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GDT: Methdale


JettFlight5

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I was very happy to see the team get out of there with a win.

On another note, the University Mall has NO places to eat. The entire food court is completely empty. There are no Auntie Ann's, nothing. Just one bar/grill, Garfield's, with an understandably long line. There were plenty of stores and the place was quite busy. I guess maybe they are in a transitional phase dining wise. So I ate at the Walnut St. Wendy's and it was damn good, dirty cup Diet Coke and no wantin' to give ketchup wench and all.

Agbeko looked pretty good in a limited stint in the first half. His second half appearance was extremely brief. That's all I remember.

It was a very good crowd (probably 85% full) and the 2 busloads, and then some, SLU faithful got some nice and loud S-A-I-N-T cheers in as the Saluki fans started to file out with about a minute to go. Their band, obviously, is not the world's greatest pep band. They played several different funeral marches fairly well and the low notes all sounded quite good. Jimbo would have appreciated the, ahem, talent on the cheer squad. I missed the dance team and the guy won 100$ doin' the layup, ft, 3pt in under 30 sec drill. Oh yeah, I hadn't been there in years and the improvements to the fan experience were quite impressive. The dogs guarding the main stairs outside are very cool.

All in all, a very good win. Congrats to Coach Cruise, the staff, and the team.

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Had a great time at the game last night, good win in a hostile environment. Pulled out the win with Evans not having his best night and Rob struggling. Mike McCall decided to take over the game and that was the difference, he made two clutch jumpers to really silence the crowd, great game for Mike

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On another note, the University Mall has NO places to eat. The entire food court is completely empty. There are no Auntie Ann's, nothing. Just one bar/grill, Garfield's, with an understandably long line. There were plenty of stores and the place was quite busy. I guess maybe they are in a transitional phase dining wise. So I ate at the Walnut St. Wendy's and it was damn good, dirty cup Diet Coke and no wantin' to give ketchup wench and all.

[\quote]

It's no transitional phase dining wise. I've been down here around 2-2.5 years and the food situation has been that the whole time.

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A very good win. The streaming feed was one of the best, clearest feeds I've ever had. It had some fuzzy glitches but all-in-all,again, best I've had.

Now the announcers --- Cletus and Clyde --- were pretty bad but I always feel that way about the homers. Announcer said 5640 in attendance ("more than at the football game earlier today") and said the place holds 8800 if I recall. The color guy was a "SIU Hall of Famer" but other than "Mike" I forgot his name. Although I have no clue why he was in their hall of fame or if that's good. Probably just trying to follow in the SLU model and "the Rammer." Two "Peay" references. Two Candy Glaze calls. Andalways with the dumb promos and stuff. Did say SIU mugged Evans late and got away with it.

I threatened to cut Barnett's hair early in this thread and then he went off so I'm taking credit there. Early on we just seemed lackadaisical again. I'm attributing that to seniors not being too high but we cannot continue to do that. From the 5 minute mark of the first half on, it was our game. We were clearly more talented and short of digging out of the 13-point hole, looked good.

Observations: I believe that is what we are going to see from Jake going forward --- on nights and off nights. It would have been cool for him to make that 30-foot three at the half but at least McBroom rebounded and scored to send the Salukis off in some shock. Loe is off to a slow start. Four points, five rebounds and one block negated by two turnovers, five fouls and a defensive posture that allowed a limited schlep like Verhines to nearly pull a double-double. And has he made a three yet? You knew he was going to make the one off the Evans assist because Evans got called for traveling. McCall was the hero last night matching his career high of 19 but we also saw some less-than-stellar defense from all --- is that the new rules? Agbeko showed promise; while he only got 6 minutes he did not appear as lost as Lancona did last game and how lost Glaze looked his freshman year. McCall also had nine rebounds for a near double-double. Jett really clamped down on Jackson in the second half but how we let that 6'2" Pendleton kid drive at will was disturbing. And he took it straight at Loe, scoring most times than not.

Jackson was completely selfish for SIU. When we started that late first half run, even the announcers noted that Jackson dribbling the ball to go one-on-one was completely against the core of what got the Salukis their 13-point lead. In the second half, in a three-on-one situation, instead of passing, Jackson was me-me-me. Box score shows no assists for Jackson; no surprise. Hinson is as bad as Rich"The Stomper" Herrin was when at SIU.

Nice showing in an OOC game for this early in the year. Once again, we fell behind, righted the ship, and persevered. All in a hostile environment. We weathered their second half comeback run and put them away. Evans had a bad night as did Jett but Evans came through at crunch time and Jett more than made up for his scoring by dropping 8 assists. About the only concerns I have are Loe making some threes and figuring why the defense seems to allow more back-doors and more one-on-one drives than I can ever recall. Manning did not play due to a sprained ankle. Glaze did rather well.

Last night showed senior leadership this time from McCall and Barnett. One of larry72's "stumble" games has come and gone. SIU was something like 40-3 in home openers according to the announcers so it was a big emotional night for them. We weathered it well. Now Oral Roberts and Bowling Green before the first real test in Mexico.

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-a good win as a road game and we did not play well as a team

-DE, even if being denied on offense, don't let it impact your defense and rebounding

-RL, tough game, we are going to need more from this position than we got tonight

-JJ, some horrible to's, forced a few things, not afraid to have the ball at the end of the shot clock, took a shot to the face that hurt him, hope ok

-GG, played pretty good, started each half with our points, i hope his conversations with his teammates are taken the right way

-MM, had the best game, made some big time shots when we needed it

-JB's end of the first half was so key to the game, the foul trouble not so good

-RA showed a bit, didn't look afraid to be our there, limited minutes

-AM was pretty good

-i don't understand how Hinson can't run plays for #12 who didn't miss a shot, he went a very long stretch in the second half without an attempt, thanks Barry!!

-nice improvements to the arena, but if you are going to have those touchless faucets perhaps they should work

-was great to see droves of maroon heading for the exits with a minute to go

-when we had the turnover at halfcourt in the last couple of minutes why no timeout??

-we went to the basket a lot, so did they, which with these new rules is very difficult to stop, drive to the basket, i am not a fan of the new block/charge rule at this point

-room to grow

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Wonder what we are gonna get out of MC this year?? First few games made it seem like he would be the first freshman off the bench. RA does seem the most D1 ready, physical build wise out off the three. Wonder if crews is thinking about giving TL some of RL's minutes till he figures it out. Just some thoughts...

I find it interesting that with Manning out Crews went to Agbeko as the 8th man. Perhaps he just felt that RA was the better matchup against SIUC. SIUC was using their entire bench, but we didn't see Crawford or Lancona at all even though they had a little bit of seasoning against SEMO & SIUE whereas RA had none.

I wonder if we can read into this that Agbeko will be the 9th man in the rotation which is how many Crews had he would like to have. Either way, I hope we can get a few more blowout games in where all of the freshman see minutes.

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I find it interesting that with Manning out Crews went to Agbeko as the 8th man. Perhaps he just felt that RA was the better matchup against SIUC. SIUC was using their entire bench, but we didn't see Crawford or Lancona at all even though they had a little bit of seasoning against SEMO & SIUE whereas RA had none.

I wonder if we can read into this that Agbeko will be the 9th man in the rotation which is how many Crews had he would like to have. Either way, I hope we can get a few more blowout games in where all of the freshman see minutes.

Pretty much this. Take care of business against Oral Bob and Bowling Green with minutes for everybody.

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I did not go to the game but heard it in the radio, which leaves a LOT to be desired, I am not a visual person who can visualize what they are saying. That disclaimer out of the way these are my observations:

1. The foul calling appears to have been highly uneven, SIU got away with what was described as terrible lack of calls or the worst call I have ever seen in the radio. SIU had relatively few foul calls. This put a good deal of duress on SLU both in defense and in offense.

2. SIU used, effectively a zone defense (against which we are not very good and they plus everyone else knows it), they constantly double and triple teamed our people, and they used full court presses. This was a difficult game.

3. Evans was almost totally shut out in the first half, his lack of scoring was quite evident. However, sometime within the first half we managed to get the best out of their defense, even with the unfair foul calling, and started scoring. By the second half Evans was back in the play with a reasonable overall score for the game.

4. I know Crews had plenty of reason to be upset with the game, not so much with our people as with the foul calls, I think.

5. I liked the fact that they tried and tried with new combinations, and that people that were not heavily contributing in prior games came up and scored well. I am glad Agbeko and even Eagleton played, I wish some time had been given to Lancona and Crawford, Lancona might have been able to sink 3s better than some of our players in this game.

Overall my opinion of this game is this: It was a well played game, against a difficult defense and against difficult foul calling from the refs. We won because we have the stamina, the endurance, and the bench capability to do so. I liked this game, it was a fine win against adversity and the Bills deserve our congratulations.

Finally, I think we are going to be facing combo defenses with zones and full court presses and doulble or triple teaming of our people. We will also be facing adverse foul calling from the officials. We must take all of this in stride and continue winning. We are really good people, really good, all we need is to show how good we are to everyone else despite of what they and the officials throw at us.

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I did not go to the game but heard it in the radio, which leaves a LOT to be desired, I am not a visual person who can visualize what they are saying. That disclaimer out of the way these are my observations:

1. The foul calling appears to have been highly uneven, SIU got away with what was described as terrible lack of calls or the worst call I have ever seen in the radio. SIU had relatively few foul calls. This put a good deal of duress on SLU both in defense and in offense.

2. SIU used, effectively a zone defense (against which we are not very good and they plus everyone else knows it), they constantly double and triple teamed our people, and they used full court presses. This was a difficult game.

3. Evans was almost totally shut out in the first half, his lack of scoring was quite evident. However, sometime within the first half we managed to get the best out of their defense, even with the unfair foul calling, and started scoring. By the second half Evans was back in the play with a reasonable overall score for the game.

4. I know Crews had plenty of reason to be upset with the game, not so much with our people as with the foul calls, I think.

5. I liked the fact that they tried and tried with new combinations, and that people that were not heavily contributing in prior games came up and scored well. I am glad Agbeko and even Eagleton played, I wish some time had been given to Lancona and Crawford, Lancona might have been able to sink 3s better than some of our players in this game.

Overall my opinion of this game is this: It was a well played game, against a difficult defense and against difficult foul calling from the refs. We won because we have the stamina, the endurance, and the bench capability to do so. I liked this game, it was a fine win against adversity and the Bills deserve our congratulations.

Finally, I think we are going to be facing combo defenses with zones and full court presses and doulble or triple teaming of our people. We will also be facing adverse foul calling from the officials. We must take all of this in stride and continue winning. We are really good people, really good, all we need is to show how good we are to everyone else despite of what they and the officials throw at us.

1. It did sound like SIU was getting some "home court" calls from the refs, but I wouldn't base too much off of Rammer's radio calls. In just about every game there is a "worst call he's ever seen" and he is very much like one of us would be calling the games (a complete homer).

2. Everyone has been playing zone on us. We should be able to figure it out by now and I think they have gotten better at it. This may account for the slow starts because every zone is a little different and it takes some time to find the weaknesses and expose them.

3. Defenses seem to be keyed in on Evans so far this year. Part of it is the zone defense, but teams are also double and triple teaming him when he gets it in the post. I think last year teams figured that if their guy had a few inches of height on Evans then he could defend him on his own in the post. Obviously teams have learned that despite being undersized Evans can make you pay down low. There were a couple of times that 4 guys crashed in on him in the SIUE game. Evans has done a decent job of passing from the post so far, but he should look to do it more often. Our shooters need to knock down shots to force team to play Evans one on one in the post.

4. There are "coachable moments" in every game. I'm sure Crews will use these to make the team better.

5. Eagleton didn't play that was a screw up by the ESPN stats. If you look at the official stats on SLU's website, he is not listed as having played. Which makes sense, Eagleton is a walk-on. Crawford isn't completely ready right now, but he's not Dustin Macguire.

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I find it interesting that with Manning out Crews went to Agbeko as the 8th man. Perhaps he just felt that RA was the better matchup against SIUC. SIUC was using their entire bench, but we didn't see Crawford or Lancona at all even though they had a little bit of seasoning against SEMO & SIUE whereas RA had none.

I wonder if we can read into this that Agbeko will be the 9th man in the rotation which is how many Crews had he would like to have. Either way, I hope we can get a few more blowout games in where all of the freshman see minutes.

I think your right, but I would like to see how tanner would do with some of the open looks rob is getting.

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I went to the game. It's always nice to see the Billikens and only have to make a 5-10 minute drive to the game.

The pre-game party was at the concert venue that is part of a bar. Space-wise it was fine, and it gave us our own place, not mixed in with anyone else. When I heard that the party would be there, I thought it could be a good spot, but wasn't sure because I've never heard people suggest getting food at that place. The venue was a little slow with bringing out more food that wasn't pizza, which led to some slow lines due to the waiting. Can't blame SLU for that. The band and cheerleaders sent small groups, and the Billiken came as well. A large inflatable Billiken was set up outside the pre-game venue.

The game itself started out pretty rough. SIU was hitting a number of shots, and their zone was giving us trouble. SIU led by as many as 13 in the first half. Fortunately, SLU came up with a 18-4 run late in the first half. Barnett heated up, I think McCall hit some shots, as well as some others, and we ended up walking around at halftime wondering how it was that we had a halftime lead.

Our strong play continued early in the second half, extending the lead to as much as 10 or 12. SIU didn't fold though, and got the deficit down to 1 or 2 but couldn't tie or take the lead. We generally kept the lead in the 2-5 range until we extended the lead in the last 2 minutes to the final margin of 9.

Dwayne Evans was relatively non-existent for much of the game before he made a few plays in the last few minutes and hit some free throws to finish in double figures.

Great game by McCall. 19 points, 9 rebounds, and 0 turnovers.

I'm liking what McBroom is bringing to the table. He's not McCall, Jett, or Mitchell, but he's been serviceable and has worked his way into the lineup well.

Jett didn't put up big scoring numbers, but contributed 8 assists. His family was sitting right behind me, which meant they were banished to the last row of the arena.

Agbeko is a good prospect. Got in the game early, and while he played only 6 minutes, he got 4 points and was active.

Overall a good win for the Billikens. Bad start, but the recovered, took the lead,and held off the SIU charge in the second half. First time in a while that we've won consecutive games over the Salukis in Carbondale.

SIU had been generally predicted to finish in the 7-9 range in the Valley. Based on last night and their performance against Mizzou in Columbia, I think they can do better than that, though I admit to not knowing too much about each Valley team. Over the past 2 weeks, SIU has given tough games to SLU and Mizzou, but also with dispatching UMSL and another D2 team, so they could be better than expected, but might put up a few clunkers.

All in all, a good night. 3-0 and moving on to the next one.

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