SIU continues their Florida trip with the first of 3 straight games in the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, FL.
Meet the Bulldogs:
The Bulldogs haven't been to an NCAA Tournament since 1991 despite having some good teams in recent memory. Saluki fans will remember the 2006 team with Paul Millsap that came into SIU Arena and pulled out a win. The 2014 team with current Georgia coach Mike White missed the NCAA's despite a 37th ranked KenPom finish, the best since KenPom has recorded data for (since 1997). The Bulldogs had some good teams under current Tulsa coach Eric Konkol too with Kenneth Lofton on their team.
Louisiana Tech's current head coach is Talvin Hester, in his 3rd year as head coach. They struggled in his first year going 15-18 (7-13) but took a big step last year finishing #94 in KenPom and going 22-10 (12-4). Hester was all over the map as an assistant coach, he spent time at places like Stephen F. Austin, Texas State, Houston, and Texas Tech. He was an assistant for Eric Konkol from 2018-2021 before coming back when Konkol left for Tulsa.
The Bulldogs were picked as the preseason favorites to win Conference USA ahead of Western Kentucky, Sam Houston State, Middle Tennessee, Liberty, among others.
So far this season, Louisiana Tech has played 2 D1 teams. They went to #190 UT Arlington and beat them 92-77 and they beat #142 Massachusetts on a neutral court on Long Island.
Louisiana Tech is 204th in the country in average height at 77.0". They're 267th in the country in D-1 Experience on their roster (1.27 years) and 227th in the country in minutes continuity from last year (27.9%).
The Bulldogs leading scorer and shot-blocker is 6-11 Senior Daniel Batcho averaging 22.8 points per game and 2 blocks per game. Batcho was a 4 star recruit from Paris, France and originally committed to Arizona but never played a game there after undergoing knee surgery. Batcho transferred to Texas Tech where he played in 56 games and started 16 of them. Last season for the Bulldogs, Batcho averaged 15.2 PPG and 9.8 RPG and was named to the CUSA All-First team. Coming into this season, Batcho was named the CUSA Preseason Player of the Year.
The leading rebounder for Louisiana Tech is 6-5 Sophomore Kaden Cooper averaging 7.5 rebounds per game. Cooper was a 4 star recruit out of Ada, Oklahoma and spent his Freshman year at Oklahoma where he played in 15 games.
The assist leader for the Bulldogs is 6-1 Junior Sean Newman Jr. averaging 11.2 assists per game. Newman Jr. spent his first two seasons at Fullerton College. He ended up with 146 total assists in his first year at Louisiana Tech which led Conference USA.
6-4 Junior Amaree Abram was a 4 star recruit out of Castaic, California and spent his Freshman season at Ole Miss where he played in 33 games, starting 22 of them. He then transferred to Georgia Tech where he played in 10 games and wasn't much of a factor. So far this season, Abram is averaging 17 points per game for the Bulldogs.
Links:
SIU Game Notes
Louisiana Tech Game Notes
Does someone have an Elliott update? Louisiana Tech has had a nice start to the year. Itll be tough without him, if he’s out.
It did not look good the other night with Elliott, and has been said in various threads, he’s the one guy you didn’t want to lose based on the shortage of ball-handling depth and how well he’d been playing. He (and maybe Aligbe) had been at the top of my list as far as newcomers who have exceeded expectations this first part of the season.
If he’s sidelined, which I’d say is likely, it’ll be interesting to see what adjustments are made, both in terms of personnel and maybe even style of play, to keep the season from spiraling. And playing three games in three days means there isn’t much of a grace period for finding answers.
It did not look good the other night with Elliott, and has been said in various threads, he’s the one guy you didn’t want to lose based on the shortage of ball-handling depth and how well he’d been playing. He (and maybe Aligbe) had been at the top of my list as far as newcomers who have exceeded expectations this first part of the season.
If he’s sidelined, which I’d say is likely, it’ll be interesting to see what adjustments are made, both in terms of personnel and maybe even style of play, to keep the season from spiraling. And playing three games in three days means there isn’t much of a grace period for finding answers.
yeah I actually thought on replay it looked unlikely to be structural damage. It was more of an impact injury… but im obviously no expert.
https://art19.com/shows/saluki-royalty/episodes/b56bfc79-b434-4edc-b66d-8d7ba5a594ba
If you're into reading tea leaves it doesn't sound good for Elliott. Watson and Martin made a point to emphasize nothing had been released or made official regarding Elliott's status. However, they spent a lot of time speculating what Southern would do if Elliott was lost. They are with the team down in Florida, so I don't think they would spend so much time speculating if it was looking good.
The practice video on the SIU's X page appears to show Elliott not practicing, but on the sideline standing and cheering in all black and flip flops. It's not very clear but appears to be him.
Replaying in slo mo it sure looks like a knee to knee collision for EE.
FloHoops is $29.99 a month I think. Personally just planning on listening to Luke these 3 games
Kenpom has us only losing by 5 and the spread is only 5.5 Also, the over/under is 143.5. I really think this parlay has a shot to hit. I likely would have bet this game with EE but without ?? I'm MORE than happy to lose this bet because I love SIU basketball, but honestly, with the circumstances, I would be happily surprised if the Dawgs covered. Let's hope I lose and they win !
GO DAWGS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://art19.com/shows/saluki-royalty/episodes/b56bfc79-b434-4edc-b66d-8d7ba5a594ba
If you're into reading tea leaves it doesn't sound good for Elliott. Watson and Martin made a point to emphasize nothing had been released or made official regarding Elliott's status. However, they spent a lot of time speculating what Southern would do if Elliott was lost. They are with the team down in Florida, so I don't think they would spend so much time speculating if it was looking good.
Not overly concerned with this game or this week. As long as he's back by conference play.
But I am VERY concerned about the misuse of timeouts! 🤬
And by the way, I am not a couch coach!!!! I much prefer an armchair!!!
Devastating news. I suspected as much though. Redshirt coming off Sheridan Sharp.https://twitter.com/siu_basketball/status/1861121403237417457?s=46&t=7s0hTttieSER8wqRSA0LoA
Devastating news. I suspected as much though. Redshirt coming off Sheridan Sharp.https://twitter.com/siu_basketball/status/1861121403237417457?s=46&t=7s0hTttieSER8wqRSA0LoA
https://twitter.com/salukiradio/status/1861124449790992724?s=46&t=7s0hTttieSER8wqRSA0LoA
