(POST GAME) DePaul, Wed., Jan. 5, 6:30p, FS-1

[beast of the east]

Soriano, in limited minutes (just under 18 mpg), is averaging a solid 6 rebounds per game (pretty much the same as Nate Watson, Samuels and Dixon from Nova) and 2 blocks per game which is 6th in the Big East. He is the least of our problems and one of the two transfers (along with Mathis) who has not disappointed imho. Will be a solid 2 year player for us and can definitely play in the Big East.    

Just keep in mind this is largely against mid-major front lines plus 2 of the worst big conference teams in Pitt and DePaul. We saw the very best of Josh Roberts against these types of teams. Not rooting against him in the least but Soriano will see the most bench time among starters.

Agree with your assessment that our best players may be formidable in conference.

 

[monte]

Soriano would be a perfect situational big. More PT against less athletic front lines. The problem is that we have no one else up front. Stanley is nowhere near ready to contribute meaningful minutes, Wheeler is not a low post player and Nyiwe is not  a Big East level player. 

 

[mjmaherjr]

Soriano showed me yesterday he can be big East material in the paint with Ron protection I said it a while ago he is an excellent laser identifying open guys kinda like Randall was last year with the Knicks 

 

[NCJohnnie]

Beast, imho Soriano is not Josh Roberts in any way, but time will tell. Don't agree that Depaul is a bad team; remember they beat Rutgers, who have beaten both Purdue & Michigan, and Louisville. With possible exception of Georgetown, there are no bad Big East teams this year. 

 

[Knight]

Watching the game yesterday, Stubblefield reminded my of the late John Chaney, with some of his facial expressions.

 

[bamafan]

Soriano, in limited minutes (just under 18 mpg), is averaging a solid 6 rebounds per game (pretty much the same as Nate Watson, Samuels and Dixon from Nova) and 2 blocks per game which is 6th in the Big East. He is the least of our problems and one of the two transfers (along with Mathis) who has not disappointed imho. Will be a solid 2 year player for us and can definitely play in the Big East.    

Maybe and hoping 3 year player for us taking into account covid year if he so chooses. Gives ample time for improvement where he could be a real nice big.

 

[redmannorth]

Soriano would be a perfect situational big. More PT against less athletic front lines. The problem is that we have no one else up front. Stanley is nowhere near ready to contribute meaningful minutes, Wheeler is not a low post player and Nyiwe is not  a Big East level player. 

 

[JohnnyFan]

The good news is the Johnnies were the best team at Carnesecca Arena last night.  The bad news is DePaul is not a very good team.  Our defense was alarming and if DePaul could hit the broad side of a barn in the first half, we might have went down by double digits.  Our opponents are still taking way too many wide open threes and getting way too many offensive rebounds.  As the Quad 1 games await, definitely need to tighten things up in those two areas.
  

• Champagnie is Awesome
• Who was wearing Wusu's jersey in the first half?
• Keep feeding Soriano that spinach

 

[lawmanfan]

Surprised by the negativity on this thread, though of course I shouldn't be.

You knew going in that the team was shorthanded, hadn't played a game in 3 weeks, and hadn't even been able to have a full practice.  And it turned out we were playing with 3 guards with Smith, Coburn and Pinzon all out.

Given that, I expected to see a lot of rustiness and miscommunication, and possibly some fatigue, leading to errors, missed opportunities, and probably a loss.

As it turned out, there was some of that, but there were also many spots where the ball moved far better than I expected it would and there were a lot of good plays that didn't quite finish.  But for a bunch of missed layups and free throws, it could easily have been a SJU blowout despite all of the handicaps coming in.

As it turned out, the adjustments to limit Freeman-LIberty in the second half plus a great effort by Champagnie resulted in a win.  Some nights you need your star to carry you, and this was one of those.

I suppose if you think Dave Leitao is still coaching DePaul (he isn't) and that a shorthanded team that hasn't played a game in 3 weeks and didn't have enough players for a full practice should blow them out, then you have a right to be disappointed.  But IMHO those expectations for this game would have been totally unreasonable and you should be happy with the W.

Providence is going to be another matter entirely, but at least we will have had a game and hopefully some practices and some more players for that one. 

 

[L J S A]

Unless Smith steps up (not impossible but looking less likely) seems pretty clear that our third scoring options are going to be Wusu & Mathis both of whom are averaging 10 points a game with pretty efficient shooting percentages other than from the foul line, a team weakness so far (who would have thought Soriano would be our best free throw shooter). 

We have a pretty good top 5 (Champ, Posh, Wusu, Mathis & Soriano) but need more from the rest plus better decision making from Posh who has been playing a little less under control than last year imho.    

Get the feeling Smith is in CMA’s doghouse. Hopefully, if so, any issues will be resolved. He could help.

I hope I'm the only one here with the weird feeling that Smith bails on us.

 

[ras]

Unless Smith steps up (not impossible but looking less likely) seems pretty clear that our third scoring options are going to be Wusu & Mathis both of whom are averaging 10 points a game with pretty efficient shooting percentages other than from the foul line, a team weakness so far (who would have thought Soriano would be our best free throw shooter). 

We have a pretty good top 5 (Champ, Posh, Wusu, Mathis & Soriano) but need more from the rest plus better decision making from Posh who has been playing a little less under control than last year imho.    

Get the feeling Smith is in CMA’s doghouse. Hopefully, if so, any issues will be resolved. He could help.

I hope I'm the only one here with the weird feeling that Smith bails on 
———
Somethings going behind the scenes other then covid re: Smith


 

 

[MakingPlays]

What did everyone think of Wheeler? He got some good minutes. 

I thought it was probably his best game as a Johnnie (which probably isn't saying much).  He did some things that didn't show up in box score.  If you notice down the stretch he was the guy guarding Freeman-Liberty, and he was picking him up almost full court, his length was causing problems.

Also, he didn't force offense like he normally does, which I really liked.  He had a nice baseline drive, and took a good three pointer in rhythm.  His only negatives I saw last night was he had one really careless turnover, where he just literally got the ball taken from him, and then him fouling on a 3 point attempt.  Outside of those 2 mistakes I thought he had a solid game.  If he can turn into a 6 and 4 guy and just be solid on the defensive end, I think that will be a huge win, his ability to play the 4 and allow Champ to play 3 would be very helpful.

 

Didn't you jump in my sh!t for saying this same thing a few weeks ago?  /media/kunena/emoticons/wink.png

I don't remember that, but it's very possible I did .  I do remember arguing with someone this summer that I didn't seem Champ playing at 3, but Julian is proving me wrong, he's improved every aspect of his game (minus free throws), especially defensively, he can legit defend guards now at a high level for an entire game, he couldn't do that last year.  

I think the best move going forward is primarily playing Julian at the 3, he causes mismatches at this position as most teams typically play a guard at the 3 spot.

 

 

[MakingPlays]

Unless Smith steps up (not impossible but looking less likely) seems pretty clear that our third scoring options are going to be Wusu & Mathis both of whom are averaging 10 points a game with pretty efficient shooting percentages other than from the foul line, a team weakness so far (who would have thought Soriano would be our best free throw shooter). 

We have a pretty good top 5 (Champ, Posh, Wusu, Mathis & Soriano) but need more from the rest plus better decision making from Posh who has been playing a little less under control than last year imho.    

Get the feeling Smith is in CMA’s doghouse. Hopefully, if so, any issues will be resolved. He could help.

I hope I'm the only one here with the weird feeling that Smith bails on us.

I don't think Smith bails, he doesn't seem like the type of kid that would bail on his teammates, that's an Ian Steere type of move.  Smith was visibly rooting for his teammates all game and he was running up to teammates and giving them high fives during timeouts.  From everything I've seen he's a good kid with high character, that's the reason CMA chose him to represent the school for Big East Media Days.

I think what's going on with the Smith situation is CMA is known for benching guys to get their attention if they aren't doing what he thinks they should be doing, he'll tell them before the game starts they are not playing.  He did this to Wheeler earlier in the year.  And then next game Wheeler played.  Smith is at a crossroads here.  Wusu has stepped up his game, Mathis has been very solid and great on the defensive end, Pinzon has shown flashes, and Posh is Posh.  So the question for Smith is what is he going to do to stand out to make the guard rotation in conference play, because there's only so many minutes at the guard spot.  He's going to have to shoot the ball much better than he has and be consistent, and he's going to have to improve defensively. 

Once Coburn returns it's probably going to be a battle between them for those remaining guard minutes in conference play.  The other guards have pretty much solidified their spot.  

 

[JohnnyFan]

Unless Smith steps up (not impossible but looking less likely) seems pretty clear that our third scoring options are going to be Wusu & Mathis both of whom are averaging 10 points a game with pretty efficient shooting percentages other than from the foul line, a team weakness so far (who would have thought Soriano would be our best free throw shooter). 

We have a pretty good top 5 (Champ, Posh, Wusu, Mathis & Soriano) but need more from the rest plus better decision making from Posh who has been playing a little less under control than last year imho.    

Get the feeling Smith is in CMA’s doghouse. Hopefully, if so, any issues will be resolved. He could help.

I hope I'm the only one here with the weird feeling that Smith bails on us.

I don't think Smith bails, he doesn't seem like the type of kid that would bail on his teammates, that's an Ian Steere type of move.  Smith was visibly rooting for his teammates all game and he was running up to teammates and giving them high fives during timeouts.  From everything I've seen he's a good kid with high character, that's the reason CMA chose him to represent the school for Big East Media Days.

I think what's going on with the Smith situation is CMA is known for benching guys to get their attention if they aren't doing what he thinks they should be doing, he'll tell them before the game starts they are not playing.  He did this to Wheeler earlier in the year.  And then next game Wheeler played.  Smith is at a crossroads here.  Wusu has stepped up his game, Mathis has been very solid and great on the defensive end, Pinzon has shown flashes, and Posh is Posh.  So the question for Smith is what is he going to do to stand out to make the guard rotation in conference play, because there's only so many minutes at the guard spot.  He's going to have to shoot the ball much better than he has and be consistent, and he's going to have to improve defensively. 

Once Coburn returns it's probably going to be a battle between them for those remaining guard minutes in conference play.  The other guards have pretty much solidified their spot.  

Not sure Coburn is a well rounded enough player to battle Smith for minutes.  

 

[MakingPlays]

Unless Smith steps up (not impossible but looking less likely) seems pretty clear that our third scoring options are going to be Wusu & Mathis both of whom are averaging 10 points a game with pretty efficient shooting percentages other than from the foul line, a team weakness so far (who would have thought Soriano would be our best free throw shooter). 

We have a pretty good top 5 (Champ, Posh, Wusu, Mathis & Soriano) but need more from the rest plus better decision making from Posh who has been playing a little less under control than last year imho.    

Get the feeling Smith is in CMA’s doghouse. Hopefully, if so, any issues will be resolved. He could help.

I hope I'm the only one here with the weird feeling that Smith bails on us.

I don't think Smith bails, he doesn't seem like the type of kid that would bail on his teammates, that's an Ian Steere type of move.  Smith was visibly rooting for his teammates all game and he was running up to teammates and giving them high fives during timeouts.  From everything I've seen he's a good kid with high character, that's the reason CMA chose him to represent the school for Big East Media Days.

I think what's going on with the Smith situation is CMA is known for benching guys to get their attention if they aren't doing what he thinks they should be doing, he'll tell them before the game starts they are not playing.  He did this to Wheeler earlier in the year.  And then next game Wheeler played.  Smith is at a crossroads here.  Wusu has stepped up his game, Mathis has been very solid and great on the defensive end, Pinzon has shown flashes, and Posh is Posh.  So the question for Smith is what is he going to do to stand out to make the guard rotation in conference play, because there's only so many minutes at the guard spot.  He's going to have to shoot the ball much better than he has and be consistent, and he's going to have to improve defensively. 

Once Coburn returns it's probably going to be a battle between them for those remaining guard minutes in conference play.  The other guards have pretty much solidified their spot.  

Not sure Coburn is a well rounded enough player to battle Smith for minutes.  

I agree, I don't see Coburn playing much in conference play, especially once school starts back for him. 

 

[GardenCity62]

A definite improvement in the De Paul game was the distribution of the three point shots. Champ Posh and WuSu took 17 of the 18 attempts with Wheeler taking the remaining one. Stanley, Soriano, Nyiwe and Mathis played major minutes and didn’t take one three.
That is playing to ones strength. Not a great surprise that the teams three point percentage was very high,55 per cent I think.