats gotta be up their in the top 10 in the nation. He is averaging 5 more points then last year and is having a great start to the year. Expect fisher to get better and more confident with every game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcoastballer45 Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 even if izik is playing 25 min a game fish isn't coming out and neither will bryant unless bryant can't stay with his guy. Some of the shots anthony took were bad shots that he shouldn't have taken. Make the extra pass and screen away. I don't want him to stop shooting either but he needs to look to sloan and fisher and run the offense. They are the leaders and should get the looks. Just like it was for jeffers and Marque. Im not saying just because they are seniors give them the ball. Fisher and sloan are 2 of the best all around players on the team. They both make great decisions. Anthony is a great player dont get me wrong but last game he shot to much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 I said he was a disappointment offensively, not overall. He's been a solid PG for SLU and very good defensively. As for expectations, he was supposed to be an off guard coming out of high school, but Romar converted him to the point. Presumably, because he wasn't seen as a scorer. I never said that Josh wasn't valuable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 i dont want fisher, drejaj or bryant to play say 20 or 25 minutes a game, but it seems it wouldnt hurt if each took a 2 or 3 minute break per half to make them stronger for the end of the game. now we are still saying each is playing 35 minutes or thereabouts. then let izik spell sloan as well for the same time and you have izik getting his 20+ minutes and all our guards and sloan still playing 35 minutes. and i am not talking about izik getting shuffled in or out. izik would play his time in consecutive minutes in the middle of each half and as each player comes back in, he replaces one of the other 3 of our 4 tops. thus we maintain continuity as well. anyone who has ever played any competitive basketball knows that the shot is only as strong as the legs. if the legs dont go, neither will the shot of a good shooter. drejaj's shot looked good, but kept hitting front rim. i.e. tired legs. he wont admit it because he is a gamer, but that is the truth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 Broy, I sensed we had trouble when Lute ordered the traps over midcourt. It seemed to take us out of our offense and got AZ back in the game. No, they did not cause that many turnovers, but even the announcers said it was a reason for AZ getting back into it. Westballer, I said JF didn't play out of control, which he has in the past. I would not knock JF, he's vital to this team's success. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 i would say the fact the zebras did not evenly call the foul and we did not have the personell to take advantage of arizona's lack of inside presense when frye went out cost us the game. our guards continued to shoulder the load and did as well as any team in the country would do against their athletic guards. but they did not overmatch us in any way imo. now if we had begun to throw the ball away or arizona was stripping the ball and our guards had just ceased scoring., that would have been different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcoastballer45 Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 So if you know your tired and you keep shooting and missing you would think he would know he is hurting the team by doing that your almost saying he is being selfish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 a gamer wont admit he is tired and thinks he can make the next one. nothing wrong with that. coach has to see it imo. the players like fish and drejaj just play all out. those kind of guys are my kind of players. all out gamers. no fear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BILLIDOC Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 hey westcost sounds like you have agripe with anthony??????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcoastballer45 Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 If you give up 15 points in threes because you wont close out and put a hand in your guys face you need to work on not only your defense but your effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westcoastballer45 Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 I have no gripe with Anthony I just think that sometimes he shoots to much and when his shot is off it is off,just like every other good player. He just has to recoginize that it hurts the team if you just keep throwing it up like that. If the shot clock is winding down then throw it up if not make the extra pass and keep the offense moving. It's like he wont get the ball back. So to summarize I have no grip I just think sometimes he shoots to much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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