Season Goals

[lawmanfan]

Right now we are 8-8, 2-1. At this point I've seen enough to say that this how I'd like to see the season play out (reasonably):

1. We lose the road games to Creighton, Butler, Nova, Xavier. That's 4 losses.
2. Play .500 in the 8 games left with Providence, Marquette, Georgetown, Seton Hall = 4 wins and also 4 losses.
3. Win the DePaul rematch = 1 win.
4. Steal a win someplace else (an extra win in the bottom-half-of-the-league bracket, beat Xavier at the Garden, upset Nova at the Garden, something like that) = 1 win and also 1 loss.

If my math is right, that would get us to 14-17, 8-10 in the league. If the team gets hot and shots fall, it could win a game or maybe even 2 in the Big East Tournament.

I would count that as a successful season. It really points up how unfortunate the LIU and Delaware State losses were, though. If you flip those to wins then the record would be 16-15 and the team would probably get an NIT bid. Throw in Penn State and 17-14 would have been a really nice season for Year 2.

If everyone comes back and you add the incoming players to the mix, it looks like St. Johns has both feet on the road to success. Just have to keep it going.

 

[STJ11Redmen]

I'm trying not to get wrapped up in wins and losses. Just want to see progress and have our key pieces stay in school next year. Would be nice to steal 2-4 more wins but the reality is that we are going to be outmanned every night except one the rest of the way.

 

[lawmanfan]

I'm trying not to get wrapped up in wins and losses. Just want to see progress and have our key pieces stay in school next year. Would be nice to steal 2-4 more wins but the reality is that we are going to be outmanned every night except one the rest of the way.

I agree that there is more to development than wins and losses. OTOH, at some point the training wheels have to come off and you should expect to see results. The reason I put this thread up is that I've seen enough now to believe we have just about arrived at that point.

I disagree that we will be outmanned against everyone other than DePaul. I think that on any given night St. John's can win any game, except the game at Creighton. Our guards are as good as any team in the country, the frontcourt is competitive except on the rare occasion it has to deal with a skilled 7-foooter, and the coaching staff has it all figured out (or has gotten the players on the same page, same result either way).

Don't sell this team short - let's see what happens.

 

[thakid]

Right now we are 8-8, 2-1. At this point I've seen enough to say that this how I'd like to see the season play out (reasonably):

1. We lose the road games to Creighton, Butler, Nova, Xavier. That's 4 losses.
2. Play .500 in the 8 games left with Providence, Marquette, Georgetown, Seton Hall = 4 wins and also 4 losses.
3. Win the DePaul rematch = 1 win.
4. Steal a win someplace else (an extra win in the bottom-half-of-the-league bracket, beat Xavier at the Garden, upset Nova at the Garden, something like that) = 1 win and also 1 loss.

If my math is right, that would get us to 14-17, 8-10 in the league. If the team gets hot and shots fall, it could win a game or maybe even 2 in the Big East Tournament.

I would count that as a successful season. It really points up how unfortunate the LIU and Delaware State losses were, though. If you flip those to wins then the record would be 16-15 and the team would probably get an NIT bid. Throw in Penn State and 17-14 would have been a really nice season for Year 2.

If everyone comes back and you add the incoming players to the mix, it looks like St. Johns has both feet on the road to success. Just have to keep it going.

Excellent post and I think those are reasonable goals. Optically, those LIU and D.S. losses do appear like they will be brutal if we can perform as you have laid out through year-end. I think a realistic but difficult goal and excellent finish (relatively) to the season would be to finish with a winning record. This would mean we finish 8-7 and go 1-1 in the BET. I would not bet on it, but I do think if we keep improving it is within reach.

 

[ras]

Development of players. Improvement. More wins but the exact number isn't important. Incremental progress. No important defections and Matt nabbing a competent big man for next year.

 

[paultzman]

Development of players. Improvement. More wins but the exact number isn't important. Incremental progress. No important defections and Matt nabbing a competent big man for next year.

Continuity, beefing up interior & player development seems a prudent agenda.

 

[lawmanfan]

So it seems that despite all the drama, we are right on target.

If you said going in to the season that we sweep DePaul, beat Georgetown, and lose to four top 20 teams (two of them top 10) to get to 3-4 in the first 7 games, that would have been a reasonable forecast. Swap the Butler win for Georgetown and here we are. Though really the Georgetown loss is a pity, we could have been 4-3, besides which that was a hideous performance.

Anyway now it gets interesting. Split with Marquette, the Hall, and Providencc, and win the rematch with Georgetown, and that's 7-11 in conference. Maybe we find another win (Xavier? Sweep the Hall?) To get to 8.

Either way, a nice step forward from last year and a decent foundation for next year. Plus you can see the progress on the court and on the sideline.

Hope we can keep it going.

 

[we are sju]

So it seems that despite all the drama, we are right on target.

If you said going in to the season that we sweep DePaul, beat Georgetown, and lose to four top 20 teams (two of them top 10) to get to 3-4 in the first 7 games, that would have been a reasonable forecast. Swap the Butler win for Georgetown and here we are. Though really the Georgetown loss is a pity, we could have been 4-3, besides which that was a hideous performance.

Anyway now it gets interesting. Split with Marquette, the Hall, and Providencc, and win the rematch with Georgetown, and that's 7-11 in conference. Maybe we find another win (Xavier? Sweep the Hall?) To get to 8.

Either way, a nice step forward from last year and a decent foundation for next year. Plus you can see the progress on the court and on the sideline.

Hope we can keep it going.

We win 2 more games and Lovett / Ponds don't go anywhere, I'd call the season a rousing success.

 

[paultzman]

So it seems that despite all the drama, we are right on target.

If you said going in to the season that we sweep DePaul, beat Georgetown, and lose to four top 20 teams (two of them top 10) to get to 3-4 in the first 7 games, that would have been a reasonable forecast. Swap the Butler win for Georgetown and here we are. Though really the Georgetown loss is a pity, we could have been 4-3, besides which that was a hideous performance.

Anyway now it gets interesting. Split with Marquette, the Hall, and Providencc, and win the rematch with Georgetown, and that's 7-11 in conference. Maybe we find another win (Xavier? Sweep the Hall?) To get to 8.

Either way, a nice step forward from last year and a decent foundation for next year. Plus you can see the progress on the court and on the sideline.

Hope we can keep it going.

We win 2 more games and Lovett / Ponds don't go anywhere, I'd call the season a rousing success.

And be relatively competitive, I'd take that.

 

[beast of the east]

6 wins will still be challenging. Giving one back to DePaul on our home court would have really hurt, so I understand the enthusiasm that inevitably occurs every time we put together a 1 game winning streak. I'd be okay with 6 BE reg season wins, 7 would be outstanding, and 5 would be subpar.

 

[redfan259999888]

6 wins will still be challenging. Giving one back to DePaul on our home court would have really hurt, so I understand the enthusiasm that inevitably occurs every time we put together a 1 game winning streak. I'd be okay with 6 BE reg season wins, 7 would be outstanding, and 5 would be subpar.

Anything under 12 total wins is a huge disappointment, I don't want to hear oh yeah they lost but they played great.
Playing great in a loss is not what I want to hear.

Gotta see the results.

 

[ras]

So it seems that despite all the drama, we are right on target.

If you said going in to the season that we sweep DePaul, beat Georgetown, and lose to four top 20 teams (two of them top 10) to get to 3-4 in the first 7 games, that would have been a reasonable forecast. Swap the Butler win for Georgetown and here we are. Though really the Georgetown loss is a pity, we could have been 4-3, besides which that was a hideous performance.

Anyway now it gets interesting. Split with Marquette, the Hall, and Providencc, and win the rematch with Georgetown, and that's 7-11 in conference. Maybe we find another win (Xavier? Sweep the Hall?) To get to 8.

Either way, a nice step forward from last year and a decent foundation for next year. Plus you can see the progress on the court and on the sideline.

Hope we can keep it going.

We win 2 more games and Lovett / Ponds don't go anywhere, I'd call the season a rousing success.

Add a Juco or Grad transfer big to that and I think we can be looking forward to next year.

 

[austour]

So it seems that despite all the drama, we are right on target.

If you said going in to the season that we sweep DePaul, beat Georgetown, and lose to four top 20 teams (two of them top 10) to get to 3-4 in the first 7 games, that would have been a reasonable forecast. Swap the Butler win for Georgetown and here we are. Though really the Georgetown loss is a pity, we could have been 4-3, besides which that was a hideous performance.

Anyway now it gets interesting. Split with Marquette, the Hall, and Providencc, and win the rematch with Georgetown, and that's 7-11 in conference. Maybe we find another win (Xavier? Sweep the Hall?) To get to 8.

Either way, a nice step forward from last year and a decent foundation for next year. Plus you can see the progress on the court and on the sideline.

Hope we can keep it going.

We win 2 more games and Lovett / Ponds don't go anywhere, I'd call the season a rousing success.

And be relatively competitive, I'd take that.

I agree with you both, because the team's gotta keep Lovett and Ponds to continue any form of progress, but I also gotta say, the bottom half of the BE is pretty well defined right now and it ain't that good. You got an obvious top 4, a Marquette team that looks pretty gritty and a bunch of mediocrity. Seton Hall just isn't that good right now and can't win on the road, and I watched the Providence GTown game yesterday and saw two pretty bad teams. And none of those teams, bar GTown's early win over Oregon, has beaten anybody of any consequence, unlike STJ's win over Butler. So with 5 more games, 3 at home, against the other 4 in the bottom 5 plus both Marquette games to go I really hope that 2 more wins isn't it. I know I sound skeptical about my belief in coach Mullin, and I am, but I am truly an optimist at heart. Ideally I'd like to see them get to 7th place and play Depaul again in the first round of the BET since I think I'm going to be in town that week and want to see a win this year.

 

[we are sju]

So it seems that despite all the drama, we are right on target.

If you said going in to the season that we sweep DePaul, beat Georgetown, and lose to four top 20 teams (two of them top 10) to get to 3-4 in the first 7 games, that would have been a reasonable forecast. Swap the Butler win for Georgetown and here we are. Though really the Georgetown loss is a pity, we could have been 4-3, besides which that was a hideous performance.

Anyway now it gets interesting. Split with Marquette, the Hall, and Providencc, and win the rematch with Georgetown, and that's 7-11 in conference. Maybe we find another win (Xavier? Sweep the Hall?) To get to 8.

Either way, a nice step forward from last year and a decent foundation for next year. Plus you can see the progress on the court and on the sideline.

Hope we can keep it going.

We win 2 more games and Lovett / Ponds don't go anywhere, I'd call the season a rousing success.

And be relatively competitive, I'd take that.

I agree with you both, because the team's gotta keep Lovett and Ponds to continue any form of progress, but I also gotta say, the bottom half of the BE is pretty well defined right now and it ain't that good. You got an obvious top 4, a Marquette team that looks pretty gritty and a bunch of mediocrity. Seton Hall just isn't that good right now and can't win on the road, and I watched the Providence GTown game yesterday and saw two pretty bad teams. And none of those teams, bar GTown's early win over Oregon, has beaten anybody of any consequence, unlike STJ's win over Butler. So with 5 more games, 3 at home, against the other 4 in the bottom 5 plus both Marquette games to go I really hope that 2 more wins isn't it. I know I sound skeptical about my belief in coach Mullin, and I am, but I am truly an optimist at heart. Ideally I'd like to see them get to 7th place and play Depaul again in the first round of the BET since I think I'm going to be in town that week and want to see a win this year.

The problem with our team is if we play a bad team with a decent front line we will struggle. For instance Gtown is a bad match up and really so is SH. So it is really hard to predict a win amount. Staying competitive is really the main thing but would like to see us win couple more.

 

[lawmanfan]

6 wins will still be challenging. Giving one back to DePaul on our home court would have really hurt, so I understand the enthusiasm that inevitably occurs every time we put together a 1 game winning streak. I'd be okay with 6 BE reg season wins, 7 would be outstanding, and 5 would be subpar.

There is no "1-game enthusiasm" here, nor is there total panic when we put up a stinker at Xavier or even at Georgetown. I just think that we are equal to or better than Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, and Georgetown, and better than DePaul. That amounts to an opinion that we should be able to sweep DePaul, and split with the rest by winning our home games, or picking up a road win to account for a home loss someplace.

That adds up to 6 wins, Butler is in the bank which is 7, and it wouldn't shock me if we jumped up on Xavier in the rematch. Stranger things have happened in the course of a college season.

If you think that the four teams I mentioned are better than us, then you would get to a different conclusion, and that's fine. YMMV. But I think some are underestimating the ceiling of this team, which is understandable given recent history. But this team has never heard of Phil Missiere or Eugene Lawrence or even Malik Boothe, so they don't share the same burden as the fan base does.

Let's see how the games turn out over the course of the year. I happen to think that the team is getting better game by game, and that the profit from playing Xavier, Creighton and Nova will show up against the others.

 

[Mean Gene]

When we play Seton Hall and Georgetown we need to have Owens and Williams in the game at he same time for most of the game just to try and somehow match up inside

 

[McGarry2]

When we play Seton Hall and Georgetown we need to have Owens and Williams in the game at he same time for most of the game just to try and somehow match up inside

Ok so 12 to 16 minutes and they both will be at 4 fouls. To protect at 3 fouls and the bench in what under 10 minutes ? Leaving us with our two 6-9 prizes from Europe.

 

[redfan259999888]

6 wins will still be challenging. Giving one back to DePaul on our home court would have really hurt, so I understand the enthusiasm that inevitably occurs every time we put together a 1 game winning streak. I'd be okay with 6 BE reg season wins, 7 would be outstanding, and 5 would be subpar.

There is no "1-game enthusiasm" here, nor is there total panic when we put up a stinker at Xavier or even at Georgetown. I just think that we are equal to or better than Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, and Georgetown, and better than DePaul. That amounts to an opinion that we should be able to sweep DePaul, and split with the rest by winning our home games, or picking up a road win to account for a home loss someplace.

That adds up to 6 wins, Butler is in the bank which is 7, and it wouldn't shock me if we jumped up on Xavier in the rematch. Stranger things have happened in the course of a college season.

If you think that the four teams I mentioned are better than us, then you would get to a different conclusion, and that's fine. YMMV. But I think some are underestimating the ceiling of this team, which is understandable given recent history. But this team has never heard of Phil Missiere or Eugene Lawrence or even Malik Boothe, so they don't share the same burden as the fan base does.

Let's see how the games turn out over the course of the year. I happen to think that the team is getting better game by game, and that the profit from playing Xavier, Creighton and Nova will show up against the others.

 

[redfan259999888]

6 wins will still be challenging. Giving one back to DePaul on our home court would have really hurt, so I understand the enthusiasm that inevitably occurs every time we put together a 1 game winning streak. I'd be okay with 6 BE reg season wins, 7 would be outstanding, and 5 would be subpar.

There is no "1-game enthusiasm" here, nor is there total panic when we put up a stinker at Xavier or even at Georgetown. I just think that we are equal to or better than Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, and Georgetown, and better than DePaul. That amounts to an opinion that we should be able to sweep DePaul, and split with the rest by winning our home games, or picking up a road win to account for a home loss someplace.

That adds up to 6 wins, Butler is in the bank which is 7, and it wouldn't shock me if we jumped up on Xavier in the rematch. Stranger things have happened in the course of a college season.

If you think that the four teams I mentioned are better than us, then you would get to a different conclusion, and that's fine. YMMV. But I think some are underestimating the ceiling of this team, which is understandable given recent history. But this team has never heard of Phil Missiere or Eugene Lawrence or even Malik Boothe, so they don't share the same burden as the fan base does.

Let's see how the games turn out over the course of the year. I happen to think that the team is getting better game by game, and that the profit from playing Xavier, Creighton and Nova will show up against the others.

7 wins this year in the B.E would be great compared to only 1 last year. Thing that sucks is that it's only 13 total wins. So next year if we improve by 5 then that's 18 wins, still not good enough for even the NIT unless we role in the B.E. Tourny.
Yeah, I know I'm bitching, but I hate baby steps.
Yeah, I know, we're headed in the right direction

Double post was unintentional

 

[NYCRedmen]

Season goals....mine are simple, cut down the nets. There, is that too much to ask for?