What a Knight, tied the record by Dylan (props to Coach Reibel), great return by Ethan.... and Bash. Much needed depth returning.
Cent Ark really soft which is what we needed after EKU battle.
Really puzzling why Devault not more minutes this year..... we need him
Tired of guys driving to basket and pivoting and not shooting.
But, hey, 2-0 in Conf

(01-11-2022 11:16 PM)Big Smooth Wrote:  What a Knight, tied the record by Dylan (props to Coach Reibel), great return by Ethan.... and Bash. Much needed depth returning.
Cent Ark really soft which is what we needed after EKU battle.
Really puzzling why Devault not more minutes this year..... we need him
Tired of guys driving to basket and pivoting and not shooting.
But, hey, 2-0 in Conf

CAU has some talent, but they were bad defensively. It does you very little good to have long athletic guys who don't play defense. Coaching is certainly a problem. I watched them play Lipscomb and they were much better on the offensive end, similar to the second half last night. Assadullah had 30+ for LU and CAU never doubled him in the post.

Scotty clearly coaches the players, especially the guards, to drive to the lane and pivot and pass. I have to admit that it looks awkward a lot of times, but it is effective at getting good 3 point looks. There seems to be quite a few times when the driver could look to score, especially J. Betz, and does not.

Its going to be a tough game Saturday. Despite their slow start, LU is talented and with the addition of Jacob Ognacevic (listed as a freshman, but is in his second year of college ball,xfering from Valparaiso) they should be better than they were last year.

(01-12-2022 11:09 AM)knightmoves Wrote:  

(01-11-2022 11:16 PM)Big Smooth Wrote:  What a Knight, tied the record by Dylan (props to Coach Reibel), great return by Ethan.... and Bash. Much needed depth returning.
Cent Ark really soft which is what we needed after EKU battle.
Really puzzling why Devault not more minutes this year..... we need him
Tired of guys driving to basket and pivoting and not shooting.
But, hey, 2-0 in Conf

CAU has some talent, but they were bad defensively. It does you very little good to have long athletic guys who don't play defense. Coaching is certainly a problem. I watched them play Lipscomb and they were much better on the offensive end, similar to the second half last night. Assadullah had 30+ for LU and CAU never doubled him in the post.

Scotty clearly coaches the players, especially the guards, to drive to the lane and pivot and pass. I have to admit that it looks awkward a lot of times, but it is effective at getting good 3 point looks. There seems to be quite a few times when the driver could look to score, especially J. Betz, and does not.

Its going to be a tough game Saturday. Despite their slow start, LU is talented and with the addition of Jacob Ognacevic (listed as a freshman, but is in his second year of college ball,xfering from Valparaiso) they should be better than they were last year.

Did anyone else notice that CAU had a guy on their bench named Churchill Bounds. I f you say it quickly it sounds a lot like Churchill Downs. He has to make my "All Name" basketball team.

[/quote]
Did anyone else notice that CAU had a guy on their bench named Churchill Bounds. I f you say it quickly it sounds a lot like Churchill Downs. He has to make my "All Name" basketball team.
[/quote]

Yeah, we got a big chuckle out of it. I actually named an ASUN all name team last year, but have not got around to it this year.

Exciting game Saturday! Well worth the price of admission. Beat a team that was definitely more physical than we were and had a knack to barely beat the shot clock with a 3 (which BU often does). It was great to see them recognize Artis Gilmore. Most of the people on this message board are much younger than me, but seeing him takes me back to the late 60's and early 70's when my brother and I would watch the KY Colonels play in Freedom Hall (and the convention center before that). Great memories of Gilmore, Issel, Dampier, Cincy Powell, Wendell Ladner and crew.

I saw this week that UIC is leaving the Horizon to become a member of the MVC. That would leave the Horizon with 11 members. I always thought we were a "better" fit in the Horizon. Thoughts? I think the travel would be alot closer, we would not have to deal with the constant talk of teams leaving the ASUN for football and we would gain a potential rival in NKY.

(01-30-2022 01:57 PM)Horsepower Wrote:  I saw this week that UIC is leaving the Horizon to become a member of the MVC. That would leave the Horizon with 11 members. I always thought we were a "better" fit in the Horizon. Thoughts? I think the travel would be alot closer, we would not have to deal with the constant talk of teams leaving the ASUN for football and we would gain a potential rival in NKY.

Interesting. Hadn't heard that about UIC.

Yeah, I've always thought that the Horizon is the next step for Bellarmine (and thought it might be the Knights' first D-I conference). I do believe that the university, as far as recruiting for the general student body, has a legit interest in the southeast; but I think a lot of the official talk about that geographic area when when the D-I move was made was just puffery and an expression of appreciation to the ASUN.

I wasn't expecting a BU conference change any time soon, but, with all of the chaos right now as well as the men's basketball doing well, wouldn't be stunned if a Horizon move happened. Down the road (I'm talking a couple of decades or more), I think BU would like to be in, say, the Big East, but who knows what the NCAA, conferences, etc. will even look like then?

A fun conference affiliation note is that the legendary Bob Pfaadt once told me that BU (then BC) inquired about possible membership when Dayton, Cincy, Marquette, DePaul, SLU, etc. formed the short-lived Great Midwest Conference in the early '90s, but was essentially told "thanks, but come back when you've expanded some."

I also believe that although BU would like to improve their student footprint in the southeast, I'm skeptical of much success there. We are in the ASUN because they were the only offer on the table when we decided to go DI. I like ASUN men's basketball and it offers many great places to go watch a road game. But I think that many of the ASUN members and their fans have that ultimate goal of FBS football. Hence the constant movement of conference members as they jockey to place themselves closer to that ultimate goal.

(01-30-2022 01:57 PM)Horsepower Wrote:  I saw this week that UIC is leaving the Horizon to become a member of the MVC. That would leave the Horizon with 11 members. I always thought we were a "better" fit in the Horizon. Thoughts? I think the travel would be alot closer, we would not have to deal with the constant talk of teams leaving the ASUN for football and we would gain a potential rival in NKY.

One thing that could challenge that - our old foe USI is working through the decision of whether or not to move to D1 with a vote coming in February. I am of the belief if the public is aware of a decision being made, then it is more likely than not that they will be transitioning. The Horizon would seem like a geographical fit for them as well, although I confess I don't have a good understanding of conference comparisons when it comes to talent at the mid-major level.

Knights have not looked good lately. Outmatched physically sometimes even when we win. More depressing is looking at the time on the court with CJ, Dylan, Ethan and Juston getting all the minutes. What happens next year if all 4 of them are gone (I know its possible some may opt for a 5th year but I wouldn't count on it). We double team their big guys under the basket and they throw out for an unmolested 3. They don't have to double team Curt underneath, plus our offense isn't predicated on posting up underneath with a big guy. Good game for Sam DeVault. Only reason he got more minutes is Alec not there. We are not a deep team and next year will be worse. We need to recruit some D1 talent next year. Don't need 9 or 10 of them, but 1 or 2 of them would be good.

The minutes played by Betz,Penn,CJ finally catching up to us, lot of missed FT's at crunch time and Dylan dinged up at end of last two games. Liberty just a better team and wore us down. Tonight we were slow on close-outs leading to wide-open 3's, Liberty scored 66 and we gave up 75 tonight. Certainly, no Pfriem hurt but as I watched at "Historic" Freedom Hall tonight I realized Devault did not play Thursday, why not? We need a Kyle Rode kind of guy but I don't see that anywhere. IMO, this group has massively overachieved especially given the injuries and illnesses. Scotty's post-game rant way off-base.
Next three are emminently winnable but are road games. Can't wait for Ray Harper in Cheatum Hall

(02-05-2022 11:29 PM)Big Smooth Wrote:  The minutes played by Betz,Penn,CJ finally catching up to us, lot of missed FT's at crunch time and Dylan dinged up at end of last two games. Liberty just a better team and wore us down. Tonight we were slow on close-outs leading to wide-open 3's, Liberty scored 66 and we gave up 75 tonight. Certainly, no Pfriem hurt but as I watched at "Historic" Freedom Hall tonight I realized Devault did not play Thursday, why not? We need a Kyle Rode kind of guy but I don't see that anywhere. IMO, this group has massively overachieved especially given the injuries and illnesses. Scotty's post-game rant way off-base.
Next three are emminently winnable but are road games. Can't wait for Ray Harper in Cheatum Hall

Guess who leads BU in points AND rebounds per minute played? Sam Devault. He has played in every game, except against Liberty (I wonder if he was feeling ill). I thought he played very well in limited minutes against FGCU. He gave us a big lift against KSU. I freely admit that he is not as good a defender as Hopf, but I dont really think its Hopf who should be giving up the minutes to Devault. Tipton, Wieland, Pfriem have not been as productive as Devault, but they are all getting more minutes than DeVault. Not criticism of Justin Betz, who I absolutely love, but some of his minutes could be reduced in favor of DeVault. Claycomb has been very good since coming back from illness but he could give up time to Devault as well.
I would like to see DeVault play 25 minutes at least once and see what happens. BTW, did I mention that DeVault is 6'10" tall and probably has the best shooting touch on the team.

Well it looks like our old friends down at Southern Indiana announced today that they are going to D1. Wonder which conference they will join?

The Horizon will be down to 11 with UIC leaving for the MVC and the ASUN will be down to 11 after the JSU/Liberty/Austin Peay moves next summer.

any quesses?

I agree with previous comments about Sam D. I am all in favor of tough, effective defense, but we have to score points to win a game. I cringe every time Justin B. drives to the middle of the paint and picks up his dribble and no one on the other team is within 8 feet of him and he immediately looks to pass out to someone else 20 ft from the basket. I think I understand the coaches "pass first" idea, but the number of times it results in someone jacking up a contested 3 as the shot clock runs out is frustrating.

(02-08-2022 10:59 AM)BGrad1971 Wrote:  I agree with previous comments about Sam D. I am all in favor of tough, effective defense, but we have to score points to win a game. I cringe every time Justin B. drives to the middle of the paint and picks up his dribble and no one on the other team is within 8 feet of him and he immediately looks to pass out to someone else 20 ft from the basket. I think I understand the coaches "pass first" idea, but the number of times it results in someone jacking up a contested 3 as the shot clock runs out is frustrating.

Hey BGrad, you are always good at finding stuff on the internet, I have been looking for BU box score that has the +/- category. I know I've seen some somewhere, but haven't been able to find them. It seems to me that this is the only stat that can tell you whether Devault's(or anybody else) defensive liability is outweighed by his offensive assets. You can calculate it looking at the play by play in the box score but its obviously too time consuming to do it for every game for every player. I did it for the the FGCU game and found that DeVault was a +8 and Hopf was a -14. I am not saying that is typical, I think Hopf had a bad game that night, but what is interesting is that DeVault had the +8 in the first half and did not get in the game in the second half.

BTW, some intrepid caller on Scotty's radio show Monday night, asked him what DeVault needed to do better to get more playing time. He said that DeVault is still learning the defensive system and is improving but has a ways to go . He mentioned that team defense is key to playing well. He also mentioned that they were working on some adjustments that may allow DeVault to play more. It is clear that Scotty's defensive philosophy is one that has a positionless setup that requires all five guys to be able to guard all five opponents for at least a few seconds. If you watch Hopf, he is their best interior defender, but also does a nice job on the ball screens covering shooters. Of course, that still avoids the real question of whether DeVault's offense makes up for his defense.

That was a bizaar second half last night. Frankly, I'm very happy to have walked out with a win. I pride myself on not being the kind of fan who blames the referees for how a game goes, but that was ridiculous. Not sure I have ever seen a game where a team with a big lead was called for so many fouls. Its especially odd because Bellarmine is not a team that fouls alot. DeVault might have had 2 legit foul calls against him, the other 3 were unbelievably ticky tack. How many away from the ball fouls were called? Many of them were just normal positioning that very few refereeing crews would have called. The idea that UNF had a furious comeback is ridiculous, unless you consider shooting 23 free throws in a half, furious. Of course the points scored at the line for UNF were not the only damage, considering DeVault and Hopf were DQ'd, on top of the fact that Pfriem was already out.

(02-07-2022 09:37 PM)Horsepower Wrote:  Well it looks like our old friends down at Southern Indiana announced today that they are going to D1. Wonder which conference they will join?

The Horizon will be down to 11 with UIC leaving for the MVC and the ASUN will be down to 11 after the JSU/Liberty/Austin Peay moves next summer.

any quesses?

Looks like USI to the OVC

OVC gets USI, but both Austin Peay and Murray State are leaving. I think that means they will have 9 members. Hmmm!

(02-09-2022 11:11 AM)knightmoves Wrote:  Hey BGrad, you are always good at finding stuff on the internet, I have been looking for BU box score that has the +/- category. I know I've seen some somewhere, but haven't been able to find them. It seems to me that this is the only stat that can tell you whether Devault's(or anybody else) defensive liability is outweighed by his offensive assets.

Sorry -- been tied up and haven't checked in here in a few days.

I'll see if I can track that down. I'd love to see more DeVault!

(02-11-2022 09:13 AM)BGrad1971 Wrote:  OVC gets USI, but both Austin Peay and Murray State are leaving. I think that means they will have 9 members. Hmmm!

I saw on the realignment message board that Lindenwood (from DII GLVC) is going to the OVC (maybe) so that would move them up to 10 teams. It seems that all this conference reshuffle is focused on football (totally unsurprising!!)