Bills vs. Roos

The Billikens welcome their second consecutive in-state opponent to town on Tuesday night when the UMKC Kangaroos visit the Chaifetz Arena.
The Billikens had some pretty good games with UMKC during the mid-1990's during Charlie Spoonhour's tenure at SLU. The Roos even came in to St. Louis and took a game by twenty points during the '96-'97 season. Future NBA player Tony Dumas really put it on us that night.
UMKC is a member of the Summit Conference. They are not blessed with a lot of size, but they have some pretty good players. The top scorer is 6'6" junior Jay Cousinard, who is averaging 14.6 points, three rebounds and two assists a game. His brother is former Wichita State standout P.J. Cousinard.
Sophomores Latreze Mushett (6'5") and Trey McKinney-Jones (6'4") are the Kangaroos' other double-figures scorers. Mushett averages 11.9 points and a team-high 6.1 rebounds a game. The aptly named Trey McKinney-Jones shoots 42 percent from 3-point range while averaging 10 points a game.
Junior Spencer Johnson, a 6'6" forward, averages 9.7 points while 6'1" junior Bakari Lewis averages 9.2 points.
Freshman guard Alex Bazzell, from St. Charles West High, is doing a nice job in 22 minutes a game. He is averaging 4.6 points and 2.8 assists per game. His assist to turnover ratio is 3.5 to 1, which is very good, especially for a freshman. Alex and Kramer Soderberg formed quite a backcourt combination at SCW for coach Terry Hollander.
Adding a little more size is 6'7" freshman Kirk Korver (Yes, of the Pella, Iowa Korvers) and 6'9" freshman Fred Chatman.
We are hopeful to have Kwamain Mitchell back in the lineup after missing the Missouri State game. Kwamain returned to practice on Monday, so we'll see what happens.
If Kwamain can go, it will be great. It goes without saying what Kwamain means to the team when he is in the lineup. If he is held out, it is another opportunity for others to step up and perform. It will be nice to see Willie Reed establish his inside presence early. He has posted nice numbers in the past two games, but we have had trouble getting the ball inside to him early in the game. Willie's first attempts in the last two games have been 17 foot jumpers. Usually, when the bigs start to float outside, that means he's not touching it in the post and he is itching for a shot, which usually results in a forced jumper.
Willie has a decent touch from the mid-range area, but we need to get him the ball early if the opportunity is there. If he faces double teams, like he did for much of the Mo. State game, he must do a better job of passing out of it to open teammates and trust that they can make open shots. Willie turned the ball over four times last Saturday and most of those TO's came against those hard double teams when he tried to force the issue.
Brian Conklin continues to battle, but from watching him, he still looks a little banged up to me. He is leaving some of his shots short, which means he's not getting the lift on his shots that I saw in Chicago when he scored against the bigger post players of Iowa State and Notre Dame. When BC is in the 10-12 point range and gets six to seven rebounds, it means so much.
I'd love to see Corey Remekun have another active performance like the one he had against Belmont. I would not be surprised to see increased minutes for the 6'7" freshman.
If we can hit some perimeter shots and be a little more stout defensively, we should be in a good position. We have to regain that defensive presence that we've displayed for much of our home schedule, but disappeared for large parts of the Mo. State game when they held us off. Once again, a little success from the perimeter early in the game would mean so much to the confidence of our young wing players.
It will be an interesting bounce-back game for the kids, but it's good to get right back out there to re-establish our home court advantage.
On a side note, I'm hearing that we could hear something about Cody Ellis this week, maybe as soon as Tuesday. We shall see. Every Bills fan I see asks me about Cody's situation with the NCAA Clearinghouse, but I'm in the same boat as everyone else. I know very little. I'm just waiting and hoping for the best. Or at least some closure one way or the other for the young man.
Naturally, I hope we have some good news on the young Aussie. We can use some after all the injuries that have beset the Billikens this season. I can't even imagine what this young man has gone through in his efforts to get over here to be a student-athlete. Hopefully, he will be rewarded for his persistence.
The action gets underway at 7 p.m. Hope to see you all there. If not, you can listen on 101-ESPN with yours truly and my Hall of Fame play-by-play partner Bob Ramsey on the call.
Welcome home Alex Bazzell and Go Bills!

On the SLU women's front, congratulations to senior center Amanda Kemezys on being named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Week. Amanda averaged 20 points a game in two games, posted two double-doubles and reached the 1,000-point plateau for her career last week. AK-55 is putting together quite a senior season.
You go girl.