Coach on Sports on a Sunday Morning, Jan 22 & 29, Feb 5, 12 & 19, Mar 5

[HoosierPal]

Sincere Parker highlights discussed first.  Great spark off the bench yesterday.  First team wasn't doing much and Parker came off the bench with a huge spark.  Bench stepping up has been a big part of the recent games.

6-1 in the A10 is Ford's best start as a Billiken coach.  We've played more road games than normal for the early part of the season.  Glad to be 6-1, but it will get tougher from here on out.

Okoro's 20 was second most boards at Chaifetz, second to French's 24 record at Chaifetz (Nov 2019 v Belmont).  Okoro kept us in the game early.  If he doesn't get 20, we don't have the success we had.  It was a 'effort' stat.  This was the difference in the game.

How did the team change without Collins?  The team 'grew' without knowing it.  So much pressure is put on Collins on both ends.  For the one game he was out, it caused other players to do things they usually don't do.  Gave guys some confidence in other areas.

Team is best defined as a whole and by the bench.  Different guys are stepping up on different nights.  Pickett one night, Parker the next game.  Defensive numbers are improving.  [Thought our offense was not very good, but still scored 84.]

TJ Hargrove playing better on both ends of the court.  He has shown progression year to year.  Ford calls him the most athletic player on the team.  Players feed off of his energy.  He has helped fill in for Pickett, who has been dealing with a serious injury.  Some games Pickett can give us more than other games.

Two road games coming up, Davidson and Fordham.  Next home game is VCU on Feb 3.  That is a national TV game.  Would like to see 10,000 at the game. 

[Note:  I looked up the Billiken rebound record, and Jerry Koch grabbed 38 rebounds against Bradley on 3/3/54.  Anthony Bonner had four 20+ rebound games.]

[Fraz]

I hope they keep Sincere coming off the bench for a couple reasons.  One, if the first team gets stagnant he can come in and be a home run hitter like coach said.  Two, he is in a great rhythm and he’s comfortable in this role.  Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken, he’ll still get his time.

Also re: Sincere.  Yes he’s in a great flow and (finally) getting shots to fall.  But I’ve been super impressed defensively.  He’s come a long way.  Had a couple blocks at Loyola and another one yesterday, where you can see it’s starting to click for him.  He’s quick, athletic, has good size, and actually has the tools to be a plus defender in this league.  While the offense has been nice from him lately, the defensive has vastly improved.

If you squint hard enough you can see JP 2.0 emerging!

[Westy03]

If they win the next two games they will get 10,000 against VCU. 

[willie]

Speaking of Parker. I questioned his form on his 3 point shot . Thought it was too low starting at his chest. Jim Spanarkle during the Indiana Michigan State game just said shooting from the chest is a new trend with some younger players . It gives them the advantage of getting the shot off quicker. Something new for me.  

[HoosierPal]

2 hours ago, willie said:

Speaking of Parker. I questioned his form on his 3 point shot . Thought it was too low starting at his chest. Jim Spanarkle during the Indiana Michigan State game just said shooting from the chest is a new trend with some younger players . It gives them the advantage of getting the shot off quicker. Something new for me.  

I heard that too. But if the pass hits the shooter head high, then it’s the same quick release at a higher position. Just depends on where he gets the ball. 
 

Heck of a comeback by the Hoosiers. 

[HoosierPal]

Coach liked the way Yuri managed the game at Davidson.  There were several swings during the game, so he showed good patience.  It was a sellout at Davidson.  They were coming off a road win.  Students are right by the bench.  They do some crazy stuff.  Very intense game, don't know if you could feel it through the TV. 

Coach said they saw some things on film that they exploited early, until Davidson made adjustments.  "We scored our first eight shots, but we were still only up by one.  We weren't guarding anyone on the other end."  We got into extreme foul trouble, we are studying this on tape to see how to fix this.  Played the last part of the first half without starters, and we were only down four.  Okoro could have had 20, but we couldn't keep him out of foul trouble. 

Fordham coming up.  "This isn't the Fordham we all know.  Not even close. They have won 4 in a row, 3 on the road.  That says enough right there.  Their Georgia Tech PF transfer is a big physical presence who scored 30 last game.  They will play all kinds of gimmick defenses.  They will have "tandem and three", guarding our three best shooters and the other two in a zone.  Big kid from Ukraine at the 5."

Team will be focused on Fordham and will not be looking ahead at VCU.  (VCU needs to be a sell out.)

Ackerman stated he was on the Coach's show this past Monday with Tate and Tate told of their initial "are you with me" meeting.  Ford remembers that meeting and gave him great credit for what he has done.  If you want to know how to build relationships, study Corey Tate.  Tate really cares about relationships, and he has a great mind for the game.  About the woman's win last night over Fordham, impressed with what Rebecca is doing.  First year's are never easy.  Fordham has had a strong team for quite a while. 

 

 

[billikenbill]

I know the foul trouble fixes. First, bigs need to stop leading with their arms, establish body position and hold it when defending the post.

Second, stay still when screening. Bigs are so concerned about getting yelled at for not making contact with the defender, that they’ll stick the hip out to do it. Better to miss the screen than to commit fouls which take you out of the game and hurts the team.

Third, stop fouling 3 pt. shooters.

[GOSLU68]

On 1/29/2023 at 11:18 AM, billikenbill said:

I know the foul trouble fixes. First, bigs need to stop leading with their arms, establish body position and hold it when defending the post.

Second, stay still when screening. Bigs are so concerned about getting yelled at for not making contact with the defender, that they’ll stick the hip out to do it. Better to miss the screen than to commit fouls which take you out of the game and hurts the team.

Third, stop fouling 3 pt. shooters.

That does not mean stop guarding them or stop watching them Perkins took a swipe and lost contact the guy fell into him as he was moving to the side and Perk got foul called on him

[HoosierPal]

These interviews are all available on Audacy.

Feb 5, Tom Ackerman with Ford

Last two games:  With about 10 minutes to go we were in good position, but didn't finish either loss.  Ford, yeah I have to block out outside noise.  I pretty much live in my office, and pretty much in a cave.  All that other 'stuff' has no significance.  Good bad or indifferent, fans will love you when you win and as soon as you lose, things won't be as good. This is all part of it.

Fordham game:  At about the 7 or 8 minute mark, they made a lot of physical plays and challenged us one on one.  We had trouble stopping them.  They pressured us and we didn't respond, on both ends of the court.  They were mixing up defenses constantly, but that didn't cause us the problem that the pressure gave us.  Once we got by the pressure, we didn't finish and didn't make good decisions.

Going into the VCU game, lot of hype.  Team got back 1 am on Wed morning, and nothing except mental work was done.  Team was focused.  Good practice on Thursday.  They were ready to go.  VCU took an early lead, we put on a run, they punched back.  How did Baldwin fuel them?  All of his shots were off the dribble.  They did a lot of ball screening and off he went.  We tried to trap him, tried switching ball screens but he got to his spots.  He normally wasn't as aggressive as we saw in the game.  But his teammates were having issues so he took over.  16 lead changes 11 ties.

TA:  What is the best way to close games?  We have to get ball movement.  We can't rely on individual talent.  In our win streak, everyone was getting touches and we were moving the ball.  TA:  we will find out a lot about SLU moving forward.  Have to play like every game is your last game.  We will find out Tuesday against Rhode Island.

CF:  Even if we win Tuesday, that doesn't mean we have fixed everything.  We have had issues, and we need to learn from these losses.  Sitting in second, one game out.  We will see what this team is made of.  Didn't practice Saturday.  Everyone in the locker room, including me, needs to be better. 

[HoosierPal]

Feb 12; Tom Ackerman and Coach Ford (not a lot this morning)

TA :  still a lot of games, how do you get to playing better by tourney time.  CF:  yeah, every individual has to be at their best for the team to be at it's best.  We don't need to look at the total picture, we need to look at the here and now to see how we get better.

TA:  Dayton, what did they do to hold you down after a great start.  CF:  Both teams got to good starts.  Near the end of the first half, we miss first on one and one, missed a layup and we are down seven.  At start of second half, both teams started slow.  We scored 22 they scored 29.  Neither team happy with that.   We just couldn't keep them off the FT line.  Lowest point total of the year for the Billikens.  8-4 still puts you in the top of the league.  We need to get the most out of every single player.   When we were winning, everyone was at their best.  We were getting a little from everyone, including bench.  At Dayton, we weren't rebounding with any physicality.

TA:  Late game start against Davidson.  CF: Davidson was picked 4th preseason (actually they were picked 6th).  They shoot the 3 from all 5 spots, not an easy thing to guard.  They have won tough games, but haven't played as well as they thought they would.  Everyone healthy on their team.  The one's they have lost have all been close, a couple of points.  A veteran team. 

TA:  called the Woman's team last night, fun to watch what Rebecca is building.  CF:  Brook Flowers is special talent.  She can dominate inside, score and block shot.

[HoosierPal]

Feb 19 with Claibs:

MC:  Did you and the Duquesne coach agree to leave the defense in the locker room?  CF:  Can't remember the last time I coached against a team that couldn't miss from the 3.

CF:  We scored 90, and we are leading the league, but we haven't scored consistently.  We only made 1 three.  They made 15.  That's not what we anticipated.  Scored 70 points in the paint, and I don't think I ever had a team score 70 in the paint.  Nights we don't score, we have 2 or 3 guys that are having off nights.  Not shocking we scored 90, but how we got them.

CF:  Hughes was great, particularly on d.  He reads the floor well.  He has great length.  When we are successful, we get a great contribution from the bench.  When Pickett plays well, we play well. 

MC:  Portal has had an impact.  Some teams are just now figuring out "who they are".  CF:  you will see this every year moving forward.  Portal has been a drastic change.  Look at teams that weren't good last year, like Duquesne who won single digit games.  They have one returner, and now they winning 18 games.  I can name another team where they haven't figured it out.  (St. Bonnie?)  Is there a formula or science to this?  Probably not.  No answer on why some are clicking and some aren't. 

MC:  first question I look at is why is this player in the portal?  Character issues?  CF:  Now even great kids are entering the portal.  It is hard to figure out why they are entering the portal.  Companies now study the portal, rating athletes and ranking them.   You have to have a list to look at.  Did they have success at their last school?  Were they playing behind an all conference player and didn't get a chance?  What was it that Duquesne, Nevada and Mizzou looked at for possible players.

CF:  Richmond plays much better at home than on the road.  11-3 at home and 5-2 in conference.

[cheeseman]

20 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Feb 19 with Claibs:

MC:  Did you and the Duquesne coach agree to leave the defense in the locker room?  CF:  Can't remember the last time I coached against a team that couldn't miss from the 3.

CF:  We scored 90, and we are leading the league, but we haven't scored consistently.  We only made 1 three.  They made 15.  That's not what we anticipated.  Scored 70 points in the paint, and I don't think I ever had a team score 70 in the paint.  Nights we don't score, we have 2 or 3 guys that are having off nights.  Not shocking we scored 90, but how we got them.

CF:  Hughes was great, particularly on d.  He reads the floor well.  He has great length.  When we are successful, we get a great contribution from the bench.  When Pickett plays well, we play well. 

MC:  Portal has had an impact.  Some teams are just now figuring out "who they are".  CF:  you will see this every year moving forward.  Portal has been a drastic change.  Look at teams that weren't good last year, like Duquesne who won single digit games.  They have one returner, and now they winning 18 games.  I can name another team where they haven't figured it out.  (St. Bonnie?)  Is there a formula or science to this?  Probably not.  No answer on why some are clicking and some aren't. 

MC:  first question I look at is why is this player in the portal?  Character issues?  CF:  Now even great kids are entering the portal.  It is hard to figure out why they are entering the portal.  Companies now study the portal, rating athletes and ranking them.   You have to have a list to look at.  Did they have success at their last school?  Were they playing behind an all conference player and didn't get a chance?  What was it that Duquesne, Nevada and Mizzou looked at for possible players.

CF:  Richmond plays much better at home than on the road.  11-3 at home and 5-2 in conference.

Perhaps Ford has changed his opinion of using portal.  He was not talking this way earlier.  Glad to see he has reevaluated the use of the portal it is the future fair or not.

[slu72]

A team can go from outhouse to penthouse by wisely playing the portal. A big factor is going to be what is the player looking for, a boost in NIL $, a team with a good shot at making the dance, a place where he can be the star to up his NBA chances, looking for a better shot at more minutes? Point being a lot of variables for coaches to consider. One thing I would hope Ford is doing is trying to keep Yurimania and Gibby at home. Although, I think Yurimania may be done with college ball, but if not and he goes elsewhere, it will be disappointing. As for Gibby, i really have no clue as to what he’s thinking. I would guess an attractive NIL offer could entice him, or an offer to play closer to home might be alluring. I won’t be surprised even if he makes an attempt to test his draft chances. Bottom line is at this time we have no idea as to what our team will look like next season. 

[HoosierPal]

44 minutes ago, slu72 said:

A team can go from outhouse to penthouse by wisely playing the portal. A big factor is going to be what is the player looking for, a boost in NIL $, a team with a good shot at making the dance, a place where he can be the star to up his NBA chances, looking for a better shot at more minutes? Point being a lot of variables for coaches to consider. One thing I would hope Ford is doing is trying to keep Yurimania and Gibby at home. Although, I think Yurimania may be done with college ball, but if not and he goes elsewhere, it will be disappointing. As for Gibby, i really have no clue as to what he’s thinking. I would guess an attractive NIL offer could entice him, or an offer to play closer to home might be alluring. I won’t be surprised even if he makes an attempt to test his draft chances. Bottom line is at this time we have no idea as to what our team will look like next season. 

Interesting times, isn't it.  Dambrot hit it, and Schmidt didn't.  And why?  Is Dambrot a better coach than Schmidt?  I don't think so, they both have decent records. 

I refuse to get invested in next year's team, until next year.  Many reasons for Collins, Jimerson, Hargrove and Parker to go and good reasons for them to stay.  Same with the 4 frosh.  Too much will churn to try and figure anything out until it figures itself out.  I may be in a minority, but once you have your degree in hand, I would certainly encourage any player to look at as many options as possible. 

[almaman]

2 hours ago, slu72 said:

A team can go from outhouse to penthouse by wisely playing the portal. A big factor is going to be what is the player looking for, a boost in NIL $, a team with a good shot at making the dance, a place where he can be the star to up his NBA chances, looking for a better shot at more minutes? Point being a lot of variables for coaches to consider. One thing I would hope Ford is doing is trying to keep Yurimania and Gibby at home. Although, I think Yurimania may be done with college ball, but if not and he goes elsewhere, it will be disappointing. As for Gibby, i really have no clue as to what he’s thinking. I would guess an attractive NIL offer could entice him, or an offer to play closer to home might be alluring. I won’t be surprised even if he makes an attempt to test his draft chances. Bottom line is at this time we have no idea as to what our team will look like next season. 

If Yuri stays the last season he may lose $$ one year but seems he'd @ least get the same amount of it just 1 year later.

with that in mind I'd be thinking about being #1 in total assist in the history of college hoops a perch he's likely maintain for a long time.

[Taj79]

I agree with HP ==== there is no reason to look to next year until next year arrives.  There is nothing on our bench that suggests greatness awaits.  The unknown status of Collins and Jimerson  has to be worked out.  I think Collins either goes G-League or elsewhere,  I think Jimerson might want to go closer to home.  I think Hargrove stays.  Ditto Parker.  Hughes needs an offensive game.  The others are unknowns and you also don't know what Medley, Vice and Zhang bring.  Plus the other openings.  Focus on the here and now.

To me now, after reevaluating things as the season h as progressed, the ultimate successful season is making the Dance.  Winning one there would only be gravy.  Secondary tournaments mean nothing.  

[dennis_w]

7 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

Interesting times, isn't it.  Dambrot hit it, and Schmidt didn't.  And why?  Is Dambrot a better coach than Schmidt?  I don't think so, they both have decent records. 

I refuse to get invested in next year's team, until next year.  Many reasons for Collins, Jimerson, Hargrove and Parker to go and good reasons for them to stay.  Same with the 4 frosh.  Too much will churn to try and figure anything out until it figures itself out.  I may be in a minority, but once you have your degree in hand, I would certainly encourage any player to look at as many options as possible. 

the days of watching players come in and grow and improve their game over 4 years pretty much over, right now i can only speculate on what the roster might look like next year, so i will just in enjoy the team for this season

 

[HoosierPal]

March 5 with Tom Ackerman and Coach Ford

Had a good game against Dayton, tieing for second in the league.  The key was doing a great job on Holmes and Camara.  Also did a better job defending the arc than in the first game.   FT shooting is always a key.  Going 9 for 9 was key against Dayton.

Tourney is as open as any league's conference.

Four seniors hit double figures Friday, on Senior Night.   Loudest crowd of the year.  Honoring the Seniors after the game gives them a chance to talk to the crowd.   Spoke glowingly on Perkins, his attitude and personality.   Honored 11 seniors, including managers, and all will be graduating in May or have already graduated.  Not easy balancing athletics and academics.  "Our job is to prepare players to go out into the world and to be successful.  Education is huge part, and what they learn in daily life is important."  Ford has talked to several players about coaching futures.  He tells them to get in as a GA, and see if you really want to get into it.  It isn't for everyone. 

Ford first saw Collins as a sophomore.  Looking at some photos of his visit four years ago.  Wow, was he young.

Woman's Team - building a program is not easy.  Team is playing well. 

[Cowboy II]

-wasn't sure where to put this but seeing the blurb on the social scroll about Kelvin Sampson and how he learned and changed is very interesting, at least to me

[Cowboy II]

-more from the social scroll, CFord makes more than McDermott? holy cow

[brianstl]

1 hour ago, Cowboy II said:

-more from the social scroll, CFord makes more than McDermott? holy cow

C Ford makes more than about half of the P5 coaches.  He made more than Hubert Davis in the 21-22 season.

[Cowboy II]

41 minutes ago, brianstl said:

C Ford makes more than about half of the P5 coaches.  He made more than Hubert Davis in the 21-22 season.

-you just blew my mind

[Slu let the dogs out?]

5 hours ago, Cowboy II said:

-you just blew my mind

Also blew A10 Talk’s mind (the McDermott nugget anyway): 

 

[cheeseman]

On 3/14/2023 at 4:38 PM, brianstl said:

C Ford makes more than about half of the P5 coaches.  He made more than Hubert Davis in the 21-22 season.

This all you need to know about Ford and his situation.  

[wgstl]

3 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

This all you need to know about Ford and his situation.  

Ya but ford has to deal with injuries, imagine if other coaches had that problem.