Expert in X’s and O’s...

[Jack Williams]

I can't see 20 wins because as I stated in another thread for that to happen everything has to break right and that never happens for us.

I think we will hover around .500 all year with a lot of frustrating losses.

I hope I am wrong and the seniors go out in style but based on the body of work from them and especially from "Lav" I don't see it.

20 wins is a lock as long as Jordan, Harrison and Opekpa stay healthy. That however will mean very little if we don't beat the Dukes, Novas, Gonzagas on our schedule. We need quality wins to get in the dance. Hopefully we get a couple early and then start fast in the big East. Our end of year schedule gets very tough so another slow start will be a killer.

FDU, who we play next month, just beat St. Joe's on the road.
Minnesota "hung with" Louisville for awhile on a neutral court.
St. Mary's is always a pain.
And Fordham has a couple of local players that will give us fits if they're on their game.

I don't think the race to 20 is by any means a lock.

I commend the staff for this OOC schedule. Looks like the toughest we'll have since 2011.

Agreed. We will have plenty of opportunities OOC. Unlike last year

 

[Class of 72]

Expert in X's and O's as in formulating sentences, teaching young men the value of education
and honoring a father and his legacy. Lavin excels in this and it is far more important than wins
and loses. You know the coach is hurting on the Briscoe ordeal. So close up until the last moment
when they tear your heart out. Briscoe's ambiguity almost killed Lavin, but he will survive to
persuade other young men to the attributes of St. John's.

When you are a basketball coach and get payed the big bucks to do it, I'm sorry but W/L is important. More important than anything else.

+1
Go be a motivational speaker or guidance counselor. If he won and still provided that insight great but without the winning its all BS

Moose, they will win 20 plus again this year.

Whoopee. 20 wins doesn't hold the water it used to.

When Lavin's 2nd class committed how many NCAA berths would you have expected by the time graduated. The most conservative would have said 2 figuring JR and SR year. Well last year his mind games cost us a berth and even if they do it this year thats 1 out of 4. His mind games cost us their SOPH year too but lets not go there again.

Doesn't give me much hope even if we had a highly ranked class coming in next year. Waiting 4 years for a berth is not how you build a program.

Sadly, I agree. Many fans after the second class were predicting consecutive sweet 16's. Reality is the players never clicked and have had low BB IQ. Of course history would have been much kinder had Harkless and Sampson stayed and qualified for one season together.
As for mind games, the snake oil salesman had us believing Felix Balamou had such a great practice last season that it was worth burning a red shirt to START him when Jordan returned home and this year Felix barely gets into games against D2 teams. Has Felix regressed or did Lavin use him at the expense of the team and Balamou?

 

[Andrew]

Expert in X's and O's as in formulating sentences, teaching young men the value of education
and honoring a father and his legacy. Lavin excels in this and it is far more important than wins
and loses. You know the coach is hurting on the Briscoe ordeal. So close up until the last moment
when they tear your heart out. Briscoe's ambiguity almost killed Lavin, but he will survive to
persuade other young men to the attributes of St. John's.

When you are a basketball coach and get payed the big bucks to do it, I'm sorry but W/L is important. More important than anything else.

+1
Go be a motivational speaker or guidance counselor. If he won and still provided that insight great but without the winning its all BS

Moose, they will win 20 plus again this year.

Whoopee. 20 wins doesn't hold the water it used to.

When Lavin's 2nd class committed how many NCAA berths would you have expected by the time graduated. The most conservative would have said 2 figuring JR and SR year. Well last year his mind games cost us a berth and even if they do it this year thats 1 out of 4. His mind games cost us their SOPH year too but lets not go there again.

Doesn't give me much hope even if we had a highly ranked class coming in next year. Waiting 4 years for a berth is not how you build a program.

Sadly, I agree. Many fans after the second class were predicting consecutive sweet 16's. Reality is the players never clicked and have had low BB IQ. Of course history would have been much kinder had Harkless and Sampson stayed and qualified for one season together.
As for mind games, the snake oil salesman had us believing Felix Balamou had such a great practice last season that it was worth burning a red shirt to START him when Jordan returned home and this year Felix barely gets into games against D2 teams. Has Felix regressed or did Lavin use him at the expense of the team and Balamou?

Regressed from what. He has never done anything positive.

 

[1and1sju]

Expert in X's and O's as in formulating sentences, teaching young men the value of education
and honoring a father and his legacy. Lavin excels in this and it is far more important than wins
and loses. You know the coach is hurting on the Briscoe ordeal. So close up until the last moment
when they tear your heart out. Briscoe's ambiguity almost killed Lavin, but he will survive to
persuade other young men to the attributes of St. John's.

No. He wont.
This is his final season as a coach.

I've got to agree here with tobin.
And in my opinion, Lavin lost the ability to play the virtue card when he forced Garrett out. So I don't want to hear about how he mentors young men and creates a family atmosphere.
He's a basketball coach. And he's as selfish and sleazy as everyone else in the business. No better no worse. Only difference is he's not winning or building the program for future success.

 

[Russ2374]

I can't see 20 wins because as I stated in another thread for that to happen everything has to break right and that never happens for us.

I think we will hover around .500 all year with a lot of frustrating losses.

I hope I am wrong and the seniors go out in style but based on the body of work from them and especially from "Lav" I don't see it.

20 wins is a lock as long as Jordan, Harrison and Opekpa stay healthy. That however will mean very little if we don't beat the Dukes, Novas, Gonzagas on our schedule. We need quality wins to get in the dance. Hopefully we get a couple early and then start fast in the big East. Our end of year schedule gets very tough so another slow start will be a killer.

FDU, who we play next month, just beat St. Joe's on the road.
Minnesota "hung with" Louisville for awhile on a neutral court.
St. Mary's is always a pain.
And Fordham has a couple of local players that will give us fits if they're on their game.

I don't think the race to 20 is by any means a lock.

I commend the staff for this OOC schedule. Looks like the toughest we'll have since 2011.

Our only tough OOC road game is against Cuse. The neutral site games are all in the city. If we lose to Minnesota, we'll beat Georgia. The Big East is weak this year. Nova and Georgetown are the only teams that I can see sweeping us. If you put us down to lose every game we would be an underdog in that's still probably 18 wins before the conference tourney.

The point is 20 wins is meaningless and should be an after thought for a team with 4 rotation seniors and our talent level. It's the big dance or bust this year!

 

[rawdognyc]

Expert in X's and O's as in formulating sentences, teaching young men the value of education
and honoring a father and his legacy. Lavin excels in this and it is far more important than wins
and loses. You know the coach is hurting on the Briscoe ordeal. So close up until the last moment
when they tear your heart out. Briscoe's ambiguity almost killed Lavin, but he will survive to
persuade other young men to the attributes of St. John's.

When you are a basketball coach and get payed the big bucks to do it, I'm sorry but W/L is important. More important than anything else.

+1
Go be a motivational speaker or guidance counselor. If he won and still provided that insight great but without the winning its all BS

Moose, they will win 20 plus again this year.

Whoopee. 20 wins doesn't hold the water it used to.

When Lavin's 2nd class committed how many NCAA berths would you have expected by the time graduated. The most conservative would have said 2 figuring JR and SR year. Well last year his mind games cost us a berth and even if they do it this year thats 1 out of 4. His mind games cost us their SOPH year too but lets not go there again.

Doesn't give me much hope even if we had a highly ranked class coming in next year. Waiting 4 years for a berth is not how you build a program.

Sadly, I agree. Many fans after the second class were predicting consecutive sweet 16's. Reality is the players never clicked and have had low BB IQ. Of course history would have been much kinder had Harkless and Sampson stayed and qualified for one season together.
As for mind games, the snake oil salesman had us believing Felix Balamou had such a great practice last season that it was worth burning a red shirt to START him when Jordan returned home and this year Felix barely gets into games against D2 teams. Has Felix regressed or did Lavin use him at the expense of the team and Balamou?

In all fairness to Felix, he didn't play in the exhibition games because of a tweaked ankle. So his missed some practices and exhibition games. I feel you'll be pleasantly surprised by him as he gets up to speed. Incredible athlete that at 6'4 plays like he's 6'7.

 

[beast of the east]

What probably sets me apart from certain posters is that they seem to enjoy predicting failure and Lavin's demise.

I'm not very optimistic about this team's outlook this year for reasons I mentioned before. I will stop short of being confident of failure, though. Last years squad wasn't very good, IMO, but they were almost good enough. We competed well in most games, but sputtered when it counted. Providence was touted as having a very successful campaign, but even late in that BET game, the outcome wasn't assured. If we made just of couple of big plays, be it big baskets or stops, the outcome in that and many games could have been different.

That being said, the only thing I would suggest is that without bringing in a loaded recruiting class before this season ends, this should be an NCAA tourney team for Lavin to be renewed at 2 million plus.

In 4 seasons 71-60, 36-36. Take out the fluff non-conference games, and it does not provide a sufficient ROI on a $2 million plus per season investment.

 

[monte]

Expert in X's and O's as in formulating sentences, teaching young men the value of education
and honoring a father and his legacy. Lavin excels in this and it is far more important than wins
and loses. You know the coach is hurting on the Briscoe ordeal. So close up until the last moment
when they tear your heart out. Briscoe's ambiguity almost killed Lavin, but he will survive to
persuade other young men to the attributes of St. John's.

When you are a basketball coach and get payed the big bucks to do it, I'm sorry but W/L is important. More important than anything else.

+1
Go be a motivational speaker or guidance counselor. If he won and still provided that insight great but without the winning its all BS

Moose, they will win 20 plus again this year.

Whoopee. 20 wins doesn't hold the water it used to.

When Lavin's 2nd class committed how many NCAA berths would you have expected by the time graduated. The most conservative would have said 2 figuring JR and SR year. Well last year his mind games cost us a berth and even if they do it this year thats 1 out of 4. His mind games cost us their SOPH year too but lets not go there again.

Doesn't give me much hope even if we had a highly ranked class coming in next year. Waiting 4 years for a berth is not how you build a program.

Sadly, I agree. Many fans after the second class were predicting consecutive sweet 16's. Reality is the players never clicked and have had low BB IQ. Of course history would have been much kinder had Harkless and Sampson stayed and qualified for one season together.
As for mind games, the snake oil salesman had us believing Felix Balamou had such a great practice last season that it was worth burning a red shirt to START him when Jordan returned home and this year Felix barely gets into games against D2 teams. Has Felix regressed or did Lavin use him at the expense of the team and Balamou?

In all fairness to Felix, he didn't play in the exhibition games because of a tweaked ankle. So his missed some practices and exhibition games. I feel you'll be pleasantly surprised by him as he gets up to speed. Incredible athlete that at 6'4 plays like he's 6'7.

For starters I question whether he is actually 6"4", but assuming that he is that still makes him an undersized 3(even if he plays bigger) with very limited skill sets. He doesn't have enough of a handle or any outside shot that will allow him to be a 2. IMO he's a very poor man's Willie Glass. We've already got plenty of guys in the 6'3"-6'5" range with skills. I don't see him contributing much this year. Although from the looks of things he'll likely be one of our starters next year.

 

[monte]

Expert in X's and O's as in formulating sentences, teaching young men the value of education
and honoring a father and his legacy. Lavin excels in this and it is far more important than wins
and loses. You know the coach is hurting on the Briscoe ordeal. So close up until the last moment
when they tear your heart out. Briscoe's ambiguity almost killed Lavin, but he will survive to
persuade other young men to the attributes of St. John's.

No. He wont.
This is his final season as a coach.

I've got to agree here with tobin.
And in my opinion, Lavin lost the ability to play the virtue card when he forced Garrett out. So I don't want to hear about how he mentors young men and creates a family atmosphere.
He's a basketball coach. And he's as selfish and sleazy as everyone else in the business. No better no worse. Only difference is he's not winning or building the program for future success.

He also cut Roberts lose after the kid signed an LOI. I know the kid wasn't his recruit, but at that point Lavin had no one coming back from the tourny team. Why not honor the LOI and also know that you have one solid kid on board? The kid was out of St. Peter's Prep so he was a good kid with his academics in order. And of course that could have also possibly started a bit of an NJ pipeline. Another head scratcher.

 

[monte]

What probably sets me apart from certain posters is that they seem to enjoy predicting failure and Lavin's demise.

I'm not very optimistic about this team's outlook this year for reasons I mentioned before. I will stop short of being confident of failure, though. Last years squad wasn't very good, IMO, but they were almost good enough. We competed well in most games, but sputtered when it counted. Providence was touted as having a very successful campaign, but even late in that BET game, the outcome wasn't assured. If we made just of couple of big plays, be it big baskets or stops, the outcome in that and many games could have been different.

That being said, the only thing I would suggest is that without bringing in a loaded recruiting class before this season ends, this should be an NCAA tourney team for Lavin to be renewed at 2 million plus.

In 4 seasons 71-60, 36-36. Take out the fluff non-conference games, and it does not provide a sufficient ROI on a $2 million plus per season investment.

The line between being a very good team and a not so good team is often very thin. That was the case with this team last year. As we've talked about ad nauseum, the talent was there. But we had two kids more concerned with auditioning for the next level and another(CO) who was disgruntled much of the time. That was a team completely out of sync with one another, and that got magnified during crunch time in those games that could have gone either way. Like what I've seen from CO so far and still hopeful that our backcourt/upper classmen can carry us to tourny. We still have a very thin and small front line, but something tells me that we'll have a far more unified team this year than we had last.

 

[JackofVirginia]

What probably sets me apart from certain posters is that they seem to enjoy predicting failure and Lavin's demise.

I'm not very optimistic about this team's outlook this year for reasons I mentioned before. I will stop short of being confident of failure, though. Last years squad wasn't very good, IMO, but they were almost good enough. We competed well in most games, but sputtered when it counted. Providence was touted as having a very successful campaign, but even late in that BET game, the outcome wasn't assured. If we made just of couple of big plays, be it big baskets or stops, the outcome in that and many games could have been different.

That being said, the only thing I would suggest is that without bringing in a loaded recruiting class before this season ends, this should be an NCAA tourney team for Lavin to be renewed at 2 million plus.

In 4 seasons 71-60, 36-36. Take out the fluff non-conference games, and it does not provide a sufficient ROI on a $2 million plus per season investment.

NCAA Tourney or not, without any decent recruits for 2015 he's out of here and back to ESPN.

 

[SJUalum98]

I can't see 20 wins because as I stated in another thread for that to happen everything has to break right and that never happens for us.

I think we will hover around .500 all year with a lot of frustrating losses.

I hope I am wrong and the seniors go out in style but based on the body of work from them and especially from "Lav" I don't see it.

20 wins is a lock as long as Jordan, Harrison and Opekpa stay healthy. That however will mean very little if we don't beat the Dukes, Novas, Gonzagas on our schedule. We need quality wins to get in the dance. Hopefully we get a couple early and then start fast in the big East. Our end of year schedule gets very tough so another slow start will be a killer.

FDU, who we play next month, just beat St. Joe's on the road.
Minnesota "hung with" Louisville for awhile on a neutral court.
St. Mary's is always a pain.
And Fordham has a couple of local players that will give us fits if they're on their game.

I don't think the race to 20 is by any means a lock.

I commend the staff for this OOC schedule. Looks like the toughest we'll have since 2011.

Our only tough OOC road game is against Cuse. The neutral site games are all in the city. If we lose to Minnesota, we'll beat Georgia. The Big East is weak this year. Nova and Georgetown are the only teams that I can see sweeping us. If you put us down to lose every game we would be an underdog in that's still probably 18 wins before the conference tourney.

The point is 20 wins is meaningless and should be an after thought for a team with 4 rotation seniors and our talent level. It's the big dance or bust this year!

You're confidence is commendable.

But what does OOC games being in the city have to do with wins? We have a stiff OOC schedule. And teams are licking their chops to come to the city and stomp us.

People hate to realize/admit that we are a reason why the BE is looked at as weak.

Can't assume 1 game into the season who can sweep who.

And please let us not bring up the word "talent" ever again. It's a meaningless buzzword that we've heard for the past 3 years ad nauseum in attempt to keep us relevant.

I think enough of us know talent when we see it.

 

[ras]

I can't see 20 wins because as I stated in another thread for that to happen everything has to break right and that never happens for us.

I think we will hover around .500 all year with a lot of frustrating losses.

I hope I am wrong and the seniors go out in style but based on the body of work from them and especially from "Lav" I don't see it.

20 wins is a lock as long as Jordan, Harrison and Opekpa stay healthy. That however will mean very little if we don't beat the Dukes, Novas, Gonzagas on our schedule. We need quality wins to get in the dance. Hopefully we get a couple early and then start fast in the big East. Our end of year schedule gets very tough so another slow start will be a killer.

FDU, who we play next month, just beat St. Joe's on the road.
Minnesota "hung with" Louisville for awhile on a neutral court.
St. Mary's is always a pain.
And Fordham has a couple of local players that will give us fits if they're on their game.

I don't think the race to 20 is by any means a lock.

I commend the staff for this OOC schedule. Looks like the toughest we'll have since 2011.

Our only tough OOC road game is against Cuse. The neutral site games are all in the city. If we lose to Minnesota, we'll beat Georgia. The Big East is weak this year. Nova and Georgetown are the only teams that I can see sweeping us. If you put us down to lose every game we would be an underdog in that's still probably 18 wins before the conference tourney.

The point is 20 wins is meaningless and should be an after thought for a team with 4 rotation seniors and our talent level. It's the big dance or bust this year!

You're confidence is commendable.

But what does OOC games being in the city have to do with wins? We have a stiff OOC schedule. And teams are licking their chops to come to the city and stomp us.

People hate to realize/admit that we are a reason why the BE is looked at as weak.

Can't assume 1 game into the season who can sweep who.

And please let us not bring up the word "talent" ever again. It's a meaningless buzzword that we've heard for the past 3 years ad nauseum in attempt to keep us relevant.

I think enough of us know talent when we see it.

We have talent. But we need balanced rosters and the talent has to be coached.

 

[Avon Barksdale]

I can't see 20 wins because as I stated in another thread for that to happen everything has to break right and that never happens for us.

I think we will hover around .500 all year with a lot of frustrating losses.

I hope I am wrong and the seniors go out in style but based on the body of work from them and especially from "Lav" I don't see it.

20 wins is a lock as long as Jordan, Harrison and Opekpa stay healthy. That however will mean very little if we don't beat the Dukes, Novas, Gonzagas on our schedule. We need quality wins to get in the dance. Hopefully we get a couple early and then start fast in the big East. Our end of year schedule gets very tough so another slow start will be a killer.

FDU, who we play next month, just beat St. Joe's on the road.
Minnesota "hung with" Louisville for awhile on a neutral court.
St. Mary's is always a pain.
And Fordham has a couple of local players that will give us fits if they're on their game.

I don't think the race to 20 is by any means a lock.

I commend the staff for this OOC schedule. Looks like the toughest we'll have since 2011.

Our only tough OOC road game is against Cuse. The neutral site games are all in the city. If we lose to Minnesota, we'll beat Georgia. The Big East is weak this year. Nova and Georgetown are the only teams that I can see sweeping us. If you put us down to lose every game we would be an underdog in that's still probably 18 wins before the conference tourney.

The point is 20 wins is meaningless and should be an after thought for a team with 4 rotation seniors and our talent level. It's the big dance or bust this year!

You're confidence is commendable.

But what does OOC games being in the city have to do with wins? We have a stiff OOC schedule. And teams are licking their chops to come to the city and stomp us.

People hate to realize/admit that we are a reason why the BE is looked at as weak.

Can't assume 1 game into the season who can sweep who.

And please let us not bring up the word "talent" ever again. It's a meaningless buzzword that we've heard for the past 3 years ad nauseum in attempt to keep us relevant.

I think enough of us know talent when we see it.

It will take 23 wins to get into the NCAAs. This isn't the old big east. We are more like the A10 now than the ACC. With that said, we aren't guaranteed 20 just by keeping everyone healthy. We are inconsistent, especially on the road. We can lose any given road game in the BE as we saw last year with DePaul, and last years team was better than this years team.

Don't think we beat Minnesota. St. Mary's will give us all we can handle. Duke and Syracuse - I wouldn't bet us.

In the "toss up" games do we really trust the guy on our sideline to make the difference?

 

[SJUalum98]

I can't see 20 wins because as I stated in another thread for that to happen everything has to break right and that never happens for us.

I think we will hover around .500 all year with a lot of frustrating losses.

I hope I am wrong and the seniors go out in style but based on the body of work from them and especially from "Lav" I don't see it.

20 wins is a lock as long as Jordan, Harrison and Opekpa stay healthy. That however will mean very little if we don't beat the Dukes, Novas, Gonzagas on our schedule. We need quality wins to get in the dance. Hopefully we get a couple early and then start fast in the big East. Our end of year schedule gets very tough so another slow start will be a killer.

FDU, who we play next month, just beat St. Joe's on the road.
Minnesota "hung with" Louisville for awhile on a neutral court.
St. Mary's is always a pain.
And Fordham has a couple of local players that will give us fits if they're on their game.

I don't think the race to 20 is by any means a lock.

I commend the staff for this OOC schedule. Looks like the toughest we'll have since 2011.

Our only tough OOC road game is against Cuse. The neutral site games are all in the city. If we lose to Minnesota, we'll beat Georgia. The Big East is weak this year. Nova and Georgetown are the only teams that I can see sweeping us. If you put us down to lose every game we would be an underdog in that's still probably 18 wins before the conference tourney.

The point is 20 wins is meaningless and should be an after thought for a team with 4 rotation seniors and our talent level. It's the big dance or bust this year!

You're confidence is commendable.

But what does OOC games being in the city have to do with wins? We have a stiff OOC schedule. And teams are licking their chops to come to the city and stomp us.

People hate to realize/admit that we are a reason why the BE is looked at as weak.

Can't assume 1 game into the season who can sweep who.

And please let us not bring up the word "talent" ever again. It's a meaningless buzzword that we've heard for the past 3 years ad nauseum in attempt to keep us relevant.

I think enough of us know talent when we see it.

It will take 23 wins to get into the NCAAs. This isn't the old big east. We are more like the A10 now than the ACC. With that said, we aren't guaranteed 20 just by keeping everyone healthy. We are inconsistent, especially on the road. We can lose any given road game in the BE as we saw last year with DePaul, and last years team was better than this years team.

Don't think we beat Minnesota. St. Mary's will give us all we can handle. Duke and Syracuse - I wouldn't bet us.

In the "toss up" games do we really trust the guy on our sideline to make the difference?

I agree.

We're in one of those "all things need to go right" years. Little room for error primarily because of the lack of front court depth.

2 early fouls from Obekpa in any contest puts us behind the 8-ball,

But if the coach can convince everyone that 4 guards and a 6'5 Pointer at Center can keep us in a game, then they just haven't been paying attention for the past three years.

 

[monte]

I can't see 20 wins because as I stated in another thread for that to happen everything has to break right and that never happens for us.

I think we will hover around .500 all year with a lot of frustrating losses.

I hope I am wrong and the seniors go out in style but based on the body of work from them and especially from "Lav" I don't see it.

20 wins is a lock as long as Jordan, Harrison and Opekpa stay healthy. That however will mean very little if we don't beat the Dukes, Novas, Gonzagas on our schedule. We need quality wins to get in the dance. Hopefully we get a couple early and then start fast in the big East. Our end of year schedule gets very tough so another slow start will be a killer.

FDU, who we play next month, just beat St. Joe's on the road.
Minnesota "hung with" Louisville for awhile on a neutral court.
St. Mary's is always a pain.
And Fordham has a couple of local players that will give us fits if they're on their game.

I don't think the race to 20 is by any means a lock.

I commend the staff for this OOC schedule. Looks like the toughest we'll have since 2011.

Our only tough OOC road game is against Cuse. The neutral site games are all in the city. If we lose to Minnesota, we'll beat Georgia. The Big East is weak this year. Nova and Georgetown are the only teams that I can see sweeping us. If you put us down to lose every game we would be an underdog in that's still probably 18 wins before the conference tourney.

The point is 20 wins is meaningless and should be an after thought for a team with 4 rotation seniors and our talent level. It's the big dance or bust this year!

You're confidence is commendable.

But what does OOC games being in the city have to do with wins? We have a stiff OOC schedule. And teams are licking their chops to come to the city and stomp us.

People hate to realize/admit that we are a reason why the BE is looked at as weak.

Can't assume 1 game into the season who can sweep who.

And please let us not bring up the word "talent" ever again. It's a meaningless buzzword that we've heard for the past 3 years ad nauseum in attempt to keep us relevant.

I think enough of us know talent when we see it.

It will take 23 wins to get into the NCAAs. This isn't the old big east. We are more like the A10 now than the ACC. With that said, we aren't guaranteed 20 just by keeping everyone healthy. We are inconsistent, especially on the road. We can lose any given road game in the BE as we saw last year with DePaul, and last years team was better than this years team.

Don't think we beat Minnesota. St. Mary's will give us all we can handle. Duke and Syracuse - I wouldn't bet us.

In the "toss up" games do we really trust the guy on our sideline to make the difference?

I agree.

We're in one of those "all things need to go right" years. Little room for error primarily because of the lack of front court depth.

2 early fouls from Obekpa in any contest puts us behind the 8-ball,

But if the coach can convince everyone that 4 guards and a 6'5 Pointer at Center can keep us in a game, then they just haven't been paying attention for the past three years.

Opposing teams are gonna pound it inside against our front line, more specifically against CO. If he doesn't show restraint and avoid fouls we're in big trouble.

 

[stjohnschris]

Opposing teams are gonna pound it inside against our front line, more specifically against CO. If he doesn't show restraint and avoid fouls we're in big trouble.[/quote]

No question that getting CO in foul trouble in the first 5 minutes is #1 on every single opposing teams game plan.