@Connecticut, Sat., Dec. 23, 8p, FOX

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I definitely feel better about this game after beating Xavier. But I'm not expecting UCONN to have trouble with our pressure D or hitting 3's. I'm more concerned about our handling pressure and hitting from 3.
 
SLYFOXX1968 said:
Agree , you think Rick had a long distance chat with Boeheim ?
I think we all and certainly Xavier were surprised by the Pitino Zone . Miller is a top tier Coach and yet , Slick Rick outfoxed him .

UCONN without Clingan isn’t as formidable but , still dangerous . I was hoping he would play and Soriano run him ragged up and down the Court .

I’m not convinced Clingan has the stamina that Joel has .
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There's a reason he is only playing 20 mins per game.
 
Wilcher and Brady will wait their turn and Traore seems to be nosing out Zuby for time. Of course injuries, fouls and circumstance can change that, but I fully expect in BE play
Rick will go with 8 man rotation & some nights 7.
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Noticed in the X game box score that Zuby + Joel's minutes and Drissa (name is so cool) + Ledlum's minutes equals 40.

So i think Drissa is only getting more time because Ledlum rested a little longer the last game. He got nailed on that screen.
 
I highly think we will still get smacked down by UConn but last night gave me hope that we we win the home games we need to win. I didn’t have that confidence after BC. As far as zone for Rick to teach it in 2 days is mind boggling it won’t be primary D but allows us to switch and confuse
 
mjmaherjr said:
I highly think we will still get smacked down by UConn but last night gave me hope that we we win the home games we need to win. I didn’t have that confidence after BC. As far as zone for Rick to teach it in 2 days is mind boggling it won’t be primary D but allows us to switch and confuse
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I doubt it was 2 days. He was seeing the same issues as us with stopping penetration. I think preparation started after BC and implementation was unnecessary to handle Fordham.
 
IDRAFT said:
I doubt it was 2 days. He was seeing the same issues as us with stopping penetration. I think preparation started after BC and implementation was unnecessary to handle Fordham.
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You play every conference team twice. You'll play at least one team a third time in the Big East Tournament.

Because of this, I truly believe that you have to hold things back in the non-conference season. Coach wanted to teach these guys man principles, so the zone kind of got lost in the shuffle, but that allowed us to spring it on Xavier, who wasn't expecting it.
 
I feel good about our odds again UConn. Any team can lose or win rankings don’t mean much in December.
 
IDRAFT said:
Regarding the zone, not taking a shot at anyone, but at the high-major level it's not that easy to effectively play. There is a lot of precision and teamwork involved. I'm not surprised that Pitino held it until it was ready, and also didn't show it before league play. In the postgame press conference Miller basically admitted they weren't prepared for it.

That part works once, and once only, but it did help win a game.
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The old adage is you can't play a great zone without being great man-to-man. Since Rick practices are often closed (there are even drapes on entrances) it's because they work on stuff to be specific game ready. At times Rick appears loose with the lips and is, but not about game plans.

To me this is one of the compelling reasons to go to even low d1 games. I always glance to see Ricks exchange with players coming out, at timeouts when he gets pretty riled at a single player, or how he gets on refs after bad calls.

He never loses focus though, and always has his eye on the court.

For us it's a really once in a lifetime chance to experience one of the game's all-time great coaches at work.

The buzz is definitely there. Sju faculty and admins who rarely if ever came to games are showing up. The city interest in our program right now is far greater than attendance numbers. If we beat UCONN I expect we get a ticket bump. This may or may not be an excellent team but for fans in sttendance we are getting our money's worth
 
I agree it is interesting this year to watch Rick in action during the game and timeouts. Nothing though, will ever top the Mullin years for me. The timeouts were wild, Mullin spending almost all of it either arguing with a ref or ten feet from the players huddled with his assistants. The players off to the side just standing there, looking over at them. It was like when you see a ten car pileup, you can’t look away, even though you know you are seeing something awful.
 
IDRAFT said:
…… Nothing though, will ever top the Mullin years for me. The timeouts were wild, Mullin spending almost all of it either arguing with a ref or ten feet from the players huddled with his assistants. The players off to the side just standing there, looking over at them. It was like when you see a ten car pileup, you can’t look away, even though you know you are seeing something awful.
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Mullin was an ill conceived hire.

He never should have been hired as head mens basketball coach by StJohn’s.
 
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IDRAFT said:
I agree it is interesting this year to watch Rick in action during the game and timeouts. Nothing though, will ever top the Mullin years for me. The timeouts were wild, Mullin spending almost all of it either arguing with a ref or ten feet from the players huddled with his assistants. The players off to the side just standing there, looking over at them. It was like when you see a ten car pileup, you can’t look away, even though you know you are seeing something awful.
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You would have thought Mullin would have at least watching a few basketball movies or shows like Hoosiers and The White Shadow so at least he could have imitated a basketball coach. :rolleyes::(
 
I expect if Clingan can't play, we may see a little of Yousouff Singare, 6'10" frosh spelling Johnson. Should give Johnnies a decided edge at center with Joel & Zuby.
 
I think UConn plays it safe and Clingan sits. They have a 10 day break after our game so it may be wise for their sake to give him more time to recover especially since he had prior foot issues before the season started. I think that leads to a second advantage for St. John's - not only will they be without their best interior presence and who they build their offensive game plan against, but they will have to strategize on like 36 hours notice, with SJU's new zone wrinkle.

Hurley will be up to the task and I'm sure there's juice going up against Pitino and SJU to boot. But this is lining up to be a game we can steal. You take all the breaks you can get if you're St. John's and don't feel sorry. Now lets go get a road win!
 
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