Taj79

A somewhat appropriate ending —- two blocks.

Utah State employing the Travis Ford “pucker” strategy down the stretch.

I’ve said it before —- this team is nothing but a bunch of role players playing major minutes out of their roles and comfort zones. Right now, only Jimerson is really worthwhile.

The eye test and the computer seem drastically at odds here.

@The Wiz: Strongly disagree with your statement that this "is an above average team." I stand by my statement that this is a team of role players (at best) thrown together like sh*t on a wall to see what sticks.

@willie: Yes, there was a press in the first half. Highmark commented on multiple occasions that the Dartmouth guard dribbled into the same spot for the half court trap like four or five times in a row. But that was the first half. I don't recall many if any going the other way in the second half. As someone noted, where did Medley and Thames go? The entire offense is the weave ..... sure, it is more noticeable when they start the big passes and weaves exaggerated at the top of the key but the principles don't go away when you start lower and use less guys. All we do is run around like chickens with our heads cut off. There is no real attack at the basket unless Hargrove or Dalger says 'fuok it" and dribbles into the post. I swear Jimerson is not only held the whole game, but his own teammates miss him more times than not. The second half was abysmal. What did we score? Total of 25 points? We didn't press and cause turnovers. We ran an offense that doesn't get us good looks for our limited personnel. We shortened the bench because our coach puckers typically in this manner in any close games. And we went to slow ball to walk it up and milk the clock to a win. If you want to add all that up --- hey, it worked. There is very little coordinated talent as assembled by our great recruiter. NIL is killing the dinosaurs and Ford is one of them.

Yuri is gone. Fuok Yuri. He has nothing to do with this team and to bring it up is ludicrous.

This team is at best a collection of situational role players. Frankly, there isn’t a starter-level talent player on this team. Jimerson? Off the bench shooter. Hargrove? Off the bench energy guy. Dalger? Off the bench fourth forward. Meadows? Andre Jones Jr. Medley? Freshman learner. Hughes? Thames? Zhang? Talent that shrinks as roles expand. The real issue is who stocked this talent (Ford) and who (Ford) returns to what he knows in the weave, the half court walk up game and no press (Ford). This ass-hat is done.

Didn't Jimerson play ten games his freshman year before getting hurt and then the medical redshirt?

That may be true of McMakin but I don't see much help otherwise.

With nothing on the tube last night, I happened across ESPN+ doing our game against BYU. And I thought watching A10 men's basketball was hard. Lost 87 to 66 to BYU. McMakin and Kennedy put up 30 shots, making 8. Kennedy Calhoun was Polk-esque. Brutal viewing.

This article confirms exactly what my thinking has been ---- this is pay-for-play not NIL, 250 or so of the 354 D1 college basketball playing schools cannot compete, a second division ala FBS/FCS is coming, and the big boys will break off and do their own thing. If each school playing football has to contribute millions od dollars into a settlement fund, why should SLU even be involved? Why should any school that doesn't play big time football be involved? This includes Villanova, Georgetown, Butler, Rhode Island, Fordham, Towson, Delaware and others in the FCS. And I can't help but think what offshoots occur legally with Title XI and other equality issues when the big boys are paying their football and basketball players and no one else is or can afford it. NIL is and always was a joke, a farce as this article claims. It's intended use has been pirated away into straight salaries. Sure, some are getting Rolls and LandRovers but those are not the real drivers. In this article, I can see the Big East becoming irrelevant.

@willie: I'm a little lost. La Salle started the five guys that were on the team last year ... Brickus, Brantly, Gill, Shepard and Jocius. Are you talking Marrero and Vahlberg? The only dunk in the first half attributed to La Salle was Sheperd, who did that last year. When they were 15 and 19. Marrero scored a deuce last night and Vahlberg had six. You might have athletes but you still need the skills to score to win games. I'll try and catch some of their games as the season wears on. A10 basketball can be so difficult to watch ---- bad teams, bad camera angles and bad announcers.

Nope. But I've seen Adam Knollmeyer dunk over a trash can, no less. I like Sheperd and Gill as athletes. Basketball players? Not so much.

@willie who has athletes? Not La Salle? That's the same roaster as last year. Now down 10.

I've got 2.5 million annual reasons not to feel sorry for him. Great job/salary if you can get it.

Maybe. In Brad's own statement when he signed here, he said he was excited to play "facing the basket" and even "taking threes." I could be wrong but I just don't see it. Plus he likely has no mental health issues so getting the waiver for SLU will be a moot point. Not this year, maybe next year because next year, he will have performed the one-year sit out portion of his third transfer. I don't see 1.6 ppg at LSU, followed by 4.3 ppg at Georgetown as demonstrating undeniable talent. But we shall see ..... likely next year.

I don't think Ford is equipped to recruit in the NIL/portal world. Maybe he was much better 'in the old days' of high school seniors, Team Blue, taking care of mama's baby, etc., but not now. Maybe not now. In his first foray into the new world order, he got Cian Medley (good/great get) and three transfers (from bad schools) with questionable international recruits (two of which have/had eligibility issues). Adapt. Evolve. Or die. One recruiting class does not a die cast but the signs are not all that good based on Year One. Folks are talking about Ezewiro being the answer. Ezewiro was garbage at both LSU and Georgetown. Just don't see it.

You can say what you want about our defense but opponents seem to make everything against us.

@kwyjibo: Jim you in the HTC?

According to pundits in the building, it’s a clean break. Out six weeks.

It was a good win because different players stepped up and gave hope for the overall program at different times. Parker. Medley. Dalger. Thames. Hargrove. Zhang. Meadows. And roy is right, Jimerson did other things to help the team because he was getting mugged and will get mugged the rest of the year. From what we saw on parker's injury, it appears to be some sort of foot injury. Not a calf cramp. Not a sprained ankle. Cringing to think it might be a broken foot or bone fracture. Pure speculation but based on all items observed, foot injury seems to be the winner. Parker is the only guy able to manufacture a shot. Dalger seems to be second. Zhang had some nice play and looks very promising. Good to see Thames really step it up and show his roster spot is not a lost cause as seemed to be the case last year. We still run the mindless weave and end up wasting a whole lot of time in doing so. Unless Sincere has the ball at which point the weave is essentially over. And Jimerson continues to get mugged night after night. Just once I'd liek to see him drive and pull up for the jumper. Just once. In hindsight, Wyoming didn't have the talent nor the bench to stay with us. Kind of hard to fathom that given our roster.

How is that guy still playing?

It's just a number with no relevance at this moment in time. You'd have to tally up all the non-football playing schools and all the comparative sports. No football. No hockey. No lacrosse.

That's 'hero ball' ---- one of the very staples of the Ford attack scheme since he got here. Bess. Isabell. Perkins. Collins. Of the four, only Collins wasn't a finisher. I suspect that this season we will see that evolve into a Parker role because there is no one else in the mold described above to take it over. Jimerson is not a creator. Meadows is an unknown. The only other guy who might THINK this way is Hughes. But Larry is a jump shooter and not a to-the-basket guy.