Expectations

I appreciate giving and receiving support! Thanks!!
Is the "goat" thing flattery or denigration?
I acknowledged I was longwinded but bizarrely written?
I guess (?) so
No excuse, no back to
Plebe year though I still have an occasional nightmare - my heart goes out to returning Iraqi veterans.

I'm pleased I'm not the only one believing we might be okay as is.
Again I'm appreciative despite not alluding to Schopenhauer
Wasn't Pavlov enough?
Oh well
:)
 
Thanks Paul & Main M and all
My final thread for the year, or at least the month???
Special on Custer's (WEST POINT GRAD) last stand - just hope we don't see last stand #2 the sequel...
Now link between Little Big Horn and St. John's?
It's Queens!
Last man to see George A. alive was his Italian bugler Giovani Martini - Custer sent him off to alert the split forces.
He's buried in Queens under the name John Martin.

Hope this little bit of history doesn't banish me to South Dakota or some such outpost. Oh wait, they have BBall in the Bad Lands.
Let's go SJU!
 
Interesting. I wonder how many historical American figures had their names changed like that?
 
After watching these first few games, I think this team is an NCAA tournament team.

This team plays very good defense.
Jordan, Obekpa and Pointer all play stellar defense. Quick hands + Shot blocking will do wonders for your defense. Harrison and Greene are fine on the defensive end. If the team on a whole work their tails on defense every single game, then they will be in every single game this year. Defensive excellence just doesn't go away.

As far as the offense goes, we should probably expect more of what we saw yesterday. Marginal at best three-point shooting; some shots will will fall, some won't. The team will get plenty of transition points off of turnovers. The passing is definitely improved. Having Pointer as good passer definitely helps.

While we often complain about our offensive sets, this team does get plenty of open of decent and open shots. I remember watching in the first half of the MN game when the SJU was down, the offensive got off plenty of fine shots. I remarked to my friend at the game, "This isn't on Lavin, this is on the players just not getting their shots to fall."

We have to improve some on the free throw line, but that's not asking a lot. Jordan has to cut out the turnovers from dribbling into traffic. That should be a doable change mid-season. Jordan can be special this season, he just have to tighten things a bit.

Improving mid and long range shooting mid-season is too much to ask. That's not going to improve. Lack of height and depth is a problem, but not insurmountable. The team just has to work around it.

The team definitely has warts, but I think they have enough to get it done.
 
This team is a bubble team again. The resurgence of Dom and improvement from Obekpa will offset the lost of production on offense by Sampson. We will be thin inside, but then again its not like we didn't get killed on the boards or interior defense last year with Sampson, Sanchez and Gift. One area that is potentially better is that Lavin has a much shorter rotation this year. A lot of that is due to the fact that he has less options, but that is also less opportunities to experiment and fiddle with lineup. Hopefully what we will see over time is chemistry amongst the players as they spend a lot of time together on the court. There do seem to be better defined roles on the team this year. (i.e. Dom in the paint more and less floating on the three point line) Hopefully, this can translate into the one or two more wins we need to get over the hump.
 
It will be interesting to see what happens. On the one hand, that game last night was far closer than I (and I think most people) thought it would be. We took it to the rim much more aggressively than we did last year, despite Gonzaga's big guys. On the other hand, we are currently dead last in the Big East in both field goal % and 3-point %. If I was the opposing coach of any team, I'd just zone us all day, every day. I think we'll be competitive most nights as we were last night, but winning against good teams will be another matter unless our shooting dramatically improves.
 
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