Alabama (MSG), Sat., Nov. 8, 12 Noon, FS-1/ 1050 AM

Place really went nuts when prey hit the three to give us the lead really thought we were gonna win after that shot. I’m pissed we lost but this team will get better and better as the year goes on give them time. The bama backcourt will likely be the best we see all year. To me the only head scratcher was why we didn’t keep going to Zuby and Hopkins in the 2nd half bama had no answer for them in the first half. As many have said after the Baylor and Georgia losses last year many thought we would struggle to even make the tourney look how that season turned out! We lost to an excellent team yesterday we will be fine.
 
A little too soon to rush to judgments.
Exactly…as RP has said many times, bball is a game of runs…unfortunately they had the last run…this was a very competitive game that we could have won…we weren’t dominated like 2 years ago vs. Michigan…that team was much slower than this team and, yet, by seasons end became a good defensive team that could have been dangerous in the tourney had we not hurt our chances earlier that season…this team can (and will) improve greatly on defense.
 
Kudos to the Bama coach at that critical, potential game turning juncture.
We had cut the lead to 2 and the house was rocking. I thought he should have called
timeout still up 4 and was positive he'd take it up 2. He knows his team better than I
and let them play through. The Tide immediately made a traditional 3 pt. play and order
was restored to their winning side.
He not only didn’t panic he was actually waving his players to speed the ball up the court after we cut it to 2…I swore he was going to call TO
 
Speaking of praying, I sat directly accross the isle from Fr. Rock(I'm 99% certain) on LIRR heading home, but didn't realize it was him(I was too busy watching porn on my phone) until he stood up to get off at Jamaica station. Would have thought he'd be he'd traveling with the team, but what do I know.
He chose to leave the sinful city rather than risk temptation.
 
With kids like Sanon, Jackson and Sellers, you really hope they look at an Ayo or Zuby, see where those kids have gotten to under Rick from what they were, and embrace everything about the Rick/staff experience.
How about CRPs Iona team:
Ayo
Jenkins
Clayton
Nelly Joseph
Cruz Davis
Slazinski
How did he find those players and develop them?AND without an NIL budget? My goodness.
Plus Roger Rubin reported that CRP told last year’s team that if they beat Arkansas they would win the National Title.
CRP has a plan. I’m done thinking about Alabama. We are blessed. I’m going to enjoy the ride. I’ve become too much of a Yankee fan.
 
I must have said to Eric and Bamafan at least a half dozen times "there's another travel". I finally got tired of saying it and stopped. I felt like I was watching an NBA game. Clearly the refs have been told to ignore the extra steps.
Breeding. Again. I was yelling the same thing.
 
I was at yesterday's game at MSG and given that it was November 8th, it represents a level of early season excitement that we have not typically seen for our team.

Also given where we are in meshing our parts together to develop a strong team synergy, it is fair to say we have a way to go before we will be firing on all cylinders.

Defensively we did not deal well with the quickness of Alabama's guards and offensively we are still figuring out how to play together as a cohesive unit.

However, the potential for growth is there for us. It is far less important for us to be a top ten team on November 8th. than it is on Selection Sunday. Finding better guard play and coming together as a defensive juggernaut is something that can definitely happen here. It is up to Coach Pitino to get the best out of this roster and have the team blossom to its full potential.
 
Just wondering, other than personnel changes during the game, did Pitino change the defense at all during the game?
DEFENSE??????
We gave up 103 points! The most to a non-conference opponent in over 20 years!
NONE of our guards played defense and it affected even Dillon Mitchell and RJ's imaginary replacement Joson Sanon. Both were outplayed by their Bama opponents.
Defense? We were out-shot 81 to 63! When was the last time a St. John's team allowed that many shots to get off? When you have no point guard to control the tempo and distribute the ball you can't stop a run and gun team coached by Nate Oats.
 
I know you didn’t create this but don’t you find it odd that Sanon and his 1-6 & no assists would have a bigger offensive impact than Jackson?
You're not going to see many assists from Sanon. All last season he had 30. That's 1 assist per game. I suspect he'll have fewer at St. John's since he was brought in to score. Unfortunately, at 6'5 in shoes, he'll be undersized when playing the 3 but effective at the 2.........if he learns defense from Pitino. Otherwise, he's no RJ.
 
I know you didn’t create this but don’t you find it odd that Sanon and his 1-6 & no assists would have a bigger offensive impact than Jackson?
Not really.

It's more complicated than this but here's a bare bones explanation:

Jackson had 14 FGA + 2 trips to the FT line + 2 turnovers = ~18 possessions ending with him resulting in 14 points.

Sanon 6 FGA + 2 trips to the line + 0 turnovers = ~8 possessions ending with him for 7 points.

Sanon 100 offensive rating for the game.
Jackson 88 offensive rating for the game.

Jackson did have 3 assists compared to Sanon's 0 which boosted his ORtg a bit.
 
If this loss happened under any of our previous coaches it would have bothered me because I had no faith in any of them to effectively address the issues that were evident in this early season game. I do however have full faith in Rick Pitino. Rick has a plan. He went right at Bama and tried beat them playing their game for a reason. He wanted to see what he had , how his guys handled it and responded in certain situations. I guarantee you, even though it was a loss in the end, Pitino took a ton from this game.
 
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Not really.

It's more complicated than this but here's a bare bones explanation:

Jackson had 14 FGA + 2 trips to the FT line + 2 turnovers = ~18 possessions ending with him resulting in 14 points.

Sanon 6 FGA + 2 trips to the line + 0 turnovers = ~8 possessions ending with him for 7 points.

Sanon 100 offensive rating for the game.
Jackson 88 offensive rating for the game.

Jackson did have 3 assists compared to Sanon's 0 which boosted his ORtg a bit.
Appreciate the explanation. That seems more like efficiency than “impact” to me, but I understand that’s where ORating comes from.
 
Appreciate the explanation. That seems more like efficiency than “impact” to me, but I understand that’s where ORating comes from.
Yeah honestly not sure what exactly the formula is behind this chart but I believe it's either partially or totally correlated to RAPM which is the stat that's all the rage these days which is essentially an adjusted pts per 100 possessions impact metric
 
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