Sheed likely knows he's 1 more and gone. He'll have free reign on the court and should put up really good numbers (regardless of win/loss) and set himself up for a good draft slot. Him leaving and sitting out a year likely doesn't help him much.
Agreed. Plus Moe was a top 15 pick on a terrible team. Sheed getting to do what he does best next year is the best for Sheed...I think he and Dlo leads us to the tourney personally regardless of who else leaves and who is coaching. Let's remember that Marcus Hatten led us to a tourney with a bunch of scrubs and Jarvis who at that point had stopped coaching....
Kid, come on. There isn't a player on this team that sniffs Hatten. And I think you're overlooking some very good supporting players on those Jarvis teams. Anthony Glover was a consistent forward for us. A quality 4 year player who worked hard. For all the talk of Greene being forced to play out of position, how about some credit for a 6'4 center?
The thing about guys like Fordham, Keita, Glover, Shaw, King, Cuffe, Stanley and The Donald is that while none of them were as talented as last year's STJ team, they hustled, they defended, and they gutted out wins because they played hard, and they played fearless.
I know no one cared for Jarvis' attitude towards recruiting, the media or his horrendous metaphors, but his teams, up until his last season, competed. A coach isn't your buddy. Lavin and his player's coach BS has produced the most overrated squad at STJ since the 1994-1995 team that lost to USF in the first round of the NIT.
At least that team took the NIT seriously.
No one sniffs Hatten but if Jordan improves like I expect him to, Jordan + D'Angelo could be as dangerous a back court as any. I also am assuming that we actually get something much needed based on our total lack of a recruiting season, and that is hungry bangers who WILL rebound. I could be wrong but Lavin may actually back into players with a skillset we have been sorely lacking (toughness, rebounding, and grit).
Perhaps it's because I am an optimist, but I really love Jordan and think he is a legit big time player next year. I think Jordan, Branch, Harrison, Pointer, CJ, + 2-3 legit bangers downlow who can rebound and defend at a D-1 level is a potential NCAA tourney team, even with Lavin coaching. As WASJU has said, the less players Lavin has to mismanage and screw up rotations, the better the "coaching" will be.
I completely agree. Our back court should be the best we've seen in over a decade--including the Hatten years. The front court just needs to stay out of the way of the guards. They didn't do that this past season. They also didn't screen or set up the guards in any way...the just forced drives and jumpers all game.
I actually really like this Thomas kid. He is probably half the athlete of Sampson and only has a fraction of his quickness and explosiveness, but the kid looks really skilled and, more importantly, seems to be a bulldog. Watch the videos on youtube, he gets great position on both ends of the floor and doesn't waste ANY movement when he get the ball down low. 1-2 dribbles max and he has no problem getting rid of it. He seals better than anyone we've had in a while and that would make him a menace off a screen if he draws a smaller defender on the switch. This kid was coached up at some point and has skills Sampson will probably never see.
Of course, I am still holding out hope for Mason and a few transfers.
I think you guys are smoking crack, meth, snorting coke and shooting heroin.
Don't get me wrong, I hope you're right, and everyone else is eating crow, but Marillac, how can you like Keith Thomas? We didn't even know who he was 3 weeks ago.
If you did, I stand corrected, but if you just look at highlight videos which piece together moments over who knows how long of a period, how can we tell anything? Lavin should have been working harder on the recruiting trail. That's his best talent as a coach. If he's losing his frontcourt, and he's not working hard to replace it, he should be fired immediately.
Let him prove us wrong by finding a way to get quality bigs in here. And even then, that nice person will be left to coach to them. The prospects of that scenario with an entirely green frontcourt are daunting.
I'll be honest...I didn't know who he was. I coached in that region and I am familiar with the programs and how certain kids I coached that went D-1 did statistically. Nobody was close to 15.7 rebounds per game...certainly not as a first year player. You have to be getting everything that comes anywhere near you and going into other areas for that kind of ridiculous total. Jarrid Famous was like 7 feet tall and had a very solid career at USF, and he only got 11 boards a game in his second year in a down year for talent in region 15. Based on the stats and the quotes, the kid clearly possesses a mindset like nobody on last season's team.
I watched a TERRIBLE 10-21 Washington State team nearly beat Stanford in the Pac-12 tournament when they couldn't buy a shot, because this manchild of a forward just refused to give up and had 6 offensive rebounds for thunderous putback dunks. That kid on WSU didn't have 1/2 the athletic ability or sheer talent of Sampson, but he would have eaten Sampson's soul for breakfast. We need someone with that mindset. I don't care if the kid can touch the top of the backboard or hit a 17 footer...I want my PF to play like Charles Oakley and Dennis Rodman...especially when you have two guards that can each go for 30 any given night.
I truly hope you are right. It would be nice to have some big men who aren't pussies. Speaking of, Gift wasn't soft like Sampson and Obekpa, but he also wasn't talented enough to make a real difference in the BE.
Even if Thomas can play, we still need several more to offset the loss of our entire frontcourt. Jucos and graduate students is no way to build a program. We can get lucky for a year, and then what? Freshman and projects again?
You can tell instantly Gift doesn't have 1/10th of this kid's skill. Look back to my posts about Gift when he signed (April 2011):
http://johnnyjungle.com/forum/index.php?topic=4558.220"Youlove trying to put words in my mouth, Huh?
GG will not get mins bc he is probably not on the same planet as the rest of the class in terms of skill. Bringing up the level of comp only addresses those that think he will be ready to play simply bc he was a juco. Erie is not chipola. The one advantage playing juco over an elite hs league gives him is that he was playing against men,albeit less skilled and talented but still men."
This kid is clearly different...he's been coached well from an early age. More important than the skill to me is the mindset that he seemingly possesses. "I will work outwork you" is the best quotes I've heard from a St. John's target in years. We needed that last year.