SJU Portal Targets

And Kadary and Luis' FT% point to some potential to improve.

At end of the day, we'll need jumps from Dunlap & Wilcher (Zuby's icing on the cake) to all feel 100% comfortable with spacing. But in college basketball, most good teams are expecting sophs jumps to reach their potential. It's not that weird/bad of a situation.
Luis can shoot. Last season was a complete anomaly. He was clearly very uncomfortable, and I think it’s fair to say he made others uncomfortable. I don’t think we have the same issues this year. A lot of it stemmed from NIL.
 
Luis can shoot. Last season was a complete anomaly. He was clearly very uncomfortable, and I think it’s fair to say he made others uncomfortable. I don’t think we have the same issues this year. A lot of it stemmed from NIL.
And NIL issues have gone away? May be jealousies from the returning players when they hear what our portals guys are getting. Obviously not only our team but all teams.
 
For his career he struggles and I like Luis but we all saw his jumper. Again on paper seems like should be solid but would prefer a proven consistent 3 point shooter on the roster.

68% of the time for his career and 40% of the time from the line.
Larry, why do you see the glass two-thirds empty most of the time--even these days, with Pitino, what looks like a stellar recruiting & portal haul coming in, plus a couple solid returning players (Luis, Zuby), and 2 promising rising sophomores (Wilcher, Dunlap)?

There are always tradeoffs, but the pieces Pitino will likely have this year to mix and match and jell into a cohesive unit are far more talented and deeper than last year's squad and fit better with Pitino's style, imo.

I'm optimistic about next season, fully expecting some snags during the season given formidable BEC opponents, but feeling good that Rick will hone his 2nd Johnnies team into a force to be reckoned with even against UCONN, Creighton, Marquette, Providence, and a dangerous Xavier squad.
 
And NIL issues have gone away? May be jealousies from the returning players when they hear what our portals guys are getting. Obviously not only our team but all teams.
From what I was told, he was making literally 10x what my “favorite” player was making. That’s kinda nuts. Dingle was up there too.
 
I will certainly matter if the scoring isn’t coming from another position as last season. Hopefully the scoring is more spread out but Pitino always seemed to like his PGs to be scorers.
We need our pg first and foremost to defend well. Défense starts with making the opposition uncomfortable on offense. Secondly he should not be a ball dominant pg , he should be looking to get his teammates involved. Third I hope he can score 12-13 points a game.
 
Larry, why do you see the glass two-thirds empty most of the time--even these days, with Pitino, what looks like a stellar recruiting & portal haul coming in, plus a couple solid returning players (Luis, Zuby), and 2 promising rising sophomores (Wilcher, Dunlap)?

There are always tradeoffs, but the pieces Pitino will likely have this year to mix and match and jell into a cohesive unit are far more talented and deeper than last year's squad and fit better with Pitino's style, imo.

I'm optimistic about next season, fully expecting some snags during the season given formidable BEC opponents, but feeling good that Rick will hone his 2nd Johnnies team into a force to be reckoned with even against UCONN, Creighton, Marquette, Providence, and a dangerous Xavier squad.
Well maybe my dear Wolfie it’s just that some people see the glass as half full while others see it as you say two-thirds empty. 😉🤣
 
Larry, why do you see the glass two-thirds empty most of the time--even these days, with Pitino, what looks like a stellar recruiting & portal haul coming in, plus a couple solid returning players (Luis, Zuby), and 2 promising rising sophomores (Wilcher, Dunlap)?

There are always tradeoffs, but the pieces Pitino will likely have this year to mix and match and jell into a cohesive unit are far more talented and deeper than last year's squad and fit better with Pitino's style, imo.

I'm optimistic about next season, fully expecting some snags during the season given formidable BEC opponents, but feeling good that Rick will hone his 2nd Johnnies team into a force to be reckoned with even against UCONN, Creighton, Marquette, Providence, and a dangerous Xavier squad.
See I am not complaining as this can still be addressed. Just think it is an obvious and glaring issue that people seem to be ignoring.
 
An elite PG like Smith makes everyone’s shooting better.
People keep saying that but it doesn’t make any sense. Yes a good point guard makes others better but it does not make guys who can’t shoot, shoot better or turn water into wine. Just ask Willie Glass how much a better shooter he became because of Mark Jackson.
 
Right now we've still got 3 or 4 open roster spots (depending on whether we carry 13 or 14 players) and uncertainty as to the status of Ledlum & Dingle. While I am very happy we have coach Pitino and optimistic that he will get a couple more decent/good guys from the portal, seems pointless to speculate on our prospects for next year until all the musical chairs are filled.

l'll plan on enjoying the Knicks/Pacers series and hopefully by the time that one ends we'll have a much better idea of 2024-2025 roster.
 
People keep saying that but it doesn’t make any sense. Yes a good point guard makes others better but it does not make guys who can’t shoot, shoot better or turn water into wine. Just ask Willie Glass how much a better shooter he became because of Mark Jackson.
So if Smith gets in the lane, sucks in the defense and kicks to a set shooter, that shooter isn’t getting a higher % shot than if it was just swung around the perimeter? I don’t believe that for a second.

I’m not worried about shooting with Smith. We can run a 4 out there in Scott that shot 37% on 3.5 attempts last year. Karaban, by comparison, shot 37.9% on 4.5 attempts. Newton shot 32.1% and Castle shot 26.7%. Spencer did shoot 44%. We could approximate that in the aggregate.
 
So if Smith gets in the lane, sucks in the defense and kicks to a set shooter, that shooter isn’t getting a higher % shot than if it was just swung around the perimeter? I don’t believe that for a second.

I’m not worried about shooting with Smith. We can run a 4 out there in Scott that shot 37% on 3.5 attempts last year. Karaban, by comparison, shot 37.9% on 4.5 attempts. Newton shot 32.1% and Castle shot 26.7%. Spencer did shoot 44%. We could approximate that in the aggregate.
I will make a deal with the entire board. I won’t bring this up again but if this shooting thing isn’t addressed , once season starts anyone who complains about our three point shooting has to hit themselves in the nuts with a wiffle ball bat.
 
I will make a deal with the entire board. I won’t bring this up again but if this shooting thing isn’t addressed , once season starts anyone who complains about our three point shooting has to hit themselves in the nuts with a wiffle ball bat.
Fair.

Question would you rather smith and a guy who’s just a shooter primarily. Or smith and Kadary?

Because I’d love more shooting. But I wouldn’t take a guy just cause he’s a shooter, over adding a guy like Kadary.
 
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