Crewsorlose

NET ranking up to 31. Highest in the conference. KenPom up to 37, also highest in the A-10. If you take out the two post-COVID games, this is a top 20 team by almost every metric. Of the last four games, two are Q 2 and one is Q 1. Win all four and the Bills probably looking at a 7 or 8 seed in most brackets and comfortably in the tourney. Meanwhile, goofs at ESPN list Hyland and Crutcher as front-runners for A-10 POY. Bulletin-board material for Friday.

The most recent game was tough to take, but it was our first came after COVID. We of course remember the home game last year, but in the game @Dayton last year he was 4-13 and 1-5 from 3 with 4 assists. In 2018-19 we played them three times. He scored 11, 17, 18 and we won 2 of 3. Anything short of a dominant victory @Dayton will be a disappointment to me.

VCU up to 32. 35 is a nice place to be and I think if SLU routes Dayton and Lasalle, and splits VCU/Richmond, the committee will likely see the post-COVID funk for what it was. Going 3-2 in the next probably plants SLU on the bubble and will require some wins in the A-10 tourney. Bonnies are in a more precarious position, as they probably need to win the next 3 to feel safe going into Brooklyn.

NBA looks at Perkins and sees a guy who's game is pretty filled out. Mid-range game, can score off the bounce or off the pick, range extends to 3. There's not a lot to unlock. He's not turning into a PG or a defensive stopper. The reasons for staying would be: 1) he just loves playing for SLU; 2) he can further pursue his education for free, and perhaps pick up credits toward an advanced degree. Assuming he leaves, you run it back with a backcourt of: Yuri, Thatch, Jacobs, and Russell, wings being Jimerson, Strickland, bigs or stretch 4s being Bell, Okoro, TJ, Linßen, and Lorrentson. I suspect Ford invests in a PG and a 5th year big for depth If Im Lorrentson, I'm not sure there's a clear path to PT in 2021-22. I hope he's patient and really puts in the work to carve out his minutes.

Team played great. Jacobs and Hargrove still in funks. At least TJ got some PT. Russell shows he's deserving of a scholarship. I'd be shocked if he doesn't take one of the three that open up. Team will be laser-focused to pay back LaSalle. Tough home stretch of schedule, but 4-1 has them on the right side of the bubble. LSU and Minny continue to help us in the OOC.

Anything less than 20 point margin is a disappointment. Dayton has three good players. No depth. And the luster wore off pretty early when they couldn't close out Fordham. Crutcher is shooting well but he's not a volume scorer. 18/4/4.5 is a nice seasons with 52/43/77 splits, but he's not a first-team with those numbers on that team. Get a lead, get Jordy in foul trouble or expose him, and let Perkins cook.

Check out J-Good's fleet tweet. He's definitely back at Chaifetz.

Marcus Weathers was a beast last year but he's put on weight, it appears, and not in a good way. No way they're a top 4 team this year. And let's face it, Dayton may win some close games but they're not good.

It wasn't the OOC schedule we'd lined up in the offseason, but it served some purpose. What can be said about the Bills through 8 games This is not an awful FT shooting team waiting to show its true colors. French is still lost, but Goodwin at least has reverted to what he was as a frosh, and it's not a mirage. He's shot 35 FTs and is at 71%. Linssen appears able to stroke it, and Yuri appears to be better without tape on his wrists. The team average will always be hurt if French is a 30% shooter, but this is at worst an average FT team. Going 2-1 against the top part of the schedule (NC State, LSU, Minnesota) was a nice accomplishment. In retrospective, most realistic fans would gladly take that. Goodwin has to be leading candidate for A-10 POY and dark horse for 2nd or 3rd team All-American. He deserves it at this point (17/11/4 in 31mpg). Rotation appears to be nine guys. I really hope that Bell is getting at it in practice because we will need him in some big games due to fouls and depth. Wonder if Ford will at least play Bell for the first four minutes against bigger teams like Duquesne. Offense has looked great in stretches and team can really run. A long way from not being able to finish a 3 on 2 fast break. But the team sometimes struggle to run through sequences on offense that results in looks in the last 10 seconds. Anybody thinking this team will go 18-0 or 17-1 is setting themselves up for disappointment. This is a really good team that can play great. 14-4 or 15-3 makes for a very nice season and would put us in line for a 6 or 7 seed.

Interesting to look at KenPom now that the numbers are starting to balance out. League has clear tiers: Tier 1 is SLU, at #32, with a bunch of other teams huddled around 60 (VCU, Richmond Dayton) and four more inside the top 100 (Davidson, Bonnies, URI, Duquesne). Richmond is what the eye test has always told us: a good, veteran offensive team (#35) without the depth or personnel to be strong defensively (#89). I wouldn't be surprised if they're top 20 on offense before the season ends, although it's hard to see them having any kind of success with Gilyard or Golden off the floor. Never has a team benefitted more from the mirage of a big win than Richmond in that win over generationally awful Kentucky team.

Collins will struggle guarding bigger guards because of his size. The first play of the game he stupidly left Carr and gave him a wide open look. J Good is our best team defender. So good in the lanes. I think his supreme confidence in his hands lets him think he doesn't need to keep guys in front of him. Thatch is an unreal on-ball defender. Jacobs has the best body and athleticism on the team, IMHO. He's not quite the "dog" that J-Good and Thatch are. Yuri also very good on the ball. Motion, screens, switches, rotations etc.. are very hard to learn, even for NBA teams. This team is already really good; it will get better. Playing Perkins and Jimerson at the same time will hurt a bit on defense, but I'm assuming the staff is looking at advanced numbers when making these decisions. I would love it if Jacobs, Hargrove and Thatch came in at the same time (around 14:00) and the team went to a press.

There were some good take aways. I meant in terms of luck (Minnesota made every front end, got all the calls, lucked out at the end of shot clock after being taken out of their offense for 25 seconds, also got some iffy calls).

Everything went wrong in this game. Perkins struggled, Carr got off early and gave them confidence. We struggled against their size. They hit tough 3s and got bailed out. They were about .5 seconds from a 10 second call about five different times. A few notes: Bills can get the chip back on their shoulder. They won't be ranked tomorrow, they have something to work on between now and conference play, instead of just jogging through a rout of UMKC. Offense struggled to move the ball. Too much 1 on 1. Perkins needed to let the game come to him. When you're cold, try to get some easier shots Man, that press was nasty. The Bills were super close to shifting the momentum. I really believe that open court steal that led to Goodwin's layup getting blocked was the key play in the game. We needed that one. Thatch for 15-20 mpg on Blake Francis, Ibi Watson, Sincere Carry, and Fatts Russell is going to make their lives miserable. He's a weapon. Some games he will be a non-factor but he has the chance to turn a lot of games for us. On those two notes, how about Ford brings pressure at around the 14:00 mark with Thatch and Hargrove off the bench?

What a great win. A few questions and points: 1. What did Jacobs do in the first half to get buried? I'm sure he missed an assignment, but the rest of the guys made mistakes too. 2. Tight 2nd half rotation. Ford trusts Jacobs over Thatch. And he should. Jacobs was great in the 2nd half. 3. Thought Bell deserved more run because he could match up against Bates. 4. Goodwin gambles too much on D and lets guys get in the paint. That being said, when the action got loose in the 2nd half, Goodwin's relentless motor turned the game. 5. Man did the refs let them play! 6. Yuri and Goodwin were both really sloppy in their passing, esp. in the first half. 7. Can't wait for Minnesota. Stay healthy and COVID-free, Billikens. Let's go!

I mean, it's dumb to look ahead when this could be a historically great season. But in the spirit of being dumb... next year's team is stacked. Backcourt: Collins, Jacobs, Thatch, Russell Wings: Strickland, Jimerson Wing 4s: Hargrove, Lorrentson Bigs: Bell, Linßen, Okoro Lorrentson and Russell need to prove they can play, but that's still nine rock solid rotation guys, with an All A-10 PG, a potential All-A-10 big, and a lot of other good players. That's before any transfers or signings.

I think Bell will be important against bigger teams. Linßen as advertised on offense. He's very foul prone and tends to bump guys in the post that draws a whistle. I can see him picking up 4 fouls in 9 minutes against certain teams. I just don't think Bell is good enough on offense to make teams pay. Has is our best 5 against a lot of teams. TJ will help us win games this year. He's just a little shot happy, as when he took that early 3 in the first half. There will be games when he gives a huge boost off the bench like Jacobs has been doing.

I'm legitimately confused by this. Spiders getting dumped on. They're a nice team, against certain teams they will be a very tough game, and they play nice offense. But they're small, not athletic, and not deep. Without Sherrod they're not a good shooting team. WVU is treating Richmond like a JV team. For the life of me I can't believe why writers didn't move Richmond down a notch after losing Sherrod.

Crutcher is a good player, but hasn't done a lot of "clutcher" scoring down the stretch. Watson a great offensive player. Chapman a great defensive player. I can't see how they finish higher than 6th. The a*sclown on 3 Bid League who thinks Dayton > SLU this year is delusional. Can't see how Crutcher makes 1st or 2nd team this year.

I think Richmond may have the better starting 5. They play great together and really know how to run that offense. But players 6-10 is no contest. Richmond is brittle without Sherrod. Gilyard is such a ballhawk though, and when we play them I think Yuri's minutes should be matched against Gilyard's. I don't really trust anyone else to run the offense with Gilyard guarding them. On the other hand, who's guarding Goodwin? It would be great if both teams were ranked when they play.

Gotcha. I understand. I also root for Boston College and get the all boats rising thing, but I've never rooted for Duke. Just a bridge too far. I loved watching Dayton play last year with joy and brilliance on the offensive end. Toppin was legitimately fun. Crutcher had a great statistical season but I don't see him as 1st team A-10 this year (JP, Gilyard, Mitchell, Fatts, J-Good) . I thought he should have gone to the draft, hoping an analytics-reliant team would take a risk on his gaudy numbers.

I get what you're saying but I'm finding it hard. The publicity Crutcher gets seems inflated. Sorry, I'll take J-Good. I mean, Vitale had Crutcher as 3rd-team All-American. And then the goons at 3 Bid League had the nerve to pick Dayton over SLU in their preseason rankings. I can't root for Dayton this year.

Almost everyone on this board ignored Demarius this off-season. It's like people forgot he was on the team. Granted, there's a ton of other guys to root for and be excited about, but DJ made a leap from Year 1 to Year 2. He went from unplayable to a solid (if inconsistent) rotation player getting 20mpg. If he doesn't make that leap (forced by injuries to GJ and FT), the team doesn't have the success that it does. Now it looks like he's made another leap. He's a great athlete with serious skill. Without his bench play, we don't win today.

Linßen will play more than people realize this year. Last year, the ONLY way for SLU to play big was with both Bell and French. Otherwise it was Hargrove or Perkins at the 4. Perkins at the 4 is probably a key component of SLU's best lineup, don't get me wrong. But in games where Ford wants to play big, French/Bell don't both need to be out there. If one is struggling or in foul trouble, Linßen can come in and play either position. He's a solid rebounder and post-scorer with nice touch. He will help us win games. And in 2021-22, French and Perkins are gone. He'll continue to play the same role with Okoro and Bell likely to start. That gives Ford a ton of leverage recruiting. He doesn't need another big, but can also take a swing at a diamond in the rough or wait for a 2022 big.

It's not out of the range of possibilities that they're a top 75 NET team.

BC is always ranked low. They will be better than last year. The key to their team is Wynston Tabbs, who looked like a potential all-ACC player his freshman year in 18-19. He got injured that year, and they had no depth to compensate. He missed all of last year but is practicing now. Their coach is on the hot seat so he brought in three 5th year guys + a top 100 recruit. Some fans think it's an NIT team with NCAA potential. They'll win between 7 and 11 ACC games.