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A Soderberg sighting in Belleville today


jmolina

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If we are recruiting Stemler what are peoples thoughts? I know he is a good shooter, but he still seems skinny and lacking the athleticism to play bigger D1 basketball. Granted I have not seen him play since high school but maybe his skills have improved since. I trust Soderberg's judgement though. I just hope we dont' waste a scholarship on a player that is not good enough to contribute. It scares me that he could not even get off the bench his year at Bradley.

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>>It scares me that he could not even get off the bench his year at Bradley.<<

How many freshman PFs get off the bench for more than 6 minutes per game (which is what I think Stemler averaged at Bradley)? I'm more troubled by the report that he is not strong enough to guard D1 PFs in the post nor quick enough to guard the wing. The one good (and bad) thing about JUCOs is that its only a 2 year investment. If you make a mistake, it hurts less.

Brad could be looking at his PF situation this way. In 2006-2007, he has JJ/Obi ... should be sufficient. For the 2007-2008 season, JJ leaves and Stemler would move up to the backup PF in his final year of eligibility. Thus, you get two summers (2006 & 2007) to put say 10-15 pounds of muscle on Stemler and build his body to the point where he can defend an opposing PF for 15 minutes a game (what we need out of the backup PF). If you remember Chris Sloan was recruited as a guard and built his body over time into what it was his junior and senior years. This all makes sense if Brad can't find a PF he likes for the 2006 class but does feel comfortable he get a solid HS PF in the 2007 class (like Powell).

If Brad looks on Stemler as a shooter who he only really needs to contribute for one season as a bridge to better players in the pipeline, then it makes sense to me.

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He is an outside shooter, not a power forward. With JJ's emergence and Obi's potential recovery, I believe that next season we have a greater need for outside shooters. Plus, even if we bring in Stemler and Maquire as outside shooters, we still have two scholarships we can give for post players.

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Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought there were some reports that Obi is not really a power forward and likes to roam the circle as well? Of course, there is time to change that. But let's be careful not to tout Obi as something he might not be. I'm hoping he is but someone correct my original statement.

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If you have seem Obi in person I think you would agree that he is a power forward. Right now, I suspect that his post game is limited by his lack of length of leg strength and leaping ability that resulted from his knee injury.

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>>He is an outside shooter, not a power forward.<<.

Outside shooter and PF are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Boxes don't always apply to players. It does not matter where the guy plays on the offensive end (you can mold the offense to fit the personnel on the floor offensively) but can this dude be sculpted into someone who can defend a legit D1 PF for 15 minutes a game? If Stemler, at 6'8" (I'm guessing currently 200 or so) cannot be built into a PF in 2 summers (say bulk him up to 220), then it's a waste. He duplicates Maguire. If the Bills are really recruiting Stemler then it is as PF. If as a wing, then that must mean we are revoking the scholarship to Maguire (for they are the same player).

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could mean one of a couple of other things:

1. they are now second guessig maguire. and looking for the correction player. stemler seems to be what we thought maguire was/is.

2. they now believe that obi/justin can adequately handle the power forward position so now the one promised scholarship slot of a starting power forward changes to the best athlete/player available. someone as diversified as stemler would be with his fine shooting touch and height would really be a nice luxury.

it will be interesting to watch this all pan out, however, based on what stemler was in high school when i saw him, and what tseugnekillib has said about his body since, i am convinced he is likely chris sloan with a better shot. while chris adequately filled the power forward position, he never gave us any advantage inside. we cheered his effort and guille. and he managed to overcome his size disadvantage and slow down opponents inside players, but he was never a power forward. he was a wing playing out of position for necessity of the fact we had no one else. i dont think we can advance to the next level if that is our expectation of a power forward.

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Why do you assume that this is a correction signing? We are in dire need of good outside shooters. We have four scholarships to give. Why not sign two oversized three point shooters who will not be in the same class if there are plenty of scholarships available?

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Roy said "he was a wing playing out of position for necessity of the fact we had no one else. i dont think we can advance to the next level if that is our expectation of a power forward."

Just today I was reading a feature article in the Chicago Tribune on Roger Powell who is tearing it up in the CBA as a guard. In the article Roger says "People forget that in my sophomroe year I played on the perimeter. When Bruce Weber came, I move to power forward."

Illinois certainly moved to the "next level" with an out of position PF.

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jjray...don't be an idiot and suggest that they don't want a previously signed recruit....that is an ignorant post.

stemler is a solid perimeter scorer, with a nice jump hook when he post himself on the low block and is guarded by a same size or smaller player. stemler has not shown that he can guard a legitimate PF, the kind seen in the A-10 or the kind we see in our better non-conference games.

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The young man is averaging nearly 24 points a game and shooting more than 50 percent 3-point range in a good juco league. evidently, bigger players are having problems trying to guard him. jmolina said he was 6-8 from the three in the game he watched on saturday against southeastern. that's pretty impressive. imagine trying to double and triple team ian or clog all of tommie's driving lanes with someone like this on the floor who can light it up from downtown? plus, when he enters the division I ranks next year, he will be 22 years old while having played against excellent juco competition. this kid is obviously a quality player and that's what we need more of. plus, he's a marksman who can really score.

there is still a big drop off when brad goes to the bench and that's why we fall short against top quality teams. adding kids such as stemler and hopefully two more good players with those other schollies increases our chances of moving up and being a legitimate contender.

bad boyz for life

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stemler shoots much better than sloan, but has not exhibited sloan's aggressiveness/passion.

the biggest difference between stemler and maguire is 3 years in age and experience. maguire is a much stronger/advanced high school senior at Edwardsville than stemler at the same age at Gibault. Keep in mind that stemler played in a more free-wheeling offense at Gibault, than Maguire's more disciplined offense at E-ville.

i don't see the diversity in stemler....i see a diverse player as one who contributes at both ends of the court with near equal value. stemler shoots very well, has a nice low-post jump hook, and makes his free throws. he is not a natural or aggressive defender or a natural or aggressive rebounder.

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A big shooting forward presents matchup problems when we are on the offensive. If you doubt that, just go back to earlier this week with Novak vs. UConn. It ahs to be ahrd to guard what is essentially a small forward in a 6'10" body. Of course, he has to make them.

On the flip side, that same shooter has to go down on the defensive end and board. Novak has been somewhat weak on that end of the game but did fine in that same game against UConn. Braun was weak on both ends as far as my final grade would be and Sloan was a weak offensive contributor but more solid on the defensive end.

Also, one of the greatest runs in .... no THE GREATEST RUN ... in Billiken history was the early 90's when our admiral center was a scant 6'6". It can be done .... I guess it comes down to what kind of personnel we have to run whatever system.

Right now, we have no spot-up shooters in my book, and if the combo of JJ and Obi is a four answer, then we need to look to meets our needs elsewhere.

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i say that david, only because the last we had heard from coach soderberg was that he was only going to recruit 2 more players and both would be inside players. one to hopefully be good enough to be the starting pf the other to be a project center.

stemler is neither.

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Several thoughts:

If we have 4 scholarships to give, I am bothered that Brad early on indicates that we are only going to fill two slots.When transfers are looking around,what do they check out in a program? Might Brad's statement deter a possible transfer from considering us? I hope we aren't simply pinching pennies. We obviously don't have enough pennies to go around or we would have an arena under construction.

Being a power forward is as much an attitude as a matter of height and weight. Some close to the program wonder if Obi isn't a small forward - mentally - in a power forwards body. Rodman wasn't the biggest dude in the NBA nor a tradional power forward in some ways, but his record of 34 rebounds in a game still stands. He was a rebounding machine.

One thing is for sure, given that:

1) A real power forward could come in and start immediately,

2) the good young guards we have on the roster suggest that the program has real promise for the future,and

3) Brad and his staff have known about this need for a PF for a real long time -

if we don't get somebody this time around when will we be able to sign a bonafide pf? What would if take to get a real PF to commit to SLU so we could stop asking the Sloan's and JJ's of the world to match up with real DI PF's? I don't have an answer to that question and obviously the coaching staff doesn't either or we would have a couple true DI PF's on the roster.

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numbers aren't all that different, but no I wasn't comparing them.

What I was comparing was a team like Illinois that is a perenial top 20 program that was able to take a small forward and put him at power forward and with the right guards became a top 2 team.

The Bills can realistically be considered a top 75 program and could similarly take a small forward and put him at power forward and with the right guards and Greek center become a top 40 team (aka NCAA team). I assume that is the next level you want for us.

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>jjray...don't be an idiot and suggest that they don't want a

>previously signed recruit....that is an ignorant post.

Tiss, Tiss guest. There you go with the name calling. Bad form. I said my assumption is that they are recruiting Stemler as a PF otherwise the recruitment does not make sense as he duplicates Macguire. Certainly, I just speak for myself and not the program.

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