11/19 St. John's VS Bucknell 8:30 PM FS1

[Lavinwood]

Can everyone see why this Johnnies team drives me absolutely mad? We have the most talented team in the Big East bar none, and yet we are making Bucknell look like Duke.

Maybe St. John's isn't that talented? The talking heads keep repeating it and it has become 'conventional wisdom' but maybe it's just not so.....

We have the reigning Big East ROY in Sampson, a 5 star #3 PG in the nation in Jordan, the NCAA's leading shot blocker in Obekpa, one of the top scorers in the conference last year in Harrison, a 25 yr old DR national team player in Sanchez, one of the best box score fillers in Pointer, and 6 top 100 players overall.

Talent is not the issue. This has to fall on coaching.

[dmac80]

Yes, I can see exactly what you're talking about. St. John's will probably win this game because the talent gap is enormous.

Is it though? Bucknell is beating them, and it's not by accident. I'm not picking on St. John's cause this happens to PC and other programs constantly. I think we overstate the gap sometimes between the athletes based on perceptions and pre conceived notions. St. John's has more talent and athleticism than Bucknell, but it isn't enormous if they can't blow Bucknell out of the water 10 times out of 10. How many close games and upsets will it take to realize the parity that now exists in men"s D1?

[Lavinwood]

Yes, I can see exactly what you're talking about. St. John's will probably win this game because the talent gap is enormous.

Is it though? Bucknell is beating them, and it's not by accident. I'm not picking on St. John's cause this happens to PC and other programs constantly. I think we overstate the gap sometimes between the athletes based on perceptions and pre conceived notions. St. John's has more talent and athleticism than Bucknell, but it isn't enormous if they can't blow Bucknell out of the water 10 times out of 10. How many close games and upsets will it take to realize the parity that now exists in men"s D1?

Yes it is. Ask any analyst and 90% will tell you we have the best team on paper. Some will say easily. We just have no chemistry and we can't shoot.

[Lavinwood]

ANOTHER 3 WIDE FREAKING OPEN BRICK CITY.

I may have to shut this game off. 1-9 after being 0-10.

This is easily the most brutal team to watch in the conference.

[hoyahooligan]

St. John's isn't talented. At least not by my definition of talent. They're athletic and they were highly rated recruits. I guess a better phrasing would be they're not skilled. They don't have basketball skills. Poor coaching, Poor BB IQ, no shooting. Run and Jump athletes nothing more.

[jays911]

SJ is very athletic, but neither disciplined nor very skilled. There are nights my Jays will get schooled, but I like our chances against teams like this the way we can score. Should be an interesting conference season. Having said that, go Johnnies!

[Bill Marsh]

Ok, down by 3 basically with Bucknell playing perfect and us not being able to make any shots. We must be shooting around 30%. It feels like we should be down by 20 right now. Take a deep breath, Lavin better be screaming at them to drive the damn ball. Even the shots we made rattled in. We don't get those nice crisp open looks and makes. We just don't. If I were Lavin I'd start recruiting basketball players instead of athletes. Athletes will get noticed because they can dominate in high school without fundamentals, but in college the doofy looking kid from the suburbs will burn you if he has fundamentals and you don't. This isn't street ball, it's college basketball. I'm still waiting for us to have a lights out shooting night. We are 3-31 from 3 in our past few games! THREE FOR THIRTY ONE! It's getting to the point where it's actually hard to be that bad. As they say, even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. We have to start making them.

It's not the kids. Do you see anyone being yanked out of the game for doing something the coach doesn't want him to do? Do you see anyone being lectured on the side lines with a coach taking advantage of a teachable moment?

Put a different coach in charge who demands something different and these kids would being playing differently.

[Lavinwood]

We have a 3 PT shooter named Hooper sitting on the bench who set a world record for 3 pointers made in 5 minutes. Lavin just letting him rot on the bench as we shoot dead last in 3's in the NCAA.

[Bill Marsh]

Yes, I can see exactly what you're talking about. St. John's will probably win this game because the talent gap is enormous.

Is it though? Bucknell is beating them, and it's not by accident. I'm not picking on St. John's cause this happens to PC and other programs constantly. I think we overstate the gap sometimes between the athletes based on perceptions and pre conceived notions. St. John's has more talent and athleticism than Bucknell, but it isn't enormous if they can't blow Bucknell out of the water 10 times out of 10. How many close games and upsets will it take to realize the parity that now exists in men"s D1?

I'll disagree on this one. Bucknell is maximizing I their talent and St. John's is wasting theirs with the result being a close game. Put these same kids on the roster at Louisville and you'd see different results.

[Lavinwood]

BS foul there. Obekpa's hands were up. Ticky tack for Bucknell. All we need right now.