2023-24 Season

K

KG44

Well-known member
I for one thoroughly enjoyed this season despite the ups-and-downs and not making the dance. Some thoughts:

Jenkins had a great season: 14.9ppg/5.4ast/3.5rbs/35.4% from 3. Impressed his 3pt % got that high given his rough start.

Ledlum was a dog. I don't care what is stat line was.

Same for Taylor, and he was 42.4% from 3.

Alleyne was a good role player, 38% from 3. He needs to be replaced.

It is promising that Wilcher hit 41.7% from 3 in a small sample size.

Somehow our big men were some of our best 3-point shooters (Soriano 43.8%, Zuby 37.5%, Drissa 40%), of course in a limited sample size.

Soriano was a solid college center, but limited.

Luis has the "potential" of an NBA 1st rounder, but he is frustrating to watch. 20% from 3 has to be better.

Dingle was a decent player, but disappointed with 31.1% from 3. Others could have gotten more shots.

Zuby showed out a little bit at times, but he mostly showed that he is still raw.

Dunlap had some great games, but 41.7% on FT's?
 
It started with the signing of CRP and the "purge". That's been discussed enough. After that, the new norm of building from scratch through the portal. A rocky season ending with a hot team that may have been screwed by the committee or screwed themselves with multiple double digit blown leads and no closer in tight games. DJ was a surprising runaway MVP , who took a ton of heat on this board early on. Without him, we finish at the bottom of the conference.

R.J., Dingle and Ledlum all taught us lesson number 1. Past performance at 1 school is no guarantee of future success at another. An upgrade in competition, injuries, and learning a new system and adjusting to new teammates are the most logical reasons. RJ had his moments (too few), and Dingle seem to gain confidence a month too late. Ledlum played hurt and was beat on all season.

Which ties in to lesson 2. Keep your expectations low, or keep them within reason. Unless there are scouts among us, many of us will form our opinions of new players based on highlight reels and fleeting looks at a game or 2. I'm hoping we have some continuity next season.

On another note, still not sure why Joel did not have a monster season. I did not see the same player that hunted rebounds in 22-23 like a man on safari seeking a big game trophy. Stats were good, and still a great young man by all accounts. That should count for a lot. In fact, I don't recall a single personnel issue all season. Did anyone get suspended for even a game? And no player was caught eating snacks on the bench. That's a big improvement. Easy to root for quality young men.

Season ends with the NCAA slight, and lesson number 3. Don't go to sleep after winning in round 1 of the conference tournament all giddy thinking the guys just sealed their bid with a big win. Unless you are top 3 in the conference, there are no more guarantees.

The season will always end in disappointment. Even 84-85 ended that way, because we may never get that close to winning a national championship again. The biggest disappointment is that I will miss watching (and sometime re-watching) the games, and miss all the pre and post game thoughts of the fans and many alumni that make up this board. I don't want to count the months until next season. Makes it seem even further away.
 
GardenCity62 said:
I don’t see how you can feel that the players went to sleep vs Conn in the big east tournament. I felt just the opposite, that they played tough.
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I agree with you. UConn has since played in a Big East Championship game and two NCAA tournament games and not been played tougher.
 
I think another lesson is that our OOC competition must be upgraded, even at the chance of losing a few games. Mike Anderson isn’t here anymore to have to protect his never had a losing season record. Cragg has to go out and get some real competition lined up early on. Our lack of quality wins early on didn’t help our cause and probably hurt Seton Hall as well.
 
Silly Donovan said:
I think another lesson is that our OOC competition must be upgraded, even at the chance of losing a few games. Mike Anderson isn’t here anymore to have to protect his never had a losing season record. Cragg has to go out and get some real competition lined up early on. Our lack of quality wins early on didn’t help our cause and probably hurt Seton Hall as well.
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Michigan and West Virginia were supposed to be much better than what happened to them this year.
 
Silly Donovan said:
…… Cragg has to go out and get some real competition lined up early on. Our lack of quality wins early on didn’t help our cause……
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I am not sure that it was Cragg’s fault that the Johnnies lost to UMichigan and Boston College.

Do you really believe Pitino is not involved with drawing up the schedule ?
 
GardenCity62 said:
I don’t see how you can feel that the players went to sleep vs Conn in the big east tournament. I felt just the opposite, that they played tough.
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Was wondering where you got that idea from. Then I figured it out. I was referring to me going to sleep after the game all happy, believing, based on the opinion of most posters and the bracket prognosticators, that we were in. I posted in another thread that I thought we played UConn super tough and with great effort, and still believe that.
 
tom in salem said:
Not a fan
Thank goodness we had Joel.
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If you look at the metrics, the team was better with Zuby. Let’s not forget how badly Soriano was in the second half of the season. If he was injured and played through it. Props for his heart.
I’m ready to move on and see what this years team is all about!
 
Metrics aside, when St. john's blew out yukon in the civic center by double digits, it was Joel who ruled the day as a junior. Sanogo scored just 14 that day, yet yukon went on to win it all as a 4 seed. Weird year indeed, followed by Joel's bum knee toward the end of last season which prevented us from dancing. No way was this team better without Joel.
 
tom in salem said:
Metrics aside, when St. john's blew out yukon in the civic center by double digits, it was Joel who ruled the day as a junior. Sanogo scored just 14 that day, yet yukon went on to win it all as a 4 seed. Weird year indeed, followed by Joel's bum knee toward the end of last season which prevented us from dancing. No way was this team better without Joel.
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They clearly were a better team with Zuby on the court for a large portion of last year regardless of one game in the previous year. Soriano was a fine player at SJU but what happened last year happened.
 
logen said:
They clearly were a better team with Zuby on the court for a large portion of last year regardless of one game in the previous year. Soriano was a fine player at SJU but what happened last year happened.
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The large portion you are referring to were the last 10 regular season games. Joel had back to back 21 point games to end January and was never the same layer thereafter.
Even with the injury, he managed to average 25 ppg. I doubt it hindered their overall ending record.
 
I don't recall Soriano having knee issues (at least publicly).Might have been mentioned here during season but don't recall that either.

Did he miss any games last year?
 
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tom in salem said:
The large portion you are referring to were the last 10 regular season games. Joel had back to back 21 point games to end January and was never the same layer thereafter.
Even with the injury, he managed to average 25 ppg. I doubt it hindered their overall ending record.
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In what universe did Soriano average 25 points? And injuries are just excuses, if you play, you play. If an injury causes your production to go down to mediocre, you shouldn’t be on the court; especially if the guy replacing you is playing well. Coaching 101.
 
Thanks. Surprised it was not talked about much (or at all)

Not a fan of players working through injury if it's hurting the team (and seemingly it was). Perhaps, he kept it quiet on his own, or jointly w/ staff, to not affect pro prospects. If so, not ideal and at that point Zuby might have been more successful.
 
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