SJU vs. Humboldt St. (Exhibition)

[GumbyDamnit!]

Who on that team can shoot?

Jet, you're thinking about them in Creighton terms. You guys witnessed firsthand last year what they are capable of when SJU decides to play hard. They had no shooters last year, yet gave you guys all you could handle in the 2 meetings. SJU doesn't have any great shooters but they do have a few really good scorers. Harrison and Jordan (and Pointer and Greene to a lesser extent) can absolutely score--and usually in bunches. I think they'll get points. The bigger problem for me is will they decide to play D for 40 minutes. I'd put pressure on the ball at all times and leave Obekpa in the lane as much as possible. The kid is an eraser, pure and simple. Get your guards to pressure the ball and create turnovers, and SJU is a top 25 team. Imagine what Shaka could do with this team defensively.

[Amase2]

Who on that team can shoot?

Jet, you're thinking about them in Creighton terms. You guys witnessed firsthand last year what they are capable of when SJU decides to play hard. They had no shooters last year, yet gave you guys all you could handle in the 2 meetings. SJU doesn't have any great shooters but they do have a few really good scorers. Harrison and Jordan (and Pointer and Greene to a lesser extent) can absolutely score--and usually in bunches. I think they'll get points. The bigger problem for me is will they decide to play D for 40 minutes. I'd put pressure on the ball at all times and leave Obekpa in the lane as much as possible. The kid is an eraser, pure and simple. Get your guards to pressure the ball and create turnovers, and SJU is a top 25 team. Imagine what Shaka could do with this team defensively.

The problem is Lavin either lets obekpa (dumb) or tells him (dumber) to play defense 20 feet from the hoop. He should never be more than 15 from the hoop. Agree with most else you wrote except when you tried to lump pointer into the scorers column. Couldn't be any less true. The biggest concern I have without Thomas being eligible is more Dom Pointer.

[Jet915]

Who on that team can shoot?

Jet, you're thinking about them in Creighton terms. You guys witnessed firsthand last year what they are capable of when SJU decides to play hard. They had no shooters last year, yet gave you guys all you could handle in the 2 meetings. SJU doesn't have any great shooters but they do have a few really good scorers. Harrison and Jordan (and Pointer and Greene to a lesser extent) can absolutely score--and usually in bunches. I think they'll get points. The bigger problem for me is will they decide to play D for 40 minutes. I'd put pressure on the ball at all times and leave Obekpa in the lane as much as possible. The kid is an eraser, pure and simple. Get your guards to pressure the ball and create turnovers, and SJU is a top 25 team. Imagine what Shaka could do with this team defensively.

The problem is they play like they can shoot. I was stating all of last year like most others that they need to shoot less and drive the ball more. Hopefully they do that this year.

[Amase2]

Who on that team can shoot?

Jet, you're thinking about them in Creighton terms. You guys witnessed firsthand last year what they are capable of when SJU decides to play hard. They had no shooters last year, yet gave you guys all you could handle in the 2 meetings. SJU doesn't have any great shooters but they do have a few really good scorers. Harrison and Jordan (and Pointer and Greene to a lesser extent) can absolutely score--and usually in bunches. I think they'll get points. The bigger problem for me is will they decide to play D for 40 minutes. I'd put pressure on the ball at all times and leave Obekpa in the lane as much as possible. The kid is an eraser, pure and simple. Get your guards to pressure the ball and create turnovers, and SJU is a top 25 team. Imagine what Shaka could do with this team defensively.

The problem is they play like they can shoot. I was stating all of last year like most others that they need to shoot less and drive the ball more. Hopefully they do that this year.

Lavin doesn't exactly give them the best system but it is hard to penetrate when defense sags 5 feet off a few players.

[SJHooper]

Who on that team can shoot?

Jet, you're thinking about them in Creighton terms. You guys witnessed firsthand last year what they are capable of when SJU decides to play hard. They had no shooters last year, yet gave you guys all you could handle in the 2 meetings. SJU doesn't have any great shooters but they do have a few really good scorers. Harrison and Jordan (and Pointer and Greene to a lesser extent) can absolutely score--and usually in bunches. I think they'll get points. The bigger problem for me is will they decide to play D for 40 minutes. I'd put pressure on the ball at all times and leave Obekpa in the lane as much as possible. The kid is an eraser, pure and simple. Get your guards to pressure the ball and create turnovers, and SJU is a top 25 team. Imagine what Shaka could do with this team defensively.

The problem is they play like they can shoot. I was stating all of last year like most others that they need to shoot less and drive the ball more. Hopefully they do that this year.

Bingo. SJ likes to play like we are Creighton from last season. That would be fine if we had the shooters to do it. We constantly take two steps towards the paint, only to turn around and come back out. It's like there is a pit of hungry grizzly bears in the paint or something. It's odd because we have so many athletes on this team and we refuse to use our athleticism to get in the paint and draw fouls and get layups/dunks. This is why Jakarr is addition by subtraction. He had the body to easily be a post player, but saw himself as a pure shooter and never charged in the paint unless he was on a fast break.

We are simply not a team who plays to our strengths. We miss way too many wide open 3's…that should be an indicator that we are not a shooting team. We thrive on fast breaks, transition, and getting in the paint. Once we get in the paint we will have our guys like Harrison and Amar wide open for 3. Draw fouls, kick outs to open players for 3, and guards cutting to the hoop. That's how we will get to the tourney if we even make it. Not by shooting.

[BigEast1]

There is another side to the equation, don't forget that a decent number of St. John's opponents played a zone defense against them forcing their hand. Teams know that St. John's can't shoot so if they are smart they will make St. John's play the shooting game. I will say this, despite their shooting woes, St. John's came very close to winning some big games last year (I think of Syracuse, the 2 Villanova games & the Creighton road game). If they had a real shooting threat they probably win 22 to 23 games instead of 20 & probably would have danced.

[Amase2]

Who on that team can shoot?

The problem is they play like they can shoot. I was stating all of last year like most others that they need to shoot less and drive the ball more. Hopefully they do that this year.

Bingo. SJ likes to play like we are Creighton from last season. .

Get out of here. SJU played absolutely nothing like Creighton. Nothing

[SJHooper]

I'm only referring specifically to being shooting happy. SJ constantly takes jumpers. The difference is Creighton makes theirs. We don't.

[Realfan]

People need to relax. They did not look good, they shot terrible, they didnt find a rhythm, easy to question Lav. Truth is if we blew them out by 80 people would say not to get excited, only an exhibition. Now its time to run to the woods. St. John's was down by a point with a minute left in their first exhibition last year. Then they beat Humbolt state by 60. Guess what, neither team that played in those two exhibitions was the same team that played when the season mattered.

You think Rysheed Jordan handing out apple turnovers all game is gonna be the same Rysheed Jordan we see all year?

You think christian Jones sucks after not playing a real game for 20 months and coming in and scoring 4 points in his first 2 minutes? Yea he got beat a few times, he just came off of knee surgery. At least he has an excuse.

Jamal Branch sucks? not every one is an all american, he is a good little player.

BTW hooper and realfan, you guys are a match made in heaven.

BTW Mase2, thanks for verifying that you are a card carrying member of Yesmen.com. Oh wait, I know, I know, Steve Lavin is the man right? Greatest recruiter in hoops history. So what that he only signed Rysheed Jordan in the 13 class, or that he (in a year where the need for front court players was obvious) only brought in one front court player (Amar) who is eligible in the 14 class. As pundits on your site proclaimed, "Who cares, Lavs is concentrating on the 15 class". Whats most important here anyway, that Mr. Lavin knows fine dining when he sees it. Didn't you know that his new mantra went from Hammer to Rock to Butter to Roll? But don't worry, we are looking good in the 16 and 17 class. And lets not forget last years debacle in the NIT? Oh wait, I know, I know, the team was not up for the game, so who cares about getting embarrassed on our own court.

But everything is great, we are on our way to the NCAA tourney and we are gonna sign our top three recruits. So what that we were only up 6 against HUMBUG State with 40 seconds to go with a team that is "the MOST EXPERIENCED TEAM IN AMERICA" (I wonder if Lavs will be stating that all season? ) Who cares that we lost two players that initially made NBA rosters, and Mr. Gift who scored 24 against HUMBUG State last season, its addition by subtraction as another wiz kid on Yesmen proclaimed. This year is gonna be great and next year we are a final 4 team.

[Amase2]

People need to relax. They did not look good, they shot terrible, they didnt find a rhythm, easy to question Lav. Truth is if we blew them out by 80 people would say not to get excited, only an exhibition. Now its time to run to the woods. St. John's was down by a point with a minute left in their first exhibition last year. Then they beat Humbolt state by 60. Guess what, neither team that played in those two exhibitions was the same team that played when the season mattered.

You think Rysheed Jordan handing out apple turnovers all game is gonna be the same Rysheed Jordan we see all year?

You think christian Jones sucks after not playing a real game for 20 months and coming in and scoring 4 points in his first 2 minutes? Yea he got beat a few times, he just came off of knee surgery. At least he has an excuse.

Jamal Branch sucks? not every one is an all american, he is a good little player.

BTW hooper and realfan, you guys are a match made in heaven.

BTW Mase2, thanks for verifying that you are a card carrying member of Yesmen.com. Oh wait, I know, I know, Steve Lavin is the man right? Greatest recruiter in hoops history. So what that he only signed Rysheed Jordan in the 13 class, or that he (in a year where the need for front court players was obvious) only brought in one front court player (Amar) who is eligible in the 14 class. As pundits on your site proclaimed, "Who cares, Lavs is concentrating on the 15 class". Whats most important here anyway, that Mr. Lavin knows fine dining when he sees it. Didn't you know that his new mantra went from Hammer to Rock to Butter to Roll? But don't worry, we are looking good in the 16 and 17 class. And lets not forget last years debacle in the NIT? Oh wait, I know, I know, the team was not up for the game, so who cares about getting embarrassed on our own court.

But everything is great, we are on our way to the NCAA tourney and we are gonna sign our top three recruits. So what that we were only up 6 against HUMBUG State with 40 seconds to go with a team that is "the MOST EXPERIENCED TEAM IN AMERICA" (I wonder if Lavs will be stating that all season? ) Who cares that we lost two players that initially made NBA rosters, and Mr. Gift who scored 24 against HUMBUG State last season, its addition by subtraction as another wiz kid on Yesmen proclaimed. This year is gonna be great and next year we are a final 4 team.

Yea youve got me pinned, cant find a bigger lavin fan than me