Leaderboard

I’m not mad that we lost by 16. Could be worse, we could’ve lost by 14 to UMKC like another school we know

when a team overplays and pressures as much as Memphis did, you have to attack the basket, which we did, hence 32 free throws...from my viewpoint, we had plenty of good looks, we just missed many that we shouldn't have.... i would have been far more upset if we had tried to hold the ball for 20 seconds every possession and then force up a shot at the buzzer...14 to's against a team that presses you that much, is pretty respectful in my view...i just don't remember that many bad shots taken...Nesbitt some in the first half, but the biggest issue was finishing..

Didn't post during the game. Glad I didn't. Much better to post today after some perspective. This game was expected when one team is ranked #11 in the country, soon to be higher, and the other lost 58% of its scoring from last year. Everyone needs to get a grip. The effort we have gotten thus far in the season, including losing by 20 to a top team in the country, will put us somewhere in the top 4 in the A-10. Here are some reality checks: Hargrove - I have always been a Hargrove proponent. He put up points, but was still only 9-23. I hope he gained confidence from this game, but don't think this means he is on some meteoric rise. Still, I'm glad he performed well. The Bigs - Posters destroyed these guys during the game. Why? Linssen had 11 points in 16 minutes. Okoro had 7 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks in 22 minutes. Against a top team, that's not too bad. Jimerson - Again, nobody passes to him when he's wide open on the 3 point line. Rewatch this game if you have the time and tell me how many times he got the ball in a position to score. Some of that is one him, although it certainly looked like he was hustling to get open. A lot of it is on guys not having vision to see who's standing on the 3 point line when they drive inside. Thatch - Also got bashed on the thread. Look, the guy is who he is. He had a strange injury that severely thwarted his development. He will give us good minutes as we move forward. This will not be his typical game. His athleticism will show more against less athletic opponents. Memphis was not a less athletic opponent. Nesbitt - Someone said he looked like a freshman out there. That's because he is a freshman. I know that's what the commenter meant, but just wanted to say it again. Nesbitt will have success in some games and struggle in others. From what I have seen from this staff, he will be better at the end of this season than he is now. Ford - Seriously? Many posters were ragging on Ford for what happened. Again, this was expected. What I saw out there was a team that didn't give up against a superiorly talented and more athletic opponent. That's good coaching. He changed defenses. He subbed in guys to try to keep everyone fresh. Memphis kept its starters in until the very end, and we played with them most of the game. The lead was 18 to 20ish range for most of the game. I think he got a good effort out of his guys.

This is the hardest game SLU has played in the Travis Ford era. We have a young team going to a hostile environment against a physically dominant Memphis squad. We we will learn from this experience and will be better tomorrow than we were yesterday. I’ve said all along that this was not one of our more important non-con games. We will have plenty of chances in the coming weeks to make this feel like a distant memory.

I think last night was a great experience and will lead to some big wins in the next few weeks - onward and upward.

Here is a positive from the game: Memphis shot the lights out from 2 and 3. They also fouled us constantly. The refs gave up trying to call a fair game, and most of our fouls came in the second half against Duren. So, even with a hot opponent on cold SLU shooting night, against a more athletic front court, where the calls were unfair, we kept the score within 20 points.

I noticed this to last night and on too many occasions in conference play last season. I love Ford, but one way or another this is on him. Either he is letting Jimerson not execute his role in the offensive system or Jimerson standing in the corner is a big part of the offensive system Ford wants to run. Either one should be unacceptable. It wouldn't have made much of a difference last night against the defense that Memphis was playing, but you can't run an offensive where a guy like Jimerson plays 22 minutes and only takes two 3pt attempts. You have to design sets to get a guy like Jimerson shots. He can't just be planted in the corner.

Few more positive takeaways from the game after sleeping on it: 1. We still scored 74 points against a top 5 defensive team in the country on terrible shooting. Offensive rebounding and our ability to force turnovers were great last night. 2. Yuri proved that he took a leap on defense. 5 steals and I saw him bother some shots that you would usually not expect him to be able to. We all remember when got abused by Carr last season at Minnesota, but there were a couple plays where he got switched onto Bates and held his ground. 3. Okoro is gonna be a beast once we develop his game on the low post. In addition, there’s no way he misses so many layups/dunks at the rim against A10 bigs. I was also impressed by his free throw shooting, I expected him to be a liability at the line but he is clearly developing that part of his game (unlike another big we know and love) 4. Nesbitt looked much better the second half. He took his poor first half on the chin and came back out with better poise and shot selection. I think this game has sped up his development significantly.

while the loss was disappointing, there were many positives. First of all, we got to the free throw line 32 times ( to their 33) and yet had an amazing 20 more shots from the field (77-57). this was a result of being a +10 in turnover margin and a +10 in offensive rebounding. You win 9 times out of 10 with those numbers. We lost unfortunately because of missed layups(had to be at least 10), mediocre ft's made( 65% to their 60%), and abysmal 3 point shooting (22% to their 47%). Obvious positives were Hargrove's entire game, and Okoro's domination of the boards.

Well, I don't think many fans had us going undefeated for the year. If you figured any losses this year, this was probably one of them. Rather than go into a deep analysis, I will simplify things to make the game less painful and so we can move on to what can still be a successful season. Here in a nutshell is what happened....31.2 / 34.5 / 22.7 / 65.6.....F- / F- / F- / F....Just plain dismal shooting.....even the FT shooting which had been pretty good this year was off and we can't blame that on the opp defense. Hey ...it happens ...every team has at least 1 bad game a season....this will be ours...and again . we can still have a good season even with this loss. This was a learning experience and we will be a better team for it. This concludes the analysis of this game. Reading past this line may inflict unnecessary pain. What...Are you still here? ...go home...it's over.....Ferris Bueller Had the Bills had an average night ( for an average D1 team....C/C/C/C ) taking the same number of shots, we would have had....7 more 2s....2 more 3s and 2 more FTs....wait you are getting ahead of me....yes 22 additional pts for an easy win. I told you to stop reading above... The advice is still the same ....move on ...next game.

From the perspective of having a new possible road trip location - Great From the perspective of feeling the A-10 isn't considering us outsiders because of our location - Great From the perspective of increasing the level of competition in the A-10 - Meh

I know acknowledging this is heresy but any chance of being an excellent team went out the window with Perkins injury. Our talent level isn't so high where we can lose a likely honorable mention All-American and still hang with elite talent. You can't just plug Jimerson in Perkins' spot and proceed as if nothing happened. Keeping Jimerson in motion will get him open shots on most nights, just not against elite athletes.

Thought it felt way worse than 16

Not going to win any games if you shoot like that. Not much else to say. 23/73 from 2 5/21 from 3 A lot of them were good looks too. Thats the game. A few positives for me….Hargrove 20 and 11 he showed he belongs and can step up when needed. I know Okoro missed a bunch of bunnies but I think he showed he can play with anybody. He is still shaking the rust off by conference play he is going to be a monster. Collins couldn’t shoot but he had 7 assists. Would have been more if anybody could make a bucket. Oh well. It’s good to play a superior team. It will help down the road.

You really expect us to miss this many layups and dunks in most games this season? I don’t.

I dont think I saw the same issues. Lots of on ball screens in the half court that lead to good attacking looks again just didn't make em. And I like pushing the pace and taking good shots if they are there early in the shot clock. Which we did a few times yesterday. Honestly think the offense was better yesterday than with Goodwin and has taking into account losing Perkins. I would like to see some screens at half or 3/4 court when yuri has the ball and someone guarding him the length of court. Some Conklinesque screens from Linssen would be cool. Let him get downhill. That was one thing I wanted to see more of. When yuri is in open court I trust him to make the right play.

Nothing to be embarrassed about. They played hard, missed some shots and began to press. Misses lead to others misses especially when you are going against freak athletes. I would say only 1 other team in the A10 keep it within 25 playing at Memphis and that’s the Bonnies. All last nights game did was help us prepare for the rest of the season.

I'm sure the board won't agree but I thought we got a lot of favorable calls.

Memphis outrebounded us because we missed 53 fg attempts. They had 27 more chances to grab defensive rebounds off missed opponents fg attempts than we did. We had a better defensive rebound percentage (64.5 vs 60.7) and offensive rebound percentage (39.3 vs 35.5). So even though Memphis had four more total rebounds than us, we did a better job rebounding than they did.

Strangely, even though we had a lead very early, that's the past of the game I was most disappointed about. We missed so many chances to open up a significant lead early. Missed five free throws and so many chances at the rim. We looked tight and tentative. Even if we execute better at that point, there's a good chance that the talent Memphis has eventually wears us down. But I had a bad feeling after we failed to take advantage of a lot of those good scoring opportunities. A better start would have allowed us to gain some confidence and at least stay in the game longer. That's the part that was most disappointing for me - how quickly it got away.

we have no player that can guard bates. bates is without a doubt at worst, a top 5 player in the country imo. he seems to me to be penny reincarnated or maybe even durrant. he definitely shoots better than penny did.

Hell no on Murray St.. I love the Belmont program. They have sustained their success over multiple conferences and now multiple coaches. A big part of me wants them in the A10 and definitely wants Nashville in the conference. Unlike Loyola, Belmont would be a program that I would worry about their ability to make the financial commitment needed to compete in the A10. You would have to make sure that Belmont has the resources in place they will need to compete.

I spent some time tracking Jimerson during his 22 minutes. No, I didn't concentrate on him, but probably watched what he was doing more than any single player not on the ball. I don't know how many times I saw him simply standing in the corner, not moving, waiting for a pass. Memphis had a defender in his area, but not actively guarding him. I wondered what offensive set was going to get him the ball. I also cringed more than once when I saw him guarding Bates.

i thought from an offensive standpoint, the billikens performance was embarrassing. terrible display for what we all think is a top 2 in the league team.

i don't think scared is the right word, we were very aggressive throughout the game, i think it was more of rushing things and losing our composure...you can't duplicate what they faced last night in practice....i think they will be much better prepared the next time they are in that situation..

Cut it to 16 point loss. Not really unexpected. Could have been different early with missed bunnies and missed free throws. Not too too disappointed.

Pat on the back to me for not encouraging my SLU friends to tune in tonight. Also is there a worse message board thing than posting “ball game” regardless of circumstance. Really grinds my gears

Stop posting

No excuses Thatch you have to hit the free throws or you can watch from the bench.

Mizzou since 2010: - Tournament wins: 0 - Losses to UMKC: 2

Loyola-Chicago would've made the conference stronger in each of the past five years (and so far this season). I understand concerns about whether Loyola can maintain this level of quality in the basketball program but it seems like the commitment and resources are there, the market is certainly there, and it seems like a high-floor addition to me. Would love to steal Belmont and make it an even 16. I don't want to see the league even consider a 20-game schedule until and unless (and maybe even after) that happens.

you're confusing me, you admit we were getting good shots, but were just missing, but complain that we weren't running good sets to get good shots....sometimes you have to adjust to the style of defense your opponent is playing...Memphis was overplaying us and giving us the drive to the basket, unfortunately we were not making our layups or free throws at a high enough percentage...

We actually did run some looks for Jimerson in the first 5 minutes. I was really encouraged. Then things just broke down. Yuri was picked up full court as soon as he caught the ball by bigger, better athletes and it's hard to get into an offensive set like that. Jimerson probably could have moved more but he can't just randomly cut, the other 3 guys on the court have to have the right spacing too. Memphis also took him away by guarding him closer off the ball. I'm not sure there is really just one answer. But I might be willing to go on record to say that we are going to win zero games against quality competition this year where Jimerson takes 3 shots from the field. It's up to Ford to make sure he gets looks even against other superior athletic teams.

Had to look it up. Nov. 27-28, 2009 against Iowa State and Notre Dame in the Chicago Invitational Classic

March 1st reopening is what they are telling people. I am hopeful, but will believe it when I see it.

immediately i think of the louisville teams going back to the ekker days through pitino.

Memphis had 14 blocks and probably altered just as many. Longest and most athletic opponent in Billiken history?

We were shooting 41.9% from 3 before last night.

i think the best happening of getting loyola is a step toward geographic balance for the conference. if they now pick up another midwest team that would be great. second while loyola isnt yet any sort of media darling, still the fact they are located in chicago has to be a huge positive for the league. i see nothing but positive for the A10 with this pickup. Sure it would have been awesome if instead of loyola the league got notre dame. or instead of the maybe wichita state they get kansas, but surely even you can see the likes of big time blue blood names like that coming down to the A10 isnt likely to happen. brenda took what she could get and expanded the footprint. i have been her biggest detractor, but imo give credit when it's due and loyola in my mind is a great pickup for the atlantic 10

Probably cant defend for sht..........then again that would be a pretty big kennel tonight......

I don’t blame Ford. Missed layups. Not Ford. Missed free throws. Not Ford. Cold shooting. Not Ford. He pressed. He zoned. He did all he could in prep. We did not execute. And they are freaks.

He’d be buried on the bench in favor of Thatch

Kinda miss Demarius Jacob’s right now too. I always thought of him as a mini-Perkins with the way he could score at all three levels. Although he’d probably disappear on this big of a stage

A big head scratcher on why he’s getting the minutes he’s getting

Nesbitt over Jones for sure.

Feels like we have 5 or so turnovers, but box score says 1. Can't miss those bunnies tonight. This broadcast is genuinely difficult to watch. The floor color is brutal, then they've only put the score box up once and it's tiny.

Black jerseys tonight, love it

Plus adding Loyola makes the A10 more attractive to potential media partners going forward.

Props to our beleaguered commissioner. At worst, an above average A-10 team, at best a perennial NCAA team. And an easy road game for MBMs.