Rick’s Targets

logen said:
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.
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I agree with this entirely. Especially the new team, the effort, intelligent play, etc. I’m excited for what St. John’s will be. Finally a tough out! Would I like a couple 4 star kids now? Of course. But I don’t know what everyone was thinking. Rebuild instantly after 30 years of mostly mediocre basketball? With over 100 top seniors already committed? That’s tough. Still time for a couple. We will see. It’s a process. I have seen Pitino win with lesser talent. I think we’re gonna be proud of this team. Year 2 will be a huge step up.
 
newsman13 said:
I agree with the premise. At this point, we have basically lesser players than we gave up. On the other hand, the prospect of coaching against Pitino is daunting...especially in the post season if we get there.
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I think most are better except for Storr so far imo. Then again, Alleyne beats Storr, though I’d have liked to keep him. We had zero offense with respect to the guys that moved on, like none. In addition our defense also wasn’t good at all under cma. It’s early yet but we are recruiting with a very different focus which is offense. I don’t see a lot of big losses talent-wise. The guy we needed to keep, we did which was Soriano.
 
MCNPA said:
I think most are better except for Storr so far imo. Then again, Alleyne beats Storr, though I’d have liked to keep him. We had zero offense with respect to the guys that moved on, like none. In addition our defense also wasn’t good at all under cma. It’s early yet but we are recruiting with a very different focus which is offense. I don’t see a lot of big losses talent-wise. The guy we needed to keep, we did which was Soriano.
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Zero offense? We were fifth in the league in scoring. Our problem was we allowed almost as many points as we scored...overall about two points per game fewer. We had more points per game than Iona...and they virtually only played cream puffs... You know, the type of cream puffs the majority of this board complained we played to beef up Anderson's record.

Our new Iona guys won't be scoring in the Big East at the same rate they did in the MAAC. The Big East is big time. I'm reasonably sure Pitino will bring in a couple of to notch go to guys...and we'll finally be coached to play aggressive defense.

At least he has us talking basketball through April.
 
newsman13 said:
I agree with the premise. At this point, we have basically lesser players than we gave up. On the other hand, the prospect of coaching against Pitino is daunting...especially in the post season if we get there.
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You see lesser players. I see as good if not better players thus far.
If you do a player for player comparison, the only two players we haven't replaced yet are AJ Storr and David Jones. Both were very good front line offensive players. However, neither were defensive stoppers. Out of the next five commitments I think those two will be replaced with equally if not better talent.
Jenkins, Alleyne, Quinn, and even Sean Conway are equal if not better "basketball players" than Pinzon, Wusu, Stanley and Nyiwe.
 
MCNPA said:
I’d add that Alleyne is a starting caliber big East transfer who played half game for the national champs. Only reason he didn’t start was because he had the best sg in the country in front of him in Hawkins. I’d like to land 2 more impact guys who have a few years eligibility that we can mold. Rhey will shape the class moving forward and see who we will carry into 2024.
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He’s a starting caliber, yes, but he’s a background guy.
 
Rocket said:
You see lesser players. I see as good if not better players thus far.
If you do a player for player comparison, the only two players we haven't replaced yet are AJ Storr and David Jones. Both were very good front line offensive players. However, neither were defensive stoppers. Out of the next five commitments I think those two will be replaced with equally if not better talent.
Jenkins, Alleyne, Quinn, and even Sean Conway are equal if not better "basketball players" than Pinzon, Wusu, Stanley and Nyiwe.
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As Jim Spanarkel said about our team last year, it is hard to play consistent basketball and win when you have a lot of one-trick ponies.

Most damming comment from an astute man that we were not a cohesive team.

The GOAT will build the team culture brink by brick after tearing the roster down to the Soriano stud.
 
So far Pitino's "misses" are higher rated players than his "gets". And all but 1 of his "gets" are seniors. I wonder how Iona feels about losing 3 of their players to their old coach, and how is what Pitino did raiding Iona different from what Cooley did to Providence?
 
One thing I'm curious about is how St. John's will land a massive 2024 class- which is something that has been speculated and confirmed to be the goal by several people here. That goal is even more apparent with how many fifth year players this roster will have. Pitino has whiffed on most of his major targets for 2023 (Clayton, Ledlum, Dual, Storr, Gardner). All of these players are ranked roughly 40-90 which is the ideal range for St. John's, but we weren't able to land them. For 2024 people are mentioning five stars like Boogie who I'm sure would command much higher NIL than the players we've missed out on this cycle. Unless I'm missing something, what will change between now and October when most of the 2024 class will sign? Facility upgrades I'd think are still years away from completion. Are people (including Pitino) expecting a massive NIL boost for 2024?
 
billyfa said:
Complaining about pitino recruiting or anything 1 month is embarrassing. This Board is really losing it.
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Just to be fair we all agree the following things happened correct?

1. Pitino is hired
2. Pitino says I see 6 - 8 new players on this team.
3. Pitino says we will see a turnaround in "months not years"
4. 8 players enter the transfer portal. Some told there wasn't a place for them, some suggested there may be greener pastures elsewhere, some were given the opportunity to return and chose not to.
5. 2 recruits were told to reopen their recruitment, 1 was offered a spot to stay and chose not to.
6. Pitino brings in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th best player from his Iona (argue those placements if you want what we do know is it's 1 started, one borderline starter, and one bench contributor).
7. Pitino brings in the 2nd Leading Scorer on the Keydets. (if anyone says they have seen a VMI game I would question their honesty). I assume they have a big time rivalry with Washington and Lee.
8. Pitino brings in the a bench contributor from the national championship.

If we were to take Pitino at his word, that we should expect a turnaround in months not years (unless he's going to hit us up with 'I meant 48 months') it is fair and I'd argue wise to ask how he plans on accomplishing that with this level of recruiting in the best basketball conference in the nation.

The answer Rick Pitino is infallible seems soft. If he has Hunter Dickinson, Max Abrams, and Mac Mgbako in his back pocket that's one thing, but as of April 19th 2023, he is being out recruited by the vast majority of big east teams. I'm not sure that's the formula to making waves in conference.
 
ADORAZ said:
One thing I'm curious about is how St. John's will land a massive 2024 class- which is something that has been speculated and confirmed to be the goal by several people here. That goal is even more apparent with how many fifth year players this roster will have. Pitino has whiffed on most of his major targets for 2023 (Clayton, Ledlum, Dual, Storr, Gardner). All of these players are ranked roughly 40-90 which is the ideal range for St. John's, but we weren't able to land them. For 2024 people are mentioning five stars like Boogie who I'm sure would command much higher NIL than the players we've missed out on this cycle. Unless I'm missing something, what will change between now and October when most of the 2024 class will sign? Facility upgrades I'd think are still years away from completion. Are people (including Pitino) expecting a massive NIL boost for 2024?
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Rick Pitino runs with some pretty wealthy guys. Hang out at the inside bar at Siros in August and you will understand.
Funding NILs for top high schoolers in 2024 should not be a problem.

He would not have taken this job if the latter point would be an issue
 
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AlBovino said:
So far Pitino's "misses" are higher rated players than his "gets". And all but 1 of his "gets" are seniors. I wonder how Iona feels about losing 3 of their players to their old coach, and how is what Pitino did raiding Iona different from what Cooley did to Providence?
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I think Iona is about as upset as George Mason. I'd think providence is slightly more upset, because they had success in league with those players last year :D!
 
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