2020 - 2021 SLU on the Radio / TV

[slufanskip]

On 2/28/2021 at 2:21 PM, RiseOfTheBillikens said:

Ill never understand trolling little ole slu billikens basketball board. Like... You have to have other more important things going on in your life right?

You would think but the truth is loneliness is far more common than you think and some actually don't have a real life. We should be here for them. 

[HoosierPal]

Coach called into the Press Box from Richmond.  On Jimerson, Coach said he played great defense against UMass, getting two loose balls.  UMass locked on him, opening up things for other guys.  As long as plays defense and gets into the mix, he will be fine.

Every year French has played his best basketball at the end.  Have seen a difference in French in the last few games.  After the pause, he wasn't really trying to block shots.  He was sluggish, but now he is getting back into the shape that he needs to dominate games.

Okoro started practicing with the team 3 weeks ago. Still no contact drills.  He wants to learn, he is always asking questions. He is one of the faster players on the team, he can run the floor.  Thinks he will score more here than he did at Oregon.

TJ Hargrove, he is playing his best basketball right now.  Asked him to continue with the hustle plays and not be concerned with scoring. 

Perkins has not been 100% healthy since he twisted his leg earlier this season.  He wants a great last year, and he is in no hurry to leave. 

[HoosierPal]

Jerry Palm preceded Coach on KMOX Sports on a Sunday.

Palm:  7 Big 12, 9 Big 10 in.  Bid stealers - Duke and Kentucky have to win their tourney.  Loyola not a sure in, Drake needs to win today.  SLU out for now.  Two losses to Dayton and one to LaSalle are bad.  Everything SLU did good was done at home and not on the road.  Palm sees nothing wrong with SLU getting another game in the next week unless there is a A10 Conference rule against it.

Coach:  "We got beat by a good team.  We didn't play our best.  We were lethargic.  Missed 7 layups within the circle early on.  We were diasappointed in how we played and competed. This is a team that has been together for 3 years.  They outplayed us in every aspect of the game.  We have to move on."

Actively looking for a game next week.  On the phone yesterday and this morning trying to get one scheduled. Have to likely let a day or two play out before any decisions are made.  Wonders if the NCAA committee will do as they said initially, consider COVID issues. MN loss doesn't look as good as it did initially but they have a ton of injuries.  'We had 12 guys injured (via COVID)'  Believes we are top 25 or 30 in the country.  Hopefully someone tells our story in that room. If things don't go our way with the NCAA, maybe we will be in the NET.  Believes the 'popular names' are getting noticed more than they should. 

"We do want to play a game next week, if we can get the right game."

Goodwin and French, two of the best players ever to put on a Billiken uniform.

  

[HoosierPal]

Coach's Show with Rammer:  St. Bonaventure outplayed us.  Give them credit.  They were the #1 seed for a reason.  He liked the effort for the other games last week. Played UMass twice in a week, with two wins.  On the Monday extra game, Tre Mitchell is their X Factor.  He is a tough matchup at 6'9".  They played an aggressive style that we had to adapt to.  We did well in the first half, but not as well in the second on their press.  We didn't play great in the second half.  A good win for us.  Thatch and Hargrove played well in that game. TJ was very active, running the court being active.  Thatch was getting back into form right before the pause.  It took him a while to get back into it after the pause.

Coach wasn't concerned about getting the 4th seed.  A lot of people were talking about it, but all he wanted to do was beat UMass. Some people thought an extra game (with a W) would have been better than the double bye. Wasn't concerned about playing UMass back to back, until he was told that some conferences went to back to back games, and the first game Loser won the second game more than the Winner.  Teams who lost make adjustments, where as the winners sometimes don't make as many adjustments.  He believes that we played better for the entire 40 minutes than the previous game.  Mitchell kept them in the game almost by himself.

"I said some stupid stuff after the game. - We played at Robbins and they played at Siegel."  We are still trying to figure out what happened.  They had momentum, we didn't.  Uncharacteristic for us, being outrebounded as bad as they did.  We had 7 shots inside the circle in the first 10 minutes that weren't blocked and we missed.  

Jimerson hitting three 3's.  What has he been going through.  "Gibson had that look, he was locked in (against St. B).  He played one of his better games, and I'm not talking about his shooting.  His defense, how hard he was playing, his effort on offense, loose balls, etc.  UMass didn't leave him.  They left him no opportunities.  

Trying to add a game now is just like what we did with NC State.  Had a game at Michigan that fell through at the very last minute.  We had a team that needed a game, but they didn't have any more Non-conference games left.  We are still looking.  Our worst two losses, (Q3) were the first two games out of Covid.  Some teams played okay coming out of Covid, but others didn't.  [There were many games brought up by listeners.  Coach said, we have talked to every team that 'you' have brought up.]  The coaches will be watching tourney's and seeing who gets bounced early.  There are teams that we could play that would not help us.  He doesn't want to do that.  Reputable people telling Coach that the lack of games will be held against us.  Coach said we would accept a bid to the NIT if we don't make the NCAA.  

Show will be aired on KMOX tonight, or do what I did and watch it on Facebook.

 

[Cowboy]

-thanks for the summary, I listened and it got past me until CFord mentioned it that we played 3 games in 6 days so if we didn't get the double bye it would have been 4 games in 6 days, perhaps that would have turned out differently

-I understand why he didn't but when CFord said he didn't coach a good game it would have probably been too much for Rammer to have him explain

-there will be a show next week

-CStone was very good as well, women have the 3 seed, I looked but didn't see, is that the high mark for the program?  

[slufan13]

Ford on 101ESPN

- "Not looking good" for a game this week

- Taking advice on who/if they should play

- Advice leaning towards "don't need to play a game"

- If it comes down to 3-4 teams, "we all look alike". "We are the team nobody wants to play. That should say a lot"

- Smallmon asks Ford for his pitch to the committee....."7-1 and go on a 23 day pause with no practices. 11 players test positive. ....Every year someone gets in because their best player is hurt. We had 11 players sick...just take out 1 of the bad losses (Q3) and we're for sure in....Hopefully they take this in consideration being a different year....Won 7 of our last 10 games....Multiple quad 1 wins....St Bonaventure was the #1 seed. We beat them. Beat LSU. Beat NC State. We've proven ourselves...Graphic going around "the Twitters" showing the average of all rankings. We lead the bubble teams and it's not even close"

- Karraker talking about "bad luck" in Ford's career. Ford says you always need luck and things to go your way but generally non committal to the topic

- Goodwin/French - "They've meant a lot. A whole lot. They took a chance and believed in the vision/dream we had here. They have all the records and a lot of wins. Last 2 seasons have been different. 

- Talks about Goodwin needing to be great at one or two things to make the NBA.

- Likes the balance of our team. "What you're about to see changes recruiting, rosters, etc where transfers don't have to sit out. Going to be completely difficult to build a roster. Especially in today's society guys want to play so it will be easier to leave. Going to be the same for everybody"

- Ford asked if he'll have a watch party...."Ask me on Saturday...Not a big fan unless you know you're in. We'll have a better idea by Saturday or morning. A lot needs to go right for us starting today. I'll make that decision late Saturday. If I don't feel like we have a great chance - probably not...If we don't make the Tournament, most likely in the NIT. We have been practicing hoping we have another game"

- Smallmon/Karraker - "So many things have gone against them that are out of control. That has to be taken into consideration. Played 1 game between December 23rd and February 3rd. They did pretty well under some tough circumstances"

 

[billiken_roy]

watch party?   after the turn 21 party, one would think the billikens learned a lesson.

[billikenfan05]

We had a 1.5% chance of getting the double bye. The odds of us making the tournament are much better than that. 

[dlarry]

58 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

Ford on 101ESPN

 

- Taking advice on who/if they should play

- Advice leaning towards "don't need to play a game"

 

 

This has got to be a good sign right?

Am I looking to much into it?

[NextYearBill]

we're getting IN... committee will overlook the lasalle and dayton loss after the pause. we are in

[dlarry]

7 minutes ago, NextYearBill said:

we're getting IN... committee will overlook the lasalle and dayton loss after the pause. we are in

I love your confidence 

[Billiken Rich]

Even the word HOPELESS has HOPE in it!

[cgeldmacher]

I liked his argument about only having to give us a pass on one of the post covid losses, and we would be solidly in.  I can see the committee crunching the numbers and coming to that conclusion.  Here's to hoping.

[HoosierPal]

Coach on KMOX on Sports on a Sunday Mornnig.  Team is practicing today in hopes of more games.

As reported everywhere, Bills will accept a NIT bid.  We haven't got the help we needed in the NCAA bracket.  "It's common sense that the two games we lost coming out of Covid are the only two bad losses."  It should be the same as having a player injured.  We don't know the parameters the committee is looking at. 

NIT is taking the top 16 teams that didn't make the NCAA, not, as in the past, conference winners that didn't get in the NCAA.

On the possible extra game, no one (in house) knew of the NCAA rule on no extra games.  They got a call (I assume from the NCAA) that it was against the rule.  They would have had to get a waiver, and that wasn't going to happen.

Coach doesn't understand why the bracketologists aren't looking at SLU's numbers as they have in the past.

Yesterday, team practiced for an hour.  Then they had a kickball game.  "It was amazing how many players did not know how to play kickball."  "Got to get that little bounce on the roll."

[Cowboy]

-this isn't radio or tv but Stu's article on-line this morning, the paragraph with the quote from CFord on Covid, not sure that puts us in the best light as it could be interpreted as whining, but I guess few will see it

 

[HoosierPal]

Had to put this on the board.  The Awesome One is doing something awesome.  Great job Earl.