Quincy game summary

[Billikan]

First, I must say that Quincy has avery nice team for Division 2. I would be surprised if they do not do very well this year. They play hard, hustle and have size and shooting.

Second, for the most part the Bills played an excellent game. Even though Quincy hit some early 3s to stay in the game we ran our offense to perfection and Luke Meyer and Dwyane Polk were incredible in the first half. DP hit two long three and two other shots and ran the break beautifully. If he can shoot like that we will be a really good team. Luke really proved a lot of our posters wrong with this play tonight. He shot well, scored 20points, hustled all over the court and had a terrific game. They started a big guy who is talented--Box--on him in the first half and Luke used his craftiness and quickness to eat him alive. Luke reminds me of one of the forwards on the very good Bobby Knight teams at Indiana. he does all of the little things well and he is as hard nosed as they come.

Our big three were fine but none had outstanding games in all facets. Tommie had 17!!!!rebounds and a very nice floor game with some good defense. But after making his first three he shot the ball poorly. Kevin was tough as nails and he did not shoot much. His defense on their 22 in the second half (0 points after he scored 10 in the first half was a thing of beauty. Ian forced some shots but he was big and strong in the middle and he drew about 11-12 fouls. He made some beautiful left handed hooks over the defense.

Danny has a lot of confidence- he turned it over a couple of times and he is not the ballhandler we want in the open court but he is playing well and he hustled on defense. Bryce played 11 good minutes and hit two soft outside shots.

DM, HD, Obi and the walk ons played a few minutes. DM and HD each got a couple of minutes before garbage time.

Notes: Justin was there in uniform and participated in the warmups. I would guess he is still some time away from playing.

On the post game show Brad indicated he still needed someone to step up at the four position to spell Luke and give him some options against a bigger team when he does not want to go with Bryce and Ian. The way we played tonight, if one of those guys can give us 10-12 good minutes we will have a very good all around team.

Even though they were a D2 team I was very please with this victory after SIUC struggled to beat them at home. Go Bills!

[davidnark]

Great summary, but it is important to remember that this game was against Quincy. A lot of what Luke did tonight would be much more difficult against a team with a bigger, stronger, and/or more athletic frontcourt. A lot of Dwayne's success tonight will be more challenging against much bigger and athletic guards than the guards he faced tonight.

[Billikan]

I agree with both of your points but the guy--Box-- who was matched up against Luke early is a very big and talented 4 and the guards on that team are pretty tough and athletic and could play for a lot of D1 schools. The key will be the shooting. I leaped out of my chair and yelled when DP made that first 3 ball!

[tseugnekillib]

nm

[3star_recruit]

Brad made it pretty clear in the postgame interview that he is looking for someone to log minutes, not necessarily starter minutes, at the 4 spot. He cited a healthy JJ or an in-shape Obi as examples of what he's looking for.

The impression I got is Brad doesn't want to throw a player still learning the system into the fire in the short term when he expects other players to be part of the long-term solution this year. I'm sorry to hear that Dixon won't be getting meaningful minutes early on because he's talented enough to overcome his mistakes IMO. The only shot attempt he got in garbage time was an 18 footer and he drained it. Earl pointed out in postgame wrap-up that we'll probably see more of Obi and Horace in Texas simply because of the grind of playing 3 games in 3 days.

Without Polk's leadership this game would have gotten a lot closer in the 2nd half. We started out slow again, Quincy started making shots and was a bucket away from cutting the lead to single digits. Polk got really vocal but without the Drejaj F bombs and did a good job of consistently hitting the open man until we started clicking again.

[davidnark]

D - No need for sarcasm.

History tells me that half the guys on the board will be ready to annoint Meyer the next Adam Morrison after a game like tonight. It was an encouraging performance. However, Luke won't have four uncontested up-and-unders against A&M later this week, nor will Dwayne be able to drive the lane for finger rolls and dishes like he did tonight.

I thought the team looked good tonight. I would have like to see what Dixon or Obi could have done with a few more minutes tonight.

[Billikan]

One more point--the team is looking at every opportunity to run and for the most part I thought we made excellent decisions topull up when a good quick shot was not available. One fast as a blink fast break involved a pass from Tommie to DP that was sensational. The whole play must have taken about 4 seconds!

[tseugnekillib]

david, I agree with your last paragraph that the team looked good tonight, even considering it was opening night and against a good D2 school. When Quincy drained a couple of 3s I thought of the last SEMO game.

While some on this board may want to annoint Luke after his results tonight.....an equal number, you know the type, would have certainly crucified Luke if he would not have played well. With this board, you just have to consider the source.

JJ and Adam did a few half-court drills this week, plus all of the shooting drills. We need JJ back asap....if not in Texas next week, at least against Houston on Nov25.

At this time, I like HD better than Obi. imo, Obi will begin to contribute when he makes a complete mental commitment to being a post-player and not a wing.

btw, there was a need for sarcasm!

[bluecrewfinance]

I think the plan is for JJ to be available after Dec. 1. Good to see that he was dunking in warm-ups though.

[billiken_roy]

the biggest difference i see this season in luke meyer is his approach and attitude when he is on the floor. he now is thinking about the basket and scoring which in the two previous seasons we just didnt see. it was like he was afraid of offense. i have been pleasantly surprised by luke's play and regardless of what happens in the future with the power forward position, luke meyer is going to be playing over 20 minutes a night the rest of his career imo.

what was nice about last night's game that many are not focusing on is the fact that lisch, liddell and vouyoukas all had off shooting nights and we still won by 30. granted we can all sit here and say "it was division 2 quincy", but in years past we would lose that game when just one of our better players stumbled let alone all three. to still just blow them out considering that apparently this is a very good division 2 team with a number of nice players shows the great job that the rest of the team, especially polk and luke did to pick up the slack.

i thought that number 1, was just a fantastic player. he could play for us. and murkey, while he didnt score much, is obviously a very good athlete that could complete at the next level. the number 2 and number 22 were both nice players as well. the difference between the two teams was size as much as anything and we just wore them down by the end of the second half.

pollard's best game reffing against us. when i saw him walk out i groaned. and when he called the one palming on liddell early on, i thought for sure he was going to be quincy's best weapon. however he then shortly thereafter returned the favor with a palming call on quincy as well. he called a very even game for both sides imo.

i didnt understand the two different games foulwise. the first half the three refs called very little. ian just got the hell beat out of him a couple of times under the basket no whistle. then in the second half they were calling fouls for breathing. i dont care which way they call it (in fact i prefer they call everything), but call it the same both halfs.

the slow start the second half is concerning imo. they can get away with that against a quincy, but you can bet that north carolina or xavier will put us away with a stretch like that.

tommie liddell will get triple doubles before this season is over. has a guard ever led the team in rebounding? liddell is fast becoming an amazing player. earl compared him to paul pressey i am thinking jalen rose. regardless his all over game is fantastic.

off the floor, how embarrassing that the timeout crew's couldnt remember they needed balls for the dribble while carrying pizza boxes event. wasnt it awesome when the kid hit the 35 footer for the $100? blue crew came back last night. great job blue crew. it has to be every game though.

someone needs to rewrite the words to "sweet caroline" to something billiken related. i noticed as i was leaving the arena last night and the band was playing that song, the happy billiken fans were all singing the chorus and happy. wouldnt it be great if they were all singing "sweet billikens" to the same song? the band is great.