lamontcranston Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 I did not get to see the game on saturday as I was out of town this weekend but I did get to listen to part of it on KMOX and it sounded very ugly.But someone refresh my memory.There was a lot of talk this past summer concerning Darren Clarke and Blake Ahearn.What was the concensus as to why we did not offer Ahearn a schollie? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 Ahearn doesn't have the body or quickness that Brad likes. Brad likes athleticism, which Ahearn apparently doesn't have enough of. This characteristics could explain Ahearn's subpar defensive play. With Polk, Liddell, and Meyer in the wings, maybe it's good Ahearn isn't with SLU. Apparently, he has a father that can be difficult to deal with, so if his playing time was minimal, it could have been a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 Ahearn is athletic in the sense that he has hops. Quick feet, now that might be another story. I believe the concensus is that Ahearn was not recruited due to his displayed lack of defense in high school. DC is 3 inches taller and we know Brad likes big guards. Personally, I am beginning to wonder if not taking Ahearn was a mistake. On Brad's team that stresses defense he might have been limited to 15 minutes a game but there is no denying that he is an offensive weapon that would have come in mighty handy. Right now, Reggie Bryant is the only reliable outside shooter we have on the team and, on nights where he gets in foul trouble (see the SMS game), we go into an offensive funk. I was disappointed when DC showed up in St. Louis. He is a developmental project. At this point in time, Ahearn is clearly the better player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 If you were a head coach, and your job security hinged on the quality of recruits you bring into your program, would you have recruited Clarke or Ahearn? Do you think Hinson would have taken Clarke over Ahearn? I bet most coaches would have. Hindsight is 20/20. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 With a boat-load of one (or two in a few cases) dimensional players playing in a lack of motion offense a player like Blake looks pretty darned good. If we could spring Aharn as open as say Drejaj or Varner we'd have another 15 points per game. I don't know if he would cost us 15 per game playing defense. Haveing said all that though, I'm really tired of one dimensional, limited players. If Clarke can grow into good defender with a good mid to long range jumper and good ballhanding skills, he'll be more valuable to the Bills than A one dimensional stone cold shooter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 just because ahearn is a better shooter than clarke right now doesnt mean he would be playing ahead of bryant, drejaj or fisher. he would be sitting just like clarke is now imo. he is lucky he is at sms where they need him to play now. the difference between us and sms was our inside players were totally outplayed, including as 3 star points out, chris sloan. take away that rebounding edge and the 11 putback baskets that sms got and we win that game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 i am betting that both polk and meyer both will be perceived as better players than ahearn almost from day one. and i will wait until 2007 to cast judgement on clarke vs ahearn. we dont know how good clarke is since drejaj, fisher and bryant will keep him on the bench all year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 Roy, good points - the question is why is the inside play so inconsistent? Brad had a year to address this problem or at least coming problem and apparently did not do so - I know the issue is more complicated than that but look at Dallas. Can a coach really make that big of a difference - apparently so. All I am saying is Brad is going to have to pull some rabbits out of his hat just as Purcell has done this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 "Brad had a year to address this problem or at least coming problem and apparently did not do so" He addressed it, but he addressed it with non-impact freshmen. That's fine 2 years from now but Frericks and Sloan have to step it up NOW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 It appears Coach Soderberg had a couple of choices last recruiting season regarding the post position. First, he could go out and identify / recruit a high quality juco post player in Southern Illinois and in Kansas. I believe the staff did that, but in the end, none of these jucos could gain academic admission to SLU. The second choice may have been to drop down in juco talent quality until you could find a juco post player that could gain admission to SLU. Or, thirdly, the coaching staff could identify and recruit the best prep post players they can find and build for the longer term. It appears Coach Soderberg picked option three. I sense our coach is making daily decisions that will build a solid program. Does that mean sacrificing a couple of possible wins this season as he puts his building blocks in place (IV and BH)? Yep, probably so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtside Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 ...was said that take away those 11 put back hoops and inside difference and that is the game...well...that IS a big thing. If Missouri(excuse the Mizzou reference for a minute)...defends and protects the ball, they would be a top 5 team...and so far they don't, and aren't. I bet Marquette is saying, if we only had even just a slightly better free throw discrepancy vs Wisconsin(32 throws for Wisconsin, 9 for Marquette)...just a tiny few more wins a tough couple point road loss....but that is part of the game. or other games over the weekend can say the same thing....SLU needs to be playing hard every night, to have a chance to win, until they get better players. Rebounding is a lot about desire. And it was a big problem vs SMS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 no one has told me this, but i am betting the juco rule put into effect late last year, whereby juco transfers have to graduate and be on pace to graduate at the school they are transferring to, really bit brad. i bet he had 3 other recruits in mind and had exhausted quite a bit of recruiting time chasing them. then last year, the ncaa passes the rule described above and brad has to switch gears and find 3 new players. almost like he got caught like romar did when he was chasing bigtime recruits and would lose out. anyway, his consolation prizes were frericks, husak and ian. now i think he showed some smarts in going for long term potential rather than "best he can get" ala lattimer or varner. at least with husak and ian we have two youngsters with size and what looks like potential. but still that doesnt help us now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 Ian V may be good - he is almost ready to play. I am curious to see what he has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NashvilleBilliken Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 What is the rule concerning red shirts? Has he been practicing with the team for the past few months or was he required to sit during practice also? If he was able to play, has anybody seen him in practice lately? Is he going to help us at all this year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 Ian is not a redshirt - he was suspended by the NCAA for 10 games because played on some semipro team in Greece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NashvilleBilliken Posted December 23, 2003 Share Posted December 23, 2003 Yeah, that is what I meant. I can't focus on much these last few hours at work..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newberry Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 Clark is a hell of a lot better than Ahern. If Ahern was so good SLU would have offered him, Brad knows good talent when he see some. AHern and his old man need to keep their mouths shut! People act like he has done something, he couldn't win state in HS, so what is so great about him. He is a great set shooter, but in CUSA that will not get you too far. CLarke is better and AHern is average! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtside Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 winning state in high school? takes more than one guy. DeSmet won it in 99 because of great depth...as well as two stud D-1 caliber players, Ries and Keppel. Ahearn's team wasn't good enough to win state. David Lee never won state, nor did a lot of other good players. Kalen Grimes is so high on everyone's list. don't see h. Central winning state anytime soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newberry Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 Well, I will just make it simple, Ahearn sucks that is my opinion if he was good we would have signed him but he is not good enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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