St. John's vs #21 Wisconsin, 11/8

[Lavinwood]

Same old Johnnies. Really beginning to think that as long as Lavin is here we won't do anything major. He can get the most talented kids, but he can't find basketball players. All these country bumpkin schools find big white farm kids who can hit 3's in their sleep and have a post game. Where is our equivalent? Maybe it's time to stop looking for urban street ball flashy athletes, and start looking for skilled basketball players in the country.

This team just like the Mets, Jets, Knicks, and Isles cannot handle any kind of hype. They just can't live up to expectations. The only way this team gets turned around is if we run the table until Cuse and then beat Cuse. If we don't beat Cuse we have no signature wins. We just lost our first shot at a signature win. 3 pointers kill us so easily it's quite a joke. I think I can shoot 70% against SJ…they seem to have a magic ability to let their opponents get swish after swish behind the arc like machines.

Bottom line: until this team proves something legitimate I will doubt the hell out of it. Lavin can get talent, but not coach it. Were we supposed to win? Maybe not. But this is a game you need to win if you want to be a big boy. Looks like we still aren't ready for that after decades of failure.

[redmen9194]

Lavinwood you need to relax. We were not winning this game. I know you're not a Lavin fan but I'm not sure why.

Year 1: He gets a team that never did anything to a third place conference finish, beats a ranked G'Town, Pitt, Notre Dame, UConn, and Duke at the Garden and ranked Nova on the road, NCAA birth and final AP ranking of #18. Gets them back to relevance both in NYC and nationally.
Year 2: He doesn't coach. He is out for the season and a team of six freshmen win six Big East games and Moe Harkless is SJU first Rookie of the Year since the early 80's.
Year 3: He returns coaching his group for the first time. They win 8 conference games but he suspends the 2nd leading scorer in the conference. Team finishes with a winning record, and gets a win in the NIT. Jakaar Sampson is the third SJU Rookie of the Year and second in a row.
Year 4: He loses the first game of the season to #20 Wisconsin. Let's dump him.

Really? I remember sitting with Norm Roberts and him saying that top recruits have no desire to come to NYC or St. John's. It will come together. Lavin's teams always have early losses. You're complaining about a loss to Wisconsin. And decades of failure? The last ten years have been bad, but "decades"? Let's chill out. We have 30 games left. There is work to do absoulutely and Lavin needs to get these guys to defend the perimeter but we are far and away better with Lavin than we were without him. We'll be fine.

[beltwaybluejay]

Lavinwood you are right, "country bumpkin schools" having good basketball teams is just wrong!

[milksteak]

Athletic teams for years have tried to make Wisconsin run with them. Doens't work. You gotta beat Wisconsin at its own game, which is tough.

[Lavinwood]

Bottom line is that the next step for this team is going undefeated until Cuse. If they are going to be anything worthy this year, they will have to do that. And at this point I don't think that's any kind of guarantee. SJ is the team where many in the fan base say "Just wait!", "It's coming!", "Soon!", "Just wait until next year!", etc. No. Enough with the waiting. The pieces are here. It's time. No more excuses. Wisconsin was #20 not #5 and we still lost by double digits and down by 18 at one point.

This team is trending into the "overrated" category. They better fix that fast and beat every cupcake they get now. If they lose 1 or 2 we are in trouble.

[Bill Marsh]

Same old Johnnies. Really beginning to think that as long as Lavin is here we won't do anything major. He can get the most talented kids, but he can't find basketball players. All these country bumpkin schools find big white farm kids who can hit 3's in their sleep and have a post game. Where is our equivalent? Maybe it's time to stop looking for urban street ball flashy athletes, and start looking for skilled basketball players in the country.

This team just like the Mets, Jets, Knicks, and Isles cannot handle any kind of hype. They just can't live up to expectations. The only way this team gets turned around is if we run the table until Cuse and then beat Cuse. If we don't beat Cuse we have no signature wins. We just lost our first shot at a signature win. 3 pointers kill us so easily it's quite a joke. I think I can shoot 70% against SJ…they seem to have a magic ability to let their opponents get swish after swish behind the arc like machines.

Bottom line: until this team proves something legitimate I will doubt the hell out of it. Lavin can get talent, but not coach it. Were we supposed to win? Maybe not. But this is a game you need to win if you want to be a big boy. Looks like we still aren't ready for that after decades of failure.

Decades of failure?

I seem to recall that St. John's won a Big East championship in 2000 and went to an Elite 8 in 1999. The last decade (2004-13) has been pretty bad, but they went to the NCAA tournament 4 times in 5 years (1998-2002) at one point in the previous decade. A lot of teams would take that as a pretty successful run. Frankly St. John's has had nothing but success for many, many decades with the past one being the only exception.

[Bill Marsh]

Bottom line is that the next step for this team is going undefeated until Cuse. If they are going to be anything worthy this year, they will have to do that. And at this point I don't think that's any kind of guarantee. SJ is the team where many in the fan base say "Just wait!", "It's coming!", "Soon!", "Just wait until next year!", etc. No. Enough with the waiting. The pieces are here. It's time. No more excuses. Wisconsin was #20 not #5 and we still lost by double digits and down by 18 at one point.

This team is trending into the "overrated" category. They better fix that fast and beat every cupcake they get now. If they lose 1 or 2 we are in trouble.

I agree with your reaction to this game. The result is extremely disappointing. But one game is not a trend. Most teams have disappointing games somewhere in a season. What this team will become is yet to be determined.

[Wizard of Westroads]

Relax, SJ, this was a horrible matchup. Wisconsin plays great possession-by-possession basketball, maybe the best in the country at that. That consistency translates to a top 4 finish in the Big Ten EVERY year. Absolutely the worst team to face in the opener, unless you have your entire team returning. Play them again in the NCAAT and things will be different.

[marquette]

Same old Johnnies. Really beginning to think that as long as Lavin is here we won't do anything major. He can get the most talented kids, but he can't find basketball players. All these country bumpkin schools find big white farm kids who can hit 3's in their sleep and have a post game. Where is our equivalent? Maybe it's time to stop looking for urban street ball flashy athletes, and start looking for skilled basketball players in the country.

This team just like the Mets, Jets, Knicks, and Isles cannot handle any kind of hype. They just can't live up to expectations. The only way this team gets turned around is if we run the table until Cuse and then beat Cuse. If we don't beat Cuse we have no signature wins. We just lost our first shot at a signature win. 3 pointers kill us so easily it's quite a joke. I think I can shoot 70% against SJ…they seem to have a magic ability to let their opponents get swish after swish behind the arc like machines.

Bottom line: until this team proves something legitimate I will doubt the hell out of it. Lavin can get talent, but not coach it. Were we supposed to win? Maybe not. But this is a game you need to win if you want to be a big boy. Looks like we still aren't ready for that after decades of failure.

It was probably a huge mistake playing zone against Wisconsin. Zone tends to break down when people are making 3s, and Wisconsin likes to get 3 point shooters at every position. That said, I think you might be overreacting a little bit. It was the first game of the season and St. John's did make a run in the second half to get it close. Wisconsin may not have the talent of St. John's, but they do have at least one first round draft pick in Sam Dekker to go along with a solid core of players. A loss to them is not really anything to be embarrassed about, I wouldn't be too surprised if we come away from Madison with an L on our record as well (although there will most likely be some broken things in apartment should that happen). Finally, I think New Yorkers have a distorted view of what a "country bumpkin" school is. Not everywhere is New York City.

[Wizard of Westroads]

Wisky beats No. 11 Florida 59-53. You don't want to play the Badgers early in the season.