GDT: Hartford, long live the Whalers

[brianstl]

so you figure this game is the sign for what's to come from the 3?

Never said that. I was just pointing out that I think this win will be an outlier when it comes to how we win games this year.

[majerus mojo]

Crowd at tip. Student section was solid at least

[slufan13]

We need to get our best defender in the game -- Roby

We need to work our best shooter into the game -- Bartley

I wonder if Roby is hurt at all? He didn't look comfortable out there. He also might be perfectly fine, but I have a hard time seeing why Ash got 36 minutes yesterday.

Bartley can't get himself into the game because he can't defend and he still fouls way too much (4 fouls in 14 minutes)

[Clock_Tower]

Crowd at tip. Student section was solid at least

Speaking of the crowd and the fire alarm.... I did not leave our seats but 90% of the fans sure did. When I saw none of the students or band leave their seats and neither team/coaches/staff nor the officials left, I stayed put. And I am glad I did not leave because the game was restarted (very quickly and without notice) with our fans either outside the building or in the concourse. Big mistake. If this was a false alarm and the fans were not supposed to leave and not supposed to follow the alarms which instructed all to leave the building, then someone (Guy Phillips and AD Chris May) should have said not to leave and/or to come back. Either way, you don't re-start the game without your fans who followed instructions.

[majerus mojo]

There definitely needed to be an announcement sooner. Mass confusion. I also stayed put, but understood those with kids, etc who didn't really have a choice. Totally agree on waiting to restart

[DeSmetBilliken]

Speaking of the crowd and the fire alarm.... I did not leave our seats but 90% of the fans sure did. When I saw none of the students or band leave their seats and neither team/coaches/staff nor the officials left, I stayed put. And I am glad I did not leave because the game was restarted (very quickly and without notice) with our fans either outside the building or in the concourse. Big mistake. If this was a false alarm and the fans were not supposed to leave and not supposed to follow the alarms which instructed all to leave the building, then someone (Guy Phillips and AD Chris May) should have said not to leave and/or to come back. Either way, you don't re-start the game without your fans who followed instructions.

I left my seat, but felt a little dumb doing it. Considering that the teams remained on the court, the band was still in place, and anyone else close to people who were running things stayed in place, I figured things were ok. Where I was, people were just standing by the exits.

I was able to get back to my seat in time for the restart.

[Box and Won]

Box says 7 turnovers...that's a positive today.

I don't recall saying this, but the stat sheet confirms it.

[3star_recruit]

So

Yes.

Alot of positives and negatives can be drawn from this game:

Positives:

We scored alot of points!

We settled on a rotation

We had balanced scoring

No injuries

We showed patience breaking the press and scoring layups

We may have found a point guard

I like having the ball in MR and MC's hands down the stretch b/c of their FT shooting

We had only 1 shot clot violation

We won the game and the outcome was never really in doubt

Negatives:

We need to play better defense - tonight was horrible

We will need more than Reggie inside and Jolly and Austin are not the answers

We need to get Neufeld minutes

We need to get our best defender in the game -- Roby

We need to work our best shooter into the game -- Bartley

We will have another bad year if we rely upon Ash

Did I mention how bad our defense was?

Nonetheless, tonight was a decent performance. Most all the guys improved from last year. We now have a foundation upon which Crews can build - last year, we never did. I am hopeful and expect the defense will come around as it is largely based upon effort, desire and coaching.

Until the guys holding down the 5 and the 1 do a better a job of guarding their man, we'll continue to be suspect on defense. Ash played 36 minutes because Crews countered by going small and putting Ash in the post. That will work some nights. Some nights it won't.

Neufeld and Bishop will be better defenders in a month than they are now. Having players that good outside the current rotation is a luxury.

[majerus mojo]

So

Until the guys holding down the 5 and the 1 do a better a job of guarding their man, we'll continue to be suspect on defense. Ash played 36 minutes because Crews countered by going small and putting Ash in the post. That will work some nights. Some nights it won't.

Neufeld and Bishop will be better defenders in a month than they are now. Having players that good outside the current rotation is a luxury.

"That good" ... Not sure we have any idea how good they are yet. Would love to recruit a big who wasn't a stiff down low (BJ, AG)

[mrjoelabs]

The "new" Jimmy Crews offense is nice. But the "old" RM defense is what made this team good. Can't run and gun with teams that out talent us. Had to slow and drag the game down into a slugfest. If crews thinks he can play it this way all year, this team won't win many.

[Box and Won]

BTW, the halftime presentation with the disabled WWII vet was great...although I wouldn't have gone with "Born in the USA" as the closing song.

[bonwich]

BTW, the halftime presentation with the disabled WWII vet was great...although I wouldn't have gone with "Born in the USA" as the closing song.

What, you mean you've actually listened to the lyrics?

[DoctorB]

I was pleasantly surprised. The motion offense is a work in progress but we got many open shots (not sure how that will look against a good defense, though). Defense did not seem terrible to me, as opposed to what some on hear have suggested; Hartford just made a few of the open 3's, most in the first half. A rotation appears to have emerged and the best players were on the court for most of the 2nd half. At present that appears to be: AY, MY, MR, MC, and probably RA for now. I'm most excited to see a rotation with the b est players getting the most minutes (seems odd to say that but yes, it's an improvement); and the ways several of the sophomores look more that part, and are playing more maturely and as a group. These aspects will get tested early, of course. In particular, North Florida scored a lot of points-- 93, & many from downtown (17-33 on 3-pointers!!! Beau Beach 7/8!); and beat Illinois in Champaign, btw.

Players: MR really looked good, overall; I am upbeat about Miles. MY much more fluid and in control. MC will score a lot of points this year. MY and RA both very strong on the glass. Post game is still work in progress but AY, RA, MY easily got to the rack on Hartford's admittedly less athletic players.

The fire alarm was handled very poorly; I did not even stand to my feet as I simply watched the players, coaches and of course Earl Austin, who also never stood up. And yes, they started play with most of the crowd elsewhere. Also nobody seems to have mentioned, national anthem was with a cold microphone, though the singer was audible as the crowd went silent. There was also a moment of silence for Paris terror victims. Again, do not know numbers but there were twice as many in the crowd as last Tuesday, including a pretty loud and rowdy student turn out. They were giving away tickets to students for free, Thursday and Friday.

For foodies, there is a stand on the SE side where they grill ears of corn, cut it off and put cheeses, salsa, butter, lime juice over it -- pretty tasty! Beats the hell out of the other dreck.

Thanks to the Moytoy boy for the ducats...

[Cowboy]

-one game, we won which is better than half the teams out there, will be interesting to see what becomes the team's calling card

-will it be offense? last season we scored over 70 points 4 times and none after Jan 14, in the next 15 games after scoring 78 at Duq in a loss we averaged 55.8

-granted those were all conference games against teams better than Hartford but the offense yesterday was much better than I expected and we shot what I hope was were poor 3pt and ft % so there is room to improve

-if it is defense where we leave our mark there is room to grow, and the continued switching/helping/leaving guys wide open for 3pt shots I would think can be addressed, but perhaps we put the majority of the practice time into scoring versus stopping scoring which is a quite a change from last year

-7 to's and one shot clock violation were two positives

-you have timeout left, why not call timeout with 63 seconds left to get Bishop in the game when he is standing next to you and you have a recruit in the second row behind the bench?

-taking the show on the road on Wednesday, let's see it Bills

[Cowboy]

In particular, North Florida scored a lot of points-- 93, & many from downtown (17-33 on 3-pointers!!! Beau Beach 7/8!); and beat Illinois in Champaign, btw.

-in Springfield as Assembly Hall in renovation mode but certainly a score that caught my eye

[wgstl]

I know its Hartford, but that's still the first time since the nov 8th 2013 that we scored 80+ in a regulation game.

[SShoe]

Overall, a positive game. Remember, we needed late heroics to win numerous games last year against equally bad opponents - SIUC, SIUE, NC A&T, etc.

Biggest surprise for me was Miles. I fully admit to thinking he couldn't play at this level. It's just one game, but he showed a lot. The offense moved much better when he was in the game, he created a lot off the dribble, and played good D. He still can't shoot from outside, which teams will figure out, but I'm hoping to eat crow all year.

Milik had a nice game too. Made some really good passes and let the game come to him more than last year. Hope it continues.

So glad to see Ash work his way out of the doghouse.

[JMM28]

-in Springfield as Assembly Hall in renovation mode but certainly a score that caught my eye

Illinois isn't that good. They had to come from behind late to beat North Dakota State yesterday as well. The drain is circling for Groce there.

[bonwich]

Also nobody seems to have mentioned, national anthem was with a cold microphone, though the singer was audible as the crowd went silent.

I'm guessing the mike was cold because she was too stupid to wait for the color guard to get in place and the athletic department was too stupid to ensure she knew the protocol. It then sounded like she got confused between "on" and "off" after it didn't work the first time.

[slufanskip]

I was also surprised and pleased with the play of MR. He looked quick and was much more under control. Even the game where he shot all the F/T's last year I thought he was in over his head. Last night he looked like he belonged and could actually contribute at this level.

MY was also good imo. Stayed more under control in most instances and didn't force many bad shots. His vision is the best on the team.

Overall I think you have to be happy scoring in the 80's especially while shooting the 3 at 23% and the poor F/T shooting.

I think it was Scott H who said during the game if a player maybe it was Reggie could get his free throw from 60 something% to 80 it would lead to 3-4 points a game. Surprised to hear such a ridiculous statement. Is he going to shoot 20 + free throws a game? I hate when announcers exaggerate so ridiculously

[TheA_Bomb]

Hartford, while not being very athletic, was a good team to open with as they employed multiple defenses a press and trap. SLU handled the press well even with the 2 late TOs they handled the ball well. Also they handled the 1-3-1 zone well by getting the ball into MY who did a great job passing underneath or back outside. Look at how many Assists he had. Our big men and swing players did demonstrate an ability to pass the ball. The motion was decent with good ball movement. I saw a few cross court passes that won't work against better teams but overall good. Hit more than 25% from 3 and this is not just a decent win but a total destruction.

SIUE won over AKSt and they will give SLU all they can so this could be another good test.

[bonwich]

I think it was Scott H who said during the game if a player maybe it was Reggie could get his free throw from 60 something% to 80 it would lead to 3-4 points a game. Surprised to hear such a ridiculous statement. Is he going to shoot 20 + free throws a game? I hate when announcers exaggerate so ridiculously

Well, the bottom end was incorrect on a cumulative basis, but if Reggie had shot 80% from the line just on Sunday, it would have meant (with rounding) an extra 3 points. And, giving Scott the full benefit of the doubt, if some of his subsequent converted misses are on 1-1s, you could make a case. Sort of.

[ACE]

Overall, a positive game. Remember, we needed late heroics to win numerous games last year against equally bad opponents - SIUC, SIUE, NC A&T, etc.

Biggest surprise for me was Miles. I fully admit to thinking he couldn't play at this level. It's just one game, but he showed a lot. The offense moved much better when he was in the game, he created a lot off the dribble, and played good D. He still can't shoot from outside, which teams will figure out, but I'm hoping to eat crow all year.

Milik had a nice game too. Made some really good passes and let the game come to him more than last year. Hope it continues.

So glad to see Ash work his way out of the doghouse.

Agreed about Reynolds. I wasn't counting on much, but if he can be a contributor at point, that would be a huge bonus. It would also free up MB to play his more natural 2 more often. Reynolds will also help us play more uptempo.

Also RA looked very quick. We won't get much rebounding out of the 5 position, so we will not a lot out of RA, MY, AY and DR. I think we have a lot of "athletes" compared to some SLU teams of the past, but do we have enough basketball players?

[White Pelican]

There definitely needed to be an announcement sooner. Mass confusion. I also stayed put, but understood those with kids, etc who didn't really have a choice. Totally agree on waiting to restart

Yeah, I mentioned (complained about) this in another thread. I used a Groupon to get tickets for my friends and their two grandsons. They were one section over from me in the upper bowl. The folks had gone down some time earlier to get food, so the kids called to me to help them. I think they were more scared by the alarm continuing to sound than anything else.

So I helped them gather up all their stuff and we made our way down and out, finding their grandparents on the way. We went completely outside although a LOT of people stayed in on the concourse. Several minutes later, by bucket brigade word of mouth, we were told to come back in. I was very annoyed to see that the game had already resumed.

If there is a next time, and I'm there alone, I'm staying put.

[Duff Man]

I was shocked how everyone got up and left.

When the PA announcer or someone live on the scene makes an announcement that we need to evacuate, that's when you get up.

When a robot with recorded female voice announces that a fire alarm has been triggered and all the important people on the court are staying put - and there's no signs of smoke/fire - that's pretty good tell that it's a technical issue and there's no real danger.