Bills vs the dinoflagellates (red tide) GDT

[3star_recruit]

I see progress on the defensive end.  Hope to see the team find an offensive rhythm in the next couple of weeks.  Right now they're just riding the hot hand and holding on for dear life.

[BigBills]

11 minutes ago, RiseOfTheBillikens said:

I disagree with everything in this post. They overloaded one side of the zone so crawford was stuck with two men which led to some open threes which they hit. They just flat out beat the zone a few possessions.  Bishop has more talent than McBroom in his left foot.

Also, was that step back blocked? Seemed like he got decent separation but the announcer seemed to mention the defender getting a touch on it. He can hit that shot. If he hits that we are all claiming he is the next KM.

 

No, the 2 defenders on top were literally on their heels, pulled in on the free throw line unnecessarily leaving a man open for a 3 on the elbow. They just stopped covering their half of the key. If the offense overloads, adjust. You don't get beat in a zone by 3s at the elbow a few times in the last 4 minutes because it 'just happened.' It's a sign that someone's screwing up. 

I'd have gone man to man under 4 minutes, and I think Ford regrets staying in the zone.

And I'm sorry, but who cares "if" Bishop would've hit the shot. He didn't. He's not Mitchell, who wouldn't have even taken the shot by the way because it was a stupid shot. 

Again, the game unraveled when the top 2 on the zone broke down. They were probably tired, so whatever, but you can't blame wide open 3s on anything else but that. 

[moytoy12]

14 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

I see progress on the defensive end.  Hope to see the team find an offensive rhythm in the next couple of weeks.  Right now they're just riding the hot hand and holding on for dear life.

To be fair, there aren't a whole lot of options on offense.  But definitely agree on the defensive side of things. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[moytoy12]

1 minute ago, BigBills said:

No, the 2 defenders on top were literally on their heels, pulled in on the free throw line unnecessarily leaving a man open for a 3 on the elbow. They just stopped covering their half of the key. If the offense overloads, adjust. You don't get beat in a zone by 3s at the elbow a few times in the last 4 minutes because it 'just happened.' It's a sign that someone's screwing up. 

I'd have gone man to man under 4 minutes, and I think Ford regrets staying in the zone.

And I'm sorry, but who cares "if" Bishop would've hit the shot. He didn't. He's not Mitchell, who wouldn't have even taken the shot by the way because it was a stupid shot. 

Again, the game unraveled when the top 2 on the zone broke down. They were probably tired, so whatever, but you can't blame wide open 3s on anything else but that. 

Just stop already.  I love the guys who only show up on the board to criticize our players.

[ARon]

2 hours ago, TheA_Bomb said:

Huh? Maybe in four years you'll feel different. They'll probably surpass at least two of those guys.

 

1 was all A10 freshman team the other had been playing college basketball about 7 minutes.  Give it about 7 more minutes before declaring if they have it or not.

That is actually quite a BOLD prediction.  

Given the talent coming next year the question should be how much playing time will these kids even get starting next year.  

JB is still inexperienced but that excuse will run out around conference play this year.  If he is still making tonight's level of mental errors then, I think he starts next season as the teams 3rd guard at best.

[slusam]

To win close games like this your experienced guys have to come through at the end of the game. In the last 4-5 minutes Roby had a turnover, an airball, a charge and let a guy shoot a wide open 3. Bishop missed two forced 3s (Reggie tipped one in). Mike stepped out of bounds and missed a freethrow. One of these guys need to step up at the end. 

The positive is they played a good 35 minutes but way too many turnovers the second half (14).

[slufan13]

1 hour ago, slusam said:

To win close games like this your experienced guys have to come through at the end of the game. In the last 4-5 minutes Roby had a turnover, an airball, a charge and let a guy shoot a wide open 3. Bishop missed two forced 3s (Reggie tipped one in). Mike stepped out of bounds and missed a freethrow. One of these guys need to step up at the end. 

The positive is they played a good 35 minutes but way too many turnovers the second half (14).

I can agree with all of this

[Old guy]

9 hours ago, White Pelican said:

I'm ready to name you coach. That was a complete meltdown by damn near everybody. So you want a moral victory?

You are free to think whatever you wish, I do not think this game was a complete meltdown by damn near everybody as you say. I think the team did learn something playing this game, and the prior game as well. After all what can we reasonably aim for this season?, certainly we cannot aim to get any post season play of any kind. I think the best we can reasonably aim for is to end the season NOT stuck at the bottom of A10. To achieve that we have to end above George Mason and Duquesne which is very doable, and if we learn enough in pre season play we may even squeak ahead of LaSalle and Fordham. That makes us sort of middle of the pack, not bottom of the pack. It may even give us a couple of wins in conference play.

Yes, AL did not play well most of the game, and they woke up and beat us at the end. But they beat us by only 5 points, not 30, and both Zeke and Johnson got their first experience in being trapped by a bunch of much better and much stronger defenders and did not know what to do about it. They are freshmen, they will learn, but now they know what they must learn. If Ford is the guy I think he is he will praise them for their performance in this game and push them to do better, not pull a Crews and lambast them to smithereens. Let's be clear, I do not want a moral victory, what I want is improvement for the team and realistic goals that can be met. By the end of this season I want to have a real core of people in the current team that is capable of providing real support for the new stars coming into the ranks next year. That, and ending above the bottom in A10 is the most we can realistically expect for this year, period. You may think otherwise and may have visions of winding up in the dance, that is fine with me.

Oh, and in a more practical way, we did beat the spread by 7 points and AL was heavily favored in the betting prior to the game. You would have made significant money last night had you made a small bet on SLU doing better than the spread of 12 pts. I do not bet, that does not mean you cannot do so.

So, glass half full or glass half empty, your choice. I think we did better than I expected last night, and I think the arrow points up for us. You are free to think I am a complete fool, and may sink in abject despair about our loss last night, your choice.

[billiken_roy]

guys.    a meltmerge of john wooden, booby knight, rickma and hank iba couldnt win much with our current roster.   accept the season for what it is and just play out "wait till next year".   this team has so many missing and incomplete parts, worrying over a one game what if will make us all crazy.   i take solace in the fact we had significant positive experiences in both games i expected to be blowouts from the opening tip.   let it go.  

 

 

[Old guy]

29 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

guys.    a meltmerge of john wooden, booby knight, rickma and hank iba couldnt win much with our current roster. ...  i take solace in the fact we had significant positive experiences in both games i expected to be blowouts from the opening tip.   let it go.

Fully agree, that is why we should be satisfied with lesser goals like not getting blown out with a 30 pt loss last night. 

Some of the despairing comments I read here remind me of my ex wife, a true all or none binary type person. She wound up with none because nothing could ever be just OK for her. 

[Cowboy]

 

-here's the link if you want to see it....https://www.youtube.com/watch?DB_OEM_ID=27200&v=JNaOx4jc9sc

 

[TheA_Bomb]

On 11/24/2016 at 1:13 AM, ARon said:

That is actually quite a BOLD prediction.  

Given the talent coming next year the question should be how much playing time will these kids even get starting next year.  

JB is still inexperienced but that excuse will run out around conference play this year.  If he is still making tonight's level of mental errors then, I think he starts next season as the teams 3rd guard at best.

Are they at least equal in recruiting ranking to those other guys coming out of high school?  Yeah.  As athletic? Yeah.  Now I think they will be surrounded by a more talented roster than those previous Billiken teams and that will only make them better.  So I should fully expect JB, JJ, and or ZM to be as good as the previous really good SLU Guards.  I hope they surpass them statistically.  I foresee Coach Ford team's scoring more than Coach Majerus and Coach J Crews so they should have more points and assists than those players.

So yeah I foresee SLU winning the A10 and at least tying the NCAA tournament success of the good Majerus/Crews teams.

Sweater Vest U and VCU are recruiting at a pretty high level and will be our competition.

[hsmith19]

On 11/23/2016 at 11:12 PM, slufan13 said:

I don't think Crawford chose to step out of bounds.

But Welmer meant to inbound to the other team? Bishop meant to shoot an airball? Look, I get that you're buds with Crawford, but when you run around calling other players "morons" you kind of forfeit your right to moral superiority when your guy makes a mistake.

[slufan13]

9 minutes ago, hsmith19 said:

But Welmer meant to inbound to the other team? Bishop meant to shoot an airball? Look, I get that you're buds with Crawford, but when you run around calling other players "morons" you kind of forfeit your right to moral superiority when your guy makes a mistake.

Crawford's play was a terrible play. So was Welmer's. So was Bishops. I don't see where I ever said otherwise. 

[cheeseman]

Look any bone head play does not happen because the player did it on purpose.  They made a mistake or had a brain fart or whatever.  Kind of a silly rationale.