GDT: A-10 revenge tour stop 1 - Explorers

[TheA_Bomb]

I'm usually an optimist, I thought this team would come back rested, hungry and best of all inoculated vs another COVID outbreak in March.   Not so it's discombobulated and perhaps it's mental.   All this talk of lasting effects, heart issues etc affects you.  I'm not saying it's not real,  I'm saying every lil twinge,  every exhausted day you're asking yourself "is this my life now?  Do I have some lifelong ailment?"  

So maybe they'll realize they're OK (and hopefully they all are).  Or maybe they'll gel.  They need to do it soon.  Might have to either win A10 or play enough games to overcome these bad losses and be hot at selection time. 

[Cowboy]

13 hours ago, slufanskip said:

Anyone who has watched this team last year and this year until the Covid break and doesn't feel like it has affected them pretty drastically is clueless. 

We're a step slow closing, our lateral movement is obviously slow, we can't shoot from distance. JGood has 5 boards and 0 offensive rebounds. 

Do you honestly think we just aren't going as hard as we possibly can? What have you ever seen from this team to make you think that's a possibility? 

I don't like it more than anyone else. But this is clearly not the same team energy wise. And after the longest layoff in D1 how can we really be surprised. 

 

-yep, and some players impacted more than others and maybe some coaches

[wgstl]

Since pause, SLU outside of GJ is 2-27 from 3. 

[slu72]

I sense from the 2 Losses a little less energy, less physicality, and lots of being out of synch. It’s almost as if we’re trying to assemble a lot of new parts into playing together. Travis said as much in the PD report on last night’s disaster. It’s scary when we don’t defend the 3 like we should be, and then can’t buy one to match them. These failures have cost us these two losses. Hell, more often than not we’re choosing desperation drives into the forest and not even looking to get a 3. With few exceptions our starters looked totally out of kilter in these two games. To me Yurimania getting only 2 assists last night is very telling. Guys are playing hero ball. That’s got to stop. 

[Brighton]

It stings even more that Mizzou and Illinois are both Indy bound and getting all the headlines. 

[wgstl]

4 minutes ago, Brighton said:

It stings even more that Mizzou and Illinois are both Indy bound and getting all the headlines. 

I dont even care about that, in all honesty. 

[dlarry]

44 minutes ago, wgstl said:

Worst part about all of this is we’re not taking steps forward to getting better. I really find it hard to believe that the Bonaventure game will not be ugly.

I agree that Bonnie could very well be ugly. 
I don’t agree about not taking steps forward.

Each game they play, regardless of outcome, is taking steps forward. They are working back into game shape. We just need to hope they get back to 100% by A10 tourney time.

This is our spring training. The A10 tournament is the regular season and the big dance the post season.

[wgstl]

16 minutes ago, dlarry said:

I don’t agree about not taking steps forward.

Each game they play, regardless of outcome, is taking steps forward. They are working back into game shape. We just need to hope they get back to 100% by A10 tourney time.

This is our spring training. The A10 tournament is the regular season and the big dance the post season.

 

From Dayton to Lasalle our stats did this:

+3 TO's

-6 assists

-2% 3pt FG

-9% fg 

+14 ORB

+17% FT

The FT and ORB improvement would have been enough to take care of Dayton.  But other than those two stats, we were worse from from first game to second game. So far we haven't improved as a team. 

[Bay Area Billiken]

Demarius Jacobs scored 3 straight fast break layups to give SLU a 17-9 lead, and was promptly removed from the game. One question:  Why?

Second Question: Why did T.J. Hargrove see no playing time? I must have missed the reason if there was one.

 

[AnkielBreakers]

8 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Demarius Jacobs scored 3 straight fast break layups to give SLU a 17-9 lead, and was promptly removed from the game. One question:  Why?

Second Question: Why did T.J. Hargrove see no playing time? I must have missed the reason if there was one.

 

He was too hot. Basic coaching. He could have burned the other players.

[HoosierPal]

21 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Second Question: Why did T.J. Hargrove see no playing time? I must have missed the reason if there was one.

 

We don't know and probably won't know.

Here is what we do know:  80% of the players contracted the virus.  So 80% chance Hargrove had it.  The players voted to NOT reveal who got it and who didn't.

Several players went home immediately after the pause.  We don't know if TJ went or not.  We don't need to know.

TJ's Mother contracted the virus, and had complications severe enough to be hospitalized.  She was released from the hospital last month. 

You can try to connect dots between these items, or not.  Covid could be in the realm of possibilities, or it could be way off.

[slufan13]

1 hour ago, wgstl said:

Since pause, SLU outside of GJ is 2-27 from 3. 

Wow. That is worse than some of our worst shooting teams ever

[NH]

The fact that Hargrove cannot play at all is proof enough that COVID after effects are impacting our team. If he cannot play at all you have to imagine there are others who aren’t at 100% fitness (Perkins was quoted as saying he felt winded more quickly). With high level athletes like this, the margin for error is slim and small differences like being winded more easily can be the deciding factor.

[slufan13]

17 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

Last two games we have given up 20 of 46 3FG.  43%.  Our arc defense has disappeared.

It was not good against Minnesota or LSU either (19 of 49 - 38.7%). It was good against NC State but they were coming off a pause. Per kenpom, teams are shooting 35.3% from 3 against us which ranks us 242nd in the country. It's an area that really needs to be addressed even prior to the pause but it has only been made more evident by tired legs not being able to get out to shooters. There are 241 teams better at defending the 3 than us. That is a problem for a team that wants to go far

[dlarry]

38 minutes ago, wgstl said:

 

From Dayton to Lasalle our stats did this:

+3 TO's

-6 assists

-2% 3pt FG

-9% fg 

+14 ORB

+17% FT

The FT and ORB improvement would have been enough to take care of Dayton.  But other than those two stats, we were worse from from first game to second game. So far we haven't improved as a team. 

But they knocked more rust off.

To me, that’s what is important right now. It would be great to grab a few W’s I just think that is incredibly hard when you play teams at 100% and you’re  at 50%.

Every game they play they get their timing and legs back.

Until that happens we are going to see different problems each game.

[wgstl]

I wish there was some way we could scrimmage a UMSL or Harris Stowe right now. 

[slufan13]

One win on Saturday would do a lot for the general mindset of the team even if they're still going to be getting back up to speed for the next several weeks. I'm not going to get into the guessing game of what happens if we win out and lose in the A10 tourney or how will the committee evaluate our performance after the one month layoff. We need to put matters into our own hands and get ready to peak again in March. This team is good enough but it's going to take time. There are some fair questions in my opinion

I do think the 3 point defense is alarming even prior to the break and we still need to get cleaner looks for our shooters offensively which hopefully in turn allows French and Goodwin the ability to score at the rim. Linssen being buried on the bench the whole second half when French clearly didn't have it was questionable. 

[slu72]

I noticed when Jimmie Bell was walking to the FT line last night he looked gassed. We just don't know who's got a Covid hangover. Although, I think TJ must be suffering some lingering effects.. He doesn't seem to be the malingering type and has bought in fully to the Team Blue idea.  

[A10Ref]

Bonnies are the best team in the A10 right now... Really scared to play them, although we usually seem to play up and down to our comp.

[juniorbill76]

Even the guys who didn't have the plague were holed up in their rooms for weeks, away from the gym, away from the weight room, away from normal practice and routines.

[billiken_roy]

3 hours ago, slu72 said:

Right TJ. Any thoughts? What are you doing up? 
 

We got up early to go watch the sunrise on some mountain (i just go where the women folk say we are going)  of course we get 2/3 of the way up and the road is blocked with a sign hazardous road conditions due to ice and snow.  Long trip for nothing 

[Bay Area Billiken]

22 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

We got up early to go watch the sunrise on some mountain (i just go where the women folk say we are going)  of course we get 2/3 of the way up and the road is blocked with a sign hazardous road conditions due to ice and snow.  Long trip for nothing 

Haleakala is that dormant volcano, on the East side of Maui.

Are you going to challenge the Hana Road? You are nearby if you were driving up Haleakala

[slufan13]

Usage rates per kenpom in conference play. I think the fact that Jimerson and Jacobs are in the "nearly invisible" section is a problem. Only 2 games I know

 

[dlarry]

1 hour ago, wgstl said:

I wish there was some way we could scrimmage a UMSL or Harris Stowe right now. 

I think this would be the most helpful thing at this point. 

I hope a lot of practice is spent scrimmaging. I truly believe game reps are the only thing that will help right now.

[cgeldmacher]

16 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

Last two games we have given up 20 of 46 3FG.  43%.  Our arc defense has disappeared.

If you think about it, 3pt defense is all about speed and quickness in getting to a shooter.  Those are things that COVID might have sapped from our guys.