St. John’s Pregame Thoughts | The Boneyard

St. John’s Pregame Thoughts

jibsey

jibsey

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Garden. It’s their biggest game Saturday playing #1 an arch rival. We have titles, they don’t, and it’s Pitino’s biggest motivation opportunity in his new job. They got close last time, we didn’t have Clingan but Johnson had 16 in his best performance. Quick turnaround and Hurley and staff have a challenge.
 
Pitino knows it needs to be a rock fight to stand a chance and his guys will be prepared. A performance like yesterday will result on an L. But I'm sure our guys know that, and our staff is certainly reminding them.
 
I have a weird feeling this will be the game the zebras are on Pitino’s side and St John’s will be gifted a resuming boosting win.
 
They’re definitely going to be motivated and it’s getting into must-win territory

It’ll be tough for them on the road, but I fully expect them to come out ready. Sad I can’t make it to MSG for the second year in a row
 
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While I have no doubt that the Husky Horde will make MSG turn into Dog Pound West, I have a strange feeling about this game. Pitino needs this game for post season ranking purposes. Should the Red Storm win in a "hostile" environmment, would Pitino reassess his commitment to having next season's home contest played in their on campus barn?
 
St. John's had a bad loss to Xavier last night. Looking ahead to UConn? Except that they
don't the talent to overlook anybody. I think the NCAA would love to have the Johnnies in
The Dance but they seem to be headed in the wrong direction. They will be juiced on
Saturday...a [tough] win for us.
 
husky429 said:
Pitino knows it needs to be a rock fight to stand a chance and his guys will be prepared. A performance like yesterday will result on an L. But I'm sure our guys know that, and our staff is certainly reminding them.
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Rock fight is ok if called the same both ways. Since we don’t play that way normally will the refs let us play the same way if needed?

I don’t care if they allow it to turn into a scrum or call every touch foul. My issue is when they allow some stuff first half and not second…or if they call touch fouls one way and allow a mugging the other

A question about fouls…r u allowed to stand there with your hands up? It seems like often DC get called for a body foul when the offensive player moves into him
 
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We need to shoot better particularly the 3, couldn’t do worse. Hurley and staff have a challenge. I anxiously await Alex status.
 
Perhaps Pitino can come up with a game plan that holds Spencer, Newton and Karaban to 2 for 16 from three and takes Clingan out of the game entirely. This could beat UConn, except -- oh, wait -- we've just seen that it could not. I have a "strange feeling" that Pitino will come up with some other ingenious game plan that could work but won't.
 
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Sphinx said:
Perhaps Pitino can come up with a game plan that holds Spencer, Newton and Karaban to 2 for 16 from three and takes Clingan out of the game entirely. This could beat UConn, except -- oh, wait -- we've just seen that it could not. I have a "strange feeling" that Pitino will come up with some other ingenious game plan that could work but won't.
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It's going to be tough to beat us no matter what, but the game plan IS to play uber-physical and muck things up like Providence did. SHU did the same thing when they had our number.

Away from home? This is going to be a tough, tough game if it's played like yesterday. Our guys know this and will be prepared, I'm sure.
 
It'll be a tough game and I'm sure it'll be played with around a 5-8 point margin for the majority of game. I'd be a lot more worried if we were coming off a resounding win like Xavier though. Everyone involved knows last night's performance isn't going to get it done most games
 
St. John's is a very deep team. If this game becomes an even worse whistle fest than last night, we could struggle.
 
I think the template has been set for all the Big East coaches for the rest of the year.
They realize, within parameters that they can't match UConn playing their normal game.
Therefore, make a rock fight out of it. Foul early and often. Using the ref bias that they will call
an inordinate amount of fouls on UConn. If possible, get our bigs in trouble. We are not stellar at the
foul line when we get chances.
Pretty sure Pitino will follow this script. Hey you never know.
 
We just beat Xavier this week by 43, and they lost by 11 to them, so we are 54 points better ! Ok, it won't be easy but this UConn team will be ready for them. Already played several.games in MSG with lots of UConn fans, and this will be similar. DC not in the 1st matchup, so if he can just stay on the floor, things should be OK
 
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Marat said:
We just beat Xavier this week by 43, and they lost by 11 to them, so we are 54 points better ! Ok, it won't be easy but this UConn team will be ready for them. Already played several.games in MSG with lots of UConn fans, and this will be similar. DC not in the 1st matchup, so if he can just stay on the floor, things should be OK
Expand ...
Hammer UConn -53.5
 
NJHusky said:
Rock fight is ok if called the same both ways. Since we don’t play that way normally will the refs let us play the same way if needed?

I don’t care if they allow it to turn into a scrum or call every touch foul. My issue is when they allow some stuff first half and not second…or if they call touch fouls one way and allow a mugging the other

A question about fouls…r u allowed to stand there with your hands up? It seems like often DC get called for a body foul when the offensive player moves into him
Expand ...

DC gets called for fouls because he brings his arms down way too often. He needs to work on it. And also, don't go for head fakes. He is taller and longer than everyone he defends. Stay on the ground until they leave the ground. At worst, they have to make a difficult shot.
 
Castle keeps getting better and better. Last night they gave him so much room at the top of the key and he hit a few 3s and hit some mid range jumpers but him being aggressive driving and drawing contact was equally as important. Really hope he can just keep gaining confidence and take over games.
 
REB1094 said:
They’re definitely going to be motivated and it’s getting into must-win territory

It’ll be tough for them on the road, but I fully expect them to come out ready. Sad I can’t make it to MSG for the second year in a row
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Yeah I agree it will be tough for the Johnnie’s playing a game on the road
 
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Deepster said:
St John’s is honoring their 98-99 elite eight team at halftime.

You know, the team we ran off their home floor in the Big East tourney finals on our way to a national title that year. LOL
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That was a great BET final game and probably 85% UConn fans in attendance. KFree - mvp !
 
Deepster said:
St John’s is honoring their 98-99 elite eight team at halftime.

You know, the team we ran off their home floor in the Big East tourney finals on our way to a national title that year. LOL
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Maybe Rip, Khalid, Ricky, K Free, Jake and Coach Calhoun should join the festivities. A reminder of who beat them 3 times that season. They could put the first 10 minutes of the Big East final on the Jumbotron. The most dominating start to a game against a quality opponent ever
 
ucp990411 said:
Maybe Rip, Khalid, Ricky, K Free, Jake and Coach Calhoun should join the festivities. A reminder of who beat them 3 times that season. They could put the first 10 minutes of the Big East final on the Jumbotron. The most dominating start to a game against a quality opponent ever
Expand ...

Featuring one of the best fast breaks you’ll ever see capped by a KFree dunk.
 
This is closer to a vintage Pitino team than I think people might realize given that it's his first season. That doesn't mean they're great, but the portal can work wonders for a guy who's probably better at recruiting to a system than developing. Hurley's teams should be better equipped to handle the rugged style and frantic pace than the later-years Calhoun/Ollie teams (which infamously stumbled to a 1-9 mark against the Cards from 2010-14), but Karaban's potential absence could complicate things.

I know they've already played once this season, so nothing should come as a shock. But this is not the team of stereotypical overachieving mid-major players I thought they'd be when Pitino assembled this group. They might have one or two players like that (notably Ledlum), but for the most part it's a stable of impressive-looking athletes that can bully you if you don't come ready.
 
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