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Does anyone know if beer sales will resume after the basketball game for those of us who stick around to watch soccer? This is very important to me.

The schedule proceeds Saturday to UAB, an old foe from the Great Midwest and Conference USA. On its 15 man roster, UAB (6-2) has 11 transfers, including 2 JUCO's. UAB starts 4 transfers. The leading scorer is Jordan Walker, 5'11" JR guard, two time transfer (Seton Hall/Tulane), who averages 16.6 ppg and shoots .465 from 3, 20-43. UAB's starting lineup is 6'4", 6'4", 6'7", 7'0" and 5'11". UAB has double digit home wins over UNC Asheville, Morehead State, Rhodes, Alabama A&M and East Tenn. St., a 13 point neutral court win over New Mexico, a 2 point neutral loss to still undefeated USF-CA (8-0) in Las Vegas, and a 3 point road loss at South Carolina. SLU is only 7-17 all-time vs. UAB, 6-5 in St. Louis, 1-10 in Birmingham, 0-2 neutral. Sagarin has this one as SLU by 4.65, rounded off to 5 points, mostly due to Sagarin's 4 point home court advantage to SLU. Ratings as of reviews today: SLU: NET 52, RPI 76, ESPN BPI 49, Pomeroy 85, Sagarin 44, Massey 44, Average of the Six: 58.3. UAB: NET 83, RPI 30, ESPN BPI 52, Pomeroy 51, Sagarin 50, Massey 86, Average of the Six: 58.7. This game looks about as dead even as possible. Hopefully, the Billikens will protect the home court and win this one. It is an important game potentially down the line when the NCAA Committee separates the sheep and the goats.

i'm the last one you have to advise not to wear a mask. dont get me started. grrrrrrrrrrr

Just as important as our improved FT%, is how often we get to the line. We lead the country in FT attempts per game at 28. That is 10 more per game than last season when we ranked 181st. We rank 5th in free throw attempts per field goal attempts this season compared to 222nd last season. You have to get to the line to really take advantage of above average free throw shooting.

The A10 held serve where expected tonight but against some pretty ratty competition. Richmond (#73) went into Wofford (#111) and won. La Salle (#235) got trounced by Temple (#135). Geedubya (#252) hosted Boston U. (#150) and lost. Rhodey (#82) beat Harvard (#163) on the road. Fordham (#229) beat a winless St. Francis Brooklyn (#330) at Rose Hill. Dayton (#104) crushed Alabama State (#336). The Joeys (#216) hosted Binghamton (#317)and won. The Bonnies (#37) caught and beat Coppin (#325) in Olean. Duquesne (#195) hosted and lost to Bowling Green (#177). KenPom ratings in parenthesis. For reference, there are 358 teams in the KenPom ratings.

Win one for Rick Majerus, who passed away on this day 9 years ago. Hard to believe.

Well they were in CUSA with us had a coach Bobby Lutz who had sweet hair and mustache

Oh OMG - I cant believe Schmidt left Lofton in for such a non important game with a 10 pt lead with only 50 seconds left. Obviously I am being tongue in cheek - shades of what some said about Ford and Perkins. These things just happen.

I worry that casual fans (or fans without social media) may not have heard about the time change and miss the game...

Should be a really tough game... would love a rocking Chaifetz as it seriously could be the deciding factor

Looking at those ratings that is some real disrespect from KenPom. Being a home game, this is pretty much a must win

Bully Ball served its purpose, to create a culture of toughness. We're still tough. You don't go to the line as often as we do without being physically and mentally tough.

Low ankle sprain. Hurts like a ***** for 24-48 hours if it’s your first. 3 days of ice, compression, and elevation will remove most of the swelling, then some rom and strengthening exercises for a few days. Heavy taping, a gradual return to activity, and nearly as good as new within 2 weeks, 3 on the outside. You’re welcome!!

Getting our shots blocked has been a trend under Ford. Block % by year: 2016-17 - 12.2%, 339th in the nation 2017-18 - 9.6%, 205th ITN 2018-19 - 10.1%, 249th ITN 2019-20 - 8.6%, 144th ITN 2020-21 - 9.6%, 239th ITN 2021-22 - 13.7%, 332th ITN As @Bills By 40 pointed out, the 21-22 number is inflated by the Memphis game, but getting our shots blocked is a trend I don't expect to necessarily go away. Aside - I don't really consider blocked shots or blocked attempts to really be part of bully ball. Bully ball in my mind is strong rebounding & tough defense. If anything I'd expect more blocked attempts in bully ball because you are taking more shots at the rim (which are more likely to be blocked than jumpers).

You eyesight is good.

I have to think the week back home was enough time for Ford to teach receiving passes, shielding passing lanes, and PASS FAKES at practice. FTLOG there are easy solutions to these problems. Any opponent that watches tape from our last three games will see the obvious answer is to cut passing lanes and bully Okoro and Linssen to get them in foul trouble. Therefore guys like Linssen/Jimerson/Hargrove receiving passes from Yuri need to COME TO and get their lead foot and shoulder in front of their defenders and those simple passes that we call "lazy" on Yuri's part will cease to be turnovers and it will become more evident how much fault should've been placed the entire time on behalf of the other end of those passes. If Linssen and Okoro learned how to pass out of the paint more we'd see much less foul trouble and smoother offense - it would create open opportunities outside the paint and also remove incentive to double team them when they do keep the ball. I'd wager that Hargrove's speed and athleticism helps him beat his man more often than stick around to get fouled by them. More than 23% of his field goal attempts have been from 3 this year, which is another factor, not to mention he has previewed quite a bit of a midrange game and those are shots that he's much less likely to get fouled on. In previous years I bet a much greater chunk of his shots were at or around the rim, where he was far more likely to get fouled. 14 of those blocks came at Memphis alone, where we were obviously mismatched in the paint. Duren had 6 of them. Okoro getting dunks blocked and overall being as soft as my grandma in the paint doesn't help the deficit either, but I think it'll even out. Linssen has been showing signs of being a much improved shot blocker. I'm okay with Bully Ball being gone, though. Playing a well rehearsed fundamental game of basketball with high percentage volume shooters and a traditional point guard would be fine by me.

We had asthmatic players before and of course we barely know the limitations Fred Thatch puts up with in normal altitude- but you would also assume the coaches would do more than go slowly at practice the day of game. For years Div 1 teams have gone to Hawaii, NY city, Las Vegas and some after hours on planes or buses to find a rested acclimatized opponent waiting to feed on their difficulties. Just the amazement of new surroundings has to be a concern

Some don't like the announcers on Stadium TV, but it's handy that their website stores the games aired on their network. For example, the Tuesday SLU-Boise State game (Nov 30, 2021) is here: https://watchstadium.com/videos/11-30-21-saint-louis-at-boise-state-mens-basketball-mens-basketball/ *** Stadium TV's website still has a link to the SLU-St. Bonaventure game (March 7, 2020) at Chaifetz, which was the last game before COVID forced the cancellation of the remainder of that season: https://watchstadium.com/videos/st-bonaventure-at-saint-louis-mens-basketball-3-7-2020-2/

A wise man in an offseason thread predicted that free throw shooting was going to be a strength this year The free throw struggles of the past weren't so much team wide previously - it was mainly attributed to French and Goodwin, who took a big chunk of the Free throw attempts. New additions Nesbitt and Jones are plus free throw shooters, the weak link figured to be Okoro, but he has been a pleasant surprise so far at the line. As for the result last night, I thought this was a likely loss when the schedule came out. A true road game and traveling way west, which is unusual for this program. And to get off to such a terrible start, it looked like it was over 5 minutes in. Ugly at times, but who cares, it's the result that matters. Definitely a character win. Find a way when you are not playing your best. Ford was really fired up in the postgame interview, about the most excited I've ever heard him after a game. Tough stretch ahead and hopefully we start gaining a little more consistency. Yuri needs to clean up the turnovers. Our combination of Linnsen & Okoro have been very good for the most part and I think Franco can trend up as the season moves along after sitting out all of last year and coming back from an injury. I also expect Nesbitt to become more consistent as the season goes along, as he gains more experience. I recall Kwamain really making big strides over the second half of his freshman season and I hope JN makes the same progression as he gains experience. Fred has stepped up and been a solid role player and Jones has been a key contributor. BIG stretch of five games coming up - not an easy one in the bunch but four at home and one neutral site game - great opportunity to build up the resume. Last night was a VERY important first step.

Maybe my dream figure is too high, but my point is we need him A LOT better than recently, especially the negative 1;3 A/TO ratio he had at Boise St. I think with the shooters we have and the alley opp set ups, he is capable of better than 3/1 and I think he showed that at the beginning of the year when he was being thought of as one of the top 3-5 PG's in the country-that's the Yuri we need back.

After Johnny Orr retired, the Iowa State Cyclones hired Tim Floyd (yes, that guy whom replaced Phil Jackson in Chicago). One of Floyd's goals each game was to make more FTs than the other team attempts. He believed this one area to be all the difference in tight ball games and when achieved usually leads to victory. This is the first Billikens team since the Jett days that can actually achieve this kind of advantage. It definitely makes me feel more confident down the stretch of a game instead of the feelings that came during trips to the stripe the last several seasons.

Thru 8 games we've had 4 different leading scorers and 4 different leading rebounders

Teams have been guarding Yuri differently the past couple of games and he has yet to adjust. More blitzing off screens, sometimes double teamed or trapped. This is why I think coach has been playing Jones alongside him more, to give a little bit of a pressure valve for Yuri. For how well Gibson has played, his inability to handle the ball adds an extra burden on the other guys in the backcourt. I am confident that Yuri will adjust, and there is no doubting we need him to manage the ball better especially early in games. Deandre Jones was such a good pickup by the staff this summer. I did not give them enough credit for that foresight at the time.

Wiz, I am amazed at how often you are "right on" in your predictions. Well done!

i think yuri needs to concentrate on just being the superb point guard that has great floor vision and doesnt make mistakes. collins is not "the man" and imo it seems he has decided to take on that role. not sure if we have "a man" right now. Jimmmerson appears to be the closest thing to that but i still believe by season's end it will be nesbit who definitely has shown he wants to be and has shown his is a special athlete. just needs to get a better handle on what he can and cannot do. doing too much can hurt as collins is proving. that all said above, yuri in the last minute of the game was "the man". the first 44 minutes last night he was not good. Jones was better when he subbed in for yuri after the early fouls. but i am not of the belief we get away with that again. most likely boise wasnt prepared for jones to be effective.