To all our loyal readers (do we have any?) I apologize for the lack of constant content on the site these days. The realization that running a blog about basketball while basketball season is in full swing is kind [...]]]>

The Saintsations, not what were you expecting for a team named the "Billikens", eh?

To all our loyal readers (do we have any?) I apologize for the lack of constant content on the site these days. The realization that running a blog about basketball while basketball season is in full swing is kind of hard, especially if you have to drive to these games 1.5 hours away. Here’s the truth though, our schedule is a lot harder than it was in the first half of the season.

We’ve lost three of the last four, all to tough teams. As bad as our wins are beginning to look, our losses are starting to look “better” if there is a way they can. Is it wrong to actually be glad we fought at Xavier? We usually curl up and die in the Cintas Center, so some of us Niner faithful weren’t completely demoralized by the loss.

Shamarr Bowden’s gone so now we’re going to see more Sirin, Barnett, and to the chagrin of half of Halton Arena, Ian Andersen. It’s amazing how quickly that poor guy has gone from “crowd favorite” to “#1 sign we aren’t that good” in four seasons. For one, I think Derrio should be playing 30 minutes a game until someone else proves he can hit a shot from the perimeter. Why does it seem like our 2Gs have such a hard time hitting the shot they were recruited to make?

Either way, we’re going to return the SWAGGER this game. It’s been missing for far too long and this is the game we’ll get it back. And for one reason, An’Juan Wilderness will dominate the first five minutes of this game and set the tone, he has started to look like the Wilderness of old and look for him to start demanding more attention on offense.

On a completely unrelated note, what is our athletic department’s complete lack of respect for the Golddusters? Where is our Golddusters website? We’re talking bios, pictures, and instructions on how to book them for events! Take a look at the Saintsations page, and then take a look at ours. This is more important than football! Bust needs to know the name of that particularly cute blonde!

Predictions are below, and since this author was forgetful and didn’t ask for them, we only have a few. Leave yours in the comments. Stonecoldken has made a guest appearance in this edition, but we all want you to leave yours in the comments! If you guess it correctly, GreenTintedGlasses.net will book the Golddusters for your next birthday celebration…

J Felt – Charlotte 70, Saint Louis 59. Niners win, I go to Ikea and lose, and Phil Jones gets 3 blocks.

Bust – Niners squeak by Saint Louis at home. Verdict still out on what the heck a billiken is supposed to be. Charlotte 72, Saint Louis 65.

D-Fo – It’s time to Charlotte to show what they’re all about and give the rest of us an idea what the team is gonna look like now that conference play is in full swing.  The Niners will have to shut down freshman wonderboy Cody Ellis, but that’s not gonna be a problem today.  Charlotte gets back on track at home and gives us a reason to be excited again.   Niners 81, Billikens 74.

NLP – Saint Louis is on the verge of being nasty, but not nasty enough to deal with Braswell and HIS NAME IS GOKHAN SIRIN!  Niners 63 – Billikens 58.

Guest Appearance: StoneColdKen – The Niners will have to perform a real life exorcism to beat Rick “tub of lard” Majerus. SLU always has tough defense. We had a game there one time where both were in the 30’s with 3 minutes to go.
Pick: Niners 13, Scary A** Window 12.

Sunday afternoon the St. Louis (just kidding run49er), I mean Saint Louis Billikens take to the Halton Arena floor to square off against our beloved Charlotte 49ers (11-5).  The Billikens enter the game sporting the same 11-5 record on the Niners but [...]]]>

Raise your hand if you're the stupidest mascot in the nation.

Sunday afternoon the St. Louis (just kidding run49er), I mean Saint Louis Billikens take to the Halton Arena floor to square off against our beloved Charlotte 49ers (11-5).  The Billikens enter the game sporting the same 11-5 record on the Niners but enter the contest with a 2-0 conference record.  Saint Louis has defeated Richmond at home and most recently posted an impressive double-overtime win at Duquesne.

A welcome addition to svelte Head Coach Rick Majerus’ squad is freshman import Cody Ellis.  Ellis, a 6’8″ power forward finally received clearance to play by the NCAA (we know how that goes) and has posted a 12 point average in two games coming off the bench.  Despite being unproven in live game action, Ellis has logged an average of 27 minutes in this two games, and has pulled down 8 rpg.  His addition brings a very welcome addition for Saint Louis and changes the complexion of the team as well as how teams will have to prepare for them.

As young as the Xavier squad was that the Niners fell to on Wednesday, Saint Louis is even younger.   With Paul Eckerle out with a pre-season knee injury, the Billikens are comprised of entirely Freshmen and Sophomores.  According to Ken Pomeroy, that makes the Billikens 2nd least experienced team in the nation.  Leading the Billikens in scoring is So. PG Kwamain Mitchell, who puts up 16.2 ppg. on 46.6% shooting from the field and 36.1% from behind the arc. Giving the Billikens good inside balance to go with Mitchell is post man Willie Reed.  Reed is also a So., and averages 12.8 ppg. and 8.6 rpg. giving Saint Louis along with Ellis a pair of very good, young post players.

Rounding out the main starting unit for Saint Louis are wing players Brian Conklin (7.8 ppg.) and Christian Salecich (7.6 ppg.).  Coming off the bench to give the Billikens a boost from the perimeter is diminutive Fr. G Justin Jordan.  Jordan hits on 40% of his 3-point attempts and contributes 6.6 ppg. in just over 20 minutes a game.

As a team, Saint Louis provides a stark contrast to the Niners’ style of play, preferring a slower tempo and grinding out victories.  Saint Louis “only” averages 64.3 ppg. and limits the opposition to 58.5 ppg.  More impressive is their ability to force defenses into poor shooting, limiting them to just 38.0% from the field and 26.3% from the 3-point line.  The Billikens do have some weaknesses though that the Niners can hope to exploit.  Though a respectable team at blocking shots, Saint Louis does not excel at rebounding, allowing the opposition to out-rebound them by about 1.3 rpg.  Chris Braswell and KJ Sherrill could have big games on the glass, as the Niners will likely need plenty of second-chance scoring to overcome the Billikens’ excellent floor defense.

Additionally, Saint Louis is a bit suspect from the line, particularly at the F positions, where they convert just 63% of their attempts from the charity stripe.  If players like Phil Jones and Shamari Spears get beat on defense, strong fouls might be a better alternative to giving up the easy basket.  Of course, that’s not a good strategy if it leads to following out or extended stretches on the bench, of course.

For the Niners, some consistency in scoring is absolutely needed.  Though DiJuan Harris appears to be breaking out of his funk, Derrio Green needs to utilize better shot selection lest he fall in a slump of his own.  The Niners can ill-afford another 0-9 performance behind the arc from Green, particularly with the defection of Shamarr Bowden. As for Shamari Spears, I’m going to be a broken record.  When he gets the ball early in the possession he’s deadly.  If he’s not double or triple teamed, that is.  If he does receive pressure after the catch, he absolutely must do a better job of getting the ball back out, whether it’s to a backdoor player, a slasher like An’Juan Wilderness, or back out to the guards.  Too often has he forced the ball up in a crowd either missing the shot or getting stripped.  That’s not to say he’s a poor player; Shamari has been terrific.  But he can’t be his best until he can also use the attention he draws in the post to make his teammates get better scoring opportunities.

Two other players to keep an eye on are Fr. F Gokhan Sirin and So. F Javarris Barnett.  Both received more action in the Xavier game and this trend may continue as the Niners look to replace the perimeter offense of Bowden.  Sirin in

Rick is bringing sexy back.

particular, despite missing all his attempts against the Musketeers, continues to look more comfortable in the offensive flow.  One can only hope more opportunities leads to more improvement.  As for Barnett, it’s hard not to notice that he tends to do good things in the few minutes he receives.  Against Xavier he drilled a 3 in the corner that was waived off due to an offensive foul, and hit a little flip shot in the paint while collecting 2 rebounds in just 6 minutes.  Though he’s neither a true guard or true forward, his blend of skill and size can potentially lead to matchup problems in the time when he’s on the court.

Another player to keep a watch on is Wilderness, who is shooting a sizzling 63.9% from the field since his return from an early season calf injury.  Though Wilderness continues to struggle at the line, he is a terror around the rim and is probably the Niners best finisher close to the basket.

This game is going to be tougher than some anticipate.  A very young Saint Louis squad continues to improve and the addition of Cody Ellis will only help.  If the contest was at Chaifetz, I’d put this down as a loss, but I think the Niners go to 2-1 in A10 play by grinding out a victory tomorrow afternoon.  The rebounding of Braswell and the rest of the squad will be the determining factor, as the Niners will prevail in a game that will probably be ugly in terms of scoring and field goal percentage.

Oh, and kennethhouck gave a little tid bit in the comments to the X game that I’m going to pass along to anyone who hasn’t seen it.

Tough loss to X.

For St. Louis, do you know what a Billiken is? It’s a Blue Demon. Do you know why SLU has a Blue Demon? Did you see the Exorcist? The movie is based on a real story. The real exorcsim was in a building on the SLU campus. No one goes in the room where the exorcism takes place. It’s sealed up. A window cleaner was on the fire escape cleaning windows, & went down to the floor to clean the outside of the window of the sealed room. He was scared s**tless when he saw a blue demon in the room.
The Niners will have to perform a real life exorcism to beat Rick “tub of lard” Majerus. SLU always has tough defense. We had a game there one time where both were in the 30′s with 3 minutes to go.
Pick: Niners 13, Scary A** Window 12.

We’ll move this to the predictions tomorrow when J Felt gets off his butt and writes it.  Or gets on his butt.  I really don’t want to know in what state of being he writes his articles now that I think about it.  I’m going to go bleach my eyes now.

The last time we saw the men in green and white in action they were dismantling the Louisville Cardinals and handing the second Cards coach in a row his worst ever home loss.  The Niners return to action Tuesday night in Halton Arena [...]]]>

Wilderness may make his regular season debut against the Rams.

The last time we saw the men in green and white in action they were dismantling the Louisville Cardinals and handing the second Cards coach in a row his worst ever home loss.  The Niners return to action Tuesday night in Halton Arena at 8 PM against the Winston Salem State University Rams.  The Rams enter the contest at 2-5 boasting proud wins against NAIA-member Milligan College and D-II Atlanta Christian College (word has it Davidson is looking for a game against both next year).  WSSU is yet to skin a D-I program’s hide this season and that is fitting; the Rams are playing their final season as a Division I program.  Most recently, WSSU lost to South Carolina State University at home on December 5th.

Looking at the Rams’ roster, it’s easy to pinpoint their struggles.  It’s a team that returned just 3 players from an 8-22 season that resulted in a final RPI of 327.  Of the 9 newcomers, one player who has performed reasonably well is Shelton Carter, in his first season with the Rams after transfering from Charleston Southern.  Carter is a 6’5″ wing forward who shoots the ball well from the perimeter (38.6%) and is averaging 13.3 ppg. and 6.3 rpg to lead the team in both categories.  Other notable players for the Rams are second leading scorer Brian Fisher, a senior guard who’s averaging 12.4 ppg. on a dreadful 32.1% from the field and 22.2% from behind the arc; exactly the type of player you want taking a lot of shots.  The top post player for the Rams is 6’9″ junior forward Paul Davis, who’s pulling down a respectable 6.1 rpg. in just 20 minutes of action per game and leads the team with 9 blocks on the season.  He also pitches in a modest 5.9 ppg on 50% shooting from the field.  I’m not going to bother reviewing the other players because I expect an easy win for the Niners against a team that isn’t going to contend for anything.

For the  Niners, this is a game that presents some opportunities.  For one, it should mark the return of rugged small forward An’Juan Wilderness from his strained calf injury.  Although word was he’d return against Louisville, in my opinion he was smartly held out from action (to be honest, for all I know it could have been a medical decision).  Tuesday’s game will allow him to be returned to the lineup gradually, as both rust and game-conditioning will be an issue.  Hopefully the Niners will also be able to dominate the game on both ends of the floor as I expect them too, giving a chance to rest key players like DiJuan Harris (played 39 amazing minutes against Louisville) and Derrio Green (probably still sore from his plantar fascitiis).  We average fans would also welcome a chance to see new players like Gokhan Sirin get some seasoning, as well as what Javarris Barnett might be able to contribute.  Lastly, it could represent an opportunity to work on some facets of the offense that struggled just a bit against Louisville.  The Niners had problems passing in traffic to try to work the ball to open scorers in the lane against the Cardinals.  This is really just a matter of execution rather than a mental error, and something that can be improved hopefully with repetitions.

Will Tuesday give us an extended look at Gokhan's development?

I’m going to abstain from bullet points for this game.  We simply need to take care of business against a clearly inferior opponent that’s playing a lame duck season as they prepare to drop to Division II.  The Niners have historically under Lutz have lacked a “killer instinct” and have often played to the level of their opponents.  Hopefully the improved play and ability to close the game demonstrated against Louisville will prevail and the Niners will win this game by 25 points or more.

This season is an exciting one so far, and not just because we’ve started 4-1, because we’ve got four exciting freshman seeing their first college basketball action. One of the biggest stories in college basketball is the growth of players from their freshman through senior years, an [...]]]>

This season is an exciting one so far, and not just because we’ve started 4-1, because we’ve got four exciting freshman seeing their first college basketball action. One of the biggest stories in college basketball is the growth of players from their freshman through senior years, an aspect you won’t see in the pro game. Most players require one or two season before they’re seasoned enough to be reliable. Of course, at Charlotte, if the player isn’t seasoned enough, he’ll probably just transfer.

That said, we’re going to do something completely irrational and analyze the play of each freshman on the squad. This isn’t a “new faces” piece; we’re going strictly by the player’s grade classification. So get over it, we’ll cover the other players later.

Since he’s technically been on campus the longest, we’ll start with Shamarr Bowden (click for picture). A redshirt freshman this year due to his knee going all Death Star, Bowden was highly touted last year as the “go-to scorer” we were missing. Somehow, his presence would’ve turned our 11-20 squad into a 20-11 squad, but so far he hasn’t exactly been a game changer other than UNC Asheville (21 points in 11 minutes). Early on, Shamarr had a “shoot first, pass later” mentality and it was killing what little offensive flow we had. Since then, Shamarr has seen more of the bench, but has made smarter decisions when he comes in, even scoring on a non-three pointer once! Even though he’s not averaging twenty points a game (actually 8.0 ppg), we can fully expect this kid to turn into a formidable threat and his lack of conscious will help when we need that killer three pointer to break our opponent’s will. GTG.net Grade Thus Far: B-

Arguably the most impressive to date, Chris Braswell has been a wonderful addition to our team. He plays smart basketball and already has an established offensive game, especially for a freshman. The duo of Spears/Braswell is a formidable one, and it is obvious why Chris quickly moved into the starting spot ahead of Phil Jones: he knows how to get the ball to Spears. This is probably most fans’ favorite part of Chris’ game, especially since getting the ball to our big men using anything than a missed shot has been missing from our strategy for years. Also impressive is his rebounding ability (8.6 rpg), already collecting two double doubles in his young career. Braswell reminds many of us of Demarco, but there’s a good chance Braswell will be what future Charlotte 49ers PFs aspire to be, he could really be that good. GTG.net Grade Thus Far: A-

When he is on the court, it’s hard to find a player more motivated to dunk the basketball than K.J. Sherrill. It seems that is his goal every moment he grabs a rebound or receives a pass. He applies the same mentality on defense as well, except it’s going for a block. This kid is fun to watch and does all the things a coach could want from a post player: plays physical on offense and defense, always goes up strong, and doesn’t play outside his game. As Sherrill develops alongside Chris Braswell, the two of them will be a nightmare for future A10 frontcourts, but an extremely entertaining element of our offense. GTG.net Grade Thus Far: C+ (but an ‘A’ for effort!)

Gokhan must realize his destiny!

No freshman was criticized more than Gohkan Sirin after the exhibition game against JCSU. The statements were harsh: “Phaler 2.0”…”redshirt him immediately!”…”this guy shouldn’t even see the court!”…”rabblerabblerabble”…etc. We were a ruthless fanbase. Turns out, he’s probably here because our coaches said we wouldn’t redshirt him, and Sirin really isn’t that bad. Sure, he’s not going to tear it up every night, but since that JCSU game he’s shown poise on offense. His shot is a thing of beauty, and he knows how to pass the ball inside, two things that will guarantee him a spot in the regular rotation if he can improve his defense. GTG.net Grade Thus Far: C+