Billiken75 Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Let's all take a collective deep breath. We the fans are all frustrated - as we have seen the talent and how they can play with Top 25 teams. We are thirsty for a winning team. I am certain the coaches are frustrated - as they have seen what this team can do - and unfortunately, what they often do against lesser talent. The players are likely frustrated as well, up and down games, playing time issues, thinking they are putting in the necessary effort and possibly confused as to what they should do. Let's get realistic. A .500 season is probably the best this young and growing team can reach. That is the reality. A person close to the Illini program told me that in their practices, they are just starting to work on their offense. All the emphasis has been focused on defense. No complaints from the Illini fans - due to their winning. No outcry for Weber's head - because they are winning. How many seniors are starting for them? I hope we can have a voice of reason, p diddy, give his evaluation as we get deeper into conference play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 The win one lose one curse strikes again. LOOK OUT XAVIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I say we sacrifice an effigy of Ryan Leuchtefeld AFTER we beat Xavier, to end the curse. (so much for reason) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUAvtr Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 I agree about the collective breath thing. We all need to relax. To take a scene from one of my more favorite movies we basically had the self-destruct button pressed last night, we tried to press the cancellation button, found out it was out of order, and we self-destructed (if you're wondering, watch Spaceballs, good Mel Brooks movie). I'm just as frustrated at this loss as everyone else is, but you have to take this season with a grain of salt, or two if you need too. We're young and not that experienced yet. UB, definitely still has kinks to get out of himself and his system, but he's worked hard at it thus far. Be patient rabid Billiken fans, we'll get through this and on to greener pastures soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUAvtr Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Hey Rich, instead, could we sacrifice that Richmond band? Our band is going to just tear them to shreds if we see them in the A-10 tourney, and I'd rather put them out of their misery now than later. Oooooooooh that was HORRID!!!!! Thank Mike (Dr. for wanting an actual repertoire, makes me appreciate I'm a part of this band more and more every day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 That would be more like a mercy killing than a sacrifice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUAvtr Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 I don't believe that SHOULD be the reality. I believe this team has more talent than that and youth be damned we should be better than .500. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 i love your optimism, but there is a lot of holes that cant be hid. we have a lot of youth (talented, albeit young), besides no dependable pf, we really have no inside depth to speak of, and very inconsistent outside shooters. we have indeed been teased with views of what might be coming, but realistically, i think the above holes are going to be tough to overcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bauman Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Kshoe, I agree with you AND the main theme of this post. Hey, it's sports-I was upset last night, woke up this morning, checked, and found out my entire family was healthy and hopefully got a better grip on myself re Billiken Basketball. Having said that, you are right we can, and I think, should be better than we showed last night and in many of the recent games in which we played poorly (I have made other posts during the past week about this so I won't repeat myself here). I know we are somewhat young-I see KL as our only true Freshman since TL played at a Basketball factory last year in what should, for experience purposes, be counted as his FR year-but we still are making inexcusable unforced errors and mistakes. Due to family matters I saw only parts of the 1st half and the first few minutes of the 2nd half last night, and as painful as it may be I intend to watch my tape of the complete game later today or tomorrow, BUT here are a few preliminary comments: I'm a big fan of Brad's, but he has not done his best work, CONSISTENTLY, this year. I emphasize the C word since he finds the same failure in some of his players and in his team both intra- and intergame. For example he did a great job getting us ready for UNC and Gonzaga, but not such a good job getting us ready for Chicago St. and Richmond, just to name a few. Last night some of his players didn't play, but maybe more importantly, in my view our preparation and game plan were both poor at best. Others said this last night and it doesn't seem to be brain surgery to me---this team (UR) was not going to win the game inside. If they were going to stay with us it was going to be with 3 pt shooting and backdoor cuts. If we as posters on a basketball board knew this, why didn't our coaching staff also know it. There have been a number of games, both this year and in earlier yrs, where we could have lost (or lost by much more) if the opposition had been able to shoot the ball from behind the arc. Brad's pack defense is great to use against a team with good big men who can hurt us from in the paint, BUT Richmond's big men hurt us with 3s as we protected against any incursions into the key! Why? I have no idea! I believe that the coach needs to clearly be the boss-not a buddy to the players-but someone must be able to get to Brad and let him know some of the basic management principles of being a good boss. You don't treat workers (players) as he is treating JJ w/o losing the respect of the rest of the workgroup (team) let alone that individual. He is moving ever so close to being a Rich Grawer clone with regard to player mistakes that it is scary. Eventually Rich lost the respect of his team and thereby lost his team. Brad is moving in that direction. TL needs to decide if he wants to "play on Sunday", to borrow a football phrase, or just be an above average college player. When intense he is very, very good (with a lot still to work on), when he is not intense he is Just Another Guy. DB needs to listen to what his coaches are telling him in practice-I've heard it and he isn't doing it in games. DP needs to shoot 1000 shots a day, including free throws, or accept that he is just another very short player with decent ball skills. KL needs to start looking for, and taking, his shot in games-more so than he has been doing. We need to start shooting OPEN 18-21 foot shots and instead driving into the paint only to force up a poor shot or have a shot blocked. This is just a partial list, but I'll conclude with an item others have mentioned. Why can't we set effective picks that free up a shooter? Teams seem to be able to do it against us. If none of our coaches know how to teach that part of the game (and I believe they do) then just watch the other team in some of our games, eg. Iowa. Sorry for the length, but I feel better now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 bauman, one thing your post brings to mind when you discuss the view that it appears that for some games we are better prepared than others. just a thought, but i remember brad telling us last year at a billiken club meeting that each game he assigns an assistant coach as the scout coach. that coach via tape, phone calls and research helps to decide the game plan for that game by focusing on what was determined are team strengths and weaknesses as compared to our own billikens. maybe one or more or our assistant coaches can accept some blame for some of our inconsistency as well. it would be interesting to see which coaches were assigned which games as scout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 Bauman that was a good post. I agree with a lot of what you said. As far as game preparation I wonder who prepared last nights scouting report. The assistants trade off on different reports. It would be interesting to know who did last nights game vs. who did the Zags or GW. It was crazy to expect Ian to try to defend their center from shooting 3 pt. shots. How many did he hit??Maybe some of us make too much of the so called pack defense but we lost last nights game because we couldn't or wouldn't defend the three pointer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 they actually only made 4 more 3's and they shot only 37% (we shot right at 32%) from the 3 point line which is only a slight improvement vs what the billikens opponents have shot for the year. they made 11 more free throws than us. and most of those came down the stretch. i say the problem is we got the lead and then didnt build on it. we make a few shots after we had that lead we would have turned the tables on them. when we got that lead, that was the time to bring in a liddell and tell him to take over get to the rim. that is why the whole liddell thing is puzzling. we'll never know what happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 As you well know basketball is a game of spurts. They got their spurts because they hit wide open 3 point shots. Our three point total was skewered because in desperation time Kevin got hot from 3 point land. I agree with Ramsey last night when he said the game was lost on their spurt to start the game and the spurt at the end of the half. Both of those spurts were keyed by open 3 point shooting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 What did I tell you yesterday? A win vs. X is our destiny... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 I heard them play several of the same songs you guys play, only not nearly as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuggyBilliken2006 Posted January 19, 2006 Share Posted January 19, 2006 One of the team goals this year was to, and I quote "Crack the Top 25." Crack must be what everyone out here was smoking to believe that pile of crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 who said cracking the top 25 was a team goal this year. Huggy needs to get a job he is qualified for ... running a prison. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.