SLU/Wisc thoughts

[SpencerFilibuster]

I had watched some of the SLU games on a fuzzy feed, this is the first one I've been able to watch on TV this season. I'm sure a lot of things have been discussed on the game time thread, but I wanted to see if I could start a new one to mention things noticed.

1) Next year is already here (sort of). We'll lose 5 major players, but watching this game, Crews mixed everyone in a lot, I thought most of the season would consist of at least 3-4 of the seniors always being on the floor, especially against a ranked team Sure, some of that had to do with Evans having 2 fouls early, but I thought we had a lot of youth out there, and was surprised by the complexion of the lineups Crews had in there most of the time. (Re-watching right now and towards the end of the first half there is Barnett, Loe, McCall, McBroom, Glaze on the floor right now)

2) The newcomers that got a lot of playing time aren't shy. Lancona will get there, but he looked eager, and I actually found it refreshing at how trigger-happy McBroom was. He took a lot of shots our normal billikens wouldn't take (early shots, no passes first, etc), but at the very least it is nice to see that next year we'll have some one that wants to take over. I was a little worried about who would be taking the shots next year, think we have less to worry about now.

3) It was like looking in a mirror while playing Wisconsin, especially early in the game, they knew what we liked to do on ball screens, McCall got tied up multiple times, Jett couldn't easily do his snake to the basket, etc. I can't think of a team (Butler is the closest thing I can think of) that we've played in the last year or two that was as methodical, patient and even throughout as Wisconsin. It might turn out that Wisconsin ends up being the most difficult team for us this year. We know how VCU works and I think we can match up with Wich St

[cheeseman]

I had watched some of the SLU games on a fuzzy feed, this is the first one I've been able to watch on TV this season. I'm sure a lot of things have been discussed on the game time thread, but I wanted to see if I could start a new one to mention things noticed.

1) Next year is already here (sort of). We'll lose 5 major players, but watching this game, Crews mixed everyone in a lot, I thought most of the season would consist of at least 3-4 of the seniors always being on the floor, especially against a ranked team Sure, some of that had to do with Evans having 2 fouls early, but I thought we had a lot of youth out there, and was surprised by the complexion of the lineups Crews had in there most of the time. (Re-watching right now and towards the end of the first half there is Barnett, Loe, McCall, McBroom, Glaze on the floor right now)

2) The newcomers that got a lot of playing time aren't shy. Lancona will get there, but he looked eager, and I actually found it refreshing at how trigger-happy McBroom was. He took a lot of shots our normal billikens wouldn't take (early shots, no passes first, etc), but at the very least it is nice to see that next year we'll have some one that wants to take over. I was a little worried about who would be taking the shots next year, think we have less to worry about now.

3) It was like looking in a mirror while playing Wisconsin, especially early in the game, they knew what we liked to do on ball screens, McCall got tied up multiple times, Jett couldn't easily do his snake to the basket, etc. I can't think of a team (Butler is the closest thing I can think of) that we've played in the last year or two that was as methodical, patient and even throughout as Wisconsin. It might turn out that Wisconsin ends up being the most difficult team for us this year. We know how VCU works and I think we can match up with Wich St

Quick shots from the 3 are simply not a wise strategy - you need to wait for your guys to get into position and you need to run some clock looking for that good shot. What you found refreshing I found it driving me crazy. Playing smart always trumps haste.

[Old guy]

After watching the W Virginia Wisconsin game I must agree with cheeseman, this is not the best way to play as far as SLU is concerned. However, it must be noted that Wisconsin appeared quite comfortable playing a 3 pointer game (and consistently connecting) when they had trouble penetrating W Virginia's zone defense.

[cheeseman]

After watching the W Virginia Wisconsin game I must agree with cheeseman, this is not the best way to play as far as SLU is concerned. However, it must be noted that Wisconsin appeared quite comfortable playing a 3 pointer game (and consistently connecting) when they had trouble penetrating W Virginia's zone defense.

From what I saw of that game I did not see WI coming down and popping a quick three - in fact when WI did it a time or two Bo Ryan was really chewing them out. I am not saying never put up a three but make sure you have gotten the best 3 opportunity you can and your guys are in position for a possible rebound - we shoot a three quickly and we almost never get the rebound - it is a 10 seconds position that results in no points and basically a turnover result.

[WestCoastBilliken]

From what I saw of that game I did not see WI coming down and popping a quick three - in fact when WI did it a time or two Bo Ryan was really chewing them out. I am not saying never put up a three but make sure you have gotten the best 3 opportunity you can and your guys are in position for a possible rebound - we shoot a three quickly and we almost never get the rebound - it is a 10 seconds position that results in no points and basically a turnover result.

+1

Bo Ryan was definitely chewing his players out if they took a quick shot. Against Wisc, our guys would bring the ball down and pop a quick contested 3 point shot with 25 seconds on the clock still, none of our guys in position, and they did this on multiple possessions in a row.

Was Crews getting on any of our guys for these shots? Did anyone notice? I feel like our offense has really become more street ball with tons of dribbling this year.

[slu72]

If anyone has it on his DVR replay the games at the Anaheim Classic 2 years ago. Classic bb as orchestrated by the maestro RM. No one took a sot unless it was a good one. The on ball screens werean to perfection. I'm a little surprised we've gotten away from this style of bb.

[David King]

If anyone has it on his DVR replay the games at the Anaheim Classic 2 years ago. Classic bb as orchestrated by the maestro RM. No one took a sot unless it was a good one. The on ball screens werean to perfection. I'm a little surprised we've gotten away from this style of bb.

+1

[slufanskip]

Not only was it too quick but it was completely against what was bringing us back. We didn't just take one on a trip down the floor once ( which I'm ok with from Rob, Mike, Austin, or Jake ... once) but we took I think 4 3's in about a 2-3 minute span and all very quickly with 1 each of those coming from Dwayne and Jordair. If we had fed the ball inside or worked for a better shot I have no doubt we'd have had at least a couple of buckets and possibly gotten to the line. It was about 5 or 6 straight possessions. I think we had closed the gap to 8 before that bad stretch.

There's certainly a time to jack up a quick 3, but this wasn't it.

[AlumniFan]

+1

If anyone has it on his DVR replay the games at the Anaheim Classic 2 years ago. Classic bb as orchestrated by the maestro RM. No one took a sot unless it was a good one. The on ball screens werean to perfection. I'm a little surprised we've gotten away from this style of bb.

I'm sure that's true, but RM had his share of stinkers too. Crews has coached some great games. Oh, and his recruiting has been pretty darn good too.

[Basketbill]

If anyone has it on his DVR replay the games at the Anaheim Classic 2 years ago. Classic bb as orchestrated by the maestro RM. No one took a sot unless it was a good one. The on ball screens werean to perfection. I'm a little surprised we've gotten away from this style of bb.

Truly hard to compare those teams to Wisconsin. Those BCS teams were bad, how bad check out their RPI's that year....., BC 264, OK 115, and Nova 84...... How bad are you if you are in a BCS conference and your RPI is above 250? Wisconsin is good and has been good, they will make the tourney, I love that we got a chance to play them, they have a nice mix of veterans and talented underclassmen. Every time our guys came around screen, the help was there or the defender fought through the screen. Someone said it was like playing a mirror image of ourselves. Defensively it was at least!

Regarding McBroom it is not so much the shot he takes it is more how ready he is to take the shot, when he takes it. His bad shots have been when he did not have his feet set, was drifting in the air either side to side and once even backward.

I

[Clock_Tower]

Our poor shooting should really not come as a surprise. In fact, we have not been a really good outside shooting team for years. Do I like our players/teams? Of course. But again, when your best outside threats come from your point guard and your center, you will have problems. In short, your point must run the offense, control/set the tempo, bring the ball down against a token press and key the defense. This is alot to ask -- consistently -- of McCall though he is a Senior, a 4 year starter and has shot better in the past. Same with Loe a the center position. When Conklin controlled the inside, Loe found more room on the outside. When Ellis added an additional/unconventional outside threat, open spacing fell not only to Evans but also to Loe. This year, though, we have Jett, Evans, Glaze and Randy all best suited for shorter shots/layups. Until McCall and Lancona work their way into the lineup, we will lack an outside threat/game aside from some occasional hot-shooting games by Barnett.

Contrary to some on this Board, I believe we need to play the Freshmen (McCall and Lancona) this year to win THIS YEAR and not just to win in the future.

[DD3]

I had watched some of the SLU games on a fuzzy feed, this is the first one I've been able to watch on TV this season. I'm sure a lot of things have been discussed on the game time thread, but I wanted to see if I could start a new one to mention things noticed.

1) Next year is already here (sort of). We'll lose 5 major players, but watching this game, Crews mixed everyone in a lot, I thought most of the season would consist of at least 3-4 of the seniors always being on the floor, especially against a ranked team Sure, some of that had to do with Evans having 2 fouls early, but I thought we had a lot of youth out there, and was surprised by the complexion of the lineups Crews had in there most of the time. (Re-watching right now and towards the end of the first half there is Barnett, Loe, McCall, McBroom, Glaze on the floor right now)

2) The newcomers that got a lot of playing time aren't shy. Lancona will get there, but he looked eager, and I actually found it refreshing at how trigger-happy McBroom was. He took a lot of shots our normal billikens wouldn't take (early shots, no passes first, etc), but at the very least it is nice to see that next year we'll have some one that wants to take over. I was a little worried about who would be taking the shots next year, think we have less to worry about now.

3) It was like looking in a mirror while playing Wisconsin, especially early in the game, they knew what we liked to do on ball screens, McCall got tied up multiple times, Jett couldn't easily do his snake to the basket, etc. I can't think of a team (Butler is the closest thing I can think of) that we've played in the last year or two that was as methodical, patient and even throughout as Wisconsin. It might turn out that Wisconsin ends up being the most difficult team for us this year. We know how VCU works and I think we can match up with Wich St

I agree regarding McBroom. Nice to see a young player come out agressive against a highly-ranked opponent. McCall just didn't play with composure.

[TheOldie]

Our poor shooting should really not come as a surprise. In fact, we have not been a really good outside shooting team for years. Do I like our players/teams? Of course. But again, when your best outside threats come from your point guard and your center, you will have problems. In short, your point must run the offense, control/set the tempo, bring the ball down against a token press and key the defense. This is alot to ask -- consistently -- of McCall though he is a Senior, a 4 year starter and has shot better in the past. Same with Loe a the center position. When Conklin controlled the inside, Loe found more room on the outside. When Ellis added an additional/unconventional outside threat, open spacing fell not only to Evans but also to Loe. This year, though, we have Jett, Evans, Glaze and Randy all best suited for shorter shots/layups. Until McCall and Lancona work their way into the lineup, we will lack an outside threat/game aside from some occasional hot-shooting games by Barnett.

Contrary to some on this Board, I believe we need to play the Freshmen (McCall and Lancona) this year to win THIS YEAR and not just to win in the future.

McCall is starting. Are you referring to AM?

[Quality Is Job 1]

Our poor shooting should really not come as a surprise. In fact, we have not been a really good outside shooting team for years. Do I like our players/teams? Of course. But again, when your best outside threats come from your point guard and your center, you will have problems. In short, your point must run the offense, control/set the tempo, bring the ball down against a token press and key the defense. This is alot to ask -- consistently -- of McCall though he is a Senior, a 4 year starter and has shot better in the past. Same with Loe a the center position. When Conklin controlled the inside, Loe found more room on the outside. When Ellis added an additional/unconventional outside threat, open spacing fell not only to Evans but also to Loe. This year, though, we have Jett, Evans, Glaze and Randy all best suited for shorter shots/layups. Until McCall and Lancona work their way into the lineup, we will lack an outside threat/game aside from some occasional hot-shooting games by Barnett.

Contrary to some on this Board, I believe we need to play the Freshmen (McCall and Lancona) this year to win THIS YEAR and not just to win in the future.

Clock, Jett is more of the point than McCall is. And as for your last sentence, I'm guessing you mean Crawford.

McCall is starting. Are you referring to AM?

See above.

[Billikenboy]

Freshmen are MC, RA, and TL for your information.

[waldo027]

Who is Randy? I guess he means Reggie. Clock, no one has a clue what you're talking about.

[Clock_Tower]

My mistake. I meant crawford not McCall

[slufanskip]

Who is Randy? I guess he means Reggie. Clock, no one has a clue what you're talking about.

This is why the initial system is the correct way to post