p diddy Posted September 11, 2003 Share Posted September 11, 2003 not to jump ahead, but with luke meyer in the mix, here's how we look in 2005 with two schollies left to give. ohannon 6-9 frericks 6-9 johnson 6-8 husak 7-0 vouyoukas 6-11 bryant 6-2 drejaj 6-2 clarke 6-4 polk 5-9 meyer 6-5 Shaw and liddell are scheduled to visit and the junior college kid polk is also another option. does this satisfy all of our needs for next year. any other opinions would be welcome. i think we have a chance to be very good next year. bad boyz for life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted September 11, 2003 Share Posted September 11, 2003 Yes, I like the way things are shaping up for the future too. Interestingly, so far it has not been done with the "home run" but with solid recruits using a nice local / non-local mix. The international recruits have been a pleasant surprise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 11, 2003 Share Posted September 11, 2003 to be good in 2004-05, if the bigs are for real i agree. of course i am on record as to being extremely sceptical of our now roster of bigs. i have huge confidence in our guards and wings for the present and the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted September 11, 2003 Share Posted September 11, 2003 How close is Liddell to qualifying? If summer school has raised his GPA to a 2.5, all he needs on the upcoming ACT is a 17. According to the Journal Star Tribune, Draelon Burns already has a 2.5 GPA but hasn't taken the ACT yet. I doubt Shaw makes a decision until he makes his official visit to SIU on Oct 2. They've been recruiting him the longest and his high school coach is pretty friendly with Matt Painter. I'm surprised to see SLU scheduling an official visit for yet another juco player in Brandon Polk. I hope the lad got a head start on his credit requirements by taking summer classes so we don't run into another Brandon Morris situation. His senior high school stats playing in the largest school classification in Kansas were pretty impressive: 19.7 ppg and 10 rpg. http://prepzone.com/stories/031702/pre_boysstars.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
p diddy Posted September 12, 2003 Author Share Posted September 12, 2003 i agree with you roy. the development of the bigs is the key to the whole deal. our guard play should be excellent, plus sloan and izik are good on the perimeter. izik should also be good inside depending on his matchups. i look for slow development from the young bigs, meaning, j.j., bryce and ian. i consider those three guys to be pups. when they come around. we'll be really tough. hopefully, it's sooner than later, but i am realistic to think that it may take a little time with those three. tom has to be a factor right away. bad boyz for life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLURadioBoy Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 If we could land a Liddell or Burns-caliber player at wing, does anyone think we could be a Top 25 team in 2005? I think we could! Of course I've never seen any of these new players play, but I've been very impressed with Brad's ability to evaluate players. I know a lot relies on our inside players, but I think we'll be able to get at least solid contributions from most of them. I don't think we'll be a "bubble" or .500 team in 2005 with the caliber of players Brad has brought in. "Praises we sing, to you our alma mater, Praise to the white and blue. Our hymn shall ring, in tribute strong to you, We hail Saint Louis U." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 to be top 25, besides the inside play having to come up just huge, i would think someone has to blossum into a bonefide superstar ala larry hughes or duane wade. otherwise you are a little too optimistic imo. think about how good marquette has been the last two seasons. we have no inside players on this team that compare to jackson and merrit, and we definitely dont have a superstar like wade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basketbill Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 with clags, highmark and H we were top 25, and advanced as far as Larry's team did. Granted it would be sweet to have the star averaging 25 pts per game, but three 13-17 pt averages would do just as well imho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 Our three new bigs (four if you count JJ) have never played a game for SLU, and yet you are constantly knocking them. Let them show what they can do on the court before you dismiss them. They don't have to be all-americans to be effective. We have won a lot of games over the last ten years, and outside of the one season with Jamal Johnson we haven't had a real good big man over 6'7". If they can defend and rebound, everything else should work itself out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 Pittsburgh, Stanford, Dayton, Memphis and Wisconsin were all Top 25 teams last year without anyone averaging over 17 ppg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 tell me who our claggett, highmark and waldman are on this team. and then tell me who is going to rebound and score inside like robinson, campbell, harris and dobbs? i dont think the two teams are comparable yet imo. i hope i am wrong and all the bigs come thru and a star emerges. but to be counting on a top 25 team with what we have in hand right now might be a little star in the sky eyed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 i am not knocking them, i am just not making "we are going to be a top 25 team" statements. from the press clippings and physical statistics we have gotten, i have no reason to be overly excited. as i have said about a million times now, come back and ask me the first week of december and i might give you a different perspective. but to have unguarded optimisim about this inside grouping is foolish imo. you all know i am the biggest billiken fan in the world. hell, i was just about all by myself last fall predicting we would be as good as the year before. but come on, as much as you are ripping me for being negative, i can surely say the same about some of the wild optimism that is running rampart. i believe coach brad is doing things the right way and building a roster piece by piece. those hoping to be in the 3rd round of the ncaa in two years though might be jumping the gun a little. at least with what we have signed so far. give me two absolute studs with the last two scholarships, i might jump on the bandwagon now, but otherwise, i prefer to see how good, fericks, ian, husak, and jj really are and even then, i am not sure we have that one stud to send us to the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 i dont think i quoted any statistical needs, so not sure where the 17 ppg came from. 3 star, are you suggesting our inside game the next two years comes close to Pittsburgh, Stanford, Dayton, Memphis and Wisconsin of last year? please tell me who is our earl barron and chris massie? who is our josh childress? while pitt, dayton and wisconsin dont have any player that jumps out at you, there solid depth is unquestioned. we have yet to prove that with this group. i continue to say wait and see what our inside game turns out to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 With two scholarships to give, this roster is NIT caliber. I say the following with partial tongue in cheek, but with TWO SCHOLARSHIPS TO GIVE, we are starting to look a lot like Valpo. Tough guards who can shoot, big stiff American and International fowards. The talent level is a bit better on our side, but remarkable similar in makeup. This isn't a total slam, because Valpo has more players who are playing professionally that does SLU and has the same number of players in the NBA (1). They have a nice little program. IMO we should really use those two scholarships to get the type of exceptional talent that Roy references. Or we should join the Mid-Continent and got to the NCAA 2 or every 3 years. When we speak of the talent that puts a team over the top and we try to evaluate what we have for 2005, I think this team has much more talent than Hughes' team. The 2005 team with Hughes would be dynamite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basketbill Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 Come on, check back on the posts above NO ONE said they will be top 25. "could" or can without a hughes player is what has been claimed. I agree we need to see the players play, but look at sloan 1 year ago, i never would have thought he would play as well as he did this last year. I never thought slu would beat louisville at home, but yes I think the may very well have players who in two years can develop into a top twenty five team, will they who knows I hold out hope. Perhaps thats because I have not seen them play, but perhaps that hope will grows when I see them play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 >IMO we should really use those two scholarships to get the >type of exceptional talent that Roy references. Or we >should join the Mid-Continent and got to the NCAA 2 or every >3 years. IMO, your opinion on this issue is drastic and silly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 My opinion was about the basketball program, yours was only about trashing my opinion. Thanks for elevating the discussion to such new heights! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 >tell me who is going to rebound and score >inside like robinson, campbell, harris and dobbs? Former players' legends tend to grow greater with time. Robinson and Harris were hardworking, yet undersized big men. Donnie Campbell could really leap, but he was never much of a contributor. Dobbs was effective and a lot of fun to watch, but he was always limited by his 6'3" size. Sloan and Izik will be as effective at the power forward position as any of those players. Before the season is over, I expect our trio of big men to be better than Evan Peterson, the starting center on the Claggett/Waldman/Highmark teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 You suggest that we move to a mid-major or lower conference if we don't land a top 75 recruit this fall. Drastic and silly are the only response I have to that opinion. It is really not worth substantive discussion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 now this is a very good post. well except for the or else join the mid continent conference statement. i would never be in favor of that. seriously, there is nothing wrong with what has been done. as much as i was a romar lover, i will say without a shadow of a doubt, i like the way things are progressing now better than at any time in billiken history. there seems to be a longterm plan. with a successful foundation and moderate continued success, the point is that the next larry hughes will be more apt to see he is the final piece of the puzzle. now whether that comes in these next two scholarships or one of the 4 next year or the year after, i am content to happily wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 david, while that one statement was drastic. the rest of the post was well stated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 if sloan and izik match donnie dobbs production we will go to the ncaa tourney this year guaranteed. dobbs was remarkable and extremely effective. he was as much responsible for our short appearance in the top 25 as anyone on that team imo. i will agree with you completely on your memory of robinson and campbell and with that said, i again would love to see this group of bigs be as good as that undersized overachieving group of bigs were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 I think we could possibly be an NCAA team in 2005, but I agree with Roy in his saying it would be nice to see them play before saying we could be a top 25 team. I think there is a chance we could be in the tourney this year if things fall in to place. Has Izik gotten stronger enabling him to finish consistently? Is Reggie a dependable scorer who can hit inside or outside and make the clutch basket to finish a game. Has Sloan continued to improve and will he take and hit the open shot when given? Can Tom play good enough defense and produce 12-15 pts and 7-9 rbds? Will Josh and AD be more consistent offensively to go along with their defense? Will JJ, Ian, or Bryce, and Darren provide help off the bench? We have a lot of questions to answer ... if enough of them go our way ... who knows? I think this is one of the most intriguing teams we have had in the last 10 - 15 years ... I can't wait for the season to start Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidnark Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 I agree with your analysis and comparison regarding the Valpo program, but I don't think that is a bad program for Brad to be compared to during his second year as head coach. What I like the most about Brad is that he is trying to build a program for the long-term without taking short cuts along the way. It is a lot easier for a new coach to chase top 50 recruits from the get go in order to turn a program around right away. As we learned with Romar, more often than not a program like SLU will miss on such players and will end up with the one-dimensional left overs or high-risk recruits. Brad, on the other hand, is focusing on well-rounded (but attainable) players who will committ four or five years to the program and hopefully improve each year. It may take a few years to reach the top 25, but when Brad gets there it should be for the long-term. Once a program reaches that point, it can start recruiting a higher caliber player. Xavier, Marquette, and Gonzaga have followed this model with great success. I am real excited about what he is building, and I view players like Polk, Meyer, Husak, Ian, and Clarke as a good long-term core. If we can add a few top 75 players along the way, we should all be estatic; if, however, we do not, we should understand that Brad is building a good program for the long term. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted September 12, 2003 Share Posted September 12, 2003 "while pitt, dayton and wisconsin dont have any player that jumps out at you, there solid depth is unquestioned" What solid depth? Dayton and Wisconsin played only 7 players for most of last year. Pittsburgh only played eight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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