(Mohegan Sun) St. Joseph's, Wed. Dec. 20, 4:30p, ESPN U, 970 AM

[logen]

Agree completely with your prognosis I too would like to win 10 in conference but thats not thinking realistically. To date we whave not been shooting the ball well This was suppose to be our strong point Pond is a very good ballplayer he was suppose to be hitting threes at a better rate but he does a lot of things to put points on the board. WITH the lack of a face up forward and a center who has little moves around the basket and foul shooting we cab only go so far. But who knows if we put good games together and our offense wakes up we might just make the dance We will know after the first 5 games

Defense wins, defense, defense, defense. Forget post offense, forget foul shooting. In our two losses we scored enough points. Forget shooting 3’s, we will be much better if Ponds decides to leave the unfocused, matador defense in the locker room.

 

[fan5577]

55 or 77? depends on the day!

 

[fan5577]

10-2 is what everyone wanted and we did it the hard way without Lovett. Ponds and Ahmed, Owens and Simon each did some good things today. Not going to be much fun without Lovett in the Big East.

One thing that frustrates me is that there were a lot of St. John’s fans at the game but they were so quiet. They have to get over the PTSD. Providence fans are loud tonight.

Merry Christmas to all.

A lot of fans in an empty arena. A lot more fans for the nightcap. We must have played before a couple of hundred people. Last night UCONN women played before a sellout crowd in the same arena.

The UCONN women are outdrawing the UCONN men at this point. Geno was going for his 1,000th win and the campus is a 45 minute drive from the arena.

 

[fun]

forget foul shooting

This is very very wrong. I don't disagree that with your comments about defense - it is the difference between the teams performance last year and this, but this is very very wrong. Free points on the offensive end are just as important as lost points on the other. If you don't believe me ask Chris Mullins.

 

[fan5577]

Clearly this team has thus far exceeded expectations defensively, has managed to win in face of short roster & key injury & for most part is fun to watch.

Prognosis - Should at least go .500 in an extremely competitive conference if they avoid injuries of consequence for prolonged periods. Winning a game in BE Tourney is in reach. With a seven man rotation & key guys playing max minutes, I expect some stumbles in tough portions of schedule with frequent games. To me, warts & all, this team has some very talented players, seemingly decent chemistry & an improved staff especially on the defensive end.

Win some attention getting contests v top BE teams, finish in top 5 or 6 & program will be more appealing to recruits. I am not settling, but winning 18 or 19 games, avoiding "same old St. John's" frustration works for me. Obviously staff has to take a hit for having such a short roster, but it is what it is. Expecting great results like Nova, Xavier programs at this point seems crazy. Enjoy being in the conversation for first time in a while.

Keeping Wilson would have helped. Too bad he had the wrong "handlers".

 

[SJU85]

Providence is 59 miles and one hour from Mohegan Sun. St. Johns is twice as far, and with moderate traffic can take 4 hours or more. It's well documented that we have an older fan base. The only thing that corrects that is winning. Students typically don't follow losing teams. My son is at BC, and attendance is abysmal unless they play Duke, Syracuse, or UNC.

At CA, in recent years ALL fans in general have been louder than in the past. Students nearly fill the sections behind the baskets and hose who come enthusiastically support the team.

Wow the students nearly fill the couple of hundred seats behind the baskets out of a pool of what 15 to 18,000 students. What tremendous support. Sorry if this upsets the peaches and cream portion of our fanbase.

The students just finished finals and scattered. Games like this which was not a marquee game, usually have low attendance especially student wise since the semester is over.

St. John's does not travel well. We start winning consistently that changes for the closer games.

 

[SJU85]

10-2 is what everyone wanted and we did it the hard way without Lovett. Ponds and Ahmed, Owens and Simon each did some good things today. Not going to be much fun without Lovett in the Big East.

One thing that frustrates me is that there were a lot of St. John’s fans at the game but they were so quiet. They have to get over the PTSD. Providence fans are loud tonight.

Merry Christmas to all.

A lot of fans in an empty arena. A lot more fans for the nightcap. We must have played before a couple of hundred people. Last night UCONN women played before a sellout crowd in the same arena.

The UCONN women are outdrawing the UCONN men at this point. Geno was going for his 1,000th win and the campus is a 45 minute drive from the arena.

And the game was played in Connecticut and they are after all "Connecticut's Team".

UConn Women's team always draws good crowds. Winning does it.

 

[Redzing1969]

At end of last season our glaring weaknesses were lack of defense,rebounding, and foul shooting. We have improved substantially on defense and incrementally on the other two.We also did not know how to win games like the St. Joes,Iona,and UCF contests. They were the disasters of LIU Brooklyn,Delaware State,etc. of last season. Last night at Mohegan Sun could have been one of those disasters but it wasn't! I too have seen improvement from Bashir to the point where in end of last nights game I wanted the ball in his hands to go to the basket, no one else was doing it and St. Joes had three guys with four fouls! Tariq has made tremendous improvement this year, especially playing more in the last two weeks for Lovett.I feel much more confident about Yakwe coming into a game now believing that his minutes will be productive, whereas in the past I cringed when he came in. Is this team consistent yet? Absolutely not. Are they a great team? Absolutely not. But if they can win 20 games this year it's a major accomplishment in my book, tournament or no tournament.Is Mullin the perfect coach? No but my god you need to be happy with the improvement from Season 1 to Season 3!Does Ponds flounder at times? Yes but he's young and NEVER loses his cool.Would I like to see more discipline and structure on offense? Absolutely at times, it would help eliminate bad turnovers. Last nite at game I was sitting next to a Providence fan who said to me " I love the way Mullin coaches, he gives his players so much freedom" .Haha grass is always greener on the other side. Meanwhile enjoy the ride it's been great so far,Orlando was great too. AND, they have done a lot of damage on the road,not easy!

 

[mjmaherjr]

cusgotta be happy with 9-2 especially with Marcus hurt. Lets avoid injuries and get 10 big east wins

 

[Andrew]

At end of last season our glaring weaknesses were lack of defense,rebounding, and foul shooting. We have improved substantially on defense and incrementally on the other two.We also did not know how to win games like the St. Joes,Iona,and UCF contests. They were the disasters of LIU Brooklyn,Delaware State,etc. of last season. Last night at Mohegan Sun could have been one of those disasters but it wasn't! I too have seen improvement from Bashir to the point where in end of last nights game I wanted the ball in his hands to go to the basket, no one else was doing it and St. Joes had three guys with four fouls! Tariq has made tremendous improvement this year, especially playing more in the last two weeks for Lovett.I feel much more confident about Yakwe coming into a game now believing that his minutes will be productive, whereas in the past I cringed when he came in. Is this team consistent yet? Absolutely not. Are they a great team? Absolutely not. But if they can win 20 games this year it's a major accomplishment in my book, tournament or no tournament.Is Mullin the perfect coach? No but my god you need to be happy with the improvement from Season 1 to Season 3!Does Ponds flounder at times? Yes but he's young and NEVER loses his cool.Would I like to see more discipline and structure on offense? Absolutely at times, it would help eliminate bad turnovers. Last nite at game I was sitting next to a Providence fan who said to me " I love the way Mullin coaches, he gives his players so much freedom" .Haha grass is always greener on the other side. Meanwhile enjoy the ride it's been great so far,Orlando was great too. AND, they have done a lot of damage on the road,not easy!

Great post!

 

[logen]

forget foul shooting

This is very very wrong. I don't disagree that with your comments about defense - it is the difference between the teams performance last year and this, but this is very very wrong. Free points on the offensive end are just as important as lost points on the other. If you don't believe me ask Chris Mullins.

Agreed, I took a little too much license to make a point.

 

[Section3]

While we are all happy to win the battle of the SJU's how we won is troubling.  Coach Martelli had his kids crashing the boards while our guys seemed to grab rebounds only when they bounced into their hands.  While our 6'9 euro sat on his ass St. Joe's Italian sophomore Pierfrancesco Olivo was grabbing 18 rebounds.  A 6'10 Hawk frosh was obviously not in a Funk by scoring 15 points.  When Chris Mullin begins to inspire our players to rebound like Oliva and teaches Yawke and his front court mates a basic understanding of positioning when it comes to rebounding I may think of this team more than a borderline NIT team......Lovett or no Lovett.  Being outrebounded by 12 by St. Joe's is embarrassing.  Finally, while our defense overall has improved Shamorie Ponds continues a high school habit of playing as little defense as possible.  Newkirk scored at will against him and Shamorie committing just one foul in guarding him is indicative of his loose defensive effort.

I think they were overconfident and it showed on defense.

 

[bamafan]

Clearly this team has thus far exceeded expectations defensively, has managed to win in face of short roster & key injury & for most part is fun to watch.

Prognosis - Should at least go .500 in an extremely competitive conference if they avoid injuries of consequence for prolonged periods. Winning a game in BE Tourney is in reach. With a seven man rotation & key guys playing max minutes, I expect some stumbles in tough portions of schedule with frequent games. To me, warts & all, this team has some very talented players, seemingly decent chemistry & an improved staff especially on the defensive end.

Win some attention getting contests v top BE teams, finish in top 5 or 6 & program will be more appealing to recruits. I am not settling, but winning 18 or 19 games, avoiding "same old St. John's" frustration works for me. Obviously staff has to take a hit for having such a short roster, but it is what it is. Expecting great results like Nova, Xavier programs at this point seems crazy. Enjoy being in the conversation for first time in a while.

Winning a game in the BET is a reach? If we finish fifth or sixth we play the third or fourth seed at MSG and that's a reach? That's setting the bar pretty low. Not saying we should win but wouldn't call it a reach more like 50-50.

Said "in reach" not "a reach"

Yeah sure after you edited your post! My apologies Paultzman.