tseugnekillib Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Against ORU the Billikens attempted 65 field goals and made only 31% of those shots. The 65 field goal attempts is the second highest field goal attempts in the sixty-six games Coach Soderberg has coached over the past two plus seasons. The record for field goal attempts under Soderberg tenure is 67 attempts versus Houston on 1-18-03, a game the Billikens lost 72-59. Next highest is 64 shots against Arizona, in a losing effort on 12-03-02. This past weekend had some interesting games: Wake Forest beat Arizona 63-60 taking 54 shots and shooting 43% Washington beats Oklahoma 96-91 taking 64 shots and hitting 55% SIU-C beats UTEP 68-62 taking 55 shots and hitting 44% SIU-C beats Vandy 67-53 taking 45 shots and hitting 56% Xavier beats Miami(FLA) 83-70 taking 64 shots and hitting 48% It appears the Billikens are getting plenty of good looks, but we have to make some shots! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Anyone who saw the ORU game knows the Bills had good shots they just couldn't hit them. Rammer stated the same thing about the games in the P. Jam Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big al Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Tom F. needs to place the ball higher and softer on the backboard...Also, we need a leader that will get into the face of the players that are not producing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 What's your answer to the problem guest? I assume your point is that the problem is not the coach or the offensive scheme but just that our players are unable to hit open shots. Do we just yell at the kids and tell them to make their shots? Whose fault is the low shooting percentage? The players alone? Do we have enough quality shooters on the team or are the Bills doomed on nights where Reggie does not turn in an all-conference performance? My personal take is that we lack the depth of shooters / scorers required to be successful with this offense. Maybe Luke Meyer and Darren Clarke shall get more minutes and prove that they can add some scoring depth but right now we are sucking wind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikenbooster Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 jj- don't you think they looked tight the way the ball came off their hands, especially IO. thought they didn't look relaxed. only one I thought looked easy with the shots he took were Husak. just my thoughts from my perspective from the back of the lower bowl. mhg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted November 30, 2004 Author Share Posted November 30, 2004 imo, if you look at SLU's field goal attempts it indicates that the offense is getting good looks. It appears what we have a mostly is a team shooting slump (save the Troy game).....key veterans and rookies alike. Also, this team needs it's top 7 or 8 players to be 100 % healthy, which we were not last week. Let's see what the team shooting percentage looks like come Jan1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikan Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 I thought most of the shots by IO looked very good and smooth. they had a nice rotation and looked like they were going in. Tom seems to have regressed from last year when I thought he was the best offensive center we had for years. Many of the rest looked like they were shot off the side of the hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufanskip Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 I agree with tseug. We are in a slump. Reg is a proven scorer who is hurt ... IO is a player with loads of skill and potential and seems to be starting to gain more confidence ... he had a bad shooting day Saturday but the rest of his game was good and he has been pretty good the rest of the year. DP is a true freshman and is learning what it takes at this level ... we know he can provide offense and get good shots for his teammates ... but he is going to have good and bad days early on. Tom ... I don't know ... but this was his first significant minutes of the year and he didn't finish at all ... we have seen him play better and I am sure he will. We need to be in the gym working on offense and I am sure we are ... I beleive we will come together and be a good team as the year progresses. Will we make it to the Dance? I don't know but we need to get some wins under our belt and get some confidence going. It's not too late ... but the time to come together is now. I am betting on a big win Saturday to get the ball rolling in the right direction. Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schasz Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 A win Saturday would be huge as Hawaii will be our biggest test so far, especially since they were able to beat the Salukis on their home court last night. We definitely need a confidence booster to get our team playing with confidence that they can make the crucial shots against good competition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 one thing that has been lost in the opening games, is the fact that the billikens are indeed playing with a more uptempo pace. the score doesnt reflect it because as tsuegnekillib states, we arent making shots. but still we arent intentionally grinding the shot clock to the last 5 seconds and we are getting good opportunities. btw, siu lost to hawaii last nite. saturday obviously wont be a walk in the park. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 I am of the belief that Hawai'i has a 10-12 point swing on home versus road games. By that logic and after the game last night, I'd expect SIU to beat UH by 8-10 in Carbondale. Since we are obviously not playing at the level of SIU, I agree we are going to have our hands full. If we were to actually lose, then I am afraid our season might be doomed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Even the best home court advantage is around 5.5 points and Hawai'i's is a more mediocre 4.x points the past few seasons. Hawaii has not enjoyed a great home advantage for a few seasons (very much like the Billikens) but they did have a significant one for a few seasons. Their home court advantage ranking for the last seven seasons: 03-04 184 02-03 152 01-02 177 00-01 88 99-00 17 98-99 39 91-98 127 They would average out to above average but not even top 20%. This is similar to the Billikens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Well that explains half of the equation. The Rainbow's have also been underperformers on the mainland relative to expectations and against generally weak competition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIUSalukis Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 It didn't help that SIU played Friday and Saturday in Vegas. It was a tough end to a long road trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 "imo, if you look at SLU's field goal attempts it indicates that the offense is getting good looks." If I was Hawaii's coach, I'd zone and let the wings and Husak shoot all the jumpers they want. Even if Frericks does increase his shooting percentage to 50% buckets on the inside buckets he's been missing, it won't be enough to offset all those missed jumpers. In fact, I'm sure Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Gonzaga are drawing up the same game plan. All these teams are better than Oral Roberts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 What I called "home court advantage" above is actually the FULL home over road differential. It is not HALF of anything. The fact remains that Hawai'i has NOT had an abnormal home-road differential (around 4 points) for at least 4 years and even when it did have an above average differential it was not that special. There is a home court advantage in every sport and that NORMAL home court advantage is what Hawai'i and Saint Louis and (insert any team here) has. I do not doubt that travel to and from Hawai'i could be a possible factor but it seems that the players adapt. Sorry, there is nothing special about the relative performance of Hawai'i on the road v. home. For the record Iowa State had the biggest home-road differential of major programs last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 and making statements based on a small dataset is dangerous. Any team that has gone over knows it is difficult and probbaly the biggest reason is the home cooking the officials give them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alameda bob Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 The stats don't tell the whole story when teams go to the islands. It's not only the long flight, especially from the midwest. It's also the "distractions". I've seen a lot of sunburned haole visiting players have real bad games there. Also some of the most home friendly officiating I've ever seen anywhere. But it's a great trip for the fans no matter how the game goes. Aloha brudda!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Admittedly my previous comments are anecdotal, but I'll take UH's 45-5 (90%) home record over the past 3 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 If this was true would that not show up in the actual results of games? However weak the evidence (personally, I think 7 years is MASSIVE evidence in these circles) no one has offered ANY real evidence that all the "effects of going to/from Hawai'i" affect play. It is possible there are some individual favorable factors (like home cookin', like difficulty in travel, etc.) but even if they do exist the net effect is washed out by other effects (like stern warnings from coaches, etc.). Also, possible and more likely is that there is no discernable effect. I am not claiming to know why, your stories would seem reasonable if there was evidence to back them up, but whatever the alleged mythological effects of travelling to/from U. of Hawai'i they have not shown up in the actual play of the actual games. So, where is this mythology coming from? I really want to know because this is turning into a bad Dickie/Digger type rant where facts have no place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Well that explains it finally. 90% is a good home record but hardly remarkable and hardly conclusive of an advantage. To show advantage they have to play worse on the road and the level of competition home and away must be considered. 76% of college basketball games are won by the home team. If Hawaii has trouble scheduling tough teams at home (the evidence I used weighted wins based on their Massey ranking) and they are a good team that would mean winning 90% at home would not be much evidence of home court advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 To use four years as the time frame, which seems to be the extent of the readily available source data that I have come across: SLU 45-18 (71%) Home 14-32 (30%) Road Hawaii 58-10 (85%) Home 17-29 (37%) Road None of this factors in strength of schedule, which must be lower looking at the WAC. I am suprised by UH road %, I thought it would be lower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Every team we play should go zone until we prove we can bust it. Reggie is the only real zone buster on the squad and, until he recovers, deprives us of this one outside threat. I was under the impression that Luke's game is more midrange so Darren Clarke and maybe Polk are the only candidates I can think of who can realistically help us recover from this scoring doldrum this year. Our inside scoring is too inconsistent to be counted on and we can expect teams to pack it in on defense now that our poor outside shooting has been exposed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Majerus Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 It's the same ball and the same hole, and all these guys hit those shots at their last level, and they hit them in practice. It's a confidence thing; if you're not hitting, you suddenly aren't looking aggressively for your shot...and when it's forced on you because you're wide open, you think to much and defeat the great muscle memory that got you to D1 in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 >It's the same ball and the same hole, and all these guys hit >those shots at their last level, and they hit them in >practice. It's a confidence thing; if you're not hitting, >you suddenly aren't looking aggressively for your shot...and >when it's forced on you because you're wide open, you think >to much and defeat the great muscle memory that got you to >D1 in the first place. Don't buy it UNCA (i.e., the answer is that the guys are tight and as soon as they relax everything shall be A-OK). Do we not need a proper mix between skill players, shooters, and grinders? Where are the shooters? Might our recruiting focus have neglected shooters over defenders? This year the answer is obvious. However, Brad has not been at SLU long and I'm willing to throw out the first two recruiting classes as the program was clearly in distress which hampers proper planning (Brad and his team were body snatchers the first two classes). I believe in Brad but I'd like to see how he blends and balances the recruits going forward to a build a "team" as opposed to a collection of athletic defensive stoppers. Polk, Lisch, and Liddell are what we are building this team's foundation on. How shall Brad compliment them? 2 of those three are pass first players (Polk and Liddell). We need finishers around the basket and perimeter shooters to go with these 3. Hope we find them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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