billikenblue
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Posts posted by billikenblue
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Goodwin has been awful the whole game.
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8 minutes ago, kcbill said:
We are too thin and scoring challenged to play a up and down game.
You obviously haven't watched the last 2 games
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Goodwin and Bess Have to get involved. We are back to the first 2 months of isabell dominating the ball and making too many decisions
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Goodwin and Bess MIA in the first half. Need them to step it up to get this done.
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4 minutes ago, Taj79 said:
This is what we are. A team with no point guard. No shooters. No offense. No bench. Sure, we might win at home, but likely no where else. The Joeys shot lights out. We can't shoot. Simple math. A second straight year of high(er) expectations shot in the a**.
I thought we had a chance coming off the Dayton game. Another illusion.
It's hard to be a Billikens fan..as we all know too well.
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1 minute ago, billiken_roy said:
st joes might be the closest we get to one with norman dale ford at the helm.
LOL
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19 minutes ago, GoBills73 said:
True. But Ford had as good a roster if not better in HIS year 2 before S2.
You missed the point . We are talking DUQUESNE ..
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3 hours ago, Taj79 said:
... pretty amazing how a 5 and 0 start with realistic expectations to go to 8 and 0 now appears to be a 5 and 4 conference record come Saturday night. The GDT and other threads have chronicled just about everything. I can't add too much more. The preseason conference favorite does NOT lose to a 1 and 6, 13th place team on its home floor. Ever. But every one of us --- to a man -- predicted or projected that somewhere along the line, we would experience a trip up at home because, well, we always do. Maybe we get this out of our system now. I really don't know. I don't have answers going forward. This team is what it is --- because of all the situations surrounding it. Lack of basketball skills. Lack of basketball IQs. Lack of depth. Lack of shooters. Lack of certain players. Lack of free throw makers. Lack of a true point guard. Lack of options. You acknowledge that and you try to deal with it. How? Don't know. We can't press with a short bench but maybe we can play more with Goodwin and Thatch combined in more often and having those two apply up court pressure. We could press but then we might, as skip suggests, miss layups and blow odd-man rushes just like we do now.
Lots of disappoint reigns. I too was sold an apparent bill of goods thinking this team was good. But I've got to believe, however, a full roster including those that left this year and last, would be untouchable in the current A10. Cie la vie. Outside of Bess, no one has really improved much. Goodwin is incredibly inconsistent right now. He stuffs stat sheets well enough but that alone shows you that doing such does not make a complete ballplayer. French is dominant from three feet in. Given his free throw ineptitude, can't wait to see him pop a ten- or twelve-foot jumper one day. The accumulated speed in flight will likely shatter the backboard at this rate. Only Bess has overachieved or been better than advertised.
Much like Anthony, the grad transfers have been oversold. Isabell is a disaster right now; Wiley too often injured. But as Clock and others have pointed out, risks were taken and the rewards were not realized. Count me in the group that says leave GTs to go elsewhere.
The freshmen are all in some sort of development realm. Two left, and while Thatch can play defense, his offense is suspect. Hankton had a decent game last night but much like I was advocating for Wojcik or Gustavson ot beat us, Mooney decided not to cover Hankton and basically said lets see if he can beat us. He almost did. But Richmond did not cover him in the least bit. And he showed enough smarts to know that zone defenses allow roamers to hit the offensive boards and get put backs. It was a nice sign of hope on his account. Jacobs is MIA; could likely end his SLU career that way, who knows.
What angers or perplexes me most is actually me. I forgot the game was even being played. As in 'I don't seem to care." That really hurts for me. I laughed at 13's account of how the GDT would go but figured he was right on. Apathy is starting to set in and I've lived through so much crappy SLU stuff that I thought apathy would never rear its head again. And yet, here I am contemplating cancelling Brooklyn because who needs to drop big bucks in the Big Apple when this shite show will be available on my free cable package?
Maybe I'll be walke doff th eledge. Maybe Saturday we'll pull one out in Kingston. Not too hepped on that possibility right now. Surprise me.
Even more depressing is that Duquesne in Dambrots year 2 is 6 and 2 and on the upswing with a true point guard in Carry and a better overall roster ..at Duquesne!!
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3 hours ago, billiken_roy said:
What do we have to lose? The square peg in a round hole of playing hoosier ball will get us no where. Those last two minutes are what fred thatch, jordan goodwin and tremaine isabell are suited for. Bess will succeed in anything and so will french. Push the tempi
Agreed. That is what coaching is. We went to a poorly played zone after golden schooled us in the first half. Did not get out of it until the last 3 minutes when it obviously didn't work. Mix it up a bit and how does thatch not even smell the court until the end.
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2 hours ago, 73Billiken said:
I do not understand how we can miss so many shots at the rim. Yesterday per the PD we missed 10 layups.
How much taller do our big men need to be in order to flush the ball and not try to spin the ball into the basket??
Go up strong and if you get fouled at minimum the other team gets into foul trouble sooner but to go 0 for 10 gets you nothing. Even shooting 50% at the free throw line yesterday would have yielded 5 more points on those 10 missed layups.
Given that we have lost 'winnable games' (Houston, Pitt, Duquesne and now Davidson) by only a few points, how many poorly shot layups would we have need to win. 18 & 2 would look and feel a lot better.
Even worse is if you look at Goodwin's putback at the end of the game even with him getting fouled it was very makeable. No free throws needed of he just made it.
almaman likes this -
Could be worse. Porte and Loyola lose 70-35 at Missouri State. Ouch.
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1 minute ago, BillsBeliever!!! said:
The last 4 years we had 6 wins combined through the first six game of the conference play. We have 5 this year. It sucks to lose but it could be so much worse
Agreed but it hurts to lose the way we did when it was very winnable .
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18 minutes ago, Taj79 said:
Not surprised at the outcome. Totally shocked with the quality of play.
Agreed Taj. You can try to look for positives but it was an embarrassing display of basketball.
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2 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said:
I did not understand thedefensive strategy tonight. That’s on Ford. A huge mistake
I was so ready for this season to just take off too.
Unfortunately Travis can recruit but his in game coaching leaves a lot to be desired. Ask Oklahoma State why he was let go.
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My take is as I said earlier Travis made the decision to play Jacobs in a tight game with 6 minutes to go. Not a good decision when it is obvious he is not ready to be in at that point in the game
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38 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said:
I’ve heard he does extremely well in practice. Can also apparently shoot it from long range too, just need to translate to a game
No question on him. I question Travis having him in with 6 minutes to go in a tight game . 2 possessions in a row he let his man drive right by him which led to us having problems on defense. Not the time to reward a lightly played freshman especially in an away game.
cheeseman likes this -
If anslytics was all it took to win the dodgers would have won the world series and the rockets would be NBA champions. I appreciate Wiz and his take on this but his data is limited being early in the season and with the shooting stats being a key part of the grades bad shooting will continue to affect the AVERAGE. . I prefer MANalytics which is more than numbers.
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3 hours ago, billiken_roy said:
while i get your hankton comment, i would bet that if we need the 4th "big" it will come in the way of playing 4 guards with bess taking the role of the second big on defense. i think the step down to hankton at this point is likely too great, however i recognize we havent seen him play much at this point yet. once hankton earns his time, maybe he indeed becomes a 4th game big.
Based on practice and what I observed you are spot on. The best part of the top 7 is they are all active and can be interchanged due to versatility. I could even see DJ , French and Gordon on the floor at the same time depending on matchups.
almaman likes this -
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Happened to be at practice when Jacobs was told the news. Great to see the reaction by the coaches and the team as he ran to the locker room to get ready.
Lots of offense / defense transition drills with top 7 players rotating as the white team and the blue team held it's own.
Thatch is SO strong and has a motor that does not stop.
Tramaine and Dion both great shooters
Chemistry of the team still a work in progress but will definitely be there soon
Gordon is talented but still learning how to play at this level. His effort is there though which is encouraging.
French and DJ both ready for a big year
Goodwin and Tramaine have not figured out their roles as both of them like having the ball. Since they will both be playing lots of minutes together still a work in progress.
Once the season rolls and Travis gets into a 8 man rotation may not see the freshman alot but they are a solid core of talent for the future and definitely push the starters in practice.
No matter how this all plays out Travis has turned the team around very quickly after the disaster that Crews left. It is a great time to be a Billiken fan again.
billiken_roy, White Pelican, TheDude and 19 others like this -
1 hour ago, Matty Light said:
I don't even remember Ricky Cranford coming in. I remember being excited for Love and Tatum coming in as transfers but that was it.
Roy is so right. Thought we were getting Larry Hughes 2 and after the first viewing you knew he was not even close to a D1 player. I think he was gone before the season was over .
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2 hours ago, ACE said:
Most of the guard grad transfers at this point have been from lower conferences perhaps looking to move up.
This one could be the opposite - Dion Wiley, 6-4, from Maryland. Only averaged about 6 ppg, but was ranked #52 nationally coming out of high school. Known as an excellent shooter. Has battled injuries during his career and has been passed by on the depth chart by some other players. Could be the kind of player who could make an impact in the A-10. SLU can make the Javon Bess comparison during a recruiting pitch - a player from the Big 10 who battled injuries and didn't put up big numbers - has come to SLU and thrived.
Kassius Robertson from a small school was the best grad transfer in the NCAA and Mizzou's best player.
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On 3/20/2018 at 1:54 PM, billiken_roy said:
so you say that rickma did not want crews to be the interim coach? so who do you say rickma wanted to be the interim coach and who decided that crews was the choice instead?
Rick was in a serious health condition much earlier than the public knew and was actually in the hospital praying for a heart to be donated . I personally know that Rick from my many talks with him did not bring Crews in to be his successor.
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1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:
you think rickma would have allowed anyone to set up a succession plan for himself that he didnt approve? crews was his succession plan. he was the man hand selected to serve as the interim coach when rickma got sick by rickma himself. unfortunately the team was so well prepared by rickma (who was indeed a basketball genius) that crews couldnt fail with that team. my 89 year old mother could have coached that team and won. then we were pretty much stuck with crews from that point.
Rick did not bring in Crews as his replacement. He actually did him a favor as he felt bad he had been fired from Army and over the years they had developed a relationship having dinner together and Rick saw him as a good guy . Alex Jensen was Rick's pick but they had a falling out right before Rick's health took a turn for the worse. To the Crews debacle May was told by many people including chaifetz crews can't and won't recruit the right players and we should look elsewhere. The only 20/20 is that May blew it by not doing the right thing and making the easy choice for him.
Spoon-Balls likes this -
1 minute ago, Taj79 said:
No guards. Hines. And Hines again. Ballgame.
Exactly. Hines is so uncontrollable and then doesn't cover the lane in the zone letting a pass to the basket.
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