This guy is coming back to the Vadalabene Center. I know you are excited. Hell, I am excited. I just wonder how big his fan section is going to be this time around. Hopefully, the Red Storm can get behind Cody Best (sarcastically, of course) as his MacMurray Highlanders come to town for an exhibition match-up.
What is not to love? Really, nothing.
Why is Cody Best so cool? Well, he is from Staunton, which is basically a suburb of Edwardsville and he is a young man chasing his hoops dream at a Division III college that had the death penalty handed down on its men's tennis program a few years back. MacMurray is a pretty famous place in the world of college sports for all the wrong reasons. The death penalty is actually pretty impressive at a Division III school. I am sure there are much more deserving candidates in Division I, but hey, that's just me.
Back to hoops, here's a preview on the team straight from the Mighty Mac's athletic site. They have an interesting trip to New Orleans on their schedule to face Southern and Tulane, two Division I teams back-to-back in the regular season. They are in the same conference as Blackburn, the team SIUE beat 70-56 last week and their schedule is just about as local as you can get outside of the trip to New Orleans and a game in Louisville against Spalding University. Even though they are Division III, we can recognize pretty much every school on their schedule: Wash. U, Webster, Greenville, Fontbonne, STLCOP and Eureka just to name of the familiar suspects.
Last year's game between SIUE and MacMurray was a regular season contest. The Cougars won 88-73. Here is the box. SIUE's three top scorers from that game are gone. Nikola Bundalo had 25, LeShaun Murphy had 15 and Cornelius Chatt had 12. Corey Wickware scored 10 points.
MacMurray had two very impressive scorers in the game. CJ McLellan had 25 and Jerel Robertson had 20. If you look at the full box, those numbers pop out right away. My memory isn't very good and I was shocked, actually. Best had two if anyone is counting (and the fans were.)
SIUE shot 55 percent and scored 54 points in the second half after trailing 38-34 at halftime. (Again, I don't remember this.)
Both McLelland and Robertson are gone this year. This is a very young team with a big roster and I have no idea what to expect. Last year, the Highlanders were 13-13 and 11-5 in the SLIAC. I would venture to say they are a better team than Blackburn, so it will be a good test for the Cougars.
Mark Yelovich, Michael Messer and Zeke Schneider should all play. The trio was on the bench in shirts and ties against Blackburn. Yelovich was still not cleared by his doctor for that damn foot. Zeke was out for "off-the-court reasons," and Messer was undisclosed. I would like to see how a lineup of Shaffer, Jones, Yelovich, Messer and Wickware works out for the Cougars. We will see what Lennox throws out there. Expect this to be more of a dress rehearsal than the Blackburn game was. It will be nice to get some reps in just four days before heading to Champaign.
Keys to the game:
- Get off to a fast start. This is the obvious one. SIUE let Blackburn go ahead 8-0 and 18-6 last time out. MacMurray led SIUE at the half last year. Makes me a little nervous.
- Give us more faith in the big guys. Feed the rock to Shaffer. Let Jones penetrate. Just make us forget about Bundalo.
- Rebound. See above.
- Yelovich. Let him score, let him establish himself and let us know we have not been wasting our time waiting for his return. More importantly, don't push him too hard yet.
7 comments:
Lets see, i remember this last year and that robertson guy and mcclelland tore us up before we took over in the second half with brute strength and physicallity they couldnt handle...it def was a game not to remember becasue I thought SIUe probably was gonna lose that one...ok so here are my points this game....I think you let "DS" and "JJ" go to town in the first 10 mins...this will allow Mark (if he plays) to get a feel for the game move around, test that foot out etc etc.....i say let kris run the point in the first half, see how he does because i think we know what we have in stineman....ok you mentioned wickware dont kill me when i say this but i think he is better off the bench...and Im not kidding...he is the guy we need for 15 to 20 moins a night to pour in points...he is terrible Defensively and appears to succumb to asthma or something during the game (he tires easily), i think messer will prob be a non factor this year, again i know kill me but this is the good year for him to step back and learn the college game the right way, i dont think we will need much from him anyways, that doesnt mean dont play him (or start him) but let him grow the right way, last year we threw him in the fight and he did pretty darn good, this is a good year for him to learn the right way.....i know u guys dont like Boarden but I do, i dont like his shot selection mind you but David is what he is, he is a heady player who can lead this team on the floor....
Thanks for the thoughts. I think this year will be different. MacMurray lost some key plays and the team seems to be young/inexperienced. I agree with you on the Jerome and Derian plan, but honestly I don't see those 2 going to the bench much often. They are just to athletic to bench. Wickware is a slow starting player. Look at his stats last year. He started slow, gained some speed, slumped and finally started playing to his potential. Too bad Chatt overshadowed him. No matter what is done on thursday, Wickware will play 20+ minutes. When hes feeling it, hes ON. I also want to see Kris running the point. I believe he can impact the team now. There are people saying that he is a next year player, but I believe he will make quite some impact now. I think we will slowly introduce Mark into the game. I don't see him starting. There is just too much to stake. I could see him play around 5 minutes in the 1st and possibly 10-15 in the second. Messer is a phenominal basketball player. He's got great fundamentals for a sophmore player. Very high bball IQ. To not utilize that would be insane. He will see substantial playing time on Thursday. I just don't see why we wouldn't use him. I used to be a Boarden fan, but hes just too inconsistent. He will put up decent games every once in a while, but for the most part he is like a yo-yo..up and down. David does have drive and a good work ethic. He CAN do better!
Can we all just agree that Cody Best is most likely the best player to come to the VC?
Ummm no... I dont know about you guys but I actually might defriend some of the cougar players off my twitter account...I get so worried by some of their tweets, like something is wrong lol I gotta remember they are college students with pressures just like I had when I was in college...
Lately, it seems like a lot of the players on twitter are either bummed out that we give constructive criticsm, that they are injured, or just feel like SIUe doesn't support them. My response to that is that we need to win games to have everyone on board. Its going to be tough to gather support for a team that was underachieving for the past 3-4 yrs. Talk is cheap, but results are not. Im trying my hardest to get people to come to games and get excited about the team. Is it difficult? Hell yea! Will I ever abandon high hopes for this team? Hell no! The team needs to get confident and play to their abilities. For them to worry about other students is petty. Put some W's on the board and fans will come out of the woodwork.
I couldnt agree more Mr. Helton..... On another note did anyone read the atricle in the Belleville News Democrat? Messer is not mentioned to be in the starting lineup or even a key player off the bench? Did he slide this past year? Did we bring in enough talent that maybe overshadows his play? I think what it boils down to is exactly what I said earlier I think what they are going to do is let Mike settle down a little bit and learn the college game the right way....he had a great trial by fire freshman year but he needs to in my opinion step back and learn the trade the right way and i think they may just do that this year
I love this conversation. I hope the guys realize we criticize because we care. Anyways, I am really surprised at the Messer snub. Kid was the third leading scorer. The new guys certainly are the focal point right now because Lennox is recruiting the right way. Messer may not have as good of a sophomore year because guys from the other teams tend to key on them a bit more. I think he will be conditioned better though and be more conistent throughout though. We should see him tonight.
Keep in mind nationally where we are picked: 341/344. Underachieving means a 07-09 NJIT like season. I say 12 wins is fair. If we finish anywhere near the top 300 we are OVERACHIEVING and this is by far the most confident this team has been in D-I.
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