Not trying to spam. Just posted this in the Gtown thread, but belongs here:
on here.
I want to be very fair in this breakdown of Lavin's recruiting.
Year 1: Lavin had an entire roster to fill, and had to recruit for a program completely in the dumper. He was literally starting with virtually no program - a ten year record at the bottom of the Big East, and was going after guys that other coaches had a 2 or three year jump on. Hauling in Harkness and Harrison as the prizes, Lindsay (who tanked here), Garrett, Greene etc was a pretty nice start, along with Team Lavin turning NRs losing team into an NCAA tourney squad. All in all an A plus job or rebuilding
Year 2: Slowed by cancer, he comes up with Sampson, Branch, Obepka Balamou, Bourgault, Can't overstate how much the loss of harkness hurts. Sampson, Branch, Obepka are nice addditions, and with Harkness here, and Sampson as a third option (with offense from Greene and Branch) we could have beena tourney team.
Year 3: So far we haven't struck gold for next season, and that is a concern.
When you look at it this way it doesn't look horrible at all. Had Roberts left a squad with 3-4 underclassmen of Bif East ability (at the talent level of the starters that was on LAvin's 1st team) we'd be talking entirely differently today. So yea, as much as I'd hate to admit it, we are still in the hole that Norm left us in, and it will likely be felt until at least next year, and possibly won't be gone until the following year.
Tell me you are inebriated at a bar on 7th Ave. None of what you said justifies the current play of our team...none!
Last year, Dunlap had to manage a team of 5 freshmen and forget the record....they came better prepared than our current group of 12. Game management was much better also. Roberts excuses after hauling in 7 top 100 players??
LMAO!
FYI........Georgetown had 5 freshmen and 5 sophs on their team today.
Add a first round NBA pick to SJUs team and we are doing much better, no? Did Thompsom start recruiting two years ago from scratch, filling those 5 sophs in a few months, and did Thompsom start with the mess Lavin inherited?
Lavin did not inherit a mess! He inherited a bunch of under-recruited seniors who gave him 21 wins and a tourney selection. Are you that confident he can do that with his own players as juniors NEXT year???
If this same team hits the floor next year the only way Lavin wins 21 games is by the departure of Syracuse, ND, Louisville, Pitt, etc. and not with his own players who are underachieving more than Roberts' recruits since Norm's players had nowhere near the rankings coming in.
He "reportedly" (self reported) had two outstanding recruiting classes. Were they?
We have a promising shot blocking center who led in assists today but there is not one inside play designed to get him touches. We have a good point guard who cannot get more than one assist because our offensive scheme allows players to stand around.
It is one thing to get the players....quite another to develop them. Recruits will slowly get the message and will lean to schools with the "coaching".
Our coaches have a lot of work to do! They will have had 3 years to turn the corner. They are still quite a few NYC blocks away. I think it is time these out of towners got a subway map.
I couldn't disagree more with your assessments.
You are totally dismissive of where the program was the day Lavin set foot on campus. Do you really have to be reminded that Norm's overall record at SJU was 81-101, or that the group of seniors that Lavin got had gone 44-53 the previous three seasons? Or that his overall Big East record was 32-70, 17-37 with the group of under-recruited seniors.
That is one crazed assessment if you really believe Lavin inherited a seasoned group of upperclassmen. He took a team that finished 13th in the Big East at 6-12, and brought them to 21-12, 12-6 in league, and as high as 8th in the rankings.
Any coach who builds a team of seniors with nothing behind them has impending doom the following season. THAT is what Lavin inherited and any other way to spin this is pure nonsense.
We had not had an NBA player since Artest, and NR didn't recruit a Harkless, a Sampson, even a Harrison. No serious basketball player with high options would consider us, and suddenly Lavin is bringing in top 100 talent.
When you begin with a vacated roster as Lavin did two seasons ago, with less than a year to fill a complete roster, he did a pretty damned good job making us relevant again. RELEVENT, a word we used repeatedly during the end of Norm's tenure. We questioned whether SJU could ever be relevent in college basketball again.
So, even with a bout with cancer, with chemo kicking his ass, Lavin still has brought in some decent talent. Take away a jewel like Harkless, and we still have some decent talent on the roster after two classes. We all recognize the talent and experience of these kids is not enough TODAY to win consistently against Big East competition.
The reason we aren't ramming the ball into Obepka is that he is a pretty raw offensive player right now. Have you seen any offensiveskills on his part to think that dropping the ball into the low post to him for a one on one isolation will yield a mismatch or easy basket? Actually at this juncture, Obepka isnt even a good defender - he is ALWAYS looking to block shots, and is always out of position to defend and CERTAINLY to rebound. How else can you explain a shot blocking monster who doesn't rebound well?
What I'm frustrated with is the lack of cohesion on offense, the lack of ball movement without a ton of dribbling, the repeated draining of the shot clock. Our best offensive threat hangs out on the weak side, waiting for the ball to be swung to him as the clock ticks down. Once in his hands, he either fires it up, or shoots off the dribble,often ill advised shots, but makes a fair amount of shots.
What I see is a talented team of underclassmen that isn't quite talented enough to make up for their inexperience and lack of uppserclass leadership.
