XJ is going to see a lot of double teaming in upcoming conference games.
Man...some of you are never happy. That was NOT an ugly game. We played great. UIC has the best defense in the conference. We rebounded well and our ball movement was great. Our defense was outstanding. Nice to see AJ back. TB was being dogged all night. His defense was great! KD and Rupert were good. Go rewatch the game. Sure 12 guys didn't play but if they did then you would complain that BM subbed too much and no one could get in the flow.
Bryan Mullins with Saluki Radio:
https://siusalukis.com/watch/?Archive=7262&type=Archive
Xavier Johnson with Saluki Radio:
7,000+ attendance when the students are out of town is very cool. The Mullins era, for better or worse, has seemed to recover some of the home crowd lost over the last decade+
I think this was an ugly game but it went kind of how I expected. Two good defensive teams that played each other tough in 2 games last year. Tony Willis is on the UIC coaching staff and he knows everything that SIU is running. Just get out of that game with a win and don't drop to 0-2 no matter how ugly a win it is.
Redshirts are realistically a thing of the past with the exception of medical redshirts. You can't redshirt a player in the portal era. If they feel they can play and they get redshirted they are as good as gone the next year.It looks like the 2nd year in a row that we are going to totally blow a player's year of eligibility by killing a redshirt opportunity with meaningless minutes (Hornecker/Sharp).
Hornecker is likely getting a redshirt year this year anyways. Not sure on Sharp but it's possible it's his choice.
Cade can definitely get the redshirt, but how is Sharp getting a redshirt? He played 6 minutes after returning from an injury. Doesn't that disqualify him?
UIC is #1 in the country in 3 point defense. They score 76 a game and we held them to 50. Also, at 12 points we gave them their worst beating of the year. Their previous worst loss was an 11 point defeat at Cincinnati. It was a typical grind it out, physical MVC conference game. I'm fired up to have AJ back. He is a dynamic player who I feel may end up our second leading scorer to X. He just needs to get back in the flow after a long injury layoff.
https://www.ncaa.com/stats/basketball-men/d1/current/team/518
The administration is doing a great job with their promotions and ticket specials, hats off to them!7,000+ attendance when the students are out of town is very cool. The Mullins era, for better or worse, has seemed to recover some of the home crowd lost over the last decade+
The game was a hard-fought game between two teams that pride themselves on defense. Easy baskets were a rarity tonight.
i agree with a previous poster about Scottie Ebube’s playing time or lack of playing time. UIC bigs are step-out shooters and not bangers. This does not play to his defensive strengths. I was impressed that even though UIC’s bigs were offensive perimeter players, they were pretty tough defending the lane and basket.
As for Trent Brown, I was questioning his playing so much when he was being manhandled on defense and not able to get a shot off offensively. He somewhat redeemed himself when on defense, he knocked the ball off his man’s legs leading to a big turnover late in the game.
i was happy to see A.J.Ferguson return. We need his length and athleticism on both ends. Troy D’Amico hit a big three and was strong on the boards. I think he is better offensively as a perimeter player and spot-up shooter than a driver and banger. Jovan Stulic struggling right now, but I still feel he can help with his shooting. Jarrett Hensley has contributed and I think will continue to contribute.
Besides his ill-advised three-pointer late in the game, I thought Clarence Rupert had another strong game. Kennard Davis impresses me more every game. Looking forward to Tuesday’s game with Belmont.
Love or hate TB he has earned Mullins trust and the way Southern switches their guards on defense he is always in the right spot sometimes he got bullied yes but overall he is where he is supposed to be even X and Kennard and AJ got caught in switches it happens but TB does the intangibles and you need those he doesn't hang his head when he is not making shots and against UIC they were determined not to let him get a clean look and AJ will be huge down the stretch because he can shoot the 3 and also slash to the basket something this team needs desperately
Not much except I expect Trent to struggle with his 3 pt shooting in conference play. Mullins has him in for his game experience, court awareness and defense. He also forces teams to take his sniper ability into their defensive scheme, part of the overall chess game.TB24 played 40 mins tonight.
his stat line:
0 pts
0 asst
4 reb
am I missing something here?
I wonder where Ebube will wind up next year . . .
BM obviously has no confidence in him. 2minutes so far. Hensley spelling Rupert.
Someone else already mentioned this, but UIC plays a five out offense. They don’t play with a true post so it puts Ebube at a real disadvantage on defense. That’s likely why he didn’t play. He’s just not quick enough right now to play defense in that situation (switching 1-5).
On the surface it's hard to argue with those questioning the playing time of several players, especially since I agree with it. But I also know that the staff is around these players almost every day for most of the year and know the players and their capabilities better than "you" or I.
If you take a look across college basketball, both at the power and mid major level you will find LOTS of players sitting on the bench as most teams only go 7-9 deep. You will find players redshirting. You will find players playing way "too many minutes". in other words, these situations are not unique to SIU, our program or coaches.
I drank enough to float a battleship so I’m not entirely sure, but I think I saw Troy at the 5. Perhaps the coaching staff needs drug tested if that is true. I will rewatch later this week. UIC had a decent game, oddly the dawgs still covered.
I think the refs are on to something with their goal tending calls comedy wherein they decide whether a rule violation affected a shot. Suppose every lane violation we stop the game while refs decide whether the violation had an effect on the game. Or whether 4 steps gave the player an advantage. Simply rigidly applying penalty for a rule violation seems so old fashioned.
