So many of you believe Pitino could have made the tournament with last years team. Just curious, who were the “impact” players from last year that are gone now? Not players who people liked or felt ”busted their ass” but players who truly consistently, positively, impacted games. In my eyes there was one, Soriano, who is still here.
I have no idea how good the players Pitino has recruited so far are because I don’t remember ever seeing any of them play but I certainly trust his time proven judgement and am not afraid to go out on a limb and say the product on the court next year will be light years ahead of the last couple of years, indeed, the last couple of decades, except for the occasional rare anomaly teams.
First off, the team will play real defense, not poke and hope for steals with fake hustle, with the backup plan being praying teams are off from wide open, most times from 3. Players will exhibit real hustle, not act like fighting for a rebound or loose ball will somehow land them in jail.
They will run an offense and share the ball, passing until they get an open shot, not heave ridiculous chucks that would have me screaming at whoever was on my team throwing that crap up in a playground game. Soriano will learn to kick out from the post to shooters moving to open spots, not holding the ball as double teams come and teammates stand around watching, wondering what they should be doing. Players will play the last 5 minutes of close games the “right way”, not play like if they don’t make the “big play” the game isn’t worth winning.
In short, we will see a basketball team, playing intelligent, committed basketball which is why I think we will be far more competitive in the conference next year, regardless of how many impact players people feel we are missing. SJU has an impact coach, who has made a career out of molding impact teams.
He has brought in experienced mature players and as I posted before, I expect to see a team where the total is far greater than the sum of the parts; we shall see.
