3star_recruit

If Coach Ford is the coach for the next several years, how many MBMs plan to cancel their tickets next year?
 

This is an excellent point.  The big donors are free to do whatever they want with their money, just like we are.  Dragging big donors on social media when we can't replace their money doesn't seem very wise.  

I really do believe that recruiting is 75% of the job.  Brian Conklin and Dwayne Evans didn't suddenly become leaders because Majerus recruited them.  Their leadership qualities were part of the reason why they were recruited.  You need players on your team that other players naturally follow.  When those players are also the best players on your team there's a multiplier effect.
If Coach recruited fiery undersized perfectionists like himself he would be better off.  At least his teams would have a consistent identity.

This is an excellent point.  The big donors are free to do whatever they want with their money, just like we are.  Dragging big donors on social media when we can't replace their money doesn't seem very wise.  

Yeah. This is pretty much where I am at. A lot of people on here say " I am not sure but have a very reliable source that says....". The reality is no one knows and you just have to filter or ignore the posters that bug you the most. I actually think it is comical and highly entertaining  that there are still people adamantly defending the coach's performance while others think starting an email campaign or threatening to put up a billboard (while asking someone else to fund a buyout, new coach, and robust NIL program) moves the needle. 
One way or another, this will resolve itself. TF will stay or go and all of us will decide how we want to engage based on that. 
I will put one opinion out there and stress it is my opinion, not something I heard from a guy who knew a guy. If we move on and have to pay some kind of buyout, we will all pay for it. Yes, a big donor or two will hopefully step up and help, but season ticket prices, and parking in the SLU garage, and concessions, and Billiken Club tiers will very likely be impacted also. 

This is an excellent point.  The big donors are free to do whatever they want with their money, just like we are.  Dragging big donors on social media when we can't replace their money doesn't seem very wise.  

How did we go from a five point loss at Dayton, to Tim Dalger leaving and Gibson Jimerson disappearing the last two games?  We didn't even compete in the second half last night.  What happened to all the fight that was in this team two games ago?  Was Dalger the only one unhappy with Coach Ford or was he just the scapegoat?
It doesn't matter how much talent you have once the coach loses the team.  Jimerson looked defeated last night and eventually the rest of the team fell in line.   I'm not sure how Coach Ford comes back from this.  If Jimerson has given up, Ford is done.

Good luck to Tim.  He averaged 2 ppg as a sophomore in high school, improved enough by his senior year to go to a decent juco, developed into an all-conference player and then put up decent numbers at the mid-major level.  His motor can never be questioned.  Hope it works out wherever he ends up.

It's not a question for me.  Roster construction is absolutely a weakness of Coach Ford.  If you don't have a fixed offensive scheme, then you at least need an offensive philosophy.  Ideally, how are we going to score?  What is plan B if our first option is taken away?  You can't just continue rolling the dice and fixing the gaps in the offseason.  You'll invariably find yourself in a situation where you're sacrificing defense to fix offensive problems.  

Let's say Coach Ford survives the season, fixes the defensive problems and we make the tournament next year.  What happens the next year after the seniors graduate?  Since there is no discernable offensive philosophy, then it's another 2-3 years of recruiting the best player available and hoping the pieces fit together.  What's to stop us from being right back here when the pieces don't fit?

Coach Ford is making his job a lot harder than it needs to be.  Just pick an offensive scheme and recruit accordingly.  Now that NIL allows teams to replace half their squad every year, coaches who can plug players into a scheme have a distinct advantage over coaches who don't.

Embedded in Coach Ford's recruiting strategy is "locking down the borders".  That has been consistent everywhere he's been.  The problem with that philosophy is that getting the best 3 stars from your local area and adding an out-of-state impact player here and there does not lend itself to an offensive scheme.  You're just throwing players together and cobbling together an offense from it.  Hence we get Bullyball.  Yurimania.

It's not a question for me.  Roster construction is absolutely a weakness of Coach Ford.  If you don't have a fixed offensive scheme, then you at least need an offensive philosophy.  Ideally, how are we going to score?  What is plan B if our first option is taken away?  You can't just continue rolling the dice and fixing the gaps in the offseason.  You'll invariably find yourself in a situation where you're sacrificing defense to fix offensive problems.  

Let's say Coach Ford survives the season, fixes the defensive problems and we make the tournament next year.  What happens the next year after the seniors graduate?  Since there is no discernable offensive philosophy, then it's another 2-3 years of recruiting the best player available and hoping the pieces fit together.  What's to stop us from being right back here when the pieces don't fit?

Coach Ford is making his job a lot harder than it needs to be.  Just pick an offensive scheme and recruit accordingly.  Now that NIL allows teams to replace half their squad every year, coaches who can plug players into a scheme have a distinct advantage over coaches who don't.

It's not a question for me.  Roster construction is absolutely a weakness of Coach Ford.  If you don't have a fixed offensive scheme, then you at least need an offensive philosophy.  Ideally, how are we going to score?  What is plan B if our first option is taken away?  You can't just continue rolling the dice and fixing the gaps in the offseason.  You'll invariably find yourself in a situation where you're sacrificing defense to fix offensive problems.  

Let's say Coach Ford survives the season, fixes the defensive problems and we make the tournament next year.  What happens the next year after the seniors graduate?  Since there is no discernable offensive philosophy, then it's another 2-3 years of recruiting the best player available and hoping the pieces fit together.  What's to stop us from being right back here when the pieces don't fit?

Coach Ford is making his job a lot harder than it needs to be.  Just pick an offensive scheme and recruit accordingly.  Now that NIL allows teams to replace half their squad every year, coaches who can plug players into a scheme have a distinct advantage over coaches who don't.

Embedded in Coach Ford's recruiting strategy is "locking down the borders".  That has been consistent everywhere he's been.  The problem with that philosophy is that getting the best 3 stars from your local area and adding an out-of-state impact player here and there does not lend itself to an offensive scheme.  You're just throwing players together and cobbling together an offense from it.  Hence we get Bullyball.  Yurimania.

It's not a question for me.  Roster construction is absolutely a weakness of Coach Ford.  If you don't have a fixed offensive scheme, then you at least need an offensive philosophy.  Ideally, how are we going to score?  What is plan B if our first option is taken away?  You can't just continue rolling the dice and fixing the gaps in the offseason.  You'll invariably find yourself in a situation where you're sacrificing defense to fix offensive problems.  

Let's say Coach Ford survives the season, fixes the defensive problems and we make the tournament next year.  What happens the next year after the seniors graduate?  Since there is no discernable offensive philosophy, then it's another 2-3 years of recruiting the best player available and hoping the pieces fit together.  What's to stop us from being right back here when the pieces don't fit?

Coach Ford is making his job a lot harder than it needs to be.  Just pick an offensive scheme and recruit accordingly.  Now that NIL allows teams to replace half their squad every year, coaches who can plug players into a scheme have a distinct advantage over coaches who don't.

Embedded in Coach Ford's recruiting strategy is "locking down the borders".  That has been consistent everywhere he's been.  The problem with that philosophy is that getting the best 3 stars from your local area and adding an out-of-state impact player here and there does not lend itself to an offensive scheme.  You're just throwing players together and cobbling together an offense from it.  Hence we get Bullyball.  Yurimania.

Successful teams come in all shapes and sizes.  The problem isn't the size of the guards.  The problem is the collective skill set of Coach Ford's teams.  You can press with a small team but you need ball hawks.  We are in short supply.  You can counter length with good passing.  We're the worst passing team the conference. You can win on the road but your leaders need to be road warriors.  We don't have that either.
Even if Meadows would have been healthy all season, his career stats say he's not the 5-6 apg guy we need at the position.  Dalger is an effort guy but he's not a ball hawk.  Our underclassmen are probably our best defenders but they are our worst offensive players.  Jimerson and Hargrove's performance in road games make it almost impossible for us to win against good teams in their building.
This season is all about making a run in February when we have some winnable road games.  That's all it's ever been about ever since Parker went down 4 games into the season.  We have too many weaknesses in the roster that can't be masked against good teams.  It's nice that Coach Ford is addressing these weaknesses with recent offers but damn it he should have done a better job of addressing them in the off season.  

Successful teams come in all shapes and sizes.  The problem isn't the size of the guards.  The problem is the collective skill set of Coach Ford's teams.  You can press with a small team but you need ball hawks.  We are in short supply.  You can counter length with good passing.  We're the worst passing team the conference. You can win on the road but your leaders need to be road warriors.  We don't have that either.
Even if Meadows would have been healthy all season, his career stats say he's not the 5-6 apg guy we need at the position.  Dalger is an effort guy but he's not a ball hawk.  Our underclassmen are probably our best defenders but they are our worst offensive players.  Jimerson and Hargrove's performance in road games make it almost impossible for us to win against good teams in their building.
This season is all about making a run in February when we have some winnable road games.  That's all it's ever been about ever since Parker went down 4 games into the season.  We have too many weaknesses in the roster that can't be masked against good teams.  It's nice that Coach Ford is addressing these weaknesses with recent offers but damn it he should have done a better job of addressing them in the off season.  

This is the kind of player we need to stay away from: A volume shooter with subpar assist numbers.  We already had Rashad Williams.  

Successful teams come in all shapes and sizes.  The problem isn't the size of the guards.  The problem is the collective skill set of Coach Ford's teams.  You can press with a small team but you need ball hawks.  We are in short supply.  You can counter length with good passing.  We're the worst passing team the conference. You can win on the road but your leaders need to be road warriors.  We don't have that either.
Even if Meadows would have been healthy all season, his career stats say he's not the 5-6 apg guy we need at the position.  Dalger is an effort guy but he's not a ball hawk.  Our underclassmen are probably our best defenders but they are our worst offensive players.  Jimerson and Hargrove's performance in road games make it almost impossible for us to win against good teams in their building.
This season is all about making a run in February when we have some winnable road games.  That's all it's ever been about ever since Parker went down 4 games into the season.  We have too many weaknesses in the roster that can't be masked against good teams.  It's nice that Coach Ford is addressing these weaknesses with recent offers but damn it he should have done a better job of addressing them in the off season.  

Successful teams come in all shapes and sizes.  The problem isn't the size of the guards.  The problem is the collective skill set of Coach Ford's teams.  You can press with a small team but you need ball hawks.  We are in short supply.  You can counter length with good passing.  We're the worst passing team the conference. You can win on the road but your leaders need to be road warriors.  We don't have that either.
Even if Meadows would have been healthy all season, his career stats say he's not the 5-6 apg guy we need at the position.  Dalger is an effort guy but he's not a ball hawk.  Our underclassmen are probably our best defenders but they are our worst offensive players.  Jimerson and Hargrove's performance in road games make it almost impossible for us to win against good teams in their building.
This season is all about making a run in February when we have some winnable road games.  That's all it's ever been about ever since Parker went down 4 games into the season.  We have too many weaknesses in the roster that can't be masked against good teams.  It's nice that Coach Ford is addressing these weaknesses with recent offers but damn it he should have done a better job of addressing them in the off season.  

Successful teams come in all shapes and sizes.  The problem isn't the size of the guards.  The problem is the collective skill set of Coach Ford's teams.  You can press with a small team but you need ball hawks.  We are in short supply.  You can counter length with good passing.  We're the worst passing team the conference. You can win on the road but your leaders need to be road warriors.  We don't have that either.
Even if Meadows would have been healthy all season, his career stats say he's not the 5-6 apg guy we need at the position.  Dalger is an effort guy but he's not a ball hawk.  Our underclassmen are probably our best defenders but they are our worst offensive players.  Jimerson and Hargrove's performance in road games make it almost impossible for us to win against good teams in their building.
This season is all about making a run in February when we have some winnable road games.  That's all it's ever been about ever since Parker went down 4 games into the season.  We have too many weaknesses in the roster that can't be masked against good teams.  It's nice that Coach Ford is addressing these weaknesses with recent offers but damn it he should have done a better job of addressing them in the off season.  

Successful teams come in all shapes and sizes.  The problem isn't the size of the guards.  The problem is the collective skill set of Coach Ford's teams.  You can press with a small team but you need ball hawks.  We are in short supply.  You can counter length with good passing.  We're the worst passing team the conference. You can win on the road but your leaders need to be road warriors.  We don't have that either.
Even if Meadows would have been healthy all season, his career stats say he's not the 5-6 apg guy we need at the position.  Dalger is an effort guy but he's not a ball hawk.  Our underclassmen are probably our best defenders but they are our worst offensive players.  Jimerson and Hargrove's performance in road games make it almost impossible for us to win against good teams in their building.
This season is all about making a run in February when we have some winnable road games.  That's all it's ever been about ever since Parker went down 4 games into the season.  We have too many weaknesses in the roster that can't be masked against good teams.  It's nice that Coach Ford is addressing these weaknesses with recent offers but damn it he should have done a better job of addressing them in the off season.  

Successful teams come in all shapes and sizes.  The problem isn't the size of the guards.  The problem is the collective skill set of Coach Ford's teams.  You can press with a small team but you need ball hawks.  We are in short supply.  You can counter length with good passing.  We're the worst passing team the conference. You can win on the road but your leaders need to be road warriors.  We don't have that either.
Even if Meadows would have been healthy all season, his career stats say he's not the 5-6 apg guy we need at the position.  Dalger is an effort guy but he's not a ball hawk.  Our underclassmen are probably our best defenders but they are our worst offensive players.  Jimerson and Hargrove's performance in road games make it almost impossible for us to win against good teams in their building.
This season is all about making a run in February when we have some winnable road games.  That's all it's ever been about ever since Parker went down 4 games into the season.  We have too many weaknesses in the roster that can't be masked against good teams.  It's nice that Coach Ford is addressing these weaknesses with recent offers but damn it he should have done a better job of addressing them in the off season.  

Speaking of road splits, I'll we watching the Foul Shot Attempts on this away game.  In the George Mason and Dayton away games, the Bills has a total of 18 FTA, and the opponents 63 FTA.  Do the math, that is 3.5X for the home teams. 
For the year, SLU has 366 FTA and all opponents 355 FTA.  Call it even. We've had 9 games at home and 8 not at home.
Dayton doesn't foul much, only 12.9 per game.  George Mason fouls 16.2 per game. The Bills are at 17.9 fouls per game.  So yes, expect the home team to get the favorable whistles in those two contests, but not 3.5X. ( Fouls and FTA aren’t the same but they should correlate somewhat .)
VCU averages 16.8 fouls per game.  So should we expect an even number if FTA?  No, the home team usually prevails.  No problem with that.   I'll accept a 2X.  3.5X is beyond fishy.

Gibson Jimerson
Home: 43.8 FG% 44.0 3P% 20.4 PPG
Away:  34.7 FG% 29.3 3P% 12.0 PPG

Terrence Hargrove
Home: 52.1 FG% 52.8 3P% 15.2 PPG
Away: 47.3 FG% 20.0 3P% 9.9 PPG
It's hard to win on the road when the splits for your leaders are that drastic.  Something has to change.