Coming into this season we had reason to be optimistic to see an improved St. John's product on the court. We were bringing back some key experienced pieces and were adding five new players that seemed like they could be strong contributors. So far the performance of the team as a whole has been somewhat disappointing from where I sit. The players have not hit their stride and blended into a cohesive unit yet. The defensive intensity that was a strength of last season's team is clearly lacking at this point.
Today we lost our second matchup against Creighton. Last year our hopeful end of the year turnaround, from a weak 3-12 start in league play, began with a dominant win in our second matchup against Creighton on March 1st. While that was a home game towards the end of the season and today's loss was a road game much earlier in the year, the comparisons between the two games are stark.
That game was the absolute high point performance of last year's season (see box score link below). We shot the lights out of the gym then and made an incredible 14 for 22 from three. Greg Williams was on fire shooting 7 for 10 from beyond the arc. Rasheem Dunn had a terrific game with 19 points, 10 assists and 6 rebounds. Conversely, then #10, Creighton was an abysmal 4 for 27 from deep. The presence of now departed players Nick Rutherford and LJ Figueroa helped harass the Blue Jays into a bad shooting night.
Today we struggled to stop #7 Creighton defensively in the first half when they scored 56 points (an all tme Big East first half high for them) and other than a brilliant offensive game by Julian Champagnie (33 points 10 rebounds) and a decent one by Marcellus Earlington (13 points and 6 rebounds) we were not all that effective offensively (see box score link below).
We could argue that Crieghton is a much better team this year than last year or that we caught them last year in a down cycle but our comparative end results today are disappointing no matter what the reasons.
The inability to guard well on the perimeter or protect the rim on the interior has been a characteristic of the 2020/21 St. John's team. Last year's group battled most games on the defensive end and most of our opponents felt pressure that was disruptive.
After only six conference games it is hard to say that we have absolutely regressed from last year (we were 1 and 5 both years) but it is difficult to point to definitive improvement either. The pandemic and the unusual nature of this year has a definite impact on everything. Hopefully over the next 14 conference games there will be growth and a team defensive identity will begin to emerge.
Coach Mike Anderson has had a way of getting players to grow over the course of the season. Players like Posh Alexander, Dylan Addae-Wusu, Greg Williams, Julian Moore, Rasheem Dunn, Marcellus Earlington and Vince Cole have all shown flashes of ability at times during the season this year and improvement and more consistency is definitely possible. Julian Champagnie seems to be the closest thing we have to a finished product that we can count on game in and game out.
Fourteen conference games are yet to be played. The story of this season is nowhere close to done yet but so far, unfortunately, the topic of regression is not a far fetched one.
[URL]https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId[/URL]=401168337
[URL]https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId[/URL]=401269605
Today we lost our second matchup against Creighton. Last year our hopeful end of the year turnaround, from a weak 3-12 start in league play, began with a dominant win in our second matchup against Creighton on March 1st. While that was a home game towards the end of the season and today's loss was a road game much earlier in the year, the comparisons between the two games are stark.
That game was the absolute high point performance of last year's season (see box score link below). We shot the lights out of the gym then and made an incredible 14 for 22 from three. Greg Williams was on fire shooting 7 for 10 from beyond the arc. Rasheem Dunn had a terrific game with 19 points, 10 assists and 6 rebounds. Conversely, then #10, Creighton was an abysmal 4 for 27 from deep. The presence of now departed players Nick Rutherford and LJ Figueroa helped harass the Blue Jays into a bad shooting night.
Today we struggled to stop #7 Creighton defensively in the first half when they scored 56 points (an all tme Big East first half high for them) and other than a brilliant offensive game by Julian Champagnie (33 points 10 rebounds) and a decent one by Marcellus Earlington (13 points and 6 rebounds) we were not all that effective offensively (see box score link below).
We could argue that Crieghton is a much better team this year than last year or that we caught them last year in a down cycle but our comparative end results today are disappointing no matter what the reasons.
The inability to guard well on the perimeter or protect the rim on the interior has been a characteristic of the 2020/21 St. John's team. Last year's group battled most games on the defensive end and most of our opponents felt pressure that was disruptive.
After only six conference games it is hard to say that we have absolutely regressed from last year (we were 1 and 5 both years) but it is difficult to point to definitive improvement either. The pandemic and the unusual nature of this year has a definite impact on everything. Hopefully over the next 14 conference games there will be growth and a team defensive identity will begin to emerge.
Coach Mike Anderson has had a way of getting players to grow over the course of the season. Players like Posh Alexander, Dylan Addae-Wusu, Greg Williams, Julian Moore, Rasheem Dunn, Marcellus Earlington and Vince Cole have all shown flashes of ability at times during the season this year and improvement and more consistency is definitely possible. Julian Champagnie seems to be the closest thing we have to a finished product that we can count on game in and game out.
Fourteen conference games are yet to be played. The story of this season is nowhere close to done yet but so far, unfortunately, the topic of regression is not a far fetched one.
[URL]https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId[/URL]=401168337
[URL]https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId[/URL]=401269605
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