How Others See SJU / The ATHLETIC

[jerseyshorejohnny]

St. John’s: “The problem is they play basically five perimeter guys. They play your turn/my turn in terms of whose shot it’s supposed to be. They play loose. That can be good for them, but they play laissez faire too. Shamorie Ponds is not real strong, but when he’s on he’s really good because he’s smarter than everybody. Mustapha Heron is talented, but the ball is so dominant with Ponds, it looks like Heron is just picking up spare change. LJ Figueroa is a talent, but he can be hot and cold. Once they got into league play he kind of got figured out and has been neutralized. Justin Simon is one of the most underrated glue guys in the country. He can guard any position. Defensively they just try to conserve. They switch everything. If you have size you can get ’em inside.”

 

[Ray Morgan]

Figgy has played well in conference games. He does run hot and cold from 3, but it's not because he has been figured out. For a team that plays 5 out, we do not have a player in the top 15 in conference in 3 point FG%, and that's a problem. As is the lack of offensive rebounding. I think the stats will show, not surprisingly, that our guys have dropped off in Big East play in comparison to OOC play, while the better teams have guys that stepped up.

 

[Chris7]

[quote="jerseyshorejohnny" post=321900]St. John’s: “The problem is they play basically five perimeter guys. They play your turn/my turn in terms of whose shot it’s supposed to be. They play loose. That can be good for them, but they play laissez faire too. Shamorie Ponds is not real strong, but when he’s on he’s really good because he’s smarter than everybody. Mustapha Heron is talented, but the ball is so dominant with Ponds, it looks like Heron is just picking up spare change. LJ Figueroa is a talent, but he can be hot and cold. Once they got into league play he kind of got figured out and has been neutralized. Justin Simon is one of the most underrated glue guys in the country. He can guard any position. Defensively they just try to conserve. They switch everything. If you have size you can get ’em inside.”[/quote]

Pretty accurate description. "That can be good for them, but they play laissez faire too." is a direct reflection of CM and the staff. While I get that this is the modern trend, I think we emphasize the laissez faire play too far to our detriment. There's a difference in laid back and laissez faire. Team could use a bit more regimen/direction on the court.

 

[Amaseinyourface]

So a guard who isn’t strong, routinely gets baskets, rebounds, steals around bigger players.

A wing who can’t create shots for himself is struggling because our guard who is the best passer in the league has the ball too much.

And lastly our wing who has some of the best shooting %s in the league, is hot and cold.

Seems like he’s got us down completely..

 

[jerseyshorejohnny]

St. John’s (17-7, 5-6 — NET: 49, SOS: 64): Outside of Marquette and Villanova, strange inconsistency defines the 2018-19 Big East, and St. John’s is no exception. Last Tuesday, the Red Storm knocked off Marquette at Marquette, which even Villanova couldn’t pull off … only to lose at home five days later, to Providence, 70-56. Shamorie Ponds was reasonably good in that game — he had 20 points on 7-of-17 shooting and 6-of-7 at the line — and LJ Figueroa chipped in 14. The rest of the Johnnies had 22, and the team finished with .88 points per possession as a result. This is the part where we’d normally posit that it’s a good thing Chris Mullin’s team gets to spend this entire week — first against Butler, then Villanova — in its own building. But at this point, who knows?