RUBillsFan

Do we think Scott Warman will call the games on Ballys again this year alongside Highmark? Obviously former Cardinals broadcaster Dan McLaughlin was calling Billiken games before his most recent DUI issues. That makes me wonder if Ballys can dictate that current Cardinals broadcaster Chip Caray call Billiken games. Caray did call Orlando Magic games from 1989-1998, so he has basketball experience in his past.

If we aren't so putrid at generating turnovers, it won't be that hard to tread water or even improve on defense. Theoretically more playing time for longer / athletic players like Hughes (led the team in stl % last season) & Thames should lead to more steals. I think (hope?) we can also put more pressure on the ball when our lead guard / primary on-ball defender isn't being asked to carry such a heavy load on the offensive end.

If it wasn't clear "we" is only Taj. My post was intended to call attention to the insanity of his post. I think very highly of Flowers game. Brook Flowers was tall...she blocked shots, but... Anthony Bonner was big & tough...he rebounded, but... Erwin Claggett was a good shooter...he made 3s, but...

Utah State was really good last season under Ryan Odom (now VCU HC). However, they have an entirely new roster this season under new HC Danny Sprinkle (former Montana State HC). T-Rank 2024 projection has them at 98, so they've presumably added some pretty good players. One of their portal adds is former Maryland guard Ian Martinez who torched us for 14 points in 18 minutes on (6-8 shooting, 2-4 from 3).

Stu QT'd this to say the series is starting at SLU. So pencil in a late November home game vs Utah State. 11/22, 11/25, or 11/29 seem most likely, but who knows could be anywhere 11/22 - 11/30.

Brooke is probably the most dominant defensive player in program history. Other that that I don't think much of her game.

Ford has shown that he doesn't have an issue with handing the PG duties to a freshman in the past with Goodwin and then Yuri. I have a feeling it'll be closer to Larry & Cian splitting PG duties with Meadows and Parker handing the ball as some as well. I do think Larry plays more than 1/2 the time & move off ball when Cian is in to play the point.

I could see Ford going back to the 1-3-1 zone more often this season. Collins playing 90% of the time & not being a great fit in the zone because he lacks length meant it didn't make a ton of sense to play zone a lot in recent years. If you've got a lineup of with Hughes at PG, you have good length, but mostly mediocre one-on-one defenders. That could be a formula for the zone being better than man to man.

Just saw this come across. SLU could really benefit from having Akok. They need a big presence to fill the void inside. It is a bummer they no longer have the flexibility to fit Akok.

T-Rank's projections for next season look like this: Charleston - 88 Vermont - 133 SLU - 139 Wyoming - 236 Wichita State - 105 Costal Carolina - 313 Furman - 124 Liberty - 83 If the bracket were to go chalk according to these rankings, SLU would finish in 4th place W over Wyoming, loss to Charleston, loss to Wichita State. Good news for SLU is that this is a very winnable tournament if they exceed expectations a bit. Bad news is there aren't any signature Ws in there and losing more than 1 game probably ends up looking brutal on the resume.

Those aren't Hoosier's words. He copied/pasted from https://www.thefieldof68.com/ daily newsletter. I think it does go to show that you should take what they're saying with a grain of salt since they mention Parker as a PG option over Hughes. As @gobillsgo mentioned they're also comparing EWU & Portland to the A-10 which is a little suspect. I think they're actually saying the opponents those teams faced in the Big Sky (EWU) and Portland (WCC) are similar to A10 opponents. I'd agree on the WCC. WCC (Gonzaga, St Marys, San Francisco, Santa Clara, & for last season anyways BYU) is actually probably better than the A10 right now. Big Sky isn't terrible. It's one of the better low major / nearly always one bid conferences out there. It regularly has teams who would be upper half in the A10, but A10 is indisputably better top to bottom.

I wonder how often a team has a player go off for 39 points, but still loses by 19+ points? Not even looking at his exploits from the FT line, he shot 64% from the field and took 1/3 of the team's shots. His teammates meanwhile shot just 32% from the field. That's not a recipe for success especially when you allow the other team to shoot over 56%.

I don't want to dump too much cold water here, but that triple-double was against DIII Willamette University. Meadow's assist numbers are pretty pedestrian for a guy billed as a combo guard, so I'd call him more of a SG. At first I was thinking this may be Rashad Williams part II - late arriving transfer 6-2 SG with 2 prior stops at lower level schools who shoots decent, but not great efficiency from 3pt range. That assessment is wrong though. Williams was just a volume 3pt shooter with little else to offer. Meadows appears to have a more well rounded game even if nothing in particular stands out (aside from FT shooting). On paper, Meadows appears better suited for a more limited / complementary role than Williams ever was. Portland had a bad record in a tough WCC, but wasn't horrible (only 157 per KenPom) like some of the teams our other transfers have come from (cough Tulsa 316 cough). As others have said, beggars can't be choosers for scholarship players in August. He's a good get as a depth piece, but likely not a difference maker. If taking minutes away from Parker, Hughes or Thames next season & we're a 150ish team, I'm not really sure what the plan is.

FWIW LaSalle's adjusted tempo per KenPom for the 2012-13 season when they made that Sweet 16 run was 64.6 which was 177th in the nation. This past season SLU's adjusted tempo was 69.2 which was 73rd in the nation. Also Jarrell Wright 6-8, 255 started every game for them. We don't have a guy like that.

I can only assume that this piece by Frank C. is a direct response to claims in this thread that SLU needs to focus on Goodwin's success more: https://www.ksdk.com/article/sports/local-sports/sports-plus/slu-jordan-goodwin-nba-dream/63-f7472ec3-1d06-4e5a-86f1-6ec74d31de4e