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Javon Bess is in town for 30 days before he goes to camp with the Pelicans and I had an opportunity to talk to him for a while at practice. He is in great spirits and very excited to have a potential opportunity. He is working out hard and looks to be in great shape. He plays open gym with the guys and he said that Perkins was playing outstanding basketball and can score from almost anywhere on the court. As soon as school starts Perkins can join the team at practice. It is difficult to know how all the distinct new players will mesh but I have been watching early practice for about 40 years and this is the most athletic and potentially best scoring team I have ever seen from top to bottom. With all the leapers we have it will be hugely entertaining! Go Bills!

After some hesitation, Coach says that Jimmy Bell is the one newcomer that has stood out (came in at 318 left friday morning at 280). Says Bell has great hands, great feet and uses his big body. Will have an impact right away. Bell has to get in "great" shape, but has all the skills. Probably the biggest surprise. Better than Coach thought. Jimerson is the best shooter "by far" in the program since Coach has been here. Physically strong, big time scorer (got a little bit of "stuff...grit" to his game. not just a shooter). Everyone says Jimerson is like Klay Thompson with how quickly he can get his shot off. Going to be hard to keep off the floor. Bess apparently told Tate that Javonte is best player in the program right now. Best talent top to bottom on roster since Ford has been here. Thatch appears to have taken that next step based on summer performance. "Really...REALLY stood out this summer." Yuri made great strides this summer. Struggled first couple of weeks this summer adjusting to D-1 caliber players. Figured it out. Last couple of weeks was excellent. He is going to play a significant amount of minutes. Will be major part of team this season. Apparently, "The Athletic" is going to do some type of story on the team. Frank asks if you can really play Fred, Yuri, Jordan and Has together given the lack of shooting? Coach said yes, but obviously going to mix in others to offset lack of shooting. Weaver is more than Coach thought. Fast as lightening. Great energy. Players love him. Good shooter. Going to add a lot to the team. Much better shooting team. Thatch has really improved his shooting. Worked on pressing and fast break basketball every single day this summer. Going to play differently this year.

An interesting story from Ford on his role in "6th Man". After he got cut by the Warriors, he signed up to play pro in Israel. He had his bags packed, and the night before he left, his agent called him to say this Israel team hadn't paid anyone for some time. Then he got a call from LA and a director wanted him to audition for a role in the movie. They couldn't find anyone to 'direct' the actors on the floor. He went to LA, auditioned, and got the job. He got paid around $50K for his part. (He still gets royalties- he had $600 to $700 built up in the royalty fund a few years ago.) He talked about his dunk, and how he was in a harness for the dunk. He took off from mid floor and the crane took him to the hoop. He was on set in Seattle and Vancouver for a month each, and then in LA for another month, and he 'got the buzz' for the movie scene. But in the end it sounded like he got home sick for Kentucky and came home. While he did say he has the best talent, top to bottom, he mentioned the lack of experience with this team as being an issue and that the A10 will be deep in experience. He talked about again defending at the highest level, present a physical problem for anyone, and continue being a high level rebounding team. He mentioned 'having 8 or 9 guys with different strengths'. I take it that he won't deviate from his normal pattern of playing 8 to 9 heavy minutes. So who sits? One difference between SLU and his other coaching positions is that at his other stops, the fan base in primarily alumni based. Here there is a larger fandom from locals who aren't alum's. "If Cuonzo calls, we will play".

honestly i misspelled purposely because you have made it your cause to check this with everyone.

Roy, I rest my case on using initials at some point in a thread of posts!! You would not have made the mistake of misspelling Jimerson's name if you would have just used GJ. The last time I checked the roster the only GJ would have been Jimerson

Might be too early to know how we are looking long term (should have a better sense of that come the turn of the calendar), but it does look like the 2020-21 season should be one where we can make some noise with a senior class of Goodwin, French, and Perkins.

Last season we played 13 non-conference games and we're at 11 currently. We need to get to 18 home games for season ticket holders; we'll get 9 from the conference and I'm counting 7 above (FGCU, Valpo, EWU, SHU, HPU, Belmont, SIUC). I'm guessing we won't see two more regular season games, so maybe one more buy game and one exhibition game. Top to bottom, this is an excellent schedule. We don't have any bottom-fifth NET-killing dregs in there, and even if we end up with one, that's not going to move the needle too much. We've got a team coming off a Final Four, another recent Final Four squad, a team that could compete for a Big East title, an ACC team, a perennial small conference pest, a Valley rival, a rare buy game opponent with a brand name, and a couple teams that will compete for their conference's lone Tournament spot. I would argue that a team at SLU's level (A10, American, Mountain West) has the hardest scheduling job in college basketball for a number of reasons (necessity of 18 home games, refusal of power-conference teams to play home-and-home series, difficulty of not being a neutral site draw, etc.). Major respect to Ford and his staff for getting this together. This is no small feat.

Great stuff. Love the positivity. I like that we're looking to do more in transition with this team. This roster is much better suited for that style than last year's team and will be younger and (hopefully) healthier. Let's hope they can actually finish at the rim. If Thatch has really taken the next step, that's probably the biggest X-factor here. If he's an actual scoring threat he'll be playing 35 MPG with Goodwin. Bess' endorsement of Perkins seems particularly meaningful, too, since Perkins seems the most naturally slotted as Bess' replacement. They're probably not going to end up in the top tier of the conference and they'll take some tough losses, but these kids are gonna be fun to watch and things are shaping up nicely for the long term. Can't wait.

Hope this plays out by the end of the season. We need a go-to offensive player to emerge and Perkins' combination of shooting, ballhandling and size makes him the toughest guy to match up with.

Congrats to DAnn for hiring a guy that would be thrilled with the status quo. Not this young mans fault he was hired but it’s the athletics department that went with a lesser resume to keep the headache of necessary improvements demanded by a good coach. It’s shameful

We have the potential to be better than last year by the end of the year once these guys figure out how to play with each other. The problem is the 5 teams that finished ahead of us, who return everybody, will also be better than last year. I expect VCU and Dayton to be much better. VCU is bringing in their usual strong recruiting class, including the highest rated guard in the conference. Dayton's transfers reportedly beat last year's squad on a regular basis in practice. Richmond, who gave us fits last year, gets double digit scorer Nick Sherod back from injury. They got off to a rough start last year but they were playing good ball by the end of the year. There's a lot our guys have to learn over the next 6 months. Give 'em time.

Old Guy, I concur that we should not be assuming that we will fall out of the "top tier" (however that is defined) of the A-10. I understand a certain level of coach-speak, but unless TF is living in a dream world, I think he is not conceding anything about where we wind up in the A-10 standings. If we are 3/4 as good as he is sounding then I think we will be better than last year. It sounds like JB could be a definite upgrade from DJF in the role of a big; it sounds like JP might be no more that a small drop off from JB; GJ, JP, Weaver and an improved FT Jr should far exceed what we got from scoring beyond the arc and TH Jr. and YC give us abilities/qualities we didn't have last year. Couple all of that with normal progression from JG, HF, KCH and DJ and I think we are justified in having high expectations from this team. Looking at the non-conf schedule it seems like TF and staff are trying to put us in a place where an at-large bid is possible. He is certainly challenging the squad with few, if any, cupcakes.

Do we need a lie detector on this?

I agree with this. I think the only things SLU really has going for it in terms of making scheduling easier are: #1 they own the arena so they don't have to schedule around an NBA or NHL team like some schools in bigger cities that use those arenas do (ex: Georgetown) and #2 they are in a big(ish) city that has a pretty good / improving basketball talent base so teams looking to make inroads no the St. Louis recruiting market (ex: K-State) or get a local player a return game (also probably K-State/Sneed/Stockard/Williams, but going back a ways UNC/Hansbrough is an example). East Carolina in the American for example probably has a tougher time scheduling than SLU since they are in Greenville, NC instead of St. Louis, MO while also facing the same problems you've outlined.

Yeah, pretty much what I meant by "long term". I just want to see development and cohesion this season and am pinning higher hopes on the following one. It's almost foolish to try to predict beyond a year or two in college basketball at this point, the way coaches and players move around. Plus, it's not like we have any 2020 or later commitments yet.

i thought bess had signed a contract to play with kevin lisch in australia?

Go Yuri! Yurimania, catch it, live it, love it!