Game 4: Vermont- Saturday 11/16 4P (Queens)

Our roster was put together terribly. We needed a backup PG badly and he couldn’t deliver. How is that possible in NYC? We needed a glue guy PF and they are all over.

Keita was clearly not a Big East caliber player and that was evident instantly.

Matt went after the highest ranked players in the transfer portal. He was good at that, but he offered nothing in terms of basketball knowledge. Zero. You want find a D1 who knows less.

I think we had some really good players. Evident by a lot of the quotes from Big East coaches last year saying we were "most talented team" in conference.

So Keita was supposed to be a complement and challenge to Tariq Owens. NOT a replacement. I really wouldn't have minded him spilling minutes.

As for the backup PG. I go back to that 1st year and NCAA #$%^ed us with Lovett and year 2 Lovett #$%^ed us.

It's not like good players are banging down the door to play at St. John's. I think talent from Lavin to Mullin wasn't our problem. It was above average but hitting reset button every 4 years is problematic.

You have absolutely no idea whatsoever if any of those guys were legitimate options or would have laughed Anderson off the phone if he called.

Actually I do. I know most of these kids, their parents, and their coaches. I've been working in grassroots basketball for the past decade its an occupational hazard

Actually I do. I know most of these kids, their parents, and their coaches. I've been working in grassroots basketball for the past decade its an occupational hazard

I don't really remember some of the players that you mentioned in April in May that you thought this staff should have went after, mind telling us again?

I think we had some really good players. Evident by a lot of the quotes from Big East coaches last year saying we were "most talented team" in conference.

So Keita was supposed to be a complement and challenge to Tariq Owens. NOT a replacement. I really wouldn't have minded him spilling minutes.

As for the backup PG. I go back to that 1st year and NCAA #$%^ed us with Lovett and year 2 Lovett #$%^ed us.

It's not like good players are banging down the door to play at St. John's. I think talent from Lavin to Mullin wasn't our problem. It was above average but hitting reset button every 4 years is problematic.

Any idea how Hasahn French did tonight by any chance?

Any idea how Hasahn French did tonight by any chance?

They should have taken him.

I don't really remember some of the players that you mentioned in April in May that you thought this staff should have went after, mind telling us again?

Nah’shon Hyland over McGriff
Jaylen Fisher or Derryck Thornton over Rutherford
Rayjon Tucker and Troy Baxter for depth

Hyland would have been homerun top 50 talent who was on the fence about prepping to mature more physically. Uconn flirted with him but they had Jalen Gaffney. VCU swooped in and promised him to run the show.

There was a lot of grad talent available this year. Tucker wound up going to pursue NBA and got some burn in summer league but I think if he got convinced to play with LJ and Mustapha for NCAA tourney run he would have jumped. Played for same program as Steere and Caraher. Could have happened

He'll always be our legend but didn't parcels say
You are what your record says you are

20-59.   

Long time fan. More than anything.  Tired of always changing.  Just want consistency

Nah’shon Hyland over McGriff
Jaylen Fisher or Derryck Thornton over Rutherford
Rayjon Tucker and Troy Baxter for depth

Hyland would have been homerun top 50 talent who was on the fence about prepping to mature more physically. Uconn flirted with him but they had Jalen Gaffney. VCU swooped in and promised him to run the show.

There was a lot of grad talent available this year. Tucker wound up going to pursue NBA and got some burn in summer league but I think if he got convinced to play with LJ and Mustapha for NCAA tourney run he would have jumped. Played for same program as Steere and Caraher. Could have happened

So you say that you have first-hand knowledge that several better options would have come here and then name only one guy that maybe that applies to. Maybe. Hyland is the only guy that you mentioned that might have actually come here. I have no idea if he would have or not, but the other guys definitely not.

The staff pursued Thornton. Tried to get him on campus for a visit.

There's definitely some issues with Fisher. Academically ineligible right now. Might not play this season.

If nobody else could convince Tucker to stay in college another year then St. John's definitely didn't have a chance to convince him of that. Cmon now. You have absolutely no idea if he would have come here or not.

Troy Baxter is at his 3rd school in 4 years and has been terrible at all 3 schools. There's a reason he's at Morgan State and not anywhere better.

So again, maybe one of the guys you mentioned would have come here, but maybe not. The other guys you mentioned aren't from this area and you have absolutely no idea if SJU would have had a shot with any of them. If you need to lie and make stuff up to prove your point maybe your point is garbage to begin with.

They should have taken him.

Yep. Maybe the biggest fail of any SJU staff over the last 10 years was choosing the tranny over him. Good job Matt.

So you say that you have first-hand knowledge that several better options would have come here and then name only one guy that maybe that applies to. Maybe. Hyland is the only guy that you mentioned that might have actually come here. I have no idea if he would have or not, but the other guys definitely not.

The staff pursued Thornton. Tried to get him on campus for a visit.

There's definitely some issues with Fisher. Academically ineligible right now. Might not play this season.

If nobody else could convince Tucker to stay in college another year then St. John's definitely didn't have a chance to convince him of that. Cmon now. You have absolutely no idea if he would have come here or not.

Troy Baxter is at his 3rd school in 4 years and has been terrible at all 3 schools. There's a reason he's at Morgan State and not anywhere better.

So again, maybe one of the guys you mentioned would have come here, but maybe not. The other guys you mentioned aren't from this area and you have absolutely no idea if SJU would have had a shot with any of them. If you need to lie and make stuff up to prove your point maybe your point is garbage to begin with.

Look I’m offering my thoughts and opinions. There isn’t a perfect way to construct a team but at a school like St Johns you can’t afford to swing and miss.

If you want to disagree with me that’s fine. I’m offering up my thoughts based on experience and direct and indirect knowledge. What I don’t appreciate is you trying to slander me personally by saying I’m lying.

I don’t hide behind an alias and put my name to everything I say. I’ve invited and hosted people here out at games both college and high school.

So if you want to debate recruiting we can all day but not trying to enter a pissing match with you or anyone else.

Yep. Maybe the biggest fail of any SJU staff over the last 10 years was choosing the tranny over him. Good job Matt.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Zack Brown was as good as Nick Richards, Mitchell Robinson. He would have been best big man in conference. Could have been our Ochefu.

I’ve seen a lot of crazy things but nothing as crazy as his story.

I just don’t get the disdain towards one assistant coach. Dude worked really hard and got a lot of players. I can understand disliking some tendencies but sheesh not to this level of obsession.

Look I’m offering my thoughts and opinions. There isn’t a perfect way to construct a team but at a school like St Johns you can’t afford to swing and miss.

If you want to disagree with me that’s fine. I’m offering up my thoughts based on experience and direct and indirect knowledge. What I don’t appreciate is you trying to slander me personally by saying I’m lying.

I don’t hide behind an alias and put my name to everything I say. I’ve invited and hosted people here out at games both college and high school.

So if you want to debate recruiting we can all day but not trying to enter a pissing match with you or anyone else.

All I'm asking for is for you to drop the hypocrisy as it relates to this staff vs the last staff. You recently said that the last staff couldn't realistically get better players that late in the game in their first few months because there just aren't that many that late in the process. I agree with that. However, you spent the whole spring and summer dumping on the current staff for not getting better players in their first few months on the job. You then made a claim that this staff didn't pursue players that they had a chance with that are better the ones they ended up getting. I asked you to name some of those players and when you did it became clear that your point was nonsense. I'm just calling that out.

It's obvious your friend on the last staff is clouding the way you are looking at this staff, providing excuses for the last staff while not affording this staff the same benefit in extremely similar situations. And I understand that. You might think you're looking at this in an unbiased way and I do think that you believe that you are. But it's pretty obvious to everybody else that you're not.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Zack Brown was as good as Nick Richards, Mitchell Robinson. He would have been best big man in conference. Could have been our Ochefu.

I’ve seen a lot of crazy things but nothing as crazy as his story.

I just don’t get the disdain towards one assistant coach. Dude worked really hard and got a lot of players. I can understand disliking some tendencies but sheesh not to this level of obsession.

I agree. It’s as if people are believing news that’s, what’s the word for it? Ah yes, fake.

Matt did a great job recruiting. I can’t think of one player he brought in that should never have been given a scholarship.

Also, why is it that people have a problem with Matt, but not in the results his recruiting produced?

He landed players who were good enough to make the G League. Much like Steve Lavin did. True, he routinely didn’t get McDonald’s All Americans. No coach at St.John’s ever has, BTW.

Matt brought enough talent here. The problem is that the rest of the staff didn’t deliver on their part. Transfers are much more common in the game today, but we lost what we gained, and it destroyed any continuity that Matt might have built. If this team didn’t lose Owens and then Dixon, how much stronger would we have finished the 18-19 season?

Matt is only guy who clearly did his job.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Zack Brown was as good as Nick Richards, Mitchell Robinson. He would have been best big man in conference. Could have been our Ochefu.

I’ve seen a lot of crazy things but nothing as crazy as his story.

I just don’t get the disdain towards one assistant coach. Dude worked really hard and got a lot of players. I can understand disliking some tendencies but sheesh not to this level of obsession.

I actually don't care all that much about Matt anymore. I see SJU fans on Twitter that are happy when Nebraska loses to Southern Utah and I honestly don't care. But the fact is that him being your friend has led you to make excuses for his shortcomings while bashing this current staff for the exact same things. You've been doing it since the day Anderson signed on the dotted line.

I have no idea why the ongoing argument about Mullin VS Anderson continues unabated.  Whether or not all of you like or disliked Mullin and his abilities it is time to move on. 

This team is doing certain things well.  The pressure and playing of 10 guys will take some time to jell but so far I am happy with what I see.  Playing 9 or 10 will result in fresher players in the second half and the pressure should tire the opposition and lead to turnovers.  Team is hustling more than in recent years.

Rebounding has been great, among the national leaders.

I like the Duke from the beginning and he is a very positive force on both ends, good rebounder who always seems to be in the right place.  Roberts is a force.  Both should have been played more last year.

Lack of a true point guard is troubling.  Rutherford is very limited and I would like to see him for 10-15 minutes per games tops.  Dunn looking pretty good but more of a scorer and so far his D has been suspect.  Better ball movement and screening would help to fix this problem somewhat.

Heron is a mystery.  Can not afford hi
s inconsistency.

LJ doing OK but could perform better.

Williams looks awful.  WTF happened to this guy.  Hope it's injury related.

Caraher needs to be spotted 10-15 a game when there is a no offense guy he can try to guard.

The team has possibilities and could play 500 in the league if they get their shit together.  They are still learning, particularly the pressure. Could win 20 if they jell but if Heron continues to be a question and offensive ball movement and screening, particularly off the ball, does not improve we could be in for a long season.

Love Champ, playing a good all-around game.

I'm a chronic optimist but to reach 500 in the league there will have to be dramatic improvement.

The team ain’t going .500 in the league. If MA keeps his winning record ,I will be happy. I too, do not like the substitutions where he brings in the 2 nd team. I think the subbing should be more subtle. 40 minutes of hell sounds nice, but it didn’t help us second half. I think Heron, Figgy, Dunn,Earlington,Roberts, champagne should get the bulk of the minutes. We desperately need Steere, Roberts will accumulate fouls against the talented bigs. Without Both Figgy and Heron pulling their weight , this could be a long season. On a positive note we are young and will improve and get Steere. Champagne looks like a steal. And relative to last year Duke and Roberts are a pleasant surprise.

Heron's killing the team, bottom line. His inability to produce is the biggest problem, more than the coaching.

No coach gets evaluated off of 5 games. Wayyy too early especially when I've seen several improvements in the areas of pace, defensive intensity (minus a few bad lapses), rebounding and movement without the ball on offense (even if the sets are still lacking and need a more coherent system).

The alphas on a team need to do their job and Heron is clearly not. I don't like singling guys out but he needs a fire lit under his ass. If he doesn't get it together then it doesn't matter how good or bad the coaching is. We need him to stuff the stat sheet in a good way to have any chance. If Heron gives us just semi-decent production we are probably undefeated right now.

All I'm asking for is for you to drop the hypocrisy as it relates to this staff vs the last staff. You recently said that the last staff couldn't realistically get better players that late in the game in their first few months because there just aren't that many that late in the process. I agree with that. However, you spent the whole spring and summer dumping on the current staff for not getting better players in their first few months on the job. You then made a claim that this staff didn't pursue players that they had a chance with that are better the ones they ended up getting. I asked you to name some of those players and when you did it became clear that your point was nonsense. I'm just calling that out.

It's obvious your friend on the last staff is clouding the way you are looking at this staff, providing excuses for the last staff while not affording this staff the same benefit in extremely similar situations. And I understand that. You might think you're looking at this in an unbiased way and I do think that you believe that you are. But it's pretty obvious to everybody else that you're not.

You are twisting and turning a lot of things here.

I offered up players I wish they pursued or made more of a priority. I wanted them to reach higher but they grabbed low hanging fruit. When it's late in the game sometimes that's the play. If they reached higher they may have come up empty. There are tons of hypothetical scenarios.

From Mullin, Lavin, Norm they all have had some missteps or directions I personally didn't agree with. I'm not sure why Mullin's staff is such a point of contention for you and others.

We had a lot of talent with the last staff and we could have had more. Everyone including yourself needs to let it go. Time will tell with Anderson and I'm hopeful but it's more than fair to share some skepticism.

I actually don't care all that much about Matt anymore. I see SJU fans on Twitter that are happy when Nebraska loses to Southern Utah and I honestly don't care. But the fact is that him being your friend has led you to make excuses for his shortcomings while bashing this current staff for the exact same things. You've been doing it since the day Anderson signed on the dotted line.

Yes Matt is a very good friend of mine. However I'm not sure where the narrative of making excuses or shortcomings comes into play.

I genuinely liked a lot of recruits we landed during the Mullin tenure.

I've expressed on more than one occasion that I thought the roster became a little too transient and we should have balanced out more high school players but I liked the balance of scholarships per class year. I think we all wanted another PG/C but I think our fantasies and realities weren't balanced. A guy like French in hindsight probably should have been taken instead of chasing elsewhere. However the year we wanted a big after that there simply weren't many. Josh Roberts was a great pull so late in the game and Steere was a steal.

I've also expressed a number of times I think we should have done a better job of keeping our guys happy and convincing them to stay instead of saying well we'll just get someone else.

Also I think the staff makeup needed to change. The relationship and dynamic on the staff was poor. We needed an experienced bench coach who could also be a good talent evaluator. Just as I said during Lavin tenure as well or when Norm didn't hire local guys to get players. No staff has been immune to some criticism or praise.

I was concerned with Anderson recruiting the moment he got hired. His first few recruits didn't settle that concern. However that's what he does apparently. Like Eric Bossi told me he wins with those kind of dudes so we'll see. I'm rooting for it

Heron's killing the team, bottom line. His inability to produce is the biggest problem, more than the coaching.

No coach gets evaluated off of 5 games. Wayyy too early especially when I've seen several improvements in the areas of pace, defensive intensity (minus a few bad lapses), rebounding and movement without the ball on offense (even if the sets are still lacking and need a more coherent system).

The alphas on a team need to do their job and Heron is clearly not. I don't like singling guys out but he needs a fire lit under his ass. If he doesn't get it together then it doesn't matter how good or bad the coaching is. We need him to stuff the stat sheet in a good way to have any chance. If Heron gives us just semi-decent production we are probably undefeated right now.

I agree 5 games with a lot of new players/roles its too early to pass judgement. You have to hope guys settle into their roles, defense tightens up, coach gets more familiar with guys tendencies. The thing you want to see game to game is progression and consistency.