Perspective

[slu72]

Ok, we went to a Big Boys BBQ and got slapped down. Hopefully, lessons learned. Seriously, we’ve had some embarrassing losses in the Ford era but not like this. And to get undressed on ESPN’s big stage is always a major downer. 
Are we really this sucky. I don’t, or refuse to believe, we are. At least not yet. We have a consolation game to save some face. We will see. 
Honestly the team that showed up today looked nothing like what we’ve seen in the first 3 games. I wasn’t sure we’d win, neither did I expect we’d lose by 30. That’s not a bad game. It’s a no game. 
Who to blame or lay this off on? Every Bill involved. We didn’t look like us from the start to the finish. But there was one major culprit. Defense. There was none. This should be a concern going forward. MD came in as a low ranked O team and burned the nets from both the outside and the paint. 
We were warned that they played good D. Tip of the hat to their coach if you’re mediocre on O you only have one option left, strong D. 
They smothered us with their D. Not the first time we’ve seen this in the Ford era. How do u beat that? You dig in your heels and play tough D. We looked lost on D. And allowed a team that was shooting like 30% from the perimeter suddenly start shooting at a 45% rate. 
OK, don’t want to go into every factor that was lacking today, but I’d start working really hard on making us better and tougher on D. 

[TheChosenOne]

While I feel you, this line at least made me chuckle so thank you for that: They smothered us with their D.

[Fraz]

Gotta have it tomorrow 

[Matty Light]

Why is everyone pretending a lot of people nationally watched this game? Saturday in the USA everyone and their grandma are watching college football. ESPN relegated this game to ESPNews because football is king. I would be shocked if 200,000 people saw this debacle.

[majerus mojo]

Earlier this week:

[slu72]

2 minutes ago, Matty Light said:

Why is everyone pretending a lot of people nationally watched this game? Saturday in the USA everyone and their grandma are watching college football. ESPN relegated this game to ESPNews because football is king. I would be shocked if 200,000 people saw this debacle.

Who cares,  we saw it. It was ugly and will show up an ugly loss in March if MD finishes last in the B10 as projected. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but so is ugly. And this was as freaking ugly as it gets. 

[slu72]

2 minutes ago, majerus mojo said:

Earlier this week:

Not relevant to our case. The losers were all P5 schools they get the benefit of the doubt. We dug a big hole today. if we lose tomorrow the hole just gets deeper. And it shouldn’t, we’re better than we showed today. 
 

[majerus mojo]

Just now, slu72 said:

Not relevant to our case. The losers were all P5 schools they get the benefit of the doubt. We dug a big hole today. if we lose tomorrow the hole just gets deeper. And it shouldn’t, we’re better than we showed today. 
 

Lol. You titled this thread “perspective”. Good teams get blown out every week. If we win by double-digits tomorrow it will be a wash with today’s result for many voters. 

[slu72]

4 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Who cares,  we saw it. It was ugly and will show up an ugly loss in March if MD finishes last in the B10 as projected. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but so is ugly. And this was as freaking ugly as it gets. 

The people don’t pick the field of 68, some committee does. When they look at this hot mess they’re gonna say really? Unless we turn it around, which we are capable of doing. 

[slu72]

Just now, majerus mojo said:

Lol. You titled this thread “perspective”. Good teams get blown out every week. If we win by double-digits tomorrow it will be a wash with today’s result for many voters. 

Don’t disagree every team has bad games. We don’t even need to W by double digits tomorrow. Just W by 2 or 15 it’s not gonna matter that much come March, at least not as much as an L. It’s a Q1 win most likely. And I think we’re much better than we showed today. But we got to up our game on D, which was the point of my post to begin with. 

[slu72]

6 minutes ago, majerus mojo said:

Lol. You titled this thread “perspective”. Good teams get blown out every week. If we win by double-digits tomorrow it will be a wash with today’s result for many voters. 

And they may lose but by 30? That’s rather rare. 

[cgeldmacher]

Totally agree with Majerus Mojo’s thoughts. Good teams sometimes lose and sometimes they lose big.  We are not going to win every game.  Nor will any team in the Top 10.  We can’t control the fact that non-power conference schools get their losses forgiven more than we will.  Knowing that is not going to magically make us win every game.  So far, in our big four non-con games, we are 1-1.  Let’s stay positive and see what happens.

[thunderdan]

Ever since the UMSL game, the thing that's stuck out for me is the insane amount of open 3-pointers that we allow.  Is that an effort thing (not rotating quickly enough), or is this a flaw in CTF's overall defensive strategy?

Against UMSL, Murray St., and Evansville, we seemed to allow a bunch of open 3's, and we just lucked-out on the fact that bad offensive teams were shooting them.  In the Memphis game, most of the shots were contested.  So, I'm unsure what the issue is.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing the kids more (especially Kellen and Larry), particularly in the first half.  Bring that energy and enthusiasm early, and keep your top 6-7 fresh for the 2nd half.

Having said that, I'm sure we'll be 28-1 (give or take) heading into the NCAA tournament, so I'm not worried. 

[slu72]

15 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

Totally agree with Majerus Mojo’s thoughts. Good teams sometimes lose and sometimes they lose big.  We are not going to win every game.  Nor will any team in the Top 10.  We can’t control the fact that non-power conference schools get their losses forgiven more than we will.  Knowing that is not going to magically make us win every game.  So, far in our big four non-con games, we are 1-1.  Let’s stay positive and see what happens.

Sorry, Bud, they lose, yes. Even to teams they shouldn’t, but blown out by 28 points? Rarely. And, if they do, that’s usually on the D. Today’s D effort was pitiful. Screw it. Your O ain’t working. Then start making them pay for their offense. Trust me, that’s how they’re thinking. We come in averaging near 80 points a game and get held to 65 with one of the best PG’s, 3 pt shooters, and bigs in the country? Ok, I get it they play great D, and they do play B10 style D, ie push, shove, etc, well, you do the same to them. Let the refs deal with it. We played liked *******. Travis should have said eff it punch them in the mouth too. 

[brianstl]

1 hour ago, Matty Light said:

Why is everyone pretending a lot of people nationally watched this game? Saturday in the USA everyone and their grandma are watching college football. ESPN relegated this game to ESPNews because football is king. I would be shocked if 200,000 people saw this debacle.

The people that vote in basketball polls were watching.  I don’t think anyone thinks the game was popular with the general public.

[Matty Light]

1 minute ago, brianstl said:

The people that vote in basketball polls were watching.  I don’t think anyone thinks the game was popular with the general public.

Who cares about polls in November? They are meaningless. Nothing at all hinges on this single game.

[slu72]

3 minutes ago, Matty Light said:

Who cares about polls in November? They are meaningless. Nothing at all hinges on this single game.

This is naive. We just lost by 28 to a P5 team picked to come in last in their P5 conf. Let’s say they say they finish 6th in the B10 come March. A 9 or a 10 seed maybe. Let’s say we finish 2nd in the A10 but don’t win the tournament at Barclays. Who’s got the better NET? What are they going to look at? The head to head most likely. Easy pick. We’re out. MD gets in. This wasn’t a make it or break it game until we lost by 28 freaking points. We looked weak. 

[Matty Light]

So your worries hinge on if SLU and Maryland end up in the last four out? Beside the miniscule probability that happens, each team will have had 20+ games to prove whether that was an outlier or a true reflection of the team. This game in isolation means nothing resume wise.

[HoosierPal]

8 minutes ago, Matty Light said:

So your worries hinge on if SLU and Maryland end up in the last four out? Beside the miniscule probability that happens, each team will have had 20+ games to prove whether that was an outlier or a true reflection of the team. This game in isolation means nothing resume wise.

Oh yea it does. This game will likely be a Q2 loss at the end of the year. Maybe Q1 on a neutral floor, maybe not. Maryland would have to be a top 50 NET for that to happen. We don’t have all that many opportunities to get W’s in those tiers. 

[slu72]

6 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Oh yea it does. This game will likely be a Q2 loss at the end of the year. Maybe Q1 on a neutral floor, maybe not. Maryland would have to be a top 50 NET for that to happen. We don’t have all that many opportunities to get W’s in those tiers. 

Right on, Hoosier. I can’t understand why Matty Light doesn’t see this as a crippling loss. Does he really think the committee’s gonna accept a 2nd place A10 team over a 6th or 7th place B10 team that slammed the A10 team in Nov? They won’t do it. And they’ll justify it on that beat down. If we lose any more of these games, like tomorrow’s and Auburn, we’re either going to have to win the A10 outright for a play in game or the tournament for an auto bid. The committee’s predisposed towards the P5. Last year the B10 got in 9 teams. Not one of them made it to the elite 8, but they’re the B10. So it doesn’t  matter. 

 
 

[Billiken Rich]

13 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Right on, Hoosier. I can’t understand why Matty Light doesn’t see this as a crippling loss. Does he really think the committee’s gonna accept a 2nd place A10 team over a 6th or 7th place B10 team that slammed the A10 team in Nov? They won’t do it. And they’ll justify it on that beat down. If we lose any more of these games, like tomorrow’s and Auburn, we’re either going to have to win the A10 outright for a play in game or the tournament for an auto bid. The committee’s predisposed towards the P5. Last year the B10 got in 9 teams. Not one of them made it to the elite 8, but they’re the B10. So it doesn’t  matter. 

 
 

Lighten up Francis!

[Old guy]

SLU 72 you have 9 out of 19 entries in this thread. This game really scrambled your insides, and now you feel compelled to write. I hope we win tomorrow against Providence. We will see what happens. I am not concerned so much as what these games are going to do to our statistics, as I am concerned about the state of mind of the team tonight, what fulminations Ford is laying on them, and how they will respond tomorrow. We will see. One loss, even a disaster like today, does not destroy a team. Let's see what they can do tomorrow against a hostile atmosphere loaded with Providence fans.

[papal]

Good teams win on the road and this wasn't even a true road game (on neutral site).  We need to win tomorrow. If we have no interior defense, it will be a disappointing season.

[slu72]

9 minutes ago, Old guy said:

SLU 72 you have 9 out of 19 entries in this thread. This game really scrambled your insides, and now you feel compelled to write. I hope we win tomorrow against Providence. We will see what happens. I am not concerned so much as what these games are going to do to our statistics, as I am concerned about the state of mind of the team tonight, what fulminations Ford is laying on them, and how they will respond tomorrow. We will see. One loss, even a disaster like today, does not destroy a team. Let's see what they can do tomorrow against a hostile atmosphere loaded with Providence fans.

I had no feel for if we’d win this game or lose, but I never imagined we’d get spanked like we did. Is the season now lost? Not by a long shot. But if we play like we did today against top teams, which MD was not considered to be, our only hope is the A 10 tournament. 
I don’t want to be a Chicken Little, oh the sky is falling, but today’s game looked a lot like a #1 seed beating a #16 in the first round of the Dance. That has me concerned. A fluke? I am praying it was. There is just no reason for losing that bad to MD other than we put up no D. And if that is a problem going forward this season ain’t going where we thought it was. 

[slu72]

31 minutes ago, Billiken Rich said:

Lighten up Francis!

B’rich I hope you know me well enough to know I’m not one to pull the plug. But today was something we haven’t seen since the Crews’ days. We did not even looked like we belonged on the same court as MD. It was shameful. Do I think we’re as bad as we looked? No. But I’m not sure how tough this team is. They bullied us we should have pushed back. We had no D. How can we have NO D at this point. MD never hit 80 pts against 3 weak teams yet put up 95 against a supposedly top 40 team. That blows my mind. 

We’ll see tomorrow. Maybe just a cluster Eff of a game today. I hope so. I’m not writing off my beloved Billikens, just show us something tomorrow.