The Wiz Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 (edited) This is probably the toughest game to call since the opening game with Seattle. I am going to put an asterisk on this forecast. If we have any players who play in this game who did not play in the Butler game, I will tilt the spread in favor of the Bills. If not, it will tilt toward SIU. In this case it is not just because it is a close game or that neither team has the required 8 game data base that requires this game have an asterisk. This relates to the critical mass commentary , I mentioned in post #10 of the Butler spread thread (Butler by 11). This rarely comes into play but again these are not normal times. Missing over 40% of the roster qualifies as an extraordinary event that could affect a close game. If we can get an extra player (maybe French) for the SIU game that could be the difference. If we don't get some help the momentum (negative...4 straight losses) may bring us down. Time to look at the report card...warning, this isn't pretty....looks similar to a Crews report card. ..............OFF......................SLU.........................DEF.................................OFF................SIU..................DEF PPG........F- (12th worst in nation)....................B.....................................D............................................B- FG%........F..........................................................C......................................C............................................B 3P%........F- (9th worst in nation)......................F+....................................D.............................................A FT%........D..................................................................................................B+............................................. REB.........D+.......................................................B......................................C.............................................C- Top Performers in the nation Goodwin.......Stls...27th...............French...Blks...41st SIU....McGill...Stls...36th..............Pippen...Blks...36th btw....Bartley has not played this season due to a broken hand...expected return 1-2 weeks. Key to the game....Keep all their players to single digit scoring, particularly Pippen. This may sound impossible but actually is very doable. They don't score much. If we bother them (ie no open shots) we can do it. Summary....Bottom line.....These 2 teams are very closely matched with 1 difference.....The Salukis are trending up ...The Bills are trending down. Positives...possible return of French, home crowd, ..Negatives...momentum. This is a winnable game...It will come down to how bad we want it. This team has shown they can play with heart and energy.....if we come after them we can win this game. Addendum...SLU overall rating has fallen to C- .....SIU comes in at C+ Edited December 3, 2017 by The Wiz add an addendum to include overall grades Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 SIUC by 15. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Pelican Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 So I guess I should expect a 20 point loss. And I can't believe we're as good as C minus as presently configured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billboy1 Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 At this point why are we even bothering Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billikenbill Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 Blowout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnkielBreakers Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Bills rebound and win by 20. Roby goes 6 for 7 from 3 point land. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soderball Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Hines goes 1 for 80 on a 30 point billiken loss. Barry Hinson spends the final 30 minutes of the game and halftime selling bottles of barbecue sauce to SLU fans while his assistants finish out the game. Markos Psimitis scores a billiken-high of 15 points in the final 2 minutes as he goes on a shooting rampage. Pestello announces that all players are being suspended indefinitely and that the basketball program is moving to NAIA for budgetary reasons. Chris May engages in fistfights with enraged octogenarians after the game. Oh and Ford announces his retirement and SLU announces the hiring of Chris Lowery. It will be a lot better than what I witnessed in Indianapolis. That was straight out of Clockwork Orange. almaman, Billikid and CBFan like this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiseOfTheBillikens Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 33 minutes ago, Soderball said: Hines goes 1 for 80 on a 30 point billiken loss. Barry Hinson spends the final 30 minutes of the game and halftime selling bottles of barbecue sauce to SLU fans while his assistants finish out the game. Markos Psimitis scores a billiken-high of 15 points in the final 2 minutes as he goes on a shooting rampage. Pestello announces that all players are being suspended indefinitely and that the basketball program is moving to NAIA for budgetary reasons. Chris May engages in fistfights with enraged octogenarians after the game. Oh and Ford announces his retirement and SLU announces the hiring of Chris Lowery. It will be a lot better than what I witnessed in Indianapolis. That was straight out of Clockwork Orange. Excellent post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Pelican Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 37 minutes ago, Soderball said: Hines goes 1 for 80 on a 30 point billiken loss. Barry Hinson spends the final 30 minutes of the game and halftime selling bottles of barbecue sauce to SLU fans while his assistants finish out the game. Markos Psimitis scores a billiken-high of 15 points in the final 2 minutes as he goes on a shooting rampage. Pestello announces that all players are being suspended indefinitely and that the basketball program is moving to NAIA for budgetary reasons. Chris May engages in fistfights with enraged octogenarians after the game. Oh and Ford announces his retirement and SLU announces the hiring of Chris Lowery. It will be a lot better than what I witnessed in Indianapolis. That was straight out of Clockwork Orange. I wuz gonna skip the game....but by God, I'm goin' now!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgstl Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 10 hours ago, AnkielBreakers said: Bills rebound and win by 20. Roby goes 6 for 7 from 3 point land. If roby hits ONE 3, i'll be happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillIkenFan_Dan Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 If I was told this at the beginning of the year I would of thrown kool aid on you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierPal Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 A big factor in tomorrow's game is whether or not we can control their leading scorer, 6'10" 240 lb Kavion Pippen. He is averaging 13.8 ppg and 6.7 rpg, shooting 56%. With French, we have a shot. Without French, less likely. The Saluki's have three guards that are all tracking at just over or under double figures. Pippen; "We have Magic to Do". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbj14 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 According to Stu, Marcus Bartley got cleared yesterday and there is an outside chance he plays tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 Bills lose by 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NextYearBill Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 when we lose this game.... my seats are available the rest of the year, hit me up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbj14 Posted December 5, 2017 Share Posted December 5, 2017 French practiced today and is GTD tomorrow per Stu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billslasttermdropout Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 20 hours ago, Soderball said: Hines goes 1 for 80 on a 30 point billiken loss. Barry Hinson spends the final 30 minutes of the game and halftime selling bottles of barbecue sauce to SLU fans while his assistants finish out the game. Markos Psimitis scores a billiken-high of 15 points in the final 2 minutes as he goes on a shooting rampage. Pestello announces that all players are being suspended indefinitely and that the basketball program is moving to NAIA for budgetary reasons. Chris May engages in fistfights with enraged octogenarians after the game. Oh and Ford announces his retirement and SLU announces the hiring of Chris Lowery. It will be a lot better than what I witnessed in Indianapolis. That was straight out of Clockwork Orange. Best...post...ever. Side note to GW Steve (3 post reaction limit, really?!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBFan Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 Bartley becomes the next 3 point shooter the Bills face will have a career night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
615Billiken Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 Worst case scenario: Bills win, thus giving the AD and his supervisors something to celebrate thus enabling mediocrity for the foreseeable future. Best case scenario: Bills get humiliated, AD is out after yet another sport has yet another disappointing season and real changes come to SLU athletics. I am pessimistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 3 minutes ago, 615Billiken said: Worst case scenario: Bills win, thus giving the AD and his supervisors something to celebrate thus enabling mediocrity for the foreseeable future. Best case scenario: Bills get humiliated, AD is out after yet another sport has yet another disappointing season and real changes come to SLU athletics. I am pessimistic. You might be ascribing a wee bit too much significance to this game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikid Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 I asked French if he was recovered and good to go yesterday. He said yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billikenfan05 Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 39 minutes ago, Billikid said: I asked French if he was recovered and good to go yesterday. He said yes. Huge if true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Wiz Posted December 7, 2017 Author Share Posted December 7, 2017 What a great win....In my original post I said we need to play with heart and energy...We did and that's how we won. Of course it didn't hurt that we had French back. But then again those 2 statements may be intertwined. Let's look at some numbers.... SIU... A very nice 49/39/75...The Bills a decent 46/27 /72..still a bit weak on the 3s and overall not quite as good as the Salukis...So how did we win? We out rebounded them...That's always a good thing...Also French was a real presence on O & D . I had mentioned if he played then the even point spread would tilt toward SLU. Since we won by 5 ...he was worth at least 5. I had also mentioned that his return would give us some much needed depth...that didn't turn out well as we lost 2 players during the game ,,,We had 5 players who played 33 mins or more. . The computer said if we went to OT we would lose because of foul trouble. ...with 2 players having 4 fouls , we almost didn't make it to the end of the game. But the biggest thing for me was the TOs. SIU had a good showing with 12....we were outstanding with 8.... That difference was worth about 8 points. When you have 8 TOs it makes up for a lot of other mistakes or some weak shooting. If we could duplicate tonight's slash line and TO ratio...we would be competitive in all the rest of our games and win the vast majority of them. This game shows we are not very far away . SIU was a decent team...C+...Hopefully this win will give us some momentum as we head into a much more difficult task with Hou. But for now, let's enjoy the win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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