GDT: Eastern Illinois

[White Pelican]

Just now, TheChosenOne said:

I think that would be the main point. I know Rammer always comments on how those late game fouls should be called intentional and in theory they are, but not rarely are they called that way. 

A long-time part of basketball strategy is fouling late in a close game. These fouls are always "intentional". What made this one different was how hard the player was grabbed. Two of the refs even talked it over before that decision was made. I could see it going either way, as we all know he intended to foul him. It's just that he fouled him too hard and made it obvious.

[moytoy12]

5 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

The one inbound to Welmer we run basically the same play at the youth level. Just shows that if you execute properly you don't need to be complex.

Or you're one helluva coach. There's a reason #hireslufanskip was trending during the Crews' years. 

[cheeseman]

The foul was intentional - was it meant to hurt no but the kid could have accomplished the same thing by simply hitting an arm.  If they had not called an intentional foul I would have been OK with it either way.  The problem Crews had is now clear - he did not know how to talk to today's players.  This is why he could not recruit - players figured that out during the recruiting process.  Ford is getting more now from the same group that Crews was totally lost with.  I forgot to mention Bishop in my earlier post - this was the first game I could attend and given what others were saying about his pg skills I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought he did well with the ball and had some great assists.  I will take that performance for the year.  Welmer has lots of nice skills - he plays decent overall defense and he is very confident with the ball on offense.  I came to feel very comfortable with him having the ball as the game went on. Welmer will have a role next year and it won't be for 2 minutes a game.  His offense will only get better.

[TheChosenOne]

15 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

The one inbound to Welmer we run basically the same play at the youth level. Just shows that if you execute properly you don't need to be complex.

Right, force your opponent to properly guard screens. Putting pressure on teams to execute defensively can lead to breakdowns. That was a big issue the past two seasons, we were way too passive offensively and with our struggles offensively we could have used all of the easy points we could get and not even running inbounds plays was an obvious missed opportunity to get something easy. Obviously have options to get the ball in bounds safely if the action does not work, but to not run anything was baffling.

[moytoy12]

3 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

The foul was intentional - was it meant to hurt no but the kid could have accomplished the same thing by simply hitting an arm.  If they had not called an intentional foul I would have been OK with it either way.  The problem Crews had is now clear - he did not know how to talk to today's players.  This is why he could not recruit - players figured that out during the recruiting process.  Ford is getting more now from the same group that Crews was totally lost with.  I forgot to mention Bishop in my earlier post - this was the first game I could attend and given what others were saying about his pg skills I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought he did well with the ball and had some great assists.  I will take that performance for the year.  Welmer has lots of nice skills - he plays decent overall defense and he is very confident with the ball on offense.  I came to feel very comfortable with him having the ball as the game went on. Welmer will have a role next year and it won't be for 2 minutes a game.  His offense will only get better.

This.  It's refreshing to see Ford's interaction with the guys, even when they make mistakes.  He really seems to get today's players. 

[TheChosenOne]

19 minutes ago, White Pelican said:

A long-time part of basketball strategy is fouling late in a close game. These fouls are always "intentional". What made this one different was how hard the player was grabbed. Two of the refs even talked it over before that decision was made. I could see it going either way, as we all know he intended to foul him. It's just that he fouled him too hard and made it obvious.

Understood (I was fast fowarding thru at that point so I didn't even see the play, but I know Rammer calls for that almost every time it happens), it just becomes an odd judgment call. He meant to foul him, but he fouled him too obviously/aggressively, that is obviously silly on the surface.

[Zink]

9 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

The foul was intentional - was it meant to hurt no but the kid could have accomplished the same thing by simply hitting an arm.  If they had not called an intentional foul I would have been OK with it either way.  The problem Crews had is now clear - he did not know how to talk to today's players.  This is why he could not recruit - players figured that out during the recruiting process.  Ford is getting more now from the same group that Crews was totally lost with.  I forgot to mention Bishop in my earlier post - this was the first game I could attend and given what others were saying about his pg skills I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought he did well with the ball and had some great assists.  I will take that performance for the year.  Welmer has lots of nice skills - he plays decent overall defense and he is very confident with the ball on offense.  I came to feel very comfortable with him having the ball as the game went on. Welmer will have a role next year and it won't be for 2 minutes a game.  His offense will only get better.

While he could get more efficient as a scorer, he has looked better than at any point last year in terms of distributing the ball. I wonder how many of Welmer's points have come from a Bishop assist? His two 3's did last night. Those two have good chemistry, and Welmer's shooting threat really opens up the floor when he sets ball-screens.

[Box and Won]

19 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

I forgot to mention Bishop in my earlier post - this was the first game I could attend and given what others were saying about his pg skills I was pleasantly surprised.  I thought he did well with the ball and had some great assists.  I will take that performance for the year.

Just to add on, Bishop made a nice play on a drive and Highmark commented that last year, he did not have the upper- or lower-body strength to do that.  He had a couple of cringe-inducing Yarbrough-like 1-on-3s, but a pretty nice performance otherwise.

[hsmith19]

1 hour ago, kmbilliken said:

We need Crawford out there for defense and rebounding, even if he can't get his offense going. He is a proficient rebounder and adequate defender. He is far better at those roles than anyone not starting. 

Crawford was not a proficient rebounder over the last three years. I'd like to see more than 15 rebounds over two games against two pretty short, pretty bad teams before believing he's reinvented himself. If he's really hurting, I don't see the point of giving him so many minutes against bad teams early in the season, even if he does continue grabbing a few more boards than he usually does.

[CBFan]

2 hours ago, TheChosenOne said:

I think some posters may be going a little too far with the praise, but whatever. Eastern Illinois is #303 in Pomeroy. Ford certainly shows a willingness to mix things up with this team plus taking advantage of whatever matchups might be in our favor, so that would be a plus. It is tough to take too much from "buy" games, but at least we are seeing the emergence of a starting 5 that functions well against inferior opponents (I guess what Crews finally found in that spurt early in conference play with Agbeko/Crawford/Ash/Bishop/Hines). We will find out soon whether that carries over to better opponents. I know we said it heading into the season, but we don't have the depth to really mess around with lineups too much, so we are going to have to ride our top 7.

I am always too enthusiastic about SLU basketball and just seeing improvements from the coach Crews buzz kill makes me praise the coach.  I probably the least knowledgable about college basketball on this site and just a big fan.  Your facts prove your point.  I really enjoy the site for such opinions that brings me down to reality of the team.

[Zink]

2 hours ago, TheChosenOne said:

I think some posters may be going a little too far with the praise, but whatever. Eastern Illinois is #303 in Pomeroy. Ford certainly shows a willingness to mix things up with this team plus taking advantage of whatever matchups might be in our favor, so that would be a plus. It is tough to take too much from "buy" games, but at least we are seeing the emergence of a starting 5 that functions well against inferior opponents (I guess what Crews finally found in that spurt early in conference play with Agbeko/Crawford/Ash/Bishop/Hines). We will find out soon whether that carries over to better opponents. I know we said it heading into the season, but we don't have the depth to really mess around with lineups too much, so we are going to have to ride our top 7.

 

18 minutes ago, CBFan said:

I am always too enthusiastic about SLU basketball and just seeing improvements from the coach Crews buzz kill makes me praise the coach.  I probably the least knowledgable about college basketball on this site and just a big fan.  Your facts prove your point.  I really enjoy the site for such opinions that brings me down to reality of the team.

KenPom would seem to agree with Chosen's assessments with regard to our overall schedule as well. So far, he has us as the 14th luckiest team in the country, and our opponent's average defense is 323rd, offense is 313th, and overall 319th...so we've looked pleasantly mediocre against some downright terrible competition.

 

That said, and as others have noted, we can draw some conclusions from these games. Crawford is limited. Roby and Agbeko are more assertive (this might become a negative against better teams). Welmer can shoot.Those things won't go away, the margins are what will change.

[Old guy]

We will soon see how we do about much better teams starting with the game against BYU, coming soon to your TV. We will have our hands full trying to keep the coming loss against BYU at a reasonable level. I will count it as a success if we manage to lose by less than 15 points.

[slufanskip]

2 hours ago, Box and Won said:

Just to add on, Bishop made a nice play on a drive and Highmark commented that last year, he did not have the upper- or lower-body strength to do that.  He had a couple of cringe-inducing Yarbrough-like 1-on-3s, but a pretty nice performance otherwise.

Driving 1 into 3 at 3/4 speed should be known from here on out as Yarboroughing.

[kmbilliken]

1 hour ago, hsmith19 said:

Crawford was not a proficient rebounder over the last three years. I'd like to see more than 15 rebounds over two games against two pretty short, pretty bad teams before believing he's reinvented himself. If he's really hurting, I don't see the point of giving him so many minutes against bad teams early in the season, even if he does continue grabbing a few more boards than he usually does.

The point is you don't have anyone better on the bench and these are the most winnable games. Pick the cherries when you can. Without him, we don't win last night.

[Bizziken]

5 hours ago, slufanskip said:

And just a personal ***** ... can we please teach kids to use their left from the left? .Someone ask Jordair if it helps

Agree, it is atrocious to watch...Welmer is the worst culprit. Definitely area of improvement

[hsmith19]

41 minutes ago, kmbilliken said:

The point is you don't have anyone better on the bench and these are the most winnable games. Pick the cherries when you can. Without him, we don't win last night.

Offense and defense considered, I am not convinced Crawford in his current limited state gives you much more than Johnson or Moore would. Of course we have seen so little of those two at this point they might not be as good as I'm hoping. But this seems like a pretty good time to see what they've got.

[cgeldmacher]

For those of us on the "Can Ford Coach" watch, here is what I saw last night:

1. Halftime adjustments/ass chewing that produced second half results.

2. An idea of what players he wanted in the game when it mattered.  He figured it out three games in as opposed to our former coach who never did get a handle on it.

3. Passion on the bench.  Ford will get some technicals this year and that's fine by me.

4. Timeouts called to stop runs by the opposing team.

5. Every time we came out of a time out, there was a play called that seemed to work.

Very small sample size, but looks promising thus far.

[bonwich]

As for lineups, at one point the lineup we had in had something like 52 of 57 points. At another time the entire five had 2 points. 

[Soderball]

5 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

Isn't a basketball team a group of role players?  Reggie's role this year is to stay in the paint, rebound and score from 10 feet in.  Bishop's role is to bring the ball up and initiate the offense, and take his jumper when open.  Roby's role is defender and shooter.  Crawford's role in the past has been as a shooter, but to date he has had to crash the boards.  Moore and Johnson have roles, coming in off the bench and limiting negative plays.  Welmer's current role is stretch the defense and play the point on the press. Welmer already has a role.  Will it change in the future this year?  Probably.

I'm pretty sure next year's team will have a bunch of role players.  But why even comment about next year at this junction? 

welmer looks good enough to play on an ncaa tourney team. 20 mins a game easy. he looks good so far. and i am as debbie downer as they come. the billikens suck this year. we are beating sub-300 teams. great.

 

if gillman neufeld and hines see significant minutes the bills will lose. gillman and neufeld need to GO. Hines needs to walkon and never see the court. those three couldnt hang with southern utah, nor EIU. gillman and neufeld struggled with Greenville.

 

the only decent team we have played so far is BSU. we got blown away.

 

im hopeful the Bills can compete with RA/EW/MC/JB/DR with JJ and ZM providing large minutes off the bench.

a team can play with 7 dudes. Dayton did fine.

[Billiken Rich]

15 hours ago, Zink said:

I think Zeke needs to see Hines' minutes. He's shown himself to be a capable ball-handler and has significantly more upside.

Moving forward, Henriquez has ball-handling skills as well, although he's definitely not a point guard.

The size of our half time deficit was almost all attributable to Hines.  He had two turn overs driving into nowhere that lead to made three pointers at the other end.  If you're a walk on and your name isn't John Redden pass the freaking ball! 

[slufanskip]

6 hours ago, moytoy12 said:

Or you're one helluva coach. There's a reason #hireslufanskip was trending during the Crews' years. 

which would quickly turn into  #fireslufanskip. Hell, there'd probably be a message board www.fireskip.com with a bunch of mbm's posting nonsense. I'd get on the board and tell you all to off, attendance would dwindle down to nothing and we'd have no choice but go D2.

[Major Majerus]

20 hours ago, CBFan said:

Meant Roby too excited

It's ok Gus ?

[Soderball]

Just now, slufanskip said:

which would quickly turn into  #fireslufanskip. Hell, there'd probably be a message board www.fireskip.com with a bunch of mbm's posting nonsense. I'd get on the board and tell you all to off, attendance would dwindle down to nothing and we'd have no choice but go D2.

Crews was taking the program to the NAIA. skip >>> crews

#standwithskip