My Brad ?'s after this game

[davidnark]

-The starting lineup--four guards, including a 5'9" guard with no offensive skills?

-Tommie riding the bench? (I frankly don't care if the guy plays a lick of defense; he is our best rebounder and creator, and god knows we need both.)

-Once again, after we take the lead after being down by 15, Brad kills the momentum by going to VN off the bench (while Tommie and JJ sit idle). How can you win games when the coach constantly kills the momentum by overcoaching.

-The constant shuffling of players in and out--how can we develop any kind of offensive consistency if we have different personnel every five minutes of every game

-The holding back of Kevin Lisch's offense. Everything Roy has said about Kevin is true. What Roy didn't contemplate is that the one person in the world who can stop Lisch is Coach Soderberg.

-The terrible game plan defensively. Pack defense for over a half against a team that can't do anything except shoot threes is moronic.

-The disregard for Husak. We have a 7'2" guy with decent defense skills sitting the bench with no apparent future.

-The blind loyalty to players like VN and DP who have no offensive skill.

-The lack of any kind of offensive plays. Would it kill this team to set a pick for Lisch?

-The lack of inbounds plays.

-The inability to play pressure defense.

THE OVERCOACHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

[bluecrewfinance]

You hit perfectly on my thoughts with setting screens for KL; we saw how well good picks worked against us tonight, so why don't we use them when we have the ball?

Then again, why doesn't Lisch shoot the contested shot in the earlier portions of the game? With our offensive play so lackluster, doesn't he have to?

[Schasz]

Nark,

In the business world it is called Micro-Management and I have seen my share of Micro Managers over the years.

[Billiken75]

Unless you go to each practice - know what the player's are coached to do - who is responding, etc. etc. A coach who let the players set the agenda - is Q. Snyder. I get tired of hearing the complaints about Brad and team - who should start, who should score....

This team is simply to young and experienced to put forth any consistency - just look at Kansas - very talented young players who make a ton of mistakes and they have to do what the coaching staff coaches. I guarantee you this - if Tommie or Kevin sit, there is a reason. And if that reason makes them a better ball player next year vs. not learning what is expected - I can live with that reality. Brad has invested a hell of a lot more time, energy, travel to this team than any of us can imagine. His livelihood rests on how this team develops - judge Brad and his team in the A-10 tourney and next year. If you want the inmates running the asylum - choose to watch Missouri basketball.

[bluecrewprez]

Well said!

[JaleJarr]

This team is simply to young and experienced to put forth

any consistency - just look at Kansas - very talented young

players who make a ton of mistakes and they have to do what

the coaching staff coaches. I guarantee you this - if Tommie

or Kevin sit, there is a reason.

I can't fully exonerate the coaching staff on this issue. They are the ones who put the game plan in effect. You can't expect these kids to be able to put forth dominant defensive games every time out. Hawaii, UWM, and Ole Miss proved this. In addition you can't expect to win every game at the final buzzer. Every game and every team is different. Richmond did not have a true ball handler yet we allowed them to walk the ball upcourt the better part of the game without real pressure. Allowed their shooters uncontested jumpshots. Offensively we have no clue. If Ian ain't scoring early we are in trouble as we have no way of making up points. WE GET NOTHING EASY. EVERY THING IS A STRUGGLE. Tommie is not has never been a half-court player at anytime in his young career. He may get there eventually but I don't see it this year. Tommie is miscast in this offense. We were told prior to the start of the year the Bills would open up the offense. It happened during pre-season yet at the first sign of trouble we revert back to this Bennett style of ball. I don't have a problem with a young struggling team if we are looking to improve for the future. This team is not improving, they are stagnant. As far as the comparison with Kansas, their struggles are due to having too many stars on the team. SLU at the present time doesn't have that problem.

[slu72]

UB's comments to Timmerman were as weak as his effort. If there's anyone to blame, it's him. OK, we get the picture with TL, defense and the frustration technical. But still, this kid's been A-10 rookie of the week four times. His reward; 13 minutes. Was he the only one supposed to guard against the early 3's? You start 4 guards and have no perimiter defense in the first half? Hello? UR struggles to hit 50 every night, how potent can their backdoor offense be? Sorry, none of this makes sense. Then the constant rotations? How can you expect to get any effective flow or rythm when you're inserting guys that have shown little or no ability to get the ball in the hoop? DP at this point should get no more than 10 mpg. He can't score...period. Defenders don't respect him. VN a virtual non contributor. We've got three guys on this team that can play transition ball, TL, KL, and DB yet they're handcuffed. Face it, the best five we've got at this juncture are those 3, IV and JJ. Give LM, AD, and BH the other minutes. Release the hounds UB, let 'em play. I am sure guys like DB, JJ, and TL are shaking their heads this morning trying to figure out where they stand with UB or what he expects of them. That's never a good situation.

[billiken_roy]

the only thing i disagree with is the liddell issue. the kid is a freshman. he has never ever been in a team atmosphere where there was any sort of control imo (god was the e st louis team a mess. all the talent in the world.....) does he create a monster if he just lets the kid do whatever he wants when he wants now as a freshman?

i love tommie liddell as well. but the kid obviously has some issues about authority. the way the game ended for him last night was ugly. it was as stupid of an incident as one can committ when our chance to win was hanging by a thread. that technical ended the game. and it was pretty obvious that tommie came in the game at that point with a "me" attitude.

but otherwise, i tend to agree with just about everything said by davidnark.

no one is absolved of blame last night. all the players played bad, brad coached horribly imo. it seemed as though our players looked by richmond. my gosh, this team has no room to look by anyone. especially a team that is reputed to be the carbon copy of our own mantra.

[JaleJarr]

the only thing i disagree with is the liddell issue. the

kid is a freshman. he has never ever been in a team

atmosphere where there was any sort of control imo (god was

the e st louis team a mess. all the talent in the

world.....) does he create a monster if he just lets the

kid do whatever he wants when he wants now as a freshman?

i love tommie liddell as well. but the kid obviously has

some issues about authority.

Those are some pretty strong observations. You'd think Liddell is the first Billiken or Division 1 athlete to ever draw a technical foul. What people are not seeing is the fact that Tommie was sold something during his prep career that is not coming to fruition as a collegiate athlete. Sales pitch 1: I'm going to put the ball in your hand and allow you to create. Sales pitch 2: We are going to open up the offense to suit your athletic skills. Not happening with regularity at this point. In addition Tommie was never told during the recruiting period that he would be the team's starting power forward. Tommie is clearly frustrated, so when you consider these things I'm not at all surprised to see his frustrations manifested in the form of technicals.

[billiken_roy]

i can understand the frustration of promises not being kept. however, for tommie's own sake, he has to rise above that and be all he can be as well. not putting out a full effort, retaliating in just a foolish manner, and disappearing from games when the team needs him to do just the opposite, arent going to put him in a better place in his future. and we all know where that better place is.

while he wasnt promised the power forward position, you cant deny he didnt set the world on fire the games and instances he did get the point guard spot. when he is given the opportunity, he has to have the fire and maturity to seize the day and show the world. he didnt.

i doubt his opportunity to be our point guard are over. polk has done next to nothing the last two games back at the spot. in reality the better point guard when played was from lisch. however, lisch needs to be on the wing. if for no other reason than to give him a breath so he can guard the opposing best guard when we go the other way.

last, tommie has the unique situation where he can step in and be the man immediately. and that doesnt necessarily mean the other four players head to the other end and let tommie play offense by himself. it is an old cliche. and it is a lot to hoist on his freshmen shoulders, but imo, tommie can be the solution to a lot of problems. but he needs to do that in a way he takes everyone with him. i only throw out such a high demand, because simply i think he is that freaking talented.

[billiken_roy]

i dont want to say that last nite was not any fault of brad. there were a lot of things i think he could have done differently than what we did.

however on the liddell issue alone, i am in brad's corner. i think he wants liddell to be a star. but to get to that point, he beleives tommie cant cut corners. he has to be a complete player. he has to want to be the man in crunch time. he has to want to be as good defensively as he is offensively. he has to be able when needed to adjust to the team needs and play the other positions that his fantastic athleticism and size allows him to play.

all of those weaknesses are the weaknesses that an nba scout would look at now and say, "he isnt ready yet".

personally, i'd rather he make tommie toe the line now as a fast developing freshman than let it fester until he is a senior and those steps cant be recreated then. we lose to a richmond in a season we likely arent going to be much more than a 500 team anyway, so be it.

but in two years, if those player mistakes happen because they werent addressed now, then what is it going to cost us?

[slu72]

I hope he's not frustrated to the point of looking around. We can't lose him.

[3star_recruit]

"WE GET NOTHING EASY. EVERY THING IS A STRUGGLE. Tommie is not has never been a half-court player at anytime in his young career. He may get there eventually but I don't see it this year. Tommie is miscast in this offense. We were told prior to the start of the year the Bills would open up the offense. It happened during pre-season yet at the first sign of trouble we revert back to this Bennett style of ball"

As we knew he would. I know we're angry but is anything that is currently transpiring really a surprise? Brad's a very good defensive coach (who apparently only knows how to coach one defense) and a very unimaginative offensive coach. He has played lip service to a running attack to get better athletes in here. Why he wanted better athletes just so they can struggle in a halfcourt game against bigger teams is beyond me.

I think he's owned up to who he is as a coach by signing Dustin Maguire and recruiting Lance Stemler. But this year will continue to be an exercise in frustration.

[3star_recruit]

Brad can't continue to make promises regarding our style of play to recruits that he doesn't keep -- first Polk, now Tommie. Nothing good can come of it.

I saw a coach on the sideline who looked totally lost in the closing seconds of last night's game. He appeared on the verge of tears. That scares me.

[slufanskip]

I'm wondering how everybody knows what promises were made to kids ... and you can't play up tempo without the players to do it, and so far we don't have them. As fast as DP is ... he won't take it to the hole. DB fumbles the ball constantly and doesn't finish at the rim. ... How do we run? We would get clobberred and would not have 8 wins.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[3star_recruit]

"I'm wondering how everybody knows what promises were made to kids"

Well in Jale Jarr's case because he's close to Tommie and in Polk's case, because I'm close to the Vashon program.

[JaleJarr]

while he wasnt promised the power forward position, you cant

deny he didnt set the world on fire the games and instances

he did get the point guard spot. when he is given the

opportunity, he has to have the fire and maturity to seize

the day and show the world. he didnt.

No he didn't set the world on fire, however the team won 2 of the 3 games he started. The lone loss coming to GW on the road in OT no less, the a-10's preseason favorites and a Top 25 team.

i doubt his opportunity to be our point guard are over.

polk has done next to nothing the last two games back at the

spot. in reality the better point guard when played was

from lisch. however, lisch needs to be on the wing. if for

no other reason than to give him a breath so he can guard

the opposing best guard when we go the other way.

I think you waste Lisch at the PG. Far too valuable as a shooter. I watched in frustration as Lisch hit 2 late 3 pointers vs Richmond.

Clearly this kids needs more shots. Besides that Lisch expends so much energy on defense, he would eventually wear down running the show. Tommie on the other hand really doesn't guard man to man as he

is often allowed to roam the middle looking to jump the passing lanes.

last, tommie has the unique situation where he can step in

and be the man immediately. and that doesnt necessarily

mean the other four players head to the other end and let

tommie play offense by himself. it is an old cliche. and

it is a lot to hoist on his freshmen shoulders, but imo,

tommie can be the solution to a lot of problems. but he

needs to do that in a way he takes everyone with him. i

only throw out such a high demand, because simply i think he is that freaking talented.

This is true in an uptempo offense, however we almost play exclusively half-court. When Tommie beats his man off the dribble he has a 2nd and sometimes a 3rd player to beat. I have never seen his shots block so many times. This team is almost a carbon copy of his East St Louis team. Tommie rebounds in traffic surrounded by multiple defenders. Tommie walks the ball upcourt. They run the motion offense and nothing happens offensively if Ian doesn't touch the ball.

[billiken_roy]

jalejarr, i think we are on the same page. and i think a lot of us walk around the issue of the apparent declaration to run the offense through ian. while that might give us the best chance to win a game, the only way we get to the top for a season imo is for someone other than ian to become the offensive focus. that frees up ian, likely gets teams out of zones, etc.

there are only two even remote possibilities on this team to assume that role. the best being tommie liddell.

that all said, i also want tommie to improve on his other weaknesses so that i can keep watching him play basketball for about 15 more years. most of those weaknesses (except his outside shooting) are more things he has to do within his mind. his competition is himself.

[JaleJarr]

you can't play up tempo without the players

to do it, and so far we don't have them. As fast as DP is he won't take it to the hole. DB fumbles the ball

constantly and doesn't finish at the rim. ... How do we run? We would get clobberred and would not have 8 wins.

We play most team as if we learned something during our scouting of those teams that they play the same style of basketball. We all know this is not true. I didn't see the following games: Hawaii, UW-M,or Oakland so I can't comment on those games, but I did see how our team responded to UNC, Gonzaga, and GW. Three teams that play 3 different styles of basketball. We pretty much played UNC straight up and pushed the tempo when it was present. Gonzaga was masterfully game planned as we had an opportunity to win. The coaching staff put in a wonderful defensive plan. The team didn't push the tempo as it would have been asinine to try and out gun Gonzaga, as a result the game ended on the final play. GW, probably the most undisciplined Top 25 team since the Fab 5 of Michigan was played similarly to Gonzaga and the game was decided in OT. All 3 of those teams could hurt you on the inside, so protecting the middle was paramount in those games, but Richmond, UMass, & St Bonaventure all conference opponents no less, were not worthy of that respect. Yet all of those games save Richmond were decided in the final seconds. Each of those teams had questionable guard play and we don't pressure them. We retreat to conservative ball when we have proven to most that we can compete with the nations top team. I'm not saying we blowout the 3 conference foes by playing uptempo, but we all but guarantee a white knuckle game when we play ultra-conservative.

[billikenmetz]

I agree on every point. Also, we need to recruit better athletes and athletes who won't be satisfied on being on .500 teams. There is no passion or desire out there. The only kid I see giving anything above 50% is Voyouykas, and he needs to quit tripping on his own two feet and picking up costly offensive fouls. This is rediculous. Luke Meyer's jumpshot is SO SLOW that my double-amputee grandmother who lost both arms in a lawnmowing accident could block his shot or pour a cup of coffee using her teeth by the time Luke winds up. I finished six chapters of a college calculus book and did ALL the exercises by the time Luke chucked one up. Horrible. Husak needs to transfer to Luther College or somewhere he can play. I don't understand why we're eating his scholarship money for riding pine. He's the 84 Lumber Player of the Game because he knows what to do when it comes to wood time. Quit talking about Kramer Soderberg because this is it for Brad. It's NCAA or late NIT or bust now. I've witnessed the passion and intensity of Soderberg change in a month; from the Gonzaga game to the Richmond game. He coaches when the game is on a national spotlight and gives two shits when we play Richmond, a team that plays in front of capacity crowds of 679 people. This was probably the worst played and worst coached game of the Soderberg era, and I watched a team go from promising to hideous in the course of 40 minutes on Wednesday night.

We got trapped in the Spiders web, and there's no way out for Soderberg's team. We're screwed.

[billiken_roy]

i quit reading your post right after "The only kid I see giving anything above 50% is Voyouykas".

that might be the stupidest statement made about the billikens in years. especially this group. effort for the most part is not the problem.

[JaleJarr]

If we are looking to improve our young players I think our fans would understand an ugly loss here and there- see Ole Miss. Similar to an automaker putting out a nice looking SUV that has a rollover problem. What do you do? How about widening the wheelbase. Hey that's a good idea. Hey this Bills offense is really struggling half-court, how about pushing the tempo to look for easy opportunities to give our kids a little confidence. It's that old adage of getting a good shooter out of a shooting funk by getting an easy layup. These kids need something to build on, I know they don't look forward to running the half-court offense as nothing positive seems to come from it. I would take a loss here or there if the kids are improving, such as the 3 big games we lost, but Richmond, nothing positive can come from that lost.

[billikenmetz]

I just see nothing but complatency for being on a mediocre ballclub, Roy. Who wants it? No one wants it. I know Ian can't win ballgames by himself, but Drejaj has spurts when it looks like he's the type of ballplayer we've wanted to see all along. Defensively, we're horrible at guarding the perimeter and when Newborne goes in, it's pretty much a 4-on-5 game on both sides of the floor because he lacks the offensive skills and he's lazy.

[JaleJarr]

I don't know if I would call Newbourne lazy. I think he is being asked to do things that he wasn't recruited to do. If SLU had better athletes Newbourne could be a valuable reserve/upperclassmen as his role would be streamlined. He would come in for short spurts hopefully with the team winning and knock down shots. On this team however, the games are closer and each mistake seem to be magnified due to our lack of scoring. Because he is a competitive athlete he looks to do things to help, but due to his limited athletic skills they often backfire. Don't be too hard on Newbourne, all he did was accept a scholarship offer to compete at the highest level.

[billikenmetz]

Vashun looks like a guy who could completely dominate a game on both ends of the court. Don't get me wrong, he's a very physical guy and I don't doubt his ability. But he's in a system where we concentrate all of our efforts on one guy -- Ian. If he was a slasher, we could create wide open layups if we had more movement in the paint because the defense always doubles up on Ian. It just looks like VN is clueless out there. I got that impression last night. Maybe it was the in-flight Kosher meal on the connecting flight out of O'Hare.