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What An Opener


mrjoelabs

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17 minutes ago, wgstl said:

its probably why we saw hankton at the 5 so much last night, preparing.   But it hasn't looked promising.  Is Diarra that much worse than Hankton? I love Hankton at the 4, probably more than anyone else, but thats it.  Cant be playing that 5.  0 rebounds in 10 minutes. Diarra im sure protects the rim better, and gets you rebounds. 

Hankton has played a total of 10 minutes in his college career at the 5.  (OK, he may have had a garbage minute or two last season without Foreman or French on the floor.)  We need to give him time.  I have no idea what he did in HS, but whatever it was, it wasn't similar to playing the post in D1.  If I recall Hankton came in as a SF (as a solid three point shooter) , and even last season we pushed him to play in the paint as a 4.  This is all new to him.  It may take a year or more for him to be solid.  In my book, Hankton gets a ton of credit for even trying to play the post.  We need to support him in his attempt to handle the post.

I agree with an earlier post that French is our most irreplaceable player.

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13 minutes ago, wgstl said:

its probably why we saw hankton at the 5 so much last night, preparing.   But it hasn't looked promising.  Is Diarra that much worse than Hankton? I love Hankton at the 4, probably more than anyone else, but thats it.  Cant be playing that 5.  0 rebounds in 10 minutes. Diarra im sure protects the rim better, and gets you rebounds. 

we havent seen enough, but my guess is hankton because of some shooting potential further away than a a layup, gives him an at the moment leg up on diarra.  plus while it seems diarra is recovered from his knee injury (not wearing a brace and bounces just fine in warm ups) surely a recovery from what was apparently a pretty serious injury is ongoing and one bad twist or turn could be start over time.  

my opinion is diarra is the long term better solution if we are truly looking for an in the lane big, but who knows.  

one thing is for sure, debating who should be our 10th player is a lot more comforting than arguing who can fill the starting lineup.  

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4 minutes ago, bauman said:

 

Regarding the crowd, not bad for a Tuesday night opener, and I hope the student turnout doesn't end up being a one-night thing.  Hopefully, Saturday (6 PM game time) we get a high-7000 fans in the building.  I know the AD offered $5 tickets for FGCU,  which probably helped.  If we want to be big-time basketball we need to have big-time attendance.  I also concur with whoever posted about the crowd leaving early.  Seriously, people stay till the end to give the team its due, and that goes for the student section too.  What could be so important that you need 10 extra minutes on Billiken game nights?

If the students show up again, I can see the attendance being close to 8000, valpo had a good win last night, and they travel well plus a decent presence in the metro

 

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1 minute ago, billiken_roy said:

we havent seen enough, but my guess is hankton because of some shooting potential further away than a a layup, gives him an at the moment leg up on diarra.  plus while it seems diarra is recovered from his knee injury (not wearing a brace and bounces just fine in warm ups) surely a recovery from what was apparently a pretty serious injury is ongoing and one bad twist or turn could be start over time.  

my opinion is diarra is the long term better solution if we are truly looking for an in the lane big, but who knows.  

one thing is for sure, debating who should be our 10th player is a lot more comforting than arguing who can fill the starting lineup.  

just having 10 worthy players big improvement on first few years of the TFE. 

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3 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

 

one thing is for sure, debating who should be our 10th player is a lot more comforting than arguing who can fill the starting lineup.  

very refreshing

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6 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

one thing is for sure, debating who should be our 10th player is a lot more comforting than arguing who can fill the starting lineup.  

For sure.  It is inevitable that multiple players will be unsatisfied with their playing time.  That's what Coach Ford gets paid to handle.

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29 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

i think this is a great post that a lot of us havent thought much about.   as the competition gets tougher, the need for french to be in the game becomes so so important and really having no backup will be exposed.   bell or hankton or diarra or whomever being able to be a good big will become huge.   

This is why I think Jimmy should stay in the starting lineup. Opponents will go after French early and often trying to put him on the bench for a chunk of time. Let Jimmy help him out on D and get the fouls. Hankton can be called on for a few minutes, but if he has to cover for Has for an extended period we're effed. 

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34 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

foreman was a lot better and credible than hankton, or the current bell or diarra though.   the need for at least one of the three to emerge as a decent enough big is huge.  we know the day will come when french is out early with fouls in a game.  

This is scary. You get one of those games where he picks up 2 quick ones early in the first half  he might as well order some popcorn, because he's gonna be a spectator for 15 minutes or more. Why Bell should continue to start. Let him get the fouls.  

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16 minutes ago, slu72 said:

This is why I think Jimmy should stay in the starting lineup. Opponents will go after French early and often trying to put him on the bench for a chunk of time. Let Jimmy help him out on D and get the fouls. Hankton can be called on for a few minutes, but if he has to cover for Has for an extended period we're effed. 

Yesterday Ford said on Tuesday's with Travis that his starting five isn't necessarily his best five, but the five he needs to start.  That folds in 100% with this comment.

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I think it was about midway into the second half before I noticed I hadn't really seen Jacobs. I know he started but then it was like he did the vanishing act. You folks at the game any observations or comments on his play would be appreciated. 

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6 minutes ago, slu72 said:

I think it was about midway into the second half before I noticed I hadn't really seen Jacobs. I know he started but then it was like he did the vanishing act. You folks at the game any observations or comments on his play would be appreciated. 

well, he took the worlds worst three attempt in the comer that the guy didn't even need to jump to block it. 

Hes average on defense, that will continue to give him minutes, and he doesn't turn the ball over.   But he doesn't create chances for anyone, and passed up a few open looks in the first half.  So far in the exh and last night, hes been very, blah.  He must have hit the 3 late because I dont remember seeing that.  As of now, hes our 6th best guard imo

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2 minutes ago, slu72 said:

I think it was about midway into the second half before I noticed I hadn't really seen Jacobs. I know he started but then it was like he did the vanishing act. You folks at the game any observations or comments on his play would be appreciated. 

I completely forgot about Jacobs as well. Outside of garbage time, I didn't even notice him. He just doesn't have the same killer instinct that Goodwin, Thatch, and French have. First comment my wife made was about Jimmy Bell. She could not believe how big he was. I think JBJ is going to be a valuable asset on this team, even if it doesn't show up in the stat sheet.

Pretty crazy that our roster is so deep now we are forgetting about starting players. We've come along way since the days of only having 3 players on the entire roster and 20 page threads about Aaron Hines turning the ball over.

 

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20 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Yesterday Ford said on Tuesday's with Travis that his starting five isn't necessarily his best five, but the five he needs to start.  That folds in 100% with this comment.

A wise man once said... starting is for high school.

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Just now, wgstl said:

well, he took the worlds worst three attempt in the comer that the guy didn't even need to jump to block it. 

Hes average on defense, that will continue to give him minutes, and he doesn't turn the ball over.   But he doesn't create chances for anyone, and passed up a few open looks in the first half.  So far in the exh and last night, hes been very, blah.  He must have hit the 3 late because I dont remember seeing that.  As of now, hes our 6th best guard imo

And then he committed a stupid foul after his shot got blocked.  I thought he looked below average on D last night. His man was wide open on multiple three pointers.  I wished I would have recorded the game so I could confirm this, but I think Jacobs was the guy Ford was talking about helping when he shouldn’t have last night. I thought I saw on multiple occasions Jacobs trying to get back to his guy as he was shooting a 3.

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58 minutes ago, ACE said:

A wise man once said... starting is for high school.

My only problem with this, believe it or not players take starting as a much bigger deal than anyone else.  A player would be lying if they said they didn't care. Granted, minutes are also a big thing. 

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1 hour ago, Slu let the dogs out? said:

Tuesday season opener kinda sucks. I believe the Seattle game was on a Friday night. Coming off of an A10 tourney win,an  NCAA tourney appearance, and several fresh, local faces, I was a bit disappointed in the attendance last night. Even more strange, it seemed that a large portion of the crowd in the 200s didn't show up until well after tip off. We had two large groups behind us get to their seats after the 8 minute tv timeout.

 

I gotta tell ya, attending these SLU basketball games is one of the more enjoyable sporting experiences in St. Louis:

1) Convenient, cheap parking in Compton garage makes for easy arrival and departure

2) alcohol 

3) non-basketball entertainment for the kids if it's family night at the game (daughter loved watching the cheerleaders)

4) a young team with tons of energy and athleticism

5) reasonable ticket prices

Hard part seems to be getting newbies through the door but once inside, there is a great opportunity to create an entirely new generation of Billikens fans given numbers 1-5 above.  Winning definitely cures all but I do believe that these local players drew several curious fans that weren't necessarily SLU fans prior to last night. I heard a handful of times people ask  where Hargrove and Collins were and what were their numbers were.

I’ve probably said this before, but will again, I wish Midtown of today existed when I was growing up because I would’ve been at Chaifetz religiously. To have a D-1 program at a real college basketball venue nearby would’ve been, as the kids say today, lit.

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20 minutes ago, Slu let the dogs out? said:

 

<Pretty crazy that our roster is so deep now we are forgetting about starting players. We've come along way since the days of only having 3 players on the entire roster and 20 page threads about Aaron Hines turning the ball over.>

I think the faster pace makes it hard to keep track of all that is going on + being exited by our play.

 

 

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36 minutes ago, slu72 said:

I think it was about midway into the second half before I noticed I hadn't really seen Jacobs. I know he started but then it was like he did the vanishing act. You folks at the game any observations or comments on his play would be appreciated. 

See my comments on page 2,above

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25 minutes ago, brianstl said:

And then he committed a stupid foul after his shot got blocked.  I thought he looked below average on D last night. His man was wide open on multiple three pointers.  I wished I would have recorded the game so I could confirm this, but I think Jacobs was the guy Ford was talking about helping when he shouldn’t have last night. I thought I saw on multiple occasions Jacobs trying to get back to his guy as he was shooting a 3.

I think he was talking about Jimerson helping...I thought Jacobs D was fine....

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2 hours ago, almaman said:

Great summation. You are the Layla of Yurimania. Your level headedness after facing your ailment in person encourages all of us to carry forward this season. It proves that is something that can be lived with. The games are our antidote and unlike most ailments this has a distinct term of 4 years. 

Is it too late to get Yurimania's name on the Bob Cousy award list? 

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Just now, bauman said:

BBF, I hope you taped the game last night so you can go back and see that DJ's defense was far from fine.

you don't hold a team to 18 points in the first half, with anyone playing bad defense...his defense in the 2nd half, was't great, but neither was anyone else's....

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