St. John's vs Cornell Post Game Discussion

We really had nothing inside tonight offensively or defensively and, IMO, it's what eventually cost the game.

The outside shooting tonight was excellent on both sides. Pretty much a wash. But down low, we were flat-out abused.

chat it up thoughts?

Dave,

I'm assuming you moved my post to this thread, but you may want to put yours back on top. It's showing up as if I created the thread.

 Its been said a thousand times but it bears repeating.  We have no offensive sets.  Its really sad.  Compared to Cornell, offensively, we looked like a team that had no gameplan, no plan of attack.  If it wasn't for Hardy's play and hitting 11 three's, we would have gotten beat even worse.
  The fact that Norm refuses to hire an "offensive"  x's and o's coach says it all.  Clearly he has no clue. Someone enlighten me to what the other three stooges on the bench bring to the table?
  Sorry for the rant,  just tired of watching the same old crap.  This must be what its like to be a Jet fan.

I'm sick.

Yeah, it's one game but it's one game that magnified our weaknesses tenfold. Everything's roses when you're winning but there have been obvious flaws with this team even in the wins.

We NEED JB back inside (the REAL JB, not the shell of his former self that's been walking around Queens lately). We need some movement on offense. We need Evans to move WITHOUT the ball. We need JB2 to stop throwing away possessions with dumb shots. These are all things that CAN be fixed and NEED to be if we're going to make any noise in BE play.

I hope Norm and the team are half as pissed off as I am. We need to come out and absolutely destroy Bryant. I mean suck their souls out and then curbstomp their lifeless corpses.

It's not the end of the world but a disheartening loss indeed. Need to learn  from it then forget it. No time to wallow in what could have been. The ranking conversation is out the window now. It's back to business on Wednesday.

Hardy needs to start. I'm not against putting him at the point. Ge has to be out there. He's our only threat to score with a jumper.

Dave,

I'm assuming you moved my post to this thread, but you may want to put yours back on top. It's showing up as if I created the thread.

I did. I didn't want the other thread to be all about tonight's game. It's ok you can start threads too 

Its been said a thousand times but it bears repeating.  We have no offensive sets.  Its really sad.  Compared to Cornell, offensively, we looked like a team that had no gameplan, no plan of attack.  If it wasn't for Hardy's play and hitting 11 three's, we would have gotten beat even worse.
  The fact that Norm refuses to hire an "offensive"  x's and o's coach says it all.  Clearly he has no clue. Someone enlighten me to what the other three stooges on the bench bring to the table?
  Sorry for the rant,  just tired of watching the same old crap.  This must be what its like to be a Jet fan.

We ran sets but very unsuccessful ones. We ran plenty of Pick and _____. Yup no rolls. They doubled us and rotated. They didn't respect our big men as shooters and why should they?

A few times I saw Norm waive off Sean to get Brownlee flash high instead but why have Sean in there then? Take him out. He wasn't the right guy tonight.

We played dumb ball tonight. It's that simple.
Everyone except Hardy, and maybe Boothe was lousy.

Roberts pulled Hardy at all the wrong times.

He goes with his full rotation no matter what's happening.

I thought Paris and Hardy both played very well except one problem...THEY KEPT SUBBING FOR EACH OTHER!

I have some thoughts but my computer is messing up so I'll try to post them tomorrow. But hardy shouldn't have been subbed when he was going off like that. Paris and justin burrell needs to come off the bench with mason. I think they could be crazy together. And the team should run laps in practice tomorrow for some of the selfish plays today.

I thought Paris and Hardy both played very well except one problem...THEY KEPT SUBBING FOR EACH OTHER!

Which is one of the reasons I have been saying Hardy should start instead of Boothe! Or at least play him more than he did today. If you play Coker and Boothe at the same time you are really playing 3 against 5.I would also start Brownlee and bring Evans off the bench where he is best suited! This way he could provide energy or if he plays like a nut , he sits!

I am so effing pissed. 

I think the team relatively prepared - who the hell knew Jaques could stroke like that? I think the team - except for Coker - was where they needed to be in the post. But damn, we need more height.  So many times I saw where Mase's long arms could have created chaos.  And Justin Burrell, even in his passive moments, would have been a great sub for Evans who was his WORST version of himself. Games like this show his limits and his strange propensity for thinking he's a guard. 

I'll stop right there before I excoriate his game completely, but if he knows he doesn't have moves in the post and the guy he's balling against is 5-6 inches taller... do something else.  I thought it wouldn't show in the box score but lookie there - 6 TOs for Evans.

And I wanted more Rob Thomas.  He could have driven on those guys more.  He actually has a touch in the post. 

It's not one guy, though, and the second half defense - and Coker's defense in general - seemed to forget that Foote's much less effective 5 feet from the basket.  It's like they didn't recognize where he was going to roll to sometimes!  I mean, sometimes a guy has his move down and is where he needs to be, but there were times they could have done better.

I too think Hardy might need to start.  I was less pissed about Paris and Hardy not being on the floor together (though Paris' game is a little more SF than it is SG, especially when you look at his drives to the basket) and more pissed about taking out BOOTHE for HARDY when we needed to get Hardy shots.

Brownlee had decent moments, more on defense, but the staff needs to tell him that until he can hit 40-50 in a row in practice to stop taking 3's. Just stop.  It doesn't work and it ignores the other great parts of his game.

This is the problem with only having 5 real forwards.

By the way, great job of Cornell stifling DJ Kennedy.  THAT is why we need Mase back - another creative baller allows him to fill the stat sheet.

Evans dribbles, and scores twice a year when doing so

we wont do well when everyone is healthy unless coach either subs in 5 or cuts minutes. its gonna cause chaos

In a tighter rotation and with everyone healthy the rotation should be:

SF - Kennedy (30 mins)
SG - Mason (25 mins)/ Horne (20 mins btwn SF + SG)
PG - Boothe (20 mins)/ Hardy (20 mins btwn PG + SG)
PF/ C - Evans (22)/ Burrell (20) (whichever one is doing better)
[Supplemental big] - pair Brownlee (20) with Evans for offense or Coker (10) with Burrell for defense

That's probably going to be the main 7 man rotation; Stith will come in to give a rest, Omari will come in to give a rest, Hardy will take some minutes with Horne to fill in the missing minutes from the PF/C positions.  I think someone will be pissed, yeah, but it's likely going to be Horne unless he steps up, because Hardy can fill the buckets.

I think either Brownlee or Evans could do to play less. They've got such energy but sometimes it goes helter-skelter.

I agree with mostly everything you said Peter.

Hardy for Boothe was the right move at times but not always. I was really calling for Evans to get taken out because it was evident no matter who we threw on Foote it wasn't working. So Brownlee was the best poison because at least he could stretch a defense. Then with DJ, Paris, Hardy, Boothe we're so much quicker defensively to get around or switch on all the screens. I thought Norm should have utilized his time outs and substitutions better.

Our ball screens were ineffective as they dared us to give it to our big men to shoot. Also the lane was clogged with a free man every time. How could Norm not see whoever guarded Evans didn't leave the paint no matter where Sean was.

hardy needs to start period

3 thoughts...

Hardy goes off in the first half and then sits the last 4-5 mins before coming in for one last possession.  THen it's halftime and he doesnt come back for another 4-5 mins to start the second half.  Does not make sense.  In real time  he prob sat abt a half hour.  When a guy has a hot hand stay with him.

Really tired of the one pass, outside shot offense.  Make the defense move and get a better shot.  THis is stated for Horne and Brownlee...

Paris HOrne has 15 FTA in 11 games.  Compare that to DJ Kennedy who has 64 FTA. It is unacceptable.  All he does is settle for jumpshots.  When all your shots are from the outside, you have a 38 FG% and lack efficiency on offense.  I dont know what the answer is, if he doesnt have the handle to take it to the hole and keep the defense honest maybe Hardy should be taking the majority of the minutes.  He at least shows some ability to take it to the hoop.

Are offense deffinetly needs to change..if its hurting us now its gonna kill us in BE play..evans needs to stop dribbling like a guard! The to's is what killed us tonight but guys this isn't a horrible loss..ok in exploited a lot of are problems but cornell is 9-2 with a pretty good schedule and should be a tourny team!..we need to do something on offense though..it almost looks like the team isn't comftorble playing with a big lead..
    I feel we need to run a smaller faster linup and can't have evans and coker in @ the same time imo the way evans is playing.
   Maybee we need to have the team catch tennis balls out of a pitching machine because are hands need to improve..that would go a long way on cutting down are to's and improving rebounds