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Matt Shaw is a 4 but I think he can play some 3


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Matt doesn't have the experience defending the 3 that Sloan did in high school but he has a good mid-range jump shot and can put the ball on the floor and draw contact. These thoughts came to mind when I read the KFNS interview thread and learned that Brad is looking for guys who can play on the perimeter. Matt's best position is power forward but he won't hurt you at the three if he plays limited minutes there.

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3 star, i have been a big advocate of signing matt. but that said, in the games i have seen matt play for both centralia and the eagles, i didnt think he had c-usa level wing skills. if fans think sloan's outside skills are suspect, they will definitely not like shaw on the wing. imo he is a power forward period. of course, i wasnt overally impressed with david lee outside of 10-15 feet his junior year and he came back his senior season and was almost as devastating facing and away from the basket as he was as a power forward. so who knows. matt does work his tail off, so for all we know he is stepping up those outside skills some. i will agree that i think he can defend most 3's and he definitely has the hustle and athleticism to run the floor and get out on the break like a wing. what i think is not up to scale as a wing is his 15 foot to 3 point distance shooting and his slashing ability to the basket with the ball. not saying he cant do it, but i dont want people to think he is a bonefide wing player when in reality the reason he will get looks at a slu level school is simply because of his power forward skills imo.

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agree. but as wild and impatient as some of our fellow posters get, i didnt want it misconstrued that matt was a legit full time wing player. we would be setting matt up for messageboard hell with that assumption.

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Soderberg may have said he wants to sign all wing guys, but we do have an offer out to Shaw, or it is thought that we did a couple weeks ago. If there is an offer out there I think Soderberg now thinks Shaw will go somewhere else and SLU is out. If Shaw accepts I don't think Soderberg is going to turn him away because he only wants wing players.

I happen to agree with you guys also, Shaw can defend all over the court, but his offensive skills are not good enough to play on the wing at this point. He could be a versatile guy who could stick a big body on a guy like Wade or Stokes but on offense he needs to be on the blocks.

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Yes, Coach Soderberg made the statement that they are primarily looking at perimeter players because they will be pretty well stocked in the lane but not so much so on the perimeter, but he also said that he wants to get a look at the collection of players he's brought in over the last two years play together and the recruit based on his knowing what he has and doesn't have.

During the interview, Soderberg said, in response to a "no-hedging, rapid-fire" query that the worst NCAA rule is that coaches can't work with players individually during the summer. Taking that further (and considering the statements of Mike Jarvis a couple of years ago), it means that a coach spends the summer recruiting without really knowing what kind of players he's got coming in already. Does Brad know just how much of a ball-handler and point guard Darren Clarke is? Well, without knowing that, he's bringing in Dwayne Polk. Additionally, without knowing how Bryce Husak might or might not develop, he's putting less emphasis on big men.

What I want to say is this: If a really good big man that is the type of big man Soderberg likes wants to come to SLU, he'll take him, but other than that, he's focusing on signing players that operate outside of the paint.

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i got a chance to watch aaron this summer with the eagles as well as having seen him 5x in his hazelwood career. imo, while he is athletic, he lacks the general knowledge and instincts of how to play basketball. he might turn out to be quite a player since he is a great athlete, but imo, if i had to take another local player as a wing and liddell and meyer are gone, i would just as soon take murkey or jones before taking jackson. in all likelihood, coach soderberg will shop outside the metro area if meyer or liddell do not come.

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Roy,

Based on potential, I would take Jackson before Murkey or Jones. Cam Murkey is a nice kid and is more consistent than Jackson, but he needs to be more aggressive on the offensive end. He has the talent, but he plays too tentative. I haven't seen Jones play enough to make a decent evaluation, but the times I've seen him he didn't show much.

3Star,

As last season went on Jackson went from being a non-factor to a guy that could drop 30 on you in a heartbeat. You're right about his consistency, but he has the potential to be as good as anybody coming out of St. Louis this year. I don't know if he is the kind of player SLU wants, but whoever takes a chance on him is going to end up with a great talent.

- Nate

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the weekend i watched the eagles at the eagles tourney, i purposely watched aaron quite a bit. i know he is a talent. and i wanted to see if possibly playing for claggett might have gotten some of the bad fundamentals out of him. no such luck. he shot way too often. especially considering you have the next christian laetner on your team in tyler hansborough plus two other formidable inside players in grimes and shaw. he also just played awful defense and seemed to pick and choose his times to hustle. i agree with 3 star, he comes to slu with those habits and mentality, soderberg will blow a rod.

as to jones, i guess i have seen jb play now about 25x. and everytime i see him i like him more and more. he is poised. he is a fearless defender. he is very unselfish. he is a great shooter. he is plenty athletic. he is not flashy or vocal. the fact he took that west team to state last year speaks volumes imo. while it was a good team, it had no business being there ahead of belleville althoff, east st louis, carbondale or probably even centralia. this year will be different as the lineup gets two supreme athletes mixed in with arthur sargent and xavier price. but i expect jb to blend in even more with more "star" talent around him. he is that kind of a player. imo jones is every bit the player drejaj is and maybe more since jb can at least get his hands above the rim if you know what i mean. and that isnt a slam on drejaj. if they were starting an anthony drejaj fan club, i would be first in line to pay my dues.

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I'm glad to hear that the board thinks Shaw has the physical tools to defend the 3 as there seems to be little confidence that Izik can do so. If Izik needs Sloan on the floor to switch on D so he can play the 3 on the offensive end, next year when Sloan is gone it would be quite handy to have a likewise versatile PF who could switch with Izik on D.

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J.B. Jones was listed last year as 6'2". We need a true wing player in next year's recruiting class unless everyone feels comfortable that Darren Clarke shall fill that roll (listed at 6'4" but looks 6'3"). Are you suggesting that our recruiting class for next year consist of Polk, Shaw (assuming he accepts) and J.B. Jones (assuming we miss on Meyer and Liddell)?

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That certainly explains why he hasn't gotten any offers at all. He's more up and down than the Dow Jones average but I was wondering why he hadn't gotten an offer from the likes of SMS or Bradley.

I've read that the Burns kid SLU has offered is transferring from Milwaukee Custer to Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. With Creighton, Depaul and Iowa State also offering, this is going to be a very competitve recruitment.

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Jones is a nice player, but his spot has been filled with Polk. With Lisch also hopefully coming the year after Jones would be hard pressed for minutes.

Jackson is a helluva talent, he was a prodigy in jr high. Back then he was the best player in his class. He has stagnated in HS, but his sudden improvement las year was encouraging. This will be a big year for him, if he continues his progress he could get some high major looks and definetely a top JUCO or Prep school will go after him.

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speaking of high school transfer rumors, i heard today that kyle kirk, the sophomore sensation from ft zumwalt developed a nice friendship with kevin lisch at the nike jamboree camp and is considering the move across the rivers to play at belleville althoff with kevin. i want to qualify that this rumor is admittedly 4th hand so as to the level of truism we will have to wait and see. of course we have heard other transfer rumors about kirk, so who knows.

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jj, no i am saying if we have to have a local kid for that spot and liddell and meyer arent it, i would rather have jones before jackson. personally i believe that if liddell and meyer dont come, we will look outside the metro area for that spot. maybe the burns kid from milwaukee for example. my whole point was i am not a jackson wanter and i believe there are better options than aaron jackson at this time that would serve the billikens better.

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jones is not just a point guard. in fact, this will be the first year he plays the point for belleville west as he played the wing while robbie kaiser played the point the last two seasons. he should have been the point guard last year as imo arthur sargent should have been playing varsity last year instead of kaiser, but that is another argument.

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that is true, but it also becomes a loss having matt shaw away from the basket more for rebounding purposes. imo, izik needs to just step up the defensive intensity. defense is more about attitude and effort than athleticism imo. athleticism and skills dont hurt, but it is more of a mind game playing defense than purely god given talent.

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I am pretty sure I have it set up so that anyone can set up polls. Just click Poll where you can click on Post, User Menu, Search, etc. From there you should be able to set up a poll.

Steve

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matt shaw cannot go out and defend a three the way sloan can. he is much better offensively in the low post than sloan. that's how chris has made himself so valuable. he can hold his own guarding four men in the post and still have the athletic ability to guard good perimeter players.

btw: latest word on the street is that kyle kirk is headed to springfield kickapoo. dad's job or business is moving there, plus his older sister plays basketball for smsu. i wish the althoff rumor was true. then, brad could kill two birds with one stone instead of having to fight barry hinson for kirk.

bad boyz for life

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