(NCAA-WEST/Providence) #10 Arkansas, Sat., Mar. 22, 2:40p, CBS

That fifth foul on Richmond isn’t being talked about enough. IMO, It was the worst call since the seton hall screwjob

we have to do a better job stopping penatration. To me Wilcher was waaaay too high in his stance. Also the help defense was shit. Looked like we didn’t wanna leave their “shooters” to help which is the opposite of what Kansas did in the 2nd half to get back in the game. We let them beat us at the rim instead of the 3 pt line

Best season in forever. Big East Championship gear should arrive this week. I’ll wear it proudly.
 
During a season in which life showed me how brutal it can be, watching this team was a small bright spot for me. I have been a fan ever since I saw a lefty from Brooklyn who wore #20 put on that red and white jersey. I suffered for many seasons with many of you, especially with Kranmars as we sat in the rafters at (was then) Alumni Hall cheering for our team. All I can say after yesterday's disappointing game is:
Thank you Coach Pitino and the entire team and staff. I am looking forward to next season already. We are relevant again. We are...
 
The decision to sit players with two fouls in the first half is a debatable choice and PRIOR to yesterday’s game Wally Szczerbiak made a point of discussing Pitino decision to sit the player till the second half. He attributed this strategy to a major part of SJUs successful season.
He said it is important for the players to know their coaches strategy and said the SJU players will not play the aggressive defense in the first half knowing they will end up on the bench. The second half is when they turn it up and SJU had success with this strategy all year knowing the third foul was not as critical inthe second half.
Worked all year till yesterday. The combination of terrible shooting and foul trouble to both Richmond and Wilcher was too much to overcome,
How SJU made a game out of it is surprising.
 
In a season where we were absolutely magnificent it ended not with a bang but a whimper. I don't think it is necessary to overanalyze what happened yesterday. Except for Zuby no one on the team excelled.

The game was refed in a fashion that was different than what we were used to, but Arkansas had some of their key players in foul trouble too. It may just be a coincidence but it is worth mentioning that two of our worst performances this season came in our only two games against SEC teams (Arkansas and Georgia).

I really loved this team and was thrilled with the season. I never would have raised the bar of expectation beyond what we actually accomplished, but success does fuel dreams and I must confess that my dreams coming into the tournament went beyond the round of 32. All that said, I am looking forward to the future and even bigger and better things.
 
dee said:
Pitino was upset with Luis but he should have let him play in last 5 minutes. Taking him out down 2 v points was a mistake. You sink or swim with the big east player of the year. I thought it also demoralized the rest of the team. BIG MISTAKE
Click to expand...
Pitino's benching of Luis reminded me of the Knicks playoff game years ago when John Starks couldn't hit the side of a barn and kept on shooting but Pat Riley left him in the game. Riley must have figured that, eventually, Starks would be able to shoot his way out of the slump. Alas, he didn't and the Knicks lost. Riley took it on his chin by the media and fan base after the game for not benching Starks.

You can't have it both ways. There are two schools of thought here - Riley left Starks in and it didn't work out and Pitino benched Luis and it didn't work out either. Riley and Pitino are both HOF coaches. Neither is right and neither is wrong. A coach knows his players better than we do and has to go with his gut and live with the result either way.
 
MarkRedman said:
Pitino's benching of Luis reminded me of the Knicks playoff game years ago when John Starks couldn't hit the side of a barn and kept on shooting but Pat Riley left him in the game. Riley must have figured that, eventually, Starks would be able to shoot his way out of the slump. Alas, he didn't and the Knicks lost. Riley took it on his chin by the media and fan base after the game for not benching Starks.

You can't have it both ways. There are two schools of thought here - Riley left Starks in and it didn't work out and Pitino benched Luis and it didn't work out either. Riley and Pitino are both HOF coaches. Neither is right and neither is wrong. A coach knows his players better than we do and has to go with his gut and live with the result either way.
Click to expand...


The difference between the NBA and College are different in many ways .

In the Knicks case ,Starks was not their best player and the Knicks had other weapons to use , rather than just him .
For St John’s , it was different . When RJ made those 2 free throws , it was a 2 point game and 4 minutes left . We were at a point where we might have tied it up and gone ahead .

We were already without KR and now , with RJ benched , our offense and defense were undermanned .
And, come on , putting Lefty in , instead of Ayo is a head scratcher . Ayo , much better fender , etc

We all agree RP did a great job resurrecting our Program these last 2 years .
But , we have to admit he has his faults too

Last year , he threw his team and some of his players under the bus with his comments on lateral quickness , Athleticism , etc

“
Last night by refusing to explain why Luis was on the bench in a 2 point game at the time was indefensible and nasty .

By saying he wasn’t going to disrespect his player , he did exactly that and never owned up to the fact that the game was still in reach and RJ showed signs of contributing .

Pitino was outcoached by Cal and if you think not , that’s ok too .

If the entire team , excluding Zuby played poorly , Pitino matched them by Coaching poorly .

He had as bad.a game as they did .
 
SeattleJohnny said:
it was a perfect storm.

RJ shit the bed
Kadary foul trouble ALL GAME
no one else stepped up.

let's run it back next season boys
Click to expand...
No on else stepped up ?
What game did you watch ?
Zuby was very very good.
Smith had a good to very good game but did make some mistakes. Prey had a nice game.
RJ, KR, SW, and AS all could have had much better games. The reality is had one of our 4 top players had a good game for them we would have won.
But please do not say no one else stepped up, that is pure fallacy.
 
I felt like a lot of things had to wrong in order for us to lose this game. Well…a lot of things went wrong. Calipari now 14-10 against Pitino. Can’t imagine there’s many coaches with a winning record against Coach P. Credit to Arkansas, they straight up manhandled the Johnnies.
 
monte said:
We could have won without production from RJ, but not without production from both Kadary and RJ.
Click to expand...
Agreed but had Aaron Scott not shot 1/10 or had Simeon Wilcher had a better game, and one of the 4 named had double figures instead of single digits we win.
RJ played horrible but 3 other starters could have been much better.
 
This game had all the marking if a train wreck. I believe the team shot under, or around, 50% on layups. They missed crucial free throws from guys you expect to make them, Aaron and Lefty. Not to mention the 2 for 22 from 3. I thought the team was turning a corner with the shooting. 5 for 22 would have been a bad night shooting, but that would have won us the game. I also think Kadary missed 3 layups, which would have maybe won us the game.

So much went wrong yesterday. I'm not sure another 5 minutes of RJ would have changed anything. It just felt like we were destined to lose.
 
The offensive stats for the two worst games we played this season, Georgia and Arkansas, are pretty similar (See links below).

A season low five assists in both games, with terrible shooting percentages from both two point and three point range. Zuby excelled in both games, but most of the others underperformed.

In fact the only three times SJU had less than ten assists this season were in losses (Five assists against Georgia and Arkansas and eight at Creighton). This is consistent with Pitino's postgame comments about failing to share the ball effectively as a big factor in our defeat.

www.espn.com

Georgia 66-63 St. John's (Nov 24, 2024) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Georgia Bulldogs vs. St. John's Red Storm NCAAM game from November 24, 2024 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

www.espn.com

Arkansas 75-66 St. John's (Mar 22, 2025) Box Score - ESPN

Box score for the Arkansas Razorbacks vs. St. John's Red Storm NCAAM game from March 22, 2025 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 
MainMan said:
Maybe it’s me. But I don’t think RJ did anything wrong other than miss a lot of shots.
Click to expand...
Not saying this rudely at all but I really suggest you rewatch the game. This was the RJ that did not know the word pass exists. He repeatedly drove into a group of defenders and turned the ball over, had a jump ball called or got off a piss poor shot. Some of the shots he took had a slim to zero chance of going in.
This game was lost between his ears.
 
redmannorth said:
Not saying this rudely at all but I really suggest you rewatch the game. This was the RJ that did not know the word pass exists. He repeatedly drove into a group of defenders and turned the ball over, had a jump ball called or got off a piss poor shot. Some of the shots he took had a slim to zero chance of going in.
This game was lost between his ears.
Click to expand...
Yup pretty obvious to me
 
SLYFOXX1968 said:
The difference between the NBA and College are different in many ways .

In the Knicks case ,Starks was not their best player and the Knicks had other weapons to use , rather than just him .
For St John’s , it was different . When RJ made those 2 free throws , it was a 2 point game and 4 minutes left . We were at a point where we might have tied it up and gone ahead .

We were already without KR and now , with RJ benched , our offense and defense were undermanned .
And, come on , putting Lefty in , instead of Ayo is a head scratcher . Ayo , much better fender , etc

We all agree RP did a great job resurrecting our Program these last 2 years .
But , we have to admit he has his faults too

Last year , he threw his team and some of his players under the bus with his comments on lateral quickness , Athleticism , etc

“
Last night by refusing to explain why Luis was on the bench in a 2 point game at the time was indefensible and nasty .

By saying he wasn’t going to disrespect his player , he did exactly that and never owned up to the fact that the game was still in reach and RJ showed signs of contributing .

Pitino was outcoached by Cal and if you think not , that’s ok too .

If the entire team , excluding Zuby played poorly , Pitino matched them by Coaching poorly .

He had as bad.a game as they did .
Click to expand...
I don't disagree that Pitino had a bad game
I, too, would have played Ayo instead of Lefty
I also would have played Luis down the stretch
Even though he was struggling to score, he's still a better option than any alternative
I just cringe every time Luis drives into the lane where there are 2-3 guys on defense sitting there waiting for him
Once in awhile, he makes a spectacular play but most of the time, he either misses badly or turns the ball over
I don't understand why he continued to do that all season long
Don't get me wrong - RJ had a tremendous season but every players has his warts
In those situations, he should pull up for a mid range jumper - something he's pretty good at converting
 
The days of teaching kids a lesson are over. College is now the pros with NIL and free agency. I don’t know if CRP was being a little 2 old school here with his philosophy but then again I was not in the huddle or the sidelines and don’t know what CRP was thinking maybe we would have lost by more points had RJ played more minutes. From the outside looking in to a layman like myself it seemed that CRP got out coached and our guys just couldn’t hit shots (as usual). It irked me when several times this season when RJ put his head down and dribbles into 3 people and tries to lay it up VS passing outside. He did that again last night at a pivotal time in the game. Overall we had a good run and a successful season and will get better next year. I hope RJ stays another year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top