Obviously lol He was taunting Knicks w choke sign
Positives to think about after this game for the season
- Thread starter mjmaherjr
- Start date
Here’s where I have a problem saying that, how about the bunny missed in the first half, the rebound not grabbed with 8 minutes to go, the TO to start the 2nd half? Is that “choking” in a game where the goal is to stay close and steal at the end, in any game for that matter.
Blaming a loss on a couple of plays at the end of a game, to repeat a mantra of mine, reeks of not understanding the game at all; wouldn’t the two foul shots Luis missed 5 minutes or so earlier have potentially changed the course of the game, or the pretty much point blank layup he missed a minute or so later? Were those choking? And I could go up and down the line with each player; Jenkins 4-13 with 4 assists is horrible but Alleyne and Dingle‘s 4-14 and 1 assist in 12 more minutes of time hardly gets mentioned.
When, in the course of a game, does it become “choking“ time? Teams win together and lose together over the course of 40 minutes, not because of one or two plays at the end of a game. And every player on the team and every coach on the bench carries some responsibility for each and every game regardless of the outcome. That is the pure and undeniable nature of a team sport.
Somehow you had to have known my dad because literally since midget league in ball drove home the message every day of my life then my brothers as a kid you win as a team and you lose as a team and first day of practice every team I was on and then my brother he gave every parent a letter about what he expected of them as fans because they aren’t just parents at a game they are fans and it’s team first not your kid first and his #1 rule is never knock a player on the team because he will bench your kid if you do
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Obviously never met your Dad but I “knew” him if you get my drift; I truly admire the approach you describe. Along the same lines, I would ask parents to sit in on the meeting before the first practice no matter the level or sport and would preach to player and parent alike that ALL a player controls is how hard he tries; in preparing, mentally and physically and obviously giving both to the max during games.
As a player and as a coach, the term “choke” has a very, very distasteful connotation to me; it is cheap and easy criticism and I usually associate the use of the term with people who never really and truly ever competed. I don’t mean ever played, I mean ever competed; never really were willing to “leave it all out there”, willing to live with trying their absolute hardest and still losing.
Including the foul he got away with on the inbounds play.
I agree.
Luis is huge. He takes up more space than anyone other than Soriano and Zuby. Zuby I thought again had a really good game. Wish we saw a few minutes of Luis and Taylor together on the court vs uconn.
Luis, Taylor, Jenkins, Dingle and Joel is a lineup I hope to see lots of going forward.
I was at that game. I believe him and Mustapha Heron both missed front ends of 1 and 1s.
Just brutal
That game really was one of our all time chokes even though the refs also screwed us to an unbelievable degree
We also blew a 10+ point lead in the last 6 or 7 minutes.
“Wheels off” was a staple expression of fans for too long re seeing SJU leads melt and team heading downhill in games. Under Rick of course he’ll lose his share of games, but imo you will see him “right the ship” after losing leads more often than not.
UConn game was one example of not folding, despite immense pressure. In college hoops, a solid HC & tactician can steal games. Thankfully we have one.
UConn game was one example of not folding, despite immense pressure. In college hoops, a solid HC & tactician can steal games. Thankfully we have one.
Having a plan beats winging it any day of the week. Focusing on being one of the fastest teams in the country in terms of pace, while having a ghastly half court offense is winging it. Yes we beat UConn in Hartford last year winging it, but we went on to lose 9 of our last 14 afterwards. Never built on it.
Despite the close loss last Sat, see much success building off this with the current plan in place.
Despite the close loss last Sat, see much success building off this with the current plan in place.
I stayed away from this site after the UCONN game to avoid the negativity but was glad to read this thread. It was definitely a tough loss and a game that was there for the taking but plenty of positives to take away as others have pointed out.
I like to focus on the effort level and how they guys are behaving as teammates regardless of the results but especially when things don’t go our way. The effort has been there and these guys are not pointing figures/ showing any bad body language towards each other. With Coach P, the the results will come as long as the team stays together and continues to buy in.
Last point - the teams ceiling will come down to our point guard play. Jenkins has the potential to improve (has shown some glimpses of good court vision with nice assists) and become a facilitator first and scoring option second. My hope is he realizes that and learns/ grows with each game.
I like to focus on the effort level and how they guys are behaving as teammates regardless of the results but especially when things don’t go our way. The effort has been there and these guys are not pointing figures/ showing any bad body language towards each other. With Coach P, the the results will come as long as the team stays together and continues to buy in.
Last point - the teams ceiling will come down to our point guard play. Jenkins has the potential to improve (has shown some glimpses of good court vision with nice assists) and become a facilitator first and scoring option second. My hope is he realizes that and learns/ grows with each game.
Pessimism often inherently sounds smarter and more plausible than positivity so it was nice to read all these thoughtful, positive reflections on our season. I do agree with them and remain optimistic.
The metrics show that we have a relatively good shot at making the tournament and that our defense has been much more effective the past few games.
More subjectively, I find the team to be very likeable. I'm sure certain players haven't played up to their own expectations or would like to play more but they've seemed by all appearances to handle it with class and a team first attitude. They haven't made any cryptic social media posts.
Aside from Cruz Davis' injury, we are approaching a fully healthy team, which is something many teams would love to have right now. I don't want to place unrealistic expectations on Luis but I've definitely liked what I've seen from him briefly so far and am excited to see what he adds.
Soriano has established himself as the best big man of my fandom (stretching back about 20 years or so). After winning Most Improved Player in the conference last year, there was reasonable concern about whether or not he would slightly regress, but he's put in the work to be an even more improved player (more PPG, better FG%, better passing, developed a three point shot).
Although of course people can disagree with specific coaching decisions, I think we've overall had a well thought-out, thorough game plan for each game and that the staff has worked on improving the team and players' weaknesses throughout the season.
I understand there are also plenty of things that have gone wrong this year but we can both a) have plenty of things go wrong and b) also still have a very successful season.
The metrics show that we have a relatively good shot at making the tournament and that our defense has been much more effective the past few games.
More subjectively, I find the team to be very likeable. I'm sure certain players haven't played up to their own expectations or would like to play more but they've seemed by all appearances to handle it with class and a team first attitude. They haven't made any cryptic social media posts.
Aside from Cruz Davis' injury, we are approaching a fully healthy team, which is something many teams would love to have right now. I don't want to place unrealistic expectations on Luis but I've definitely liked what I've seen from him briefly so far and am excited to see what he adds.
Soriano has established himself as the best big man of my fandom (stretching back about 20 years or so). After winning Most Improved Player in the conference last year, there was reasonable concern about whether or not he would slightly regress, but he's put in the work to be an even more improved player (more PPG, better FG%, better passing, developed a three point shot).
Although of course people can disagree with specific coaching decisions, I think we've overall had a well thought-out, thorough game plan for each game and that the staff has worked on improving the team and players' weaknesses throughout the season.
I understand there are also plenty of things that have gone wrong this year but we can both a) have plenty of things go wrong and b) also still have a very successful season.
Just quoting myself so that I can gloat
Not going to complain about Luis. Missed some shots but had 12, 10 and 3. May be too athletic and fast for the rest of the team. But Jenkins did play his best game of the season.
I see some nice potential in Luis, just not as convinced as many others that he's the 2nd coming. Shot 2-10 against a mediocre mid major, but at least he hit his FTs and did grab 10 boards. I guess same can be said about Jenkins, that he did it against a mid-major.
I learnedif I post conflicting assessments I'm always right
Boo Harvey
Well-known member
Not expecting Luis to be a savior, but hope he will continue to get better as he gets acclimated. He clearly ads athleticism, speed, defensive ability, and scoring punch that we are lacking.
Monte and I kid around a lot, but I do think Luis could be a solid piece if he stays healthy. That said, Johnnies will go as far as Joel can take them. If he is off (really missed Ledlum today) not sure we have fire power to compensate v better BE teams. Long season & contending for dance bid beats recent years.