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Best yet to come?


slu72

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If recent history runs true to form the Bills should be hell on wheels going forward. In his time here all of Travis’ teams have played their best ball in late Feb early March. 
Until the UD train wreck, it appeared we were on track to see history repeat itself. Now, after that hot mess of a game has us all wondering if this squad was ever as good as publicized.
My take on that game comes down to poor shooting and poor shot selection. Add in a dose of lackadaisical D, and you got yourself a recipe for disaster. 
So, who will show up at VCU, The Super Billikens or the Bizzaro Bills?
Same question will linger thru the rest of the season. A really bad unexplainable beat down has sown the seeds of questioning just what kind of team we have here. 
I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt, ie we are much better than what we saw in Flyerville. And hoping Travis will run true to form and we’ll now see them rise to the occasion and that their best play is in front of them. I guess we’ll get an indication tomorrow night just what we have in this team. 

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The blowout against Dayton was the result of Grant's defensive scheme that neutralized our inside and outside game.  It's the only 20 point blowout we've suffered in 2 years.   We may struggle against that scheme again if we have to face them in the A-10 tournament because, other than Yuri, we don't have the personnel to counter it.   We depend on him to break down the defense, when the opponent takes everything else away.  Note that the first game against Dayton, Yuri had eleven assists.  But he wasn't healthy last Friday and couldn't do Yuri things.  

Dayton stayed at home on Perkins and Jimerson and walled up with two bigs around the basket which effectively doomed us in the halfcourt.  And there's not enough running in the world you can do to compensate for that.  Having a healthy Yuri next time will help but when he drives and dishes, the guys Dayton intentionally leaves open still have to make jump shots.  Next year, Okoro is big and athletic enough that when Yuri penetrates he can catch and flush, even over a 6'10 guy.   It will also help if we can bring in a quick combo guard who can create off the dribble so there isn't so much pressure on Yuri to do it.  

 

 

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25 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

The blowout against Dayton was the result of Grant's defensive scheme that neutralized our inside and outside game.  It's the only 20 point blowout we've suffered in 2 years.   We may struggle against that scheme again if we have to face them in the A-10 tournament because, other than Yuri, we don't have the personnel to counter it.   We depend on him to break down the defense, when the opponent takes everything else away.  Note that the first game against Dayton, Yuri had eleven assists.  But he wasn't healthy last Friday and couldn't do Yuri things.  

Dayton stayed at home on Perkins and Jimerson and walled up with two bigs around the basket which effectively doomed us in the halfcourt.  And there's not enough running in the world you can do to compensate for that.  Having a healthy Yuri next time will help but when he drives and dishes, the guys Dayton intentionally leaves open still have to make jump shots.  Next year, Okoro is big and athletic enough that when Yuri penetrates he can catch and flush, even over a 6'10 guy.   It will also help if we can bring in a quick combo guard who can create off the dribble so there isn't so much pressure on Yuri to do it.  

 

 

3 star imo the difference needed to be started defensively.   we were way to passive on d.   we should have been up and denial on d.   a few misses of those wide open 3's and maybe a couple/few forced turnover that turn into layups we win.   

 

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12 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

3 star imo the difference needed to be started defensively.   we were way to passive on d.   we should have been up and denial on d.   a few misses of those wide open 3's and maybe a couple/few forced turnover that turn into layups we win.   

 

I agree Roy and I think the defense has played like that most of the season.

Its time to get back to practicing lock down defense more than anything else.

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1 hour ago, CBFan said:

I agree Roy and I think the defense has played like that most of the season.

Its time to get back to practicing lock down defense more than anything else.

This team hasn't played defense really all year..that is the problem. The games we won were either against dogs, teams that also couldn't play D that we shot well against (LSU) or teams that just had bad shooting days (the bonnies).    We played D for about 10 minutes vs NC state and a few other spots..

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3 hours ago, CBFan said:

I agree Roy and I think the defense has played like that most of the season.

Its time to get back to practicing lock down defense more than anything else.

There isn't going to be any "lockdown defense" with Jimerson playing 25 min a game.  The tradeoff for playing Jimerson starter minutes is the payoff on offense. But he relies on drive and kickouts by others to get open looks.  Against good defense, he can't get those looks on his own.

We can be a good defensive team with Jimerson as a starter but not a great one.

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3 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

There isn't going to be any "lockdown defense" with Jimerson playing 25 min a game.  The tradeoff for playing Jimerson starter minutes is the payoff on offense. But he relies on drive and kickouts by others to get open looks.  Against good defense, he can't get those looks on his own.

We can be a good defensive team with Jimerson as a starter but not a great one.

When does coaching come in here though 3star?  Sure he is lousy on defense, and maybe he will never be athletic enough to be a superior defender. But coaching can make him better than the blowby he is right now.  I really think he might be better going back to the bench. Without him last year we had Dayton beat. He is great when he is hitting but he is a hot/cold shooter.  Coming off the bench if he can go 3-8 from 3 on the regular that would be pretty good. Great if he can improve on that. 8-12 points per game from him is really all we need, and not a lot of minutes. 

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16 minutes ago, mrjoelabs said:

This team hasn't played defense really all year..that is the problem. The games we won were either against dogs, teams that also couldn't play D that we shot well against (LSU) or teams that just had bad shooting days (the bonnies).    We played D for about 10 minutes vs NC state and a few other spots..

Bad shooting days are 80% of the time a product of good defense. I thought we smothered the Bonnies.

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2 hours ago, mrjoelabs said:

When does coaching come in here though 3star?  Sure he is lousy on defense, and maybe he will never be athletic enough to be a superior defender. But coaching can make him better than the blowby he is right now.  I really think he might be better going back to the bench. Without him last year we had Dayton beat. He is great when he is hitting but he is a hot/cold shooter.  Coming off the bench if he can go 3-8 from 3 on the regular that would be pretty good. Great if he can improve on that. 8-12 points per game from him is really all we need, and not a lot of minutes. 

Jimerson is making strides on defense.  Maybe not as quickly as you'd like but we need his shot to be the best team we can be.  Coach Ford playing the long game has had past Billiken teams playing it's best ball down the stretch.  No guarantee of future success but he's got a pretty good track record in this regard.

Fans tend to panic after a disappointing loss and want to shake things up in hopes that doing something different will yield better results.  Of course, if that doesn't work out, fans will still blame the coach.  If a coach sticks to his game plan through a bumpy stretch and that pays off in the end, those same fans won't give him credit.   It is what it is.

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49 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Jimerson is making strides on defense.  Maybe not as quickly as you'd like but we need his shot to be the best team we can be.  Coach Ford playing the long game has had past Billiken teams playing it's best ball down the stretch.  No guarantee of future success but he's got a pretty good track record in this regard.

Fans tend to panic after a disappointing loss and want to shake things up in hopes that doing something different will yield better results.  Of course, if that doesn't work out, fans will still blame the coach.  If a coach sticks to his game plan through a bumpy stretch and that pays off in the end, those same fans won't give him credit.   It is what it is.

But the change or adjustment always works out in the fans mind

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4 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

 It will also help if we can bring in a quick combo guard who can create off the dribble so there isn't so much pressure on Yuri to do it.  

 

 

I happen to think we've got one in Jacobs. Also, let's see how TJ and Strickland develop. Granted, if we could get a proven productive combo guard in here, you do it. But I think we have some guys who could develop into just what you're looking for. 

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8 minutes ago, Clocktoweraccords2004 said:

Something something playing time is earned - Rick Ma or literally any good coach 

He's having his best season thus far - in relatively limited minutes. literally the only thing that has gotten worse is his block rate. TO's are up but so are assists https://kenpom.com/player.php?p=40661

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6 hours ago, 3star_recruit said:

The blowout against Dayton was the result of Grant's defensive scheme that neutralized our inside and outside game.  It's the only 20 point blowout we've suffered in 2 years.   We may struggle against that scheme again if we have to face them in the A-10 tournament because, other than Yuri, we don't have the personnel to counter it.   We depend on him to break down the defense, when the opponent takes everything else away.  Note that the first game against Dayton, Yuri had eleven assists.  But he wasn't healthy last Friday and couldn't do Yuri things.  

Dayton stayed at home on Perkins and Jimerson and walled up with two bigs around the basket which effectively doomed us in the halfcourt.  And there's not enough running in the world you can do to compensate for that.  Having a healthy Yuri next time will help but when he drives and dishes, the guys Dayton intentionally leaves open still have to make jump shots.  Next year, Okoro is big and athletic enough that when Yuri penetrates he can catch and flush, even over a 6'10 guy.   It will also help if we can bring in a quick combo guard who can create off the dribble so there isn't so much pressure on Yuri to do it.  

Dayton played great D and had a great game plan.  I don't believe that they found some fatal flaw or necessarily will destroy us going forward.  We missed a ton of shots were obviously pressing / frustrated during the game.  This was your classic quicksand game.  SLU fell behind early and started forcing things / lost confidence.  The harder they tried to get out of the whole the further they sank.  Couple that with mediocre defense / hot shooting by Dayton and you've got a blowout.

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I came here a few weeks ago, posting straight facts about your team, and got blasted as a troll and personally. Now maybe some will see that I was right. I'm not a troll. I can take off my VCU shades and be objective about other teams. Here are some things I said before:

If we [VCU] play them, and shut down Goodwin like we did Crutcher, we will feast. I hate pressing and trapping URI, but I still think it's a good thing to do against SLU, until they show they can consistently beat it.

Also, COVID can have lingering side effects, so keep an eye on that with your players, especially if they look more than just a little "rusty".

I only mentioned Goodwin because of the reasons BIG BILL FAN stated. He gets after it, and VCU will need to not only defend him well, but know where he is at all times and keep a body on him, containing his hustle plays. But frankly, I'm worried more about French than any of your guards.

Dayton is in SLU's head.

From the outside world, great post. You weren't playing good defense before the COVID pause.

Giving up 90 to Minnesota should've been the early red flag to anyone with eyes, but folks wanted to believe Minnesota was so good.

All of this still applies, but the Dayton game simply exposed everything so obviously, that even Stevie Wonder can see them. 

Good luck tomorrow and the rest of the season. Frankly, I don't care if we win or lose. I just want to see how our guys respond from losing Bones, and I want him healthy for the A10/NCAA tourney. 

 

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2 hours ago, lquarles said:

I came here a few weeks ago, posting straight facts about your team, and got blasted as a troll and personally. Now maybe some will see that I was right. I'm not a troll. I can take off my VCU shades and be objective about other teams. Here are some things I said before:

If we [VCU] play them, and shut down Goodwin like we did Crutcher, we will feast. I hate pressing and trapping URI, but I still think it's a good thing to do against SLU, until they show they can consistently beat it.

Also, COVID can have lingering side effects, so keep an eye on that with your players, especially if they look more than just a little "rusty".

I only mentioned Goodwin because of the reasons BIG BILL FAN stated. He gets after it, and VCU will need to not only defend him well, but know where he is at all times and keep a body on him, containing his hustle plays. But frankly, I'm worried more about French than any of your guards.

Dayton is in SLU's head.

From the outside world, great post. You weren't playing good defense before the COVID pause.

Giving up 90 to Minnesota should've been the early red flag to anyone with eyes, but folks wanted to believe Minnesota was so good.

All of this still applies, but the Dayton game simply exposed everything so obviously, that even Stevie Wonder can see them. 

Good luck tomorrow and the rest of the season. Frankly, I don't care if we win or lose. I just want to see how our guys respond from losing Bones, and I want him healthy for the A10/NCAA tourney. 

 

 

 

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59 minutes ago, Clocktoweraccords2004 said:

You’re proving my point. I wanna see the +_ on him on the court. Do they have that for ncaa 

1) yes they do have that. 

2) not sure that proves your point. He is showing that you dont just bench someone with those type of awards with 3 games left in their career. 

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14 hours ago, lquarles said:

I came here a few weeks ago, posting straight facts about your team, and got blasted as a troll and personally. Now maybe some will see that I was right. I'm not a troll. I can take off my VCU shades and be objective about other teams. Here are some things I said before:

If we [VCU] play them, and shut down Goodwin like we did Crutcher, we will feast. I hate pressing and trapping URI, but I still think it's a good thing to do against SLU, until they show they can consistently beat it.

Also, COVID can have lingering side effects, so keep an eye on that with your players, especially if they look more than just a little "rusty".

I only mentioned Goodwin because of the reasons BIG BILL FAN stated. He gets after it, and VCU will need to not only defend him well, but know where he is at all times and keep a body on him, containing his hustle plays. But frankly, I'm worried more about French than any of your guards.

Dayton is in SLU's head.

From the outside world, great post. You weren't playing good defense before the COVID pause.

Giving up 90 to Minnesota should've been the early red flag to anyone with eyes, but folks wanted to believe Minnesota was so good.

All of this still applies, but the Dayton game simply exposed everything so obviously, that even Stevie Wonder can see them. 

Good luck tomorrow and the rest of the season. Frankly, I don't care if we win or lose. I just want to see how our guys respond from losing Bones, and I want him healthy for the A10/NCAA tourney. 

 

Maybe more fans here would respect you if you quit being such an attention ho'.

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