jbizzle09 Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Here are some more facts: -LMU is a good team. Their losses are to Harvard (who will probably be ranked next week) and MTU (6-1 with a loss to Belmot and a 20 pt win against UCLA on the road.) -This was SLU's 4th game in 6 days on the road. Not hard to imagine that they were tired and perhaps even a little distracted. -LMU will be a quality loss by the end of the season. LMU is much improved from last season and will be at least a NIT/CBI team by end of year. They also play in a good conference that features Gonzaga, Saint Mary's, Santa Clara and San Diego St. -Portland will get spanked, and spanked hard. Expect a HUGE win on Saturday evening. -If you look at all the other ranked teams that were undefeated going into tonight, you will see that SLU had the lowest number of home games with just 2. Gonzaga also only had 2, but had just played 4 total, while this was SLU's 7th game. -Prior to tonight's game, SLU's RPI was 6 per CBS. This loss will lower it, but it will still by quite good, due to LMU's own decent SOS and record, and the fact that this was a road loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Et tu, AlumniFan? What a bunch of crap. We now have six home games in a row, all winnable. Which would make us 11-1/12-1, depending on your billikens.com Old Boys' credentials . Again: No one expected us to be 6-1 at this point. (And perhaps kwyjibo can chime in here, but 6-1 with a loss to Oklahoma or an if-they-had-made-the-finals New Mexico would have been the same as 6-1 with a loss to Marymount.) Go have a few drinks and sleep it off. And take to heart what RickMa and KC said in today's paper. They don't look at the rankings. They still practice just the same. And basically, nobody but those of us who know that we haven't been ranked in 13 years really give a good Gotdam whether we're ranked in December or January anyway. If you think the casual fan's perception of this team will be the same tomorrow as it was three hours ago, you are naive. If you think the casual fan's perception is not important to the program and the university, then we simply have a fundamental disagreement about the nature of the program. Doesn't mean we are not a good team. Doesn't mean the season is lost. It does mean that the public perception of this team, both local and national, just changed dramatically. You may not like that (I sure don't), but it is unfortunately true. I am just pointing out the obvious and unfortunate reality and THAT is what upsets me much more than losing a game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billslasttermdropout Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I'd rather be ranked in January than December, but would really liked to be ranked throughout. I wouldn't guess that's gonna happen now, although I could be wrong. World's not over by any means, but tonight was a tough early season loss. I think our guys will regroup and come back though. They've got soul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showthebill Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/photos?photoId=1712013&gameId=313332351#photo_1712013 caption. ouch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 The good thing about the timing of this loss is that everyone will be talking about Duke's loss and our loss will, fortunately, get a little less notice than it otherwise would have gotten. Silver lining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbizzle09 Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 http://sports.espn.g...1#photo_1712013 caption. ouch. Didn't realize that Cody had transferred mid-game...guess that can explain how we lost! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBall Fan Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I do not question the schedule. This is a good team to play home and home to get us a tough but winnable game on the road. Road wins are huge. The plan was perfect and if we had won it would be excellent in all respects. Maybe I was fooled by how much we dominated good teams in earlier games. I will say that LMU made more "hero" shots in this game than I have ever seen against our defense. But I really though our defense could stop a team like this. UGH! This was pretty good scheduling with an unfortunate result. These kids have been gone for over a week and just came off of a 3 game stretch in 3 days that they left it all on the floor. It was a winnable game but surely was not a lock. If they had come home for a week and then gone back out there to play it would be a completely different story. Unfortunately, noone seemed to have their legs. Has to be a bit of fatigue. When the body goes, the mind follows. Hence the sloppy turnovers and poor defense. Billikan you are correct, they hit tough and sometimes circus shots all night. We have to remember that most NBA roadtrips are not this long and they very seldom ever play even back to back games and those guys are used to being on the road for days at a time. You were not fooled by how we dominated the other teams. The majority of shots in the first 5 minutes were short which is a sure sign that there are dead legs shooting the ball. I had a bad feeling early that we were hitting the wall and it may catch up during the game. An earlier poster stated that it was like watching the sloppy uninspired play in the exhibition season. It was a similar fatigue situation. I guarantee leading up to the exhibition games RM was killing them on the practice court. I don't think It will turn out to be as bad a loss as many may think. UCLA will get it together this year and have a home loss to LMU staring at the selection committee. RM will have good motivational material for the rest of the season and this same thing would be catastrophic if it was at the Fetz against Arkansas St. or Vermont but it was on the road at the end of more than a week 2000 miles from home against a better than average opponent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majerus mojo Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 If you think the casual fan's perception of this team will be the same tomorrow as it was three hours ago, you are naive. If you think the casual fan's perception is not important to the program and the university, then we simply have a fundamental disagreement about the nature of the program. Doesn't mean we are not a good team. Doesn't mean the season is lost. It does mean that the public perception of this team, both local and national, just changed dramatically. You may not like that (I sure don't), but it is unfortunately true. I am just pointing out the obvious and unfortunate reality and THAT is what upsets me much more than losing a game. People (re: casual fans) are generally dumb when it comes to a number of things, basketball being one they don't even really care about. "Dramatically"? How good did people really think SLU was? They saw a ranking and said, "Well shoot, I'm from St. Louis/I went there, that's pretty nifty!" SLU could reach the Elite 8 one year, be horrific the next, and it would be back to square 1. That's why they are the "casual fan". I don't think any of the national experts are about to go running -- because they know who we just beat, and when we beat them relative to this game. I knew I could come here for a night of the-sky-is-falling posts. What if, and bear with me here, this loss benefited the team in the long run? They don't get so full of themselves, buckle down by rolling through the December slate, and are hungry to get back into the rankings by beating NM/dominating the early A-10 sched. If we lose another game we should win, THEN I might start to re-evaluate what I've seen thus far. But I think this is a tournament team, and when we're hitting our shots, a tough out for anyone with our defense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David King Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 This loss was probably much tougher on fans like us than it was on the team. We've been living and dying with the Billikens for decades, and haven't had a national ranking in 17,or so, years, just to lose it (maybe) in one day! But, in the big picture, it's not that bad. Sure, it ruins our perfect season, but the Billikens are still going to the Big Dance with, I predict, no worse than a 6th seeding. I'm sure Coach Majerus will use the game as a teachable moment, and the team will benefit from it in the end. I didn't have the same sentiments about an hour ago, though. I was at the game, and sat behind the Billikens bench with about 30 other SLU fans. When time expired, we all sat silently in disbelief. I made an excuse for my tears to my allergy to left coast liberalism, but even Obamacare didn't make me blubber like I did tonight. Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to Tariq, at the 7-11 on Lincoln Blvd; right outside of the LMU campus. Evidently, he noticed my distraught appearance when he refused to sell me a pack of razor blades. I guess this bottle of MD 20/20 will have to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3Bill Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Middle Tennessee St was getting votes a week ago as was Harvard. those are LMUs only losses. they have a win against UCLA. this was not as bad a loss as everyone thinks. this board's reaction to the loss makes us look like bigger amateurs than we are. False.We'll likely still get some votes, but we won't be ranked. LMU lost to middle tennessee state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taj79 Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 WOW! The Billi-kan-do in a funk? Is that even possible from Mr. Sunshine? You surprise me as it did thetorch. I didn't see the game so I can't comment on the specifics but c'mon man! In a true road game. Playing our fourth game in six days. OD'ing on national attention. Ranked. Second best predicted team in the West Coast Conference. There are all sorts of "silver-lining, blowing-smoke-up-your-arse" points to be made here and Kan-do misses it? Has to be a hack job. As for our guards, Cassity is limited and we all know that. He had an off night. We know there will be a few of those. Jett's numbers looked okay. But I am concerned with Mitchell and McCall. Mitchell has not come all the way "back" yet in my book. His 1-of-6 shooting from behind the arc shows that. Plus, I thought he did some dumb things in both the Nova and Oklahoma games but those were overlooked because we won. Quick shots. Poor decisions. Too quick shots. McCall seems to be lost in Mitchell's return. He's shooting an okay 40% from the field but he doesn't "look" the same. He's only hoisted two more total threes than Evans and I expected him to be more of a bomber off the bench. And our rebounding is in need of dire work. Again, seeing waht X did to Vandy at Vandy on the offensive boards, if Loyola did this to us last night, X is going to be a bloodbath. But the kids are all right ...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chillinthemost Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 pissed the Bills lost and I lost big money on the game. Makes me wish we still had Porter. You know we would have won if Porter was still here, that was lazy coaching Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 As good as the previous 6 games were--this is probably one of the most depressing losses in all of my time as a Billiken fan. Our team, particularly our starting guards, Mitchell and Cassidy, played stupid horrible defense and our bad shot selection and sloppy ball handling was absolutely incredibly awful. I would have never believed that we could be that bad on both ends of the floor. Our energy was bad, our hustle was basically nonexistant. The only thing I can figure is that all of the press coverage, rankings, etc. went to our head and we forgot how we won those games, with intelligence and tenacity. We will never see a ranking again. I am really pissed!!!!!!!! If we take care of business at home like we should and somehow find a way to beat NM at the pit, we'll be back in the rankings just like that. Yeah, it wasn't a well played game, but give LMU some credit, Billikan. They were juiced to beat their second ranked foe and all the stars aligned for them. Especially on some of the shots they made last night when there was a nano second left on the shot clock. The one thing our guys will hopefully take from this game is that there are a lot of athletic teams out there and it's going to take them playing maximum smart ball to beat them. Like we did in Anaheim. Understand, this one hurts, Billikan, but you've been such a staunch supporter of and believer in Billiken hoops that I'm surprised you'd be this upset over one early season loss. Now, if this game was at home against X for the conference lead, I'd be po'd too as we gifted LMU this game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 I find it very amusing to see the over-reaction to the comments here. I don't see anyone saying this is not a good team. I don't see anyone saying that it is not still possibly a tournament team. I see several people, myself included, saying the team has lost a major opportunity to maintain local and national momentum that WILL dramatically change the casual fans' perception and, consequently, behavior. Don't over-react to that reality - it is what it is. Being 7-0, undefeated, probably means that we pack in the fans at the games. Losing to LMU on the same night that the local news stations are interviewing fans/students about the undefeated season and talking about Billiken apparel sales very much highlights what the loss means. It definitely reduces casual fan interest on some level and that definitely means fewer casual fans in the seats. Can anyone make a logical argument to deny that? If so, then you should also be able to make a logical argument that winning more games will not mean more fans in the seats; it's about that absurd. Why is it that observing likely factual outcomes unnerves so many people on this board? I think some people on this board are way too sensitive to other's comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Good Billikan. That's more like it. This season, like any other, is one game at a time. The first six, we exceeded anyone's expectations. The first seven, cumulatively, probably did so as well, but everyone's fixated on one bad (but not horribly bad) loss on the road at the end of a four-games-in-six-days 2,000-mile road trip. Screw that. We're 6-1 and coming home. Again, anyone who expected even that much, stand up and be counted, but prove it. Otherwise, show up at the freaking 'Fetz on Saturday and cheer for the still-fantastically-surprising Billikens. Good post, bonwich. The best way to clean the pallete is with a W over Portland. Am sure these kids know what last night did to them and it hurts. I expect they'll be ready to tattoo pelicans all over Portland come Saturday night. My main gripe is with the AD for keeping them on the road for 8 straight days. There was really no good reason to play this game as we don't have any LA kids on the roster that needed to play in front of Mom, Dad, Aunt Gladys and Uncle Henry. They'll learn from it and move forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Why are you always so negative Billikan. HAVE SOME HOPE! Why are you always so negative Billikan. HAVE SOME HOPE! Easy, NH, you're talking about a guy who is Mr. Billiken Ball. I feel his pain, but am totally surprised by his apocalyptic take on this one game. Normally, he'd be the guy saying chill, it's one friggin' game. I'm guessing our brief trip to the mountain top, #23 ranking, has left Billikan a little oxygen deprived. He'll come to his senses soon enough and accept this L for what it was; a road loss to a pretty good team that got damnably lucky last night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 We were tired. We had bad turnovers and couldn't rebound. They hit pretty much everything they threw up to the rim. Refs were pretty terrible. Metz was on tv. All of that happens and we still only lose by 7. We'll be fine. I think there is a pretty good chance we'll go into conference play with 1 loss. I hope that KM can get some consistency back here over this next month. Last night was the type of game that I was used to seeing him take over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamitalian85 Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Kenpom now has at 122... In all seriousness this game won't kill us. Rickma will have them ready to play Saturday. Let the team rest and win Saturday. If we are 12-1 going into the New Mexico game we will be ranked again. The sky isn't falling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicCityBilliken Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Kenpom now has at 122... In all seriousness this game won't kill us. Rickma will have them ready to play Saturday. Let the team rest and win Saturday. If we are 12-1 going into the New Mexico game we will be ranked again. The sky isn't falling I watched New Mexico in the tourney. They are not world beaters like a OSU, Carolina or Duke. If we bring our A game, we have a chance sneak by them in the Pit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianstl Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 None of those losses came when we were ranked. None of them came when we had tremendous buzz for the program nationally. There is no way we will be ranked again because our SOS goes down big time by the end of the year. If we win all our games and beat Xavier then we will get back to consideration but I very much doubt that will happen. I should not even post at all because I am so disappointed in this team. I really thought we had more toughness and moxie. LMU was playing without two of its best players! Yeah, we go 29-1 and we will only be back in consideration for a ranking. Give me a break. Take your prozac and calm down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonka Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Wow. At first I wasn't sure if I logged into Billikens.com or some type of Justin Bieber forum by accident. It's like reading that Justin Bieber just cancelled a concert last minute and all the teenie girls are flipping out. Come on, guys - toughen up. It's one loss. A road loss. A road loss when we've played 4 games in 6 days. A road loss when this team has slept on the road for a week. It's always amazing to me how people believe something is going to happen and then when it does, people flip out. How many people on here said this was a trap game? Well, it was. If we are as good as we think we are, this will have no bearing on the rest of the season. We will have 1 or 2 losses going into conference play. Not many predicted that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmbilliken Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 Its hard to tell what to take from this game. There's no doubt we are a good team. Even good teams have off nights or run into lesser teams that are on that night. This game was obviously had the potential for a let down going in. We all knew that. We are not going to be more athletic than most of our opponents so we have to execute on offense and play relentless defense to be successful. That takes lots of energy. Four games in 6 days on the road sets us up for a let down. Kyle Cassity is one of our best defenders and often gets the assignment of guarding the other teams biggest offensive threat. He has to chase the guy all over the floor and usually does a great job of staying with him. Kyle had a tough game last night. I think the main reason was he was tired. The whole team had to be worn done from this trip. We just need to take care of business at home in December to set us up for going into league play with only two losses. That should be doable. I see as a key for the rest of the season is the developement of JM. If he can progress to give us some additional rebounding and interior defense it would be a big boost. We need to limit the other teams offensive rebounds and he could provide a big boost in that department. Hopefully we'll get the opportunity to play him over this string of home games to see what he can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clock_Tower Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 As for our guards, Cassity is limited and we all know that. He had an off night. We know there will be a few of those. Jett's numbers looked okay. But I am concerned with Mitchell and McCall. Taj. You are being way to kind here. An "off night" is a night when your shot just doesn't fall. Maybe it's because your legs are tired, you are battling the flu and are worn down, your opponent is happens to have a mismatch or greater than normal game against you or you just plain missed your shots. To me, though, we saw the "old" Cassity last night. 26 minutes and he attempts only 2 shots while missing both is not an "off night" but an unacceptable night. 2 points (going 2 of 3 from the line) in 26 minutes from the shooting guard spot is just plain not acceptable for a good team. KC needs to shoot at least 8 shots per game to keep the defense honest. If he misses most or all of the 8 shots, then that's an off night. If not, we are back playing with only 4 to 4.5 players against 5 players. I watched only the second half. Down the stretch, Cassity did not even act like he was going to shoot. Not only did he know he wasn't going to shoot but so did the rest of our team, LMU and anyone else watching. Cassity is a Senior and I am sick and tired of hearing about his lack of turnovers and his "doing the little things". Seniors look for the ball and win games for their teams -- see Conklin. We cannot have a Senior shooting guard play 26 minutes and play hot potato with the ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 The reality of it is we lost to a good team on the road by 7. 4th road game in 6 days coming off of a huge emotional high, We really didn't even play all that poorly. We shot over 40% from 3 We shot 47% from the field We had too many turnovers, something that so far this year was unique to this game We gave up too many offensive rebounds which is an area the Bills need to improve Yes, we were hopeing for a win, but it didn't happen. I'd be surprised if we aren't ranked going in to the Pit (if we win all 6 at home, which I expect we will) Didn't we see this week many voters really have no clue? Many of them will see 12-1 remember our wins against Nova, Wash, and OU and will correctly vote for us. This loss was nothing to be ashamed of or to even feel bad about. Learn from it and get back to winning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonka Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 The reality of it is we lost to a good team on the road by 7. 4th road game in 6 days coming off of a huge emotional high, We really didn't even play all that poorly. We shot over 40% from 3 We shot 47% from the field We had too many turnovers, something that so far this year was unique to this game We gave up too many offensive rebounds which is an area the Bills need to improve Yes, we were hopeing for a win, but it didn't happen. I'd be surprised if we aren't ranked going in to the Pit (if we win all 6 at home, which I expect we will) Didn't we see this week many voters really have no clue? Many of them will see 12-1 remember our wins against Nova, Wash, and OU and will correctly vote for us. This loss was nothing to be ashamed of or to even feel bad about. Learn from it and get back to winning. Amen! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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