(EXHIBITION) (POST-GAME) Baruch, Wed. Oct. 27, 7pm, ESPN-3

[P1NSTR1PEZ]

One of the major takeaways I had from last night was towards the end of the game we were still shooting 66% from the field. We finished shooting 62%. Now, yes the competition was subpar, but that actually tells me that SJU was taking and making smart attempts and we weren't just firing unnecessary 3's or trying to do anything out of the ordinary even in an exhibition. Seems like that may be a sign of maturity, experience, and growth. Another positive!

 

[mjmaherjr]

were they checking vax status when you entered ?

 

[P1NSTR1PEZ]

Yes you had to show your vaccine card (or phone pass)  at the door and your ID. 

 

[Amaseinyourface]

Agree with all the positives and especially agree with tempering enthusiasm due to the opponent.  

I will say, despite adding a lot of size, I think this team will still need to work at rebounding.  Aaron Wheeler is not going to play like a traditional PF and Soriano will only have so many minutes in him.  In my opinion Nywie is not BE ready and as excited as I am about Stanley, he too is a freshman who has only played against Baruch College.

Not trying to throw water on the optimism.  I am more pumped for the season than I have been in a long time.  I also still think we can be a good rebounding team.  Just think we'll need to "get after it" on the boards.  

Agreed. It will be Champ at the 4 with 3 guards for a lot of the time. And a good portion of that will come without Soriano on the court. Champ and Wheeler at the 4/5 probably won’t be pushing a bunch of guys around.

What we do have is the ability to go real big by sliding champ down and playing a big next to Soriano. But I think our strength will be our guards and wings so figure we see less of the big lineups and more of the 3 guard lineups which to your point means there will have to be a major focus on rebounding.

 

[JohnnyFan]

JohnnyFan wrote:

Agree with all the positives and especially agree with tempering enthusiasm due to the opponent.  

I will say, despite adding a lot of size, I think this team will still need to work at rebounding.  Aaron Wheeler is not going to play like a traditional PF and Soriano will only have so many minutes in him.  In my opinion Nywie is not BE ready and as excited as I am about Stanley, he too is a freshman who has only played against Baruch College.

Not trying to throw water on the optimism.  I am more pumped for the season than I have been in a long time.  I also still think we can be a good rebounding team.  Just think we'll need to "get after it" on the boards.  

Interesting take JF. I always enjoy reading your posts and usually agree with them. One game, especially against Baruch, doesn't tell us much, but I have a different take based as much on our new personnel as last night's game.
I think we will be a much better team in three respects: rebounding, shooting and depth. The depth speaks for itself. While guys like Smith & Coburn can really shoot it, it helps so much to have guys like Wheeler & Soriano who can hit midrange shots, As for rebounding, while Wheeler may play more like a stretch 4 or wing than a traditional power forward, Champ plays more like a stretch 4 than a wing and is an excellent rebounder and both Mathis & Coburn are very good rebounding guards.
To me question marks are taking care of the ball and defense. Baruch got lots of good looks last night, just weren't good enough to take advantage. Haven't seen enough of Pinzon, Smith & Soriano to be confident they can be competent BE defenders this year. Having said all that, very optimistic we will be good, only question is how good.            
  

Thanks.  All fair points, NCJ.

 

[Red Drum]

12-20 FT’s and 7-20 from 3.  Not good. Don’t think Traore should red shirt. Nyiwe won’t see meaningful minutes and Traore is at least an athletic wing.

 

[Amaseinyourface]

12-20 FT’s and 7-20 from 3.  Not good. Don’t think Traore should red shirt. Nyiwe won’t see meaningful minutes and Traore is at least an athletic wing.

If a team consistently hits 8 of 20 three’s they are one of the best shooting teams in the country. But we make 7-20 in an exhibition and that’s a bad sign..

 

[redmannorth]

12-20 FT’s and 7-20 from 3.  Not good. Don’t think Traore should red shirt. Nyiwe won’t see meaningful minutes and Traore is at least an athletic wing.

provided he is on board with it a redshirt year would be great for Traoré. He will get stronger , learn the system and adjust to college life. Minutes at the wing this season will be the hardest to obtain by far. You have Champ , Coburn, Mathis, Smith, Wusu, Pinson all ahead of Traoré. Why burn a year of his playing time if the playing time will be negligible at best. 
Sitting out can benefit both Traoré and the team down the road. 

 

[RedStormNC]

And one of the misses was by the walk on in garbage time.  And Champ was 2-6 who brought it down. Doubt many are worried on Champ.  3's shouldn't be a concern right now.

FT's ? More legit concern.

Mathis & Wheeler will likely struggle based on past  59% & 66% respectively and need to be subbed out at critical times or kept off ball.  Soriano was great at line the other night but he's a career 61% too.

 

[MCNPA]

Fwiw, the exhibition is available for replay on ESPN app. now.

 

[Amaseinyourface]

12-20 FT’s and 7-20 from 3.  Not good. Don’t think Traore should red shirt. Nyiwe won’t see meaningful minutes and Traore is at least an athletic wing.

provided he is on board with it a redshirt year would be great for Traoré. He will get stronger , learn the system and adjust to college life. Minutes at the wing this season will be the hardest to obtain by far. You have Champ , Coburn, Mathis, Smith, Wusu, Pinson all ahead of Traoré. Why burn a year of his playing time if the playing time will be negligible at best. 
Sitting out can benefit both Traoré and the team down the road. 

Don’t think he figures to be wing guy but A redshirt year can absolutely help a player out. I’m just a little surprised to see it with how rarely a player stays at a school for 4 years. If he doesn’t stay 5 years it nearly a waste.

 

[MCNPA]

12-20 FT’s and 7-20 from 3.  Not good. Don’t think Traore should red shirt. Nyiwe won’t see meaningful minutes and Traore is at least an athletic wing.

provided he is on board with it a redshirt year would be great for Traoré. He will get stronger , learn the system and adjust to college life. Minutes at the wing this season will be the hardest to obtain by far. You have Champ , Coburn, Mathis, Smith, Wusu, Pinson all ahead of Traoré. Why burn a year of his playing time if the playing time will be negligible at best. 
Sitting out can benefit both Traoré and the team down the road. 

Don’t think he figures to be wing guy but A redshirt year can absolutely help a player out. I’m just a little surprised to see it with how rarely a player stays at a school for 4 years. If he doesn’t stay 5 years it nearly a waste.

I agree.  In this day and age, redshirts in college ball only work for kids at the blue bloods like Duke, and even there it’s tricky now.  Kids willl just end up just transferring.   Not sure it helps to redshirt him.  
 

 

[MCNPA]

Re-watching the game I’ll say I love Omar Stanley’s movement at both ends.  Guy is long and can really guard almost any position.  Laterally he’s a ton quicker than I had any idea about.  He’s gonna earn a ton of minutes with his motor/defensive intensity and has a ton of upside.  Gets out of position at times as a young’n but that will come with time.  

We were a bit sloppy maybe using too much help defense but I have to say that we have a ton of athletic length that can recover quickly with guys like Stanley, Wheeler, Nywie etc. When we tighten it up defensively as season progresses will be hard to drive past a lot of these guys.

 

[billthetruth]

Re-watching the game I’ll say I love Omar Stanley’s movement at both ends.  Guy is long and can really guard almost any position.  Laterally he’s a ton quicker than I had any idea about.  He’s gonna earn a ton of minutes with his motor/defensive intensity and has a ton of upside.  Gets out of position at times as a young’n but that will come with time.  

We were a bit sloppy maybe using too much help defense but I have to say that we have a ton of athletic length that can recover quickly with guys like Stanley, Wheeler, Nywie etc. When we tighten it up defensively as season progresses will be hard to drive past a lot of these guys.

No offense to the guys that left (wish them all success at levels more appropriate for their skillsets) but this new core (Big East level quality talent) is more equipped to play to Alexander's strengths as a penetrating point guard. This year we will have more consistent outside shooting (Smith, Coburn) and guys that can finish around the rim (Soriano). The perfect cocktail for Alexander.

I would not be surprised if Posh dominates this year. Fans in the seats and CMA able to better implement his 40 minutes of hell vision (due to a deeper more athletic team) Posh should be great in the open floor.  

 

[BrookJersey Redmen]

Someone mentioned Baruch not being even Wagner, that's an insult to Wagner a one time Div. 1 school which has made the Big Dance from their Conference.

Mississippi Valley should be replaced by a team like Wagner and give us more of a challenge.

If I remember (?) Wagner has beat us in the not so distant past.

 

[IDRAFT]

12-20 FT’s and 7-20 from 3.  Not good. Don’t think Traore should red shirt. Nyiwe won’t see meaningful minutes and Traore is at least an athletic wing.

provided he is on board with it a redshirt year would be great for Traoré. He will get stronger , learn the system and adjust to college life. Minutes at the wing this season will be the hardest to obtain by far. You have Champ , Coburn, Mathis, Smith, Wusu, Pinson all ahead of Traoré. Why burn a year of his playing time if the playing time will be negligible at best. 
Sitting out can benefit both Traoré and the team down the road. 

Don’t think he figures to be wing guy but A redshirt year can absolutely help a player out. I’m just a little surprised to see it with how rarely a player stays at a school for 4 years. If he doesn’t stay 5 years it nearly a waste.

I agree the chances of direct benefit to the school is almost zero. The level of player who is a redshirt candidate rarely becomes the number one option on a team and every player who is anything less eventually transfers looking for greener grass. As it does save a year of eligibility for the player, however, there is the potential benefit to the school of showing that a coach cares about his players by not burning their eligibility. SJU had a case of the opposite a few years back with Balamou, 

 

[MarkRedman]

Re-watching the game I’ll say I love Omar Stanley’s movement at both ends.  Guy is long and can really guard almost any position.  Laterally he’s a ton quicker than I had any idea about.  He’s gonna earn a ton of minutes with his motor/defensive intensity and has a ton of upside.  Gets out of position at times as a young’n but that will come with time.  

We were a bit sloppy maybe using too much help defense but I have to say that we have a ton of athletic length that can recover quickly with guys like Stanley, Wheeler, Nywie etc. When we tighten it up defensively as season progresses will be hard to drive past a lot of these guys.


After watching the game,  my initial thought was that CMA and his staff did an amazing job to replace all of the guys that left with the players that they were able to recruit in such a short amount of time.  Quite honestly, I think that we now have more overall talent on the roster than we did last year. Great job!!!
 

 

[bamafan]

Someone mentioned Baruch not being even Wagner, that's an insult to Wagner a one time Div. 1 school which has made the Big Dance from their Conference.

Mississippi Valley should be replaced by a team like Wagner and give us more of a challenge.

If I remember (?) Wagner has beat us in the not so distant past.

"Wagner a one time D1 school"? They are still D1.

 

[sjc88]

Wagner hasn’t beaten St. John’s since 1956. SJU is 19-2 vs Wagner. 

 

[Ray Morgan]

Wagner hasn’t beaten St. John’s since 1956. SJU is 19-2 vs Wagner. 

There was a close one here and there. I remember Ron Plair  sending a game into overtime at the buzzer.