Like we had to (on a lesser scale) from Louie's days.
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- Thread starter paultzman
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It was a perfect match. Gilbert would buy the players systematically and Wooden would make the players buy into the system.Sam Gilbert is not coming through that door
If Clayton had come, Jenkins would not have been here. Go back and see some of the early articles. We were all over Clayton while both Slazinski didn’t think he was going to follow Pitino and Jenkins was non-committal. When Clayton turned us down much to everyone’s surprise, we then turned to Jenkins. Jenkins had nothing to do with Clayton not being here. Slazinski also committed but then de-committed when we got Ledlum.
Players gesture at each other on the court from time to time. Not really a surprise that this would happen when you have two ball dominant guys on the court together.
We will need a few things next year, PG being one of them.
Who was the last coach they really liked?
john Wooden
Pitino wanted both very much. Clayton loves Pitino and he and Jenkins got along great. Clayton also missed some games last year from Iona.
I agree 100% that Clayton was the first (and only) choice the first week and a half, but things changed by the time he got around to visiting. There were rumors of several Iona players coming over and Jenkins had his visit the same day.
I know I wouldn’t be happy if I was the conference player of the year, shot 46% from the field, 43% from 3 and 95% from the line and somehow took 76 less shots than my point guard with significantly lower %s across the board. It’s actually kind of crazy Clayton only got 12.5 FG attempts per game with those %s! Dingle, by comparison, averaged 17 attempts per game over his soph and junior seasons at Penn.
This is just pure speculation obviously, but nobody has ever liked playing with a ball hog.
Maybe he feels he can cross playing close to home off his list after this year? He’d walk into a familiar system and a huge role that Jenkins has carved out.
I don’t think Pitino would have watched him play at MSG if he thought there was a 0% chance Clayton didn’t come back next year.
Intriguing option even if it’s a long shot.
MugCostanza
Well-known member
Maybe the only time I've ever seen a player that was 110th of all D1 players in Assist rate last year and 16th (!) in that metric this year be called a ball hog lol. Completely unhinged
One factor being Wooden used to have 20 scholarships with which to stockpile talent.
Wasn’t Clayton the PG last year at Iona?
Exactly.
St. John’s to host Rick Pitino’s former Iona backcourt on official visit
Rick Pitino might be bringing his old backcourt with him to Queens.
nypost.com
They both visited together. Seems fair to say Pitino wanted both and he thought he would get both.
Pitino said in one of his first interviews that he wanted everyone to stay together at Iona and then immediately followed that with “but we’ll have Walt in for a visit at some point after he goes home.” That was the way it stayed for something like 10 days or so. It was just Clayton and no mention of anyone else from Iona.St. John’s to host Rick Pitino’s former Iona backcourt on official visit
Rick Pitino might be bringing his old backcourt with him to Queens.
They both visited together. Seems fair to say Pitino wanted both and he thought he would get both.
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I see what you’re saying but how would you personally feel if you were the conference player of the year with those absurd shooting %s and you only got 12.5 shots a game while your backcourt mate got 13.6 and had the lowest shooting % out of the top 8 scorers on the team?
I’d be be PISSED and I would not want to play with that kid again. Especially going to a team a level up that was returning an All-Big East center and whatever animals Pitino could have brought in.
Nelly Junior Joseph was also 1st team All-MAAC with Clayton and had 127 less shots than Jenkins even though he was shooting 14% higher from the field and over 20% higher in their respective careers.
I can't speak to the Iona situation so I won't.
Re his time here I will only say first impressions can leave a lasting impression. He had 21 turnovers in the first 5 games, he's only had 17 since. A lot of that was clearly because he was over dribbling. He has improved by leaps and bounds since then. While his shots per game have stayed the same they are definitely coming more in the flow of the offense combined with better decisions on when to do it himself.
