Welcome to SLU Jimmy Bell Jr.!!!

[Pistol]

6 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i can see it now, this is just a setup to start using initials again.  

Give in to the pressure, Roy. Next year is pretty clean:

Juniors: JG, HF, JP

Sophomores: FT, DJ, KH/KCH

Freshmen: YC, GJ, TH, JB

Easy.

[billiken_roy]

8 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Give in to the pressure, Roy. Next year is pretty clean:

Juniors: JG, HF, JP

Sophomores: FT, DJ, KH/KCH

Freshmen: YC, GJ, TH, JB

Easy.

fingers in ears eyes closed tight, LALALALALALALALALALALA

[cheeseman]

1 hour ago, gobillsgo said:

Hey I agree, I’m just trying to temper a bit of the hype. I’m sorry if that makes me a buzzkill, but I bought into the hype 100% before this season, and I think I’m feeling a bit snakebitten.  With that said, I hope we salvage the season with a good run in the A10 tourney, and I hope Jimerson shoots 48% from 3 next year. 

I believe you have the correct approach - nothing wrong with people being excited but that does not mean you have to buy into it.  Preseason predictions for this team was off the charts.  At the beginning I said lets not get too far ahead on this team lets wait for them to prove something.  I even said a NIT bid would be great progress - even I missed it on that.  I am excited about the incoming freshmen but lets remember that we are not Duke so we don't get freshmen who can be difference makers.  Our freshmen have been good when they give you what Thatch has done.  This is a realistic expectation.  Now Jimerson may score more than Fred but if he gets the minutes Fred gets now we should be happy with his progress.  Bell should play just because we only have French so he gets in almost by default unless he is just terrible - Gilmann and Jolly bad.  Perkins will play since our guard numbers are thin and Yuri - well we don't have a PG so he gets in by default also unless he is just horrible.  I like the idea of Yuri and JGood in at the same time - we were most successful when we had to PG type players on the court.

[Box and Won]

I'll just do what I did with Gilllllllmannnnn and do Jimmmmmerson.

[Quality Is Job 1]

2 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Give in to the pressure, Roy. Next year is pretty clean:

Juniors: JG, HF, JP

Sophomores: FT, DJ, KH/KCH

Freshmen: YC, GJ, TH, JB

Easy.

Psst:  There remain 4 more slots to fill, some of which may further confuse the matter.

[cheeseman]

51 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Bell was at 370+ lbs. when he showed up at Bella Vista Prep, so he's down to 275-280 now.

BVP is a very small K-12 prep/charter school. There are only about 60 kids at the HS level. The all-in cost for a resident student - they stay with host families - is about $22,000. The school has been around since 2004 but the national basketball program is only a few years old. There was a prep school called Aspire that attached itself to BVP for the academic side and ran its own basketball program. That program peeled off and relocated to Louisville in 2017, so BVP decided the program hired the previous coach from Hillcrest - the other big national prep basketball program in the Phoenix area - and started its own national prep basketball program. BVP's co-founder and athletic director said the school is an academic one first and foremost, and that it was mainly his decision to split with Aspire and have his own program combined with the school.

Like any other charter school, information is a little harder to come by than with a more established traditional school. From what I can tell, academics are a little more serious at BVP than the others - Hillcrest was at the center of a controversy a few years ago about academics and living conditions, for example - but again, it's hard to get total clarity on what the curriculum is like from a distance.

Zion Harmon is playing for BVP on weekends after being ruled ineligible at Marshall County HS and having his appeal denied. His dad says he's going to stay at MCHS for his junior year but I would imagine that BVP would like to get him out there as a full-time player and student if they're allowing such an odd arrangement. Other BVP players include 2019 Arizona commit Terry Armstrong, 2020 stud Addison Patterson, 2020 recruit Jeron Artest (SLU reportedly showed interest last year at some point), and several other future D-I players.

If BVP is a charter school then why is anybody paying tuition.  Charter schools usually get the per pupil expenditure from the public school district for each of their enrolled students.  The whole idea of a charter school is to give an affordable option to kids/parents other than the public school.  I am just curious - how they can be a private prep school and a charter school at the same time?

[cheeseman]

43 minutes ago, CBFan said:

I promise on this subject not to drive you crazy I will find something else, blue font.

Can I use the excuse I am freezing in Liberal KS?

"blue font"  There is no excuse for being in Liberal KS so no.

[Pistol]

1 minute ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

Psst:  There remain 4 more slots to fill, some of which may further confuse the matter.

I'm confident the staff will be considerate of potential initial conflicts when extending offers. Robert Carpenter poses no potential confusion. The big get for me would be Oton Jankovic. We need our own OJ (he would be the first in program history).

[Pistol]

2 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

If BVP is a charter school then why is anybody paying tuition.  Charter schools usually get the per pupil expenditure from the public school district for each of their enrolled students.  The whole idea of a charter school is to give an affordable option to kids/parents other than the public school.  I am just curious - how they can be a private prep school and a charter school at the same time?

I don't know. Don't shoot the messenger. It's a private school with tuition. I'm sure students are given tuition credits if it operates like a charter school. Source (June 2017).

He said the cost for the national high school players will be about $21,000 a year, which includes tuition and housing. He said that the players will stay with host families, ideally one per family. The host families generally would have children the same age as the players. They don't necessarily have to attend the same school. Brown said those families carefully undergo background checks and finger printing.

...

Bella Vista College Prep still will have varsity basketball teams for boys and girls that will compete in the Canyon Athletic Association. The CAA is a league for charter schools and is not affiliated with the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

[cheeseman]

1 minute ago, Pistol said:

I don't know. Don't shoot the messenger. It's a private school with tuition. I'm sure students are given tuition credits if it operates like a charter school. Source (June 2017).

He said the cost for the national high school players will be about $21,000 a year, which includes tuition and housing. He said that the players will stay with host families, ideally one per family. The host families generally would have children the same age as the players. They don't necessarily have to attend the same school. Brown said those families carefully undergo background checks and finger printing.

...

Bella Vista College Prep still will have varsity basketball teams for boys and girls that will compete in the Canyon Athletic Association. The CAA is a league for charter schools and is not affiliated with the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

I am not shooting you - just curious.  The two terms seem incongruous at least to me.

[wgstl]

just to clarify, Bell has played 5 years of high school/prep ball, right?

[VeniceMenace]

4 hours ago, slu72 said:

Agree, I think a lot of folks are ignoring the newbies defensive skills. Ford puts a premium on D. Anyone have any idea on the D skills of the new guys? We know our 3 primary returnees can play D, so I figure they're locks to start. After that, it's anyone's guess at this point. Yes, we have guys coming in that are scorers, but if they can't play decent D they'll have a hard time earning minutes. 

D is important, agreed...offense, shooting in particular, has been a weakness for this team...which is where people like Jimersonand Perkins could help close the gap.

Still remember Pitino talking about offense separating the good from great teams after they beat SLU in the NCAA tourney to go to the sweet 16...SLU hit zero 3 pointers in that one. 

[3star_recruit]

24 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

I believe you have the correct approach - nothing wrong with people being excited but that does not mean you have to buy into it.  Preseason predictions for this team was off the charts.  At the beginning I said lets not get too far ahead on this team lets wait for them to prove something.  I even said a NIT bid would be great progress - even I missed it on that.  I am excited about the incoming freshmen but lets remember that we are not Duke so we don't get freshmen who can be difference makers.  Our freshmen have been good when they give you what Thatch has done.  This is a realistic expectation.  Now Jimerson may score more than Fred but if he gets the minutes Fred gets now we should be happy with his progress.  Bell should play just because we only have French so he gets in almost by default unless he is just terrible - Gilmann and Jolly bad.  Perkins will play since our guard numbers are thin and Yuri - well we don't have a PG so he gets in by default also unless he is just horrible.  I like the idea of Yuri and JGood in at the same time - we were most successful when we had to PG type players on the court.

My expectation is that one freshman will play 20 minutes a game and three others will play 12-15.  I expect we will sign a grad transfer big and another high school big for a total of five freshmen.  I'm optimistic because the freshmen possess skills we sorely need, not because I expect individual heroics. We just need everyone, upperclassmen included, to play to their strengths.

[Billiken Rich]

1 hour ago, CBFan said:

I promise on this subject not to drive you crazy I will find something else, blue font.

Can I use the excuse I am freezing in Liberal KS?

Liberal Kansas always gets me.  It's kind of like the fictional city Moderate, California.  

 

 

[Taj79]

Name me one SLU freshman who has lived up to the hype outside of Larry Hughes?  Monroe Douglass had growing pains.  So too Roland Gray.  Anthony Bonner.  Kwamain Mitchell.  Wille Reed.  Brian Conklin and Chris Heinrich as seniors were not the same as they were as freshmen.  Carte'Are Gordon showed promised but left before anything was realized.  Claggs and Hmark had growing pains.  They won 5 games their freshman year.  I too was sucked in with it all this year.  Ford's third year.  carte'Are Goron.  Goodwin and Bess back.  Sooper-de-Dooper grad transfers.  After this, I am back to the 'show me' status. 

This year we had two new starters -- Gordon and Isabell -- and look what that took.  Next year, we will have at least two and the guys behind them are raw ... both returning and incoming.  Dayton returns everyone sans Cunningham and has transfers from Michigan, Florida and Nebraska.  Davidson has everybody back.  Mason loses only Livingstone.  St. Joe's has everyone back (Fresh Kimble returned to the court Saturday as the Joeys laced La Salle).  Richmond everyone plus a recovered Nick Sherrod.  Duquesne everyone.  Rhode island everyone.  La Salle everyone but Powell.  Schmitt will do wonders at Olean I am sure.  We will need a lot of pieces to perform well and do so quickly. 

JUCOs are no different.  It always seems to take at least a year for kids to lose the old and embrace the new.  Mo Jeffers was a prime example.  With the exception of maybe David Burns, Donnie Dobbs and Justin Love.  Some don't even survive -- Caswell, Manual, Tadysak, Newbourne, and Ivester. Many are maudlin and pedestrian  ... Kenny Brown, Eberhardt, Frericks.  You just never know.  So allow me to pass on the general giddiness for the class we have right now.

I'll do the usual ... break it down into evaluation segments.  Preseason.  OOC.  Conference.  Tournament time.  This year has taught me never too high, never too low.

 

[Pistol]

21 minutes ago, wgstl said:

just to clarify, Bell has played 5 years of high school/prep ball, right?

Correct, this is his fifth year.

[3star_recruit]

37 minutes ago, Quality Is Job 1 said:

Psst:  There remain 4 more slots to fill, some of which may further confuse the matter.

We have 5 returnees and 5 commits. We have 3 slots to fill.

[billikenfan05]

5 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Correct, this is his fifth year.

So that’s 2 guys that are coming in next year that have played 5 years of high school/prep ball 

[Pistol]

15 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

Jimmy wore #44 in his twitter picture. Was Husak the last #44? Who else wore 44 in Billiken history? Dobbs did right?

Andre Craig was the last, in 2008-2009. Husak wore it before him, from 2004-2008. Others:

Dan Wuebben (1998-1999)

Jamal Johnson (1995-1996)

Eric Bickel (1991-1994)

Tony Manuel (1988-1989)

I'm all for him wearing #44, if that's his choice. It's ready for some new life.

[Pistol]

1 minute ago, billikenfan05 said:

So that’s 2 guys that are coming in next year that have played 5 years of high school/prep ball 

Correct, both Jimerson and Bell are fifth-year players. Perkins has two juco seasons. Hargrove and Collins are the only traditional HS seniors.

[Clock_Tower]

1 hour ago, 3star_recruit said:

You're looking at last year's stats.  Perkins is 40/109 so far this year and that's missing stats for one game.  And he's facing double teams every game.

http://njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2018-19/div1/players/javonteperkinss2n7

3 Star.  Thanks for the update.  I stand corrected.   Glad to see that Perkins may be able to shoot it.  Now, keep in mind that we are currently a bad shooting team and are terrible from the perimeter -- and that is with Bess already making 59 from 3 point this year out of 169. So let's now say that Perkins' confidence and success rate continues next year in the A10 like it currently does in JUCO at SWIC... now if that is case, then Perkins replaces Bess, and if so, we again a are bad shooting team unless Jimmerson,, as a Freshman, can replace Wiley, Isabell and fill this year's poor shooting void.  Coach Ford:  please get us another shooter

[gobillsgo]

5 minutes ago, Clock_Tower said:

3 Star.  Thanks for the update.  I stand corrected.   Glad to see that Perkins may be able to shoot it.  Now, keep in mind that we are currently a bad shooting team and are terrible from the perimeter -- and that is with Bess already making 59 from 3 point this year out of 169. So let's now say that Perkins' confidence and success rate continues next year in the A10 like it currently does in JUCO at SWIC... now if that is case, then Perkins replaces Bess, and if so, we again a are bad shooting team unless Jimmerson,, as a Freshman, can replace Wiley, Isabell and fill this year's poor shooting void.  Coach Ford:  please get us another shooter

I’ll go to my grave beating this dead horse, but I wish we could’ve seen what Ingvi could do with some actual time on the court. I trust Ford’s judgement, though. Small sample size, but I like KCH’s stroke from outside. Could certainly be useful as long as he isn’t a liability on D. 

[WVBilliken]

25 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

We have 5 returnees and 5 commits. We have 3 slots to fill.

We have 4 signed, 1 commit.

[Quality Is Job 1]

25 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

We have 5 returnees and 5 commits. We have 3 slots to fill.

You're right; my brain was stuck on pre-Bell commitment numbers.

[slu72]

3 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

Yuri and Hargrove can play defense. Jimerson can stay in front of his man. Coach Ford has always allowed guys who can score more latitude on defense, going back to his UMass days. He's no different than Spoonhour in that respect.

In you I trust. I remember that video of Hargrove in that Dec tourney after he dunked then racing back on D. That was impressive. As for Jimmerson, I'm hoping he's the rain man or the drought stopper. He comes off the bench to get the offense back on track. Take the Dayton game for example. They're scoring 3 to our every two; in comes Jimmerson to level the playing field.