Villanova (MSG), Wed., Jan. 24, 8:30p, FS-1

Mean Gene said:
I am in agreement with you on this SJUwillRockNYC. I said before the Seton Hall game that a loss there could change the entire trajectory of our season. A loss on Wednesday and that would seem to be true. If we lose this game, we look to the Big East Tournament. That will be our only hope.
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Looking our schedule, I can see us getting some momentum also before the B.E. Tournament, winning our last 3 and atleast 5 of our last 6.
Maybe we wouldn't have to play on Wednesday and win 4 straight.

Lets not go there yet though and beat Villanova on Wednesday.
 
A loss puts SJU on the bubble. Would be great to win this one and stay safely in the tourney. At Xavier and UConn next and definitely don’t want this turning into a 7 game slide. Plus, still have all of the Georgetown and depaul games on the schedule, so there are fewer resume building games available in the back half.
 
Winning the BET 4 wins in 4 straight days/nights is really hard.

I don't think it's been done often.

Recently didn't Georgetown do it with a pretty bad team? Providence do it once?

Let's hope and pray our team this year doesn't have to do it.
 
Way too early to talk about not making the dance unless we win BET. The last time we were .500 or better after 8 games in league play was 2012-2013 where after a good start we wound up losing our last 4 league games and missed the dance. Go 7-5 from here, win one BET game and we will dance. Let's start Wednesday with a nice home win and sweep of Nova.
 
BrookJersey Redmen said:
Winning the BET 4 wins in 4 straight days/nights is really hard.

I don't think it's been done often.

Recently didn't Georgetown do it with a pretty bad team? Providence do it once?

Let's hope and pray our team this year doesn't have to do it.
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UConn won 5 straight days with Kemba Walker. Syracuse also did it with McNamara.
 
Knight said:
Madison Square Gardner?
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Thank you. Well he only played in one game for 4 minutes and scored 2 points. Looks like we dodged a bullet with that guy honestly. Got this from a USC fan board .....
  • Brandon has only appeared in 1 game (4 minutes) this season. Most of the games he has not gone thru warmups, but stands by in gray sweats, alongside Bronny. I don't know what his issue is, I will hit up a couple of people and see what they know.

  • #3
    11-28-2023, 10:52 AM

    I'm also excited for Gardner to get his shot. In the limited times I've seen him on the court, he's raw but has NBA level athleticism to convert around the basket. He might even have the hands to turn Collier TOs into assists.

    I believe he was hurt and missed a lot of camp, so he's still picking up the system. If you can't play team D for Enfield, you're not going to see time outside of blowouts. It's also a bit tricky since he's most likely a 4, but might not be enough of a threat from range (like most of our bigs except HH) that could clog the lane for Collier and Boogie's drives.

    Since there's already a big logjam at USC, Enfield probably told him he wouldn't have minutes this year bar a season injury and the plan would be for him to redshirt (max 4 games - he's played 1).
 
njfan said:
Thank you. Well he only played in one game for 4 minutes and scored 2 points. Looks like we dodged a bullet with that guy honestly. Got this from a USC fan board .....
  • Brandon has only appeared in 1 game (4 minutes) this season. Most of the games he has not gone thru warmups, but stands by in gray sweats, alongside Bronny. I don't know what his issue is, I will hit up a couple of people and see what they know.

  • #3
    11-28-2023, 10:52 AM

    I'm also excited for Gardner to get his shot. In the limited times I've seen him on the court, he's raw but has NBA level athleticism to convert around the basket. He might even have the hands to turn Collier TOs into assists.

    I believe he was hurt and missed a lot of camp, so he's still picking up the system. If you can't play team D for Enfield, you're not going to see time outside of blowouts. It's also a bit tricky since he's most likely a 4, but might not be enough of a threat from range (like most of our bigs except HH) that could clog the lane for Collier and Boogie's drives.

    Since there's already a big logjam at USC, Enfield probably told him he wouldn't have minutes this year bar a season injury and the plan would be for him to redshirt (max 4 games - he's played 1).
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I’m never gonna say we “dodged a bullet” by not getting a kid who isn’t getting time in his true freshman season. Especially when there’s a preseason injury involved

That USC team is an absolute mess. Not sure the full story on what’s going on with Gardner there, but I don’t trust that USC staff to develop any talent.

If Gardner transfers from them after the season, I wouldn’t mind if Van picked up the phone…
 
Jack Williams said:
I’m never gonna say we “dodged a bullet” by not getting a kid who isn’t getting time in his true freshman season. Especially when there’s a preseason injury involved

That USC team is an absolute mess. Not sure the full story on what’s going on with Gardner there, but I don’t trust that USC staff to develop any talent.

If Gardner transfers from them after the season, I wouldn’t mind if Van picked up the phone…
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If this is the CTK Brandon whose mother was a big pain, I
wouldn't touch him, or was that Brandon Williams.???
 
This game is a decent test of my theory that "they are who we thought they were."

Have always felt that their math was roughly:

-Win 4 vs Georgetown and DePaul
-Win 5 home games vs Butler, X, Providence, Nova, Hall
-Win 1 road game against those 5
-Win 1 vs UConn, Marquette, Creighton

Thus far they are right on schedule.

Blemishes are a disappointing no show vs Hall and squandered chances vs all 3 of the Big 3.

Need to beat Nova to stay on schedule - and I think it's going to be a tough game as I expect Nova to show up for this one.

There are other pathways, but directionally they remain on target for 19 wins.
 
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The biggest key for St. John's in this game is Chris Ledlum being available unlike the first matchup. I thought he played a fantastic game against Marquette and between him, Joel and Zuby they should be able to give Eric Dixon fits. Clearly what they did in the first match up worked, holding Dixon to 4-18 from the floor sooooo lets hope to do that again. Villanova will have Justin Moore back

Against DePaul Moore played 23 minutes but only scored 2 pts on 1-6 shooting (they won by 25)
Against Marquette he played 30 mins and scored 8 pts on 3-7 shooting (they lost by 13)
Against UConn he played his best going 7-9 from the floor, 15 pts in 30 mins in a 1 point loss

So doesn't seem like any kind of mins restriction or anything like that. He is one of their main ball handlers and will be an interesting assignment without Alleyne, I think that will be Taylor or Jenkins in a man to man situation.

It's as close to a must win situation as you're gonna face in January due to the last 3 losses, gotta get right. We handled them on their home court while being undermanned, do it again and protect your home court. Need Joel to find his game. He thoroughly outplayed Dixon in the first one dropping 20 pts and 8 boards, gonna need him to recapture that magic again as he was such a catalyst to SJU starting league play 4-1.
 
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