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I certainly don't agree on your Reed statement. Reed brought what this team totally misses. A shot blocking rim protecter. The main reason this team sucks defensively is we have no one who protects the rim. People drive on us and we have to help leaving wide open threes. Reed would be in the NBA if it weren't for his issues.

At this point you just put the best scorers on the court and forget about defense. They can’t play it anyway so why waste the energy trying? 1. Curcic 2. Jimerson 3. Parker 4. Thames/Hargrove 5. Ezewiro On offense Bombs away On defense play a 2-2 zone with Jimerson camped out on the offensive end waiting for an outlet pass.

For me personally, I can’t dog GJ or THJ. Both have been absolute troopers over the years. I’ve always thought GJ plays too many minutes, shooters need their legs down the stretch, and he’s not that great of a defender. THJ is what he is. Incredible heart and energy, but not a superstar. They both deserve the Purple Heart for putting up with Ford for 5 years.

I received a question in the Davidson spread thread from @SLU_Nick that I thought was interesting enough to create a new thread. Here it is... @The Wiz - what would the spread br if this team played the Crews/yarbrough/bartley team? Can the computer pull that one off? At first as was just going to give a simple ...no , the computer can't go back in time and play an old team....but then I thought while the computer can't do it on its own ...it might be able to do it if I helped it. I decided to give it a try. There were a lot of issues in trying to do that but one thing was I had the data base from back then....If I could convert the present day data back a decade I might be able to do the comparison. This led to a series of questions.... First (putting on my Doc Brown DeLorean hat) would going back in time upset the space time continuum. I decided it would be OK since things were a mess in the present. The next issue was how to convert the data into 2014-2016...The algorithms that I use now are different. The NCAA was different... 11 teams less . Even the game was different...a shorter 3P shot. But again, I not only had the data base from then but had the algorithm changes over the years. I could unwind the data using the changed rithms and go "back to the future". Once I was able to go back, I had to decide what to do? @SLU_Nick mentioned Yarbrough and Bartley teams. That really didn't help because they both played on 2 Crews teams...Crews 2014-15 and Crews 2015-16...these will be known going forward as C15 and C16. ...both bad teams but not the same. What to do?...Let's have a game between C15 & C16...again the space time continuum comes into play again as some of the same players are on both teams and are playing against themselves. But if the Delorean can do it so can the computer ...So we set the clock back to April 2016 and play the game at Chaifetz ..where both teams are the home team. C16 wins the game by 2. C16 turns out was the better team...While both C15 and C16 both had 11-21 records ...I had C15 with only 10 wins as 1 of the wins was not a D1 team. In addition C16 had a better SOS (B) than C16 (B- ). Further, C16 competed in an A10 conf that had 4 teams with 25+ wins....The C15 A-10 had only 2 teams with 25+ wins. So C16 with a tougher schedule , a better A-10 conf and 1 more win was the better team of the 2 bad Crews team. Overall grade C16...C-....C15 ..D. Next game was our current team against the C15 team.... Some other issues ....C15 played 31 games ...we have played only 19. ...Adjusting 3P shots for the 2 different time periods....etc. In this game, the Ford team wins by 3...btw the C16 game against Ford's current team ends in a tie...I didn't want to play the OT out ...The key piece of info was that the C16 team was equal to the present day team. Bottom line...The C15 team was worse than the present day team...however the season isn't over yet...I will leave it up to Nick if he wants to revisit this topic at the end of the season and see if the conclusion is different. We now return to 2024 using 1.21 gigawatts.

Phucking Phorgetable

I fear that forcing a computer to run a simulation between these two absolute dogsh-- teams could just be the turning point at which the robots turn against humanity, the technological equivalent of conjuring up an evil spirit. Please be careful.

General Outlook....We are stuck in the PIG pen and trending down. There is still plenty of season left (1/3 of conf play is over) but we need a few wins. We let one slip away with Dav. We have another opportunity with UMass. As you can see by the spread , the computer thinks this will be a close game. Of course, the computer thought the last game would be close. We have a leaking spot in our D and unless it is fixed, it will continue to wreck spreads ...sometimes in a big way such as Dav or SIU. I am talking about opponent TOs which lead to negative TO spreads. Let me show you some stat grades in this upcoming UMass game....TOs...SLU C+...UMass B...so far not too bad...but wait ...there is more ...opponent TOs....UMass ..A-....SLU...F- ..16th worst ITN...If those grades play out on Sat we could lose by 20 pts...if we can match them on TOs the game is a tossup. Point of information...UMass gives up an average of 11.1 TOs /per game and we usually rack up about 11/gm...so this is not pie in the sky stuff...It is doable. Fix this and we will start winning again. Leave it loose and we will continue to trend down. Let's take a look at the game.... Game Preview....We are still clinging to a C-... a loss will knock us down a notch. UMass comes in with a B. They are a better team than Dav BUT they do have some weaknesses. They are not a very good 3P or FT team. We need to take advantage of that. Dav wasn't a great shooting 3 team either missing a number of shots EXCEPT when we left them open. This will be a little bit different look than the average A10 team where you see a 4 guard lineup with a big guy. The Minutemen will use 2 big guys in their lineups. Their main men are Cohen who leads in PPG , FG% and is 2nd in rebs.....and Cross who leads in Rebs and is 2nd in PPG.... Stopping them will also give us a chance to win. I mentioned UMass wasn't very good from the arc ...close in they are an excellent B+...we will have to watch our fouls. Let's take a look at this game's report card.... Report Card.... The card is negative...No up and 2 down......The good news is that the defense did not go down...the bad news it is in bad shape .................SLU............Mass................SLU.........................Mass ...........................OFF..........................................DEF............. PPG..........D+..................A-..................D-...........................C FG%..........D+.................B....................D-............................B 3P%...........B.....................D..................D+...........................C- FT%..........B-....................D..................................................... Reb...........D.....................B+....................D...........................B- OFF Rebs = total rebs...DEF Rebs = opp reb UP...............Off....none.....Def....none Down.........Off....FG%...3P%......Def...none Top 100 In The Nation SLU Min /gm...Jimerson ...41st...dn Mass Rebs....Cross...73rd Injury /Illness report and misc The Bills....None Mass....None Keys to the Game.......Slow down Cohen and Cross....Make some 3s...Force some TOs...No open shots from the arc...protect the ball, no careless giveaways. WWN2D2W...Target slash...46/37/75....Hold Mass to 72 pts....Come within 1 on TOs and Rebs....Hold Cohen to 13 pts...Beat Mass on 3P% and FT%...Out score them from the arc. Keep their top 3 scorers to 37 pts...hold Cross to 6 rebs. Bottom line....If we can make a few 3s and force a few TOs, we can turn this thing around in a Minute man.

I'm going to be honest, it felt like the season ended Wednesday.

Unfortunately for the Billikens, it is now hard to win at home.

Don't hold me to exact numbers but they were saying on an espn game last week that the AP top ten had only won something like 40% of their true road games to date. It's obviously hard to win on the road.

I’m not sure how a team meeting improves the defense, but I will try to be optimistic.

I miss Goodwin.

It would be submitted to the Vatican to see if it was an actual miracle.

Reed was a stud. It's a shame he got in his own way. He could have been one of our all-time best.

Pacific would drop 80 on us this year

In case you missed it: Grant Huffman and Angelo Brizzi against Cian Medley and Mike Meadows Wednesday night: Huffman/Brizzi Medley/Meadows Points: 38 4 Assists: 10 5 Rebounds: 8 3 3pts: 5 - 7 0 - 2 Turnovers: 1 3 Combined, Meadows, Medley, Hughes and Jimerson were 3 of 16. Let's watch Saturday and see how far out Umass pushes our points as they cross the half court line. Quote

Things usually go one of two ways after a meltdown like Davidson 1) Come up totally fired up, dominates the game. Then lose a bunch of games after that. 2) Team totally quits, gets dominated. Then lose a bunch of games after that.

That's why we are in the PP.

Why is everyone having a meltdown? We all knew how much we sucked before the season started. to help everyone avoid a meltdown after the season...Ford will be back.

Ezewiro has zero conditioning. At one point in the 2nd half of the Davidson he was literally walking around on the court. We had a possession where we went for a layup before BE could even get across the 10 second line. Ford started taking him off the offensive free throw rebounds to keep him from having to run the floor. Sometimes he appears to be arguing with Ford when Ford wants to put him back in the game. Sometimes Ezewiro looks like he's not even going to make it to the bench. It's bad stuff. I think Jerry Pollard might be in better conditioning than Brad is at this point. He literally has the worst conditioning and stamina of any athlete in any sport and at any level that i have ever seen in my entire life. Big Cozy looks like an olympic sprinter compared to where Ezewiro is at. I don't know if it's a health issue or what but Ezewiro is just exhausted and gassed after about 15 minutes of play. Honestly watching a young man struggle to move up and down the floor like that, while being a pro athlete, suggests it might be a health problem, that is pure conjecture based on nothing.. however watching a guy be gassed like that is not normal. That said when he is on he is pretty good. Best big you've ever seen? Man you haven't been watching for long then. Voyoukas and Heinrich and Loe and Willie Reed especially were much better. Did you miss watching Willie Reed? Anthony Bonner? Ezewiro is listed 6' 9" .. AB is 6' 8" .. AB played 133 games and AVERAGED 15 pts and 11 rebs per game through all of those. He did that against Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, etc. game in and game out. AB was a first round NBA draft pick. You think Ezewiro is a first round NBA draft pick? What team have you been watching because it wasn't the SLU billikens. Jimerson has an incredible 3pt% for his career. Among the best. He is a trash athlete and has no speed whatsoever and can't defend however. He's mildly better than Lisch for career(39.5 for KL and 40.2 for GJ) however look at their other stats, rebounds and so on.. Jimerson is way, way behind. Jimerson literally just shoots. Look at his career stats; few fouls, few rebounds, few anything. Just shots. Lisch has the kind of stats that reflect a combo SG/PG who not only made shots but handled the ball and played defense against quality offensive players. You're right that Jimerson is overrated by us due to the roster compositions he's played with, but he is a very good 3pt shooter, if someone is giving him the ball(Miss YC yet?) Your statement about LOFT is true but you overestimate this teams talent still. This recruiting class, for THIS year, is the worst since Jim Crews and ranks among the worst 5 in Billiken history. Ekker could not manage to bring in players as bad as Ford has this year. Dalger, Ezewiro, Zhang, Curcic, Bussel, Magassa. What a failure.

It’s past the point complaining about our current situation. Instead, I’d rather discuss what I would like to see happen after the end of MBB season. 1. Hire a new AD. Go get a business savvy person who can bring in new donors, raise real money for program, facility projects, manage a budget and has a clear exciting vision for program. 2. Get a new MBB coach that isn’t a retread and actually wants to make SLU a top 50 program. Do the homework and get the right person for job, don’t chase big names from the 90’s. 3. Build a real baseball facility. I can’t believe arguably the top performing program, does anyone check the records?, with a fraction of mbb budget plays in such a bad set up. It’s embarrassing and such a gut punch to coaches, alumni and current players. In this city that baseball field should be the regional gold standard. Instead it’s a regional running joke. 4. Build a softball field same reasons except winning part historically. Do this just because it right thing to do and needs to be D1 standards. 5. Hope Katie Shields can reload with another powerful assistant and Kalish can keep it up with growth off great young recruiting class. Everything starts with cleaning house and getting rid of May and Ford at the top. Program needs a fresh start and new ideas, new leadership in place. What else would everyone like to see happen? Now is time to start talking about what’s next instead of beating real dead horses!

This is fair. I’ve got no issues with putting some pressure out there and making it clear the fan base is unhappy, but I don’t see the point in saying things like “he doesn’t care” or worse direct personal attacks. None of us know his real opinions or level of involvement at all, except for A-bomb and his “reports”.

This is an excellent point. The big donors are free to do whatever they want with their money, just like we are. Dragging big donors on social media when we can't replace their money doesn't seem very wise.

Welcome to internet Message Boards

My ***** about this board is someone says something without any real knowledge and it becomes gospel. Blaming Chaifetz for saving Ford is pure speculation and I have my reasons to believe it is false.

Understood, but the flirtation lasted about a week. Can you blame him for exploring what's out there with NIL when SLU seemingly had little to nothing to offer at that time? At the same time, we also have a lot of fans (rightfully so) very critical for SLU to be slow in developing their NIL game. It seems to me, Yuri's flirtation was a good thing - it was a wake-up call... a catalyst for at least trying to develop a NIL strategy... which currently a lot of fans still think is not enough. Imagine how far behind SLU would be with NIL if Yuri didn't provide a wake-up call. He's a local kid who stayed home, played all four years, became the school's all-time leading assists leader, A-10 all-time assists leader and led the nation twice in a statistical category (something I imagine has never happened in SLU history. Those are things that would typically be celebrated.

I tweeted that rich chaifetz should be embarrassed to have his name on the court where that team last night was playing. I stand by that take and would tweet that at him every day until that clown travis ford is gone and the program gives that court something to be proud of.

To follow up….the donors and BoT SLU already have done more than enough and then some over the years. It’s not fair to those individuals to keep being expected to throw money at every problem, they didn’t create! That’s my biggest wish, get an AD that uses the resources given like they were their own. Travis needed locker rooms, charter flights, new offices, this and that they stepped up big time and got nothing but excuses and more smoke blown up their butts. It’s not right. Everyone deserves better. Just wanted to make that point clear. Big donors and BoT have stepped up. To say anything bad about or wish away Dr. Chaifetz is a huge mistake and silly. Him along with other big donors care a lot and go off of the advice they are given by the person paid by slu to run department. They only know what they are told. Now if they can’t see they’ve been mislead and entrusted a moron all these years, well now that’s on them. It is all fixable, and very easily. Big picture SLU has a lot going for it. Just need the right people in place to steer program in right direction, not settle for more of the same mediocrity.

What if we just whited-out "Travis" on the contract and brought in Dana Ford? I'm not a lawyer but I feel like this might hold up in court.