Brad's Show Last Night

[GMan Alum]

Did anybody listen to his show on KFNS last night? Any topics of discussion worth noting?

[cheeseman]

I heard part of it but really he did not say much - he talked about needing to recruit for a team not just individual players, lots of big men on the recruiting board right now, he wants to get kids that fit the team's needs and not throw off the current good chemestry. He thought DM would be a good replacement for AD. That is all I heard.

[SShoe]

There were some comments, not from Brad, but Ramsey suggested covertly about Ian's younger brother being a recruit.

Interesting he said something about his liking the current team chemistry and right now wanted in essence good role players, who can do certain things well. He didn't want another player who wanted to 15 shots a game, but rather a guy who could fill in areas where we were currently weak. Obviously the 4.

[davidnark]

>Interesting he said something about his liking the current

>team chemistry and right now wanted in essence good role

>players, who can do certain things well. He didn't want

>another player who wanted to 15 shots a game, but rather a

>guy who could fill in areas where we were currently weak.

>Obviously the 4.

Sounds like another example of Brad being hyper-conservative in his coaching philosophy. Would Brad really pass up a potential star in favor of a role player? Why not take the risk with the upside?

[slu72]

I think he's trying to build a team with a good mix of Srs and Jrs that stay 4 years and by the time they get to the NCAA they are a very cohesive unit.

[3star_recruit]

"He didn't want another player who wanted to 15 shots a game, but rather a guy who could fill in areas where we were currently weak."

If I reading Brad right, then he really likes Lance Stemler.

[billiken_roy]

david, unless the players coming in are head and shoulders better, i too would rather fill weakness roles first.

all one has to do is look at the likes of kansas with all kinds of all-americans losing to the likes of kstate and mi$$ouri in less than a week and see that a truck load of great top talent might not equal success if the needed dirty work and role production is not accomplished as well.

[Billiphan]

>david, unless the players coming in are head and shoulders

>better, i too would rather fill weakness roles first.

>

>all one has to do is look at the likes of kansas with all

>kinds of all-americans losing to the likes of kstate and

>mi$$ouri in less than a week and see that a truck load of

>great top talent might not equal success if the needed dirty

>work and role production is not accomplished as well.

Roy,

SLU has, and had had, enough of the role type players. They need more superstars like TL if they're going to take it to the next level. You can only have so many Drejas and Dieners. The Bills need studs.

[billiken_roy]

imo, they have three "studs" now in ian, tommie and kevin. they do indded have enough role players to back up all three of them.

but right now they have zero players to effectively and consistently play the power forward position. we have seen glimpses from justin johnson only to be let down with his own inconsistent play for 3 years now. newborne is gone. obi is just a promise.

all i want is someone to come in and score near double figures and rebound and defend. that doesnt have to be a stud. that just needs to be a role player. fill that hole first. then we can recruit over other positions.

[SShoe]

If a top 50, regardless of position came along, it'd be stupid not to take him. But this year, to recruit with the idea of filling certain weak holes seems logical to me.

Please don't do that next year though.

[Billiphan]

>imo, they have three "studs" now in ian, tommie and kevin.

>they do indded have enough role players to back up all three

>of them.

>

>but right now they have zero players to effectively and

>consistently play the power forward position. we have seen

>glimpses from justin johnson only to be let down with his

>own inconsistent play for 3 years now. newborne is gone.

>obi is just a promise.

>

>all i want is someone to come in and score near double

>figures and rebound and defend. that doesnt have to be a

>stud. that just needs to be a role player. fill that hole

>first. then we can recruit over other positions.

I wouldn't put KL in that category yet. I think he is on his way but I don't think he is there.

My point is, that yeah it would be great to bring someone in to "compliment" IV but what are we going to do when IV leaves. You need to consistently bring in the "studs" to replace the ones your losing, if not, you're left with TL and KL and a couple stiffs inside - then we're back to where we started.

While I agree that it's good to have those complimentary role players, we're better off getting as many good players as we can competing for minutes.

[BradFan]

Make no mistake...if Brad can get a Top 50 guy, he'll take him. But he also is dealing with his reality right now. SLU is not yet a reputable program in the eyes of lots of biggies, and he is building toward that. IV, TL, KL are huge building blocks in that process. I dare say that the Wisconsin Final Four team had no individual player as good as any of those three. But they were all role players who meshed. What is notable is that in the next group to come along after that Final Four team, you had Devin Harris and some other players who had more game than the original Bennett/Soderberg recruiting class.

IV was most likely a diamond in the rough. TL and KL come with higher expectations and I expect they will deliver, and that will lead to bigger and better things. In the meantime, I think Brad is focused on finding the best possible people to fill roles, and generally, he's done a good job of that, with the 4 being the obvious shortcoming right now.

[tseugnekillib]

I heard Brad's program last night and what I heard Brad say was....he didn't want to bring in a player that wanted to take 15 shots a game ( in a very selfish way). If the new player got 15 shots during the flow of the offense so be it.....to me, Brad was saying he didn't want a selfish jerk that wasn't a team player.

Brad also mentioned that SLU had a SOS rating of 32 at the start of this week....which put them in the top 10% in D1 ball....and he schedules exactly for that purpose.

Brad spoke at length answering a question about Fall signee Dustin McG. Claims Dustin is a gym rat, always working on his game. Stated Dustin was forced to play in the post for Civic Mem High School, because he was the biggest guy on the team. Whereas, at E-ville, he plays all over. Brad stated he was sold on Dustin based on his perimeter play during the AAU season. (AAU ball helps far,far more small town players than it hurts.)

Recruiting wise, looking for a experienced 4-man/post player and a young post-player who could share time with BH when Bryce was a senior.

[Billikan]

I am usually very cautious about our young players but if Kevin plays like he did against UMass then he is a real "stud" in the sense that he is a big time player that can impact a game, particularly on the defensive end and he has real potential as a scorer. I loved Scott Highmark but Kevin is a better all around player now than Scott was in his freshman year.

[SShoe]

Let's also be honest with ourselves. There are no top high-school recruits essentially left, and if there are they probably have academic issues. Brad's comment is a good way of curbing your enthusiasm (funny show) so people don't expect SLU to go out right now and get a stud. We can wait next year for that, Powell and Tyus?

I hope we get exactly what Brad said he wanted, a solid JUCO PF who can give us good minutes and a project.

[Taj79]

First of all, I think Saint Louis University is a program that needs to rely on the longevity that four-year players bring to a program. Four-year programs are schools like Gonzaga, Creighton, SIU, Xavier, Dayton, Notre Dame ... schools that don't suffer from the one-and-done-and-out syndrome in systems with players like Stevie Francis, Luol Deng, DeJuan Wagner, and a whole slew of others. And seeing as we need to establish such a program, it would make sense to have players that can maintain a team chemistry throughout their time here.

Secondly, let's really be realistic ... how many Top 50 players have actually come to SLU in the modern basketball era? Like ... one. And I believe he came in order to stay close to home and never intended to be one of the four-year players mentioned above. At most, he was a two-and-out but had such phenominal success that one year that his career took on the fast track a year before he planned. Since his departure, I have changed my tune on any real benefits we reaped from his one year. I now contend that other than that one year of great feelings, we got nothing out of his stay here. So much of t he promise that was Baniak, Heinrich and Tatum went out the door with him, because we all didn't realize just how much better he made those around him.

Sound slike Brad is looking for a team whose whole is better than the sum of its indivdual parts. You can always take a flyer on your version of T.O. but if you did, I think the real question is is what you get for one year worth the repurcussions later down the line?

Recruiting is tough enough. I don't how guys at the major schools do it when they aren't sure of what's coming back. I mean, I think the first thing anybody starts with is "who do we have coming back and how do I supplement that?" Not being able to answer that question has got to be hard, from a jumping off point in the recruiting game. Did Pete Carroll know that his entire offense would declare early and go to the NFL? But for some schools that is business as usual. I still don't believe we have ever recovered from the post-Hughes year.

[slu72]

The biggies reload, eg Duke, UNC as prime examples, with McD's AA's. I like the approach where we get good solid D1 players, not necessarily stars, because they'll stick around and once you get the pipeline in synch, ie frosh and sophs learning from jr's and sr's you'll have some success. Zags did it this way and now they can get the big stars to come in. That said, if Tyus told UB I'm coming to SLU my socks would be knocked off if he said "no, you don't fit what I'm after"....that ain't gonna happen. From what I hear of Tyus he's not a like lottery pick anytime soon, so he'd be perfect. Now, if we can just get him here.

[cheeseman]

SIUC has had in recent years several players who left for the NBA before their 4 years were up. Hudson for one and there were at least 2 others whose names escape me now.