Expectations for the 16-17 season

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Poison

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #20 on: May 19, 2016, 09:05:40 AM »
Be careful on overestimating Owens. He's a complementary piece at best. IMO, a healthy and hopefully stronger Sima will get major minutes at the 5.

I think he's smarter than Sima and Williams. He knows where to be on the court. In a system with a true point guard, and in a system where we're gonna run, I think he will surprise people. Sima is uncoordinated, and hasn't shown me that he's able to play at the BE level. That may be because of his hand injury, but he did really regress upon his return.

What do you base your eval of Owens on, he didn't see much floor time at Tenn.?

I watched him practice. He's the smartest big man on the team by far. You could tell right away that Jones, Alibegovic, Williams, Yakwe and Sima were clueless half the time on defense and on offense. Owens plays with his head up, he goes right to the basket to get in position to get rebounds, he passes the ball as if he actually knows what play the team is running. It will be refreshing to watch. He's resourceful in addition to being athletic. He's been working with the staff, and he's been getting stronger for a year now. I think he's going to do well here. We had an incredibly low basketball IQ on this team. They need him.

But hey, who the F knows? I thought Phil Wait and Omari Lawrence would be good. 

However, I will say this: More than one former Johnny agreed with my analysis on Owens.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2016, 09:10:07 AM by Poison »

Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #21 on: May 19, 2016, 10:06:04 AM »
I expect us to win 15 games give or take a game or two. I expect us to be much better to watch. I expect Ponds and Lovett to put up similar stats to what Porter and Harvey did and to be my favorite backcourt since Bootsy and Barkley. I expect Ahmed to be our best player. I expect Mullin to look more involved. Maybe even draw up a play or at least be allowed in the huddle. I expect posters to complain.

QuanMan

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #22 on: May 19, 2016, 10:12:36 AM »
I expect each of the sophomores (Moose, Malik, Kass & Sima) to have solid if not breakout years. They're already a step above everyone else on the system's learning curve, and will be comfortable in their surroundings. Particularly as they enter Big East play, I expect a quantum leap. A case can be made for each one of these guys to have very productive years.

Bash will be the team's leading scorer imo, and Rich will put up 4-5 more ppg than Poison is listing.
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Poison

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #23 on: May 19, 2016, 10:47:32 AM »
I expect each of the sophomores (Moose, Malik, Kass & Sima) to have solid if not breakout years. They're already a step above everyone else on the system's learning curve, and will be comfortable in their surroundings. Particularly as they enter Big East play, I expect a quantum leap. A case can be made for each one of these guys to have very productive years.

Bash will be the team's leading scorer imo, and Rich will put up 4-5 more ppg than Poison is listing.

Ideally, Bashir Ahmed is our leading scorer. He's the junior. When it's on freshman, they can be great, but freshman will also undoubtedly come with freshman mistakes, which has been true for every freshman I've seen at St.John's in the last 30 years except for one guy. Erick Barkley. He played like a senior as a freshman.

Since you're a big Bashir believer, do you know what's he's doing this summer?

pmg911

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #24 on: May 19, 2016, 10:52:32 AM »
Erick Barkley. He played like a senior as a freshman.



That was because he was the same age as the Juniors on the team

Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #25 on: May 19, 2016, 11:06:21 AM »
I expect each of the sophomores (Moose, Malik, Kass & Sima) to have solid if not breakout years. They're already a step above everyone else on the system's learning curve, and will be comfortable in their surroundings. Particularly as they enter Big East play, I expect a quantum leap. A case can be made for each one of these guys to have very productive years.

Bash will be the team's leading scorer imo, and Rich will put up 4-5 more ppg than Poison is listing.

Ideally, Bashir Ahmed is our leading scorer. He's the junior. When it's on freshman, they can be great, but freshman will also undoubtedly come with freshman mistakes, which has been true for every freshman I've seen at St.John's in the last 30 years except for one guy. Erick Barkley. He played like a senior as a freshman.

Since you're a big Bashir believer, do you know what's he's doing this summer?

Why do you want to know what everyone is doing this summer? What are you doing this summer?

Poison

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #26 on: May 19, 2016, 11:23:54 AM »
I expect each of the sophomores (Moose, Malik, Kass & Sima) to have solid if not breakout years. They're already a step above everyone else on the system's learning curve, and will be comfortable in their surroundings. Particularly as they enter Big East play, I expect a quantum leap. A case can be made for each one of these guys to have very productive years.

Bash will be the team's leading scorer imo, and Rich will put up 4-5 more ppg than Poison is listing.

Ideally, Bashir Ahmed is our leading scorer. He's the junior. When it's on freshman, they can be great, but freshman will also undoubtedly come with freshman mistakes, which has been true for every freshman I've seen at St.John's in the last 30 years except for one guy. Erick Barkley. He played like a senior as a freshman.

Since you're a big Bashir believer, do you know what's he's doing this summer?

Why do you want to know what everyone is doing this summer? What are you doing this summer?

The careers of most college basketball players can be predicted by the middle of their sophomore seasons. By then, they've had a freshman year to get their feet wet, and take their lumps, and they've had an off season to work on their game.

In my experience, I find you have 3 types of players. The Lavor Postell, who I consider to be the gold standard in work ethic. The Willie Shaw, who I consider to be the ultimate in unfulfilled potential. The 3rd type of person, I think is the most common. They go through the motions, play hard enough, work hard enough and improve gradually.

I'm curious to see if we have any Lavor Postells out of Mussini, Sima, Yakwe and Ellison?

Does that answer your question?

Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #27 on: May 19, 2016, 11:25:29 AM »
I expect each of the sophomores (Moose, Malik, Kass & Sima) to have solid if not breakout years. They're already a step above everyone else on the system's learning curve, and will be comfortable in their surroundings. Particularly as they enter Big East play, I expect a quantum leap. A case can be made for each one of these guys to have very productive years.

Bash will be the team's leading scorer imo, and Rich will put up 4-5 more ppg than Poison is listing.

Ideally, Bashir Ahmed is our leading scorer. He's the junior. When it's on freshman, they can be great, but freshman will also undoubtedly come with freshman mistakes, which has been true for every freshman I've seen at St.John's in the last 30 years except for one guy. Erick Barkley. He played like a senior as a freshman.

Since you're a big Bashir believer, do you know what's he's doing this summer?

Why do you want to know what everyone is doing this summer? What are you doing this summer?

The careers of most college basketball players can be predicted by the middle of their sophomore seasons. By then, they've had a freshman year to get their feet wet, and take their lumps, and they've had an off season to work on their game.

In my experience, I find you have 3 types of players. The Lavor Postell, who I consider to be the gold standard in work ethic. The Willie Shaw, who I consider to be the ultimate in unfulfilled potential. The 3rd type of person, I think is the most common. They go through the motions, play hard enough, work hard enough and improve gradually.

I'm curious to see if we have any Lavor Postells out of Mussini, Sima, Yakwe and Ellison?

Does that answer your question?

No you didn't tell us what you were doing this summer.

QuanMan

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #28 on: May 19, 2016, 12:41:29 PM »
There is high upside for each one of the rising sophomores. A summer of hitting the weights, along with conditioning and skill work with Mullin has me excited to watch each of their respected skill sets improve this Fall. Watch out for Sima and Malik in particular, they both had slight speed bumps last season that halted their production, a full summer of health should reward them both with a good work ethic. I expect Moose to be our ace in the hole next year. When he and RIch get hot simultaneously, the team is going to be very exciting. Rich is a 6'9 sharpshooter who can put it on the deck in transition and finish! What other Johnnie has had this frame and skillset besides Moe and Jakarr (who couldn't shoot a lick in college)?
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Marillac

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #29 on: May 19, 2016, 12:42:49 PM »
Over/under on Lovett turnovers starts at 3.5. I'll take the over.

Over is probably a solid bet. No chance in hell it's as low as 2

None.

Also, Mussini averaging less than 8-10 ppg isn't happening either.  He scores in  too many ways and is too good of a FT shooter and secondary ball-handler to be left on the bench at the end of games.

Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #30 on: May 19, 2016, 12:54:51 PM »
Over/under on Lovett turnovers starts at 3.5. I'll take the over.

Over is probably a solid bet. No chance in hell it's as low as 2

None.

Also, Mussini averaging less than 8-10 ppg isn't happening either.  He scores in  too many ways and is too good of a FT shooter and secondary ball-handler to be left on the bench at the end of games.

We def watched two different players. Guy I saw continuously missed threes. At first they were contested threes then wide open ones. I guess you could say he misses in many ways....

Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #31 on: May 19, 2016, 01:37:15 PM »
Be careful on overestimating Owens. He's a complementary piece at best. IMO, a healthy and hopefully stronger Sima will get major minutes at the 5.

I think he's smarter than Sima and Williams. He knows where to be on the court. In a system with a true point guard, and in a system where we're gonna run, I think he will surprise people. Sima is uncoordinated, and hasn't shown me that he's able to play at the BE level. That may be because of his hand injury, but he did really regress upon his return.

What do you base your eval of Owens on, he didn't see much floor time at Tenn.?

I watched him practice. He's the smartest big man on the team by far. You could tell right away that Jones, Alibegovic, Williams, Yakwe and Sima were clueless half the time on defense and on offense. Owens plays with his head up, he goes right to the basket to get in position to get rebounds, he passes the ball as if he actually knows what play the team is running. It will be refreshing to watch. He's resourceful in addition to being athletic. He's been working with the staff, and he's been getting stronger for a year now. I think he's going to do well here. We had an incredibly low basketball IQ on this team. They need him.

But hey, who the F knows? I thought Phil Wait and Omari Lawrence would be good. 

However, I will say this: More than one former Johnny agreed with my analysis on Owens.


He looked pretty good in the intra -squad pre- season scrimmage FWIW

Marillac

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #32 on: May 19, 2016, 02:06:26 PM »
Over/under on Lovett turnovers starts at 3.5. I'll take the over.

Over is probably a solid bet. No chance in hell it's as low as 2

None.

Also, Mussini averaging less than 8-10 ppg isn't happening either.  He scores in  too many ways and is too good of a FT shooter and secondary ball-handler to be left on the bench at the end of games.

We def watched two different players. Guy I saw continuously missed threes. At first they were contested threes then wide open ones. I guess you could say he misses in many ways....

The guy I saw got by his defender several times a game, but wasn't strong enough (yet) to finish. Very capable handle for a combo -- not so much for a 30+ mpg PG. I'm not sure I've seen anyone wear the SJU uniform and take a higher average degree of difficulty from deep like him --sure, some of that was shot selection, but mostly necessity. Defense is terrible, but rebounding and steals/deflections were above average. Ellison's defense was just as bad. 

Foad

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #33 on: May 19, 2016, 02:25:14 PM »
Over/under on Lovett turnovers starts at 3.5. I'll take the over.

Over is probably a solid bet. No chance in hell it's as low as 2

None.

Also, Mussini averaging less than 8-10 ppg isn't happening either.  He scores in  too many ways and is too good of a FT shooter and secondary ball-handler to be left on the bench at the end of games.

We def watched two different players. Guy I saw continuously missed threes. At first they were contested threes then wide open ones. I guess you could say he misses in many ways....

The guy I saw got by his defender several times a game, but wasn't strong enough (yet) to finish. Very capable handle for a combo -- not so much for a 30+ mpg PG. I'm not sure I've seen anyone wear the SJU uniform and take a higher average degree of difficulty from deep like him --sure, some of that was shot selection, but mostly necessity. Defense is terrible, but rebounding and steals/deflections were above average. Ellison's defense was just as bad. 

It's a little contradictory to say he can score in so many ways and then to say he had to take tough threes because he couldn't free himself for his own shot. I agree that he's sneaky fast going to the basket. But the reason you want him in at the end is because of his FT shooting, not because he can create off the dribble. If he's better at that than Lovett and Ponds, that's not good. 

Marillac

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #34 on: May 19, 2016, 03:05:08 PM »
Over/under on Lovett turnovers starts at 3.5. I'll take the over.

Over is probably a solid bet. No chance in hell it's as low as 2

None.

Also, Mussini averaging less than 8-10 ppg isn't happening either.  He scores in  too many ways and is too good of a FT shooter and secondary ball-handler to be left on the bench at the end of games.

We def watched two different players. Guy I saw continuously missed threes. At first they were contested threes then wide open ones. I guess you could say he misses in many ways....

The guy I saw got by his defender several times a game, but wasn't strong enough (yet) to finish. Very capable handle for a combo -- not so much for a 30+ mpg PG. I'm not sure I've seen anyone wear the SJU uniform and take a higher average degree of difficulty from deep like him --sure, some of that was shot selection, but mostly necessity. Defense is terrible, but rebounding and steals/deflections were above average. Ellison's defense was just as bad. 

It's a little contradictory to say he can score in so many ways and then to say he had to take tough threes because he couldn't free himself for his own shot. I agree that he's sneaky fast going to the basket. But the reason you want him in at the end is because of his FT shooting, not because he can create off the dribble. If he's better at that than Lovett and Ponds, that's not good. 

He's not a consistent break down the defense type of guard. He's not a star. He's the type of annoying prick I hate to see on the opposition. He needs a guy like Lovett and a few shooters to spread the floor. They have to respect his shot from beyond NBA range, and they just can't do that guarding him with a SG being run off screen after screen. His handle is good enough to beat SGs with some regularity and off switches that give him mismatches. He's a very complete offensive player in spite of his obvious physical limitations. I expect him to flirt with 40% this year from three and average around 10-12 ppg.

It's a different world going from the focal point of opposition game-plans to a guy who comes in at under 12 or 16 mark to provide offense and energy against mostly subs...or as part of a three-guard look to space the floor. It all begins and ends with Lovett. I think that kid will have the single biggest impact on the final product since Hatten.

Foad

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #35 on: May 19, 2016, 04:54:45 PM »
They have to respect his shot from beyond NBA range, [...] I expect him to flirt with 40% this year from three

They have to respect his NBA range if he shoots 40 percent from three. If he shoots 30 percent from three like he did this year the defense will pass him the ball themselves. 

Quote
It's a different world going from the focal point of opposition game-plans to a guy who comes in at under 12 or 16 mark to provide offense and energy against mostly subs...or as part of a three-guard look to space the floor. It all begins and ends with Lovett. I think that kid will have the single biggest impact on the final product since Hatten.

There is no question but that this year hinges on Lovett being the PG we have been led to believe he is. Individually one or the other of Ponds and the german can play like freshmen or the Juco can play like a Hardy and Brownlee did as juniors and the sophomores can play like everyone plays like sophomores but if Lovett doesn't play like an upperclassman there is no hope.

Poison

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #36 on: May 19, 2016, 05:48:31 PM »
Over/under on Lovett turnovers starts at 3.5. I'll take the over.

Over is probably a solid bet. No chance in hell it's as low as 2

None.

Also, Mussini averaging less than 8-10 ppg isn't happening either.  He scores in  too many ways and is too good of a FT shooter and secondary ball-handler to be left on the bench at the end of games.

After 3 pointers and some occasional free throws what are the other ways that Mussini can score?

Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #37 on: May 19, 2016, 06:43:04 PM »
From a team point of view, over .500 and maybe .500 in the Big East. NIT bound.

From a personal player development; Yakwe, Lovett, Ponds and Ahmed getting some kind of BE "Rookie of Week" "Player of Week" type of recognition. Between the four of them, some kind of consistent recognition for the team.

From the coaching sidelines; Mullin more active, even for cosmetics, just give the appearance he is more engaged and active. Slice appear to be happy he is here, even for cosmetics, just show you like being here. Mitch, more engaged, more active. Maybe have him coaching the guards during timeouts. St Jean; more of an Xs and Os focus v having to do all the coaching all the time.

Bottom line; just as much coaches development, if not more, versus player development. If the coaches develop more, that will flow over into player development.

desco80

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Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #38 on: May 19, 2016, 07:02:45 PM »
I think people have an inflated view of Mussini.
He's far from a complete offensive player.  He can't finish.
He can drive some.  But he's not able to finish for himself, or find dish when he drives.
But more importantly, he did not show good awareness running the high pick and roll.   And that looks to be a staple of this offense, as it is in the nba.

With that said he's perfectly suited to be a backup guard and or 6th or 7th man.  He can handle and he can shoot.
If he's worked on his conditioning and passing, all the better.

Re: Expectations for the 16-17 season
« Reply #39 on: May 19, 2016, 07:31:30 PM »
What's more likely to happen....10 or less wins or NCAA tournament? Feeling the latter