St. John's Post Game Thread

[sdglast]

Alluded to this already in last post game thread about Stewart, but same goes for Ross. Just shocked at how the year has gone for him as well. Not at all what I expected from either of them.

Free throws and turnovers ultimately did us in (Silas had 9?!?!), but Ross throwing it away out of a timeout was the back breaker in my opinion.

Rather have the loss now, PBA better be ROCKIN come a few Wednesdays. Buying my tickets as we speak.

Ross is just intimidated by any team who presses. It's like a hand grenade for him. He is overwhelmed. Neither he nor Stewart has really progressed this year. I would like to have seen at least one of them play solidly tonight. Neither gave us much.

 

[KingAG]

I thought Solo played well, didn't force it. Not much to complain about. 2-5 from 3 is fine. That block erasing a fast break was great!

I’m not saying he played bad. He just wasn’t as impactful as we’ve grown to expect

 

[KingAG]

So SJ struggled inbounding the ball too? I don't recall one in this game.

We didn’t full court press them…

 

[jibsey]

At Nova and SJ at home are possible

We’re beating SJ at home.

 

[sdglast]

You're overreacting. We have our flaws but we're one of the best teams in the country, tonight didn't change that.

I could not agree more. UConn has a ton of quality wins. I judge teams by how they play when the don't have their best, and this team even tonight was right there to win. Other teams would have gotten obliterated, but UConn is as tough-minded a team as I have seen. Yes, they have their flaws, but I still think they have their best basketball in front of them.

 

[HCCForever]

What's up with Silas slipping? His feet went out from under at least three tmes.

Solo is always slipping as well and ending up on his butt. I don’t recall it happening in this game however.

 

[Lefty2one]

St. John's played very well. Tough and aggressive and Zuby had a huge night.

Sloppy turnovers and missed FT. Kinda impressive we lost a game while shooting 54% from the floor and 47% from deep.

Silas was incredible for stretches and abysmal for others but I think he needed the experience of a Big East war like this. Fairly certain he won't have 9 turnovers in the rematch in three weeks.

We lost a winnable game on the road vs a good opponent. On to the next one.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

I’m not saying he played bad. He just wasn’t as impactful as we’ve grown to expect

He wasn’t really impactful at all. I understand the gravity he attracts, but good-to-great players deal with it better. AK was great ij the second half and he attracts similar gravity. It’s hard to not be somewhat disappointed in Solo right now.

 

[TheShot1990]

Not sure why anybody is worried. They need to be better. We nearly lost to PC. This team has to make FTs, stop turning it over and execute. This game helps them towards that. Losses make you better. This was overdue and necessary

Agree with all of this and I’m not worried.

I just need to help Danny come up with a play on inbounding the ball quicker.

I also need to have a little talk with Eric‘s parents and explain that he’s not quite ready for the NBA just yet. But we will get him there

 

[FearThePups]

And at least he had fight in him! He was a dog! Some of our other players want to be gentlemen. Frick that, man! Show some fight. AK no show and look scared.

I really miss Cam

 

[ArizonaHsky]

You don’t watch much CBB huh? They all do.

We didn’t trap or press SJ

They all do, lol. Obviously you don't watch much CBB

 

[RitzLuce1]

We’re beating SJ at home.

They have punked us 3 times in a row. People are saying they are a bad matchup for us because they are physical and athletic. Well they will still be more physical and athletic when we play them at home. So what’s the solution? I see nothing other than Big East ref conspiracy theories.

 

[Donyell 360]

What's up with Silas slipping? His feet went out from under at least three tmes.

SJ's D was giving him trouble. They were very physical. Silas is not soft but hopefully next time we meet he will be more prepared for the level of physicality. Reed also fell a couple of times. Fatigue may be a factor. It would help if Silas could get some rest with solid backup PG play.

 

[Kolumbo]

Big time matchup and the refs called 3 fouls in the first 50 seconds. This is not the Original Big East. Either let them play or don't but the random calls and no calls make the game unwatchable. the FT disparity in this kind of rock fight makes no sense. Of course UConn got bullied. Yes we grabbed but the calls on Reed, come on. He literally had to stay flat on his feet down the stretch because he can't touch anyone. Free throws will sink this team if they can't fix 'em. Outscored by 17 at the line? That's what you call a slow painful watch.

Anyway, the game in Hartford will be much different. This was SJU's biggest game of the season and they were super amped in front of their home crowd. Definitely outhustled us on defense.

 

[giddyup]

We aren’t a top 5 team. Can’t rebound, can’t hit free throws, can’t defend, can’t beat pressure. Smith was unplayable forcing Silas to get worn down by the end. We shot well but were terrible at everything else. The elite 8 is the ceiling for the team.

Perhaps a bit over the top. However, we are not playing like an elite level squad and have been dodging way too many arrows. Honestly, this team is marginally better than last year’s and is not a front horse NC contender. I assume we can get to week 2 but not sure we survive it. The team is just too inconsistent over 40 minutes.

 

[RuffRuff]

Ross had that brilliant save and fall away in first half but then throws lazy pass which ends up as breakaway for SJ in second half. Needed consistency.

That pass was killer - at a point where we were closing in with some momentum. It was so bad. There are some guys on this team that are hard to trust when it's crunch time. We did close it to two a number of times after that. Darling killed us, the offensive rebounds killed us. We were right there.

 

[uconnfan68]

Let’s just be honest- this game had a lot to do with how the refs called the game- pretty obvious- people talking about we don’t know how break the press- that’s silly- only turnover we had the entire game in the backcourt was the first & only time that Silas inbounded the ball- Karaban inbounded most of the game & it was easy for Silas to get open.

Would say the refs & missing foul shots were the main reason for the loss- obviously Malachi didn’t play well either.

Not sure how they called that foul on the defensive player of the year in the conference verse a backup point guard on St. John’s- pretty bizarre.

I didn’t understand why Silas was doing the inbounding on that. Hadn’t done that all night, and probably for the last month.

 

[RitzLuce1]

Big time matchup and the refs called 3 fouls in the first 50 seconds. This is not the Original Big East. Either let them play or don't but the random calls and no calls make the game unwatchable. the FT disparity in this kind of rock fight makes no sense. Of course UConn got bullied. Yes we grabbed but the calls on Reed, come on. He literally had to stay flat on his feet down the stretch because he can't touch anyone. Free throws will sink this team if they can't fix 'em.

Anyway, the game in Hartford will be much different. This was SJU's biggest game of the season and they were super amped. Definitely outhustled us on defense.

Why will it be much different?

Why wasn’t it UConn’s biggest game of the season seeing it was our first game against them since they embarrassed us last year?

 

[jibsey]

Agree with all of this and I’m not worried.

I just need to help Danny come up with a play on inbounding the ball quicker.

I also need to have a little talk with Eric‘s parents and explain that he’s not quite ready for the NBA just yet. But we will get him there

We got the ball in under pressure pretty good but there were some mistakes. They pressured every inbounds. And Eric should be back for at least 2 years I would think.

 

[AdamaNation]

too many mistakes and ran into a team that made us pay the bill this time...

Out hustled, out played and out coached tonight. But it's one game. I hope we learned something.

We hung. Fun game to watch. Early turnovers hurt us but we started to tighten up. We went nose to nose. Silas has pride. What was the deal with all the stumbling tripping and falling??!!

 

[Spaceman213J]

Karaban was solid, and Mullins was good early on, but the rest of the team all had of being awful. The team has to rebound, including rebounding as a team. I'm sick of watching plays where 2 or 3 guys box out, but someone has a mental lapse or doesn't put in the effort and their guy crashes the board or scrambles to get the ball. As Calhoun would say, everyone needs to find a body and "hit" them right in the chest.
I think the Johnnies got into Silas's head a little. He was Jekyll and Hyde. He had some big baskets, but 9 TOs is just unacceptable.
I watch Reed and I don't see a champion center. He's looks like he's capable, but he looks like the same guy as last year. I don't see that he has taken 'the next step'. DC and Sanogo both showed significant growth each year they were there. He has flashes where you think he's going to take over and then stretches where you would want him off the floor if another strong option was available.
At least the 3pt shooting was good for about the 5th game in a row.
This team can still win it all, but unlike other UConn teams, their margin for error is much slimmer than past teams. They can't have the bad stretches and bad FT shooting.

 

[Scrutineer]

If Darling is going to play like that it changes everything. My knock on them was lack of pg play. He’s been great since the new yea

Darling was ridiculed bere at the start of the year as someone unable to play at this level, but maybe Pitino is a better judge of talent....at least in their biggest win of the year.

It's hard to criticize MS because he saved the team in the biggest wins of the year, but he's gone off the rails (except for one game) in the past month and a half. We got lots of easy baskets off his penetration early but now it's like he's a freshman at Stony Brook.

 

[RitzLuce1]

Malachi played 4 minutes tonight.

He was -12.

We are gonna play Silas into the ground.

Huge huge miss by Dan in the portal.

 

[Kowalski]

I was worried early in the second half about the amount of energy Silas was exerting on every inbound play. It wore him out causing him to miss free throws. He left everything on the floor.

That may have been part of it. Uconn didn’t make them pay for pressuring the inbounds so Pitino had no reason to let up. Our guards never attacked the pressure to try to find easy shots and just looked too content to run half court sets. Maybe it’s fine since the offense was efficient overall but St Johns clearly looked was more aggressive team all night.

 

[RuffRuff]

This St. John's team is better equipped than last year's squad to make a tournament run.

Agree - Mitchell is a better defensive piece than anyone they had last year and Pitino knows how to use him right. That Dylan Darling is a ballsy little dude. He's not a full game guy, but Pitino played him when it mattered and he showed up. Sanon and Jackson are kind of empty jerseys.