NH

Best Okoro game as a Billiken thus far? We needed that

It may have made no difference, who knows, but shout out to the coaching staff for getting through this game with no Forte or Giacoletti

Good point. Maybe they try to push UAB or Iona to the following season. It doesn’t seem like Travis likes spending too many games in a row away from Chaifetz.

I would expect us to have UAB away as well. I believe the MWC-A10 challenge is dead.

I hear you, hopefully they do. I’ve seen them play once this year and was impressed. It seems to me that their NET is near impossible to keep as high as it is right now, that’s all I mean.

Iona’s NET is higher than their ranking in any of the predictive metrics I’ve looked at (KenPom, Torvik, Haslam) which suggests it might be a reach that they’re actually a top 50 team going forward. Then you combine that with them having tons of opportunities in their conference for losses that could hurt their NET, with very few chances for Quad 1/2 games and you end up with a circumstance where it’s much easier to drop than to rise. The NET is always most favorable to mid-majors before conference play starts. The odds are stacked a little bit against you after that.

I wonder what other options there were for scheduling this game. I am excited for it, and glad to be playing any game, but I hope the staff doesn’t think Iona’s NET of 46th will hold all season. I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being a Quad 3 game.

I think the SLU in-game experience could be improved, but would give it a solid B+. It’s much better than it used to be. I would give attendance a C, and decreasing. I don’t know who is to blame for the bad attendance, and I don’t think the in-game experience is the biggest reason. But if things don’t start picking up soon it’s going to be worrisome. I don’t think our non-con attendance has been this bad in a long time, if ever. Hopefully this is mainly a COVID issue and not due to any underlying larger problem.

The issue with Martin is that he needs the ball in his hands to be effective. To me, those types of players always feel under-recruited because they require such a specific fit. He has a lot of Deandre Jones to his game and I could see him doing well in that type of role.

I thought the coach’s show was really good tonight. If a link comes out I’d recommend checking it out

I also think it will be hard to go to Europe while rehabbing from a knee injury. The timing of Javontes injury stinks for immediate pro prospects but sets him up ok if he wants to play another year in school

Need Okoro to stay out of foul trouble

If one of my coworkers got the flu I would much prefer they stay home

6th straight win for Boise State, who pulled away late against a game Fresno State squad. Glad to see Boise has been so impressive following the Bills win

What did I do to you? I didn't criticize anyone, or call anyone names, or even tell anyone they were wrong. I just think it's hard know who is responsible for these COVID-related decisions because we're not privy to the details. I did not realize that would be so offensive.

But do we even know if that's a thing? Or that only one individual tested positive? All I've been saying is that I have no clue what the circumstances are, and I've yet to see anything posted, quoted, reported, e-mailed, etc. that can clarify what the circumstances are.

Which SLU COVID policies would you like to criticize?

Here is the A10 policy. It's not 100% clear, but does give some better insight into the process: Under the revised A-10 COVID policy, games that cannot be played due to positive COVID-19 tests will be postponed and attempted to be rescheduled by the Atlantic 10 Conference office. If a suitable reschedule date cannot be found, the game will be declared a no contest. Conference standings and championship seeding will be based on an approved formula balancing team win-loss records with total number of contests completed. If a team opts to not play the rescheduled contest, the game can be declared a forfeit by the league office. In addition, the conference also revised an earlier policy for requiring teams to complete conference games. The revision requires teams that have seven available scholarship student-athletes and one countable coach to compete in all conference contests. Teams may also participate with less than seven available student-athletes. If a team elects not to play, despite having seven scholarship student-athletes and one coach available, that team will incur a forfeit and be given a loss in the league standings, and the opposing team will be granted a forfeit win.

With all due respect I don't think you have any basis for saying this. There is not a city policy that is going to cause a game in Amherst, Massachusetts to not be played. It has been reported that the A10 is going with the seven and one rule, meaning that if you have 7 players and 1 coach who are available, you are expected to play the game. If SLU or the city are holding the team to a harsher standard than the A10's rules, SLU will forfeit (which is clearly not what has happened here). I understand people want to be able to blame someone, but this stuff is happening all over the country. There is simply no reason to believe that SLU is holding its teams to a harsher standard than most other schools are being held to.

That doesn't answer whose decision it was not to play the game. It could be SLU, the A10, UMass or (most likely) all three in conjunction with each other. It seems silly to blame the SLU administration without knowing the facts. We know that the SLU team was allowed to practice after at least one player tested positive, so it's not as if the school is automatically shutting the team down following a positive test.

Does anybody on here have any idea whose decision / policy led to the cancellation of the SLU/UMass game, or the other A10 games that were cancelled on Thursday? It seems to me that the answer is no…

Just finished listening to this. What a great interview. Coach Claggett is about as good a representative of SLU basketball as you’re gonna find.

NM

In Ford’s defense we’ve seen him out coach both of those guys before

That has very little to do with the point I was responding to. The A10 has not been a 1-bid league since 2006. The NET rankings of the team as of today matter some, but they are still highly preliminary. Some team will need to win 14+ games to win the A10. Whichever team does that will see its NET increase dramatically, and will be well positioned for an At-Large. It’s even possible that two teams could perform well enough in conference to have an at large resume come March.