a few concerns after liu

it was great to be back in carnesecca losing my voice screaming for the jonnys, but a couple of things kept the victory from being completely satisfying.

First, i'm not sure why rob thomas and stith didnt dress, not to mention the familiar sight of mase jr looking disconnected the whole game.

 Far worse we still looked confused and lost against the basic zone defenses they ran. Luckily great shooting and a 50pt first half got us through, but i wonder how many points we got in the paint in the half court against their zone defense.

We gave up 28 points to an liu point guard, which is terrible but we played a lot of guys on him and didnt let any of our defenders get after him so i am not too worried.

Lastly, our containment full court press failed to limit them to a significantly shortened shotclock, because we scrambled into man coverage after it. where is that killer 1-3-1 from last year?

I was really impressed with the shooting from both the new guys and the vets. Deli looked huge, getting his hands on every layup attempt in the paint. Our fast break and press were both almost flawless, a big improvement from last season. Go St Johns!

I think our biggest concern was seeing Boothe get housed by a kid from LIU.

Someone needs to step up and run the offense.

We should have bear this team by 35.

I went to Alumni Hall for Norm's first game as coach and
we won that game against Wagner by 10.

I'm not sure how much different this program is after 6 years.

Roberts had a nice plan that worked in the first half,
but he is just so predictable. We went cold from downtown in the 2nd half, and just passed the ball around the perimeter.

No set plays. Nothing for Burrell. Nothing at all.

 Point guard is the most important position in college hoops.  If we don't have one, i doesn't matter how deep we are at other positions, we're in trouble.   
  I didn't see the game, but from all accounts, we need a pg.  Hopefully Stith can do the job.

I'm hoping Boothe had an off game.
Our only saving grace is that we can score this year, so he won't have to.

I think Boothe will step it up this year.  I also think Stith will give us some really tough minutes and provide an upgrade from downtown.  This will allow Boothe to become a stopper on defense. 

It's promising that we were pressing well and that we were almost flawless running.  Staying out of halfcourt sets and picking up points while running breaks will be extremely important for this team. 

Where did Brownlee play?  I'm hoping he was at the four.  I like JB's peformance from the box score.  Obviously disappointed with Evans, but he seems to be up and down.

Marillac, Burrell's box score line was misleading.
He should have had 25 and 12 against that frontline.

He still waits until his turn to get the ball, instead of calling for it.
This really seemed like Kennedy's team. Like he'll be the go to
guy.

He plays like he wants it. I'm waiting for Burrell too.

Brownlee was a player. He can handle the ball in transition like an NBA player. Didn't shoot well, but he was active on the offensive glass, and he finishes.

Sorry, Sean, I love you but you're going to be coming off the bench, if Brownlee plays like that.

DJ is the man.  I think his role will be reduced from last year just based on the sheer number of capable players at his position, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him get some more minutes at the four.

Horne/Hardy could be come a great rotation.  From the sound of it, Hardy has to really step it up defensively.

It'll be interesting to see how Mason is incorporated into the lineup when he is healthy. 

I think DJ proved last night that we need him on the floor.
He's the leader on this team.

The 3 is his position now. I'd consider moving him to the point.

I'm hoping Boothe had an off game.
Our only saving grace is that we can score this year, so he won't have to.

No, it wasn't an off game.  In his 2 years at St. John's, Boothe has proven he can't shoot the ball and he can't cover his man.  The fact is he should not be a starting point guard in the Big East.

it was great to be back in carnesecca losing my voice screaming for the jonnys, but a couple of things kept the victory from being completely satisfying.

First, i'm not sure why rob thomas and stith didnt dress, not to mention the familiar sight of mase jr looking disconnected the whole game.

 Far worse we still looked confused and lost against the basic zone defenses they ran. Luckily great shooting and a 50pt first half got us through, but i wonder how many points we got in the paint in the half court against their zone defense.

We gave up 28 points to an liu point guard, which is terrible but we played a lot of guys on him and didnt let any of our defenders get after him so i am not too worried.

Lastly, our containment full court press failed to limit them to a significantly shortened shotclock, because we scrambled into man coverage after it. where is that killer 1-3-1 from last year?

I was really impressed with the shooting from both the new guys and the vets. Deli looked huge, getting his hands on every layup attempt in the paint. Our fast break and press were both almost flawless, a big improvement from last season. Go St Johns!

let me start by taking your points 1 by 1

1. Roberts and Stith did not play due to injury. Roberts groin - Stith - Sprained ankle on Thursday.

2. The zone defense awareness was iffy, but lets take into account 3 newcomers playing on the floor, significant minutes, and its the first game so finding themselves on the court will come...hopefully.

3. 28 points to Wisseh who was All NEC and Metro team is nothing to be ashamed of. he is a good player. The good way to look at it is he was a 1 man team, everyone else was held to 9 pts and under i believe.

4. The press i think worked well for the first game, we caused turnovers nad confusion in the first half. We will see if it continues.

booth is a solid point guard, and if you have any question of his contribution, look at the 9 games he missed last year. without him we couldnt get the ball past a press (that horrible game against louisville in the garden /shudder). he does have to improve his shooting (which he spent the offseason working on) and like the rest of the team he has to be more aggressive.

evens is also getting a bit of shit on here. he is solid and he will show up in the big games. he wasn't consistently on the floor against liu because norm wanted to get the new guys in the game early and often.

the most interesting part of this team is the competition at every position. there arent enough minutes to go around on this team and that is a very good problem to have.

booth is a solid point guard, and if you have any question of his contribution, look at the 9 games he missed last year. without him we couldnt get the ball past a press (that horrible game against louisville in the garden /shudder). he does have to improve his shooting (which he spent the offseason working on) and like the rest of the team he has to be more aggressive.

evens is also getting a bit of shit on here. he is solid and he will show up in the big games. he wasn't consistently on the floor against liu because norm wanted to get the new guys in the game early and often.

the most interesting part of this team is the competition at every position. there arent enough minutes to go around on this team and that is a very good problem to have.

it felt to me like roberts was treating this game like a practice.

booth is a solid point guard, and if you have any question of his contribution, look at the 9 games he missed last year. without him we couldnt get the ball past a press (that horrible game against louisville in the garden /shudder). he does have to improve his shooting (which he spent the offseason working on) and like the rest of the team he has to be more aggressive.

evens is also getting a bit of shit on here. he is solid and he will show up in the big games. he wasn't consistently on the floor against liu because norm wanted to get the new guys in the game early and often.

the most interesting part of this team is the competition at every position. there arent enough minutes to go around on this team and that is a very good problem to have.

You're absolutely right when you say that we were hampered without Boothe last season when he was hurt however I'm not sure that is a compliment to Boothe. We had no depth at the position so we missed Boothe by default.

I do think Boothe plays well at times. He is solid leader on/off the court for this team but he has his limitations. I also think Boothe can be serviceable on this team but he needs to improve and limit his weaknesses while playing to his strengths. He needs to realize he can't penetrate down the middle in a 2-3 zone and get a shot off. It just wasn't smart basketball.

I will defend Boothe by saying his defense wasn't as bad as people are making it out to be. I didn't think he played to well but it wasn't horrid either.

As for Evans, I don't think people are giving him an unfair shake here. I think a lot of people love what Evans brings to the table but the problem is Friday he didn't bring any of that. He had very questionable shot selection. Even the one shot he made, I cringed when he shot it. Evans should have a red light when it comes to shooting anywhere outside of 10 ft. I'm not too worried about Evans though. He'll bounce back and he'll be the Sean Evans we all love. A guy who hustles, gets rebounds, extra possessions, put backs, and finishes in transition.

it felt to me like roberts was treating this game like a practice.

It did seem as if Norm was experimenting with different combos.  That may be especially true because Stith was out and Hardy had to back up the point.

Quote from: Poison on November 15, 2009, 08:13:25 PM

it felt to me like roberts was treating this game like a practice.

It did seem as if Norm was experimenting with different combos.  That may be especially true because Stith was out and Hardy had to back up the point.

Lets hope he was just experimenting. Over the years though i have felt norm has had an awful feel for when/who to substitiute. they'll have a good combo going then he ll drastically change the lineup. you sometimes wonder what he is seeing out there

I think it was smart of Coach to experiment in this game. The game got a little close in the end. To close for many on the message boards. But Omari and others played late in the game. I think that is more important then winning the game by another 7/10 points.   

Omari, Dwight and Brownlee were the 3 bright spots that stood out for me. I think all can fill it up. We needed them bad.

You're absolutely right when you say that we were hampered without Boothe last season when he was hurt however I'm not sure that is a compliment to Boothe. We had no depth at the position so we missed Boothe by default.

I do think Boothe plays well at times. He is solid leader on/off the court for this team but he has his limitations. I also think Boothe can be serviceable on this team but he needs to improve and limit his weaknesses while playing to his strengths. He needs to realize he can't penetrate down the middle in a 2-3 zone and get a shot off. It just wasn't smart basketball.

I will defend Boothe by saying his defense wasn't as bad as people are making it out to be. I didn't think he played to well but it wasn't horrid either.

The amazing thing, Dave, is that Boothe's backers will always point to his defense, as a means of offsetting his almost legendary poor outside shooting.

LIU lost to Army tonight.  Army.