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When you look at compensation, recruiting base, facilities and now fan support, SLU is one of the top 5 mid-major jobs in the country. Wichita State is the top dog in the Midwest but we have the recruiting base to eventually challenge them. It's a good time to be a Billiken coach.

You’re making bad-faith arguments. No one said 5-6 billikens could make an NBA team. You’ve often thrown that out as a straw man, but no other poster has said that. That’s crazy and obviously won’t happen. However, posters have said that there is a tiny chance that one of the billikens could some day have a shot. Posters have thrown out different names as to who they think would have the small chance of making it, but no one is saying Bell, Goodwin, Perkins, Jimerson and whoever else are all going to make it. Also, are you a grown adult anonymously rage typing about how you know a ton more about the stock market than someone you’ve never met and wishing that random adult will live in a mobile home haha? Maybe sign off and take a breath bud haha .

why? we offer everything a P5 school does, with the job security of a small school. That's heaven for coaches.

You are a dick. And you started off nice enough asking for extra tickets.

Jimmer played 241games in in the NBA. He was evidently "good enough" for 6 years. Actually, Jimmer played in the NBA for 10 years, including 6 games last year. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/f/fredeji01.html Yes, Grayson Allen is on the Memphis Grizzlies. He's playing right now against New Orleans Pelicans. Already played 6 minutes in first half. https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/3135045/grayson-allen

On Frank's show today, he reiterated that SLU loves Nesbitt and Kern and it sounds like they are the priority for the 2021 class. Tony Irons was also on the show today. He said that Kern is a huge fan of SLU. He has attended a lot of games this year and even checks the SLU score when they're on the road.

SLU comes within a tenth of a second of beating Dayton and someone is equating Ford to Barry Odom? Ford has the 300th least experienced team out of the 353 Division I teams...for decent chunks of the game freshman like Bell and Hargrove defending America NBA lotto pick. Other than their first game of the year, every single Dayton win up until this one was by double digits....their only losses were to two Top 25 teams, both in OT. SLU has a NET ranking of 54, in the dance conversation. This is arguably the best coaching job of any SLU coach in the past 40 years and he’s being labeled the next Barry Odom.

My Boss man’s giving me a pea break because the compactor on our truck is on the fritz. So I checked Jimmy the Greek’s Vlog and one of his experts says if JGood progresses as much in his Sr year as his Jr year, he’s a likely lottery pick. My Charlotte Hornet’s could sure use a player like him now that Kemba’s gone.

Further to this, we average 0.99 points per possession overall and 0.97 on the road. Even as bad as we are at Free Throws, it's still a more efficient play for us than our average possession.

Bottom line is we need this game. We have 3 losses to top-20 NET teams and a tough conference road loss to a team ranked right next to us in the NET. Davidson at 110 would not be a brutal, season-ending loss but it puts our margin on the razor's edge and we'd need to be nearly perfect the rest of the way. This is also a chance to really stratify the league into halves, with SLU going in at 3-2 and Davidson at 2-3 and everyone looking pretty much like they're going to stay in their half (Dayton, VCU, Duquesne, URI, Bonaventure, and Richmond as the other top-half teams). I think it's also meaningful to win somewhere you've never won before, not to mention bounce back from such a gut-wrenching loss. Lastly, grabbing a tricky road win before the easiest remaining three game stretch (vs. Fordham, @La Salle, @St. Joe's) is key to building momentum before our return games against Duquesne and Dayton.

this is such a loss to the billikens.com community. not often we lose a mbm of this quality.

looks like i might get a tax refund this year... have a few PTO days earmarked for March.... i dont care if we play in Siberia.... im going

https://www.scoopswithdannymac.com/billikens-face-questions-battle-narratives-after-heartbreaking-loss-to-dayton-flyers/ Interesting article by Carter. He brings up some points not covered in the 726 replies to this thread.

Frank also said that 6'9" 240 lb Tarris Reed sophomore from Chaminade was right behind the bench Friday.

I like Jacobs and Weaver taking 3s. I dont like Perkins taking 3s, his long range shot is similar to French's free throws, you never know where they are going to go. Perkins is so good at taking it to the basket and absorbing contact, he just needs to keep playing his game and the three point opportunities will come when he is fouled on those takes.

I agree. Anybody who can knock down 2 with 5 seconds left down 1 against one of the top teams in the country on ESPN is going to be nailssszzzzzz

crazy to think 2 of of our top 7 players may both have medical redshirts. 90% of teams with this = complete disaster

Yes but a very minimal amount. Rough math: We avg 57% from the FT line. That 1.14 Pts per possession if we are shooting 2 FT. At most we have 6 1& 1s per game. Shooting 57% on those gets you an average of .895 Pts per possession after accounting for missed front ends. We average about 32 FTA per game. Not factoring in and-1s, We take about 12 sets of 2 FTs and 6 1&1s. (12 trips to line with 2 FT*1.14pts per possession) + (6 1&1s *.895) / 18 Total possessions that end with FTs = 1.06 Pts per Possession. This is probably a conservative estimate as we aren't likely to have 6 1 & 1s if one of the 7-9 team fouls is a shooting foul.

Wouldn't missed front ends of 1 and 1 's bring us down below 1 pt per possession?

This board is always at its best when coming together to deal with a troll.

This is the best thing you've said in any of your posts.

I think it has to do with the newer D1 teams. Technically being probationary. I could be wrong. I believe I read this somewhere on the board.

I've skimmed the GDT and other postgame threads and just want to reiterate because I don't think it's been said enough: The crowd on Friday night was awesome. I don't think I've experienced a crowd that was louder and more into the game from wire to wire than that one. I don't think that's recency bias, either. Even some of the best games of the Majerus-early Crews era took some time for the crowd to warm up, or had too many people leave early, or whatever. It's hard to sustain that level of engagement from start to finish and I really felt that in there the other night. People were going nuts for defensive rebounds early in the second half, for example. You just don't see that very often. Seeing the players and fans feed off one another was pretty special, too. Dayton fans had a good showing, as expected, but you'd have never known they were there until the end if you couldn't see their red shirts. I was in 102, and we actually had a few losers around us leaving early but the rest of the fans let them have it. I'm all for a public shaming in those circumstances. We also had a guy in a throwback Dayton jersey yelling at SLU fans as we exited. If I had the powers of the Force, he would no longer be with us. Anyway, great job by the school, the AD, the students, and the community. That showing was all we could ask for on a nationally televised game against our rival in bad weather - until the knife in the heart at the end. I'd like to think we could keep it going but the next game is against Fordham.

I tend to agree. Bully ball all the way in this one. Go at the rim, grab offensive boards. Don't foul them. @The Wiz frames it more in terms of FTs made than FT%. It doesn't matter if we shoot 55% if we're getting to the line twice as much as Davidson. And they don't go to the line much at all, so we certainly have a chance to do so if we bully them. We basically know who we are at this point. We don't hit FTs or even attempt 3-pointers. We have to rebound everything, finish, defend hard and cleanly, protect the ball, and force turnovers. It's rare we do all of those in a single game but even if we just do most of those things well, we should be all right. We also know this team has historically not been the strongest road performer since joining the A10 and is good for a couple trainwreck conference road games a season (St. Joe's last season, for example). I'm hoping Duquesne was our one this season, even if we don't go undefeated in the rest of them.

You want us on the FT line?

...

No wait don’t go.

Just took a break for lunch and see you guys have taken a break from Call of Duty. Nice. Going to Swing by the Y and let the director know everyone “has a shot at the NBA” if they tweek a few areas of their game. Im going to drop off this forum. Pretty clear most of you have never played competitive Basketball or you wouldn’t be making dumbass comments about everybody and their brother having “a shot at the NBA” and even questioning if our 2 guard could be a first round draft choice. Mind blowing. Most of you probably got cut from your junior high team so I understand. You talk like every guy I’ve ever known to that’s 5’8” or less. That must be awful. I’ll be back to work soon. Give em hell at Call of Duty. oh yea, I’ll give you a call on draft day. We can have a reunion with our top ten guys. I’ve shared these posts with some of my fellow hoopsters. You guys are real idiots

So confident in more than one incorrect assertion in one sentence.

When Isabell was there, Mizzou won 19 games in two years. Hard to compare the talent pool

Its good to see this kind of attention. It tells me that if we can manage to go through the A10 with only a loss at Dayton and maybe a VCU/Richmond or Dukes loss plus winning some games in the A10 tourney would maybe get us that at large. Winning at Dayton would really solidify things. What we cannot do is lose games like the next couple to Davidson and Fordham

After much careful thought and consideration, I have struggled to reach the following conclusion. I want Nesbitt who upon his commitment to SLU will immediately be renamed Nessbitt by a few members of this Board!

Nesbitt is a 6'6 matchup problem. If Yuri wasn't already our point guard, he's talented enough to play the point on day one. He also has the scoring ability to play the 2 and is strong enough rebounder to play the 3. Kern projects as a slashing Perkins type wing. He needs to shoot it better from the line though. Lee is basically Zeke Moore at this point: a 6'6 spot up shooter with a nice handle. I doubt he has a committable offer.

Except that McKinney couldn't get on the floor for Mizzou, but Isabell could and left for reasons other than playing time. (Thus, it's not that TI "wasn't good enough" for Mizzou.)

My guess then is he’ll get the chance to see what he can do against Davidson and, if his teammates are as close-knit a group as they’re said to be, they’ll look to get him some shots. This team needs him to get hot from the arc.

Look at alex Caruso as an example. Played 4 years at Texas AM. Never averaged more than 9 PPG. Never shot at high % from 3. Turned the ball over a fair amount. Didn’t rebound well. Didn’t get a lot of steals or assists. Now a major piece of arguably the best team in the NBA. So the idea that anyone like JGood is 100% not going to make the NBA is ludicrous. You would be saying the same thing about Alex Caruso if he was still in college. https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/alex-caruso-1.html

Goodwin is a really weird player. He's a great athlete and competitor, but sometimes he looks kind of goofy. Thatch and Yuri seem more locked in on D, but Goodwin has a preternatural ability to get steals, and also to grab offensive rebounds. I can see him getting invited on a summer team. Jimmerson and Bell have the "do one thing really well" potential. For Jimmerson, it's obviously shooting: great release and great accuracy. For Bell, it could be post scoring. He's a baby, but has an enormous frame, soft hands, and a nice touch. Has can't get the ball out of his hands, but Bell looks like a guard when he shoots FT. If he loses another 40 pounds and adds some explosiveness, you could see him as a center on a 2nd unit. Again, there's about 15 forks in the road before that would happen, but it's not insane or deluded that Bell or Jimmerson might one day sniff an NBA court on a 10-day contract.

According to Pistols records list Goodwin is on pace to finish in the top 10 for assists for Juniors. French gets double teamed everytime he has the ball and passes out of the double teams numerous times a game.

A couple of you have mentioned that Davidson has no one to match up with HF. I see that as both a good and a bad thing. Yes he played a great game against UD on the boards. 17 rebounds were outstanding, he was like a man against boys, including Toppin, but in games like that he can also hurt us in two ways. He, and JG for that matter, tend to be so focused on scoring that he (they) don't see, or look for, teammates open for shots. While their aggressiveness translates into many points and boards, it also costs us in missed opportunities for wide open shots by Billikens not named French or Goodwin. These missed opportunities are compounded when he and JG are fouled and we all know what that means. One point, at best ! Let's face it guys and gals, HF and JG have proven what they are from the free throw line so there is no sense complaining about it. It is what it is, a combined less than 50%, and it's not going to improve at this point in the season. What TF needs to do is find a way to minimize the impact of that weakness. If Davidson doubles or employs a "hack a HF" strategy, I hope we see the ball passed out to other open Bills. At some point HF needs to consider an assist as just, if not more, important to the teams' success as fighting off a double team and going to the line for a possible one point. Yes, as I said above, HF played a GREAT game against UD and many other teams this year, and yes we would not have been leading UD through most of the game without him leading the charge, but when he goes into his "I'm going to shoot no matter what" mode, as in the last part of the Dayton game, it can produce the same outcome as we just witnessed. Davidson probably has the best coach in the A 10 and my fear is that we wind up shooting less than 50% from the line based on his gameplan. While that might work for us, depending on other facets of the game, it could be a killer if they light it up from beyond the arc. Kind of a repeat of the final 6 minutes of Friday's game. All that being said, I see a road win as the team fights off the discouragement from a tough loss. GO BILLS ! UNRELATED FOOTNOTE: Watching the replay of the UD game, Weaver was taken out of the game in the final minute of the first half and was talked to by our assistant coach. TW was obviously mad as HF was sitting next to him on the bench and put his arm around him both on the bench and while walking off the court. Whatever was said to Weaver, we was not happy. It seems clear that he was not injured. I hope he recovers and becomes a big part of the team the rest of the year. We need his 3 pt shooting.

Goodwin's numbers have improved dramatically this year over last. If he keeps the trend going, who knows? FG% 3P% Reb PT 2019/20 48.1 32.5 10.7 16.0 2018/19 40.3 26.3 7.5 10.5

I was appalled that Whitey didn't wear white.

evergreen meme

Saint Louis Billikens Basketball (1914-present): Where free throw shooting goes to die. Meanwhile, Ford is 0-5 against ranked opponents since being here. It pains me to say this, but he could be Barry Odom on the hardwood.

Not very good examples? 1) Jimmer is NOT in the NBA. How is that not a good example. He’s NOT in Period. Meaning if he were good enough right now he’d be in. 2) Grayson Allen is NOT on the Memphis Grizzles!! He’s on the Vancouver Grizzles. FYI that’s a G league team. Again, he’s not in the NBA right now because he’s not good enough Both of these guys are absolute studs. To think that Goodwin could be called before either these guys is insane. 3) Lastly, Willie Reed is a bad example. He’s score a 1,000 points against Bell and Willie is in the G league. BTW he’s a stud. Read my post again. These guys are not in the NBA with all of their talent??? I am a huge Billiken fan and believe these are all great kids. I’m not certain I’ve missed but a handful of games in 20 years but I’m also realistic. It’s Insane talking about guys going to the NBA that have accomplished absolutely nothing expect Goodwin. Sadly, Jordan doesn’t have the skill set. I would love to have this conversation after the draft of 2021.

Just so we know ithis thread has talked about players going to the NBA on this team that aren’t even playing half a game, have only played a total of 10 D-1 games, can’t hit the side of a barn 15 feet from the basket, etc. There is no one on this team going to the NBA!!! They wouldn’t be at St Louis playing SIUC and Eastern Washington if they were. We would be 18-0 if any of these guys were that good I wish they were hit they are not! Not even close!

Learn the game. You are embarrassing.

I think it’s likely that Ford won’t be the coach when Yuri and Co are seniors... if we continue success. Sucks to think about but it’s certainly a possible scenario. We need someone who will continue this local pipeline! I hope I’m wrong though.

Not interested* However, you are correct. I just hope Hightower can fix his free throw shooting. Then, he can join the rest of our top 7 in the NBA. Happy? Done sniffling. Lol. Wow.