Duff Man

I'm not going to apologize for pointing out Goodwin's been a disappointment in 2018-19, but I will be glad to reverse course and give him his due in 2 weeks or 2 months or 2 years if he should morph into the scorer we thought he could be.

The Bills were picked to win the A10, and Goodwin and Bess were preseason 2nd team all A10, w/ French 3rd team. Bess is playing like a 1st team all A10 and POY candidate. French has been a mild disappointment, but is trending up (FT shooting notwithstanding) since the start of A10 play. Goodwin in the 8 conference games is shooting 34.3% from the floor (2.9 made FG per game on 8.4 attempts). Those are the facts.

Goodwin's 2nd year looks a lot like Jett's freshman year. Goodwin gets more rebounds and takes more shots. Jett is more efficient and a better defender. Jett's soph year the Billikens were 34th in KenPom Offensive Efficiency. Majerus used him in a role where he was the 2nd wave (w/ Cody) that tightened the defensive intensity, and usually was on the floor at the end of the game, but with Conklin and Kwamain (and Evans and Ellis), Jett was not depended on for crunch time scoring. This team badly needs a guy who they can just give the ball, and he can beat his man off the dribble and score. I expected Goodwin to be that type of player at this stage of his development, but he's not there at the moment.

Here's Jett's 1st 2 seasons per 40min (not reflected in these stats, Jett was all 10 defensive team his soph season as a bench player) Here's Goodwins for a comparison, using per 40 min

It's disgusting to point out Goodwin isn't able to get buckets in crunch time? It's not about a bad game. It's a 47 game sample where he's shooting 38% from the floor. I appreciate everything he's done, but if we're trying to figure out why the team that was predicted to win the A10 is headed towards another disappointing season, you have to look at who is underachieving, and while perhaps the expectations were unrealistic for Goodwin, the reality is he has not lived up to them.

yeah, I was - either way the 4 modern era guards (excluding 1 and done Larry Hughes) on the "All Century team" - Claggett, Lisch, Mitchell, and Jett were all bonafide studs at this point in their careers - with Jett's coming as a bench player on the most loaded team we've ever had.

Not good enough. Kwamain averaged 11 PPG his freshman year and 15.9 his sophomore year and was 2nd team all A10. Jett was the 2nd man off the bench his soph year and didn't take many shots, but he did make the A10 all defensive team. Lisch averaged 17.7 PPG his soph year and was all conf defensive team, honorable mention all conf Claggett averaged 19.7 PPG his soph year and was 1st team all conf. Most importantly, come crunch time - Goodwin is not a guy we can count on to get buckets.

The factors for the underachieving are 1. Jordan Goodwin has not lived up to his billing It's not fair to put everything on him, but the reality is he was a highly touted local recruit that was expected to be the next great Billikens guard. While he can do many things well, he's shooting 38% from the field (24.1% from 3) for his SLU career over 47 games. He was expected to be a go-to offensive scorer and shut down defender. He's neither, and I'm not sure how much improvement we can expect going forward. 2. Too many players who were expected to perform are gone after playing little or not at all (esp Henriquez, Graves, Santos, Gordon) 3. The grad transfers were band-aids, not replacements or upgrades Maybe some of the above is on Ford, and maybe Ford has been outcoached in some close losses but overall I think he's done well to hold things together and keep the recruiting train running.

They should bring back Sekue to teach these kids how to induce lane violations.

I wasn't there, just repeating verbatim what I heard. I'm assuming the literal use of "destroyed the locker room" as in property damage and creating a mess rather than the figurative divided locker room interpretation.

I don't have any direct sources but word 'round the campfire is that those 2 got into a scrap and Gordon destroyed the locker room. I'm sure someone on here can shed more light.

not to mention sitting through class...

There was a Lenny Cooke documentary that got pretty wide distribution on cable/streaming. It shows just how quickly it can all come unraveled for an elite player if his development stalls.

Isabell is overmatched. Can't get a shot. Can't create for others. No steals. 3 Turnovers...and he's been part of miscommunications on turnovers charged to others...

11am Sunday morning start when the Rams had a 3pm game (albeit the Spags era) was nowhere near full

Looks like it ranks #2 behind the 2014-15 season opener vs SIUC

Last year 2 of those scholarship players included a former walk-on and a guy who averaged 6.5 MPG for his 4 year career. I have to think Jacobs will get cleared eventually. Without him they're going to be thin at guard until Isabell and/or Wiley get healthy but they have the players to handle the early season home games. This projected season opening roster is not that far off from the original projected rotation Jordan Goodwin Fred Thatch Javon Bess Carte'Are Gordon Hasahn French Tramaine Isabell (less than 100%) Dion Wiley (less than 100%) DJ Foreman Thor Gudmundsson Remember in early 2012-13 Kwamain had a broken foot and Jett was not 100% and at one point McCall was the only available guard in a game against KU...and by late January they were running Brad Stevens' top 10 ranked squad off the floor.

Except none of the cornerstone players of the program are out or in jeopardy and there's still a pretty deep rotation of talent, even when compared to the best SLU teams.

Presumably anyone without an NBA contract at the start of the season can re-enter each year. What's his alternative? Play overseas? He's got a lot of factors working against him - the domestic violence arrest, the fact that modern NBA bigs can shoot and pass and there are fewer and fewer traditional centers each year. His best hope is that some team gets decimated by injury and require the athleticism/rebounding that Willie brings to the table.

You seem to be misplacing your blame with the city voters and not the group that a) failed to win the election and b) had no backup plan in place

Also the elephant in the room is city vs county divide, resentment from the city voters that the county wasn't being asked for anything in terms of the MLS bid, bad blood over the tricky way the c. 2015-16 NFL stadium bid (also a Dave Peacock led operation) was crammed through city government without a public vote, not to mention the original Dome stadium deal that we're still paying for both literally and figuratively. Simply put, in this region (or anywhere really) there's going to be significant opposition to any public money for sports stadiums. It's going to take a lot more than a few PR pieces explaining how this is a great deal for the city to get people on board. The previous MLS ownership group didn't do a good job of selling their proposal to enclaves within the city (Tower Grove South/East, CWE, Cortex, The Grove, Cherokee) that would have rather seen that use tax $$$ spent in ways that could help their neighborhoods.

"Well pardon the hell out of me." -Cheeseman, probably

I don't live in the city and thus did not vote in the April 2017 election, but I did follow it closely and my takeaway was that the Peacock/Edgerly group completely took for granted that it would pass, didn't have a real ground game in terms of voter turnout, weren't particularly compelling in their limited public appearances before the election (this is Peacock mainly), and completely misjudged the swing wards of the city. "This whole thing hinged on a cynical attempt to piggy back onto a mass transit resolution in the only predominantly African American part of the region...and you don't have a Plan B?" -Anonymous city resident the day after the election. Essentially a bunch of wealthy guys were asking a city that can't even afford to pick up the trash to kick in $60M on their investment and were rejected...and then immediately threw in the towel without trying to bridge the gap from another source - no plan B - and it set us back.