Upcoming Season

[ShrekII]

I am really looking forward to the upcoming season.  To me the Staff addressed our biggest issue from last year and that was defense.  We were terrible defensively.  Of the players leaving only Williams and Roberts were positive defensive players.  I expect significant improvement defensively with an upgraded roster and a full off season.  My biggest question: outside shooting.  We have ONE proven high major shooter in Julian.  Ideally you have at least 3 competent shooters on the floor at all times, if Posh isn't one of them then we have to find them elsewhere.  Posh's 3P% is probably the most important stat we will have this coming season.  Last year he shot 41.9% in wins and 8.3% in losses.  If he shoots over 35% for the year our ceiling is so much higher.  I think it likely that Smith and Coburn will competent shooters, but may not be up around 40% when playing against Big East defenders.  Wheeler shot 36.5% as a Freshman, was terrible as a Soph (2 for 22 in January) and a little better as a Jr.  Does the change in scenery and faster tempo help him find his form?  Mathis scares the hell out of me.  He is a high usage, low efficiency player.  Only JC took more shots per 100 possessions for us last year. If CMA can get him to take fewer, better shots (like he did with Dunn last year) then he could be a real plus, especially defensively.  However, I can completely see that blowing up and him being unhappy and hurting team chemistry.  If Posh and Wheeler shoot the ball around 35% then that allows CMA to play non shooters (Soriano, Mathis, Addae-Wusu, the freshman front court guys) more.  If they both struggle then Smith, Coburn and hopefully Pinzon will have to be on the court more.

 

[Red Drum]

I hope we can get more inside shots also. Thought Posh would be able to penetrate and dump to Toro and Roberts last year but that didn’t happen. Those two were useless near the basket Toro nailed to the floor. Hopefully Soriano and Wheeler can finish. I don’t see Stanley or Nyiwe scoring inside other than keeping balls alive.

 

[monte]

I hope we can get more inside shots also. Thought Posh would be able to penetrate and dump to Toro and Roberts last year but that didn’t happen. Those two were useless near the basket Toro nailed to the floor. Hopefully Soriano and Wheeler can finish. I don’t see Stanley or Nyiwe scoring inside other than keeping balls alive.

I went back and reread the Toro commitment thread yesterday. Some of the expectations/projections by our fan base,  and some writers, were off the charts, and completely unfair to the kid. Zach said(about the commitment); 
"The search is over. St. John's has finally filled its glaring need inside". 

How a kid who could not start on a pathetic mid major team, was going to possibly fill our glaring need in the middle, was beyond  me. I said so at the time. Reminds me of a lot of the expections being placed on our new kids this year. 

 

[ShrekII]

I hope we can get more inside shots also. Thought Posh would be able to penetrate and dump to Toro and Roberts last year but that didn’t happen. Those two were useless near the basket Toro nailed to the floor. Hopefully Soriano and Wheeler can finish. I don’t see Stanley or Nyiwe scoring inside other than keeping balls alive.


 

There will be no room inside for Soriano post ups or anybody else driving the ball if we don't have at least 3 players on the court that can shoot 3's at a decent clip.  Also Wheeler is not at all an interior offensive player.  He has averaged about 2/3rds of his shots from 3.  He just misses a lot of them the last 2 years.  I am hopeful that CMA can get him to play like Moore in getting lobs and he shoots as well as his Freshman year.

 

[mjmaherjr]

I hope we can get more inside shots also. Thought Posh would be able to penetrate and dump to Toro and Roberts last year but that didn’t happen. Those two were useless near the basket Toro nailed to the floor. Hopefully Soriano and Wheeler can finish. I don’t see Stanley or Nyiwe scoring inside other than keeping balls alive.

I went back and reread the Toro commitment thread yesterday. Some of the expectations/projections by our fan base,  and some writers, were off the charts, and completely unfair to the kid. Zach said(about the commitment); 
"The search is over. St. John's has finally filled its glaring need inside". 

How a kid who could not start on a pathetic mid major team, was going to possibly fill our glaring need in the middle, was beyond  me. I said so at the time. Reminds me of a lot of the expections being placed on our new kids this year. 

I'm totally not joking and forgot about him and just thought lawn mower when you wrote his name

 

[ShrekII]

I am really looking forward to the upcoming season.  To me the Staff addressed our biggest issue from last year and that was defense.  We were terrible defensively.  Of the players leaving only Williams and Roberts were positive defensive players.  I expect significant improvement defensively with an upgraded roster and a full off season.  My biggest question: outside shooting.  We have ONE proven high major shooter in Julian.  Ideally you have at least 3 competent shooters on the floor at all times, if Posh isn't one of them then we have to find them elsewhere.  Posh's 3P% is probably the most important stat we will have this coming season.  Last year he shot 41.9% in wins and 8.3% in losses.  If he shoots over 35% for the year our ceiling is so much higher.  I think it likely that Smith and Coburn will competent shooters, but may not be up around 40% when playing against Big East defenders.  Wheeler shot 36.5% as a Freshman, was terrible as a Soph (2 for 22 in January) and a little better as a Jr.  Does the change in scenery and faster tempo help him find his form?  Mathis scares the hell out of me.  He is a high usage, low efficiency player.  Only JC took more shots per 100 possessions for us last year. If CMA can get him to take fewer, better shots (like he did with Dunn last year) then he could be a real plus, especially defensively.  However, I can completely see that blowing up and him being unhappy and hurting team chemistry.  If Posh and Wheeler shoot the ball around 35% then that allows CMA to play non shooters (Soriano, Mathis, Addae-Wusu, the freshman front court guys) more.  If they both struggle then Smith, Coburn and hopefully Pinzon will have to be on the court more.

 

Last night was a perfect example of the importance of shooting.  We were so much better with Coburn, Champagnie, and Wheeler on the floor.  There was so much more room for Posh to drive and Soriano in the post.  There was a play in the 2nd half when Mathis drove into the paint and there were 3 guys there.  Nobody was guarding Wusu and Posh on the perimeter.  My biggest criticism of CMA is his reluctance to play at least 3 shooters, even if it means having to play the match-up zone because they are lesser defends.  We should have 3 of Tareq, JC, Wheeler, Smith and Pinzon on the court most of the time.  I would also love Posh to take a couple of catch and shoot 3's per game.  He needs to boost his confidence for next year.  If he can hit the 3 consistently he will be an All-American.  

Overall, it has been a disappointing season, but our A game is really good.  I do put a good bit of the "blame" on CMA, mostly with his rotations.  However, if you told me JC was going to have such a difficult season shooting and Posh was going to shoot 21% from 3 I would have expected a losing record.  I really love most of the players and would love to have a few more weeks to watch this team.

 

[Rocket]

I didn't realize this post was started last fall!  Yes, we were all much more optimistic back then but the season is not over yet. There were two or three losses at the buzzer that could have made the season look much more successful, especially at Indiana and Uconn.
Heck, an 18 win season is still not out the question but those losses when injuries and Covid slowed the progress may be too much to overcome.

By the way, why are you still a Rookie after all these months?? Is this forum statistics driven or is it too isolated from the main board?

 

[Bootsy40]

Yes I was optimistic pre-season. With Champagnie coming back, not only was I expecting to make NCAA tournament, but to be 6 or 7 seed. Now we are thinking NIT.