St. John's Post Game Thread

[TheShot1990]

We can ABSOLUTELY beat these guys next time. We will not have all those turnovers and we WILL get more than 6 points from our bench. You can guarantee Pitino will bring 40 minutes of pressure again like he always does. Be prepared. More passing over the press, less dribbling. We must get the ball to out bigs (ok one big since Eric couldn't stay on the floor) or they will keep forcing us to pass it back to the top of the key. No more lazy passes. Ross and Stewie are fine playing weaker teams but it's time to step up when playing ranked opponents. You guys should fear being afraid all the time. Only one sub played more than 10 minutes. All others were such a liability Danny had to yank em and put the exhausted starters back in. Better to learn this in early Feb.
We were only down 5 with 53 seconds to go with all of these flaws.
Next

 

[RuffRuff]

Right now, I'm happy if we get one point out of his free throw adventures, because he just can't find his stroke. Reed's charity stripe woes alone are probably costing us 6-8 points a game, including all the missed and-ones. I thought he'd corrected his form a few games ago, but it seems like it was just a brief blip. He's back to searching for the right muscle memory. This one thing is likely the difference between winning and losing for us, despite all the other problems we have (inbounding the ball, random turnovers, other guys also missing from the line).

Despite the stat line, continue to be pretty disappointed in Tarris this year. Felt like this could be his coming out party year as a starter. While he gets his stats, there is simply too much Ringling Bros that comes with it. He's simply not very reliable. His rap of inconsistency holds. I had really high expectations for him this year - and he's been mid. I had high expectations for him last night, and he gotten eaten alive by and undersized Zubi. If we don't go deep in the tourney this year, I tend to find his lack of elevating his game as a senior will be a big part of why.

 

[UConnRock]

Zuby had a good game for sure but I thought Reed held his own. Early Reed was dominating, but late Zuby was better. Zuby also hit a 3 which is not in Reed's bag. Clearly Reed was more effective defending Zuby than Reibe. Reed still needs to do a better job not fouling and not hedging so far out. At least Reed didn't pick up any fouls away from the basket tonight.

2-6 xs 8-10 from the line

 

[boog204]

Lots of recency bias gets posted here but Smith is the only player on the Boneyard who consistently gets “past” bias.

Okay 12 and 7 against PC? Or is that too past? Smith has been a disappointment as a whole. But we literally lose a few of those non-con games without him. Hell, many here said he should start instead of Silas early in the season.

 

[cp176]

I get the ft misses and the turnover number…but Silas kept us in this game on both ends

Without Demary on the floor tonight, it might have been a 20 point loss. We all see the mistakes and things that he could do to improve but this kid has become a big time gamer.

 

[RuffRuff]

After last night, I think it's also pretty clear that any chance AK had of winning BE POY kind of went out the window. Zubi's to lose.

 

[boog204]

Pitino’s plan worked and it makes sense:

"They probably had 15 times where it could have been a five-second count and we didn't get the call," Pitino said. "But it wears you out. A lot of times, the benefits of the press is physically, they're trying to get open for five seconds, it tires you. And it wears on your rebounding, it wears on your passing.

And there it is… for all of you saying “we only turned it over once…” pressing isn’t about just causing turnovers. It’s disruption. After the dream season, we ran a passive 2-2-1 just to disrupt.

We are a finesse team. We take our time and run our sets and have a flow. SJU inserted chaos and pressure into every possession. Having an effective press break can lead to breakouts or be demoralizing. While we only turned it over once or twice and generally do always get the ball in, it’s a struggle and pressure packed and is max effort. It’s been going on for two years.

Pitino is a great, great coach and can game plan like few others. His teams are always going to exploit a weakness. Even in 23, his much inferior Iona team outplayed us in the first half.

 

[cp176]

He couldn’t get open

He’s just not strong enough just yet. He’s tough but he gets knocked around and that lack of strength hurts us defensively.

 

[RuffRuff]

And there it is… for all of you saying “we only turned it over once…” pressing isn’t about just causing turnovers. It’s disruption. After the dream season, we ran a passive 2-2-1 just to disrupt.

We are a finesse team. We take our time and run our sets and have a flow. SJU inserted chaos and pressure into every possession. Having an effective press break can lead to breakouts or be demoralizing. While we only turned it over once or twice and generally do always get the ball in, it’s a struggle and pressure packed and is max effort. It’s been going on for two years.

Pitino is a great, great coach and can game plan like few others. His teams are always going to exploit a weakness. Even in 23, his much inferior Iona team outplayed us in the first half.

Pitino knows how to disrupt Hurley's system. Even in his first year, he played that Uconn team tougher than anyone. It's starting to feel like as long as these two are coaching, Pitino is going to have the upper hand strategically. Hurley just needs to hope his system translates better to March.

 

[UCan3]

It’s just whining to blame the refs. Plain and simple. And not a good look. Refs did not decide this game. This, poor FT shooting and just some very low basketball IQ basketball plays. I don’t know what the hell Tarris is thinking half the time but he makes so many dumb plays per game it’s silly.

I agree and don’t agree.

Agree with whining about the refs but dude it was one sided affair in the 2nd half especially so.

Let one team play manic defense bumps/reaches etc, no calls.

Other team whistling for light bumps to the basket? It was hand on scale. 20+ extra attempts for St. John’s? Seriously?

My takeaway? We had to be that much better tonight than our opponent as this is kind of normal run of mill UConn bias we get on the road especially. And we weren’t… missed FT, Braylon not taking guys off dribble and not touching ball 2nd half, Silas turnovers, it was too many mistakes.

But in a NCAA Tourney game that sh@t doesn’t float. No one takes league seriously anymore as premier conference. Not one team we’ve played including St. John’s advances far in tourney IMO. I am ready to move on to a new conference for many reasons - good for football but basketball too (Men’s Women’s.)

 

[UCan3]

Smith has trouble with the very physical teams. I think he will be a plus in the tournament when it’s not as physical

Maybe but he may be our Achilles heel too. He doesn’t rise to occasion and makes me miss Mahaney. Mahaney was getting better as season went on and would take him over smith. Better ball protector and knew when to shoot / when to pass.

 

[UCan3]

They turned the ball over once on the inbound. And that’s because Taris wasn’t where he should’ve been

Yeah, why was everybody running away from Silas? I don’t put that one on him. That was really high school level and at a terrible point in the game..

And sometimes I don’t mind losing the game last night because to see them win a game where they had such bonehead plays might not have been a good thing.

 

[UCan3]

The refs were abyssal and St Johns hand checked the out of them tonight. That’s not “defending with their hands”
Give me a break.

The fouls they called on UConn were fouls. It was the lack of calls the other way that was disgusting

I agree with that and it wasn’t just hand checks. It was just straight up balls and bumps and completely one-sided especially in that second half. Maybe the Big East just wants to make sure St. John’s gets a good seed who knows.

But I did not find it an enjoyable game to watch. Makes me think about what another conference might be like when that day comes - hopefully sooner than later.

 

[KingAG]

And there it is… for all of you saying “we only turned it over once…” pressing isn’t about just causing turnovers. It’s disruption. After the dream season, we ran a passive 2-2-1 just to disrupt.

We are a finesse team. We take our time and run our sets and have a flow. SJU inserted chaos and pressure into every possession. Having an effective press break can lead to breakouts or be demoralizing. While we only turned it over once or twice and generally do always get the ball in, it’s a struggle and pressure packed and is max effort. It’s been going on for two years.

Pitino is a great, great coach and can game plan like few others. His teams are always going to exploit a weakness. Even in 23, his much inferior Iona team outplayed us in the first half.

Every team in the country struggles with this. This isn’t a UConn/Hurley issue. It’s because ball handling and passing are generally much worse at the collegiate level. It’s why those junk presses don’t work in the pros

 

[BFieldHusky]

Pitino knows how to disrupt Hurley's system. Even in his first year, he played that Uconn team tougher than anyone. It's starting to feel like as long as these two are coaching, Pitino is going to have the upper hand strategically. Hurley just needs to hope his system translates better to March.

You realize between 23 and 24, Hurley beat Pitino 4 straight times. Lets see what happens at the end of the month.

Teams lose games on the road in college basketball. In conference play. You don't need to be overly dramatic, but then again thats your MO.

 

[navery12]

After last night, I think it's also pretty clear that any chance AK had of winning BE POY kind of went out the window. Zubi's to lose.

It was never Karaban, it'll be Silas next month when we win the conference

 

[KingAG]

Pitino knows how to disrupt Hurley's system. Even in his first year, he played that Uconn team tougher than anyone. It's starting to feel like as long as these two are coaching, Pitino is going to have the upper hand strategically. Hurley just needs to hope his system translates better to March.

Why are you so dramatic? Lmao

 

[UCan3]

The best Malachi has looked the past month or so was when he and Silas played together. His constant ball pounding until then clock is under 8 seconds drives me crazy. It’s like he feels if he gives it up the ball he won’t get it back.

People were all over Mahaney last year… but I thought he actually got better as the season went on and at least you could trust him with the ball. And it was a sense of comfort when he had the ball like he wasn’t gonna turn it over or do anything too stupid. I think we might’ve taken a step backwards in that category.

 

[UCan3]

We may never beat St. John's.

In the NCAA tournament, we would

 

[UCan3]

Ball made a few bad plays down the stretch but Ross came in with us down 5 and left with us down 4 so it was hardly an egregious choice at the time

The solo had some kind of lazy defense in the second half. St. John’s was face gardening, and we almost never had a open look from the outside. Solo was a few steps away from the player he was defending and he just got smoked. It’s the intensity that we need it from him. That wasn’t quite there last night, but certainly not the reason we lost.. we needed him to be great and he was just OK.

 

[RuffRuff]

You realize between 23 and 24, Hurley beat Pitino 4 straight times. Lets see what happens at the end of the month.

Teams lose games on the road in college basketball. In conference play. You don't need to be overly dramatic, but then again thats your MO.

Pitino was at Iona in 23, if you remember the tourney game.

 

[BFieldHusky]

Pitino was at Iona in 23, if you remember the tourney game.

I remember. We won by 24.

 

[superjohn]

I think his season totals are weighted down by the fact he was barely used early. His averages are likely better than that now. He plays in more control and is an animal on defense at the POA. Smith is a total wild card, not even sure what he's going to do out there.

Darling's #'s don't show his impact at all.

He's a ball hawk. Doesn't turn it over. Makes some shots. He ripped Silas clean a couple of times

It's all they needed. They still don't have a true point guard. Slick Rick's experiment didn't really work but it still looks like it's working.

Mitchell and Darling are running things and it looks a million times better than it did out of conference.

Give a great coach a bunch of talent and he will figure some things out.

 

[CTBasketball]

Did anyone else feel like UConn was sleep walking thru this expecting to win?

 

[superjohn]

I love Silas, he's our best player and a money player but he had 9 turnovers and missed critical ft's. You don't win with that from your point guard.

Silas competed, had some straight line drives and had a really nice line if you don't look at turnovers. He was terrible. He will be better but the Johnnies have his # for now.