2018-19 season

[dlarry]

4 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

It’s factual but as everybody on this board will tell you high school star ratings don’t mean . 

I guess technically they don't matter but I'm sure everybody on this board would rather have a team of unknown 4 and 5 stars than a team of unknown 2 and 3 stars.

[bauman]

1 hour ago, moytoy12 said:

 

Watching this video makes it clearer to me how much work Thor is missing playing with a high school level team, even though I appreciate how much he would have wanted to represent his country. 

[majerus mojo]

47 minutes ago, bauman said:

Watching this video makes it clearer to me how much work Thor is missing playing with a high school level team, even though I appreciate how much he would have wanted to represent his country. 

They can only practice an hour a week right now, correct?

[moytoy12]

1 hour ago, bauman said:

Watching this video makes it clearer to me how much work Thor is missing playing with a high school level team, even though I appreciate how much he would have wanted to represent his country. 

I’ll be surprised if Thor averages over 5 mpg. 

[Quality Is Job 1]

1 hour ago, dlarry said:

I guess technically they don't matter but I'm sure everybody on this board would rather have a team of unknown 4 and 5 stars than a team of unknown 2 and 3 stars.

Well, if they're 5-star players, they won't be unknown.  And if they're 4-star players, they're probably fairly well-known.  Basically, 5* = McDonald's All-American.

[Quality Is Job 1]

30 minutes ago, majerus mojo said:

They can only practice an hour a week right now, correct?

I think it's four hours per week.  It's not less than two.

[majerus mojo]

24 minutes ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

I think it's four hours per week.  It's not less than two.

Looks like in 2012 they started allowing up to 2 hours a week of “practice”

• Student-athletes may be required to participate in up to 8 hours per week of required strength and conditioning activities and individualized skill instruction.
   
•  No more than 2 hours of the permissible 8 can consist of individualized skill instruction. No more than four student-athletes may be involved in skill instruction at all sites combined at any one time.

Links: 

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/schools-in-for-summer-why-everyone-except-the-ivies-loves-the-new-practice-rule/

https://ncaacompliance.nd.edu/countable_hours.shtml

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

I think it's four hours per week.  It's not less than two.

This is what Coach said in the interview with Rothstein, four hours per week on the floor.  

[dlarry]

1 hour ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

Well, if they're 5-star players, they won't be unknown.  And if they're 4-star players, they're probably fairly well-known.  Basically, 5* = McDonald's All-American.

I meant unknown in that we wouldn't know how they are going to perform at the college level. 

I'd rather have 4 and 5 star guys who we don't know how they are going to perform over 2 and 3 star guys who we don't know how they are going to perform.

[RiseAndGrind]

Just an interesting nugget 

 

 

[wgstl]

15 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said:

Just an interesting nugget 

 

 

Im gonna keep drinking the good stuff.

Where I think they shoot:

Bess .310

Goodwin .330

Isabell .360

Thatch .370

Wiley .370

Welmer .380

This puts us above 35%

 

 

*No clue about other two FR.

 

[billiken_roy]

hmmmm.   4 for 12 on threes i.e. 33% = 12 points.    6 for twelve on 2's i.e. 50% = 12 points.   Would seem anything at 33% would be good.  

[slufan13]

We aren't going to be a great shooting team. This isn't exactly news. I think the additions of Isabel and Wiley give us just enough shooting to make a run this season

[HenryB]

Much more significant to me is free throw percentage.  We figure to be on the line a great deal with this roster.

[bauman]

13 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

We aren't going to be a great shooting team. This isn't exactly news. I think the additions of Isabel and Wiley give us just enough shooting to make a run this season

Quick question.  What do you mean by "a run?"  In the A-10 regular season, in the A-10 tournament or in the NCAA ?  I think with the addition of DJ, FT and an improved JG and likely JB, we already had enough to run through the A-10.  Hopefully if Isabell (note 2 "l'"s) and Wiley are as good as advertised we can make some noise in the NCAA, at least a couple of rounds.

Obviously, next year (2019-20) has a lot of unknowns at this point, but I believe that our talent this year might be better than next year, what with losing Bess, Foreman, Isabell and Wiley, so I hope we can get to the Sweet 16 this year.

[Slu let the dogs out?]

3 minutes ago, HenryB said:

Much more significant to me is free throw percentage.  We figure to be on the line a great deal with this roster.

Could not agree more

[slufan13]

14 minutes ago, bauman said:

Quick question.  What do you mean by "a run?"  In the A-10 regular season, in the A-10 tournament or in the NCAA ?  I think with the addition of DJ, FT and an improved JG and likely JB, we already had enough to run through the A-10.  Hopefully if Isabell (note 2 "l'"s) and Wiley are as good as advertised we can make some noise in the NCAA, at least a couple of rounds.

Obviously, next year (2019-20) has a lot of unknowns at this point, but I believe that our talent this year might be better than next year, what with losing Bess, Foreman, Isabell and Wiley, so I hope we can get to the Sweet 16 this year.

Sweet 16 would be a run in my mind

[Taj79]

Let's remember the Majerus mantra ... rebound and defend.  If this team does indeed defend and keeps shooting percentages down for our opponents, and we dominate the boards on their missed shots as I expect a French, Foreman, Santos, Gordon, Goodwin, Bess, Thatch  group to do .... then the simple math is that we will be even or likely ahead for most games.  The known 'catch up" strategy in every game played everywhere now is 'extend the clock/game' which means employ the Haq-A-Shaq routine.  So it will be critical that our improvement be most noticeable at the free throw line than anywhere else.   We don't need a high-volume three point shooter making 45% plus a game, we need one or two viable options per game that allow for seams to open down low.  And we need to make free throws because it will likely come down to that sans a blow out.

This season is set.  All the ingredients are on the shelves.  Ford now has to make them all mesh and work.  I don't care who starts, I do care who finishes and what their free throw percentage is/will be.  I don't care who gets what MPG.  I don't care who averages the most PPG.  I care about chits on the left hand side of the win column and ledger and the usual high water marks of the OOC, regular season, tournament and Dance.  I care about recruiting 2019-20.  I don't care about Mickey Pearson.  I also care about ensuring our bouncing baby boys are all tucked into their beds at 8 pm each night.  And that no one trips over a crack in the sidewalk. 

All the rest is just white noise ---- Top 144, preseason predictions, .....

[Old guy]

Agree

[HoosierPal]

2 hours ago, Taj79 said:

Let's remember the Majerus mantra ... rebound and defend.  If this team does indeed defend and keeps shooting percentages down for our opponents, and we dominate the boards on their missed shots as I expect a French, Foreman, Santos, Gordon, Goodwin, Bess, Thatch  group to do .... then the simple math is that we will be even or likely ahead for most games.  The known 'catch up" strategy in every game played everywhere now is 'extend the clock/game' which means employ the Haq-A-Shaq routine.  So it will be critical that our improvement be most noticeable at the free throw line than anywhere else.   We don't need a high-volume three point shooter making 45% plus a game, we need one or two viable options per game that allow for seams to open down low.  And we need to make free throws because it will likely come down to that sans a blow out.

This season is set.  All the ingredients are on the shelves.  Ford now has to make them all mesh and work.  I don't care who starts, I do care who finishes and what their free throw percentage is/will be.  I don't care who gets what MPG.  I don't care who averages the most PPG.  I care about chits on the left hand side of the win column and ledger and the usual high water marks of the OOC, regular season, tournament and Dance.  I care about recruiting 2019-20.  I don't care about Mickey Pearson.  I also care about ensuring our bouncing baby bopys are all tucked into their beds at 8 pm each night.  And that no one trips over a crack in the sidewalk. 

All the rest is just white noise ---- Top 144, preseason predictions, .....

Excellent post.  All that counts is Wins and Losses.  I'll add that I don't care what our Class Recruiting ranking is, I don't care how many *** our players have, and I don't care about AAU Stats.  And today I really don't care about 2019-2020 recruiting.  If we don't ring the dinner bell this season, well, there will be questions asked.  Who would be happy with a 20 -13 season and an NIT invite?  Just win baby.

[bauman]

2 hours ago, Taj79 said:

Let's remember the Majerus mantra ... rebound and defend.  If this team does indeed defend and keeps shooting percentages down for our opponents, and we dominate the boards on their missed shots as I expect a French, Foreman, Santos, Gordon, Goodwin, Bess, Thatch  group to do .... then the simple math is that we will be even or likely ahead for most games.  The known 'catch up" strategy in every game played everywhere now is 'extend the clock/game' which means employ the Haq-A-Shaq routine.  So it will be critical that our improvement be most noticeable at the free throw line than anywhere else.   We don't need a high-volume three point shooter making 45% plus a game, we need one or two viable options per game that allow for seams to open down low.  And we need to make free throws because it will likely come down to that sans a blow out.

This season is set.  All the ingredients are on the shelves.  Ford now has to make them all mesh and work.  I don't care who starts, I do care who finishes and what their free throw percentage is/will be.  I don't care who gets what MPG.  I don't care who averages the most PPG.  I care about chits on the left hand side of the win column and ledger and the usual high water marks of the OOC, regular season, tournament and Dance.  I care about recruiting 2019-20.  I don't care about Mickey Pearson.  I also care about ensuring our bouncing baby bopys are all tucked into their beds at 8 pm each night.  And that no one trips over a crack in the sidewalk. 

All the rest is just white noise ---- Top 144, preseason predictions, .....

Taj, Good analysis!  However, at this time of the year all we have to discuss is what you referred to as white noise. 

Thinking about who we will lose next year and the fact that most top 75 recruits will be committed somewhere before this season even starts, led me to conclude that TF might employ a recruiting approach that saves one sure scholarship each fall recruiting period for a grad transfer in the following Spring.  Since many of the best grad transfers want to go to a winning program-one that has Sweet 16 or Elite 8 potential, having an open scholarship would allow us to  best translate our expected excellent 18-19 season into a top-level grad transfer, someone of Isabell or better quality.  That approach sure worked this year getting Isabell and Wiley-experienced D1 players able to step right in and help the team, while at the same time not tying up a scholarship for 4 years.

[Billiken Rich]

7 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Excellent post.  All that counts is Wins and Losses.  I'll add that I don't care what our Class Recruiting ranking is, I don't care how many *** our players have, and I don't care about AAU Stats.  And today I really don't care about 2019-2020 recruiting.  If we don't ring the dinner bell this season, well, there will be questions asked.  Who would be happy with a 19 -14 season and an NIT invite?  Just win baby.

Before Isabell and Wiley I'd have been happy with an NIT run just because of all of the new faces and the need to mold the into a team.  The grad transfers would not have come here if they didn't see a bigger upside...... 

[bauman]

1 minute ago, Billiken Rich said:

Before Isabell and Wiley I'd have been happy with an NIT run just because of all of the new faces and the need to mold the into a team.  The grad transfers would not have come here if they didn't see a bigger upside...... 

Agreed with you about getting TI and DW, but even without them I would have expected a trip to the Dance.  Your point is valid about taking some time to mesh, but I think by the time the calendar turned to 2019 we would have been the class of the A-10 and the recipient of the league's bid(s).  We just have too much talent to not win the league.  The only thing I see as a potential roadblock is the injury bug (I won't mention the other thing).

[RiseAndGrind]

I want to say "anything less than Sweet 16" is a disappointment, but I would just be so so happy to get back to March that I think I would be satisfied. 

[kshoe]

37 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said:

I want to say "anything less than Sweet 16" is a disappointment, but I would just be so so happy to get back to March that I think I would be satisfied. 

I suppose if I were a fan of Duke or KU, I'd allow myself to only view the season as a success based on NCAA tournament victories, but for SLU any NCAA appearance has to be the goal and by definition a success. Winning twice in the tournament requires some amount of getting lucky with draws and/or the bounce of a ball in a close game. As great as Loyola's Final 4 run was last year, 3 of their 4 wins were 50/50 coin flips settled in the last minute. Tough to get too disappointed when randomness plays such a large part of NCAA success for all but the top 10 teams.