Zendon, Felipe, etc. discussion

 I remember sitting next to Felipe's family up at the state tournament in Glens Falls. They were so surprised to see a St. John's fan up in the north country. Lol after the game they brought me over to introduce Felipe to me. 

I think we should start a Felipe thread. :)
 
 I remember sitting next to Felipe's family up at the state tournament in Glens Falls. They were so surprised to see a St. John's fan up in the north country. Lol after the game they brought me over to introduce Felipe to me. 

I think we should start a Felipe thread. :)
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Yeah, especially since is supposed to be a Michael Chandler thread. (And when I see new posts I get pumped up with anticipation.)
 
Believe pt g Kareem Reid who wound up at Arkansas would have made Felipe and Zendon much better players than Tarik Turner was able to do. TT a great sportscaster though. (94 great year-St J's recruits, Rangers win Cup, Knicks in finals-only downer was the murdering OJ). 
 
 I remember sitting next to Felipe's family up at the state tournament in Glens Falls. They were so surprised to see a St. John's fan up in the north country. Lol after the game they brought me over to introduce Felipe to me. 

I think we should start a Felipe thread. :)
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Yeah, especially since is supposed to be a Michael Chandler thread. (And when I see new posts I get pumped up with anticipation.)
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You won't notice it here first, anyway. There'll be a "Chandler to St. John's!" thread with a zillion comments in the main forum.
 
Believe pt g Kareem Reid who wound up at Arkansas would have made Felipe and Zendon much better players than Tarik Turner was able to do. TT a great sportscaster th ugh. (94 great year-St J's recruits, Rangers win Cup, Knicks in finals-only downer was the murdering OJ). 
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Toward the end of the game all the locals were on the floor at once for the east team, and they were a well-oiled machine. Reid looked so good with our guys.

Good year for me in sports apparently -- I was at the Knick game when they started airing the white Bronco fiasco on the screens. Some old guy behind us got mad at my friend for having the nerve to stand and cheer at the end of that Knick game. Almost made me feel like I was at a St. John's game. :cheer:
 
Believe pt g Kareem Reid who wound up at Arkansas would have made Felipe and Zendon much better players than Tarik Turner was able to do. TT a great sportscaster though. (94 great year-St J's recruits, Rangers win Cup, Knicks in finals-only downer was the murdering OJ). 
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Kareem Reid would have been the perfect PG for that class. He could push the ball and everyone would have been better including James Scott, who was already there.
 
 Zendon was so frustrating to watch he could have all 5 defenders on him and still force up a ridiclous shot rather then pass.
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The worst was watching this 6'11" bag of arms and legs bring the ball down to his waist to shoot.
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Basically, what he tried to do was the play the game exactly the same way he did in high school and the summer league circuit. I only played against him a couple of times (2 or 3 times, maybe) and, trust me, he had great statistical games, but he played so effortlessly it was hard to notice his complete impact on the game. Came off as lazy, but he got the job done as he was a man, physically, playing against boys. Our tallest player was 6-7 at the time, big difference.
He had a good collegiate career, but he never progressed the way I thought he would. Although I hated playing against him, I always thought Szezrbiack was the best player around that I played against. I never played against Felipe, so I'm kind of ignorant, when it comes to his Rice days.
 
 Zendon was so frustrating to watch he could have all 5 defenders on him and still force up a ridiclous shot rather then pass.
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The worst was watching this 6'11" bag of arms and legs bring the ball down to his waist to shoot.
Click to expand...
 

Basically, what he tried to do was the play the game exactly the same way he did in high school and the summer league circuit. I only played against him a couple of times (2 or 3 times, maybe) and, trust me, he had great statistical games, but he played so effortlessly it was hard to notice his complete impact on the game. Came off as lazy, but he got the job done as he was a man, physically, playing against boys. Our tallest player was 6-7 at the time, big difference.
He had a good collegiate career, but he never progressed the way I thought he would. Although I hated playing against him, I always thought Szezrbiack was the best player around that I played against. I never played against Felipe, so I'm kind of ignorant, when it comes to his Rice days.
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2 things about those teams. One was the obvious need for an upgrade at the PG position. Adding a top flight PG to that bunch would have been special. Second...just imagine having an assistant like a Coach Dunlap with that team. There were fundamentals missing...things that needed to be drilled into those teams.
 
I think we ended up suffering from the Sports Illustrated cover jinx...that and Felipe could not consistently make a 15 footer, something he never had to do in high school when he was jumping over everyone. 
 
I think we ended up suffering from the Sports Illustrated cover jinx...that and Felipe could not consistently make a 15 footer, something he never had to do in high school when he was jumping over everyone. 
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Felipe was also on the cover of Sporting News - The New Guard (Felipe Lopez, more then a freshmen phenom). Have this framed with his signature.
 
bottom line...he was fifth all time scorer and fourth all time rebounder at st john's when he left. that adds up to a winner everywhere else.

you're blaming him for the sub par seasons??

no point guard...no coach...equals loser. 
 
Since this now has its own thread, I'd like to give props to Mahoney. Zendon was all Syracuse, all the time. It was his dream school, and all his friends/teammates confirmed this. A friend of mine asked them if Zendon was going to go to St. John's, and I witnessed them laughing in his face. Not just chuckles, either -- it was over-the-top knee slapping and tears rolling down face. Brian did a hell of a job on this one.
 
Since this now has its own thread, I'd like to give props to Mahoney. Zendon was all Syracuse, all the time. It was his dream school, and all his friends/teammates confirmed this. A friend of mine asked them if Zendon was going to go to St. John's, and I witnessed them laughing in his face. Not just chuckles, either -- it was over-the-top knee slapping and tears rolling down face. Brian did a hell of a job on this one.
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 He did a nice job recruiting, but I dont think he did a good job coaching.
 
Off the top of my head, Mahoney brought in:

Roshown McLeod - Top 50
James Scott - Juco All American
Felipe Lopez - No 1 recruit in the country.
Zendon Hamilton - Top 10 recruit
Tarik Turner - Top 50 recruit
Mike Menniefield - Juco
Lavor Postell - Top 50 recruit
Collin Charles - Top 150
Ed Brown - Top 200
Ty Grant - Top 200

Granted he was coming off the glory years of LC, and you can see how the recruiting started dropping off in the later years - although Ty turned out to be a very good player.

 
 
I remember very early in Felipe's career, Yukon throttled him defensively pretty good and after the game, Calhoun made some disparaging remarks about Felipe's game and how easily his team bottled him up. Calhoun was not gracious in victory at all. 
 
Since this now has its own thread, I'd like to give props to Mahoney. Zendon was all Syracuse, all the time. It was his dream school, and all his friends/teammates confirmed this. A friend of mine asked them if Zendon was going to go to St. John's, and I witnessed them laughing in his face. Not just chuckles, either -- it was over-the-top knee slapping and tears rolling down face. Brian did a hell of a job on this one.
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 He did a nice job recruiting, but I dont think he did a good job coaching.
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From what I remember, Zendon's father was pro-St. John's.

As for Mahoney's recruiting, as someone else has pointed out, with each passing year it steadily went downhill. As for his coaching, his teams were undisciplined (the only exception was when David Cain was on the floor in Brian's first year) and pretty bad defensively.
 
Off the top of my head, Mahoney brought in:

Roshown McLeod - Top 50
James Scott - Juco All American
Felipe Lopez - No 1 recruit in the country.
Zendon Hamilton - Top 10 recruit
Tarik Turner - Top 50 recruit
Mike Menniefield - Juco
Lavor Postell - Top 50 recruit
Collin Charles - Top 150
Ed Brown - Top 200
Ty Grant - Top 200

Granted he was coming off the glory years of LC, and you can see how the recruiting started dropping off in the later years - although Ty turned out to be a very good player.

 
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   Mahoney couldnt figure out how to play Mcloud. He transferred to Duke, started and became a 1st round draft pick.
 
Will never forget how Mahoney lost McLeod to Duke; couldn't believe the lack of playing time.
While Rashown was waiting for the opposition to take a foul shot, I yelled to him,"Looking good." He smiled and said thank you. Nice kid.
 
 
Ahhh the team of my college youth. I got to know some of these guys pretty well and collectively they couldn't be any nicer. When I think of Felipe, I always think of Ron Powlus, the former ND quarterback. Both were the next big thing, both had very productive college careers, and both of them tremendously disappointed their pie in the sky fan bases (of which I belong to both). Felipe could not consistently hit a mid range jumper (remember those?) to save his life. His leaping ability was sometimes a problem as his first two seasons were littered with his signature offensive play: drive to the basket, and when the defense collapsed on him, leap into the air and have no idea whether to pass or shoot, appearing to make that choice one centimeter from his feet returning to the floor. Boy was he infuriating-for idiots like me comparing him to Iverson, Jordan, etc. My biggest issue with Felipe was that his game at St. John's only got incrementally better, which was not entirely his fault, but he was always gracious. But if Felipe was disappointing for all the hype, Zendon was probably the most infuriating to watch. Why he would grab a rebound and, while surrounded by 4 players below 6'6 in the no rules 1990's BE, and insist on putting it on the floor before going back up for the shot was always beyond me. I still get nausea thinking about him flailing his arms back up without the ball wondering where the call was. Of course, he probably felt the need to dribble because if that class had one real problem, it was Tarik. Turner was many good things, a point guard was not one of them. Other than Tim Tebow, I don't know anyone that I felt more passionately was out of position. No real instincts for a floor general, which cannot be taught. Whew. Thank you guys for this therapy session, now I can return to work.
 
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