Shortened Bench

beast of the east

beast of the east

Active member
I was surprised to see that despite all the talk of a very deep team, only 6 players registered double figures in minutes last night:

Greene: 34
Garrett: 24
Sampson: 26
Harrison: 38
Obepka: 38
Pointer: 24

Branch: 8, Bourgault 5, Balamou 3

Any comments?
 
Unless Jamal is injured I find it shocking that he only played 8 minutes, but what the hell do I know.
 
The fans are picking up on the fact that Branch is getting yo-yo'ed too much. Number of groans when he's yanked for Phil. The one play when Branch found Phil in the corner for the 3 was sweet. That is how things should be going. Phil being found by Branch. Not 30 seconds of east to west dribbling.
 
Anyone else a little disappointed with Marco? I wasn't expecting him to be lights out, but he seems overmatched. Not really able to get his shot off.
 
Anyone else a little disappointed with Marco? I wasn't expecting him to be lights out, but he seems overmatched. Not really able to get his shot off.
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He's barely playing, and usually in the game with Greene at the point. There was one particular play in the first half where Greene shot a floater (he missed it, but Obekpa dunked in the rebound), as Bourgault was open in the corner.

It wasn't a bad shot by Greene, but it also wouldn't have been a mistake to hit Bourgault in the corner for an open trey.
 
The one play when Branch found Phil in the corner for the 3 was sweet. That is how things should be going. Phil being found by Branch. Not 30 seconds of east to west dribbling.
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So incredibly spot on. Many are growing frustrated with Greene, but in my opinion he's not being utilized properly. Phil is a combo/scoring guard, and he's at his best when he's attacking and looking to score. Early in the season he was effective in this regard, and now looks caught between what his skillset is (score the ball) and what he's being asked to do (play point and facilitate the offense). Which is not his game, he hasn't gone over 4 assists in 11 games, and now he's giving us empty minutes in this middleground.

After sitting for a year Branch is not going to play flawless basketball 3 games in. But in the limited time he has played it's clear his skillset does lend itslelf to creating for others, which we need desperately. Consider that we also need another scorer besides D/Sampson, and it seems like we have a two birds with one stone scenario if Branch starts at point and Phil brings some offense off the bench.

Which brings us to the biggest issue right now. I love Lavin, I hope he's here forever, and I'm not going to bring it to the broad strokes generalization that "he can't coach". That said, this particular team is not well-coached at this point. The lack of a defensive adjustment against Nova, taking a team on a roll out of attack mode with 7 minutes to go against a good team on the road in Cincy, and last night sitting in my seat watching us struggle to get into offense for the first 8 minutes of each half, and when we finally did it was D-Lo with the ball in his hands and hope for the best. The rotation is disjointed (few players seem to know what their role is), I don't think the talent on the team is being deployed at maximum efficiency, and we don't run offense.

To be fair, we've defended and rebounded the basketball at a much higher level these last two games (so much so last night that the loss is that much more frustrating), and I hope coach has similar improvements in store for us offensively and in terms of the rotation/roles.
 
I'm still astonished at the fact that Lavin kept Greene as his PG yesterday despite the fact that he had 1 assist on the night.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Is our coaching staff capable of entertaining the idea that Branch should see more minutes? Or are we just going to continue to see zero ball movement and the increasing reliance on D'Angelo to generate 90% of our offense?

At least Branch is creating some movement when he is at the point.
 
Branch makes no effort on the defensive end. Lacks discipline, plays out of control at times but does show at least some semblance of pg skills. He could open up the game for a guy like Sampson, who struggled to create for himself off the dribble last night. No reason Greene should be the pg at this point, if nothing else than for giving Branch the game experience of running the team for next year.
 
Anyone else a little disappointed with Marco? I wasn't expecting him to be lights out, but he seems overmatched. Not really able to get his shot off.
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He's barely playing, and usually in the game with Greene at the point. There was one particular play in the first half where Greene shot a floater (he missed it, but Obekpa dunked in the rebound), as Bourgault was open in the corner.

It wasn't a bad shot by Greene, but it also wouldn't have been a mistake to hit Bourgault in the corner for an open trey.
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I noticed the same play. And it happens frequently. When our guys drive and the defender on the wing pinches toward the lane to help cut them off, they just don't even seem to be thinking about getting the ball to the shooter on the wing. Must be very frustrating to Marco, first that we do so much east west dribbling and have trouble getting into the lane and second, that when we do we're oblivious to the shooters on the wing. Maybe the reason is that D is usually the guy who gets into the lane...but he's been the only shooter. When Phil does manage to break down his defender, he has a scorer's mentality as well and is, admittedly, effective with his teardrop. All that said, our slashing game would be made much more effective if we also developed the ability, which almost every team we play has, to drive and dish to a shooter in the corner for the dagger three. That's why we got Marco. The guys need to use him!
 
Absolutely mindboggling not using Marco at some point to open up the offense with two outside shooters. With Branch in the game, Marco would have been open. How many times has STJ been buried with three point shooters and ours sits on the bench. Balamou should have seen some PT. Duh!
 
The number of games this year that have turned into puzzling losses is on its way to double digits. Even the wins against lesser opponents are barely works of a team knowing what to do. Great individual performances, most notably by Harrison, have covered up a lot of the misplay of this team for virtually the entire season.

I loved the initial hiring of LAVIN and believe he was a instrument for change in terms of the perception of St John's BB OVER NEARLY THE PAST DECADE AS DOORMATS OF THE BIG EAST.

I'm sorry that the hoopla associated with his first and second year recruiting has not translated to a more successful performance on the Court.. Clearly, being more athletic and holding certain individual skills has not helped this team, which shows a overall team weakness that is obvious to even the most casual of fans.

The skills these players have not been harnessed into a team concept or style nor, are their skills compatible with each other..Many posters here have proclaimed such throughout the season.

A college BB Coach of Lavin's stature and experience should be aware of that and mold his team into a performing unit.This hasn't happened and despite all sorts of opinions expressed here, it doesn't appear it will this season coming up on the 4th game of the BE schedule.

I'd love to ask Gene Keady, off the record, what the problem is with this team that has underachieved so painfully this season. The inexperience factor has grown wearisome so much so, that it lessens Lavin's credibility.

I had thought Lavin would begin to build this team into something more than what we've seen so far. It's very disappointing after so many years of seeing our alma mater at the bottom of the heap.
 
How about this one: Guys with hot wives make bad coaches. They're too busy thinking about what's waiting for them later rather than drawing up plays or making halftime adjustments. I think Lavin blew his last timeout because he needed to blow a kiss to his wife.
 
Absolutely mindboggling not using Marco at some point to open up the offense with two outside shooters. With Branch in the game, Marco would have been open. How many times has STJ been buried with three point shooters and ours sits on the bench. Balamou should have seen some PT. Duh!
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With Branch in the game? This thread should be renamed "Shortened Branch"!
 
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