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  1. I will never understand the need to leave the game early.
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  2. Some of my thoughts on the game: Overall I thought this was the most professional performance we've had so far. Responded well to early adversity. Nobody forced the issue too much offensively and we kept our principles on defense. Mercer was well organized and certainly had players capable of getting buckets against A-10 level defenders. Goes without saying but Fred's performance was a revelation. He does an outstanding job of absorbing contact and is a testament to the value of two-foot finishing. Always keeps his balance when going to the basket. He also is really patient on his drives which I think is a harder skill than it looks. A strong game by Jimerson. I think his biggest improvement from last year is his body. He's clearly more athletic this year and it's allowing him to utilize his size more than ever before. I love his aggressiveness looking to score (and we need it with no JP), but I am not sure than Jimerson is capable of throwing a pass. Two areas that he'll improve on as the year goes along are (1) making the easy pass when he drives rather than forcing tough shots near the basket and (2) hunting more threes, and making them. I expect his 3-point shooting to become more of a factor soon. Great game by Hargrove. He's doing a very good job of finding space in the halfcourt whether it's at the high-post or creating spacing with his spot ups. He's a sneaky all-conference candidate this year. Yuri and Linssen have a really nice connection on the pick and roll. Yuri knows where Marten can do damage on the roll and Linssen is great at putting himself in a good position to receive the feed from Yuri. You can see Okoro's confidence increasing each game. I'm frankly shocked by how good his FT stroke looks. He never blocked as many shots at Oregon as you would think given his length and athleticism, but you can tell his defensive timing is improved. I think we're at our best with him on the floor because he covers so much space on defense and his mobility on offense creates offensive rebounds out of nothing. Obviously not Nesbitt's best game, but I thought he actually did a good job of not forcing things on offense and he made two really nice passes to Gibson. His defense is better than we typically get from freshmen. Fred was the hot hand so Nesbitt had to take a backseat today, but Jordan is the only player besides Yuri and Deandre who the coaching staff trusts to initiate offense. He is a very useful safety valve when the opposition picks up Yuri full court like they did today. Speaking of Deandre, I thought this was one of his better games. His confidence is growing, and he was a little more aggressive than in prior games wrt pushing the ball and looking to get shots for others. I was iffy on this pickup when we got him, but he is filling a crucial role right now. I didn't think our matchup zone was very good today, but clearly Travis sees some upside in the Match Zone as a secondary look on defense. I think this is a worthwhile point to monitor as season evolves to see how often we go to this as a different look on d. I was kinda bummed that the staff decided to ditch the suits today. Attendance seemed light. We need this to pick up soon.
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  3. Fred with 20 points on 8-9 shooting and 8 rebounds. Like I said after the Memphis game, he will have games like this. No need to say that a college kid who is committed to Team Blue sucks or is terrible.
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  4. This is one of those generational things where we'll just have to agree to disagree. Rah rah guys give fans warm and fuzzies but there is a segment of young men these days that is quite introverted. It doesn't mean that they're not committed to the team.
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  5. This game went pretty much the way I expected it would. Our slash was 51/45.5/ 69.2.... Forecast slash...50/40/ 80...right on target for FG% and 3P%. We fell 3 pts short on the FT shooting but better than last time and no harm done. Fixing the FG% and 3P% was more important at this juncture and we seem to be on track . I made a real point in this thread of stopping Haase and Alvarez..."hold them to 30pts combined and we win"....they score 28pts and we win. In explaining how the computer saw the game, I mentioned that Haase and Alvarez would score half the points in the game which in this case would be 29 pts ...1 pt off. And finally, the key to the game was wearing them down because of their lack of depth...The longer the game went the bigger our lead would be. It pretty much happened that way. Bottom line...the team is still growing and still gelling.....One step at a time.
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  6. As one of the Fred critics, I’ll admit that I was wrong. He’s looked great
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  7. That was an uninspiring half of basketball. I’m predicting an epic Ford a** chewing during half time and then an epic a** kicking for Mercer in half two. Bills pull away and when by 16+.
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  8. Just curious as to which players have surprised or performed as you expected so far. Gibby- pleasantly surprised at his going to the hoop to score. A little disappointed in his 3 pt shooting. TJ- All around improvement comes faster than expected. 3 pt shooting a surprise. Okoro and Linssen- Better inside play than expected from both at this point. Okoro could be a real force as season progresses. Yuri- as expected. Hoping his shooting would have improved. But he’s gotten bolder taking it to the jar. Nesbitt- A little better than expected. He’s a FR so figured there’d be ups and Downs. More ups so far. Fred- Great Fred last night after 3 lackluster games. Expected more consistency. Hopefully, we get Good Fred going forward. None of us, however, know what he’s dealing with in terms of medications. He’s earned our respect. Other: Traore- pleasant surprise Williams- mystery abounds Strickland- hopefully gets more minutes. Jones- capable PG backup. Expected.
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  9. What a game. What amazing attendance. Onward. Question: what the heck happened with Klein and their best player on that one kickoff which saw both get yellows? Plus I missed what the same player did to Schultz to get his red.
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  10. Dean's original comedy duo before Jerry Lewis had a hit put on Franco?
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  11. Palazzolo on the volley, outside of the box. Upper 90. 5-1
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  12. I’m not there as I’m not in town but watching on TV it’s packed. I was at the Indiana record setting game and honestly don’t remember this much overflow. People standing all over
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  13. At least 7,000, which is what they were shooting for or projecting. Both sides are packed, plus a bunch of people standing behind the goal
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  14. Even with the school giving away free tickets the attendance yesterday was very subpar. This has to be a bit concerning.
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  15. I don’t think the board, coach or anything else like that had an impact on Thatch having a great game. Fred Thatch had a gear last night that wasn’t there in the other games. He looked far more athletic yesterday. He had bounce to his game. I think the situation with Fred and his condition is one where he is going to have that gear some days and not others. Probably a situation where Fred doesn’t even know until he gets into the game and has played for a while.
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  16. These are kids - young men to be exact - and trying to read their body language during a game is a bit risky. Now if you see it all the time and at practice then maybe there is a problem. I think the issue last night simply was a young player like Nesbitt and Traore simply would have been lost in that game. Even or more seasoned players were having a problem with defense for awhile. Ford simply stuck with what was working and ultimately that is what a coach is suppose to do.
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  17. My fave part of last night’s game: the thunderous applause Fred received after singlehandedly pulling the Bills back into the game and exiting exhausted. Jordair Jett 2.0 with the successive power lay ups.
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  18. IMO, not a great game for collins. shot poorly had the most turnovers on the team. i get very frustrated when he doesnt use the screens linssen and okoro set. he will not drive off the hip of the defender and the screener and always allows the defender to get through. why even waste the effort by our bigs? this all said, he still had a game high 7 assists. you know you have quite a point guard if he plays what seems to me to be a below average game and still had more than twice the assists of any individual on the court. when nesbitt came out the first time, it was right after a poor defensive effort. in comes thatch. pretty hard for nesbitt to get back into the game to make amends when fred is having the best game of his collegiate career and hargrove is having another double double and jimmmerson is having another fine game as well. i think nesbitt losing out on at least 10 minutes of floor time was really not as much a "bad game" as three really good games by his teamates. nesbitt didnt even shoot once! i do want to mention the one pass nesbitt had on the break where he quickly got the pass then quickly hit jimmmerson for the open three was a beautiful play. i thought ford really might have gambled on the continuing floor time with okoro and linssen in the first half even though they both had 2 fouls. thought for sure we were about to see traore. but okoro and linssen both played safely and made it through the half and the rest of the game they were fine. whew. man i do not like that plinko timeout game. twice now the participant has gotten nothing. gambling on the "press your luck". i hate seeing them blow the sure $50 how about the half court guy making the first attempt? and then the layup free throw and 3 point shot guy goes 4-4? that was pretty cool. of course the kid putting was bad. i think they need to find a billikens.com mbm person to take that putt. my gosh we can at least hit the sign in 3 putts. gotta like the comeback from the bad game. onto mexico. dont drink the water billikens!
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  19. Every major University with Law School, Med School, and active basic science research programs gets a lot of grants, Georgetown is included in this group. However Georgetown's grants come from Federal sources and from private corporations. There are no state grants supporting Georgetown's research. I am not up to date in Georgetown's research achievements, so I will mention only two. Kidney Dialysis was developed and first used in patients through research at 4 Medical Centers including Georgetown (Schreiner), and flexible laparoscopes were developed and brought to use in a number of Medical Centers including Georgetown (Brick). The government finances the bulk of research in the US, both via State Grants and Fed. Grants. Without these grants private Universities would be unable to finance and support a lot of their facilities. Willie, there is a hell of a lot more that is involved in financing a major University (SLU included) that goes way beyond students and student fees or grants. Research is a major source of income for SLU as it is for Georgetown, and MIT.
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  20. Coach speak. Everyone knows that every player and coach reads this board for advice and motivation.
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  21. Liking Gibby becoming a slasher. TJ a sniper? Gibby a slasher? Bizzaro BB?
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  22. Man, if Yuri could get some of those mid range jumpers to fall he’d be really really good!! I enjoy stating the obvious
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  23. All that bashing of Thatch from last game has held up really well, hasn’t it?
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  24. Someone call 911. Someone stole Fred thatch's uniform
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  25. It’s more about SLU than the league. SLU was a top 16 National Seed in the NCAA Tourney last season. They advanced to the round of 32, same as this season. While playing a good Washington team in the Round of 32, SLU lost after 2OT and 4-3 in PK’s. (They lost one of their best players immediately before the NCAA’s to a torn ACL) That’s a bit different than planning for it all summer or season. This season SLU defeated 17th ranked (23 RPI) Ole Miss 2-1 on the road last week. Ole Miss was the 3rd best SEC Team this year. Last year, SLU won at Arkansas 3-1. Arkansas was the number 6 National NCAA Seed. SEC Champs. Sweet 16 team. (Arkansas won the SEC again, and is in the Sweet 16 again this season with many of the same players) SLU also defeated the Big East defending Champ Xavier last season 2-0. (They lost 1-0 this year to Xavier, who won the Big East Title this year) while missing several players for the game. SLU lost a tough game to a good team that played well. It happens. Rutgers is one of four #1 seeded teams in the NCAA Tourney. SLU is doing fine. SLU returns much of their roster. They will get some injured players back. They will add some new incoming Freshmen.
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  26. grawer saved billiken basketball, little support from the admin.
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  27. LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn merged a few years ago. They split their sports locations. Soccer is based out of Brookville, in Nassau County. Michael Mordocco has A-10 assistant experience at UMass, as well as deep NCAA runs as an assistant at UConn. He played at UConn just after SLU coach Kevin Kalish, and, he won a National Championship there as a player. SLU assistant Kris Bertsch was on staff at UConn just after Mordocco. Some of their players that will get immediate attention are Emil Jasskelainen, Demetri Skoumbakis, Assane Ben Fall pairing up top. They have a solid midfield. Jasskelainen (son of Jussi) has 15 goals. Very dangerous anywhere around the 18 out to 25. Good size, technically on the ball. He was bottled up often by a good Maryland backline until he broke free early 2nd half with a rocket and save and he banged the rebound off of the crossbar. First team all conference. Skoumbasis is the NEC Keeper of the year. He has two road A-10 shutouts this year. He has stopped several PK’s in big moments. Against Maryland, LIU tried a 3-5-2, and they were successful with it doubling the wings, and clogging the middle, limiting final third chances for the most part. Maryland and Sasho Cirovski prefer to play a 4-3-3. (They were 4-4-2 diamond) They played 3 in back often this year to get players forward. He’a always tinkering. But the achilles heel for Maryland this year was final third inconsistency. Effort and possession, but sloppy at times. Some people like to throw around the term possession a little bit loosely. Possession doesn’t mean much if you aren’t doing anything with it. They facilitate wide wing back with Richardson often. They got away from it in the 2nd half. Final third finishing has been the issue with Maryland this year. Experienced solid backline. Bender is an elite midfielder, but finishing up top and from the wings has been inconsistent. They had a few looks including a double header late off of a corner. LIU was able to play up the wing, make a diagonal run, cut back as the defender overplayed the ball. And he hit a perfect shot from edge of the box. After playing 8 behind the ball in the first half, defending very well in back, limiting chances to harmless few, LIU opened up its counters a little more in the 2nd, and, they were the better team later at times, as the game went along in an even 2nd half. I would expect LIU to try a similar formation at SLU Sunday. So far lots of starters playing lots of minutes hasn’t affected LIU. We’ll see this weekend. Of note, Jasskelainen went down on a late tackle, (both late after the play, and late in the game) and then he re-injured his leg, a few minutes later blocking a shot in the box. He left the game shortly before the winning goal. Maryland would have been a more attacking, direct, opponent, and a higher profile big name opponent that many prefer to face. But part of post season is playing anyone and everyone to advance, wherever, whenever. UCLA won a fun, festive (tortillas were flying) local derby with UCSB in Westwood. UCLA tied it in 86th minute. They won it in OT. Two attacking teams. They will play at Duke. Winner of that game gets the winner of the SLU/LIU game.
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  28. This is probably a good place to discuss some computer methodology.....how the computer thinks...the numbers behind the numbers. I don't usually go into the details because ...well because most people are just interested in the spread.. "I don't care what's in the pie or how it was made...just cut me a slice". We are far enough into this thread where only the true basketball fans are reading so I will go into the minutiae a bit more. This game is a good one to go into a little deeper because it is a little simpler than most. While the total number of variables remain the same as all other games there are a few that standout and carry a little more weight because of the way Mercer plays. The fact that they use only 6 players plus the fact that 2 of them score most of the points makes them a little different than most teams. The top scorers will be Haase and either Alvarez or Glisson. ...Note here Glisson has not played the last 2 games though he is not listed as injured. The computer figures that Haase and one of the other 2 will be the top scorers. The model calculates that Haase and one of the other 2 will score 37 pts against us and will account for 50% of Mercer's pts. That means the model is figuring that Mercer will score 74 against The Bills and the Bills will put up 86 pts. If we can hold their 2 leading scorers to 30 or less , it could turn into a blowout. (20+ pts) On the other side of the coin if their top 2 score 43+ combined, it will be an even game. Again if Glisson doesn't play or has limited minutes it will be a blow to a team with limited depth. We need to try and contain Haase. He can shoot from anywhere on the floor. Glisson is a 3 pt shooter. If we defend against him , he will pass on some shots and keep his numbers down. Alvarez is also a 3 pt shooter BUT not a 3pt maker. He will switch to 2s. Bottom line ...this should be a team we can wear down....another reason to play tight defense. Hold the top 2 to under 30 combined and the game is ours.
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  29. Also of note: one of Mercer's subs is Jalen Johnson! No, not former SLU player Jalen Johnson. He's at Texas A&M now (after stops at Louisiana and Mississippi State), but is out for the year after tearing his ACL. No, not this Jalen Johnson either. He struggled through half a season at Duke last year, but quit (maybe because of injuries, maybe because Duke wasn't very good), got drafted into the NBA and now plays for the Hawks (currently of Atlanta, formerly of St. Louis). No, not this Jalen Johnson either. He started his career at Murray State before transferring to UIC. Also not this Jalen Johnson either. He is in his 3rd season at Alabama A&M and seems to be the only Jalen Johnson who has been able to stick in one place. Yes, last season you potentially could have fielded an entire DI starting lineup of Jalen Johnsons if you recruited properly. They go 6'1", 6'6", 6'6", 6'7", and 6'9" too, so you wouldn't even necessarily have anyone playing too much out of position. "Jalen, set a pick for Jalen to free him up for a pass from Jalen while Jalen pops to the 3 point line & Jalen crashes the boards...er...Johnson, set a pick for Johns...ugh never mind." Amazingly these 5 Jalen Johnsons who all had overlapping careers to some extent appear to be the ONLY Jalen Johnsons in the college basketball reference database which seems to have complete team rosters (at least for SLU) going back into the 1980s and has random players going at least as far back as Easy Ed. Mercer's Jalen Johnson started his career at Tennessee and played 3 forgettable season there (stats wise) before going to Wake Forest for 1 and finally ending up at Mercer for his COVID year. He was super highly touted top 25 recruit out of high school, but hasn't lived up to that at all. Although he was a year behind SLU's Jalen Johnson, I can recall when trying struggling to find info on SLU's Jalen Johnson because that you had to wade through a ton of stuff on this more highly regarded Jalen Johnson first.
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  30. They can undo the loss, but they can't undo the pain and suffering we endured under Jimmy Crews. Reparations might be a good start.
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