[marriard]

Cody Ellis decided not to redshirt and will play for St Louis this afternoon. He will join fellow freshman and Aussie, Christian Salecich (8pg, 2 reb, 2 assists).

I am sure he isn't in game shape, but it will be great to see him start his NCAA career.

[marriard]

Watched most of the game:

Christian Salecich is a hell of a player as well. Plays hard, makes good decisions, hustles like crazy. Sneaked in and got important rebounds and then knocked down his free throws to ice the game.

Ellis made some big plays and played somewhere near 25 minutes - 10 pts in his first game. Hit some big free throws down the stretch - missed some as well.
Once he gets some games under his belt he is going to be tough to handle in the A-10. Majerus must be thrilled to have him - without him and Christian they lose this game.

St Louis is woefully undersized and need some 'big' help next year. Good news is that they only have one upperclass player so they are going to have a great team in a year or two.

Official boxscore: http://scores.espn.g...ameId=300090139

[marriard]

Cody started his first game yesterday against a rather poor Fordham team. He had his best shooting night from the field scoring 15 pts of 5-10 fg with 9 reb and 3 stls.

Full box here: http://www.slubillik...0/ford-slu.html

You can see him starting to get into game shape. St Louis - who were not expected to really do anything in the A10 this year are now 3-1 in conference with their only loss to league favourites Charlotte in the last seconds of overtime. This might not end up being their year in terms of NCAA/NIT's, but next year certainly may be.

[nomisg]

Cody scored 20 points (6-11) and 6 rebounds in a loss, the whole team only scored 62

http://www.slubillik.../012710aaa.html

[nomisg]

Been a slow start to the year for 2010 for Cody, I just think he is starting to settle and realise he doesn't need to be star for the team to win games, adn they are winning more games.

14 points for Cody Ellis om the weekend

http://www.slubillik.../020610aaa.html

[rman16]

Cody Ellis with a 3 in both overtimes to help win the game for Saint Louis over Dayton. The guy is a clutch shooter. A bit like a Matt Bouldin for Gonzaga. THe Billikens are a team to watch for the future.

[marriard]

Most impressive is that St Louis is considered the youngest team in the USA. They start two sophomores and three freshman and the everyone who plays off the bench is either a sophomore or a freshman.

They have only one upperclassman on the roster and he doesn't play much.

They have already won several more games in the A10 than they were expected to before the season started. Like a lot of mid-level college teams they really lack some big up-front size to compete at the very top level.

[nomisg]

Cody had 14 points on the weekend, 4 x 3 pointers.

If Saint Louis can keep this up (6 straight wins) they may even be a chance to get a NCAA berth.

http://www.slubillik.../022110aaa.html

[nomisg]

Cody Ellis scored 19 points

Quote

Xavier gained control with a 16-0 second-half run and held off a furious Saint Louis rally to post a 73-71 Atlantic 10 Conference victory Wednesday night at Chaifetz Arena.

The loss snapped SLU's six-game winning streak and dropped the Billikens to 18-9 overall and 9-4 in the A-10. Xavier, which moved into a first-place tie with the victory, improved to 20-7 overall and 11-2 in the league.

http://www.slubillik.../022410aaa.html

[rman16]

Who's the better Boomer prospect Cody Ellis or Matthew Dellavedova? I mean we lack depth in the pg position, but Cody looks really special.

[marriard]

Dellavedova is a better Boomer prospect because we do lack PG depth and if he progresses as a player his upside is incredible. He has basically played all 40 minutes of every game for St Mary's since about game 5 of his career. He leads the team at almost 36 minutes per game and considering there were a few blowouts this year it means that he has been on the floor for basically every meaningful minute of the season. His next step is get rid of the flaw in his jump shot mechanics and just get physically stronger - he is seriously scrawny right now and he needs to be physically stronger so players like Matt Boudin do not take advantage of him.

If Ellis continues to progress then he is going to be a long time Boomer as well but we do have a reasonable number of legitimate players at his natural position right now - players like Wortho, Barlow, Rush, Neilsen - even David Andersen. As a small forward he definitely has some skills that will translate. He will need to get much better defensively and he will need to stay in fantastic shape to maximize his athleticism. There was an article yesterday that suggested that Ellis should be the A10 Rookie of the year despite playing only about 1/2 the season so people are looking at him as a legitimate talent.

Both are legitimate NBA talents - but both have significant things that they need to work on to become actual NBA players. I think the difference today is that Dellavedova is a legitimate Boomer and international PG right now and should make the World Championship roster while Ellis is maybe a squad player this time around who probably has a legitimate chance of making the 2012 Olympics team.

[rman16]

Yes I pretty much concur. Although that brings up another question. Do we have any point guards playing in Europe because the cupboard is pretty bare locally.

[marriard]

rman16, on 28 February 2010 - 03:40 PM, said:

Yes I pretty much concur. Although that brings up another question. Do we have any point guards playing in Europe because the cupboard is pretty bare locally.

Nothing in Europe, but we are actually reasonably OK.

We have Patrick Mills, Matty Dellavedova and Adam Gibson in that order. So as long as they are healthy we are OK though you would like some more competition at the spot. You would prefer that Mills and Dellavedova are getting the bulk of the minutes.

We do have some college talent that is OK and may continue to develop. The leading three are probably:

- Chistrian Salecich @ St Louis with Cody Elllis - not a great scorer, but plays good D, runs a team pretty well and can hit the open shot
- Nate Tomlinson @ Colorado - similar to Salecich
- Jorden Page @ St Mary's - smaller, quicker scorer not unlike Mills. He is playing pretty well already and more minutes will be available for him maybe not next year, but certainly in his junior and senior seasons once McConnel graduates next year.

[rman16]

marriard, on 01 March 2010 - 01:16 AM, said:

rman16, on 28 February 2010 - 03:40 PM, said:

Yes I pretty much concur. Although that brings up another question. Do we have any point guards playing in Europe because the cupboard is pretty bare locally.

Nothing in Europe, but we are actually reasonably OK.

We have Patrick Mills, Matty Dellavedova and Adam Gibson in that order. So as long as they are healthy we are OK though you would like some more competition at the spot. You would prefer that Mills and Dellavedova are getting the bulk of the minutes.

We do have some college talent that is OK and may continue to develop. The leading three are probably:

- Chistrian Salecich @ St Louis with Cody Elllis - not a great scorer, but plays good D, runs a team pretty well and can hit the open shot
- Nate Tomlinson @ Colorado - similar to Salecich
- Jorden Page @ St Mary's - smaller, quicker scorer not unlike Mills. He is playing pretty well already and more minutes will be available for him maybe not next year, but certainly in his junior and senior seasons once McConnel graduates next year.

I like Jordan Page out of that group. He's an athlete!