Roster for 2018 - 19

Heron reminds me of Artest. An athletic physical body. A great drive to win. He makes the others on the team better, unselfish.

The greatest beneficiary of Heron enrolling is Ponds. This should increase his assists per game by two. Defenses collapsing on Heron will create open threes as well.

Hopefully Fairfield doesnt have anything up their sleeve.

He's in, roster complete. Now we wait for the waiver

@NYPost_Brazille
Auburn transfer Mustapha Heron is headed to St. John's, he tells me. Will begin summer classes Monday. Believes he will get hardship waiver to play right away. “With the pieces we have, we definitely can be special." #sjubb

Another lefty

We are going to have an unstoppable backcourt, and a deep one as well...

What's the starting line up?  Keita, Herron, Ponds, Simon and Clark?  Seems like a lot of guys will be battling for minutes.  Battling might evolve to transfer.  Sorry, I'm a SJU fan.  Whenever good news surfaces, there is bad news around the corner.

What's the starting line up?  Keita, Herron, Ponds, Simon and Clark?  Seems like a lot of guys will be battling for minutes.  Battling might evolve to transfer.  Sorry, I'm a SJU fan.  Whenever good news surfaces, there is bad news around the corner.

Starting Ponds, Heron(if eligible), Simon, Clark and Keita.  We could and will start without Keita against smaller teams, playing smaller overall and saving him. 

First off bench will be Mikey Dixon for Ponds and Heron followed by a younger Williams and Trimble.  Simon will get time at multiple spots and deserves starting SF.  He and Figueroa will share 2/3 spots with Heron.  4/5 will be a mix of “big” days with Keita, but will work in Roberts and Earlington.  Both can play the 4 it seems from their size. 

We have a lot of guys who can play the 2-4 spots.  We will utilize our depth.  I want to see ya come out defensively early and strong like we did after the Lovett ineptitude streak.  Defense is the key, not even rebounding.  Nova wasn’t even a top 50 team rebounding.  Defense leads all that and overall team rebounding is important.  We will lead this year with crazy offensive firepower and hopefully defense like we showed we can play last year.  Built a lot like the GSW actually.

What's the starting line up?  Keita, Herron, Ponds, Simon and Clark?  Seems like a lot of guys will be battling for minutes.  Battling might evolve to transfer.  Sorry, I'm a SJU fan.  Whenever good news surfaces, there is bad news around the corner.

Haha was waiting for this

Competition and having legit comp in practice makes everyone better.  Good players benefit from playing with good players.  Good players benefit from not having to play virtually the entire game for a team to have a chance to win.  If Herron is eligible, having a bench of Dixon, Figueroa, Trimble, Williams, Earlington and Roberts should hopefully give us some nice depth at different spots, even if the lack of a true big will still be something the staff will have to game plan around and address.

What's the starting line up?  Keita, Herron, Ponds, Simon and Clark?  Seems like a lot of guys will be battling for minutes.  Battling might evolve to transfer.  Sorry, I'm a SJU fan.  Whenever good news surfaces, there is bad news around the corner.

Trimble or Williams could redshirt. Staff has to know that Trimble needs to get in shape. It's June tomorrow. Should be pretty clear if he agrees with the staff.

Going to be very interesting to see how staff decides the rotations and style of play vs different opponents this year and how those teams choose to attack us.

Teams with true bigs will look to attack our lack of size and depth. I hope we counter that by making the game a track meet on both ends of the floor. With all of our depth 1-4 we should frequently press teams with weak ball handlers or teams that would normally look to throw it in the paint all game. Rotate fresh legs in and out and develop an identity that way.

Even without picking up full-court, there should be a ton of ball pressure on D. Hopefully Ponds takes the NBA feedback to heart and really steps it up on D. With him, Simon who is an elite defender, and Heron who is a great defender, there should be a ton of turnovers forced in addition to just making opposing offenses uncomfortable.

Going to be very interesting to see how staff decides the rotations and style of play vs different opponents this year and how those teams choose to attack us.

Teams with true bigs will look to attack our lack of size and depth. I hope we counter that by making the game a track meet on both ends of the floor. With all of our depth 1-4 we should frequently press teams with weak ball handlers or teams that would normally look to throw it in the paint all game. Rotate fresh legs in and out and develop an identity that way.

Even without picking up full-court, there should be a ton of ball pressure on D. Hopefully Ponds takes the NBA feedback to heart and really steps it up on D. With him, Simon who is an elite defender, and Heron who is a great defender, there should be a ton of turnovers forced in addition to just making opposing offenses uncomfortable.

Agree with all of this.  Play the season the way we did against duke and nova in that stretch.  We played like a tourney team during that stretch without the horses.  Now we have the horses.  Defense is the key like last year.  No more moping without Lovett.  We will never be the #1 rebounding team this year.  Just play great defense and run...  our offense will be tough to stop.  We have waves...

Quote from: Tiger on May 31, 2018, 09:10:23 PM

What's the starting line up?  Keita, Herron, Ponds, Simon and Clark?  Seems like a lot of guys will be battling for minutes.  Battling might evolve to transfer.  Sorry, I'm a SJU fan.  Whenever good news surfaces, there is bad news around the corner.

Trimble or Williams could redshirt. Staff has to know that Trimble needs to get in shape. It's June tomorrow. Should be pretty clear if he agrees with the staff.

Poison, come on man, redshirt either our 8 or 9th man? Then complain about depth later and say its the staffs own fault for doing so. Looks like we have depth, lets use it.

Quote from: Poison on May 31, 2018, 09:30:43 PM

Quote from: Tiger on May 31, 2018, 09:10:23 PM

What's the starting line up?  Keita, Herron, Ponds, Simon and Clark?  Seems like a lot of guys will be battling for minutes.  Battling might evolve to transfer.  Sorry, I'm a SJU fan.  Whenever good news surfaces, there is bad news around the corner.

Trimble or Williams could redshirt. Staff has to know that Trimble needs to get in shape. It's June tomorrow. Should be pretty clear if he agrees with the staff.

Poison, come on man, redshirt either our 8 or 9th man? Then complain about depth later and say its the staffs own fault for doing so. Looks like we have depth, lets use it.

I don’t follow what you’re saying here. The criticism the staff received for not fielding a full roster was deserved. Are you suggesting that I should be a good fan and accept the shit job they’ve done so far? Let me be clear. No.

Team has 9 shooting guards/small forwards. That’s an incredible amount of depth at two positions.

A calm breeze could make a St.John’s player pack his bags. I’m suggesting a way for that player to get better while remaining in the program.

If it turns out that every player is eligible and healthy, I don’t see how Trimble gets off the bench. Williams, obviously, I’m not as familiar with.

Team size will dictate playing style.  For those with a long memory, Nolan Richardson's Arkansas teams in the 1990's were known for playing "40 minutes of hell" on D.  This compensated for lack of size.  10 or 11 guys averaged 10+ minutes while no one played more than 29 as they were able to win National Championship over a taller Duke in 1994.  Would love to see something similar for us next year.  Time for a reprise of "Run TMC" 

Team size will dictate playing style.  For those with a long memory, Nolan Richardson's Arkansas teams in the 1990's were known for playing "40 minutes of hell" on D.  This compensated for lack of size.  10 or 11 guys averaged 10+ minutes while no one played more than 29 as they were able to win National Championship over a taller Duke in 1994.  Would love to see something similar for us next year.  Time for a reprise of "Run TMC"

Some similarities although that Arkansas team had Big Nasty Corliss Williamson and Oliver Miller down low. They more than made up in girth and strength what they lacked in height. Hopefully our plethora of guards can wear down opposing teams next year.

Quote from: redslope on May 31, 2018, 11:38:23 PM

Team size will dictate playing style.  For those with a long memory, Nolan Richardson's Arkansas teams in the 1990's were known for playing "40 minutes of hell" on D.  This compensated for lack of size.  10 or 11 guys averaged 10+ minutes while no one played more than 29 as they were able to win National Championship over a taller Duke in 1994.  Would love to see something similar for us next year.  Time for a reprise of "Run TMC"

Some similarities although that Arkansas team had Big Nasty Corliss Williamson and Oliver Miller down low. They more than made up in girth and strength what they lacked in height. Hopefully our plethora of guards can wear down opposing teams next year.

Plus guys like Marvin Clark need to want to be in the paint, and he doesn't. I think he's going to the bench.

Team size will dictate playing style.  For those with a long memory, Nolan Richardson's Arkansas teams in the 1990's were known for playing "40 minutes of hell" on D.  This compensated for lack of size.  10 or 11 guys averaged 10+ minutes while no one played more than 29 as they were able to win National Championship over a taller Duke in 1994.  Would love to see something similar for us next year.  Time for a reprise of "Run TMC" 

This is the ideal. If Heron is eligible, we have the depth to make this happen. I'm excited about how this will look for recruits. In a lot of ways, we can run a pro-style run'n'gun offense (with more D, obviously) of positionless basketball. A guy like Cockburn should see a real possibility here to contribute right away, and guards love this style.

Please

What's the starting line up?  Keita, Herron, Ponds, Simon and Clark?  Seems like a lot of guys will be battling for minutes.  Battling might evolve to transfer.  Sorry, I'm a SJU fan.  Whenever good news surfaces, there is bad news around the corner.

Please lets not talk about transfers at this point unless they're coming in or the transfer benefits us - like Trimble..

Quote from: Johnny23 on June 01, 2018, 08:22:54 AM

Quote from: redslope on May 31, 2018, 11:38:23 PM

Team size will dictate playing style.  For those with a long memory, Nolan Richardson's Arkansas teams in the 1990's were known for playing "40 minutes of hell" on D.  This compensated for lack of size.  10 or 11 guys averaged 10+ minutes while no one played more than 29 as they were able to win National Championship over a taller Duke in 1994.  Would love to see something similar for us next year.  Time for a reprise of "Run TMC"

Some similarities although that Arkansas team had Big Nasty Corliss Williamson and Oliver Miller down low. They more than made up in girth and strength what they lacked in height. Hopefully our plethora of guards can wear down opposing teams next year.

Plus guys like Marvin Clark need to want to be in the paint, and he doesn't. I think he's going to the bench.

If Heron's eligible, then the lineups we roll out will be very interesting. Clark may be best served in a 6th man role I agree as he's not a banger and I don't think he'll ever be. His offensive game really picked up during the end of last season and I think him as instant offense off the bench isn't a bad idea.

We have some depth. Still think our best players are going to play 30 minutes a game. I wished Clarke played more in the post. But he is still one of our best players.