2022-23 Season

MainMan said:
We need guys who can score off something other than turnovers.

Right now, we really only have one proven player who can do that: Jones.

And most of us think have a lot of potential in Pinzon and Storr and hopefully Posh on the perimeter. And maybe even Stanley and Soriano inside.

But it's only potential right now. We lost our two best-proven scorers in Julian and Aaron.

So while Mathis' energy, work ethic and defense are commendable, I hope he will not be playing as many minutes this year.
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Fwiw posh was 11th in the BE in scoring. In one way it will be tougher on him to score without Julian, but in another sense he’ll get more opportunities and be better set up playing with another PG.

A lot of scorers transferred in, but looking at last years BE players, Jones was 9th in scoring, posh was 11th. Only 3 other guys in the top 11 are returning. So we have 2 of the 5 BE leading retuning scorers. I’m personally not worried about us putting up points, more so figuring out how to score in the last 5 minutes of close games. Which goes hand in hand with your concerns.
 
Amaseinyourface said:
Fwiw posh was 11th in the BE in scoring. In one way it will be tougher on him to score without Julian, but in another sense he’ll get more opportunities and be better set up playing with another PG.

A lot of scorers transferred in, but looking at last years BE players, Jones was 9th in scoring, posh was 11th. Only 3 other guys in the top 11 are returning. So we have 2 of the 5 BE leading retuning scorers. I’m personally not worried about us putting up points, more so figuring out how to score in the last 5 minutes of close games. Which goes hand in hand with your concerns.
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I love Posh. Think he'll go down as one of the best here.

And I haven't done any kind of statistical analysis.

But anecdotally, the vast majority of Posh's points came on steals, broken plays, offensive putbacks, etc. Those are mostly effort points - which I love and we'd win a national championship if an entire team had Posh's will and desire.

I'm talking about a guy who can create his own shot or a guy that if you run a play for him, he's more likely going to get a bucket than not.

Posh just isn't there yet.

I have confidence he will be though. He's not a finished player. And he has the work ethic to take that leap.
 
MainMan said:
I love Posh. Think he'll go down as one of the best here.

And I haven't done any kind of statistical analysis.

But anecdotally, the vast majority of Posh's points came on steals, broken plays, offensive putbacks, etc. Those are mostly effort points - which I love and we'd win a national championship if an entire team had Posh's will and desire.

I'm talking about a guy who can create his own shot or a guy that if you run a play for him, he's more likely going to get a bucket than not.

Posh just isn't there yet.

I have confidence he will be though. He's not a finished player. And he has the work ethic to take that leap.
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Yea he’s not a prototypical scorer and I pretty much agree with everything you said except would dial back “vast majority”. 14 points in nothing to sneeze at and you have to be able to score in more ways than the ones you mentioned to get there.
 
Posh improved both his overall FG% and FT% last year while falling way back in 3 PT FG%. He just didn't look confident shooting the 3 and maybe it had something to do with his nagging injuries. I expect he'll do serious work on the three in the offseason and if he can get just a little better than the 30% he shot as a frosh (say 32-33%) it will make a big difference to our half court offense as I expect all of Storr, Wusu, Pinzon and Jones to be competent from three.
 
As a team, the area we need to focus on 2 things: FT shooting and 1/2 defense. Of the returning players, Posh, based on his BE performance from the line was the most acceptable at 74%. Without Champ and Wheels the team shot 53% in BE play. Totally unacceptable. We also need to get to the line more often. And have more guys shooting as well as Posh. How many games did we loose because of FT difference?

On defense, we need to make switch offs better and not end up with Joel covering point guards and then being beaten to the hoop. There is a lot of concern about "lack" of 3PT shooting but the offense is geared to running and going inside. Creighton played 3 more game and had 119 Fewer baskets made; Nova played 6 more games and made 157 Fewer. Scoring was not an issue for us, it was the defense; 8 of 19 BE games we gave up 80+ and 7 of the 8 were loses.
 
Don't think it can be understated the fact that this staff didn't have anyone transfer out. Seemingly improbable this day in age.

Practices should be real intense- would love to watch our scrimmages.

I know many think Mathis might be an odd man out- but I wouldn't sleep on a 5th year senior choosing to stay put.
 
I would say the 8 best players for SJU next year are: Posh, Curbelo, Jones, Soriano, Addae-Wusu, Pinzon, Storr and Mathis.

Nyiwe, King, Stanley, Traore and Keita rounding out the roster.

Potential is there. But he is going to have to bring out serious production and improvement out of some of these kids to get them at least 1 if not 2 levels above where they finished last year. Possible? Yes absolutely.
 
BrooklynRed said:
As a team, the area we need to focus on 2 things: FT shooting and 1/2 defense. Of the returning players, Posh, based on his BE performance from the line was the most acceptable at 74%. Without Champ and Wheels the team shot 53% in BE play. Totally unacceptable. We also need to get to the line more often. And have more guys shooting as well as Posh. How many games did we loose because of FT difference?

On defense, we need to make switch offs better and not end up with Joel covering point guards and then being beaten to the hoop. There is a lot of concern about "lack" of 3PT shooting but the offense is geared to running and going inside. Creighton played 3 more game and had 119 Fewer baskets made; Nova played 6 more games and made 157 Fewer. Scoring was not an issue for us, it was the defense; 8 of 19 BE games we gave up 80+ and 7 of the 8 were loses.
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Agree 100% about defense. Smith and Coburn allowed a lot of blow bys and Champ as well. Need players to finish at the rim better AND to make foul shots, this alone will add offense . Also I believe our offense will flow through both Curbelo and Posh but CMA will try to use Posh more often as a SG. His mid range jumper is excellent and I think that will be the path. From there, whoever scores most consistently from Curbelo will get the minutes and it will be in flux for a while.We have not seen enough of Pinzon but I liked what I saw in limited action. Think you have to let him prove himself. Soriano loads of potential but he has to play angry, had been way too passive until end of last season.
 
I think Posh will be up around 17 a game. Jones too. Our offense will be fine regardless of whether we can hit the 3 or not. How often does a CMA team not score?

The D is what worries me more after what we frequently saw last season. But I think double the harassment from our backcourt will help a lot.
 
L J S A said:
I think Posh will be up around 17 a game. Jones too. Our offense will be fine regardless of whether we can hit the 3 or not. How often does a CMA team not score?

The D is what worries me more after what we frequently saw last season. But I think double the harassment from our backcourt will help a lot.
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Agree Jones had a big jump frosh to sophomore no reason to think that won't continue and Posh ha d a streak freshman year when he was banging down 3's consistently while last year like others have said he definitely took step back in that regard I think he is definitely capable to hit them time will tell if he makes that leap from behind the arc I hope he does
 
I agree that scoring won't be our problem. We scored 80 points a game last year and we can again this year. We need to improve our free throw shooting especially when the game is on the line. Improve our three point defense and rebound especially on the offensive end. I think we have similar talent to last year. A few points here and there will make a big difference,
 
I think with the roster we have we’re going to see a lot more of the 40 minutes of hell that we’ve been expecting. I think we will score a lot of points in transition off turnovers. If we can do that consistently it will negate our inability to shoot the three well.
 
Mean Gene said:
I think with the roster we have we’re going to see a lot more of the 40 minutes of hell that we’ve been expecting. I think we will score a lot of points in transition off turnovers. If we can do that consistently it will negate our inability to shoot the three well.
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We will be able to put two plus full teams on the floor next year. Amazingly versatile. Can play all out. Should be fun.
 
Obviously a lot can change with season ending injuries, but it’s nice to have the roster complete already. Not sure how much continuity will matter in the end but it’s better to have that advantage than not as we saw this past season. Some coaches can pull off brand new rosters every year, i’m not sure CMA is one of those guys. While this past season was a disappointment the team in reality was a few very close games away from getting a NCAA bid. That’s the reality in the Big East there’s not much room for error; hopefully chemistry and culture will give the team the edge they need to win those close games next season.
 
Mean Gene said:
I think with the roster we have we’re going to see a lot more of the 40 minutes of hell that we’ve been expecting. I think we will score a lot of points in transition off turnovers. If we can do that consistently it will negate our inability to shoot the three well.
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I really don't believe that the 40 minutes of hell concept works as well as it once did especially against the quality of back courts there are in the Big East. In fact I even believe that many games were lost trying to run such a defense that gave up many easy lay ups and open threes. I have to believe that after the staff reviews many of the games from last year, at the very least, the 40 minutes of hell may be tweaked a bit and "hell" be unleashed at certain opportune times but not on a regular basis.
 
IMO
Storr is the key. If he is going to get regular mins and can knock down shots and contribute right away the team will have a chance to compete for tournament bid.
Need a guy who can hit outside shots plus would lessen reliance on Wusu and Mathis.
 
Mean Gene said:
I think with the roster we have we’re going to see a lot more of the 40 minutes of hell that we’ve been expecting. I think we will score a lot of points in transition off turnovers. If we can do that consistently it will negate our inability to shoot the three well.
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Unless the 7-1 kid is going to / can play don’t have a deterrent on back end to play that way. Also I know was more in half court but we also do not finish well so not sure about transition offense being great
 
Nywie is he going to keep improving on the trajectory of last season? Seems like he has all the ability athletically to be a force in the big East. I think he is going to surprise next year and be a game changer. Out of the returning big men his ceiling is the highest. Will it translate, we shall see.
 
Dan V said:
...While this past season was a disappointment the team in reality was a few very close games away from getting a NCAA bid. That’s the reality in the Big East there’s not much room for error; hopefully chemistry and culture will give the team the edge they need to win those close games next season.
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Don't underestimate that there is a real culture being developed here at St. John's, largely from the style of play, to a lot of NYC kids being here, to the family atmosphere from CMA/Mrs. A/Staff, and the program doing it violation free. The fact that there were no transfers is a testament to this developing culture. Win or lose, as I have said before, I love the trajectory of the program.
 
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