Can someone with Insider post this?

Thanks.

It's all about the grand experiment of youth. Will the youth lose out, or will the talent win out? Good question, and interesting one.

Great to be considered a "High Profile" school again.  The buzz continues!

The article is basically no new information and just gives some info on a few of the recruits and says some stuff about Malik Stith.  Here is some snippets from the expert's takes in the article.

Jay Bilas

As often happens to coaches in a new job, the second season can often be the toughest, and St. John's could absorb some body blows this year in the Big East. Gone are nine seniors and Dwayne Polee, all replaced with some talented first-year players. Without Dwight Hardy, Paris Horne and D.J. Kennedy, Lavin will have to rely upon freshmen like the recently cleared Maurice Harkless and Jakarr Sampson. Lavin will have to do more teaching this year, but St. John's will have the athletes to compete.

Joe Lunardi


This season, the Red Storm gets to try overachieving a different way -- with an entirely new team featuring at least three freshman starters. St. John's is truly Lavin's program now, and it will be fascinating to watch him build the kind of "UCLA of the East" Lefty Dreisell once dreamed for Maryland. That was over 40 years ago, of course, but history has a funny way of recycling itself in new places. I, for one, wouldn't bet against Lavin bringing a national championship to New York City before his tenure is up.

Doug Gottlieb

The Johnnies essentially lose their entire club from last year's amazing reclamation project, but now the tough sledding beings. With nine newcomers in the program and one of the most difficult schedules in the country in front of them, the Red Storm have to establish roles fairly quickly in order to be successful. Of the newbies, Dom Pointer, Jakarr Sampson and Norvel Pelle may have the most upside, but all are very raw and will likely be exposed early because of that. On the other hand Maurice Harkless should bring immediate scoring to one wing with Amir Garrett on the other. Phillip Greene and D'Angelo Harrison are also ready to play.

God'sgift gives Steve Lavin's team an imposing rebounding presence, but who is their point guard? Harrison and Green are both combos, and Harrison is a better overall player, but he is a scorer first and foremost.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/6803301/cbb-st-john-red-storm-2011-12-summer-buzz-preview

This one is more up my alley - about the youth, the troubles in implementing the scheme and some notes from Synergy scouting data (things like which players were most effective with the jumper by the stats and other specific scouting data).

Somebody needs to tell Gottlieb that he forgot about our JC AA PG Nurideen Lindsey.  We also do return Stith.

We certainly are young, but we have a few advantages that we can and will use to make the inexperience work a bit better for us.

1). Zone defense.  Jim Boeheim is one guy who figured out a long time ago that while the zone has some weaknesses, it is the easiest way to blunt the effects of poor man defense, youth and the like.  With the zone, Boeheim was always able to fold young players in pretty seamlessly and avoid issues if one or two of his players were sub-par man defenders.

SJU will use more zones than Boeheim does, but down the stretch, the team despite youth, should be able to play more cohesive team defense with the use of the zone.  It allows more help defense, collapsing the post where we might have some strength issues, and we can play to our strengths.

2). Use of a fast tempo running game.  Let's be straight about it.  We recruited a certain type of player.  Our guys know how to get in the break and run.  All the players know how to do this, and with some basic coaching, it will be a strength of our right out the gate.  The tougher part will be getting the guys going with set plays and in the half court.  That is where we'll take our lumps.


Look at it this way, I don't think we could defend the 3 or rebound any worse than last year.  Our offense may not be as efficient, but we can get some of it back by doing a better job on the glass and getting out on shooters.  It's not like we didn't have some facets of our game last year that were not atrocious.  We did.  Staff has to get these guys playing one or two zones pretty well and get them pushing the ball all the time on offense.  The rest will take somemtime and feeling out by staff and players.

No matter how much zone Cuse played they always had some athletes who could match up at shooting time.  Last season we didn't always have that especially when the undersized guards were in and we got killed with threes on occasion.  This year we look more like a Cuse type team so I think our results should be better.  We'll see who gets out best and that should have a lot to do with PT.

After reading this article, it reaffirmed on how the St. John's job was a great opportunity for a coach to come into. Work with 10 seniors for a year, then grab 9 to 10 of your own. Most coaches need 3-4 years to have 100 percent of the players they brought in.

With the youth situation, it's a win win in almost any scenario. For instance, if the 9 players stay all 4 years, you have another deep (and more talanted team) that will make a run in the tourney. If some leave early, it's most likely because they are heading to the NBA, which usually means the team made a run in the tourney as well.