St John’s is finally on the way back

http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/college-basketball-5-things-we-learned-this-week-163978


 St John’s is finally on the way back

 It hasn’t exactly been a banner five years for the St. John’s Red Storm. 

 Since winning the NIT championship in 2003, the tradition-rich New York City institution seemingly endured every imaginable indignity.  There was the notorious strip club scandal in 2004 that resulted in the suspensions of five players and the expulsion of a sixth, resulting in St. John’s playing with mostly walk-ons for the rest of the season.  The following season the school was forced to acknowledge allegations that starter Abe Keita, one of the strip club six, was receiving illegal payments from Coach Mike Jarvis’s staff.  To avoid NCAA penalties, the school put itself on two years’ probation, banned itself from postseason play for the season, and forfeited 43 wins – including the aforementioned NIT championship.  Jarvis became the first Big East coach in history to be fired mid-season.

 That year, they won all of six games, with a 1-15 Big East record.  The next season, under new Coach Norm Roberts, they won nine.  St. John’s – a program with over 1600 wins and 27 NCAA Tournament appearances in their long and proud history - had officially hit rock bottom.

 But now, in the 100th year of St. John’s basketball, things are starting to look up.  Coach Roberts has delivered on his promise to recruit top NYC talent, such as Malik Boothe and Justin Burrell, and has his young players buying into his system.  The Red Storm played terrific defense against # 7 Notre Dame Saturday, and pulled off the upset despite being without the services of their starting point guard, Boothe, who was out with a thumb injury.

 The extremely young team (which started four sophomores and a freshman against the Irish) are now 10-4, and of course has now matched their Big East win total from five years ago.  While the loss of Anthony Mason, Jr. for the rest of the season was a huge blow, and they clearly still have some ways to go, St. John’s could be finally developing into the St. John’s program of old, and that is bad news for the rest of the Big East in the years to come.

I really wasn't as much into SJU then as I am now, but I do remember when they were the powerhouse in the late 90's when they got that 2 seed that one year and lost to Zaga. I was only 10 or something when that happened. Just reading that article got me excited and how cool it would be if/when they are finally a top 4 or 5 team in the Big East every season. It's gotta be awesome.

Writer should have his publishing rights removed.  We are not even close to being back. 

We're 1-4 against top 200 teams.  Is that back? 

this is a writer who's on norm's payroll.

horrendous article...

Baldi are you moonlighting at CFN.  Sounds like one of your posts.

I thought this was an interesting part.  The moving of the 3 point line doesn't seem to have had any effect.


"4) The new 3 point line hasn’t changed college basketball

When the NCAA rules committee decided to move the three point line back a full foot in 2007 to 20 feet 9 inches starting this season, there was plenty of consternation about how much it would change the college game.   While just about everyone agreed that the old three point line was too easy, there were dire predictions of longer, less exciting games, with slower tempos, lower field goal percentages, and more foul shooting as teams forced the ball inside more.

 

Well, midway through the season, it appears those fears were unfounded.  On Sunday,

Marquette made no less than 15 of 25 three point attempts in their rout of Cincinnati, with Jerel McNeal going 7 for 7 behind the arc.

 

Overall, not only are the number of three point attempts so far this season virtually unchanged from this point a year ago, but three point field goal percentage is the same as well.  Currently, two Pac-10 teams – Arizona and Cal – are in fact shooting better from three than any team had been at this point last year.

 

If anything, many teams are actually throwing up more threes than ever.  VMI, the Playstation team of college basketball, led the nation in three point attempts per game in 2007-08 with 11.6.  This season, they’ve already shot 150 in just their first 11 games, for an average of 13.6.  Belmont, another grip-it-and-rip-it team, hocked up over 350 three pointers last year.  They have already tried 90 of them in their first 8 games.     

 

Just based on general observation, I would go so far as to say that not only are players still bombing away from three just as much as before, but more and more are shooting from beyond the NBA line.  Players today are just that good, and moving the three point line back a foot hasn’t done anything to change the way they play the game."

the article was fine except for the title of the article and the last sentence 'St. John’s could be finally developing into the St. John’s program of old, and that is bad news for the rest of the Big East in the years to come.
'

and maybe, just maybe.... he might be right!

and maybe, just maybe.... he might be right!

Happy New Year Doug, and I hope you are right!

And for my buddy Marillac, I cut and pasted directly from the title of the article before I accused you of poor reading comprehension:

This week, we learned that...
1) St. John’s is finally on the way back

He didn't say we are close to being back, he said we are finally on the way back.
I see a big difference.

If NJIT wins one game, they are finally on the way back!

First, this doesn't sound anything like Baldi.  Y'all really have to read carefully, Marco's never, ever said "we're back!" as a definitive state of being - he's appreciated the few good things that have happened while some posters have stars in their eyes or FIRENORMFIRENORM on their fingers. 

Second, the statement the article makes doesn't work because it misses about 2 more years of the current coaching staff's record.  But I agree with buckeyestorm, it's not "horrendous" - the win on Saturday was a good win.  And the "St. John's is back" statement is modified with "could be back" and "has a ways to go." 

There are, what, 17 more games to play?  People can write what they want now, and get excited.  We'll see the results at the end of the year.  By the way, remember that a ranked Notre Dame team lost in the Garden in 07, and last year's Irish team was ALSO slowed by Norm Roberts' team.  And if you're gonna call bull on that, look at the numbers for last year's game, especially the pace and the three point shooting.  Not much has changed; St. John's is the Notre Dame what Providence was to U Conn last year, an anomalous thorn they have trouble pulling out.

Man, that was a nice line, think I'll use it on the blog.

We're 1-4 against top 200 teams.  Is that back?

He said we're on the way   back. A big difference.

Although our RPI is no better than March 07, I like the depth & direction much better than 18 mos ago.

And btw we're 1-4 against top 90 (RPI) teams. (way to make it sound worse!!)

we are 5-0 against reams w RPI's of 90-250
(LIU, Cornell (127), Loyola (201), Marist, Bethune)

horrendous article...

Dont want this team to do well under Norm huh?