Jump to content

2017-2018 Schedule


Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, RUBillsFan said:

I'm super excited about the upcoming season.  The turnaround under Ford has been spectacular and I think we will potentially have one of the most talented rosters perhaps in Billiken history if you're factoring in depth as well (note: talent doesn't necessarily mean results).

That being said I think saying you'll be disappointed with no NCAA tournament appearance this year is nuts.

The Wiz has been saying all off season that even teams that replace a large chunk of their roster have a max improvement of 2 letter grades which if I recall correctly would put us in B range or just outside the NCAA tournament.   That is the max improvement.  The Billikens would need to have one of the biggest improvements ever in NCAA history year over year to make the NCAA field.

And I don't want to sound like a Debbie downer, but there are reasons to temper expectations on all of returning players and newcomers as well:

  • Returnees - all played of an pretty awful Billiken team, can they contribute to a winner?
  • Goodwin - consensus seems to be 50 - 60 ranked recruit. 
    • here are some other recent 50 - 60 recruits freshman years (I'll limit it to guards for comparison, rankings from 247sports.com):
      • 2016
        • 56 - Brandon Robinson (UNC) - averaged 1.9 ppg and shot 34% from the field for NCAA champ
        • 57 - DeJon Jarreau (UMass) - averaged 9.8 ppg, shot 44% from field and 24% from 3pt for awful 12th place A-10 team
      • 2015
        • 51 - Justin Simon (Arizona) - averaged 2.3 ppg for 3rd palce PAC-12 (6th seed in NCAA tournament).
        • 60 - Prince Ali (UCLA) - averaged 3.9 ppg, 38% from field for 10 place PAC-12 team.
    • Granted I'm cherry picking a bit here, but unless the freshman is a consensus top 10 or 20 prospect, it is often foolish to count on them to be a major contributor to an NCAA tournament team right away.  SLU fans who will be disappointed if Goodwin isn't the 2nd coming of Larry Hughes are jerks.
  • French - ditto for Goodwin, but French was even lower on the lists.
  • Bess - just look at his stats from his Michigan State career, there is not a lot to get excited about
  • Henriquez - he put up pretty good numbers (not eye popping), but his UCF teams finished 9th and 8th in the AAC.
  • Foreman - again decent numbers again not eye popping for awful Rutgers teams (14th in Big Ten both years)
  • Graves - put up mediocre numbers in a couple of handfuls of games for BC against a pretty bad non-conference schedule.  Will only play 1/2 season and is still basically a freshman.
  • Anthony - I don't think anyone expects much, his numbers at Seton Hall weren't good.

There is also the fact that these guys will be playing live NCAA games together for the first team and there may be some adjustment period as the team "gels".

I think there are also big time reasons to be excited.  

  • Returnees - all play better w another year of experience, better players around them, and a winning team to play for
  • Goodwin - has seemingly been underrated as a prospect his whole career and will be playing with a chip on his (fully-healed) shoulder for his hometown team.
  • French - look at the highlight videos, the dude is a monster who dunks everything, he was rising in the rankings toward them end
  • Bess - injuries played a part in his bad numbers and he had to do it against very tough Big Ten competition for a team with a lot of other options
  • Henriquez - he'll have a better supporting cast
  • Foreman - better supporting cast, weaker competition on A10 versus Big Ten
  • Graves - was just showing tip of iceberg in terms of talent at BC & wasn't happy / never got going
  • Anthony - he's just a backup piece / has promise now that he's out of Angel Delgado's shadow

Ford showed last season that maybe he is more than just a recruiter and maybe isn't as awful of a coach as Okie State fans would have you think.

I'm excited to see how it plays out.

This is the best analysis of the squad that I have seen.  Good job RUBills.  There are up's and down's for each player.  Some players will exceed expectations, some will meet expectations, and some will fall short.  As you say, let's see how it plays out.  It will be interesting to see how the team chemistry develops.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 465
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

5 hours ago, Pistol said:

It's not just about the internal question marks, though. The A10 is WIDE OPEN this year. Everyone has question marks, everyone at the top has had some departures, and no one is the clear dominant team. I guess you'd call Rhode Island the favorite, and most would've probably put VCU, Dayton, and Bonaventure behind them, but two of those three have had coaching changes and significant transfers/decommitments, and Bonaventure is relying heavily on starting guards and not a whole lot else. Somebody like Richmond or Davidson will outperform expectations a bit, but there's no reason we can't make serious noise in the conference.

I share your optimism about our newcomers; I think they're better than most outsiders realize, and I'm getting a good vibe from this particular collection of players and coaches. I think they'll jell faster than a lot of newly overhauled rosters do. There will be some bumps but if we stay healthy, I wouldn't want to see us in March.

We don't have to be one of the most talented teams in the country, we just have to be one of the best 2 or 3 teams in a down, vulnerable, totally open league.

I agree it is reasonable to think we can finish in the top 3 in a down A-10. I think URI and Bonnie's - two outstanding guards, but question marks with the front court. My concern is that even if we finish in the Top 3, it may not be good enough to earn an automatic bid because 1) The flip side of the conference potentially being down, is it may hurt rpi  2) If we have a bad loss or two in non-conference, it could also derail us. Can't have more than 3 losses in non-conference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that the bottom floor for the 2017-18 Billikens squad is a .500 record, like Rich said, but I disagree with those that state that the team's penthouse (or "ceiling," if you insist) is the NCAA Tournament.  I think the penthouse is reaching the Sweet Sixteen or further.  They'll get off of the elevator somewhere between the bottom floor and the penthouse.  I contend that reaching the 2018 Tourney is somewhere below the penthouse.

Last year's squad nearly reached the penthouse of their season; they got off one floor below.  If they'd had the depth to hold on against GW in the A-10 Tourney second round, they would have reached the penthouse.  Any further would have been bursting through the roof.

This year's squad should be as deep as (or deeper than) last year's team was shallow, and the athleticism should be day-and-night different.  The biggest questions are experience and chemistry.  I hope, though, that Coach Ford and the staff demonstrate that last year's performance of elevating the team nearly as far as possible by the end of the season was no fluke.

Put me down as agreeing with RU Bills that people may be expecting too much of Jordan Goodwin in his freshman season.  While he may be SLU's highest rated recruit since Larry Hughes, he doesn't appear to be particularly near Larry's level.  I don't expect him to lead the team in scoring this season, though I hope by the end of the season he's emerged as "the man" on the team -- the player who makes the team go -- similar to Kwamain Mitchell in 2008-09.  By his junior year Goodwin should be dominating along the lines of Hughes in '98 or J. Love in 2000, but he doesn't appear to be a likely candidate to do that as a freshman.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

I think that the bottom floor for the 2017-18 Billikens squad is a .500 record, like Rich said, but I disagree with those that state that the team's penthouse (or "ceiling," if you insist) is the NCAA Tournament.  I think the penthouse is reaching the Sweet Sixteen or further.  They'll get off of the elevator somewhere between the bottom floor and the penthouse.  I contend that reaching the 2018 Tourney is somewhere below the penthouse.

Last year's squad nearly reached the penthouse of their season; they got off one floor below.  If they'd had the depth to hold on against GW in the A-10 Tourney second round, they would have reached the penthouse.  Any further would have been bursting through the roof.

 

wonkavator.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Getting Rhody, VCU and GW at home is huge.  The Jan 23-27 home double of VCU and then Dayton could make or break the season.  Starting the season with two road games will be treacherous.  Prior to those two, the only true road games will be Butler and, kind of - 90 minute drive, Oregon St.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Of the 9 conference home games - 6 are on Saturday including the last 5 home games of the year - including Dayton 1/27 (NFL playoff bye weekend) and LaSalle 2/10 (Mardi Gras) - if these games end up being night games and we are in contention - the marketing department might not have to do any work to get people in the doors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, FromDaEastSide said:

Of the 9 conference home games - 6 are on Saturday including the last 5 home games of the year - including Dayton 1/27 (NFL playoff bye weekend) and LaSalle 2/10 (Mardi Gras) - if these games end up being night games and we are in contention - the marketing department might not have to do any work to get people in the doors.

As it stands now, not a lot of games on CBS Sports or NBC Sports. Obviously they fill some of that in later but it doesn't look like the tv networks are aware of our pending resurgence. If there is a silver lining to not being on national tv much, it allows you to schedule home games at more ideal times instead of the times that CBS or NBC want. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, kshoe said:

As it stands now, not a lot of games on CBS Sports or NBC Sports. Obviously they fill some of that in later but it doesn't look like the tv networks are aware of our pending resurgence. If there is a silver lining to not being on national tv much, it allows you to schedule home games at more ideal times instead of the times that CBS or NBC want. 

The 2K NYC MSG games are on ESPN2.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, FromDaEastSide said:

Of the 9 conference home games - 6 are on Saturday including the last 5 home games of the year - including Dayton 1/27 (NFL playoff bye weekend) and LaSalle 2/10 (Mardi Gras) - if these games end up being night games and we are in contention - the marketing department might not have to do any work to get people in the doors.

The Mardi Gras should always be Dayton.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got the e-mail of the new schedule that had a link to season tickets.

I am officially now a first time season ticket holder and I am really excited.

No more drives to Chaifetz during my lunch to purchase tickets this season.

Houston seems to be the best competition non-conference at home.

Glad to see Rhode Island and VCU at home.

Tick Tick Tick, two months to go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, kshoe said:

As it stands now, not a lot of games on CBS Sports or NBC Sports. Obviously they fill some of that in later but it doesn't look like the tv networks are aware of our pending resurgence. If there is a silver lining to not being on national tv much, it allows you to schedule home games at more ideal times instead of the times that CBS or NBC want. 

OPR shorthand for Our pending resurgence. outside us MBMs those aware of OPR are a pretty small subset of humanity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, almaman said:

OPR shorthand for Our pending resurgence. outside us MBMs those aware of OPR are a pretty small subset of humanity.

We'll see if the Top 144 editors are aware of OPR.  I say they are, but I realize that is just predicting what predictors will predict!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, brownindians said:

Saturday, March 3 – St. Bonaventure

 

 

That game will never happen.   We will never see the team again after Feb 7, the away game at St. B  The team will still be wandering around the hills of New York in a bus with a special driver when the home game against the Bonnies is scheduled to take place. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...