@Xavier, Wed., Jan. 31, 6:30p, FS-1

Just a poorly constructed team. The coach felt he had to clear out the stink of Anderson but by bringing in a bunch of older mid major kids seems they were already set in their ways. I do feel he was as down on Dingle from the jump though. If would have made concentrated effort to incorporate him I think we would be in better shape.

I don’t think we make the tournament this year. Hope I am wrong but just don’t see enough definite wins left on schedule.

Pitino will regroup and we will be in the tournament the rest of his time here.
 
tnice said:
I had my concerns about this game going in so I'm not all that disappointed. I've also kind of come to grips with what we are and what we aren't, as a team and individually.
My biggest disappointment is that for a team wasthat recruited under the mandate "bring me shooters", we just dont have any. I really had high hopes that we would finally be playing basketball the way its played in the third millennium. Instead, just like we have for the last 20 years, we're scratching and clawing for every goddamn bucket...unable to shoot our way out of a deficit or bury a team with three's. So frustrating.
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And Dingle cant hit a damn three ever!
 
Sometimes i swear i think posters here OVER REACT. Last year at this point in the season we lost 7 big east games. This year we lost 4 and 2of them were against nationally ranked teams were we only lost by a point. Last year cant go by our win totals cause of all those cup cake teams to inflat anderson's schedule. Please remember he built this team in less then a month and got the best players he could get. Shooters - Jenkins, Dingle, RJ (who was hurt). Just relax, last year we would of folded and got blown out. Now we came back and tied it.
Also xavier just got blown out by uconn game before so they were most likely pissed. while we had uconn probably on our minds on saturday.
 
One of the things that does not bode well for this team at this point in time is the constant change in starting line ups. Of course you can attribute that to who does well in practice in a given week etc but that does play well with a players mental psyche. You can clearly see the confidence of many slipping away. Glen Taylor is but a shell of his former self, Allyne looks lost, Luis is regressing, Wilcher does not resemble a top 30 HS kid, Dunlap has lost confidence in his shot, Conway has regressed in a major way and Dingle seems frustrated. Whether that’s due to the above or as someone stated above, the chaotic substitution patterns is anyone guess but surely we expected this team to be further along at this point in time.

Is it me or does anyone else also an offense that relies too much on a players individual talent and not on enough ball movement?
 
njfan said:
Sometimes i swear i think posters here OVER REACT. Last year at this point in the season we lost 7 big east games. This year we lost 4 and 2of them were against nationally ranked teams were we only lost by a point. Last year cant go by our win totals cause of all those cup cake teams to inflat anderson's schedule. Please remember he built this team in less then a month and got the best players he could get. Shooters - Jenkins, Dingle, RJ (who was hurt). Just relax, last year we would of folded and got blown out. Now we came back and tied it.
Also xavier just got blown out by uconn game before so they were most likely pissed. while we had uconn probably on our minds on saturday.
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This team has lost 4 of its last 5 games with 5 out of 6 a real possibility and that includes a blow out loss to Seton Hall. And after all the hype and high expectations this team received early on, you think that fans are over reacting? If we use last years debacle (7 losses at that point in time) as a standard to be marginally better then, this program will never go anywhere.
 
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Mullins Revenge said:
Have we accepted that Dingle is a backup caliber big east player or are we still predicting he is about to "break out" any game now?
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While you may be right, if our fans accept that, then they may have to accept the fact that a Dance invite may not be realistic with this talent level and I for one want to keep hope alive.

Remember, Dingle as well as Ledlum were highly sort after transfers by many programs not just Pitino. Our poster 79 even stated that compared to other recruits we were after Dingle “was on another level” and would be a tremendous get. That does not seem to translate into backup caliber Big East player.
 
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paultzman said:
Not really, he played great, but the last shot over feeding Joel deserves some thought. No way, however Jenkins lost this one & he clearly played best game of season
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Silly Donovan said:
This team has lost 4 of its last 5 games with 5 out of 6 a real possibility and that includes a blow out loss to Seton Hall. And after all the hype and high expectations this team received early on, you think that fans are over reacting? If we use last years debacle (7 losses at that point in time) as a standard to be marginally better then, this program will never go anywhere.
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And, yet we're 2 or 3 bounces or shots made to having the second or third best record in the league. The margin is so thin, and with all of the new parts, just hasn't come together completely. There is ample talent on this roster, but it just hasn't meshed. And, I hate to say it, but all year there have been inconsistent efforts and outcomes by our best players.
 
Mullins Revenge said:
Have we accepted that Dingle is a backup caliber big east player or are we still predicting he is about to "break out" any game now?
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I think it is best to accept he can help w midrange game, some physical play driving the ball, but he is sub par on D and not the 3 point guy we desperately need. I think we all expected more.

In a college game dominated by guards/wings as we saw from X last night, SJU is clearly deficient. Many of us assumed Dingle, Luis would provide fire power and that seems doubtful now. Alleyne seemed suitable for a shooting role, but also has been spotty. Taylor as hard as he works can’t be a scoring factor. Wilcher is still learning, but not an impact guy yet. All in all, this is a sobering picture imo w only Jenkins to hit shots, albeit often streaky.

A compensatory road is defending very well consistently to force turnovers and lead to easy hoops. No sense beating dead horse on that.
 
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Demo said:
Pitino is not the one who missed the FT's, he's not the one who made stupid foul or turnovers (i.e. Luis). I really believe having the week off hurt them.
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But he is the one who kept pressing while Xavier scored 30 fast break points, and refused to stick with a zone against a poor shooting team with no offensive center
 
OK, nobody jump off a bridge.

That was not a game they needed to win to make the NCAAs, nor was it a game that I ever expected them to win. The situation was further complicated by Xavier predictably coming out on a mission from God after their loss to UConn, while SJU was coming off a week of inactivity and staring at UConn on Saturday. But the bottom line is they lost a road game in the BE against a team that isn't that far behind them and is very well coached. No big deal.

From a criticism standpoint, it's difficult to understand Pitino's decision to press the whole game against a team that kept running past his guards, I think they got a total of one turnover out of that and gave up around 30 fast-break points. And it was also difficult to understand why Soriano is asked to spend so much time setting high picks and then having nobody wait long enough for the roll to get him the ball. Especially against the garbage Xavier bigs there was no excuse not to have him set up down low and feed him the ball the whole game. That would also have taken some air out of Xavier's running tires.

So overall, not the best coaching job IMO, but it was always going to be a tough game to win.

By the way, don't expect a win over UConn also. A competitive single-digit loss would be fine. And after that they will STILL be in the NCAA tournament. They'll just have to take care of business down the stretch against the Hall, Creighton, Georgetown and Depaul (and hopefully steal a win at either Butler or Providence although I'm not optimistic about those nor are they strictly necessary for an NCAA bid).

I think the disconnect here is that for some reason people think this is top 10 team; it isn't and it never was, it's a solid middle-of-the-pack Big East team that has an excellent chance to make the NCAA tournament and then (as we know) anything can happen. Rome wasn't built in a day, and this is not a bad start at all. Relax.
 
Jack Williams said:
Just getting tiring how he’s the first one to get blamed after losses when he’s one of the few guys who actually shows up. Jenkins was literally out there begging his teammates to show some fight. He battled his ass off and basically willed us into the game
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Yeah you are right, he showed effort the whole time and he is the only one who can say that.
 
vegasman2000 said:
But he is the one who kept pressing while Xavier scored 30 fast break points, and refused to stick with a zone against a poor shooting team with no offensive center
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LOL saw this when it popped up after i posted mine, i was guessing at 30 fast break points but I guess that was the number. Completely agree on the coaching decisions, obviously
 
Has everyone forgotten that CRP put this team together on the fly, got what he could and haven't even been our coach for a year yet? Are we supposed to be the number one ranked team in the country under those circumstances?

I think that CRP has done an incredible job. We're back in the NYC spotlight. Attendance is up. We're arguably a much more exciting team than we've been for years, and we're looking at getting back to The Dance. What other coach could have accomplished that much in this short amount of time?

Have patience and you will be rewarded.
 
lawmanfan said:
And after that they will STILL be in the NCAA tournament. They'll just have to take care of business down the stretch against the Hall, Creighton, Georgetown and Depaul (and hopefully steal a win at either Butler or Providence although I'm not optimistic about those nor are they strictly necessary for an NCAA bid).
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Seton Hall and Creighton at home will be harder to win than at Xavier. And UBS (Seton Hall) is not exactly home.
 
paultzman said:
I think it is best to accept he can help w midrange game, some physical play driving the ball, but he is sub par on D and not the 3 point guy we desperately need. I think we all expected more.

In a college game dominated by guards/wings as we saw from X last night, SJU is clearly deficient. Many of us assumed Dingle, Luis would provide fire power and that seems doubtful now. Alleyne seemed suitable for a shooting role, but also has been spotty. Taylor as hard as he works can’t be a scoring factor. Wilcher is still learning, but not an impact guy yet. All in all, this is a sobering picture imo w only Jenkins to hit shots.

A compensatory road is defending very well consistently to force turnovers and lead to easy hoops. No sense beating dead horse on that.
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I know its sacrilegious to criticize coach in any way, but some of his substitution patterns puzzle me. Clearly we were counting on Dingle as a major peace on offense. Last night was at least the third game where he started well getting into the middle and drawing fouls and had a quick seven points. He was then pulled for a long period and when he came back seemed to have lost his mojo. Maybe as someone pointed out he was gassed from the strep aftereffects, but this is not the first time. Coach just seems to have him on a really short leash and Dingle appears to be a rhythm player. Anyway, what do I know? At least we are still in the hunt for a bid halfway through the BE season.
 
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