Big East January '26 Thread - Take Two | Page 17 | The Boneyard

Big East January '26 Thread - Take Two

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jibsey said:
In case no one has noticed St. John’s has been beating teams in the BE rather easily compared to us. Some concern as I don’t like them or their coach.
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I’d be more concerned if it wasn’t for their one lost being to the last place team at home.
 
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Tyler2Rings said:
People are more concerned about playing StJ now that they blew out Butler? We blew them out at home too
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St johns has gotten better, we have not. Will need to play better or some losses are on the horizon. Very little margin of error to capture the 1 seed path.
 
Fan1978 said:
St johns has gotten better, we have not. Will need to play better or some losses are on the horizon. Very little margin of error to capture the 1 seed path.
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And they have a good roster, and coach. It was always going to take time for Pitino to pull this group together.
 
Fan1978 said:
St johns has gotten better, we have not. Will need to play better or some losses are on the horizon. Very little margin of error to capture the 1 seed path.
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They were down 15 to Seton Hall at home 2 games ago. They’ve gotten better because their low point was losing to Providence at home.

That’s not to say we don’t need to be on point heading into the game, but that’s not the reason why.
 
I get that Matta does not have the budget that other schools have, but Ajayi and Bizjack could not have been cheap. Why does he go for so many unathletic players? Bizjack is a perfect example. He has major "game". He has moves on top of moves, and can do them in succession without hesitation. He has tremendous court vision and can get his shot off quickly and accurately, and he does really well against the weaker teams on the schedule. But he is so slow that as soon as he runs up against a top tier athlete, he is pretty easy to shut down.

I think you could hide his lack of athleticism if he was surrounded by top athletes, but Ajayi is pretty athletic, and then it is a bunch of meh. Decent players, but no blazers, which means good teams can D up aggressively. I do think Jackson's injury was a HUGE loss because he was quick and could have forced more help and gotten Bizjack more space.

This has been a problem for Matta every year at Butler. The lack of athleticism also shows up in the KenPom DRtg, which is pretty bad at 95. It was 76 in 2024 and 169 last year. This issue makes them more upsettable than more athletic teams, and results in just enough losses to keep them out of the tournament. The 2024 Butler team was decent, but they had the same issue and they ended up not getting a bid. They were 16-8 in early February 2024, but lost 6 of their last 8, including very winnable games to Villanova, Seton Hall and Xavier, and didn't make the dance.

This year's Butler could win a play in game if they get a bid, but I don't see them getting past that.
 
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Fan1978 said:
No point, he will be at st johns within 2 years
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Why? This isn’t a situation where Pitino should be able to hand pick his successor after only 3 or 4 seasons. SJU has money to spend I hope they can go bigger and better than Pitino Jr.
 
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REB1094 said:
St Johns caught fire from 3 and is smoking Butler at halftime

Butler needs this win. They have very limited opportunities for impressive wins after this one
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bendm said:
Why? This isn’t a situation where Pitino should be able to hand pick his successor after only 3 or 4 seasons. SJU has money to spend I hope they can go bigger and better than Pitino Jr.
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I am sure rick has it spelled out in his deal with repole. Do you even where st johns was 3 years ago. His son will be next coach, no doubt
 
Fan1978 said:
I am sure rick has it spelled out in his deal with repole. Do you even where st johns was 3 years ago. His son will be next coach, no doubt
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Quite the theory. why would Repole be beholden to Pitino after he’s retired? Pitino wanted a shot at redemption as much as SJU wanted to be relevant. If anyone’s calling the shots it’s the guy with the money so Use the money to get a better coach than Pitino Jr.
 
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jibsey said:
Does anyone have the stats on St. John’s defensive rating?
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Some additional stats...

St. John's
95th
FG% (46.9)
89th
3P% (35.8)
42nd
Pts (1793)
70th
Reb (35.0)

UConn
46th
FG% (48.2)
114th
3P% (35.3)
143rd
Pts (1653)
110th
Reb (33.8)
 
SwingDog said:
Some additional stats...

St. John's
95th
FG% (46.9)
89th
3P% (35.8)
42nd
Pts (1793)
70th
Reb (35.0)

UConn
46th
FG% (48.2)
114th
3P% (35.3)
143rd
Pts (1653)
110th
Reb (33.8)
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Sure looks like we are DOOMED!!!!!
 
bendm said:
Quite the theory. why would Repole be beholden to Pitino after he’s retired? Pitino wanted a shot at redemption as much as SJU wanted to be relevant. If anyone’s calling the shots it’s the guy with the money so Use the money to get a better coach than Pitino Jr.
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Time will tell, last good coach was carniseca. Not a great job. No big names clamoring for st johns job. It will be young pitino
 
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Fan1978 said:
Time will tell, last good coach was carniseca. Not a great job. No big names clamoring for st johns job. It will be young pitino
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Open up the checkbook for Shaheen. He’d kill it in nyc.
 
jibsey said:
The 114th on 3’s has to change if we are to be great.
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Absolutely. UConn is deficient in athleticism and their intricate offense is based on shooting from the perimeter well and this team really does not do that well consistently. I watch a lot of college basketball besides UConn, and I don't see teams miss as many wide open 3s as UConn does. That isn't undeniable proof driven by data-I am saying that more anecdotally. Regardless, this team cannot miss so many open shots especially of the catch and shoot variety where no defenders are within close proximity of them. Hurley bluntly stated this in the post game press conference after the Providence game.
 
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If solo was still shooting 40% from 3 I don’t think there’d be any slump to speak of. Felt like he never missed last year.
 
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gsmooth said:
Absolutely. UConn is deficient in athleticism and their intricate offense is based on shooting from the perimeter well and this really does not do that well consistently. I watch a lot of college basketball besides UConn, and I don't see teams miss as many wide open 3s as UConn does. That isn't undeniable proof driven by data-I am saying that more anecdotally. Regardless, this team cannot miss so many open shots especially of the catch and shoot variety where no defenders are within close proximity of them. Hurley bluntly stated this in the post game press conference after the Providence game.
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I think we are 150th in 3pt % in the country - was supposed to be a critical strength of ours. Given AK & Demary are shooting at a high %, most of our issues begin/start with Solo. This is really important to right size because as you've said, we aren't winning many games with our athletecism. There are teams out there with a tons more - Houston has ridiculous athletes between Cenac, Fleming, Tugler, even Uzan. AZ & UM have been talked about.

One team I'm not sleeping on is Iowa St. They have a plus older PG, Joshua Jefferson & Milovic who is shooting 53% from three.
 
Solo has taken 130 3’s at 28%. It’s far more than any other player on the team so it’s been hurting us. 2 possibilities. One he is overdue and will go on a big run of makes or 2 he’s hurt and this goes on and on. Smith, Silas, and Alex are very good from 3 % wise. Mullins 34% would be better without the 35 footers, and Stew and Ross at 35% and 30%on low volume.
Should Solo be restricted on 3’s at this point is the question?
 
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jibsey said:
Solo has taken 130 3’s at 28%. It’s far more than any other player on the team so it’s been hurting us. 2 possibilities. One he is overdue and will go on a big run of makes or 2 he’s hurt and this goes on and on. Smith, Silas, and Alex are very good from 3 % wise. Mullins 34% would be better without the 35 footers, and Stew and Ross at 35% and 30%on low volume.
Should Solo be restricted on 3’s at this point is the question?
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No, not when it's not hurting the team and he's doing everything else well. If you start trying to change that you risk him losing his confidence and all the other parts of his game going wrong as well
 
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