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comparing Ford`s first season to Spoon`s first


BLIKNS

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Not saying just saying,  Spoon`s first team won 12 games and a tournament game.....T. Ford has won 12 and a conference tournament win...rest is still unwritten .

 

Second season Spoon won Basketball Writer`s COY and a top 25 ranking.....hmmm

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Win or lose tonight, Ford will finish the season with a better all-time SLU winning percentage than Ekker (.348). At .375, he's currently ranked 22 of 26. A win tonight would make him 18th, with no chance of dropping any further if he loses the next day.

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Can you imagine what coach Ford thought of coach Crews coaching the first practices.  Coach Ford has improved the team so much and has exercised all of the coach Crews demons out of this team.  I feel next seasons team if they stay healthy will have a winning record not sure if they will be dancing.

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Just now, CBFan said:

Can you imagine what coach Ford thought of coach Crews coaching the first practices.  Coach Ford has improved the team so much and has exercised all of the coach Crews demons out of this team.  I feel next seasons team if they stay healthy will have a winning record not sure if they will be dancing.

I actually heard a story that on the first or second day of practice Ford said something like "I saw the tape and I know you guys didn't run inbounds plays. Inbounds plays are chances at free points so I hope you guys are okay if I have you run them"

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12 hours ago, BLIKNS said:

Not saying just saying,  Spoon`s first team won 12 games and a tournament game.....T. Ford has won 12 and a conference tournament win...rest is still unwritten .

 

Second season Spoon won Basketball Writer`s COY and a top 25 ranking.....hmmm

 

Interesting comparison! Appreciate the insight.  I do remember Spoon's first year win total of 12 an increase of 7 wins from Grawer's final season total of only 5 wins.  At the same time, Spoon did this by coaching up future Billiken HOF'ers Claggs and Highmark as Sophs who then reached new heights their next year with the addition of H Waldman and JUCO's.  In contrast, Coach Ford has won a similar amount of games with an empty hand:  a walk on PG guys, 2 blue collar Seniors, at least 3 non-contributing roster fillers and the rest who will see some to very little time next year.

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21 hours ago, CBFan said:

Can you imagine what coach Ford thought of coach Crews coaching the first practices.  Coach Ford has improved the team so much and has exercised all of the coach Crews demons out of this team.  I feel next seasons team if they stay healthy will have a winning record not sure if they will be dancing.

I think he exorcised them.  I'm glad he didn't exercise them.

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26 minutes ago, Old guy said:

Let's hope that Ford has exorcised Crews's demons for good and concentrate in the future rather than in the past.

The "demons" were a lackadaisical culture.  The seance happened in November (or October), but the cleansing wasn't complete for about two or three months.  In other words, put me down as one of those who doesn't think it was simply a matter of LOFT ("lack of [feasible] talent"), as others stated during the course of the season.  Though lacking in depth and relatively short on athleticism, this team demonstrated that, for the most part, they could play at the Div. 1 level -- just not at NCAA Tournament level, which is what we want.  Those on here who continue to insist that none of the returning players can play significant minutes next year and the team be good are flat out wrong.  As for the athleticism, while SLU doesn't publicize dunks as a stat, it seems to me that, particularly late in the season, this year's squad (one of the least athletic in the country, according to the coach) got as many or more dunks than all but few SLU squads over the past 27 years.

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I fully agree with one major exception. Our team was not only lacking in depth but it was also affected by injuries. Crawford managed to play reasonably well and for the whole season, but it appeared (at least to me) that his scoring was off for a good amount of time most likely due to being playing with multiple injuries. We all know that Bishop, one of the top scorers in the team and our PG was sidelined with a leg/foot injury for most of the year. We also know that Zeke Moore was also sidelined for a fairly significant amount of time during the season due to a foot injury (if my memory is correct). 

I hate to do this "if this then so" type of thing, but if Crawford, Bishop, and Moore had remained free of injuries (in Crawford's case prior injuries) our results for the year would, in all likelihood, have been better than what they were. 

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Moore had a back problem I believe.  Q1 - I think people are on board for the most part that Johnson will have plenty of playing time available to him if he performs like he should.  Moore can also get time if he improves his shot - overall he improved on defense during the year.  Bishop - not sure what to expect - he should have a chance to play some but lets wait and see if he is fully recovered.  Welmer has a place on the floor as well.  Roby will play also.  Now, to have 4 guys hold over who will see good minutes - maybe not as starters - is pretty good for how poor our depth was this year.  I fully expect that the 4 transfers will take a little time to blend in so it is possible that more minutes at the beginning with a decrease as the year goes on is more likely for the 4 hold overs.  Now of course they could work hard and improve a lot to make it hard for the transfers to fully break in.  As far as Goodwin and French go they will be given their chance but ultimately they have to produce.  As for Gilmann and Neufeld - who knows.

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13 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

Moore had a back problem I believe.  Q1 - I think people are on board for the most part that Johnson will have plenty of playing time available to him if he performs like he should.  Moore can also get time if he improves his shot - overall he improved on defense during the year.  Bishop - not sure what to expect - he should have a chance to play some but lets wait and see if he is fully recovered.  Welmer has a place on the floor as well.  Roby will play also.  Now, to have 4 guys hold over who will see good minutes - maybe not as starters - is pretty good for how poor our depth was this year.  I fully expect that the 4 transfers will take a little time to blend in so it is possible that more minutes at the beginning with a decrease as the year goes on is more likely for the 4 hold overs.  Now of course they could work hard and improve a lot to make it hard for the transfers to fully break in.  As far as Goodwin and French go they will be given their chance but ultimately they have to produce.  As for Gilmann and Neufeld - who knows.

Here is the puzzle to fit the pieces into.  Coach said on his radio show that ideally he gives 8 players heavy minutes, and then he has a 9th and 10th player who can 'hold the fort'. 

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