Waking up this morning and reading about last night’s game was like stabbing yourself in the eye with a fork. Why bother? It’s games like last night’s (and ODU, Duke, Tennessee) where one wonders if we’re truly for real. Once things got tough in [...]]]>

The scene with 5 minutes left in the game.

Waking up this morning and reading about last night’s game was like stabbing yourself in the eye with a fork. Why bother? It’s games like last night’s (and ODU, Duke, Tennessee) where one wonders if we’re truly for real. Once things got tough in the second half, we looked like a JV squad out there, eerily reminiscent of our entire game against Duke.

As I sat at a Mexican restaurant last night (Don Juan’s in Kernersville, NC, if you wanted to know), I was on pins and needles waiting for text updates from my loyal friends. At first they were good, Niners were up early and seemed to be playing well. Then Dayton took the lead, and my gut, along with the ridiculous amounts of chips and salsa I consumed, dropped. Something told me, it’s about to get ugly. But as per the course with Niner fandom, there was a glimmer of hope as Gokhan SeerHAN (is Sirin that hard to pronounce? where did the H come from?) drained a three to bring the Niners within a possession at halftime.

I was able to get home just in time to watch Dayton start to kick the living crap out of us. With Phil and Chris on the bench, the Flyers took off and had a field day. We never stood a chance in the second half. We were outscored by 25 points in 20 minutes of basketball. That is ridiculous. When did Dayton get so good? Now they’ve beaten two teams tied for first place by over 20 points. How did the Flyers lose to Saint Joseph’s? And how did our 11-20 team beat this same team one year ago in Halton? Trying to understand Charlotte basketball is like trying to understand women, but worse.

There’s an alarming trend starting to surface, and it’s a scary one indeed. While we may have a tendency to fight with teams and pull out a tough W, it seems that once the margin gets beyond 10-12 points in the second half we give up and just let the game get out of hand. For the six games we’ve lost, the margin has been over 23 points. That is not the sign of a team that fights through anything. If the game isn’t going well on the road (double digit margin) with 15 minutes left, might as well go pour another beer, because it’s going to get so ugly the beer goggles will be necessary to see any positives from the rest of the game. The only loss where we really stood a chance at all was Georgia Tech, and that was at home. If you throw away the Georgia Tech game and look at just road losses, we’re losing by over 26 points. While margin of victory really means nothing in college basketball, the tendency of this team to curl into the fetal position is frightening, to say the least. We’re willing to fight when we think we have a chance, but there’s a point at which the team just says, “Screw this, we’re going to lose anyway, might as well try and break new records!”

I tried to get NLP to exchange emails with me this morning, but he’s still trying to recover from last night, rumor is he

What said flyer may look like.

was last seen around Charlotte posting “Missing: SWAGGER If found, please see Bobby Lutz” flyers on anything and everything. However, he did manage to steal some computer time away from the pervs at the local public library to send this brief, but correct breakdown of the Niners…

It’s pretty simple.  If you play tough man-to-man defense and you’re playing at home you will beat the Niners.  Handily.  If you play zone, or matador defense, you’re just plain stupid.  The scouting report is very much out.

There you go, to beat the Niners, don’t be stupid.

I will say this though, when a team shoots 25% from the floor and 14.3% from 3 on the road, they don’t stand a chance. We got buzzsawed, folks, but it would have been nice if we started throwing 2 X 4s into the blade instead of our arms and limbs.

But since GreenTintedGlasses.net is committed to being outwardly biased, there are two big positives to remember:

1. We’re still tied for first place with Xavier and Richmond
2. We still have chances to lock up an At-Large

While there’s a Nor’easter in full effect in the Mid Atlantic there’s a different kind of warning being posted for Niners fans:

MONSTRA ALERT!  MONSTRA ALERT!

Niners scheduled to play horrific, craptastic team in the next 24 hours.  Expect periods of ineptitude approaching [...]]]>

Personally I think it's been dead for a few.... years.

While there’s a Nor’easter in full effect in the Mid Atlantic there’s a different kind of warning being posted for Niners fans:

MONSTRA ALERT!  MONSTRA ALERT!

Niners scheduled to play horrific, craptastic team in the next 24 hours.  Expect periods of ineptitude approaching record highs.  100% chance of substantial RPI drop will occur as a wave of ugly basketball crosses the Rose Hill Gym court.  Secure your possessions and seek shelter in a concrete fallout shelther no less than 1000 feet below surface should Niners face 2nd half deficit.

In a game that’s probably more likely to resemble a trip to the Bronx Zoo than a Division I basketball program, the Niners take on the Fordham Rams Saturday afternoon at 2 PM in a contest televised on MASN.  The zoo analogy is pretty fitting for Fordham considering the season the Rams have been having, dating back to the spring letter the university’s administration sent  to boosters claiming support for it’s coaches and basketball programs.  Considering the financial meltdown it was kind of fitting in its timing considering many a bank that failed tried a similar strategy to placate investors.

The situation did not improve despite the announcement that Jio Fontan would return to the team and the arrival of heralded frosh post man Chris Gaston.  Just five games and one win against lowly Sacred Heart later, Jio Fontan announced his transfer again, this time for good.  One day later, out goes Dereck Whittenburg and Jared Grasso takes over the train wreck.

Things haven’t gotten much better -just 1 win and 14 more losses.

There are a couple of bright spots though, one being the aforementioned Gaston.  Gaston has been nothing short of spectacular on a team where opponents know he’s going to be one of the two focal points of the offense.  To average 17.8 ppg. and nearly 10.7 rpg. on an abysmal team is very impressive and Gaston will warrant serious consideration for A10 FOY (go Braswell).  Extra impressive when you consider he’s listed at “just” 6’7″.  Gaston does have areas to improve on though, such as shooting from outside (in other words, don’t) and turnovers (averaging over 4 tpg.).  Part of the problem might be the fact he’s got so little around him and forces his shots and drives.   Oh, and he’s on the market.  LOL.

Gaston does have a pretty solid Sr. wingmate in Brenton Butler.  The 6’3″ guard is scoring at a nice clip (15.7 ppg.) but it does come at the expense of a lot of shots (33% from the field and 31% from behind the arc).  Again, it’s likely because he’s one of only realistic options on offense for the Rams.

After that the cupboard is pretty bare.  Alberto Estwick (So.) and Lance Brown (Fr.) are a pair of nice young guards, but they’re not ready to carry the team or take significant weight off Gaston or Butler.  Perhaps in a year or two, the Gaston/Estwick/Brown could form a nice nucleus, but it’s hard to envision that given the lack of support from Fordham.

As a team Fordham does _______________ well.  Fill in the blank cause I can’t find anything.  I guess you could say they play good perimeter defense since they limit teams to under 25% from behind the arc, but who cares?  They’re 2-18.

The game itself really is a must-win for the Niners.  Fordham is  awful and to lose to them on the road would be devastating to the Niners’ at-large hopes.  The good news is we’ve got some serious swagger and Phil Jones’ game is on an upswing ever since he circled the wagons emotionally after going through a rough patch in his life.  GTG admires Big Phil for his resiliency.

What we the writers would like to see is a balanced attack on offense and respect for Fordham on defense.  They’re awful, but we’re not in any position to take any team for granted.  The stakes are way too high at this point of the season.  Charles Dewhurst has been spectacular on the defensive glass of late and we will need him to keep that up in order to counter Chris Gaston.  This will be particularly important since Chris Braswell will likely have his hands full trying to defend Gaston.   With Braswell getting in early trouble with fouls against GW, his focus will be critical and Javarris Barnett and KJ Sherrill will have to be ready if called on to play key minutes.

All that being said, it’s reasonable to expect the Niners to win this game, and frankly, to demand it.  They’ve shown mental toughness that’s been lacking for years over the last few games and as long as they stay focused and playing the way they’ve been, this should be an easy W.  Let’s just not have an epidemic of turnovers in the first half this time, mkay?

Go Niners!

Derrio Green week in the Atlantic 10 came to a close with a 34 point peformance as the Niners defeated UMass at the Mullins Center 72-58.  The win puts the Niners back in a three way tie (6-1) with [...]]]>

The Niners were all smiles as Derrio Green lit UMass up with 34 points.

Derrio Green week in the Atlantic 10 came to a close with a 34 point peformance as the Niners defeated UMass at the Mullins Center 72-58.  The win puts the Niners back in a three way tie (6-1) with Temple and Xavier atop the league and with a 16-5 record are off to their best start since 2004-2005 when they ran out to a 21-4 record before losing their last four.

Green was at his best, connecting from both inside and out as he topped his outstanding 26 point performance earlier in the week against Temple.  Green connected on 8-16 from 3-point land and 9-19 overall.  Phil Jones was the only other Niner in double digits with 12, 7 of them coming consecutively in a run that took a perilous 3 point lead in the second half and extended it to 10.  The run included a three pointer and another where he seemed to have just one foot on the line.

For UMass, it was another dreadful night shooting the ball.  The Minutemen managed just 4 makes from 28 attempts from beyond the arc.  Ricky Harris was the leading scorer for UMass, scoring 25 on 11-24 shooting including 3-10 from outside.  Anthony Gurley was the only other player for the Minutemen in double figures, scoring 11 on 4-11 shooting and missing on all five of his attempts from deep.  Former Niner recruit Sean Carter had a solid game on the defensive end, grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking 4 shots.

Both teams opened the game trading buckets early on with Gurley hitting a basket to give UMass an early 9-6 lead.  A Shamari Spears put back and a Derrio Green three pointer gave the Niners their first lead, one they would not relinquish.  It was this first half where Green did most of his damage, scoring 21 points, including 5 three-pointers and a dazzling drive and finish near the rim on a difficult scoop-shot layup.  The outburst gave the Niners an 8 point lead at the half, 34-26.

The second half opened up with a sustained run by UMass that cut the Niner lead to just one at 37-36 on a Ricky Harris layup.  The narrow lead persisted over the next two minutes as the teams exchanged misses, turnovers, and fouls until An’Juan Wilderness broke a 4 minute scoring drought with a tough layup.  That’s when Jones took over, scoring the next 7 points including a 3-pointer about 4 feet behind the arc as the Niners re-built the lead back into double digits.  A parade of free throws by Charlotte extended the lead to 17 with 6 minutes to go.  However, the Niners appeared to lose focus a bit in the closing stretch of the game, allowing UMass to shrink the lead to 10 with about a minute to go with miscues by Charles Dewhurst and a pair of surprising turnovers by DiJuan Harris.

Overall it was a solid win for the Niners as they showed the team can win the trap games on the road, something Derrio Green acknowledged in his post-game comments.  For fans, it’s comforting to see his development, as it shows teams will have to choose their poison against the Niners:  try to shut down the Niner perimeter game?  Shamari Spears and Chris Braswell will hurt you inside.  Focus on limiting the interior game like UMass did tonight (Spears had 4 points on 2-8 shooting, Braswell with 7 on 2-6 shooting) and Derrio will make you pay.

Though the Niners were outrebounded on the night by 5 and UMass managed 12 offensive boards, this should come as little surprise.  As we mentioned in the pregame, the Minutemen are tough rebounders, particularly on the offensive glass.  The Niners managed to secure a victory in my personal favorite stat:  foul shooting.  Charlotte hit 21 of 30 FTAs, the makes being 9 more than UMass even attempted (9-12).  An advantage like that is very difficult to overcome and is a hallmark of tournament caliber teams coached by Bobby Lutz.

Up next for the Niners are the George Washington Colonials on Wednesday in Halton Arena followed by a trip to the Bronx to take on the Fordham Rams next Saturday.  A pair of victories and the Niners could be looking at their first trip into the Top 25 in 5 years.

So while Charlotte is under siege from the white death falling from the sky, the Niners head up to Amherst to face the youthful and enigmatic Minutemen of UMass.

Personally I can’t stand UMass.  Actually I can’t stand their fans.  Last I knew universities themselves aren’t sentient.  [...]]]>

Potential 4-star recruit for Derek Kellog?

So while Charlotte is under siege from the white death falling from the sky, the Niners head up to Amherst to face the youthful and enigmatic Minutemen of UMass.

Personally I can’t stand UMass.  Actually I can’t stand their fans.  Last I knew universities themselves aren’t sentient.  Anyway their fans crapped on us when we joined the league and they crapped on Shamari Spears when he transferred to Charlotte.  It’s not all of them, but it’s the internet so I’m gonna exaggerate because I can.  And yes, that does make it right. I will give them this:  their band plays “Africa” by Toto and that’s pretty rad.

On to what’s important.  The Niners are on a roll and they look to keep their winning ways going Saturday evening against UMass, televised by ESPNU.

The Minutemen (8-12, 2-4) broke a 5 game losing streak with a win an 87-80 road against Saint Joseph’s  Wednesday.  UMass is the epitome of chuck-and-duck basketball many have accused the Niners of playing in years past.  Offensively they shoot the three.  Frequently.  As in 35th in the nation in attempts.  Couple that with only 29.9% three-point field goal percentage and you have a lot of misses.  A painful lot of them.  Perhaps counter-intuitively they rebound the ball extremely well on the offensive glass, snagging a top-10 in the nation 15.2 offensive rpg.  That makes for a lot of second chance scoring so despite the poor shooting percentages, they do manage to score a fairly impressive 71.2 ppg.  The problem is they are the French military on defense, giving up a whopping 74.1 ppg which puts them at 302nd best in the nation.  And sorry to any French readers out there.  If it’s any consolation I like your beaches.  One stat that really illustrates how awful they are on defense is the assist to turnover ratio for opponents (1.22, 333rd in the nation).  They’re also dreadful at blocking shots but that’s not an essential stat for success (just like our lack of dunks) but taken together with the assist to turnover stat, it’s pretty evident they play matador defense.

It’s not as if UMass is devoid of talent.  It’s actually quite the contrary.  Problem is Derek Kellogg hasn’t quite figured out this coaching thing yet, but since he’s a former player and a Squid disciple, he’ll get a free pass for a good while.  As for the personal, it’s hard to find a better guard in the A10 than Ricky Harris.  For the third year in a row, the 6’2″ Sr. guard is averaging over 17 points a game.  The problem is he’s taking far too many outside shots and hitting far too few (28.5%).  In comparison he’s hitting 50.6% of his shots from inside the arc.  Ricky, take it to the basket!  Just not Saturday.

His fellow gun-slinging backcourt mate is Anthony Gurley, who is in his second season at UMass by way of Wake Forest.  Problem is he’s more Barney Fife than Pvt. Daniel Jackson as like Harris he’s hitting less than 30% of his 3-point attempts.  Fortunately for him though he doesn’t take nearly as many outside shots as Harris, and gets the bulk of his 14 plus points from inside the arc and at the foul line.  Two other frequent starters of note are Sean Carter and Terrell Vinson.  Those names should be familiar to the Niner faithful as both were recruiting targets in the past for Charlotte.  Vinson in particular looks like he’s going to be a player for UMass.  The 6’7″ Fr. SF product of Baltimore is averaging 9.7 ppg. in his rookie campaign.  Unfortunately for him though Kellogg’s offensive philosophy might be detrimental to his development as he takes quite a lot of 3 pointers (is this a theme or what?) and misses nearly 75% of them.  It boggles the mind how any coach can be comfortable with a play that will 3 times out of 4 fail.  Ladies and Gentlemen, the 2009-2010 UMass Minutemen!

Sean Carter is a 6’9″ So. F/C who’s playing his first season with UMass after transferring from Oregon State.  Carter leads the team in rebounding at 6.3 rpg., with half of them coming on the offensive glass.   A modest scorer at just about 5 ppg, Carter is a 48.8% shooter who *gasp* hasn’t taken a three-pointer this season.  But before I go too far lauding his selectivity, I have to point out he’s just a 44.7% shooter from the FT line.  The top player off the bench is another impressive Fr. in Freddie Riley.  Riley is a 6’5″ swingman who’s averaging 10.5 ppg. who’s actually a respectable, if not great, three point shooter who converts on 37.4% of this attempts.

Although this is clearly a trap game for the Niners coming off the big win at Temple, this is a game they should and need to win.  One of the absolute keys is to rebound the ball well.  Chris Braswell, I’m pointing to you as our top defensive rebounder (ranked 11th in the country at defensive rebounding percentage according to kenpom.com).   Another potential danger is the UMass transition game.  Transition defense is an Achilles’s Heel for the Niners as they’ve struggled often to get back on defense against teams that like to get out into the open court.  One other fear is the temptation to get into a three point shooting contest.  Like with UMass, the 3 point shot is like heroin to Bobby Lutz-coached teams.   This year’s team seems to be more disciplined, however, and the departure of Shamarr Bowden has only seemed to fortify that sense of discipline on offense.  One thing I’d definitely like to see is more of Super Derrio.  You know, the one who gets to the rim like a speeding locomotive?  It’s been a joy to watch his balance of inside/outside play of late and I’m praying to see more of it.  Defensively I think we should expect a lot of zone:  force UMass to make some shots from outside, much like the case against Temple.  And just like the game against the Owls, some early makes shouldn’t deter the strategy.

Well that was pretty much the definition of awesome.  D-Fo had his birthday wish delivered in the form of a game-winning runner delivered by the hands of An’Juan Wilderness as time expired at Tom Gola Arena.  The basket broke a 82-82 tie [...]]]>

Wilderness provided the heroics with the game winner against La Salle.

Well that was pretty much the definition of awesome.  D-Fo had his birthday wish delivered in the form of a game-winning runner delivered by the hands of An’Juan Wilderness as time expired at Tom Gola Arena.  The basket broke a 82-82 tie with the La Salle Explorers and gave the Niners another impressive road victory as they try to keep place with Xavier and Temple at the top of the A10 standings.  The win sets up a battle for first place Wednesday against #16 Temple  in Halton Arena (7PM tip.  If you don’t have tickets yet I’m gonna hunt you down).

Coming out of the opening tip, the Niners pulled out to an early 8 point lead thanks in large part to the hot shooting of Derrio Green.  Green scored 9 straight points for the Niners on three 3-point baskets and layups by Chris Braswell and An’Juan Wilderness put Charlotte ahead 15-7.  La Salle would battle back with impressive shooting for long range of their own thanks to sensational Fr. C Aaric Murray.  Murray, despite the offensive explosion in the first half, would be limited in action for much of the game due to foul problems, which exacerbated an already thin bench for the Explorers thanks to injuries to Ruben Guillandeaux and Kimmani Barrett, the latter finding out he will likely miss the remainder of the season with a stress fracture in his right foot.

The Niners would again build a first half lead, this time going to the inside game.  Shamari Spears, and in particular, Braswell scored often against the big La Salle frontcourt.  Braswell did his damage both on the floor and at the line, finish the game with another double-double (21 points, 13 rebounds and a very impressive 9-9 at the foul line).  The Explorers would again make a run to tighten the game at the half thanks to Yves Mekongo and Jerrell Williams, who found themselves frequently converting at the foul line in the latter minutes of the first half.  When the buzzer sounded to send the game to halftime, the Niners held a small 48-46 advantage.

The second half featured more of the same: the Niners building leads and the Explorers battling back.  The lead grew to as many as 11 points for the Niners, and they maintained a 5 point lead with just 2:03 remaining before the La Salle would make one last run.  A pair of Rodney Green free throws and a Yves Mekongo 3 pointer tied the game at 82 points apiece with just under a minute remaining.  A missed Derrio Green shot left the ball in La Salle’s hands with a chance to win and 25 seconds to work with -basically they could run the clock down and either win it or send it to overtime.

Not so fast.  An’Juan Wilderness played tough defense on Rodney Green on a pick and roll with Aaric Murray, causing Green to opt to pass to Murray who was cutting to the basket with possibly a dunk or layup to win it.  The pass however sailed off Murray’s fingers out-of-bounds giving the Niners one last chance with a little less than 5 seconds remaining.  The 49ers immediately inbounded the ball to An’Juan Wilderness who covered about three-quarters of the court an managed to get off a runner as time expired which found the bottom of the net, giving the Niners the stunning last second victory.  It was the 2nd win in 3 games that game on the last possession for the Niners who suddenly find themselves in the unfamiliar role of road warrior in A10 conference play.

The starters again shined for the Niners as they were responsible for 81 of the 84 points scored.  The lone bench points came from an Ian Andersen first half 3-pointer.  Leading the scoring charge for Charlotte was Shamari “Sherman” Spears who finished with 22 points on 7-12 shooting and 8-11 from the foul line.  Derrio Green was the third Niner to reach 20 points for the game, managing exactly that number on 6-14 shooting.  Derrio had another good game distributing the ball and leading the team with 7 assists on the game to go with just 1 turnover.  The provider of the last-second heroics, An’Juan Wilderness, also had a terrific game with 13 points on 6-7 shooting and adding 4 assists and 3 rebounds.  DiJuan Harris didn’t have his best game, fouling out in 33 minutes of action with 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists to go with 3 turnovers.  Credit Rodney Green for being a difficult matchup all game for Harris.

Despite being outrebounded by La Salle, the margin was not particularly bad.  Finishing just boards behind the Explorers, the Niners managed 11 offensive rebounds including 6 by Braswell.  Impressively, Charlotte handed out 23 assists on 27 made baskets as again the Niners did a fantastic job moving the ball on offense, including in transition.  Who is this team?  What have they done with my Niners of old???  Actually, don’t answer that question.  I just want to enjoy this.

In the end, the difference in the game was foul shooting by the Niners.  Most, if not all previous Niner teams under Lutz would have lost this game, but Charlotte coverted 23 of 28 foul shots, good for an 82.1% mark.  In contrast, La Salle only hit 16 of 23, which was good for 69.6%.

Next up, a first place tumble with the very tough and very well-coached Temple Owls.  Here’s to hoping we fill Halton Arena on Wednesday to give Fran Dunphy a not-so-warm welcome to the QC.  The average sports fan needs to know how good the Niners, Owls, and A10 are so be sure to get the word out!  See you on the 27th.

There was one casualty for the Niners tonight.  Charles Dewhurst went down late in the 2nd half with a leg injury.  No would yet from the team what the extent of it is, but rumors are an ankle injury.  We’ll update you when we get word on the extent of his injury.

Anybody remember the last time Saint Louis and Charlotte went down to the wire in Halton Arena? Saint Louis hit a game-winning alley-oop with only a few tics left on the clock to send the Niners home demoralized and ashamed.

But tonight, the tables [...]]]>

DiJuan celebrates after making the game winner. courtesy HP

Anybody remember the last time Saint Louis and Charlotte went down to the wire in Halton Arena? Saint Louis hit a game-winning alley-oop with only a few tics left on the clock to send the Niners home demoralized and ashamed.

But tonight, the tables were turned by Niner warrior DiJuan Harris and his game winner with 3 seconds left in overtime. Forget the missed free throws and the inability to keep a lead, that shot made the entire night worth it. Usually on the losing end of game winners, it was a breath of fresh air to see that ball hit the net and go through. Everyone in Halton Arena (all 35 of us, it seemed) erupted and celebrated going 2-1 in conference play. Here’s the crazy part. DiJuan Harris only made 2 FGs tonight, and they were both buzzer beaters, one at the end of the first half to take a 1-pt lead, and the other to win the game.

That said, I really hate Saint Louis. Not because of any conference affiliation or rivalry reasons, I just hate games we play against them. The ground-it-out and slow basketball is extremely tiring to watch and it is easy to find yourself bored. That’s probably part of the game plan, when you think about it. Bore the other team to lose. Make them not care anymore.

We got off to such a great start, mostly thanks to the great play of Derrio Green, but quickly found a way to squander the lead and make it a game. Got to give people their money’s worth, right? How Saint Louis, with their painfully slow offense, managed to erase a ten point margin in a few minutes is beyond this author. We have got to step on our opponents’ proverbial throats and never let up.

But who are we kidding, we know why the offense sputtered to a stall and Saint Louis came back so quickly. As much as we hate to call him out, Ian Andersen is killing our flow on offense AND defense. Got to love his heart and hustle, but the 5 minutes he was in the game in the first half felt like 50. Those minutes need to go to developing Sirin and Barnett at this point. Ian just doesn’t mesh with this group of guys. It’s time to move Ian to “spark off the bench when down or up by 15″. NLP said it best when he sent this text: When Bobby said Ian calms the team I think he actually meant sedates. Ian “Tranquilizer” Andersen, everybody.

Braswell and Spears impressed once again. Spears had eight turnovers, but his presence on the court demands respect and opens everything up for the rest of the squad. It was nice to see him grab rebounds tonight and get a double double (16 pts, 13 rbds). Braswell played like a seasoned member of the squad tonight, playing with 4 fouls through overtime but still playing aggressively and taking it to the Australian Cody Ellis. He’s already very good, and he’s going to be extremely good in the next few years.

Time for bullets, because the game is being rebroadcast and I want to pay attention.

The Good

• Derrio Green is awesome, going to be fun watching him through the next few seasons
• An’Juan Wilderness is becoming part of offense now and has started to assert himself
• We missed all seven of our threes, and still won
• K.J. Sherrill got 9 minutes and is developing nicely
• The Green, Black, and Gold Man suits in the student section

Put on your Green Tinted Glasses

• Ian Andersen is killing the flow of our offense
• Shamari needs to work on passing out of those double teams and not forcing it
• Phil Jones has seemingly regressed, but still has moments
• We let Saint Louis dictate the tempo after the first five minutes
• We didn’t make a three for the first time since 1989, wow!
• Gave away too many dunks

Sunday afternoon the St. Louis (just kidding run49er), I mean Saint Louis Billikens take to the Halton Arena floor to square off against our beloved Charlotte 49ers (11-5).  The Billikens enter the game sporting the same 11-5 record on the Niners but [...]]]>

Raise your hand if you're the stupidest mascot in the nation.

Sunday afternoon the St. Louis (just kidding run49er), I mean Saint Louis Billikens take to the Halton Arena floor to square off against our beloved Charlotte 49ers (11-5).  The Billikens enter the game sporting the same 11-5 record on the Niners but enter the contest with a 2-0 conference record.  Saint Louis has defeated Richmond at home and most recently posted an impressive double-overtime win at Duquesne.

A welcome addition to svelte Head Coach Rick Majerus’ squad is freshman import Cody Ellis.  Ellis, a 6’8″ power forward finally received clearance to play by the NCAA (we know how that goes) and has posted a 12 point average in two games coming off the bench.  Despite being unproven in live game action, Ellis has logged an average of 27 minutes in this two games, and has pulled down 8 rpg.  His addition brings a very welcome addition for Saint Louis and changes the complexion of the team as well as how teams will have to prepare for them.

As young as the Xavier squad was that the Niners fell to on Wednesday, Saint Louis is even younger.   With Paul Eckerle out with a pre-season knee injury, the Billikens are comprised of entirely Freshmen and Sophomores.  According to Ken Pomeroy, that makes the Billikens 2nd least experienced team in the nation.  Leading the Billikens in scoring is So. PG Kwamain Mitchell, who puts up 16.2 ppg. on 46.6% shooting from the field and 36.1% from behind the arc. Giving the Billikens good inside balance to go with Mitchell is post man Willie Reed.  Reed is also a So., and averages 12.8 ppg. and 8.6 rpg. giving Saint Louis along with Ellis a pair of very good, young post players.

Rounding out the main starting unit for Saint Louis are wing players Brian Conklin (7.8 ppg.) and Christian Salecich (7.6 ppg.).  Coming off the bench to give the Billikens a boost from the perimeter is diminutive Fr. G Justin Jordan.  Jordan hits on 40% of his 3-point attempts and contributes 6.6 ppg. in just over 20 minutes a game.

As a team, Saint Louis provides a stark contrast to the Niners’ style of play, preferring a slower tempo and grinding out victories.  Saint Louis “only” averages 64.3 ppg. and limits the opposition to 58.5 ppg.  More impressive is their ability to force defenses into poor shooting, limiting them to just 38.0% from the field and 26.3% from the 3-point line.  The Billikens do have some weaknesses though that the Niners can hope to exploit.  Though a respectable team at blocking shots, Saint Louis does not excel at rebounding, allowing the opposition to out-rebound them by about 1.3 rpg.  Chris Braswell and KJ Sherrill could have big games on the glass, as the Niners will likely need plenty of second-chance scoring to overcome the Billikens’ excellent floor defense.

Additionally, Saint Louis is a bit suspect from the line, particularly at the F positions, where they convert just 63% of their attempts from the charity stripe.  If players like Phil Jones and Shamari Spears get beat on defense, strong fouls might be a better alternative to giving up the easy basket.  Of course, that’s not a good strategy if it leads to following out or extended stretches on the bench, of course.

For the Niners, some consistency in scoring is absolutely needed.  Though DiJuan Harris appears to be breaking out of his funk, Derrio Green needs to utilize better shot selection lest he fall in a slump of his own.  The Niners can ill-afford another 0-9 performance behind the arc from Green, particularly with the defection of Shamarr Bowden. As for Shamari Spears, I’m going to be a broken record.  When he gets the ball early in the possession he’s deadly.  If he’s not double or triple teamed, that is.  If he does receive pressure after the catch, he absolutely must do a better job of getting the ball back out, whether it’s to a backdoor player, a slasher like An’Juan Wilderness, or back out to the guards.  Too often has he forced the ball up in a crowd either missing the shot or getting stripped.  That’s not to say he’s a poor player; Shamari has been terrific.  But he can’t be his best until he can also use the attention he draws in the post to make his teammates get better scoring opportunities.

Two other players to keep an eye on are Fr. F Gokhan Sirin and So. F Javarris Barnett.  Both received more action in the Xavier game and this trend may continue as the Niners look to replace the perimeter offense of Bowden.  Sirin in

Rick is bringing sexy back.

particular, despite missing all his attempts against the Musketeers, continues to look more comfortable in the offensive flow.  One can only hope more opportunities leads to more improvement.  As for Barnett, it’s hard not to notice that he tends to do good things in the few minutes he receives.  Against Xavier he drilled a 3 in the corner that was waived off due to an offensive foul, and hit a little flip shot in the paint while collecting 2 rebounds in just 6 minutes.  Though he’s neither a true guard or true forward, his blend of skill and size can potentially lead to matchup problems in the time when he’s on the court.

Another player to keep a watch on is Wilderness, who is shooting a sizzling 63.9% from the field since his return from an early season calf injury.  Though Wilderness continues to struggle at the line, he is a terror around the rim and is probably the Niners best finisher close to the basket.

This game is going to be tougher than some anticipate.  A very young Saint Louis squad continues to improve and the addition of Cody Ellis will only help.  If the contest was at Chaifetz, I’d put this down as a loss, but I think the Niners go to 2-1 in A10 play by grinding out a victory tomorrow afternoon.  The rebounding of Braswell and the rest of the squad will be the determining factor, as the Niners will prevail in a game that will probably be ugly in terms of scoring and field goal percentage.

Oh, and kennethhouck gave a little tid bit in the comments to the X game that I’m going to pass along to anyone who hasn’t seen it.

Tough loss to X.

For St. Louis, do you know what a Billiken is? It’s a Blue Demon. Do you know why SLU has a Blue Demon? Did you see the Exorcist? The movie is based on a real story. The real exorcsim was in a building on the SLU campus. No one goes in the room where the exorcism takes place. It’s sealed up. A window cleaner was on the fire escape cleaning windows, & went down to the floor to clean the outside of the window of the sealed room. He was scared s**tless when he saw a blue demon in the room.
The Niners will have to perform a real life exorcism to beat Rick “tub of lard” Majerus. SLU always has tough defense. We had a game there one time where both were in the 30′s with 3 minutes to go.
Pick: Niners 13, Scary A** Window 12.

We’ll move this to the predictions tomorrow when J Felt gets off his butt and writes it.  Or gets on his butt.  I really don’t want to know in what state of being he writes his articles now that I think about it.  I’m going to go bleach my eyes now.