Game 9: Grand Canyon

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 01:50:34 PM

Quote from: we are sju on December 05, 2017, 01:39:11 PM

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 12:11:19 PM

Quote from: derk on December 05, 2017, 12:01:46 PM

20,000 enrollment, at a site 15 minutes from campus, with a pro coach, without our "best" player, with a stagnant offense, seems like a tough matchup to me.

Let's not get carried away. They aren't a cupcake but they aren't very good either. And our best player is going to drop 30 tonight. A bubble team should be able to walk in and beat them by double-digits. San Diego beat them by 10 on the GCU campus and then lost to UCSB by 10. They are ranked #141 by Ken Pom and 3-4 Iona is #143.

You guys are funny. Arguing about whether or not a coach is doing a good job or not is one thing but now people taking unecessary shots at one of our two best offensive players. Lovett is one of our two best players. However you rate him, it is not a shot at Ponds. Most teams have more than one good player. This team has two on offense. Team is going to struggle against anyone decent without Lovett or Ponds. W/o Lovett, Ponds shoots too much and shoots bad shots which is why his % is so awful. It also makes Ahmed the 2nd best option and no one wants that.

Ponds is our best player. Lovett is our second best player. Where is the shot I took?

Have in past and someone compared him to Amar on this thread. Ponds is really good but people on here way overate him. Not Hatten carry the team by himself good.

Let’s see. Ponds could end up being as good as Hatten. I won’t say better yet out of respect for a great player. Let’s not forget, Ponds is a Sophomore, and 9 games ago he was a freshman.

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 02:29:00 PM

Quote from: we are sju on December 05, 2017, 02:12:08 PM

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 01:50:34 PM

Quote from: we are sju on December 05, 2017, 01:39:11 PM

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 12:11:19 PM

Quote from: derk on December 05, 2017, 12:01:46 PM

20,000 enrollment, at a site 15 minutes from campus, with a pro coach, without our "best" player, with a stagnant offense, seems like a tough matchup to me.

Let's not get carried away. They aren't a cupcake but they aren't very good either. And our best player is going to drop 30 tonight. A bubble team should be able to walk in and beat them by double-digits. San Diego beat them by 10 on the GCU campus and then lost to UCSB by 10. They are ranked #141 by Ken Pom and 3-4 Iona is #143.

You guys are funny. Arguing about whether or not a coach is doing a good job or not is one thing but now people taking unecessary shots at one of our two best offensive players. Lovett is one of our two best players. However you rate him, it is not a shot at Ponds. Most teams have more than one good player. This team has two on offense. Team is going to struggle against anyone decent without Lovett or Ponds. W/o Lovett, Ponds shoots too much and shoots bad shots which is why his % is so awful. It also makes Ahmed the 2nd best option and no one wants that.

Ponds is our best player. Lovett is our second best player. Where is the shot I took?

Have in past and someone compared him to Amar on this thread. Ponds is really good but people on here way overate him. Not Hatten carry the team by himself good.

Hatten was carrying Tallahassee Community college as a soph. My fears are becoming true as Ponds made his way into his first mock draft last week:  http://www.nbadraft.net/2019mock_draft

He's projected as #44 pick in 2019 ahead of Jalen Brunson. Listed as a PG and not SG or PG/SG like Jalen Adams and others. No knock to Lovett, but he will not be considered by NBA teams unless it's a favor to Mullin.

My fear isn't that Ponds is good enough to play himself into the NBA draft. It's that he turns out not to be.

I don't want to lose him early. The ceiling next year is probably winning a game in the tournament. Two years from now it could be actually competing to win it with Ponds and Simon as seniors and Dixon, Trimle, and Keit as juniors. I'd hate to have to rebuild again after next year losing Owens, Clark, Yakwe, Ponds, and Lovett.

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 02:29:00 PM

Quote from: we are sju on December 05, 2017, 02:12:08 PM

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 01:50:34 PM

Quote from: we are sju on December 05, 2017, 01:39:11 PM

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 12:11:19 PM

Quote from: derk on December 05, 2017, 12:01:46 PM

20,000 enrollment, at a site 15 minutes from campus, with a pro coach, without our "best" player, with a stagnant offense, seems like a tough matchup to me.

Let's not get carried away. They aren't a cupcake but they aren't very good either. And our best player is going to drop 30 tonight. A bubble team should be able to walk in and beat them by double-digits. San Diego beat them by 10 on the GCU campus and then lost to UCSB by 10. They are ranked #141 by Ken Pom and 3-4 Iona is #143.

You guys are funny. Arguing about whether or not a coach is doing a good job or not is one thing but now people taking unecessary shots at one of our two best offensive players. Lovett is one of our two best players. However you rate him, it is not a shot at Ponds. Most teams have more than one good player. This team has two on offense. Team is going to struggle against anyone decent without Lovett or Ponds. W/o Lovett, Ponds shoots too much and shoots bad shots which is why his % is so awful. It also makes Ahmed the 2nd best option and no one wants that.

Ponds is our best player. Lovett is our second best player. Where is the shot I took?

Have in past and someone compared him to Amar on this thread. Ponds is really good but people on here way overate him. Not Hatten carry the team by himself good.

Hatten was carrying Tallahassee Community college as a soph. My fears are becoming true as Ponds made his way into his first mock draft last week:  http://www.nbadraft.net/2019mock_draft

He's projected as #44 pick in 2019 ahead of Jalen Brunson. Listed as a PG and not SG or PG/SG like Jalen Adams and others. No knock to Lovett, but he will not be considered by NBA teams unless it's a favor to Mullin.

My fear isn't that Ponds is good enough to play himself into the NBA draft. It's that he turns out not to be.

I agree with the sentiment but in this day and age you can't even worry about those things. To me leaving to be a 2nd round pick or leaving to get paid in Europe doesn't make sense but that is what kids are doing and it doesn't matter what we think. I hope he and Lovett play really well. Whatever happens after that is not something I will worry about. Judging by recent recruiting it appears that the staff thinks one or both won't be here. Or they hate tall people. 

Prediction:

SJU 71

GCU 65

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 12:51:20 PM

Quote from: survivedc on December 05, 2017, 12:41:04 PM

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 12:11:19 PM

Quote from: derk on December 05, 2017, 12:01:46 PM

20,000 enrollment, at a site 15 minutes from campus, with a pro coach, without our "best" player, with a stagnant offense, seems like a tough matchup to me.

Let's not get carried away. They aren't a cupcake but they aren't very good either. And our best player is going to drop 30 tonight. A bubble team should be able to walk in and beat them by double-digits. San Diego beat them by 10 on the GCU campus and then lost to UCSB by 10. They are ranked #141 by Ken Pom and 3-4 Iona is #143.

This would go in the "good win" category, IMO. It's nice to be excited for games, at times the last few seasons it felt more like a chore.

I wouldn't argue that it's a solid win, but it's not going to be a top 10-12 win for us by season's end. If we lost, though, it would be used against us as a bad loss.

Even if they win the WAC the way they're predicted to? I'd come out tonight with a full court press after the first bucket. Set the tone early while avoiding early fouls as much as possible. I think that the stars (Shamorie & Justin) really shine tonight.

Johnnies- 82
GCU- 68

Sounds good except we always seem to start slow. It would be nice if we could impose our will on them early on.

Quote from: Wods317 on December 05, 2017, 11:53:30 AM

Not an easy game as others have echoed but an important point is this game is not on campus and thus that crazy home court will be mostly negated so now we are just facing an average team on a neutral court. Missing Marcus is tough but even without him this should be a win. If NCAA is the goal this is a game we have to win. It won’t be easy but we should win.

Forget should win, they better f'ing win if they want in the NCAA tourny. I don't want to hear omg omg it's a tough game.
We're talking GCU, not a power 6 team, or Wich St, or Zaga.
Every team will give it their best, but we gotta win the winnable games.

Put up or shut up time, contenders or pretenders?
Bottom line is you gotta get it done, no excuses.

Very true.

76-70. Mullin over Majerle

Quote from: Foad on December 05, 2017, 02:35:25 PM

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 02:29:00 PM

Quote from: we are sju on December 05, 2017, 02:12:08 PM

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 01:50:34 PM

Quote from: we are sju on December 05, 2017, 01:39:11 PM

Quote from: Marillac on December 05, 2017, 12:11:19 PM

Quote from: derk on December 05, 2017, 12:01:46 PM

20,000 enrollment, at a site 15 minutes from campus, with a pro coach, without our "best" player, with a stagnant offense, seems like a tough matchup to me.

Let's not get carried away. They aren't a cupcake but they aren't very good either. And our best player is going to drop 30 tonight. A bubble team should be able to walk in and beat them by double-digits. San Diego beat them by 10 on the GCU campus and then lost to UCSB by 10. They are ranked #141 by Ken Pom and 3-4 Iona is #143.

You guys are funny. Arguing about whether or not a coach is doing a good job or not is one thing but now people taking unecessary shots at one of our two best offensive players. Lovett is one of our two best players. However you rate him, it is not a shot at Ponds. Most teams have more than one good player. This team has two on offense. Team is going to struggle against anyone decent without Lovett or Ponds. W/o Lovett, Ponds shoots too much and shoots bad shots which is why his % is so awful. It also makes Ahmed the 2nd best option and no one wants that.

Ponds is our best player. Lovett is our second best player. Where is the shot I took?

Have in past and someone compared him to Amar on this thread. Ponds is really good but people on here way overate him. Not Hatten carry the team by himself good.

Hatten was carrying Tallahassee Community college as a soph. My fears are becoming true as Ponds made his way into his first mock draft last week:  http://www.nbadraft.net/2019mock_draft

He's projected as #44 pick in 2019 ahead of Jalen Brunson. Listed as a PG and not SG or PG/SG like Jalen Adams and others. No knock to Lovett, but he will not be considered by NBA teams unless it's a favor to Mullin.

My fear isn't that Ponds is good enough to play himself into the NBA draft. It's that he turns out not to be.

I agree with the sentiment but in this day and age you can't even worry about those things. To me leaving to be a 2nd round pick or leaving to get paid in Europe doesn't make sense but that is what kids are doing and it doesn't matter what we think. I hope he and Lovett play really well. Whatever happens after that is not something I will worry about. Judging by recent recruiting it appears that the staff thinks one or both won't be here. Or they hate tall people.

Once Mullin has a .500 season I'll start to worry about how we're going to fare in the 2019 NCAA tournament.

So we are playing in Phoenix? Villanova is playing at MSG?

An interesting side story for this game is Simon is not only playing near his old Arizona campus, but Arizona is the game before SJU. He'll probably want to make a big impression.

So we are playing in Phoenix? Villanova is playing at MSG?

Their heading out west spreading the gospel of St John’s.

Ugh, terrible game to schedule. They have a huge home court advantage. Won't look great on our resume if we win, but looks awful if we lose.

But, like someone said, this is the type of game tournament teams win. Time to see if we're one of them.

So we are playing in Phoenix? Villanova is playing at MSG?

So is Syracuse, uconn, and seton hall . But atleast we get to play in our world famous Carnesecca Arena!

Ugh, terrible game to schedule. They have a huge home court advantage. Won't look great on our resume if we win, but looks awful if we lose.

But, like someone said, this is the type of game tournament teams win. Time to see if we're one of them.

The committee knows this game ain’t no picnic.

Quote from: redstorm212 on December 05, 2017, 07:59:00 PM

Ugh, terrible game to schedule. They have a huge home court advantage. Won't look great on our resume if we win, but looks awful if we lose.

But, like someone said, this is the type of game tournament teams win. Time to see if we're one of them.

The committee knows this game ain’t no picnic.

I don’t believe that

Could see this Arizona/A&M game going to 3OT and we don't start until 12:30

Thank god Wilson missed that free throw I was thinking same thing haha

Bashir out of control to start....up 7-5 first timeout...need to get ponds shooting.....as someone mentioned early I would also go right out there 6'5 player to pick up his second foul

It's very discouraging that our staff hasn't gone after Vernon. They switch very predictably and Vernon oberhedges. Get him on Ponds.

Frustrating..
I do have  wifi on a cruise ship between Mexico and Florida.
But cant bring in the “watch espn” app tv feed...
So i am Tracking score on espn.com.
Well, i have you guys for color commentary anyway.