Incarnate Word - Zone Defense ?

[Class of 72]

Allowing a team to shoot 55% from the floor is awful. Every game some player is having a career game against us. I would love to put it on the coaches but players play the game. Not too mention out awful FT shooting. Really we had a lot off good looks and couldn't put the ball in the basket.

Yes, it is awful but this is likely the worst defensive team in redmen history and the least talented so the outcome (s) should not be surprising anyone. This staff had few recruiting options but to continue recruiting Lavin recruits such as Mussini, Lovett, Sampson, Diallo and Yakwe. Luckily they signed 3 of them. The rest of the team is a patchwork of borderline D1 talent save for Sima who will become a very good Big East center with some weight gain and experience.
We are losing to teams like NJIT and Incarnate Word because our starters include Ron Mouvlika? Chris Jones, Durand Johnson and Mussini who have no business starting or playing significant minutes at this level.
Players such as Mouvlika and Johnson are 6'6 but play smaller and are plain awful defenders. If you look at the stats today those two allowed, with Musso, uncontested outside shots while taking most of the shots for SJ where DJ and RM went 6-26. SJ took 22 more shots than NJIT (70-48). This same NJIT team beat Michigan at Ann Arbor last year because they have a talented true point guard in Lynn. We will have guards like him next year in Ponds and Lovett but Mussini is just not at that talent level. Without a healthy Lovett, if he is cleared, this team may win one or two more games at most. Even with Lovett more than 12-14 wins would be significant improvement.
The BIGGEST question is will this staff be able to close the deal on their top targets and will St. Jean continue to draw up the plays while Mullin is chatting with friends behind his bench.http://basketball.realgm.com/ncaa/boxscore/2015-12-20/NJIT-at-St-Johns/226885

Durand Johnson came here from Pitt. Sima was a 3 star recruit who chose us over Baylor, Louisville, and Maryland. Ellison had offers from several high D1 schools. Christian Jones had offers from Baylor and Marquette. Darien Williams de-committed from Iowa State and committed here instead.

So please don't sit there and say that everyone other than Mussini, Lovett, and Yakwe are borderline D1 talent, because it simply isn't true. Unless you are a better at evaluating talent than all of the coaches at the schools listed above?

Well Mary Contrary there is a big difference between getting offers and getting minutes. I actually had Sima in the Mussini, Lovett and Yakwe group so pay attention to your own highlighted text. Lol!
Durand Johnson devolved into a bust at Pitt. Christian Jones is a 5 minute sub. Ellison is too slow and would have a tough time getting minutes on the NJIT team. Darien Williams is injured, was injured and may stay injured. Unless you have not been watching, these are the very same players getting blown out of the gym by a D2 team, Fordham, Vanderbilt, NJIT and Incomprehensible Word. The two Vincention schools are, and have been, dragging the new Big East down in RPI. Trying to defend this current cluster fuck of talent is a waste of time. They need new and talented players period. Coach K, Rick Pitino and the late John Wooden would not get more than 12 wins from our current starters who include upperclassmen like Jones, Mouvlika and Johnson. The one thing most redmen fans and ticket holders will agree on is this was not the year to raise ticket prices.

Ok look at Christian Jones.....what you are saying is that Baylor and Marquette wasted their time in recruiting and offering him a scholarship, because he is not good enough for D1?

And you are right, Ellison is definitely not a D1 player, even though he had offers from us, La Salle, Maryland, Rhode Island, Rutgers, St Joe's, Seton Hall, South Carolina, Temple, Wake Forest, and Xavier. But none of those programs now how to evaluate talent, right?

You can keep editing and adding our 2015 players all you want! Over 500 prep kids got D1 basketball scholarships in 2015. FYI, our highest rated recruit at #95 on 24/7 was none other than Marcus Lovett who isn't even eligible yet. The rest of our kids fall into the 100-200 ranking range. I am happy we signed who we did given the time constraints but our kids would normally fall into bench player category on 90% of D1 schools in the Power Five conferences. St. John's did not bring in Mullin and Slice at $2.5 million+ to sign kids outside the top 100. Our coaches need to close the deal on players like Briscoe, Diallo, Sampson, Rowan and other top 100 targets we missed this year going further. That means signing players like Freudenberg, Maker, Bashir, and Alkins in 2016. Without athletic scorers who like playing defense we will linger near the bottom of the Big East for years to come. This is my last comment on this thread before you get me banned outright! Peace!

 

[redfanOO0098jj]

You'll always have a home in Single A Vidalla with me my friend