Bay Area Billiken Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 at stltoday.com. 1. Per Timmerman's Blog, SLU is flying back to St. Louis early this morning, but will be flying back to New York for the Fordham game early Saturday afternoon. Even though SLU is in session, albeit the first week of the semester, how much sense, if any, does this make? Instead of a 2 hour bus ride from Philly to NYC, SLU flies back to St. Louis and then to New York? Are we going to see a tired and travel weary SLU team on Saturday afternoon in the Bronx? 2. Timmerman noted that the walk-on, Coffey, went in the game shortly after Dustin Maguire missed a 3. The Coach mentioned something about Coffey being a better choice on defense, but admitting that he cannot shoot as well as Maguire. This situation smells from 3,000 miles away. Irrespective of the Coach's rationalization, this decision to play a walk-on for 11 minutes of the second half at crunch time is inexplicable and inexcusable. I really did not expect the Billikens to win at Temple, even given that Temple has been struggling this year. But the real killer for SLU was losing at home to Duquesne. I have seen SLU play twice in person this year, as well as at least twice on TV. I watched a bit of Fordham at Duquesne last Sunday. I have no idea how SLU could have lost at home to that Duquesne team. The St. Bonaventure loss was bad too, but at least that one was on the road. SLU can't afford any more home court losses, period, especially to a team like Duquesne. That Duquesne loss makes it important for SLU to steal one of these road games. At one point, I thought SLU would make the NCAA Tournament. Now one wonders if SLU is even NIT material, with that RPI of 99 and going in the wrong direction. My worst fear will be realized if Coach Soderberg now circles the wagons and reverts to his Wisconsin Badger Stall Ball at this sign of adversity. Let's hope that is not what is coming next. And isn't it past time to send the "pack" defense back to the Stone Age where it belongs? The modern college game is guard oriented. If teams hit the 3's, the "pack" defense is really not a defense at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 >>2. Timmerman noted that the walk-on, Coffey, went in the game shortly after Dustin Maguire missed a 3. The Coach mentioned something about Coffey being a better choice on defense, but admitting that he cannot shoot as well as Maguire. This situation smells from 3,000 miles away. Irrespective of the Coach's rationalization, this decision to play a walk-on for 11 minutes of the second half at crunch time is inexplicable and inexcusable.<< I was shocked when I heard it announced on the radio that Coffey had entered the game. If Soderberg doesn't have enough confidence in Maguire to play him ahead of a walk on, then why in the Lord's name did he recruit the kid? Does one smell desperation on the floor when the coach goes to walkons? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 our offense actually was pretty good yesterday considering ian sucked and kevin got hurt. if you tell me that before yesterday i assume we wouldnt score 50 points. instead we score 20 more than that. the problem was obviously defense. as to the coffey deal, i am perplexed about it as well. now if he had been playing coffey all along, (i.e. john redden or ryan luechtifeld) then we might understand, but he hasnt played a second of meaningful time this year yet. so that is complexing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 Dustin was a November signee to boot. I normally think of kids that sign early as being players that the team will be counting to make contributions early on...wishful thinking I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Law Posted January 18, 2007 Share Posted January 18, 2007 >at stltoday.com. > >1. Per Timmerman's Blog, SLU is flying back to St. Louis >early this morning, but will be flying back to New York for >the Fordham game early Saturday afternoon. Even though SLU >is in session, albeit the first week of the semester, how >much sense, if any, does this make? Instead of a 2 hour bus >ride from Philly to NYC, SLU flies back to St. Louis and >then to New York? Are we going to see a tired and travel >weary SLU team on Saturday afternoon in the Bronx? > The A10 (like other conferences) requirements in regards to travel and arrival. I remember hearing on the radio broadcast last year that the A10 required that teams arrive in the road city at least 24 hours before tip-off, but that may have changed now. Many do not allow schools to arrive more than 36 or 48 hours before tip-off. A few years ago during a Charlotte/UAB road swing the team stayed in Charlotte for an extra day instead of coming back to STL for 1 day. Not sure why they wouldn't do that this time around. Travel fatigue could definitely be an issue. Xavier was obviously tired from playing late Thursday at Fordham then travelling to STL for a Saturday game. The A10 scheduling is definitely weird. One would think they would do as the Pac-10 and WCC do (or as the old CUSA did for womens hoops) in setting up travel partners and scheduling extended 2 game road trips to minimize mileage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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