Brights spots: Yalwe and Ellison. Yakwe is aggressive and he contributed today. Made some nice progress. Needs to learn how to defend guys like #41. Yakwe didn't once deny him the ball. That needs to be taught by someone.
Ellison went to the basket, and looked much better doing it. He was our best player today.
The Ugly: No improvement in overall effort. As a group, these guys just don't play hard. Mullin is here to bring gritty NYC basketball back to St.John's. Johnson and M'vouika were brought here to set that tone. They aren't. Maybe we'll see more of Yakwe and Ellison. Mullin is going to have to keep finding ways to make them better. I think a lot of us would just like to see the 5 guys that work the hardest. Mussini dribbling the ball behind his back when it's not needed is the kind of thing the staff has to call attention to. It seems like they aren't calling attention to anything. We play with a low IQ.
The Stupid: Sima? What are you doing? That was a very previous staff recruit thing to do. Players recruited by this current staff don't pick up technicals fouls by hanging on the run after a dunk.
Disagree on the "overall effort" comment. I thought they played hard but shot themselves in the foot by shooting poorly and making a few critical boneheaded plays. Creighton is an experienced, well coached team who was terrible just last season. I expect us to be a more talented version of that in two years.
We made Creighton look like a great team because we didn't contest their offense. That takes effort. Move your damn feet. But instead, we just stand around and pretend to defend. Durand Johnson plays his Avery Patterson dainty girl defense, and M'vouika and Mussini just keep their feet planted. No one boxes out for rebounds. No one denies the ball to their big men.
This was another lazy, and sloppy effort. Some of what happened is because of a lack of talent, but a lot of it could improve if they played harder. Pass the ball the ball like you mean it. Put something on it. If you're on offense, f'n move it. Move to get open. But we don't bother to put that effort in.
I wonder if Brian Mahoney was sitting there yesterday thinking, hey, they're running my offense?