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TF interview with Frank


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23 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

I know every coach wants to play fast, but how fast should we expect this team to play? Since Ford has taken over we have been 331st in adjusted tempo in 2017, 337th in 2018, and 239th last year (Oklahoma State was 334th in 2016 and 238th in 2015), so with depth being an issue his teams have not played fast (to give the full picture from his time at Oklahoma State since I found it easy to search here is his entirety at Oklahoma State - 2016 - 334th, 2015 - 238th, 2014 - 59th, 2013 - 104th, 2012 - 143rd, 2011 - 218th, 2010 - 159th, and 2009 - 36th). It would seem with the skill sets (and deficiencies) of the roster on paper, applying some pressure on defense and playing in transition utilizing a larger rotation would make a lot of sense and obviously with those stats it would be hard to imagine us playing slower. But for me, I want to see it before thinking we are going to run 11 deep with 11 guys playing 15+ minutes a game. With all of the new faces and the makeup of the roster I am really interested to watch this team play and develop. I haven't been to practice and candidly don't know exactly what a Coach Ford team looks like system wise, so I really don't know what to expect. I was just surprised to see Weaver lumped in with the other guys in the 4-11 bucket since I have a tough time seeing him not playing over 25 mpg.

Well, we'll almost certainly be faster but that isn't necessarily the same as fast by everyone's standards.

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12 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Well, we'll almost certainly be faster but that isn't necessarily the same as fast by everyone's standards.

Looking at the fastest teams from last year (as measured by adjusted tempo), Eastern Kentucky was 2nd.

To clarify my position, I also don't care if we play fast, I'm just curious when we hear Ford say he wants to play fast how fast that would even be.

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1 hour ago, TheChosenOne said:

I know every coach wants to play fast, but how fast should we expect this team to play? Since Ford has taken over we have been 331st in adjusted tempo in 2017, 337th in 2018, and 239th last year (Oklahoma State was 334th in 2016 and 238th in 2015), so with depth being an issue his teams have not played fast (to give the full picture from his time at Oklahoma State since I found it easy to search here is his entirety at Oklahoma State - 2016 - 334th, 2015 - 238th, 2014 - 59th, 2013 - 104th, 2012 - 143rd, 2011 - 218th, 2010 - 159th, and 2009 - 36th). It would seem with the skill sets (and deficiencies) of the roster on paper, applying some pressure on defense and playing in transition utilizing a larger rotation would make a lot of sense and obviously with those stats it would be hard to imagine us playing slower. But for me, I want to see it before thinking we are going to run 11 deep with 11 guys playing 15+ minutes a game. With all of the new faces and the makeup of the roster I am really interested to watch this team play and develop. I haven't been to practice and candidly don't know exactly what a Coach Ford team looks like system wise, so I really don't know what to expect. I was just surprised to see Weaver lumped in with the other guys in the 4-11 bucket since I have a tough time seeing him not playing over 25 mpg.

It's pretty unusual for an average starter from a team in the bottom 1/3 of the NCAA  to transfer to a much better team and play the same amount of minutes. There's a spot for such a player in the your rotation but if he's counted on to play 25+ minutes your depth is pretty poor.

If you want to see a realistic minute breakdown for a team that plays 10 guys, check out VCU:

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/virginia-commonwealth/2019.html#all_per_game

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3 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

It's pretty unusual for an average starter from a team in the bottom 1/3 of the NCAA  to transfer to a much better team and play the same amount of minutes. There's a spot for such a player in the your rotation but if he's counted on to play 25+ minutes your depth is pretty poor.

If you want to see a realistic minute breakdown for a team that plays 10 guys, check out VCU:

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/virginia-commonwealth/2019.html#all_per_game

I guess we will see how it plays out. I see Weaver filling a position on our roster where I personally question the depth beyond him (for what it is worth it looks like Eastern Kentucky plays fast (at least they did last year) and he averaged 29.3 and 30.4 mpg during conference play the last two seasons). I also want to see us play a 10 man rotation before assuming that we are going to become a team like VCU (and that minute split you linked seems doable for a lot of teams who lack a lot of true veteran depth) or Arkansas with Mike Anderson or Florida State where 10-11 guys are playing substantial minutes. When I look at our depth I see 12 bodies, but not much returning production, so maybe with the lack of proven production we see a lot of those guys playing (kind of a 10-11 man rotation by default), but I think a primary core will emerge and I see Weaver likely being the next in line behind Goodwin, French, and Thatch. Maybe the new guys can all play from day #1 (or make significant progression from year #1), I just haven't seen many of these kids play much to say with any degree of certainty either way. Maybe 25 minutes is a little high for Weaver, but I see him filling a big hole for this coming season. Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised by newcomers and returning players and other guys are also capable of filling that role. Again, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

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1 hour ago, SLU_Lax said:

I think Perkins is probably in the top 4. Weaver and company will slot somewhere behind him. 

I could definitely see that. I’m not some huge Weaver fan as I’ve never seen him play, he just seems to fill an obvious need (the same could be said for Perkins).

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When was the last time a Billikens team played at an above average tempo? Spoonball? I have no clue whether TFord is genuine or not when he says that but I’ve all but given up hope on a SLU team every playing fast. We’ve been told that so many times at this point (likely irrational I know)

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31 minutes ago, NH said:

When was the last time a Billikens team played at an above average tempo? Spoonball? I have no clue whether TFord is genuine or not when he says that but I’ve all but given up hope on a SLU team every playing fast. We’ve been told that so many times at this point (likely irrational I know)

The last time we had a point guard average over 4 apg was H Waldman. The ability to play fast against good competition is directly related to the quality of point guard play. We're only going to be able to play as fast as Yuri allows us to play, whether that be 12 min or 20 min a game.  Up-tempo offense requires being able to deliver pinpoint passes to players on the move. Otherwise you have to play a more deliberate form of offense, which has been the trademark of Billiken basketball the past 25 years.

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2 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

The last time we had a point guard average over 4 apg was H Waldman. The ability to play fast against good competition is directly related to the quality of point guard play. We're only going to be able to play as fast as Yuri allows us to play, whether that be 12 min or 20 min a game.  Up-tempo offense requires being able to deliver pinpoint passes to players on the move. Otherwise you have to play a more deliberate form of offense, which has been the trademark of Billiken basketball the past 25 years.

Last year the Bills were awful when they tried to run.

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You can afford to play fast when you have real solid rebounding, and real good guards distributing the ball, and real good outside shooters to fill the bucket on the secondary break.

We have had great rebounding...but our guards never leaked out, they stayed in to help.

We now have a fresh who can handle the rock, but once again we do not have a glass cleaning center, so we won’t have a guard and a forward releasing, unless it is a long rebound.

We have not established any record of good outside shooting, so the third aspect of playing fast is missing.

i hope that we can start playing the beautiful game in patches, but I only see it happening when Yuri is in with a couple shooters and Goodwin/French. We may have five cupcake games early in the schedule, and Yuri will need 15-25 minutes a game here to get acclimated to D1 fast break/secondary break windows.

it will be a load for him to learn. Knowing when, and how, to push it(and do well) is a coveted skill. Miller(under Majerus at Utah) and Dee Brown at Illinois we’re the only two effective one man fast breaks I readily remember recently. Almost every pg needs a wingman.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Coach was on the radio yesterday on the new Stalter & Rivers show on 101.1.  Someone else reported on this interview, but it is buried in a thread and I can't find it. I'll put a mini add on here on this radio interview thread.

Mostly old stuff coach reviewed with S & R.  Two items though that he emphasized that haven't been thoroughly digested to date.

1) "Our success will be dependent upon what type leadership Jordan Goodwin, Hasahn French and Fred Thatch develop and show our basketball team."  "And I'm not losing sleep at night on that because I think they are going to be great leaders."

2) "Where we have lost experience from last season, we have added more skill guys."

And he repeated, we can go 10 or 11 deep.  He had said that before.

We all know point 1) is true, but Coach has said it best here.  It is interesting that we pretty much had one primary leader last season in Bess, and now Ford is looking at a three headed leader.  

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25 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Coach was on the radio yesterday on the new Stalter & Rivers show on 101.1.  Someone else reported on this interview, but it is buried in a thread and I can't find it. I'll put a mini add on here on this radio interview thread.

Mostly old stuff coach reviewed with S & R.  Two items though that he emphasized that haven't been thoroughly digested to date.

1) "Our success will be dependent upon what type leadership Jordan Goodwin, Hasahn French and Fred Thatch develop and show our basketball team."  "And I'm not losing sleep at night on that because I think they are going to be great leaders."

2) "Where we have lost experience from last season, we have added more skill guys."

And he repeated, we can go 10 or 11 deep.  He had said that before.

We all know point 1) is true, but Coach has said it best here.  It is interesting that we pretty much had one primary leader last season in Bess, and now Ford is looking at a three headed leader.  

I think it speaks to how highly coach regards Javon Bess. How often is your leading scorer, best defender and most dedicated gym rat the same player?

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speaking of javon.   The pelicans put out a short video on twitter yesterday showing the team working out and bess is in the video receiving passes and shooting off the pass.   i.e. his nba dream remains alive!

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10 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

speaking of javon.   The pelicans put out a short video on twitter yesterday showing the team working out and bess is in the video receiving passes and shooting off the pass.   i.e. his nba dream remains alive!

Good to hear. He'll do what it takes. He's a real character kid. 

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2 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

Coach was on the radio yesterday on the new Stalter & Rivers show on 101.1.  Someone else reported on this interview, but it is buried in a thread and I can't find it. I'll put a mini add on here on this radio interview thread.

Mostly old stuff coach reviewed with S & R.  Two items though that he emphasized that haven't been thoroughly digested to date.

1) "Our success will be dependent upon what type leadership Jordan Goodwin, Hasahn French and Fred Thatch develop and show our basketball team."  "And I'm not losing sleep at night on that because I think they are going to be great leaders."

2) "Where we have lost experience from last season, we have added more skill guys."

And he repeated, we can go 10 or 11 deep.  He had said that before.

We all know point 1) is true, but Coach has said it best here.  It is interesting that we pretty much had one primary leader last season in Bess, and now Ford is looking at a three headed leader.  

link to interview: go to 11:00 hour

https://www.101espn.com/show_notes/stalter-rivers-september-19-2019-it-takes-two-to-replace-jamie-rivers-carey-davis-micheal-young-in/

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Coach had a short interview on KMOX this morning.  Tom Ackerman said that SLU started this St. Louis sports rolling this year with NCAA game, the Blues Cup and now the Cards run.  Nice.

Coach said "This is the most exciting team he has had here, maybe not the best, (that's to be determined) but the most athletic.  Last couple weeks we have been working on pressing a little more.  We will be playing faster, quite a bit faster, than we have been playing because of the numbers and the make up of our team." 

Ackerman reminded the listeners that tomorrow is the College Basketball Tip-Off at the MAC.

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8 minutes ago, Sheltiedave said:

They will only play faster if they do 2 of the 3....can finish better in the paint,  shoot better from the arc with the trailing man, and handle the ball better when pushing hard.

Last year we were horrible at all three.

IMO, 2 of the 3 does not appear to be a problem. You agree?

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They all boil down to point guard play.

I don’t see Goodwin morphing from a delivering the groceries point guard into an incandescent point guard. He will improve incrementally, but we had a former walk-on do pg duty his freshman year, and Ford did his best forcing Isabell into a failed pg experience last year.

Who knows, this may be the year Ford hands him the keys, but I see a four star guard who did not outright get total pg duties his first two years because his other stat stuffing abilities were the stellar traits, and his pg traits were mortal.

Goodwin does not take good lanes on fast breaks. Oftimes he would get too tight to the basket before passing, or pass as the defender was shifting over, or pass and run over the defender. He learned the bull rush break in high school, but it doesn’t work as well in college.

The trail man pass is a rhythm pass, and the timing takes many hours to perfect. While we may get there, it may take getting deep into conference play before it happens.

i do see us taking shots earlier in the time clock if we start creeping up past the 0.92 to 0.96 ppp. Drop the turnover margin, improve the ft and shot %s, and we can start jacking the shots.

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1 hour ago, Sheltiedave said:

They will only play faster if they do 2 of the 3....can finish better in the paint,  shoot better from the arc with the trailing man, and handle the ball better when pushing hard.

Last year we were horrible at all three.

So your saying if we are any better at those 2 0f those 3 things we will likely go past the first round of the Dance? Niiice

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Our best free throw shooter on the team this year that played last year is Hankton, followed by Thatch. 

Come crunch time this year, Perkins, Collins and Jimmmerson better be ready to close out every game, because last year it was totally Bess and Isabell from the line. They were 80% and 70%, Hankton and Thatch were 75 and 60%.

Goodwin at 50% cannot handle the ball in crunch time. French can’t be on the court at 35%. We will be forced into playing beautiful ball, because we can’t play a grinding half court game with horrendous free throw shooting. 

If Goodwin bumps up to 70%, and French to 65%, and we can get a 9 man rotation, that means we have a viable beautiful game and we may dance.

in the past, Ford hated going past seven man rotations for significant     Minutes. It will be interesting to see how he handles the winning vs development trade off.

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