UB

[Quality Is Job 1]

[choice]

I wasn't on this board four years ago, but let me lay a little knowledge on you. Gilbert was a BIG Time Player in high school. Darius or no Darius. Had the schools not merged and Darius stayed at Lincoln, Gilbert would have been a bigger star at East side. I screamed at the time and even called the basketball office in disgust that we were not recruiting this kid.

The bottom line was that he was an athletic kid who could SHOOT, yet he could still score as well. He wasn't one-dimensional. In my estimation, we have missed out on two NCAA tournament bids because of this gaffe. You can't make mistakes like this if you are trying to compete in C-USA on a yearly basis. Maurice scott was all over slu as well and he had every right to be.

in the martin luther king shootout against Vashon, Gilbert hit "The V" for almost 30 points. Don't know the exact total, but it was in the high 20's. Vashon won the game, but nobody could stop Gilbert, not Shelton, not McKinney, Not anybody. He also lit up CBC in the Gateway Classic Shootout at the SAvvis.

Gilbert was also on fire in the Supersectionals against Mt. Vernon.

Guess who was the leading scorer in the 2000 IHSA Elite Eight state tournament. It was Phillip Gilbert. He was a lights out shooting guard with good size and athletic ability. That's prime time competition. Not Class A ball. Plus, Phillip was an excellent student coming out of high school.

Zo knew how good he was because he was at the Vashon game, the CBC game and he went to the Illinois state tournament to watch Gilbert. This was long after DArius had signed with St. John's.

I loved Jason Edwin, but he was not better than Gilbert. Obviously, I would have loved to have both. I didn't realize that McClain would be a wasted scholarship. But Zo screwed up because here was the top shooting guard in the area in your backyard who wanted to come to Slu and you still took a pass.

If Jalensdad was attending games at the time, he knows the deal.

I stand by what i said. HUGE MISTAKE. We can't afford to make mistakes like that anymore, or else we need to go to the valley and leave the A-10 alone.

[tseugnekillib]

I sat a few seats away from Coach Romar when he was watching Gilbert and Miles at an Illinois State tournament game. He liked Gilbert very much, but could only sign one and preferred Mo Baker. Too bad the rest of the C-USA, Big 12 and Big 10 passed on Gilbert as well. He developed into a very good college player.

By the way, after watching Tommie Liddell as a sophmore, Coach Romar stated he would sign him immediately, if he could sign high school underclassmen!

[billiken_roy]

i saw gilbert at least 5x in hs and i saw edwin once (the shootout). i would have taken edwin in a second over gilbert. he appeared to be more athletic and also a very good shooter. i agree in hindsight, gilbert would have been a better choice. that said, i wouldnt be surprised if edwin has learned his lesson and bust out this season for kent state.

as tseugnekillib says, a whole lot of other schools didnt sign gilbert either.

[p diddy]

I agree with choice on gilbert. a lot of other schools did not recruit erwin claggett either. SLU and Northern Iowa were his only offers. if you think a guy is player, you don't give a damn who else is recruiting him. because other people did not recruit gilbert doesn't mean we had to be as stupid as everyone else. it's that kind of thinking (recruiting) that is the difference between a 16-15 season and 21 wins and an NCAA bid.

[Major Majerus]

Except that I heard that the Illini would have offered Clags except that they were on probation with limited scholarships. They knew all about him and congratulated SLU when they signed him - this was told to me by the ass't. coach under Grawer - his name escapes me, but it was the one whose good buddy was Oprah's boyfriend.

[tseugnekillib]

.

[Jalensdad2002]

I was and still am a Big fan of Gilbert. I campaigned on the old Bullseye Board that SLU for whatever reason neglected some of our

local talent. I mentioned Gilbert as well as Kent Williams of Mt Vernon should have been recruited heavily.