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RE: Kanter. I guess it will be seen what kind of impact he makes. I look at last year with Gastin and though he clearly helped in a spot where X needed reinforcements, he played less than 20 mins / game. That is after averaging 31 mpg, 15.5 ppg & 9.5 rpg at NSU. Kanter only avg 19 mpg at Green Bay. There's probably a reason for that. Cause for optimism is that one of his best games last year came against Wisconsin. That's really encouraging as UW is really tough upfront. But then vs Kansas St it might have been his worst. What you see in his game logs is a lot of inconsistency. Big game, then a stinker, etc, etc., rinse, repeat. In 10 of their games he played less than 15 minutes. Whether it is D, stamina or simply inconsistency, there was something there (at that level of play in the Horizon) that caused the GB coach to limit his minutes. Hopefully Mack can unlock whatever it is b/c it seems apparent that he has some talent.

I truly believe Simon and Clark will determine what kind of season we have. If Simon is a stud and shores up our D along with Clark banging down low and they both put up solid rebounding numbers, there's no reason this is not a tourney team barring injuries. I just hope Clark isn't another one of those big men who try to shoot 3's. Sure, if you're wide open, take it. But we've been missing a big man who can bang offensively down low for a long time. We know Amar will not do that even though he has the body for it...hopefully Clark can. Again, we don't need either to be POY caliber we just need them to be rock solid contributors and on defense more than anything.

There are 7 or 8 reasons. Regardless of how much you believe St Johns has improved (which is pretty dubious given the lack of any kind of depth), almost everyone else has as well. The Big East got 7 last year, but thats not going to be the norm. And they almost certainly won't get picked even in that top 7 in the October vote.

After Wilson's transfer, I think that pretty much locked up 8th in the preseason poll.

If St. John's ends up in 8th place it means Simon and Clark were abysmal, we caught the injury bug, or Mullin is in over his head. I would personally be shocked if that happened. To act like Wilson took us to a different level is a bit much IMO. He was ranked 88th nationally. That's not a program changer. He would have been nice for depth, yes. But I doubt we would have gotten much out of him initially, especially given how raw his body is. You are so quick to say that other teams got better, but no way Butler is better than last year after making the Sweet 16 with Holtmann still coaching. We beat that ranked Butler team with a very young inexperienced team. Butler is a great program, but I don't see any reason SJ can't be as good if not better than them this year. Teams like Seton Hall, Nova, Xavier, etc. are clearly better. Probably Creighton too, but outside of that I'm just not sure anyone else is expected to handle us easily. Scoring wise, Ponds and LoVett were comparable to Monk and Fox at Kentucky their freshman year. Defense definitely needs work, but that's pretty special company to be in. This team is very talented...not very deep but very talented. Experience and talent is there...time will tell if coaching with defense and rebounds are as well.

I wasn't trying to be rude. That's just how its going to be. I'd be less surprised if St Johns gets picked 9th below DePaul than 7th. It's just not happening.

That's not to say I don't think St Johns can't be a back half Top 100 (NIT) team this year. That I do.

St Johns will be fine. Just not ready to do anything in the league. And who said anything about Butler? But, no, there's 0% chance they are getting picked ahead of them.

Right, the point isn't that St. John's won't be better. It's that a lot of other teams will too. Ponds and Lovett are both good on their own, but they're overrated as a combination. Both short, will get used on defense and on the boards. You can cover for one, but not both.

Edrick wrote:I wasn't trying to be rude. That's just how its going to be. I'd be less surprised if St Johns gets picked 9th below DePaul than 7th. It's just not happening.

That's not to say I don't think St Johns can't be a back half Top 100 (NIT) team this year. That I do.

St Johns will be fine. Just not ready to do anything in the league. And who said anything about Butler? But, no, there's 0% chance they are getting picked ahead of them.

St. John's will finish anywhere between 5th-7th place. If I'm wrong, I'll eat a heaping plate of crow. But, I have a hunch that is where they'll end up, once the season is over.

If Ponds and LoVett has improved halfway decently on defense, then this group can finish amongst the top 5 or 6 teams in the conference. You can't deny their offensive talents, as they're one of the top 2 backcourts in the conference.

The key to where they finish will be what they do on defense. It will be the difference between finishing 5th or 7th, IMO.

Yes other teams got better too, but I think SJ got better than many other teams did even if those teams improved. Simon was a 5 star recruit and is a huge guard known for defense and that's just what the doctor ordered. Clark is a bulky big man maybe a bit undersized at 6'7 but he won't be bullied down low that's for sure. Again, what the doctor ordered. We have enough offense at least on the perimeter. We need easy buckets down low, rebounding, and defense. Chuck and pray will get you the occasional upset win like against Butler or Syracuse but it won't get you wins consistently. This is Mullin's 3rd year...he has his guys he wanted with experience and he has had time now to mold them and develop them. It will be very telling either way. We didn't just get our transfers from UMBC, we got them from Arizona and Michigan State. Simon and Clark are considered 2 of the most impactful transfers in the country not the Big East. I think many are sleeping on us because we have had a tendency to hype things up then underperform. You could even argue that the last time we truly overperformed was 2011. You would probably be right on both counts, but there's no question the talent is there to be a top 5 Big East team. IMO it wouldn't surprise me a bit to beat PC, Creighton, Butler, DePaul, G'Town, Marquette. The only 3 teams I expect to possibly sweep us is Nova, Xavier, and Seton Hall. After that top 3 it's anyone's game.