Old guy

Just came back from the game and feel quite happy about this win. Oregon was a tough team, I think we had much better defense than they did but our FTs were pretty poor so we won by 4 points. For anyone thinking about why we lost the SIUC game, Bess scored 3 points in that game, but 24 pts against Oregon. Isabell was nowhere to be seen today. Thatch was great with 16 pts. Jacobs played 12 minutes, got 2 pts, 2 rebs and 4 fouls. Hankton played 2 min. All in all a satisfactory win.

Vegas spread 3.5 in favor of SLU. Projected scoresSLU 69.5, OrSt. 66.

Don't work that way.

I think a lot will depend on how well Bess is able to score against OSU.

To add to your post Wiz, there is nothing static or meaningful about the rankings or ratings at any specific point in time during the playing season. EVERYTHING is in flux and constantly changing in a dynamic way. The value of a prior win depends upon how well the opponent is doing. New games are being played all the time by all the teams and the positioning of all teams relative to one another changes constantly. Competitive sports and league play are dynamic systems until the end of the season. The way you do your calculations is by using a "point in time" snapshot of where are we now in relation to everyone else combined with a performance trend for each team. It is true that there are valid performance trends discernible about how specific teams are performing over time. However, performance trends are also subject to variables, like injuries involving key players, that affect the results for specific games. For example it is valid to say that our loss against SIUC might not have happened if Bess had not sustained an injury in the prior game that affected his scoring level for that game. It is also valid to say that the game against Oregon St. is winnable if Bess is able to play better and score at his normal level. Sports teams are like the market in many ways, "the trend is your friend."

Wiley is unfortunately a case of recurrent injuries during his college basketball career. I doubt we will see him playing much for the rest of the year.

Anyone has information about Bess? How is he doing in practice?

Bishop really had no other choice except to leave SLU.

Good

I basically agree that winning the conference goes a long way towards getting an NCAA invite, but in order to do this we will also have to do well in the A10 tournament (like beimg one of the top 3 teams). Can we do this as a B team or do we need to be a B+ team.

Just got an email from the SLU Athletics, Brian Kunderman. My math is correct BUT the # of 3 pointers is included in the number of FG in the stats, so each 3 pointer is just one additional point over the number obtained from the Fgs. The score is correct and the stats are correct, the way they calculate the total score was not what I thought it was. It was an honest mistake, my bad.

It is a Word 2013 file, tell me what you use for word processing and I will see if I can convert it to that format.

OK that could be the case because the stats and the final scores are not the same, for either team.

If you care to check my math, I think the final score reported for this game is not correct. When you add the actual FGs, 3 pts, and Fts made by each player the total points appear to be incorrect. Please check the enclosed Word file. I you think this is a valid point and not an error I am making somewhere, I would like information as to how to send this file to Coach Ford. I think they have to correct the score somehow. He appear to have lost by a single point. Please check the enclosed file and my math, I need some confirmation here before I contact SLU about this. SLU vs SIUC corrected score.docx

I think as a group we are having a case of inflated expectations which are starting to look like they may not come to pass. Look at the stats of this game if you please, what is amiss? The glaring stat that is not as is expected is the low score produced by Bess. How about the rest of his stats, they were fine, he just could not score anywhere close to what he normally does in a game. Why may that be? The most likely cause is that he played injured and obviously without full use of a leg. For those of you who really know a lot about basketball, how important is the full use of both legs (your normal way of shooting a ball) in scoring? DUH... Does anyone doubt that Bess is our mot important player? Anyway Bess was injured and could not score as he usually does. We lost the game although we could have won it with a few more baskets. Now look at the game stats, we beat them in rebounds, we beat them in assists. We played reasonably well, but Bess who was injured could not score as usual. Why should this surprise anyone? All this garbage about Ford being a bad coach is just that, garbage. Ford cannot control injury, and other players like Thatch were plainly not scoring at all. Ford can do a lot of things but he cannot heal injury with a magic wand. We still have a chance but going to the dance but this is NOT going to be an easy thing to do. Not when our best player is injured just prior to a string of very tough games. Reality is reality, fantasy is not. Bess played injured and could not score as he normally does, we lost this game. We will see what happens going forward. The SIUC game was winnable, but not with an injured Bess. For those of you that write things like "In Ford I trust" and now turn around and think he is a bad coach after this loss, get a life.