GDT: Deposing the Dukes

[brianstl]

I said the same thing a page or two back. They would get a lead and then Crews would empty the bench.

He seemed mkre concerned about getting the starters rest than getting a big lead.

It is like everyone from the coach on down believed that they could screw around until the end of the game. It has happened a few times during the streak. I think they started to believe they really didn't have to turn it on until late in the game.

[slubadger22]

Just some perspective here. You are ranked #10 in the country, you guys are fine.

VCU lost 4 straight to end a season, including a home game to JMU. Yes, JMU.

Then they went ahead and played their way to the Final Four - using a veteran team with a chip on its shoulder.

It's all about who you play (as someone mentioned above) and using that chip on your shoulder, as motivation to beat everyone in your path.

Good luck next Wednesday against Dayton!

Thanks for the post. Very True.

[Old guy]

A win is a win, a loss is a loss. We were due for a loss and we got one. It hurts but it is over and done. Let's hope this lights the fires under the Bills and come out with a win next Saturday.

[Billikenboy]

Oh my goodness, this why I am off the board during games now. So what we lost, we were due one soon enough. Hopeful the guys will finish strong. I mean if Syracuse can fall to Boston College, why not us to any of our conference contenders. Would have preferred to VCU or UMass but we have been playing on this edge for last 6 games. More turnovers, bad FT shooting, poor rebounding, slack defense, etc. It has been bad! Let's move on.

[Bizziken]

The problem, and reason why most of us are extremely frustrated is because we actually had something to play for tonight. With a team full of seniors, an uninspired, sloppy performance like this AT HOME to WIN THE CONFERENCE against a $hitty opponent doesn't bode well for future games. It's also infuriating to waste (yes, waste) all of these clutch performances and all of this built-up goodwill only to lose to Duquesne at Chaifetz. I could take a loss @VCU, or @UMass...but ###### Duquesne...

Sure, take this loss with a grain of salt, however, we have been having these problems (poor 3-point shooting, turnover prone, inability to rebound, defensive lapses) for some time and have been able to gloss it over until tonight. If a team as poor as Duquesne can figure it out against us on our home floor, you can bet your a$$ that an 11, 12, or 13 seed can too...

[hsmith19]

I don't really think we needed a reminder of that. Under-seeded or not, we did lose to a 12 last year...

[doowop]

Oh my goodness, this why I am off the board during games now. So what we lost, we were due one soon enough. Hopeful the guys will finish strong. I mean if Syracuse can fall to Boston College, why not us to any of our conference contenders. Would have preferred to VCU or UMass but we have been playing on this edge for last 6 games. More turnovers, bad FT shooting, poor rebounding, slack defense, etc. It has been bad! Let's move on.

The Dukes are not a conference contender. They are near the bottom of the conference and had lost six of their last seven.

[billslasttermdropout]

HORRIBLE LOSS! WORST LOSS I HAVE EVER SEEN! I'm afraid the dominoes are going to fall now...

Lol....About 6 hours after the end, there's nothing to do but laugh at the absurdity of this team losing at home to DU.

On the other hand, the Dukes do have a pretty sweet logo, and we had a real long run with quite a few close calls, so there's that. Hopefully they bounce back, sweep the rest of the season and Brooklyn, and go into the big dance with flames coming out of their a$$es with their hair on fire with a super dose of potency.

[MUDKAT]

Sure didn't wanna see that loss last night. On to the Stu. Should be a great game!

You have a great team. Don't worry. Those guys just shot lights out from 3 last night. Stuff happens. You have won the A10 and are the 1 seed in Brooklyn no matter what happens. That's a great thing and something to be proud of.

Losses suck, but very few teams escape without losses. If Syracuse can lose at home to BC, anyone can lose to anyone. Schnit happens. That's why they play the games.

23-3. Awesome season and not even close to over. Keep heads up, forget about this one, and enjoy the NCAA dance ride.

i'll root for you every game except, of course, VCU.

[Bay Area Billiken]

SLU was 4-23 on 3-pointers. Duquesne was 8-15 from behind the arc- Ballgame. SLU had 16 turnovers.

Duquesne had more energy. Duquesne got to the loose balls. SLU looked like a tired team to me. Ultimately this loss is on the players.

Now this being said, the SLU Coach did not help the cause. I reviewed the game play by play. Crews' adamant refusal to call timeouts, a longstanding problem without remedy that SLU for the most part has been able to play around, came back to bite the Billikens in this game. This game was lost in a 5 minute 24 second span late in the de facto 3rd Quarter and first part of the de facto 4th Quarter, between

13:05

and 7:41, when Duquesne went on an 18-2 run (18-2- yikes, this was Duquesne, a lousy team, RPI 182 after the win at SLU)- before Crews finally called a timeout. A 42-35 SLU lead became a 53-44 Duquesne lead in that span- Ballgame. I would have called timeout at 12:15 after Jerry Jones hit a 3, DU's 2nd straight 3 in that run after a DU offensive rebound, which made the score 42-41 SLU. You could feel the momentum turning. SLU had failed again to put Duquesne away. Ok, I know Crews doesn't want to call timeouts. But it didn't get any better after that. The next opportunity for the timeout was at 11:35 after a layup gave DU a 43-42 lead, and next was at 11:06 when DU took a 45-44 lead on McKoy's jumper, a lead DU never relinquished the rest of the game. Duquesne scored 8 more straight points after that one, to make it 10 straight DU points by the time Crews finally called the Timeout at 7:38.

More than one of us has given up on Crews' refusal to call timeouts. But that doesn't mean we still can't raise our objection. And that stat sheet shows that SLU walked off the court in defeat with 1 timeout not used. So for what exactly was Crews saving the timeout? He can't bank it and take it with him to VCU.

I know all about players play, coaches coach, refs ref, fans watch, yada, yada, yada. But Crews and/or the coaching staff en banc lost track of the forest for the trees in this one. By this I mean that the one thing SLU could ill afford was the proverbial "bad loss" that the BC$ biased NCAA loves to hold over perceived "mid-majors" like SLU (even if SLU by definition is not a mid-major). The SLU starters played decent ball, not up to their standards, but there was a huge dropoff when whoever runs the substitutions on the SLU bench put the subs into the game. Look at that Rob Loe +/- (+9). Loe was on the bench for the first part (10-2) of that 18-2 DU run. Every time Loe was removed from the game, the game turned back Duquesne's way. That was both in the 1st Half and the 2nd Half. Crews is trying to develop his bench. SLU needs a bench. SLU is not the old Ray Meyer coached DePaul 5 Ironmen. But the bench is not producing. Those game stats tell the story in black and white. Crews also was likely trying to spare the starters with a 2 hour flight Friday night and then at VCU and Gimmick on Saturday early evening. But the SLU braintrust had some bizarre substitution patterns TH night, at one point in the 2nd Half going small trying to play Glaze at the 5. The substitution patterns kept Duquesne in the game in the first half, in my opinion.

Why not play the starters to get a comfortable lead, which I think they would have delivered in the 1st Half had they been allowed to do so?

In my opinion, it was more important for SLU to win TH night at home against woeful Duquesne than it was (then) for SLU to win at VCU on Saturday or UMass a week from Sunday. SLU is the underdog in both of those games, per the computers. But SLU was a 14 point home favorite TH night, 17 per The Wiz. Duquesne at home was the one SLU could not afford to lose. This one is all over the national media. If you are going to rake in the publicity when things go good, you are fair game when things go bad.

This was a bad loss, no question, and there is no way to sugar coat it. We've seen the warning signs the last 3 wins, all of which were closer than they should have been. In fact, 9 of SLU's 13 A10 games have been close games, with SLU prevailing in 8 of those 9.

25-3, 24-3 vs. D-1 (no more Rockhurst, please), 12-1 in the A10, RPI 18. The Duquesne Debacle spiraled SLU down from a 3 seed to the dreaded 5 seed slot in the NCAA Tournament. You don't want to be a 5 because the 5 plays the 12 in the upset special. The 12 is likely a BCS also ran, with half the 12's having played in the Play In Game. Right now per the RPI, the 12's would be 45 Baylor, 46 Pitt, 47 Cal, 48 Mizzou, 49 Oklahoma State, and 51 Nebraska, with the last 4 in that group headed to the play in game in Dayton. Also the 5 gets the 1 earlier in the tournament, in the Sweet 16 game. Conventional wisdom is it is actually better to be a 6 seed than a 5 seed. I'd rather not lose to Duquesne at home and state our case for a 3 seed.

The final 3 games are Saturday at VCU (which always sells out its 7,700 seat rec center), next Wed. at home against Dayton, and a week from Sunday at UMass (already a road sellout). SLU still needs 1 win to clinch 1st Place in the A10 regular season.

Attendance: 10,245. It is disappointing to see SLU lay an egg like this in front of another big 5-figure crowd. The crowd tried in vain to fire up the Bills in the 4th Quarter; the crowd's noise came through on the NBCSN telecast. It wasn't meant to be last night.

Onward. Let's look forward from here.

[slufan13]

Onward. Let's look forward from here.

The SLU starters played decent ball, not up to their standards, but there was a huge dropoff when whoever runs the substitutions on the SLU bench put the subs into the game. Look at that Rob Loe +/- (+9). Loe was on the bench for the first part (10-2) of that 18-2 DU run. Every time Loe was removed from the game, the game turned back Duquesne's way. That was both in the 1st Half and the 2nd Half. Crews is trying to develop his bench. SLU needs a bench. SLU is not the old Ray Meyer coached DePaul 5 Ironmen. But the bench is not producing. Those game stats tell the story in black and white. Crews also was likely trying to spare the starters with a 2 hour flight Friday night and then at VCU and Gimmick on Saturday early evening. But the SLU braintrust had some bizarre substitution patterns TH night, at one point in the 2nd Half going small trying to play Glaze at the 5. The substitution patterns kept Duquesne in the game in the first half, in my opinion.

Why not play the starters to get a comfortable lead, which I think they would have delivered in the 1st Half had they been allowed to do so?

In my opinion, it was more important for SLU to win TH night at home against woeful Duquesne than it was (then) for SLU to win at VCU on Saturday or UMass a week from Sunday. SLU is the underdog in both of those games, per the computers. But SLU was a 14 point home favorite TH night, 17 per The Wiz. Duquesne at home was the one SLU could not afford to lose. This one is all over the national media. If you are going to rake in the publicity when things go good, you are fair game when things go bad.

This was a bad loss, no question, and there is no way to sugar coat it. We've seen the warning signs the last 3 wins, all of which were closer than they should have been. In fact, 9 of SLU's 13 A10 games have been close games, with SLU prevailing in 8 of those 9.

The seniors faded down the stretch tonight. Crews needs to stop ignoring the bench in the 2nd half. He (or Bronson or whoever) put some moronic lineups out there in the first half and then rode the same players for too long in the 2nd half.

I agree with the other parts you're saying though. Quit trying to put games away late in the 2nd half. Play your best players in the first half and put the gotdamn game away. When you don't you're forced to ignore your bench and wear down your seniors in the 2nd half which is going to hurt us more and more as the season goes on.