Game 14: #12 Butler, NYE Queens 730P/FS1

Do you understand how insane you come off? Does middle ground not exist for you? Top three in the league or nothing?

A rebuilding year with this much talent? Amar, Christian, and Felix is rebuilding. Not this.

We have the best athlete in the conference in Dunn. Roberts is top 5 there too and Williams is probably top 15-20. Earlington is the strongest player in the conference. Our front court is top 5. We are one of the deepest teams. We just lack the PG play most teams in our league have. That’s it. In such a competitive year for the league it is the glaring weaknesses that will make the difference. The one unusual caveat there is that Dunn and Williams are such dynamic athletes and defenders at the position that it mitigates the differential.

If all of the players in the league went in a draft where the drafting team would keep the player for his entire career, Champagnie would be a first round pick. Williams, Earlington, and Roberts would all go in the first four or five rounds. Amar, Christian, and Felix would have gone undrafted in a 13 round draft...perhaps Felix would have been drafted on athletic potential late.

Our two seasons of being ranked in the top 15 in the last two decades came with first year coaches. Your rebuilding argument is one if the worst ever offered on this forum.

It's becoming evident that Rutherford is a competent Big East PG. His maturity and defensive presence has been a big help this whole season.

It's becoming evident that Rutherford is a competent Big East PG. His maturity and defensive presence has been a big help this whole season.

True that!!Have seen tremendous improvement since day one...been our best defender along with Williams by a mile...

Please remember BannerMountainMan is not a SJU fan, but a Mike Anderson fan. I suspect he is his son, but I cannot confirm this.

Everything he writes will be to make Anderson look good. Keep that in mind when reading his posts.

It's becoming evident that Rutherford is a competent Big East PG. His maturity and defensive presence has been a big help this whole season.

His defense has been top-notch, from the outset.  His offense has improved the last two games, as well.

It's funny, I was OK with bringing him on board, despite his pedestrian stats at Monmouth, because he was a grad transfer, and wouldn't cost us future recruits.  Now, I'm upset that he's a grad transfer, because by the time his skills flesh out, he'll be out of here.

But, I think players like Rutherford are going to be symbolic of Anderson's overall recruting strategy.  Basically, he looks for system fits first, star ratings second (it would be great to have both).  John Beilein had a lot of success with this strategy at West Virginia and Michigan (he had some highly ranked guys at Michigan, but not a lot).

I bet if you did a poll of college basketball writers, some would say Butler is better than 11, some would say worse, but on average they would be 11th. Probably a very similar result if you surveyed college coaches. Too bad no one does that so we can’t verify which of us is right.

Butler has earned the #11 ranking to date, but no reputable and unbiased coach or writer believes they are the 11th best team in the country.

How could that be possible when they haven’t beaten a single team in the AP Top 25 poll and lost to the only one it faced?

Please remember BannerMountainMan is not a SJU fan, but a Mike Anderson fan. I suspect he is his son, but I cannot confirm this.

Everything he writes will be to make Anderson look good. Keep that in mind when reading his posts.

It’s clear that he is a relative...I’d guess son as well. Whatever the connection, props for not using his real name like that crazy b*tch who was the mother of the 22 year old soph PG we lost.

BE regular season championship, BE tournament championship. These are realistic goals to strive for.

Nope ... and no matter how much your goal posts shift or your arguments go both ways ...

Butler has earned the #11 ranking to date, but no reputable and unbiased coach or writer believes they are the 11th best team in the country.

How could that be possible when they haven’t beaten a single team in the AP Top 25 poll and lost to the only one it faced?

As usual you are way wrong on this. Every single metrics site has them better than the 11th they are on the AP poll so they're actually better than their ranking indicates, not worse.

Come on man. Why don't you admit things that everyone else can see.

Ok. I wouldn't want to be labeled a contrarian.

This coach actually has a system 

Yes he does. 40 minutes of hell, defensive pressure and trapping to force turnovers and easy baskets and fast break offense.

Mullin had a system too. Pro style, star dominated offense with individual decision making and freedom to create one on one, drive confidently or shoot the three without conscience at a premium. 

and seems to develop players.

Williams, Dr. Roberts and the Duke have been pleasant surprises. I'm willing to give credit to the current staff for this. Yet, I'm also aware that freshmen becoming better players as sophomores is not an uncommon occurrence.

Mullin developed players too. Walden, LJ and Garfunkel spring to mind.

Last night if Mullin was coaching that game with Heron out and LJ in foul trouble all game they would have lost by 30 points.

I don't know what hypothetically would have happened in some alternate universe. Neither do you.

The players that did nothing under Mullin last year have seemed to really play better under coach Andersons system. You have to admit that's coaching.

See above.

How about the players that did something? Gil Scott's been good playing against the Sisters of the Poor. Against decent teams - not so much. In the smallest of sample sizes, LJ was horrific in the conference opener.
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It’s not a “clever use of statistics” it is blatant intellectual dishonesty. It’s
exhausting and it makes middle ground impossible.

I was trying to be kind.

BE regular season championship, BE tournament championship. These are realistic goals to strive for.

If it's realistic, why hasn't it been even sniffed at in 20 years?
Oh yeah. Wait I got it. We haven't had the right coach and now we do. 

My goal is to bang supermodels. That's not working out well for me either.

All I wanted to do was come over and be a St Johns fan but y’all are bipolar, Marillac changes his tone about teams every few days which fits the narrative, I have not said anything very positive about CMA, I have said they have played good and before the year you all picked 13-15 wins for this team, now that the season is here and they have played well and now have lost to the #11 team you say this roster is great and it’s not at all a rebuilding year but only a BE top 5 team. Everyone of y’all didn’t know what to expect for Williams, Earlington, And Roberts and now that they have played well, which has been not credited at all to development.

As usual you are way wrong on this. Every single metrics site has them better than the 11th they are on the AP poll so they're actually better than their ranking indicates, not worse.

Are you as stupid as the rest of the holdovers? I wrote that they’ve earned their spot based on their resume to date. That doesn’t make them the 11th best team, though. They may have the 11th best resume or even the best f*cking resume on January 2nd, but they aren’t even remotely close to the 11th best team in the country on the court. Nobody with half a brain would make that claim.

They haven’t won a single game against a top 25 ranked team.

As usual you are way wrong on this. Every single metrics site has them better than the 11th they are on the AP poll so they're actually better than their ranking indicates, not worse.

If you think Butler is the 11th best team then put your money where your mouth is (or fingers are).

I bet you $1,000 that Butler won’t be a 3 seed or better. Hell, I’d even extend it to a four seed. What say you to that, you Metric Sexual?

Are you as stupid as the rest of the holdovers? I wrote that they’ve earned their spot based on their resume to date. That doesn’t make them the 11th best team, though. They may have the 11th best resume or even the best f*cking resume on January 2nd, but they aren’t even remotely close to the 11th best team in the country on the court. Nobody with half a brain would make that claim.

They haven’t won a single game against a top 25 ranked team.

As I said, you're an idiot. They are better than the 11th best team in the country and all metrics sites agree on this.

Their only loss was 1 point loss on the road against 11th ranked on KP Baylor. They crushed the KP 12th ranked team on a neutral court, crushed the 24th ranked KP team and have 3 more wins against top 60 KP teams plus another 2 road wins over KP 80 (us) and KP 84.

There are not 11 teams better than them right now.

If it's realistic, why hasn't it been even sniffed at in 20 years?
Oh yeah. Wait I got it. We haven't had the right coach and now we do. 

My goal is to bang supermodels. That's not working out well for me either.

Norm Roberts and coach Mullin couldn’t win the big east if they coached for a thousand years. That doesn’t mean that this school is cursed.
The hardy team certainly could have won the big east. They definitely competed for it. Harrison’s junior and senior year teams were good enough. Our current team has a shot.

As I said, you're an idiot. They are better than the 11th best team in the country and all metrics sites agree on this.

Their only loss was 1 point loss on the road against 11th ranked on KP Baylor. They crushed the KP 12th ranked team on a neutral court, crushed the 24th ranked KP team and have 3 more wins against top 60 KP teams plus another 2 road wins over KP 80 (us) and KP 84.

There are not 11 teams better than them right now.

So if they are the 11th best team or better than why won’t you bet on them being a lowly four seed?

So if they are the 11th best team or better than why won’t you bet on them being a lowly four seed?

Huh, I think you got some posters mixed up.

We have the best athlete in the conference in Dunn.
Roberts is top 5 there too and Williams is probably top 15-20.
Earlington is the strongest player in the conference.
Our front court is top 5.
We are one of the deepest teams.
We just lack the PG play most teams in our league have.

We have the best athlete in the conference in Dunn  - he is not even best athlete on his own team
Roberts is top 5 there too and Williams is probably top 15-20  - maybe
Earlington is the strongest player in the conference - how exactly is this measured
Our front court is top 5 - maybe but not likely
We are one of the deepest teams - this is looking to be true
We just lack the PG play most teams in our league have - but you think the point guard is the best athlete in the league

Please remember BannerMountainMan is not a SJU fan, but a Mike Anderson fan. I suspect he is his son, but I cannot confirm this.

Everything he writes will be to make Anderson look good. Keep that in mind when reading his posts.

I get why he is here. Why are u?