SLU beat NC State by 11

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MennoSota

MennoSota

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What are the chances the Gophers suffer their first home loss of the season on Sunday?
 

Rank ‘em.

The St. Louis U. basketball team is a top-25 basketball team — a dynamic, selfless, likable ballclub that finished two spots out of the rankings this week, but earned a boost with Thursday’s win.

In one of the weirder games of the year (in the one of the weirder years), the Billikens were abysmal in the first half — but found the cohesion that’s marked this season in the second. SLU defeated North Carolina State, 80-69, and even if the Billikens (6-0) fall at Minnesota on Sunday, SLU has earned the right to be ranked. Because when coach Travis Ford’s team is clicking, it just has so many fascinating weapons — you can’t keep them all down.
Especially if you only have essentially seven guys playing, as was the case for N.C. State.

“I thought they just played with energy, and obviously they were able to rotate a bunch of guys in,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said in the postgame Zoom. “Travis has done a really good job with this program. They’re a good basketball team — they would have been a good basketball team if we had everybody (available to play). I thought they beat us to some loose balls. They were aggressive and they got to the free-throw line. I like his team. I think his team has a chance to win a lot of games and obviously go on and be a threat in the NCAA Tournament.”

High praise from an accomplished coach who’s been around the game for a while, coaches in the high-level ACC and used to be an assistant for Rick Pitino at Louisville.
If SLU indeed is ranked next Monday, it would be the first time since the 2013-2014 season. That year, SLU even hit the No. 10 spot for a couple February weeks, and finished the year in the top-25 at No. 25. Coincidentally, SLU’s big first-round upset in the tourney that year was against N.C. State.

This year’s SLU team could be even better than that 2013-14 team.

Hard to tell what this year’s N.C. State team is right now.

SLU won the game Thursday, a quality win against a team ranked No. 37 on KenPom.com to start the night (SLU was No. 32, per the snazzy stat site). But let’s not get too carried away about this win. N.C. State only traveled with nine guys. N.C. State was without two key rotation players. N.C. State hadn’t played a single game in weeks (with five games canceled or postponed). N.C. State was worn down in the second half — it was hard to tell if SLU took it up another gear or if the Wolfpack just dropped down a couple gears.
So — imagine if SLU had blown this game? And at halftime, it looked like it would be an “L.” They tell us to never look at an eclipse, but after watching Thursday’s first half, we now know what it must feel like. Painful to watch. SLU made 13 turnovers in the first 20 minutes. The Billikens made only nine field goals and missed 20 (31% from the field) shots. Opposing center Manny Bates, while tall, still tallied an absurd amount of blocks (six). With 9:30 left in the first half, SLU’s Jordan Goodwin threw the ball out of bounds and then threw his arms into the air in disgust. At the time, SLU trailed 14-9. Javonte Perkins, SLU’s leading scorer, had just four points at the half.

At the half, SLU trailed 35-29.

It was incredible that SLU trailed only 35-29.

Credit Ford, once again, for pressing the right buttons with this team. He trusted reserve Demarius Jacobs, who ascended late. And he challenged pass-happy point guard Yuri Collins to play “downhill” as Collins said, and to play with two feet on the ground, if you will, because the N.C. State bigs were jumping. Collins bulldozed all night, scoring a season-high 17 points.
“He’s a good facilitator, but he’s a hard-hitting guard and can get down the lane,” said Bates, who coincidentally is cousins with Collins on Bates’ father’s side of the family.

Perkins found his game in the second half. He’s not a banger. He’s a “flow-er.” And when he smoothly curls around screens and pulls up in rhythm, he pours in points. Finished with 20 on the night.

But as always, any SLU victory has Goodwin’s fingerprints all over it. It’s like he doesn’t even need to score and he’ll help SLU win a ballgame — yet he’s often among the leading scorers, as he was against N.C. State (16 points, 15 rebounds, five assists). Only once this season has he not tallied a double-double (that’s an incredible accomplishment if you think about it).

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MennoSota said:
Rank ‘em.

The St. Louis U. basketball team is a top-25 basketball team — a dynamic, selfless, likable ballclub that finished two spots out of the rankings this week, but earned a boost with Thursday’s win.

In one of the weirder games of the year (in the one of the weirder years), the Billikens were abysmal in the first half — but found the cohesion that’s marked this season in the second. SLU defeated North Carolina State, 80-69, and even if the Billikens (6-0) fall at Minnesota on Sunday, SLU has earned the right to be ranked. Because when coach Travis Ford’s team is clicking, it just has so many fascinating weapons — you can’t keep them all down.
Especially if you only have essentially seven guys playing, as was the case for N.C. State.

“I thought they just played with energy, and obviously they were able to rotate a bunch of guys in,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said in the postgame Zoom. “Travis has done a really good job with this program. They’re a good basketball team — they would have been a good basketball team if we had everybody (available to play). I thought they beat us to some loose balls. They were aggressive and they got to the free-throw line. I like his team. I think his team has a chance to win a lot of games and obviously go on and be a threat in the NCAA Tournament.”

High praise from an accomplished coach who’s been around the game for a while, coaches in the high-level ACC and used to be an assistant for Rick Pitino at Louisville.
If SLU indeed is ranked next Monday, it would be the first time since the 2013-2014 season. That year, SLU even hit the No. 10 spot for a couple February weeks, and finished the year in the top-25 at No. 25. Coincidentally, SLU’s big first-round upset in the tourney that year was against N.C. State.

This year’s SLU team could be even better than that 2013-14 team.

Hard to tell what this year’s N.C. State team is right now.

SLU won the game Thursday, a quality win against a team ranked No. 37 on KenPom.com to start the night (SLU was No. 32, per the snazzy stat site). But let’s not get too carried away about this win. N.C. State only traveled with nine guys. N.C. State was without two key rotation players. N.C. State hadn’t played a single game in weeks (with five games canceled or postponed). N.C. State was worn down in the second half — it was hard to tell if SLU took it up another gear or if the Wolfpack just dropped down a couple gears.
So — imagine if SLU had blown this game? And at halftime, it looked like it would be an “L.” They tell us to never look at an eclipse, but after watching Thursday’s first half, we now know what it must feel like. Painful to watch. SLU made 13 turnovers in the first 20 minutes. The Billikens made only nine field goals and missed 20 (31% from the field) shots. Opposing center Manny Bates, while tall, still tallied an absurd amount of blocks (six). With 9:30 left in the first half, SLU’s Jordan Goodwin threw the ball out of bounds and then threw his arms into the air in disgust. At the time, SLU trailed 14-9. Javonte Perkins, SLU’s leading scorer, had just four points at the half.

At the half, SLU trailed 35-29.

It was incredible that SLU trailed only 35-29.

Credit Ford, once again, for pressing the right buttons with this team. He trusted reserve Demarius Jacobs, who ascended late. And he challenged pass-happy point guard Yuri Collins to play “downhill” as Collins said, and to play with two feet on the ground, if you will, because the N.C. State bigs were jumping. Collins bulldozed all night, scoring a season-high 17 points.
“He’s a good facilitator, but he’s a hard-hitting guard and can get down the lane,” said Bates, who coincidentally is cousins with Collins on Bates’ father’s side of the family.

Perkins found his game in the second half. He’s not a banger. He’s a “flow-er.” And when he smoothly curls around screens and pulls up in rhythm, he pours in points. Finished with 20 on the night.

But as always, any SLU victory has Goodwin’s fingerprints all over it. It’s like he doesn’t even need to score and he’ll help SLU win a ballgame — yet he’s often among the leading scorers, as he was against N.C. State (16 points, 15 rebounds, five assists). Only once this season has he not tallied a double-double (that’s an incredible accomplishment if you think about it).

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pretty high Gophers will lose. Not impressed with how the team plays together
 

SLU also beat LSU in one of their earliest games of the season. SLU probably would rank among the middle of the Big Ten if they played in our conference. They have a lot of experience and brawn. This game should be our second toughest so far.
 

There's hope. At least we match up better against SLU than we did against IL.
 


I'd put it at a 50/50 although I would bet on SLU to win and cover any spread.
 



howeda7 said:
Win Sunday or we're not winning again until 1/20 IMO.
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I got railed on pretty hard when i predicted last year's team could conceivably have a tough time getting more than 12 victories, and they ended up winning only what...16? This year's team has more depth, easily, but they also don't have the dominance of Oturu in the paint. I just don't see that the sum of all parts has really increased.

I'd still like to wait another half dozen or so contests to say that I know for sure what this team is, but if i was forced to bet right now i'd take the under on last year's 16 wins, easy.

edit: It was only 15 wins. Ick.
 










howeda7 said:
So bet the house on the Billikens?
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I hope I’m dead wrong. If our cold shooting and poor defense continue, this one could get away from us early. Carr and Gach will need to come up huge because SLU is no joke.
 

howeda7 said:
Win Sunday or we're not winning again until 1/20 IMO.
Click to expand...
It’s over.
I kinda thought Pitino would get the year even before Covid hit.

We honestly might be the 50th best team in the country. That means we are going 6-14 or worse in the big ten
 



We can win this. But SLU out rebounded NC State 52-26. If our rebounding stays awful, it could be similar today.
 

MUgopher32 said:
We can win this. But SLU out rebounded NC State 52-26. If our rebounding stays awful, it could be similar today.
Click to expand...
Reading the article, it seems that NC St was missing a couple players. That may have affected the rebound numbers.
I too am not optimistic about a Gopher win against SLU. Their experience and cohesiveness may be hard to overcome. I just hope we don't get run out of the gym.
 

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