Auburn, Wed., Nov. 26, 8:00p, TruTV / 880 AM

The team is just too soft. Nobody drives hard to the rim or attacks the glass. Also seems like our offense doesn’t move the ball quickly around the horn. No crispness. Hoping it’s early and we get tougher and sharper.
 
ghostzapper said:
This was not a good performance at all tonight, especially in the second half, but three games in three days can produce a poor effort sometimes. Look, you can analyze all of this to death but making blanket statements about a team's potential in November is often folly. Over our past two years Pitino has shown that his team's play improves over the course of a season. With eleven new players on the roster, there was always going to be a huge learning curve with this bunch. Are there some red flags thus far? That certainly seems to be the case at this point, but November games are not always projections of what happens with teams in March.

I remember lots of early on criticism of Kadary Richmond last year and Daniss Jenkins the year before and by the time our season was completed the consensus was that they were huge contributors to our success. Is there someone on this current roster (who is currently getting bashed) who will be the reason we turn it around? That is distinctly possible.

I will wait and watch this all play out and, unlike some others, will hold off on passing judgement on the fate of this team yet.
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Those teams went to the NIT and then lost in the second round, respectively. Isn’t the point of our payroll to be much better than those versions?

We lost to a Lavin/Anderson St. John’s caliber team tonight. With two players out and their second best player with 3 fouls on the first half.

How many more millions will it take for us to not be Butler equivalent in the SEC? Why does Sanon look like he’s never played organized sports before? We couldn’t get a less talented kid who knows how to play basketball already for that money?
 
rlogazino said:
Someone go pull receipts from after the loss to Georgia last year. Anyone who said we won’t make the tournament following it for us to then get a 2 seed should be reminded how early the season is. It would have been great to win this game and we should have. Come March we will be a 4 seed at worst.
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This board loves to compare two totally different scenarios that are wholly unrelated. What we did last year says nothing about this year. Generally, if you’re not good in November, you’re not good in March. Of course there are exceptions but the odds are not in our favor.
 
dk423 said:
I saw him limp after Pettiford blew by him in the late second half. lol
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PLEASE do not mention Dylan again regarding his impact on this game!!! He should not have played at all if he had hamstring, hambone or any other sore bone! He would not have had an impact if he was 100% against a vastly superior guard like Pettiford. Pitino had one job in this game.....don't let Pettiford beat your entire team. So who does he start? SMFH!!!

Lefteris would have had a better impact. But the fact of the matter is we have high D1 players at three positions but low impact players in the backcourt. None of us bought the Pitino BS about Ian Jackson becoming the next great point guard and obviously neither did he since he hasn't even put the ball in his hands ONCE compared to the confidence he had with the much maligned Jenkins. This year, with MR almost doubling his NIL $, we have not been savvy enough to replace Kadary Richmond or Devion to orchestrate an organized offense.

Much of this failure falls on our staff's inability to negotiate for at least a half dozen better alternatives than at least four of the guards currently taking up space on the bench. The damage is done and MR will demand some accountability.

Now Pitino will have to swallow his pride and coach and train these guys on the simplest of basic basketball because none of the fans are buying the current triple captain leadership roles. Hopkins has not shown it, Zuby hasn't shown it and Dillon sure as hell hasn't shown the heart of a lion of a Willis Reed leading their team.
A Somali hijacker who can go to Pitino and say "I AM THE CAPTAIN NOW" may be a better leadership option. Ayo has been the only guy to come in and give 110% on both ends and he gets nowhere near the NIL of our top 7 players. Right now we have a bunch of expensive hired hands on the ranch who are playing like this is their first rodeo!
Lose to Ole Miss and Kentucky and this will go down as the most underperforming teams in NIL history.
 
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Boo Harvey said:
This board loves to compare two totally different scenarios that are wholly unrelated. What we did last year says nothing about this year. Generally, if you’re not good in November, you’re not good in March. Of course there are exceptions but the odds are not in our favor.
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Asking sincerely because I bet you have a good answer, how are they wholly unrelated?
 
Boo Harvey said:
This board loves to compare two totally different scenarios that are wholly unrelated. What we did last year says nothing about this year. Generally, if you’re not good in November, you’re not good in March. Of course there are exceptions but the odds are not in our favor.
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Stats have shown if you are top 12 by Week 6 of the AP poll which is possible for us if we win out and are top 20 in offense and defense on KenPom, we are 8 and 29 respectively then you are a title contender. We have time.
 
It’s hard to put solace in the “fact” that we “should” run through a mediocre Big East. And I think that proposition is questionable.

While we may score lots of points, the defense has shown it will give up a lot too.

And as many have pointed out, without a solid point guard or consistent backcourt play, every game will be a challenge.

I don’t buy the histrionics that this team or the players are “garbage”. I agree with those who have said the roster has a lot of talent but is not well balanced or constructed.

I think this bunch is better than we saw tonight. But probably not as good as we saw last night. There will be both kinds of nights going forward I think. Hopefully the good ones outweigh the bad ones.
 
Yikes.....Pitino has a tall task ahead. I am too bummed for grammar and paragraphs, so here's my bullets:


-Our defense stinks! (in Mike Franscessa voice)

-It's true that our guards cannot stop dribble penetration. And, worse, that's not something that improves quickly

-Play Ayo more

-Play Prey more and try playing him and Zuby together

-Pettiford is an NBA player, no doubt.

-Ranting about Darling after tonight's loss is absurd. The kid played 7 minutes. There were other problems.

-UConn and Demary is going to be a problem for us.

-I hate UConn

-Good Night
 
Why is this board obsessed with a guy who was recruited as a backup, who played 7 minutes tonight, exactly 1 of those in the 55 points scored against, outscored by 20 2nd half?
Pitino recruited and is putting out a poorly constructed, very redundant roster and might I add, poorly coached team, led by a trio of inconsistent but highly recruited and touted trio of guards who in 79 minutes tonight combined for 27 points, 3 assists, 6 TOs and 6 rebounds! A trio that can’t even keep opposing guards in front of them, even sometimes (although Sellers can, like Darling, sometimes).
So let’s ignore poor performances by those brought in and paid to perform at a high level and focus on the guy forced into a much bigger role than he was recruited for because of, dare I say it, the arrogance and hubris of a coach who insisted he could take a player with absolutely no feel for the game and make him the next great PG.
And now was forced to move his best shooting guard, coming off two hot shooting games, to PG, either because of injury or coaching choice.
Sorry but this team has much bigger problems than Darling, mainly, no chemistry and little to no mental or physical toughness and two guys who show little game other than making an occasional shot which woos some but is just not winning basketball.
 
Maybe next recruiting cycle they'll realize that college bball is all about big-time PG play. Give me 2 top PG's and pass on the 2 overrated SG's who are so wildly inconsistent it's just not fun to watch much of the time.

If you don't have strong PG play, you have nothing. It's like 5 gazelles out there without any idea of where they're going and what they're supposed to be doing. It almost never works. To have so much talent without a big-time QB is like having a Ferrari and not knowing how to drive it.
 
logen said:
Why is this board obsessed with a guy who was recruited as a backup, who played 7 minutes tonight, exactly 1 of those in the 55 points scored against, outscored by 20 2nd half?
Pitino recruited and is putting out a poorly constructed, very redundant roster and might I add, poorly coached team, led by a trio of inconsistent but highly recruited and touted trio of guards who in 79 minutes tonight combined for 27 points, 3 assists, 6 TOs and 6 rebounds! A trio that can’t even keep opposing guards in front of them, even sometimes (although Sellers can, like Darling, sometimes).
So let’s ignore poor performances by those brought in and paid to perform at a high level and focus on the guy forced into a much bigger role than he was recruited for because of, dare I say it, the arrogance and hubris of a coach who insisted he could take a player with absolutely no feel for the game and make him the next great PG.
And now was forced to move his best shooting guard, coming off two hot shooting games, to PG, either because of injury or coaching choice.
Sorry but this team has much bigger problems than Darling, mainly, no chemistry and little to no mental or physical toughness and two guys who show little game other than making an occasional shot which woos some but is just not winning basketball.
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Amaseinyourface said:
Asking sincerely because I bet you have a good answer, how are they wholly unrelated?
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I think we are comparing apples and oranges because last year we had two high D1 point guards and this year we have NONE! It's also a matter of CHEMISTRY. None of our new guys seem good at it and prefer pre-game MUSIC APPRECIATION 101.
My biggest concern is that Pitino stops believing in their potential as a team if he loses to every ranked team in this pre-Big East part of the schedule because his ego is not built for that level of defeat.
 
rlogazino said:
Stats have shown if you are top 12 by Week 6 of the AP poll which is possible for us if we win out and are top 20 in offense and defense on KenPom, we are 8 and 29 respectively then you are a title contender. We have time.
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I don’t think we have any chance to be top 12 by week six and there’s no way we’re a top 30 team in defense regardless of what KenPom says.

I’m recalibrating my expectations. I’m hoping we play our best ball in March, get a six or seven seed and pull off an upset or two.
 
Boo Harvey said:
I don’t think we have any chance to be top 12 by week six and there’s no way we’re a top 30 team in defense regardless of what KenPom says.

I’m recalibrating my expectations. I’m hoping we play our best ball in March, get a six or seven seed and pull of an upset or two.
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Don’t get down. Pitino is bringing in a couple more guys to deal with the SEC length.

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Amaseinyourface said:
Asking sincerely because I bet you have a good answer, how are they wholly unrelated?
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This team and last year’s squads are two completely different teams with almost entirely different players. Just because last year’s team overcame a bad stretch against Baylor and Georgia to have an incredible year doesn’t mean that this team will do the same. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but the fact that a past SJU team accomplished something remarkable does not in any way suggest that the same is likely with this team.
 
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