(EXHIBITION) Michigan (MSG), Sat., Oct. 25, 7p, Big Ten+

They killed us on the boards, but there are not too many frontcourts with that combination of size, skill, and depth.

I know we like to call rebounding an effort stat, but that's not always the case.
Rebounding, like all stats, need to be analyzed in context. IMO, they didn’t kill us at all except statistically. Offensive rebounds were about even 16-15 Michigan but they had 11 more defensive rebounds because SJU missed 12 more shots than Michigan. They simply had more rebounding opportunities.
 
NCJ if you manage to pick up 5 fouls on defense in 8 minutes then by definition it was not a stellar defensive performance. Most of them were hand checks (some weak calls IMO) but he clearly has work to do on that end. Compare Darling who was much more solid defensively with the same assignment.

And I like Sellers. But cannot defend his game tonight.
LFM I missed the first five minutes when he got those first two fouls and did see at least one foul call in second half that was nonsensical.
Having said that, I also saw writeups of practices/Towson game that said his defense looked good. I guess my point is it’s crazy to write him off defensively or as a guy who can run the offense based on eight minutes playing time tonight. Classic Johnnie poster over the topism!
 
Rebounding, like all stats, need to be analyzed in context. IMO, they didn’t kill us at all except statistically. Offensive rebounds were about even 16-15 Michigan but they had 11 more defensive rebounds because SJU missed 12 more shots than Michigan. They simply had more rebounding opportunities.
That’s fair but maybe if we had rebounded better we would have won the offensive boards by more as we did miss so many shots. I think that is what Pitino was referring to with the guards. Our guards last year may have spoiled him in that respect.
 
Rebounding, like all stats, need to be analyzed in context. IMO, they didn’t kill us at all except statistically. Offensive rebounds were about even 16-15 Michigan but they had 11 more defensive rebounds because SJU missed 12 more shots than Michigan. They simply had more rebounding opportunities.
So they had 1 more offensive rebound than us despite having 12 fewer opportunities
 
That’s fair but maybe if we had rebounded better we would have won the offensive boards by more as we did miss so many shots. I think that is what Pitino was referring to with the guards. Our guards last year may have spoiled him in that respect.
Very possible but Pitino certainly knows that guards will generally rebound on the defensive end because they need to NOT crash the offensive boards as their primary responsibility is to stay back to provide floor balance and not give up easy fast break layups. Send your guards to the offensive boards and opponents will simple leak out players down the court for the uncontested layups Michigan was getting off the press all night. IMO, his time would have been much better spent adjusting to that than worrying about guards rebounding.
I took Pitino’s comment about guards rebounding to just be his penchant for post game obfuscations.
 
The game was very entertaining. Unfortunately, we won and lost the game twice.
Pitino allowed our guys to rush a shot that could have won it if he had called a time out with 10 seconds and the ball in regulation.
In overtime my wife was confident Lefty was going to hit all three ft's. I said "we are.....St. John's ".........he will miss 2 of 3.
As for factors that contributed to the loss, the most egregious were allowing Michigan long passes for open dunks and poor defense against Yaxel.
Sanon could have made a bigger difference had he not fouled out but Sellers and Ian Jackson were completely out of team rhythm with Jackson seemingly forcing his offense.
The only position we were struggling with was at point guard where we had no match for Cadeu who is incredibly crafty with the ball in his hands. I'm hoping Ian Jackson or Dylan Darling become half as good but tonight they were dominated.
Lefty and Ayo will get more minutes if tonight is any measure of effective shooting.
I look for a ranking swap with Michigan by week two of the season and both slipping into the bottom 10 simply because Michigan is a better shooting team with a front line built for the BIG and we have a ton of work to do on shooting the trey.......AGAIN!
 
I thought Mitchell and Zuby played like monsters and Prey not far behind.

Darling belongs, so that convo is officially over.

Get Sellers off the goddamn ball. He’s too good of a spot up shooter to be shooting off the bounce.

Hopkins needs to stop putting the ball so low in the lane. It seems like he was stripped, tied up, or almost stripped 10x. And what’s with all the falling?

Sanon showed glimpses of dominance.

Both teams won with the back and forth and extra 5 minutes.

Sanon and Sellers with 3 bigs is a disastrous look.

We looked elite for stretches.
 
I thought Mitchell and Zuby played like monsters and Prey not far behind.

Darling belongs, so that convo is officially over.

Get Sellers off the goddamn ball. He’s too good of a spot up shooter to be shooting off the bounce.

Hopkins needs to stop putting the ball so low in the lane. It seems like he was stripped, tied up, or almost stripped 10x. And what’s with all the falling?

Sanon showed glimpses of dominance.

Both teams won with the back and forth and extra 5 minutes.

Sanon and Sellers with 3 bigs is a disastrous look.

We looked elite for stretches.
Agree
 
From these two scrimmages, I think we know what the front court is going to look like. The big 3 plus Prey as depth and Mitchell it’s going to be hard to keep Zuby-Bryce-Mitchell off the court together.

The back court and wing situation is definitely a work in progress. We know what Ayo and to an extent Lefty can give us. Darling did some good things. It’s going to be figuring out the Ian-Sellers-Sanon situation.

With Ian, I’d remind everyone that for a good chunk of the beginning of last season our beloved Kadary Richmond looked nothing like the player we expected. And what he ultimately turned out to be. Give him and the other time to figure things out, get comfortable and for Rick & Co to do their thing.
 
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