Taj79

I agree that Fordham is a trap game as well --- all mediocre teams will be that way as we progress. If weren't their "super bowl" before, we are now. We have righted the ship and while we still have found no consistent interior option to offset Conklin's play, we seem to have "found" that good defense works almost every night. With this defense, finding a Conklin replacement is not as key as I originally thought it would have been. Rather, we have replaced his scoring by using our defense to instigate our offense. Nice compensation. For Fordham, Chris Gaston again missed yesterday's game "due to injury." I don't know if this is a new one but he did have to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery late this November. Gaston last played 31 minutes against Charlotte on January 16th, this coming after 34 minutes on January 13 against Umass. He was deemed out for about a month after that surgery and came back as noted but hasn't made an appearance since that Charlotte game where he went 1-for-12 from the field. Anybody know anything? W/o Gaston, Fordham is Brendan Frasier and prayer. Richmond is scarier. Overall 14 and 9 but with a home win against VCU (based on VCU's inability to close it out at the line). They are small so it will take our collective defense to task once again. Momentum and stuff says we need to win both to remain a national conversation piece. Currently moved up to tie for second in A10. One team is Charlotte and they won't be able to hold up over time. That will leave VCU, Butler, us and a fourth from La Salle and St. Joe's as we move forward. Must maintain the mojo this week on the road. Road is tough but this week is doable.

That has got to be the worst Dayton team I have ever seen in my life. Not so much talent-wise, but Dillard and Benson are not Archie Miller guys and have seemed to quit on the coach. Benson was benched because he was not really rebounding or pushing his game as a senior should be. There were times in the first half where you could see him arguing/disdaining advice with the bench as he returned to his defensive position. Yes, he went hard to the hole and kind of had the attitude of "fuok you" and did score 12 but he was indeed a cancer as I think Pistol pointed out. Dillard was a non-entity. Just like Clarke Thursday night. Again, you cannot expect one man to be both a scorer and a distributor. One or the other but not both. Announcers were saying how Dillard seemed to be auditioning for his "next" job --- hinted at NBA but doubted it and decided Europe I think. They said he was trying to show he's more of a true point for NBA types. Yeah, Benson out-assisted him two to one. I was communicating with two YouDee friends of mine as the game played out and their only positive comment was "Archie Miller's not going anywhere" when I stated YouDee had quit on him but it wasn't"his" guys. Damn straight --- the only place he'd be going to is oblivion because he has done nothing to suggest his resume is any good to begin with. It was a nice burial and the whole broadcast turned into a SLU/Majerus publicity piece. They had to talk about something. As larry72 noted, the color man, when pushed,said he'd take Butler as his team from the A10 "when everyone is hitting on all cylinders." He'd be a fool ---- because if we play defense like this past week every night, and Mike, Kwam, Cody,Rob and Jake are raining threes,and Dwanye,Cory and Grandy control the boards and we make all free throws ---- Butler is dead. Just lie Thursday night. Then the guy parlayed over and selected VCU. Again, no way in my book. He did not select us. The bottom line in this week and in week's to come is our ability to impose our will and our style on opposing teams. My only disappointment is we didn't have 10K in the house. Damn!

Results = Losses in La Salle and Charlotte. Record goes to 21 and 9.

I don't see a lot of "Crews' stuff" on the court frankly. I see a lot in terms of the continuation of what Majerus installed. I admit to not being smart enough to see the changes or variations, if any, in the warp speed of college basketball. But if there was ever a "ight" time for tragedy, it would seem to be better handled if you have a population heavy in the returning guys who've been there before. Both Crews and Whitesell were there last year. This is Cody's and Cory's fourth year in the program, Mitchell's fifth, and McCall, Jett and Loe all have three. Evans has three. Can you imagine what this would have been like if Majerus had been here only a year or two? Crews was abrasive at best in his time at Evansville. He went to a job where he failed (Army) which was also in no way a step up from the Valley. He and Majerus go back to the second dream team so he repaid or did a favor. Now,he finds himself running autopilot on HOF coattails. I don't know for certain but someone here said he does not like recruiting, none of the old dinosaurs like what the scenery is out there in today's high school/AAU entourage world. Getting a kid from Tipton, Indiana likely speaks volumes about that kid's character and "Hoosier-like" qualities but as for playing at the highest levels, I don't know. Unlike some of these small-minded boosters mention above, I want a a program that goes to the Dance 50 to 70% of the time. One that if it doesn't make the Dance, is all but a lock for the NIT. No CBI. No college.insider (maybe on our worst years). I want Saint Louis mentioned in the same breath as Gonzaga, Butler, and Xavier are now. When I ask myself "Do I see Jim Crews being the face of that program and leading the charge?", the answer is an emphatic "NO." If we continue to win, all the pundits and talking heads on TV will advocate the hiring of Crews. It's what they do. Eventually, when someone wakes Knight up to what an old player and coach of his is doing, he;ll likely carry the banner and all the Diggers and Dickies and Greenbergs and Pearls will lock stuff i behind the general. If I'm Chris May, I want to hire the guy my career will now ride on. He didn't do that with Majerus and he certainly didn't do it with Crews.

Human nature amplified by teen-age (mostly) hormones. When you are the better team (and I can't see us as the underdog against any A10 team on a neutral court right now) you become everybody's Super Bowl. Therefore taking a night off is not an option. When you're onb (New Mexico, Texas A&M, mButler) it's a thing of beauty. When you're not, you can be road kill quite quickly.

Big Saturday around the A10 coming up. All 16 team sgoing head-to-head in 8 games. Still, short of us an dDayton and Temple and St. Joe's, not a lot of "quantifying" games. What's out there to build on (Current: 15 and 7): La Salle at George Washington: I suspect La Salle will have the upper hand come the Wizline, and while the talent level at GeeDub is not that good, I think GeeDub can surprise the Explorers in DC as they did Charlotte (badly). La Salle did win on the road at VCU but I still think VCU's style allowed La Salle to play Philly playground ball. I don't see GeeDub doing thast, rather settling into a halfcourt game to use their height advantage with Armwood down low. Plus I'm still not sold on La Salle since they chunked up their mojo against Umass at Gola. I think GeeDub will prevail. Upset. Dayton at Saint Louis; TRAP GAME! The Bills must find a way to sustain and invest on the Butler dividends. Bills do, somehow, someway. Umass at Charlotte: Charlotte is overrated; Umass won already on road in Philly at La Salle. Umass. Rhode Island at Butler: Don't want to be Danny Hurley come Saturday. Butler takes its out on the Rams. Duquesne at the Bonnies: Bonnies have stewed for a week now since losing their Philly-obtained mojo to us. They'll roll in beautiful, downtown Oh-Lee-In. Duquesne is bad and it might be a "rivalry" game for the Brown Indians. Xavier at Richmond: After what I saw on Wednesday, I can't believe Xavier is going to win this road contest or any road contest again an equal opponent. Richmond. Temple at St. Joe's: Short of ours, could be game of the night. On CBS Sports Network at 5 Central for those interested. The loser here can likely kiss their Dance hopes goodbye, short of Brooklyn. St. Joe's has to be the candidate for biggest A10 underachiever of the year so far. It's at Hawk Hill and not the neutral Palestra but I don't know if that matters. Still not impressed with Wyatt's supporting cast -- St. Joe's. Fordham at VCU: Fordham. Okay, that was a joke. No chance for the Rams. Although VCU seems to be getting outted as conference play evolves as well. Rams should run away and hide in this one. Now, to my friend the Wiz ............

Closing out the Wed/Thurs picks with a 5 and 1 record, raising the overall to 15 and 7.

After last night, Dayton has one thing written on it -- TRAP GAME. One day turnaround. Beating a Top Ten team hangover. Dayton coming off a loss and not liking us to begin with. If this is indeed our rival, as some suggested in another thread, --- danger, danger Will Robinson!!! All the hard work and cred earned in last night's game (which was magnificent on CBS Sports, thank you!) will evaporate quicker than you can say "Rudy Flyer." I did not post last night but was glued to the set all the same. Hope you good old SOBs had that toast and drink in our absence. I say yes because it worked. I said to a few buddies how can we be ahead at half with literally no points from Evans, Mitchell, McCall and Ellis? It is a team that can have some player, some other player(s), step to the fore every night. Some observatiosn from a couch in Maryland: If Loe is a weak insider player, Smith is even weaker. I thought Rob had his way on the inside in the first half and that is a really hard thing for Rob to do. While making Clarke work his ass off for everything, not letting Dunham become an option was also key. And stated pregame, Clarke is the primary scorer AND point guard and I don't think you can do both well in the same night. I also pointed out that if anyone would pass to a teammate, it would be Jones. Between them they had half of Butler's 14 assists. While our defense was indeed suffocating, I thought the Butler players did not use their screens well enough. Almost every high screen set by a Bulldog for Clarke was easily stepped over and through by McCall and Jett. Was not impressed with Butler's bench coming into the game. Even less impressed after the game. But fully expect them to come out to "punk" us in our return matchup in Indy. Jones was no match for Evans down low in the second half. Dwayne's second half reminded me of some of the interior play we saw last year from Conklin. He scared me early once again with foul trouble and the second one was a phantom call. But neither Jones nor Marshall beat Dwayne for all A10 honors -- just can't see it. Issues? Biggest one to me is can we get a rebound? We only lost the board battle 35 to 28 according to ESPN but it seemed like more. If we disallow those rebounds and make a few more shots, we could've won by 30! But the total game was amazing. Too bad JJ misses that left-handed baseline slam and DE pops a couple off his legs in closing. Tiose were potenial exclamation points to bring the house down. Dayton is weak but they rebound well, especially on the offensive end. They rebound 42% of their missed shoits, tops in the conference. Have to stop that. McCall should be able to neutralize Dillard some. Sanford, the transfer from Georgetown, is a slasher. Oliver is a garbage bucket player. Benson has always been somewhat weak in the middle. Dreckenbacher is the latest version of Luke Fabrizeus -- he only seems to shoot the three. Khari Price is nursing a thigh/hamstring problem. The only kid on the whole roster I like and take fo rus would Jalen Robinson but we have to come out intense.

oh real nice sweetie-hubby-poo!

@thicks -- because you'll get "backhanded?'

This kid, like Dillard for Dayton, seems to be the 'Dawgs main ballhandler and scorer, especially when Dunham is not in there. With Dunham in, he has a secondary shooter to pass to. Clarke averages 32.0 minutes per game and Dunham averages 28.2 despite not starting. Going to be a tough one ---- the front line starters all average 10+ point per game and all average at least 23 minutes per game so getting somone in foul trouble and to the bench would help. Going to have to be man-a-mano. Dunham, Marshall and Smith all average combined about one assist per game so if they have the ball, they are likely keeping it. Jones is second best in assists so I would concentrate on making sure I covered my man, even when Jones and Clarke are driving. And whoever has Clarke cannot ever leave him to double elsewhere. EVER. Same with Dunham. If you're jumping the screen, stay there until your help arrives. Make someone else beat us.

PROST! You ugly sons of *******! Wish I were there but will be in spirit on CBS SN. Take 'em down.

I think SIU and Mo State see us maybe in the same vein we see Mizzou --- not as that much of a rival now but someone who could be and needs ot be if we/they are to move up from our current plights/stations in the college basketball world. SIU and Mo State are regional schools at best. they don';t command the same respect as Illinois or Mizzou. Neither Illinois nor Mizzou will play them, they don't HAVE to. Same with us and Mizzou. We want them more thna they want us and for SIU and Mo State to move to that echelon, they need to take us down an dout of the way to be relevant in some circles. X does not see Dayton as it's rival, Dayton sees X that way. Dayton's real rival might actually be Miami of Ohio although that woudl be lookign down for most SVU alumni. X is looking at the Crosstown Shootout for it's rival as someone pointed out. For those around back in the early- to mid-80's, Butler was the doormat of the old MCC. You wiped your ass with Butler. Same with Tulane in the old Metro. DePaul is living there in the current Big East. I have no clue how Butler all of a sudden rose to these heights --- they go out, be a middling to ace program of a low major conference, score a couple of NCAA upsets, and next thing karma puts them in not one but two NCAA title games. By the way, Gonzaga has never won anything either but an upset or two and off you go. That's why making the Dance is the gold standard fo rme. Stevens has Butler chugging along quite nicely thank you. He appears to want to stay. Let's see how he does either in the A10 or the C7+5 for a while. Tonight's game will be big. Butler still has to go to VCU and Umass so those are tough games onthe road. Butler is also not deep. I have seen enough ovf VCU to think Shaka will never be as high as he was the last year or two. URI tore up his "Havoc" as did La Salle. Maybe that played well in the Colonial. And getting athletes doesn't mean they'll automatically develop either. We do NOT have a rival. We want Mizzou as Louisville has Kentucky. They won't let that happen.

@kshoe -- my goal is to always make you laugh. I don't care how it turns out, ain't betting no money on it. I ignored my loss because, well, frankly, I'd expect you to expect me to do that. Thanks tho. @westy -- no those were actually predictions. Read second graph, opening post. While I predicted La Salle to win last night (and lost) I also projected them to possibly run the table given a rather weak closing schedule. Now, based on the Umass input, I will have to relook at that. I don't think the Umass win, despite the Wiz' second largest spread going to La Salle last night, is all that surprising given we had two middle-of-the-road teams (preseason), with one coming off arguably its most difficult part of the schedule (La Salle) with the two biggest wins in its recent history (Butler and VCU) , playing at home in its sullen pit (Gola). That had trap game written all over the place. @cowboy --- I watched the first half last night and have to admit it was pretty horrid basketball. It actually sent me to bed. On a neutral court, our talent is far superior to either of these teams. Xavier is just way too young and unproven. They go six-and-ahalf deep because I'm counting Redford as too ne-dimensioanl and limited. Not impressed. One intersting note the announcing team made was that Dayton leads the conference in offensive rebounding, to the tune of rebounding 42% of thei rown missed shots. We need to stop that. Plus they also said dayton leads the conference in 3FG% and 3FG's made per game. That's what they said an dI'm too lazy to confirm it. They made 8-of-16 last night and Derenbecker made alkl threeof hi sin the first half while Dillard made al lfour of his in the second. Kind of obvious who their shooters are. Devin Oliver is a true garbage player and the only guiy I liked was freshman Jalen Robinson. Nine total fouls on Xavier all night. Wow!

Ignoring the upset would make me 4 and 0 last night but 4 and 1 with Umass' win. The Wizlines went 2 and 3. Not fair to do a winner vs. spread comparison but there it is. I am somewhat conflicted with the Umass win. On one hand, I thought La Salle had a good chnace to almost run the table as is possible in the A10 given recent wins over Butler and VCU and them now getting votes in one of the polls. Then Umass slaps them down. Looks like Chaz Willaims did to them what Ramon Galloway did to Butler inmaking the go ahead layup with 8 seconds to go. It appears Putney blocked Wright's last second jumper attempt to win. I guess this is good, in a head-to-head tie with Umass we have the tiebreaker. I think once again it just goes to show that even though the usual can and will happen (Dayton losing in Cincy ever since Reagen was president) some surprises in relatively even teams can and will happen. You cannot not come ready to play. URI gave VCU a pretty good tussle last night in Kingston before succumbing (Danny Hurley is a pain in the ass).

All in doubt for now, Fordham doing it w/o Gaston? Back story?

We complain alot about how the PD covering Mizzou and the Illini sometimes better than us. Here's a Philly link that is similar: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/20130130_La_Salle_not_resting_on_its_laurels.html Prettyy funny; theheadline is about La Salle and how they upset Butler and VCU but th epicture is of Nova fans storming the ocurt after win over Syracuse. Nice.

Isn't this like one of us wishing to hit the lottery? Or a kid finding a unicorn? I don't think that Topo Gigio and Tyshaun Taylor are the needed gate keeprs to go through to get to Brooklyn but what do I know. Still, I alway slike the kid and am with kshoe on what life would be if this kid was a senio ronour team.

Hoagie. Sub. Grinder. Po'boy. Cheesesteak. All the same things just called differently in different parts of the country.

First off --- I don't understand how these rankings work. Yeah, I read Forbes' explanantion but that doesn't cut it for me. Second, sorry, but there is no way St. Bonaventure is a "high major" program. They are more like a low-major program in a mid-major conference but that is about it. And to me, Schmidt's value, and he certainly deserved A10 coach of the year last year but I don't think he got it, is inflated due to one season riding one special guy who will likely never re-materialize in Oh-Lee-In again. Well, never say never .... Bob Lanier 1970. Andrew Nicholson 2012. Someone else, yet unborn, 2054. In looking at the high-major guys, I see very few that I would think would leave their current situations. Definitely Schmidt at Bonaventure; even though he signed through 2018, no way anyone there can't see the near impossible ongoing task at hand for whomever coaches there. Maybe Bone at Wazzou, although I admit to having no knowledge what it's like to live in Pullman-Nowhere, Washington. That's about it. Guys like Dunphy and/or Mack will move to movew up, not across. Although I woudl thinkour jobmight be perceived as a step down from either Temple or Xavier (for now). I think the most likely hire will/could come from the low-majors. Just an eyeball look at guys like Nagy at South Dakota State, Amaker at Harvard, Young at Wofford and Witherspoon at Buffalo all might be worth a look along with the Lehigh guy. Lehigh is my first love as it was the first college campus I ever visited. Gorgeous -- just I couldn't do 2+2 let alone engineering so I was out of there. Ellis, Bartow and Davis are all retreads. Paulsen, from Bucknell, is a screamer and a whiner. No thanks. Som eof the others look ancient and I want a young up-and-comer. Anybody on anybody else's benches right now .. ala Crean and Gregory at Izzoland? Brey, Amaker and Dawkins all came out of K-ville in Durham. But Quinny was a failure. Amaker also bombed at Seton hall as I recall. Whatever, things are obviously wide open. I can say I want not one of the talking heads coming out of studio ala Rick did.

So Tatum's kid is a point guard?

Calling the Wiz! Not a lot of "quality" or "qualifying" games in the A10 these two nights outside of us hosting Butler. Wondering as usual what are the Wizlines? On Wednesday, Richmond is at Temple and while Temple is not the same team as usual, Richmond, who surpised VCU at home, haven't won an A10 road game yet. Temple is my pick (yes, these are predictions). VCU is at Rhode Island. Rhode Island does not have the horses to stay with VCU. VCU. St. Joe's is at Fordham. If the pre-season pick to win the conference is to get thealthy and back in the race, it must win games like this. St. Joe's. Umass at La Salle. Can a team be riding any higher than La Salle right now? And with four similar guards, is any team in the A10 better suited to neutralize Chaz Williams? At Gola, means a La Salle win. This could be long-term scary -- nothing like certifying a team's belief in itself. La Salle is gaining momentum and could now be the surprise gate crasher at the top of the A10 come March. The only "tough" game left on their schedule is at us. Yes, they go to Temple and play St. Joe's at the Palestra but the other conference big hitters are gone and vanquished. La Salle owns the head-to-head tiebreaker advantage over both Butler and VCU. That says a lot. Dayton is at Xavier. SVU fans believe this is the year they get to beat X at Cintas and end the curse. I don't. Xavier. And for Thursday, I'm picking us. For my record, I started picking (predicting) the games on January 23 and am currently at 9 and 6 after a 5 and 2 Saturday. No lines, no spreads. Just winners. As with the Bonnies last year, a dark horse candidate is emerging, this time, out of North Philly. La Salle could run the table until it sees us on our Senior Night. However, they remain mostly undisciplined and could fade back just as quickly. I think they deserve to be watched.

The Big East currently has eight teams in it according to espn's football page ... Louisville, Cincinnati, Rutgers, Syracuse, Pitt, Temple, Uconn and South Florida. Syracuse, Pitt and Lousivlle all go to the ACC in 2014. Takes it down to five. Rutgers goes to the Big Ten and takes it down to four. Leaving UC, Uconn, Temple and South Florida. If Navy take sit to 11 in 2015, that means six teams are coming in --- I forget but who are they? East Carolina? SMU? Memphis? Help me out here. Please.

Great stuff Pistol. Did any of the Bonnie boarders come get you as they hinted at on their board? In all fairness, i went on there and demanded an apology from the guy taking my name in vain (as reported by Kitty) and am happy to say I got a full apology and a correction. So with that respect, I'll give them some dap. If that's "brownindian" then thanks for that. Nice show of class. And I really mean that. If so, brownindian may have achieved UCTom and gruehls status for me. I had to wonder, during the broadcast, taking a page from your "recruiting challenge" note above, why the Gathers kid would come from California to Bonaventure to play? I mean, he's Hank Gathers nephew. Hank was from Philly. Went to LMU. Of course, tragically died on the court. But why would this kid, with seemingly solid California roots and no other conenction to western New York, go to O-Lee-In? Was he so unrecruited? The Bonnies seem not really different from us. They got Bob Lanier, we got Easy Ed. They think we're snobs, we think Dayton and Xavier are snobs. They're Franciscan, we're Jesuit. They're small, private, we're small, private. We each seem to have one bill payer in the sports department. The big difference to me is they are rural, and we're metropolitan. I like that they don't like the "Pretentious 7" and say we deserve to be there although they question our roots and pedigree for such an inclusion. Sadly, they have none with which to enter the discussion, we're at worst borderline. The shots of the town look a lot like my hometown in PA. There are many schools like them up in that part of the world that would seem a better fit and equal competition for them. Maybe even make them the Valpo/Butler of their own Northeastern Horizon Conference. i don't know all the workings of all the schools, but wouldn't Bonaventure be better off with Fordham, La Salle, Duquesne and GeeDub while maybe adding Hofstra, Canisuis, Niagara, Sienna, Iona, Marist, Manhattan, Fairfield and some of those kind of schools? I like Schmidt as a coach but I also think he got lucky in stealing an unknown Canadien in Andrew Nicholson for four years. Kid turned out pretty nice and special. But Kloof is from Suriname, Johnson from Nova Scotia, Wright is from Toronto, and Ndoye andToupane are from Senegal. Plus, along with Gathers, another kid is from California. Did they hear O'Lee-In, New York and just focus on the New York? I saw where Schmidt is now signed through 2018. He's gonna need the security. if he hits another gold nugget like Nicholson, he'd better ride it into some better known job somewhere because O-Lee-In is nowheresville, man.

All you need to know from last Saturday's Temple/Butler game: Name MIN FGM-FGA 3FGM-3FGM FTM-FTA AST PTS Clarke 38 4 - 14 3 - 10 13 -14 9 24 Dunham 27 6 - 10 5 - 6 0 - 0 1 17 Totals 63 10- 24 8 - 16 13-14 10 41 Others 157 16-26 0 - 4 10-15 6 42 While Dunham doesn't start, he played three quarters of the game. Clarke is the point guard and the shooter. Dunham is the other shooter. Clarke was fouled three of four straight times to close out the game, padding and inflating his FTA. Still, you get the picture. Jones, Marshall and Smith are a good frontline. The bench,. outside of Dunham, not much to write home about in this game. But Fromm an dStigall have been there beofre and I think Barlow is the former walk-on that beat Indiana earlier this year.