thetorch

He has a younger brother, All Wright. Also a standout hooper.

I don't like dogging on players. I typically don't. I won't let other posters make players into something they aren't. Many posters have said Dalger is TO prone, loose with the ball, sloppy. His TO rate is one of the best in the NATION. He may take ill advised shots but he's not sloppy and he doesn't turn the ball over. He could stand to have some better shot discipline but he gets to the line and converts on offense. As a 3rd option on the court he's not bad. Meanwhile his defensive clout has been extremely exaggerated. There is no defensive metric that Dalger stands out at on the team. He's at best behind 2 or 3 other rotation players and at worse at the bottom of the rotation. SLU is a very bad defensive team, we are not in the top 300 teams in the country. Historically bad. With Dalger on the floor vs off, we are 0.001 better defensively. He is not a difference maker on defense no matter how many times you say it. Still this season we have a limited amount of games, and he's been playing out of position. Last season at Tulsa Dalger was one of the worst defensive players in the NATION. You don't go from that to a good defensive player in one season, despite Highmark calling him an All A10 performer on defense on the call (BTW according to the metrics Dalger is not a top 50 defensive player in the conference much less top 5). Again I welcome if anybody has a metric where Dalger is excelling at or a stats website that shows different numbers than what I'm seeing from Kenpom, synergy, and sbunfurled I'd love to see it.

If your basketball IQ tells you Dalger is one of our prime defenders than most of the podcast goes well over your head. Better off not listening. I can suggest a couple books you could read about defensive theory that may enlighten you. DM me.

Jimerson foul was genius. Perfect play.

Gil Beckemeier, in his first ever start, filled in for C Gary Garrison. Beckemeier had 28 points on 10-17 shooting along with 6 blocks. He went on to lead the Billikens in scoring that season leading them to a 13-12 record. This win led them on a 7 game winning streak, culminating a #15 Coaches Poll ranking. They went 4-9 down the stretch, and struggled in the tough Missouri Valley conference.

Forget about May or Ford. No changes will be made for the better until this guy is gone. How do you get the President of the BOT fired?

Not really no.

Ezehiro will not be eligible this season. We've known this for weeks.

Jimerson should be an All A10 player easily and a POY candidate. Ford has no clue how to scheme for him as a #1 option. Most coaches would find a way to get 20 open shots for him every game. Ford doesn't dictate action or force his will. He takes what the defense gives him. All defenses double Gibson, run him through multiple defenders and mug him on his routes. There is no adjustment. A coach that imposes his teams will would make Gibson a 20 ppg scorer. Jimerson will go down as one of the biggest wastes of talent SLU has ever had, through really no fault of his own.

Jimerson could start on 90% of teams in the country. As a 3rd option he'd be amazing.

The computers are fighting back...

THE SOURCE for Womens Soccer news thinks its not worth it to cover roster turnover? Then throws in the scoop that 3 mens players aren't returning. Guess I have to slide into your DMs for their names. What a numb nut.

Depending on sources 2 or 3. I can't quite pin down the last time his contract was greenlit. His contract is "evergreen" meaning after every season he is extended automatically to extend his contract out 4 years. The AD has to notify him if the contract isn't going to be renewed. We hope he wasn't renewed 2 years ago, probably he was. Last year certainly he wasn't. So 2021-22 renewed for a fourth year 2022-23 year 1 2023-24 year 2 2024-25 year 3 2025-26 year 4 So we have at least 2 seasons to buy out. That is unless his contract called for 5 year out extensions, which I've also heard. Which would mean 3 years. IMO after last season, we didn't have enough donor support to buy him out but.....we also had an AD that didn't want to admit that they needed to fire a coach that they just gave an extension to the previous season.

But the President of the Board of Trustees said that picture only showed half the room and that it was for high money donors only.

Ron may have been prematurely fired. He pissed off the Billiken Club and some big donors. Otherwise he would have stayed. The program was in shambles. He needed more time to bring in his guys. Ekker was terrible but again he started with nothing. His off the court nonsense doesn't help his cause, neither does the dumping of the mascot for Billy Lou and the Strutters. Crews was gifted a top 10 squad. He was known as a good coach who never got the right opportunity. It was his for the taking. He could have kept the momentum going and went out a huge winner. Instead, he wasted it all, brought in some of the worst recruits in decades and was removed in disgrace. He's the worst. Even Ford is better, for the time being.

Kim was old. Lifelong Asst, then went to D-2. It took him a while to grow his program. He won once. He has good teams at Pittsburgh St now, but NWMO St kicks his butt every year. When he was at Mizzou as an Asst no one was trying to hire him as a HC. He tried to get the job at SLU multiple times. The only reason he got considered at Mizzou was because he was friends with boosters and he was a long time asst and player. He'd never sniff a D-1 job without that. McCollum has no D-1 connections. Played and coached only at D-2 schools. First coached for Doug Moe's son, a lot of his offense is based on that lineage. Shaka Smart offered him the moon to be his Asst at Marquette. He has gotten offers from Valpo, Evansville, Detroit, UWGB, UW-MIl, Buffalo, Dakota St, among others the past few season and turned them all down. There is a stigma against hiring a D-2 coach but there are dozens of current D-1 coaches who consult with him. Grant Macasland has stolen his entire offense from him. Once he started adding things from McCollum his teams efficiency went from high 100s into the 30s nationally. I firmly believe the first school who can get this guy has themselves set as NCAA tourney team for 2 decades or more.

Crews deserves no apologies. He is the worst coach in program history. I hope someone reminds him of that everyday of the week.

I watched McCollum tear apart UMSL at Maryville the other night. I'd only heard about him and never watched his teams play. His offense is the beautiful game. No set plays, everything is based on reads. He has a precise system he runs and his players execute but they have the freedom to do anything they want. Except shoot mid range. Everything is paint or 3s. Tandem ball screens are his bread and butter. They get the best shot each possession whether it takes one or 15 passes. His offenses are the most efficient not just in D2 but at any level. His measurables are off the charts. Figure out how to get this guy and he retires in 25-30 years with 900 wins.

McCollum is a different breed. He's as close to Majerus as we can get. Throwing money at him won't just get him. In all of his videos and stories about him he genuinely wants to make a difference in an area. He loves NW MO St and he has put them on the map. He wants to the same thing in a larger locale. This is a no brainer to me. This guy wants to develop a regional team and be the guy in a city. St. Louis is it. We have been searching for this for decades. Hire him, let him feel his way around D-1 a bit. He may lose at first but he won't lose for long. He recruits at a D-1 level at NW and he develops players and has a fool proof system. His 2nd best player went to Creighton the other season and averaged 14 ppg. His best player is arguably the best D-2 player of all time, scored nearly 3,000 points. He's had no issues with the portal, his players don't leave. He only brings in guys who buy in for 4 years. This is the guy A merge of Majerus and Spoon who's only 42 years old. We'll suck for two years and they we'll run off 20 years of 25 wins a season. He won't cost an arm and a leg at first.

Crews was paid a ghastly 890k-950k per year. I thought paying that man a million a year was horrible at the time, but hey we paid for an old Hoosiers retirement. Ford somehow has a worse contract.

How do we lure Ben McCollum away from NWMO St? He's turned down multiple D-1 schools every year since 2019.

Bell only had academic issues because he took off after the season was over his sophomore year.

Increasing the Non con would be great for SLU. We struggle to find games because we only want series with P6 schools. Lowering the number of conference games allows us to P6 road games in non con. Make them pay us. We will be able to buy out OFrd's contract faster. #2 would be the A10 spearheading series with another conference. Also rewarding teams for playing outside their comfort zone. They need to encourage the east coast members to drop at least some of their local "rivalry" games that are just glorified buy games. #3 The A10 tried to copy the P6 schools, ie if we play when they do, then we will be considered one of them. We shoudn't play on the same night as the Big East. We shouldn't play our conference tournament games on the same days as the P6 does.

If this and SIUE game don't the minds of the pro Ford faction nothing will. This was Crews level coaching tonight. Ford must go.

I'm a podcast junkie and this is a new favorite. If you can't GOSEETHEKIDSPLAY this is the next best thing. Earl does deep dives on Mo Prep hoops and also gives a large portion of the show to discuss Billikens hoops.