I'll take it, good win, I wasn't impressed by slu, I thought they were better than the hype I been hearing about. Congrats to the team
they whipped a good Butler team (wins over Florida and Ole Miss and picked to beat SLU) last week
Why? We killed them on the boards and played very good D. Fact is, SLU is lucky they weren't embarrassed. If we'd shot even halfway normally - we missed a lot of wide open outside shots - we would have blown them out. Their tough D and a few 3s kept them in the game.
Their O is not great.
It is not out of the realm that that was SIU shooting normally. Their last 3 games were against really really bad teams. They shot better tonight than they did against Buffalo for example.
Tulsa is not that bad man come on
Tulsa is not that bad man come on
Their 5 wins are over teams with a combined record of 8-31 and are projected to go 16-15 and 6-10 in conference.
Important win. Now back on the road again although a short drive.
Why? We killed them on the boards and played very good D. Fact is, SLU is lucky they weren't embarrassed. If we'd shot even halfway normally - we missed a lot of wide open outside shots - we would have blown them out. Their tough D and a few 3s kept them in the game.
Their O is not great.
It is not out of the realm that that was SIU shooting normally. Their last 3 games were against really really bad teams. They shot better tonight than they did against Buffalo for example.
I am really hoping Beane can turn it on and supplant Barley from the starting lineup.
I sure don't think our 3pt or FT shooting was normal. Just looked at the stats. We shot 45%, which surprised me. Didn't think it was that good. We made a lot of interior shots. Only 22% from 3 and 52% FTs though.
Have you ever seen Aaron Cook that bad offensively? He couldn't even make a FT. He's definitely better than that normally. No doubt SLU's tough D was tiring and also when you play really tough D like we did tonight, it's harder to be good offensively because you expend so much energy on the other end. Still think we had a lot of wide open 3s and couldn't hit them. Shot a little better late in the game.
Also Colo. State, while not great, is not what I would consider a really, really bad team. Edwardsville IS a really, really bad team. Next game CSU lost by 6 at Colorado.
Tulsa is a decent team actually. Tulsa gave #5 Nevada all they wanted - lost by 10. Tulsa beat Oklahoma State tonight and lost at Utah in a very close game. We shot great against both of those on the road.
For what it's worth, Coach Huckleberry says we were awful offensively but played very good D.
Cook has always been streaky.
That was a very good win. It has been awhile since the dogs have won a game where I was hoping but doubting them. So, it must be a confidence builder. Tik was awesome and that Sean Lloyd streak was very timely.
We're better than Illinois on KenPom
We're up to 75 in the RPI, trailing Drake at 60.
Very nice win. Surprised me. Still dislike King BBQ Sauce
I thought we outplayed them by a wide margin. SIU was the much better team all night long. We couldn't buy a basket to extend the lead to a point where they couldn't get it back, but every time we needed a bucked to keep them from taking the game over we got it followed by a stop. I thought SIU played well. Physical games make it hard offensively, even open shots become more difficult when you have been bumped and leaned on for an entire possession and are expending so much effort on D, which the Salukis did. It was impressive the way we missed shots and free throws and just got back and kept grinding on defense and finding a way to get stops and rebounds.
My one and only concern out of this game was the end of game clock management. My goodness, a group of seniors and juniors have to know situational basketball better than that.
Cook was atrocious, but I don't worry about him. He will be fine. Overall, I think this was a good win and we now have a chance to head to Buffalo 8-3 (yes I know Murray is good) and a chance to maybe make one more attempt to build a bubble team resume push.
Why? We killed them on the boards and played very good D. Fact is, SLU is lucky they weren't embarrassed. If we'd shot even halfway normally - we missed a lot of wide open outside shots - we would have blown them out. Their tough D and a few 3s kept them in the game.
Their O is not great.
It's also true that we could have been blown out--or at least could easily have lost--if StL had shot halfway normally. We did not kill them on the boards; we were outrebounded overall 45-39, and we gave up 16 offensive rebounds (to our meager 6), which seems to be a disturbing trend this season against decent teams (and even not so decent teams: Edwardsville had 15 offensive rebounds).
(Inflammatory political snark)
We were the better team last night. We played great defense. I told my friend that if we kept letting them hang around that something bad could happen at the end. AND THEN they knock down some shots and we missed a bunch of free throws and they made it a game.
Travis Ford seems to think both teams are better than people are giving them credit for on this site......
"This is a good win (for SIU) because we're a pretty good basketball team. I told our team this doesn't change that; we got beat by a pretty good basketball team," SLU coach Travis Ford said.
