Creighton, Wed. Jan. 4, 8:30pm, FS1/570AM

[we are sju]

Maybe it's an age thing but last night I thought Patton reminded me of Camby. Guess Mullin did also. Not the shot blocker yet but I think that will come.

I didn't see that other than physique. Kid is way more advanced offensively and not nearly as good defensively.
Dating myself but I was thinking William Bedford or Brad Sellers. Not the Sellers in the NBA but him in college.
Little Brad Daugherty maybe too.

 

[MarkRedman]

Watching Patton I slipped in to my Celtic fan head and contemplated him as the missing piece to the next phase of the Green dynasty.

I like the analogy someone made saying that Patton was like a young Marcus Camby
Similar body types and similar style of play
Very impressed with this young kid

 

[redfan99d]

Team was sluggish from the start. Mullin even said in his post presser the kids weren't crisp and lacked energy. I think they were surprised how physical Crieghton was & and then not getting any whistles didn't help.

The game plan looked to be don't get beat by 3 pointer & and we will live with getting beat in the paint. Mullin did make quite a few substitutions when there were some blown defensive assignments. Lovett even commented after game about not talking on the court.

Second half played much better more energy. Some good halftime adjustments. Defense is always the last thing that a young team figures out. And I really don't think Sima would of made a difference IMO. I swear we had about 15 shots go in and out of the rim.

On too Xavier.

 

[paultzman]

Jon Rothstein – Verified account ‏@JonRothstein

Creighton is deceptively old. Jays start 2 5th-year seniors & a 4th-year junior. Also bring a 5th-year senior & a 4th-year junior off bench.

 

[austour]

As long as the age = maturity that's a great thing. But it's also the experience.

4 of STJ top 7 are upperclasmen age wise. Darien is a sr's age, Marcus, Tariq and Bashir are jr's age, but they don't have the experience so it's not only about age.

Also to point out about Yakwe's difficulties, he's pretty young, along with Ellison and Ponds. I'm pretty sure Fred is 30. PS just thought about the fact that there was no Sigmund last night at all or did I miss something.

 

[JohnnyFan]

Did Mullin promise Yakwe he would start every game? He's never ready for a pass, still doesn't rebound. He should get less playing time, has to earn his playing time.. Someone has to tell Mullin that Williams is on the bench.
Speaking of the bench what's up with Freudenberg? And having Alibecovic in the game drives me crazy. Didn't take him long to commit two three point fouls, along with that slap at a rebound to Watson for another of his three pointers.
Could have used better games from Ahmed and Ellison.
Defensive wise we allowed too many easy points inside, failing to front Patton. Plus our transition defense waspoor in the first half.
Offensively we waited until the second half to drive and pick up fouls.
Enjoyed our kids fighting back. Looking forward to our future.

Not sure if you watched the game but Williams had no chance last night. Terrible matchup for him, at the game you could see he gets winded fast. Yakwe was the only one to put a body on Patton and probably did the best job of all on
him.
As bad as everyone seems to think Alli is the big German is totally lost in BE play therefore as of know AA is currently the better choice.
Ahmed is totally out of control and for some reason gets pissed when taken out after making one of his crazy spin moves to nowhere. I guess he doesn't get the hint he's coming out when he's out of control.
That game was too fast for Ellison.

All in all didn't expect to win, wasn't happy after the first half but was pleasantly surprised with the second half. Last year this is a 35 point loss. These guys have some fight.

I, too, noticed Williams was easily winded last night. I guess it could be due to a cold since I have not previously seen that from him.

 

[Section3]

Ahmed with an off game. Does not seem into it. He needs to see a shot go in.

At the game you can see every time they take him out he's pissed.

Think Ahmed tried to get into it a few times with quick shots or by trying to bully himself into the lane and it just wasn't working against their experienced and talented defenders. Had a few drives in the first half where he just whirled into the lane and threw up shots without ever even seeing where he was on the floor in relation to the hoop.

Absolutely correct. Further, I wish he could bully his way in but he can't...he routinely has to culminate his drives with a shot while falling away because he is not able to elevate over or around the defenders.

He is talented and has been an asset at times. But, needs to be channeled.

 

[Section3]

Honestly all the criticism of Yakwe is a little unfair. The kid is a good piece to the puzzle, just like the role of Moose. If we had a legit front court Yakwe would be coming in and giving us some good defensive minutes. Being slotted at a starting PF is not for him ( at this time ). That being said, the kid is still a soph guys. By the time he is a Sr. he could be a force. Right now he's definitely overmatched. As far as him transferring, stop all the talk, the last thing we need is another piece to transfer. I also noticed the lack of movement with the ball on the perimeter last night. When we win, the ball is being swung around the the open man for a shot. Last night I saw a lot of one man ball. Cant win like that. Yes they are an awesome team, but just some observations on us last night. Ali is the most frustrating player to watch on this team. He should be playing like a beast and is NOT. Again, he is becoming a liability. I said it on twitter, with Nova going down, no way they wanted another BE top 10 going down too. The game was DEFINITELY influenced in favor of Creighton by the stripes. Don't be foolish to not think so. Although don't think they even needed the help.

Respectfully, Amar is end of bench guy who will never be physical presence down low & play intelligently. Yeah, well built, but reminiscent of Vitale's "All Airport Teams", looks the part, but isn't.

And, unfortunately feels like he has the green light.

 

[Section3]

I'm not unhappy with last night's game. As others have noted, Creighton is a very good, very complete team that is extremely well-coached. They could easily be Final 4 material.

There was no way St. John's was going to be able to compete with Patten, though Owens played his heart out and Williams did a nice job also when he was in the game.

I kept an eye on the scoreboard stats throughout the game, and other than shooting percentage, the game was pretty even. The disparity in shooting percentage (which was 55-32 or so for most of the game) was due to two things: Creighton had points in the paint (always higher percentage shots) and St. John's didn't; and from the start of the game until about 1 minute into the 2nd half St. John's was not prepared to deal with Creighton's defensive intensity.

On the other hand, after the Mullin timeout a minute into the second half, St. John's played with much better intensity and focus, had more efficient possessions on offense, rebounded better, and played more aggressive and better defense.

Basically my takeaway is that St. John's was at a fundamental disadvantage coming into this game. Despite that, if a few shots fell in or a few calls went the other way, they would have been right in it. This is a game that a month ago would have been a 40 point loss. Instead, the team stayed together, competed, and made one of the best teams in the country work hard to get out with a win.

I think the game showed that the team and the coaching staff are making tremendous strides forward.

Great post. Our lack of inside threat and inability to get easy baskets allowed Creighton to extend their defense and pressure all of our perimeter threats

 

[redfazed]

As long as the age = maturity that's a great thing. But it's also the experience.

4 of STJ top 7 are upperclasmen age wise. Darien is a sr's age, Marcus, Tariq and Bashir are jr's age, but they don't have the experience so it's not only about age.

Also to point out about Yakwe's difficulties, he's pretty young, along with Ellison and Ponds. I'm pretty sure Fred is 30. PS just thought about the fact that there was no Sigmund last night at all or did I miss something.

No Sigmund last night. He's not ready for prime time.

 

[Section3]

On way home, caught Richmond on post game radio. Strikes me as a very frank guy. He was emphatic about Owens' skills, motor & upside & noted the obvious, the need for Tariq to put on weight. Lastly, he noted he has has been very frank with Owens about that void. Hopefully they come up with a nutritional, weight training program to accomplish that. Some kids just have a hard time adding weight however.

Paultz. . .caught Richmond on radio? were you parked in the lobby?

 

[paultzman]

On way home, caught Richmond on post game radio. Strikes me as a very frank guy. He was emphatic about Owens' skills, motor & upside & noted the obvious, the need for Tariq to put on weight. Lastly, he noted he has has been very frank with Owens about that void. Hopefully they come up with a nutritional, weight training program to accomplish that. Some kids just have a hard time adding weight however.

Paultz. . .caught Richmond on radio? were you parked in the lobby?

No, left with two minutes left.

 

[SJU14]

As long as the age = maturity that's a great thing. But it's also the experience.

4 of STJ top 7 are upperclasmen age wise. Darien is a sr's age, Marcus, Tariq and Bashir are jr's age, but they don't have the experience so it's not only about age.

Also to point out about Yakwe's difficulties, he's pretty young, along with Ellison and Ponds. I'm pretty sure Fred is 30. PS just thought about the fact that there was no Sigmund last night at all or did I miss something.

No Sigmund last night. He's not ready for prime time.

I prefer him over Amar. At least RF makes some nice passes and doesn't make stupid fouls.

 

[JackofVirginia]

As long as the age = maturity that's a great thing. But it's also the experience.

4 of STJ top 7 are upperclasmen age wise. Darien is a sr's age, Marcus, Tariq and Bashir are jr's age, but they don't have the experience so it's not only about age.

Also to point out about Yakwe's difficulties, he's pretty young, along with Ellison and Ponds. I'm pretty sure Fred is 30. PS just thought about the fact that there was no Sigmund last night at all or did I miss something.

No Sigmund last night. He's not ready for prime time.

I prefer him over Amar. At least RF makes some nice passes and doesn't make stupid fouls.

I'd prefer a mascot over Amar.

 

[simplyred]

Amar is more of a physical presence that RF and I believe coach thought that was needed last night. Also, although not physically quick, Amar is better able, right now, to react to the speed of the game than RF is. RF might have been able to provide a bit more outside shooting if he was on.

 

[Class of 72]

Thanks to all for some excellent recaps and observations. 
Creighton is the best team we've faced thus far. I said early on that our offense would have to be superlative for a chance to win and unfortunately too many bad offensive sets, missed bunnies and failure to attack inside made the outcome fairly routine.
Just a few critiques:
1.  I am perplexed as to how starting lineups are determined by this staff.  Yakwe jumping against a true center 6 inches taller was foolish.  Owens would have at least given us a 50/50 shot controlling the tap.  This is a game Sima could have offset the height disadvantage at the center position against Patton.  Thanks Yankuba!
2.  If the staff continues to utilize Yakwe as a 5 I see little value added and if they think starting him will motivate him then I don't think he would be learning to play the game or his position well thereby just delaying the inevitable transfer.
3.  Our top 3 were not clicking on offense with Amhed once again forcing things.  Part of that was excellent defensive pressure by Creighton but most of it was just poor execution on our part.
4.  Great crowd with 3,000 dorm  students home for the holidays.
5.  Mullin appears always to be in charge now which is a good sign.
6.  Our three Euros continue to get devalued versus the U.S. competition.  First Amar Alibegovic is out with a self inflicted injury, then Musso is out with a mystery infection and last night, when we could have used 10 minutes of Der Freudenberg, he is a DNP. I suggest that if that is going to be the trend we stop recruiting marginal European and African talent and just concentrate on American kids like the skinny kid from Omaha named Patton.

 

[bamafan]

Thanks to all for some excellent recaps and observations. 
Creighton is the best team we've faced thus far. I said early on that our offense would have to be superlative for a chance to win and unfortunately too many bad offensive sets, missed bunnies and failure to attack inside made the outcome fairly routine.
Just a few critiques:
1.  I am perplexed as to how starting lineups are determined by this staff.  Yakwe jumping against a true center 6 inches taller was foolish.  Owens would have at least given us a 50/50 shot controlling the tap.  This is a game Sima could have offset the height disadvantage at the center position against Patton.  Thanks Yankuba!
2.  If the staff continues to utilize Yakwe as a 5 I see little value added and if they think starting him will motivate him then I don't think he would be learning to play the game or his position well thereby just delaying the inevitable transfer.
3.  Our top 3 were not clicking on offense with Amhed once again forcing things.  Part of that was excellent defensive pressure by Creighton but most of it was just poor execution on our part.
4.  Great crowd with 3,000 dorm  students home for the holidays.
5.  Mullin appears always to be in charge now which is a good sign.
6.  Our three Euros continue to get devalued versus the U.S. competition.  First Amar Alibegovic is out with a self inflicted injury, then Musso is out with a mystery infection and last night, when we could have used 10 minutes of Der Freudenberg, he is a DNP. I suggest that if that is going to be the trend we stop recruiting marginal European and African talent and just concentrate on American kids like the skinny kid from Omaha named Patton.

Good points 72. As for #3 I have it on good authority that at least two of them would have gone to the game.

 

[Knight]

What happened to Rich F.?

 

[monte]

On way home, caught Richmond on post game radio. Strikes me as a very frank guy. He was emphatic about Owens' skills, motor & upside & noted the obvious, the need for Tariq to put on weight. Lastly, he noted he has has been very frank with Owens about that void. Hopefully they come up with a nutritional, weight training program to accomplish that. Some kids just have a hard time adding weight however.

Paultz. . .caught Richmond on radio? were you parked in the lobby?

No, left with two minutes left.

You're the Phil Rizzuto of Redman fans,

 

[redfan259999888]

What happened to Rich F.?

Thought he was projected for 2 years here, then pro???

I dont see that happening.