LIU Brooklyn, Sun. Dec. 11, 12 Noon, FS1/970AM

[OLV72]

just watched the game. Malik Ellison is garbage. Why does he get so much PT?

Who do you want to play instead? That new kid on the sideline that looked about 5'6 and no one on the board could even name? Maybe it was James Ellsworth, but I can't swear to it. No Lovett means it's Ponds, Mussini and Ellison. That's it.

Mussini did a credible job last year and is a better option than Elllison. By no means a real
answer but better than Ellison, who's a train wreck IMO, especially with the game on the line where he plays like he thinks he is Michael Jordan.

Agree with you on both Mussini and Ellison. At least Mussini knows his limitations, physically and skill wise, and tries to let the game come to him. On occasion he'll force something, but not to often. He also has very good instincts. Ellison, as you say, thinks he's Michael Jordan. Or as my buddy Dave said to me at the CSN game, "he plays like he thinks he's The Man". He doesn't understand that he has both physical and skill limitations. He has terrible instincts and judgment. What he does have is size. I know CM is playing him at point in an effort to keep Ponds scoring at the 2 spot, but it's a failed experiment. I'd rather he stick Ponds or Mussini there while LoVett is out. In a normal world, both Mussini and Ellison would be roll players. So too would be everyone else on our team except for Ponds and Lovett, and the few guys who wouldn't see the light of day. In our world, these otherwise roll players are relied upon heavily, and we're seeing the results of that.

Ellison's stat line was 4 for 6 from the field, 0 for 3 from the line, 5 assists 2 boards and 2 turnovers. With 2 minutes to go in the game, he had played 27 minutes and had no turnovers. He actually played one of his better games. Problem is that his decision making is still an issue. The ball shouldn't have been in his hands at that time. Mussini had 2 turnovers in the same minutes. Ellison loses the ball because of bad decisions, Mussini because of bad athleticism. I don't remember if Mussini was even in the game in the last few minutes.

His corner three put us up by four down the stretch. Both players have good days ahead as they are just past baptism by fire last year.

 

[OLV72]

We are going to lose a lot of games with both Ponds and Lovett this year. Without one of them, forget it. Great that we won two without Lovett and it should have been a 3rd yesterday, but without one of these guys the margin for error is incredibly thin and it was probably only a matter of time until there was another letdown like this.

Unfortunate as this is the last game on the schedule that had embarrassment potential just in losing alone, not losing + margin.

I'm hoping this continues to just be precaution with Marcus and that it isn't more serious than initially thought or let on.

From this point forward, with the exception of DePaul at home, it is the opponents turn to be embarrassed. It will be nice to see this group win a handful of games against quality teams. Hopefully, we don't see another tough season for a long time. Wishful thinking is the way to be for a Johnny faithful.

 

[Red.Fans]

statistically Mussini and Ellison are very close with the exception of FG, 3, and FT% where Mussini is significantly higher and assists where Ellison (3rd on the team) is much higher. What is strange to me is there rebounding numbers are similar and Ellison has only 4 Offensive boards for the season. Seems like he is built for that.

 

[Andrew]

We lost to Delaware State a lot worse with Lovett. If we can bounce back from the Delaware State game, we can bounce back from this game.

 

[Section3]

just watched the game. Malik Ellison is garbage. Why does he get so much PT?

Who do you want to play instead? That new kid on the sideline that looked about 5'6 and no one on the board could even name? Maybe it was James Ellsworth, but I can't swear to it. No Lovett means it's Ponds, Mussini and Ellison. That's it.

Mussini did a credible job last year and is a better option than Elllison. By no means a real
answer but better than Ellison, who's a train wreck IMO, especially with the game on the line where he plays like he thinks he is Michael Jordan.

Agree with you on both Mussini and Ellison. At least Mussini knows his limitations, physically and skill wise, and tries to let the game come to him. On occasion he'll force something, but not to often. He also has very good instincts. Ellison, as you say, thinks he's Michael Jordan. Or as my buddy Dave said to me at the CSN game, "he plays like he thinks he's The Man". He doesn't understand that he has both physical and skill limitations. He has terrible instincts and judgment. What he does have is size. I know CM is playing him at point in an effort to keep Ponds scoring at the 2 spot, but it's a failed experiment. I'd rather he stick Ponds or Mussini there while LoVett is out. In a normal world, both Mussini and Ellison would be roll players. So too would be everyone else on our team except for Ponds and Lovett, and the few guys who wouldn't see the light of day. In our world, these otherwise roll players are relied upon heavily, and we're seeing the results of that.

I think he feels the pressure to be "the man" because of his dad's accomplishments.

If he would just let the game come to him, he would be fine. Coaches need to rein him in. Unfortunately, the "green light" these kids are given and the natural desire to fill the stats line results in hero ball.

 

[salty dog]

From this point forward, with the exception of DePaul at home, it is the opponents turn to be embarrassed. It will be nice to see this group win a handful of games against quality teams. Hopefully, we don't see another tough season for a long time. Wishful thinking is the way to be for a Johnny faithful.[/quote]

Yep, sadly the embarrassment meter goes the other way now and a loss to the Johnnies, like Syracuse experienced last year, becomes a black mark for the upset victim.

 

[Section3]

From this point forward, with the exception of DePaul at home, it is the opponents turn to be embarrassed. It will be nice to see this group win a handful of games against quality teams. Hopefully, we don't see another tough season for a long time. Wishful thinking is the way to be for a Johnny faithful.

Yep, sadly the embarrassment meter goes the other way now and a loss to the Johnnies, like Syracuse experienced last year, becomes a black mark for the upset victim.[/quote]

We got 'em where we want 'em

 

[salty dog]

Having a nice day I suppose.

Adam Zagoria – ‏@AdamZagoria

Former Kentucky -- and St. John's -- assistant Barry 'Slice' Rorhssen is behind the UK bench as John Calipari's guest wearing a UK jacket.

Nice to be floating around on St. John's dime.

 

[mjmaherjr]

Having a nice day I suppose.

Adam Zagoria – ‏@AdamZagoria

Former Kentucky -- and St. John's -- assistant Barry 'Slice' Rorhssen is behind the UK bench as John Calipari's guest wearing a UK jacket.

Nice to be floating around on St. John's dime.

more like st johns gold bullion

 

[paultzman]

Having a nice day I suppose.

Adam Zagoria – ‏@AdamZagoria

Former Kentucky -- and St. John's -- assistant Barry 'Slice' Rorhssen is behind the UK bench as John Calipari's guest wearing a UK jacket.

Nice to be floating around on St. John's dime.

more like st johns gold bullion

Melting chalices in the basement.

 

[Ray Morgan]

Having a nice day I suppose.

Adam Zagoria – ‏@AdamZagoria

Former Kentucky -- and St. John's -- assistant Barry 'Slice' Rorhssen is behind the UK bench as John Calipari's guest wearing a UK jacket.

Nice to be floating around on St. John's dime.

I'm still trying to understand while Slice got nothing done here and ended up with one less friend. Not much was written about it. The talk here was that Slice expected a bigger role on the bench. I heard he expected to be the prime recruiter, and was not happy being behind Matt. Now him and Mullin are not on speaking terms.Can anyone in the know sum up what really caused this million dollar disaster to happen?

 

[redfan99kiuh]

2 things from this game:

Why did they run a pick and roll with Ellison and Yakwe out of a timeout up 1 with :40 seconds to go? Destined to fail. One can't pass, the other can't catch.

and

Mussini is slow. Really slow. Everyone goes right by him. When he is in the game, you have to go zone. Their bigs get into foul trouble helping out. And with Sima gone now, you have to keep out of foul trouble. But I don't see them changing. It's going to be even worse when we play all these Big East teams with great guards. If you can't stop Delaware State and LIU guards, how are you going to stop Xavier's and Creighton's?

 

[SJU1512]

statistically Mussini and Ellison are very close with the exception of FG, 3, and FT% where Mussini is significantly higher and assists where Ellison (3rd on the team) is much higher. What is strange to me is there rebounding numbers are similar and Ellison has only 4 Offensive boards for the season. Seems like he is built for that.

Interesting. What these numbers support for me are what I see as the primary difference between these two players so far this year: Mussini is playing within his role, Ellison not as much. Neither are complete players so doing so is key.

Mussini's role is obvious and if he's not making shots it's hard for him to be on the floor. He's done that at a high level.

As others have said Ellison seems to want to be the man. If he wants to really be the man, he should do so by focusing on using his size and length to take the other team's best guard out of the game as best he can every time out and attacking both backboards consistently. As you note Paul only 4 o-boards through 11 games is not nearly enough from him and that's largely an effort and approach stat. Offensively playing more within himself - getting to rim, wide open 3s only - might lead to greater efficiency. I think we can get more from him if his abilities and energy are refocused.

 

[isham]

Slice was the ASS Head Coach. His main complaint was the roll of St Jean.Overall he was the only coach on the staff with experience in running a D 1 program and Chris thought he knew more than Barry.

 

[Knight]

Slice was the ASS Head Coach. His main complaint was the roll of St Jean.Overall he was the only coach on the staff with experience in running a D 1 program and Chris thought he knew more than Barry.

Mullin's lack of experience as a HC is not overshadowed by Slice's record.

 

[NYCRedmen]

One rumor is that Mullin & Slice had a falling out over how Slice treated & "spoke" to the players during practices. Not sure if it rose to Fran Fraschila level, but again, it's a rumor that I heard. Have no clue if it's true or not, & it really doesn't matter. Slice is gone, whatever the reason(s) & it's safe to say he isn't coming back.

 

[usguard]

One rumor is that Mullin & Slice had a falling out over how Slice treated & "spoke" to the players during practices. Not sure if it rose to Fran Fraschila level, but again, it's a rumor that I heard. Have no clue if it's true or not, & it really doesn't matter. Slice is gone, whatever the reason(s) & it's safe to say he isn't coming back.

That a is not true slice is a good guy that does not compute It is more that Mullin made promises that he then broke.

 

[Knight]

One rumor is that Mullin & Slice had a falling out over how Slice treated & "spoke" to the players during practices. Not sure if it rose to Fran Fraschila level, but again, it's a rumor that I heard. Have no clue if it's true or not, & it really doesn't matter. Slice is gone, whatever the reason(s) & it's safe to say he isn't coming back.

That a is not true slice is a good guy that does not compute It is more that Mullin made promises that he then broke.

Slice was hired for his legendary recruiting skills.
HE DID NOT DELIVER!

 

[Red.Fans]

One rumor is that Mullin & Slice had a falling out over how Slice treated & "spoke" to the players during practices. Not sure if it rose to Fran Fraschila level, but again, it's a rumor that I heard. Have no clue if it's true or not, & it really doesn't matter. Slice is gone, whatever the reason(s) & it's safe to say he isn't coming back.

That a is not true slice is a good guy that does not compute It is more that Mullin made promises that he then broke.

to your point, I don't think "the" incident was about mistreating players.
However, I would not make such assumptions especially when it implies that our coach a welsher at best when in fact, he had the class to not make the bad behavior public for his own benefit. If the opposite were true would you feel bad about smearing Mullin's reputation? There is a guy in charge. You do what he says how he says, not go directly against what he says. I don't see any good coming from such speculation including for Slice who you may think you are doing a favor but probably is the last guy that wants any of this discussed further.

 

[L J S A]

I really hope we're not still talking about Slice 20 years from now like we do with every other coach. He was here for a year, didn't work out. Great East Coast connections, but they are the kind that work for a good team, which we were years from becoming.