(5) Saturday BE Games 1/6/18

[Bluejay]

I had been of the belief that Mullin Mayhem was being a bit dramatic. However, after losing badly to Depaul at home, I think dramatics are justified.

[Friarsfan94]

I had been of the belief that Mullin Mayhem was being a bit dramatic. However, after losing badly to Depaul at home, I think dramatics are justified.

I agree to an extent, but I think the disconnect lies in expectations. Something needs to change, but this loss to DePaul shouldn’t be the alert everyone needs. To me, this result isn’t much of a surprise. St. John’s does not have a very good team, plain and simple, and they’re even worse without one of the only game changers on their entire roster, while DePaul looks significantly improved from past years, and definitely more competitive. The issue with MullinMayhem is he’s looking at 5 little stars next to Simon’s high school picture on his ESPN recruiting profile from 3 years ago as if that’s the only determining factor of a player’s worth, and then not being able to accept how in the world “5* Simon and 4* Ponds” get beat by 3* Player X and 2* Player Y. CLEARLY, Simon is not an effing 5 star lmao. Recruiting rankings are for high school kids, and any weight they carry should be dropped immediately as soon as the player gets to college. This is a St. John’s team that finished 8th place last year, it’s a stronger conference this year, and they don’t have one of their two best players. I just don’t see how that combination can cause anybody to be surprised by this result or any of their league results so far.

[XUFan09]

I had been of the belief that Mullin Mayhem was being a bit dramatic. However, after losing badly to Depaul at home, I think dramatics are justified.

I agree to an extent, but I think the disconnect lies in expectations. Something needs to change, but this loss to DePaul shouldn’t be the alert everyone needs. To me, this result isn’t much of a surprise. St. John’s does not have a very good team, plain and simple, and they’re even worse without one of the only game changers on their entire roster, while DePaul looks significantly improved from past years, and definitely more competitive. The issue with MullinMayhem is he’s looking at 5 little stars next to Simon’s high school picture on his ESPN recruiting profile from 3 years ago as if that’s the only determining factor of a player’s worth, and then not being able to accept how in the world “5* Simon and 4* Ponds” get beat by 3* Player X and 2* Player Y. CLEARLY, Simon is not an effing 5 star lmao. Recruiting rankings are for high school kids, and any weight they carry should be dropped immediately as soon as the player gets to college. This is a St. John’s team that finished 8th place last year, it’s a stronger conference this year, and they don’t have one of their two best players. I just don’t see how that combination can cause anybody to be surprised by this result or any of their league results so far.

I could see them being good enough to make it into the tournament when they are back to full strength, but the middle of the Big East is too good to absorb slipups easily. None of teams 5-8 have a large margin of error. For SJU it's worse because they just haven't completely built a talented roster. They rely heavily on their starters. With a starter and key playmaker down in Lovett, there just isn't support. Bryan Trimble? Maybe he'll be good in the future, but he's just a freshman who saw a big uptick in minutes that he's not ready for. Justin Simon? He has had to play more minutes and at a higher usage rate, and it has not been good for the team.

On a related note, I will be happy to see Alibegovic exhaust his eligibility. I know he is needed for purposes of depth, due to the aforementioned issues SJU has had completing the construction of a talented roster. However, it is painful seeing a guy that untalented in the Big East. He makes DePaul's Joe Hanel look good.

[kayako]

I am actually rooting for Markus Howard to get through the season without missing a FT. What an incredible shooter.