(NCAA-Game 1, Dayton) - Arizona St., Wed. Mar. 20, 9:10 pm, TruTV / 970 AM

[quote="oldschool Redmen" post=331721]We should go old school baby.
Shaved heads and black kicks.
Hell I want to see Chris shave his head as well.[/quote]


A few more dismal seasons and he won't have to shave his head.
 
[quote="FrankInGeneral" post=331953]Color me cautiously optimistic about St. John's chances to make some waves. ASU is almost a mirror image of us. They have one 6'10" guy in the rotation, but he doesn't play a ton of minutes. And if there's one possible explanation for our Johnnies' inconsistency this year, to loosely quote James Carville: "it's the match-ups, stupid." So I think it's a favorable match-up for us, and therefore think we should be victorious.

Looking ahead, Buffalo is a similarly good match-up. Texas Tech lest so...but certainly not the worst match-up for us.

I think the other key to our inconsistency is the guys being motivated. I trust that the excitement and emotion of making the tournament, and the desire to make waves in the tournament, will have the guys flying with their 'A' game.

So basically a combination of motivation and good match-up equals a Johnnies W.[/quote]



Speaking of match ups I'm hoping Simon is able to take a smaller defensive man into the post, that's his best offense.
 
[quote="Beast of the East" post=331838]I think we've all gotten lost in the simplistic realities. Not making our shots, not rebounds, teams packing it in, etc.

Here's what I would say strategically:

1. you beat a good zone with great ball movement and not standing around and dribbling. Motion and overloading allows opportunities to find seams in the zone and opportunities to get good looks on midrange and short jumpers. We sometimes play like it's either a 24 foot shot over the zone, or a forced layup. The old rules rules of physics apply. The ball moves faster than the zone. Good crisp ball movement, flashing to open spots on the floor will get us better looks.

2. Rebounding. With our athleticism we can be a much better rebounding team, but not rely only on athleticism. The solid fundamental of finding your man and putting a body on him when the ball goes up works about as well as a 40 inch vertical leap. Our guys should try it.

3. Transition. We should push the ball at every single opportunity, even in bounding after a basket. USe our inferior bench to give short blows to our guys to keep them fresh without having 2 or 3 bench players on the floor at once.

4. Breaks. Just because we push the ball doesn't mean every possession has to be 5 seconds and very few breaks should result in an open 25 foot shot. A 5 on 4 is an advantage, but less so of course than a 3 on 1. Our guys have to be smart in transition, and use it to wear down bigger, slwer opponents.

5. Dumb fouls. Most important thing is not committing rebounding fouls, fouls away from the basket, or fould when you've hopelessly lost your man and challenge him late. It's much more important that our starters have the capacity to be on the floor for 32-40 minutes than be on the bench saddled with fouls.

We do these things and suddenly we are formidable and not an easy out whatsoever.[/quote]



And when we have a three on one fast break I don't want to see the pass to the corner for a three pointer, instead a pass for an easy lay up. BTW, I don't care if the three point shot goes in.
 
[quote="JackofVirginia" post=332010][quote="oldschool Redmen" post=331721]We should go old school baby.
Shaved heads and black kicks.
Hell I want to see Chris shave his head as well.[/quote]


A few more dismal seasons and he won't have to shave his head.[/quote]

Or have everyone grow a beard like hockey players do in the playoffs for team unity
 
I actually like the fact that no pundits are acting like we have a real shot even though it's literally a toss up game. Cut out the clippings and put them in the locker room.

If we are hot shooting (overdue) and intense on defense we can definitely win if we want it bad enough. If that happens and we play a real nice game, we may be a sexy underdog pick to take down Buffalo. Yes Buffalo is very good but sorry they are still a MAC team. Most of their season was munching on cupcakes.
 
Making in-game adjustments has not been a strength. However one thing we did incredibly well earlier in the year (including in the first ~50% of conference play) is having a defined game plan going into the game and executing. We probably only saw that one time wire to wire in the last 10 games - Seton Hall. Would be big boost to get back to that where we've identified ASU weakness(es) and are stepping on them from the tip.

To that end one of the biggest mistakes a team like SJU that doesn't make it to the Tournament regularly can do is spend time settling into the game. Both of our last two NCAA Tournament games had that feel where it took a while for us to get going, we ended up playing a little bit in the second half, but it was too late. Need to be engaged from the start.

And then they have to find a way to sustain. In the last 12 games, SJU is 2-10 in the 2nd half, many of those by double digit margins or close to it. Very challenging to win when you're basically trying to hang on to a 1st half lead. Will likely need to produce for close to 40 to get W tomorrow.
 
Interesting. Arizona State is a 1.5 Point favorite. Yet St. John’s has a 52% chance of winning. Talk about a toss up game!
 
Honest assessment? Starting with the Villanova win, the team played a grand total of 3 good halves, and a great first 10 minutes against Seton Hall. That's 70 minutes of good basketball out of the last 8 games. While matchups are important, it won't matter unless the team plays solid basketball for 40 minutes, something they did only a few times all conference season. They have to get back to playing as a team on both ends of the floor, cutting back the silly fouls, and just plain work harder on the glass. Arizona State wouldn't be in a play in game if they were very good. but we can't win unless we play much better basketball than we have recently.
 
[quote="JackofVirginia" post=332014][quote="Beast of the East" post=331838]I think we've all gotten lost in the simplistic realities. Not making our shots, not rebounds, teams packing it in, etc.

Here's what I would say strategically:

1. you beat a good zone with great ball movement and not standing around and dribbling. Motion and overloading allows opportunities to find seams in the zone and opportunities to get good looks on midrange and short jumpers. We sometimes play like it's either a 24 foot shot over the zone, or a forced layup. The old rules rules of physics apply. The ball moves faster than the zone. Good crisp ball movement, flashing to open spots on the floor will get us better looks.

2. Rebounding. With our athleticism we can be a much better rebounding team, but not rely only on athleticism. The solid fundamental of finding your man and putting a body on him when the ball goes up works about as well as a 40 inch vertical leap. Our guys should try it.

3. Transition. We should push the ball at every single opportunity, even in bounding after a basket. USe our inferior bench to give short blows to our guys to keep them fresh without having 2 or 3 bench players on the floor at once.

4. Breaks. Just because we push the ball doesn't mean every possession has to be 5 seconds and very few breaks should result in an open 25 foot shot. A 5 on 4 is an advantage, but less so of course than a 3 on 1. Our guys have to be smart in transition, and use it to wear down bigger, slwer opponents.

5. Dumb fouls. Most important thing is not committing rebounding fouls, fouls away from the basket, or fould when you've hopelessly lost your man and challenge him late. It's much more important that our starters have the capacity to be on the floor for 32-40 minutes than be on the bench saddled with fouls.

We do these things and suddenly we are formidable and not an easy out whatsoever.[/quote]



And when we have a three on one fast break I don't want to see the pass to the corner for a three pointer, instead a pass for an easy lay up. BTW, I don't care if the three point shot goes in.[/quote]
Or out-of-control half-court alley-oops.
 
St. John's vs. Arizona State will be televised at 9 PM EST on Wednesday night on truTV. You can also watch it on the March Madness Live app/website. #sjubb
 
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