Troy from da' (sub) couch in Joisey .....

[Taj79]

.... off visiting friends so I didn't watch live Saturday.  First thing I did (only knowing the score at one point was 36 to 31 bad guys) when I got home was fire up the ESPN+ replay.  Then I read the GDT.  The early predictions of a Billiken blowout were quickly forgotten.

As for the GDT, moy called the game a loss at 14 to 9.  He then called it over again as Troy was out rebounding us 15 to 8.  Not to be out done, billikenbill called the game and added the season too was over just after moy's second noted post.  Not picking on you two guys but you can't call a game so quickly.  As my obnoxious buddy likes to remind me, it's a game of runs.  Runs happen and you just have to make sure yours are longer than theirs.  I am probably one of the worst hand-ringers of all Billiken fandom, but it ain't over until it's over.  And then we ended up making a run and still had to hold off a Troy run. No need to belabor team chemistry at this point ---- we are still searching for ours.  Games like Troy are tuneups ---- the real measuring sticks this OOC are the Hall, Butler, Pitt, Oregon State, SIU, Houston and Florida State.  Right now, winning any of those seems remote at best, but it's early.

I don't know just what the offense is right now but hallelujah we play defense.  Right now, the strength is rebounding and the interior, as someone said we don't seem to run with a purpose.  We seem to not fill the lanes and clog ourselves up.  Both PGs are experiments, give them time.  As someone else said and I said against SEMO, expect packed in zones that dare us to shoot.  And French should get fouled every time he touches the ball down low.  French is a beast but the  finer points of the game require finesse and touch.  Hasahn needs work there.

Gordon either didn't play much defense or got schooled by a senior power forward.  I'm going with the second part.  The Sun Belt's potential POY schooled our four-star freshman.  That happens, especially in his second college game.  Isabell played decent defense.  Wiley is a defensive liability right now.  Thatch is an offensive liability.  Work is to be done, but we ARE 2 and 0.  

Isabell's flagrant one was a joke, a phantom call.  But in reviewing the tape, he supposedly threw the elbow before the Troy foul was called.  Should that have negated his one-and-one.  Students of the game will have to tell me.  Same call with the defensive rebound foul on Goodwin.  Nothing really happened there either.  Bess' foul on the three point attempt was really silly -------- and he's a fifth year senior.  Jacobs I could understand.  From the corner baseline, that shot has to go in on the fly --- there will be no bank from there and the guy shooting it was not "on" by any stretch of the imagination.  Aim in front of the release point, don't run at the man.  

I also second the observation that at least three of our final four threes were shot clock beaters.  It seems like the decision making there was eliminated and we made natural plays without thinking.  Troy scared me from the time the schedule came out.  But we ARE 2 and 0.  I expect to tread lightly in the OOC schedule going forward.  North Alabama is in their first year of D1.  The only thing I expect is a laugher with more learning all across the board. 

Coach Ford did well enough.  He burned two timeouts in the first half trying to stem the tide.  He yanked Gordon after a silly turnover.  He changed defenses and went with a smaller lineup.  He is going to need that based on my early observations of Davidson and the Joeys.  Gordon is getting up to the speed of the game.  Goodwin is back but playing way too excited right now.  Wiley will have a six-for-six night.  Thatch will score 20 some game.  But we are most definitely learning.

The sky is ominous, the clouds are dark and forming and our house is not built yet.  But that same sky is not falling.  I'll be courtside Saturday night and get to see the first real test of the OCC.  I think we're going to lose a few but that's okay.  Glory was looking towards Florida State.  Others are looking forward to March.   I say reel it back in.   How much did adversity help us this game?  Can't say.  But we can win games on an off-night.

 

[Cowboy]

37 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

But we can win games on an off-night.

 

-this was also my take away from Saturday

-at this point I am keeping the faith that we will start making baskets and we will determine how to better involve HF and CAG in the offense

-hopefully Foreman recovers from a not so stellar performance

[slu72]

Foreman was the same last year. One night amaze you, the next night go invisible. 

If we've proven anything in these two games it's that until we find a way to produce sufficient points from the outside and/or on fast breaks, we're going to struggle to get Ws against the Troys and SEMOs of D1 ball and likely lose 5 of those 6 games against the P5 types. And as for the A10 probably get us an 11-7 type record. That's not going to get you dancing unless we win the tourney. 

It's no mystery how to beat us; zone and pack the inside. Oh, and foul French if he's open. 

[willie]

19 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Foreman was the same last year. One night amaze you, the next night go invisible. 

If we've proven anything in these two games it's that until we find a way to produce sufficient points from the outside and/or on fast breaks, we're going to struggle to get Ws against the Troys and SEMOs of D1 ball and likely lose 5 of those 6 games against the P5 types. And as for the A10 probably get us an 11-7 type record. That's not going to get you dancing unless we win the tourney. 

It's no mystery how to beat us; zone and pack the inside. Oh, and foul French if he's open. 

Foreman missed some bunnies. Rebounds per minutes  played was very good. 

[CBFan]

29 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Foreman was the same last year. One night amaze you, the next night go invisible. 

If we've proven anything in these two games it's that until we find a way to produce sufficient points from the outside and/or on fast breaks, we're going to struggle to get Ws against the Troys and SEMOs of D1 ball and likely lose 5 of those 6 games against the P5 types. And as for the A10 probably get us an 11-7 type record. That's not going to get you dancing unless we win the tourney. 

It's no mystery how to beat us; zone and pack the inside. Oh, and foul French if he's open. 

The one improvement with Foreman so far is the traveling calls.

Many times last season he was good for a couple of traveling calls making a move to the basket.

[CBFan]

The newcomers made a difference such as Wiley's 3's, Gordon's inside scoring and Isabell.

It was nice to see Isabell and Goodwin finally hitting 3's.

Isabell is a true scorer and it is a great thing to have someone like that when the shot clock is running down or when we need a big shot at the end of the game.

This team has the capability to hit that crippling 3 at the end of game to put the team up for good.

French will break out of his scoring slump soon and the freshman will contribute points, the best has yet to come.

[Bay Area Billiken]

 

I watched the Troy game live from a luv seat indoors while outside the Butte County Camp Fire caused smoke envelops the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

The Troy game largely looked for the first 3 Quarters like Santa Clara 2.0.  But these Billikens, under Coach Travis Ford, flipped the switch at crunch time, including hitting 4 straight 3-Pointers down the stretch and figuratively escaped from the Troy game.  Coach Ford went small to win this one, playing 3 guards with Javon Bess at the 4, Carte'Are Gordon at the 5.

 

Free Throws:  SLU was 12-25, a horrible 48%.  How many games are you going to win shooting 48% at the free throw line.  

 

From the video I saw, the zebras called a bogus flagrant foul on Isabell at crunch time when Troy fouled him, resulting in a double shooting foul at both ends, but a change of possession.  Neither Fox Sports Midwest TV analyst Scott Highmark, nor I, saw any flagrant foul on Isabell, in fact I didn't see any foul on him at all.  That call gave Troy life in the final seconds.  Someone said Isabell was called for a high elbow.  But I didn't see Isabell's elbow making contact with a Troy player.

 

I'm hoping this is an NCAA Tournament year.  SLU was picked 1st in the A10.  Right now this looks more like an NIT team.  But the talent is clearly there, SLU has a good Coach, and like Coach Ford said, it might be into January before this team jells, which frankly is not all bad, if SLU can win either the A10 or the A10 Tournament.  But coming out of the A10, there is not a lot of margin for non-conference error.  I'm confident this SLU team is at the top of the A10 in terms of talent.  And talent ultimately prevails on the court.

 

 

 

 

---

[cgeldmacher]

I was at the game.  My observation was that Troy's defensive plan was to take away our inside game in the first half, then transition to zone in the second half hoping that would adjust to our adjustment.  The first half plan worked, but our three point shooting negated their second half plan and got us the win.

I have been very impressed with Gordon so far.  Many on this board thought he was a one and done type, but I figured that he had to learn a lot first.  He has been playing very disciplined basketball and is learning to play defense better on every possession.  Once he settles in, his post moves will mean that either he or French will be against the other team's second best big defender.  That will be a good situation for us.

Isabell played a much better all around game against Troy.  Free throw shooting and 3 point shooting wasn't great, but he played more disciplined at both ends of the floor.

Goodwin is getting stats, but is not on top of his game right now.  I agree that he needs to slow down.

 A lot of teams are losing games against lesser opponents.  We're 2-0.  Let's appreciate that.

[Bay Area Billiken]

6 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

...

 A lot of teams are losing games against lesser opponents.  We're 2-0.  Let's appreciate that.

Agreed.  It is good to be 2-0.  Troy was a trap game.

[RiseOfTheBillikens]

4 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

I have been very impressed with Gordon so far.  Many on this board thought he was a one and done type, but I figured that he had to learn a lot first.  He has been playing very disciplined basketball and is learning to play defense better on every possession.  Once he settles in, his post moves will mean that either he or French will be against the other team's second best big defender.  That will be a good situation for us.

His foot work in the post is better than most upperclassmen. He hasn't travelled once while doing post moves. It's very impressive. Once he gets comfortable at this level he is going to be dangerous. And he can make his free throws so hopefully he won't be a late game liability like French is becoming.

[Brighton]

The fact that they won these games while not at their best is comforting. They will be fine.

[willie]

21 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

I was at the game.  My observation was that Troy's defensive plan was to take away our inside game in the first half, then transition to zone in the second half hoping that would adjust to our adjustment.  The first half plan worked, but our three point shooting negated their second half plan and got us the win.

I have been very impressed with Gordon so far.  Many on this board thought he was a one and done type, but I figured that he had to learn a lot first.  He has been playing very disciplined basketball and is learning to play defense better on every possession.  Once he settles in, his post moves will mean that either he or French will be against the other team's second best big defender.  That will be a good situation for us.

Isabell played a much better all around game against Troy.  Free throw shooting and 3 point shooting wasn't great, but he played more disciplined at both ends of the floor.

Goodwin is getting stats, but is not on top of his game right now.  I agree that he needs to slow down.

 A lot of teams are losing games against lesser opponents.  We're 2-0.  Let's appreciate that.

Funny you say that Goodwin needs to sloe down. I felt just the opposite  . There were several fast breaks where I thought he tried to pick his way in instead of going hard. I would like the whole team to speed up. 

[Adman]

23 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

I was at the game.  My observation was that Troy's defensive plan was to take away our inside game in the first half, then transition to zone in the second half hoping that would adjust to our adjustment.  The first half plan worked, but our three point shooting negated their second half plan and got us the win.

On Coach Ford's post-game radio interview with Bob Ramsey and Earl Austin, he said the same thing. He thought they unintentionally did us a favor switching to zone in second half, despite how this strategy would usually be good against a poor shooting team.

[billikenfan05]

3 minutes ago, Adman said:

On Coach Ford's post-game radio interview with Bob Ramsey and Earl Austin, he said the same thing. He thought they unintentionally did us a favor switching to zone in second half, despite how this strategy would usually be good against a poor shooting team.

I think what happened is they backed off a little too far and allowed us to get better looks from 3. 

[slufanskip]

Two observations from me.

The ball has to move quicker against the zone. We’re just way to deliberate.

We need to be stronger on the ball inside. Troy was constantly slapping at the ball and knocked it out of our hands numerous times. There’s no reason for that to happen

[slu72]

In two games French has attempted 6 shots. Same for Gordon. Even the commentators said against Troy you can't take a shot w/2 or 3 defenders hanging on you. French had low scoring games last year, he'll come around once the defenses are forced to defend more than the lane. 

[Cowboy]

50 minutes ago, willie said:

Funny you say that Goodwin needs to sloe down. I felt just the opposite  . There were several fast breaks where I thought he tried to pick his way in instead of going hard. I would like the whole team to speed up. 

-I don't recall at what point JG got hit in the face but here are some stats, in the first half he had 10pts on 9 shots and 7 boards and in the second half he had 5 points on 4 shots and 2 rebounds, he scored 35 seconds into the second half and not again until the critical 3 pointer with 2.19 remaining, I sure hope he is okay for him and for the team, we sure need him, that nose thing would mess with me,  I don't see what protection one of those masks provides so he gets BIG kudos from me for playing with it as I know if I was playing against him I would try to find a way to 'touch' his face

[Old guy]

Some protection is better than no protection.

[Matty Light]

My take away from the first two games are that we are terrible on FTs and fast breaks.  The good news is that these are very fixable areas.  Free throws are all about form and repetition.  If French can't find a form that will get him above 50%, he should absolutely consider the underhand.  It looks less foolish then leaving all those points on the scoreboard and having to be pulled late in the 2nd half.

The fast breaks I think we just need to change our mentality and look for teammate in space for a layup or open jumper instead of just forging ahead on a dribble drive to the hole.  I would rather pass too much than too little in those situations as it also helps mitigate charging calls when you are not going out of control towards the hoop.

Rebounding and defense could improve as well as the shooting--but nothing to panic about yet.

And for heaven's sake can we attempt an alley-oop one time this year?  We have plenty of rim rockers to do this all day.  At least give the other team something to think about.

Just my $0.02

[Cowboy]

56 minutes ago, Matty Light said:

My take away from the first two games are that we are terrible on FTs and fast breaks.  The good news is that these are very fixable areas.  Free throws are all about form and repetition.  If French can't find a form that will get him above 50%, he should absolutely consider the underhand.  It looks less foolish then leaving all those points on the scoreboard and having to be pulled late in the 2nd half.

The fast breaks I think we just need to change our mentality and look for teammate in space for a layup or open jumper instead of just forging ahead on a dribble drive to the hole.  I would rather pass too much than too little in those situations as it also helps mitigate charging calls when you are not going out of control towards the hoop.

Rebounding and defense could improve as well as the shooting--but nothing to panic about yet.

And for heaven's sake can we attempt an alley-oop one time this year?  We have plenty of rim rockers to do this all day.  At least give the other team something to think about.

Just my $0.02

-if this can be done in season, that's great, I have my doubts, I think we will improve in ft shooting simply as JB and TI are better than their current pace, as to the rest of the team who knows?

[Old guy]

For those of you that want to watch the Troy-Pitt game, is available from ESPN free stream here:

http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3453244/troy-vs-pittsburgh

[Old guy]

Pitt wins the game 84-75. I only watched the last 8 minutes or so and Pitt did not appear to have much trouble with Troy.

[Glorydays2013]

That’s only 5 more points than us. We will be fine.