ESPN's List of Top 10 Teams Poised to Make a Leap

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/86847/primed-to-improve-teams-poised-to-make-big-strides

Thought i would send this out, but this is from Jason King Blog today where he ranks his top 10 teams to be significantly better this year.  He has Kentucky only team that will show a great improvement than us.

2. St. John’s: Sportswriters are expected to make bold predictions from time to time, so here’s mine: St. John’s will spend most of the upcoming season ranked in the Top 25 and will challenge Marquette and Creighton for the Big East title. This team is loaded. Jakarr Sampson was one of the country’s most underrated freshmen in 2012-13, when he averaged 14.9 points and 6.6 rebounds. Imagine how much better he’ll be this season after bypassing the NBA draft. I’m also expecting even more out of D'Angelo Harrison, who was averaging a team-high 17.8 points before being suspended at the end of last season for disciplinary reasons. Chris Obekpa, who ranked second in the country with 4.0 blocks per game, is back along with bruising forward God'sgift Achiuwa, who redshirted last season. Two other important pieces will be incoming freshman Rysheed Jordan, the No. 3-ranked point guard in the class of 2013, and Orlando Sanchez, a 24-year-old forward who wasn’t deemed eligible by the NCAA until late February. He’ll be able to compete for only one season, but Sanchez could end up being the top player on the Red Storm roster.



***Please include links to articles ~Dave

Love the optimism, I hope he is right...

Maybe I'm a bit of a homer, but he says it's a 'bold' prediction, and I really don't think that's a bold prediction at all. I would be really disappointed with the amount of talent and potential this team has if they didn't challenge for the Big East title, and weren't a top 25 team most of the year.

Maybe I'm a bit of a homer, but he says it's a 'bold' prediction, and I really don't think that's a bold prediction at all. I would be really disappointed with the amount of talent and potential this team has if they didn't challenge for the Big East title, and weren't a top 25 team most of the year.

I agree w you. But it seems like the "pundits" still consider us a bubble team.

I am a homer also, but it is a Bold prediction because no other Pre Season Top 25 Ranking has St John's listed.
add Dom to that list of players ready to have a big season and I want to at least reach the Sweet 16.

Maybe I'm a bit of a homer, but he says it's a 'bold' prediction, and I really don't think that's a bold prediction at all. I would be really disappointed with the amount of talent and potential this team has if they didn't challenge for the Big East title, and weren't a top 25 team most of the year.

Nothing wrong with being a "homer" as long as you use good judgement in your evaluations and not let your heart over rule your head. That said, we haven't done anything yet and until we get an NCAA season under our belt it's all just potential.

Maybe I'm a bit of a homer, but he says it's a 'bold' prediction, and I really don't think that's a bold prediction at all. I would be really disappointed with the amount of talent and potential this team has if they didn't challenge for the Big East title, and weren't a top 25 team most of the year.

It's a 'bold' prediction.   We went 0-6 against Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, and Providence last season.   Does more experience + Jordan & Sanchez mean we'll be competing for the conference title?   Maybe.   But we could be much improved, win 19 or 20 in the regular season, and still be quite a ways off from a conference title.
Plus, he's on the outside looking in.   Obviously we know our talent much more than most national reporters. 

Quote from: thetruth8734 on July 25, 2013, 04:15:51 PM

Maybe I'm a bit of a homer, but he says it's a 'bold' prediction, and I really don't think that's a bold prediction at all. I would be really disappointed with the amount of talent and potential this team has if they didn't challenge for the Big East title, and weren't a top 25 team most of the year.

It's a 'bold' prediction.   We went 0-6 against Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, and Providence last season.   Does more experience + Jordan & Sanchez mean we'll be competing for the conference title?   Maybe.   But we could be much improved, win 19 or 20 in the regular season, and still be quite a ways off from a conference title.
Plus, he's on the outside looking in.   Obviously we know our talent much more than most national reporters.

Make that Jordan, Sanchez, Gift, and Hooper.

Quote from: thetruth8734 on July 25, 2013, 04:15:51 PM

Maybe I'm a bit of a homer, but he says it's a 'bold' prediction, and I really don't think that's a bold prediction at all. I would be really disappointed with the amount of talent and potential this team has if they didn't challenge for the Big East title, and weren't a top 25 team most of the year.

It's a 'bold' prediction.   We went 0-6 against Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, and Providence last season.   Does more experience + Jordan & Sanchez mean we'll be competing for the conference title?   Maybe.   But we could be much improved, win 19 or 20 in the regular season, and still be quite a ways off from a conference title.
Plus, he's on the outside looking in.   Obviously we know our talent much more than most national reporters.

We also had Branch out for a good chunk, D'Lo suspended, Phil Greene playing with a labrum tear and tons of new faces with a team full of freshmen and sophs.  We add a lot and return a healthy, experienced team that has been bolstered by one of the best freshman PG prospects in the country and a talented forward in Sanchez.  We return a very solid big guy in Gift and a shooter in Hooper.  Things didn't all fall in the right places last year, but this year will be much different IMO.

Quote from: desco80 on July 26, 2013, 11:01:11 AM

Quote from: thetruth8734 on July 25, 2013, 04:15:51 PM

Maybe I'm a bit of a homer, but he says it's a 'bold' prediction, and I really don't think that's a bold prediction at all. I would be really disappointed with the amount of talent and potential this team has if they didn't challenge for the Big East title, and weren't a top 25 team most of the year.

It's a 'bold' prediction.   We went 0-6 against Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, and Providence last season.   Does more experience + Jordan & Sanchez mean we'll be competing for the conference title?   Maybe.   But we could be much improved, win 19 or 20 in the regular season, and still be quite a ways off from a conference title.
Plus, he's on the outside looking in.   Obviously we know our talent much more than most national reporters.

We also had Branch out for a good chunk, D'Lo suspended, Phil Greene playing with a labrum tear and tons of new faces with a team full of freshmen and sophs.  We add a lot and return a healthy, experienced team that has been bolstered by one of the best freshman PG prospects in the country and a talented forward in Sanchez.  We return a very solid big guy in Gift and a shooter in Hooper.  Things didn't all fall in the right places last year, but this year will be much different IMO.

I'm not disputing that.  I agree with you guys - we have a lot to be optimistic about, there's very good reasons why this team should be much better.   
But a lot of that is inside knowledge that we know as SJU fans, and I wouldn't expect a national reporter to be up to date on.  How many cbb reporters have seen Orlando Sanchez play?  How many know for a fact D'angelo will be back in good graces?   So for him, it is a bold prediction.  That's all I'm saying.

And CR, I know we added other pieces as well, but at some point it's just quantity not necessarily an improvement in quality.  How much better is this team with GG grabbing 10mins that last year went to Obekpa, Sampson, Jones ?    How much better are we with Hooper siphoning 5-10mins from Marco, Felix, Greene ?
I honestly don't think that makes a substantial difference in team performance.  With the exception of Gift getting minutes down the stretch where he would likely make 25% more fts than Chris O did.  Obviously that's only a point or two a game - but it could be crucial.

Jordan getting 25 mins that would have gone to our other guards in some combination - that should be a substantial improvement. 

But at the end of the day all I'm saying is for him - that's a bold statement to make.   Not necessarily so for us though.

Super valid point on mins available to the newbies.  How many are there?  You have Amir's 20/game.  That's a given.  No player should be on the court more than 30 so that's another 9 1/2 cutting back Dlo, Jakarr and Greene (to this I know many will disagree).  Throw Marco, Christian and Felix's minutes in the pot (about 29) and then those three have to go after a total of 58.5 along with Rysheed, Sanchez, Gift and Hooper.  I think Phil's minutes will be further cut as he won't play a lot of PG with Jordan and a healthy Branch, just back up minutes to DLo and some in a 3 guard set up at times.  But that's really the picture. 

If Rysheed and Sanchez take about 45-50 mins per game the balance will be used situationally I would bet.

Quote from: thetruth8734 on July 25, 2013, 04:15:51 PM

Maybe I'm a bit of a homer, but he says it's a 'bold' prediction, and I really don't think that's a bold prediction at all. I would be really disappointed with the amount of talent and potential this team has if they didn't challenge for the Big East title, and weren't a top 25 team most of the year.

It's a 'bold' prediction.   We went 0-6 against Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, and Providence last season.   Does more experience + Jordan & Sanchez mean we'll be competing for the conference title?   Maybe.   But we could be much improved, win 19 or 20 in the regular season, and still be quite a ways off from a conference title.
Plus, he's on the outside looking in.   Obviously we know our talent much more than most national reporters. 

Also Georgetown lost Porter, Whittington; Villanova lost Yarou, Sutton; Marquette lost Blue, Cadougan; Providence lost Council

With St. John's returning all & adding and other teams subtracting (yes they added somewhat too) it closes the gap a lot more. Is conference title in order? Who knows but there is certainly good reason behind heightened expectations this season within the conference.

Quote from: desco80 on July 26, 2013, 11:01:11 AM

Quote from: thetruth8734 on July 25, 2013, 04:15:51 PM

Maybe I'm a bit of a homer, but he says it's a 'bold' prediction, and I really don't think that's a bold prediction at all. I would be really disappointed with the amount of talent and potential this team has if they didn't challenge for the Big East title, and weren't a top 25 team most of the year.

It's a 'bold' prediction.   We went 0-6 against Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette, and Providence last season.   Does more experience + Jordan & Sanchez mean we'll be competing for the conference title?   Maybe.   But we could be much improved, win 19 or 20 in the regular season, and still be quite a ways off from a conference title.
Plus, he's on the outside looking in.   Obviously we know our talent much more than most national reporters. 

Also Georgetown lost Porter, Whittington; Villanova lost Yarou, Sutton; Marquette lost Blue, Cadougan; Providence lost Council

With St. John's returning all & adding and other teams subtracting (yes they added somewhat too) it closes the gap a lot more. Is conference title in order? Who knows but there is certainly good reason behind heightened expectations this season within the conference.

All true Dave.  As a fan, I'll be disappointed if we're not in the top 3 or so of the new league. 
 I'm just saying from a national reporter's perspective, I can see why it's a bold prediction to say we might win a conference title.