SShoe Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Excuses: We were tired after a long road trip and a number of games in a short time span and so our defense suffered. Also finals start tomorrow. Reasons: Brad made some poor coaching decisions. Putting JJ on their center and putting Ian on the 4 in order to keep Ian out of foul trouble was not a good strategy. JJ couldn't guard him causing us to need to double down and help. Their center continuously kicked out and their guards knocked down shots. Because Ian was on the 4, he was pulled out of the lane where he is most valuable, therefore our defensive rebounding became awful. Reasons: Our weakness at the 4 was exploited to death. Unfortunately JJ has to play because the 4-guard offense does not work against these big teams, but he is not in my mind a good defensive player. Hopefully we'll learn from this, but Brad's coaching decisions were not the best tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILbillikenfan Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 I give a lot of credit to Ole Miss. They played well tonite. I think people put a little bit too much stock into their one huge 50 point loss and our lone road win against Oakland. They are not a "bad" team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlumniFan Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 We looked really tired and uninspired tonight. That is NOT a criticism, just an observation that may or may not be accurate. I think that these kids probably are pretty tired and that effects so much, from the physical part of rebounding to the mental part of turnovers. Tough loss, but not surprising. We are still ahead of where I thought we would be at this point so I can live with this. It is so tough to get up for EVERY game (or any athletic event for that matter) and when you are a young team like the Billikens this year, you almost have to do that to compete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tseugnekillib Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Coach SShoe, imo, SLU will continue to run its four-out / one post-player offense with JJ in the line-up. I don't see SLU going back to last year's three perimeter players and two-screeners motion offense. imo, it's too early to quit on our 4-1 offense. Nothing changes offensively with JJ in the line-up. Ole Miss had a horse of a center (Curtis) and it proved to be a bad road match-up for SLU. JJ had the quicker feet to front Curtis....it just didn't get done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SShoe Posted December 14, 2005 Author Share Posted December 14, 2005 The offense isn't what I was upset about. Our defense is where we lost the game. So I go back to my original statement. Curtis (Miss' center) was a horse and he was able to feast on JJ. Their 4 man consistently went outside (even hit a 3 in Ian's face) So why didn't Brad put IV on Curtis? Seems to me Ian is better suited to guard Curtis than JJ, especially considering Ian's man was consistently going outside, causing Ian to vacate the lane where he is most effective on the defensive end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slu72 Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 I listened to live feed. It sounded like we were out of synch. It also sounded like Ole Miss played in your face D. Hey, it's tough to win on the road. If down the road OM knocks off Alabama or KY in their house this may not be such a bad loss. These 12 non cons are D-1 hoops 101 for these kids just like Intro to Metaphysics. Also, and no knock on JJ who is trying, but it points out our lack of a decent #4. This all combined with 3 straight on the road agains is probably the best reason for the loss. We now get a little breather before GZ and Iowa let's see how it all shakes out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 i agree with sshoe. our defense and in particular, our inside defense was horrid. at halftime they showed fast break points off of turnovers we were getting beat substantially there. i would say that indicates we werent getting back as well. way to much dribbling around in circles and our shot selection was just poor. it was just a bad game. chalk it up to lack of experience and a long road trip. that said, imo to be seriously considered to a good team, that was a game they had to win. we didnt have near the physical size as ole miss, but as far as sheer skills, i didnt see any future nba players on that ole miss team. they were good, but not 23 point lead good. guess it demonstrates how important getting some size is for saint louis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 who God bless his Billiken soul, isn't exactly the most observant broadcaster in the world, mentioned 5 minutes into the 2nd half that coach must be pondering switching JJ and Ian on their defensive assignments. Frank mentioned this in between him and Joe's constant praising of our defensive intensity. lol. The final score gives no justice to how bad we played and how bad the defense was. They were on pace for 90+ points almost the entire game until they went to the stall offense in the last 5 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorB Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 I thought we played well the final 6 minutes or so-- granted, they were way ahead, but the stall was largely due to our resurrected defense and some actual energy. Hardly anyone has said this, though-- Mississippi is pretty darned good, and will probably get a lot better. They impressed me a lot more than I expected-- I am not sure why I had the impression they are no good, but that is not acurate. Their team reminded me of the old Louisville teams, or some recent Charlotte teams--a bunch of long, lean, 6'7" kangaroos who play hard, hustle, and run the floor. with a major dude in the middle cleaning up. Mississippi will beat some good teams this year. We did not play well, true--but some of that is to UM's credit. Athletically, we were way overmatched. Those kind of teams will give us trouble this year. Actually, I think they can beat North Carolina--if they play like they did last night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Bam Doyne was the guy who killed us. It was the inability to guard him that led to all the defensive breakdowns IMHO (especially in the 1st half). He had 15 points but I think 10 came in the 1st half. Yeah, we got beat on the defensive boards but we defended the perimeter poorly and didn't stop the drives. Was just a bad defensive performance all the way around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 I agree. If Ole Miss plays with that kind of hustle and shoots lights out they could thrash darn near anyone. Il Chicago? Do they have the beef to compete with Ole Miss? God I hope not. If they do our problems at the four spot are harder to explain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 We really needed JJ to become Mo jeffers or Chris Slone or a taller Josh Fisher instead of Larry Simmons........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoop Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Every SEC team is long and athletic. Year in and year out SLU could match up with whoever comes in last in the SEC and it would be a game. No dog to SLU, just props to the SEC. 6'8" leapers seem like a dime a dozen in that conference. As far as the game, blame it on whatever. It was painful to watch. Silly unforced errors and bad defense. Yes. Bad defense from a UB team. UB will fix this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Overall the rebounding was rather even - the problem was that they go so many lay ups/put backs/ and hit key 3s. I agree our D was pathetic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 kshoe said, "Joe's constant praising of our defensive intensity." i dont know if joe and frank ever praised the entire team's intensity. i think they would point out certain players. and i would have no problem with that. not the entire team mailed in the defense last night imo. however, for the pack to succeed, i believe two things in particular have to happen. 1. the team needs to get back asap. if they fail to recover we leave holes and we did just that all night last night. 2. help and full efforts have to be there. if there is a week link, it leads to problems that can easily be exploited. ian and justin needed to be rocks last nite. ian got beat on the dribble by guys that were much much thicker and one would assume slower than he. justin needed to be there to help and just wasnt. imo, justin johnson took a huge step back yesterday compared to where he had come in the previous two games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 the reason i dont fully agree doc, is i thought that our guards were much better than theirs. well let me rephrase that, i think the guards we know we have are much better than thiers. however, we made their very average guards look good imo. no way bam whatever his name is is rip hamilton, but we let him think he was last night. i think frank said he hadnt even scored in double figures this year before last nite and he had like 11 or 13 by halftime. the anderson kid was very average. no way that polk shouldnt have been able to dominate him with his speed. however, i was very impressed with the performance of the two offensive linemen that manned the center position. they handled all that weight very very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Brad was obviously desperate to play as much zone as we did. Tom T said we briefly went to a zone,he was wrong we played zone for a long time in the second half. We couldn't stop dribble penetration,therefore the zone. The only trouble was we couldn't rebound out of the zone and gave up countless offensive rebounds. I've never seen a team give up the baseline as many times as we did last night. Hopefully these are issues that can be corrected. I've never totally bought into the defense is everything that Billiken basketball preaches,but last night our lack of defense was everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 brad was harsh in the post game interview with ramsey. he was extremely upset about the defense. i wouldnt want to be a billiken player at practice this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorB Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 I better put in a plug for Indiana; being a former Hoosier. . . . They have a nice young guy named Todd Abernethy, son of Tom A., a starter on Indiana's undefeated 1976 championship team. he looked good, and gave us a few problems as well. He has a nice game. I did not feel our guards were better than theirs-esp. if you consider the large number of really silly, unforced turnovers, an aspect of our game last night that would immediately put a player on most benches, even if you are a freshman. Some of our turnovers by our "superior" outside guys were laughably ugly. one pass bounced off a guy's head, soccer style,; one dribble through the legs turned into an ugly carry. Those are the images I have in my mind's eye from last night. As I said, the last 6 minutes made me feel a little better, but that was our weakest game so far. Please do not underestimate finals, either--these are just young guys, mostly. I think we can cut them some slack and handle at least a few ugly ones, under the circumstances. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 i thought abernathy was a lot less than drake diener and maybe a notch above our own luke meyer. yet we made him look good. i just think that polk should have dominated that kid. i wont argue that our guards did not look good last night. for the most part they didnt. however we saw flashes from our guards that showed what we know they can do. it was just an ugly game. i am betting right now we win the game next year vs ole miss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Ramsey led off the interview with a mini excuse of being tired and the opening for Brad to use it but Brad rejected that and was very upset. I would have been disapointed if Brad had allowed any excuses to hold water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 I thought the best part of the night were the shots of the dance squad. After UMSL and Maryville, it was nice to see some hotties. I needed some "alone time" after that (just kidding, just kidding). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BleacherBum593 Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Has anyone considered that the reason Brad put IV on the 4 is that maybe he's looking down the road and if (and it's a big IF) IV can play the 4 spot, he's planning on inserting Bryce into the mix at the 5 spot at times in the future? That would give us a HUGE advantage over teams, height wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 If Brad was looking to experiment, last night was the opportunity. We could've scarcely defended worse with Bryce and Ian in the game..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SShoe Posted December 14, 2005 Author Share Posted December 14, 2005 that's an interesting theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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