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SLU v. Alabama A&M - Game Day Thread


SluSignGuy

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Using Milik primarily at the 4 was a big key tonight. He did well on the glass, and is much better at handling the ball than any of our other bigs. I think we need to continue to see the rotation that we did tonight at the 4/5 position, making sure that Austin and Milik are getting the majority of the minutes, and not being afraid to go small with Ash at the 4 or Reggie at the 5 on occasion.

Agree with you. This has been the case since last year. Crews' insistence on trying Milik at the 3 has been baffling. Not only is he best suited there but it opens up more minutes for our wings.

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Some observations: attendance to the game started very low and steadily grew during the game, there were a lot more people in there at the end than at the beginning, lots of families with kids around where I was sitting, nice to see that.

Announced crowd was 5419 for our only home game not on broadcast tv. 2nd lowest mark of the year, behind Morehead State (5071). I would expect something in between this number or lower for Wednesday night.

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What a low state of affairs Billiken Basketball is in now. No real excitement. If this team goes 13-17 as Wiz says we could we really will be non-relevant. I was sitting at the game looking around and saw a small crowd and the thing that struck me was how JC has sucked the air out of this program. He has managed to take a program that was flying high with an excited base and has turned it into a "who cares" program. If he is retained for next year given the current status I am not sure what happens to the program. When it is hard for a fan such as myself who has held season tix for close over 35 years to make himself go to games what can you expect of the casual fan. Thank you JC and May. I guess I could say well things could turn around but honestly, I have such little hope at this point - this even after a win!

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Agree cheeEeEEse. Lackluster butts in the seats and no excitement for the team on this board which is the highest concentration of die hards around signals a real downturn in the program. Unfortunately there aren't many building blocks for a new coach to come in and have immediate success. It might be a long rebuild.

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There's not even any excitement after A&M like there was after the first few games. Crews has put this board into a deep sleep, as JMM noted

As a longer term fan than almost anyone on this board I would suggest that there are about 8 posters who are constantly negative no matter what happens, even if the team plays better. No one knows better than me that we have been up and down in our play. It is those constantly negative posters who have put this board to sleep. Why would anyone want to say anything positive when they know they will just be attacked?

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As a longer term fan than almost anyone on this board I would suggest that there are about 8 posters who are constantly negative no matter what happens, even if the team plays better. No one knows better than me that we have been up and down in our play. It is those constantly negative posters who have put this board to sleep. Why would anyone want to say anything positive when they know they will just be attacked?

Apathy is a sign of a failing program. Sounds like you've caught a case of apathy.

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Good point. In the past I would be an optimist no matter the opponent. But after last, and the beginning of this, season, I find myself being more and more apathetic, or generally pissed, each game Crews continues to coach. The wins vs sub-200 RPI teams aren't going to quell that for me personally. First half vs A&M was brutal again. Second half we played much better. It sucks to see the arena empty, the GTD struggling to reach 7 pages. Maybe it's just a holiday lull. Going to need some amazing growth in A-10 play to get any excitement back. It could happen?

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This thing is spiraling downward faster than a Crews missile. :P

The one thing that gives some hope is that MY could develop into a big-time scorer/rebounder should he ever figure things out. His shooting mechanics aren't horrible so not sure why he's not a more effective shooter. If he could get to 70% or better from the stripe and develop a jumper out to 18', he'd be tough to handle.

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This thing is spiraling downward faster than a Crews missile. :P

The one thing that gives some hope is that MY could develop into a big-time scorer/rebounder should he ever figure things out. His shooting mechanics aren't horrible so not sure why he's not a more effective shooter. If he could get to 70% or better from the stripe and develop a jumper out to 18', he'd be tough to handle.

Forget that, If he could not dribble into 4 defenders.

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Apathy is a sign of a failing program. Sounds like you've caught a case of apathy.

I'm optimistic about the long term future of this team. About the short term future of this board, not so much. Some folks have adopted a narrative that we are a team with poor talent and an even worse coach, and they are going to remind us of that narrative at every opportunity.

If the team finishes above .500, it's not like these posters are going to held accountable for the last 9 months worth of posts. They'll just move the goalposts back and start a new line of criticism. The narrative of the clueless coach who can't recruit or develop talent won't change. And that's their prerogative. Contrary to their belief, a high volume of forum posts isn't necessary to field a decent basketball team.

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I'm optimistic about the long term future of this team. About the short term future of this board, not so much. Some folks have adopted a narrative that we are a team with poor talent and an even worse coach, and they are going to remind us of that narrative at every opportunity.

If the team finishes above .500, it's not like these posters are going to held accountable for the last 9 months worth of posts. They'll just move the goalposts back and start a new line of criticism. The narrative of the clueless coach who can't recruit or develop talent talent won't change. And that's their prerogative. Contrary to their belief, a high volume of forum posts isn't necessary to field a decent basketball team.

Similarly, the team can get run off their home court half a dozen times a year all while the head coach runs the team into the ground and some posters will continue to have a optimistic outlook.

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I'm optimistic about the long term future of this team. About the short term future of this board, not so much. Some folks have adopted a narrative that we are a team with poor talent and an even worse coach, and they are going to remind us of that narrative at every opportunity.

If the team finishes above .500, it's not like these posters are going to held accountable for the last 9 months worth of posts. They'll just move the goalposts back and start a new line of criticism. The narrative of the clueless coach who can't recruit or develop talent talent won't change. And that's their prerogative. Contrary to their belief, a high volume of forum posts isn't necessary to field a decent basketball team.

If they finish below .500, though, the always-positive set won't be held accountable, either. Such is the nature of a relatively anonymous message board in which no one is required to be accountable.

Furthermore, the coach and players are doing a fine job reminding us that the coaching decisions and talent level are questionable; we don't need posters here to repeat the narrative. It's playing out, and it's repeated here for that reason, not because anyone is pushing an agenda. I can only speak for myself - as someone who believes that narrative and hasn't budged from a 13-win prediction - but I don't want the team to be bad. I'm just willing to acknowledge what I see and think a conversation of "how do we change this?" is more productive than "everything's fine."

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I'm optimistic about the long term future of this team. About the short term future of this board, not so much. Some folks have adopted a narrative that we are a team with poor talent and an even worse coach, and they are going to remind us of that narrative at every opportunity.

If the team finishes above .500, it's not like these posters are going to held accountable for the last 9 months worth of posts. They'll just move the goalposts back and start a new line of criticism. The narrative of the clueless coach who can't recruit or develop talent won't change. And that's their prerogative. Contrary to their belief, a high volume of forum posts isn't necessary to field a decent basketball team.

Above .500 is the criteria for a successful season for the program? With this schedule I think most everyone assumed .500 was a reasonable prediction regardless of what we think of the talent level of the team or ability of the coaches. We are all fans of the program for various reasons, so I doubt many posters would really care if the team far exceeded expectations which certainly has not happened to this point.

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As a longer term fan than almost anyone on this board I would suggest that there are about 8 posters who are constantly negative no matter what happens, even if the team plays better. No one knows better than me that we have been up and down in our play. It is those constantly negative posters who have put this board to sleep. Why would anyone want to say anything positive when they know they will just be attacked?

It's not just the board. Look at attendance. Not even a decent showing for a Saturday night game against Wichita St. Almost zero excitement around the program right now. Even the players don't look excited. Did anyone notice the walk on who never plays was the one getting the guys in the huddle fired up?! Yikes.

And please don't accuse me of being a constant negative nancy. I have generally defended Crews, have attended all but one home game so far. It has just become undeniable at this point the excitement is nonexistent.

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If they finish below .500, though, the always-positive set won't be held accountable, either. Such is the nature of a relatively anonymous message board in which no one is required to be accountable.

I could understand the "both sides do it" argument if the volume had been remotely equal. But if one side is posting 5 negative comments for every positive one, that's not a compelling argument. Hell, we've had entire threads derailed by folks who just wanted to take a potshot at the coach.

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I could understand the "both sides do it" argument if the volume had been remotely equal. But if one side is posting 5 negative comments for every positive one, that's not a compelling argument. Hell, we've had entire threads derailed by folks who just wanted to take a potshot at the coach.

You act like those who are negative have no basis to do so. I don't have a problem with being optimistic, but let's not ignore the current product either.

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