GDT: Premature Pitinolation

[joe_davola]

You are only looking at the result of the gimmick thinking that these kids did not come to play. Ash is a superior D1 player....have some respect. I have it from a inside source that the coaching staff went away from what has propelled their growth to introducing a whole new offense and defense to play UL. After the first 4 minutes you can see that nothing is working. Somehow MC pulls some sharpshooting out of his hat to give us a fighting chance. Instead of going to our bread and butter JC kept tweaking his gimmick at the expense of key players being actively involved in the game.

Every good coach knowS that you must get your guys going because this is a game of rhythm not stop and go. Do not expect AY, RA, or etc to have big games without giving them the chance to heat up. I totally do not fault the kids for this loss. If anyone says Ash did not bring it, you must not have much understanding about this game. JC is doing a terrible job of building up the blocks that will make SLU compete adequately in the A10. Play your game and let them beat you at it. Why the constant changes. We all know what Louisville is all about and they never changed their identity to play us so why are we doing that. As long as JC is still doing this s$&& come conference play we will be in trouble. Build your team on the defensive and offensive identity that works with this group then let the kids grow in something they understand. You cannot change everytime you face a new opponent.

JC is so focused on the little things that he does not realize that each of these kids must be developed into ball players not pieces of a constantly changing puzzle. Sorry....I am mad tonite bros.....I cannot stand it when people think that teams like Louisville are superior. They are not compared to our kids. They just have a better teacher who spanked our coach on national tv tonite.

I liked the way the team played tonight as I stated in an earlier post so your assumption that the kids didn't come to play is incorrect. Check my posts earlier in the thread.

I should ignore your ridiculous comment that I should 'show some respect'. How was I disrespecting our player? It was a question to YOU on why you thought this was a gimmicky game plan. I thought not using Ash as much tonight was part of your ridiculous statement about a gimmicky game plan (couldn't think of anything else 'gimmicky' that's why I asked the question). Also, saying that Ash dominated inferior talent is pretty much showing respect to Ash. He was BETTER than the players he was playing against so far this season.

Anyone that knows anything about this game knows that coaches make adjustments and you know, actually coach and come up with game plans to counter another team's strengths and try to exploit their weaknesses. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. If you are a coach, God help ya because I assume you would roll the ball out to center court like Coach Bobby Finstock from Teen Wolf while eating a soft boiled egg on the sidelines, hoping the game ends on time so you can the beat 5 o'clock traffic.

Do I think Crews is the second coming? Hell no. But I have enough respect for the guy (maybe you should take your own advice and show some respect) to give the man this year to develop the team. Stop your whining and your 'sorry im pissed off bros' attitude and let the season play out. People like you always have to whine about something the second there is a loss or controversy. You think Majerus stuck to his status quo and 'what works' when he knew he was mismatched against other teams? If you think we have the amount of talent that Louisville has and that we can just 'go with what works' I don't know what to tell ya buddy...maybe do some more scouting at the AAU games and observe better coaches. If you didn't see the difference in talent on the floor then time to schedule an appointment at your nearest eye doctor because you blind 'bro'.

[Old guy]

People in general look at events and literally see what they want to see. Affirmation of personal beliefs is what most people look for when watching events. People see things and interpret things in a way that affirms their beliefs. That said, it was very clear, since we won over UNF, that the most likely outcome of the game last night was going to be a loss. It is true that a possibility of winning last night's game against Louisville existed, but this was not a very strong possibility. Rationally speaking and analyzing the possible outcomes we were most likely to lose this game, as we did.

Do not take me wrong, I am not happy we lost, but I do not think it was a disaster either. I thought we played well. I agree we could have done somewhat better if something or the other had been done during the game, but I do not agree that we could rationally have been expected to win it regardless. It is a situation similar to trying to squeeze a rubber balloon in a child's party, you squeeze somewhere and the air goes and expands the balloon somewhere else. We lost the game, it was an honest loss and we played as well as we could against a superior team. Louisville will perhaps be the strongest team that we will play against this season, regardless of what the poll rankings say.

[3star_recruit]

It's all about the boards... 'Bout the boards.... 'Bout the boards... Bout the boards! We are wusses on the boards. They got us by 20 on the boards. You cannot win if you are getting hammered on the boards. This is what is missing from this team.

Louisville out rebounded North Florida by 31. The Cardinals will destroy most mid major teams on the boards. They are one of the top 3 rebounding teams in the country. Anybody who was paying attention knew this blowout was coming. On to the next game.

[slufan13]

I'm not taking away as much good as a lot on here but I don't think I saw anything last night that we didn't know in terms of negatives.

We all knew that our bigs can't play with mediocre teams let alone good teams. Neufeld shows promise but the fact that we always had either him or Gillmann out there last night was pretty poor coaching.

Ash is a good player but he dominated against weaker, lesser athletic opponents last year too.

Bishop looked fine on offense but man he's a bad defender. The majority of their run came with him out there didn't it? To be fair we weren't coming back either way but don't think Reynolds did anything to deserve so much bench down the stretch.

Crawford is good and he can score against anyone despite some calling for him to sit in favor of Bartley as the opponents get tougher.

We weren't going to beat Louisville doing what had worked earlier in the season. We needed a more gimmicky game plan. Now we didn't look very prepared last night at all which is a big deal considering how much better they are. Also felt like we went away from the lineups that worked in the 1st half but again would it really have mattered?

Let's see how we do Wednesday and Saturday. Both games we can win especially at home

[Clock_Tower]

You are only looking at the result of the gimmick thinking that these kids did not come to play. Ash is a superior D1 player....have some respect. I have it from a inside source that the coaching staff went away from what has propelled their growth to introducing a whole new offense and defense to play UL. After the first 4 minutes you can see that nothing is working. Somehow MC pulls some sharpshooting out of his hat to give us a fighting chance. Instead of going to our bread and butter JC kept tweaking his gimmick at the expense of key players being actively involved in the game.

Every good coach knowS that you must get your guys going because this is a game of rhythm not stop and go. Do not expect AY, RA, or etc to have big games without giving them the chance to heat up. I totally do not fault the kids for this loss. If anyone says Ash did not bring it, you must not have much understanding about this game. JC is doing a terrible job of building up the blocks that will make SLU compete adequately in the A10. Play your game and let them beat you at it. Why the constant changes. We all know what Louisville is all about and they never changed their identity to play us so why are we doing that. As long as JC is still doing this s$&& come conference play we will be in trouble. Build your team on the defensive and offensive identity that works with this group then let the kids grow in something they understand. You cannot change everytime you face a new opponent.

JC is so focused on the little things that he does not realize that each of these kids must be developed into ball players not pieces of a constantly changing puzzle. Sorry....I am mad tonite bros.....I cannot stand it when people think that teams like Louisville are superior. They are not compared to our kids. They just have a better teacher who spanked our coach on national tv tonite.

A few questions back to you:

1. What do you mean by us attempting to win with a gimmick offense?

2. Your inside source told you that we tried to implement a new offense and a new defense just for Louisville? Maybe small tweaks to the offense and/or defense?

3. What should we have done differently to get Ash not only to score (0 points) but to shoot (only 2 shots) despite playing over half the game?

4. Do you also believe the same with respect to DR who also had 0 points despite playing over half the game?

For what it is worth, the local radio had Bob Ramsey interview our assistant coach after the game and he said that the players played hard, followed the game plan in the first half but then got away from the game plan in the second half. And without placing blame on anyone in particular, the coach suggested that Louisville played well in the second half and did things defensively to get us away from our game plan and that our young players made mistakes in getting away from the game plan. He also agreed with Ramsey that attention to details (Ramsey said he has watched our coaches do this so much these past 7 or 8 years) is what is necessary because we don't get the 5 star athletes; that last year guys didn't quite buy into the need to do the little things/details preferring to play using their strengths which worked so well for them in high school; but that this year, the players have matured and bought into what the coaches are teaching: the details.

[kmbilliken]

We played a vastly superior team talent wise. Is there any player on our team that would crack their top 8? No. Top 12? Doubt it.

I thought we showed promise. We actually competed against them, which would have never happened last year. If our guys continue to play this way we will be middle of the A10 which is a vast improvement and for a core group just beginning their sophomore years, could catapult us higher. A lot of good players assert themselves the second half of their sophomore years. Hopefully four of our six will.

[billikenbill]

We played a vastly superior team talent wise. Is there any player on our team that would crack their top 8? No. Top 12? Doubt it.

I thought we showed promise. We actually competed against them, which would have never happened last year. If our guys continue to play this way we will be middle of the A10 which is a vast improvement and for a core group just beginning their sophomore years, could catapult us higher. A lot of good players assert themselves the second half of their sophomore years. Hopefully four of our six will.

Don't agree that MY wouldn't be in their Top12. I think he'd have a shot at earning his way into the rotation. Maybe MC, if they needed a three point threat, might see a little time. Kind of sad though when you think that none of the rest of our guys would see floor time on that roster.

Was watching the replay and, coincidentally, lost the signal just as we fell behind 35-34. Not much worth watching after that anyway. A few things of note after a second look were that MR made two threes and looked confident doing it and MY made a triple off a good feed from Ash, his second three of the year. With our weak inside game, it would be a big help if we developed some more reliable shooters. MY looks like he has a good stroke. If there's something wrong with his release it isn't obvious. I keep waiting for him to develop into a 70+% FT shooter, but so far haven't seen it. I'd also like to see him be confident with a mid-range jumper so the D wouldn't be sitting on the drive.

Also, Neufeld finally made a perimeter shot but I'm surprised he has the green light from the arc. Looks a little stiff with his shot. We need him to concentrate on developing a post game. He clearly has more upside than either AG or BJ but I'm guessing he's a year or two away from being a solid post player.

[STL Hoops Insider]

It's hard to beat Louisville when they can use a national title as a recruiting tool as well as some extremely recruit-friendly parties on campus.

[JettFlight5]

Louisville has had a lot go their way since we were conference mates. They're good and will probably remain so.

[BACKHANDtheRICAN]

It's hard to beat Louisville when they can use a national title as a recruiting tool as well as some extremely recruit-friendly parties on campus.

We might not have the national championship but we sure as hell can throw some recruit friendly parties.

[Billboy1]

It would be nice to get a big or two who isn't afraid to mix it up. Unfortunately, AG doesn't appear to be even close, MN has potential and BJ is what he is. You'd think the law of averages would send one our way once in a while..

[Old guy]

Pray the name is Welmer, we will see next year.

[brianstl]

We lost by 20, got killed in the second half and had a strange distribution in minutes. Surprised that as many people feel as good about this game as it appears. I saw a lot of the worst of last season.

And there's the negativity this board had been without for about 2 hours!

If we're 6-1 after the Wichita State game will you be happy? Honest question.

You're kind of contradicting yourself. You say how far we've fallen and how you see no reason to take positives from this game, yet you say you think we're better than last season. That seems like a huge positive to me. Especially because I think we're much better than last year.

Can we revisit this now?