St. Louis - Preview

[lost 452]

I am surprised no one has started a topic on them.  They have to be the most interesting school we will face.  They are a Jesuit University which is not so strange in itself because there are 27 of them in the United States. But what makes them stand out is there mascot. The Billiken. It is a charm doll created by an art teacher who saw the figure in a dream. The name came from the poem,Mr Moon: A song of the little people.( Wilkpedia) It is supposed to be a good luck charm, representing "Things as they ought to be".  There are other stories how the billiken came to be also but i won't go into all those.

As far s the team goes they have been somewhat successful  since 2010 as they have been in the NCAA tournament 4 times.  Last year they got knocked out in the 1st round.Their coach is Travis Ford, who played in the movie 6th Man( as Danny O'Grady) and played his collegiate ball at Missou and of course Kentucky where he was known for his sharpshooting and guard play.  He was named most outstanding played in the NCAA tournament (1993).

 

Their last game they broke their team record for 3's when they hit 17 3's.  They are 8-1.    I will let someone more skilled in understanding explain their strengths and weaknesses.   But they will be a handful and i expect a close game

[gravejd 3,270]

Thanks for the fun facts. I would have guessed the mascot was a gremlin or something......

Well i guess i'll avoid predicting a 20 point win again lol. But we should be able to handle these guys. Now if we go 4-24 from 3 again then you can bet it will be a struggle. I haven't seen these guys play so just going by there stat lines......the have a deep team with 9 guys playing double digit minutes. 2 players get most of there stats Goodwin and French. Goodwin is a 6'3" guard and French a 6'7" forward. Impressively they both average a double double in pts and rebounds. Goodwin could give us some problems defending the ball as he averages 2.1 steals per game which is pretty good. French also gets 2.7 blocks per game so driving to the rim could be more challenging the it has been. 

The other stat that stands out is the shooting percentages......Goodwin goes for 50% FG and 36% 3pt. They have 2 other guards that go for 45 and 43% from 3. Looks to me like if we don't play good defense this team can certainly shoot their way to a win. 

The only lose they have is to #12 Seton Hall, but they haven't beaten anyone that impressive. Belmont and Boston College look to be their best wins.....they also beat Valpo which is a team that usually plays decent ball. 

Both teams will have gone an extended amount of time since the last played game so the key will likely be who can handle that better. We certainly didn't in the last game but hopefully we can do better this time around. 

[AU64 10,122]

Kinda hate the long breaks between some of these games.  Maybe exam time or something?     But seems we came out cold against Furman which was not a bad team and St Louis on the road is a reasonable challenge. 

One more 8 day gap this month.....maybe a chance to work on shooting perhaps but I will be glad when the team gets to a more "normal" schedule of a couple games per week beginning end of December.  Just seems like the play flows better when the team is playing every few days. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

2 more undefeateds down. We gotta start valuing this streak as long as we got it 

[AURex 1,994]

My only curiosity is, does Doughty get back on track or does somebody else step up?

 

 

[boisnumber1 2,818]

5 hours ago, AU64 said:

Kinda hate the long breaks between some of these games.  Maybe exam time or something?     But seems we came out cold against Furman which was not a bad team and St Louis on the road is a reasonable challenge. 

One more 8 day gap this month.....maybe a chance to work on shooting perhaps but I will be glad when the team gets to a more "normal" schedule of a couple games per week beginning end of December.  Just seems like the play flows better when the team is playing every few days. 

Wouldn't be surprised if this ends up costing us a loss. You just aren't going to be as sharp with these layoffs, I dont care who you are. As a coach, I don't see how you could expect your team to be at its best either, but makes me wonder if its by design - almost like it's intentionally detrimental. Either way, I don't get it and don't like it.

[TexasTiger 12,838]

17 minutes ago, boisnumber1 said:

Wouldn't be surprised if this ends up costing us a loss. You just aren't going to be as sharp with these layoffs, I dont care who you are. As a coach, I don't see how you could expect your team to be at its best either, but makes me wonder if its by design - almost like it's intentionally detrimental. Either way, I don't get it and don't like it.

Yeah. Finals, schminals.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

Another undefeated down 

[boisnumber1 2,818]

2 hours ago, TexasTiger said:

Yeah. Finals, schminals.

Finals do not take 2 1/2 weeks.

[AUGoo 2,663]

How about just a break. 

January to March is a grind I'm sure.

[lost 452]

10 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Another undefeated down 

Down to 5.   Pressure is building

[mustache eagle 2,398]

15 hours ago, boisnumber1 said:

Wouldn't be surprised if this ends up costing us a loss. You just aren't going to be as sharp with these layoffs, I dont care who you are. As a coach, I don't see how you could expect your team to be at its best either, but makes me wonder if its by design - almost like it's intentionally detrimental. Either way, I don't get it and don't like it.

CBP likes the ooc tourneys to replicate post season weekends.  Maybe the week lay-off had some similar thinking plus the holidays/finals.

[boisnumber1 2,818]

6 minutes ago, mustache eagle said:

CBP likes the ooc tourneys to replicate post season weekends.  Maybe the week lay-off had some similar thinking plus the holidays/finals.

True. It's a test for the team - seeing what they will do when they aren't their best, whether that is the intention or not.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

On 12/10/2019 at 9:04 AM, gravejd said:

Thanks for the fun facts. I would have guessed the mascot was a gremlin or something......

Well i guess i'll avoid predicting a 20 point win again lol. But we should be able to handle these guys. Now if we go 4-24 from 3 again then you can bet it will be a struggle. I haven't seen these guys play so just going by there stat lines......the have a deep team with 9 guys playing double digit minutes. 2 players get most of there stats Goodwin and French. Goodwin is a 6'3" guard and French a 6'7" forward. Impressively they both average a double double in pts and rebounds. Goodwin could give us some problems defending the ball as he averages 2.1 steals per game which is pretty good. French also gets 2.7 blocks per game so driving to the rim could be more challenging the it has been. 

The other stat that stands out is the shooting percentages......Goodwin goes for 50% FG and 36% 3pt. They have 2 other guards that go for 45 and 43% from 3. Looks to me like if we don't play good defense this team can certainly shoot their way to a win. 

The only lose they have is to #12 Seton Hall, but they haven't beaten anyone that impressive. Belmont and Boston College look to be their best wins.....they also beat Valpo which is a team that usually plays decent ball. 

Both teams will have gone an extended amount of time since the last played game so the key will likely be who can handle that better. We certainly didn't in the last game but hopefully we can do better this time around. 

hahahahahaha

22 hours ago, AU64 said:

Kinda hate the long breaks between some of these games.  Maybe exam time or something?     But seems we came out cold against Furman which was not a bad team and St Louis on the road is a reasonable challenge. 

One more 8 day gap this month.....maybe a chance to work on shooting perhaps but I will be glad when the team gets to a more "normal" schedule of a couple games per week beginning end of December.  Just seems like the play flows better when the team is playing every few days. 

This is just a guess, but perhaps CBP wanted to test our new rotation with a lot of games in a short period, and then have a long chunk of practice time to work on and clean up issues. In the Furman game there was definitely some new stuff we did. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

7 hours ago, lost said:

Down to 5.   Pressure is building

its a moral victory but id love to be the last one lol 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

we definitely need to be better than last game if we're going to beat NCSU

 

Id like to think we plan on getting up for that game after how bad we looked last year against them, esp with turnovers and giving up treys

[mustache eagle 2,398]

I predict a fugly shooting percentage in the bjcc ... don’t know the stats but it always feels that way.

i attended the last 2 years.  Last year was seriously ugly game.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

I took off this semester but I know finals are this week and some people essentially take the entire week before (if they're a good noodle!!) to prepare. If you looked at the post tourney schedule, and look at the next time we play someone. It's very likely finals are a causer 

[ShocksMyBrain 9,364]

What a bizarre mascot. 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

After another long layoff it's time for some Auburn basketball. Can we wake up from our mid winter slumber or will we sleep walk ourselves through a nightmare on a neutral floor? Really that is the focus of this game. St. Louis has some players and is worthy opponent. There is a lot of talk that this is the best team we have played, and I will tell you they are not. Richmond and New Mexico were for sure better teams, but that doesn't mean we need to sleep on this group. 

St Louis has three guys in particular we need to watch out for. As we have been drooling over Wiley getting a couple double doubles, they have a pair of guys who average them. Junior Jordan Goodwin, a 6-3, 200-pound guard, is producing 15.4 points and 11 rebounds per contest while 6-7, 245 junior forward Hasahn French is contributing 14.9 points and 10.4 rebounds, and Freshman guard Gibson Jimerson, who is 6-5, 200, has won back-to-back A-10 Conference Rookie of the Week honors. French reminds me a bit of Bowers with his size and skill set, except he has a bit better athleticism. 

Match-up-wise: this might be the worst match-up that we have faced. The primary reason I say that is St. Louis is a good rebounding team. To this point we have been about to win the rebounding battle in some close games where we haven't shot the ball well. If we have a bad shooting night and don't have a good rebounding margin we will lose. From that standpoint St. Louis is the most dangerous to us to this point I think. (Maybe that is what CBP means when he says they are the best team we have played).  They are ranked 11th in the nation in total rebounds a game, we are 8th. Where our two teams really begin to differ is how the teams shoot the ball. They shoot it well from deep and we shoot a high percentage from 2. Even though they shoot a good % they don't shoot a lot of volume from 3 and dont play at the pace we do, so don't generally shoot the volume we do from 2 either. While we have the edge in most other areas they are a solid team. One good point of interest is they are not a good free throw shooting team so hopefully our weakness there doesn't hurt us tomorrow afternoon. 

Keys to the game:

• win the battle on the glass
• pressure them into uncomfortable shots
• win the turnover battle (second most important thing to watch)
• match their intensity 
• make some shots early

We are the better team in almost every area, but we can't afford a partial effort. Will be very interested to see how this group responds to the last performance. 

 

Will add more thoughts as they come. 

War Eagle!!!!

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

South Alabama had  a guy like Hasahn French (6'7" and thick body)  who gave us fits. He was to quick for Wiley and to strong for Mac. Okoro should be able to shutdown one of the two guards and Doughty or Jvon will have to play tough on the other.   Our best games are when our D is playing tough. Since this is a high quality low volume shooting team D will be the key along with the boards as you mentioned.

It will be interesting how they play French but unlike the South Alabama game we now know more about this team than we did against South Alabama so Pearl should be able to design his D around that.

[gravejd 3,270]

1 hour ago, AuburnNTexas said:

South Alabama had  a guy like Hasahn French (6'7" and thick body)  who gave us fits. He was to quick for Wiley and to strong for Mac. Okoro should be able to shutdown one of the two guards and Doughty or Jvon will have to play tough on the other.   Our best games are when our D is playing tough. Since this is a high quality low volume shooting team D will be the key along with the boards as you mentioned.

It will be interesting how they play French but unlike the South Alabama game we now know more about this team than we did against South Alabama so Pearl should be able to design his D around that.

These smaller forward type give me concern. I like the combo of Wiley and Mac down low since they bring different skills to the table but they are prone to get beat exactly the way you describe. Wiley a bit too slow to stay in front and Mac not quite strong enough to keep them out of paint and off the glass. We didn't do it much against So. Al but i wonder if we may try and drop Okoro or Purifoy down on the smaller big guys? Cambridge would also be a good fit for this role size wise but i don't think he is technically sound enough to guard the post and not immediately get in foul trouble. 

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

47 minutes ago, gravejd said:

These smaller forward type give me concern. I like the combo of Wiley and Mac down low since they bring different skills to the table but they are prone to get beat exactly the way you describe. Wiley a bit too slow to stay in front and Mac not quite strong enough to keep them out of paint and off the glass. We didn't do it much against So. Al but i wonder if we may try and drop Okoro or Purifoy down on the smaller big guys? Cambridge would also be a good fit for this role size wise but i don't think he is technically sound enough to guard the post and not immediately get in foul trouble. 

Okoro, DP nor Cambridge are going to guard a 5 much. If McLemore isn't strong enough, none of these guys will be either. Wiley just needs to stay on the floor vs these guys and not go for the block as much, make them shoot over him and not foul. 

We have run a small line up a few times with Doughty, Johnson, Cambridge, Okoro and Purifoy. It hasn't been to adjust to another team's powerful post player, it has been when they lacked one and we wanted to go fast. 

[gravejd 3,270]

50 minutes ago, JwgreDeux said:

Okoro, DP nor Cambridge are going to guard a 5 much. If McLemore isn't strong enough, none of these guys will be either. Wiley just needs to stay on the floor vs these guys and not go for the block as much, make them shoot over him and not foul. 

We have run a small line up a few times with Doughty, Johnson, Cambridge, Okoro and Purifoy. It hasn't been to adjust to another team's powerful post player, it has been when they lacked one and we wanted to go fast. 

Defense isn't all about brute strength to accomplish the goal of stopping the other player. Positioning, quick hands, quick feet, and in general heady play can accomplish the goal. Its of course preferable for our 5 to guard the other teams 5. In an ideal world that works but thinking of games like So Al when it doesn't....then what do you do? My post was looking at the "then what" scenarios. If we see this French guy putting up big numbers on Wiley and Mac we have to try something else there. 

Hopefully it is a mute point and Wiley and Mac dominant underneath on both offense and defense. If not then i hope Pearl is thinking outside the box a bit on how to adjust. Maybe playing a little zone to clog things up would be a worth a shot? I don't recall us using zone with much success since Pearl has been around but we have more length on the outside now and that is critical to playing good zone D

[gravejd 3,270]

FINALLY GAME DAY!