Was at the NO game and saw some things we need to focus on, along with quite a few things to like. The ball moved crisply on offense, and, aside from a few instances with Bashir, our shots were open looks that came after good passes and in the flow of a very effective offense. Ponds had a few 3s rim out, but he looks great, and, along with Lovett, and Simon, gives us probably the strongest backcourt in the BE. In 2+ years, CM and company have assembled what will likely turn out to be St. John's best outside shooting team ever. Clark had a very efficient game and Owens played solidly in his 20 minutes or so. Yes, Yakwe was disappointing, but 8 minutes hardly represents a fair sample size to write him off for the rest of this season.
While our strength clearly is in our guards, I still think that our front court is athletic and versatile enough to complement them and play uptempo winning basketball, even with our rebounding deficiencies. We won the game handily and have the potential to grow and improve as a team. Why not play a few more games before we leap to judgment?
I cannot believe the negativity of many posters here. Are we going to spend the entire season relitigating Lavin's removal and openly rooting for CM to fail? It's clear that we've improved year over year, that the program is moving in the right direction, and that we don't yet know how good this team will be. We already will be adding front court strength next year in Keita, Roberts, and Diakite, and there's a good chance we add even more talent. Realistically, where did people think we would be at the start of Mullin's third year?