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

SJUDave said:
The biggest key for St. John's in this game is Chris Ledlum being back. 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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At home, better coach, team hopefully motivated to play hard an entire game, sweep opportunity. We don’t have a lot of talent, but we can control maximum effort and smart play. If not shame on them.
 
lawmanfan said:
This game is a decent test 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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this is 100% most level headed post.

going into the year, i personally felt we were a .500 team. and we're proving to be just that.

the fact that we've been close to being better, is what's painful.

at the end of the day, i think we have to be better than Nova and Hall. Do that, and we're in the Tourney.

Wednesday is an absolute must win. need Soriano wake the F up.
 
Eric said:
You are right. They may go 6-29 this time.
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Nova has taken 505 threes on the season, second most only to Creighton. SJ has taken 398, more than only Xavier and Seton Hall.

Nova is shooting .335 from three to our .337. Nova shoots way too many threes for the personnel they have, largely because Kyle Neptune is clueless.

A bad day from 3 is not the exception for them. It’s who they are.
 
paultzman said:
At home, better coach, team hopefully motivated to play hard an entire game, sweep opportunity. We don’t have a lot of talent, but we can control maximum effort and smart play. If not shame on them.
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If they don't don't then yeah shame on them because then they probably lose @ X and vs. uconn because they'll start playing tight and not having fun. They fall to 4-7 and then it's all about winning the B.E. They shouldn't want to go that route.
 
paultzman said:
"...We don’t have a lot of talent.........."
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That's kind of harsh, and I don't think, that it's accurate. Maybe the talent doesn't mesh well at this point, but there is a talent on this team. Just like we had a lot of talent that wasn't coached properly in the past..... (we don't have that problem this time).
 
redmanwest said:
That's kind of harsh, and I don't think, that it's accurate. Maybe the talent doesn't mesh well at this point, but there is a talent on this team. Just like we had a lot of talent that wasn't coached properly in the past..... (we don't have that problem this time)
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I guess we disagree, I see some talent, but not a lot. Just compare our guards to top 5 or 6 BE teams re offensive talent. Anyway, the talent level is somewhat moot if effort and attention to detail is lacking. That is not satisfactory at this point imo.
 
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We have some talent but I think we lack it especially at guard vs. other BE teams. We are not really tough & go kind of soft sadly allowing huge runs. It also seems like many players aren’t responding after promising to play harder which is concerning. Dingle is most disappointing IMO. He was supposed to be our stud scoring guard getting to rim at will. Just not enough quickness IMO. Jenkins is solid but misses way too many open 3’s & falls in love with them still. Ledlum needs more 3’s like early season. I do have faith that Pitino knows exactly what we need for next yr & hopefully we make NCAAT main draw this yr still.
 
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