thetorch

Mo St has huge benefactors, surrounded by high level JUCO programs, and a huge alumni base in KC and St. Louis. They should picking the leftovers all over the state along with grabbing JUCOs. Poor hire after poor hire has doomed them.

Knight was a prodigy, Winning 2 NCAA titles and a gold medal by the time he was 43. The classic old school coach. You can say a lot about him, but you can never say he was a cheater, something you can't say about any of the other coaches near the top of the all time wins list. As a Billikens fan his memory will be tarnished because of his protege, Jim Crews' performance as our head coach. We only played him once at Assembly Hall in 96 as part of the preseason NIT. I skipped school to go. I remember their bigs killed us. I don't remember why Rasheed Malik took 10 shots.

Funny how Goodwin's numbers went down his sr year? Or that his best 3 point shooting of his career was actually done in the last part of his freshman year. After he started off 1-33 he shot lights out. Then reverted back to 27%-30% later on. Or that Yuri as well did his best shooting his freshman year from deep. Yuri also started very poorly from the line his first few games, shooting in the 20s. Once he lost his jitters he was much better and then got worse overall his sophomore year. He also peaked defensively in his sophomore year. Plus Goodwin was an elite rebounder and bucket getter coming in to college. Yuri was an elite passer coming into college. Did they dvelop any other skils while they were here to not even an elite level but to an above average level? Not really. Other than all the holes in these examples, your take is spot on.

Let me explain how your argument is stupid, and why you shouldn't make it anymore. Read slowly and sound out the words so you can be sure to understand. Vogel is competing against other NBA coaches. When a fan critiques his game plan, and you say Vogel has won 400 games how many have you won? That makes no sense. The fan is not a coach in the NBA. He's criticizing Vogel's gameplan in comparison to other NBA coaches' gameplans. A test of knowledge between Vogel and a fan is irrelevant. As an outsider though a fan can easily see that someone is being outcoached or outmaneuvered in tactics. That doesn't require a level of knowledge equivalent to an NBA coach. In comparison to other NBA coaches Vogel is decidedly middle of the road. Though he did win a championship, he also failed to manage the following seasons successfully and alienated his stars. Vogel was also the 4th or 5th pick to coach the Lakers. Vogel is very much a defensive specialist and he likes to play a very certain type of style with very active big men and lots of length. If he doesn't have a huge C & PF who can play D, he struggles. His offense is so bad that at his last two jobs he hasn't been given the authority to hire his own staff. The GM hires an offensive specialist for him. His team management has also been criticized, he's known to be very blunt and unfeeling with his players. Among people who follow the NBA, the Covid title very much has an asterisk. While it may count in the record books, it was a huge outlier in terms of play and gave advantages to certain teams over others that weren't ideal from a competitive standpoint. You should try actively following the league before spouting off and you would know these things.

No I expect them to lose in the pillow fight.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2023/10/30/phoenix-suns-jordan-goodwin-brings-balance-off-the-bench/71384100007/

Less. I thought 900 first game, this was 500-600 if lucky. Empty.

So I don't believe Golden State has the rights to Yuri. Players in G league are like this 2 way players - Up to 3 on a roster that spend time on Nba and G league rosters Exhibit 10 players - signed to a contract with a parent team but sent to G league. Parent team retains rights. Goodwin had one of these his first year. Affiliate players - players signed in training camp but cut and put on a team's G league. They are free agents though, any nba team can sign them. They only have g league contracts with the league not just one team. Collins is on this deal. There is also a returning pool of players who sign with the league who round out rosters. Then the draft. Each team has 3 picks for newly eligible players who did not go through any of the other steps. These players fill out the bottom of a roster. In years previous the draft had many players who would advance in the G league. McCall and Reed were drafted. Bess was as well. With the proliferation of 2 way players and exhibit 10 guys the draft isn't as important and it is harder for a draftee to make a roster much less play in the league. Most drafted players are cut after training camp.

These two exhibitition have been the worst attended in 30+ years. Typically there is 2-3k in attendance, sometimes more. We started playing games a lot later in the year 20+ years ago as well and the weather was worse. This was nothing, drizzling rain.

7 points and a steal. Jgood leading scorer on a team with Durant.

Gordon started not Goodwin.

I can see us settling into some games just giving the ball to sincere with 10 seconds on the shot clock and just let him cook. Again that style won't make us score a lot.

I think we are not good. 68 is not that low, Dayton scored 68 a game last season. SLU scored 75 a game last season with more proven weapons, a more balanced attack, and some offensive rebounding. This years team will have to score a lot in transition and/or shoot a ton of 3s to score a lot. We have one player right now who can go 1 on 1 off the dribble. No inside offensive presence at all. We have a lot of shooters, but I expect most teams to take away the 3 from us. We will settle into the usual Ford half court offense. We don't have the personnel to do well in that. I also think our lack of defense will result in more blow out games, which don't help push your scoring average up.

1. last season Yuri - Who leads the team in assists? Medley 2. l/s Jimerson, Perkins, Yuri - Who are the top 3 point scorers? Jimerson 3. l/s Okoro, Forrester - Who are the top 2 rebounders? Hargrove & Parker 4. Who plays more minutes among Medley, Zhang, van Bussel? Medley 5. l/s Yuri - Who leads the team in free throws attempted? Parker 6. l/s 9 - Number of players to average over 10mpg is… 9 7. l/s 19.6 - Average number of 3pt attempts per game for the team is… 20 8. l/s 75.5 - Average points scored per game is….68 9. l/s 21-12 - What is the Season record? 14-19 10. l/s 12-6 - What is the A10 record? 7-11 11. l/s 4th - Final conference standing, i.e. conf tourney seed (1st, 2nd, etc) is…10th 12. l/s.A10 semifinals - End of season is…first round

Beal out tonight. Goodwin played in crunch time. 2 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal and +7 in 14 minutes.

Billikens Basketball is back. It's a beautiful thing. Attendance was the lowest I can remember for an exhibition at Chaifetz. Was there 1k? We usually get a solid 2-3k. My father can't climb the steps so we changed our seats to 114 handicapped. Gentleman sitting next to me was 80+ with a Billikens prosthetic. Now that is a fan. Sincere continues to impress. Got to the basket at will. Finishes strong. Wasn't shooting outside much. His 1 on 1 defense is not good, he gets lost in switches but he is aggressive. We need to play more zone with him out there. Best player on the floor. He had some sloppy TOs. Jimerson continues his shooting woes, but he didn't get many good shots either. Had some drives and did a chunk of his scoring late. Forced to guard much bigger players early on, gassed him a bit. He was on guards in the 2nd half and played better. Meadows had a couple drives, not great on D, was a little loose with the ball. Not terrible, not great either. Hughes II was nice. He's a sniper. His shot is so smooth. Offensively doesn't do much else. Love his defense, guarded every player on the floor. Stood his ground with their big man after Ford took Dalger and Hargrove off him. As the NBA guys say he is a nice 3 & D man. Hargrove obviously outmatched inside but he's trying. Ran the floor well and kept the pace up. Hit a couple 3s, couple dunks, a nice cut. Gotta rebound better but that is a big challenge for a 6'4 center. His defense wasn't terrible, he missed a couple assignments in transition but giving up 3-6 inches what can you do? Dalger didn't have his best game. Took some ill advised shots with men open, really struggled defensively, outside and in. Airballed a 3. Led the team in boards. His defense is going to keep him off the floor. Thought he would be better with the ball. Thames is a mix of Hargrove and LH2. Versatile defensively, not quite as good as Larry and foul prone. Runs the floor, gets open on cuts and can make some athletic plays, but not making many basketball plays on offense yet. Loved his putback dunk. Put in time on their big inside on defense. Rebounded OK considering. Wish he could shoot or do much of anything on offense besides dunk. Cian has work to do defensively but he's a floor general. Several nice passes, and he knows how to run a 2 man game. He will be needed because without that or Parker's 1on1 play we are going to struggle in the halfcourt. Curcic played the least, only took 1 shot. For a 5th or 6th guard he's good. His defensive positioning is sound and he hawks the ball. I feel like he may have a big game or two this season. Lamont Evans was the only other guy who got in. Felt we pushed the pace enough. I'd like to see more pressing than we did. Played some zone in the halfcourt as well. As a team we just are not good defensively. We need to play mistake free basketball with our lack of rebounding a defense, hard to when you push the tempo. Nothing I saw tonight really changed my season outlook but I think we have a perimeter core that with some development and added pieces could get us back into contention next season.

We have two elite scorers on the wing in Jimerson & Parker. Parker is only a Jr and should be a POY candidate next season. Staff has gotten a big wing to commit for next season. Recruiting is all about momentum. Primed to get more HS talent before signing day.

JFC Resign from the Board of Trustees. Pronto. I was in that room yesterday. It isn't set up like that. You are telling me that you set up this room full of people and had the podium and the viewscreen set up on only one side of the room and despite their being by my count 30 unused chairs and complete tables without people, that half the attendees chose to sit on the side of the room where they cannot see or hear the presentation? Total BS. I talked to many fans at the open practice last night who wanted to go the event but weren't given notice or like me thought it was full.

Zhang is legit 7 foot or taller. SVB is 6'10. Mougasa is 6'8. Brad is 6'7, Dalger as well. Thames is shorter than those two but not by much. High end of 6'5 or 6'6. Hughes is slightly smaller than Thames, about the same as Jimerson. Hargrove is 6'3 or a short 6'4 but he could be 235 or 240. Parker has gained some weight too. He looks nice. Cian is short, but not as slight as I thought. MM is plus 6 feet. The Serb is 6'2.

Jimerson couldn't hit a shot most of the night. Parker started on the second unit and after the first team got off to a 11-1 lead Parker took over. His team led 21-17 at the half and I think he had 16 points at least. Parker was pretty active defensively as well. Hughes was the starters offensive star, hitting 5 or more 3s. I lost count. He carried the first team on defense. Dalger was as advertised. Polished offensively, plays with an edge and crashes the O boards. MM made a couple nice dimes and looked solid, again a solid PG with some offensive capability. Not a star but decent. Cian was less polished offensively but he ran some p n r game. Hargrove has bulked up to play down low. More than held his own. We will really need to gang rebound though. SVB was kind of an incomplete, didn't do much, still getting his legs under him. The Serb looks like a good get. We'll be hard pressed to see a better 5th or 6th guard in the A10. I was not impressed with Brad but it seems others were so we'll let that play out. The Frenchman was better than I thought. 2nd best big behind Hargrove. Play was very uptempo. Full court press, much more pressure on the perimeter and cutting into passing lanes. Opinion hasn't changed much. I think our backcourt will be more than competitive in A10. Our frontcourt will struggle at best. We will need to play high tempo and force a lot of TOs to make up for zero rim protection and rebounding. I can't see a 6'3 center working but Hargrove is by far our best option.

Several posters on this board said 100 people at 250 a pop would be a good turnout. Some of the posters who had "inside" knowledge of the working of the BVF said that was the expected haul. That obviously didn't happen. There were only a handful of people there. The BOT President disagreed saying there was 40. Fine. Is 40 good? No it isn't. The powers that be are satisfied with that number and run with it how do we get better? What is the impetus for them doing more events? I look at that picture and say JFC they need my help. I'm going to figure out a way to help them. I expected 100 people at this thing. If I knew there were only about 12 real donors their, I would have shown up with a few people. THe BVF put out a post saying only a few spots left, get them while you can. I was pumped. Obviously now that was total BS. They had plenty of room for more people. If the BOT President says we are doing just fine, most people will say good, they must not need my contributions. If BVF says they are almost full, then most people won't show up.

Sorry my post was construed as negative. The board conversation prior to the event had 100 people attending with $25k raised. Don't know if that was just a consensus estimate or a hoped for number. I'm here to be honest. The pics online showed me a room that was filled mostly with people already connected and in many cases working for the program. I was in most cases not counting those people as attendees. They took picture of the room with Coach Ford speaking. I count 25 people at tables and 1 person standing up. That is counting Chris May, Janet, and other staffers. Where are the other people? Board estimates had us raising 25k at this. I'd say its closer to 5k. I just want to be accurate. If they do more of these with some planning and more lead time, I'll be there.

From the pics online maybe not. Only a handful showed up.

Great pickup for Travis. Potential as an elite scorer on the wing in the A10.

Biondi didn't want to open the new arena and end his tenure with a coach like Soderberg. He went end around on everyone. He had zero backing on firing Soderberg and didn't ask for any. This comes straight from one of the biggest donors to the university.