Bills By 40
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Posts posted by Bills By 40
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Current governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker will succeed Mark Emmert as President of the NCAA starting March 1st, 2023.
Interesting move, he has no collegiate administration experience and has spent the majority of his career in state politics. Previously a healthcare administration professional. He did play power forward for Harvard in the 70's though.
Wonder how much change we're in for with this transition. Oughta be interesting. -
On 12/11/2022 at 2:05 PM, HoosierPal said:
Yuri passed 3000 career minutes last night. But we lost, so no participation ribbon or shiny buttons will be awarded.
I've never seen someone awarded for career minutes
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1 hour ago, HoosierPal said:
Gibson will be awarded his BS in International Business this Saturday in the mid-year commencement. He receives this degree in 3.5 semesters. I assume he will be enrolled in a Master's program this upcoming semester. Some things are more important than 3 point FG% and scoring average. This is one of them.
Chase Niece really impressed me - earning a BS in Mechanical Engineering while being a D1 athlete on a nationally competitive team is no easy feat. No degree is easy, but not many are as difficult as an engineering degree.
slufanskip, HoosierPal and bauman like this -
15 minutes ago, wgstl said:
(1) My only "IMO" is that Auburn will fall, quite a bit. I do not think they're a t25 at all. If I were to guess, they'll fall to mid 30s-40s by mid conf. (2) That said, even without Perkins and parker, this team should be better than last years, and at this point, a solid argument can be made they're not or that they are equal to.
1) I'm not so sure of this. For our sake I hope I'm right and you're wrong but I don't think you'd disagree with that part.
2) If we were just without Perkins and Parker, sure, but I don't think anyone expected to be without Perkins, Parker, Forrester, AND Okoro. Hard to overcome being down two starters and two significant role players.
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15 hours ago, thetorch said:
A couple years ago I counted how many people I had fired in my career. It was over 400 people. After the first 100 I stopped rooting for firings.
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13 hours ago, Slu let the dogs out? said:
Memphis down just 3 to #4 Alabama at half in Tuscaloosa
Memphis lost a tough one, it came down to last minute or two and could've been a different game if their big man hadn't fouled out with 6 minutes to go and Kendric hadn't left with an ankle injury in the final minutes. Shows they can scrap with just about anybody (that ain't the Saint Louis University Billikens).
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18 minutes ago, slufan13 said:
Yuri is taking too many shots and turning it over too much. He hasn't been good. But he is our best player. The key to the season. Ford has to find a different way to get him going. (1)
Jimerson draws the defense away and opens up the paint so he has value but he also has to start making shots. Ford needs to get him more open looks. Other than the A10 tourney game last year, Jimerson hasn't stepped up in big situations. He needs to now. (2)
I don't really know about Thatch. He definitely hasn't disappointed but you kind of need him to step up and take on a bigger role than he is probably able to do. He's had more mental lapses this season than I can remember is my only real issue with him. (3)
Pickett is perfectly fitting into the role as that last missing piece. But the problem is we inserted him into the missing piece role but then lost 2-3 other pieces along the way. (4)
I think Perkins either needs to sit until January or he needs to come off the bench. Maybe his role is strictly to play once the other team goes to their bench. He is being bullied, he's tentative on both ends, and he just hasn't been good. You have to feel bad for him.
Okoro has been awful but I will say that our current offense seems to get Okoro and Forrester the ball in places that they aren't remotely good. Some of that is on them. They shouldn't be D1 basketball players with such big weaknesses but some of that is coaching/Yuri too. (5)
Hargrove is good in spurts just like he has always been. If he plays 30 mins a night, it's probably night good. If he plays 20 or so minutes, I think he's really solid. (6)
Parker is just going to take some time. I see some ability there but once again he's gotta make shots.
We needed a backup PG and still do. (7)
1) Most of the time that Yuri is shooting is when it's out of a last-resort absolute necessity. And in that scenario it will rarely be a good shot for anyone. How often have we seen him practically avoid shooting like it's the plague? Until everything is going wrong Yuri doesn't consider himself the first option, typically not the second third or even fourth, either. He has been very good, great even. He's also been bad, but only in situations where the rest of the team has also been very bad if not utterly f***ing terrible. It goes both ways IMO - a chicken or the egg situation.
2) I don't think Jimerson is built to be a primary scoring option and with the rest of the team performing like they have been what choice have we left him? Maybe what I'm saying is he's good enough to be the first scoring option, but he can't be the only scoring option and often if not regularly that's exactly what he's been.
3) Thatch is the ultimate utility player and IMO that's exactly what he has been. And then some. I love backup PG Thatch and he's been very good at it all things considered. Pretty rare to find a guy that can basically play the 1-5.
4) You're exactly right. I don't have the energy to quantify this claim but I'd wager that Pickett has been one of the most impactful transfers in the entire country. And he'll be a nightmare for A10 opponents.
5) Yes, we need to stop giving Okoro and Forrester the ball in the high post or beyond, we're really missing Linssen for that part of the playbook. We thought Forrester could've filled that role but so far absolutely not. The issue is that they've been bad from everywhere on the court. Within 15 feet, within 10 feet, within 5 feet...majorly ineffective, turnover prone, and totally incapable of making even layups. Those two are combining for like 4 turnovers/game and if you counted all of the turnovers that are credited to Yuri that are arguably their fault that number might double. Our front court has flown mostly under the radar but if you watch more closely they are far and away the biggest problem with this team.
6) I don't think it's the # of minutes Hargrove gets but the situations in which he gets them. He's better than the amount of playing time he gets and so effective in so many ways, but so much of his PT comes in situations where we're down bad and his only hope is to stop the bleeding. He draws a lot of short straws and has an even shorter leash.
7) We were never going to get a "backup PG" and it wouldn't have solved the issues we're having. There's no viable option to play behind someone that demands and deserves 33+ MPG - we saw that with Deandre last year. I think what we needed was a backup center...maybe a starting center. You could argue that we need a backup 2-3-4-5 because we are struggling just about everywhere right now.
I know I'm ragging on Okoro but it's because I know - we all know - that he's soooooo much better than this. I think it's mostly mental issues, lack of confidence or something. We saw what he's capable of last year, but we also saw exactly what he's doing now in the first half of last year's season. I thought we were out of the woods with that version of Franco but he has regressed terribly and I truly think he deserves more blame than any individual player for our losses this year. His rebounding numbers look fine but it's not hard at 6'9" to rack up defensive boards. He's a combined 3-11 in our last three losses, 6-17 in the four of them. He's averaging 3 TO/G in the last three losses and again that number would be higher if he was blamed for the routine passes that hit him in the hands and he fails to catch them. If you picked ten different 6'9" guys off the street today at least 5 of them would average a double-double playing for this team. I don't get it and that needs to change immediately if we want to stand a chance against any significant level of competition. -
TL;DR -
Yuri has his issues, but many of them are amplified by the issues of those around him. It's not fair to highlight him any more than the surplus of problems around him caused by the teammates that are drastically underachieving their individual expectations.
IMO the only players who haven't disappointed are Thatch, Pickett, and probably Gibby.
ALSO IMO - we're going to win 14(or+) games in conference play and be just fine. -
50 minutes ago, SLU_Nick said:
In my view, Yuri going 5/16 with 8 turnovers was the only reason we lost to Boise. Pickett would make a good move/score, we'd make a stop and then Yuri would just pass it to the other team. Completely shut down by a 5'11 Jimmy Chitwood type at home is just awful.
Against Iona he went 5/12 with 5 turnovers, very little effort, deer in headlights, no talking. Just getting completely outclassed by a MAAC team.
The hard regression of Yuri when the competition rises above the level of SIU and Tenn St is something we all need to look at squarely in the face. The fact that Ford thinks he is some reincarnation of stephon marbury/steve nash has directly contributed to 2 losses maybe 3. We have no one else so at this point there is no other option for us. Ford's roster construction relied on Yuri being an all american which was um....dumb.
Honestly looking forward to just handing the keys to Cian Medley and playing more team basketball.
One of those 8 turnovers was the forced drive in the final seconds that IMO was a defensive foul. Multiple of those 8 turnovers were the fault of teammates who seemingly refuse to be passed to anymore. Our frontcourt has hands of stone and the eyes of Ray Charles. It looks like they're actively trying to lose games out there.
The only person with >4FGA that had a higher shooting percentage against Boise was Thatch and even he was only 3/6. Okoro and Forester took a combined 8 shots for a total of 6 points. Our sharpshooter Jimerson was 2/11 and didn't make a 3. Javonte was 0-4, Pickett only 2-6, Hargrove a modest 2-4.
When the team shoots 18-58 and and 14-40 inside the arc you can't expect the pass-first point guard to do much more than rack up 17 points. In my view you're looking for reasons to crucify Yuri because he's typically so good that any time we're not it looks like his fault. He's not faultless, but he's far from the sole issue.Same issues with Iona. We shot 21/68 from the field. "You can lead a horse to water..." but you can't make him put a basketball through the f***ing hoop. Yuri was actually tied for highest shooting % on the team in that game and again, not every turnover was egregiously his fault. I can't count on two hands the number of times I've watched him slip a routine bounce pass on a pick and roll to FO/JF and they let it go right through their hands or even their legs. This is a problem, they're (majority of the time) not difficult passes.
"Ford's roster construction relied on Yuri being an all american which was um....dumb." If I told you pre-season that Yuri would be averaging 12/11/4 on 40% shooting at this point in the year would you have thought 1) it was dumb to build around him or 2) we would be 7-4? What's dumb is thinking he's anything less than one of the best point guards in the country. We have a lot of problems with the team right now (hopefully a week off is time to resolve some/many/most/all of them) but all of those problems make a point guard's job way harder. -
11 minutes ago, billikenbill said:
LOL
Guaranteed L. I’m betting the house and bank account on Drake, then heading to Vegas to collect!!
billikenbill and BrettJollyComedyHour like this -
1 hour ago, wgstl said:
The problem with the whole Perkins thing, we shouldn't even need him like we do. The team should have been an at large team without Perkins.
If all else went as expected, yes.
But that includes a slower than projected transition for Sincere.
That includes Forester being (so far) a major downgrade from Linssen when we expected him to be an improvement.That includes Okoro being what we saw in the first half of last year, not the second.
If just one or two of those four things above were true, we'd be in great shape. Probably 9-2. If only three of the above were our current reality we'd surely have won one of Auburn/Boise, kept the others closer. But so far it seems we have far more issues than anyone could've projected and it has proven to be too much to overcome.
The good news is all four of those issues could very well resolve themselves between now and the important part of the season. Necessity is the mother of innovation and we sure as hell NEED to figure something out. We've seen lesser SLU teams gel and succeed far beyond expectations in the second half of the season before, we have no reason to believe this team can't or won't do the same.Matty Light, cgeldmacher, Billiken Rich and 1 other like this -
10 hours ago, Old guy said:
Taj may not be a glass half empty guy. The truth is that he glass is more than half empty as you should clearly see by the end of the season. No one should be crucified for saying the truth. And whether you like it or not, by the end of the season we will all know the truth. Ford is a good recruiter, he is not a good coach. Let's get rid of him after we fail to get into the NCAA tournament this season. He will not be any better next year. The time to start looking for a replacement is now.
"Taj may not be a glass half empty guy." says the glass completely empty under any and all circumstances guy.
When can we start looking for a replacement for you? That time is long overdue.Billiken Rich and slufanskip like this -
21 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:
I think that's a very good question, and I don't know the answer.
I don't know if anyone knows the answer because NET is rigged. At a minimum it's suspiciously non-transparent.
All we can do is win and hope it's rewarded by the powers that be.Fraz likes this -
1 hour ago, Billiken Rich said:
I am not worried about Billiken recruiting as long as Travis is out coach....
Nor am I worried about Collins and Jimerson leaving for anywhere besides pro careers.
More importantly, if those two or even just Yuri returns - we are a top, like, 10 transfer destination in the country. -
This is worth a DM at most, not a thread.
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13 minutes ago, Taj79 said:
Next year, the front lien is currently Cisse, Vice and Zhang. Two projects. Two freshmen. Can't see much change there.
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Just now, billiken_roy said:
did they look unstoppable or did we look like we were in the midst of a bad tequila hangover? yes maryland is appearing to be for real, but we should have given them a better game than that disaster was.
am i the only one that expects huge results from this year's billiken team? not sure why there isnt more angst over bad efforts when this might be the most talented deep billikens roster in Saint Louis University history. particularly since come March we likely will get no help from the A-10. it's all on the billikens to write the way this season will play out.
It was a combination of both. Maryland is flat out GREAT. They're one of the best teams in the nation.
We played a poor game that day, maybe in part due to it being our first road game, most likely due to being shell-shocked by the 10th-ranked pre-season Big 10 team playing like a top-5 team in the country and shooting 105% from the floor.
It can be both at the same time.
I'm much more mad about Auburn than Maryland, as we all should be frankly. -
1 minute ago, billiken_roy said:
im not saying play over yuri. you wrote that. i said we should have been giving time to two very talented freshmen. no one is saying play them 30 minutes. but 4 or 5 minutes a game wouldnt hurt the team likely and in the long run it would probably pay off.
if they saw no time vs auburn or providence or memphis, i get it. but most of the rest of the schedule, it was possible to give them time.
In theory yes, but don't forget how important margin of victory is. Also important that we have guys chasing records and trying to bolster their resumes for professional aspirations. If we play the kids against SIUC do we win by 5? By 9? Neither as important to NET as the 13 we won by.
Same as TSU - we didn't even cover the spread, and Yuri deserved every minute he got.
Evansville could've been a loss if we didn't play the starters as long as we did, and it at times felt like it could've been with them in there.
Long story short MOV is too important nowadays to give the kids in-game practice time in my opinion. -
2 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:
i just dont appreciate subpar efforts when the talent is there for so much more.
i do like hugs though.
Maryland could've beaten any team in the nation by 20 points that day, they looked unstoppable. Didn't help us that our best perimeter defender was out for the second half.
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We don't play the back end of our bench because they don't deserve to play over guys who are, let's say, the best in the country at their position. If they weren't good enough for minutes against cupcake teams what makes you think they'll be good enough in one of the toughest games of the season?
Those guys are for emergency situations. Foul trouble, injury, etc. Players like Fred and Yuri and Jimerson deserve to play the minutes they do because they're that much better than any other options on the team.
SLU_Nick likes this -
Just now, Billiken Rich said:
The Tournament is all about the matchups. I'd rather meet Auburn again at the dance than Maryland......
I'd be shocked if anyone disagreed with you. Maryland is a different beast.
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5 minutes ago, BrettJollyComedyHour said:
What happens to your profile pic when Yuri is gone after graduating/eligibility runs out? Are you going to keep it? I've always been curious.
I'll have a meeting with the board to discuss a rebrand. As a former recruiter Cian Medley has a strong lead on the competition but I'm also an early contender for biggest Bruce Zhang fan on the board.
To be determined.
ALTERNATIVELY, if Yuri makes an NBA roster it probably stays.dennis_w and Billikenbooster like this -
7 minutes ago, BC1764 said:
You have to be the most sensitive person on this site bar none.
You've been here for 18 posts, you ain't seen nothing yet.
dennis_w and JohnnyJumpUp like this -
If Yuri Collins stays for his fifth year in Saint Louis next season we will we be one of if not the hottest transfer portal destinations in the country for anyone that isn't a point guard.
The Average Path to Greatness
in Billikens.com Main Board
Posted
Someone needs to backhand BACKHANDtheRICAN. I'm sick of this dude.
I had to look into this, because I knew Fordham had a bottom-5 ITN SOS. I thought no way the rest of the league could be that bad...
Turns out:
Fu** this conference.