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GoSluBills

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    GDT: SLU v. NC State

    in Billikens.com Main Board

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Dr Bird said:

    Brad's 2 games have been excellent.  He was the bright spot tonight.   The halftime adjustments are clearly not in our favor.

    we wasted nearly 10 seconds in backcourt every possession.  Please show some urgency getting up the court

    We continued our tradition of refusing to set a screen in the backcourt when our PG was being pressured. 

    Former Billikens Updates

    in Billikens.com Main Board

    Posted

    22 hours ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

    SLU's NET is going to be skewed all season by the 39 point blowout loss at SIUC.

    SLU's RPI is 114.  In advance, I know the NCAA uses the NET, and no longer uses the RPI as its College Basketball metric, although the RPI is still used in other sports, such as Soccer.  But the old metric does show how badly the NET is skewed by 1 isolated outlier.  North Texas' RPI is 242.

    We lost by almost 20 to Wichita, 10 to Vermont, and only beat Dartmouth by 1. It's more than just the SIUC game in play here. 

    Transfers - 2023

    in Billikens.com Main Board

    Posted

    I think there are times when TJ is placed in a bad matchup at the 4 on defense if we're playing a team that is big at the 4 (see Dayton and VCU this past year), but if it's a team also playing small then I'm good with him at the 4. Otherwise I think he's better as guarding a wing/guard type. 

    CenHudDude likes this

    Gibson Jimerson Returning?

    in Billikens.com Main Board

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

    21-12, 12-6, playing in the A10 should have gotten SLU on the Bubble, not OUT of everything.  That 21-12 yielded an RPI of 53, which would have been the 2nd to last team IN the NCAA, had the metric formally used still have been used.  SLU would have no doubt been snubbed, would have been relegated into the NIT, probably as a #1 seed in the NIT, but would have had a stronger argument for NCAA inclusion had the RPI still been used.  Of course, the NCAA, servicing its Power 5 overlords, developed and then tweaked the NET, which resulted in SLU's NET of 99.  53 vs. 99 is a tremendous disparity.  21 Wins, 20 vs. D-1, a .667 conference record in 18 conference games, and advancing to the A10 Tourney semifinals is worthy of NCAA consideration, irrespective of what metric the NCAA uses.

    You have to be close to perfect to get an at large now from the A10, have virtually no margin for error.  Power 5 + 1 schools do not face that same gauntlet.  VCU would not have received an at large bid, and Dayton did not receive one.

    What actually happened?  Very simply, six (6) NCAA at large bids were transferred to the Power 5 + 1 from the so called "mid-majors," still a pejorative term in the case of SLU, but one becoming mainstream.

    Jeff Sagarin has us at 84, and Kenpom has us at 96. Are those secretly controlled by the Power 5 Schools too? When you go 3-9 in Q1/Q2 games, you're not anywhere close to deserving of an NCAA bid. You can't just schedule well- you actually have to win against good teams. And not get blown out.

    Bizziken and Crewsorlose like this

    2023 Offseason - Coaching Discussion Thread

    in Billikens.com Main Board

    Posted

    On 3/17/2023 at 2:48 PM, ACE said:

    Here is year by year of Ford's tenure

    1) (2016-17) Took over from the Crews dumpster fire. He immediately hit the transfer market building for the future - Bess, Foreman and Henriquez who had to sit a year, so the roster he played with that season was even thinner and less talented than the one from the last year of Crews. The team battled and got better as the season progressed, but he inherited a bad roster. BTW, interesting to note that if Ford had landed these transfers in today's era of free agency (rather than an era where players had to sit out a year) it would have rapidly sped up the rebuild.

    Year 2) A lot of optimism with Goodwin/French coming on board with the transfers becoming eligible.  Situation 2 hits right before the start of the season dashing postseason hopes - losing Bishop, Graves and Henriquez... that's the player I'm most disappointed we never got to see play. I think he would have been a real impact player. Team finished 5th, big progress climbing out of Crews dumpster fire, but losing Henriquez in particular slowed the rebuild.

    Year 3) An uneven regular season, but get hot in the tournament led by Isabell. The "bully ball" roster was short on skill

    Year 4) More skill (Yuri, Perk and Jimmer)  added to the bullyball roster. The team starts to peak late in the season winning 5 in a row, including dominating wins over Bonnie and VCU. The team cracks the Top 50 heading into the conference tournament. The team is on the bubble - speculation was one win conference tourney gives them 50/50 at large shot; two wins likely gets them in the Dance... then COVID shuts down the conference tournament, so we'll never know, but everyone on this board was feeling good about the state of the program.

    Year 5) Team has a strong non-conference season with wins over LSU and NC State, cracks the Top 25, and then COVID hits right before conference play and shuts the team down for more than a month. Team is rusty coming out of the long break and has two bad losses in their first two games back and that kept them out - just win one of those and they're in. Still, they had a NET of 43 and were in the first four out.

    Year 6) Hopes are high with the return of Perk - preseason conference POY. Blows out his knee in the first exhibition game. IMO, that ended all hopes of an at-large bid. I'm really not sure why people continued to have such lofty expectations after such a huge injury. I actually thought Ford did a very good job with that team.

    Year 7) Expectations are high, but we all know how that turned out. My biggest criticisms of Ford prior to the season pertained to roster construction. It was as if he was banking on a 100% return of the Perk of old, rather than addressing some of his other roster deficiencies. He took a good run at Carr and he would've been a difference maker, but my bigger criticism was not addressing the guard depth. Very frustrating.

    My conclusion: Ford deserves another year and will get it, in years 4-6, he assembled Top 50 ish/at large caliber rosters. I think some of the most passionate Ford critics lose credibility when they don't at least acknowledge there was a lot of bad luck (COVID and Perk injury) which happened to coincide in three seasons when Ford had assembled his most talented rosters.

     I started the season Pro-Ford, BUT have ended it believing it's fair to start up the hot seat. This is a huge offseason which will determine Ford's future. IMO, it's all about how he puts together his next roster.

    1) He needs a big transfer haul like he had his first recruiting season: Bess, Henriquez, Foreman. Thanks to free agency, the team can improve quickly with the right additions  2) More depth with multiple versatile combo guards on the roster AND you have to have a good stretch big in today's game. Ford has never been able to land that type of player. Maybe Vice is a step in the right direction, but I'd also like to see an experienced stretch big added 3) Finally, find the right balance between bullyball and skilled players. I feel like he found that right balance in years 4&5, but he lost that bullyball element and the roster became way too soft the last year or two. And you absolutely have to have players on the roster who can play D.

    This a great post and summarizes the Ford era really well. But I think there are a couple items to point out:

    1) I think some are greatly exaggerating how close we were to an at-large in 19-20. Yes we were playing extremely well at the time but we did not have much of a resume that year - neither Bonnies nor VCU were going to be NCAA teams that year. We lost to our only 2 quality opponents in non-con in Auburn and Seton Hall and went 0-2 against Dayton including a game at home we coughed up in the final 8 minutes. IF we beat Dayton on that Saturday, maybe we have a shot but that's a big if and the point remains again Ford was unable (again) to have an at-large resume together going into the final week of the season. I sincerely doubt 1 more win that week gets us much consideration by the committee.

    2) In 2020-21, yes the two losses coming out of the COVID pause were a killer, but after that we had 3 games that could've still gotten us in the NCAA's (At VCU, At Dayton, and in the A10 tourney against Bonnies) and we lost all 3 of them. You HAVE to find a way to win one of those games. That was the most talented team in my time as a fan (been going to games since the early 2000's). But again lost those three games and the trend of Ford unable to win that "get us over the hump" game continues.

    I'm confident Ford will put together a roster that will compete towards the top of the A10 again. But he's got to find a way to get his teams to execute in big games. I'm really hoping he can do that. 

    billikenfan05 likes this
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