GDT vs Southeast Missouri State

[Major Majerus]

SEMO got no love from the OVC preview but their star is a nice player and they had 5 frosh with big minutes and good performance - I'm going to keep an eye on them this season - kudos to the players & coach.

[Box and Won]

2 minutes ago, Major Majerus said:

SEMO got no love from the OVC preview but their star is a nice player and they had 5 frosh with big minutes and good performance - I'm going to keep an eye on them this season - kudos to the players & coach.

Fortunately for us, their leading scorer from last year (19.3 ppg) transferred to Creighton.

[RUBillsFan]

2 hours ago, RiseOfTheBillikens said:

I think Isabell will be better at the line going forward. I really hope Goodwin can turn it around.

Isabell shot 197/259 (76%) in his previous 3 collegiate seasons and all were fairly consistent (79%, 74%, 76%).  That is not elite FT shooting, but I think it'll do for the Billikens in crunch time (Jordair Jett was a 61% FT shooter).

Goodwin hit 69% of his FT last year in a pretty big sample (65/94).  I have no idea what kind of FT shooter he was in HS, but last years % is more indicative of his ability than the 56% he put up last night.  Again, not elite and hopefully he can improve, but decent enough.

I'm not particularly worried about either of these FT shooting being a big problem for the Bills.

French (36% last year) and Foreman (50% last year / 52% career) are the ones who will kill us if teams target them for fouls late in games.

Honestly, French is bad enough that I think they should have him start to practice shooting FTs underhanded and see how that goes.  He'll look totally ridiculous, but I'm not sure it is a worse look than only hitting 36% of your FTs.

[billikenfan05]

16 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

Isabell shot 197/259 (76%) in his previous 3 collegiate seasons and all were fairly consistent (79%, 74%, 76%).  That is not elite FT shooting, but I think it'll do for the Billikens in crunch time (Jordair Jett was a 61% FT shooter).

Goodwin hit 69% of his FT last year in a pretty big sample (65/94).  I have no idea what kind of FT shooter he was in HS, but last years % is more indicative of his ability than the 56% he put up last night.  Again, not elite and hopefully he can improve, but decent enough.

I'm not particularly worried about either of these FT shooting being a big problem for the Bills.

French (36% last year) and Foreman (50% last year / 52% career) are the ones who will kill us if teams target them for fouls late in games.

Honestly, French is bad enough that I think they should have him start to practice shooting FTs underhanded and see how that goes.  He'll look totally ridiculous, but I'm not sure it is a worse look than only hitting 36% of your FTs.

I think Foreman needs to be in the game over any of the bigs. He was shown great improvement so far but I don't know how Gordon shoots though.

[wgstl]

57 minutes ago, Major Majerus said:

SEMO got no love from the OVC preview but their star is a nice player and they had 5 frosh with big minutes and good performance - I'm going to keep an eye on them this season - kudos to the players & coach.

I was sorta thinking this.  If this team can all stick together for a year or two they could make some noise in the ovc

[wgstl]

28 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

I think Foreman needs to be in the game over any of the bigs. He was shown great improvement so far but I don't know how Gordon shoots though.

66% as a senior and 69% as a junior. I'd like to think he Tford and co has him working on mid range more than Blossom and Webster did.

[majerus mojo]

can't believe Wiley is not mentioned once over the last 5-6 pages of this thread. I thought he looked great. might be a better immediate "team" fit than Isabell, i.e. a guy who can catch and rip it vs. someone who is used to having the ball in his hands all the time. it will take some time for the latter to gel with JG. not worried 

[dlarry]

1 hour ago, RUBillsFan said:

Honestly, French is bad enough that I think they should have him start to practice shooting FTs underhanded and see how that goes.  He'll look totally ridiculous, but I'm not sure it is a worse look than only hitting 36% of your FTs.

Canyon Barry does it for Flordia and he shot them at an 88% clip. 

Now he does have some good underhand free throw genes from his father Rick but it can be done and done well.

[Glorydays2013]

we will probably have a rotation of top performers every game between French, Goodwin, Bess, Isabell with some breakout games from Dj and Wiley. Bess will be the most consistent 

[billiken_roy]

31 minutes ago, majerus mojo said:

can't believe Wiley is not mentioned once over the last 5-6 pages of this thread. I thought he looked great. might be a better immediate "team" fit than Isabell, i.e. a guy who can catch and rip it vs. someone who is used to having the ball in his hands all the time. it will take some time for the latter to gel with JG. not worried 

wiley has a nice shot.   definitely someone that will have a big night shooting the 3 at some point this year.he also had some nice intangible instances, helping on defense, diving on the floor for loose balls, etc. however, he has one glaring hole in his game.  he appears to have some lateral quickness issues and will be a problem defensively vs quicker guards. but all in all i like him.

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, majerus mojo said:

can't believe Wiley is not mentioned once over the last 5-6 pages of this thread. I thought he looked great. might be a better immediate "team" fit than Isabell, i.e. a guy who can catch and rip it vs. someone who is used to having the ball in his hands all the time. it will take some time for the latter to gel with JG. not worried 

 

26 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

wiley has a nice shot.   definitely someone that will have a big night shooting the 3 at some point this year.he also had some nice intangible instances, helping on defense, diving on the floor for loose balls, etc. however, he has one glaring hole in his game.  he appears to have some lateral quickness issues and will be a problem defensively vs quicker guards. but all in all i like him.

Wiley is a one dimensional player.  He is a shooter, not a scorer, but a shooter.  (And he does shoot quite nicely)  He doesn't drive to the hoop.  He is a dead eye long range gunner.  He won't break very many down for a drive to the hoop. Last night he took 9 shots, 8 outside the arc. That is what you get with Wiley.  He did get to the FT line, which is unusual for him.  In 83 career games, he shot a total of only 59 FT for Maryland. 

His defense won't keep him on the floor if he isn't scoring.

[VeniceMenace]

2 hours ago, majerus mojo said:

can't believe Wiley is not mentioned once over the last 5-6 pages of this thread. I thought he looked great. might be a better immediate "team" fit than Isabell, i.e. a guy who can catch and rip it vs. someone who is used to having the ball in his hands all the time. it will take some time for the latter to gel with JG. not worried 

Agree, Wiley was a bright spot...so was Shaft....in just six minutes he had two points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Watch out A10, this cat Shaft is a bad mother. Damn right!

[BillsBeliever!!!]

Interesting. Our next opponent, Troy, has games against Pitt, Cenrtal Arkansas, North Alabama, Appalachian State, and Florida State. Those are all teams we also play in the non conference. 

[Cowboy]

-I really like the new look box score - http://www.slubillikens.com/pdf9/5478828.pdf - now we just need future ones with better numbers

 

[gobillsgo]

27 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-I really like the new look box score - http://www.slubillikens.com/pdf9/5478828.pdf - now we just need future ones with better numbers

 

Easy to see why Tramaine is such a good scorer. Shot well from 2pt, horrible from 3pt, and below his norm for FTs. Still finished with 18. On nights his shot falls, he’s gonna have scoring games the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time. 

[cgeldmacher]

Javon Bess is our best option to get a basket when we need it.  Despite this, Isabell seems to think he's the star of the team and our go to guy.  They both got 18 points despite the fact that it seemed like the ball was in Isabell's hands four times as much as it was in Bess's.  I think that Ford needs to correct this.

The numbers don't even tell the complete story, but Bess was more efficient from the field, better from three (33% from three rather than 0-fer), 4-6 from the free throw line compared to Isabell's 6-11, and Bess had more assists (3) than Isabell (1) despite the fact that Isabell was somewhat in a PG role.  Bess had one turnover compared to 4 from Isabell.  Bess had more rebounds.  Defensive results aren't even close.  I know these stats come from only one game, but they also match up with the eye test from the first two games this year.

Bess needs the ball more!!!

When the team was able to pry the ball out of Isabell's hands and get it to Bess, he made several smooth jumpers where he got his own shot.  I feel like he could do this more if he got the ball more.  I would suggest that Ford instruct Goodwin to get the ball to Bess more often.  I would also love to see the coaches work with Bess and French on developing a good two man isolation situation where the other three guys are on the other side of the court.  This will open both French and Bess up to more opportunities.

I don't want to get too down on Isabell.  He's a good talent.  However, he needs to settle into our offensive game plan more and get much better defensively before he asserts himself so much.

 

[Glorydays2013]

There is a reason Ford has never once talked about Isabell as the leader of the team. Bess is the true OG on the team

[Littlebill]

10 hours ago, cgeldmacher said:

Javon Bess is our best option to get a basket when we need it.  Despite this, Isabell seems to think he's the star of the team and our go to guy.  They both got 18 points despite the fact that it seemed like the ball was in Isabell's hands four times as much as it was in Bess's.  I think that Ford needs to correct this.

The numbers don't even tell the complete story, but Bess was more efficient from the field, better from three (33% from three rather than 0-fer), 4-6 from the free throw line compared to Isabell's 6-11, and Bess had more assists (3) than Isabell (1) despite the fact that Isabell was somewhat in a PG role.  Bess had one turnover compared to 4 from Isabell.  Bess had more rebounds.  Defensive results aren't even close.  I know these stats come from only one game, but they also match up with the eye test from the first two games this year.

Bess needs the ball more!!!

When the team was able to pry the ball out of Isabell's hands and get it to Bess, he made several smooth jumpers where he got his own shot.  I feel like he could do this more if he got the ball more.  I would suggest that Ford instruct Goodwin to get the ball to Bess more often.  I would also love to see the coaches work with Bess and French on developing a good two man isolation situation where the other three guys are on the other side of the court.  This will open both French and Bess up to more opportunities.

I don't want to get too down on Isabell.  He's a good talent.  However, he needs to settle into our offensive game plan more and get much better defensively before he asserts himself so much.

 

I don’t know that bess is the type of player who you build an offense around. He’s a really efficient offensive player for sure, and takes advantage of himself being put in good spots in the flow of an offense, but doesn’t really create anything for himself with the ball in his hands. He’s a great secondary option for one of our volume scorers but he’s just not the kind of basketball player you’re describing. Probably our best and most reliable all-around player though, in all reality.

and Goodwin was our go-to when we needed a basket last year, when Bess was already on the team. Has he surpassed Goodwin already in your mind?

[cgeldmacher]

12 hours ago, Littlebill said:

I don’t know that bess is the type of player who you build an offense around. He’s a really efficient offensive player for sure, and takes advantage of himself being put in good spots in the flow of an offense, but doesn’t really create anything for himself with the ball in his hands. He’s a great secondary option for one of our volume scorers but he’s just not the kind of basketball player you’re describing. Probably our best and most reliable all-around player though, in all reality.

and Goodwin was our go-to when we needed a basket last year, when Bess was already on the team. Has he surpassed Goodwin already in your mind?

I disagree that Bess cannot create for himself.  He had several baskets where he made one quick move and then pulled up for a jumper that went in.  It's just hard to do that when Isabell gets the ball, decides to drive, and throws the ball up.  If the ball doesn't end up in Bess's hands, he can't shoot it.  Often, when the ball did end up in his hands, he was loyal to the play that Ford was running and dished it off accordingly.  So far, that's not happening with Isabell.  I just think that when there's 10 seconds on the shot clock, Ford should give instructions that Bess gets the ball.

Goodwin can definitely get you points, but his jump shot is not there right now.  I want Goodwin to stick to his game, slashing to the basket to score and getting rebounds that he puts back in, until the shot comes around.

[Zink]

1 hour ago, cgeldmacher said:

I disagree that Bess cannot create for himself.  He had several baskets where he made one quick move and then pulled up for a jumper that went in.  It's just hard to do that when Isabell gets the ball, decides to drive, and throws the ball up.  If the ball doesn't end up in Bess's hands, he can't shoot it.  Often, when the ball did end up in his hands, he was loyal to the play that Ford was running and dished it off accordingly.  So far, that's not happening with Isabell.  I just think that when there's 10 seconds on the shot clock, Ford should give instructions that Bess gets the ball.

Goodwin can definitely get you points, but his jump shot is not there right now.  I want Goodwin to stick to his game, slashing to the basket to score and getting rebounds that he puts back in, until the shot comes around.

But those shots from Bess all came within the flow of the offense or in transition. The difference between Isabell/Goodwin vs Bess is that the former can pretty consistently beat their defender off the dribble against a set defense. Bess is great at finding the holes when we get the defense rotating, but with 5 seconds left after our set play has failed, I have to agree that Goodwin/Isabell seem better candidates to make something happen. With Bess’s newfound stroke from deep I would like to see him get a few more opportunities in the pick’n’roll, as defenders now need to play him over the top. 

[Littlebill]

6 minutes ago, Zink said:

But those shots from Bess all came within the flow of the offense or in transition. The difference between Isabell/Goodwin vs Bess is that the former can pretty consistently beat their defender off the dribble against a set defense. Bess is great at finding the holes when we get the defense rotating, but with 5 seconds left after our set play has failed, I have to agree that Goodwin/Isabell seem better candidates to make something happen. With Bess’s newfound stroke from deep I would like to see him get a few more opportunities in the pick’n’roll, as defenders now need to play him over the top. 

And as a kick out option for JGood/Isabell

[Cowboy]

-we've had one game thus far, I only recall one possession where we had what I am going to call no damn plan when we scramble for a shot before the shot clock expired, there are many factors as to why there weren't as many as we had per game last season but I will note again we've had one game so far - were there more than one?

-we've had one game thus far, but more concerning to me is our inbounding where we throw it on the sideline or worse in the corner but I will again note we've had one game so far

-there is time for all facets of our game to improve and if The Wiz indicates Troy is better than SEMO then there needed to be improvement over the last few days 

[Littlebill]

1 hour ago, cgeldmacher said:

It's just hard to do that when Isabell gets the ball, decides to drive, and throws the ball up. 

Isabell was 6-7 inside the 3pt line and JGood was 3-6, but I distinctly remember a couple times where he missed a layup and got his own rebound and laid it in successfully.

 

I just don't think these are options that need to change

[ACE]

1 hour ago, cgeldmacher said:

I disagree that Bess cannot create for himself.  He had several baskets where he made one quick move and then pulled up for a jumper that went in.  It's just hard to do that when Isabell gets the ball, decides to drive, and throws the ball up.  If the ball doesn't end up in Bess's hands, he can't shoot it.  Often, when the ball did end up in his hands, he was loyal to the play that Ford was running and dished it off accordingly.  So far, that's not happening with Isabell.  I just think that when there's 10 seconds on the shot clock, Ford should give instructions that Bess gets the ball.

Goodwin can definitely get you points, but his jump shot is not there right now.  I want Goodwin to stick to his game, slashing to the basket to score and getting rebounds that he puts back in, until the shot comes around.

If we are just isolating on one game, I don't think Goodwin should get a free pass. We all love him and perhaps that mask is affecting him, but he was brutal in a 2 minute stretch with about 7 minutes to go in the game - he had three possessions, almost in a row, where he picked up offensive fouls. Those turnovers helped SEMO get back in the game. I don't quite understand the fixation on Isabell in this game. He did pretty much what you'd expect - except you'd expect a couple of his 3s to drop and to make free-throws at his normal 75% clip. He shoots to his norm and we're looking at about a 25 point night. His game is not perfect, but we'd be in big trouble if we didn't have him.

[Quality Is Job 1]

I notice that Ingvi Gudmundsson didn't get any time.  While the greater likelihood is that the margin had dwindled so much that there was no "garbage time" to allow Coach Ford to get him in, I also wonder if there's any thought to giving him a redshirt year.  (I know it's just one game.)