Best Freshmen Moving Forward

Sima and Yakwe are both potential (and likely) high-end Big East players.  Sima is very steady and will likely be more consistent.  It's always good to have the five spot covered like that for a number of years. Yakwe's college potential is limitless.  Offensively, I think he will be a guy that really knows how to get himself open and make himself available with the right angles.  He'll be an alley-oop and secondary-transition dunk machine once Lovett, Ponds, RF, and Ahmed arrive and this thing becomes a track meet.

This will be the second or third time I've hoped an SJU player would develop into one of my all-time favorites, Hakim Warrick (Sampson for sure being another).  Warrick did nothing special on offense outside of having a devastatingly quick first step when he faced up PF's from the mid to high post.  He embraced the stretch-four like I wish more kids would.  He never floated on the perimeter unnecessarily...he rebounded like a maniac....owned transition like a SF...and picked his spots wisely for high % looks.  You never saw that kid over-dribbling...he knew he was a 2-3 dribble player.  Yakwe is roughly the same height and weight...he also has a good first step and can get PFs off the bounce (but like Warrick, can't buy a FT as a freshman so getting him to the line is pointless this year). 

Mussini will be a very important four-year player.  Those of you who think he is awful or has no PG skills are just clueless.  He is the only threat to penetrate a defense on this team and it makes defending us extremely easy and puts all the pressure in the world on him.  You can make St. John's almost completely one-dimensional by stopping one guy from getting into the lane this year.  I think he is best suited for being the third guard on a very talented team.  He is the exact kind of player I hate seeing opponents bring in off the bench.  For different reasons, I felt that way about Geno, but it looks like Mussini will be lucky enough to get the talent in front of him to place him in the proper situation.  Geno would have been  hero if he played on last year's team with his guts and toughness in 15-20 minutes behind the mess that was Jordan instead of having to play 35 and be a primary scorer.

Mussini is much better than Hooper as a guard. He has a decent handle, and has shown ability to be crafty and has been able to create his own shot from time to time. He also seems to be a player who isn't afraid to take big shots, something you can't teach. The only issue is we have no guard to facilitate to Mussini, and he needs a year or two to gain muscle. By his junior year he WILL be much better than Hooper, who couldn't dribble the ball without getting it stolen, and never made one 3 when we needed one from him 2013-14.
Not to mention being on the court in crunch time and committing turnovers in two overtime losses that season against DePaul and Providence, and had we won those games we would have been in the tourney that year.

Mussini is much better than Hooper as a guard. He has a decent handle, and has shown ability to be crafty and has been able to create his own shot from time to time. He also seems to be a player who isn't afraid to take big shots, something you can't teach. The only issue is we have no guard to facilitate to Mussini, and he needs a year or two to gain muscle. By his junior year he WILL be much better than Hooper, who couldn't dribble the ball without getting it stolen, and never made one 3 when we needed one from him 2013-14.
Not to mention being on the court in crunch time and committing turnovers in two overtime losses that season against DePaul and Providence, and had we won those games we would have been in the tourney that year.

Agreed. Mussini and Hooper aren't even comparable.  Max is the most one-dimensional player in the history of college basketball.  Mussini is almost the exact opposite...he shoots well off the bounce, he creates for himself and others...he's always moving.  He takes some very difficult shots out of necessity and I think that gets overlooked.  Let this kid take 4-5 set threes a game next year and finishing some of his drives when he adds 10 pounds of muscle and our fans will be singing a different tune. 

How many high major 5'10 guards can't dribble?

How many high major 5'10 guards can't dribble?

I've met him. He's 6'