Next year thoughts

[Pistol]

This is one of the few basketball-related things I think I'm totally irrational about. I concede that the bottom-third teams in D-I kill our ratings and that casual fans don't know the difference, but I hate seeing D-II schools on the schedule. Hate it. @RUBillsFan is right and I'm completely wrong. I just don't like it.

Rick Majerus' 500th win game against Illinois-Springfield. We played a terrible game. He was furious afterward, but had to stand there and pose with the team and pretend to be happy.

Look at these guys' faces. Maybe Conk and Cassity don't care but the restraint on the rest of their faces says "We're about to go back to the locker room and get reamed."

Again, I concede that a 500th win over Coppin State or Stetson isn't that exciting, either, but at least they're allowed to make the NCAA Tournament. 

[AnkielBreakers]

Not to upset this riveting debate, but I am starting to become bullish on Collins for next year. I have never seen him play, and all I have are snippets, but I think he might have a decent 3 pt shot. If that pans out, then I would not be surprised if our 1-3 positions ends up being a guard trio: Collins, Lewis, Goodwin.  It would be a short group, but all that matters is outscoring your opponent.

[thetorch]

I hate the D-II games as well even though they make sense on paper.

As a fan I hate the idea of playing a game that doesn't count.  Now does it make any difference to a team whether player A gets hurt in action against Rockhurst or Miss Valley St? No.  To me it is way worse though.  The idea that you are risking your health against a team with nothing to lose is a poor idea.  

It is hard enough to get up for teams that you know you should beat.  How do you get up for a DII squad, in the middle of the season no less.  The game is almost certain to be a letdown, and not just for athletes.  Are the coaches preparing as hard as they normally would?  Are you even running all your sets in practice leading up to it or in game?  No again.  It devalues the whole season.  

A team only plays 30 some odd games.  Why waste even 1?

We can't play a high profile opponent every night but I don't think you can afford to play an opponent that can't compete with you at all on any night either.

[thetorch]

4 minutes ago, AnkielBreakers said:

Not to upset this riveting debate, but I am starting to become bullish on Collins for next year. I have never seen him play, and all I have are snippets, but I think he might have a decent 3 pt shot. If that pans out, then I would not be surprised if our 1-3 positions ends up being a guard trio: Collins, Lewis, Goodwin.  It would be a short group, but all that matters is outscoring your opponent.

I like Collins too but I've heard so many good things about Thatch coming into this next year.  I predict Thatch's career will mirror Jett's.  He may not be quite as good but he may get really good quicker than Jett did.  At the very least Thatch is our 3rd best player next season and maybe 1st or 2nd by the end of the year.

[almaman]

If no one good will play us in OOC then we should book all D2 schools and let A-10 games account for our RPI

[almaman]

Where u getting Thatch info? Hope you’re correct 

[ACE]

The trick is to find the best buy games you can, which is not easy. One of the best we had in recent years was Murray State. Try to schedule the top team(s) from the OVC, Sun Belt and the Big South - we scheduled Winthrop a few years ago when they were decent. These type of teams won't kill you the way playing the bottom 100 will.

[Slu let the dogs out?]

37 minutes ago, AnkielBreakers said:

Not to upset this riveting debate, but I am starting to become bullish on Collins for next year. I have never seen him play, and all I have are snippets, but I think he might have a decent 3 pt shot. If that pans out, then I would not be surprised if our 1-3 positions ends up being a guard trio: Collins, Lewis, Goodwin.  It would be a short group, but all that matters is outscoring your opponent.

I don't know what I'm talking about but won't the number of minutes Collins plays this season likely depend on whether or not he can effectively defend?

[slu72]

I'm high on Yuri too. I have a feeling he'll be a starter before season's end. 

As for schedule I hope we get 4 P5's (one in a tourney), 5 mids below 150 and 4 against + 150's. We need some cupcakes this year, since we're basically new team. In that top 144 blog,  figure we'll be between 125--110. 

[3star_recruit]

59 minutes ago, AnkielBreakers said:

Not to upset this riveting debate, but I am starting to become bullish on Collins for next year. I have never seen him play, and all I have are snippets, but I think he might have a decent 3 pt shot. If that pans out, then I would not be surprised if our 1-3 positions ends up being a guard trio: Collins, Lewis, Goodwin.  It would be a short group, but all that matters is outscoring your opponent.

Almost every D-1 guard shoots the 3 well in pick up games. Hitting that same shot against a set half court defense is the hard part.

[willie]

4 minutes ago, slu72 said:

I'm high on Yuri too. I have a feeling he'll be a starter before season's end. 

As for schedule I hope we get 4 P5's (one in a tourney), 5 mids below 150 and 4 against + 150's. We need some cupcakes this year, since we're basically new team. In that top 144 blog,  figure we'll be between 125--110. 

Good luck on finding 4 P5's

[Old guy]

I keep on hoping that Jacobs is a surprise next season and becomes part of the regular rotation.

[HoosierPal]

14 minutes ago, willie said:

Good luck on finding 4 P5's

Right, not gonna happen. I’d like a top 1/3 team from the AAC and a top team from the Valley (added to SIUC).

[billiken_roy]

i actually look at it the opposite.   we all know yuri is a good ball handler and passer.   but if he is starting by year end, that to me means that goodwin and/or thatch are still mediocre at best shooters and jimerson isnt the player we thought he could be.   

[slu72]

34 minutes ago, willie said:

Good luck on finding 4 P5's

We had 5 last year. Agreed it's gonna be tough with them expanding their conf schedules. I believe we have at least 1 with Seton Hall. Should get 1 more in some tourney. I'd take 2 bottom feeders. 

[Pistol]

29 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i actually look at it the opposite.   we all know yuri is a good ball handler and passer.   but if he is starting by year end, that to me means that goodwin and/or thatch are still mediocre at best shooters and jimerson isnt the player we thought he could be.   

Or that we have injury problems.

The backcourt is going to have Goodwin, Thatch, and Lewis leading the way. Yuri as a freshman should be a really solid backup. I'm not hanging any hopes for this season on him getting big minutes. Just hoping that he, Jacobs, and Jimerson get meaningful developmental minutes and bring something we need to the floor.

[JMM28]

On 5/23/2019 at 3:15 PM, Pistol said:

I saw how hard it was in my years to schedule games. It's only gotten worse since then for programs that aren't in power conferences, especially the ones that aren't filling buy games.

Some of the difficulties for SLU are self imposed. I’m not sure they’re being realistic on the scheduling front. 

[3star_recruit]

2 hours ago, thetorch said:

I hate the D-II games as well even though they make sense on paper.

As a fan I hate the idea of playing a game that doesn't count.  Now does it make any difference to a team whether player A gets hurt in action against Rockhurst or Miss Valley St? No.  To me it is way worse though.  The idea that you are risking your health against a team with nothing to lose is a poor idea.  

It is hard enough to get up for teams that you know you should beat.  How do you get up for a DII squad, in the middle of the season no less.  The game is almost certain to be a letdown, and not just for athletes.  Are the coaches preparing as hard as they normally would?  Are you even running all your sets in practice leading up to it or in game?  No again.  It devalues the whole season.  

A team only plays 30 some odd games.  Why waste even 1?

We can't play a high profile opponent every night but I don't think you can afford to play an opponent that can't compete with you at all on any night either.

There are D-1 teams who were D-2 teams less than ten years ago that are competing for conference titles. One of those teams, Northern Kentucky, while still in D-2 gave Kentucky everything they could handle when Dustin Maguire transferred there. The top 1/4 of D-2 is better than the bottom 1/4 of D-1 . It's been that way for awhile now.

These kids play in open gym with D-2 players. They know all the good players aren't necessarily playing D-1. 

[Billikenbooster]

2 hours ago, Slu let the dogs out? said:

I don't know what I'm talking about but won't the number of minutes Collins plays this season likely depend on whether or not he can effectively defend?

This

mhg

[cheeseman]

4 hours ago, Pistol said:

This is one of the few basketball-related things I think I'm totally irrational about. I concede that the bottom-third teams in D-I kill our ratings and that casual fans don't know the difference, but I hate seeing D-II schools on the schedule. Hate it. @RUBillsFan is right and I'm completely wrong. I just don't like it.

Rick Majerus' 500th win game against Illinois-Springfield. We played a terrible game. He was furious afterward, but had to stand there and pose with the team and pretend to be happy.

Look at these guys' faces. Maybe Conk and Cassity don't care but the restraint on the rest of their faces says "We're about to go back to the locker room and get reamed."

Again, I concede that a 500th win over Coppin State or Stetson isn't that exciting, either, but at least they're allowed to make the NCAA Tournament. 

Please correct me if I am wrong but wasn't this game the replacement game for SMS when they were to scared to play us and reneged on the agreement?

[Clock_Tower]

20 hours ago, AnkielBreakers said:

Not to upset this riveting debate, but I am starting to become bullish on Collins for next year. I have never seen him play, and all I have are snippets, but I think he might have a decent 3 pt shot. If that pans out, then I would not be surprised if our 1-3 positions ends up being a guard trio: Collins, Lewis, Goodwin.  It would be a short group, but all that matters is outscoring your opponent.

And your opinion that he will have a decent 3 point shot is based upon what?  Nothing you saw or read?

[Clock_Tower]

23 hours ago, RUBillsFan said:

I've gone more in depth on this in the past, but I'm going to continue shouting from the rooftops that playing Rockhurst (or another D2 school) is actually better than playing some no-name DI school.  Rockhurst is likley a much cheaper buy game.  They don't count against the RPI or whatever it is called now.  Most casual fans don't know the difference between bottom tier D1 and D2 teams.

Everyone wants to play Xavier, Butler, Cincinnati, etc. for all of our non-conference games, but that is fantasy.  We are going to have buy games against no name opponents and if those no-name opponents suck too bad it hurts us.  Playing Rockhurst doesn't.  Of course I'd be pissed if our schedule was full of D2 teams, but I'm fine with us playing a D2 team once a year during finals week or whatever to get to the requisite number of home games.

What about the number of wins needed to make the Tourney and get off the bubble?   25 wins vs. 24 or 23 wins?  What about the recent trend of the Committee trying to add back non-number stats (which they feel The Valley abused).   These subjective factors would likely count against us if we scheduled more than one D-2 teams.

[VeniceMenace]

16 minutes ago, Clock_Tower said:

What about the number of wins needed to make the Tourney and get off the bubble?   25 wins vs. 24 or 23 wins?  What about the recent trend of the Committee trying to add back non-number stats (which they feel The Valley abused).   These subjective factors would likely count against us if we scheduled more than one D-2 teams.

SLU is a D1 team and should play D1 teams and beat people. This talk about needing to schedule D2 teams is a bunch of bunk...commit to excellence.

[3star_recruit]

5 minutes ago, VeniceMenace said:

SLU is a D1 team and should play D1 teams and beat people. This talk about needing to schedule D2 teams is a bunch of bunk...commit to excellence.

If being D-1 actually guaranteed a minimum standard of quality, I would agree with you. But it doesn't. There are plenty of D-2 teams that can beat D-1 teams.

The bottom 60 teams or so shouldn't even be in D-1. But these buy game checks are a strong incentive to make the jump. It's easier to get a game with a D-1 team if you can claim D-1 status.

[Clock_Tower]

8 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

If being D-1 actually guaranteed a minimum standard of quality, I would agree with you. But it doesn't. There are plenty of D-2 teams that can beat D-1 teams.

The bottom 60 teams or so shouldn't even be in D-1. But these buy game checks are a strong incentive to make the jump. It's easier to get a game with a D-1 team if you can claim D-1 status.

Yes. But if the general public and college fans who pay to watch games, in person and on tv, and the NCAA Committee, give more weight to D1 wins and have rules of thumb as to a certain number of wins needed to make the big Dance, then reality means nothing - and can actually work against you. And imagine what a loss to a D2 team would do to a program.