For those looking for something to be mad about.

[ARon]

Bernie Miklasz just spent several minutes praising SLU's coaching, effort, competitiveness, and defense. He also said they should be a real problem for other teams in the tournament.

He then called their offense "mediocre".

[Billiken Rich]

Bernie Miklasz just spent several minutes praising SLU's coaching, effort, competitiveness, and defense. He also said they should be a real problem for other teams in the tournament.

He then called their offense "mediocre".

Should be OUR offense......

Compared to whom? Duke? SPUMAC? Our offense does appear anemic compared to some but we still seem to score enough to win. I'd love to see what would happen against a team like Missou. Unstoppable force VS immovable object......

[ACE]

Bernie Miklasz just spent several minutes praising SLU's coaching, effort, competitiveness, and defense. He also said they should be a real problem for other teams in the tournament.

He then called their offense "mediocre".

I'm not mad. Actually glad people are talking about us. We have had some mediocre offensive performances recently - LaSalle, Dayton and Fordham, but our defense was good enough to help us get the wins.

[moytoy12]

Agreed, the offense has been mediocre. The silver lining is that we are getting open outside looks and a lot of high percentage shots inside. If we can get DE and BC to be a little more patient and hit a higher percentage of the short shots, our offensive output will look a lot different.

[wgstl]

agreed, I would really like to avg in the low 70's every game, BUT when you have our type of defense, you dont have to score in the 70's 90% of the time.

[billiken_roy]

not sure how to weigh in on this subject. i think a lot of the observations by casual fans (bernie would be included) would be unknowingly slanted because they are not factoring in the toll and handicap that rickma's defensive schemes create. by design, our defensive approach will typically keep scores in the 50's and 60's. but it wins games. i always laugh when a casual fan remarks how ugly our games are. obviously they dont watch defense and ball control.

that said, i also recognize the inconsistencies of mitchell, shaft evans, mccall and conklin. at times they look fantastic, other times they just shouldnt be on the floor unfortunately the replacements for all four are even less consistent. the point is though, that the likes of kentucky or syracuse like offenses are not the norm. but because that is what a casual fan will see on tv, they think that is what all offenses will look like.

[StlCardinal]

Roy is right--our offense is not mediocre. Because we play at a slow tempo, the point totals don't often get into the 80s, but that doesn't mean the offense is bad. According to Pomeroy, our offensive efficiency is 39th in the nation...not quite as stellar as our 10th ranked defense, but still pretty darn good.

It's all about efficiency. We'll never have gaudy point totals or individual stats, but it's only because we purposely limit the possessions in each game.

[Billikan]

Roy is right--our offense is not mediocre. Because we play at a slow tempo, the point totals don't often get into the 80s, but that doesn't mean the offense is bad. According to Pomeroy, our offensive efficiency is 39th in the nation...not quite as stellar as our 10th ranked defense, but still pretty darn good.

It's all about efficiency. We'll never have gaudy point totals or individual stats, but it's only because we purposely limit the possessions in each game.

Although we are not a high scoring team we do not play a slow tempo. What we play is an offense that probes the defense and will not shoot until we get an open shot of the type we want to take. If that comes early in the shot clock then we take the shot. If not, we work the offense to get a good shot. It was amazing on Sat to see Fordham in a stall type offense where they would just hold the ball for about 15-20 seconds and then start their offense. I have no idea why they would do that--it was almost like they wanted to keep the score down!

[kwyjibo]

Roy is right--our offense is not mediocre. Because we play at a slow tempo, the point totals don't often get into the 80s, but that doesn't mean the offense is bad. According to Pomeroy, our offensive efficiency is 39th in the nation...not quite as stellar as our 10th ranked defense, but still pretty darn good. It's all about efficiency. We'll never have gaudy point totals or individual stats, but it's only because we purposely limit the possessions in each game.

Exactly.

[Cowboy]

-the team in anaheim did not mis layups and in close shots, if we get back to that we score at least 12 more points per game and then it would seem no one could comment negatively on our offense

-i would guess bm is looking at our offense versus mizzou on just a ppg basis, nothing more, but that is a guess

-i usually give press row and the table a look at each game and i have not seen bm this season, and not that i could but have i missed seeing him at a game?

[drkelsey55]

-the team in anaheim did not mis layups and in close shots, if we get back to that we score at least 12 more points per game and then it would seem no one could comment negatively on our offense

-i would guess bm is looking at our offense versus mizzou on just a ppg basis, nothing more, but that is a guess

-i usually give press row and the table a look at each game and i have not seen bm this season, and not that i could but have i missed seeing him at a game?

He made one, Richmond. Then wrote a peice about poor attendance to SLU games. Sorry, I was thinking of BB not BM. Don't think BM has been to any.....ANY estimates on how many BB was at??

[billiken_roy]

Although we are not a high scoring team we do not play a slow tempo. What we play is an offense that probes the defense and will not shoot until we get an open shot of the type we want to take. If that comes early in the shot clock then we take the shot. If not, we work the offense to get a good shot. It was amazing on Sat to see Fordham in a stall type offense where they would just hold the ball for about 15-20 seconds and then start their offense. I have no idea why they would do that--it was almost like they wanted to keep the score down!

for the first 2/3 or so of the game, i agree with you. but rickma indeed begins playing keep away about the 8 minutes left time out if the billikens are winning. i dont have a problem with that, especially considering the typical turnovers per game we have. cassity, mitchell, are both over 2-1 assists to turnovers and mccall and jett are both close to that. teams that can take care of the ball like that would be foolish to not slow things down imo.

[moytoy12]

for the first 2/3 or so of the game, i agree with you. but rickma indeed begins playing keep away about the 8 minutes left time out if the billikens are winning. i dont have a problem with that, especially considering the typical turnovers per game we have. cassity, mitchell, are both over 2-1 assists to turnovers and mccall and jett are both close to that. teams that can take care of the ball like that would be foolish to not slow things down imo.

I hate the stall offense in the last 4 minutes. It's not an issue when we're up 20, but it almost cost us against UNCC and will no doubt cause nervous moments when we are only up 8-10 points.

[SShoe]

I hate the stall offense in the last 4 minutes. It's not an issue when we're up 20, but it almost cost us against UNCC and will no doubt cause nervous moments when we are only up 8-10 points.

Agreed, it's my biggest issue with RM's game day coaching.

[billiken_roy]

i would guess the 35 second hold offense blows far less games than the pedal to the metal mentality. if that wasnt true, teams wouldnt do it. the coaches do too much research for it not to be true. now if we didnt have 4 excellent guards, that might be a different story, but we do. and imo it is our most consistent attribute. taking care of the ball. so when the spread is there, play the clock, not the other team.

[moytoy12]

i would guess the 35 second hold offense blows far less games than the pedal to the metal mentality. if that wasnt true, teams wouldnt do it. the coaches do too much research for it not to be true. now if we didnt have 4 excellent guards, that might be a different story, but we do. and imo it is our most consistent attribute. taking care of the ball. so when the spread is there, play the clock, not the other team.

I'm not advocating a "pedal to the metal" mentality. Just run our offense that got us the lead and don't give away 3-on-1 breakaways. Our offense is methodical and effective enough to use plenty of clock and get a high percentage shot. I only have the eyeball test going for me, but it seems our stall offense rarely produces a high percentage shot or open look. In fact, it looks a lot like our offense from last year.

[slufanskip]

To me it's somewhere in between. We have to be clock smart, but sometimes it appears we wait to long to get started and get a terrible shot. If we began our offense at 20 seconds we'd have plenty of time. We wouldn't limit the opponents opportunities quite as much, but maybe we'd maximize our own opportunities a little better

[SShoe]

I'm not advocating a "pedal to the metal" mentality. Just run our offense that got us the lead and don't give away 3-on-1 breakaways. Our offense is methodical and effective enough to use plenty of clock and get a high percentage shot. I only have the eyeball test going for me, but it seems our stall offense rarely produces a high percentage shot or open look. In fact, it looks a lot like our offense from last year.

+1. Nobody is suggesting we play like Mizzou circa 2010, but just continue to work the offense and take what the defense gives you. The 4 corners tends to lead to crappy shots, which allows the opposition to get back into the game.

[someoneelse]

i would guess the 35 second hold offense blows far less games than the pedal to the metal mentality. if that wasnt true, teams wouldnt do it. the coaches do too much research for it not to be true. now if we didnt have 4 excellent guards, that might be a different story, but we do. and imo it is our most consistent attribute. taking care of the ball. so when the spread is there, play the clock, not the other team.

Don't have any data, but I wouldn't rule out that coaches are control freaks so letting players freelance [make decisions based on the game as it comes to them rather than other factors] is not what coaches want.

[Billsrmajic]

i would guess the 35 second hold offense blows far less games than the pedal to the metal mentality. if that wasnt true, teams wouldnt do it. the coaches do too much research for it not to be true. now if we didnt have 4 excellent guards, that might be a different story, but we do. and imo it is our most consistent attribute. taking care of the ball. so when the spread is there, play the clock, not the other team.

Agreed - I believe Rick feels a team up 5-6 with three minutes left is better off reducing the possessions the opponents will have rather than looking to score quickly (although I'm sure players are instructed to take an uncontested layup). It appears players are instructed to probe the defense for the first 20-25 seconds of the shot clock, then start actively start looking to score. That means a shot would typicallty be taken with 4-7 seconds left. That shot may be better than the shot available with 20 seconds on the shot clock, or it could be worse. However, I think Rick believes the extra 15 seconds run off the clock makes that gamble worth it. If SLU does that for 4 possessions in a row that reduces the game by one minute, which is a huge advantage to a team ahead by 5-6 points with 3 minutes left.

[ACE]

I thought we did a good job of running clock and closing out the game against St. Joe's, Richmond and Dayton.

[billikenfan05]

During the fordham game when they just seemed to be hanging around late in the first half I said as soon as the lead gets to 6 the Bills won't look back. I think with our lock-down D, grinding offense and the way we take care of the ball 6 is one of those leads where the game changes drastically in our favor. I have no idea if I made any sense here. Oh well.

[AMDG]

-the team in anaheim did not mis layups and in close shots, if we get back to that we score at least 12 more points per game and then it would seem no one could comment negatively on our offense

if we didn't miss so many lay-ups, I would take offense. Other than that, I have no complaints. In fact, I'd rather be able to rely on having a tough defense than having to outscore everybody (like mu)

[slu72]

not sure how to weigh in on this subject. i think a lot of the observations by casual fans (bernie would be included) would be unknowingly slanted because they are not factoring in the toll and handicap that rickma's defensive schemes create. by design, our defensive approach will typically keep scores in the 50's and 60's. but it wins games. i always laugh when a casual fan remarks how ugly our games are. obviously they dont watch defense and ball control.

that said, i also recognize the inconsistencies of mitchell, shaft evans, mccall and conklin. at times they look fantastic, other times they just shouldnt be on the floor unfortunately the replacements for all four are even less consistent. the point is though, that the likes of kentucky or syracuse like offenses are not the norm. but because that is what a casual fan will see on tv, they think that is what all offenses will look like.

Broy's nailed it. Heck, when I watch KY, UNC, et al, I think, man, we are really offensively challenged. But these teams are built like this year after year after year yet they still managed to get bumped off by teams that play good D. Also, I think BM and other locals watch a lot of Mizzou and they are athletic but still play good team offense and defense. In fact, I think Mizzery (hate to say it) and Marquette (hate to say it) may both end up in the final 4 this year.

[slu72]

Adding to this, in November our offense looked the best it's ever been. Does anyone else agree that it's not looked as crisp since that time? I think the reason is early in the year there's not a lot of game film to go around so it's almost as if you're running it in practice, but once people see it they just know how to defend it better.