Bills_06

Can the best shot be a miss? Probably most recent helps it but still amazing moment.

108

Saw Carter's tweet quoting a deleted tweet which is why I went to their Twitter. Makes sense.

You sure? I didn't hear but just saw this.

Didn't want to start a new thread but looks like Ford might have taken some kids out for a shopping spree? Know it has been said but I continue to be impressed with how he interacts with the community outside the court.

New episode from Danny Mac. Link Injuries - thinks French will be fine, we will see if he plays Saturday (Fords words, I would be surprised if he didn't based on how Ford sounded) but he is more day to day. Gibson could be out a little longer but need to hear from doctors first on his foot injury. Jimmy Bell hurt his shoulder and was game time decision last night. No timetable on Thatch. Hargrove will be getting in games going forward and not just because of last night, they have seen it coming for the past couple weeks. It was tough for him coming to SLU due to coaching changes, even things like terminology was new to him. Free throws - Ford mentions a lot of it is who is getting to the line. He has gotten on them a lot the past few days. Normally he doesn't mention it but told them they need to get mentally tougher and it isn't acceptable. They can make them in practice so knows they can do it but they need to get mentally tougher. Has always done the shoot 100 after practices but just started where now five times through a practice they will stop, everybody will stop go to different baskets and they have to make 75% of free throws and if not they have to run. First time he said he has associated a punishment with free throws. Tough to simulate the game environment during practice but he is getting tougher on them. Ended breaking down the Kstate game.

And people can say it is coach speak but it wouldn't be one offensive performance against a D2 team that makes the coaches change their game plans. Him getting more time seems to be part of their game plan: “It was a great opportunity and he took advantage,” coach Travis Ford said. “I’ve seen this coming, and we talked about it as a staff that we’ve seen it coming the last 10 days. He’s made great strides. I had every intention to get him in (recently) against Auburn and apologized to him the next day. He will be playing going forward.” Link

For those who were wondering why we are playing Maryville, Carter Chapley has the answers. Link

Think Goodwin is a big one too, not on being nervous but on being ready to lead the young guys. He mentioned in one article how he was quiet during the Seton Hall game after the slow start. It was Bess last year that would talk to the team so that was first time Goodwin had to take the full leadership role.

What about with Watson? Did you think he was going to be mainly a 3 point threat in college? I remember since him and Thatch were same year discussions of him being the better shooter/scorer than Thatch but I am surprised at how bad of a season it appears he is having from looking at the stat sheet.

While that is true, the one thing I would say is that with Goodwin and French being our older players, those are the guys that I feel would take over a game like that for us now and get the dirty points down low (like in the Belmont game with French or BC with Goodwin). I think Thatch is a player that will turn into that type of guy in a year or two as well. Tilmon seems to be the only player on Mizzou that will work down low. Was Watson this one dimensional of a player in high school? It looks like all he does it take 3s. While Gibson was recruited as our sniper, even in the High Point game, Gibson was hitting his 3s but he would also fake and pull down and step into a longer to mid range 2 during that game. I have seen Gibson do that in other games too trying to create some points. Watson was 0-7 from 3 in 25 minutes. Looking at his stat line this year it doesn't seem he does much else other than shoot 3s.

He didn't play for him but he definitely has met Ford and pushes the SLU is the hometown team angle which is good. He also knows a few of the players through BBE. He didn't have to, just saying I am surprised he didn't go with Smart.

I am surprised Tatum didn't stop by too. Ford has had him on campus during summer and with a teammate going, surprised he didn't come too.

I agree on the 2nd part and it does take work to get the form right so I wouldn't recommend he switch now but the first part isn't completely true. Rick Barry said he talked to Shaq about doing it and Shaq said he would rather shoot zero than shoot underhand. In the Malcolm Gladwell podcast they went to the Columbia Women's team and even they said they wouldn't want to switch because they have been taught one way and underhand is the "granny shot". Wilt said he went back to shooting normal because "he felt like a sissy" shooting it underhand in his autobiography but he knew he was wrong.

Wilt increased it 11% when he switched and the 100 point game included going 28 of 32 from the line shooting underhanded.

I was not alive when Rick Barry played but I found out about it from Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History. He did an entire episode on it. Link

Top Golf is looking at possibility of opening a location at Compton and Chouteau according to St. Louis Business Journals. Link

Just read Carter's report card and sounds like the Hightower move was specific to try and send as signal to Yuri because Ford wasn't happy with his defense. Link

To answer the OP question, here is the story on Hargrove. Link Did you know he had 5 coaches in 4 years in high school? Sounds like he was disappointed at first but hopefully he isn't lying when he says he understands. His time will come.

One thing with Jimerson that I thought was interesting is from the story the day of the Seton Hall game and he said he told his teammates he has never played in front of a crowd this large so it took him a couple games to get use to. I wonder if when he is wide open he still thinks too much about it or gets a little too excited and is missing those. That is something that will be fixed as he gets use to playing at this level but could be why it seems he misses some open looks.

Not sure if this is reference to my post since I mentioned what Ford said but I just want to add either way, I agree Ford will talk in "coachspeak". However here is the article I am getting the quote from Link. Here is the paragraph: "Ford said that Fred Thatch Jr. was the team’s best 3-point shooter during the summer. And Jordan Goodwin, KC Hankton and Demarius Jacobs are all capable from distance although none has proved to be consistent yet". To me, the entire article reads like Stu decided to write about improved 3-point shooting and was getting quotes but Ford had no interest in talking about it because the 3-point defense has been bad. It doesn't come across as some coach speak talking about how great or improved Thatch is, more he answered a question Stu asked. And my point isn't that Thatch is a shooter, just that I don't understand why it is decided he isn't a shooter already. His first 3 pointer he put up against FGCU somebody by me started yelling that Thatch shouldn't have shot because he isn't a shooter right when he let it go. His high school stats I posted above aren't terrible and it has only been one year. He won't be Jimerson but I am not ready to write him off as somebody that can't shoot.

Okay I have to ask because I have seen this in multiple places but why are we writing Thatch off as a bad shooter? He is only a few games into his sophomore year. Based on the below post, he shot pretty decent in high school. Ford said Thatch was the best 3-point shooter over the summer and that was a summer with ShotTracker installed so it is something he would have easily been able to say factually. I am not saying Thatch is going to be what we expect Jimerson to be for us but I just don't get why we are writing him off as a bad shooter when I think he has a chance to be fine.

The thing with Ford talking about what the players do in practice is now everything is electronic with ShotTracker. It was just installed in July so I am hoping that if Ford isn't lying, seeing it on their phones after every practice will give them more confidence when they step up to the line in games. We will see.

Is he dating somebody that goes to SLU or does he have some other connection? I saw a picture on twitter he was at a SLU women's volleyball game and he was the player last year when we made the tournament that was wearing a SLU hat before the Blues game.