In front of a small crowd, SLU improved to 3-1 with a 57-54 victory over one of the lowest-rated teams in the country. The Billikens were in control most of the way but let NC A&T hang around long enough to make their move midway through the second half.
Miles Reynolds rebounded from a shot to the face to thoroughly controlled the action, bulling his way to the line time and time again (14-18 FT). McBroom carried the team in Game One, and Reynolds did all that and more in Game Four.
Lineups
In this space we take a look at the Starters, even though Starting Is For High School (TM), and the Minutes Leaders as we try to get some insight as to how Coach Jim “Safecracker” Crews sees this team.
Starters:
- Austin McBroom
- Ash Yacoubou
- Davell Roby
- Reggie Agbeko
- Austin Gillmann
First start of the year for Gillmann, as the Safecracker turns the dial on bigs, listening. Agbecko was in the Grandy Glaze role of “Starter but…” as he was limited to 11 minutes.
Minutes Leaders (non-starters in Bold):
- McBroom (29)
- Yacoubou (25)
- Lancona (23)
- Reynolds (21)
- tie-Manning (17) & Crawford (17)
Overall, 10 of 12 guys played double-digit minutes. Lancona and Manning, the Game One starters, garnered extra minutes with defense, and Reynolds took command.
SLU Player Stats
(Definitions at bottom of post)
- Miles Reynolds had the strongest game of any Billiken this year. His production accounted for over half that of the other 11 guys — offsetting five guys in the negative — and AdjGS does not even take into account Fouls Drawn. He carried SLU to victory.
- McBroom returned to form, suggesting he has overcome the wrist injury from Game One
- Manning’s 3 blocks stand out on the defensive side, with 2 big ones in the closing minutes. He did not start for the first time this year, but he finished very strong. Also standing out are Lancona and Reynolds each with 3 steals.
- Agbeko and Jolly combined for 7 rebounds in 20 minutes, with Reggie’s two turnovers dragging down his GS. Turnovers were a problems for Yacoubou and Bradley as well.
- Yacoubou’s 5 rebounds and 2 assists only partially offset a poor shooting night.
Summary
This squad will be hard-pressed to improve on last year’s defense, but two areas where the fruit hangs low are Block % (last year ranked #324 overall) and Steal % (#305). Reynolds, Reynolds, and more Reynolds. His best is quite good.
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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.