GDT: Sycamores

[Billiken Rich]

5 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

FSMW didn't televise the Billiken Classic games (SIUE & LSU).  ESPN+ had some random guys on the call that I thought were students at one point, but I don't think that was the case.  In any event, they weren't very good.  Unless this get picked up by a regular ESPN channel I'd expect the same quality of announcers on ESPN+ as during those earlier games.

It's really quite easy to sync up Rammer and Earl with Espn+  I've been running them on the radio.com app on my phone and pumping that through the aux input on my sound bar.  Since you can rewind both streams, it's so easy even a caveman can do it.....

[SLU_Nick]

From the tip the game seemed in hand.  2 questions for the MBMs.

Did Bell not play due to coach's decision or is he injured?

Is there any chance that Ford is plotting to unleash Okoro in February due to the "free" year when it comes to eligibility.  

I thought we sort of showed a weakness in interior defense last night.  I think we need one more big man who can lock in defensively.  

[Compton]

Radio.com is garbage compared to TuneIn. One unfortunate setback of the KMOX shift in my opinion.

[willie]

Just now, SLU_Nick said:

From the tip the game seemed in hand.  2 questions for the MBMs.

Did Bell not play due to coach's decision or is he injured?

Is there any chance that Ford is plotting to unleash Okoro in February due to the "free" year when it comes to eligibility.  

I thought we sort of showed a weakness in interior defense last night.  I think we need one more big man who can lock in defensively.  

He played

[Cowboy]

1 minute ago, Compton said:

Radio.com is garbage compared to TuneIn. One unfortunate setback of the KMOX shift in my opinion.

-I have been using Radio.com to listen to our games and synching to my dvr and it has been fine

[ACE]

57 minutes ago, wgstl said:

Would be fun to see this match up

Yuri - Mitchell

Goodwin - Jett

Jimerson - McCall

Perkins - Evans

French - Loe

Jett v. Goodwin would be a lot of fun.

[slufanskip]

22 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

 

These numbers are still small samples, but interestingly KenPom only has us 298 of 351 in "adjusted" tempo.  We're 174 in "raw" tempo.  I assume the adjustment is because our schedule so far featured team who play faster - all in top 140 except ISU & Central Arkansas is #4. 

Breaking our numbers down further we are #94 in average offensive possession length and #240 in average defensive possession length.  I think that speaks to us pushing it more often on offense than in the past, but maintaining our lock down defense that often forces teams into lengthy possessions.  When you average them out overall we play at a below average tempo.  Contrast that with a well known slow it down team in Virginia who is #308 on offense and #318 on defense.

I'd also say that for the 1st time in a long time we have a guy in Collins who can really handle the fast break and makes good decisions about when to push the ball and when to slow it down.  Having Collins also allows us to have secondary ballhandlers like Goodwin, Jacobs, etc. who can push it as well.  We can play up tempo if it is there, but we don't necessarily have to do it.

maybe I'm not getting it but this doesn't jive as I understand it. 

We aren't actually playing faster because the teams we have played play fast. Yet the time of possession when we are on D is 240th. That tells me that maybe the teams we are playing normally play up tempo but haven't as a whole against us due to our D. 

As long as we play the tough lock down D we do, our overall tempo will never be very high but our offensive time of possession is 94th per your post. I doubt we've had a team that high in a long time. 

 

[Billiken Rich]

12 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

I doubt we've had a team that high in a long time. 

 

ever

[RUBillsFan]

3 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

maybe I'm not getting it but this doesn't jive as I understand it. 

We aren't actually playing faster because the teams we have played play fast. Yet the time of possession when we are on D is 240th. That tells me that maybe the teams we are playing normally play up tempo but haven't as a whole against us due to our D. 

As long as we play the tough lock down D we do, our overall tempo will never be very high but our offensive time of possession is 94th per your post. I doubt we've had a team that high in a long time. 

 

Should have broken down our opponents

SIUE - off 191, def 130

LSU - off 75, def 176

UAPB - off 296, def 9

Cent Ark - off 30, def 28

ISU - off 184, def 263

I think UAPB's extreme split is probably throwing off the adjustment given such a small sample.

Our highest ranking in offensive time of possession since 2010 (which is as far back as KenPom's #s go) is 101 in 2016*.  2014 was 144 and have been 248 or lower 8 times out of 12 years. 

* - that 2016 team was god awful on offense 310 in offensive efficiency and is a really weird contrast to the 2015 team who was also awful on offense (#311), but played much slower #282 in length of possession.  Both Jim Crews coached teams and largely featuring the same players.  Prime example of Crews grasping at straws in terms of coaching / game plan.

[slu72]

Bell played, but I think Travis is more confident in Linssen right now. Could be Jimmy’s still trying to catch up from the 3-4 weeks he missed. No complaints on Linssen’s play. In fact, he’s been a pleasant surprise. 

[billiken_roy]

41 minutes ago, Crewsorlose said:

I mean, it's dumb to look ahead when this could be a historically great season. But in the spirit of being dumb... next year's team is stacked.

Backcourt: Collins, Jacobs, Thatch, Russell

Wings: Strickland, Jimerson

Wing 4s: Hargrove, Lorrentson

Bigs: Bell, Linßen, Okoro

Lorrentson and Russell need to prove they can play, but that's still nine rock solid rotation guys, with an All A-10 PG, a potential All-A-10 big, and a lot of other good players. That's before any transfers or signings.

what is lacking above compared to this year is the "known" goto guy like perkins or goodwin.   not saying one isnt there, we just dont know it yet.   obviously, the likes of jimmerson can shoot.   and i am confident the bigs can convert in the lane.   but getting the ball and making a move to get a high percentage shot or just making a shot regardless of how good the look is that is available, is an unknown as compared to perkins and goodwin.   but it is easy to see that next year could be more of the same if natural development and maturity happens.   add a very good transfer or signee in the spring.   oh boy it is fun to watch reload instead of rebuild.   

[slu72]

5 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

Should have broken down our opponents

SIUE - off 191, def 130

LSU - off 75, def 176

UAPB - off 296, def 9

Cent Ark - off 30, def 28

ISU - off 184, def 263

I think UAPB's extreme split is probably throwing off the adjustment given such a small sample.

Our highest ranking in offensive time of possession since 2010 (which is as far back as KenPom's #s go) is 101 in 2016*.  2014 was 144 and have been 248 or lower 8 times out of 12 years. 

* - that 2016 team was god awful on offense 310 in offensive efficiency and is a really weird contrast to the 2015 team who was also awful on offense (#311), but played much slower #282 in length of possession.  Both Jim Crews coached teams and largely featuring the same players.  Prime example of Crews grasping at straws in terms of coaching / game plan.

That 2016 team played the ugliest basketball I’ve ever seen. It was like they had no coach. 

[hmart23]

31 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-I have been using Radio.com to listen to our games and synching to my dvr and it has been fine

I've had alot of problems with it just crashing on my phone and computer. or just flat out not working for half the game

[DeSmetBilliken]

3 minutes ago, slu72 said:

That 2016 team played the ugliest basketball I’ve ever seen. It was like they had no coach. 

“Like they had no coach?”

[slufanskip]

13 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

Should have broken down our opponents

SIUE - off 191, def 130

LSU - off 75, def 176

UAPB - off 296, def 9

Cent Ark - off 30, def 28

ISU - off 184, def 263

I think UAPB's extreme split is probably throwing off the adjustment given such a small sample.

Our highest ranking in offensive time of possession since 2010 (which is as far back as KenPom's #s go) is 101 in 2016*.  2014 was 144 and have been 248 or lower 8 times out of 12 years. 

* - that 2016 team was god awful on offense 310 in offensive efficiency and is a really weird contrast to the 2015 team who was also awful on offense (#311), but played much slower #282 in length of possession.  Both Jim Crews coached teams and largely featuring the same players.  Prime example of Crews grasping at straws in terms of coaching / game plan.

Is this their ranking or our ranking against them?  

[BuiltFordBills]

Like many others have said I’ve loved the faster pace. One small thing is I would like Yuri to try to have the ball in his hands quickly whenever possible. It looked a little sloppy at times when other were bringing it up. A couple times French tried the point forward thing where I think he could be so much more valuable running the floor and beating other bigs down the court for some Yuri lobs.

[billiken_roy]

french out court with the ball and dribbling is probably my biggest pet peeve on this team.    typically more bad than good happens from this scenario.    i understand things happen where he would need to come out and get the ball because a guard is caught without a dribble and cant get rid of it, but dammit, give it back and go back to the lane.  

and yes, the bringing it up thing is crazy.    surely between the other four better with the ball players that would be on the floor, one of them isnt down the floor already for a fast break opportunity.   i agree yuri circles around and gets the ball.   let perkins, goodwin and jimmerson/collins get out.   

[dennis_w]

1 hour ago, Billiken Rich said:

It's really quite easy to sync up Rammer and Earl with Espn+  I've been running them on the radio.com app on my phone and pumping that through the aux input on my sound bar.  Since you can rewind both streams, it's so easy even a caveman can do it.....

In caveman like fashion i eventually got it synced. There are no announcers that can match rammer and earl

[slufanskip]

I like faster pace also, however, I hope we always keep our defensive mentality. There is nothing better than watching a 30+ second defensive stand where the team is playing aggressively and together forcing a wild last minute shot or a shot clock violation. It's like a beautiful choreographed dance. Imo it's better than a great dunk.  

[RUBillsFan]

12 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

Is this their ranking or our ranking against them?  

I believe it is their ranking overall against their schedule so far. 

For example, when UAPB is on offense their possessions so far this season have taken an average of 19 seconds which is 296th fastest in the nation (out of 321 teams with data) and when defense their possessions have taken 14.5 seconds on average which is 9th fastest in the nation.

In layman's terms, they suck on offense so it takes them forever to get a shot off and they suck on defense so teams don't take long to score on them.

Most teams are bunched up really tight on these nearly everyone is between 15 and 19 seconds for both.  Therefore, small sample sizes are likely having a big influence on teams overall rankings.

[slufanskip]

1 minute ago, RUBillsFan said:

I believe it is their ranking overall against their schedule so far. 

For example, when UAPB is on offense their possessions so far this season have taken an average of 19 seconds which is 296th fastest in the nation (out of 321 teams with data) and when defense their possessions have taken 14.5 seconds on average which is 9th fastest in the nation.

In layman's terms, they suck on offense so it takes them forever to get a shot off and they suck on defense so teams don't take long to score on them.

Most teams are bunched up really tight on these nearly everyone is between 15 and 19 seconds for both.  Therefore, small sample sizes are likely having a big influence on teams overall rankings.

so offense wants to be lower and defense wants to be a higher number. Seems a strange way to rank them

[RUBillsFan]

2 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

so offense wants to be lower and defense wants to be a higher number. Seems a strange way to rank them

Using UAPB as an example was misleading.  Tempo or time of possession doesn't necessarily mean good or bad one way or the other - especially on offense.

Virginia is a good example of this - they've take 19.5 seconds per possession on offense (308th),  but are a good offensive team (58th in efficiency).  That is just part of their game plan to slow the tempo and take their time to find a good shot.

Another thing to note about KenPom's time of possession stats is that offensive rebounds count as the same possession.  Since SLU gets a lot of O rebounds that may be increasing their offensive possession lengths which makes it seem like they play slower than they actually play.  Here is a post where he explains the possession length stats: https://kenpom.com/blog/behold-average-possession-length/

[AnkielBreakers]

27 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

french out court with the ball and dribbling is probably my biggest pet peeve on this team.    typically more bad than good happens from this scenario.    i understand things happen where he would need to come out and get the ball because a guard is caught without a dribble and cant get rid of it, but dammit, give it back and go back to the lane.  

and yes, the bringing it up thing is crazy.    surely between the other four better with the ball players that would be on the floor, one of them isnt down the floor already for a fast break opportunity.   i agree yuri circles around and gets the ball.   let perkins, goodwin and jimmerson/collins get out.   

Good point, that amazing drive and dish to Gibson was just obnoxious. I would hate to see him destroy people off the dribble. Stay in the lane you shockingly fast, agile, and quick center. Don’t develop skill sets that a traditional center can’t compete with. Basketball was perfected in 1940, and that is it!!!

(blue font)

[almaman]

1 hour ago, Billiken Rich said:

It's really quite easy to sync up Rammer and Earl with Espn+  I've been running them on the radio.com app on my phone and pumping that through the aux input on my sound bar.  Since you can rewind both streams, it's so easy even a caveman can do it.....

do u have to keep readjusting? last night I had kmox website for audio and had to readjust too many times.

[slufanskip]

34 minutes ago, RUBillsFan said:

Using UAPB as an example was misleading.  Tempo or time of possession doesn't necessarily mean good or bad one way or the other - especially on offense.

Virginia is a good example of this - they've take 19.5 seconds per possession on offense (308th),  but are a good offensive team (58th in efficiency).  That is just part of their game plan to slow the tempo and take their time to find a good shot.

Another thing to note about KenPom's time of possession stats is that offensive rebounds count as the same possession.  Since SLU gets a lot of O rebounds that may be increasing their offensive possession lengths which makes it seem like they play slower than they actually play.  Here is a post where he explains the possession length stats: https://kenpom.com/blog/behold-average-possession-length/

Good info thanks.