Taj79

Zero points off the4 bench; Hughes 0 for 6.

Saw that. Figure it was a foul-preventing move for the last few seconds. Nothing meaningful.

No Curcic. No van Bussel in first game. CofC 10 point win over Methdale.

What WV said ......

I'd venture Brockhoff followed by Pikaar followed by Kerr.

@slu72: On that team, Perkins was not the Perkins of old. Therefore, the role of alpha-dog was vacant in my mind. No one on that roster was equipped or talented enough to jump into the fray and assume the hero role. Not Okoro, not Collins, not Pickett, not Jimerson, maybe Parker but he was a freshman learning the ropes to assume the hero role when Perkins left. Ford's inability to adjust for these mishaps doomed him. Given Schertz' definitions, I would think he has contingency plans in place but won't know for sure until he has to deal with the adversity of injury or something. What happens when Avila (ankle) goes down for any extended time? We shall see.

@TheA_Bomb: yeah, I thought about that but he didn't even get an offer from us. Did we think he was a lock to us because of dad? Maybe dad even told CTF Junior was in but still, not even one single offer? Missouri State? Carbondale? Bradley? Kind of hard to believe.

Don't you think that if Junior were that good, he'd have gotten at least one D1 offer in his time?

My intent was not so much to identify WHO was the hero, but rather point out that Ford's offense seemed to be designed to rotate around the hero designation. While there may have been multiple possible heroes on a given roster, the hierarchy always seemed to defer to the "one" .. the alpha dog if you will. One guy to "go get you that bucket." Sadly, I had forgotten about Perkins. The trend preceded Ford as well .... can't forget the Jordair Jett senior year.

I am still of the opinion that Ford recruited one guy to be the man --- the hero. Marcus Smart. Javon Bess. Tremaine Isabel. Jordan Goodwin. Yuri Colllins. If the offense scored early, fine. If not, then it was this guy's responsibility to make it happen with under ten on the shot clock. Collins was really not equipped to do this. I am overly excited to watch Schertz' offense and try to mentally compare it to what used to be.

I’m in the camp of the unimpressed to date by young Hughes. While he did make a few threes, they never seem to come with the game on the line. Not game winners mind you, just as a part of the rotation and game flow when they were needed. More times than not they seemed to cut the deficit to 15 or so. I will say his help defense showed promised in just understanding what to do but more times than not, his open man hurt us —— was this because the other guys didn’t understand help defense? Maybe. But the shiteshow that was Ford’s team made identifying the exact problem a problem. The key to me is stated above —— Hughes was a walk-on on a talent weak team.

No. However: Sincere Parker: McNeese State Lamont Evans IV: None* Phil Jones: None* Brad Ezewiro: UAB Dorde Curcic: College of Charleston Cian Medley: Kent State Alex Nokes: Lindenwood* Abou Masgassa: Wyoming Tsvet Sotirov: Northen Illinois* Steph Van Bussel: College of Charleston Bruce Zhang: China * = denotes walk-on

Sixteen goals in 14 games for an average of 1.15 gpg. Last year 21 goals in 16 games (not counting Blackburn) for a 1.31 gpg clip. Lots of kick ball going on here.

Isn't Aiello a Fordham grad? Might explain his biases.

Xavier crushed Dayton at the YouDee Arena yesterday, winning 98 to 74 in a charity exhibition for mental health awareness. First time the two played in nine years. According to Anthony Grant, Dayton got out-physicalled, staying int he game for about a half of the first half. According to my source, Dayton needs a lot of work. They are small and somewhat light. Nick Santos is not to be confused with any physical presence. Zed Key is an undersized center. Isaac Jack looks like he lost weight. There is little outside shooting with the loss of Elvis and Brea, and the guards are smallish at best. Posh Alexander is the sturdiest of the lot but he is only 6 feet tall. The freshmen looked good albeit also undernourished. Of course, it is the first exhibition of the year. Another 13,000 at the YouDee Arena however.

The only "stuff" I buy has to say "Saint Louis University" on it. I got to that point at least a decade ago with the pro sports and the college sports will soon follow. But I'm a grumpy old man who has evolved to this point now. My 40-year-old son-in-law still goes to bed mad when his NY Giants lose. That's not worth it to me ..... pro sports is just another option for my disposable entertainment dollar. College is there as well but lives on longer due to alma mater U. I'd buy a team-related jersey to dress with the crowd but it would have to be a retired player who was financially loyal to the organization. I'd buy a Gibson Jimerson jersey but not a Larry Hughes. Mike Schmidt. Cal Ripken Jr. Brian Dawkins. No to Aaron Rodgers, Odell Beckham Jr, Saquon Barkley. Just me.

Well, he made it further than Yuri.

Brad isn't the top assistant, Ron Sanchez, former HC at Charlotte is likely the next coach if only on an interim basis. We shall see. Sodeberg is listed as the fifth associate/assistant coach on the roster currently behind Sanchez, Jason Williford, Orlando Vandross, and Isiah Wilkins. Edit: Sanchez gets interim title (10/17).

Agree willie. Watched most of the second half between dozing. Based on what I saw, scoring two goals must've been a miracle.

Hit by a car .... Riding a scooter .....

Didn't Thames get hurt riding a scooter?

If Schertz is as good as everyone seems to think he is plus added to a crap schedule, as everyone seems to believe we have coming up, shouldn't we expect to be unbeaten heading into the A10 schedule?????

When you get Billiken games on ESPN+, that is usually just a tap-in feed from whatever station is telecasting it. I am guessing Highmark and Robertson and Dass and others were doing games for FSMW/ BSM and then ESPN+ just tapped into that feed. It's the likely reason you get Duquesne announcers on Duquesne home games, La Salle announcers on their home games and so on. ESPN+ does not have traveling broadcast teams, they essentially pirate the already-existing broadcasts. If BSM is not doing Billiken games, there will be nothing to pirate in terms of live video. Additionally, while schools will typically assign their home announcers, schools don't have the equipment to set up for typical broadcasts. SLU would need school announcers, video management, cameras, cameramen, all the stuff that sits in trucks outside event venues like Busch, the Final Four and so on (not to that scale obviously). I disagree with slu72's statement above about ESPN+ pirating CBSSN, NBC and USA only because if the games are on there, that is where I usually watch them and have never bothered to do a comparison to see if ESPN+ is carrying them as well. I would think those networks say nay-nay to giving ESPN+ access to content they have paid for but I don't know for sure. I have the local sports package along with ESPN+ so I get the other channels plus I will get SNY and some others which sometimes carry games from Fordham, Rhodey and Umass. Basically the northeast. Without Bally, SLU will need someone to step into the void, someone likely independent like the old KPLR broadcasts.

Nine games, nine goals. Just saying .......

@slu72: remains to be seen. Like every other A10 team, too many questions with few answers right now. The backcourt is the strength with Cheeks, Smith and Bennett joined by former Johnnie/Butler guard Posh Alexander into the mix. But the loss is really the outside shooting of Kobe Brea and Kobe Elvis. None of the three returnees (sans Alexander) are noted shooters. Smith is coming off back-to-back yearly layoffs due to knee injuries. Bennett and Smith are both smallish point guards. Cheeks is not a high-volume scorer to date. Alexander shot 33% from 30 (30 for 90) at Butler and led the team in steals and assists. Plus he's six feet tall. Of the group, only Cheeks breaks six feet tall. The front line is Nick Santos and Zed Key. Santos is more a SF and Key is a PF, fifth-year guy coming in from Ohio State where he played all 36 games, and averaged 6.6 ppg along with 4.2 rpg. Maybe Isaac Jack makes some impressive strides but outside of those three, the front line will have two freshman (supposedly heralded) foreigners Mousa and L'Entang as backups. Mousa is from Qatar via Australia and L'Entang is from France. I think it is a veteran lineup, a little less solid than VCU, but veteran nonetheless. They will likely win every game at Dayton Arena and that will likely include good OOC wins over UNLV, Northwestern and Marquette. Overall, their talent level doesn't impress me much but given the state of the A10, the pick is likely a safe one. They will miss the luxury of having Holmes as an escape valve.