Connecticut (MSG), Sat., Feb. 3, 12 NOON, FOX

Rocket said:
On paper we did.
Wilcher was 4 star local kid recruited by UNC.
Dingle, while not a great shooter at Penn, had a scorers' mentality and always got points.
Who knew that Taylor, who has a good shooting %, would rather pass like a point guard than take jumpers.
RJ Luis is the most naturally talented player on the team but has no mental discipline at present.
Cruz Davis? We hardly knew him!
Ledlum gives up height and speed and is a terrific rebounder. Unfortunately, his offensive game is just average.
Brady is a tall skinny kid with promise in a couple of years but will he stick around?

Pitino is on the money about the NCAA and the NIL. Both have changed the game to free agency bedlam. Schools paying top 15 players out of high school six figure NIL $ will always get the top prep kids. The only way for St. John's to stay competitive is to recruit the top upperclassmen with NIL from their current schools. There are just so many Cam Spencer's available so this staff has to go a better job of evaluating talent.
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Yeah, they should have done a better job evaluating and signing talent with the few weeks they had to not only raise NIL money of some significance, being relatively non-existent when they were hired (had to fight back the urge to say the Johnnies had nil NIL) but put a complete roster together, for which they had time to do pretty much on the run.
 
My one observation of being at the game is it's not very fun being at a home game with half of the arena consisting of the opposing teams fans. I was sitting in the 200s section and it felt like I was completely surrounded by UConn fans.

What only makes it worse is the sense of entitlement UConn fans have, acting like the place is their home court, standing, doing their chants, and being overly obnoxious.
 
Rocket said:
Focusing on this one game, my big disappointment was Joel Soriano. Doesn't seem to be able to stay focused for 40 minutes. Today he could have dominated with Clingan being in foul trouble but he provided minimal offense and defense. Pitino has been sitting him to cool him down but he just doesn't seem to get it.

The team shoots poorly as a whole and needs a player like Taylor, who is a high percentage shooter, to take a bigger role in the offense but today he played only 9 minutes and took ZERO shots. Dunlap started and shot 1-3 in 19 minutes. At that vital small forward position, we got three shot attempts from two players.

Other than Jenkins, we had low defensive effort by Dingle, Luis, Alleyne against one of the best guard threesom in the country. Simply stated guards like Cam Spencer were given too much room to get their shot off.

This was just another lost opportunity with Karaban out and Clingan struggling. As others have pointed out, Pitino putting a freshman HE chose to start in the last game at the end of the bench is bewildering and I am sure his parents, who travel to see his games, are as upset. We could have used more intense guard play today and Pitino seems more intent on teaching moments at the expense of the overall picture.
IMO, another B coaching performance today.

So far what has defined our losses is SLOWNESS.
Slow to guard the shooters.
Slow to kick it out by players like Soriano, Ledlum and Luis.
Slow to rebound.
Slow to adjust the defense.

This team needs an intensive intervention by the coaches at this point and for Pitino to start giving positive feedback and inspiration to players like Wilcher, Taylor and Dingle who will be needed in the final 10 games or so. From my perspective, every team on the remaining schedule is beatable if everyone contributes 100%.
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great post....spot on about the 3 FG attempts at the SF position, that is not good.....

the Wilcher thing is very baffling and yeah, these youngsters might not be responding to Rick and his approach like they used to...if we lose Wilcher and he transfers, thats a huge setback for the program. What worried me was the post game press conference today where Jenkins said that the team wasn't listening to the coaching staff...thats a MAJOR red flag and you only hope that he was talking about the 5th year guys...

even though Taylor is their best 3pt shooter percentage wise, he is more of a slasher and shoots from the side/hip so he only takes jumpers when he is wide open....he's another one that is always shaking and putting his head down when he makes a mistake ala Soriano who is no doubt the biggest dissapointment who tends to shrink in the big games and moments.....

yep, the slowness is glaring....Ledlum is an undersized banger but gets beat every single time on the drive and. or fouls, its automatic and he's just not good moving laterally....Alleyne has been a major dissapointment...a national champ who has been doing next to nothing for a big portion of the year when we need a guard to make shots...dont have much hope for DIngle who is playing decent defence but we need his offense and he cant sink a 3 for the life of him......long road ahead, just have to hope the 'get right' game against DePaul will fix some things and get them some confidence back as the last 2 games have been pretty demoralizing, especially from a defensive standpoint
 
Silly Donovan said:
Well he can’t say that this team will come together by late January or February so there has to be some sort of spin. Chances are he’s just upset and has no answers for his current team that continues to struggle.
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I think thats exactly it....he has no answers right now and he knows it
 
Marillac2 said:
That play frustrated me because it’s well within Soriano’s skill set and it’s always there. You can’t double Soriano without cheating on Dunlap so it forces them to pick their poison.

He has such a wide base and he can pass the ball and see the court. Why don’t we play through him? We do next to nothing to set up our shooters.
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exactly....our guys can only get contested outside shots off the pick and the only one who can do that successfully is DJ...Dingle, Dunlap and Alleyne etc. need to be set up like every team we play against does...its maddening
 
passitback said:
I was telling a UCONN fan (classy guy unlike a lot of their fans) to enjoy the Garden now, because it aint happening next year.

He asked how many CA holds. I told him. Poor guy actually thinks that there will be 3k UCONN fans there.

Told him it aint happening. Not a chance.
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BE has already squashed idea of UCONN @ CA
 
sju2000alum said:
Agree Alleyne hit all his shots in first half need a shooter out there right now
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I agree but , I think Alleyne was a little gimpy when he trotted off the Court at 1/2 time . . He’s not 100 perfect yet in my opinion .
One of the realities about Hurley is that in the last 2 years he has recruited 2 First Round NBA guards . Castle will be lottery pick this year . Was it Hawkins last year ? And , Boughnight a few years ago .

Pitino needs to pick off a top 20 guard somewhere like Hurley has done . And , a sharpshooter and big man .

Maybe from Europe .
 
Section3 said:
Alleyne was terrible today…turned a pivotal 3-on-1 into a contested layup by either bad decision or selfishneness and screwed up an opportunity to get a late basket off a late steal
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yeah that 3-on-1 that he got blocked on was horrendous....how do you not give it up there? he's been another major dissapointment, especially on defense which was supposed to be his strength
 
logen said:
Frustration, frustration, frustration……..this has to be one of the few, if not first, time(s) he has to deal with a team that refuses to be coached. I know that is harsh but that is what I see.
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DJ essentially said that in the post game press conference....hopefully hes referring to the 5th year players because if that was pointed toward the younger guys, we're in trouble
 
bamafan said:
Pitino talked about 3 levels of energy or motors for players before the season and said Jenkins and maybe Zuby were playing with a high motor but others were getting there. Unfortunately those two guys are still the only ones that play with a high motor. Unfortunately despite all of his double doubles Joel just does not play with a high motor witness despite Clingan playing less than half the game because of foul trouble he ended up with 6 and 4 when if he had played with a high energy he should have dominated the paint and boards.
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At one point, early 1st half, RP threw his towel on the floor and immediately removed Soriano from the game…I believe it was because of his penchant for trotting back in transition,,,By the way, he isn’t the only one…Dingle gets back in transition like someone who has been playing 3-on-3 for 90 minutes
 
logen said:
Yeah, they should have done a better job evaluating and signing talent with the few weeks they had to not only raise NIL money of some significance, being relatively non-existent when they were hired (had to fight back the urge to say the Johnnies had nil NIL) but put a complete roster together, for which they had time to do pretty much on the run.
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The evaluation of talent included the talent they could have inherited!
How did a Hall of Fame coach manage to evaluate players like AJ Storr, David Jones ((who had traumatic year) and O'Mar Stanley in less than two weeks?
Those three are better than anyone he paid NIL bucks for almost sight unseen.
The three players that had issues with the previous staff and became immediately dispensable were Wusu, Alexander and Curbelo.
 
Rocket said:
The evaluation of talent included the talent they could have inherited!
How did a Hall of Fame coach manage to evaluate players like AJ Storr, David Jones ((who had traumatic year) and O'Mar Stanley in less than two weeks?
Those three are better than anyone he paid NIL bucks for almost sight unseen.
The three players that had issues with the previous staff and became immediately dispensable were Wusu, Alexander and Curbelo.
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I would include Yaxel Lendenborg to those you mentioned.
 
room112 said:
My one observation of being at the game is it's not very fun being at a home game with half of the arena consisting of the opposing teams fans. I was sitting in the 200s section and it felt like I was completely surrounded by UConn fans.

What only makes it worse is the sense of entitlement UConn fans have, acting like the place is their home court, standing, doing their chants, and being overly obnoxious.
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It wasn’t 50/50..more SJ
 
Rocket said:
The evaluation of talent included the talent they could have inherited!
How did a Hall of Fame coach manage to evaluate players like AJ Storr, David Jones ((who had traumatic year) and O'Mar Stanley in less than two weeks?
Those three are better than anyone he paid NIL bucks for almost sight unseen.
The three players that had issues with the previous staff and became immediately dispensable were Wusu, Alexander and Curbelo.
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Uh, no, that is not even close to being factual, not even close. The decision to jettison the vast majority of the roster was not a basketball decision but rather a cultural one.
 
Our kids have a lot of guts and the UConn fans are detestable morons who have already traveled back north to their dead-end lives but the simple truth is this, no matter how we spin it……

The players who left are better than the ones who came.
 
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