Where will we end up ranked next year roughly

[TFord and TRavs]

12 minutes ago, prebilliken said:

History is silly here. There are definite concerns about a team coming together among high expectations, but we have never seen an influx of talent at SLU like this. Rarely do you see 7 players, all arguably the best 7 on the team, come in at the beginning of a new season. 

Don't say the obvious or the old guys here will bring up our teams from the 90's and how it relates to fords players and systems haha. Then they will go into detail on free throw shooting of players to see how we will land in the top rankings haha. Then they will block you because of their pessimism for not having Zeke Moore anymore. 

Lol anyone here can't call themselves a fanatic of slu if they don't think we will be a top 50 team minimum. I'm worried French might get drafted next year 

[Old guy]

I think a lot of us are aware that this year we have a uniquely new team (for SLU), mostly based on recruits and transfers. We have a unique (for SLU) coach that can recruit at high levels and also could also coach a depleted, injury plagued team (last year's), to a much improved final performance for the season. The potential is definitely here, we are well aware of this. 

[TFord and TRavs]

11 minutes ago, Old guy said:

I think a lot of us are aware that this year we have a uniquely new team (for SLU), mostly based on recruits and transfers. We have a unique (for SLU) coach that can recruit at high levels and also could also coach a depleted, injury plagued team (last year's), to a much improved final performance for the season. The potential is definitely here, we are well aware of this. 

Then why all the pessimism? Is it because I am optimistic and people just want to go against me (even though I've been right on a lot) 

[brianstl]

1 hour ago, TFord and TRavs said:

I've been saying that for months but these guys want to keep comparing old slu history. We are writing it right now and people are blind to it. 

 

24 minutes ago, TFord and TRavs said:

Don't say the obvious or the old guys here will bring up our teams from the 90's and how it relates to fords players and systems haha. Then they will go into detail on free throw shooting of players to see how we will land in the top rankings haha. Then they will block you because of their pessimism for not having Zeke Moore anymore. 

Lol anyone here can't call themselves a fanatic of slu if they don't think we will be a top 50 team minimum. I'm worried French might get drafted next year 

 

6 minutes ago, TFord and TRavs said:

Then why all the pessimism? Is it because I am optimistic and people just want to go against me (even though I've been right on a lot) 

You can agree with everything Rothstein said and think the Billikens finish in the 75-100 range for the season overall.  According to Pomeroy, Davidson was the fourth best team in the conference last season and they finished ranked 85th in his rankings. Richmond finished tied for third and finished 92nd in Pomeroy's rankings.

[TFord and TRavs]

3 minutes ago, brianstl said:

 

 

You can agree with everything Rothstein said and think the Billikens finish in the 75-100 range for the season overall.  According to Pomeroy, Davidson was the fourth best team in the conference last season and they finished ranked 85th in his rankings. Richmond finished tied for third and finished 92nd in Pomeroy's rankings.

That's just his educated guess. The truth is no one knows how 3 talented players with a year of sitting out will fare, but the HONEST answer is I expect this year's team to play like Ok Sates under Ford which means a tourney run. I have said it once and will say it again, French seems to be NBA potential. Reminds me of DJ Wilson or Nigel Hayes. That and goodwin in the A10 will be wrecking balls. Bess will be a killer too, Michigan State is predicted to take the championship right now 

[billikenfan05]

I'm gonna go into this season with low expectations. I would be happy with a top half finish in the league and 2 conference tourney wins. 

[prebilliken]

3 minutes ago, brianstl said:

 

 

You can agree with everything Rothstein said and think the Billikens finish in the 75-100 range for the season overall.  According to Pomeroy, Davidson was the fourth best team in the conference last season and they finished ranked 85th in his rankings. Richmond finished tied for third and finished 92nd in Pomeroy's rankings.

I'm not a Pomeroy hater in any regard, but I am more concerned with making the tournament that being ranked highly in his rankings. VCU finished the year 48 in his rankings and made the tourney... That is very possible for this Bills squad. 

[cheeseman]

Having high expectations is fine but in the business world the rule of thumb is under promise and over deliver. The reverse will destroy you.  I prefer to be hopeful but more grounded then over state. 

[bauman]

3 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

I'm gonna go into this season with low expectations. I would be happy with a top half finish in the league and 2 conference tourney wins. 

We were near being top half in the league last year!  How can you really be happy with a complete upgrade in the talent on the floor and say you would be ok with a minor uptick in performance this year.  Meanwhile Cheeseman in a post just below yours, goes in with the Business philosophy of under promise and over deliver.

This is not the business world-this is a fan board and if you, Cheese and anybody else is really going to be satisfied with mid-A 10 results, then I feel sorry for you.  Our Board God (Wiz) says he has seen the new kids play and all 4 transfers (and I presume Goodwin and French) are better than any one we had on the team last year.  Let those words sink in.  If a professional media member who follows the A 10 closely sees us as top 3 or 4 in the league, what's holding you back?  Get on the bandwagon, because if we perform down to what is acceptable for you then I say we have grossly underperformed.

It should no longer be hard to be a Billiken fan

[3star_recruit]

Surprised that Rothstein is drinking our Kool-Aid.  Obviously I think it's warranted but I thought Coach Ford's reputation for underperforming with talented recruits would come into play.

Is Rothstein Phil Martelli's cousin or something?  Picking St. Joe's second in the A-10 when they were only 7-6 last year even at full strength? Hmm...

 

[bauman]

4 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Surprised that Rothstein is drinking our Kool-Aid.  Obviously I think it's warranted but I thought Coach Ford's reputation for underperforming with talented recruits would come into play.

Is Rothstein Phil Martelli's cousin or something?  Picking St. Joe's second in the A-10 when they were only 7-6 last year even at full strength? Hmm...

 

That is only Coach Ford's reputation with a small group of OSU fans and a few on here who bought into their venom.

It seems like Rothstein has a valid reason for placing SJU so high-lots of injuries last year and all of them expected to come back this year.    kinda like us adding 4 new transfers.

[3star_recruit]

It wasn't just a few OSU fans, it was a national meme.  I didn't think it was fair considering the paucity of frontcourt talent he had in the Big 12. Remember this piece? 

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/list/college-basketball-coaching-hires-ranked-tubby-smith-kevin-stallings-jamie-dixon-travis-ford/t4gtoz88jkxh145i6q7hgqdxk/slide/13

[BIG BILL FAN]

9 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

I'm glad you stand by your calculations.  You haven't  convinced me but that is not critical at all.  I really don't know where you are going with it.  It sounds like you don't feel FT% is important.

Here is where I am:

As Herb Edwards said; "You play the game to win".  To do so, you need to score more points than your opponent.

You will score more points shooting 70% than 65%, be it 1, 2 or 5.

Free throws can determine the outcome of a basketball game.

Find me one coach (high school, college or pro) in America that downgrades the importance of free throws.

Let me make another point. Drawing fouls can be huge and put your opponent at a disadvantage. It seems like we have several players who will relentlessly attack the basket and thus cause foul trouble for  the opposition.  Perimeter oriented teams rarely force their opponent into foul problems. 

[The Wiz]

12 hours ago, ACE said:

Wiz, How big was the improvement from the McCall/Jett freshman season team to the following year when Mitchell returned?

I believe that was the 2010-11 when they were freshman...the year of "the incident"...finished 11-19...yet they came in at a solid B-...it is not just about the wins

The next year 2011-12 it all came together and we soared to 25-8 and an A+

[MusicCityBilliken]

Here is another power ranking from A10 talk. Also lists us at 4th.

http://www.a10talk.com/grant-labedzs-mid-summer-atlantic-10-power-rankings/

[juniorbill76]

Hope for the best, expect the worst
Some drink champagne, some die of thirst

No way of knowing
 which way it's going
Hope for the best, expect the worst!

[cheeseman]

On 7/10/2017 at 8:20 PM, bauman said:

We were near being top half in the league last year!  How can you really be happy with a complete upgrade in the talent on the floor and say you would be ok with a minor uptick in performance this year.  Meanwhile Cheeseman in a post just below yours, goes in with the Business philosophy of under promise and over deliver.

This is not the business world-this is a fan board and if you, Cheese and anybody else is really going to be satisfied with mid-A 10 results, then I feel sorry for you.  Our Board God (Wiz) says he has seen the new kids play and all 4 transfers (and I presume Goodwin and French) are better than any one we had on the team last year.  Let those words sink in.  If a professional media member who follows the A 10 closely sees us as top 3 or 4 in the league, what's holding you back?  Get on the bandwagon, because if we perform down to what is acceptable for you then I say we have grossly underperformed.

It should no longer be hard to be a Billiken fan

I did say I was hopeful - the bottom line is if you want to drink the koolaid then go for it but if things don't work our for whatever the reason I hope you can still carry on.

[Littlebill]

On 7/10/2017 at 3:56 PM, TFord and TRavs said:

Lol anyone here can't call themselves a fanatic of slu if they don't think we will be a top 50 team minimum. I'm worried French might get drafted next year 

I'm not one of these "old guys" you are defaming. The league is not knocking down the door for 6-7 big men. That's it. It isn't that complicated. I'd bet my mortgage it doesn't happen.

[hsmith19]

On 7/10/2017 at 8:20 PM, bauman said:

We were near being top half in the league last year!

This is definitely more optimistic than just saying we were about the 270th best team in the country last year.

[cgeldmacher]

This is not directed at any particular post.  From the standpoint of being a fan, why wouldn't you set your expectations conservatively?  The other way of saying it, why would you set your expectations too high?

If you are fair about your expectations, they are likely to be met or exceeded.  If they are met, your satisfied.  If they are exceeded, your ecstatic.  Isn't that what you want out of your fandom.

If you set your expectations too high and they are met, then you're only getting what you expected.  If they are not met, you very unhappy.

The summer doesn't mean anything for college basketball.  You saying that you think the Billikens are going to be a tournament team doesn't help the Billikens achieve that and won't mean anything when discussing things with your friends that are fans of other schools.  It only sets you up to be disappointed.  Take off your Royal Blue colored glasses and tell yourself that the Billikens will finish middle of the pack in the A-10.  Convince your brain that it's true due to all of the challenges SLU will face this year.  Then sit back and enjoy the ride.

[TFord and TRavs]

Because if we don't finish top of the A10, this would be very dissapointing 

[Old guy]

It really does not matter cgelgmacher, some people need to say, feel, and hope for big things in order to feel OK, others do not. The whole issue is very subjective, and whatever we may wish or say will indeed have no effect upon the coming season. On the other hand the snippets said by Ford about the team and its progress are likely to be significant.

[bauman]

30 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

This is not directed at any particular post.  From the standpoint of being a fan, why wouldn't you set your expectations conservatively?  The other way of saying it, why would you set your expectations too high?

If you are fair about your expectations, they are likely to be met or exceeded.  If they are met, your satisfied.  If they are exceeded, your ecstatic.  Isn't that what you want out of your fandom.

If you set your expectations too high and they are met, then you're only getting what you expected.  If they are not met, you very unhappy.

The summer doesn't mean anything for college basketball.  You saying that you think the Billikens are going to be a tournament team doesn't help the Billikens achieve that and won't mean anything when discussing things with your friends that are fans of other schools.  It only sets you up to be disappointed.  Take off your Royal Blue colored glasses and tell yourself that the Billikens will finish middle of the pack in the A-10.  Convince your brain that it's true due to all of the challenges SLU will face this year.  Then sit back and enjoy the ride.

Classic Glass Half Empty approach.  I take your 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence to mean that you have low to mid-level expectations.  Your 2nd sentence says if those expectations are met you will be satisfied.  Too bad.

 I prefer to be on the bandwagon with high expectations and be satisfied when those expectations are met, or exceeded.  Just a different approach.  I can't imagine going to early games and not expecting a high level of performance or in your case, accepting mediocre performance. Sure we might have a couple of stinkers early on, but I don't want to walk into Chaifetz expecting  that.  By the way, I think we are both being "fair about (our) expectations."  They are just different.

[majerus mojo]

10 hours ago, cgeldmacher said:

This is not directed at any particular post.  From the standpoint of being a fan, why wouldn't you set your expectations conservatively?  The other way of saying it, why would you set your expectations too high?

If you are fair about your expectations, they are likely to be met or exceeded.  If they are met, your satisfied.  If they are exceeded, your ecstatic.  Isn't that what you want out of your fandom.

If you set your expectations too high and they are met, then you're only getting what you expected.  If they are not met, you very unhappy.

The summer doesn't mean anything for college basketball.  You saying that you think the Billikens are going to be a tournament team doesn't help the Billikens achieve that and won't mean anything when discussing things with your friends that are fans of other schools.  It only sets you up to be disappointed.  Take off your Royal Blue colored glasses and tell yourself that the Billikens will finish middle of the pack in the A-10.  Convince your brain that it's true due to all of the challenges SLU will face this year.  Then sit back and enjoy the ride.

Managing your expectations doesn't really make them expectations at all. If I think the Bills are going to be great, and they are, I'm not "satisfied"... I'm still just as "ecstatic" as the guy who convinced himself they were only going to be mediocre.

The "if you don't talk with your friends about SLU potentially being good this season, you will never be disappointed" angle is lol funny... if my friends were only so lucky

[3star_recruit]

Most of the people on this board are expecting a top 5 finish. That's basically a 19-20 win team and a top 80 RPI. The most optimistic fans think we will be a little better and the most pessimistic fans think we will be a little worse. That's a pretty normal expectation curve.