Wichita St hit the first bucket and never trailed, returning to form with an 81-52 win over our SLU Billikens.  With the loss, SLU falls to 3-1 in Missouri Valley Conference play.

Billikens trail Wichita State 16-10 with 11:49 remaining in the first. Yarbrough, Jolly with 3s to keep Bills close.

— SLU Men’s Basketball (@SaintLouisMBB) December 6, 2014

 That qualified as the high point of the night.  Oh wait, no this did.

For the second time in the last week a SLU player has a shoe fly off and across the court. This time Roby.

— stu durando (@studurando) December 6, 2014 

Turns out shoe fly don’t bother Ron Baker; the Shockers shot the lights out and rolled in the deep.

Lineups

Here we try to get a sense of what Jim “Safecracker” Crews thinks of the team by the way he hands out the minutes.  And even though Starting Is For High School (TM), we believe it says something.

Starters:

McBroom, Yacoubou, Roby, Agbeko, Manning

Minutes Leaders:

1. Yarbrough, Manning (24)
2. Roby, Bartley (23)
3. Reynolds (22)

In a game featuring zero leverage, it is impossible to gauge what truly works and what doesn’t, who is earning time or slipping.  It just gives the guys a chance to get out and run with a Top 10 team….or at least their backups.

SLU Player Stats

(Definitions at bottom of post)

• The top six contributors by AdjGS were freshmen.  Again, lack of meaningful time in the game means these minutes are primarily an investment into the future of the program.
• Limited action for McBroom.  Guessing Crews already has an idea of what he has in McBroom and did not feel the need to see more.  His powder stays mostly dry.
• SLU’s freshman centers Gillmann and Jolly combined to hit 2 of 5 three pointers

Wichita St Player Stats

• Stat-stuffing performance from Ron Baker
• Wessel was unexpectedly hot from three
• Just as in last year’s game, it was Cotton who proved to be more of the facilitator vs SLU than was Van Vleet
• Greg(g) Marshal(l) may have uncovered another option in big freshman Rauno Nurger, who thrived in the unleveraged freedom
• Tom “Bush” Wamukota has to be one of the best names in Shocker history, though the Zach Brown Band will have something to say about it

Keys to the Game: Revisited

Before the game the WABmaster put together a recipe for how to beat Wichita St.  Let’s see how that turned out:

A Poeltl-like performance from a big.  (I nominate Brent Jolly for this duty.)

Jolly was serviceable but not a force.  Gillmann shot the ball well.  Overall, Wichita St controlled the inside (39-18 rebound advantage, including 11-3 on the offensive glass).

Don’t give Baker an inch behind the line.  He is showing improved range and ability to make threes in tighter quarters.  (I nominate Davell Roby for this duty.)

Baker was 3-4 from deep.

Make Van Vleet shoot (this means you McBroom.  Deny the pass first)

Van Vleet only took three shots.

Get to the line (this means you, Ash, Yarbrough and Agbeko)

• Yacoubou 0 FTs
• Yarbrough 3 FTs
• Agbeko 0 FTs

Play loose and cool and with absolutely nothing to lose (this is an All Play.)

Still no Grandy so the fun quotient was a little low.  Bartley seemed to cut loose and let it all hang out.

Summary

This is the kind of blowout that is not useful to forget and shrug off, but instead one that should be carried forward for the rest of this season and beyond.  There is no shame in losing to a Top 10 team on the road, getting a glimpse into what they do well and consistently, how they work and talk and adapt, and working on emulating it.

In 2011, SLU lost at Duke 84-47 early in what proved to be a 12-19 season.  In that game, freshman Dwayne Evans, Mike McCall Jr, Rob Loe, and Jordair Jett performed the bulk of the mop up duty.  While we hope for better results from this year’s team, the investment in the program’s future is paramount.

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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.