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I guess it depends on what you mean by "obnoxious." We were sitting two rows in front of them - directly in front of them. Yes, we got an earful. But it was pretty obvious from early on that they are current students at Fordham. They actually go to class with the players and know them on a first name basis. When we finally turned around after the game and met them, it wasn't surprising that they were all decked out in Fordham clothing. Isn't that what every school wants from their "student section" - loud, enthusiastic, non-stop support? They never made a critical or inappropriate comment about the Billikens or any Billiken player. We had a great conversation with them after the game. As we guessed, one of them is from St. Louis (Nerinx High - the one in the middle). She brought her two roommates to St. Louis for the game and to show them around town (took them to the Hill to compare St. Louis' best Italian restaurants to New York's). Dad (a U High graduate) got them the tickets and was there with them. I was impressed with their enthusiasm. There were 3 young boys sitting in front of us. We told them it was their job as Billiken fans to "out-cheer" the Fordham fans. It really got the boys into the game (for a while). At one point one the boys turned around and "booed" the Fordham fans. The dad did a great job of using it as a teaching moment and talked to the boys about the difference between negative fans and positive fans, and a good fan is only a positive fan who cheers positively for his or her team. Without those three young ladies those boys would not have learned that lesson. The three young ladies were only positive fans. Let the kids be kids, they were just having fun and being supportive of their team.

Speaking of not just court side seats but lower level seats in general. It looks very bad in TV, especially behind the TV crew. SLU should put a rule in place that allows those seats to be filled after a certain amount of time with the caveat that you have to move if the ticket holder shows up

This. If me or anyone in my house gets COVID, I can’t send my kid to daycare for at least 10 days & my other kid might miss a bunch of school. I know we aren’t likely to wind up hospitalized or worse, but the very slim chances of that coupled with the much more realistic chance of missing 10+ days of work means it isn’t worth going to the game in person. I’ll just watch SLU on my TV until the Omicron surge is over.

First a trivia question....Why would a team that was losing by 16 pts with 36 seconds left in the game intentionally foul? Because they wanted to mess up The Wiz's perfect spread. On a more serious note, I wanted to start off the post game analysis with some excerpts from a thread I created earlier this week....WWN2D2W ...I think they are apropos in light of today's game. What do we need to do to win this season? We need consistency. This Sat we will play Fordham...not the greatest in the conference. We will have a double digit spread in our favor. We can win by doing less because Fordham is less of a team...BUT that doesn't mean we should. We need to make our numbers regardless of the opponent. If we make our numbers we will win 95% of the games.. How do you develop consistency? Focus...play basketball for a full 40 min, leave nothing on the table...Confidence...You can play basketball at a high level all the time...and Teamwork...where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. And inconsistent we were today. But in the end, while it wasn't pretty, we did make our numbers. And where we missed, we made up for it elsewhere...which is why we made the spread. You may say, we were horrible... but we did what we were supposed to do. We didn't just win but we won by the right margin. Let's see what happened today....bolded statements are from the original post in this thread. Make the slash...48/ 38/ 77...if we do, we will win... Actual 45/50/77... This translates into the following ....we made one extra 3 and missed one extra 2...FTs were right on the money....variance 1 extra pt....So we did what did what we were supposed to do...just not smoothly. Out rebound them by 3... We did and then some...48 to 26...This stat was a game saver...This helped offset the next set of numbers. Win the TO battle by at least 1... This was a disaster. We lost the TO battle 20-10... There is an old adage in baseball ...give up 10 walks and you will lose most games.... 20 TOs is similar to giving up 10 walks ...It is almost a sure loss. ...except we didn't lose this game. Why? Reason 1...Points off of TOs...for Fham...12 pts...for SLU...9 pts...We had 10 extra TOs yet the Rams only scored 3 pts extra pts...This was huge in letting us equalize those extra TOs...Was it poor play by Fham or our excellent defense? We played pretty well on defense...Rams slash...28.6/ 25/50...I will say it was our good D. But neutralizing the extra TOs would have just made it a close game...we won by 18...What else happened?...Reason 2...as mentioned above we had 22 more Rebs than they did...That's a lot of extra rebs... enough to create an extra 18 pts. Hold Quisenberry and Chuba to 25pts...Actual...23Pts...Bingo...we have a winner...There is that good defense. The Rams are now essentially a 2 player team...Quissenberry and Chuba....After that ...all the rest of the players are averaging 2 PPG or less and less than 10 min/gm..... another Bingo...The rest of the players averaged 2.75pts and the bench average play was 7 min. We need to hold them as a team to under 70 pts...given their circumstances it should be closer to 60pts...Defense again....see Rams slash above... we shut them down and held the spread. If we Rubba Chuba out, we can be Ram tough and win....We did Rubba him out...What I didn't mention in the original post was he came into the game shooting 53%...we held him to 31%...Great job. Finally ...Grats to Okoro with another double -double and Jones who missed a d-d by 1 pt...still 10 rebs is amazing. Again, it wasn't pretty , but I will take wins on every game like that... especially by 18 pts.

Ya mom gave me a good 4 minutes yesterday too

One of my biggest problems with this team is the fact that we barely shoot any 3 pointers. As a team we rank 39th in the NCAA in 3pt %, yet we shoot the 6th FEWEST 3 point attempts. Lately we’ve been shooting great for three, yet we have been trying to force it inside and missing layups. Take yesterday for example, we took 54 total shots, and shot 50% from three, yet we only took 10 attempts front the arc. Same thing against Dayton, shot 5/7 from three in the first 8 minutes then didn’t take another attempt until the second half. Jimmerson specifically should be getting at least 6-8 attempts per game yet he’s only getting 3-4. Yuri, Hargrove, Nesbitt and Jones are also decent from three and could use more attempts. Especially while two of our biggest inside threats (Linssen and Thatch) are out currently.

Our bigs don't kick out this season. Hasahn was pretty good at kicking out for open 3 pointers.

Goodwin had a great game in a win over Greensboro. 22 points on 9-12 shooting, 2-3 from 3 and FT, 8 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals and 0 TOs. Multiple highlight plays

Chance to Dance SLU...52%...up Dav...53%...up VCU...50%...dn Day...49%....new No other A-10 teams that are at least 40% SLU and Dav up 1%...both did what they were supposed to do...VCU takes a hit after a pounding by the Bonnies ...down 7%. And Dayton's meaningful win over us pushes them into the picture....4 teams all around 50% ...Which means as of Jan 16 it looks like 2 teams will get in. This brings us to part 1 of a 2 game series with UMass...Thur is a key game, the more difficult of the 2 because we start there. A win at UMass probably means a sweep. But as you can see by the spread, this will by no means be an easy game. The theme for this game will be ....It's all about the 3s. UMass comes in as one of the top shooting teams ITN ...#3. They will be dropping bombs all night...They are 5th ITN in 3PM....45% of all their shots are 3s...they make only slightly more of their 2s than 3s...46%/41%. But there is good news too. UMass will be the worst team we face this year on defense. We will have plenty of open looks ..we just need to make shots ...btw, they don't rebound. Their philosophy will be ...we plan on winning by outscoring you in a high scoring game. Let's get to the report card and see what's happening... ...................SLU.....................Mass..........................SLU.........................Mass .................................OFF..........................................................DEF............. PPG...............A........................B+...........................B-..............................F- 17th WITN FG%...............B.......................C.............................B.................................F- 6th WITN 3Pt%.............A-.......................A+...3rd ITN...........B+..............................F FT%...............A.......................B................................................................. Reb...............A-......................D-..............................A-.............................C OFF Rebs = total rebs...DEF Rebs = opp reb UP....Off...Reb.....Def.....PPG...FG%...3P%...Reb...a clean sweep on D ..all categories up Down....Off...PPG.....Def...none Team FTs... Top 10 Teams ITN FTM/gm....The Bills...3rd...dn FTA/gm....The Bills....9th....dn FTM / 100 possessions...The Bills...4th...dn Top 100 ITN (In The Nation)/ gm SLU Assts...Collins... 2nd... unch Stls......Collins....33rd....up...big jump from 66th FT%...Jimerson...71st ...dn...22 place drop for missing only 1 FT...no mercy for FT shooters Blks...Okoro...82nd...dn Mass Assts...Fernandes...28th Injury/ Illness Linssen...Ques for Thur...Ankle and Protocols...1/15/22......If he has no symptoms and his ankle improves he may play...At this time it is undetermined whether he will face UMass Courtney...Out Indefinitely ...Illness...1/15/22...No date for return has been established. Mass CJ Kelly..Ques for Thur...Knee...1/ 15/22...has missed 2 games due to knee swelling...unknown at this time whether he will face us. Santos...Ques for Thur...undisclosed injury...1/15/22...has missed 4 games...undetermined whether he will face us. Walker...Out for season....Leg...1/6/22...Femur injury At this point , now that you have seen the report card , I would like to take a quick time out. The computer has asked me to do a short rant for it. There seems to be a discrepancy between what it is cranking out and what some board members perceive. Some here think we have a horrible team and we have no Chance to Dance..in fact we shouldn't even show up because we are an embarrassment. Meanwhile the computer pours over data and says ...WHAT?...The difference between the board member and the computer is that some board members are looking at only the Bills through a microscope...The computer pours through the data of 358 teams and says... Wow, this is a pretty good team... On offense we are only 1 letter grade away from the honor roll (Straight As)...We need 1 more basket every other game and we reach elite status (top 15% of all teams).... Meanwhile we have reached honorable mention on defense (Straight Bs) which puts us in the top 30% of all teams. In the A-10 , the computer doesn't see anybody that will dominate...our chances to Dance are as good as anybody. This rant doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement...There is ...especially on TOs ...The computer sees this as an area that can derails us...also inconsistency ..the inability to make our numbers all the time because of wild swings in different categories. Finally, the difference between me and the computer is I can take 1 paragraph to rant ...the computer would take 300 pages (all numbers) and if anyone disagreed with it it would crank out another 300. I just punch in Go Bills and it shuts down....Rant over ...we now return to the UMass report.... Keys to the game... The keys is the 3s....We will need to use all of that B+ 3P defense to contain them from the arc....If CJ Kelly (there are 2 Kellys) doesn't play it will be a minus for for Mass as he is one of their gunners. The bad news is even if he doesn't play they have 3 or 4 others that can pop from the arc....3 key players to watch ...Fernandes...leads the team in PPG...Assts...FG%...Stls... Buttrick...Reb and Blks ....R Kelly (no relation)...52% from 3....18th ITN WWN2D2W....Since we don't know if CJ Kelly will play let's do this...hold their top 3 scorers to 33 pts.......48/38/77...we will have some good looks...make the shots.......80 pts...this is doable against a bad D...the closer we get to 80 pts the better our chances will be to win....keep TO to 11...they will not force TOs . Fham was a B+ in forcing TOs ...UMass is a D+ ... if we have a high number of TOs then that is on us. ...Reb ...win the battle by 8+...this is an important stat...the last thing we want to do is give them extra chances. Bottom line...We are the better team ..on offense and defense. A win at Mass is worth 2 as we will be favored by much more than 5 coming back with a victory....Let's make short work of them...It should only take a Minute Man.

Years ago, I remember friends from high school, that had completely unrealistic expectations on how much taller they would get. I watched Hargrove as a recruit imply that he might hit 6’9” to Cusamano. I put zero faith in the above possibility.

If SLU games were antidotal everyone would want in and the hospitals would be empty.

You have a formula of two mandates, a variant surge, Fordham, snow, a relatively expensive event for a family and a team that has lost their marquee games at home…….. You get the attendance you had yesterday.

There would be an attendance drop if SLU mandated the vaccine or didn’t mandate it. If it wasn’t mandated, a certain percentage of the fan base likely wouldn’t feel safe and likely wouldn’t attend. They were in a lose-lose situation. To everyone that isn’t going because of the mandate and “showing papers”, you can get a rapid test at the arena. It takes ten minutes.

Kudos on your statistical prowess. Always glad to see you hit it on the money. This just seems to be one of those games where losing is just inconceivable. Fordham is soooooooo bad, even with Daye Jr. What is bugging me most of all is the eye test. We LOOK incredibly bad and out of sync more times than not. To play as poorly as we did in those first 12 minutes, I just cannot wait to hear what the calamity it was that the team suffered through to propel such a putrid start. Maybe it was earth-shattering (I hope not for anyone's sake) but not knowing at this point makes it a smoke screen until the curtain is lowered. This team is slumping in January at the start of conference season. Usually, that is a circumstance held until mid- to late-February. Missing Linssen really hurts. It negates the two-headed monster in the middle and thrusts Traore into a role he can't handle just yet. Missing Thatch was tough because it resulted in another lack of production from our now-weak bench .... Strickland and WIlliams a combined seven minutes with no points. Yes, we had a Jones sighting but playing Jones and Collins together against Navarro and Quisenberry is actually an advantage for us in that combination. We need Jones to rekindle his confidence as we move forward to at least spell Collins if not playing with him. Where would this team be without Jimerson? This is a kid who sat on the three point line for his first year and a half and now looks like a real all-star going forward. But we just don't have any secondary options once Jimerson is used. Hargrove is incredibly inconsistent. Yes he makes a few threes here and there but the rest is an adventure. Nesbitt hasn't found any sort of consistent rhythm to his game and the time is now. Okoro is Okoro --- horrible one half, all-world the very next half. And I'll stop harping on just what this offense is supposed to do. I agree now with some of the rest ----- this is a NIT team at best. Maybe they get lucky and surprise. But I'd use the rest of the year to develop these kids so if and when Perkins is back next year, they'll be ready to go and there will be no excuses.

Agreed. In the best of circumstances, how many fans show up to watch Fordham? Take what a game would draw normally, subtract 20% for COVID phobia, and I'm sure you'll get something approximating current attendance figures.

Unfortunately when your with his mom he was able to get on his mom’s computer and post on Billikens dot com.

I agree to some extent, but you have to look at games as whole. On here if you have a bad 10 minutes you're probably not good enough to play Jr High ball and if you have a great 10 minutes, ehhh you're ok. Some of the things said about Okoro in the 1st half were silly. You'd have thought he was 1-10 not 1-4. He had 4 rebounds also in 13 minutes. Ahhh but maybe we spoke too soon. He was 4-5 with 6 boards in 10 minutes in the 2nd half for a double/double in 23 minutes. Games are rarely great for 40 minutes. Good streaks and bad streaks in every game for every team. We also played this game missing our co #1 big, and probably our 7th man in Thatch. Also as far as the season goes, name me the SLU team that could lose their best player ( a player that was rated as a top 20 wing in the country by some ) and still be a tourney team. I can help if anyone is unsure. The answer is none in the last 60 years.

yuri has turned the ball over quite a bit lately, i think jones should get more minutes

Thank you @The Wizfor the rant and the spread. I see 2 trends happening good and bad. The good is Okoro, slow start but came on and is reliable with rebounding, scoring and staying out of foul trouble. The bad trend continues to be Yuri being pressured causing turnovers and the coaches not finding a way to make teams pay for the pressure with an easy score. As a fan I have to do a better job of not getting down on Yuri so much. The players are a good bunch of young people that make the majority of the games fun and exciting while losing their best player for the season.

Parker with 26 last night vs. nationally ranked Mineral Area; Bell with 10 points, 9 rebounds. Sam Houston just extended an offer to Bell.

TheOne says he plans on coming back, so I buy it. Plans are open to change though

I wonder if the problem is our bigs do not handle the ball well.

That is a huge factor. This entire season, Okoro has 5 total assists in 16 games, Traore has 2 in 11 games. Linssen, in 12 games has 10 assists. That is 17 assists from the pivot. In 19 games last season, French had 45 assists. Add Bell's 8 assists in 19 games if you want to as well as Linssen's 8 in 21 games, for 61 out of the post. That is a 3.5x factor for passes out of the post that resulted in points in 3 more games. Were we spoiled with French’s elite court awareness? Is our current tag team of 3 more the norm?

Reggie Still Standing by that!

I Agee with most of this but not Traore. I thought he played well and should see more time in the future. When Martin comes back I would like see us try to play 2 bigs occasionally.

In back to back games, Saturday nights are alright for fighting. Well, at least according to the NHL and Elton John years ago.

The reason I haven’t gone to the past 3 games.

this. imo the attendance numbers demonstrate what is true hardcore fans. i wouldnt go to any sporting event with the worthless rules the billikens have in place EXCEPT the billikens. i agree with 3 star you have the same thing going on with the blues. they just have a larger rabid fan base than we do. washington dc just ramped up their stupid nonsensical chinese flu virus rules and after planning for 2 years to go to the conference tourney we have pretty much junked that now. we will head to florida instead for those 5 days and enjoy our time unbothered by the nonsense.

Blues fans are some of the most loyal fans in all of sports.

Here's some evidence...I would have been at the game but was told I wasn't welcome because I refuse to show my papers. They can do as they choose, but the hypocrisy is maddening. By the way, my promised prompt refund has yet to be received.

Local talent is pretty light in the next two classes other than Macaleab Rich, Jayden Nicholson and Kennard Davis (2023) and Bol (2024). Highly recruited 7 footers don't sign at mid-majors so from our perspective it's really Rich, Nicholson and Davis. Rich projects as a top 150 guy and the Vashon kids are mid-major+ talents. That's not many options. I can understand why the coaching staff made Texas our primary recruiting ground in the near term.

Guess: Terry Silver walked into the locker room before the game and announced that he is back with Cobra Kai.

Pattonville won the third place game at Washington 49-46 over Ladue. Thames had 23 points (9-14, 0-0, 5-8), 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 4 turnovers. He was also named to the Washington All-Tournament Team. Pattonville (9-8) plays at Whitfield (13-3) on the 19th. SLUH beat Vianney 65-51 and Kramer had 18 to lead SLUH (10-3). Freshman Luke Walsh (SLU interest) had 19 to lead Vianney (8-6). I don't have stats for Kramer beyond the point total. SLUH hosts Ritenour (1-9) on the 17th. Moberly beat Mineral Area College 69-58 tonight. I'll update this post with Parker's stats when the box score is posted.

Not a pass unless he was passing to no one. The goaltending call was right. It was a floater shot that was clearly on the way down.

I haven’t seen this reported anywhere besides this tweet and this board. Im sure the fans who do not read Billikens.com or did not hear the post game interview appreciate the information.

Carter, instead of repeating what has already been reported, can you find out the information?

This. Need to have the research and detectives out to find out about this. Sounded like Rammer knew about it. The way coach talked it sounded way serious. mhg

We're a textbook NIT team. We win the games we're supposed to win and lose the games where we are the underdog or are playing a higher ranked team. We don't have any conference first-teamers but we do have a good collection of basketball players.

Yes

Traore gets way too much hate. He’s not even supposed to be on the floor the entire season. He’s already just as good as Reggie agbekgo

All we wanted from Traote were serviceable minutes. I think we are getting that. More plus than minus. Warts and all.

10 month old Jameson will be participating. All other babies are playing for 2nd place.

Honestly Roy I am a frequent reader of the board and have always tried to understand and see upur points even though I might not agree with them. . This whole thread with your comments towards 05 is not a good look. O5 may wear his hat backwards but he is not the one looking immature.

Evidence? - not antidotal.

that i dont like you and consider you a fraud when it comes to the billikens? you are correct. we're done.

Is the transfer portal open? Williams, Strickland and Lorentsson might as well enter now. They ain't gonna play much, if at all, the rest of this season. We only went 7 deep today with any meaningful minutes.

I did not think we could win this one by 16 pts, I was wrong, we won by 18. Now onto the next one.

I have been a season ticket holder for 30 years, for most of that time with 5 tickets. It was really tough decision to make. Aside from the rampant, illogical hypocrisy, when we have spent the past 2 years terrorizing people, is it any wonder attendance is way down? We are reaping what we sowed.

There is a difference between what the team needs, and what the team can get. If these are the best guys we can get and they have potential, then that is what we will get.

Uh, I know whether I went to a game and why I didn’t, so that’s a fact. I’ve had season tickets for 36 years, and have given them up because of the insane mandate, which is protecting no one... we normally would spend on average about $160 per game with tickets, parking and concessions. I would have respect for the decision makers if there was even an ounce of common sense and integrity with their reasoning... an 11 year old can attend, but a 12 year old can’t without proof of vaccination. The same, safety first clowns, will tell you that you have to wear a mask unless you have an overpriced beverage in your hand. If it’s truly dangerous then don’t sell concessions and enforce the mask requirements, but they’re not going to do that, because they really don’t give a damn... let’s just make sure we go after those evil unvaccinated people....I also had to laugh at how these compassionate, caring people encouraged and promoted unvaccinated babies to come to their building for the annual race....yeah, they are really concerned....