Observations from A Maryland couch on Temple .....

[Taj79]

.... two words ..... "exposed" and "athleticism."

First off, let me say the kids played their hearts out. Each one played better than I ever could. The Fetz was rocking. The announcers (Roger Twibell and Steve Lappas) were accomodating. The student section shots were glorious. The Saintsations are imported Vegas showgirls. And with 2:10 to go the outcome was in doubt. And we lost.

Exposed ---- for all the A10 to see, and don't think they didn't see it. We are who we always are .... slow, immobile, vertically-challenged big white kids complimented by small, liliputian black guards ... and Kyle. He falls out of the first category based on "big." How else do you explain the ease with which Hollis-Jefferson and Lee dominated the inside in all areas with the exception of defending Conklin in the second half? No one on the Bills could even attempt the steal-dish-slam that Hollis-Jefferson laid down on us late second half. Yes, we beat them on the boards (surprisingly) really having our way on the offensive boards (even more surprisingly) but how much did our adherance to the law of gravity and Lee's shot-blocking presence caused us to miss putbacks and thereby grab more offensive boards, only to miss again? Inflated stats, if you ask me.

Athleticism ---- as in we don't have much. Our small guards were abused by 6'4" Wyatt, Moore and Fernandez. Evans was too big and not as fluid as Moore or Wyatt. But the kid tried. Fernandez would have dominated Mitchell except he shot 1-of-8 on the night. The Bills tried and played their hearts out, but a 57% Fg shooting percentage is tough to beat. In other words, Temple made more shots than they missed. On the other end, McCall got one shot off, Mitchell labored on a lot of his, Cassity was 1-of-5, Ellis labored to take 8 shots missing five and Jett made his four layups, shooting 00% on the five shots resembling a jumper. But I know -- he's okay. Despite a four to five inch advantage over anyone on Temple's bench, Loe got nothing on the perimeter all night.

Athleticism --- Jett is a tremendous driver, probably the best we have. Did anyone notice that Wyatt was guarding him on our offensive end. Know why? You usually try to rest your best offensive player some on the defensive end. And everybody seems to know (the A10 does now) that neither Cassity nor Jett is a threat to stop and pop. So why not work a side cleareout for Jett and let him take Wyatt to the rim? Make him work. Make him foul. He had four and that strategy was never employed. If he gets three or four early in the second half, will he be there to make those rainbow threes mid-session?

Athleticism ---- I saw kshoe ask if a charge was called. W/o looking I'm going with not no but HELL no. The whole game. Drawing a charge is a piece of work, but Ellis, Cassity, Conklin and Mitchell were flopping better than Dick Fosbury. I'd say that if no calls happen on your first flop, try again. After two unsuccessful flops, fahgetdaboutit. Again, we are not athletic enough to defend straight up but refs will ignore even the blatant, real charges once they determine all you're doing is flopping. Which is Cody's second best move behind the three-point launch.

Athleticism --- Steve Lappas' best comment was about Temple's guards being "athletic, playground warriors from the streets of Philadelphia." Our last Philadelphia warrior was a kid nicknamed "Heiney." The mid-lane stop and tear drop Moore laid up over Conklin late was a work of playground art; Conklin was already falling backwards faking the charge. The best was Wyatt making the 35-footer after Temple called a timeout. I figured we were cooked right there. They had three guys who could create a shot literally whenever they wanted to; us, zip, nada, zilch.

Exposed --- Temple clutched and grabbed and Fernandez pushed off Mitchell a lot to free up space to get the ball. Others have noted the clutch and grab on the steal of McCall late. And the lack of flopping calls --- all I'll say is adapt or die. Meet fire with equal or greater fire. I have never been able to enjoy the art of skywalking and dunking but one has to believe Rob Loe CAN and SHOULD. There is a violation and/or foul on just about every play. Holding occurs in the NFL 145% of the time. You do what you do until you determine what the refs are doing to call the game.

Exposed ---- Metz stated only Conklin and Mitchell cam to play. I'll concede Conklin. In the second half. Lappas said we weren't feeding the beast in the first half but this reiterates that Conklin needs help to get the ball where he is effective. He will not create his own looks. He'll create room, bu the needs a feed. Mitchell, I am confused on him as well. Not for Mitchell's sake, but for whatever his role is. W/o his four threes, we are blown out for sure. But is he a point guard or a scoring guard? I'd say scoring guard because with Jett, Cassity and Evans on the floor with him, the offensive options are limited. According to the ESPN play-by-play, Kwa missed six layups. SIX!!!!

Athleticism/Exposed --- what has happened to Mike McCall. I like McCall better than McCall, Junior. I thought McCall deserrved all A10 rookie team last year for averaging 9 ppg. This McCall Jr. kid has shrunk incredibly this year and therefore can only be an imposter.

Athleticism --- A Cory sighting! Seven minutes, a field goal, two offensive rebounds and two blocks. How much different are he and Anthony Lee? Lee got 30 minutes, 9 rebounds, three blocks and six points. Who would cry for production like that from Remekun. Keeping the faith. Maybe Anthonmy Lee is th enext Kenyon Martin. Remember you heard that here first.

Athleticism --- okay, maybe skill but we missed 6 layups by Mitchell, 14 jump shots by Jett/Cassity/Ellis, and five free throws. We didn't guard anybody per our usual defensive efforts and we still were in doubt of the outcome with two minutes to go. That's still a pretty good game when talent rose up and conquered.

BAD NEWS: we are still behind both Temple and Xavier at this rate. Give that pipe dream up. Erase the euphoria of the early season ==== the BCS wins were over programs in a depreciated state. Xavier destroyed Duquesne by 30 last night; they are back in the friendly confines of the league they dominate. I think Billikan said this Saturday's game at Charlotte is key. I agree.

From what I've seen, given our long-term track record, I am revising my projections for this year. We are who we always are, we don't win on the road and we can't beat Temple or Xavier anywhere. Which means 19 and 11 overall and 7 and 9 in conference.

Slings and arrows, I am yours!

[billiken_roy]

all in all, pretty good analysis taj. not sure who on the billikens would start for temple. as good of a floor coach as majerus is, i say dunphy is better. temple simply is very talented. write the game off and move on. i wouldnt dwell on that loss. temple is very very good. did i say temple is good? they are.

[Billboy1]

Regarding adapt or die comment-if SLU did the grabbing, holding and elbowing we'd have 5 guys foul out in the first half.

[moytoy12]

Or Fernandez went 1-for-8 because KM did a pretty darn good job on him.

While there is definitely some truth in the initial post, there is plenty of overreaction (e.g 7-9 conference record prediction).

[JettFlight5]

all in all, pretty good analysis taj. not sure who on the billikens would start for temple. as good of a floor coach as majerus is, i say dunphy is better. temple simply is very talented. write the game off and move on. i wouldnt dwell on that loss. temple is very very good. did i say temple is good? they are.

Typical...write it off, it's no big deal. We'll get them next time. The option for "next time" is gone.

[Taj79]

One man's overreaction opinion is another's realistic examination of the facts before us. Could the facts change? Yes. Will they? Ah, there's the rub.

@Moy -- how about you? Any revision to the "Jett can shoot okay" theory? As to KM doing "a job" on Fernandez, maybe. But Fernandez was backing KM down all the way into the paint from what I saw. I don't see Juan as that kind of guard but KM's attempt to body him resulted in one, maybe two fouls on KM. I'd take Fernandez as my true point guard over KM right now ---- in the truest sense of a pass-first, distribution point guard. LKike I said above, I donb't know whast role KM is supposed to be playing right now.

@Billboy --- you never know. What I do know is that flopping didn't work.

[billslasttermdropout]

We are who we always are .... slow, immobile, vertically-challenged big white kids complimented by small, liliputian black guards ... and Kyle.

LOL

I'd try and get in the way here, but I know I'm gonna get called for blocking, so I'll just let you through.

edit: added LOL for clarity

[David King]

Well, with certainty, Charlotte must be destroyed!

I'll be there to witness it.

[Bay Area Billiken]

After reading Taj's as usual solid post and after another review of the schedule, I see from where Taj is coming with his 19-11, 7-9 prediction. Say it isn't so. That won't even land SLU in the NIT. That's CBI/CIT material.

This being said, I think SLU will be better than that. But there is cause for concern.

All the road games are going to be hard to win: Charlotte, UMass, St. Joe's and LaSalle on the same trip, and Duquesne, even woeful URI with its athleticism will not be a given on the road.

Charlotte, UMass, St. Joe's, and LaSalle are all better than anticipated. Majerus has shown an ability to beat Phil Martelli of St. Joe's, irrespective of the venue. SLU has won in the past at LaSalle, but LaSalle has athletes too.

SLU must protect the home court against Dayton, Xavier, and yes, even the Bonnies. SLU cannot lose another home game, period.

Not protecting the home court in conference play really adds to the pressure. That was a winnable game last night, even though SLU could not guard Wyatt and Moore, the two Temple 6'4" wings.

And this is not an invitation to more lectures about Willie Reed's alleged off the court matters. This is a pure basketball discussion: the bottom line is that SLU lacks a 5, a true center, the goalie as the last line of defense to block those shots by 6'4" guards off the dribble drive penetration. We saw a couple of glimpses last night from Cory Remekun, but Cory is not Willie, obviously.

To further state the obvious, the only answer is the team is going to have to play better. Free throws must be made. 9-14, 64% in a big and close game is not good enough. Layups must be made. Taj relays Kwamain Mitchell missed 6 layups last night. I didn't count them, but he did miss multiple layups. Of course, SLU is not close at crunch time without Kwamain. He is the heart and leader of this team, along with Brian Conklin, a true warrior, no question about that.

And maybe it is time for the forbidden 4 letter word for Majerus- the Zone (defense). The flop defense has been exposed.

And I don't need more lectures about the Queen's Court Rules of not blaming the zebras. Temple controls the A-10, even if Temple is trying to move to the Big East. SLU does not get the calls against Temple, period. The A-10 refs gift wrapped last year's road game to Temple at crunch time. They blew two huge calls last night- 1) not calling the obvious foul on Rob Loe's 3 point attempt in the first half, and 2) letting Fernandez hold in place McCall when he was stripped in the second half. Can someone remind me of the result of the latter? Didn't Temple score? Anyway, those were 2 massive non-calls that were clear fouls, and although they may not have decided the game, they certainly played key roles in a 5 point loss. And frankly, they may have decided the game. If Loe hits those 3 free throws that he should have received, SLU leads that game at crunch time. As always, there is a conspiracy behind every curtain. LOL!

[moytoy12]

One man's overreaction opinion is another's realistic examination of the facts before us. Could the facts change? Yes. Will they? Ah, there's the rub.

@Moy -- how about you? Any revision to the "Jett can shoot okay" theory? As to KM doing "a job" on Fernandez, maybe. But Fernandez was backing KM down all the way into the paint from what I saw. I don't see Juan as that kind of guard but KM's attempt to body him resulted in one, maybe two fouls on KM. I'd take Fernandez as my true point guard over KM right now ---- in the truest sense of a pass-first, distribution point guard. LKike I said above, I donb't know whast role KM is supposed to be playing right now.

No revision. Look at the stats, they back me up. He had an off night shooting from outside. I can admit that. I'll choose to use his entire body of work to support my opinion on JJ's shooting ability. If you want to use one game, go ahead. You've made up your mind re: JJ's shooting ability. If facts and reality do not change your mind, nothing will.

KM did a good job on Fernandez. You can pervert it however you want, but Fernandez was 1-8 shooting and generally a non-factor. He did have a couple of good assists, but i'm not sure KM was on him on those plays or not, and even if KM was on him on those plays, I still maintain that KM did a good job defensively.

Wyatt and Moore killed us. Fernandez didn't.

[jbizzle09]

No revision. Look at the stats, they back me up. He had an off night shooting from outside. I can admit that. I'll choose to use his entire body of work to support my opinion on JJ's shooting ability. If you want to use one game, go ahead. You've made up your mind re: JJ's shooting ability. If facts and reality do not change your mind, nothing will.

KM did a good job on Fernandez. You can pervert it however you want, but Fernandez was 1-8 shooting and generally a non-factor. He did have a couple of good assists, but i'm not sure KM was on him on those plays or not, and even if KM was on him on those plays, I still maintain that KM did a good job defensively.

Wyatt and Moore killed us. Fernandez didn't.

I agree with this. Being at the game personally, I thought during and after that KM showed up defensively and did a good job on Fernandez. Fernandez had size on KM, but KM was in his face the whole time and made it difficult for him to get a shot off. He tried backing him down but KM still stayed with him. If any of our other guards were on Fernandez I bet he has a better shooting game.

[Taj79]

Okay. I can defer to the KM defense of Juan. You don't go 1-for-8 w/o some nuisance factor covering your ass. I am swayed, nice job.

As for the ongoing debate of Jett's shooting, in another thread I asked to deduct out Jett's layups and tip-ins from his overall FG%. Until that is done, using his current 50.6% FG percentage as stats that back you up and prove he has a mid-rnage game, I invoke the "kshoe rule" and call BULLSHAT on you.

[Taj79]

@billslasttermdropout --- well I'll be daamned ... charged right through you and no call. Last night lives on!!!!

[moytoy12]

As for the ongoing debate of Jett's shooting, in another thread I asked to deduct out Jett's layups and tip-ins from his overall FG%. Until that is done, using his current 50.6% FG percentage as stats that back you up and prove he has a mid-rnage game, I invoke the "kshoe rule" and call BULLSHAT on you.

And i did that and guess what, my position was still supported by the numbers.

He was 40% last year on jump shots and, without crunching numbers to give effect to the Temple game, I bet he is over 40% this year. 40% ain't out-of-this-world, but it's good. The facts support it.

Until you (or roy) actually have some facts to support your assertion, I'd think you'd want to stop asserting unsupported statements. Maybe not.

[billiken_roy]

No revision. Look at the stats, they back me up. He had an off night shooting from outside. I can admit that. I'll choose to use his entire body of work to support my opinion on JJ's shooting ability. If you want to use one game, go ahead. You've made up your mind re: JJ's shooting ability. If facts and reality do not change your mind, nothing will. KM did a good job on Fernandez. You can pervert it however you want, but Fernandez was 1-8 shooting and generally a non-factor. He did have a couple of good assists, but i'm not sure KM was on him on those plays or not, and even if KM was on him on those plays, I still maintain that KM did a good job defensively. Wyatt and Moore killed us. Fernandez didn't.

i disagree on fernandez to a degree. while i wont say he "killed us", imo the only thing fernandez didnt do right was shoot the ball. he had some fantastic passes, and played good defense and was in the middle of a number of key plays. i would take fernandez on our team in a second.

[NH]

I've given this game and this team a lot of thought lately. It's important not to cling to early season success—we are who we are now—but it's also important not to let the outcome of when or two games change a season's view of a team.

First re: Cassity. I think he is a good and valuable player. The problem is that early in the season team's were guarding him like they guard any other player, and he made them pay by finding the open man and taking care of the ball. Now, however, teams are playing off of him and that is clogging things for our other players and making it tougher for Kyle to create. He needs to play like he played in the conference season of 09-10 when he scored 8 ppg and shot 38% from three. We need him to be just enough of a threat that it can open things up for others, something I suspect Majerus knows.

We are not a very athletic team, Taj was right. And I agree our lack of a rim protector really hurts. Kyle, Mike and Dwayne were beat off the dribble a lot last night and since we have no legit shot-blockers, taking a charge is our only option, something we generally do very well. But last night two things happened: 1) we got the benefit of no 50-50 calls and 2) we were a tad late on our defensive rotations. So we took 0 charges, something that cannot happen, especially if we give up dribble penetration like we did.

One concern I have is we have not guarded ball screens well of late. Perhaps due to tired legs, which would not be a good sign.

I don't see how anyone can complain about Jett. He has a positive A/To ratio, is our best defender and is scoring 6 ppg as a sophomore off the bench. His improvement is obvious.

Give me Kwamain over Juan any day. That said it'd be great to have a player like Moore.

I came with a friend who knows a lot about basketball and is going to play in college next year. He couldn't believe some of the tough shots Temple was getting. In the first half, they got very few open looks. By the end game, their dribble penetration was taking a toll, however.

Taj, how much would you like to bet we win MORE than 9 conference games?

Some solid recruits were at the game last night, I hope they weren't too disappointed.

People, the shot 57% from the field. At the end of the day, you can't win when they do that. On to the next one. Give me Temple in the A-10 tourney and I'm taking the bills with minimal hesitation.

[moytoy12]

i disagree on fernandez to a degree. while i wont say he "killed us", imo the only thing fernandez didnt do right was shoot the ball. he had some fantastic passes, and played good defense and was in the middle of a number of key plays. i would take fernandez on our team in a second.

As would I, but that wasn't the argument. Yes, he had some good passes. On offense, he didn't have a great game and that was because of KM to a large extent.

[JettFlight5]

I've given this game and this team a lot of thought lately. It's important not to cling to early season success—we are who we are now—but it's also important not to let the outcome of when or two games change a season's view of a team.

First re: Cassity. I think he is a good and valuable player. The problem is that early in the season team's were guarding him like they guard any other player, and he made them pay by finding the open man and taking care of the ball. Now, however, teams are playing off of him and that is clogging things for our other players and making it tougher for Kyle to create. He needs to play like he played in the conference season of 09-10 when he scored 8 ppg and shot 38% from three. We need him to be just enough of a threat that it can open things up for others, something I suspect Majerus knows.

We are not a very athletic team, Taj was right. And I agree our lack of a rim protector really hurts. Kyle, Mike and Dwayne were beat off the dribble a lot last night and since we have no legit shot-blockers, taking a charge is our only option, something we generally do very well. But last night two things happened: 1) we got the benefit of no 50-50 calls and 2) we were a tad late on our defensive rotations. So we took 0 charges, something that cannot happen, especially if we give up dribble penetration like we did.

One concern I have is we have not guarded ball screens well of late. Perhaps due to tired legs, which would not be a good sign.

I don't see how anyone can complain about Jett. He has a positive A/To ratio, is our best defender and is scoring 6 ppg as a sophomore off the bench. His improvement is obvious.

Give me Kwamain over Juan any day. That said it'd be great to have a player like Moore.

I came with a friend who knows a lot about basketball and is going to play in college next year. He couldn't believe some of the tough shots Temple was getting. In the first half, they got very few open looks. By the end game, their dribble penetration was taking a toll, however.

Taj, how much would you like to bet we win MORE than 9 conference games?

Some solid recruits were at the game last night, I hope they weren't too disappointed.

People, the shot 57% from the field. At the end of the day, you can't win when they do that. On to the next one. Give me Temple in the A-10 tourney and I'm taking the bills with minimal hesitation.

That 57% has something to do with bad defense too. They are a good team. The Billikens, well, the jury's still out on them.

[NH]

That 57% has something to do with bad defense too. They are a good team. The Billikens, well, the jury's still out on them.

And I said we were late on rotations and gave up dribble penetration.

I think we're just as good as Temple.

[Bay Area Billiken]

NH- the problem with the A-10 Tournament and your taking SLU over Temple there is that the A-10 Tournament this year is still at the infamous (and in the past leaking) Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, a de facto Temple home court.

Temple, for whatever reason, probably history and longevity, if not outright power, seems to control this league, even though Temple wants to be in the Big East. Still, it has been obvious the last 2 seasons in the way the A-10 zebras have called the SLU-Temple game. The A-10 zebras basically gift wrapped last year's game at Temple to Temple.

Remember what Jock Ewing said in Dallas, "Bobby, power is not something you get. Power is something you take."

As for last night's game, to see the blatant fouls on Temple, the one against Rob Loe on his first half 3 point shot, and Fernandez's arrest and detention of McCall right on the court, which resulted in a "steal," not be called, and go down as "no calls" was beyond absurd. This is to say nothing of the no calls on charges against Temple that were called for SLU earlier in the season. Those 2 non-calls in particular (Loe and McCall), on SLU's home court, were unacceptable, and that kind of stuff should result in someone in the SLU Athletic Dept. sending a tape to the A-10 office.

Enough with the Queen's Court Rules of only sore losers blame the refs, that we can't complain about the refs, etc., et al. Something needs to be done so it doesn't happen again. There is a potential NCAA Tournament bid, and literally thousands of dollars on the line. That type of officiating is not supposed to befall the home team.

[Billboy1]

SLU is the only home team that is treated as a visitor by the refs. Fernandez and the other players from Temple worked the officials after each call against them. Wasn't it last year after the Temple game that the A-10 sent SLU a letter of apology about the bad calls they received. That did a lot of good it didn't reverse the loss. While Temple might have been the better team last night several calls were game changers.

[bonwich]

I'm being half-facetious here, but I was wondering whether the bald white ref had it in for McCall for some reason because he allowed the blatant mugging in the second half.

[JettFlight5]

If the ref wraps up with his right arm, that's a perfect form tackle.

[Bay Area Billiken]

A letter of apology is small consolation.

If SLU gets another letter of apology this year, maybe SLU should have it blown up and hung in the rafters where the 2012 NCAA Tournament Banner should be hanging.

These A-10 refs have been a colossal joke, one that is no longer funny, ever since SLU parked itself in this expansive cross-sectional league. I don't want to blame the refs either, but at some point we have to call a spade a spade.

There is no excuse or justification for SLU getting homered ("visitored") on its home court, irrespective of the opponent, even 39,000 student Temple.

The league office is in Newport News, Virginia. The league power rests in the City of Brotherly Love.

It was patently obvious from those two no calls (the hack of Loe and the arrest, detention, and pillaging of McCall) that the A-10 wanted no part of an 0-2 in the A-10 Temple team, one that beat Duke, and that every doubt was going to go Temple's way to avoid that unacceptable scenario.

SLU experienced the same thing last year- the A-10 was not going to allow a sub-.500 SLU team to win at Temple, which was in search of a coveted NCAA bid. The difference is that this year, SLU is in search of that same NCAA bid. But Temple remains Temple, and the A-10 remains the A-10.

[jbizzle09]

SLU is the only home team that is treated as a visitor by the refs. Fernandez and the other players from Temple worked the officials after each call against them. Wasn't it last year after the Temple game that the A-10 sent SLU a letter of apology about the bad calls they received. That did a lot of good it didn't reverse the loss. While Temple might have been the better team last night several calls were game changers.

Last year's game was an absolute disgrace. The 2 intentional fouls called on SLU were absolute jokes, and were the sole reason why Temple pulled that victory out.

I know it is being a 'sore loser' to point out bad officiating, but last night was yet another example of A-10 refs f**king SLU on its home court. The robbery of McCall, the numerous no calls when both BC and DE went inside (both should have had at least a couple And 1's a piece), the charge on Ellis that instead was an And 1, Wyatt's blatant travel in the lane when he scored...I definitely feel that the refs made a real impact on the game, espeically at the end. The McCall and Ellis plays were real momentum destroyers at a time when things were swinging SLU's way.