The Wiz Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Well the good news is our trend line seems to ne pointed up. TOs are down ...we have improved by about 4 pts/gm. The bad news is as you can see by the spread ...4pts isn't enough. If we have another "good" game then we will lose by 12. We need to step it up a little more. To me this means 40 min of b-ball.Yesterday, was another good example. We played 36 min of good b-ball ( for more detail ..see post game analysis of Duq thread) Part of that issue is depth . When you have a number of good players it is easier to play 40 good min. Unfortunately, we don't have that luxury...which means either those who are playing well need to give another 10% or someone who is not doing much recently needs to step up. The Bills (F+ ) will have a tougher opponent in GM ( B- ) than Duq ( C- ). GM like always, brings good guard play...led by their leading scorer Moore who also leads in assists and rebounds....coupled with Livingston their 2nd leading scorer and team leader in steals One thing different this year is that GM can't shoot 3's. They really only have 1 player who comes off the bench that can hit from the arc (Kier) But GM makes up for it with strong rebounding on both sides of the court especially on offense ( A ). GM strong suit is good defense especially on the 3 pt shot (A- ) We will have a tougher time putting up good numbers from beyond the arc after facing teams that don't defend the 3 very well. GM will have 13 TOs... if they wind up in single digits or a differential of 5 or more it will be ugly. Again I would like to see some games where we have less TOs than our opponent. As I pointed out in an earlier thread we have had only 1 game where we had less TOs than our opponent. Bottom line...40 min of b-ball...TO differential needs to be even or better...and we need to keep shooting like we have recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 An impending ice situation here Saturday on the East Coast was a quick and decisive factor in my deciding against driving the 90 miles or so to Mason to watch us get gonged again. Plus the game is on NBCSN so why pay to inflict in-person damage on myself as well? Trips to DC can always be worthwhile from other aspects ---- shopping, dinner, cigar store, etc. Plus way home leads (sort of) past grand kids. Will be in the District for January 28th GeeDubya game so I can speak to the Ghost-of-Buff-and-Blue-Sign-Punk-Past at that one. I watched Mason give VCU a decent game at the Patriot Center earlier this month; plus they just went into St. Joe's an dbeat them, on Hawk Hill. I understand the 36 minutes of good basketball reference and it serves here well. But we do not have 1) a knowledge of how to win as seniors Crawford and Agbeko have long forgotten their freshman year where they matter so little, 2) the lineup I snot exactly even one deep so when two guys foul out and two more have four, we are scraping to get by, and 3) the amount of time guys are having to play (Hines 39, Agbeko more than when he starts, Crawford 35 on one leg, Roby 32) just means legs are shot in those closing four minutes. When the legs go, it all goes ---- shooting, moving your feet on defense, rebounding, free throw shooting. While hoping against hope last night, you could see the freeze coming right about the 3:39 mark when, down by one, Hines missed a jumper, Crawford was blocked by Lewis, Roby missed a wide-open three when Reggie was open underneath, Reggie misses the front end, Crawford missed a jumper, and so did Welmer, At that point, with 64 points, we closed with a single made jumper by Hines. The train wreck came. As for the fouls on Johnson and Moore, yes, they were quite ticky-tack but by now, these freshmen are past that and have to understand that reaching and all that doesn't work at this level. It's feet and position and if you are tired, you're meat. What amazes me is that Duquesne could get transfers from Nebraska (Smith), Butler (Castro) and the #3 ranked recruit in all of Canada (Mike). Wow! Duquesne. Just .... wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old guy Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Fully agree with what you say about the team and how difficult it is for them to play a full 40 min. You need healthy bodies to do that and we just do not have enough of those. Now, if Ford was to make Gillmann and Neufeld into all out rehab and training projects we might (assuming they do improve to some degree) have a better chance for playing 40 minutes. Thinking about it he should include Psimitris as an all out rehab and training project as well. We do need anyone who has a reasonably healthy body to be able to play reasonably well before the end of the season. I assume Crawford's leg and hamstring are not going to last long under the current level of wear and tear, something that will make our current problems a lot harder to deal with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soderball Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 2 hours ago, Old guy said: Fully agree with what you say about the team and how difficult it is for them to play a full 40 min. You need healthy bodies to do that and we just do not have enough of those. Now, if Ford was to make Gillmann and Neufeld into all out rehab and training projects we might (assuming they do improve to some degree) have a better chance for playing 40 minutes. Thinking about it he should include Psimitris as an all out rehab and training project as well. We do need anyone who has a reasonably healthy body to be able to play reasonably well before the end of the season. I assume Crawford's leg and hamstring are not going to last long under the current level of wear and tear, something that will make our current problems a lot harder to deal with. uhhh.. short of genetically engineering new bodies for neufeld and gillman, that is out of the question. interesting billiken basketball-sci fi crossover idea though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old guy Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 OK Soderball, let's say your name is Ford and you are the head coach of SLU's men's basketball team. You are faced with the current situation, and you are pretty sure Crawford's leg will give up before the season is over and get Crawford out of the game for good for the remainder of the season. You know you have no one to replace him. You also know you have these three lumps of meat sitting on your bench doing nothing much of value for the team. These guys are alive and healthy, two are on scholarship. What do you do?, or to phrase it otherwise what can you attempt to do? Do you attempt to do something (short of genetic engineering) with what you have on hand, or do you just throw your hands up in the air and curse your fate? Let's talk options here, what would you do if you had to deal with this situation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 not taking sides here but...... you have to make due with ingredients on your shelf. ford will have to play the hand he is dealt. the beat down will then fall onto the shoulders of jj and moore. i don't believe ford is a mad enough scientist to go body snatcher and pull an all-frankenstein and do much of anything with either (mary shelley was considered one of the earliest sci-fi writers way back when). and it would be unfair to rate his coaching skills with either because 1) they don't appear d-1 specimens to begin with and 2) they don't have the apparent skill set to play ford's game or style, i noticed the sideline shots of ford last night and he appears more resigned to making do with what he's stuck with rather than pulling his hair out over the obvious lack of talent. right now,if it were me, i'd devote the time again to seeing who are the real keepers. welmer. moore. johnson. and bishop if he comes up for air again. roby is serviceable but not dependable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old guy Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Good Taj, that is a reasonable plan of action. Very military like if I may say so: you do the best you can with what you have available at hand to follow your orders. In a less military frame of reference the goal is more self imposed than following orders, the method is the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 If I'm Ford I don't play Crawford more than 20 minutes . And I tell him if he's taking 17 shots he better be making at least 7 of them. Injured or whatever we're not winning with him being a focal point. I'd rather see Moore,Johnson,Roby Bishop,Wellmer jacking up 3's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 In hindsight, it might have been best to sit Crawford at the beginning of the season to give home more time to heal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmith19 Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 On 1/12/2017 at 10:30 PM, brianstl said: In hindsight, it might have been best to sit Crawford at the beginning of the season to give home more time to heal. A lot of us said that at the time. But while it was defensible to give him a shot at the start of the season, it's become downright bizarre that he's continued to play so many minutes and take so many shots for this long. He had a good second half of the SIUE game, but he has clearly been a shadow of his former self in every single other game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 5 for 12 from the field, 1 for 4 three pointers, 2-2 FT, 13 total points (2nd on team), 27 minutes. I'd say he's not likely to be benched now until the end of the year. (And good for him. It's been painful to watch him struggle -- and he probably still will -- but he works his butt off and manages to hold a grad school course load!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wiz Posted January 15, 2017 Author Share Posted January 15, 2017 40 Full Min....Finally The key to this game was when there was 4 min left in the game. We had led most of the way. and then with about 4 min left we gave up the lead ...GM winning 54-52. in the original post in this thread , I said we seem to be improving but it wasn't enough to win games. We needed about 10 % more effort...ie 4 more min. AND this time we did it. Instead of folding up our tent when the other team moved ahead of us, we dug in...as if to say...not this time ...not again. If you take away the free layup we gave them with 1 second left and the game over...we shut them out in the final 4 min 11-0. That's the way to finish. This was an upset. Under Wiz rules... when you beat a team that is at least 2 full letter grades above you...it is an upset...a signature win. How did we do it? Our slash line was 38/ 36/ 75...that was OK but not remarkable....63 pts ...couple of points above ave. The big one was my fav...a stat I have been harping on into our 3rd year....turnovers. We had a mind blowing 7 FOR THE GAME. We usually have more than that in a half . Combined with the GM TO ratio of 11...that was a differential of 4 worth 8 extra points for the Bills ....a game changer. A tip o' the cap to JJ who had his 1st double double...17 pts 11 reb....also to Reggie who had 12 and 9 ...But in the end it was a team effort. Bottom line ...protect the ball ...win the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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