This game was not televised — first of three such games this season — so the Eye Test stands obscured by Sycamore Vision.  I could not see the forest for the trees.

Fellow 13er Kentucky buried Kansas last night under their Two Platoon: Coach Cal played between 17 and 21 minutes and forced the ESPN announcers to use the word “reinforcements” instead of “subs”.  SLU Coach Jim Crews stuck with the same starting lineup but continued trying many different combinations.  Always turning, always listening for the click.

Lineups

Starters:

• McBroom
• Yacoubou
• Roby
• Lancona
• Manning

The Safecracker went with the same starting lineup for the second straight game.  Since Starting Is For High School (TM), we will monitor Minutes Leaders this season to see if Coach Crews reveals his thinking as the season progresses.

Minutes Leaders:

1. McBroom (26)
2. Crawford (24)
3. Yacoubou (22)
4. Bartley (20)
5. Gillmann (18)

We will see going forward if the Safecracker holds his starters constant as he gets a better feel, or instead we start to see the Minutes Leaders migrate into the starting lineup.

SLU Player Stats

(Definitions at the bottom of the post)

• Fantastic all-around game from Yarbrough, earning GS beyond his point production with 5 Rebounds, an Assist and a Steal
• Bartley was perfect from three, perfect from the stripe, and also was an all-court factor
• Yacoubou took the mantle in this one, shooting often and poorly but getting to the line and converting his freebies (7-9 FT)
• Jolly got after it and led the team in production (GmSc /Min 0.57), banging his way to 4 Rebounds, 4 Fouls, and shooting 6 FTs.  Just when you thought no one could get in foul trouble with a twelve-man rotation, along came Jolly and his Hack-a-Syc strategy
• I was wondering how far into the season we would go before McBroom was not the best player, and whether SLU could win without his best game.  A lingering sore wrist led to 1-8 shooting, but the team carried him to its first roadie.

Summary

Always good to get a win when your top scorer is off, when you are on the road with an inexperienced team, and do it while sticking to the mission of getting guys minutes and trying combinations.   Banged-up McBroom, no Glaze, no problem.  2-0 and on we go.

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AdjGS:  variation on the Game Score metric created by John Hollinger, detailed here.  Hollinger’s original formula is Adjusted to reallocate the points in the game by ratio of the player’s overall impact.  Credit to the team at Rock M Nation for this improvement.