Anderson - is he really the guy ?

[L J S A]

I also think he missed the boat on Steph Smith, who finally made it out of the doghouse with just 4 games left in the season. 
 

He was a solid scorer at a high-quality lower program, and couldn't get on the court with any consistency. Not sure if kids keep an eye on this sort of thing, but if I'm a mid-major kid considering St. John's does this give me pause?

Also don't get why Smith and Coburn were signed off on. Did Anderson like their D when looking at their game footage from last season?

If they did look competent to the staff, then we clearly need to try for high major transfers only because something didn't translate in real life for CMA.

 

[RedStormNC]

Zach's article was spot on.

Re:  Coburn - he fell in our lap.  It wasn't until mid July that he signed.  If he wasn't here for PA program or that didn't work out, we might not have had his spot filled or likely some other transfer with far lower stats / expectations.

 

[usguard]

Monte,interesting article.only supports my thinking of 1 more yr for coach to produce otherwise we should be looking else where
Think coach is a good person. 22 recruiting class’s d or transfers could seal his fath

 

[boo haarvey]

Tough, but fair article.

I am supportive of Anderson coming back, but he did not have a good year coaching. To his own admission, this should have been a tournament team.   We appeared to finish the season without ever figuring out our strongest line-up or wisest substitution pattern.  I also think he missed the boat on Steph Smith, who finally made it out of the doghouse with just 4 games left in the season.  

As stated many times, the next 4-6 weeks will say a lot about the direction of our program.  I am hopeful CMA and the team can bounce back next year.

Terrific post,  JohnnyFan!  Couldn’t agree with you more 

 

 

[paultzman]

Tough, but fair article.

I am supportive of Anderson coming back, but he did not have a good year coaching. To his own admission, this should have been a tournament team.   We appeared to finish the season without ever figuring out our strongest line-up or wisest substitution pattern.  I also think he missed the boat on Steph Smith, who finally made it out of the doghouse with just 4 games left in the season.  

As stated many times, the next 4-6 weeks will say a lot about the direction of our program.  I am hopeful CMA and the team can bounce back next year.

 

Nice job JF! Spot on post

 

[usguard]

Paul’s,pretty much sums up our yr and short comings by staff. It was certainly disappointing but I’ve said give him next yr if just the same  results than time to change no not think we should go with Anderson if he can not get us to the dance next yr



 

 

[BrooklynRed]

Zach's assessment was spot on but he brought up the nightmare of the 2013-14 season that ended at CA with a loss to Robert Morris and the next year that we went to the tournament and our chances went "up in smoke" with Obekpa and we had the long running soap opera of Jordan.  Those 2 seasons caused Lavin' departure and the beginning of the Mullin error.  At least CMA is continuing to recruit and we have some good players coming in in Storr and King,  One of the reasons for the Smith coming in might have been to fill roster space for one year while recruiting 2022.  Next season will determine if the experiment has a future and I like CMA as a person and the pace of the offense. 

 

[bk8664]

Zach's assessment was spot on but he brought up the nightmare of the 2013-14 season that ended at CA with a loss to Robert Morris and the next year that we went to the tournament and our chances went "up in smoke" with Obekpa and we had the long running soap opera of Jordan.  Those 2 seasons caused Lavin' departure and the beginning of the Mullin error.  At least CMA is continuing to recruit and we have some good players coming in in Storr and King,  One of the reasons for the Smith coming in might have been to fill roster space for one year while recruiting 2022.  Next season will determine if the experiment has a future and I like CMA as a person and the pace of the offense. 

Well said.

 

[nycfan]

Bilas on CMA -

Q: Your thoughts on St. John’s coach Mike Anderson?

A: I think he’s fantastic. I think Mike’s got the program exactly where it should be, and that’s getting good players and being hard to play against.

Also feels Willard will be a hot commodity - will need raise to stay - 

https://nypost.com/2022/03/12/jay-bilas-on-march-madness-2022-expectations-coach-k-legacy/

 

 

[MakingPlays]

There's a lot of talk about substitutions, rotations, and what all CMA did wrong, but I haven't seen anyone mention layups and free throws.  Don't get me wrong coaches ultimately get all the glory or all the blame, but this season to me just watching was a lot of missed opportunities by players not stepping up and just making plays (no pun intended).

You look at Villanova game yesterday, St.John's shoots 64% from the free throw line and Villanova shot 85% from the free throw line and they lost by 1 point.  Just shoot 70%, a mere average and that's a win. UConn game at home, St. John's shoots 54% from free throw line and UConn shoots 67%.  Just match UConn's 67% from the line and that's another win. Providence game at home, St. John's shoots 36% from free throw line on the court they practice on every single day!  And Providence shoots 33 free throws and makes 82% of them.  If Johnnies just shoot 60% this game they win.

There's several more examples but those are the biggest 3 that stuck out to me.  They win those 3 games right there, we're talking about a team that's probably an 8 or 9 seed in the tournament,  rather than on the NIT bubble, that's how big those games were. 

People look at Ed Cooley's job he did this year and give him a lot of props, I watched a lot of their games, and like St. John's a lot of their games came down to the wire, literally the only difference between the 2 teams was Providence had a closer in Al Durham and St. John's doesn't have a closer. Durham attempted 189 free throws and made 85% of them.  When it got time to close, he had the ball in his hands wasn't afraid of the moment, attacks the rim, and makes his free throws.  And I'm not trying to pile on to Julian, he's a great player, but coach put the ball in his hands to close 2 big games and in one game he passed up a shot over a smaller defender to pass to Mathis at the 3 point line and another game he had a wide open 3 airballed it, then fouled the player on the other end.  It's hard to win big games if you star player doesn't make plays.

 

[boo haarvey]

There's a lot of talk about substitutions, rotations, and what all CMA did wrong, but I haven't seen anyone mention layups and free throws.  Don't get me wrong coaches ultimately get all the glory or all the blame, but this season to me just watching was a lot of missed opportunities by players not stepping up and just making plays (no pun intended).

You look at Villanova game yesterday, St.John's shoots 64% from the free throw line and Villanova shot 85% from the free throw line and they lost by 1 point.  Just shoot 70%, a mere average and that's a win. UConn game at home, St. John's shoots 54% from free throw line and UConn shoots 67%.  Just match UConn's 67% from the line and that's another win. Providence game at home, St. John's shoots 36% from free throw line on the court they practice on every single day!  And Providence shoots 33 free throws and makes 82% of them.  If Johnnies just shoot 60% this game they win.

There's several more examples but those are the biggest 3 that stuck out to me.  They win those 3 games right there, we're talking about a team that's probably an 8 or 9 seed in the tournament,  rather than on the NIT bubble, that's how big those games were. 

People look at Ed Cooley's job he did this year and give him a lot of props, I watched a lot of their games, and like St. John's a lot of their games came down to the wire, literally the only difference between the 2 teams was Providence had a closer in Al Durham and St. John's doesn't have a closer. Durham attempted 189 free throws and made 85% of them.  When it got time to close, he had the ball in his hands wasn't afraid of the moment, attacks the rim, and makes his free throws.  And I'm not trying to pile on to Julian, he's a great player, but coach put the ball in his hands to close 2 big games and in one game he passed up a shot over a smaller defender to pass to Mathis at the 3 point line and another game he had a wide open 3 airballed it, then fouled the player on the other end.  It's hard to win big games if you star player doesn't make plays.

Any legs to the chatter on Twitter that CMA is a candidate for the Tulsa job?  I saw Zach wrote something but I don’t get the premium Post content.
 

 

[Dal975]

There's a lot of talk about substitutions, rotations, and what all CMA did wrong, but I haven't seen anyone mention layups and free throws.  Don't get me wrong coaches ultimately get all the glory or all the blame, but this season to me just watching was a lot of missed opportunities by players not stepping up and just making plays (no pun intended).

You look at Villanova game yesterday, St.John's shoots 64% from the free throw line and Villanova shot 85% from the free throw line and they lost by 1 point.  Just shoot 70%, a mere average and that's a win. UConn game at home, St. John's shoots 54% from free throw line and UConn shoots 67%.  Just match UConn's 67% from the line and that's another win. Providence game at home, St. John's shoots 36% from free throw line on the court they practice on every single day!  And Providence shoots 33 free throws and makes 82% of them.  If Johnnies just shoot 60% this game they win.

There's several more examples but those are the biggest 3 that stuck out to me.  They win those 3 games right there, we're talking about a team that's probably an 8 or 9 seed in the tournament,  rather than on the NIT bubble, that's how big those games were. 

People look at Ed Cooley's job he did this year and give him a lot of props, I watched a lot of their games, and like St. John's a lot of their games came down to the wire, literally the only difference between the 2 teams was Providence had a closer in Al Durham and St. John's doesn't have a closer. Durham attempted 189 free throws and made 85% of them.  When it got time to close, he had the ball in his hands wasn't afraid of the moment, attacks the rim, and makes his free throws.  And I'm not trying to pile on to Julian, he's a great player, but coach put the ball in his hands to close 2 big games and in one game he passed up a shot over a smaller defender to pass to Mathis at the 3 point line and another game he had a wide open 3 airballed it, then fouled the player on the other end.  It's hard to win big games if you star player doesn't make plays.

This is a great post and I happen to agree with it.  But the devil's advocate rebuttal is that perhaps not all big games should come down to the wire, forcing champ and company to make desperate big plays which can go either way; perhaps better coaching and game planning etc. would have created a cushion in several of those games. 
​​
 

 

[MakingPlays]

This is a great post and I happen to agree with it.  But the devil's advocate rebuttal is that perhaps not all big games should come down to the wire, forcing champ and company to make desperate big plays which can go either way; perhaps better coaching and game planning etc. would have created a cushion in several of those games. 
​​
 

That's unrealistic to expect games to not be close in a high major conference.  If you're Gonzaga in the WCC then yea you can say you should have a cushion in most games, because most of those teams simply do not have the talent level they have.  But, in the Big East every game every night is going to be competitive, every team has really good players.  Providence won the conference this year and the majority of the games they were in came down to the last couple of possessions, difference is like I said in my post they had guys that embraced those moments and made plays. 

Watch the NCAA tournament next week, the big games are all going to come down to the final possessions, and the difference will be one team had players making big shots and the other team simply did not.  

 

[Dal975]

This is a great post and I happen to agree with it.  But the devil's advocate rebuttal is that perhaps not all big games should come down to the wire, forcing champ and company to make desperate big plays which can go either way; perhaps better coaching and game planning etc. would have created a cushion in several of those games. 
​​
 

That's unrealistic to expect games to not be close in a high major conference.  If you're Gonzaga in the WCC then yea you can say you should have a cushion in most games, because most of those teams simply do not have the talent level they have.  But, in the Big East every game every night is going to be competitive, every team has really good players.  Providence won the conference this year and the majority of the games they were in came down to the last couple of possessions, difference is like I said in my post they had guys that embraced those moments and made plays. 

Watch the NCAA tournament next week, the big games are all going to come down to the final possessions, and the difference will be one team had players making big shots and the other team simply did not.  

No doubt. Again, I agree.  Just saying, i.e., that when you are up 44-27 with 15 minutes left, maybe a game like that should not have come down to wire.  Just one example.
 

 

[montyaloofah]

The season came down to 3 stops on defense. The last play on the Pitt, uconn,, and Villanova games. Make those stops and win all 3, we may be dancing. Win 1, we are prob in nit. 
it shouldnt be too much to ask of a defensive minded team. 
 

 

[MainMan]

We are not a defensive-minded team.
We do not have a defensive-minded system.
We do not have a defensive-minded coach.

We are turnover-minded, plain and simple.

That’s the entirety of everything we do.
Get a stop by getting a TO.
Get an easy bucket by getting a TO.
That’s it. That’s the system.

In just about every other aspect of defense,  we’ve been below average to terrible under CMA.

 

[redmanwest]

MainMan post=464039We are not a defensive-minded team.
We do not have a defensive-minded system.
We do not have a defensive-minded coach.

We are turnover-minded, plain and simple.

That’s the entirety of everything we do.
Get a stop by getting a TO.
Get an easy bucket by getting a TO.
That’s it. That’s the system.

In just about every other aspect of defense,  we’ve been below average to terrible under CMA.


I have to agree with this.  The approach is a gambling go for it approach that when it did not work (very often), it left guys out of position and wide open 3s; hence, we made many average players look like Larry Bird or Steph Curry with career nights.  It is the same as in prior years when we went for blocked shots and led the conference and near led the country in blocks.  That's all we did and we were not a good defensive team in those years either. 

 

 

[usguard]

Never understood what we always were a poor foul shooting team. Your correct if we were a 75% shooting team we would have won a lot more games especially all those close ones we had played
maybe to be recruited you need to shoot min 70% from the line lol

 

[redmanwest]

We absolutely would have won a few more games, just by shooting a consistent 75%.  There were a number of games we were under 60%  Inexcusable.  There are a few basic fundamental requirements; foul shots are among those few items.

 

[MainMan]

We shot 7 percentage points less this year than last.
68% to 75%