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I would have to disagree, I don't think he looks scared at all, in fact, I've been impressed by his aggressiveness during his limited minutes. I don't think he has looked uncoordinated at all, in fact, he has demonstrated a nice 10ft. jump shot and runs the floor well.. his numbers are extremely good for the limited minutes he has received...in just 62 minutes he has scored 36 points and has 26 rebounds, the 40 minute average based on this is 23.2 ppg and 16.8 rpg. Additionally, he has made 6 of 8 ft's...his one negative is to's which he's had 8. He has enormous potential in my view, and definitely deserves increased opportunities...Corey Tate before the season predicted stardom for him, and it's apparent why...

-I was able to rewind on the KMOX site so here's a brief rundown, I agree a worthwhile listen -we do mandatory testing, most programs do not -didn't have enough healthy bodies to go to UMass, practice on Thursday was 4 on 4 and played CForte to get 5 on 5 Friday, CFord said "players" came out of protocol on Sunday morning -Markhi going to play more at the 4, wished he had played him more on Sunday -said crowd was terrific and proud of the effort from all on the team -RW was away for 18 days including a death in the family -JGood was home when he got news of call-up as Wizards had a break, he wants to be great and after the team had a bad game against Seton Hall things changed for the better with JGood (sophomore year), he takes tough coaching -LaSalle postponed and doesn't look likely for a replacement as don't want 3 road games in a row -Martin has come a long way on recovery but not yet ready to go, up to him, does more every day -TJ is fine, practiced today -CFord not happy with rebounding and defense, getting out rebounded is unacceptable and 69 points allowed is too many, we have shown elite defense and rebounding and expects it, ball screen defense will be the concentration this week -non-con was strange for the league, Davidson best NET and they were picked 5 or 6, Mason a surprise, RI is really good through transfers, SVU really good, VCU on pause and got pg back, league is up for grabs, at large will require 15-3 or 16-2 which will be hard, FU really improved with transfers, portal will change everything and every night in the league is tough, STB has great support -they talked about difficult and interesting places to play and CFord mentioned his good friend Richard Pitino at New Mexico, CFord never coached or played at Duke, UNC or IU

I'm confused. Exactly what freshman backup big is Traore being compared to? Because he's better than almost all of them in the last 30 years.

-started a thread as figure there will be more -we now play at UMass on Jan 20 and LaSalle comes to us on Feb 15 -at least that's the schedule as of now -I give kudos to the A10 for getting this done

Over the past 50 years, how many of our 3rd string centers would have scored as fluidly as Traore did from that sweet Nesbitt pass? The answer is easy: none of them. Heck, a significant amount of our 2nd string 5’s would have found a way to turn the ball over…

a veteran team like richmond schemes to get guys a look from three, pretty tough criticism of traore, richmond has scholarship players also. i think a line of 6pt 4 rebounds in 10 min is a very nice line

I'm all for open dialogue. All I ever ask for is context in a criticism. If people are going to harp on Yuri's turnovers, for example, I want everyone to understand the player we're looking at. If Yuri, with all his turnovers, is still the best point guard since H Waldman, I thought that context was totally missing from the conversation until I steered it there. If Traore is no worse than the 2nd best freshman backup big in the last 30 years, descriptions that make him sound like Justin Johnson seem off base to me.

Traore has greatly exceeded my expectations. A very late signing with little recruiting pedigree or track record, I was expecting more Madani Diarra. A lot to still work on of course, but I'm excited about this kid's potential - sure he makes some mistakes, but he's athletic, aggressive and plays with confidence. What's not to like.

I actually thought TJ did really well at the 4 Sunday. Mainly on the defensive end. He's good about going straight up and contesting without fouling. Tough night on the offensive end but I was pretty happy with how he played considering Richmond has some decent bigs. Regarding traore... Y'all remember Austin Gillman.... Brett Jolly.... the other Canadian big can't remember his name. He's looked better than reggie agbeko and Jimmy bell. He's exceeded my expectations forsure.

No analysis of this game unless I see The Bills on a plane headed to Olean.. If they are, I will update this page. Other notes ... Injuries....update a/o 1/2/21...Linssen (ankle)...missed 1 game and Courtney (illness )...missed 2 games...are both listed as questionable for the Sat. game. It is unknown at this time whether they will be able to play against St. B Mellouk...F...11/27/21...Out indefinitely...Undisclosed injury...no timetable on a return Chance to Dance.... The Bills....54% Dav............48% VCU............41% I am missing 3 games for a full data set (1 SLU and 2 St. B ) It would have been nice to have the stats from the Ford / St B game on Wed. especially since St. B will have over a 3 week layoff by the time we play them. The numbers may vary a bit but one thing is clear at this point, we are the better team. Stay tuned for updates.

Traore has 3.3 rebounds in just 7.8 mpg. Yes, he has played sparingly, but those rebounding numbers speak to some potential. Also, the eye test tells me this kid has the chance to develop into a very good rebounder. A nose for the ball, aggressive, decent hops and quick to the ball.

Game goes to 97.1 when bumped from 1120

am i the only one who remembers melroy butler?

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology has us as a Auto qualifier

“Traore is utterly inexperienced and still looks like a deer in the headlights out there. He has a lot of work to do on his conditioning and coordination. He has an extremely wide wingspan and a ton of upside, but he is all building materials right now. There isn't a player there.. yet.“ How would any of that be a standard critique? It basically was saying he is totally inexperienced, without skill. Then Soderball recanted. His initial statement was too harsh. Look, the critique is that he is struggling with correct defensive positioning. A big man is coached to stay as close to the basket as possible, so that they can help when someone drives the lane. I would rather that a Freshman center make the mistake of not going out, as compared to being to far out and giving up uncontested layups. That said, his defense needs work, but he has shown the ability to man up, and guard. He needs to get smarter on D. Positioning and switching. It is a very coachable situation.

This is just poorly stated. Traore looks like a Freshman, but a good player. In fact, rating 4 year big men (so, no Okoro or Linssen) in the SLU program since 2007, based on the midpoint of their freshman year, in my opinion, it would go: 1. Willie Reed 2. French 3. Traore Traore doesn’t even have a decent sample size for growth at this point. On small minutes, he puts up good numbers. If he could iron out the jitters and freshman confusion, I see a really strong player.

So far he is not better than Agbeko or Bell, but I expect him to be better than the two combined by conference play next year.

This. Not sure what games some of you are watching. Traore has been surprisingly good. Good hands, soft touch, can score facing the basket. What’s not to like? As Hubie Brown says, “He has great upside potential.” Corey Tate said on Frank’s show, Traore has the potential to be “The face of the program in two years.” Way more accurate than Rick saying that John Manning had NBA potential. That was clearly wrong.

-yes, I agree, and I think the reason we don't see it is likely Traore would be the backup to the two playing and CFord doesn't trust him because he hasn't gotten clock to show what he can do but he doesn't get clock because our rotation isn't expansive enough to include him -Traore has been better than fine in the minutes he has played and from my seat warrants playing meaningful minutes in every game, not just garbage clock

I would like to see Ford play 2 bigs at the same time more often. IMO our biggest weakness is the 4 spot. This is not a knock on TJ but giving away 6 inches is hard. Fortunately the A-10 is not loaded with huge teams. Most teams are not as large as Richmond which killed us on the boards.

I think you got an impression that I was ripping on him. I'm not. I'm saying he has upside but isn't developed yet. Yes, he's not used to the speed of the college game. exactly. That's WHY he looks uncoordinated and is giving up open looks. Give the kid time. He will be a good player. I like him. He's a freshman. Best thing about freshman is that they become sophomores. I'll also note he's playing against one of the most experienced lineups in the history of college basketball; guys out there have been around for 5-6 years now with the COVID waivers. Traore will be fine. Let our coaching staff do their thing.

I agree with this. Traore has the skills and is not overwhelmed by the moment but I think he's struggling with the speed of the college game. With how many transfers(both JUCO and Grad) we've had in a similar role to Traore that it's easy to forget he's still a college Freshman.

Traore is utterly inexperienced and still looks like a deer in the headlights out there. He has a lot of work to do on his conditioning and coordination. He has an extremely wide wingspan and a ton of upside, but he is all building materials right now. There isn't a player there.. yet. Ill give him at least the off-season before I issue judgment. The potential is clearly there. He can't be relied on to do anything but be a warm body during garbage minutes at this time.

"The Perkolator" branded coffee - good to the last bucket.

This is true but slowing down the game on the offensive side does not always mean grabbing the rebound and running to the basket. The game can also be slowed down by dribbling the ball up and then holding it outside until there is 7-8 seconds left on the shot clock and not being able to generate a good shot. In my estimation this is what happened in those 3 games and we never got a decent shot during those teams runs. The same thing kind of happened with BC but we were able to score a bit more and that stemmed the tide.

Loyola was to play in Bloomington IL. Just keep the bus pointed south another 2.5 hours.

Thank you Dennis W.

That is half the equation. We have to get the defensive rebound to run on a miss. With our recent numbers, getting the board has to be the first priority. You can’t send guys flying down the court leaving Okoro on an island.

He said they weren't slowing it down as a strategy, which a lot of people have been criticizing him for, the problem was that the Bills were not getting any stops on the defensive end toward the end of those games, so they didn't have the opportunity to run, the opponent is already set up in half-court defense.

A 1st overall pick, 3 guys in the top 6, and 4 in the top 15 would be awesome for future recruiting. Kalish is killing it. Obviously the team will be very diminished next season but I’m rooting so hard for all of our guys at the next level. Might have to start watching MLS soccer

That would require forward thinking from the athletic department.

Perhaps they are waiting to see what todays CDC guidance change is. They do change it almost daily. I’m hearing that if you are left handed and your name is in the first half of the alphabet, you only need to quarantine 2 days, 4 hours and 46 minutes after you see someone with Covid. You don’t need to test negative but you do have to be able to say the alphabet backwards.