BET - Xavier (1), Thur. Mar. 8, 12 Noon, FS1 / Radio TBD

After time to calm down after the game, I only have one thought. It is really sad they couldn't have won just one or two of those close ones, they really deserve to be playing in the post season.
 
[quote="Paultzman" post=275796]Marvin Clark II, best quote since I've been covering St. John's, after the loss: “I feel like this year was supposed to be great. I think next year will be great. f anybody doesn’t have that mindset, then they’ll have that mindset by the time the offseason is over with.” #sjubb
Zach B[/quote]


Clark, Simon, Owens
Transfers all
And where would we be without them???
Thanks for the memories guys, Marvin-Justin-Tarik and yes next year will be a good year for the entire St. John’s family
 
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Yeah, if you read Marvin Clarke instagram, you know him and Simon will be ready for the season. What a leader.
 
During the post game Marvin Clark was asked “what can the team take way from this year?”
He answered “ how to handle distractions.” You have to wonder if the Lovett saga was an elephant in the locker room.
 
Ive said this before, Clark has improved a lot as the season progressed, should be real good next year. Has a terrific attitude.. Simon, only a sophomore , will be a fan favorite when he graduates. Owens seems to be a question mark on returning. He is good , but not great. IMO would not start on most BE teams. Will get plenty of burn here. Don’t see what he has to gain by transferring. Would love to retain our core, pick up a couple more quality recruits and dance next year.
 
Well, season three under Chris Mullin is finally over!   FINISHED,  fertig, fini, finito, geendikt, amaitutako, exactam eam.
We started the season short of players due to Lavinesque situations that St. John's seems to be plagued by with 3  players sitting, one transferring before September and then the Marcus LoVett mysterious knee injury from which he was cleared to play after two MRI's.  The season ended with yet another playing missing - Kassoum Yakwe.
Of course we had an unusually high turnover of recruits with Freudenberg, Sima, Williams, Ellison and Mussini all choosing not to be mentored by two NBA Hall of Fame players.  That's 9 Mullin recruits that either sat, transferred or just quit the team.  Did I say we started to season short of players?  The revolving door of players has to stop starting next year because we are neither rebuilding nor reloading with that embarrassing scenario.

As everyone knows, Shamorie Ponds will be getting expert NBA advice over the summer regarding his draft chances.  Of course in the NBA players play the Big East tournament schedule every week.  After playing against taller guards a tired Ponds had a very bad game and shooting ZERO % from the three point line.  He did, however, lead the team in rebounds again,  with 7 which tells us everything we need to know about the rebounding capabilities of our front court players. Needless to say, priority number one is to recruit some beef because we won't win too many games next year with pork chops under the basket. 

There is not much to say about the game other than we faded quickly in the second half due to tired legs and poor games by Owens, Ahmed and Ponds.  The game was over with 10 minutes left and Xavier never let up even after we seemingly conceded.  With less than 30 seconds left Chris Mack instructed his team to run out the clock.  What happened was two cocky Xavier players teaming up to set up a "up-your-ass" dunk to further embarrass the St. John's players.  A scuffle followed but pay back better be twice next year with my new most hated rival.

Some may accuse me of becoming a Homer but I think the season was more successful than the record suggests.  Against all odds, after a disastrous 0-11 January the team found its mojo and as shorthanded as they were beat hated Duke, then #3 in the polls followed by beating #1 Villanova at Villanova.  We only beat three other Big East teams but Mullin held the players together and still managed to win 16 games.  The same can't be said about Kevin Stallings at Pitt, the landing spot for one of our dissatisfied players, "Always Nervous Ellison".  Good luck in limbo Malik!  Pitt of course sent Stallings packing after only his second season where Pitt went winless in the ACC.  Note to Mullin: work extra hard to get and keep better players because your two honeymoons are officially over.  Finally, fix the deficiencies in your staff starting with resolving the Slice embarrassment and finding someone to work with bigs.  Your x and o abilities have improved but Matt and Mitch need to step up. 
The new season starts tomorrow. Let's see some recruiting commitments and stay on top of the 2019 class.
 
[quote="fun" post=275807]Xavier and season recap:http://www.bigeastboards.com/[/quote]

I grade on how they performed in regards to their physical ability. Alibegovic has little talent and performed above that by playing the hardest on the team and being a 7th man when he has 12th man talent. The fact that he was the 7th man is on Chris Mullin and Matt Azxzxzxzxbelish.

Because he played so hard I gave Ahmed a C I believe when he has B talent but often played at a C level.

Finally I like Clark but he has to play harder. Gets out of the way a lot and gets beat for too many rebounds and loose balls.

Sorry one last finally. Ponds played hard. They took away his drive. He is not a great outside shooter which is why he struggled today. Hard to look good when not making shots.
 
Lastly, if you continue to lower expectations, then you're always gonna meet 'em or come close to meeting 'em. The bar should be significantly raised next season.[/quote]


MJD thanks but
no need to
Lower expectations
Just be content with the current reality
Not mutually exclusive
Most of us know what we want AND CAN HAVE
Back to the future
Back to our high water mark
Final four!
But I can live w the growing pains of building a program from scratch.

April 2015 Chris Mullin began with nothing. Now we have something.
Furthermore, as with Gonzaga, Villanova, Xavier, many other small non- football school - we can be up there with the best of them!

Let’s go St. John’s!
Sheridan
 
[quote="Class of 72" post=275813]Well, season three under Chris Mullin is finally over!   FINISHED,  fertig, fini, finito, geendikt, amaitutako, exactam eam.
We started the season short of players due to Lavinesque situations that St. John's seems to be plagued by with 3  players sitting, one transferring before September and then the Marcus LoVett mysterious knee injury from which he was cleared to play after two MRI's.  The season ended with yet another playing missing - Kassoum Yakwe.
Of course we had an unusually high turnover of recruits with Freudenberg, Sima, Williams, Ellison and Mussini all choosing not to be mentored by two NBA Hall of Fame players.  That's 9 Mullin recruits that either sat, transferred or just quit the team.  Did I say we started to season short of players?  The revolving door of players has to stop starting next year because we are neither rebuilding nor reloading with that embarrassing scenario.

As everyone knows, Shamorie Ponds will be getting expert NBA advice over the summer regarding his draft chances.  Of course in the NBA players play the Big East tournament schedule every week.  After playing against taller guards a tired Ponds had a very bad game and shooting ZERO % from the three point line.  He did, however, lead the team in rebounds again,  with 7 which tells us everything we need to know about the rebounding capabilities of our front court players. Needless to say, priority number one is to recruit some beef because we won't win too many games next year with pork chops under the basket. 

There is not much to say about the game other than we faded quickly in the second half due to tired legs and poor games by Owens, Ahmed and Ponds.  The game was over with 10 minutes left and Xavier never let up even after we seemingly conceded.  With less than 30 seconds left Chris Mack instructed his team to run out the clock.  What happened was two cocky Xavier players teaming up to set up a "up-your-ass" dunk to further embarrass the St. John's players.  A scuffle followed but pay back better be twice next year with my new most hated rival.

Some may accuse me of becoming a Homer but I think the season was more successful than the record suggests.  Against all odds, after a disastrous 0-11 January the team found its mojo and as shorthanded as they were beat hated Duke, then #3 in the polls followed by beating #1 Villanova at Villanova.  We only beat three other Big East teams but Mullin held the players together and still managed to win 16 games.  The same can't be said about Kevin Stallings at Pitt, the landing spot for one of our dissatisfied players, "Always Nervous Ellison".  Good luck in limbo Malik!  Pitt of course sent Stallings packing after only his second season where Pitt went winless in the ACC.  Note to Mullin: work extra hard to get and keep better players because your two honeymoons are officially over.  Finally, fix the deficiencies in your staff starting with resolving the Slice embarrassment and finding someone to work with bigs.  Your x and o abilities have improved but Matt and Mitch need to step up. 
The new season starts tomorrow. Let's see some recruiting commitments and stay on top of the 2019 class.[/quote]


Good points and I agree with much of what you say. You always have a lot to contribute.
Didn’t realize it was the Germans who bombed the Pearl Harbor - lol
BTW the Arizona RIP was built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
All the best.
 
[quote="Class of 72" post=275840][quote="capmaker" post=275834]https://nypost.com/2018/03/08/its-desperately-time-for-st-johns-to-be-great-again/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons[/quote]

What I said many times for those dreaming of playing in MAAC, or MAC:

"If it can happen in Cincinnati, if it can happen in Philadelphia, of course it can happen here."[/quote]
In college the coaches basically are the program as long as they have decent support from the administration.
 
Losing Sima , Freudemberg , Williams werenkt huge losses. Freudemberg was not a BE Player from day 1 . Sima played awful in his few games , had worse hands than Yakwe and his leaving wasn’t a calamity . Williams had a decent role player Year last year but, apparently thought he would play more elsewhere . He didn’t . Ellison would have been a reserve player but, as things happened he likely would have gotten a lot of the minutes that Trimble received . He would have given us depth off the bench . Mussini was a loss in my opinion and we missed his deep shooting . But, despite the nay sayers here , he was good enough to be enticed to play in Italy. Mussini was a better player all around than Trimble . Yakwe has gone backward in his time here and was often embarrassed on the Court . Bad hands , no shot , no inside post moves . He could block shots but, just wasn’t a real contributor . He must think he deserved more PT but, seemingly developed a attitude that Mullin didn’t find satisfactory . Despite the headlines , Ponds isn’t NBA ready yet . He needs another year here , maybe 2 . His deep Shot was very inconsistent this year . Today he looked exhausted with his tank pretty much empty . I recall not too many Years ago , when Cincinnati was still a BE Team they had more than a few scuffles with Xavier when they played for the Home town title . Not saying which team was at fault or , both were . The throw down dunk at game’s end was low class and Coach Mack showed none with his post game comments that inferred it was all our guys fault . We can mark Xavier for a big time payback next season , with no Bluett , Machura , etc . I don’t think Mullin and Staff lack anything in their Abilities . Those here that seem to tout that only provide vague information or , valid reasons why . Matt A is our top Recruiter , his next skill . He isn’t on the Staff to draw up plays . He and Mullin need to get us a BE Frontcourt . Owens is not a post player . Clarke had a very nice year but, isn’t a rebounder or banger in deep . Simon will play better next year and get help from Dixon . Ponds should benefit as well . Yakwe and Trimble , if they leave, are no big deal . One thing we don’t need , is Mike Rice as a Assistant Coach.
 
[quote="we are sju" post=275816][quote="fun" post=275807]Xavier and season recap:http://www.bigeastboards.com/[/quote]

I grade on how they performed in regards to their physical ability. Alibegovic has little talent and performed above that by playing the hardest on the team and being a 7th man when he has 12th man talent. The fact that he was the 7th man is on Chris Mullin and Matt Azxzxzxzxbelish.

Because he played so hard I gave Ahmed a C I believe when he has B talent but often played at a C level.

Finally I like Clark but he has to play harder. Gets out of the way a lot and gets beat for too many rebounds and loose balls.

Sorry one last finally. Ponds played hard. They took away his drive. He is not a great outside shooter which is why he struggled today. Hard to look good when not making shots.[/quote]

One guy averages 11 and 5 over two years and he gets a C and the other guy averages 2 and 1 over four and he gets a B, you need to re evaluate your grading criteria. By those standards some one legged blind kid with Down's hit's a three at half time, he gets an A plus.
 
[quote="MJDinkins" post=275761][quote="NCJohnnie" post=275758]Last two sentences of Zach Post article on today's game: If everything falls into place, next year could be the breakthrough St. John’s has waited years for. Of course, Red Storm fans have been hearing that for a long time.[/b

Truer words have never been spoken. As true Johnnie fans, we will wait and hope.[/quote]

Yep! It all depends on who returns, who we bring in with the remaining scholarships, and who we bring in as assistant replacement(s).

Don't get me wrong.... I enjoyed the Duke and Villanova wins; the improbable late rally versus Butler and winning in double-OT (without Ponds); and, last night's win against Georgetown. I'll also applaud the team for playing with grit for the most part. Otherwise, it was a disappointing season. Some other posters may have different views on the season, but it was disappointing for me. It's gonna end without a tournament berth of any kind and a losing record. Several know how I felt about this season and I'm not mincing words about it.

Lastly, if you continue to lower expectations, then you're always gonna meet 'em or come close to meeting 'em. The bar should be significantly raised next season.[/quote]

Agree with the last paragraph. There is a weird thing about our fanbase IMO at least, maybe it's just on here, but where fans continuously move the goalposts. Look at Giants fans...they expected a Super Bowl appearance at least with how stacked they were and they were among the worst in the NFL. I didn't hear many fans going on about the OBJ injury or other excuses...they were almost all furious at how bad the team as a whole was. I feel like it's a defense mechanism of sorts that acts as a painkiller. We didn't do well this year because ___________. Next year will be our year because _________. This perpetually keeps many fans satisfied with failure and avoids direct confrontation with it.

I'm cautiously optimistic about next year...I think we need to re-evaluate if we miss the tournament again. We definitely have a real chance to make it, but like that recent NYPost article said, eventually you need to produce and live up to expectations. Please don't mistake this for being negative...I love this team and I can't wait for next season. We have a real chance to make noise. But if we don't, it's time to seriously discuss if Mullin can really be the answer here. I really hope he is, because we need some continuity here to stabilize the program. I just don't want it stabilized as a bad program in the bottom of the Big East.
 
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