Aquinas

I agree, as a team we shot poorly. Bess however made the most remarkable shooting progress that I ever recall seeing in a player in his Jr and Sr years. Ford obviously went after some proven shooters for this season, and my hope is that wil] open up some easier shots for our other players. Shots start going down and confidence goes up.

Makes me wonder what Chicago area players we are looking at?

The highschool stats would seem to indicate he wasn't a shooter. From a distance he looks more like Hargrove than any other player we currently have.

I don't think the dunkfest will translate very well to real games. I've seen too many players with great dunk high light videos end up with very few in the regular season. Its good to know they have hops. Last night tells us little about the half court offence we will end up playing a lot, other than we now have some shooters. Sadly the incessant replays ran over almost all of Jimmersons shots. We need to see how well these new guys defend, and score in half court. Right now it appears that Jimmerson will play about 45 minutes a game if he can play any kind of defence.

I agree with both of you. If Ford could have landed the right guy, i'm sure he would have. I'm happy with everything I've heard about Bell. We are thin up front, I'm hoping Ford lands a big in the 2020 class.

An issue with banking on French as our 5, and the other bigs as backups, is what happens when French is in foul trouble, fouls out, is sick, injured or even just banged up. A team with depth will go after him, especially if he picks up a quick early foul. It's easy to pick up 2 quick fouls on an away court. Ford generally benches a player with 2 fouls for the rest of the first half, even if it happens in the first minute. I think it's in the Billikens best interest to push Bell to play as many quality minutes as he can.

I'm hoping to see significant minutes with Bell at the 5. If he can hold his own, French will dominate as a 4. I also think KC will make significant contributions in the rotation. Madani is the one big that we have not had any reports on. Perkins might be the wing best suited to play the 4 with his JC experience and height, but the article about him made it look like he is better suited to the wing position.

SLU lists Hargrove at 6, 4 195, and looking at the team picture he looks a couple of inches shorter than French.

How big are the A10 Bigs? Info from Verbal Commits. Did not include walk on, or Fordham. Davidson Luka Brakovic 6, 10 250 so 2* Nelson Broachie 6, 8 220 so 2* David Kristensen 6, 10 210 fr 2* Dayton Jordy Tshimanga 6, 11 268 jr 3* Chase Johnson 6, 9 219 jr 3* Obadiah Toppin 6, 9 220 so 2* Moulaye Sissoko 6, 9 248 fr 3* Duquene Baylee Steele 6,11 240 sr 2* Michael Hughes 6, 8 240 jr 2* Austin Rotroff 6, 8 240 so 3* Amari Kelly 6, 9 230 so 2* James Ellis 6, 11 237 fr 2* George Mason Greg Calixte 6, 8 227 jr 2* Josh Oduro 6, 9 237 fr 2* George Wash Arnaldo Toro 6, 8 248 sr 2.7* Javier Langarrca 6, 9 228 jr 2* Sloan Seymour 6, 9 205 jr 2* Chase Paar 6, 9 220 fr 2* LaSalle Moustapha Diagne 6, 9 230 sr 4* Clifton Moore jr. 6, 10 220 jr 4* Ed Crosswell 6, 8 250 so 2* Brandon Stone 6, 11 200 fr 3* U Mass Djery Bapptiste. 6, 10 245 sr 3.5* Sy Chatman 6, 8 220 so 2* The Mitchell 6, 9 240 fr 4* Rhode Is Cyril Langevine 6, 8 225 sr 2.7* Jermaine Harris 6, 8 220 so 4* Richmond Grant Golden 6, 10 255 sr 2.5* Souleymane Koureissi 6, 9 215 so 3* Matt Grace 6, 9 230 so 2* St. Joe Taylor Funk 6, 8 230 jr 3* Lorenzo Edwards 6, 8 215 jr 2* Anthony Longpre 6, 10 245 jr. 2* St. Bon Amadi Ikpeze 6, 10 245 sr 2* Osun Osunniyi 6, 10 215 so 2* Justin Winston 6, 8 220 fr 3* Robert Carpenter 6, 8 215 fr 2* VCU Marcus Silva 6, 7 250 jr 3* Corey Douglas 6, 8 220 jr 2* Hansen Ward 6, 9 200 fr 2* SLU Hasan French 6, 7 245 jr 3.3* KC Hankton 6, 7 215 so 2* Jimmy Bell 6, 11 270 fr 3* Madani Diarra 6, 10 240 fr 2*

Jimmerson looks like he has put on some muscle.

Big improvements in shooting from years 2 or 3, to the next are uncommon. Bess was exceptional, in going from a poor shooter to a good shooter. I think FT shooting got in Goodwins head, I am hopeful he can shake that off, and be an average shooter. Hopefully our new shooters will do well and that success will rub off.

Posting up guards is what Majerous loved to do. But for that to work well, you need stretch bigs, or the driving guard runs into a big defender. For Yuri and Goodwin to be on the floor at the same time, at least one of them needs to be an outside threat, or we will see packed in zones again this year.

We will have a lot of bench points, in part because there will be an extraordinary number of substitutions. I think Jimmerson will be hard to keep on the bench. Teams packed us in all last year and until we make them pay, they will keep doing it. Jimmerson appears to be an exceptional shooter and I think teams are going to have to put their best perimeter defender on him or he will burn them....and he might burn them any way. I don't think Thatch has been able to shut him down. That will help open things up for other players. I also think Bell will play more than expected because he will force other teams to put their big man on him, giving French an advantage against thier 4. If they cheat and put thier big man on French, Bell has a big mismatch. French and Bell together put a lot of pressure on the post. Those 2 Billiken Bruisers are going to bang people up. I believe getting to 70 points a game requires big years from Goodwin and French. I think that requires at least 2 good shooters on the floor in all of the rotations, to break the zones and open up space for Goodwin and French, so they can do what they do best.. I suspect we will press more with our depth and get more easy buckets. I think Yuri will shine more as time passes and these guys learn to play together. That will either happen late this year or maybe next. His minutes will also improve as his outside shooting improves. I could be all wet. I don't recall a Billiken team with this many new players, especially with such different skill sets. This is going to be fun and sometimes frustrating. There are a lot of questionmarks that make it difficult to project how it will all play out.

I have to assume Coach Ford is selling his background as a guard, to help develop Stone to his full potential. Stone, a 4 star prospect probably isn't afraid to compete for minutes. In addition if he goes to play for a football school like Auburn, the basketball program will always be second fiddle.

I found where Jayden visited Michigan State on 5/30 and Auburn a week later.