3star_recruit

Well, that's what we will already have - French, Perkins, Hankton and Hargrove. A high school big in the spring would make that a total of five. And I support using another scholarship on a grad transfer big, mainly to play defense. That's six. Is that enough to make a run in the tournament most years? No. Is it enough to pull an upset in the first round? Absolutely. Let's make tournaments first and use that national visibility to attract bigs later.

More perimeter-oriented, not as quick. Luke Meyer with a quicker release? Seems like the kind of undersized, crafty forward that ends up at Belmont.

Excellent point. But even a Jeff Harris or Donnie Dobbs is hard to find in 2019. I only know of one unsigned high school power forward in a 300 mile radius who's a regular double-double threat. And I watch a loooot of basketball. Unfortunately, he's not put together like Harris or Dobbs. BTW that player, Michael Moreno, is injured. And we do have an offer out to him.

SLU has had a perennial problem getting athletic post players with size. In the last 35 years, we've gotten Anthony Bonner, Jamal Johnson for one year, Willie Reed, Hasahn French and 13 games of Carteare Gordon. That's 5 guys in 35 years. Yet we are reticient to abandon our expectations for two athletic post players to man the 4 and the 5. With the advent of "position-less" basketball, I believe now is a better time than ever to leave those expectations behind. Most athletic guys who are 6'7/6'8 in the 21st century want to play like guards. I've watched a half dozen of our "small forward" 2020 prospects and some of them are already 6'6 and close to 200lbs. By the time they get to a college campus, guys like Lamontay Daughtery and Dallas Howell may already be the size of a typical A10 power forward. Even a less athletic guy, like Jackson Sivills, I find intriguing because he is a plus shooter (40% from 3, over 80% from the line). I submit that these guys are actually 4 men at the A10 level. They are tall kids with guard skills who can play inside or out and rebound the ball well. We see these guys giving us the blues on other teams yet some of us continue to pine for the power players of old. Athletic post players are scarce. If Coach Ford can get one every 3 years, we as fans should consider ourselves lucky. I know there's a growing sentiment on the board that we need two bigs in the spring to be a force in the A10. The paucity of bigs suggest we'll be lucky to get one 6'7/6'8 guy who can be a significant contributor. And frankly, in the A10, with French and three other talented 6'7 guys already in the mix, that's enough.

We need for as many teams to break the top 125 plateau (home) and top 175 (away) as possible. You don't go down when you win those games. And when you win against top 100 (home) and top 150 (away), your NET ranking goes up. That's a rough approximation.

Nothing wrong with being second best 😉 I'm already picking Hargrove against the field in next year's exhibition dunk contest.

Wherever Hargrove's head is actually located relative to the rim, I've never seen a better leaper in a SLU uniform.

I would agree with the bit about FIBA experience actually, provided the player is a starter. However, the Iceland team that Ingvi started for was a very poor defensive team. They were routinely blown out by 20-25 points at the U20 European championship a few months ago. Obviously, that was a collective failure but anybody who saw that tournament could see that Thor needs to do a better job of staying in front of his man. He does have quick hands, though.

Wiley has only played in 10 games. Coach isn't going to give up on him this early. But you're right, if Thor sees the floor this season, it's going to be at Wiley's expense.

Would have been nice to have him tonight when Isabell and Wiley couldn't throw it in the ocean. Our margin for error is practically nil. Get well soon kid.

Fred shot 78% last year in high school. I'm hoping this performance is the confidence booster he needs.

Malik Yarbrough is a borderline criminal and he's managed to stick at Illinois State and become all-conference. Gordon doesn't have criminal tendencies. All he needs is a good shrink. Hope he gets the psychological support he needs wherever he goes. This could be one of those rare parting of ways that works for both sides.

We're going to have to get reaaally lucky in the spring to avoid Hargrove logging 15 minutes at the 4 next year. Of the guys we currently know about Julius Marble is the only one who appears to be a formidable enough defender to be a better option than Hargrove.

We had a good crop of guards. The problem was the bigs. Brett Jolly, Austin Gillmann and Matt Neufeld isn't enough to get it done. And Majerus just whiffed on the last two recruiting classes, leaving the cupboard bare.

A more apt example is Hankton early in his freshman year vs Jalen Johnson early in his. They're virtually the same size, have similar offensive skillsets and are comparable athletes. JJ was a better rebounder, though. Also JJ got the chance to play through mistakes because he was on a bad team.