Creighton, Thur Dec. 31, 2pm, FS1 & 970 AM

Thoughts:

1) The Big East season is likely to seem longer than it is. I don't think Creighton played really well, but they pretty much easily had their way with us.
2) Christian Jones played poorly beyond his stat sheet. In about a 5 minute span in the first half he gave up 2 threes where he lost his man, 2 layups, and travelled. HE played only 15 mins, and his early performance dictated that.
3) Groselle easily had his way against Sima. If this is an indication of what Big East centers will do to him, he has a long way to go. He looked more like a project than an important piece of the puzzle.
4) Felix is just a terrific athlete missing great basketball instincts. He holds the ball while in deep even as players collapse on him- never a great way to play at 6'4". While sometimes good things happen, just as often will force a shot. At one point in the second half he shot 4 times in a row. When Fexli is your #1 option late in the game, that's never a good sign.
5) Durand Johnson is a chucker. On a good team, he'd be glued to the bench.
6) Ellison showed to a lot of people here that trashing him was premature.
7) Mussini is just not a good shooter under pressure. On a good team when he is a 3rd or 4th option, if he learns to get open, he will bury shots. On a bad team, he will struggle mightily.
8) Was Amar hurt? He hardly played. With his length he would have been a better 2nd option to guard Groselle, than Yakwe, or at least when Creighton went to twin towers, should have seen some time.
9) Mvouika did almost nothing in 20 mins. I'd rather see him getting looks than Johnson or Balamou.
10) Yakwe is still raw, but should be a player.
11) Mullin spends a lot of time during timeouts complaining to refs while the team sits around or listen to St. Jean. This act will get tired, even for refs who adored him as a player. He had to learn to say what he has to say to refs, and focus on coaching his team.
12) Is 3-15 or worse in league merely a possibility, or is it a probability?
13) What the hell is wrong with SJU? Refreshment stands are woefully understaffed with only lowest level employee types, and they had no hot food - likely because food services is closed for the holiday. Bush league for a big time school. Two sodas, a small bag of chips, and M&Ms - $15 - crazy. It took 25-30 minutes for my kid to get through the line beginning 5 minutes before the half.
 
3-15 is best case scenario in my opinion

Like Paultz has mentioned basically the only thing this year that I am looking forward to anymore is seeing the young kids develop and to recruiting for next year and the countdown to next season

But basketball wise I'd be lying if I said this is fun to watch other than the syracuse game and maybe 1 other game.

The thing that irks me a little is I look at a team like creighton and last year to the best of my recollection they didn't have a good record at all but I watched them maybe 5 or 6 times total and even when they were losing they were fun to watch. I can't say the same thing about us

Hopefully with the new guys coming in next year and the freshman developing we will be more exciting
 
DJ is a little too concerned with his own game as opposed to the team..
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Are you basing that on reading the board or what you saw? DJ had 14 points - 6 of 11 FG and 2 of 5 from three - 4 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals, no turnovers. And he hit the floor twice I saw for loose balls. If Phil Greene had that stat line he'd have been up for canonization. Last two games Johnson has 30 points (12-23 / 5-12 3pt) 9 rebounds and one TO in 67 minutes. Meanwhile Mussini is 1-8 from the floor (6 for 22 and 1 for 12 from three over two games) and he gets praised.
 
This team wont be fun to watch because we got robbed of the most vital cog we need, the PG. Think about how much more fun this team would play with dribble penetration, not turning the ball over on simple presses. I fell bad for the kid because he did what he had to do. Now we are mired in a season without a true PG and that will be the achilles heel all season. Just watch and let the kids get experience and get ready for 16-17. These kids will be hungry after playing through this kind of season also.
 
Thoughts:

1) The Big East season is likely to seem longer than it is. I don't think Creighton played really well, but they pretty much easily had their way with us.
2) Christian Jones played poorly beyond his stat sheet. In about a 5 minute span in the first half he gave up 2 threes where he lost his man, 2 layups, and travelled. HE played only 15 mins, and his early performance dictated that.
3) Groselle easily had his way against Sima. If this is an indication of what Big East centers will do to him, he has a long way to go. He looked more like a project than an important piece of the puzzle.
4) Felix is just a terrific athlete missing great basketball instincts. He holds the ball while in deep even as players collapse on him- never a great way to play at 6'4". While sometimes good things happen, just as often will force a shot. At one point in the second half he shot 4 times in a row. When Fexli is your #1 option late in the game, that's never a good sign.
5) Durand Johnson is a chucker. On a good team, he'd be glued to the bench.
6) Ellison showed to a lot of people here that trashing him was premature.
7) Mussini is just not a good shooter under pressure. On a good team when he is a 3rd or 4th option, if he learns to get open, he will bury shots. On a bad team, he will struggle mightily.
8) Was Amar hurt? He hardly played. With his length he would have been a better 2nd option to guard Groselle, than Yakwe, or at least when Creighton went to twin towers, should have seen some time.
9) Mvouika did almost nothing in 20 mins. I'd rather see him getting looks than Johnson or Balamou.
10) Yakwe is still raw, but should be a player.
11) Mullin spends a lot of time during timeouts complaining to refs while the team sits around or listen to St. Jean. This act will get tired, even for refs who adored him as a player. He had to learn to say what he has to say to refs, and focus on coaching his team.
12) Is 3-15 or worse in league merely a possibility, or is it a probability?
13) What the hell is wrong with SJU? Refreshment stands are woefully understaffed with only lowest level employee types, and they had no hot food - likely because food services is closed for the holiday. Bush league for a big time school. Two sodas, a small bag of chips, and M&Ms - $15 - crazy. It took 25-30 minutes for my kid to get through the line beginning 5 minutes before the half.
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I agree the line was ridiculous and the sodas were warm from the side small stand. They knew it would be a big crowd based on ticket sales, very poor planning.
 
Thoughts:

1) The Big East season is likely to seem longer than it is. I don't think Creighton played really well, but they pretty much easily had their way with us.
2) Christian Jones played poorly beyond his stat sheet. In about a 5 minute span in the first half he gave up 2 threes where he lost his man, 2 layups, and travelled. HE played only 15 mins, and his early performance dictated that.
3) Groselle easily had his way against Sima. If this is an indication of what Big East centers will do to him, he has a long way to go. He looked more like a project than an important piece of the puzzle.
4) Felix is just a terrific athlete missing great basketball instincts. He holds the ball while in deep even as players collapse on him- never a great way to play at 6'4". While sometimes good things happen, just as often will force a shot. At one point in the second half he shot 4 times in a row. When Fexli is your #1 option late in the game, that's never a good sign.
5) Durand Johnson is a chucker. On a good team, he'd be glued to the bench.
6) Ellison showed to a lot of people here that trashing him was premature.
7) Mussini is just not a good shooter under pressure. On a good team when he is a 3rd or 4th option, if he learns to get open, he will bury shots. On a bad team, he will struggle mightily.
8) Was Amar hurt? He hardly played. With his length he would have been a better 2nd option to guard Groselle, than Yakwe, or at least when Creighton went to twin towers, should have seen some time.
9) Mvouika did almost nothing in 20 mins. I'd rather see him getting looks than Johnson or Balamou.
10) Yakwe is still raw, but should be a player.
11) Mullin spends a lot of time during timeouts complaining to refs while the team sits around or listen to St. Jean. This act will get tired, even for refs who adored him as a player. He had to learn to say what he has to say to refs, and focus on coaching his team.
12) Is 3-15 or worse in league merely a possibility, or is it a probability?
13) What the hell is wrong with SJU? Refreshment stands are woefully understaffed with only lowest level employee types, and they had no hot food - likely because food services is closed for the holiday. Bush league for a big time school. Two sodas, a small bag of chips, and M&Ms - $15 - crazy. It took 25-30 minutes for my kid to get through the line beginning 5 minutes before the half.
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I agree the line was ridiculous and the sodas were warm from the side small stand. They knew it would be a big crowd based on ticket sales, very poor planning.
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was the soda warm on it's own or did the heat from the oven called canesecca arena warm them ? :)
 
The only chance of SJU winning a game this year is to take at least 25 three point shots making close to half of them and even that won't be enough some nights.
 
DJ is a little too concerned with his own game as opposed to the team..
Click to expand...

Are you basing that on reading the board or what you saw? DJ had 14 points - 6 of 11 FG and 2 of 5 from three - 4 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals, no turnovers. And he hit the floor twice I saw for loose balls. If Phil Greene had that stat line he'd have been up for canonization. Last two games Johnson has 30 points (12-23 / 5-12 3pt) 9 rebounds and one TO in 67 minutes. Meanwhile Mussini is 1-8 from the floor (6 for 22 and 1 for 12 from three over two games) and he gets praised.
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I've been lightening up on my criticism of Johnson lately. I personally don't really like his game, but the truth is he's the only one on this team that can create his own shot. I don't always love the shot he takes but there aren't a whole lot of options right now. We lack guys who can create their own offense and we don't have a PG who can do it for them. It's tough. He'll have terrible nights and good nights. He's streaky but so is Mussini. They're our best options right now. Next year we bring in 3 guys who are all capable of taking the ball and getting a bucket. Just gotta wait it out.
 
Last post by Beast is right on target. As to DJ we have to accept that we have no other option against a strong team
 
On other high major programs DJ would be a role player. On our program he has to start. Like Fun says he gets too much criticism,, he was not our problem yesterday. .. I hate to say this, but like Fun, also pointed out., we were too premature w our praise of Mussini IMO Mussini comes off the bench next year. Which is not to say I don't like him,. He still will get a lot of burn. After watching Ellison the previous 2 games I was ready to write him off as a dud. But, he looked very good w nice upside. Unfortunately this year is tough to watch. The best we could do is hope for a good year next year. We pretty much got our recruiting targets, assuming we get the German kid, anyone else is icing on the cake.
 
On other high major programs DJ would be a role player. On our program he has to start. Like Fun says he gets too much criticism,, he was not our problem yesterday. .. I hate to say this, but like Fun, also pointed out., we were too premature w our praise of Mussini IMO Mussini comes off the bench next year. Which is not to say I don't like him,. He still will get a lot of burn. After watching Ellison the previous 2 games I was ready to write him off as a dud. But, he looked very good w nice upside. Unfortunately this year is tough to watch. The best we could do is hope for a good year next year. We pretty much got our recruiting targets, assuming we get the German kid, anyone else is icing on the cake.
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On the plus side, DJ is capable of playing almost at the same level vs. Big East competition as the preseason schedule of low D1 competition. On the negative side, he will basically play the same.

He is a shoot first, think second type of player. If he is open he will fire one up, ignoring where the other 4 teammates are. If he decides to drive, the ball is going up no matter how many guys he draws. Being wide open is not a high percentage shot. He is either on or off - period. Definitely more of a schoolyard player in the college game. He has as much basketball ability as anyone on the floor but is too undisciplined to ever become much of a player. There will be good days and bad days, and even yesterday with a decent stat line, he could not come up with a big basket when we could have cut the lead to 2 or 3 points. I could not see him playing a role on a good team unless he became more disciplined, which is likely never going to happen.

To his credit, he did make a really heads up play getting the ball upcourt while on the ground after a steal in the first half.

Everyone likes to play with a pure shooter.
Everyone likes to play with a scorer (a Bootsy for example)
No one likes to play with a chucker. DJ is a chucker.
 
On one of Groselle's many baskets using the same fake left, back over the right shoulder moves, they showed his feet, which after the jab step left fake, quickly shuffled before he came back to his right; i.e. travelling. Wonder if that is the case every time he does it and why it is not called.
 
On one of Groselle's many baskets using the same fake left, back over the right shoulder moves, they showed his feet, which after the jab step left fake, quickly shuffled before he came back to his right; i.e. travelling. Wonder if that is the case every time he does it and why it is not called.
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Because refs are looking to call fouls on the defender in those situations and aren't looking at the feet. They are looking for hand checks and fouls on the shot, unfortunately.
 
On one of Groselle's many baskets using the same fake left, back over the right shoulder moves, they showed his feet, which after the jab step left fake, quickly shuffled before he came back to his right; i.e. travelling. Wonder if that is the case every time he does it and why it is not called.
Click to expand...

Because refs are looking to call fouls on the defender in those situations and aren't looking at the feet. They are looking for hand checks and fouls on the shot, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

I said to my son yesterday, "I would be the best ref ever from the stands". At a 10 foot elevation, (approximately my 7th row seats, it's a lot easier (with no pressure to make a mistake), to see things more clearly. I once got IABO certified as a ref, but hated it because it was so hard to call a game at court level. Even if you are just covering one part of the floor, basketball is constant motion. Yesterday, one of the refs took his whistle out of his mouth after being berated by a fan in my section, and said to him semi-playfully, "You want this?" Tough job.
 
O
On one of Groselle's many baskets using the same fake left, back over the right shoulder moves, they showed his feet, which after the jab step left fake, quickly shuffled before he came back to his right; i.e. travelling. Wonder if that is the case every time he does it and why it is not called.
Click to expand...

Because refs are looking to call fouls on the defender in those situations and aren't looking at the feet. They are looking for hand checks and fouls on the shot, unfortunately.
Click to expand...

I said to my son yesterday, "I would be the best ref ever from the stands". At a 10 foot elevation, (approximately my 7th row seats, it's a lot easier (with no pressure to make a mistake), to see things more clearly. I once got IABO certified as a ref, but hated it because it was so hard to call a game at court level. Even if you are just covering one part of the floor, basketball is constant motion. Yesterday, one of the refs took his whistle out of his mouth after being berated by a fan in my section, and said to him semi-playfully, "You want this?" Tough job.
Click to expand...
when I was in H.S. got a job as a little league umpire. I couldn't tell wether the runners were safe or out. I knew I was so bad, I had to quit. A lot harder than it looks.
 
On other high major programs DJ would be a role player. On our program he has to start. Like Fun says he gets too much criticism,, he was not our problem yesterday. .. I hate to say this, but like Fun, also pointed out., we were too premature w our praise of Mussini IMO Mussini comes off the bench next year. Which is not to say I don't like him,. He still will get a lot of burn. After watching Ellison the previous 2 games I was ready to write him off as a dud. But, he looked very good w nice upside. Unfortunately this year is tough to watch. The best we could do is hope for a good year next year. We pretty much got our recruiting targets, assuming we get the German kid, anyone else is icing on the cake.
Click to expand...

On the plus side, DJ is capable of playing almost at the same level vs. Big East competition as the preseason schedule of low D1 competition. On the negative side, he will basically play the same.

He is a shoot first, think second type of player. If he is open he will fire one up, ignoring where the other 4 teammates are. If he decides to drive, the ball is going up no matter how many guys he draws. Being wide open is not a high percentage shot. He is either on or off - period. Definitely more of a schoolyard player in the college game. He has as much basketball ability as anyone on the floor but is too undisciplined to ever become much of a player. There will be good days and bad days, and even yesterday with a decent stat line, he could not come up with a big basket when we could have cut the lead to 2 or 3 points. I could not see him playing a role on a good team unless he became more disciplined, which is likely never going to happen.

To his credit, he did make a really heads up play getting the ball upcourt while on the ground after a steal in the first half.

Everyone likes to play with a pure shooter.
Everyone likes to play with a scorer (a Bootsy for example)
No one likes to play with a chucker. DJ is a chucker.
Click to expand...

Beast,

He nailed a three to bring his team within 2 points 39-37 early in the second half. I'll bet you a warm CA soda that his hustle and chucking will key this team to the small number of wins left on the schedule.
 
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