SJU-Detroit Game Thread
- Thread starter Della9250
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Class of 72
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I am surprised no one noticed "Boris the Walkon" on the bench!
His addition is already paying dividends!!
The team had its best free throw shooting effort of the season!
Just watching those Euro players shoot foul shots in practice is rubbing off on the freshmen!
Now, if we could only find a Dimitri Borishikov who is 7' and can shoot like the kid that played at IS8, we would be in good shape!
His addition is already paying dividends!!
The team had its best free throw shooting effort of the season!
Just watching those Euro players shoot foul shots in practice is rubbing off on the freshmen!
Now, if we could only find a Dimitri Borishikov who is 7' and can shoot like the kid that played at IS8, we would be in good shape!
Did anyone else notice Lindsey after the final gun-- he fired the ball at the ref who luckily got his hand up to block it. This is the 2nd time this season he has done that-- against N'eastern after a travel was called he fired the ball at the ref-- who actually caught it. I don't remember ever seeing that before, and now I have seen it twice in 3 games.
Nothing 50/50 about it methinks. NCAA will need a reason to deny the kid a second time, and they don't have one with him getting his grades at Bridgton. As I said, he should have been cleared after Rise, as he had the grades there too. I can't assume it is a "lock" when it comes to the NCAA, but I'd put it more in the 90+ percentile if I had to put a number down.
If you don't have a legit point guard- you can not win at the division I level. Harkless and Pointer are going to be very good- Gift, Harrison and Greene are nice pieces and Lindsey has no basketball IQ. Garrett is yet to be seen but watching him in high school he will not make or break us this year. Hopefully, Lavin can follow up with players on the same level as Harkless and pointer and when Mo and Dom are juniors we can make a run at the tournament.
Agree as well. We are one recruiting class away. I think though. That Greene can effectively transition to a PG better than most think. He has done a good job bringing the ball up, driving the lane and making open shots. He still has things to learn, but I think he can be a good Pg for us with more time at the position and better understanding of the PG's role. I know Phil and others have mentioned his game being similar to Rajon Rondo and I don't disagree. He can be a PG in Rondo's mold. No doubt, he's got a long way to be as good as Rondo, but he has been productive and steadily improving.
Neither Greene nor Lindsay has shown to be a PG to date; Detroit has an excellent one in McCullough and he was the difference in the game IMO. As someone noted earlier, Lindsay has not played well since A&M misses; if that affected him the kid has to learn to toughen up. Bottom line, right now we have no consistent players which is not surprising at all. Harkless closest thing but he has to get a little more selfish IMO; don't know if it is part of his personality though. Pretty much where we were last year though and if I remember correctly we turned it around after the long break which is where we are now. Lavin has a rep for using early season to evaluate and adjust; we shall see.
It seems like only yesterday I was getting killed for saying that Phil should start and that there were some issues with Nuri's game.
Now I'll tell you this: I bet by next season Nuri develops a serviceable jumper that opens up new potential in his game.
The nice thing about college ball as opposed to the pros is that you aren't looking at a finished project. Players develop over time (depending on who's coaching them, how self-motivated they are, their athletic ability, etc). I think Gift and Stith may be all they're going to be now, but you can see exactly what the others need to work on, and I'm absolutely certain the staff has told them all about it. By the end of this year you will see a much better group than you see now, and next year will be another level again.
This particular quote reminds me of Lavor Postell. I, recall being a bit surprised of his transition from his freshmen season to his sophomore season. There was one particular game during his sophomore season versus Notre Dame when I felt he had truly turned the corner. It was a game in late December in South Bend and we badly needed a conference win. Postell came up huge, and I felt that particular game catapulted him. I, personally felt confident in Postell from that point forward.
Agree wholeheartedly lawman, but I think Gift still has room to grow as well with his footwork and driving to the hoop. He is getting more aggressive and I think that you'll still see a bit of improvement from him. He has just started getting acclimated to this level of play from Erie CC, he's a very good athlete, strong and competitive withi a good jump for a big guy. He could be a beast of a PF/ C with some more seasoning, leg strength and some help up front. People don't realize that yes he's had some rough games, but he has been double-teamed almost every time he has touched the ball. He's a more dangerous player than he gets credit for. When Gift learns to react and pass quickly to find his man out of that double team, with some help up front, he will be a ton better. Really like his game and feel he can progress quite a bit still...
I'm not a big fan of stats so this is presented with a grain of salt - but I think Greene has kind of benefited from the "2nd string quarterback syndrome" on the board. To be sure, neither has distinguished themselves by any stretch of the imagination but through nine games they have played a comparable amount of minutes; Lindsey averages about 4 minutes a game more. Lindsay has about doubled his scoring 12 ppg to 6 while taking about 3 shots a game more than Greene and overall shooting 46% to 39%. Greene has hit 5 3's to none for Lindsey and his 28% from 3 is not horrible but nothing to get excited about. Lindsey % of 0 of course, is horrible. He has 10 more assists than Greene but 25 more turnovers. Lindsey also averages 5 boards a game, 3rd on the team and more than Sir Dom, Greene averages 2. To me the stats turn out about a wash, and I think Lindsey showed early an ability to really impact a game while Greene appears to be a steadier, more conservative player. Obviously SJU needs both of them, but IMO Lindsey is the only SJU player that can break down a defense and that is something every team needs. I would not write Lindsey off after several poor games; sitting out a couple of years followed by a year of JUCO and right to top flight D1 is not a transition to be made without a couple of bumps in the road.
Class of 72
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SJ will never make a run at any tourney without 4 or 5 star recruits. That much we have learned from past history. This staff was specifically tasked with getting recruits to sign....not justshove us cursory interest as with Kyle Anderson. Nor were they paid their lofty salaries as coaches to bring on players with questionable academics like Pelle and Sampson, as was eluded to in Hoops Weiss article the other day. Sidiki Johnson would add to that group as players with work ethic issues.
I will not say that Lindsey has no BB IQ as suggested above but he is far from the impact guard that Lavin had alluded to and we, as fans, may have been just a little misled in his talent level. However, he is also a player that once he finds the mojo that he had while in high school and learns the Lavin system, can be a surprise and pay dividends by next season. We, the jury, are still out on him.
Harkless and Pointer will develop into stars once their bodies fill out further because they have the natural physical attributes to go along with quickly developing skill sets. Phil also falls into that category. D'Angelo is a little further behind the learning curve like Nurideen but if he and NL ever get their heads and hearts into their game, they will be different players next year.
The fact remains Lavin needs to sign at least three top recruits for next year to continue the talent-building process. There are no days off in recruiting. Getting a 5 star by 2013 would be a must for him to put SJ in a position for a title otherwise we will forever be watching Duke, UNC and Kentucky in the Elite 8.
As far as McDonald All-Americans, SJ cannot seem to sniff one. In the past 10 years we have had 3 or 4 while Kentucky and Carolina have had 30 or 40. They do not take time off in pursuing the top 50 and neither should we.