Taj79 Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 ... got exactly what I expected to get. We jumped out and stayed with them, only to see the lead evaporate on a desperate three right before the half. This then set the tone for the second half and the team that could shoot won. I'm not saying Dayton can shoot, but they did so yesterday and we did not. They scored 30 points from three and we scored 12. That's minus 18. They scored 12 from the line, us four. Add in another minus 8 and we are now down 26. We swam uphill the whole game; we never traded baskets because they got three for every one of our two. I thought they were two, relatively even teams and even though we won by 13 at our place, they could have (and did) easily turned that over at Dayton. News flash: we will not win in Siegel and we will not win in Olean. Not this team; not this year. The fact that we have 17 wins is amazing given our lack of skills. We have heart, determination and hustle but you still need the round orange thingie to go through the orange hoop thingie and we are severely lacking there. Embrace it. What I found disturbing is Crutcher shoots a set shot, from the hip. He needs space to get that off and yet he got off 8 of them making 4. Yeah, Davis made three and Mikesell two but Crutcher got that bandwagon going with the bomb right before half and kept it up from there. I also got the feeling (and this wasn't the first game like this either) that Crutcher wanted to shove the stick way up Isabell's butt. And he did it. I know how hard it is to guard an offensive guy who knows where he's going and all you can do is react but Isabell's demeanor seems to encourage guys to eat him up. Just saying. Hey you got to have moxie and swag but TI's defense suffers in that challenge. And for those of us who really do hate Dayton, they have four impressive transfers sitting out this year. I expect them to be league favorites next year already. Goodwin ate Mikesell's lunch on the drive-and-dunk. Once. That was it. If Jordan can't shoot then all he has is the drive. He better develop it more. It worked for Jett. Besides the dunk and the prayer heave-three, Goodwin made one shot. ONE. Call me excited for next year now. Foreman, despite the five turnovers, is a beast against Dayton. Where is that in all other games? French's fouls were downright ridiculous. Especially four and five. I say get your money's worth big fella ----- and some of the others were exactly what happens, the initiated contact was ignored. Bess was horrible. And yes, everyone is entitled to an off night. Problem is we can't afford it at all. BUT --- if Javon's has a 50/50 night ---- it was only an 8-point loss. I saw two evenly matched teams that had one win because they just shot better from distance, that's all. Welmer was on the bench dressed ready to go. I didn't expect to see him but good for him. Wiley is hurt again ---- imagine that??! Jacobs was useless (give it up Nick!) and Hankton tried and made one decent play on the defensive breakup. This team is what it is, will likely be 10 and 8 in conference, finish seventh and play Rhode Island Thursday night in Brooklyn. Win that and play Davidson Friday. Next year we likely return Goodwin, French, Thatch and Hankton. We add Perkins, Collins, Hargrove and Jimerson. Men ----- the Bat Signal is lit and we desperately need help. We proudly wore our blue and Billiken hockey jerseys in the expensive seats with the sweater vest crowd. They are as smug as Xavierites used to be. But they won and did not challenge our intrusion. AGB91 likes this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Time to build from the ground up, Travis. Face it, we all discounted the A10 this year. It's a tough conference and looks like next year will be a whole lot tougher. Taj Mahal 79 covers it for us and best I can tell a lot of teams are coming back in toto. Five open scholarships plus 3 incoming FR and one JUCO? Well, we got that minutes available going for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 1 hour ago, slu72 said: Time to build from the ground up, Travis. Face it, we all discounted the A10 this year. It's a tough conference and looks like next year will be a whole lot tougher. Taj Mahal 79 covers it for us and best I can tell a lot of teams are coming back in toto. Five open scholarships plus 3 incoming FR and one JUCO? Well, we got that minutes available going for us. Four open scholarships. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 9 hours ago, Quality Is Job 1 said: Four open scholarships. so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 I was in section 311, row M, seats 3-4 with my brother-in-law. Got lucky; found both of these and a parking pass on Craigslist for $50. Nosebleeds were going for that much apiece, so this was a nice find. Guy who sold them to me was next to us and did a double take when he saw our SLU shirts. We were well behaved but didn't make friends. The UD Arena renovation is on Phase II of III, but I'm not sure what the rest of the renovations are. They've spruced the place up quite a bit. It's a lot more inviting from the outside, all brick and glass instead of the gray aluminum shell that it used to be. They added windows at the back of the 400s (way up in the wings) so the nosebleeds aren't as much of a black hole visually. The concourses are brighter but unfortunately not much bigger so it's still pretty crowded. The whole arena has new seats; I had padding in the 300s, which was unexpected and nice. Overall, it makes a huge difference so I'm interested to go back next season and see what the final product is. For a while, it looked like our defense was going to keep us in this one; we had a 17-9 lead for 3 minutes and a 19-9 lead with 6:11 left in the first half until Mikesell's 3 the next possession started a 13-2 run for UD to finish the half. Crutcher's 3 at the end felt like a backbreaker. And then of course he was unconscious for a while after that. Isabell couldn't check him and it felt like he had 30. I'm not sure what the refs had against French, but at least 2 of his fouls - including the fifth - were total phantom calls. The tie-up in the first half was garbage, too. He literally pulled back on the last one so as not to touch the guy and they still blew the whistle. College refs are so, so bad. This needs to be priority #1 for the NCAA in terms of gameplay. The officiating is out of control bad. Another dreadful day from the FT line, but that's to be expected. They put French on the line a few times in a row. Foreman had another big point night against UD because their defense leaves nothing but opportunities. That said, he was pretty bad overall. 5 turnovers for a big man is atrocious, and it felt like 10. He coughed it up with little or no pressure consistently and should've had closer to 25 points. Goodwin needs to take it in strong more. I don't know why he doesn't. He had one that way and looked great. He recognized the mismatch and went for it. Bess couldn't hit the ocean with his jumper. He's so hurt. It's hard to watch. Isabell was taking it with confidence and scoring more efficiently than usual - and had 7 assists to 1 turnover, which is amazing - but he was a liability on defense and their runs came at his expense. Overall, I'll take this game from him but it's a shame it had to come on an afternoon when no one else was on. My BIL and I said Ryan Mikesell is the Mikesell's of potato chips (Not sure if this is just a local brand, but Mikesell's makes the blandest, weakest chips you've ever had. By the way, ESPN has the wrong photos for a bunch of Dayton players. Personal favorites: Mikesell and Toppin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 -we seem to have patented the scoring drought as a program, not just under CFord, I would like to lose this characteristic and the sooner the better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billikenfan05 Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 27 minutes ago, Cowboy said: -we seem to have patented the scoring drought as a program, not just under CFord, I would like to lose this characteristic and the sooner the better That's just basketball... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgeldmacher Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 17 hours ago, Taj79 said: The fact that we have 17 wins is amazing given our lack of skills. We have heart, determination and hustle but you still need the round orange thingie to go through the orange hoop thingie and we are severely lacking there. Embrace it. This is a good assessment of the team this year. A little bit better shooting would make us a lot better team, but we just are who we are. Also, motivating a group of guys to hustle, play hard defense, and out rebound the other team is something that a good coach does. Consistently hitting shots is something that good players do. Our problems are personnel related. Good write up, Taj. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bay Area Billiken Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 3 hours ago, Cowboy said: -we seem to have patented the scoring drought as a program, not just under CFord, I would like to lose this characteristic and the sooner the better It's the Billiken Lull, a staple of SLU Basketball for as far back as I have closely followed the team, which goes back to the late 1970's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cgeldmacher Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 6 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said: It's the Billiken Lull, a staple of SLU Basketball for as far back as I have closely followed the team, which goes back to the late 1970's. But that's like when someone complains that they're team is inconsistent. "If we could only be more consistent, we'd be great." That's what bad teams are....inconsistent. Similarly, basketball teams that aren't as good as the teams they are playing have scoring droughts that lose them games. The problem is not that they have scoring droughts. The problem is that they have talent that sometimes during a game finds it hard to score. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 27 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said: It's the Billiken Lull, a staple of SLU Basketball for as far back as I have closely followed the team, which goes back to the late 1970's. And they've been personnel related going back that far. I realize that you need to be able to rebound and defend but I think coaches across the board underrecruit shooters and great passers. A team that can score 75 a game doesn't need to grind it out. We may have had 2 teams average that much in 30 years. A scoring power forward, a point guard and a platoon of three star shooters will win you a ton of games in the A10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 15 hours ago, Quality Is Job 1 said: Four open scholarships. @Littlebill, if this factual post is a "bad post," then are you saying you want someone currently slated to suit up for the Bills in 2019-20 to leave? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 43 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said: And they've been personnel related going back that far. I realize that you need to be able to rebound and defend but I think coaches across the board underrecruit shooters and great passers. A team that can score 75 a game doesn't need to grind it out. We may have had 2 teams average that much in 30 years. A scoring power forward, a point guard and a platoon of three star shooters will win you a ton of games in the A10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Scoring droughts are why every coach stresses Defense. It's an established fact that even good teams can have a drought. So, you rely on your defense to make sure things don't get out of hand, or as a way to create some offense off of TOs. There's a reason Rick wrote Defend and Rebound on the white board before every game rather than make 3's and shoot well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 We have scoring droughts because we can't shoot. We are one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the country because we are a team of poor shooters. Hopefully we are curing some of this with next years class. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlebill Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 3 minutes ago, Littlebill said: Wiley Bess Foreman Isabell Welmer Those are facts Except that it's not just those 5 scholarships being handed down to newcomers. We also lost Santos, Ingvi, and Gordon. So that's a total of 8 scholarships from this season available for next, and we have 4 commitments: Perkins, Jimerson, Hargrove, and Collins. 8 - 4 = 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlebill Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 2 minutes ago, Pistol said: Except that it's not just those 5 scholarships being handed down to newcomers. We also lost Santos, Ingvi, and Gordon. So that's a total of 8 scholarships from this season available for next, and we have 4 commitments: Perkins, Jimerson, Hargrove, and Collins. 8 - 4 = 4. Yep - I backed off. I was wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 2 minutes ago, Littlebill said: Yep - I backed off. I was wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 52 minutes ago, slu72 said: Scoring droughts are why every coach stresses Defense. It's an established fact that even good teams can have a drought. So, you rely on your defense to make sure things don't get out of hand, or as a way to create some offense off of TOs. There's a reason Rick wrote Defend and Rebound on the white board before every game rather than make 3's and shoot well. No doubt you need to play defense. But you don't need a squad of sculpted athletes who can't shoot to play good defense. You can play solid defense and recruit good shooters at the same time. What I do advocate is reserving one scholarship for a defensive stopper, to harrass truly special offensive players. But most college teams just aren't that great offensively. I'll take my chances with averaging 75 ppg and above average defense instead of having to hold teams under 65 every game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiseAndGrind Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 holy sh i t - 8 schollies for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierPal Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 23 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said: holy sh i t - 8 schollies for next year. We are maybe the oldest, or 'most experienced' team in the A10 and we know we will be losing a lot of experience heading into next season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 10 minutes ago, HoosierPal said: We are maybe the oldest, or 'most experienced' team in the A10 and we know we will be losing a lot of experience heading into next season. And experience can be a misleading stat when our upperclassmen are all transfers, two of whom are playing their first seasons with SLU. It'll be interesting next year with 0 returning seniors and 2 returning juniors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlebill Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 2 hours ago, Pistol said: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoosierPal Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 1 hour ago, Pistol said: And experience can be a misleading stat when our upperclassmen are all transfers, two of whom are playing their first seasons with SLU. It'll be interesting next year with 0 returning seniors and 2 returning juniors. I don't know what metrics Kenpom uses to calculate experience, but I assumed it was D1 experience, so Bess, et. al. would have 3 years at the start of the season. If you only count 'SLU years', we would have had only 5 years at the start of the season. Next year we could be one of the youngest teams in the league. If anyone has a subscription, let us know how experience is calculated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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