Observations from Sat. practice and scrimmage

[Billikan]

TOday was my first chance to se this year's Billikens. They had practice and a 20 minute scrimmage with officials.

My observations are as follows:

IO will be our leading scorer this year without a doubt. He is the most difficult guy on our team to guard by far. He looks stronger, faster and more athletic. He is also more confident. What a great find for our coaching staff!

Fischer looks stong and confident. His defense was outstanding. He will be the "glue" for this team, particularly on the road.

Sloan looked like he will take no prisoners. In the practice he demonstated an excellent outside shot and in the scrimmage he fought inside ferociously. He and IO will give us a couple of very fast forwards to run the court.

Drejaj was playing with the first team and his toughness and tenacity were on display again. His defense on Bryant was suffocating. He looks very confident and as intense as ever.

Frericks looks strong and intense. He is a lot like Drejaj in that regard. He will never replace Kenny Brown on the defensive end but he looks tough enough to handle the middle. He will not block shots but he goes hard for the rebounds. He made several nice inside shots in traffic but he missed some as well. Overall, he looks to be a nice improvement over Brown on the offensive end.

Bryant was playing with the second team and he had a very erratic time. Our first team plays killer defense and he had a very difficult time getting anything going. Late in the scrimmage he hit a couple of driving shots. I would say the jury is still out on how he will fit in to the team. I would doubt very much that he will be our leading scorer as I thought last year after watching him in practice. He did seem to be putting out a strong effort on defense but he was guarding IO and that was a mismatch.

Darren Clarke impressed me and I am sure he will get time in the 4 guard rotation. He is smooth and confident, although very thin. He hit three very long three point shots (out of 4 shots) and made a nice driving layup. He turned the ball over a couple of times and that frustrated the coach but I see Clarke as a very nice addition. From day one he will be an upgrade over Drew D.

Varner looks strong and confident as well. The coach looks to him to be a coach on the floor and he is, along with Sloan, the best screener in our motion offense. He will be the first "big" off the bench until Ian V. gets eligible and I think his intensity and intelligence will make him a positive contributor.

Ian V. was wearing a knee brace and his right hand was taped-- it looks like a thumb problem. He still looks lost at times but he has a big upside. He is very tall and he plays big. He has a nice NBA style hook shot that he can take over almost any defender. He will play some when he gets eligible and I think he will be a force when he puts on some muscle. Another nice pick up by the coaching staff.

Bryce Husak is TALL! Standing next to IO he looked 6 inches taller! I agree with those who say we should redshirt him this year. He is willing but he does not understand yet how to use his size. If he get stronger and plays in he system for a year or two I can see him getting minutes in the middle which will move Ian V. to power forward and IO to small forward. That would be the biggest front line in Billiken history. With the guards we have coming in--and with Clarke and Drejaj, the future looks bright. But Ian and Bryce need to hit the weights!

Hunt was the same as always but he is truly outmatched and out muscled when he plays against Fisher and Drejaj.

For those of you who think that JJ should play ahead of Varner-- It will never happen. JJ is like a lot of players I have played with and coached over the years--he is talented and athletic but the switch in the brain has not yet come on for him to play smart with intensity. At times he looks ok but often he just doesn't get what he is supposed to do and the team suffers as a result. At the end he was on the "scout" team with two coaches and two walk ons. He will warm the bench until he "gets" it-- and I don't know if he ever will.

I ame away from the practice with very little idea how we will fare this year. Our defense looks great. IO looks great on offense. the rest of the starters seem to be playing smart with intensity. If we can avoid injuries and foul trouble I think we will be pretty good but we will have to improve if we are to reach the 16 regular season wins that I predicted.

As for Monday nights game: Coach says the this is a better AIA team than the one we played last year. Sears--the former Creighton star plays the point and Solomon Hughes--the former Cal. star plays in the middle. They shoot the ball very well from 3 point range and they scored over 100 points in a win last week. This will be a real good test for our Billikens. Our defense will need to be great if we are to win.

[kshoe]

The thing that I always find difficult to analyze after watching a typical Billikens practice is how good is the offense. There are very few teams (Marquette maybe being one and sometimes Cinci) that play as good defensively as we do. Add in the fact that these guys all know eachother and their tendencies and weaknesses and its a miracle our offense ever scores in scrimmages. Plus, in most scrimmages (not necessarily the one ones with refs) there are almost no fouls called.

Its probably too early to have any results back but is there any word on who AIA has played and how they have done?

[3star_recruit]

"There are very few teams (Marquette maybe being one and sometimes Cinci) that play as good defensively as we do. Add in the fact that these guys all know eachother and their tendencies and weaknesses and its a miracle our offense ever scores in scrimmages."

Excellent points. If WE can't score on us, it's going to be hard for anybody else to do so.

That being said, how is Clarke getting open for these three point looks? Does he move pretty well without the ball?

[Billikan]

He was being guarded by IO in the scrimmage and two of the threes came as the defense shut down all inside play and Clarke was standing way out past the three point line and he made the shots--probably 2-5 feet past the arc. The other was after a screen in the offense.

I have no idea whether the coach will give DC the green light for those long three pointers but I would doubt it. However, if our offense is stagnating I could see the Coach going to DC to try to get a lift. He is a very nice offensive player and he has great range-- that could be a very good asset against teams that play zone against us. The downside is that if we miss those long shots they often result in a long rebound and a fast break for the other team. That is something the Coach said is his number one priority this year on defense--to stop fast break buckets. After watching our half court defense I can see why--If we can keep teams from scoring on the break then they will really have to work to score in the half court.

[Quality Is Job 1]

With the help of a guy named Bart (I didn't catch his last name), who's the boy's coach at a small school in Illinois (the name escapes me, but I think it's something like Butler Hill), I kept the stats at the scrimmage. I think they're fairly accurate, but I'm sure they're not perfect. I completely guessed on the minutes played and am not entirely certain who didn't play, if the player in question didn't accrue any game stats (i.e., the walk-ons). The minutes and IQ are questionable but may still serve as a rough idea of who played well and who didn't.

http://www.tedministries.com/sports/20031101_scrimmage.html

Darren Clarke shot and scored well, though he made some freshman mistakes. Mike Martin (butter33?), you can have Blake Ahearn, and I'll take this "f-er from Minnesota," thank you very much. Brad got a heckuva steal in Capital D. I'm confident he will contribute a lot by the time he's done.

Izik Ohanon will probably lead the Billikens in scoring this season, because he presents matchup problems and he's quick and has moves. We still need to see how he'll do when some of the bigger bodies of Conference USA start beating on him.

Reggie Bryant shot and scored well, but he made a few mistakes. I'm not worried about him though. He'll score 13-15 points per game.

The blue squad, mainly veterans/projected starters, won (34-25) because it took care of the ball (just 2 turnovers) and dominated the glass (12-9 rebound advantage, including allowing NOT ONE offensive rebound). The white squad turned the ball over 10 times and allowed somewhere in the vicinity of six offensive rebounds, but it shot well when it got looks at the basket. Vouyoukas's basket came on a back-to-the-basket move -- a hook shot.

There weren't a lot of free throws, but at least no one missed.

Like Billikan said, it doesn't appear Justin Johnson will be in the rotation early on, as I took note of the fact that JJ, along with Bryce Husak, was on the scout team as Brad showed the team AIA's sets. Still, JJ musn't get discouraged: eventually he'll contribute, and contribute significantly.

[Billikan]

I did not remember that Bryant had 10 points in the scrimmage - I only remember 3 baskets--but I will take your word for it. If that is true then it bodes well for his scoring this year because he was playing against the number one defense and his teammates were not nearly as good as they would be if he plays with the first unit. I may have to rethink my position re him leading the team in scoring. I do remember that he had a number of good defensive rebounds.

[jjray]

Thanks for the report. Although everyone is down on JJ and believe he shall be buried on the bench, consider this: Ian is reportedly facing a 10 game suspension to start the season, the prevailing belief is that Bryce shall be redshirted this year, and coach has consistently stated that IO is going to play 3 this year. If all this is true, for the first ten games, we are down to 4 bigs on the roster and, I believe, coach will have no option but play JJ. Maybe the answer is that IO is going to have to play some 4 for the first 10 games but then upsets the logic of getting IO settled in at 3 early in the year. I think we shall have a better read on this issue after the first two exhibition games. If JJ rides the pine in the exhibition games, then I don't would assume that coach is not going to count on him during the Ian suspension.

On another note, I was glad to hear Clarke is shooting the ball well from outside. This is one area we definitely need improvement in over last year and the more shooters available the better.

[brehms13]

I'm just expecting great things from this team in general. This is a "statement" year. It's time for SLU to show and prove. I'm excited just reading the messages, because I really feel that a team that's not focused on just the "go to guy" or just "one" player(marquee) will fair better in the long run. There shouldn't be one person on this team that consistently leads in scoring, or rebounding. I hope that everyone who gets credible playing time, are all able to score, rebound, play sound defense and offense at any given time. That meaning if it's not Reggie's night to lead, it's Fisher's night, Drejaj's, or Clarke's, Hunt's or whomever. That's how hopeful I am of this team. One person can't take us all the way. Everyone has to feel like they can lead this team, that it's on them to play their best. If at the end of the day their best effort wasn't good enough, then so be it. But that's what I'm looking forward to. A true team playing like a team, not just passing to one or two players to whom we think will win the game for us. Except for Clutch time that's different. hahaha!!!

[SluSignGuy]

Somehow I cannot imagine SLU without A go to guy. I mean, we have just had one for SO long

I mean hasn't it gone:

Perry, Perry, Jeffers, Love, Love, Hughes, Harris.....

I mean no one I recall saw Jeffers doing what he did his year. The year before he was known for his D (do I smell a fisher resemblance). But it always turns out we have "Our Guy" each year. I just haven't seen a Billiken team without one (Admitedly Harris is as pretty much as far back as I go). But I just can't imagine us not having a guy this year.

I do think we will be better than last year. But I expect a Fisher show, with a Sloan support personally (I wouldn't be surprised if it became Sloan's show). But i have not seen a practice, or any Billiken action since last year. So that may discredit me some.

I just can't imagine a Billiken team without a GUY.

Steve

[Quality Is Job 1]

Steve, going back one year further than you say you remember, Jamal Johnson was SLU's go-to guy in 1995-96. But just before that, SLU had the kind of distribution we may see from this year's squad. Erwin Claggett may have led the Billikens in scoring in '93, '94, and '95, but he got plenty of help (especially in '94 and '95) from guys like Scott Highmark, H Waldman, Donnie Dobbs, and occasionally Carl Turner and David Robinson. For the next two years Izik Ohanon and Reggie Bryant (in some order) will shoulder the load and get plenty of support (and occasional outbursts) from Josh Fisher, Chris Sloan, Darren Clarke, Anthony Drejaj, Tommie Liddell, etc.

Do not fret that there's not just one guy. You'll like what you see this year.

[Billikan]

One of the reasons why we have been somewhat inconsistant over the past 10 years is because we have had "the Guy" (not counting Larry Hughes) who may have had some strengths but he also had some weaknesses. Also, having one "Guy" allows the opponents to pressure him relentlessly so an off game is inevitable.

I think we will see 5 people that could lead our Bills in scoring this year-- IO, Sloan, Fisher, Bryant and Drejaj. If any of those players are double teamed I believe that one of the others will pick up the slack. Add in Tom Fericks and DC and we should be ok on offense if our shots are dropping. the defense will be solid but teams like Cinn. will put a lot of pressure on us with match up challanges. We will need a "team" effort in order to achive our fairly lofty goals.

[BillikenButch]

Reggie and Darren had pretty good shooting halves...5 of 6 and 4 of 5. Who was on them? They did turn the ball over a total of 5 times...a good sign for the defense.

[SluSignGuy]

I believe you about the Highmark era. I heard of it, but never really saw it. My sister was a huge SLU fan then. But I mean, just for SO long it has been THE GUY syndrome. I would love it if we had multiple guys, but I cannot see it until next year with Liddell and Company.

Prove me wrong Billikens, PROVE ME WRONG.

Steve

[BillikenButch]

I understand the desire to have the go to guy, but I think Brad is putting in place a team system that makes watching basketball so much more enjoyable (I'd prefer watching 5 guys execute consistently than one guy take over a game) While I think we will hit a few bumps this season with the system, I think it will make us very competitive for a long time.

[davidnark]

Last season, after one of our bad losses early in the year, I remember Brad saying (with a frustrated tone) something to the effect of "we as a staff have done what we can to create good shots for our players, but we are losing because no one is hitting those shots." This year, I think we will find that we have a lot more players who are capable of hitting those open shots that are created by coaching and the system. If Reggie, Darren, Izik, and Drejaj are hitting the open shots that Deiner, Brown, Perry, and the inexperienced Izik and Drejaj missed last season, then we will be much better as a team.