@Georgetown, Mon. Jan. 9, 6:30pm, FS1/970AM

The road is going to be tough all year in conference. Hoping we can navigate trips to Nova, Creighton, Butler, and Seton Hall (as well as the Garden this Saturday) without the type of embarrassment seen last night, as those all seem like terrible matchups on paper. Given the up and down nature of this team that may be wishful thinking.

Seems like we're more likely to get a few more PSU and last night hopefully mixed with a couple of Cuse and Butler. On balance would be happy avoiding/minimizing embarrassing efforts, beating DePaul at home, finding 2-3 more wins (one from Providence, one from Marquette, and maybe surprising in one other game?), and being very competitive in first BET game. Hopefully that's not wishful thinking as well.
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Agree with fair expectation of winning two or three more games, but to me avoiding embarrassing beatings in too many remaining games is more important. The optics are terrible, they tend to discourage the kids & can't help on recruiting front. I guess "Trust the Process" is only option, although difficult to embrace at times. Oh well.
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Agree. Even final results that don't necessarily tell full picture of game, like Creighton and X, are far more palatable than what took place last night. Against much better teams no less. Limiting our downside to those kind of performances as much as possible would be big.

Team and staff are going to have to really stay dug in to achieve that as conference schedule is grueling. Even if we were a middle of the pack team it would be hard to find spots where back to back wins seems likely. Rest of the way likely to be fragile as a result, and we're probably going to feel like we are constantly bordering on things going sideways. Quality effort on Saturday followed by a win against DePaul would be big steps in right direction.
 
The road is going to be tough all year in conference. Hoping we can navigate trips to Nova, Creighton, Butler, and Seton Hall (as well as the Garden this Saturday) without the type of embarrassment seen last night, as those all seem like terrible matchups on paper. Given the up and down nature of this team that may be wishful thinking.

Seems like we're more likely to get a few more PSU and last night hopefully mixed with a couple of Cuse and Butler. On balance would be happy avoiding/minimizing embarrassing efforts, beating DePaul at home, finding 2-3 more wins (one from Providence, one from Marquette, and maybe surprising in one other game?), and being very competitive in first BET game. Hopefully that's not wishful thinking as well.
Click to expand...

Agree with fair expectation of winning two or three more games, but to me avoiding embarrassing beatings in too many remaining games is more important. The optics are terrible, they tend to discourage the kids & can't help on recruiting front. I guess "Trust the Process" is only option, although difficult to embrace at times. Oh well.
Click to expand...

Process is key. April, 2015 we had one player on active roster Amar Alebegovic. Not exactly having a young Larry Bird to start with. I would like instant gratification, but have to balance that against understanding that this is a long rebuild. I saw your Ben Howland's teams at Pitt get humiliated at times in the beginning of the rebuilding process, but he and his staff stayed the course and recruited like their life depended on it. And they eventually succeeded. Hoping for similar results here, even when things might look bleak.
 
Post Game Quotes

http://www.redstormsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/010917aab.html

Not very revealing or accountable

St. John's Head Coach Chris Mullin...

On Georgetown holding St. John's to 27 percent shooting:

"I have to give their defense credit. I thought we had some decent looks and missed some dunks in the first half, but I felt pretty good being down seven [at half] the way we were playing. In the second half our energy and effort on both sides wasn't there. We had some decent outings where offensively we were good and the defense struggled, but tonight it was both; especially in the second half."

On playing without a scorer in the post:

"There is always different ways to approach that. We don't mind dropping the ball down to the post to collapse the defense. Tonight, Kassoum [Yakwe] was pretty active. The big thing too is to get some stops and get out on the open floor. That's where we've really struggled, generating fast break points. When you shoot 27 percent, you're not going to win any games."

On going against the zone:

"If you don't make shots you're going to have trouble against anything. We've actually been pretty good against the zone. It's the defense we do well against; we shoot the ball pretty well. It was a total collapse tonight."

On the rivalry:

"It has a rich history with a lot of respect. It's a great rivalry and hopefully we can both get back on track at the same time. That will be good."
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The emotional fan in me wants to see more emotion from CM. I realize he sees this as a "process" but I don't see the trajectory (including the addition of Simon and Clark) being acceptable. Those guys will help but we will still be small and, unless there is significant improvement by the incumbents, we will be middling at best.
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Simon and Clark will help. I do expect improvement from the current team members going into next season. I agree that we need to find one or two more front court players who play the pick and roll style of offense that we run and have some beef to be able to defend and rebound with the upper echelon teams in this league.. To be fair, this years team is much more talented than last years team. The goal is to increase the talent level every year. They have done that from last year to this year and will do it again next year with Simon and Clark already in the fold plus whoever else they can bring in. It is a process and it is frustrating for us as fans because with each new coach it's the start of the process all over again. But like I said, we need to increase the talent level every year and so far I do see that happening.
 
The road is going to be tough all year in conference. Hoping we can navigate trips to Nova, Creighton, Butler, and Seton Hall (as well as the Garden this Saturday) without the type of embarrassment seen last night, as those all seem like terrible matchups on paper. Given the up and down nature of this team that may be wishful thinking.

Seems like we're more likely to get a few more PSU and last night hopefully mixed with a couple of Cuse and Butler. On balance would be happy avoiding/minimizing embarrassing efforts, beating DePaul at home, finding 2-3 more wins (one from Providence, one from Marquette, and maybe surprising in one other game?), and being very competitive in first BET game. Hopefully that's not wishful thinking as well.
Click to expand...

Agree with fair expectation of winning two or three more games, but to me avoiding embarrassing beatings in too many remaining games is more important. The optics are terrible, they tend to discourage the kids & can't help on recruiting front. I guess "Trust the Process" is only option, although difficult to embrace at times. Oh well.
Click to expand...

Process is key. April, 2015 we had one player on active roster Amar Alebegovic. Not exactly having a young Larry Bird to start with. I would like instant gratification, but have to balance that against understanding that this is a long rebuild. I saw your Ben Howland's teams at Pitt get humiliated at times in the beginning of the rebuilding process, but he and his staff stayed the course and recruited like their life depended on it. And they eventually succeeded. Hoping for similar results here, even when things might look bleak.
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And keeping the right players around like Howland did if I recall correctly. Let's see how that works out here.
 
Post Game Quotes

http://www.redstormsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/010917aab.html

Not very revealing or accountable

St. John's Head Coach Chris Mullin...

On Georgetown holding St. John's to 27 percent shooting:

"I have to give their defense credit. I thought we had some decent looks and missed some dunks in the first half, but I felt pretty good being down seven [at half] the way we were playing. In the second half our energy and effort on both sides wasn't there. We had some decent outings where offensively we were good and the defense struggled, but tonight it was both; especially in the second half."

On playing without a scorer in the post:

"There is always different ways to approach that. We don't mind dropping the ball down to the post to collapse the defense. Tonight, Kassoum [Yakwe] was pretty active. The big thing too is to get some stops and get out on the open floor. That's where we've really struggled, generating fast break points. When you shoot 27 percent, you're not going to win any games."

On going against the zone:

"If you don't make shots you're going to have trouble against anything. We've actually been pretty good against the zone. It's the defense we do well against; we shoot the ball pretty well. It was a total collapse tonight."

On the rivalry:

"It has a rich history with a lot of respect. It's a great rivalry and hopefully we can both get back on track at the same time. That will be good."
Click to expand...
The emotional fan in me wants to see more emotion from CM. I realize he sees this as a "process" but I don't see the trajectory (including the addition of Simon and Clark) being acceptable. Those guys will help but we will still be small and, unless there is significant improvement by the incumbents, we will be middling at best.
Click to expand...

Simon and Clark will help. I do expect improvement from the current team members going into next season. I agree that we need to find one or two more front court players who play the pick and roll style of offense that we run and have some beef to be able to defend and rebound with the upper echelon teams in this league.. To be fair, this years team is much more talented than last years team. The goal is to increase the talent level every year. They have done that from last year to this year and will do it again next year with Simon and Clark already in the fold plus whoever else they can bring in. It is a process and it is frustrating for us as fans because with each new coach it's the start of the process all over again. But like I said, we need to increase the talent level every year and so far I do see that happening.
Click to expand...

I also agree that this St. John's team is way more talented than last years as we basically traded Johnson, Sima, Jones, M'Vouika, and Balamou for Ponds, LoVett, Ahmed, Owens (our 4 best players this season), Williams, and Freudenberg. However, we still don't have a Big east caliber roster at this point, which is why I think it's unfair to blame the coaching staff every time we lose. This staff is still in the middle of rebuilding this roster, and therefore, it makes no sense to start over again.

Best 5 (My Opinion)
G - LoVett
G - Ponds
G - Ellison
F - Ahmed
C - Owens

LoVett and Ponds are easily the best players on this team, but they are also only freshman, which is a recipe to be a very inconsistent team. For example, since 2000 the Big East has only had 3 teams total where the 2 leading scorers on the team were freshman. DePaul in 2010-11 where they finished last in the Big East at 1-17. Rutgers and St. John's are the other 2 teams in 2011-12 where they both finished tied for 11th in the Big East at 6-12. Not to mention our third leading scorer Bashir Ahmed is in his first season of division 1 basketball. Ahmed is also becoming very predictable with his spin move when his 3 is not falling. Owens is very active and a great player to have, but if he is your only legitimate big man things will be tough in the Big East. As for Ellison, he is average on both sides of the ball at best, more like an 8th man on a good team.

Bench
F - Yakwe
G - Mussini
F - Williams
F - Alibegovic
F - Freudenberg

Depth on this team is also a major problem. Yakwe was my favorite player last year, as he is a great athlete and shot blocker, but this year he is a complete liability on offense unless he is in dunking range. However, if he can get the offensive game together a little bit he can be a great player for us. Mussini is the opposite of Yakwe, as he is a liability on defense and when he is not making his shot he becomes a real problem on the court. Williams showed flashes, but he has come back to earth, however he can be useful for this undersized team and as a leader. Alibegovic has shown he is not good enough to play at this level. Freudenberg looks like he was massively overrated and has somehow been less productive than Alibegovic. He is worth keeping around for potential, but if I didn't know I would think he is a walk-on. Therefore, our bench consists of about 1 or 2 Big East caliber players at most right now.

It is hard to win with a roster built like this with any coaching staff. Talented, but way too young and undersized where we are talented.
 
We played a bad game against a bad team. That was a chance to steal a win, and we blew it.

One obvious takeaway is that we need at least two out of three among Ponds, Lovett and Ahmed to score or we don't have enough offense to beat anyone. Ponds was not himself last night and Ahmed was invisible (maybe an overreaction to trying to do too much). And that was that.

From a coaching standpoint there were too many occasions against the zone where we threw the ball around up high. I'm sure the staff told the players they had to get it to the free throw line or below and kick it from there, but the execution certainly wasn't there.

The thing that really mystified me was that every single time GT threw the ball into the post our defender positioned himself on the free-throw-line shoulder instead of on the baseline shoulder. Basically we gave up the baseline move to the hoop every time, instead of trying to force the ball into the lane. Maybe the plan was to have help come along the baseline but if so that didn't happen much, and when it did it was a 6 foot guard against a GT big, which wasn't even a speed bump. I'd love to know what the coaching idea behind that was.

Bottom line is it was a stinker on the road and we squandered a winnable game. Hopefully we can rebound at home against Nova. I'd expect a big effort for that one.
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And furthermore we overplayed them in the corner giving them the baseline to drive and of course to be fouled by Alibegovic.
 
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