GDT: SIUe Cougars (11/13/13)

[JohnnyJumpUp]

ok, that's what i was waiting for. mcbroom getting too confident against the press and getting his pocket picked. from that gotdamn giant, no less.

That "gotdamn giant" reminded me a lot of Jon Smith

[thetorch]

SIUe was a better experience than a I had hoped. Sellout crowd but no problems getting out of there after the game.

I'd agree it was probably 70/30 SIUe fans. Still several hundred SLU fans on hand. Very nice contingent.

Keaton Jackson was a nice player for SIUe. Just a skinny pogo stick. He'll do well in the OVC. Wish Salecich would have had a better game.

McCall dominated the first half. Tore up SIUe 1 on 1, was all over the passing lanes defensively. Went quiet in the 2nd half, didn't even score once.

Evans was getting triple teamed in the post all night. He still scored on a couple of those. He dished out a career high 6 assists in response.

Glaze was a monster. Mixing it up inside. He rebounds like a maniac. Totally changed player.

Jett had a rare off shooting night. Not his usual all around stat stuffing. Still got to the rack at will.

Loe played a little soft. He wasn't getting open looks from 3 either.

Manning was better, got significant playing time. Very solid defensively and he stayed out of foul trouble.

Barnett was lost. Defensive lapses, doesn't shoot and not taking care of the ball. He's looked like a freshman his first two games.

McBroom was ok. Got his shot off but he has to take care of the ball better and cut down his TOs.

Lancona had a nice bomb from 3 point. Active on the boards but not too good defensively.

Crawford was solid in limited time.

Inflatable mascot halftime shows are the worst.

No corrections from the PA announcer. Their guy does our Women's games. Why he can't do the Mens as well is beyond me.

[Billikenboy]

Next....!!?!

[Clock_Tower]

SIUe was a better experience than a I had hoped. Sellout crowd but no problems getting out of there after the game.

I'd agree it was probably 70/30 SIUe fans. Still several hundred SLU fans on hand. Very nice contingent.

Keaton Jackson was a nice player for SIUe. Just a skinny pogo stick. He'll do well in the OVC. Wish Salecich would have had a better game.

McCall dominated the first half. Tore up SIUe 1 on 1, was all over the passing lanes defensively. Went quiet in the 2nd half, didn't even score once.

Evans was getting triple teamed in the post all night. He still scored on a couple of those. He dished out a career high 6 assists in response.

Glaze was a monster. Mixing it up inside. He rebounds like a maniac. Totally changed player.

Jett had a rare off shooting night. Not his usual all around stat stuffing. Still got to the rack at will.

Loe played a little soft. He wasn't getting open looks from 3 either.

Manning was better, got significant playing time. Very solid defensively and he stayed out of foul trouble.

Barnett was lost. Defensive lapses, doesn't shoot and not taking care of the ball. He's looked like a freshman his first two games.

McBroom was ok. Got his shot off but he has to take care of the ball better and cut down his TOs.

Lancona had a nice bomb from 3 point. Active on the boards but not too good defensively.

Crawford was solid in limited time.

Inflatable mascot halftime shows are the worst.

No corrections from the PA announcer. Their guy does our Women's games. Why he can't do the Mens as well is beyond me.

because of Kim Tucci (sp?)

[kshoe]

I know its only two games, but JB does NOT look like a 5th year senior. Goes up with the ball and comes down with it then fouls shortly afterwards. As I said a month or so ago, I thought he would start losing minutes to MC as we started into conference play. I never thought it would be because of his inferior play but rather to get MC experience. As I recall, not many of you agreed. Again a small sample but MC looks very smooth out there and I watched him on defense tonight and he did well-always seemed to know where the ball and his man were.

You were also a very critical of what Glaze would bring to this team. I believe you rated him as the second worst player on the team. How you feeling on that prediction these days?

I do agree with your comment that it is only 2 games and we shouldn't draw any huge conclusions from what we've seen thus far.

[moytoy12]

You were also a very critical of what Glaze would bring to this team. I believe you rated him as the second worst player on the team. How you feeling on that prediction these days?

I do agree with your comment that it is only 2 games and we shouldn't draw any huge conclusions from what we've seen thus far.

I am a little concerned with our defense. Against two bad teams without their best player we've given up a lot of open looks. Mcbroom has been subpar defensively and if he plays like this defensively he'll be a big liability against good A-10 guards.

I'm not in panic mode, but our boys have some tightening up to do on the defensive side of the ball.

I think the SIUc game will be closer than people think or want.

[Box and Won]

I've renamed the SIUE dance team "The Thickness."

[Taj79]

Two games, two fluff opponents. Going into Carbondale should provide a more dificult test.

Last night, watching on the net, I saw some positives in terms of what I want to find out or define in the OOC schedule:

I'm on the plus side of 50/50 with Grandy and happy with that. He is contributing better and playing more. He is still Mr. Energy and Joe Positive. When Jett got blocked a few times on those early drives, I noticed Grandy going over to him and pumping him up and giving positive support (not that Jett really needs it). But he is the rah-rah energy guy. Wish he had made that last free throw for another double-double.

Same too with Manning. John showed a nice touch to about ten feet, showed an ability to sustain more time than a minute or two and will always be a force or impediment when in the paint on the defensive side. He "looks" better so far but in both cases, SEMO and SIUE are not exactly qulaity opponents.

Jett and McCall got to where they wanted whenever they wanted. I was surprised Jordair got blocked a few times and I think he was too. McCall had a great first half and was aces again defensively. Not really concerned about the lack of production in the second half there. Evans did his usual good and Loe was shutout until he went low blocks in the second half. There were a couple of instances where Dwayne tried to set up shop and had Grandy down in the blocks as well. That allows the second and even third defender to collapse on Dwayne which was not the case when the 4/5 combo of Ellis and Loe were perimeter bombers and needed to be accounted for. Have to figure out the how and when of that particular combo when on the court.

McBroom was better, but seemed more comfortable relying on his speed to beat the press and that won't work against better compeition. He still needs to polish up on his defense. I remain happy that the frosh are getting game time and experience. Lancona looked lost at times, bu thit a three and scored his first 5 Billiken points. Barnett will come around, I think. But right now, I don't see him being to be much more thna last year and after two games, I hiope he finds that. But it's early. Agbeko was again in street clothes.

I could share moy's fear about the defense but also think that in both these games, we did what we had to do and then maybe "coasted." The shutdown stretch in the first half, from 11:56 to close where they scored only 8 points, decided the game well before half. I though they lost focus in about the third quarter of th egame bu tthen righte dthe ship and closed it out.

Saturday will be a better test.

[RUBillsFan]

No corrections from the PA announcer. Their guy does our Women's games. Why he can't do the Mens as well is beyond me.

torch - I think you missed a few slip ups by their announcer. Not nearly as bad as Guy, but he once called Evans "Dwayne Harris" and said that a foul was on Jett when it was really an offensive foul on SIUE's #5.

[cheeseman]

For those of you who think our defense was not great - I agree to a point but apparently JC does not - in the article in the StL Post he said we played great defense. The SIUE coach said that at halftime he said to his staff they are not letting us run any of our plays because they are guarding us so tight. I think our first half defense was good but our second half got sloppy once the bench played the last 10 minutes which honestly is to be somewhat expected. The game was over by half time and so the defense did its job in the first half so I guess no big deal for now.

AM - kid can shoot - no argument there. Defense was at times OK but he can get sloppy when he is out there without the starters. I think he needs JJ or MM to keep him honest. When he gets sloppy or looses concentration then he does turn the ball over and loses his man.

TL looked fine - don't forget he is a freshmen playing in his second game in college. He showed he can rebound and that shoot was smooth. He may eventually make us say CE who?

JM played better and I am happy for him - he needed a confidence booster but consistency has always been his problem so one weak game and then a decent one pattern has to be broken - can he do that, only time will tell. We should know by the end of the non conference schedule.

JB - wow what a mess. He was running around like a chicken with his head cut off when he was in there. Talk about being lost he gave it a new definition. He looked so much better against SEMO but against SIUE he was worse then a freshman. Bauman may be right - MC may very well be taking his minutes if this keeps up.

I have no interest in SIUE becoming our rival - as a fan base we have to set our eyes higher.

[doowop]

I am a little concerned with our defense. Against two bad teams without their best player we've given up a lot of open looks. Mcbroom has been subpar defensively and if he plays like this defensively he'll be a big liability against good A-10 guards.

I'm not in panic mode, but our boys have some tightening up to do on the defensive side of the ball.

I think the SIUc game will be closer than people think or want.

If we don't play better than we have I believe we will lose against SIUC. They do have to get better defensively and some players need to have a good first and second half. Glaze had a very good first half offensively but when he posted his man up in the second half his teammates would not pass him the ball. They have to recognize their open teammates. He takes some of the pressure off Evans. They must get better overall and more than likely will, especially when Agbeko starts playing.

[RUBillsFan]

If we don't play better than we have I believe we will lose against SIUC. They do have to get better defensively and some players need to have a good first and second half. Glaze had a very good first half offensively but when he posted his man up in the second half his teammates would not pass him the ball. They have to recognize their open teammates. He takes some of the pressure off Evans. They must get better overall and more than likely will, especially when Agbeko starts playing.

I'll agree that the 1st half against SEMO was bad. I think with them being up by 20+ at the half against SIUE they short of coasted through the 2nd half. Not saying that is a good thing, but I would expect better in a close game. The guards were either being selfish or just wanting to kill clock by not feeding Glaze when he was posting up in the 2nd half. There were still a lot of fouls called in the 2nd half (especially against SIUE), but I think the refs tried to swallow their whistles a bit too especially on things away from the basket.

Did anyone else think that their big foreigner #5 Fiorentinos set probably the most illegal picks you'd have ever seen? I think he was only called for 1 maybe 2, but almost every single one he set with his feet wider than his shoulders, leaned into the defender trying to get by him, sometimes threw his elbows up/out at the defender, and sometimes just grabbed the defender. It was pretty hilarious to watch. Most impressively, it usually didn't give SIUE much of an advantage because our guys still got by him.

[Old guy]

I know a lot of people have posted about this game and I cannot add much. But I would like to emphasize some of the comments made that agreed with what I saw on TV.

First of all, the game was won in the first half. The second half was a mix and match, try people and combinations type of thing. We did well in both halves, particularly if we keep in mind that in the second half we were not playing our "normal" game and were in a more "experimental" mode. We did not put the walk ins into play this time, possibly because SIUE tightened the score some in the second half.

I was delighted to see Grandy playing. For those of you that enjoyed all the criticism you heaped on him before you saw him play this time, I hope you learn the value of someone who has the heart to play and try his best with an injury that does not allow him to fully elevate his arm. Dislocations are not something that can be dismissed, they take time and hard patient work to heal. Grandy has the patience and the persistence to try and try, and we are seeing the improvement. Good for him, and God willing we will see more and more improvement in his play as this season advances..

Manning looked a lot better to me this time, much more with it and more capable. Again this is a man that was injured last year, this time with a neurological injury (not an orthopedic one), Again kudos to Manning for his effort and improvement, Hopefully this trend will also continue.

Crawford continues to get smoother and more capable playing at this level. He is scoring and doing well. Lancona is loosening up, liked his 3 pointer a lot. These two have a good deal to offer the team and I am very happy to see them play. We are likely to need them badly later on in the season, particularly if there is foul trouble at hand.

Agbeko did not play. I hope we get to see him in action, but understand he has to fully heal before we put him in.

And that is what I wanted to say. I am very happy to see the freshmen playing, the experience they are gaining may be invaluable later on in the season. I think Crews and his staff are doing a wonderful job putting things together. I have seen nothing that makes me worried about where we are and where we are heading this year.

[billikenfan05]

I've renamed the SIUE dance team "The Thickness."

According to my friend they were carrying around pizza at halftime...

[bauman]

You were also a very critical of what Glaze would bring to this team. I believe you rated him as the second worst player on the team. How you feeling on that prediction these days?

I do agree with your comment that it is only 2 games and we shouldn't draw any huge conclusions from what we've seen thus far.

Thanks kshoe. You never fail to disappoint-if I say something is black you will always respond that it is white. My point was always that BASED ON LAST YEAR, I didn't expect much from GG or JM. In addition, with regard to JB, I hoped he was going to finally to give us some solid play as a 5th yr senior, BUT I thought MC would bring similar skills to the table and that JC would start using him more in Jake's role so that MC would have a decent amount of experience come next year. I didn't expect JB to play as poorly as he has, but his minutes have already seemed to lessen. Should a senior we are counting on have 7 fouls, 1 point and a number of turnovers in two games against very inferior competition?

Regarding Glaze and Manning: I am waiting to jump on the GG bandwagon until we play a few better teams with real (sizewise) 4s & 5s who are not on low D1-D2 quality teams. So far I see the same high energy, good teammate player who is in better shape than last year. I am at the neutral point on him waiting for more data-that is better competition. Just about all his points are within 2 feet of the basket and that ain't gonna happen against better teams.

JM has not shown me the level of improvement I was hoping for in his 3rd year-again, he is playing against much shorter opponents who are on low level teams. Due to the earliness of the schedule I still hope to see the improvement expected, but I am not convinced at this point. It will be interesting to see how much Coach Crews uses TL & RA as we get into conference play. Will they take minutes from GG & JM or will GG & JM continue to improve?

[kshoe]

Thanks kshoe. You never fail to disappoint-if I say something is black you will always respond that it is white. My point was always that BASED ON LAST YEAR, I didn't expect much from GG or JM. In addition, with regard to JB, I hoped he was going to finally to give us some solid play as a 5th yr senior, BUT I thought MC would bring similar skills to the table and that JC would start using him more in Jake's role so that MC would have a decent amount of experience come next year. I didn't expect JB to play as poorly as he has, but his minutes have already seemed to lessen. Should a senior we are counting on have 7 fouls, 1 point and a number of turnovers in two games against very inferior competition?

Regarding Glaze and Manning: I am waiting to jump on the GG bandwagon until we play a few better teams with real (sizewise) 4s & 5s who are not on low D1-D2 quality teams. So far I see the same high energy, good teammate player who is in better shape than last year. I am at the neutral point on him waiting for more data-that is better competition. Just about all his points are within 2 feet of the basket and that ain't gonna happen against better teams.

JM has not shown me the level of improvement I was hoping for in his 3rd year-again, he is playing against much shorter opponents who are on low level teams. Due to the earliness of the schedule I still hope to see the improvement expected, but I am not convinced at this point. It will be interesting to see how much Coach Crews uses TL & RA as we get into conference play. Will they take minutes from GG & JM or will GG & JM continue to improve?

Its funny how some of those people that criticize our players the most are unable to handle a little criticism of their own posts.

Basically you have heavily criticized GG, JM and JB in the past. Others, have said there are reasons that all three of those could contribute meaningfully for this team. Your criticism is fine and all but its not fine to later come back and say "JB has not been playing well and those of you that said he would be better were wrong."

If you are going to do that based on the limited data set of 2 games you should probably acknowledge the GG looks like he will be a major contributor for this team and that JM will be serviceable. Not every player on this team can have the impact that Evans, Jett and McCall do.

P.s. if you don't believe me or don't remember your past criticisms of these three, you should re-read this thread. http://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24519&hl=%2Bbauman+%2Bglaze#entry375060

In it, you basically call GG a below average A-10 starter. I'd say he looks a lot better than that now, no matter what kind of competition we have been playing.

[Old guy]

Its funny how some of those people that criticize ............ the most are unable to handle a little criticism

Ah, this brings memories of my ex

[jbizzle09]

It seems to me that bauman is saying that it is totally fine to push Crawford ahead of Barnett based on Crawford's performance in limited minutes in two games. However, Glaze needs to watch his back because he might get minutes taken away by freshmen despite him playing exceptionally well in those same two games. Oh, and nothing positive can be taken from Manning's performance so far because it was against shorter opponents, also in those same two games, and he is also looking at getting his minutes taken away by freshmen.

It looks from this vantage point that someone has kind of argued himself into a circle.

[ACE]

It seems to me that bauman is saying that it is totally fine to push Crawford ahead of Barnett based on Crawford's performance in limited minutes in two games. However, Glaze needs to watch his back because he might get minutes taken away from freshmen despite him playing exceptionally well in those same two games. Oh, and nothing positive can be taken from Manning's performance so far because it was against shorter opponents, also in those same two games, and he is also looking at getting his minutes taken away by freshmen.

It looks from this vantage point that someone has kind of argued himself into a circle.

That's what I was thinking. I wonder what he thinks about Jake's best performances last year coming against some of our strongest opponents - Kansas, Butler and VCU. I guess we can conclude without a doubt that Jake doesn't play well against weak opponents, but steps it up against good opponents.

[ACE]

Its funny how some of those people that criticize our players the most are unable to handle a little criticism of their own posts.

Basically you have heavily criticized GG, JM and JB in the past. Others, have said there are reasons that all three of those could contribute meaningfully for this team. Your criticism is fine and all but its not fine to later come back and say "JB has not been playing well and those of you that said he would be better were wrong."

If you are going to do that based on the limited data set of 2 games you should probably acknowledge the GG looks like he will be a major contributor for this team and that JM will be serviceable. Not every player on this team can have the impact that Evans, Jett and McCall do.

P.s. if you don't believe me or don't remember your past criticisms of these three, you should re-read this thread. http://www.billikens.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24519&hl=%2Bbauman+%2Bglaze#entry375060

In it, you basically call GG a below average A-10 starter. I'd say he looks a lot better than that now, no matter what kind of competition we have been playing.

Excellent link to a good thread. There's a really strange phenomenon that has emerged as our program has gotten better - some folks are determined to rip the 8th, 9th or 10th man in our rotation. Meanwhile, they hold in fairly high esteem some of the 3 and 4 year starters from the past who were fairly mediocre and were never seriously challenged for playing time.

These are not your father's Billikens. It's not easy to get starter's minutes. There is more competition for playing time. As a result, there are some pretty talented players on this team who are not able to get as many minutes as they would have, say 10 years ago. It's not surprising to me to see GG stepping up this year and I would expect Manning to contribute more as this year progresses and step it up even more next year after Rob graduates.

[West Pine Jim]

The only thing that disturbed me about last night's game was the number of drives to the basket we gave up early. Seems to me in the past we would have bumped the dribbler a bit, cutting off his progress. Maybe we are adjusting somewhat to the new rules which favor the offense.

[HoyaBilliken]

The fight for playing time by the players will make us better. The staff will determine the best players and rotations as the comp steps up, and surely before conference play begins. Defensively we need work, especially against teams that go small. Offensively we share the ball. I do think DE needs to become a bit more assertive offensively. But this could be the result of him getting used to playing a bit more on the perimeter

[HoyaBilliken]

The only thing that disturbed me about last night's game was the number of drives to the basket we gave up early. Seems to me in the past we would have bumped the dribbler a bit, cutting off his progress. Maybe we are adjusting somewhat to the new rules which favor the offense.

+1 about the drives. VCU's halfcourt O against UVA was basically put your head down and drive to bucket. Much more athletic team then what we were struggling with last night; but I'm confident we will have this issue covered by the time we meet up.

[White Pelican]

The only thing that disturbed me about last night's game was the number of drives to the basket we gave up early. Seems to me in the past we would have bumped the dribbler a bit, cutting off his progress. Maybe we are adjusting somewhat to the new rules which favor the offense.

I noticed that early on too. And I was concerned about it. I noticed later that we seemed to adjust. I admit I'm not much of an X's and O's guy but it seemed to me that e's offense was mainly to drive to the basket. They rarely seemed to set up for outside shots at least early in the game. So I thought we finally figured that out and adjusted accordingly.

[ACE]

I look what I have seen of McBroom so far. Excellent looking shot - from the free throw line and deep from 3. He's a confident looking player. I mentioned before the season I had hoped McBroom would be an upgrade over KM with 3-point shooting based on AM's freshman year stats. With the little I have seen already, I think that will be the case. He is also extremely quick and has good court vision. He has made some excellent passes. He has gotten a bit out of control at times, but I think he will settle down with more playing time, considering he sat out last year. Also, agree with those who think his defense needs to improve. Since he is probably the quickest player on the team, there is no reason it can't come around. MM and KM greatly improved their D over time. AM just needs to learn the Billiken way of playing defense. I look forwrd to watching him play and I think he can provide a scoring spark off the bench.