Roster for this year
- Thread starter Lester
- Start date
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/roster/_/id/2599/st-john-red-storm
Take this roster, I'm assuming you know who to subtract.
Add Adonis DLR at 6'11, Keith Thomas at 6'8" and limited minutes from Joey DLR at 7'. Oh and that walk on from Cali, Myles Steward at 6'3"
Re the SF I suspect you will see a lot of three-guard lineups twixt Jordan, Harrison, Branch and PGIII. When showing a more traditional lineup Dom will clearly get the lion's share at SF but some feel Felix can play third guard more like a SF and if Christian Jones hasn't improved his rebounding I'd prefer to see him at SF than PF as well so there can be two rebounding bigs on the floor. Rebounding appears to be Thomas' specialty.
Take this roster, I'm assuming you know who to subtract.
Add Adonis DLR at 6'11, Keith Thomas at 6'8" and limited minutes from Joey DLR at 7'. Oh and that walk on from Cali, Myles Steward at 6'3"
Re the SF I suspect you will see a lot of three-guard lineups twixt Jordan, Harrison, Branch and PGIII. When showing a more traditional lineup Dom will clearly get the lion's share at SF but some feel Felix can play third guard more like a SF and if Christian Jones hasn't improved his rebounding I'd prefer to see him at SF than PF as well so there can be two rebounding bigs on the floor. Rebounding appears to be Thomas' specialty.
Losing Sampson, Sanchez--our #2 and #4 scorers last year and #1 and #2 rebounders.
Adding height with Delarosa and rebounding with Thomas. But that won't get us a tourney bid.
Jordan has to improve measurably, and Lavin has to tighten up the rotations to build some chemistry, which was badly lacking last season. Both are possible. I'm not nearly as blase about losing Sampson as many others are, we'll see.
Adding height with Delarosa and rebounding with Thomas. But that won't get us a tourney bid.
Jordan has to improve measurably, and Lavin has to tighten up the rotations to build some chemistry, which was badly lacking last season. Both are possible. I'm not nearly as blase about losing Sampson as many others are, we'll see.
Class of 72
Active member
I expect dramatic improvement from Obekpa and Jordan. Absent that we will be NIT bound again. If Harrison becomes Jekyll and Hyde again on offense we are screwed. Few points will come from the bench. Without 24 wins and an NCAA invite Lav will be a goner.
I know what you are getting at NYC, and agree with the sentiment generally. I don't know if I would describe it as "better team" in terms of expected results, because we have a lot to prove to become a tournamentt team this year and truly be "better". But I do think we have a chance to play more team-oriented basketball, as opposed to a lot of the individual stuff we saw for most of last year, which I think is what you were getting at.
There is no doubt last year's team was more loaded with individual talent. It wasn't properly utilized, the team underperformed, and I think that caused many to feel that our individual talent was overrated. Probably true to an extent, but the number of RSCI Top 100s and JUCO AAs was well-cited, and we can't go back on that. Last year expectations were justifiably higher than they will be entering this season.
But I think that could be parlayed into a positive for the reasons you're getting at here. On paper this team seems to have players who slot more easily into defined roles, both in terms of where they fit into a rotation as well as the skillsets they bring to the team. It's up to the staff to capitalize on that.
I'm not so sure about the expectations being lower. Jon Rothstein last week put out his preseason Big East rankings and has SJU #2. He's just one guy, obviously. But he's clearly putting more weight on our experience vs other team's high-ranked, but inexperienced, freshmen.
my expectations for this season are very low, I think we are an NIT team again. Until Lavin wakes up and starts to recruit players whose strengths are "Shooting" and not "Athleticism", we wont be successful. Get some JUCO's who can shoot for goodness sakes.
Is there a program in the NCAA whose had more success with JUCO's than SJU?
Is there a program in the NCAA whose had more success with JUCO's than SJU?
NYCRedmen
Well-known member
You are spot on with my analysis SJU1512. I guess I'm kind of on the fence. There is a part of me that wants to believe we will be a "better team" even if the talent level isn't what it was last year. On the other hand, it's easy for me to see this year's squad as nothing more than a middle pack, NIT bound team, until they prove otherwise.
Ray Morgan
Well-known member
No shooters on this team. Scorers, yes, but shooters no. One designated shooter isn't enough. Opposing coaches are too smart for that. You need multiple shooters these days. Unless you have an unusually strong inside game. Not happening here. May be a long season, unless Lavin suddenly becomes a genius. I don't think too many here believe that will happen.
Lavin doesn't need to become a genius for us to succeed. If he can find a good rotation and stick with it, instead of fooling around with the roster for half of the year that will be a good start for him.
I have low expectations for this year, but that's only because the last two years this board built up this team to be great (me included). We have all learned our lesson after getting heart broken at the end of last season. With that being said, realistically we have a good shot to make the dance. Down the stretch we had the best record in the big east, and this year there will be no hesitancy by Lav to give Jordan the keys, he will be there from day one playing 30+ minutes. This team will be battle tested several times before the conference starts, which is huge. Last years non conf schedule sucked, and that's being nice. With a much tougher road the guys will have much more opportunities to notch quality wins so that come march the season won't depend on beating nova. St Joes, Gonzaga, MINNY, Georgia, cuse, duke, and st Mary's are all very quality games, and we will have ample opportunities to prove ourselves early on.
I'm on the fence for next year, again I have low expectations because I don't want to set myself up for heartbreak again if they don't achieve a bid, but at the same time the way they played after that 0-5 start in the big east and also with a much stronger schedule, makes me think we have a good shot of making a bid to the tourney.
The preseason NIT is a great thing for us fans. It gives us a chance very early on to see what kind of quality this team will contain throughout the season. Much better from last year where we played a bunch of mid major teams close leaving us wondering where we were at as a squad
You're overstating the weakness of the OOC last year. Wisconsin and Cuse is top-heavy competition, but the lack of other big names didn't hurt us bc we would have lost those games early in the season. No, schedule has nothing to do with it. Brutal losses to Penn State and DePaul... Now that will haunt you. Losing almost every "put you over the hump" big game in March...that won't help either...
If you want to say not playing consistently good teams caused our 0-5 start, it's a reach but I can accept that. But there was no excuse for all those shortcomings which directly led to the team's demise. Those factors weigh far more than the scheduling.
"Playing a bunch of mid-major teams close" is what you'd expect of an NIT-caliber team. As for the higher competition, Wisconsin dominated and led the entire game and we couldn't close against Cuse. The pre-season performance turned out to be an accurate predictor of where we ended up. Get the roles and chemistry established early this year and it might be a different story. Emphasis on might.
Class of 72
Active member
Salty, this staff got lucky in 2010 with a bunch of top 100 kids that were a gamble. Half those kids are gone either by transfer or non-qualifying. This staff cannot close early on any top 100 kids as has been the case since 2011. The "Lavin is a recruiter myth" has not passed the smell test. After 4 years he is a .500 coach with no NCAA appearances with his own players. What gives you the impression Diallo and Briscoe are impressed by that record?