25-26 Season

mjmaherjr said:
Just curious. Let's assume we had a starting 4 of Jackson,Sanon,Hopkins,Zuby forget about pg for a second and bench. Just those 4

What teams do people see a better starting 2-5 ?
Click to expand...

It all depends on Hopkins. If we get a healthy Hopkins (anywhere close to the 22-23 version) that big 4 can play with anyone offensively. Defense and passing would be the question marks. Sanon and Jackson need to show that they can share the ball or there could be chemistry issues, especially early on.

There are going to be some monster lineups next year with teams like Kentucky, BYU and Michigan going on spending sprees in the portal. Houston and Purdue are loaded too. I’d imagine we start in the top 15 with upside depending upon what point guard we get.

That big 4 is probably the best in the Big East but if the season started tomorrow, I’d put our overall roster behind UConn and Creighton’s. Good thing it doesn’t.
 
NCJohnnie said:
Knew you weren't. My point was his free throw shooting improved as the year went on after a really bad start and his overall shooting percentage was good; he was just never confident shooting the three and I don't think that was Pitino's fault.
Click to expand...
His overall shooting percentage was good because, to his credit, he was incredible getting into the lane. His ten foot pull up was also very good most of the year. But I think we can all agree his outside shooting was really poor as was his free throw shooting for the entire year. He was terrific overall and extraordinarily valuable. My only point is that he didn’t improve as a shooter, which I don’t think is controversial.
 
Russ2374 said:
It all depends on Hopkins. If we get a healthy Hopkins (anywhere close to the 22-23 version) that big 4 can play with anyone offensively. Defense and passing would be the question marks. Sanon and Jackson need to show that they can share the ball or there could be chemistry issues, especially early on.

There are going to be some monster lineups next year with teams like Kentucky, BYU and Michigan going on spending sprees in the portal. Houston and Purdue are loaded too. I’d imagine we start in the top 15 with upside depending upon what point guard we get.

That big 4 is probably the best in the Big East but if the season started tomorrow, I’d put our overall roster behind UConn and Creighton’s. Good thing it doesn’t.
Click to expand...
Agree completely except to say if
we don’t add a proven point guard we don’t deserve to be in anyone’s top 15,
 
lawmanfan said:
Eh - you knew Zuby was a rim protector and rebounder. His offensive rebounding blossomed, no question. You knew what RJ could do defensively, though the minutes certainly expanded. Scott was brought in for defense. And Smith was not awesome defensively although Wilcher took a big step forward - but those who had watched knew that Kadary was an outstanding team defender.

No question that nobody projected that to be a top 3 defense in the country but the material was there and once Pitino gave up on that group scoring points beyond give the ball to RJ and hope for the best that was the focus.

I think there will be a focus on getting offensive players to play defense next year but odds are that will be more difficult than working with guys like Kadary and Aaron who had defensive DNA to begin with
Click to expand...
Kadary had it always as an off-ball guy and with his vice-like quick hands. Scott had the rep. RJ I didn’t know how he would defend. Zuby I knew would be better than Soriano because he was as a sophomore but I didn’t think anywhere near the impact he had. Didn’t know Ayo or Prey would defend as they did either.

Think it was a mixed bag overall.
 
hardytime said:
Kadary had it always as an off-ball guy and with his vice-like quick hands. Scott had the rep. RJ I didn’t know how he would defend. Zuby I knew would be better than Soriano because he was as a sophomore but I didn’t think anywhere near the impact he had. Didn’t know Ayo or Prey would defend as they did either.

Think it was a mixed bag overall.
Click to expand...
Even when the season began after Bahamas’s I still had no clue. There was a game where someone put some defensive clips where we denied everything and killed the shot clock multiple times and our switching was a thing of beauty that I had never seen from an SJU team. Then it just took off. I never saw a team give inbound guys such problems
 
Last edited:
lawmanfan said:
Eh - you knew Zuby was a rim protector and rebounder. His offensive rebounding blossomed, no question. You knew what RJ could do defensively, though the minutes certainly expanded. Scott was brought in for defense. And Smith was not awesome defensively although Wilcher took a big step forward - but those who had watched knew that Kadary was an outstanding team defender.

No question that nobody projected that to be a top 3 defense in the country but the material was there and once Pitino gave up on that group scoring points beyond give the ball to RJ and hope for the best that was the focus.

I think there will be a focus on getting offensive players to play defense next year but odds are that will be more difficult than working with guys like Kadary and Aaron who had defensive DNA to begin with
Click to expand...
To that point, two years ago when Pitino prioritized offensively oriented players it went so well he called it the worst experience of his life.
 
True but those players lacked lateral quickness. Pitino said he wanted and has recruited so far players that are better offensively but are also athletic.
 
bamafan said:
True but those players lacked lateral quickness. Pitino said he wanted and has recruited so far players that are better offensively but are also athletic.
Click to expand...
I think, as LMF noted before, this team will obviously be more offensively geared and guys like Sanon, Sellers & Jackson 🤞 will have to be coached up to a reasonable and level. That is not easy in a short window, but that’s Pitino’s job. I doubt the new team can come close to the D capability of the mega physical 24-25 group, but we will have more balance between the two disciplines imo. Hopefully the new combination results in putting a Tourney contending team on the floor. It may take a little time in ooc play to assess exactly what we have.
 
Ralph318! said:
With Kadary taking the lead. His communication skills and court vision on defense were unmatched.
He saw things like Pythagoras. He will be the most difficult person to replace.
If he could just shoot, he would have a long NBA career. And for recruits, CRP brought out the best in him.
Click to expand...
+1000…didn’t realize just how great he is until I had a chance to see him for a full season
 
Are we still involved with Ian Jackson? 🤪 seriously though if and when he commits will feel great and trust that Rick at minimum gets us a competent PG to lead a talented team. What I like about Jackson is he is an EXCITING player! To me wins are extremely important but so is being entertained by exciting players.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top