GDT: UMSL Exhibition

[Old guy]

We went to this game, it was interesting and not a one sided game at all. We did very well in the first half and not very well in the second half. Let's talk about what I liked to see first.

First of all, I thought Sincere Parker was great, this kid can score, and yes he does miss but he gets a good number of points. He also can rebound. He is fast and enthusiastic, although at times he is a bit out of control. I think he will be a great Billiken player as the season goes by.

Larry Hughes, can carry the ball and substitute for Yuri when needed. He plays well, is fast and can score.

Picket played well, no TOs. Thames and Kramer did not play enough to evaluate.

Jake Forrester, good all around, needs more practice at times but can score, rebound, and be where he should be.

Yuri and Jimerson had fine games and played well. Yuri was able to take some time off which is a good thing. Hargrove played like he has before, I like him.

Okoro did not perform as well as I expected, but did not get any fouls. Thatch did not look to be up to the way he has played before.

As far as the  game went, we got a very large lead in the first half, and the UMSL coach reduced it significantly in the second half. UMSL had a less personal fouls and less turnovers than we did.

These are my opinions about this game. A nice beginning but we need to improve and gel as a team. I think we can do this.

[thunderdan]

I attended the game as well. A lot of last-year’s Bills showed up…meaning Yuri dribbled around until there were 8 seconds left on the clock.

I know the game ‘doesn’t count,’ but it was super sloppy. Lots of lazy passes, forced passes in traffic, and lackluster defense. 
 

UMSL missed a lot of easy shots. D1 teams will expose the defense that we saw tonight. Too much of letting the offensive player go to the hole (on a bad switch), then trying to get a block from behind.

Parker came out hot, but got a bit too confident and forced some shots. He’ll likely be someone that comes in to break a scoring drought, or to spark a comeback.

Super curious to see how good Gibson will be, with a healthy Perkins on the court. 

[White Pelican]

There were two (what looked to me to be) TV cameras with red lights going on and off in use in the usual place (top of section 103) and a floor cam that was used at least to watch the dance team and the cheerleaders.

If the game wasn't streamed or broadcast, why were they using these cameras? Where was the feed going?

[Old guy]

They may be filming the game for internal training and review purposes, I suppose..

[billiken_roy]

thatch is not the backup point guard answer.   give it to hughes jr.   

parker will definitely bring back the spoon thoughts "better outscore your man".   he is fundamentally a defensive trainwreck.   has the effort but lots of mistakes.  

i guess we won.  that's good.

[CBFan]

1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

thatch is not the backup point guard answer.   give it to hughes jr.   

parker will definitely bring back the spoon thoughts "better outscore your man".   he is fundamentally a defensive trainwreck.   has the effort but lots of mistakes.  

i guess we won.  that's good.

I wish the coach would have played the freshman more minutes it’s exhibition.

I agree with Hughes over Thatch when Yuri rests and I wish because it is exhibition to see what Thames could do at the point.

UMSL had lots of energy and seemed to enjoy playing and the Billikens showed up and did what they had to do and I get that.

I like the assists Forrester got and he will push Okoro for playing time and that is a good thing.

[billikenblue]

2 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

thatch is not the backup point guard answer.   give it to hughes jr.   

parker will definitely bring back the spoon thoughts "better outscore your man".   he is fundamentally a defensive trainwreck.   has the effort but lots of mistakes.  

i guess we won.  that's good.

Agree on Hughes give Thames a look at it too. Fred is not a point guard and it is easy to see that. It makes me scratch my head as Travis makes a decision  like this while being a point guard himself as a player . 

[BIG BILL FAN]

the important takes from the game:

Parker is legit - I think he gets at least 20 minutes per game, should also be noted that he had a game high 7 rebounds

Forrester is a very good backup - passing is really good, much better than Okoro's

the 2nd half was poor in part because the plan the first 10 minutes was to work on the inside game, which is very difficult when a defense packs it in.. i think they they only took 2 threes the first 8 minutes...

[gobillsgo]

Thoughts on the game (trying not to read into anything too much, as it was UMSL):

Parker is a gifted scorer, more advanced seemingly than Perkins was at the same point.  The similarities between him and Perkins are very apparent though. We are gonna have some guys that can score the basketball. However, as others have mentioned, he will need to improve defensively if he wants big minutes on a Ford team. 
 

Yuri definitely looked to score more, that was obviously the feedback he got from pro scouts.  Still tries to do a little too much at times, but overall, we will go as Yuri goes this year. 
 

Lack of a backup ball handler again is very concerning.  If Yuri is in foul trouble, it’s just gonna come down to guys like Perkins and Parker creating their own offense. Thatch is not a backup PG, and we will struggle if he has to run things for any extended amount of time.  I assume it’s hard to recruit a PG to backup Yuri… we haven’t been able to do it for two years now. 
 

Speaking of Thatch, he didn’t look great, but he always starts sluggish and comes on throughout the year, so not too worried about him. 
 

Okoro is an Enigma.  He does a lot of good things (Defense, Rebounding, some good post work offensively).  But the game often seems too fast for him.  Gonna be a lot of turnovers… but he will also have some great games. I like Forrester starting with Okoro off the bench personally. 

Speaking of Forrester, he was very impressive.  Yes it was UMSL, but he was great in the high/low.   Seems like he sees the game well, and doesn’t panic.  Really good passer.  Also a good rebounder.   We’ve heard he can shoot it a bit, but we didn’t see that last night.

Gibson looked good.  Not much to say, other than he’s as advertised.  Definitely has put on some muscle too.

Hughes surprised me.  I think he’ll get time this year.  Smooth stroke (seems to have sped up the release a bit from HS).  Might be our best secondary ball handler.

Pickett didn’t do anything special, but was really solid overall.  Reminded me a little of Dwayne Evans… plays a lot bigger than his size.

Thames, Kramer, MoMo didn’t get enough time to really tell much.  They won’t play much at the start of the year.  

if I think of anything else I’ll add it on

 

 

[slu72]

Sounds like the game will give Travis plenty of ammo to light a fire under these guys to dig a little deeper and play a little smarter. 
From the comments and the stat sheet the inside game needs work. During Ford’s tenure we always seem to struggle against inside pack D’s . Now it would seem there is a simple solution to this; kick outs to out perimeter guys. Why we don’t seem to get this rather than try force things is beyond me. 

[BIG BILL FAN]

49 minutes ago, gobillsgo said:

Thoughts on the game (trying not to read into anything too much, as it was UMSL):

Parker is a gifted scorer, more advanced seemingly than Perkins was at the same point.  The similarities between him and Perkins are very apparent though. We are gonna have some guys that can score the basketball. However, as others have mentioned, he will need to improve defensively if he wants big minutes on a Ford team. 
 

Yuri definitely looked to score more, that was obviously the feedback he got from pro scouts.  Still tries to do a little too much at times, but overall, we will go as Yuri goes this year. 
 

Lack of a backup ball handler again is very concerning.  If Yuri is in foul trouble, it’s just gonna come down to guys like Perkins and Parker creating their own offense. Thatch is not a backup PG, and we will struggle if he has to run things for any extended amount of time.  I assume it’s hard to recruit a PG to backup Yuri… we haven’t been able to do it for two years now. 
 

Speaking of Thatch, he didn’t look great, but he always starts sluggish and comes on throughout the year, so not too worried about him. 
 

Okoro is an Enigma.  He does a lot of good things (Defense, Rebounding, some good post work offensively).  But the game often seems too fast for him.  Gonna be a lot of turnovers, and he will cost us at the line… but he will also have some great games. I like Forrester starting with Okoro off the bench personally. 

Speaking of Forrester, he was very impressive.  Yes it was UMSL, but he was great in the high/low.   Seems like he sees the game well, and doesn’t panic.  Really good passer.  Also a good rebounder.   We’ve heard he can shoot it a bit, but we didn’t see that last night.

Gibson looked good.  Not much to say, other than he’s as advertised.  Definitely has put on some muscle too.

Hughes surprised me.  I think he’ll get time this year.  Smooth stroke (seems to have sped up the release a bit from HS).  Might be our best secondary ball handler.

Pickett didn’t do anything special, but was really solid overall.  Reminded me a little of Dwayne Evans… plays a lot bigger than his size.

Thames, Kramer, MoMo didn’t get enough time to really tell much.  They won’t play much at the start of the year.  

if I think of anything else I’ll add it on

 

 

some good points, but Okoro is not a liability at the line....77% last year

[gobillsgo]

6 minutes ago, BIG BILL FAN said:

some good points, but Okoro is not a liability at the line....77% last year

Fair enough, for some reason I remembered him as being worse than that at the line. Maybe just bad memories of the misses in the Auburn game.   We will see if he can make them in clutch moments. He just seems really nervous to me all the time, whether it’s with the ball or at the line.  
 

[gobillsgo]

The other thing I will add is that we seem much better in transition offense than in the half court.  I hope Ford commits to playing fast this year.  We’ve looked good for the last two years when we run, and last night was no exception. 

[dennis_w]

1 hour ago, gobillsgo said:

Thoughts on the game (trying not to read into anything too much, as it was UMSL):

Parker is a gifted scorer, more advanced seemingly than Perkins was at the same point.  The similarities between him and Perkins are very apparent though. We are gonna have some guys that can score the basketball. However, as others have mentioned, he will need to improve defensively if he wants big minutes on a Ford team. 
 

Yuri definitely looked to score more, that was obviously the feedback he got from pro scouts.  Still tries to do a little too much at times, but overall, we will go as Yuri goes this year. 
 

Lack of a backup ball handler again is very concerning.  If Yuri is in foul trouble, it’s just gonna come down to guys like Perkins and Parker creating their own offense. Thatch is not a backup PG, and we will struggle if he has to run things for any extended amount of time.  I assume it’s hard to recruit a PG to backup Yuri… we haven’t been able to do it for two years now. 
 

Speaking of Thatch, he didn’t look great, but he always starts sluggish and comes on throughout the year, so not too worried about him. 
 

Okoro is an Enigma.  He does a lot of good things (Defense, Rebounding, some good post work offensively).  But the game often seems too fast for him.  Gonna be a lot of turnovers, and he will cost us at the line… but he will also have some great games. I like Forrester starting with Okoro off the bench personally. 

Speaking of Forrester, he was very impressive.  Yes it was UMSL, but he was great in the high/low.   Seems like he sees the game well, and doesn’t panic.  Really good passer.  Also a good rebounder.   We’ve heard he can shoot it a bit, but we didn’t see that last night.

Gibson looked good.  Not much to say, other than he’s as advertised.  Definitely has put on some muscle too.

Hughes surprised me.  I think he’ll get time this year.  Smooth stroke (seems to have sped up the release a bit from HS).  Might be our best secondary ball handler.

Pickett didn’t do anything special, but was really solid overall.  Reminded me a little of Dwayne Evans… plays a lot bigger than his size.

Thames, Kramer, MoMo didn’t get enough time to really tell much.  They won’t play much at the start of the year.  

if I think of anything else I’ll add it on

 

 

Okoro was good at the line last, why will he cost us this year?

[billikenfan05]

8 minutes ago, dennis_w said:

Okoro was good at the line last, why will he cost us this year?

Yeah Okoro is nails at the line for a big man. 

[gobillsgo]

11 minutes ago, dennis_w said:

Okoro was good at the line last, why will he cost us this year?

Read above. Edited. 

[wgstl]

Now I'm thrilled we played this game so freaking early.  2 weeks to iron out the kinks.

[AnkielBreakers]

I wonder what difference UMSL’s recent success as a basketball team makes? I didn’t see the game, but UMSL has been a solid team in their division, right? Maybe that is the difference between a 20 and a 40 point win.

[Cowboy II]

-the guys have a couple of weeks to get some things figured out, I was surprised at the discombobulated play as I thought having the summer practices and trip would not have us looking like we did, CFord did not like Franco's play pretty much from the start, but it was an exhibition game, no visible injuries, it starts to count on Nov 7

-speaking of getting things figure out, or not, near the end of the game #2 from UMSL Justin King was in the game, #2 for SLU is Larry Hughes, Jr who drained a 3 from beyond the top of the key and our esteemed PA announcer credited the basket to Justin King, what a dolt

[gobillsgo]

26 minutes ago, AnkielBreakers said:

I wonder what difference UMSL’s recent success as a basketball team makes? I didn’t see the game, but UMSL has been a solid team in their division, right? Maybe that is the difference between a 20 and a 40 point win.

2nd half they hit some tough shots, and we turned the ball over a lot too. Some open looks but a lot of contested makes too.   They had pretty good depth for a D2 team also. 

[NextYearBill]

we could have won by 60.... story line would be the exact same. these stories/quotes are recycled by every good team playing a scrub preseason. 

[DeSmetBilliken]

1 hour ago, Cowboy II said:

 

-speaking of getting things figure out, or not, near the end of the game #2 from UMSL Justin King was in the game, #2 for SLU is Larry Hughes, Jr who drained a 3 from beyond the top of the key and our esteemed PA announcer credited the basket to Justin King, what a dolt

He certainly didn’t credit the basket to Larry Hughes Jr, but I thought he said Kellen Thames. If he said a player or the other team, that’s an even bigger miss.

[gobillsgo]

15 minutes ago, DeSmetBilliken said:

He certainly didn’t credit the basket to Larry Hughes Jr, but I thought he said Kellen Thames. If he said a player or the other team, that’s an even bigger miss.

He definitely said Justin King. I turned to my gf and pointed it out at the time. Justin King (UMSL’s #2) then checked in for UMSL a play later… 

shocking (but not actually shocking) that Guy doesn’t even recognize the son of one of the program’s best ever players. 
 

He also broke out his infamous “Checking in for UMSL: A bunch of guys” which gets a laugh out of exactly three people in the arena, and Gus is one of them. 

[3star_recruit]

So I'm supposed to discard Okoro's season long numbers against real competition last year because he looked subpar against UMSL?  I don't think so.

[Billikenbooster]

14 minutes ago, gobillsgo said:

He definitely said Justin King. I turned to my gf and pointed it out at the time. Justin King (UMSL’s #2) then checked in for UMSL a play later… 

shocking (but not actually shocking) that Guy doesn’t even recognize the son of one of the program’s best ever players. 
 

He also broke out his infamous “Checking in for UMSL: A bunch of guys” which gets a laugh out of exactly three people in the arena, and Gus is one of them. 

Gus was definitely in mid season form last night.