Bucknell game

Bucknell is a well scheduled game heading into the new Big East, very similar to Butler. Good early season win in that the staff gets to remind the team they're not great but stay in win column. For all of the talk about Coach's faults, we adjusted well in the second half. D'Lo's 'less is more' performance was critical to win. Loved Dick and Bill bringing the old school talk back, even if they sounded like they had as much bourbon during the game as I did
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Agreed 100%. I feel like if we played this team before we played Wisconsin we would've had a better chance of beating he badgers.
 
Best last 10 minutes in ages. The threes Greene hit were done the right way. Inside out basketball. Dom big on D. The Wisconsin and to an extent the Wagner games really helped. The team worked very hard to limit the # of open 3's taken. You can see the extra effort and extra attention to it.. The shooting was so abysmal over the last 3 games, I guess we were due. A big win against a poor man's Wisconsin. Still a good test.
 
A solid win tonight. Anytime we can avoid that early season loss to the Bucknell's and San Fran's of the world it really is crucial. These teams aren't cupcakes. Sure they also aren't world beaters but nonetheless it's a big boost.

Lav took way too long to switch the defense. They were working us in the 1st half with simple curl screens and pick and rolls. Once we switched to a zone we were able to keep CO in the paint and allowed him to wreak havoc.

Decision-making also could be better. We turned the ball over in run-outs with 2 mins left. No need for that. I don't advocate milking the clock but it's uncalled for to throw the rock away after getting stops down the stretch.

All in all a great win! Something we can build on leading up to the Barclays tourney and Cuse game next month
 
1. We won despite D'Lo having an off night and that is encouraging
2. The 5 min spell between minutes 10 and 5 in the 2nd half was impressive; need to build on that. At HT I was not optimistic. We struggled to break them down, no cuts to the basket, static movement. They got too many open looks / back door baskets. Cameron Ayers was even better than advertised.
3. Hooper - no mins? Interesting...
4. Blocks don't win games by themselves but take a bow, Mr. O-block-pa and Mr. Sanchez.
5. Forgot to post earlier in the season: Lavin & staff have ditched the sneakers and suit look. Thank goodness.

Onwards...
 
Good game, and a good win. There were some encouraging signs, and there are some glaring developmental needs.

Our man defense was atrocious. It wasn't as though we were getting killed by backdoor cuts, either (though there were a few of those). Basically we just failed to stop the ball. There is work to be done there.

Jordan looked better. He needed to have a game where he did some good things, and I think he will take off from here. Branch was very solid. Harrison's shot has gone AWOL, and if it doesn't come back then our 3 point percentage is going to be woeful all year. Sanchez was solid, and Obekpa played one of his better all around games. His man defense is still a work in progress and so is his offensive game, but he played a much more complete game on both ends of the floor. Dom was Dom. Sampson still seems to be having trouble finding where he fits in, to me.

Phil was the player of the game, and if it wasn't for him this is a 10 point loss. Yes, that is a LMF "I told you so."

Most importantly, I thought Lavin did an excellent job coaching the game. He stayed with the man to man, as bad as it was, as long as the game was in reach. Then he switched to the 2-3 zone late and it shut Bucknell down at a key stretch. Putting Obekpa on the same corner as Ayres when they went to the zone was very effective. Really a good move, playing the zone late and just enough that Bucknell did not have time to analyze and attack it before it was too late.

I also thought that he had an excellent feel for who to play and when to ride the hot hand. The substitutions all made sense.

There is still a long way to go to translate the encouraging signs from this game into something consistent so that we can be competitive with, say Syracuse. But this was definitely a step in the right direction.
 
Raf says we playing with poise and intelligence. You would never read that on this board.
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Haven't you heard? Our team has a low IQ, except for Hooper and Bourgault.
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... lazy acrobats. It's going to be awhile before I'm able to forget that.

I agree with Raf though, our guys did play with some poise. Our jumpers weren't falling at first, but we didn't look rattled, and when we switched to the zone Bucknell certainly did.
 
Good game, and a good win. There were some encouraging signs, and there are some glaring developmental needs.

Our man defense was atrocious. It wasn't as though we were getting killed by backdoor cuts, either (though there were a few of those). Basically we just failed to stop the ball. There is work to be done there.

Jordan looked better. He needed to have a game where he did some good things, and I think he will take off from here. Branch was very solid. Harrison's shot has gone AWOL, and if it doesn't come back then our 3 point percentage is going to be woeful all year. Sanchez was solid, and Obekpa played one of his better all around games. His man defense is still a work in progress and so is his offensive game, but he played a much more complete game on both ends of the floor. Dom was Dom. Sampson still seems to be having trouble finding where he fits in, to me.

Phil was the player of the game, and if it wasn't for him this is a 10 point loss. Yes, that is a LMF "I told you so."

Most importantly, I thought Lavin did an excellent job coaching the game. He stayed with the man to man, as bad as it was, as long as the game was in reach. Then he switched to the 2-3 zone late and it shut Bucknell down at a key stretch. Putting Obekpa on the same corner as Ayres when they went to the zone was very effective. Really a good move, playing the zone late and just enough that Bucknell did not have time to analyze and attack it before it was too late.

I also thought that he had an excellent feel for who to play and when to ride the hot hand. The substitutions all made sense.

There is still a long way to go to translate the encouraging signs from this game into something consistent so that we can be competitive with, say Syracuse. But this was definitely a step in the right direction.
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Our man-to-man defense wasn't atrocious throughout the entire game. There were spurts, in which it looked good and other times it looked poor. Mainly, an inconsistent job with the man defense. But there was no doubt the zone defense startled Bucknell, and they weren't the same throughout the duration.

In bold: If Harrison played his usual game, then it's a 10 or more points win for the Johnnies. See how that works?

Certainly agree that this was a step in the right direction. Continue to improve.
 
Just got home from the game and here are a few thoughts:

- Agree with all previous posters about the switch to zone. Defense looked so sloppy in the first half. Screens and back door cuts almost every possession for Bucknell. Then the second half came along and it looked like a different team on the floor. More communication from everyone.

- PG IV absolutely saved this game for us. Team had zero rhythm offensively until he got hot. Yes, he's the definition of a streaky player ... but boy am I happy he found his touch tonight.

- Off night for D'lo, but the guy is still such a threat out there. Was very poor shooting the rock tonight, but defenses are always looking out for him and adjusting to his game.

- Yes, I know he hit a long jumper late, but somebody really needs to sit down with JaKarr and explain to him he should not be shooting past 15 feet. His line drive of a shot just doesn't work from long range. Plus, the guy is so good when he's around the rim so I just don't get it.

- RySheed looked very good in the first half, but was AWOL in the second ... probably due to PG IV taking over for St. John's. And once again, I just haven't been impressed with Branch. Looks slow out there.

- Love, love, love what Sir'Dom brings to the game. His stat line isn't always pretty, but he brings an intensity nobody else has. Pushes the ball up the floor and brings it hard on defense every single play.

- Obekpa is just a beast down low. An absolute beast. Might have the best timing of any big man at St. John's in a long time.

Overall, great win for St. John's. I wasn't too confident after watching that first half, but they really regrouped in the second and raised the intensity. Switch to zone was a great decision by Lavin and probably saved the game for us. Yes, Bucknell is a mid major, but this will go down as a good win for this team.
 
Good game, and a good win. There were some encouraging signs, and there are some glaring developmental needs.

Our man defense was atrocious. It wasn't as though we were getting killed by backdoor cuts, either (though there were a few of those). Basically we just failed to stop the ball. There is work to be done there.

Jordan looked better. He needed to have a game where he did some good things, and I think he will take off from here. Branch was very solid. Harrison's shot has gone AWOL, and if it doesn't come back then our 3 point percentage is going to be woeful all year. Sanchez was solid, and Obekpa played one of his better all around games. His man defense is still a work in progress and so is his offensive game, but he played a much more complete game on both ends of the floor. Dom was Dom. Sampson still seems to be having trouble finding where he fits in, to me.

Phil was the player of the game, and if it wasn't for him this is a 10 point loss. Yes, that is a LMF "I told you so."

Most importantly, I thought Lavin did an excellent job coaching the game. He stayed with the man to man, as bad as it was, as long as the game was in reach. Then he switched to the 2-3 zone late and it shut Bucknell down at a key stretch. Putting Obekpa on the same corner as Ayres when they went to the zone was very effective. Really a good move, playing the zone late and just enough that Bucknell did not have time to analyze and attack it before it was too late.

I also thought that he had an excellent feel for who to play and when to ride the hot hand. The substitutions all made sense.

There is still a long way to go to translate the encouraging signs from this game into something consistent so that we can be competitive with, say Syracuse. But this was definitely a step in the right direction.
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The win is always nice but being behind at the half and then falling 9 points down before we scored a point in the second half is not a good thing. Yes we luckily had a burst that put us ahead but I felt we should have had a more definitive win. It doesnt bode well for my confidence in upcoming games against Fordham (yes Fordham can not be overlooked) or Syracuse. We have a long way to go.
 
glad we won. glad to see some gradual progress on issues such as perimeter defense and the zone was leaps and bounds better. Still very poor shot selection with way too many shots coming from 12-18 feet and of course those 19-20'8" We played better in all three games where we got the ball inside but our guards are still resistant. The irony is that our perimeter shooting gets better when we play inside out.

Those ugly shots totally disrupt any kind of offense and chemistry. If the guards start thinking like playmakers and getting Jakarr and Sanchez involved inside instead of them shooting out or Obekpa setting up high for screens, we could be fund to watch. To the extent this happened we have done well. This complements the shot blocking /offense from defense, which was huge for us in both keeping this game in reach and then shutting them down for a long stretch.
 
The win is always nice but being behind at the half and then falling 9 points down before we scored a point in the second half is not a good thing. Yes we luckily had a burst that put us ahead but I felt we should have had a more definitive win. It doesnt bode well for my confidence in upcoming games against Fordham (yes Fordham can not be overlooked) or Syracuse. We have a long way to go.
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Home from the game. Nice win against a well coached good shooting team. Good prep for us against other teams we will play that run offenses through the high post. Their big men could pass, their guards cut and slashed and they could all shoot. Kudos to our coaching staff, half time adjustments on defense made a big difference. I also think we wore Bucknell down as they were not as physical or deep as us. Green had a solid game, hit some big shots, still think he doesn't execute the offense or see the floor as good as Branch. Our bigs continue to impress and are getting better every game. CO, JS and OS all are so quick off their feet and block shots that I think are unreachable. Encouraged by our poise when they were shooting lights out and running rings around us early on. Crowd was vocal but on the smallish side...student section is almost full, which is nice to see. Hopefully the negativity on this board goes away for a few days. Go Johnnies!!
 
I was very impressed by Dom's steals and Obekpa sand Sanchez's blocks. I actually though the fast break offense really could have been better which would have resulted in an easy win. Hopefully as Jordan improves that will go through him more. And please give Hooper a chance. Once we softened up Bucknell's defense there would have been plenty of open looks for him. Steve Lavin I hope you are reading this.
 
I was very impressed by Dom's steals and Obekpa sand Sanchez's blocks. I actually though the fast break offense really could have been better which would have resulted in an easy win. Hopefully as Jordan improves that will go through him more. And please give Hooper a chance. Once we softened up Bucknell's defense there would have been plenty of open looks for him. Steve Lavin I hope you are reading this.
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I'm sure he will maybe several times!
 
Hit your freebies, Harrison.

Raftery has jinxed us.
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Yeah what the hell happened to Harrison there, how could he miss a FT? Unreal.

Easyyy Dinkins I`m jk

That 2nd half might have been the best half so far this year. Lets keep it going and roll Monmouth. We all know Artest, Barkley, Postell, Thornton, and Grant would have a game against team like Monmouth way over by halftime. Well it`s time for this group to have that killer mentality and end games by halftime. It`s just the next step if you want to be a true elite team.
 
Thought Greene's shooting kept us in it and CO's blocks and boards helped us win it.
 
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