NYBilliken

Krazy things happen in sport, and despite the odds and all previous futility fans need to believe their team can turn things around and win the game, win the conference, win the tournaments. It happens - even the bums of Brooklyn and their successors the NY Mets have won the World Series once in while! So, if Coach Ford can defy the odds, renew his strengths and make a breakthrough on his limitations, and Win ... all will cheer, all will repent, etc. But with $2 million plus in compensation and the job of Div. I basketball coach, getting criticized (and, sometimes, getting fired) is part of the job. Everyone in those positions should be their own worst critic, painfully aware of their shortcomings in performance and looking for how to change and make that breakthrough. So I'm rooting for Ford to succeed, but recognize that all criticism here is more or less justified, that's part of function of this board.

It will be interesting to see if Ford will try last game's second-half winning combination of Medley-Meadows-Jimerson-Dalger-Ezewiro again tonight.

Losing 17-37, playing like the worst team in Division I, then outscored them 71-48 the rest of the game. Ford found an unlikely combination that worked in the second half and kept them on the floor nearly the entire half: Medley, Meadows, Jimerson, Dalger, and Ezewiro - with brief appearances by Zhang and Hargrove.

Billikens win! 55 points in second half! Jimerson, Zhang, Dalger, Ezewiro, Medley, Meadows make key plays in the half.

Sounds like Dalger has played well to spark the comeback.

16-6 Saint Louis run to close the half. Down by 10, 43-33.

Listening on the radio. A tale of woe so far. Rammer cries out: "How can the Billikens not get these rebounds?!"

A tough watch - not nearly as close as the 79-67 score indicates, due to Hughes' run of 3-point shooting at end of game.

Zhang was fouled on that possession - no call. GMU player pushed him off his spot. Jimerson then forced the drive, resulted in a turnover.

LOL, I am no expert. So far in early part of game, it still looks like too many passes around the periphery at start of our possessions.

I am not looking for a win today, as Billikens have played like cellar-dwelling team and they are on the road. I am rooting for some improvement in key areas. Set some strong picks in the backcourt to get the ball over the timeline and discourage defenders plaguing our point guards. Once over the line, don't get lost in thought or weave, instead Initiate aggressive play soon to break down the defense via Hargrove, Jimerson, or Dalger. Get a good shot, draw a foul, or pass to open shooter and shoot with confidence. On defense, better three-point defense and generate a couple of turnovers. And keep executing in second half - no slowdown and no collapse. A win would be a bonus!

Harking back to original post in this thread, it's interesting to see the answers from non-conference season. There have actually been some positive answers, especially by Ezewiro, Zhang, Hargrove, Jimerson, Thames, and often by Dalger and Medley. Injuries and lack of playing time have hampered others, but return of Parker and more Curcic playing time would be good. The team has also competed well and shown some improvements. At point guard, injuries and lack of size have been issues. Non-conference has revealed this and other weaknesses of this team (poor defense, not enough three-point attempts, etc.) for opposing coaches to exploit, which they have. NC State game was especially frustrating, as Billikens could not get the ball in hands of their scorers. If you were game planning and managing, given this roster and how opposing coaches will react, how would you approach maximizing strengths of this team, minimizing the weaknesses, and avoiding second-half collapses?

No, just pen and paper, so I can't analyze more broadly. But a couple of additional observations: SLU point differential improved in second half vs. first half 5 times, got worse 7 times. However, when Billikens had the lead after first half, point differential got worse 6 out of 6 times, resulting in a loss of two of those games and tight margins of victory in the others (last nine games: record of 3-6 with the three wins with margins +1, +3, and +1)

To quantify second-half issues, I looked at W/L records for all halves this year for first 12 games vs. Div. I opponents (through the NC St. game). This analysis shows Billikens are fortunate to be at .500 (6-6) overall vs. Div. I opponents, as their record for all halves is sub-.500 (10-13-1). Total point differential is -45. For first halves, Billikens record is 6-6 with point differential of +9. At home, first-half record 4-2 and +35. Neutral and away, 2-4 and -26. For second halves, Billikens record is 4-7-1 with point differential of -61. At home, second-half record is 2-3-1 and -14. Neutral and away, 2-4 and -47. When Billikens score 40 or more in a half, they are 6-0 in those halves (two home first halves, two home second halves, one neutral & away first half, one neutral & away second half). Billikens won 4 out of 6 games where they scored 40+ in either half. When opponent scores 40 or more in a half, Billikens are 0-9 in those halves (one home first half, three neutral & away first halves, one home second half, four neutral & away second halves). These include two halves where opponent scored 50+ in a half. Billikens won 1 out of 7 games where opponent scored 40+ in either half (or in both halves, which happened twice).

Weird half. Saint Louis half-court offense was bad. Point guards not a great half except Medley at the start. Lots of mistakes everywhere on the floor. Jimerson couldn't hit a shot. But good effort and good one-on-one play especially by Ezewiro and Dalger. Good defense by Zhang despite being outweighed by many pounds. NC State is bad. Billikens looked credible, still working out how to play together. It's good to have the lead at the half - we should win this game.

I had to go out so couldn't watch the end of the game last night. People were waiting for me, and I kept saying wait a minute, the Billikens game is almost over. Then finally I turned it off with one minute left in the game, the Billikens were trailing 69-64 and had just turned it over with a terrible possession. The Billikens had scored only 8 points in 10 minutes at that point (and Hargrove only 2 points for the entire game). It looked like a certain loss, despite the strong first half and great debut by Ezewiro. Then this afternoon I checked back with this thread to see the analysis of the second-half disaster ... and we won! It was great to watch the final minute of the ESPN replay, knowing the outcome. That was a career highlight for TJ Hargrove, and hopefully an inspiration for this team to continue to improve.

Crazy good first half - no one expected this!

Good article! It includes a comical spell-check error, referring to the country of "Cypress" where the coach once played basketball. Beware of spell check!

You are right - I was at last night's Fordham game as well as their game vs. SLU in the Bronx. There is no comparison the impact of fan support at the two venues. It was odd that Fordham did not seem to get much lift from the fans last night. For instance they were terrible at free throw shooting. It was like they didn't realize they had home court advantage, or unfamiliarity of the arena outweighted the level of support they had.

What a game - all Billiken sins are forgiven at least for a couple of days. Every player in the 9/10 man rotation contributed. Okoro and Forrester were alternated well to keep risk of foul trouble in check, add some scoring, and dominate the boards, and Cisse also was able to make meaningful contribution in his 7 minutes. Hargrove was opportunistic as usual and provided great defense. Parker and Hughes played well and made great plays and good decisions. Pickett was brilliant in flashes without forced shots. Jimerson got rave reviews for his all-around game. Even Collins' poor shooting at start of game worked out, because he then switched to distributing the ball - this worked better than usual pattern of lots of assists early, then switching to individual offense later in game. Perkins did not have his great game last night, but he played the right amount to still position him as offensive force in the games to come. The entire team provided consistent effort throughout, did not let the other team get back into the game, and won going away. Ford kept the zone in place when it was working well. Our depth and up side make us a threat for all the remaining games.

Mason leads Dayton by 4 with 8 seconds left

Score was 15-11 when Yuri left game with his second foul. Billikens outscored Loyola 27-15 the rest of the half -- good opportunity for extended point guard minutes and success for Hughes.

Ouch. Wasted a great game by Perkins and Jimerson. When we had a chance to run up a lead, we let Richmond back into the game. Took seven-point lead back at 74-67, then fell apart on both ends of the court. Richmond didn't even play that well. We defeated ourselves.

Forrester did not need to jump to block that guy.

Unfocused end to the half. Bad decisions stopped our momentum. Jimerson didn't touch the ball for several minutes until last possession. Richmond was terrible most of the half. It's good to have the lead, but it seems like we should lead by 20.