We need an offensive coordinator

[SLUMS81]

-nm-

[tseugnekillib]

When the Bills shoot 2 for 21 from the 3pt line they are guaranteed to lose. LM at 1-5 had the team's best shooting night.

St. Joes smartly surrounded IV like the Secret Service surrounds a President in a bad neighborhood..... and openly invites the Bills to shoot from outside. IV gets one shot all night.

The 2-21 notwithstanding.....someone in a few days will state that the Bills need to recruit better athletes....wrong!

Please Brad.....another shooter to go with DMcG!

[Bay Area Billiken]

How about Mike Martz?

Seriously, at the risk of incurring the wrath of this board, 2 words are offered: Blake Ahearn. He had 23 points in last night's Missouri State loss at Bradley. A friend who was there told me that he kept Missouri State in the game. Ahearn is averaging 18.1 PPG, shooting 45.3% overall, 41.1% on 3 pointers, and 94.1% at the free throw line. And MVC naysayers to the contrary, the MVC has the 5th highest conference RPI, so Ahearn has not been doing this against chopped liver.

I know Ahearn's supposed limitations have been debated ad nauseum on this board. But the guy can score, and it looks like Soderberg and SLU made a big mistake in letting him go. When SLU scores 39 points and cannot hit the proverbial broad side of a barn, perhaps it would have been nice to have someone who can shoot the ball. After all, the game of basketball ultimately boils down to making baskets.

[slufanskip]

Thank You.

2-21 on many wide open 3's.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[billiken_roy]

so what's your point? do you think if brad says he is sorry blake will transfer to slu immediately? to even bring his name up is the stupidest f'ing thing in the world right now. it aint going to fix anything. so obviously you have a different agenda.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Hardly. I want SLU to win.

I think a recruiting mistake was made.

[billiken_roy]

so even if it was, (and i still dont think he would have been the answer) what does bringing that up now have to do with fixing the problem?

if coach soderberg goes on the radio tonite and says, "i guess i should have recruited blake ahearn". will we win out the season?

if coach soderberg goes to practice tomorrow and says, "if we would have blake ahearn we would have beaten st joes", will the billikens make 37% of their threes saturday nite?

if the few of us that are not "blake's the savior" zealots, all at once switch religious affiliations to "blake's the savior" will that put us under the 40 rpi mark?

i think the answer to all these questions is F NO!

in the famous words of norman dale when told he needed another player on the floor, "no thanks, that's my team out there".

[Bay Area Billiken]

Remember the old saying, "Those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it."

Hopefully, Dustin Maguire will be able to hit outside shots and score at SLU. See Ace's post. We need someone that can shoot. It is not all about defense. Gonzaga proves that night after night.

[davidnark]

(nm) = no message

[billiken_roy]

well doesnt the fact that brad has already recruited a guy for next year that has rarely played guard, hasnt proven he can guard anyone at that position, but has the reputation of a pure shooter, combat your need to bring up the past?

doesnt the rumor that lance stemler who is virtually see above, is being recruited now as the billiken top priority combat your need to bring up the past?

i.e. it appears to me that coach soderberg is trying to do exactly what you want. so again what is your agenda for still bringing up ahearn?

last, on stemler, just because we apparently are heavily recruiting him, that doesnt mean we will get him as so many seem to think all it takes is the mindset if slu wants him he will come. that isnt a given.

[Norman_Dale]

We need Shooter to get off the sauce and start scouting these teams in the A-10. We are facing too many new styles of play and are taking our lumps the first time through the conference.

Could we possibly make any more passes from 5 feet beyond the 3 point arc in one game? It looked like we were playing 4 corners.

[Bay Area Billiken]

If these guys can shoot, if they are zone busters, then they will be the answer to today's question.

Now what about power forward?

[JaleJarr]

Could we possibly make any more passes from 5 feet beyond

the 3 point arc in one game? It looked like we were playing

4 corners.

Great point.

[billiken_roy]

i have brought up a number of times it would be interesting to see who the scout coaches that were assigned to each game thus far. it is just too bizarre the wild swings in not performance as much as game plan. as someone else brought up, raise your hand if you believed before the game started that luke meyer would not start and danny brown would last night? who else thought that polk would start the second half? if we would have come out of the locker room ready to run maybe you give credence, but we didnt. so what was the point?

[bluecrewfinance]

that was exactly the drill run in practice this week.

[Norman_Dale]

If that is what we are practicing, then why don't we turn Husak into Jim McIlvaine, anchor him to the free throw line and teach him to catch and pass.

[Taj79]

.. because I think we would all kill for better skill players ... well, at least skill shooters. Ahearn might be the embodiment of the arguement but I don't want to debate a decision made two or three years ago. Who knows if the results you see now would have happened here. Pure speculation.

But the overall point is absolutely true. And as I've said before, I don't believe DM is the total answer. He might be a part of it, and again he might not. Adding Stemler might also be a part. With more options, KL and DB might not feel the pressure they do now .. if they indeed do feel pressure. Once you have two, three, four options, the interior opens up and DP blows by guys for layups, TL has mor eroomto oeprate his drives or his slashes, IV is finding more and more one-on-one situations as opposed to defense-by-riot-mob.

Colectively as a team, we have some nice individual parts that will develop. But it is a team game and I believe all the parts interact. Last night, no one could shoot so you blanket the+ big guy and dare the perimeter guys to beat you. Every coach in the A10 that didn't have this in their game plan against us, just moved it up to position A1A.

Defense is just as if not more so a determined effort than offense. And defense is the part of the game most teams don't enjoy playing. Last night, St. Joe's bought into it and did what they had to do. Maybe X did not and they paid the price. Brad has to know this and prepare for it.

But if your guys can't throw the rock in the ocean standing at the end of the pier .... I don't know the probability so we'll have to ask the Wiz but in the statistical realm, how many times does hard work overcome talent? Botha re key ingredients but if one category is less than equal to the other, you have to compensate for that. Maybe our skill talents are so low that no matter how hard we work, the margin for error is slight. I was going to say our talent was so low but I don't believe that. It it were, our record would be more like Morgan State then at flat .500.

[Hardball]

Roy,I guess the same agenda you've been pushing regarding Lisch for god knows how long.

Bay Area is 100% correct UB made a mistake on Ahearn but we all know Roy will never admit it.

The bigger issue is who is evaluating the talent. I am not talking about lisch and Lidell but Polk, Newbourne,Brown,Meyer,Husak,JJ.

[StLouBlue]

I disagree about an offensive coordinator being needed. One place I disagree with Brad is not playing many zone or junk defenses. I think it is a lot easier to hide a defensive liability in a zone than in his tough/pack man defense. The reason I want to hide a defensive liability is because I want that person to be a plus on offense. Some can say Ahearn, I would say Clarke, could have been an extra shooter on the floor which this team needs. I am not talking about playing zone the whole game but enough to get through some of these offensive droughts.

[crymdg2]

I do not know who the scout coach was for last night, but I am guessing it was Beane. He seemed to be the one yelling out instructions based off sets from St. Joes among other things. Just an observation I saw.

[GOSLU68]

A4 year recruiting error. Ahearn even had a cheering section that would have bought tickets; Clark wanted to stand on a spot like Brett Hull and wait for a feeder. Clarke was timid. Ahearn has a callous conscience when it comes to shooting.

When questioned last night Brad said we really

practised hard on getting the ball to Ian. The toughest part of league play is the other coaches know your tendencies. Roger

Maris may have hit more home runs because the other team feared Mockey Mantle.

Until we establish Lisch or Liddell we can't keepacked zones from denying Husak 1-1 or Ian 1-1 in games like last night. The jump shooters should fire when the rebounders are in position on this team not run down the clock when we are behind. Are we playing to lose but keep the spread low?

[slufanskip]

I think you are right. UB's bookie tells him where to keep the margin of victory and he play's to lose. I think he is even getting a kickback on money bet on the streak. There was no way he was going to let us beat St. Joe's. I mean he has to do what's best for his family. The money is just too good to pass up. Now if SLU was paying him the same money they have stashed away for their run at Huggy, he could play it on the up and up, but they don't so who can blame him.

You watch we will win Saturday ... validating my post.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[MusicCityBilliken]

Skip,

Made my day work a little more enjoyable.

On the Ahearn/Clark issue, lets give it up. What do you want Brad to do > get on his knees, beg for forgiveness that he made a dumb choice. It's water over the dam.

Tarheel

If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the

impersonators would be dead."

[Cowboy]

it wasn't thorpe as he said he just got back from recruiting, who I do not know