Xavier Game 2

"We are SJU"  said it all!. They are a super defensive team and we struggle w/ offence.  Their D was magnificent all game and it forced us to play w/o passion and revert to our perimeter game for 24 seconds then, many times, rush a long distance shot and they just weren't dropping tonight.
Every time our point went into the paint we were rewarded with a pass, a goal or a free throw but even that produced 2 or three turnovers.
Their defense was the best of all those I saw this year.

We embarrassed ourselves out there tonight. Terrible effort.  Lavin didn't coach a good game either. Bad lineups, we don't press enough, our guys played with no guts.  How do we let Reynolds get 16 rebounds and the PG get 10 assists?  We crapped the bed.  They didn't wnt it and played like pu$$ies...

Defense was so bad tonight.

Defense wasn't the problem, we still held them below their average. This was 100% on the offense. Have to give Xavier credit, they packed in the zone and dared us to shoot it and we couldn't do that tonight. Team played real tight on offense, D'lo is struggling. He reminds me of John Starks.   

Kids let one go tonight. I cant complain to much about lavin when the kids missed so many opportunities. Big free throws, front end of 1 and 1's. So many missed chippies. And damn Dlo, I love you to death, but he absolutely killed us tonight.

I haven't been this disappointed about a game all year.

@jeffborzello: Had a St. John's alum text me: "One of the most significant losses in program history." Could be true. Likely means no NCAA. Buzz dissipates

In arguably the biggest game of the season we played like garbage except karr. No excuses and don't want to hear anymore BS scenarios to get to NCAAs, let the season play out and make the damn tournament or season is a failure. And if we don't maybe those that think we would have made the T last year with Dlo will stop the nonsense. He played the whole game like he was in a fog, totally lifeless, no emotion. If we can't make with Dlo as a junior and everyone else with another years experience and with additions of GG, O, Max and Sheed no way we make it last year. Nice call by those saying we would win by double digits or 15+, for crying out loud how could you not see this as a tough game which I would have been ecstatic to win by one point. Some people need to get or buy a clue!

Can't jump on the fans too much when this team does not win constantly...there are fans out there (Good showing at Nova). It takes more then mini win streaks to get a crowd to consitantly show up...especially to a new BE member... This was a chance to bring the buzz back and the game was hard to watch on TV let alone live.

A reason could be that this team is emotionally tired, between the high the winning streak, to injuries babies and close family members dieing, the players are distracted.

As of right now they still control their destiny but they just have to keep winning, that includes the BET...

Turns out the fans who didn't go to this game were the smart ones and didn't have to pay $75 a ticket to witness this abortion. You want fans to come to SJU games you have to be a big time winner.

IMO what aspect of the game most responsible for getting us beat was BALL SCREENS both on offense and defense. Why don't we ever fight over the top of a screen? No we go under, get confused and they wind up with a lay up. We screen and get nowhere or miss the right pass to make. We had been improving some what on D of screens but tonight we were terrible.

After this loss I don't see  us getting in even if we win the next 4 and lose in the BET champ game. We would enter the BET with a 1-7 record against non-bubble NCAA tournament teams, 2-2 vs bubble teams with 2 other really bad losses. Let's say we beat Xavier in rd 1, Creighton/Nova in rd 2, and then lose to Creighton/Nova in the champ game that gives us 3 wins against single digit seeded tournament teams. That's bad

Thought this game was there for the taking in the first half. Harrison, Jordan, Sampson, Sanchez all on the bench and Xavier went on 8 pt run after St. John's built a 4 point lead. Can't have Branch, Greene, and Pointer out there because none of those want to or can shoot.

If you extend that 4 point lead to anything 6,8,10 then this changes the game.

The mental defensive lapses at the end of the game were unforgivable. Shooting more 3 pointers than FT is a problem.

Basically handed an inferior Xavier team a berth by going 0-2 against them.

Thought this game was there for the taking in the first half. Harrison, Jordan, Sampson, Sanchez all on the bench and Xavier went on 8 pt run after St. John's built a 4 point lead. Can't have Branch, Greene, and Pointer out there because none of those want to or can shoot.

If you extend that 4 point lead to anything 6,8,10 then this changes the game.

The mental defensive lapses at the end of the game were unforgivable. Shooting more 3 pointers than FT is a problem.

Basically handed an inferior Xavier team a berth by going 0-2 against them.

Agree Dave. Lavin supposedly likes to experiment with various combinations of players for what seems to be just about the whole season long it is mystifying as to how he cannot see that you can't have 5 guys on the court at the same time none of which can score. Hello Steve! Anybody home?

Thought this game was there for the taking in the first half. Harrison, Jordan, Sampson, Sanchez all on the bench and Xavier went on 8 pt run after St. John's built a 4 point lead. Can't have Branch, Greene, and Pointer out there because none of those want to or can shoot.

If you extend that 4 point lead to anything 6,8,10 then this changes the game.

The mental defensive lapses at the end of the game were unforgivable. Shooting more 3 pointers than FT is a problem.

Basically handed an inferior Xavier team a berth by going 0-2 against them.

I agree with you, Dave.  For all of the depth we have, we don't have a lot of scoring pop.  The second Harrison comes out, we are well below average scoring the ball.  You have to have two of Harrison/Sampson/Jordan on the floor.

The one thing I disagree with you about is  that Greene can't shoot.  He can, but in that lineup he is the only scorer. 

After this loss I don't see  us getting in even if we win the next 4 and lose in the BET champ game. We would enter the BET with a 1-7 record against non-bubble NCAA tournament teams, 2-2 vs bubble teams with 2 other really bad losses. Let's say we beat Xavier in rd 1, Creighton/Nova in rd 2, and then lose to Creighton/Nova in the champ game that gives us 3 wins against single digit seeded tournament teams. That's bad

Ridiculous. 

If we win the next four game--one on the road against a top 100 RPI, and two more on a neutral court against a top 50-60 RPI team and a top ten RPI team, we are completely in with room to spare. 

This loss really hurt...RPIForecast.com has us falling ten spots to #63.  You just can't lose at home this late in the season without it being destructive.  We can make up for it with a win @Marquette.  Depaul is a win.  I maintain that 21 gets us in.  It doesn't matter how we get there.

Quote from: goredmen on February 26, 2014, 01:30:25 AM

After this loss I don't see  us getting in even if we win the next 4 and lose in the BET champ game. We would enter the BET with a 1-7 record against non-bubble NCAA tournament teams, 2-2 vs bubble teams with 2 other really bad losses. Let's say we beat Xavier in rd 1, Creighton/Nova in rd 2, and then lose to Creighton/Nova in the champ game that gives us 3 wins against single digit seeded tournament teams. That's bad

Ridiculous. 

If we win the next four game--one on the road against a top 100 RPI, and two more on a neutral court against a top 50-60 RPI team and a top ten RPI team, we are completely in with room to spare. 

This loss really hurt...RPIForecast.com has us falling ten spots to #63.  You just can't lose at home this late in the season without it being destructive.  We can make up for it with a win @Marquette.  Depaul is a win.  I maintain that 21 gets us in.  It doesn't matter how we get there.

Just too many squandered opportunities this entire season to instill confidence we are capable of such a run. We just dug ourselves too deep a hole to begin with. Dave's comment about that four minute period last night and absence of any fire power is spot on.

@jeffborzello: Had a St. John's alum text me: "One of the most significant losses in program history." Could be true. Likely means no NCAA. Buzz dissipates

His brother? haha

Quote from: paultzman on February 26, 2014, 12:01:41 AM

@jeffborzello: Had a St. John's alum text me: "One of the most significant losses in program history." Could be true. Likely means no NCAA. Buzz dissipates

His brother? haha

That post was over the top for sure. I can, like others, easily recite far worse losses through the years. Lol  Silly post on my part, that reflected my state of mind, returning from that debacle last night. I should be getting better dealing with SJU shortfalls. Ha

Last nights loss was inexcusable.  Most of the guys were totally lifeless out there (and rysheed and Orlando were not, for what it's worth).  The lineup Dave described was atrocious - when that lineup was put in me and my buddy were discussing how there would be no way we would perform well there. I think most of us fans could realize that - why can't coach?

That said, while the result was similar to early season, you could tell that aside from a few blunders by coach, this loss is on the players.  Lavin can't help them shoot better than 33 pct from the field or 50 pct from the line.  That's on them.  Dlo looked like he was trying out to be an extra on the walking dead.  Dom has looked clueless out there for multiple games.  Guys just standing around looking confused.  I don't know how you go on the run we did, play nova close on the road like we did, and in years most impt game we lay a huge egg.

I do think we still get in the dance by winning our next 4 and losing in BET.  Marillac is confident we get in with 21.  I say it's a 50/50 toss up at 21, and I don't like our chances considering our dearth of resume building victories. Though our SOS will help there and the fact we played nova creighton and cuse so close in losses as well. 22 is still the magic guaranteed number, the season is not over ( isn't even over if we lose the next 2 since the BET is winnable now as opposed to the last few years), but we have to play much much better than that.

Lavin shouldn't be blamed for kids being lifeless in the most impt game of the season.  If you can't get up for games now while on the bubble you shouldn't be playin high level D1 ball.

Lavin shouldn't be blamed for kids being lifeless in the most impt game of the season.  If you can't get up for games now while on the bubble you shouldn't be playin high level D1 ball.

Doesn't he claim to be a motivator?  Doesn't he thrive off of those speeches to rally the troops?