2023-2024 Roster and Schedule

[wgstl]

21 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

 

One area I feel Hughes Jr needs improvement is his 'handle' with the ball.  I was nervous when he was dribbling against pressure this past season. 

I think this was largely due to him being a freshman and that he wasn't recruited as a PG nor started at PG in HS.  I too felt very uneasy when he brought up the ball, but at the same time I think most of that was unwarranted as he didn't turn it over much.  I feel the same with Parker. I think Parker has the ability to handle the ball pretty well too. 

In fact, I think there's a chance we throw those 2 out there together to handle point.  I think Yuri's play this year was an eye opener for the offense.  Rather have 2 guys splitting a role than a pure OG to everything(not a knock on yuri, its just what it is). 

[Billiken Rich]

1 hour ago, Box and Won said:

I'm just glad you didn't say Chris Heinrich. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

He was actually a client of mine while he was here.........he's in the top 10......

[HoosierPal]

47 minutes ago, Cowboy II said:

-Frank said a few weeks ago that over the summer Larry is going to California to train

I assume that is supposed to be a good thing, but location can be anywhere. The instructor is more important. 

[billiken_roy]

1 hour ago, HoosierPal said:

One area I feel Hughes Jr needs improvement is his 'handle' with the ball.  I was nervous when he was dribbling against pressure this past season. 

i totally agree.   i can remember a couple of times where young hughes showed the ball.   a good point guard will always keep his body between the ball and his defender unless he is safe distance away.  he also had the look of terror against vcu havoc.   

both of these issues are easily cleaned up and with experience will disappear.  

[billiken_roy]

48 minutes ago, Billiken Rich said:

He was actually a client of mine while he was here.........he's in the top 10......

made me chuckle.   

[rgbilliken]

5 hours ago, Box and Won said:

I'm just glad you didn't say Chris Heinrich. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Top redhead, female category: Isla Fisher

Top redhead, male category--see below: 

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

13 minutes ago, rgbilliken said:

Top redhead, female category: Isla Fisher

Top redhead, male category--see below: 

That manager had 70s hair out the wazoo

Edited April 18, 2023 by BrettJollyComedyHour

[TheChosenOne]

7 hours ago, 757billiken said:

I am trying to compare next year's roster to two year's ago when things were some what fun. It really hinges on big men, but I actually think we upgrade in a few spots. What do you guys think?

I see a lot of unknowns. It doesn't mean those guys can't be upgrades, but a lot of unknowns at this point as proven production is really low for most of those guys. I still can't get over the low opinion so many have of Yuri Collins, it is laughable to call Larry Hughes Jr. an upgrade over Yuri at the point when Larry doesn't even play that position.

[ACE]

8 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

I see a lot of unknowns. It doesn't mean those guys can't be upgrades, but a lot of unknowns at this point as proven production is really low for most of those guys. I still can't get over the low opinion so many have of Yuri Collins, it is laughable to call Larry Hughes Jr. an upgrade over Yuri at the point when Larry doesn't even play that position.

It's odd how much crap Yuri's game gets, and yet many hold Luke Meyer's game in high regard. It's strange. 

[WVBilliken]

1 hour ago, TheChosenOne said:

I see a lot of unknowns. It doesn't mean those guys can't be upgrades, but a lot of unknowns at this point as proven production is really low for most of those guys. I still can't get over the low opinion so many have of Yuri Collins, it is laughable to call Larry Hughes Jr. an upgrade over Yuri at the point when Larry doesn't even play that position.

Time will tell.  If Hughes can handle the ball and see the floor half as well as Collins, Hughes shooting, superior height and better defense could make it a legimate augument IMO.  Collins had some off the chart pluses but he had several obvious negatives IMO.

[gobillsgo]

6 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

Rammer agrees with you. Either on a Press Box show or his podcast, Rammer said Medley will be the PG next season, with Hughes one of several possible backups.  (He is VERY high on Hughes, just not as a PG.)  He also did not dismiss bringing in a vet PG through the Portal.

I love Rammer as much as anyone involved in the program, but I think we need to take any player hype from him with a grain of salt.  He’s been doing this every offseason since at least 2017-18… saying he’s hearing the staff is super high on “player x”… “player y” is gonna be a major contributor….  I’m sure he’s just regurgitating stuff he’s getting from Ford.   I get that that’s his job, but I’m just not going to be buying into the off-season overhyping anymore.  Pretty sure at some point we heard Adonis Henriquez, Luis Santos, Ingvi, Lorentsson, Strickland, Thames were all looking great and going to have a major impact… you can count the career SLU points for that group on about two hands. 

[cheeseman]

10 minutes ago, gobillsgo said:

I love Rammer as much as anyone involved in the program, but I think we need to take any player hype from him with a grain of salt.  He’s been doing this every offseason since at least 2017-18… saying he’s hearing the staff is super high on “player x”… “player y” is gonna be a major contributor….  I’m sure he’s just regurgitating stuff he’s getting from Ford.   I get that that’s his job, but I’m just not going to be buying into the off-season overhyping anymore.  Pretty sure at some point we heard Adonis Henriquez, Luis Santos, Ingvi, Lorentsson, Strickland, Thames were all looking great and going to have a major impact… you can count the career SLU points for that group on about two hands. 

Rammer was frozen out by RM since RM didn't like talking to anyone in the media.  He will do whatever it takes to stay in the loop with Ford

[ACE]

2 minutes ago, cheeseman said:

Rammer was frozen out by RM since RM didn't like talking to anyone in the media.  He will do whatever it takes to stay in the loop with Ford

That's not true - RM did a lot of local media. He didn't click with Rammer, but he did a lot with Frank, Bernie, KMOX.  He did a LOT more local media than he is given credit for. 

[TheChosenOne]

I now remember why I don't post very often. A dude who doesn't even play the position is going to give us better point guard play next season than we got out of Yuri Collins. Such a dumb group of fans. Yuri Collins can be replaced by a preferred walk-on who has never played the point, but Marten Linssen was the missing piece this past winter.

[Fraz]

8 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

I now remember why I don't post very often. A dude who doesn't even play the position is going to give us better point guard play next season than we got out of Yuri Collins. Such a dumb group of fans. Yuri Collins can be replaced by a preferred walk-on who has never played the point, but Marten Linssen was the missing piece this past winter.

While I disagree, at least initially, that we won’t get as good PG play without Collins, it will be a breath of fresh air to move on from him.  He never won anything in his SLU career 

[Adman]

1 hour ago, cheeseman said:

Rammer was frozen out by RM since RM didn't like talking to anyone in the media.  He will do whatever it takes to stay in the loop with Ford

He liked and spoke a lot with Bernie Miklasz but otherwise 100%

[almaman]

3 hours ago, Adman said:

He liked and spoke a lot with Bernie Miklasz but otherwise 100%

those 2 have some common traits

[757billiken]

I think Yuri was a great college PG but I probably watched 95% of his games at SLU and don't remember him ever splitting the screen. Not once. I could be wrong, but he always took the long way around to look for a pass. I consider LHJ an upgrade whether he runs the point or not because (1) defensive length and (2) he'll attack the basket with the intent to score rather than pass. He'll keep the defense honest with his 3 pt shot to keep better spacing for Gibson/Parker/etc.. I also never said he would be a better PG than Yuri, just an upgrade on the court. I would rather have LHJ on the court, hence an upgrade in my book. I could be wrong about it all, but I don't have an infatuation with assist numbers, dribbling in circles, last second drives that get swatted, or letting Ace Baldwin get to his spot every possession.  He was still a great college PG but I am ready to see what the future holds whether that be a combo guard like LHJ, a PG like Cian, or a transfer.

[Aquinas]

12 hours ago, 757billiken said:

I am trying to compare next year's roster to two year's ago when things were some what fun. It really hinges on big men, but I actually think we upgrade in a few spots. What do you guys think?

Gibson -> Gibson 

Yuri -> Hughes Jr. (Upgrade in my opinion)

Thatch -> CJ/Hargrove (push)

Nesbitt -> Parker/Thames (upgrade in my opinion)

Jones -> Cian (Tbd)

Okoro -> ?

Linssen -> ?

I will say Gibson today is significantly better than Gibson then. 

Yuri vs Hughes. Simply, I want to see Hughes back. I'm more excited about Cian/Hughes than I would be if Yuri decided to play another year.

Thatch vs TJ.  Fred's health never let him reach his potential. I keep hoping TJ will play Div 1 defense, but this far into his career I'm skeptical.  

Parker over Nesbit every day of the week.

I'm OK with our guards, though they would have to mature quickly to reach tournament level this season. We will have some rough times with the learning curve at the point. The real keys are the unknown forwards.

[Coach314]

Lol what is going on???  

[cheeseman]

6 hours ago, ACE said:

That's not true - RM did a lot of local media. He didn't click with Rammer, but he did a lot with Frank, Bernie, KMOX.  He did a LOT more local media than he is given credit for. 

I think the difference is that coaches who give out new info usually aren't doing it on a scheduled show.  The real info comes from one on one.  

[NoCoBillsFan]

8 hours ago, 757billiken said:

I think Yuri was a great college PG but I probably watched 95% of his games at SLU and don't remember him ever splitting the screen. Not once. I could be wrong, but he always took the long way around to look for a pass. I consider LHJ an upgrade whether he runs the point or not because (1) defensive length and (2) he'll attack the basket with the intent to score rather than pass. He'll keep the defense honest with his 3 pt shot to keep better spacing for Gibson/Parker/etc.. I also never said he would be a better PG than Yuri, just an upgrade on the court. I would rather have LHJ on the court, hence an upgrade in my book. I could be wrong about it all, but I don't have an infatuation with assist numbers, dribbling in circles, last second drives that get swatted, or letting Ace Baldwin get to his spot every possession.  He was still a great college PG but I am ready to see what the future holds whether that be a combo guard like LHJ, a PG like Cian, or a transfer.

Yuri is one of six players in NCAA history to average double digit assists in a season. He led the country in assists two years in a row. And I don’t just have an infatuation with assists numbers, Yuri simply put up historic stats. He is a once in a lifetime type of player.

I too have watched 95% or more of Yuri’s games since he’s been at SLU. And over that time, it’s easy to take everything he did on the court for granted because we’ve been seeing it for four years. It’s also very easy to find the negatives in his game because he was the undisputed leader of a very disappointing team and basically given the keys to the offense (which isn’t his fault, Ford shouldn’t have done that). Let’s not forget that Yuri was pretty much universally loved up until the end of his junior year, before he was in the spotlight with high expectations. Better yet, remember how much fans loved him after his freshman year?

Hughes Jr averaged 8.7 minutes a game. I too love his game but when he gets 20 minutes a game, much less 38 and a high usage rate like Yuri, you will see a lot more mistakes. 
It truly blows my mind that anyone can look at Yuri’s all-time great body of work at SLU and say a walk-on that averaged 8 minutes a game is an upgrade. Take the recency bias out of it and really think about it. There’s just no way that should be your conclusion. 

[Fraz]

There is a ceiling when Yuri Collins runs your basketball team and it is top 4 in the Atlantic 10 and a semi-final bid in the conference tourney. 
 

Let’s see what Hughes/Medley can do

[gobillsgo]

9 hours ago, Coach314 said:

Lol what is going on???  

Assuming you’re talking about Yuri…

it’s really a shame that arguably the best PG in our history (or at least undoubtedly top 3) will have his legacy tarnished because they couldn’t get anyone around him that could create their own basket.  A lot of the disdain for Yuri stems from the Yuri “Hero Ball” we would see at the end of games, but honestly, who else was gonna take the ball and get a bucket?  That player hasn’t been on the roster the last two seasons.  Once the opposing coach keyed their defense on Gibby, there wasn’t much Ford could do to get him involved.  So Yuri had to try something, and for some reason some fans will always resent that.   Yuri was not the thing holding us back from greater things. In fact, as we often saw, things were much much worse without him. 

[billiken_roy]

17 minutes ago, gobillsgo said:

Assuming you’re talking about Yuri…

it’s really a shame that arguably the best PG in our history (or at least undoubtedly top 3) will have his legacy tarnished because they couldn’t get anyone around him that could create their own basket.  A lot of the disdain for Yuri stems from the Yuri “Hero Ball” we would see at the end of games, but honestly, who else was gonna take the ball and get a bucket?  That player hasn’t been on the roster the last two seasons.  Once the opposing coach keyed their defense on Gibby, there wasn’t much Ford could do to get him involved.  So Yuri had to try something, and for some reason some fans will always resent that.   Yuri was not the thing holding us back from greater things. In fact, as we often saw, things were much much worse without him. 

i am not necessarily blaming yuri, because if ford didnt want it to happen he should have benched yuri.   but your "couldnt get anyone around him that could create their own basket" is a point that cant be proven when yuri would drive around in a circle.  stand at the head of the key dribbling in place for 10 seconds and then drive to the basket and get the impossible shot blocked.  

meanwhile the likes of nesbitt or hargrove or parker were told to stand in the corner and wait for the 3rd or 4th option opportunity.  

again, this is more likely on ford.  and the reason it became an issue his junior year is that it got worse each year.   yuri should have been used as a pure point guard.   not the man that would try to do it all.   i think the first two years he was.  the last two years he attempted to do everthing and imo he wasnt physically capable of doing that.  thus the animosity of the fan base who saw he was trying to be more than he should. 

no doubt yuri was a great passer, but i think he screwed up his legacy by trying to be more than he was able to do.