Johnny Jungle – Page 4

Keeping Things Local

December 12, 2009 by Dave Krupinski Leave a Comment

Ambiance: Run DMC – Sucker MCs We’re kicking it old school. (video link, pops up in a new window)

Dele Coker will get his 2nd start of the season. Coming off 6pt, 5reb, 5blk effort in his first start. (Image Courtesy of RedStormSports)

St. John’s and Fordham’s history dates back to 1841 when Fordham was known as St. John’s college. It wasn’t until 1907 that it was renamed to Fordham University. This will be the schools’ first meeting since 2002 when St. John’s beat Fordham at Madison Square Garden 81-58.

The Fordham Rams have had some headlines this season as their head coach Derreck Whittenburg was fired. Then interim replacement Jared Grasso was stuck trying to convince disgruntled point guard Jio Fontan to stay at the school. Fontan ultimately decided Fordham wasn’t the place for him and he was granted a conditional release.

Meanwhile in Queens, St. John’s has been on a roll grabbing some national attention playing back to back games on ESPN 2. However the injury bug keeps biting St. John’s with Anthony Mason Jr. still rocking the sweater vest on the sidelines and Justin Burrell who is out for at least another two weeks after spraining his ankle in the very first play against Duke.

Just as St. John’s fans were getting ready to chalk up number 8 in the win column, Fordham crushes Stony Brook by 16 points 93-77. So maybe just maybe Fordham can make a game of this. New coach, new attitude, new hope, and nothing to lose. Thats a dangerous combination for a “trap game” if I ever saw one.

St. John’s is building a reputation for being a tough resilient team this season however they’re also being known as a team who struggles closing out games. At Carnesecca Arena this season St. John’s has seen 2nd half leads dwindle against LIU, Brown, and Stony Brook making Red Storm fans very unsettled. Can Sunday be the day where St. John’s establishes themselves as a superior team or will they play down to the competition letting Fordham hang around?

Game Information

Tip Off: 4:00 PM, Sunday, December 13th
Location: Carnesecca Arena
TV: Storm Tracker All-Access
Radio: Bloomberg 1190/ WSJU

Team Reviews

Fordham (2-5)

5 G Lance Brown FR 6’3 195: 6.0 ppg* 2.6 rpg* 0.6 apg* 50% 3-pt

21 G Alberto Estwick SO 6’5 185: 8.0 ppg* 1.1 apg* 2.4 rpg* 1.0 spg* 26.5% 3-pt

24 G Brenton Butler SR 6’2 205: 13.3 ppg* 4.4 rpg* 2.6 apg* 29.4% 3-pt

32 F Jacob Green JR 6’9 220: 1.3 ppg* 2.7 rpg* 1.0 bpg* 27.3% FG*

33 F Chris Gaston FR 6’7 210: 17.3 ppg* 11.6 rpg* 2.7 bpg* 1.1 spg 44.9% FG

Bench:

15 F/C Fahro Alihodzic FR 6’10 235: 16.4 mpg* 3.9 ppg* 3.0 rpg* 40% FG

44 G Danny Thompson FR 6’4 200: 9.7 mpg* 2.3 ppg* 2.0 rpg* 26.7% FG

The Fordham Rams are coming off their best performance of the season beating the Seawolves of Stony Brook. In that game the Rams flourished shooting the 3 ball making 13 of 25 shots. They even managed to get to the free throw line 26 times (4 more times than their opponent).

Now their shooting was a bit of an anomaly however they are certainly capable of hitting outside shots. Their best shooter and scorer is senior Brenton Butler. He is a shooter first and foremost as over 50% of his shots are from beyond the arc. Butler is as streaky as they come though so you never know what you’re going to get. In his last two games he went 0-9 followed by 6-11 from three.

The paint is dominated by 6’7 freshman Chris Gaston. Gaston comes from great pedigree spending four years under the tutelage of Bob Hurley at St. Anthony’s and also prepping a 5th year under Dan Hurley at St. Benedict’s Prep. Gaston has been wreaking havoc averaging a double double while putting in a great effort defensively getting a steal and 3 blocks a game. He should pose as a formidable threat for St. John’s to defend.

St. John’s (7-1)

3 PG Malik Boothe JR 5’9 188: 5.1 ppg* 2.3 apg* 2.4 rpg * 2 TO/g* 1.3 spg

23 G Paris Horne JR 6’3 191: 7.8 ppg* 3.0 rpg* 0.9 spg* 31% 3-pt, 39.7% FG

1 G-F DJ Kennedy JR 6’5 215: 16.9 ppg* 4.8 rpg* 4.0 apg* 44.8% 3-pt* 54.8% FG

5 F Sean Evans JR 6’8 255: 9.3 ppg* 6.9 rpg* 47.5% FG

15 C Dele Coker JR 6’10 253: 1.9 ppg* 1.9 bpg

Bench:

12 G Dwight Hardy JR 6’2 187: 21.9 mpg* 10.4 ppg* 37.8% 3-pt

32 F Justin Brownlee JR 6’7 232: 19.5 mpg* 8.0 ppg* 4.0 rpg* 1.1 spg

11 G Omari Lawrence FR 6’4 215: 11.6 mpg* 3.1 ppg* 2.1 rpg* 1 apg

DJ Kennedy, DJ Kennedy, DJ Kennedy. Yes we hear his name all the time and for good reason. He’s been doing it all this season scoring, rebounding, passing. St. John’s is still looking for counterpart Paris Horne to step it up to boost the Red Storm’s starting scoring attack. Horne broke out of his shooting slump slightly going 3-6 from beyond the arc last game. Perhaps you can attribute his lackluster play due some nerves playing in front of many friends and family in Philadelphia? Who knows but everyone is hoping to see Mr. 50% return to form.

On the inside, St. John’s has welcomed the pleasant play of junior big man Dele Coker. Coker has provided stability rebounding the basketball as well as making teams think twice about bringing the ball anywhere near him. Coker has had 8 blocked shots in the past two games. Also what is even better is he’s only averaging 2.5 fouls per game while averaging 20mpg.

What has been the biggest difference maker for St. John’s this season has been the play of the bench. Dwight Hardy is the team’s 2nd leading scorer behind DJ Kennedy. Justin Brownlee is connecting on 50% of his shots for 8 points per game. Omari Lawrence and Malik Stith have had timely contributions as well. It’s been nice not seeing a drop off in play when guys off the bench come into the game.

Keys to the Game:

Get Back But Be On Your Toes. The Johnnies can not afford to be lackadaisical on transition defense. Fordham is not afraid to get out and run evident by the 79 total possessions in their game against Stony Brook. Getting back is just the first part as St. John’s can not settle back too much on defense because Fordham will not hesitate pulling the trigger if they have any open space on the perimeter. So get back while keeping constant pressure.

Play Your Game. It’s easy to fall into the trap of playing sloppy basketball when you play a lesser team like Fordham. If Fordham hits a few threes early on don’t try to play catch up by hoisting ill advised shots beyond the arc. Be composed, work the offense, and get quality shots. It’s only a matter of time before the cream rises to the top.

Make them Pay. Too many times do possessions result in 0-1 points when going to the free throw line. St. John’s needs to shoot better as a whole while also focusing on getting to the line period. DJ Kennedy and Sean Evans combine for 55% of the team’s FT attempts. Someone who needs to start taking it to the rack is Paris Horne who only has 8 free throw attempts in 8 games.

Know Your Role, Jabroni! Let the creators, create; let the ball handlers, handle; and let the shooters, shoot. Be ready to do whatever it is you do. Sean Evans and Justin Brownlee shouldn’t be leading the break nor should Malik Boothe and Omari Lawrence try to get a layup surrounded by 4 defenders. Coach needs to keep his players believing in their roles and show they are more successful as a unit than individuals. As Ice Cub said, Check yo’self before you wreck yo’self.

Win and Win Big. Give the fans something to cheer about. Let people know you are the real deal. Don’t tense up late in the 2nd half to hold on to your lead so you don’t lose. Build upon your lead so you win and win big. Fordham will not have the answer or the depth to keep up with St. John’s for a full 40 minutes. St. John’s needs to show them before the buzzer sounds at halftime that this game is over!

Prediction: St. John’s 88, Fordham 72. St. John’s should feed off the friendly confines of their on campus arena to jump out to an early lead. The team will hit a drought midway through the first half and take 10 point lead going into halftime. In the 2nd half the team will be on cruise control but will still build on the lead but never really bust it past 20 points. The crowd should be filled with many old school St. John’s/Fordham Alumni but expect this one to be under 4,000.

St. John's Wins Garden Opener

December 10, 2009 by Dave Krupinski Leave a Comment

The St. John’s Red Storm basketball team always likes to instill some doubt into their ever so skeptical fans this season. So if it wasn’t enough for St. John’s to stomach not having Justin Burrell in the lineup, right before tip off it was announced that DJ Kennedy, Paris Horne, and Sean Evans would not start this game due to being late for this morning’s shoot around. Yikes! Starting four new players for St. John’s first game at Madison Square Garden this season on national television on ESPN 2. Not exactly ideal, is it? No.

The game started off with a Dele Coker foul 30 seconds into the game followed by a Malik Boothe missed three pointer on the following possession. I could see the crowd getting their torches and pitchforks ready while the people at home were cursing and swearing at their TV screens.

(Chris Trotman/Getty Images) Dwight Hardy's 12 points led a balanced St. John's attack Wednesday night.

Wait! I swear this isn’t last year’s team. St. John’s is different. Dwight Hardy for 3. Justin Brownlee coast to coast to the line for 2 (he sank them both). Blocked shot Dele Coker! Brownlee turn around jumpshot. Hardy nets a broken play. Next thing you know St. John’s scores 9 straight points to take 9-3 lead before the first media time out.

Kennedy and Evans checked in right before the break and neither came out sharp in the first half. Kennedy often struggled when driving to the basket missing his first 4 attempts. On a whole the Red Storm struggled offensively mostly due to poor shot selection and overall execution.

St. John’s came out of the gate running great motion on offense but as we’ve seen before this season the offense begins to become stagnant as the game progresses resulting in scoring droughts for extended periods of time.

St. John’s went into the locker room with a 3 point lead shooting near 30% for the first half leaving a lot to be desired for their Garden debut. Also not the most impressive showing for the 2012 recruits,Omar Calhoun, Nkereuwen Okoro, and Daniel Dingle, who were taking in the sites and scenes in the stands.

St. John’s has made a habit lately of starting games off slow and coming out looking stronger in the 2nd half. The Redstorm did just that as DJ Kennedy rebounded from his slow start and took over the game finishing with 11 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. This game was never really in doubt as St. John’s won 66-56.

Lets take a look at Calm Before the Storm’s Key’s to Victory and breakdown how St. John’s fared to our pre-game analysis.

Keys to the Game:

Pack In the Defense. So Trey Thompkins finished with 7 rebounds and 17 points on 7-16 shooting. All in all Trey was Trey but St. John’s did a good job of forcing Georgia to shoot from the perimeter and didn’t allow many uncontested shots. One thing Sean Evans needs to learn is that he can’t allow his man to establish position down low on the block. Trey did an excellent job of sealing off Evans so that he never had a shot when he caught the ball. Keep pushing them out! As a team though Georgia shot 36% (18-50) so kudos to the guards for defending well.

Grade: B

Don’t Get Sucked In. This is the second straight game where the Red Storm have allowed their opponents to grab double digit offensive rebounds. The Bulldogs grabbed 11 offensive boards giving them too many extra possessions. This will come back to bite St. John’s eventually to a team who can actually put the ball in the hoop. Find a body and box out! There is no time to be spectators on the court. St. John’s needs to have more defensive awareness in protecting the basketball. To St. John’s defense though the more missed shots, the more opportunities Georgia has to grab rebounds but just imagine if we rebounded better. We could have ran all over them.

Grade: B-

Be The Talked-About Undercard. St. John’s certainly got a lot of praise from Bob Knight as he couldn’t stop talking about St. John’s past, present, and future. The talk of the town that night was certainly about John Wall and rightfully so. A win is a win though so St. John’s should be happy about some backpage coverage on the Post and Daily News.

Grade: C+

Protect the Ball. This is really the tale of two halves much like the Duke game. St. John’s looked dreadful handling the ball in the first half. Between fumbling passes and missing layups, St. John’s wasn’t valuing the basketball enough. In the second half St. John’s did a much better job of handling and running with the basketball. Late in the game the team had some unforced turnovers which were simply unnecessary. St. John’s needs to get better decision making out of Malik Boothe and overall play from the point guard position.

Grade: C

Don’t Settle. Well St. John’s wasn’t getting the calls but that didn’t stop the Red Storm from being in attack mode. Evans, Brownlee, Kennedy, Hardy, and Lawrence all took it to the rim strong. This opened up looks from the outside and St. John’s connected making 7-14 of their 3 point goals. Surprisingly Paris Horne knocked down 3-5 of his attempts while only shooting 1 shot within the arc. This might have been the best aspect of the game for the Johnnies.

Grade: A

Overall GPA: 2.75

Harkless Keeps Red Storm in Sight

December 6, 2009 by GothamHoops 1 Comment

Maurice Harkless of Forest Hills high school in Queens will be deciding his college future on Wednesday, December 9th.

Last week, the 6′7″ forward announced a list of 12 schools that he will be choosing from.

Today, Harkless has informed me that seven schools have been eliminated from contention. This means 5 schools are still in the hunt for the versatile wing.

Below is a video interview along with highlights of Harkless’ game. In the interview, the 2011 junior annonces the 5 remaining schools amongst other details of his recruiting-process:

Jay Williams Accepts Twitter Wager

December 4, 2009 by Dave Krupinski 1 Comment

Everyone enjoyed the bet JohnnyJungle.com and SienaHoops.com had for the St. Johns and Siena matchup in Philadelphia last month. In case you missed it, the losing team had to put the opponents logo up on their site for 3 days following the game. Oh don’t worry I saved a screen shot of the site when it had the St. John’s logo up.

Many people doubted St. John’s going into the Siena matchup as they do for their upcoming matchup with Duke.

I’m a competitor though and I always like issuing the challenge. So I reached out to one of my favorite tweeters, Jay Williams. If you don’t know who Jay Williams is take a break from reading this and check this out for a minute. Yes, Jay Williams might be the greatest guard of all time in Duke history.

Now Jay is busy being a college basketball analyst and commentator for ESPNU while also being a full time Twitter extraordinaire. I’ve been a little bitter that Jay has ignored my many requests for St. John’s shout outs while he was on ESPNU and tweeting during commercial breaks. I know Jay is a competitor much like myself so I put it out there to him.

It took a little while for Jay to respond but he accepted.

I’m looking for a repeat of 2000 as St. John’s was the last non ACC team to go into Cameron Indoor and come out victorious. I’m feeling pretty good too as the Krupinski family is currently 1-0 against Jay Williams. Yes my younger sister beat Jay in a game of knockout at a basketball camp quite some time ago. Don’t make me bust out the videos (Ok I’m bluffing no videos but I do have a Jay Williams T-Shirt she’ll never grow into as proof).

Expect to see one Twitter account rocking a St. John’s or Duke logo come Sunday.

St. John's Has Thunder Buzz

December 3, 2009 by Dan Bart Leave a Comment

St. John’s came into Wednesday’s game at Carnesseca Arena coming off an impressive weekend in Philadelphia, one that has created a buzz around this team which had not been seen during the Norm Roberts era. The Red Storm warmed up for their Saturday battle against Duke with a 63-55 win against the Stony Brook Seawolves.

St. John’s started off strong against the Seawolves, posting a 12-1 run to start the game. While Stony Brook started off slow, they were able to draw closer, going on a 8-2 run that drew them to within 5. But they would not gain any more ground against the Red Storm, who held control throughout the remainder of half. St. John’s went into the break staked to a 10 point lead, 30-20.

Image Courtesy of Johnny Thunderbirds Facebook

The second half was more of the same, as St. John’s and Stony Brook traded baskets for much of the period. But The Seawolves could not draw close to St. John’s, and the result of the game never seemed to be in doubt. St. John’s built the lead to as much as 18 points with 2:18 minutes left in the game. Stony Brook would make a charge during the last two minutes of the contest, but St. John’s walked away with the victory, 63-55.

Coach Roberts went with Sean Evans, Justin Burrell, DJ Kennedy, Malik Boothe, and Paris Horne as his starting 5 against the much smaller Stony Brook squad.

Sean Evans continued to build on the monster campaign that he has had thus far this season, scoring 12 points and grabbing 9 rebounds in the win. Evans continues to make an argument that he is a legitimate big man, displaying impressive low post moves on both offense and defense. Evans seems to have grown into his role as St. John’s go-to-guy down low, and he is thus far relishing in this role. Evans scored his 12 points on 5-10 shooting from the floor.

DJ Kennedy led all scorers with 19 points on 5-8 shooting from the floor, including 3-5 from beyond the three point line. He was also able to grab 5 rebounds, 2 of them on the offensive end.

Justin Burrell totaled 7 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. Burrell shot 3-5 from the floor. He appears to be injured during the first half, as he was seem grabbing his neck and then later wearing a neck brace. But he reemerged during the second half.

Malik Boothe also scored 7 points against the Seawolves, on 1-6 shooting from the floor. He did most of his damage from the three point line, going a perfect 4-4.

Justin Brownlee led all players coming off the bench with 11 points on 4-9 shooting from the field. Brownlee has been perhaps the nicest surprise for the Red Storm this year, as he has proved to be a reliable guy coming off the bench. He was also impressive on the defensive end, grabbing 7 rebounds.

Keys to Victory

Step on the Gas: During the early goings of the first half, St. John’s was able to play an up-tempo style of play that confused the Seawolves and allowed the Red Storm to build a big lead. Although the Red Storm were never really able to replicate what they did during the early 1^st half, they nonetheless were able to take advantage of Stony Brook’s main weakness and turn it into a big lead.

Grade: B

Dominate Inside: During the times of the game when St. John’s was making a run, rebounding was the key. Both teams struggled shooting the ball, and the difference was who was able to pick up the garbage and turn it into easy points. Sean Evans and Justin Brownlee served as the garbage men for St. John’s, scooping up rebounds and turning them into points. St. John’s finished the game with a 39-31 advantage in the rebounding category.

Grade: B+

The Swish Sound: DJ Kennedy certainly heard that sound against Stony Brook, as he had an impressive shooting day on his way to leading the team with 19 points. He was especially impressive shooting from beyond the arc, going 3-5 from three point land. Paris Horne and Malik Boothe did not have good games shooting the ball, but Kennedy picked up the slack and allowed St. John’s to come away with the large margin of victory.

Grade: B

Make Them Earn Every Point: During the first half St. John’s played a gritty style of basketball that was refreshing to see. The Red Storm were diving for every loose ball, harassing the Stony Brook ball handlers, and creating a general confusion among the Seawolves. It was the kind of play that beats a team like Duke. While they did not continue that play for the full 40, it was still nice to see that the Red Storm can play like that when they want to. I hope we see a full 40 minutes of that on Saturday down in Cameron.

Grade: B+

A Rolaid’s Free Ending: It seems like during the beginning of every season St. John’s has the tendency to play down to competition and not play a full 40 minutes of basketball. We saw it against Brown, and we might see it again, but they did not give in to Stony Brook on Wednesday. St. John’s built a big lead during the early goings, and were able to retain that lead. The result was never in doubt, St. John’s is 6-0.

Grade: A

Final GPA:: 3.32

« Previous Page