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I think the second half was orchestrated by Ashley Howard. Think about it.... down by 21. What's his halftime adjustment? I think he said 'go out, play rough, put it in the refs hands, make SLU shoot free throws, and extend the game.' Every one of their guys, with the exception of Stone (6 minutes) and Deas (12 minutes) had at least three fouls. Thirty total.

Why are we devising scenarios in which SLU isn't winning? The Bills are going to beat VCU Friday, so VCU won't be able to fulfill that scenario.

Ironic. Silence after a 15 point league win at home. Where are the comments about our margin of victory? Where are the comments about Coach Ford and his skills as as an “in game” coach? Have we just settled, once and for all with the LaSalle win, both of these topics? Just want to know the rules. If we lose a game, then we take shots at Ford and our season is over? And if we try something which doesn't work, or if a player or 2 has an off game, or if our opponent has a career performance, then it is OK to rip the coach ? But if we have a convincing 15 point win - crickets?

No matter what happens Re the dance, we should have no complaints about this team. They have over achieved from what we thought back in October. Yes, if we don't make it we'll be disappointing, but we've really got nothing to whine about. Right now it's one game at a time, and UMass won't be an easy game.

I agree with this analysis. The refs helped out by calling touch fouls against both teams / calling fouls on plays where the "fouls" resulted in no clear advantage for either team and calling SLU very tight so that the overall foul disparity wasn't too much.

ur trash

we've entered the most entertaining time of conference play. Tomorrow we have SLU V Umass, Dayton @ VCU, and Davidson @ St joes. Wednesday, Mason @ Richmond and GW @ the dukes Gonna be a dog fight for about 5 teams from here out. Bonnies still have H against richmond, and the dukes, and @ SLU Duquesne has @dayton, @bonnies @VCU, and richmond - tough VCU: Dayton, @SLU Duquesne and @ Davidson - also tough Davison: URI, @Dayton, @ Richmond, VCU - probably the toughest IF we get by Umass, I think we have the most favorable remaining schedule of all teams fighting for the 4th spot. Having vcu and and the bonnies at home is big. Our biggest problem is that it may just be too late.

This post makes you sound like a dick and like you’re “butt-hurt.” This post makes you sound like a knowledgeable Bills fan who can share stuff I’d enjoy reading.

Good read http://ballislife.com/meet-sekou-gassama-brings-out-best-in-21-no-1-patrick-baldwin-hes-a-pro/

Sure we are. We were 11-2 in the OOC, which almost no one picked. And we're on track to for at least 11 wins in-conference, down two of our top 6 players.

Two weeks ago I would have agreed. Today I'm not so sure. JGood seems to have rekindled his fire and JPerk is percolating.

DeSmet has a good team (same level as the top 6-8 area teams this season) which is long, rebounds, defends, has catch and shoot players, scoring point guards, etc....but it is not one of their better teams when it comes to post entry passing, and ball handling under pressure. They have one Senior that plays and he is not a guard. They have two scoring point guards that are a Soph and Junior. They have another Junior, Soph, Frosh that can help that a bit more next season in addition to the others. They will have a very experienced team for the Senior seasons of Keita and Gassama.

Its in our best interest to buy a bunch of tickets and then hand them out for free.

Again, this just isn't true, imo. That 34 is probably up to 28 or 26 in that scenario. If they go 4-2, their NET is between 32-38. Losing to SLU or Davidson is not a bad loss by any stretch.

Rhode Island has won 11 of their last 12. Anything can happen but they would have to regress pretty badly to lose more than a game on their remaining schedule. The committee is not leaving out an A-10 team that has won 15 out of 17.

Right. I'm not saying I want this to happen*. I'm just saying it is a very very very remote possibility. * - although in my head in this scenario SLU is the #8 seed who goes on the miracle run so that's how I justify thinking about it.

Theoretically, if the Bills run the table, we're in, right? They'd be 24-7, 13-5, and add a win over Rhody at their place (which is obviously a tall order). Would this be the minimum to be in the tournament? Maybe 5-1(which is very doable IMO) and beat someone good in Brooklyn? I've seen people say at-large hopes are gone - I don't think that's quite the case just yet. We'd have to go on a short run, but to say the hopes are gone is a little dramatic.

Two things bother me about tomorrow ....Umass' youth getting better and the fact that we don't do well on the road. We have lost to Duquesne and Davidson badly on the road. DXouble digit losses. We were taken to OT by La Salle onthe road and struggled with the Joeys. We did well at Dayton (props to three-star's match up call) and i have no real clue how we dominated at Richmond. That is the lone outlier. Umass is one strange group. They gave us a run at home losing by three. Sean East ate Yuri alive. The put four guys in double figures. Their four A10 wins have all come at home --- La Salle, the Joeys, Mason and Duquesne. In other words, they've beaten likely PIG participants but then there is the Duquesne game which they won by nine. Yet they've lost at home to Geedubya when Geedubya was 1 and 3 in conference. Mitchell remains a load but I think Jimmy Bell can neutralize him better than someof Bell's other match ups because Mitchell isn't as athletic as a Obi Toppin of Cyril Langevine. We shall see. BIG game. If we can get to 12 and 6 in league play, meaning only one loss the rest of the way and I'm saying that is at Rhodey, I like our chances. We'll be up for VCU ---- cannot be down for either Umass or Mason.

The fight for the A10 #2 Seed isn't over. Spiders would hold the tie breaker over Rhody if they pull even. Five teams are still in play for the 4th seed.

Still definitely NOT MAD

Two seems likely ...three is possible...4 seems like a stretch. The problem with 4 teams making it is they all pretty much have to do the same thing ...win all the rest of their games and a couple of A-10 tourney wins. The setup for 3 teams is 2 teams not named Dayton, after winning out the regular season go to the final against each other...Then you have the A-10 tourney winner plus the A-10 tourney loser plus Dayton making it to the Dance. I can't see away for the 4th team to make it in...You could make a case for a 4th team to be in but I don't think the NCAA would listen...they have too many P5 teams to choose from.

That's why you went on your cute little meme rant the other day? Because you don't care? If you're going to act like a normal person, I'm more than happy to have you posting on this board...even if I don't agree with you. If you're gonna behave like an ignorant 6th grader, I'll just put you on ignore and be done with it.

Seriously? What about Bell makes you draw a comparison to Loe? Did you even see Loe play? Will Bell be considered a lesser player in your mind if he does not become a Euro big type player?

I re-ran Jacobs dunk about 10 times. That was an amazing NBA style in your face JAM! Someone earlier pointed out it was a great move. It was an Air Jordan move! Travis should highlight this with him and say, do you realize how good you are? He brought the ball down like he was going to do the layup, D went for it, and then he JAMS it home in the blink of an eye. I'm listing that as one of the great Billiken JAMS of all time. He was a killer with that move. Please, wake up, Darius, and bring that shite every game!

And hopefully you can learn to stop being an A-Hole. I hope that didn’t offend you.

I think the pace of play...the Bills playing at a slower pace plus the constant stoppage of play for fouls affected our scoring. Here is how I would quantify it... .We scored 45 pts in the 1st half...7 of those pts were from FTs....pts from actual play = 38pts. In the 2nd half we scored 39 pts...17 from FTs. = 22pts from "clock ticking" basketball ...So we scored 73% more pts in the fast paced half vs the slow paced one....If you subtract out the the 10 extra FTs we made as a result of the interrupted play...16 - 10....it is still a difference of 6 pts...or 27% increase. While not a perfect correlation...play did slow down( we slowed play and the refs slowed play) and it did cost us some points....but not enough to make a difference....It just made it more painful to watch.

Another thought: the “one more foul” chant from the student section was awesome.

Debbie and Cheryl were go getters who both would have benefitted immensely if they had Dr C’s backing. May has had the good fortune of being handed RM on a platter, and closing out the final chapter of the arena as well. He could not manage the RM/Biondi relationship, nor establish a professional buffer. He made a liver eel pie of our escape into the fold of the Big East. He did not properly assess Crews’ coaching abilities, sending us on an unneeded five year sabbatical in basketball hell. He had lots of guidance to hire Ford, and this is his crowning achievement to date. Now he needs to set up the perpetual rolling contract. The ladies’ soccer team is solid, the mens’ side is improving but way below expected measure. Baseball has been great, but rewarding the coaching staff has been measured in drabs. All the other sports are well below where they should be in the A10, given resources, available recruiting and student populations. May is heads above our other ADs, but that is akin to picking who the best swimmers were aboard the Titantic.

Season to date: I have seen posts and listened to the last House that Rick Built show (a show that I like) stating significant disappointment and blame for recent Billikens losses on coach Ford. We Billiken fans I think are guilty of having expectations of wins based on early season performance that exceeded expectations, but were followed by an injury to Jimerson and loss of Thatch, apparently for the season. Then the emotions of having a team come so close to beating Dayton but then drop two games to the Dukes, is frustrating and clouds our realistic view of the team and this season. As Billiken fans, I think it is wise and fair to coach Ford and the team to step back a minute and take a look at team strengths and weaknesses and what has happened this season. First we started the season with only 4 players with significant Division 1 experience. Goodwin, French, Thatch and Weaver, and Weaver was not with our team last year. In addition. we had 2 returning sophomores who were injured as Freshmen and played very little. We added 6 new players with no Division 1 experience Perkins, a high scoring JUCO transfer and 5 freshmen. Preseason projections were all over the place, but I think most of us would have been happy with 20 wins. Early season. The team exceeded expectations with strong contributions by Jacobs, Collins and Jimerson. In my view Jimerson’s contributions had the greatest impact on the total team performance because opponents had to stretch the floor to cover him. Some teams put their best defending guard on him. He consistently hit 3s at a rate of 42% and he averaged 10.8 points per game and that average was rising, and he had two games over 20 points. So at the in the middle of December With Jimerson and the expected return of Thatch, a top 4 A10 finish looked reasonable. But as fans often do, we discounted the loss of Jimerson and Thatch when it came to our expectations for the team. The loss of Jimerson has meant more tightly packed zones that especially restrict the ability of French, Goodwin and Collins. Jacobs can hit a spot up 3 at the rate of 38%, Weaver hits them with a quicker release at a rate of 37% and Perkins unfortunately is only hitting 3s at a rate of 29%. The loss of Jimerson also took out our best free throw shooter, he was at 86%. The loss of Thatch this season has hurt our ability to play a shut down defending guard. It reduces the number of steals resulting in easy baskets and it improves the 3 point scoring of opponents. If summer reports were accurate it took away an expected double digit scorer, who was hitting from outside. From a coaching perspective, the loss of Thatch and Jimerson has taken a lot of the flexibility he has in defending and attacking opponents. At this point, we have a team with a strong inside game, an average outside game and a team that is terrible from the free throw line. Our inside strength is largely dependent on French. While Bell has been steadily improving and has done admirably in some games, the loss of French kills us. Even foul trouble forces him to dial down his intensity. The loss of Thatch and Jimerson has also made us thin at the guard spot. We have had to play the walk on Hightower, in situations where the other guards are in foul trouble, have a tough matchup or are just not playing well This leaves us with a team that can play at a high level when the matchups are good AND the refs let us play a physical game. But we struggle in games where the matchups are bad and/or we have foul trouble. I think coach Ford has done an admirable job of reshaping this team following the losses of Thatch and Jimerson. There are significant limits to what a coach can do with a short bench. One thing he can and has done, is motivate this team to play with heart. They have played some very strong games in some very tough road environments, where many teams, especially young teams typically fold up and get blown out. There is no quit in this team or its coach.

There is definitely something to this. KenPom tracks foul disparities between conference home games and conference road games (https://kenpom.com/hca.php?s=RankPFadv). 9 of the 14 A-10 teams are in the top 100 in terms of home / road foul disparity (over the last 60 home and road conf. games for each school). 13 of 14 are in the top 150 with only Davidson outside the tops (perhaps because they just don't foul very much anywhere). Here are the rankings 3. SLU -5.2 (I think this means that SLU's "foul margin" or SLU fouls - opponent fouls is 5.2 better at home than on the road) 8. Dayton -4.9 18. George Mason -4.5 56. UMass -3.9 57. VCU -3.9 58. St Joes -3.8 61. Bona -3.8 69 LaSalle -3.7 85. Rhody -3.5 120.0 Fordham -3.1 139 Duquesne -2.9 145 Richmond -2.9 149 GW -2.9 260. Duquesne -1.5 There are 353 DI teams. If A-10 officials weren't more susceptible to home influences than your average official, you'd expect the A-10 teams to be more evenly disbursed across the rankings.

La salle is trash. You think we should have stormed the court?

I've been out of town for quite some time, but someone told me he recently dropped is student status to possibly transfer? Is there any merit to this? Please Lord, Jesus, God I hope not.

Careful there SLU72, your comments may be deemed negative by some of the more sensitive members. You’re actually spot-on, but there may be some people get butt-hurt over saying something “critical”. Bell does have a smooth shot that hopefully he can develop a mid-range game from, along with being more aggressive around the rim and using that big body to throw down with authority.