Can somebody enlighten me why the walk ons played so much. I mean, when we had Stanley or Misseri, at least they contributed. I didnt see these guys do anything on defense or offense. Also, i didnt see any plays called to free up Marco for a clean shot. All his shots were rushed, and looked horrible. All around, it was a disappointing ending to the season. sorry, but i like this group of kids and thought more of them. Sir Dom and PG4 progressed, but thats it.
Walk ons
- Thread starter cappy105
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beast of the east
Active member
Lipscomb probably earned the time with solid work in practice. No doubt we were thin at guard after Harrison was suspended. Lipscomb got spot minutes, Marco didn't step up and contribute anything meaningful whatsoever. Greene played fairly well, as did Branch but in most of the past 6 games we were overmatched.
Are you forgetting CO? End to end he improved more than anyone. Pointer was up and down - when he was good, he was very very good, Sampson was good almost all year. PG had his moments, but also some bad games too.
tom in salem
Well-known member
Greene shot 37 % from the floor, 23 % from 3.
Those numbers are atrocious.
What's worse is he has no conscience.
Those numbers are atrocious.
What's worse is he has no conscience.
What's worse is there is nobody else on this team right now who can shoot from the outside, and with the exception of Karr, can create his own shot. Cut Greene some slack, at least he's out there trying to do something on the offensive end. The fact that coach has been unable to recruit anybody who is a threat from beyond the arc except guys that are either suspended, or take forever and a day to get their shot off, is not Phil's fault. Now it's on Coach to find us a true pg and a consistent outside threat. I'm hoping Max's the answer to the last part of the question, let's hope he's acurate and has a quick release. Not sure about the pg thing though.
Let me ask a question as I put in my two cents. Was it ever officially stated that after the injury in the Nova game that Felix was out for the season? I never read it nor heard guys discussing it but I've been busier than usual the past couple weeks and missing some posts. Whether it was stated or not it was obviously the case. Without Felix and DLo, and with Branch clearly still hobbled, who was going to be the third guard?
Easy answer was SirDom, if what Lavin was saying about him in the preseason was true, that he would be able to play some point, be it PG or Point Forward. That didn't really eventuate over the season. So if you're not going to play Greene and Branch 40 minutes each Lipscomb has to play. You need more than one ball handler on the court most of the time. I saw yesterday that they experimented with a Greene / SirDom / Amir or CJ / Jakarr / CO lineup quite a bit. That didn't seem to work too well either, though really nothing did yesterday.
beast of the east
Active member
As typical for you, your analysis is pretty good. At least I agree with it, mostly. I would say that SirDom is so foul prone, and we are already thin upfront, that I wouldn't want him committing fouls 30 feet from the basket playing a guard slot.
The season is over, and really for most of us, it was a difficult season, fighting the wars undermanned and undersized, and under-talented most of the year.
beast of the east
Active member
Just so you know, if you consider PGs two point shooting %, it climbs to almost 45%, which is very acceptable. His 3 pt shooting , to even be considered acceptable, has to rise to about 30-35%, which multiple by 1.5, would equate to 45-48% from two. If he improved his 3 point shooting, we'd be looking at a much better season.
beast of the east
Active member
Based on his shooting percentage, it looks like he may make a lot more of those than sliding his foot back.
Seriously, this is part of the reason why the three point shot drives basketball purists crazy. The objective in basketball is to get the easiest shot possible. When you move further away when you have the opportunity to move closer is fundamentally against old school principles. I've heard some coaches say this for years.
Class of 72
Active member
Good analysis Aussie! What you also inadvertently point out was about Pointer when you said " if what Lavin was saying about him in the preseason was true" and it was partially true in that he handled the ball a hell of a lot for a point forward even when Harrison was playing. Which leads us back to Lipscomb in that even if Branch was not 100%, he had no business being on the court against the Virginia players. Lavin could have used any combination of Greene, Pointer, Branch and Bourgault in the backcourt to distribute minutes but it appears to me that Lavin all but gave up on this season starting with the suspension of Harrison. The injury to Balamou? Aparantly no one cared and Lavin knew it.
After 32 games for the freshmen and 60 games for the second year players, what became painfully obvious was that almost to a man, Lavin has failed to sign an "all around player" that is multi-dimensional and can play multiple positions.
Karr is basically a small forward. Harrison, Greene and Balamou are 2 guards that cannot shoot. Pointer and Garrett are small forwards. Branch is a combo guard but cannot shoot. There is no pure shooter in the entire bunch and no natural power big up front. To top it off, there is no natural point guard that only we seem to lack in the conference.
Lavin will be on thin ice next year if his team does not produce and show progress. As we see from the firing of coaches that can actually "coach" like Howland and Smith, winning 20 games just does not cut it at upper tier schools and conferences. I had the opportunity to sit in a donors seats a couple of times this year and there were too many empty ones at many games. The grumbling was all about the poor performance of the team against average competition at Carnesecca Arena. As the season progressed, I hear a couple of supporters actually pressed the AD on the issues and it got to the point that Chris and Father H had to make a public statement in defense of their coach. The Harrison and Sanchez issues were just a small part of the complaints. Some feel the recruiting setbacks started in year one with the disqualified players and continued into last year when resources had to be reused to sign Sampson again and scholarships used on Bourgault and Balamou to entice the players that SJ was actually targeting. Add to that the failure of Darrick Wood to qualify, the sitting of GG and the transfer of Nurideen Lindsey and supporters are starting to have doubts about the level of the targeted players.
All I will say is that the heat will be on Lavin to make some changes this summer and he knows it. Do not be surprised to see a couple of ships pulled so he can save the Ship.
Using resources to lure players is nothing new. looie signed George Garrison out of Bellport to "lure"
David Russell. That pales in comparison to what Big time programs do. How about UCLA hiring the Nebraska assistant for $160K per year to "lure" Shabazz Muhammad. It worked and they got their man.
Kentucky and North Carolia also wanted him and were willing to do similar things.
Now with the increased income from the FOX contract it will be interesting to see if St. John's and
the other schools put their money to use.