@Seton Hall, Tue., Jan. 16, 8:30p, FS-1

To a man, each of our guys was outhustled, outmuscled and outplayed. Joel looked slow and less intense, and has for the past 3 games. Ledlum looked painfully slow, which is a product of his style and I'm sure that nagging ankle injury. three point shooting just not there, which clogs up the middle. Team needs to find a second wind. There is no superstar on this team to take over when things are going bad. Next is another tough matchup with Marquette and their crafty PG that can chew us up. Marquette now a must win.
 
Knight said:
Maybe Pitino has up-coached these players to where we bought in to their feaux-quality. I hope not. We lost by 15 points last night, and that did not really reflect the total beating we got.

Pitino has to work with this team to not just throw the ball into Soriano and think their job is done. Soriano has to throw the ball back out and not dribble in traffic. Never dribble when double-teamed. He needs to limit his time past the foul stripe, especially defensively.

Jenkins has to share the sugar, with less dribbling and less shooting.

Dingle needs to wake up and start scoring. Get open and shoot.

Taylor needs to play more, and to have a role, both offensively and defensively.

Wilcher needs to have his PT scripted until he gets comfortable.

Our guys need to set screens (other than Soriano). Less dribbling and more crisp passing. Read the damn court.

Luis need to play more using his head. He is an incredibly talented player, but he is a member of a team. He is not Pete Maravich.

Ledlum has been pretty steady and productive, of late.

Zuby has been a happy surprise. But please don't shoot from the outside.

Dunlap has been good, but has a lot to learn.

Traore and Conway have been fine; they are what is expected of them.

I'm not impressed with Alleyne's play. Defensive and offensive has been play marginal.
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Alleyne's play last night set the tone on the defensive end. Repeatedly blown by and stupid fouls almost immediately.
 
paultzman said:
+
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FriendofJohnnie said:
Why are you all overrating Wusu? Wow- he played a good game against us because it’s a grudge match against us at his now home court. His shots- he was left wide open because of defense lapses. We also had no rebounding to speak of. He runs the court looking way out of shape for his position. Please- do not give this player more than his due. He is going to be locked up next time around. He would not make it in a Pitino system period. Our system works, our players have to just step up. Wusu is an average college player that has his moments when motivated, nothing more.
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He was also a huge part of the culture problem here last year. Let’s not forget that.
 
Latest Comments from Zach B.

OK, let's jump right into it. Probably the worst performance of the season, when you consider how much better this team has played over the last five weeks or so. Thoughts on the ugly loss at Seton Hall.


- We'll never know how much Rick Pitino not being on the bench impacted this team. To me, it was apparent in the lack of leadership when things started to go wrong. That's not a knock on Steve Masiello. But he's not the head coach and they missed Pitino a ton, clearly. This was a shell-shocked group.


- My biggest concern is more players getting COVID and this team being short-handed Saturday against Marquette in what is now a monster game. We don't know if Pitino and Jordan Dingle will be back. The Golden Eagles are 1-3 on road and have not played well away from home. They have lost two of three. Very winnable game if this team can get back to playing like it had recently, before this no-show.


- I'm seeing a lot of people bury this team. Relax. They're 4-3 in the league. You would've signed for that before league play started. You just expected to lose at Villanova and win last night. I've said all along, you have to win your home games and get a few on the road. It's incredibly hard to win on the road in this league. The top nine in the league are 21-8 at home in conference games. Not counting Georgetown and DePaul for obvious reasons. That's a .724 winning percentage. St. John's is 8-1 at home and 3-0 in the league.


- I felt this was a toughness measuring stick coming off the gut-punch loss at Creighton. St. John's obviously came up well short. You saw it from the jump. The Johnnies were settling and Seton Hall was attacking. They weren't physical enough. That goes for everyone besides Zuby Ejiofor, who was plus-16 in 21 minutes, although most of that came after the result was well in hand. Team just wasn't ready for whatever reason. It was out-rebounded by 21. That's an effort stat. Daniss Jenkins has now said it twice in two days: This team has to play harder and with more grit.


- Joel Soriano is in a funk. He's struggling at both ends of the floor. He went through a similar mini-slump last year around this time. St. John's has to get him right. They have played better in the last two games with Ejiofor on the court, especially on the defensive end. Johnnies were outscored by Seton Hall by 31 points in Soriano's 19 minutes.


All comments From Zach Braziller
 
Ray Morgan said:
To a man, each of our guys was outhustled, outmuscled and outplayed. Joel looked slow and less intense, and has for the past 3 games. Ledlum looked painfully slow, which is a product of his style and I'm sure that nagging ankle injury. three point shooting just not there, which clogs up the middle. Team needs to find a second wind. There is no superstar on this team to take over when things are going bad. Next is another tough matchup with Marquette and their crafty PG that can chew us up. Marquette now a must win.
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Ledlum was the one guy IMHO who came to play. Not a perfect player, but he always gives maximum effort.
 
SJU61982 said:
I've always thought next year could be worse, regardless.

Now, if he can get some good, lateral transfers (meaning from major conference teams) with more than one year of eligibility remaining, he may have something by year 3.

Richmond from Seton Hall is a great example of that. Third year with the Pirates, as a transfer from Syracuse. I just wish I had the patience for it.
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I may be wrong but seem to remember when Richmond was transferring from Syracuse his first choice was SJU but we either had no scholariships available or were "saving one" for another recruit who ended up not coming here. Can anyone confirm this was the scenario?
 
Re Covid, I am assuming that a negative test is required before returning to the sidelines. I had symptoms on a Tuesday, tested positive on Wednesday, and was still positive a week later. The symptoms were mild, like a slight cold after a few hours of a fever and a day of a dry cough. So the problem might not be how they feel, but how soon they test negative.
 
I said I wouldn't post until Friday but I felt I could talk about COVID. I believe the current CDC guidelines say that the day you test positive is day zero so that would be Tuesday at a minimum you need five days after that which would preclude Pitino from coaching on Saturday assuming he is even well enough. Now I don't believe this is a law but I would find it strange for a public figure particularly a basketball coach from not adhering to this. As for Dingle I have no idea what he is sick with and whether he has tested positive and if so when. It is possible someone else could get it but that is a complete unknown. Curious to see what happened.
 
Amaseinyourface said:
By being one of the few guys who always played hard. Yes, agreed.
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And you certainly seem to know ball well enough to know a whole lot that affects team chemistry which affects what goes on between the lines happens off the court. And personally, and with all due and sincere respect, I am tired of hearing the repeated mantra about “playing hard“. That should be an absolute given, not a point of praise. Wusu gave effort, I agree, he also played very unintelligently at times, especially at the end of games.
And for the record, while no one other than me does or should care, I am slowly losing interest in this team because that given, just pride in yourself effort, is absent from too many of these players.
 
I truly don't think I'll be going back to Prudential Center for a St. John's vs Hall game again. It's been nothing but pain. Last night was a complete no show but to me I have to chalk it up to being an anomaly. In the losses we have had this season, we didn't look that bad. They just fought tooth and nail 2 days prior and lost by 1 on the road. What we saw last night looked like a bunch of guys from the YMCA thrown together and told to play 40 minutes.

They looked slow, uninterested and looked to be out of sorts x 1000000. What we saw yesterday was not St. John's. There is no reference point of that happening before. The lack of effort, the lack of fire, getting absolutely abused on the glass, very uncharacteristic. I don't know if more kids are sick, I sure as hell hope not. But it sure did look like something was reallllllllllllllllly off. Take these 3 days, pump the kids full of fluids and vitamins and get right for Saturday.
 
Ray Morgan said:
There is no superstar on this team to take over when things are going bad.
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It is hard to have your go-to-guy or superstar be a center like Soriano and carry the team. A team like SH, with enough size and excellent defensive scheme, may be able neutralize him as SH did from the very start of the game last night. That "superstar" might eventually be Luis by the time March rolls around. It certainly hasn't been Dingle or Ledlum, whom many of us were hoping one of them would be. If none of these players step up, we will have a very short run in the NCAA tournament, assuming we make it. There is hopefully enough time to develop that player as a complement to Joel.
 
SJUDave said:
I truly don't think I'll be going back to Prudential Center for a St. John's vs Hall game again. It's been nothing but pain. Last night was a complete no show but to me I have to chalk it up to being an anomaly. In the losses we have had this season, we didn't look that bad. They just fought tooth and nail 2 days prior and lost by 1 on the road. What we saw last night looked like a bunch of guys from the YMCA thrown together and told to play 40 minutes.

They looked slow, uninterested and looked to be out of sorts x 1000000. What we saw yesterday was not St. John's. There is no reference point of that happening before. The lack of effort, the lack of fire, getting absolutely abused on the glass, very uncharacteristic. I don't know if more kids are sick, I sure as hell hope not. But it sure did look like something was reallllllllllllllllly off. Take these 3 days, pump the kids full of fluids and vitamins and get right for Saturday.
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Prudential Center is a really bleak place to watch your team lose, especially with having to watch Gyration John and Flag Man.

That said, it would be fantastic to be there when we finally win there & to see all of their fans miserable afterwards.
 
logen said:
And you certainly seem to know ball well enough to know a whole lot that affects team chemistry which affects what goes on between the lines happens off the court. And personally, and with all due and sincere respect, I am tired of hearing the repeated mantra about “playing hard“. That should be an absolute given, not a point of praise. Wusu gave effort, I agree, he also played very unintelligently at times, especially at the end of games.
And for the record, while no one other than me does or should care, I am slowly losing interest in this team because that given, just pride in yourself effort, is absent from too many of these players.
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A should be given (agreed) that as you have mentioned here and many other times is unfortunately not a given. And as we saw last night, when not there, not only can anybody beat you, they can beat you badly. Would have certainly loved having that kid on our side last night. Where as Posh is limited in the positions he can play and who can fit around him, Wusu could have pinched in at multiple spots.
 
We weren't prepared to match the effort, aggressiveness or physicality of Seton Hall last night. Not much else to be said. Just hope the team is fully healthy by Saturday.
 
credit to taylor too. i know he doesn't exist when we have the ball in hand, but he held two-time player of the week and their best scorer to 12 points on 4 - 14 shooting. and considering richmond put up maybe 6 before taylor even got in the game, really taylor held him to 6 points over roughly 30 minutes of basketball. they scored 80 on us, but their top guy was basically a non-factor. taylor is a beast on the defensive end
 
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