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

[quote="fun" post=275844][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]

Again he shouldn't have a role. What should he do? Be a better basketball player? He plays hard. Not everyone on this team does.
ST John's would never recruit a one legged blind kid because we only recruit transfers and that means some other school would have to have recruited him first.
 
Per Zach
Funny thing about the post-game stuff with St. John's and Xavier, it was nothing until Kaiser Gates said something to Bashir Ahmed. #sjubb. Even Tyrique Jones told me it was nothing.
 
They just said on FS1 that some of the St. John’s players tried to get into the Xavier locker room after the game. Big East reviewing MSG security tapes. If this is true, where was the staff after the game controlling these kids. Can’t let that happen.
 
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[quote="Mean Gene" post=275850]They just said on FS1 that some of the St. John’s players tried to get into the Xavier locker room after the game. Big East reviewing MSG security tapes. If this is true, where was the staff after the game controlling these kids. Can’t let that happen.[/quote]

Embarrassing if true. Didn't catch the game since I was at work, but I heard they tried or did dunk with seconds left up by a lot. That's classless and I don't blame the team for giving them a few words. But if we had players trying to enter their locker room, that's very embarrassing.
 
Example has been set by their heroes in the NBA. Maybe what really happened was Ponds was just meeting Carmelo at the bus.
 
[quote="SLYFOXX1968" post=275843]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]

Although he, at times, drove me mad......I think Ellison would have help a lot this year.
 
[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]



Personally I am not worried about Ponds leaving for the NBA, advice should follow that he's not ready.
. Hopefully he starts taking hundreds of jump shots for the next 8 months. Obviously next year teams will continue to clog the middle to prevent his drives to the basket.

We have to clean up our offensive rebounds. Anybody notice all the second shots Xavier had resulting from offensive boards. While after our outside shots the best we had was Owens standing and looking with no effort to rebound or even box out. Has to be coaches decision to have four of our guys run back on defense.

Mack had his guys penetrating in the first half with excellent hand offs once we switched on defense. Second half saw them hit 7 of 11 three pointers.

Have to wonder how Mullin used Trimble in this tournament. Didn't see much playing time in the first half of the G'town game even after scoring 5 points. Today sat most of the second half even watching Cole get in the game.

Don't know why Mack was so surprised about the after game scuffle.It appeared to me that Jones first made a comment to Ahmed . Surprised Mack didn't pull his starters earlier..

Owens had one of his poorest showings today. Don't understand the talk about him possibly leaving next year, especially with all his playing time this year. Certainly he can't be worried about being replaced by Keita,. should appreciate getting some rest. I expect him to start with Keita against a big squad and should be starting at center against a smaller team.

Once again, thanks for all the hard fought effort. Really enjoyed this team. And screw Lovett!
 
[quote="JohnnyFan" post=275856]

Although he, at times, drove me mad......I think Ellison would have help a lot this year.[/quote]

Sima and Ellison are starters on my All Frustrating to Watch team and yeah they both may have helped due to our ridiculous depth situation but then again it was always take the good with the bad so who's to say the net on that but "a lot" is not in the Universe of possibility.
 
[quote="Knight" post=275848]Per Zach
Funny thing about the post-game stuff with St. John's and Xavier, it was nothing until Kaiser Gates said something to Bashir Ahmed. #sjubb. Even Tyrique Jones told me it was nothing.[/quote]


As I previously posted it was a smiling Jones who made the first comment followed by Gates.
 
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[quote="Mike Zaun" post=275845][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.[/quote]

I do consider it to be a defense mechanism for a few posters. The ones who continue to bring up Lavin are using deflection and mental gymnastics, and in many ways are indirectly admitting things isn't going so smoothly. I can see right through the BS.

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.
Click to expand...

I'm also cautiously optimistic for next season, but I have to see the things I presented in my initial post above. Continuity is key, which is another reason I'd love for this to work. Not to mention, he's coaching "my" team. So, that's always a reason to hope for the best. Unfortunately, I'm having my doubts. Prove my doubts wrong, and I'll gladly eat a helping of crow.

Before I depart on this post.... There's a longtime fan of the program who I occasionally converse with, and last season he started saying, "We are now DePaul." I laughed about it when he said it last season, and was like "Nah, man.... No way." He's reiterated it several times this season. It makes you wonder, though.
 
Based on our 4 core guys—Ponds, Simon, Clark, Owens—returning, and thinking Dixon, Keita, Williams will be capable BE support level contributors, we'll be very competitive in the Big East. I figure Trimble, Roberts, and Ellington will ‘help’ team depth.
IF we get that BE-level ‘big guy, and 1 more ‘plus’ surprise (Jordan Brown??? or Trey McGowans ???), we’ll have a breakthrough season, thrashing much of the BEC and moving into Sweet 16 - Elite Eight ‘dancing’ territory.
 
I was back at the Garden today and watched our likely season swan song. Despite the final score that showed a 28 point defeat it should not be looked at like last year's second round debacle against Villanova. That game was over right after the tip-off and never had any suspense. It was a 41 point defeat, that was a complete blowout wire to wire and the final score indicated how lopsided an affair it was. Today we played gutty and hung in there for twenty three minutes despite the fact that Ponds was gassed and likely less than 100%. With three minutes left we were down fifteen and then Xavier ended the game on a meaningless 13 to 0 run during garbage time when we had packed it in.

This year was a definite step forward for the program and the players. Despite winning only two more games than last season we were good most of the time, not just some of the time. Most importantly the team developed a real defensive identity and a toughness for the first time under the Mullin regime. The previous two years I saw offensive promise but not a defensive toughness needed to be a consistent winner. Hopefully the players that can return will do so. I think they know they can be really good next year. There is a lot to look forward to and with six new players coming in to add to our core group we will be much better.

On a separate note I loved being at the Garden yesterday and today. There was an electric atmosphere in the arena and the Providence / Creighton game today was a very exciting affair to watch. There was a large and raucous Friar contingent and they were really charged up when Providence pulled it out in OT.

The Big East is a very good league top to bottom and all ten teams showed up and played competitively in their first round games. Both St. John's and Marquette were compromised by their short turnaround and were hammered pretty good by the two elite teams in the conference today. Mullin was spot on by noting that this is what you set yourself up for when you finish at the bottom of the conference. Hopefully this can be used as motivation to get into the top six next year. I totally think we can do this.
 
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[quote="Paultzman" post=275715]Considering “LoVettgate” kudos to staff & players for hanging tough & getting some nice wins. Easy team to root for.

Sentiment aside, time for staff to kick ass on recruiting trail & add a wing and a big. Also, we better line up a great 19 class or we will slip back after current Juniors depart. It appears they will add an experienced assistant coach, but at this point priority #1 is increasing the talent level next year & replenishing the following. It is all about having good & enough players.[/quote]

Not not sure on this, but Brooks would have tooking the last ship, correct?
I think Yakwe is gone, so that's 2 ships. Is there a big man and wing that will be impact players? or a grad transfer, Juco? Anyone from anywhere that could help?
 
[quote="Beast of the East" post=275775][quote="Paultzman" post=275764]Per Dana O’Neill
Big East checking security footage to see if reports that St. John's players tried to enter Xavier locker room postgame are true.[/quote]

Macura for one has a really big mouth and deliberately says smart ass things to get under opponent's skin. Our guys played their asses off all year and refused to be disrespected. Nothing happened, it's over, and whether this happened or not will not affect much except maybe an early suspemsion next season for a game or two[/quote]
 
[quote="Paultzman" post=275787][quote="Mike Zaun" post=275786]Anyone see his tweet? Said time to move on...anyone have any idea if he’d really leave even being a 2nd rounder?[/quote]

He and Mullin have been clear, SP will test the NBA process and go from there. My $$ is on a return, but no sense beating this to death. Let it play out.[/quote]

When does he have to announce by?
 
[quote="oldschool Redmen" post=275879][quote="Paultzman" post=275787][quote="Mike Zaun" post=275786]Anyone see his tweet? Said time to move on...anyone have any idea if he’d really leave even being a 2nd rounder?[/quote]

He and Mullin have been clear, SP will test the NBA process and go from there. My $$ is on a return, but no sense beating this to death. Let it play out.[/quote]

When does he have to announce by?[/quote]

We’ll know by May 30th. That’s the last day for a player to withdraw from the draft and still keep his college eligibility. Shamorie will know what scouts think of him by May 10th.
 
To the poster(s) who yesterday immediately condemned Bashir Ahmed for being solely responsible whatever incident occurred in the “handshake line” following the Xavier game please let me refresh you memory of what occurred this past December when a like disturbance occurred in the same type after game handshake line between Cincinnati Coach Mick Cronin and Xavier player JP Macura.

Coach Cronin who enjoys a long favorable reputation in the sports world alleges that Macura told him to “f*ck off” and hurled other obscenities to him several times during their game.. Much like he did after the flare up with StJohn’s Xavier coach Chris Mack promptly defended his star player and criticized who Macura had had his run in with.

So yeah, I wish the unpleasant incident never occurred but unless and until we understand what occurred between the StJohn’s players and Macura we are unable to judge blame. I do know that having watched many Xavier games this season I have seen more trash talking from Xavier than all of the other Big East teams combined which is why my second favorite Big East team is whichever one is playing Xavier.

[URL][URL]https://www.washingtonpos...cincinnati-vs-xavier-heats-up-again/?utm_term[/URL][/URL]=.2e6ee33e8434
 
Xavier coach showed he has no class upon his answer to the question about the flare upon shaking line dispute by putting all the blame on our players. Mullin would never had done that. and would have been more conciliatory.
 
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