St John's Injury Update Pt 2

[Hey Adrien!]

No Luis = bigger problem for St. John's than no Smith.

I like Smith, but the backcourt "doesn't need him as much" with Richmond as the star and Wilcher a more than competent co-star.

No Luis means a huge change to their non-bigs frontcourt. You still have Scott, who's a solid x-factor who can play the 3 or 4, but he's not an impact piece. Last game with Luis out, Sadiku Ibine Ayo (6.6 mpg) got the start and Ruben Prey (8 mpg) played backup minutes at 5 and 4.

Both Ayo/Prey are excellent defenders, but are also incredibly limited on offense. Ayo keeps his game simple while Prey has more of an offensive ceiling, but is woefully inefficient.

Pitino is the Belicheck of CBB, if I were to bet, Luis plays Sunday and took a "load management day" against a woeful DePaul squad.

 

[RuffRuff]

Last year was about 60/40 StJ and the UConn presence was loud. This year? Does Storrs south make its presence known?



A win Sunday would be sweet

 

[CTBasketball]

No Luis = bigger problem for St. John's than no Smith.

I like Smith, but the backcourt "doesn't need him as much" with Richmond as the star and Wilcher a more than competent co-star.

No Luis means a huge change to their non-bigs frontcourt. You still have Scott, who's a solid x-factor who can play the 3 or 4, but he's not an impact piece. Last game with Luis out, Sadiku Ibine Ayo (6.6 mpg) got the start and Ruben Prey (8 mpg) played backup minutes at 5 and 4.

Both Ayo/Prey are excellent defenders, but are also incredibly limited on offense. Ayo keeps his game simple while Prey has more of an offensive ceiling, but is woefully inefficient.

Pitino is the Belicheck of CBB, if I were to bet, Luis plays Sunday and took a "load management day" against a woeful DePaul squad.

They will all play.

 

[Umami Zen]

No Luis = bigger problem for St. John's than no Smith.

I like Smith, but the backcourt "doesn't need him as much" with Richmond as the star and Wilcher a more than competent co-star.

No Luis means a huge change to their non-bigs frontcourt. You still have Scott, who's a solid x-factor who can play the 3 or 4, but he's not an impact piece. Last game with Luis out, Sadiku Ibine Ayo (6.6 mpg) got the start and Ruben Prey (8 mpg) played backup minutes at 5 and 4.

Both Ayo/Prey are excellent defenders, but are also incredibly limited on offense. Ayo keeps his game simple while Prey has more of an offensive ceiling, but is woefully inefficient.

Pitino is the Belicheck of CBB, if I were to bet, Luis plays Sunday and took a "load management day" against a woeful DePaul squad.

Question for @Hey Adrien! .. Ayo is listed on St John's roster as a forward. Luis being listed as a guard/forward. Ayo is listed at 6'6''. Seems like Pitino is ok with his guard rotation without Luis (as a swing player). My question-Ayo put up 15 pts last game- Was he primarily playing the SF position as opposed to Luis's swing position? I did not see game tape and I'm curious if Pitino is matching him with Kadary as a guard -with Luis out- or as only a SF. Understand positionless ball and maybe its as simple as that. My interest comes from how we match up with Ayo if Wilcher or Smith are not on the floor with Richmond and Ayo is. Thx

BTW. Pitino mentioned in an interview that Richmond has the same injury as Luis and he was still able to play. Pitino stated he was impressed with Richmond's toughness. Pitino called it a "strained groin".

 

[auror]

Question for @Hey Adrien! .. Ayo is listed on St John's roster as a forward. Luis being listed as a guard/forward. Ayo is listed at 6'6''. Seems like Pitino is ok with his guard rotation without Luis (as a swing player). My question-Ayo put up 15 pts last game- Was he primarily playing the SF position as opposed to Luis's swing position? I did not see game tape and I'm curious if Pitino is matching him with Kadary as a guard -with Luis out- or as only a SF. Understand positionless ball and maybe its as simple as that. My interest comes from how we match up with Ayo if Wilcher or Smith are not on the floor with Richmond and Ayo is. Thx

BTW. Pitino mentioned in an interview that Richmond has the same injury as Luis and he was still able to play. Pitino stated he was impressed with Richmond's toughness. Pitino called it a "strained groin".

They used Ayo in a ton of different lineups, basically every possible combination of Smith, Richmond, and Wilcher next to him, including all 3 plus Ayo and a center at times.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Question for @Hey Adrien! .. Ayo is listed on St John's roster as a forward. Luis being listed as a guard/forward. Ayo is listed at 6'6''. Seems like Pitino is ok with his guard rotation without Luis (as a swing player). My question-Ayo put up 15 pts last game- Was he primarily playing the SF position as opposed to Luis's swing position? I did not see game tape and I'm curious if Pitino is matching him with Kadary as a guard -with Luis out- or as only a SF. Understand positionless ball and maybe its as simple as that. My interest comes from how we match up with Ayo if Wilcher or Smith are not on the floor with Richmond and Ayo is. Thx

BTW. Pitino mentioned in an interview that Richmond has the same injury as Luis and he was still able to play. Pitino stated he was impressed with Richmond's toughness. Pitino called it a "strained groin".

I didn't watch the game either, but based on what I know about his game -- I watched him quite a bit live when he was at Iona -- and how it has developed, he's best described as an undersized rim-running four with a little bit of stretch ability, a la a smaller poor man's version of Whaley...lots of energy, grit.

 

[Scoe]

He's gonna play I want Ross to play just to do 1 thing to Luis. You could probably take a wild guess what that is.

 

[August_West]

Were you asleep when Luis buried all of those dagger/onions mid range jumpers at Gampel?

When he wasnt, Kaday Richmond was doing Kadary Richmond things to UConn. Cant wait until that kid is gone. He just has killed us ever since he left Syracuse.

 

[imno1]

Last year was about 60/40 StJ and the UConn presence was loud. This year? Does Storrs south make its presence known?



A win Sunday would be sweet

I think it will be a bigger ST J crowd this year as more jump on the bandwagon. Hopefully we can quiet them

 

[HooperScooper]

He's gonna play I want Ross to play just to do 1 thing to Luis. You could probably take a wild guess what that is.

This?

 

[Scoe]

This?

I shouldn't go that far lol, wouldn't wish that on my wish enemy. But seriously I could see Ross having a role in this game if he's used right, even if he plays 2 minutes would to see use up fouls in this game, can't be soft against the Johnnies, can't have a slow start in this one. I wouldn't mind Hurley picking up a tech in this game as long as it's early.

 

[RuffRuff]

Tickets for this game are skyrocketing - to walk in the door right now you’re looking at 200 minimum.

 

[jibsey]

Just make their fans go home unhappy.

 

[ConnecticutBB]

UCONN will be Game Ready!!!!!

 

[jpeakin]

Tickets for this game are skyrocketing - to walk in the door right now you’re looking at 200 minimum.

Similar tickets that I bought a couple weeks ago are going for 3x what I paid for them on Ticketmaster today

 

[jpeakin]

This?

Zero chance Hurley would ever react so harshly

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Tickets for this game are skyrocketing - to walk in the door right now you’re looking at 200 minimum.

Very grateful I got mine for $80 (lower rows 200 lever) all-in back in August!

Yeah, since Covid, prices for anything at MSG have gone through the roof. Not too long ago I used to sneak into weeknight Rangers games for $50. But with St. John's being so bad for so long, it's not a surprise that the market is pricing this out as if it were a high profile Knicks/Rangers game, which you could argue for St. John's fans this is their Super Bowl.

I've gone to a lot of UConn at Seton Hall games (easy drive, cheaper), so I think this is my first UConn at St. John's game since Kemba's freshman season went he went off for 21 off the bench.

 

[alexd]

Tickets for this game are skyrocketing - to walk in the door right now you’re looking at 200 minimum.

Even 400's in the stratosphere of the endzone are $135+ on Seat Geek.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

Even 400's in the stratosphere of the endzone are $135+ on Seat Geek.

It’s like how Detroit Lions tickets became the most expensive ticket in football recently. Last year I got SJU season tickets, sold them all for about 40-50 a pop and kept the UConn ticket. Went for free basically.

 

[nycscooby]

So it's confirmed RJ Luis is playing Sunday.

Ha ha, 1000%!!

 

[nycscooby]

I think it will be a bigger ST J crowd this year as more jump on the bandwagon. Hopefully we can quiet them

It was slightly over 50/50 SJU last year in my opinion it looks like more SJU because they have the bast majority of the seats in the lower bowl. That said, I expect many more SJU fans there tomorrow. Best season since 84-85 and they are all in! Even those that have tix but can’t make it tomorrow are pressured to sell or give them to SJU rather than put them on the secondary market. I expect we will show up tomorrow but it could easily be 2/3 SJU fans.

 

[Scoe]

St Johns is gonna have bandwagon celebrity fans there. Is Hurley gonna get into it with Spike Lee? Like I said earlier I'm ok with Hurley getting td up in this game so long as it's early, same thing with picking up an early flagrant to set the tone so long as it's someone like Ross.

 

[jibsey]

St Johns is gonna have bandwagon celebrity fans there. Is Hurley gonna get into it with Spike Lee? Like I said earlier I'm ok with Hurley getting td up in this game so long as it's early, same thing with picking up an early flagrant to set the tone so long as it's someone like Ross.

Yeah. Where have they been the last 20 years!

 

[Hey Adrien!]