I am going to enjoy this season

[billfan4life]

because next season scares the hell out of me.

[VTIME]

Really, you return 4 of your 5 starters and 5 of your top 6 players. TL and KL can only get better. Polk and Meyer provide the senior leadership. Danny Brown should know exactly what's expected of him. AK should be ready to step in at center.

[slu72]

I would have thought that DB would have learned "what's expected" of him by now....and just "what is expected" of him; that he be more careful with the ball, he defend his man, he at least hits the rim?

[DoctorB]

I am also going to enjoy next season -- maybe even more than this one.

I posted this before, and I will say it again: this team will be even better next year than they are right now.

The loss of the 2 freshmen is not going to change almost anything except that practices will not have as much competition--for now. These two would not play this year or next, anyway--though they might get some minutes as juniros or seniors.

I predict there will be at least 2 big guys signing in the spring; maybe 3. 3 names have already floated on this board, and regular posters should know them; and there are at least 2 others who have not come up, to my knowledge. All of these players are probably already ahead of the 2 we are losing, and in fact, at least 3 of them are way, way ahead of them. Meaning, one or 2 of the spring signings will come in and compete next fall, right away, for serious minutes. Plus, so will Bryce and Adam. It has been clear for a pretty long time now that AK was the true star of the freshmen.

So, chill out -- our prospects for bigs next year is not so bad. Patience . . . .

[Slumn1]

Thank you for having some common sense and not having the doomsday attitude that many posters seem to have. I would bet many are already complaining that there glass of beer will be less than half full at some point Sunday night.

Let's start a new poll. Which poster will come on here and start fretting about TL leaving for the NBA after this seaason?

[billiken_roy]

if you all think we cant come up with at least the equal of donnie campbell and david robinson to go along with lisch, liddell, polk and meyer for next year to replace the departing ian vouyoukas i think you are crazy.

[billiken_roy]

as i have been saying for a number of months now, the prevailing attitude of this board is not about the billikens as much as it is about an (and imo unwarranted) attitude towards brad soderberg.

[NashvilleBilliken]

Who are the 2 names we haven't heard about? Who are the 2 or 3 that you feel are way ahead of our current recruits?

With all the names that float around on here I can't keep them all straight.

[TheRaginCajun]

I would be extremely hypocritical if I said I am upset about losing these two players. I was probably overly harsh on these two along with JJ and Bryce. I did not foresee either one of the two becoming real players and saw them contributing very little over their careers here. I think it may be for the best as far as I am concerned. However, this means we need to recruit our tails off to get a couple guys who are at least capable of starting in the post. When I hear this news and then look at their contributions to this point at the 4 I look back to August and recall saying that these two would be non-factors and having everybody throw insults at me. If the staff does not take care of business this spring, Coach Soderberg needs to clean house and bring in some assistants who can. When this is the best you can do in the post, something needs to change. All that said, we will return 4 of 5 starters and 2 that are all-conference players. I don't think we are doomed, but if we don't bring in some solid recruits, we will not reach the heights I would have wanted with Kevin and Tommie. I will leave Dustin out of my rant, but I question what kind of player we got with him as well.

[SLUDrew]

Yes, we return 4 starters from what very well may be a torunament team. On the surface that sounds great. Tommie, Kevin, Luke and Dwayne provide the nucleus of a pretty strong team.

HOWEVER, and this is not doosmday or glass half full speak, this is reality; WE WILL HAVE NO ONE TO PLAY INSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How in the name of all that is holy is it being negative and pessimistic to look at the roster, determine who is graduating, determine who is still going to be here, and see that we will only have TWO inside players on the roster next year, and they both average less than 5 minutes per game???????????? Are you so afraid to look at the sitaution that you paint all of us who notice that as negative, anti-Brad haters to make yourselves feel better?

Is it possibe to find someone to come in and play? Yes, it is possible, but those of you who say it is "likely", epsecially given Brad's recruiting history, are just fooling yourselves. There may be a Vas'shun Newborne out there, but that's about it.

We are going to be in big trouble next year on the inside. Will I cancel my season tickets? No, I am a passionate Billiken fan, but I am a fan willing to at least confront reality.

[moytoy12]

...that UB has come up with a serviceable PF/C in the spring that stepped in and played immediately? TF? Is that the only one?

[slu72]

Dammit, Drew, you should be banned for two reasons. 1) how dare you suspect UB's ability to recruit D1 ready ball players, especially bigs. He signed 2 just this past spring. 2) If you don't think we have a shot at the dance next year playing a 5 guard offense with our first man off the bench being another guard....well, that proves you know nothing about college hoops. Sell your tickets, traitor.

[slu72]

except so far it is warranted...he hasn't achieved a great deal in 4.5 years.

[VTIME]

>Yes, we return 4 starters from what very well may be a

>torunament team. On the surface that sounds great. Tommie,

>Kevin, Luke and Dwayne provide the nucleus of a pretty

>strong team.

>

>HOWEVER, and this is not doosmday or glass half full speak,

>this is reality; WE WILL HAVE NO ONE TO PLAY

>INSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How in the name of all that is

>holy is it being negative and pessimistic to look at the

>roster, determine who is graduating, determine who is still

>going to be here, and see that we will only have TWO inside

>players on the roster next year, and they both average less

>than 5 minutes per game???????????? Are you so afraid to

>look at the sitaution that you paint all of us who notice

>that as negative, anti-Brad haters to make yourselves feel

>better.

>

>Is it possibe to find someone to come in and play? Yes, it

>is possible, but those of you who say it is "likely",

>epsecially given Brad's recruiting history, are just fooling

>yourselves. There may be a Vas'shun Newborne out there, but

>that's about it.

>

>We are going to be in big trouble next year on the inside.

>Will I cancel my season tickets? No, I am a passionate

>Billiken fan, but I am a fan willing to at least confront

>reality.

IN BRAD YOU TRUST right? Shouldnt he be able to coach up AK or BH? Most teams dont have anybody inside. What SLU does have is 2 elite perimeter players and two very solid complimentary players. All 3 losses are two surefire tournament teams. SLU will be fine next year. Tommie and Kevin just need to continue to improve. They are already the go-to-guys that have to defer to Ian sometimes. Next year they wont have to differ at all, and we'll live and die with their play. Brad does need to salvage this class with some recruits regardless of position. There are still some pretty good local guys out there like Josh Edmonds, Sam Pearson, Powell,Rodney Ford, Deandre Gilmore

[billiken_roy]

best start in 10 years imo means it is unwarranted.

[slufanskip]

Adam only playing 5 minutes at this point doesn't bother me so much ... he is 12 games into his freshman season and Luke has been playing well at the 4 with JJ getting some time also. I am surprised at Bryc'e complete lack of playing time, which tells me UB has lost confidence in him. I agree with you 100% that we need at least 1 big that can be a quality starter immediately ... 2 would be better though as we need more depth than we have this year. I'm not going to start questioning whether or not UB can get this done though ... as I prefer to look at the results rather than speculate on the unknown. I do know that my support for Brad will be fading fast if we go into next year with out at least 1 new big that can start immediately, but for now he still has it as it is the results of this year that I prefer to focus on.

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[billiken_roy]

doomsday is not reality yet. if come next year we still havent signed any recruits and we are starting knollmeyer in ian's place and our only subs are danny brown and dustin maguire and husak you are then approaching doomsday. but even then the team would be good and the best recruiting class maybe in st louis history will be seniors and ready to sign of which brad has more of a foot in the door than any other coach.

now come next december and it is still the same with no signees and all the st louis kids have signed elsewhere, then i would agree that is "doomsday".

the truth of the matter is that you know as well as all the other naysayers even the above scenario wont happen. coach soderberg will signed the needed role players this spring to surround kevin and tommie and elevate the team even more than this year. and we will still be sitting in the enviable position to sign the now junior class as well.

you bring in a new coach the chances are we will be nexed out of this local class. unless your delusional thinkers believe the next coach will be bigtime. get serious. the next coach will be another up and coming assistant or a lower mid-major looking to move up with little or no contact to the st louis area. i.e. starting over again.

for heavens sake. let it play out.

[slu72]

Well, we really don't have much say in the matter anyways....do we?

[SLUDrew]

Just so I am understanding you Roy, you think next year's team will be better than this year's team?

By the way, history dicates that Brad will not "sign the needed role players this spring to elevate this team even more than this year." Although why look at history when hoping it will happen makes it much more realistic.

Look, I would love for Coach to land a JUCO All-American, take this team to the sweet 16 and make me look foolish for questioning him. I just don't see it happening.

[billiken_roy]

i agree so why b!tch about it. especially in a year that has started off as good as it has. the whole tar and feather the coach thing just makes no sense to me. especially if you think about what would happen if he left. anyone that thinks roy williams or rick pitino will step in is delusional. the fact is we will again start over with an up an comer.

[moytoy12]

How long until "it" has played out? There is a need for ongoing critical reflection on what has and has-not been done. Didn't someone once say that if we don't learn from the past we're doom to repeat it.

I think posters on this board have a sound basis for criticizing the coach and the recruiting results to date. However, coach also needs to be congratulated for landing TL and KL.

[billiken_roy]

i think that our returning four players starters and the other returnees will continue to improve and yes we will again improve.

when dobbs left, spoon only brought in freshman jeff harris (not the jeff harris that was a stud 4 years later) and the team improved the next year.

[moytoy12]

Why ***** about it? are you serious and that short-sighted? I'm not calling for UB's head. We can't let a great start outshine the other aspects of the program.

But, i do agree that the proper congrats should be given to the coach and the team for the results thus far. I'm impressed with this team compared to some of the non-larry hughes' teams i had to endure during my time at SLU.

[billiken_roy]

i'm letting it play out as long as the win loss record holds or there is sufficient proof it is only a temp set back. i.e. he has the verbals in hand next fall from the junior class.

[SLUDrew]

.. but when your top 6 players are all guards (talking about next year's team) you will just have no chance against some opponents. If you are looking for us to be 19-11 or so next year I could see that. We play in a crap conference and Tommie and Kevin should be enough by themselves to get 19 wins, but we will make ZERO noise in the tournament unless we experience an almost unheard of upgrade in our frontcourt bewtween now and then.