Quinnipiac, Sat., Nov. 9, 2p, FS-2

Too easy to look at positives in a blow out win, so just a couple of things I would like to see corrected/worked on.

When we press, Kadary runs up to the player the ball has been thrown in to and past him on the sideline side of him. I have seen it happen a few times already. He has to stop in front of him and cutting off the middle of the floor using the sideline as the 3rd defender.

RJ's biggest strength is his athleticism. Someone needs to tell him to out the euro step on the shelf and leave it there. It slows him down and takes away all of his explosive ability. For every time it works for him there are 5 where it doesn't.

Zuby...we need the energizer bunny Zuby from last year, and he has to finish around the rim. Missed bunnies has been a problem on this team for more than a decade (at least it feels that way)

Glover's play looks like a freshman. Hopefully he accelerates his learning curve and can be a viable option come January.

Are there lots of other things to work on, sure. But these are a few that I have noticed so far.
 
What I find most satisfying (besides winning) is watching Dunlap and Wilcher excel. I realize the importance of transfers in this new-age of college hoops, but when these two excel it feels like the old days again when players came in as frosh, developed and were true Johnnies. I am not saying the other guys aren't true Johnnies, but I just don't feel the same connection as a fan when I get to know them only for a season or two as hired guns. Looking forward (hopefully) to Wilcher and Dunlap being major contributors this season and beyond! I also love how close these two are as friends. Coach Pitino showing that the old way can still work...well sort of.
 
lawmanfan said:
I am in the minority (though I suspect Pitino may be with me in the group) but I think the team looked like it needs a lot of work yesterday.

Clearly some of that is due to the first game of the 3-guard lineup, in which Richmond decided to minimize his role to help Smith acclimate. Smith is a tough kid and he's fast, but there were also some mistakes (maybe that acclimation, maybe rust, maybe just playing too fast) that I'd like to see go away. Against major comp we will need more out of Richmond (and I think we will get it). Simeon (this year's LMF favorite) is terrific and finds his role regardless of who he's on the floor with and who has the ball.

But overall, the 3-guard lineup needs more work and it's going get late early after Wednesday.

The other problem with the 3-guard lineup is we got killed on the boards. Zuby took the blame for that but he didn't get any help since everyone else was looking to leak out and go the other way. Iwuchuckwu is very interesting but needs to be more physically assertive. He is an absolute menace defending the in-bounds though. Prey seems more like a stretch 4 to me but it looks like there's potential there. I can see why Pitino may feel he has to play some Zuby at the 4.

RJ remains RJ - tremendous ability and athleticism, still does not make smart plays and is far too slow to give up the ball. If you could put Kadary's brain in RJ's body what a player that would be.

Dunlap obviously played well and sparked the team, but I will need to see that against teams other than Quinnipiac and I think so will Pitino. But it is good to know that you can put him in the game and he will be a positive contributor - even if he isn't likely to be a 20 PPG guy he will give you hustle, some boards, and some shooting.

The defense was atrocious (better in the second half) and I am now in my 34th year of season ticket holding without St John's having a reliable in-bounds play. It must be the water, you would think that at least ONE of our many coaches would have had one, but no.

Liotopoulos took one shot but unless it was a fluke (and per reputation it isn't), he is one smooth shooter.

Glover looked like a mini-RJ Luis in his time on the court from a court-awareness standpoint. Interestingly from the RJ-as-pterodactyl standpoint Ruben Prey is a ringer for him (plus a few inches).

That's my ten cents - I think this team needs to practice hard this week and to try to improve cohesion vs. Wagner or it is going to struggle in the slate of games that comes after that. This is what happens in the world of "9 new guys every year" I guess.
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I mostly agree with this except people seem to want to bash our best offensive player which RJ clearly is. He has faults but if he didn’t he would be at Duke. Kansas or Kentucky. My advice is to just enjoy what he does well.

Also our starting center and really only big CAN’T get 3 rebounds total against Fordham and Quinnipiac.

Rebounding, someone that can knock down threes and someone that can get us easy baskets down low are are 3 biggest potential problems.
If all three come up as a problem during BE play we won’t make the tournament.
 
bamafan said:
and despite Luis having a real good game with 24 and 13 the critics would have been out in full force for every mistake he made. :confused:
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RJ RJ RJ RJ. The RJ haters are silent today? Oh right no one really dislikes the kid, they just don’t like his poor decisions……BS …..It was not just his 24 points 13 boards that were impressive, he was all over the court and was a defensive menace to the other team. RJ continues to display why he is the best player and biggest contributor to the team on a regular basis despite the foolish and inaccurate criticisms of him on this site that have become laughable at this point.
 
Silly Donovan said:
RJ RJ RJ RJ. The RJ haters are silent today? Oh right no one really dislikes the kid, they just don’t like his poor decisions……BS …..It was not just his 24 points 13 boards that were impressive, he was all over the court and was a defensive menace to the other team. RJ continues to display why he is the best player and biggest contributor to the team on a regular basis despite the foolish and inaccurate criticisms of him on this site that have become laughable at this point.
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Dude, you're just tedious.
 
Larry Wright said:
I mostly agree with this except people seem to want to bash our best offensive player which RJ clearly is. He has faults but if he didn’t he would be at Duke. Kansas or Kentucky. My advice is to just enjoy what he does well.

Also our starting center and really only big CAN’T get 3 rebounds total against Fordham and Quinnipiac.

Rebounding, someone that can knock down threes and someone that can get us easy baskets down low are are 3 biggest potential problems.
If all three come up as a problem during BE play we won’t make the tournament.
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RJ giveth and RJ taketh away. It was a net plus against Q and hopefully it will continue to be that way. But some of "minus" parts of it are hard to watch.

If we can't rebound with the 3 guard lineup and Zuby at the 5 then I can see Pitino trying Vince at the 5 but then it becomes hard to play Zuby at the 4 with him and leave Scott AND Luis on the bench.

Rebounding is going to be a challenge all year, I think.
 
lawmanfan said:
RJ giveth and RJ taketh away. It was a net plus against Q and hopefully it will continue to be that way. But some of "minus" parts of it are hard to watch.

If we can't rebound with the 3 guard lineup and Zuby at the 5 then I can see Pitino trying Vince at the 5 but then it becomes hard to play Zuby at the 4 with him and leave Scott AND Luis on the bench.

Rebounding is going to be a challenge all year, I think.
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Yes think Vince eats into Zuby time. I wa impressed with Prey, limited mins but kid seems to know how to play.
 
mjmaherjr said:
I think the 3 guard angle thing is being way blown out of proportion. It was just more prominent this last game because Scott was out
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Scott not really a 4 either and the 4 best players are Richmond, Luis, Wilcher and Smith.
Going to need Zuby or Vince to rebound. Can’t expect for Richmond and Luis to be your best rebounders and win in the BE.
 
Larry Wright said:
Scott not really a 4 either and the 4 best players are Richmond, Luis, Wilcher and Smith.
Going to need Zuby or Vince to rebound. Can’t expect for Richmond and Luis to be your best rebounders and win in the BE.
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I agree you need rebounding at the 5 but we have athletic size guys this isn’t the days of needing a Jayson Williams at the 4. You need rebounding at the 5 for sure but with all the 3 point shots you get longer rebounds and our guys if they focus can do it. We rebounded great against Rutgers
 
mjmaherjr said:
I think the 3 guard angle thing is being way blown out of proportion. It was just more prominent this last game because Scott was out
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Agree. We have not really played a team of any size at this point and add to that Scott being sick and playing three guards was not an issue.

My concern in this last game was Kadary’s lack of offense against a zone. Since hr is going to be on the court for extended periods of time, his shot will have to come around for this team to reach its potential.
 
Silly Donovan said:
My concern in this last game was Kadary’s lack of offense against a zone. Since hr is going to be on the court for extended periods of time, his shot will have to come around for this team to reach its potential.
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I have a sneaky feeling we will see the “real” KR show up when the comp gets better…

He looks like he’s deferring a lot out there… don’t mind it
 
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