If we're fortunate enough to beat Iowa State we'll hear how mediocre they are as well. I just tune it out and move on at this point. This was a great two days in Brooklyn for our guys, especially happy for Nyiwe who they guys obviously rallied around in the post game celebrations.
Niagara, Sat., Nov. 26, 2p, FS-2
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Johnny Rapper
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True every power 5 teams do have cupcakes but they also have legit opponents but St Johns has maybe one or two at most. Do you not remeber that our weak OOC schedule cost us an invite two seasons ago?
In terms of negativity, did you watch the game? Do you feel the team played well or was prepared for the contest? I will concede that the D on Gerard was outstanding but are you ok with Jones taking shots from 10 feet above the arc? Or launching up an I’ll advised shot with a 7 point lead and seconds to go? Are you ok with the fact that game after game the team comes out of the gate with no sense of urgency? Does this play bode well for future Big East play? What I don’t understand is how any actual fan could have watched that game last night and other then the win, come away being happy about the play.
I truly believe that reason that this program has been down for so long is the low expectations of its fan base. There are programs where coaches were fired two years after a National Championship cause of poor results. This is the 4th year of the Anderson regime with no tourney invite to date. We are all hoping that the teams makes the dance but much improvement is necessary cause right now I don’t see it happening.
MakingPlays
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The non-conference was condensed that year for Covid, it was only 7 games. There was scheduling restrictions and game cancellations every day that year, teams were putting together games last minute, coaches were literally on twitter asking who was free on what days. You are reaching really hard to try to criticize the non-conference that year, when a lot of teams had most of their non-conference games cancelled that year. They were fortunate to play the games they did.
MugCostanza
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Will probably be about 20 point favs
Glad to see us playing Niagara, one of the teams we have played many times since 1909-this will be the 101st game. It is a fellow Vincentian school and the one blemish (other than the hated Hoyas) on the 1984-85 year.
Yep, the Vincentian tie plus the Paulus connection got Niagara back on the StJ’s schedule.
Paulus was the star at the neighboring high school so I have followed his career. He is by all accounts a good- solid kid.
Paulus became the accidental head coach at Niagara. He was hired by Patrick Beilein after Patrick was named Niagara head coach . Facts went sidewise for Patrick; when Patrick was terminated before the season started Niagara named Greg Paulus as its head mens basketball coach,
IMO Paulus has done a very good job. Niagara is a tough place to win. If he finishes in the middle of the MAAC for 3 or so years he will have the opportunity to move to a higher mid major in the future.
Paulus was the star at the neighboring high school so I have followed his career. He is by all accounts a good- solid kid.
Paulus became the accidental head coach at Niagara. He was hired by Patrick Beilein after Patrick was named Niagara head coach . Facts went sidewise for Patrick; when Patrick was terminated before the season started Niagara named Greg Paulus as its head mens basketball coach,
IMO Paulus has done a very good job. Niagara is a tough place to win. If he finishes in the middle of the MAAC for 3 or so years he will have the opportunity to move to a higher mid major in the future.
Plus Paulus started a year for Syracuse at QB after his Duke basketball days
guinness77
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Frankly, any SJU fan old enough should like this matchup. The matchup with Niagara reminds me of the 80s and 90s and how we’d play them every year and, yes, this is a team that always wants/wanted to beat us so I think it’s cool we’re playing them and hopefully it goes back to every year like it used to be.
I don’t have low expectations for the program. I think Mike A should probably be fired if we miss the tournament again this season. I understand what you’re trying to say but it just doesn’t apply to me.
But this is the problem I have with fans like you since I have had a lot of conversations over the years with guys like you (maybe you are Joe3 or Mike Zaun or whatever cause I can’t keep up with what username he has these days)
I get what fans like you are trying to say. I understand it. But a lot of the time guys like you let your overall view of the program/coach inform every post you do and it gets so so old.
Like you won’t allow yourself to be happy. If we’re losing it’s because we suck. If we’re winning it’s because the schedule sucks. It’s hard to engage with people like you because it just seems you’re gonna be miserable until we hear our name called on selection Sunday.
So in the meantime what, we just gotta put
Up with the negativity? That’s fine but if I think you’re being over dramatic I’m gonna say so. And I think you are. The OOC isn’t an amazing slate, but if we keep taking care of business, it’s gonna come down to us winning Big East games.
You blame 2 years ago on OOC. Do you see how easily I can just counter with that by saying… hey we lost a terrible home game to a DePaul team we should’ve beaten that year. We lost in overtime in the first round of the BET, a game we really should’ve had.
We went 10-10 in big East play. Not even above .500 in the end. How about we do better in league games before we automatically decide it’s OOC schedules fault?
Like last year we played some tougher games against Kansas and stuff. And we lost. Did it do anything for us to play those games? We still came up short in league play and it cost us. I just think bitching about the schedule is one of the dumbest thing to do in college basketball when you’re in an actual power conference. We’re gonna get our chances to pick up big wins. Trust me. That creighton team everyone is saying is final four good? We play them twice. UConns great this year. We get two cracks at them. Beating Nova or X will always look good on a resume. We’re gonna be fine. Let’s go win 11+ league games for once and see where we stand
Johnny Rapper
Well-known member
When I think of Niagara, I think of that team they had with Calvin Murphy, one of the best and quickest college guards I ever saw. He was something else to watch. But I also remember the Niagara team that was the only loss in the 84-85 season the Redmen suffered other then three losses to the Hoyas in their final four season.
Unfortunately college basketball has changed since the time when Niagara was a prominent college basketball program with Coach Frank Layden and Calvin Murphy.
Today Niagara is a near bottom feeder in the MAAC. It mens basketball program is underfunded even by MAAC standards. It plays basketball in the tiny high school like Taps Gallagher arena which shares space in the same building with other student services. Arguably today mens hockey is king sport on the Niagara campus.
Fun fact regarding Calvin Murphy: Calvin graduated from Norwalk Connecticut high school. but chose to play for out of the way Niagara University. One of the determining factors in Murphy's move to Niagara was that he would be able to twirl a baton between halves of the Buffalo Bills' football games (Go Bill’s!).
SJUWillRockNYC
Well-known member
One of my brothers friends is Brian Clifford's brother so I met him a few times. Nice guy, and was a real good player.
I would be watching on TV as a kid like wow he's playing against future NBA players. It was great to watch.
It's interesting we used to play mid major teams like Niagara on their home court. As recently as the mid 2000's we were doing a home and home with Niagara. Those days are over. Rarely see major teams playing on the road at mid majors. One of the last I can remember for St John's was Mullin's first year at Fordham. Terrible game
Boo Harvey
Well-known member
Our poor non-conference schedule coupled with the struggles of the conference makes is so that we will likely need to finish in the top three or four in the conference to get a bid. Lest we forget, we finished fourth two years ago and didn’t get a bid. In my opinion, the non-conference scheduling puts us at a significant disadvantage in terms of both preparation and power ranking.
I agree, now most important do not lose these games. We've seen over the past several years they've lost non conference games.
No doubt , there are so many local schools that St. John's could be playing. They would bring fans to the game also
2 years ago we played 7 non conference games total and the best win was BC. We beat St. Peter’s by 1 and rider by 3. Scoring margin matters for the computer numbers. Our OOC “resume” is set up to be much better than that year. Which again was during a pandemic with limited scheduling ability. I don’t think any of it would have mattered if we would have gotten the home game we never got to play vs 7 seeded ncaaT team uconn which we already beat at their place or if we took care of our own business in the first round of the BET.
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