I watched this game on TV much like most of you, so consider my insights accordingly. But the obvious thing to say is, turn the ball over 20 times, you’re going to lose. In the past two games, SLU has given ground on its ball control. A lot of the turnovers today were not caused by the team being in a rush; they were just good old-fashioned careless turnovers. Passes to players who weren’t paying attention, Mitchell’s double dribble, things like that. Add in an offensive foul or two and pretty soon, you’re giving the ball away a lot. SLU had 69 possessions in the game — it was played at SLU’s pace, not Rhode Island’s — and SLU turned it over 20 times. That’s more than one-fourth of the time. SLU shot pretty well in the game, 47 percent, better than it did against Charlotte and Duquesne, but just wasted too many possessions. Rhode Island converted those turnovers into 16 points. Now, it’s possible SLU could have turned the ball over eight times and Rhode Island would get 16 points, but probably not. Cut those turnovers in half, shoot the ball at the same percentage and SLU’s got at least eight more points.

The last time SLU had 20 turnovers in a game was against Pacific last season.

To be fair, if Rhode Island could make free throws, the game would have been a lot less close. Rhody was 3 for 9 at the line in the first half, 10 for 14 in the second. To a certain extent, both teams tried to give it away. SLU succeeded.

SLU’s PPP was .88. Rhody was a hair under 1.0, 69 points on 70 possessions.

Now, to the parade of rough games:

Kevin Lisch was 4 of 16 from the field, though 3 of 9 on 3’s. Do the math: He’s 1 for 7 on shots inside the line. Rhody’s Jimmy Baron did finish with 11 points, so that was a plus.

Tommie Liddell was 2 of 4 from the field. That would be the fewest shots he’s taken in a full game in his career. (He also took 4 against Furman last year, when he played just 18 minutes after being late for a practice.) He was on the bench from about the 4-minute mark to about the 1-minute mark, which is a pretty clear message that Porter Moser was none too happy with his play. Liddell needed six points to get to 1,500 in his career. He got 4. He had five rebounds and a 3-5 assist-turnover ratio. He was the low man on the team in plus-minus at -13. Overall, not good.

Barry Eberhardt fouled out for the third time this season and had two turnovers. He continues to shoot the ball well — he was 2 for 2.

Paul Eckerle played 14 mintues and had three rebounds, matching his season high. He was also credited with his first blocked shot of the season. He had four last year.

Kwamain Mitchell had 17 points. He’s been in double figures every game since the concussion and is averaging 15 points in that span. He’s also averaging 6.3 rebounds per game in the past three games, and only one of those went to triple overtime. His assist-turnover ratio however isn’t going well: 12-15 over the past 3 games. I’ve got to wonder if the Richmond game took a lot out of everyone.

Brian Conklin at least is scoring again. He had nine points, his most in a while. (The first Richmond game.) In his past 76 minutes of playing time, he has five rebounds.

Kyle Cassity: 17 minutes, 1 shot, no points. But, I’ll tell you, he was a plus in plus-minus.

Brett Thompson’s first collegiate 3 (after 5 misses) looked like it might spur a comeback. But he had three turnovers and every time the ball goes inside to him, you expect something to go wrong. He’s made 4 of his past 5 shots and is doing some things well defensively. He also had three rebounds in 12 minutes. That’s a much better clip than Conklin is on.

Willie Reed has nine points in each of the past three games and is 3 fo 8 from the line since I wrote about how he was shooting better. He had six rebounds, which was good. In the past few games, SLU has at the start gotten the ball inside to Reed, possibly to set a tone for the game, and Reed has either missed his first few tries or turned it over. He had three turnovers Saturday. Both Reed and Thompson need to do a better job of hanging on to the ball and taking it up more quickly, which I expect to happen next season. There have been several times when SLU gets the ball inside to their big men and there’s an opening if they get up quickly, but they don’t. By later in the game, Reed seems more comfortable and adept. Right now, he’s a slow starter.

SLU’s last gasp came with about 2 minutes to play. They were down 9 and had the ball and Reed was called for an offensive foul. Then Eaves hit a 3 for Rhody, Mitchell double dribbled with 1:45 to go and that was pretty much it.

The plus-minus leader was Eckerle at +3, followed by Cassity at +2. Considering neither of them scored and they both played relevant minutes, those numbers can’t be discarded, but at the same time, since they combined for 0 points and 1 assist (though 5 rebounds), they didn’t have much of a contribution offensively.  The rest of the list:

Thompson -1

Reed -2

Eberhardt -4

Lisch -7

Mitchell -7

Conklin -11

Liddell -13

Big week coming up. St. Joe’s already lost today, that’s two straight for them, and then Dayton’s in on Saturday. Considering everything, both are winnable for SLU, though also losable. This is a week that will determine if SLU’s in the top half of the league or not. They’re in seventh place right now. Xavier, not surprisingly, did a number on Fordham