Shamorie Ponds

[quote="Class of 72" post=318080][quote="Knight" post=318067]Although they are terrific college basketball players, I don't see Ponds or Heron ever playing in the NBA.[/quote]

I feel really bad for both but for different reasons.
Shamorie Ponds could have been Big East Player of the Year had Mullin added a player like Femi and used Simon off the bench. The backcourt should have been Ponds and Heron with Figueroa and Clark as forwards and a Femi at the 5.
Terrible job scouting bigs by Matt and zero effort by Mullin and Mitch.
Heron was all SEC and under the Mullin system looks lost. It's always easy to blame the players because they are the ones that have to execute the plan but when your plan is flawed and you have no alternatives but sound bites meant to appease you are what your record has been and that is mediocre.
Unfortunately Shamorie Ponds is playing himself out of the draft even though he is still a projected 2nd round draft pick.
Mustapha will be a foreign league player but his aspirations at St. John's will not be as hoped by all.
This year, by happenstance, our starting 5 were all 4 and 5 star talents. Unfortunately the supporting cast provided very little support. It's on the coaches to assemble a cast of players instead of a cast of poorly trained characters.
We, as amateur fans, saw this coming with no bigs, no bench, no experienced assistant, etc. Why didn't the administration and the coach?[/quote]

Why didn't the coach see this coming? It's called hubris.
 
[quote="Mike Zaun" post=318101]Anyone else notice the look on Ponds' face? Two older SJ fans were sitting next to me and noticed that he was not himself. Of course he scored 21 points, but I just did not feel any sense of urgency from him or others except maybe LJ. IMO this is what happens when your coach says everything is fine as you play yourself out of the tournament. Starts with Mullin and he doesn't sound like he cares and his actions sure as hell show he doesn't care totally ignoring recruiting and not coaching.[/quote]

I mentioned this on the game thread yesterday. Looked frustrated and resigned to the fact thst this team is in a downward spiral.
 
[quote="Delaware" post=318234][quote="Mike Zaun" post=318101]Anyone else notice the look on Ponds' face? Two older SJ fans were sitting next to me and noticed that he was not himself. Of course he scored 21 points, but I just did not feel any sense of urgency from him or others except maybe LJ. IMO this is what happens when your coach says everything is fine as you play yourself out of the tournament. Starts with Mullin and he doesn't sound like he cares and his actions sure as hell show he doesn't care totally ignoring recruiting and not coaching.[/quote]

I mentioned this on the game thread yesterday. Looked frustrated and resigned to the fact thst this team is in a downward spiral.[/quote]

I think that is the look of an NBA hopeful that just realized a freshman leprechaun was exponentially more athletic than him.
 
I also don't think he participated in the handshake lines at the end. Was told he went straight to the locker room after the buzzer. I hope he isn't checking out, and suspect that's not the case because his draft stock will continue to go down if the team continues to play like this.
 
[quote="JC3" post=318253]I also don't think he participated in the handshake lines at the end. Was told he went straight to the locker room after the buzzer. I hope he isn't checking out, and suspect that's not the case because his draft stock will continue to go down if the team continues to play like this.[/quote]

Ponds definitely went straight to the locker room and didn't participate in the handshake line. I attribute that to him being pissed that the season is starting to fall apart as well as a Gtown player dunking the ball at the buzzer rather than him "checking out."

There is no doubt that the team is underachieving, but I wouldn't analyze the post-game quotes too closely. These are kids who are pissed about losing a number of games they weren't supposed to lose. When asked by the press why a team lost or why it didn't play well, there is significant pressure to come up with an immediate answer or explanation. It may very well that the players played as hard as they could, but simply lost the game because of poor execution, poor coaching, inferior talent, or some combination of the three.

As for Ponds, he has always been known for his seeming "effortlessness" on the court. I recall listening to interviews with Mullin where he described Ponds' laid back demeanor and smooth play. That probably accounts for his moniker, "slick."

I consider myself a huge basketball fan, but do not purport to be an expert. So feel free to take my analysis with a grain of salt. Other than a few boneheaded shots by Simon (and even those were wide open threes for which, at least last year, he was knocking down at a healthy clip), the team did not appear to me to be disinterested or selfish. What I saw was two poor individual performances from Simon and Clark, some inexplicable coaching decisions, and a squad that while talented, is poorly configured such that there is little room for error when shots are not falling.

The next few games will be telling, but Mullin's teams, no matter how poor or disappointing, have not been known to quit.
 
When Chris took Ponds out midway through the second half you could tell by the expression on his face and his body language that he wasn't pleased. He even put his warm-up hoodie on and sat further down the bench rather than closer to the coaches.
 
[quote="Section9" post=318258]When Chris took Ponds out midway through the second half you could tell by the expression on his face and his body language that he wasn't pleased. He even put his warm-up hoodie on and sat further down the bench rather than closer to the coaches.[/quote]

Yeah, that was curious. It was actullay worh about six minutes to go and the team down by ten. Surprisingly, the team went in a bit of a run with Ponds on the bench and cut the lead to five I believe. I actually thought Ponds might have reinsurer himself when I saw that he was taken out and put on his warmups at that critical juncture. Who knows
 
[quote="JC3" post=318253]I also don't think he participated in the handshake lines at the end. Was told he went straight to the locker room after the buzzer. I hope he isn't checking out, and suspect that's not the case because his draft stock will continue to go down if the team continues to play like this.[/quote]

I mentioned in another thread that I ran into a guy that did player evaluations for several NBA teams. One thing he always did was watch a player's reaction when things were going poorly. He would watch them going to the bench when they were pulled, and watch how they reacted to perceived bad calls. Not a good optic for Ponds. Of course, getting angry and pissed off from losing may bot be looked at as a bad thing. Depends how a player responds next game I guess.
 
I could be way off and hope I am...just think that even though he typically doesn't wear emotion on his sleeve, Ponds looked defeated during the game. He looked tired...like he's going through the motions. That's how good he is...he can go through the motions and drop 21. I just haven't seen his ability to take games over in a while going back to before he was injured. Wonder if he re-injured his back. Hasn't been the same. McClung looked like he smelled blood in the water. He's a freshman. We didn't look like we cared outside of LJ.
 
[quote="Mike Zaun" post=318274]I could be way off and hope I am...just think that even though he typically doesn't wear emotion on his sleeve, Ponds looked defeated during the game. He looked tired...like he's going through the motions. That's how good he is...he can go through the motions and drop 21. I just haven't seen his ability to take games over in a while going back to before he was injured. Wonder if he re-injured his back. Hasn't been the same. McClung looked like he smelled blood in the water. He's a freshman. We didn't look like we cared outside of LJ.[/quote]

Generally trying to read Ponds', or any person's body language is a lot of guesswork. But one thing for sure was that McClung looked like an energetic puppy compared to our guys. Granted, he is a special level of athlete, but so too are a number of our guys. Just the energy level in most of our team, except for Figgy all game and some players in the last few minutes, was not very good.
 
[quote="Ray Morgan" post=318278][quote="Mike Zaun" post=318274]I could be way off and hope I am...just think that even though he typically doesn't wear emotion on his sleeve, Ponds looked defeated during the game. He looked tired...like he's going through the motions. That's how good he is...he can go through the motions and drop 21. I just haven't seen his ability to take games over in a while going back to before he was injured. Wonder if he re-injured his back. Hasn't been the same. McClung looked like he smelled blood in the water. He's a freshman. We didn't look like we cared outside of LJ.[/quote]

Generally trying to read Ponds', or any person's body language is a lot of guesswork. But one thing for sure was that McClung looked like an energetic puppy compared to our guys. Granted, he is a special level of athlete, but so too are a number of our guys. Just the energy level in most of our team, except for Figgy all game and some players in the last few minutes, was not very good.[/quote]

I think they were confused and disorganized. The Shamorie hoodie thing was bizarre. All the optics were bad yesterday.
I didn't realize during the game from my vantage point but after reviewing the tape it left me puzzled. Also, that we couldn't handle the 3 star freshman McClung was disturbing for guys in their 3 to 5th year of balling.
 
It's not rocket science. This team is learning how to win and they expected a team meeting was all that was needed. In the middle of the game it became impossible to ignore that they were being outplayed by Gtown and that Gtown had more physical talent.

This happens a lot in fighting when a fighter realizes his opponent is landing harder shots, taking your best, and is better than expected. We can't go toe to toe with Gtown and expect to win.

Unless some team just embarrasses us on the glass, I think this could end up being the most benenficial loss of the season. First time there is no excuse to be found.
 
Marllac wrote:Unless some team just embarrasses us on the glass, I think this could end up being the most benenficial loss of the season. First time there is no excuse to be found.

Hope you're right. Tomorrow will tell. Creighton is not a team that should embarrass us on the glass; however, they will embarrass us from three if team isn't ready to be in shooters' faces from the opening tap.
 
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Apparently, when Clarke 's. shooting is bad we lose as in the lost to De Paul . Anybody other than Trimble as the 6th man.
 
Does anyone else find it odd that Shamorie is on the list of top 20 players in the country but not the top 10 PGs in the country? If he's considered a SG by experts is that going to adversely effect his draft status (whatever that status is right now) vs being considered a scoring PG?
 
[quote="austour" post=320177]Does anyone else find it odd that Shamorie is on the list of top 20 players in the country but not the top 10 PGs in the country? If he's considered a SG by experts is that going to adversely effect his draft status (whatever that status is right now) vs being considered a scoring PG?[/quote]
Did find it strange Ponds was eliminated after being in initial 20 player group for Cousy Award
 
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Shamorie is a great college player, but he is not a Point Guard. He does not have the basketball instincts for that position. He is a 2G hiding in the body of a Point Guard. Additionally, he likes to show boat too much to be a credible Point Guard. He will have a hard time at the next level, and I am not sure he will make the next level.
 
[quote="AlBovino" post=320188]Shamorie is a great college player, but he is not a Point Guard. He does not have the basketball instincts for that position. He is a 2G hiding in the body of a Point Guard. Additionally, he likes to show boat too much to be a credible Point Guard. He will have a hard time at the next level, and I am not sure he will make the next level.[/quote]

Totally agree. He is a long shot IMO to get drafted. He will probably have a decent career overseas. His only shot at the NBA is to greatly improve his 3 point shooting.
 
[quote="AlBovino" post=320188]Shamorie is a great college player, but he is not a Point Guard. He does not have the basketball instincts for that position. He is a 2G hiding in the body of a Point Guard. Additionally, he likes to show boat too much to be a credible Point Guard. He will have a hard time at the next level, and I am not sure he will make the next level.[/quote]
He is more of a point guard than Howard. Don’t mean to detract from Howard’s YTD performance as it speaks for itself. However, I have to bet his scouting report is great shooter, average to sub-par everything else. And, can be defended.
 
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