What SJU Must Do to Become Top 25 Team

1. Player Retention - Check. We lost a lot of players, but not the two most important ones, Posh and Julian. Of the players we did lose, could make the argument we upgraded almost every replacement we brought in.
2. Add Size - Check. This will team will have the most depth I can remember up front in a long time.
3. Replace Dunn - (Probably) Check. I think between Coburn, Mathis, Smith, Pinzon someone will emerge as a primary ballhandler to slot behind Posh.
4 (Bonus) Build for the Future - Check. Mentioned this in another thread, but for the first time in decades, we are optimistic about the upcoming season AND the future. The two recruits in the '22 class are case in point. We are finally building a sustainable program.
 
I agree, we kept the 2 most important players. Williams was 1 I liked to keep but at Dame time I think his back injury robbed him to be consistent in what he showed flashes of becoming with no guarantee he would be healthy this season.
We definitely got bigger with Soriano and longer with Wheeler. Add the incoming and returning we seem to be in much better shape there.
With Smith and Coburn we added much needed shooting. Mathis and Posh will be nightmares in the pressure game for opening guards.Pinzon adds playmaker and length.
The foundation has been layer to build a sturdy well built program to be proud of for years to come. 
 
I think most every one of our fans wanted to keep Williams. I also think we adequately replaced him and that the sum of the incoming parts will give us more collectively than the combination of him and Cole at the 2/3. 

I think we all wanted to keep Earlington too as a bench/role guy and small ball 4 but think what we lost there has more than been made up for. 

Front court - like the size and depth we have even losing Moore who was valuable even though there were issues. 

Dunn - open question if we have someone who can replace his ball handling and ability to create for himself when needed at the end of a shot clock.  If Posh stays healthy less of a concern. Hopefully some combination of Smith or Pinzon gives us a few minutes in that role when needed. 
 
The staff has done a wonderful job replenishing our roster. If CMA and his staff can get these players to buy in, blend together and play as a cohesive team and if we can stay healthy during the season, this St John's team can certainly make a run at being a Top 25 team this season IMO.
 
I think this team has enough talent to be more than a Top 25 team. I’d say possibly a Top 15 team. It all depends on how fast all the new players can adapt to CMA’s system. The offense will be there , it’s the defensive cohesiveness early in the season that concerns me. All great defensive teams and coaches will tell you, defense should be easy for us to play but hard for our opponents to play against. How soon our team gets to that point will determine if we will be ranked or how high we will be ranked. Hopefully, it doesn’t come together so late that we are a bubble team needing to win games in order to compensate for a bad loss or two early in the season. Let’s get it together quickly, be ranked and leave no doubt when comes to the end of the season. 
 
Rob post=437856 said:
I think most every one of our fans wanted to keep Williams. I also think we adequately replaced him and that the sum of the incoming parts will give us more collectively than the combination of him and Cole at the 2/3. 

I think we all wanted to keep Earlington too as a bench/role guy and small ball 4 but think what we lost there has more than been made up for. 

Front court - like the size and depth we have even losing Moore who was valuable even though there were issues. 

Dunn - open question if we have someone who can replace his ball handling and ability to create for himself when needed at the end of a shot clock.  If Posh stays healthy less of a concern. Hopefully some combination of Smith or Pinzon gives us a few minutes in that role when needed. 

I think that we have more than replaced Dunn.  We have a bunch of guys that can do the things that Dunn can do and a bit more.  I really loved Dunn, but he also had a few big liabilities that allowed teams to “game-us” when he was on the court.  He was a nice handler and good at penetration but was almost non-existent as a threat from the outside.  Guys like Stef, Mathis etc can more than make up for what we are losing in most categories as a group.

Our depth is better everywhere.  While a guy like Soriano may not fit into the usual Anderson-team mold per se,  he will also
guarantee we have a big body out there so teams like UConn can’t just drop in A guy like Sanogo to run roughshod over out 6’6” centers.  x-factor for us I think will be if oir young forwards like Traore and Stanley can contribute what guys like Earlington did.  I think the sleeper will be Wheeler who will likely have a very productive season in this type of system next to Champagnie as he’s also very skilled, tall and athletic and can stretch teams with shooting.  
 
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A lot of moving pieces to maneuver and no time to lose once season starts, but I will be surprised if we are not a top 25/30 team when season ends - just so many different options especially when it comes to size. I know we don't have an obvious 2nd ballhandler to spell Posh, but expect we will find Stef Smith is OK there and I believe we will miss Dunn less than expected. We'll see.  
 
The stars are aligned for us to become a Top 25 team this year. However in my opinion the deck will always be stacked against a program like ours who runs things clean and doesn't necessarily shoot for 4 and 5 star players. Not saying it's impossible to have a Top 25 team year in year our, but I just see it being a big challenge. 

 
 
mattc post=437847 said:
1. Player Retention - Check. We lost a lot of players, but not the two most important ones, Posh and Julian. Of the players we did lose, could make the argument we upgraded almost every replacement we brought in.
2. Add Size - Check. This will team will have the most depth I can remember up front in a long time.
3. Replace Dunn - (Probably) Check. I think between Coburn, Mathis, Smith, Pinzon someone will emerge as a primary ballhandler to slot behind Posh.
4 (Bonus) Build for the Future - Check. Mentioned this in another thread, but for the first time in decades, we are optimistic about the upcoming season AND the future. The two recruits in the '22 class are case in point. We are finally building a sustainable program.

 
Click to expand...

Excellent post.

However the bottom line is:  Consistently win games.
 
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lawmanfan post=437930 said:
mattc post=437847 said:
1. Player Retention - Check. We lost a lot of players, but not the two most important ones, Posh and Julian. Of the players we did lose, could make the argument we upgraded almost every replacement we brought in.
2. Add Size - Check. This will team will have the most depth I can remember up front in a long time.
3. Replace Dunn - (Probably) Check. I think between Coburn, Mathis, Smith, Pinzon someone will emerge as a primary ballhandler to slot behind Posh.
4 (Bonus) Build for the Future - Check. Mentioned this in another thread, but for the first time in decades, we are optimistic about the upcoming season AND the future. The two recruits in the '22 class are case in point. We are finally building a sustainable program.



 
Click to expand...

Excellent post.

However the bottom line is:  Consistently win games.
Click to expand...

And don’t dig yourself into a big hole early across the tough OOC games and first third or so of BE schedule. In recent history this has been a problem for most part. Yes, team will have to develop chemistry early, but still have to win the games they should to establish positive momentum in period noted.
 
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Paultzman post=437936 said:
lawmanfan post=437930 said:
mattc post=437847 said:
1. Player Retention - Check. We lost a lot of players, but not the two most important ones, Posh and Julian. Of the players we did lose, could make the argument we upgraded almost every replacement we brought in.
2. Add Size - Check. This will team will have the most depth I can remember up front in a long time.
3. Replace Dunn - (Probably) Check. I think between Coburn, Mathis, Smith, Pinzon someone will emerge as a primary ballhandler to slot behind Posh.
4 (Bonus) Build for the Future - Check. Mentioned this in another thread, but for the first time in decades, we are optimistic about the upcoming season AND the future. The two recruits in the '22 class are case in point. We are finally building a sustainable program.




 
Click to expand...

Excellent post.

However the bottom line is:  Consistently win games.
Click to expand...

And don’t dig yourself into a big hole early across the tough OOC games and first third or so of BE schedule. In recent history this has been a problem for most part. Yes, team will have to develop chemistry early, but still have to win the games they should to establish positive momentum in period noted.


Absolutely true, Paultzman. This has been an issue in each of CMA's first two seasons. The problem is the huge roster turnover taking place each season and trying to blend so many new players together into a cohesive group in such a short amount of time. We only have three players back from last season so we're looking at integrating nine (or so) new players into the system. Not an easy task to achieve. It takes time to build team chemistry and not easy to do when you are playing 2-3 games each week.
 
Click to expand...
 
Paultzman post=437936 said:
 
Click to expand...

And don’t dig yourself into a big hole early across the tough OOC games and first third or so of BE schedule. In recent history this has been a problem for most part. Yes, team will have to develop chemistry early, but still have to win the games they should to establish positive momentum in period noted.
 
Click to expand...

I agree but I also think there are some reasons for cautious optimism.  In Year 1 Coach A was starting from ground zero.  In Year 2 the pre-season (not to mention the season) was disrupted by COVID.

For Year 3 on the plus side of the ledger (a) he isn't starting from nothing; (b) he gets a full pre-season, (c) he doesn't have as many returners as we would like but he does have his 2 stars, plus Wusu, plus I have to figure Nyiwe has a head start; and (d) the transfers are upperclassmen from D1 programs who should hopefully adapt faster than JUCOs.

Of course the downside is we again have lots of new players and from what we've seen it takes time for Anderson's teams to gel.  But there are reasons to believe it may happen sooner this year.

Hoping for the best.
 
lawman fan, made excellent points, and I would only add that a couple of the "transfer outs", although good players were head cases, the "old" addition by subtraction.



 
 
lawmanfan post=437938 said:
Paultzman post=437936 said:
 
Click to expand...

And don’t dig yourself into a big hole early across the tough OOC games and first third or so of BE schedule. In recent history this has been a problem for most part. Yes, team will have to develop chemistry early, but still have to win the games they should to establish positive momentum in period noted.

 
Click to expand...

I agree but I also think there are some reasons for cautious optimism.  In Year 1 Coach A was starting from ground zero.  In Year 2 the pre-season (not to mention the season) was disrupted by COVID.

For Year 3 on the plus side of the ledger (a) he isn't starting from nothing; (b) he gets a full pre-season, (c) he doesn't have as many returners as we would like but he does have his 2 stars, plus Wusu, plus I have to figure Nyiwe has a head start; and (d) the transfers are upperclassmen from D1 programs who should hopefully adapt faster than JUCOs.

Of course the downside is we again have lots of new players and from what we've seen it takes time for Anderson's teams to gel.  But there are reasons to believe it may happen sooner this year.

Hoping for the best.


I agree with everything you said, Lawmanfan. I, too, am hoping for the best. This has the potential to be a special season for St John's. We have enough talent to make the NCAA tournament and, depending upon the bracket, have the potential to make some noise in it. The key, as you stated, is how long will it take for the team to gel. Let's hope that we see some tangible evidence of that happening during the non conference slate and certainly well before the league season begins.
 
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To be fair to CMA re my post above on importance of getting out of gate well, the malady adversely effected previous regime as well.
 
I think the experience of the transfers with Smith and Coburn being fifth year seniors and Mathis, Wheeler and Soriano having at least two years of college basketball should be a big help. 

The success of the early season will also come down to how well Posh, Champs and Wusu play. Champs got really cold from 3 the last six games or so last season. If he starts the season hot along with the dogged defense of Posh and Wusu we just need a few other guys to get off to quick starts. I think the defense will be there early. We need to shoot the ball well out of the gate.
 
Is there a limit on how many pre-season games a team can play? Maybe CMA and Cragg should schedule a couple of extra pre-season games. 
 
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