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Hey guys - I noticed you referenced that the men's team won both of their games this past week but I didn't hear you guys reference this board in communicating that information. The continued plagiarism of communicating public information is a little worrisome. I posted something on this board about Jimerson scoring 28 points and within the first 5 minutes, Peter said that Jimerson scored 28 WITHOUT referencing MY post. I will contact you directly but just letting you know that I have hired a lawyer about this so you'll be hearing from him shortly. Until then, I will go back to having way too much information on high school girls.

nesbit's put back slam earlier this year imo is the best billiken dunk of the year.

Chance 2 Dance Big games this week...besides ours, VCU plays Day and Dav plays St. B....Assuming we win, if St. B and VCU win, there may only 2 left on the C2D list...The Bills and VCU. If it goes another way, then things could become more jumbled...a lot of close games coming up. If you need more info on C2D then check out the thread by the same name. The Bills......59%...up 9% VCU..............57%...up 3% Dav...............42%.....down 1% Day...............40%....down 4% Takeaways...We are the best team in the A-10...As of now it looks like 2 bids for the A-10. As for this game, GM comes in as a B team...we are at A-. The days of marshmallow picking are over. It is time to get to work....Feb means it is time to show your stuff. As you can see by the spread, this is setting up as a nail biter. BUT it doesn't have to be. GM has some weak spots, If we can take advantage, we could cruise. Let's see what we are dealing with.... ...................SLU.....................GM..........................SLU.........................GM .................................OFF..........................................................DEF............. PPG...............A........................C..............................B-...........................B FG%...............B.......................B+.............................B+...........................B- 3P%..............B+......................B+.............................B..............................C- FT%...............A........................D................................................................. Reb...............A.........................D+..............................A-..........................A OFF Rebs = total rebs...DEF Rebs = opp reb UP....Off...none.....Def.....PPG...FG% Down....Off...none.....Def...none Team FTs... Top 10 Teams ITN FTM/gm....The Bills...9th...dn Top 100 ITN (In The Nation)/ gm SLU Assts...Collins... 1st... unch...can't go higher than 1st Stls......Collins....28th....up FT%...Jimerson...73rd...unch PPG...Jimerson...66th...dn Dou-Dou....Collins...42nd...up FG%....Okoro....78th...new Off Reb...Okoro...60th...up FTA/FGA....Linssen...62nd...up Asst/TO ratio...Jones...69th...up GM FG%...Oduro...65th Reb...Gaines...73rd Assts...Johnson...67th Blks...Oduro...68th 3P%...Gaines...56th Dou-Dou...Gaines...68th Injury/ Illness None Keys to the game...SCORE...Mason likes to play a slow , low scoring game...the last game it played at UMass is a good example...beating them 72-62...they like to score around 70 and let the opp score around 60. Pick up the tempo and make shots. A good defense with a weak spot...they don't defend the 3 very well...we will get some looks. They also aren't a great rebounding team. We need to take advantage of that. A good shooting team but they can;t make FTs except Schwartz...Finally, they have a starting 5 which is pretty good but not much of a bench. We need to open up the game when ever they bring in subs. WWN2D2W.... 46/36/77... Rebs ..diff of 7+.....11 TOs GM doesn't turn the ball over unless you bother them. Pressure them...that will also tire them and force them to use their bench. Hold GM's top 4 scorers to 42pts. Don't let Oduro block you. ...no more than 1 blk for him. Gaines & Cooper are their 3 pt guys ...hold them to 7 shots. Open the lead up with 10 min left in the 2nd half as they tire. Score 80...The closer we get to 80 the better our chances to win. Bottom line...We are the better team...the home field advantage makes this a tight game. But this game is ours to take if we want it...Play like we did the last 3 games...Energy and focus ...and we win....Chasin' Mason...Stop them by George.

His playing through it is better than Zardes or Morris. Plus, it's not as though Pepi is in some terrible funk.

Great game to watch live. In this video, taken by Earl, you see my group in the background. We are the guys wearing the gray Billiken shirts. Taj and Billiken Booster were there as well.

Kobe Bryant missed more shots than anyone in NBA history. He's also fourth in all-time scoring and was third until Lebron recently passed him. There's a direct correlation between Kobe's usage rate and both his missed and made shots, very similar to the correlation between Yuri's usage rate and his assists/turnovers. If he continues through his remaining games based on eligibility (~80) at just his career average of 6.5 he'd end up with 974 career assists. That's assuming a fifth year but no post-season games. If he continues through his remaining games with that same guesstimated 80 games at his current average of 8.4 he'd end up with 1,126 career assists which would put him a comfortable 50 assists above the all-time career leader Bobby Hurley. If he stays for a 5th year and plays that guesstimated 80 games at the average of his career and current season average - 7.45 - he'd end up with 1,050 assists just 26 shy of Bobby. This calculation is to show that there's room for regression though we have every reason to expect progression. I think it's more realistic that he averages closer to 8.4 than 6.5 given the talent we have and are returning, and I'd be more surprised to see his average below 9 than above it by the season's end. We're clicking well, and he's the key to that. Add Perkins next year and he could very well average 12 assists per game - pipe dream from a Yuri stan, maybe, but there's an argument there and you all know it.

The fact that Perkins doesn't need Yuri to get him shots, also means Yuri can offload some of the ballhandling duties. Which means less shots from Yuri and less shots for the role players because Perkins is a better offensive option. And less turnovers. And instead of playing hot potato with reluctant teammates in the last 5 minutes, Yuri gets the ball to Perkins. Perkins averages his 17-18 ppg, Gibson gets his 14-15 ppg, Nesbitt gets his 10 ppg, Okoro gets his 10 ppg, Yuri again leads the league in assists and everyone else gets in where they fit in.

This list got me real fired up today, so much so that I spend a significant amount of my afternoon researching and developing my argument as to why it's bullshiot and Yuri should be on it. This spreadsheet is a culmination of that R&D and the scientific conclusion is that the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame can go fuock themselves.

If we're doing cross-sport analogies, a better one for assists/turnovers would be TDs/INTs. Yuri is clearly Brett Favre.

I think it’s sometimes assumed you can play a good full court D just because you have great athletes. Though you need that athleticism, it takes a lot more. It’s not just 5 guys just out “athleting” ( I know it’s not a word) the other team. It takes a lot of practice and opens you up to a lot of risk on the other end if you aren’t very good at it. I’m not a fan unless you are all in on it and then I’m not even sure. How many teams play havoc type D and go far in the tournament? And there are plenty of teams with equal or better athletes than SLU. Why don’t more teams do it?

Not to light a debate, but this might be the nastiest dunk in SLU history.

After mid-January 2020, Perkins is a 42.3% 3P shooter. His first few games here, he struggled mightily with his shot. Ever since then, he has been extremely efficient from deep. It is crazy to watch JP play and come out with "nothing special". He was the a10 preseason POY for a reason

Yuri will have minimum 75-76 games remaining and it’s entirely possible he has 80. There are 4 players in NCAA history with over 1000 assists. With 75 games remaining he’ll need 7.3 to be the 5th. All of the 4 have career t/o rates of 3.2 or higher topped by the number 1 guy ( hmmm the guy with the most assists also turns the ball over the most. Who’d have thought that ) Bobby Hurley at 3.9 Those of you who think that a guy with 8+ assists a game has too many t/o’s with a 2/1 rate should probably quit posting on Billikens.com and just spend some extra time learning about the game. Does that mean he never makes a bad pass or a bad decision? Nope but in the end a 2/1 rate with his assist numbers is better than just good

Goodwin has been on a tear recently. This performance was against the Ignite, which is mostly comprised of player who forgoed college to play their 1 year pro before the draft, so some high level talent Jordan is dropping near triple doubles on.

Believe me, I want Pepi to succeed big time. After seeing what Canada has up front, the US is lacking big time. But, as you stated, Pepi is in a slump and many pundits agree. The answer is just not apparent. Ricardo Pepi, meanwhile, hasn’t scored in 12 hours of game time for Dallas, Augsburg or the US. He has struggled.

He would have his junior and senior year as the starter.

-yeah, I've had the same thought, no doubt that he is one tough hombre

I made one slight edit

Totally agree. If you ask any coach of a sports team anywhere if they would like to add an elite player to their lineup, the answer is yes. Not a single one is going to say, no thanks, we're good, we've already got our points accounted for. If Perkins comes back, it will be very difficult for teams, especially A-10 teams to guard all of our guys. If Yuri has Okoro underneath, and Perkins, Jimerson and Nesbitt to hit outside or streaking to the basket, watch out.

Brett Favre never played any defense. Yuri plays great on-ball defense and takes violent charges. Bonds played great defense, stole bases, and scored hella runs. He just happened to be one of the biggest whiffers of his era. He was a borderline HOF candidate nonetheless.

Additionally, Yuri sits just 21 shy of 10th all-time on SLU's Career Steals leaderboard. If he continues with his average of 2.1 steals per game, assuming ~80 games left in his career, he would finish with 279 career steals to put him a whole 54 steals ahead of Goodwin for #1 on the leaderboard. If Yuri finishes #1 in both categories, (likely) doubling the previous assists record and holding the steals record by 50 units over 2nd place and nearly 100 over 3rd place, he is unarguably the greatest Billiken point guard of all time and one of the best in any position. To further emphasize my point, if Yuri continues at his career average of 6.7PPG - which is nearly 4PPG fewer than this season's average - he will end his career as a 1,000 point scorer as well. If Yuri plays another ~80 games at the average of his career and current season's average - 8.5PPG - that puts him at 1,149 career points and just 11 points shy of Top 25 Billiken scorers of all time.

Peter and Zac break down double digit wins vs George Washington and at Duquesne. Talk about Yuri Collins breaking the all time SLU assist record held by Josh Fisher. They take a look at the up and down week on the women's basketball side. They recap the week that was for SLU Tennis and Swimming and Diving as well as run down the newly released SLU Softball Schedule View the full article

This pressed changed the game. And we didn't stay in it too long.

The 1-3-1 half court zone trap was a beauty to watch at Duquesne Saturday. But the very design and employ of the strategy is tough. First, you need a relatively big, athletic guy at the top of the "1". That used to be Foreman, and Saturday it was Hargrove and Thatch. Fred is not "big" but he was big enough to rattle both Johnson and Spears. That big is designed to reign havoc on the top guys and that happen a few times Saturday. The next key is then the bottom "1." This is usually a little or smaller guy who is fast because he is going to have to run from baseline to baseline to hinder the lower wing threes. That was Collins and he did it well. There were quite a few turnovers and misplayed passes that we caused with that. But you can't run with it all day because you will tire that bottom "1" out and when that guy is Collins, who is working his ass on our offensive end, you have to pick and choose your spots. We did the press right after we started raining the threes down on Duquesne. Those shots, coupled with the press, coupled with the turnovers that press provided, was great. Yes, the Dukes got some three on those lower wins but I was well okay with Okani, Acuff, Spears and Ayers taking them. Hell, they shot 5 for 17 from three and three of the made five came from Easley, their power forward. It was a good Travis move in that one.

screw Perkins dunks, his finger rolls are sexy enough

He also had an impressive contested tomahawk dunk against Seton Hall. So many excellent dunkers in the program recently, but I stand by that Stickland is definitely the best ever. I wish other parts of his game would advance so he could get more court time.

He will for sure. UT and Colorado( but esp UT) did everything they could to keep him.

The big change that occurred over the past few games has been the reduction in turnovers by Thatch and Hargrove. If those two play mistake free, and if Yuri keeps the TO’s to a reasonable level, then I forecast a win.

Yep, the athletes in the Ford era are way better than what the program had in previous eras. What makes a great dunk is certainly subjective, but if you did a a Top 10 list of dunks - Strickland would probably have 5 of them. They happen in garbage time, so sometimes they get lost in the shuffle. He had two amazing ones against URI last year and one against Fordham. French also had his share of explosive dunks and Hargrove has had some impressive ones where he glides. Nesbit has delivered a few really strong ones too. Not sure if they still do a skills competition at the Final Four, but if so, Strickland should definitely enter the dunk contest.

BC beat Pitt today. Blew them out. Their NET is bad, but they're 4-6 in the (admittedly very weak) ACC. Every little bit helps.

There is no debate. And it's not even close. Mo Jeffers vs Bona is the gold standard. I don't know if there's video....Attn Brian Kunderman...but it would be AWESOME if we could relive it. Second place is Adam Knollmeyer with help of the trash can.

From a fan’s perspective I see Parker taking minutes away from Hargrove and Strickland. If Perkins comes back that would put Thatch back on the bench. Another issue for Hargrove and Strickland’s playing time could be Kellen Thames. I enjoy scoring from our team and if Perkins comes back with Jimerson, Nesbitt and Parker with strong post presence Okoro I think the team average scoring could be something we have never seen before.

No challenge intended here, but I am curious what you define as 'best athletes'? Is it the strongest on the bench press? Fastest 94 feet? Quickest in a shuttle? Highest vertical? To me it might be a combination of them all for best athlete, but none of these criteria lead directly to hoops or defense. The 'best athlete' may not be the best basketball player. My personal list of SLU's 5 best athletes would not include either Jimerson or Collins.

I'd love to play like Florida State. Except Florida State athletes can actually handle the ball and shoot. If your offensive contribution is mostly alley-oops, your basketball utility is limited. In today's college game, the top teams are very good halfcourt teams. It's not an accident that Florida State has struggled in the halfcourt this year and aren't the team we're used to seeing. Just throwing athletes on the floor, turning people over and dunking on the other end works great in high school, though.

thought this myself, you beat me to it, but you are right. he will not be rehabbed by the start of g league camps and such. might as well get the great resources available at slu

No, only speculated. I think all SLU fans are in agreement that we want what’s best for Javonte. If a great offer in Europe presents itself, SLU fans will be happy. If he needs another summer/fall in college to rehab and rebuild his stock, we will cheer for him as loud as we can. SLU fans are completely supportive of Javontes future, whatever that is.

The point is TO/gm isn't really a good metric for determining PG quality..... no one is saying YC = Magic.....

down by 1pt with 10 seconds left... Jett down by 2pt with 10 seconds left... Kwamain

@Midtown Madness if you make mention of Glaze and rubber fists on your next podcast, please make sure to reference me on this message board. Thanks!

Absolutely. I donated when Steve had the last call for donations, so I know I have more reactions than regular MBMs, but how much money did @Pistol have to fork over for unlimited reactions???? Connecting the dots here: Clearly Pistol has a boatload of cash to make such a sizeable donation AND to do all the tireless recruiting research for no pay AND to have the time to co-host a weekly Podcast also for no pay. Pistol recently added chess coverage to the Podcast... Who do we know who has a boatload of cash AND loves chess...BINGO...Rex Sinquefield It's pretty clear that Pistol is a pawn backed by Rex to infiltrate our beloved Billikens.com message board, earn our trust with years upon years posting his recruiting info, co-hosting a Podcast, etc., and then slowly but surely turn us from basketball fans to chess fans. Pistol's commie/leftist political stances are a perfect cover for his ties to Rex. The whole thing is diabolical.

Think SLU would ever entertain a middle-aged alumni race with spouses at the opposite baseline encouraging us as we crawl across the court? My wife dangling Frasier season 3 in one hand and a rice paper wrap from Lona's in the other hand..

Not that some GW MBM needs to be corrected on here, but I was curious so I looked it up. Ford has indeed coached 20 season at the D1 level in which an NCAA tournament has taken place (not counting the current year or 2019-20). His teams have made the NCAA tournament in 7 of the 20 seasons (and NIT in 4 others). Of the 9 seasons he didn't make a postseason, 4 were his 1st 4 years at Eastern Kentucky, 1 his 1st year at UMass, and 2 his first 2 at SLU. That leaves just 2 seasons in which Ford had a mid-major or better team with a roster mostly full of his own players where his teams missed NCAA or NIT. Those were both at OK State in year 4 & his 8th / final year. Each of those teams wasn't terrible in the grand scheme 97th & 98th in KenPom respectively out of 350+ D1 schools. They had awful records though in the loaded Big 12. Travis Ford's teams seem to always be pretty good, but never great and extremely rarely bad. Not counting his time at EKU & including this season to date, his teams have finished with a final KenPom rating between 21 and 106 in 16 of 18 seasons. The lone exception is his first 2 years at SLU.

It’s no different than basketball. Any time something doesn’t achieve what you thought it should have, as a fan you are required to assume that whatever you thought should have been done would have achieved your desired results. Therefore it’s a coaching mistake. Pulisic certainly didn’t have a good game. He also seems to go down to easy and then complain about not getting a call.

If we aren't calling Jett a PG, I'm not sure how we can call Kwam or McCall PGs either. Jett actually finished his career with the most assists of that trio. He had 422, Kwam had 420 (in the fewest games), and McCall 339. If we had to pick a primary ball hander, I'd say that each had a year or more that they fit the description. Kwam was probably the guy his first 3 years, McCall his freshman year, and Jett his senior year. Interesting thing about the really good Majerus teams is that they did not have a true PG, but had those 3 combo guards / guys who could handle the ball & run the offense (I'd add Cassity as another guy who could run things, but without the same scoring ability). It made our offense more dynamic / harder to defend to have those 3 guys who could run the offense / handle the ball. Contrast that with our team today. If you have a solid plan to disrupt Yuri (easier said than done), things can grind to a halt even though I think we have more offensive talent on the current team.

Can’t speak for anyone pre-Majerus era, but for one game I still have to go with Kwamain over Yuri. I don’t even want to try and fold Goodwin and Jett into the conversation lol. McCall always seemed to be more of the ball-handler on those Jett teams; would slot him third. Lisch was more of a pure SG.

If McCall got to play in Ford's offense with the shooters we have, he would be very high on this list. I think he's maybe the most underrated billiken of my fandom (post-2000ish)

At their best, Jett was more of a PG than Goodwin.

This is a strange list because Yuri is a sophomore(-ish). I believe Yuri is and will be Number 1 on this list. He will blow away all of the assists records by a mile. His scoring is decent. Defense is great. In games where he keeps his turnovers low, it feels like an indisputable fact. Somewhere, Mike McCall is hitting a heavy bag in frustration.