Yuri vs. Sincere Carry

[Sheltiedave]

Yuri deserves accolades for leading the charge in what many considered to be a retooling season. We lost all of our seniors, and then we lost half our sophs, but the outstanding play of our newbies, double double time from French and Goodwin, and Jacobs popping at times drove us to the edge of dancing.

I would credit Yuri with putting us about 3 or 4 more wins to the good. We never had to worry about who was going to handle the ball, or get offenses into the desired sets. He allowed everyone the luxury of staying well within their offensive abilities, and kept the offense from stagnating for 2/3 of the season, at which time Perkins hit his stride. Suddenly, rather tight games turned into double digit close out wins.

Development is key now. I hope French continues to drive Bell and Dani to become stronger power players in the paint. I hope Hargrove welds on another 10 pounds of muscle, and challenges French and Goodwin to add midrange shots to their arsenal. French masters a ft form that doesn’t desert him once games start. Strickland and our Swedish connection both bring robust scoring abilities to augment a team primed to fly high.

[BIG BILL FAN]

2 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

You were right about Yuri.  I assumed that our starting lineup would eventually consist of Goodwin, Thatch, Jimerson, Perkins and French and Yuri would be a sparkplug off the bench.   Instead, Thatch was never healthy and Yuri was given the keys by game 2 and Goodwin was used more as a point forward.  Once he got the opportunity, Yuri did exactly what I expected.  I just never thought with the aforementioned lineup he would ever get the opportunity.

He makes everyone around him better...he's the kind of player a coach has to have on the floor....defense is better than i thought, has to improve the ft's, which i think he will..

[Cowboy]

-I give very high marks to Yuri for his toughness, he is one tough hombre, he took charges and in the process got completely run over several times, CFord mentioned his thumbs were messed up and he kept going, well done Yuri,  very very well done

[almaman]

He is quite stoic on the court considering how electric his performance.

[3star_recruit]

4 minutes ago, almaman said:

He is quite stoic on the court considering how electric his performance.

Yuri is our Aaron Miles.

[slu72]

11 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-I give very high marks to Yuri for his toughness, he is one tough hombre, he took charges and in the process got completely run over several times, CFord mentioned his thumbs were messed up and he kept going, well done Yuri,  very very well done

Now those thumbs get seven months to heal up. He said his hands would sometimes become numb due to the taping. Can you imagine what wonderous assists he'll pull off with a pair of healthy hands. As for his toughness, there were times I though he might not get up from some of the hits he took and there were quite a few. But he bounced back from everyone of them. He also turned out to be pretty tenacious on D, which is what I think got him his starting role by game 2. 

Off season work needs to be on his 3 pt shot and develop a little floater/step back jumper on a drive he cuts short. I don't know if he'll ever be a big time scorer, it likely won't be next year with the return of Jimerson and Thatch and the emergence of Perkins, but by his JR year he'll be forced to become more of a scorer. Of course, that's not what he sets out to do, ie score first, as he's all about creating for his teammates. 

You made the all rookie team, Yurimania, and exceeded my every expectation. You're a very special young man, and I look forward to watching a lot of great games in future seasons. Yurimania, catch it, embrace it, and love it! 

[DoctorB]

Young Yuri was just phenomenal, and improved a lot over just a few months.  I am just blown away by how good he is already, he is an elite passer/ court vision guy; yes he makes everyone better... and his few areas needing serious work are already improving, especially improving his 3pt % and cutting down turnovers going forward.  Really, kudos to the staff too; tremendous upside !!

[Old guy]

The great news that should be evident to all of us is that it is not only Yuri that has surpassed expectations. Perkins has surpassed them as well. In a more modest level so did Hargrove and Bell. Jimerson already  surpassed them in a few games this year. All of these players are coming back next year, as are Goodwin and French, which are great. Jacobs improved a lot and will also be back. We are going to have a great team going on forward.

[slufanskip]

The first thing that hits me about Yuri is his vision. He's just able to see things faster than everyone else. I've seen more WOW passes from Yuri this season than I've seen in the last 20 years combined. In addition his instinct to push the ball quickly up the court to the right person at precisely the right moment is amazing. If hockey assists counted in basketball Yuri would have many more assists than he has now. Some posters have expressed they want him to cut down on turnovers and I agree to a small extent, just not at the expense of pushing the envelope. It's easy to say "that's a pass he shouldn't have made" after the fact but if he quits trying to make that pass we lose the best version of Yuri. Where he needs to cut his turnovers is he gets a little nonchalant at times and makes a simple pass poorly. 

Next is as others have noted is his toughness. I'd bet Yuri took or attempted to take double the charges of anyone else on the team and he always gets up. We've seen him get clobbered and he just gets up and makes the next play. 

I've fallen in love with watching JGood play but I think in 3 more years Yuri will be my favorite Billiken if he continues to progress as I believe he will

 

[Clock_Tower]

All good comments.  I am definitely on the Yuri train and enjoy and am enjoying the ride.  Not disagreeing.- maybe just a tweak here or there or a different emphasis

Shelti.   great comments though I would give Yuri more than 3-4 wins for him alone (though I get your point and agree with you) for the reason that Yuri was not only good but also consistent and therefore allowed Goodwin to be the non-traditional PG all year and not have to shift back and forth and therefore detract from Goodwin's game.   Guess I like Goodwin being a Point Forward (as 3 Star likes to say) along with Yuri as PG.

Still not buying into the whole "pass first" PG talk.  Yuri needs to score just like every other player does. Yuri carried his HS team in all aspects - including scoring and he will score for us - just not his Freshman year.  I get it.  Yuri got a pass from me on scoring this past year - though I wished he could have scored more out of necessity.  Next year?  Maybe though we will have a lot more options.   Again, though, Yuri needs to score enough to keep defenses honest and make his man guard him and sag off for a double team on someone else.  Again, when a guy cannot do one thing, I get the desire to emphasize another but it still makes me bristle.  Yes, Yuri made others around him better and yes, Yuri hid a lot of flaws from our poor perimeter shooting offense (which we saw much of last year and which Jimerson helped to cure this year - especially with help from Jacobs and Weaver) and again, Yuri allowed our other guys (Goodwin, Jacobs, Weaver) not spend time/energy learning/running the PG

72   Great points about Yuri's toughness and injuries to his thumbs (and I know you also mean those wrists which were both taped up the whole year - or at least close to it).  A healthy Yuri next year... with all of this year's experience... and with a full offseason to rest, heal and improve.   Wonder if he just shuts it down for 2 - 3 months fully and then starts his Conklin summer?

DocB and Skip.  Totally agree.  The vision, the pushing of the offense, the passes... what more can anyone say other than WOW - thank God he's on our team.  And yes, Skip, I am less concerned about his turnovers than others.  Many are/were Freshman turnovers.... driving into the lane, defense does not react as he thought, no one open... turnover.  But yes, what really got me upset, were those careless ones like the toss he gave from our own FT line to center court where the ball was intercepted by Rhode Island (I think I have the right game in my head) who made a layup to cut our lead down to 4 points with only a little time left (2 minutes?) only to have Hargrove then hit that 3 pointer to go back up by 7 and us hang on for the win.  

[billiken_roy]

i admit i was not convince yuri could play on this level because of his very small size.   at least not this year.   maybe with some maturing and weight room work in a couple of years he could fill a role.   i saw him a lot in high school and honestly loved watching him play.  but we all know high school is just physically another level and i did not think he translated to an A10 or higher level.  

i gladly now admit i was wrong and expect him to grow and get even better.   we might be looking at the next ernie digregorio who was the best small pass first point guard i ever saw.  and as pointed out above, while his passing was special, the most impressive aspect of yuri collins season imo was his ability to time and time again stand there and take charges and get right back up.   GD he is tough.   yuri collins probably had more to do with this team over achieving expectations than any one player.   

perkins getting full time minutes was probably the other aspect that brought this team up another level.   he proved at the juco level he was a scorer.   anyone that saw him at swic knew he was a scorer.   what i didnt expect with perkins is that he would eventually play more than ole defense as well.   when he and hargrove finally used their athletic talent and learned at this level they had to at least stay between their man and the basket and not just run along side their man, the defense really came together.   yes perkins is a scorer.  but perkins playing defense along with hargrove playing defense was the aspect they contributed to enable the team to go to another level.   

jimmerson coming back next year a year wiser and stronger will be dynamic.   i dont know how many remember, but i predicted at the beginning of the season before jimmerson even played a game minute for the billikens he would shoot 50% from the 3 point line.   he didnt do that, but i think we all saw the potential of the young man.   he can shoot it and who doesnt believe that will get even better?   

no need to talk about the two best players and the rocks of the team.   they are special and will undoubtedly go down as top 10 billikens of all time.   i just hope last game next year, the real fans of the billikens actually ALL stay to cheer and thank jordan goodwin and hasan french.   we may never see unique players like the two of them ever again and the success of their four years is a lot because of what they have and will bring to the billikens.

love this team.   they definitely got me through a difficult last couple of months personally and i thank them and coach ford for all the success the saint louis billikens brought to the table.  Ill never forget it. 

[brianstl]

The last 5 games for Yuri were really something. He averaged 7.8 assist per game with a better than 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. He shot 50% from the 3 and 75% from the line.  In the games in that stretch against VCU, Rhode Island and the Bonnies he totaled 28 assists against 10 turnovers.