Hope

I've been pretty negative, so here is a little hope. St. John's has to be the most uniquely positioned team to make a run at the tournament after starting out 0-5 in conference play.

(1) We VERY likely will end up with the top SOS in the country (currently #9 by ESPN and #14 by realtime RPI)

(2) Even though I can't even look at him right now, we supposedly get our second best player back in time to take on the #1 team in the country Saturday at home and they are only playing 7 guys.

(3) No team from a major conference has been left out of the tournament with an RPI better than 49 and there is virtually no way St. John's can win 8 or more games without achieving an RPI inside that mark.

(4) 8-6 puts us on the bubble and a win in the BET puts us on the right side of it. That's probably the 7/10 game against DePaul. Really not that crazy.

0-5 sucks and coaches and players have not shown up to do their job consistently. All that said weve had some bad breaks that have lead to it. Big shots by other teams(creighton/gtown), missed ft’s in key spots by our best shooters, extremely hot shooting by opponents ( prov/ hall). Don’t even get me started on the refs, it’s bad all around, disgusting really.

0-5 sucks and coaches and players have not shown up to do their job consistently. All that said weve had some bad breaks that have lead to it. Big shots by other teams(creighton/gtown), missed ft’s in key spots by our best shooters, extremely hot shooting by opponents ( prov/ hall). Don’t even get me started on the refs, it’s bad all around, disgusting really.

Still, 8-6 means an RPI around 40 and Lovett missing several close games would be a consideration by the committee.

Ponds won't be held at 19% from three for long. It makes no sense and he's due for a sharp correction. Trimble to a lesser degree as well.

How bout this, late in first half we get up by 6 and momentum is shifting heavy in our direction. Ponds makes a great defensive play at half court, knocks the ball loose. From there it looks like he got fouled, no call. Then gtown player kicks ball, no call. What should have been at the least our ball out of bonds with a chande to increase lead to 8, instead it’s gtowns ball and they end half on 6-0 run. Momentum over. Last part of game. We tie it up and our next possession Simon got hacked TWICE at mid court and ends up turning it over for a layup. Momentum gone. Lastly, gtown got two foul calls on jumpshots throughout  the game, refs decide not to call the most important one of all on the last play of the game?

8-6 means we only lose 1 more conference game.    That's insane.   

I've been pretty negative, so here is a little hope. St. John's has to be the most uniquely positioned team to make a run at the tournament after starting out 0-5 in conference play.

(1) We VERY likely will end up with the top SOS in the country (currently #9 by ESPN and #14 by realtime RPI)

(2) Even though I can't even look at him right now, we supposedly get our second best player back in time to take on the #1 team in the country Saturday at home and they are only playing 7 guys.

(3) No team from a major conference has been left out of the tournament with an RPI better than 49 and there is virtually no way St. John's can win 8 or more games without achieving an RPI inside that mark.

(4) 8-6 puts us on the bubble and a win in the BET puts us on the right side of it. That's probably the 7/10 game against DePaul. Really not that crazy.

Practicing today does not mean LoVett immediately plays or he will take time to get in game shape.

Last night Ahmed came extremely close to being scratched because of illness. No way this season you can lose any of the key guys & expect positive results. The thin roster will continue to bite us in the ass.

I get the possibilities you put together, but can't buy in because of depth issue, the fact we have already lost 3 home games (with one to follow Sat.) & a really tough schedule remaining. Just can't see this squad & staff making any run.

Quote from: Amaseinyourface2 on January 10, 2018, 08:23:48 AM

0-5 sucks and coaches and players have not shown up to do their job consistently. All that said weve had some bad breaks that have lead to it. Big shots by other teams(creighton/gtown), missed ft’s in key spots by our best shooters, extremely hot shooting by opponents ( prov/ hall). Don’t even get me started on the refs, it’s bad all around, disgusting really.

Still, 8-6 means an RPI around 40 and Lovett missing several close games would be a consideration by the committee.

Ponds won't be held at 19% from three for long. It makes no sense and he's due for a sharp correction. Trimble to a lesser degree as well.

Don’t get me wrong, i don’t think there is a team in the conference we can’t beat when healthy and playing well. I have close to zero concerns about ponds shooting ability, his shot selection is questionable but he’s also primary target of every other gameplan.  Our top 6 is as good as anyone’s but we have zero room for error.

How bout this, late in first half we get up by 6 and momentum is shifting heavy in our direction. Ponds makes a great defensive play at half court, knocks the ball loose. From there it looks like he got fouled, no call. Then gtown player kicks ball, no call. What should have been at the least our ball out of bonds with a chande to increase lead to 8, instead it’s gtowns ball and they end half on 6-0 run. Momentum over. Last part of game. We tie it up and our next possession Simon got hacked TWICE at mid court and ends up turning it over for a layup. Momentum gone. Lastly, gtown got two foul calls on jumpshots throughout  the game, refs decide not to call the most important one of all on the last play of the game?

Ponds hasn't been getting the whistle all year. He's routinely knocked to the ground. Simon won't get many calls away from the basket since he looks so awkward with the ball.

8-6 means we only lose 1 more conference game.    That's insane.   

We have 14 games left man

8-6 means we only lose 1 more conference game.    That's insane.   

8-6 means we lose 5 or 6 MORE conference games depending on Duke outcome. That can be 5-2 at home overall and steal 3 road wins (DePaul/Gtown/Providence).

Changes needed to be made. As bad as 0-5 is. Better to finally make it clear to everyone that something needs to be fixed. Worst case would have been making the NIT and keeping everything the same.

Digging out of 0-5 BE hole will take getting on a roll obviously. Looking at the next six games, that seems a daunting task with this roster. SJU just seems lost offensively, plays too much schoolyard style ball with poor shot selection, rebounds poorly and clearly has a thin margin of error. Coaching aside, I would be shocked to see them turn this around. Good to be hopeful, but being realistic works for me. I do feel for the kids & staff. This is more painful for them than us.

Keep playing hard, stay close to recruiting commits, work to avoid more roster churn and grab an upset or two seems a good way to salvage something. Mullin will be back, hopefully shakes up staff & will have solid pieces. If he can't do it with a good roster with depth, the outcome is obvious.

Digging out of 0-5 BE hole will take getting on a roll obviously. Looking at the next six games, that seems a daunting task with this roster. SJU just seems lost offensively, plays too much schoolyard style ball with poor shot selection, rebounds poorly and clearly has a thin margin of error. Coaching aside, I would be shocked to see them turn this around. Good to be hopeful, but being realistic works for me. I do feel for the kids & staff. This is more painful for them than us.

The play they kept running was Shamorie dribbling around until he tried to score.

Look Coach said he thinks this thing is going to turn quickly.  Fine.  Let's see him work his magic.

But Villanova at home and Xavier on the road smell like losses to me, that would put them in an 0-7 hole.  Assuming they lose to Duke they would have to go 8-3 remainder of the season to get to 8-10.  I don't see it.  Not to mention 8-10 would still be a major disappointment and would still put ENORMOUS pressure on this staff to deliver big in 18-19 season.  Forget NCAA next year, they better be challenging for the League title next year.

Think about this in 13-14 Lavin started 0-5 and finished 10-8 went to the NIT with 20 wins.  Not good enough even though they went 10-3 over the next 13 and 2 of the losses were tight road losses to the two top teams Creighton and Villanova.  Next year went 10-8 made the NCAA's and was fired.

My point is not to say he did a good job, he didn't.  My point is if we fire coaches with that type of back to back then not sure why we would give Mullin any more slack.

And unlike 13-14 I don't see a 10-3 League finish for this team.  Heck I don't see 8-10. 

0-18 is sadly in play. W/o Lovett we are a 4 or 5 win team talent wise. And unless we quit we are good enough to be competitive. The problem is when a team that is talented enough to be competitive but not get over the hump, frustration sets in. Add to that the fact that we lost a couple we could have won and that just adds to the frustration. Throw in the whole Lovett situation and things could get worse. Clearly we are looking at 0-7. If we get to 0-10 now you are not only dealing with frustration but pressure not to go winless on top of that. For a team that is not as bad as its record will look the whole feeling bad for yourself and just looking out for self stuff starts happening.

Obviously I am not rooting that way and I think we win 2 or 3, but 0-18 is a possibility.

0-18 is sadly in play. W/o Lovett we are a 4 or 5 win team talent wise. And unless we quit we are good enough to be competitive. The problem is when a team that is talented enough to be competitive but not get over the hump, frustration sets in. Add to that the fact that we lost a couple we could have won and that just adds to the frustration. Throw in the whole Lovett situation and things could get worse. Clearly we are looking at 0-7. If we get to 0-10 now you are not only dealing with frustration but pressure not to go winless on top of that. For a team that is not as bad as its record will look the whole feeling bad for yourself and just looking out for self stuff starts happening.

Obviously I am not rooting that way and I think we win 2 or 3, but 0-18 is a possibility.

I expect us to go 500 with LoVett back. Hopefully it’s soon.

First off, we're not going 0-18. You'd have to try to real hard for that to happen and clearly our effort hasn't been there. Like I said last night, I think we win about 5 games in conf. If we win 7 or 8 that would be a small miracle. We end the season teetering right about .500 in terms of our overall record making the NIT a possibility.  Mullin gets one more year, Brooks keeps his commitment to us. Staff changes need to be made or it will be more of the same next year with just a few more wins due to increased talent and depth but still way below the team's potential. I hope I'm wrong but we shall see.

I don't understand how people can seriously talk about going 8-6 over the next 14 and making the ncaa tournament, when we've just lost to depaul and georgetown at home.  that was likely the easiest 5 game span they'll have in the conference schedule and they lost every game.  even if they beat georgetown and depaul on the road (two teams they just lost to at home) they'll need to find 6 more wins in this scenario.  I don't see nova, xavier, seton hall, or creighton losing to us, and they're certainly not going into hinkle and winning.  i think it's more likely that marquette drops 100 on this team than sju sweeping them, but even if they do sweep, that's 4 wins.  beat providence on the road somehow and that's 5. beat butler at home and that's six; hopefully get depaul in the be tourney and that's seven.  this also assumes that they haven't totally quit at this point because the butler (@CA), @prov, and depaul (BE tourn) games will close out the season. 

look, as long as there are games left to be played it's possible to make the tourney, but has this team shown anything in conference play to suggest it's more than a remote possibility? 

First off, we're not going 0-18. You'd have to try to real hard for that to happen and clearly our effort hasn't been there. Like I said last night, I think we win about 5 games in conf. If we win 7 or 8 that would be a small miracle. We end the season teetering right about .500 in terms of our overall record making the NIT a possibility.  Mullin gets one more year, Brooks keeps his commitment to us. Staff changes need to be made or it will be more of the same next year with just a few more wins due to increased talent and depth but still way below the team's potential. I hope I'm wrong but we shall see.

That is probably the scenario that plays out.

I can't imagine a 2-16 type of season, he may survive that but boy there will be some calls for his ouster.

But either way he is putting ENORMOUS pressure on himself for next year. 

Even when / if Lovett comes back going to take a couple games to get his game back. And I like Lovett but it is not like we are getting Marcus Hatten or Walter Berry back. No depth, no inside scoring and bad shooting team. Margin for error is real small. Like I said I expect us to win a couple but 0-18 would not shock me. If we get to 500 like Mase said they should throw Mullin a parade.