Aquinas

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think this is a 2 point game, I think its a double digit loss. They have a group of forwards that are all taller and some much taller than TJ. I haven't seen much that shows TJ can score or defend the post against decent larger post players. The loss of Parker means we need young guards to made big contributions. That generally means more mistakes and turnovers. I foresee a rough game. I would love to eat crow on this.

Just when my hopes were rising with the play of Bruce, Parker breaks his foot. He was establishing himself as a playmaker, but like Perkins, he goes down. This is a killer hit. We need a strong outside game to cover our weaknesses inside. Everything just got a lot harder.

With those 4 out, we have no centers.

Do women prefer to work for a man or woman

Utah collective is giving each of the 85 scholarship football players a leased truck. Truck retails for 60K. It's clever as leases terminate every 6 months. The collective has 3 mil. Looking to double that.

If anything today's game requires more recruiting effort. Coaches and staff use to evaluate high school players and a few jucos, with an occasional transfer, to fill 3-4 positions a year. Now they have that plus a huge transfer portal to evaluate and need to secure/continue to recruit their existing players. And have they have more spots to fill with players transferring out every year. They have to over recruit because today's recruiting miss is tomorrow's transfer recruit and they never know how many players or what players are leaving. It might be your best player. Get everything right with a recruit and then it comes down to a question of being NIL competitive. Come up short and move to plan B, C, D ,E etc. I suspect most non power 5 coaches are frustrated and have recruiting fatigue. Good X and O guys have specific ideas about the type of players and skills they need to impose their will on another team. It just takes a hell of an effort to assemble that team.

I think the best path is to address the NIL organization before looking for a new coach. What coach wants to go to a new school to build an NIL system from scratch? It could put the coach at odds with the administration who want to protect their top donors. It's just another way for a coach to fail. I think it might be easier to attract big donors to participate in attracting a new coach. Unless a school has a lock on a coach or an assistant they are CERTAIN, will take the job. They are looking at a long hiring process, waiting on the P5 schools to finish picking over the pool of available coaches, or do a quick hire for a coach who is certain the P5 will pass them over.

I suspect in this new NIL era, cleaning house for a school with a modest NIL bag is uncharted waters as well. I suspect a coaches first question is; how much NIL money does a school have. It's more important than contract, location, history, facilities and conference, outside the P5. Even low end P5 schools have big TV revenues and large fan bases. Hunting for a new head coach could mean wating on all of the P5 dust to settle. If you catch a good young one, you can't keep him. Life as a mid major has gotten a lot tougher.

I hope this isn't true. I think our best 3 guards are Hughes, Parker and Jimerson. I like Hargrove off the bench. He could start at the 4 if the other team playes small.I really hope we are taller than that up front. I'm expecting Parker to take a big step up.

If I'm Ford, I'm setting the team up to run the A10 tournament table, as that is the only way we dance this year. In my view the only way we have a chance to run the table is with our international bigs playing big minutes at the 5. Dalger has to be a 4. If Dalger is our 5 we are cooked. We will be too small run the table or beat almost any tournament level team.. So, play the bigs and use the season to coach them up and gain experience. Don't worry about about the record.

Are there any practice reports on Van Bussel?

Last year Ford was committed to Perkins as his play maker. Parker may be the only player we have, who can create his own shot. Teams will focus on Jimmerson until we have an answer.

Well our bigs were typically in foul troublle, Perkins played protect the knee defense and we were undersized at the 4.

What is your projected opening game starting lineup?

I would love to get a report on how our bigs and other new players are doung in practice. It the tine of year for blue koolaid.

The 23-24 season starts with a lot of question marks and a lot of new faces: Here are the current roster with stats: Returning players: Gibson Jimerson, Yr. 3, 6’5” 205, Pos 2-3, 34 mpg, 14 pts/game, 46/40/84, Reb 3.5 Sincere Parker Juco, Yr. 3, 6’3” 195, Pos 2-3, 12.5 mpg, 5.9 pts/game, 42/35/87 Reb 2.5 Larry Hughes Jr., Yr 2, 6”4” 175, Pos 1-2-3, 8.7 mpg, 2.5 pts/game, 42/41/53 Reb 1.1 Terrence Hargrove Jr. Yr 4, 6’4” 215, Pos 3,4 Grade C, 20 mpg, 5.9 pts/game, 48/29/74, Reb 3.7 Kellen Thames, Yr.1, 6’5” 200, Pos 1-2-3, High school: 19.2 pts/game, Reb 7.5 5.6 asst New Additions: Michael Meadows, Yr. 4, 6,2’, Pos 1-2, 11 pts/game, 46,36,89 , 2.2 Assists, 2.7 reb Tim Dalger, Yr. 4, 6’ 7” 218, Pos 4, Tulsa 24.5 mpg, 10.2 pt/game, 38/35/68 5.2 reb Bradley Ezewiro, 6’ 8” 246, Pos 4-5 Georgetown 12 mpg 4.3 pts/game, 52/0/58, 3.5 reb Cian Medley, Yr. 1, 6’, 165, Pos 1, High School: 10.2 ppg, 3.9 asst Aboubacar Magassa, Yr 1, 6’ 6”, Pos 4-5, France: 24 mpg, 10.8 pts/game, 70/36/65, 5 reb The Wiz says potential difference maker Bruce Zang, Yr 1, 7’0” 275, Pos 5, Stef Van Bussel, Yr. 1, 6’ 10” Pos 4-5, Djordge Curcic, Yr 1, Pos 2-3, 5.8 Pts/game 31/19/75, 2.8 Reb What can we expect by position: Point guard: Larry Hughes Jr. will get most of the minutes He only averaged 8 minutes per game last year, but showed significant improvement as the season progressed. He played tough on the ball defense, He has had an off season to prepare for this role. He also showed leadership skills last year. I think he may surprise us. Michael Meadows played 29 min/game at Portland and probably will split tie as a 1 and 2 guard. Cian Medley is a pass first freshman point guard. There are similarities to Yuri. He will get minutes. Beyond those 2, its wide open to speculation. Maybe Thames, Parker or one of the international 2 guard: Sincere Parker will get the most minutes. He can create his own shot and score on all 3 levels. He needs to settle in and figure out when to pass and when shoot. He played some hero ball last year. Hopefully, he will improve his decision making and have a good year. He has the potential to lead the team in scoring. Meadows Hughes give us depth and flexibility 3 guard: Gibson Jimerson. Our best returning player and has raised his game every year. He has an incredibly quick release and moves better than any other player without the ball. He was a big reason Yuri had so many assists. Backup 2-3 guards Kellen Thames who sat last year with an injury and TJ Hargrove. TJ can back up the 3 position, brings a lot of energy and with the right matchup can impact a game. It’s possible Djordge Curcic could work his way in. Overall, I like our 3 starting guards of Hughes, Parker, Jimerson, with Meadows and TJ coming off of the bench Meadows may play his way into more than a backup role. Power Forward: Tim Dalger will likely take the lead here. He averaged 24 min per game at Tulsa and 10 points along with 5 rebounds. Hopefully he can improve those rebounding numbers. At 6’7”, 218 #s, he is bigger than the 4s we played last year. IF Bradley Ezewiro from Georgetown is eligible to play will also get significant minutes and at 6’8” 246 #s he will be a load. Some on the board have TJ plugged in here. I don’t see TJ as a forward. He had all of the opportunity in the world to lock it up last year, but didn’t He just isn’t big enough and doesn’t have the Goodwin rebounding instincts. Another international question mark is Aboubacar Magassa. I am unclear on just how big he is but it appears that he is a forward. The Wiz ran the numbers on him and said he could be a difference maker. Center Big international question marks. Bruce Zang 7 footer at 275 pounds from China with almost no info and no idea what to expect. At that size he should be able to disrupt teams that want to go inside but, who knows. Then there is 6’10” Stef Van Bussel, the Dunking Dutchman. No idea how long it will take him to adjust to div 1. Ford and his staff have their hands full. There are a lot of new players and a lot who have never played Div 1. Just getting everyone to figure out where they are supposed to be on offense and defense will take time. There will be a lot of mistakes and the start will be rough. Other than Jimerson, we are asking guys to take big jumps in minutes per game. This season, factoring the graduation of Covid extensions and the portal, there are a lot of Div 1 teams with heavy turnover. How good will the Billikens be this year? The goal is to get better every game and be good enough by the end of the season to win the A10 tournament. A lot of things have to go right for that to happen. At least one of our international bigs, has to be a real player by tournament time.

In this NIL world, we are not going to sign 5 star recruits like Tatum or Beal. But the recruits that we can sign, will love the chance to meet them, work out with them and tell all of their friends about it. Many of the schools we are competing against can't offer that kind of opportunity. From a recruiting perspective, its a good thing.

I recall a recent interview where Medley referenced what the coaching staff did with Goodwin and Yuri, in his decision to play for the Billikens and to stay with them. I dont think we have a problem with Ford leveraging the individual success of our recent point guards. Im sure the Billikens will do everything possible to make Godwin feel welcome at SLU and SLU games.

I wonder what the academic impact is of the big number of players transferring? I know Covid added an extra scholarship year for many students and that may have a temporary booat to graduation rates. Changing schools generally means a loss if credits toward a degree. For most student athletes the degree is the greatest treasure they leave with. My concern is this transfer craze will end with a significantly smaller number of graduates.

Jimerson. In this new era of div 1 basketball, keeping your best player is a big pickup. Especially when it was believed he had played his last season as a Billiken.

If NIL agents are the first point of contact in todays recruiting process, I think it is fair to assume they are looking for an immediate payout and probably sold their services on a bigger imediate payout than other agents will get

. 7 steals in 14 min is good. He looks like a player that would help increase ball pressure and create turnovers.

1.3 steal in 24 min is good.

I think its easy in hindsight to see Perkins was over-played. However, comebacks from an injury and year off, sometimes are slow, but then a player turns the corner and returns to form. Ford knew we needed Perkins to return to form to be a good team. And he wanted to see him return to form for his sake. It made it hard to give up on him.