DJ, in fact, is best served as a second option. He's a statsheet filler - a guy who will get you those rebounds you didn't think your team would get, who finds himself open and makes the play of the game.
I bet you Hardy will be out there more.
But when you all talk about Hardy, you have to consider defense. I love a scorer too, but I watch Hardy and he's not the defender that Paris is. he's just not. If you've been watching, you know that. He's not terrible, but still.
And I think it would have been a damned mistake for St. John's to think they were going to outscore Cornell without defending. Did you see their shooting percentages? The loss was a damned failure on defense, that's what. It's not the lack of playing time for one guy. It's the failure in the post (which is troubling) and the failure on the outside, even though the team wasn't really doubling anyone. Jaques got shots so open he could have stopped to check email on his phone and take a bite of a sandwich.
Good God man! Are you really still eating the $hit Norm shovels? For six years now this team has been putting up HS scores and whenever a player comes along who can actually score the ball he does not play them enough. If Hardy would have played more especially when he was scorching hot we probably would have won the game!
EVER coach in America would have played Hardy more tham the 19 minutes he played last game!
Good God, man, $hit eating? What goes on in your neighborhood?! Put the coffee down, and try a different opinion on for size instead of WAAAAH WAAAH THEY DIDN'T PLAY MY MAN CRUSH. A piece of advice: when you meet Larry and Dwight, before you salivate on them, start by saying "no homo, but I really like you."
Anyway. Look at a) the numbers from the game b) what this team actually is and c) Steve Donahue's post game comments.
a) Cornell shot a lot of open 3-pointers. Their center also went off on St. John's. That's a problem. He's not that talented, but our guys couldn't pay attention enough to keep him out of the paint.
b) The great mistake this team gets into at times is thinking they've gone from a team that can't score at all to a team that should be taking outside jumpers. Yet this same team went 0-14 against FORDHAM. 5-18 against BROWN. 10-28 against LIU (not a bad percentage, but too many outside shots). Against garbage opponents you can't just stand back and take poor jumpers. It's nice to be able to hit those shots but they have to get to the basket. Hitting 32% after 11 games means it's time to try a different idea.
c) the Cornell coach openly said that even though they were down at the half, they knew they had St. John's playing their game. This is a recurring problem for Norm's teams - I think they don't try to impose their game plan on other teams, they try to respond to the other team. Maybe it would have been different if Coker didn't go for the pump fakes of a guy who can't jump over a hardcover book, I don't know. But if St. John's had won, that would have been a gift; and they have to address the serious defensive failures that went on in that game!
I hear Norm's serving $hit and pickles, gotta go get me some! I hear Dwight and Larry like sugar cookies, bake them some with some TLC, ok?