Give Texas A&M some credit

[DoctorB]

I was impressed by the Aggies. Very, very impressed, especially this early in the season and on the third straight game day. Their defense and senior leadership are about as good as we are likely to see this year.

We cannot blame our poor showing on being tired, since they faced an identical schedule. This is no excuse for a pretty dismal showing by SLU. We lacked energy and 4 minutes into the game I said the were too big and athletic for our team, even though at that moment the score was tolerable. I said, we will need to shoot the ball very well to keep up with these guys. Well, we shot about as badly as imaginable. But give the Aggies credit--they are a serious team, and hopefully this game is a wake-up call regarding what it takes to compete on a national level. I don't mean beating Xavier or Houston; I am talking about competing with the very best teams.

I think you can take that to the bank-- A&M will prove itself to be one of the year's best teams. OK, so they whomped us. Let's get on with life and get better. Right now, we just are not as good as we all hoped. But I still have high hopes for the year. Very high hopes.

[RealisticBilliken]

You are a moron. Texas A&M missed a TON of wide open shots. Their defense was average as we had many open looks. SLU just flat out sucked. If Texas A&M plays a half way decent team, they get blown out that game. Law is a crap player, noone could get a hand in his face and you can't make a shot with no rotation on it consistantly without swishing it. Liddell exerted no effort on either end of the floor. Bryce is clearly not the answer for next year. How does a 7'1 player miss so many layups! No wonder noone else recruited him.

Texas A&M deserves no credit for this game. The only credit you could give them would be showing up, something the Billikens obviously didn't do.

This one is squarely on the shoulders of SLU. Obviously the refs sucked but if we had made 35 percent of our shots, we would be right there in the game. We are in MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR trouble the rest of the season. Brad better kick there lazy @$$ in practice this week or I'm ready to throw in the towel as another over-hyped season endures.

Its tough being a Billiken fan, real tough. And I'm real pi$$ed.

[billiken_roy]

you are the moran if you think that was an average defense. imo that was the best defensive i have seen against the billikens in 15 years.

[RealisticBilliken]

I didn't know a team gets credit for good defense when their opposition misses layups and wide open perimiter shots...explain if I'm wrong here.

[Also Receiving Votes]

RB,

Calm down, buddy. It's one game. So what if Mark Mulder gives up a solo shot in the first -- blows his shot at a perfect game, but he ain't done out there...A&M just flat out beat us. Teams do lose games. We just need to pick up some momentum against UH and keep playing our brand of basketball. Don't just go call people morons for expressing an opinion. What are you, an attorney?

[billiken_roy]

yes you are wrong because in those few instances where that was the case it was a matter of the billikens rushing their shots and changing their form due to pressure and time shot worries.

a team doesnt go from shooting 50% for 3 games to 20% just because. give a&m credit. they were pushing the billiken with the ball out all night long.

[Billiken Rich]

Did Metz suddenly convert to Buddhism?

Thanks in any case for the appeal to calm.

Realistic Billiken is apparently neither......

[Also Receiving Votes]

I am optimistic about this season -- a season still in its infancy. We are still going to have a great 2006-2007 campaign. No need to call for anybody's head just yet. Now, if we had lost to Lamar, maybe. But the 6th Man for A&M was the entire SLU team yesterday. A&M is tough, but we didn't come out strong. Nothing you can do about it. Chalk it up to the young season and let's get after the Cougars.

[Slumn1]

"How does a 7'1 player miss so many layups! No wonder noone else recruited him.

What game were you watching? He missed 1 left handed hook and 1 3 pointer. BH had no layups to miss.

[RealisticBilliken]

Ok I apologize for calling Docter a moron. I am just very upset and not very calm.

This is one PO'd billiken fan

[RealisticBilliken]

That's right, becuase he couldn't get into position nor grab an offensive rebound to save his life!

[Also Receiving Votes]

Your spelling is proofe of that.

[Also Receiving Votes]

You know, BH making his first career EVER start against Texas A&M could do a lot for his confidence down the stretch when he's dominating a weaker opponent, like someone from LaSalle or Duquesne. I think that was a smart call to start Big Hawkeye.

[cheeseman]

That is the problem with BH - he will only be able to help us against weak opponents. He should never start for us - it was a mistake on Brad's part but I understand what he was trying to do he just should have done it with his pfs not Bryce.

[DoctorB]

Mr. Realistic:

that is a knee-jerk reaction -- though my wife might agree that I have moronic tendencies, which is not to say that I am a moron. I do appreciate the fact that you were mature enough to apologize.

you have another similarity to my wife. she likes basketball, but does not really understand it very well.

Texas A&M is not "average" at almost anything. Their defense was overwhelming, whether we were tired or not. And Acey Law was very impressive. KL was on him a number of times, and Acey absolutely toasted him, our best defender. Their front line average?? It is hands down superior to every team in the A10, including us. I just have no idea what game you were watching. But when a team with talent like SLU struggles like that, part of it just might be related to the defense they are facing.

I noticed in another thread you made the judicious comment that becasue of this game, we cannot make the NCAA's, or some similarly wild claim. One person mentioned Texas and their debacle early last year, losing by 40 to Duke. I saw the last 20 minutes of Indiana losing to Butler, during which time the Hoosiers could not score if their lives depended on it. Shouldn't we give butler a little credit for that? Or is it all Indiana's fault?? I mean, c'mon, it is not even Thanksgiving yet!

You think A&M is average? give me a break! or better yet, let's see how the sason pans out. I doubt if anyone will want to play them in March; they will get better and better.

Believe me, teams can overcome lousy games. You seem oblivious to this fact, but it is true.

let's hope the bills keep getting better. I think they will.

[jtenner]

I don't think RealisticBilliken and I watched the same game. Granted, I am an Aggie, so I surely saw it from a different perspective, but I have to agree with the original poster on this thread. Our defense has been strong ever since Gillispie arrived at A&M, but last night was the best I've seen.

It wasn't that St. Louis was simply shooting poorly, but rather A&M forced SLU to shoot poorly with a smothering defense. When they got open looks, St. Louis rushed their shots knowing that one of our defenders was surely nearby. The trademark of our defense is holding our opponents to a low field goal percentage, and we did that exceptionally well last night.

Everyone watching that game knows that St. Louis is a better team than they showed last night, they simply got beat. I am sure that fatigue had something to do with it, as well as being away from home for a few days. But to claim that A&M deserves no credit when they scored twice as many points, or that Acie Law sucks when he single-handedly outscored St. Louis in the first half, or that the refs played a major role when SLU's defeat when A&M had more fouls, is simply wrong.

Best of luck in the rest of the season, here's to meeting again in the tournament.

[SShoe]

>I noticed in another thread you made the judicious comment

>that becasue of this game, we cannot make the NCAA's, or

>some similarly wild claim. One person mentioned Texas and

>their debacle early last year, losing by 40 to Duke.

This is a great point. Teams have crazy games all the time during the first few weeks of seasons and honestly the committee often overlooks games like this at the beginning of the season (as long as you're playing well in the end). We lost by plus 20 and around 30 last year to both Ole Miss and Hawaii and neither of those teams could hold a candle to this A&M team.

Either way nothing's really changed, except our cockiness. We're 3-1, which is what most of us expected.

[DoctorB]

"here's to meeting again in the tournament."

Boy, I sure hope not -- unless it's in the Final Four!! I think we have seen enough of the Aggies.

thanks for the supportive-- and accurate--response.

I hope you guys are excited down there-- you have a chance to have a real special year. watch out for the Red Raiders!

[RealisticBilliken]

Remeber that Texas lost to Duke...yes Duke, not Texas A&M. I don't know the score of that game but I'm sure Texas scored more then 33 points.

I stand by my comment that unless we win the A-10 tourny, there's no dancin in the Billikens future. And our first 3 games were a mirage of our offense. We won't score anywhere near 80 against an even average team. I hate to sound negative, by I try to give the realistic point of view. We don't have the talent of Texas to bounce back and put up a solid effort against good teams.

Texas lost to Duke, lets keep that straight.

[jjray]

Thanks for the kind comments jtenner. The game was very difficult for us SLU fans to watch as most of expected to at least be in the game. And 99% of SLU fans would give the awesome A&M defense a large measure of credit for our shooting woes. From my perspective, the game told us that we just are not as good as we thought at this point in the season. Also, I pray coach does not again start both DP and BH. We become incredibly weak offensively with both in the lineup together for extended stretches.

[kwyjibo]

I sadly did not get to see the game last night due to the national blackout (I'll save my comments for that one until tomorrow) but Texas A&M sounds quite impressive. I definitely think Gillespie was looking at winning 3 games from the get go (they used 16!! players against Lamar although only 9 got significant minutes against La Tech) while SLU played fewer.

I think Texas A&M is a good example of not needing a bunch of top tier recruits to succeed. I will definitely look to watch Texas A&M when they are on this season to see Law and the defense.

[NashvilleBilliken]

Are you diliberatly trying to be an a-hole, or is your post serious?

I'm just as pissed as the rest of us. Yesterday was pathetic. But you're going off the deep end. We have had 3 awesome games, and one bad one. And this leads you to believe that we have no shot in making the tournament? Why? Is it that far beyond the realm of possibility that we came out flat yesterday and will pick up the pace?

You say you "hate to sound negative", but you and I both know that's bull. Since your debut on this board 2 weeks ago, you have said nothing that could even be considered neutral. Why even follow the team you have such low expectations for and obviosly take no joy in following?

[SShoe]

>Remeber that Texas lost to Duke...yes Duke, not Texas A&M. I

>don't know the score of that game but I'm sure Texas scored

>more then 33 points.

>

>I stand by my comment that unless we win the A-10 tourny,

>there's no dancin in the Billikens future. And our first 3

>games were a mirage of our offense. We won't score anywhere

>near 80 against an even average team. I hate to sound

>negative, by I try to give the realistic point of view. We

>don't have the talent of Texas to bounce back and put up a

>solid effort against good teams.

>

>Texas lost to Duke, lets keep that straight.

Maybe there's not that much difference between last year's Duke team and this year's Texas A&M team. Also maybe you can look at it like this: Texas was a very good team last year that lost to another very good team by 40. So it is possible that a good team can lose by 30-something to another very good team. Especially in November.

[RealisticBilliken]

How do you take joy in scoring 33 points and making 11 baskets? I personally don't. This is the 2nd game we've scored under 40 in the past 5 games. HOW ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC?!

We've had 3 good games (I wouldn't call the Lamar game great, we did give up 69 to them) against teams that will have a plus 200 RPI. Those games were against the doormat's of the NCAA. I didn't think we were a doormat to the upper escholon teams but if we don't start winning some of these games against the top 25, we have ZERO chance of making the NCAAs and that is a flat out fact.

This game should have opened people's eyes to the fact that we just can't compete on a Top 25 level. I think we got a little too excited by a powder puff early schedule. If we beat UNC, I may change my opinion, but by the pi$$ poor effort last night, I can't see us doing much better. TL looked like he was sleepwalking, and LM was the only one who knew how to block out (apparently they didn't teach that to BH in Iowa).

Listen, don't take my critizism as a lack of passion for SLU basketball (if its any indication, it should be how much I really care about the Bills) but seriously, noone in their right mind can say we deserve a spot in the NCAA tourny after a performance like that.

[SShoe]

You're jumping to season-long conclusions based on one game. Yeah, it sucked. We sucked and we'll need to play better than that to beat Western Illinois. But teams play bad games. Especially at the start of the season. People weren't excited because we beat Quincy, Lamar, and La Tech. People are excited because it's very clear that this team is more talented than any we've had since at least 2000, maybe even 1995. People also point out the Texas/Duke game last year to illustrate that team's can get their asses handed to them one game, but that does not make them a bad team overall. Just on that night things didn't go right.

There are a select few on this board who like to make a number of snap judgements about this team and it's players based on one game or even a few games. "Dustin maguire is garbage," said one poster after the second exhibition game. I remember last year when somebody was suggesting Drejaj was a better shooter than Lisch based on one game he saw and two games shooting %. Now some are ready to toss out the rest of the season because we lost one game easily to a damn good team. Why can't people judge a team by the body of it's work? It's unreal.