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Fordham from da' Couch .......


Taj79

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Not only is it 'tough being a Billiken fan' I would say that it I not for the weak of heart (and or bladder).  It was obvious from the get-go that Fordham was going to dare us to beat them from outside and would not budge from their employment of the zone last night.  get ready -- here comes the rest of the A10.  If it was a minor possibility before, it will be the defense of choice from here on out.  I just don't understand how we could not attack that weak effort with entry passes to the middle.  It worked at times and then other times we just seemed to be content to pass from one side of the court to the other and take late shot clock threes.  We all knew Godwin would flame out ---- four-for-four was a great start and, unfortunately, a sad end.  Bess was so-so but hit the big one when we needed it.  Isabell and Wiley went a combined 2-for-11 but Isabell's one was also huge.  An entry to the middle does require the receiver know what to do with the ball.  Everyone who put the ball on th efloor in that area had it stripped at leas tone -- French, Foreman, Bess, Goodwin.  I like Bess and/or Hankton taking the pass and popping the shot.  We cannot have Foreman pop in there because he will dribble and he will turn it over.  Hasahn has to recognize the difference from the zone and the man -- mainly because of the strip stuff going on. 

Observations:  I thought we should have pounded it inside more.  No one on Fordham could handle French.  Bunting was nothing but a flopper.  The Fordham announcers even knew as much.  Eyisi and Ohams were stick figures.  Overall, we did a nice job containing Honor and in reality, Portley hit only two threes --- big ones yes and certainly timely.  And then Fordham rode the wave of emotion to an almost upset.  I got a kick out of the announcers talking about how beating us would be a watershed moment for the Fordham program and get them on track to succeed.  Been there, done that, and no ... that is not the case.  Not when you go out and lose to Main and Houston Baptists and all the others.  I thought out defense was terrible.  We did make some nice halftime adjustments but still Thatch and Godwin were getting beat off the dribble and DJ Foreman can't stay with anybody.  I thought with Fordham's lack of size and out guard's ability to rebound, Thatch should have replaced Foreman much sooner.  With St. Joe's up next with its bevy of Euro-fours, Foreman will be tested again.  We nee dhim to guard a big better than he guards a small. 

Wiley is a mess right now.  Part of me recognizes the need for a shooter to keep shooting but Dion is just so bad right now.  I know the injury is tough but that has been his MO for three years prior.  I am content to continue to play I tout but eventually, Ford is going to have to cut bait with the mercenary and get his long-term commitment to Ingvi going (I think).  We cannot afford many nights without Hankton --- we need the minutes.  Luckily, Fordham had no inside game, we totaled 11 fouls, and French and Foreman only had two each.  I don't know what to make of Jacobs.  Someone said in the GDT that he looked "scared."  I can't believe that but his turnovers are very ugly and very unforced.  I though this lone three-ball was going to hit a rafter.  Bottom line:  we have NO bench.  We aregoing to have to get by with smoke and mirrors --- Hankton for maybe 15 minutes a game, Thatch maybe a half.  But Wiley and Jacobs are just plain scary right now.  We need to be 8 and 0 going to Rhode Island.  The roughest one there will be on the road at Duquesne.  They'll all be rough given our current status.  Next man up --- St. Joe's.

But 4 and is 4 and 0. 

As you may have seen, St. Joe's got off the schneid, taking down Davidson on Hawk Hill last  night 61 to 60.  There is ugly basketball all across the A10 folks.  When I talked about St. Joe's early on, I warned how an injury or two could easily strike the Fightin' Martelli's hard.  It has happened.  In the Duquesne game, 6'8" junior Euro-four Chekko Olivia was lost for the year with a dislocated knee.  He was averaging about a half per game and nearly 4 ppg but the gruesomeness of the injury plus his teammates carrying him screaming off the Palumbo court, was a huge mental blow to the psyche of a team, picked to finish high in the A10, but then standing at 0 and 3.  In addition to Oliva, second-leading scorer and point guard Lamar Kimble suffered a broken hand against the Dukes.  He is out indefinitely and missed last nights game against Davidson to start. 

Heretofore little used Chris Clover went off on Davidson last night making 4 of 5 threes including what turned out to be the game winner with just over a minute to play.   SJU went up by the one and then Davidson just chunked it along ---- Frampton missed a layup at the end of almost a full sho c lock. Brajkovic rebounded, was fouled and missed the front end of a one-and-one.  Grady then committed a quick foul but Bynum missed the front end of his one-and-one.  Gudmundsson rebounded and after a timeout, Grady missed a short jumper on the right baseline.  Brajkovic came over the back but no foul was called and Brajkovic knocked the ball off a St. Joe's player with about 5 seconds to go.  Davidson used it last time out.  Interestingly, on both occasion, Grady inbounded the ball.  Because McKillop then sets not one but two screens for Grady to run around for the last shot.  And he missed again from the foul line.  KiShawn Pritchett rebounds and got a shot off that would have counted but it bounced off the rim.  Frampton went 4-for-8 from three;' the rest of the Wildcats were 5 for 20.  A10 leading scorer Charlie Brown was held to 11; Grady was also held to 11 while Gudmunsson had 14. 

As we go into Friday's game, interesting that the Hawks are hurting.  However, they do have the A10's leading scorer and a case is being made for Jared Bynum as Newcomer of the Year.  Chris Clover stepped up but was that an aberration?  Longpre and Funk have been terrible in their sophomore slumps so Martelli is now using 6'7" Senior Mark Lodge more.  For La Salle, kshoe asked if some new faces had made the floor and this is the case at St. Joe's as well.  USF transfer Troy Holston played well over a half last night and added 11 points off the bench. 

Can't wait for the next version of heart failure.  Trying not to get too high, or too low.

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Didn't get to see it, and could only follow on the Fordham Live Stat Sheet. Still haven't figured out the mystery to getting games on ESPN+. I got one this year on the SLUBillikens site for free, but it seems now it's pay for subscription or pay per game. The latter's a better option for me.

I thought maybe our luck had run out when FU went up by 5 w/ 4 min left, but these Billikens are fighters and came storming back. They just seem to do enough to win these games. Eventually, this will catch up to us. I certainly hope JGood's tailbone is not serious. Those can be very painful. And, I'll repeat Taj Mahal 79's request for any info on Hankton's injury.

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considering how good of a shooter hankton is, i know this may come as a shock, but he was what was missing last night.   a tight zone with no outside pressure was begging for a hankton to be on the wing shooting.   ford tried to substitute wiley but that obviously didnt work out too well. 

bottom line we won.   i give great praise to higher powers that goodwin and thatch made those free throws down the stretch.   so mote it be. 

cgeldmacher likes this
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10 minutes ago, BillIkenFan_Dan said:

Pretty sure one of the espn+ announcers said that Hanktons ankle simply flaired up, should be good by Friday. 

Coach Ford said it is an existing injury that got worse after Monday's practice.  He didn't say anything about his status.

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2 hours ago, slu72 said:

Didn't get to see it, and could only follow on the Fordham Live Stat Sheet. Still haven't figured out the mystery to getting games on ESPN+. I got one this year on the SLUBillikens site for free, but it seems now it's pay for subscription or pay per game. The latter's a better option for me.

I thought maybe our luck had run out when FU went up by 5 w/ 4 min left, but these Billikens are fighters and came storming back. They just seem to do enough to win these games. Eventually, this will catch up to us. I certainly hope JGood's tailbone is not serious. Those can be very painful. And, I'll repeat Taj Mahal 79's request for any info on Hankton's injury.

I purchased ESPN+ after the 1 week trial was over so you have to purchase it.

What I struggle with is my computer will not play the games so the wife and I had to watch it on my phone while listening to Bob and Earl.

ESPN+ is about 5 dollars a month and you can cancel anytime.  Once the season ends I will cancel it then buy it again next college basketball season.

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50 minutes ago, CBFan said:

I purchased ESPN+ after the 1 week trial was over so you have to purchase it.

What I struggle with is my computer will not play the games so the wife and I had to watch it on my phone while listening to Bob and Earl.

ESPN+ is about 5 dollars a month and you can cancel anytime.  Once the season ends I will cancel it then buy it again next college basketball season.

It looks like we have two remaining games that won't be televised:

At Duquesne - 1/23

At Bonaventure - 3/9

Is there any way to know if these games will be shown on ESPN+?

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1 hour ago, CBFan said:

I purchased ESPN+ after the 1 week trial was over so you have to purchase it.

What I struggle with is my computer will not play the games so the wife and I had to watch it on my phone while listening to Bob and Earl.

ESPN+ is about 5 dollars a month and you can cancel anytime.  Once the season ends I will cancel it then buy it again next college basketball season.

Your computer should be able to play the games through ESPN.com on your computer, not through ESPN3 or ESPN360 (or whatever it is now called). I have had no problems. 

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56 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

It looks like we have two remaining games that won't be televised:

At Duquesne - 1/23

At Bonaventure - 3/9

Is there any way to know if these games will be shown on ESPN+?

Look at our schedule on the left side of this page: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/139/saint-louis-billikens

You'll see a small play symbol (right-facing triangle in a small rectangle) in any game that will be available through WatchESPN or ESPN+. You'll know it's ESPN+ if there is no other network listed next to it. You'll know it's WatchESPN if there's an ESPN network next to it - both St. Joe's games are on ESPN2, for example.

So the short answer is yes, both of those games are on ESPN+, along with Richmond (1/30) and Duquesne (3/6). Both St. Joe's games are on WatchESPN and ESPN2. 7 other games are on CBS Sports Network. And somehow the George Mason game (3/2) isn't on anything, although maybe someone will pick it up.

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Thank you I will try that it was a site to see the wife and I staring at the phone.  One good thing Bob and Earl were about 10 seconds ahead so we could look away if nothing happened.

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4 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

considering how good of a shooter hankton is, i know this may come as a shock, but he was what was missing last night.   a tight zone with no outside pressure was begging for a hankton to be on the wing shooting.   ford tried to substitute wiley but that obviously didnt work out too well. 

bottom line we won.   i give great praise to higher powers that goodwin and thatch made those free throws down the stretch.   so mote it be. 

Hankton showed a quick flash to the paint & pop vs UMASS; he has the speed and a quick soft release to get that shot often, but it takes timing - probably an automatic part of the offense with RM coaching ...

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7 minutes ago, Major Majerus said:

Hankton showed a quick flash to the paint & pop vs UMASS; he has the speed and a quick soft release to get that shot often, but it takes timing - probably an automatic part of the offense with RM coaching ...

i just wanted someone to make a shot last night.  after the first 8 minutes that didnt happen much.

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CBFan, I have had problems in the past trying to watch reports and presentations in certain browsers. Usually the solution is to try to open the presentation using a different browser. I have Edge, Chrome, and Firefox in regular use and usually one of these three will do the trick. Notice that I am talking about business presentations, not ESPN+, but I believe some browsers can do certain things that others cannot.

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28 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Look at our schedule on the left side of this page: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/team/_/id/139/saint-louis-billikens

You'll see a small play symbol (right-facing triangle in a small rectangle) in any game that will be available through WatchESPN or ESPN+. You'll know it's ESPN+ if there is no other network listed next to it. You'll know it's WatchESPN if there's an ESPN network next to it - both St. Joe's games are on ESPN2, for example.

So the short answer is yes, both of those games are on ESPN+, along with Richmond (1/30) and Duquesne (3/6). Both St. Joe's games are on WatchESPN and ESPN2. 7 other games are on CBS Sports Network. And somehow the George Mason game (3/2) isn't on anything, although maybe someone will pick it up.

Gracias.  It looks like Mason will be on NBC Sports, per SLUBillikens.com. 

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3 hours ago, Box and Won said:

It looks like we have two remaining games that won't be televised:

At Duquesne - 1/23

At Bonaventure - 3/9

Is there any way to know if these games will be shown on ESPN+?

this sucks it's 2019 fgs. Love Rammer n Earl but not watching was frustrating last night although maybe no more than watching :) I assume there would be no watch parties about town?

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