Quote from: y_jack_lok on November 10, 2024, 08:46:10 PMWhen a team loses a game by six points and only makes 16 of 35 free throws, no other statistic matters.

This was an all-time brickfest. 

Webster slashed as a team: 36.5/18.2/45.7
Rhodes slashed as a team: 31.3/29.4/58.8

GU managed to miss 23 FTs in their game against CUC. 

GU1999.... I've been far away for 6 years now... but still make every effort to follow SLIAC hoops from afar.... I was reviewing the Greenville Basketball site and came away... uhh.. call it baffled, or intrigued...

Here are the points I would love to hear your comments on..I would consider them one of a kind observances for any D3 team,

1) The varsity roster Is made up of only Juniors and Seniors.... not a single Frosh or Sophomore

2) No varsity roster member is from anywhere near the midwest, much less Illinois or Missouri.   All are from either California or Nevada... with the exception of one player from NYC, and one from Spain.  And while I didn't review to find out for sure, I'd bet most of the players come from the JC/CC route..

3) There is a significant amount of space on the Greenville Basketball site devoted to a Greenville G-League... a handful of teams with rosters and schedules... most of the games are against each other, but some are against JCs and even 4 year schools (assuming these are Junior Varsity teams).  BUT, the Greenville G League rosters contain not only the missing Freshmen and Sophomores, but also Juniors and Seniors!
This REALLY makes me curious about what kids are told during recruiting...
Why would juniors and seniors play JV/glorified intramural ball - I guess it's truly for the love of the game
Doesn't this practice take playing time away from recruited Freshmen and sophomores?
Question.. are the G-League players being coached every day, normal practice routines?  Is there really opportunity for advance to the varsity in future years, or is it a dead end?

Maybe I'm way behind the times, but this setup seems so out of line with the SLIAC and D3 make up... Why doesn't Greenville just go NAIA, or D2... 

When I became a SLIAC fan 20 years ago, the SLIAC was so much fun to watch... the Nucleus of Webster Fontbonne, Maryville, MacMurray, Blackburn, Greenville, Westminster, Principia... Virtually every conference game seemed to be a rivalry matchup....Maryville crushed us when they went D2, poor MacMurray had to shut their doors... but Eureka and Spalding were great adds despite the longer distances from the St. Louis hub.

Now, well, it just has lost something...

poor old hopefan, always writing something controversial....

   
   

I might have to call Coach Barber and talk about this.  It's an interesting system for JV - four squads of six players each.  They pair up for games.  Presumably they can't be running the entire System in those games - 12 players isn't really enough.  I wonder if there's some means for these guys to earn varsity spots from their JV play?

I know Barber has always pushed opportunity - getting as many guys on the court as possible - seems like they're doing as much as they can in that direction.

A chance to play college ball and score a bunch of points - it's not a hard sell for guys who don't have a lot of options.

HopeFan - It is great to hear from you.  It has been no secret that Dr. Barber, and his staff, do a lot of the recruiting from JuCos (only one varsity player did not play juco).  And that he has always had a strong contingent from the west coast.  I do think that he has put together a really intriguing varsity squad this year.  The top 8 scorers were on the team last season, with Alverez (3) and Crespo (4) the only players who have who have been with the SYST3M for more than two years.  The twins from NV look to be perfect SYST3M bigs.  Two joco wins in preseason matchups and an early double digit win against CUC bodes well. 

George has recently had a varsity roster of about 17 and a JV roster about the same size.  I am guessing that interest kept growing and they sought a way to keep more kids involved and the G-League thing was an attempt to accommodate that and guarantee games.  That said are taking this very seriously.  College officials, Live Stats, video crew promoting the games so parents can watch, gear.  Cheer team will be involved.  Halftime entertainment.  The announcers said that the MVP of the G-League is guaranteed a spot on Varsity next year.  Dr. Barber does an explanatory interview on this very topic during the halftime of this broad cast.  https://team1sports.com/prepcasts/?B=1517510 (interview at 39:02 and runs the full halftime)

In the past there have been a number of JV kids who play up when they a few years into their time on campus.    Last years roster had Trenton Lee (4 years), Joseph Craig (4 years), Kayden Johnson (4 years), and Travis Dickey (4 years).  Currently, you will find a 6'2" soph guard named Tyson Ackerman on the G league roster.  He is the VP of Athletics son and was likely not recruited at other schools.  But, he loves hoops and wants to play.  There are also a lot of former players kids to have been on the JV roster, some of which made their way to varsity and other not. 

GU was NAIA.  They will not be going back.  Greenville has never won a d3 tournament game in hoops.  They are not a d2 caliber program. 

GU is doing well for the SLIAC in all sports, winning all 5 SLIAC sport titles this fall.  Football and especially gymnastics (made NCAA national Championship as a team last year) are doing well outside of the SLIAC. 

Hopefan,

Nice to see you on the boards again, even if it's brief. I think I'm speaking for all of us when I say, "I miss ya."

Hopefan,

Curious if you know if there are any D3 tournaments in Florida over Christmas break.

Early SLIAC thoughts:

- Spalding may be a problem this year.  Their one point loss to Hanover looks to be a really good result for the preseason SLIAC #2 team.  In Hanover's other game they smacked Berry who is a pretty well respected 24/25 squad polled as the #3 SAA team and getting a 1st place vote.

- Lyon beat Dallas and has an enormous team (10 guys 6'5"+ and 3 6'9"+).  It will be interesting tonight to see how they handle Hendrix.

- Bad loss by Prin to STL PHARM.

Not sure what to make of Webster yet. They lose by 10 to the #1 team in the MWC preseason poll, but lose to #4 Rhodes. They return 4 starters, so I assume they'll be ok come SLIAC time. Not sure if they'll win any of the next 3 games, maybe the Centre game.

Webster has a tough road the next few weeks.  Wash U and IWU look to be great.  Maybe Centre it is. 

That said, knowing Coach Bunch, Webster will be battle tested and ready to go in the SLIAC. 

Went to the GU at Dominican game on Tuesday.  GU has an extra athletic version this year. IF they can shoot, and that may be a big IF, they could be scary. 

Interesting story lines from their first three games:

Good:
 1) they have decisively won the rebounding battle in two of the three games.  That is a very good stat for a System team. 
 2) they have forced 33.3 turnovers/g. 

Negative:
 1) GU is turning it over badly.   They are averaging 23 turnovers a game themselves.  This needs to be much lower and it will.  There is always a learning curve with these teams. The frenetic pace which they play defence needs to transition into a slightly less frenetic possession on offence.  They typically figure this out by conference time.
 2) Shooting (already noted)  Can't slash 39.9/24.5/60.2 and expect to win too much.

CONFERENCE GAMES START TOMORROW:

GU at Spalding.  This is a huge matchup and Spalding has to be the favorite. They look good after their first three with their only loss being a 1 point game v. Hanover. Spalding by 8.

Eureka at Blackburn  - Give me Eureka on the road in a very close game.

Prin at Fontbonne - Give me Fontbonne on a buzzer beater.

Westmin at Webster - Webster wins going away. 

Lyon at MUW - Lyon doubles their score.

^^^You might be interested that the D3datacast guys have Saturday's GU at Grinell game as one of the five weekly games they try to pick against the computer, which has GU as a 15 point underdog.

https://youtu.be/-M4t9ZCopGc?si=55lWX5N5JRrge60S

The weekly picks segment starts at about the 40:50 mark.

The last match up between these two was awful.  Refs decided that they wanted to have the longest game ever and called 69 total fouls.  They called everything.  Grinell set the d3 record for FTs made and tied the record for FTs taken.  It was an awful 151-128 game.  Greenville is not shy about turning the ball over this year, so I suspect we may end up with another Grinell win and +15 doesn't sound crazy.

In the first night of conference play:

Eureka over Blackburn
Spalding over Grenville
Fontbonne over Principia
Lyon over MUW
Webster over Westminster.

Webster gets it's first win. Blackburn and Westminster still looking for their first Ws.

The only truly close game was Spalding/Greenville, 109-105. All others were double digit margins.

Quote from: y_jack_lok on November 27, 2024, 09:13:13 AMIn the first night of conference play:

Eureka over Blackburn
Spalding over Grenville
Fontbonne over Principia
Lyon over MUW
Webster over Westminster.

Webster gets it's first win. Blackburn and Westminster still looking for their first Ws.

The only truly close game was Spalding/Greenville, 109-105. All others were double digit margins.

So what you are saying is that I went 5 for 5.   

The GU at Spalding result is good for GU.  They were up most of the first half and play it very close to the end.  May have been tied at 99.  Anyway, I think that Spalding is pretty good so to hang with them at their place is encouraging for my squad. 

I continue to think that this years SLIAC could be super top heavy.  My guess is that Spalding, Lyon, GU and maybe Webster (history would say yes) will be part of the top 4 that feast on the bottom 6. The league will come down to who beats who in these four. 

The rest is a bit of an enigma to me at this time. 

Happy Thanksgiving all.