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

[TheHall]

Very good win for the Johnnies!

[SJUREDMEN85]

The 2-3 zone in the 2nd half was the game changer, Bucknell was clueless when we changed from man to zone.
Good call by Lavin.

Bucknell suckered us into taking those 3pnt shots by leaving us with open shots and we fell for it. If you can`t shoot then drive and go for a layup and maybe get fouled.

Sanchez needs to touch the ball on every offensive possession, his IQ is so high.

From down 9 with 15minutes left to up 8 ( a 17pnt swing), and won by 3. I`ll take up, Bucknell hung with Stanford and beat Penn St.

Now gotta keep improving and trash Monmouth. Can this team have a easy one for a change.

[Lavinwood]

Monmouth is one of those teams we have to dominate from beginning to end. This is one of the worst teams in the MAAC. They are small and got blown out by Seton Hall. Our 3's have to start dropping sometime...when that is I don't know, but we have a 3 pt famine. One of these games it's going to pour 3's...hopefully it comes against Cuse. Still don't get why Hooper gets no playing time. If he's that bad on defense then bench him after he lets guys blow past him, but give the kid a chance to get his 3 or 4 treys. It can be a difference of 12 points. Especially when teams like Bucknell stack the paint and dare us to shoot. I'd gladly let Hooper fire away and it would open the paint up for drives.

No excuses with Monmouth...bad mid major. Time to pound em.

By the way, watching other teams play at home, I've realized Carnesecca is trash. It's old, too technical looking, and it has no character or charm. It's not comfortable at all unless you have the best seats. It also affects attendance. If we had a new shiny place that was more comfortable and charming I really think attendance would increase. It's not the only factor but it definitely plays a role. It just feels like too much of a HS gym to me. The seating is very steep and the ceiling is obstructive. Why not get a new on campus arena in a bowl shape with all seats instead of hard plastic bleachers in 95% of the place?

[Bill Marsh]

Monmouth is one of those teams we have to dominate from beginning to end. This is one of the worst teams in the MAAC. They are small and got blown out by Seton Hall. Our 3's have to start dropping sometime...when that is I don't know, but we have a 3 pt famine. One of these games it's going to pour 3's...hopefully it comes against Cuse. Still don't get why Hooper gets no playing time. If he's that bad on defense then bench him after he lets guys blow past him, but give the kid a chance to get his 3 or 4 treys. It can be a difference of 12 points. Especially when teams like Bucknell stack the paint and dare us to shoot. I'd gladly let Hooper fire away and it would open the paint up for drives.

No excuses with Monmouth...bad mid major. Time to pound em.

By the way, watching other teams play at home, I've realized Carnesecca is trash. It's old, too technical looking, and it has no character or charm. It's not comfortable at all unless you have the best seats. It also affects attendance. If we had a new shiny place that was more comfortable and charming I really think attendance would increase. It's not the only factor but it definitely plays a role. It just feels like too much of a HS gym to me. The seating is very steep and the ceiling is obstructive. Why not get a new on campus arena in a bowl shape with all seats instead of hard plastic bleachers in 95% of the place?

I remember there being talk of a big donor ready to fund a new on campus arena back around the time that Ronerts was hired. The rumor was that the donor wanted input into the coaching hire and that Matt Doherty was his boy. When the administration refused to acquiesce, he pulled his $25 million off the table. Too bad. As much of a psycho as
Doherty was, he couldn't have done any worse than Roberts and at least SJU would have a new arena to show for their troubles.

[Bluejay]

By the way, watching other teams play at home, I've realized Carnesecca is trash. It's old, too technical looking, and it has no character or charm. It's not comfortable at all unless you have the best seats. It also affects attendance. If we had a new shiny place that was more comfortable and charming I really think attendance would increase. It's not the only factor but it definitely plays a role. It just feels like too much of a HS gym to me. The seating is very steep and the ceiling is obstructive. Why not get a new on campus arena in a bowl shape with all seats instead of hard plastic bleachers in 95% of the place?

What is most strange about the arena is that while being a smaller arena, it doesn't seem to provide many of the advantages that a smaller arena can actually provide. In most small arenas, the fans and students are right on top of the action and ridiculously close to the participants. Based on my TV view of your arena, and assuming the LAVINWOOD signage marked the student section, the students are pretty far removed from the court and apparently in a bit of a balcony or mezzanine. Likewise, the arena didn't appear to hold sound as well as many smaller arenas have a tendency to do. If you compare it to a small venue that Creighton recently played in at St Joseph's, I think it really lacks a lot of the intimating factors that can make small arenas really tough for opponents.

[Bill Marsh]

By the way, watching other teams play at home, I've realized Carnesecca is trash. It's old, too technical looking, and it has no character or charm. It's not comfortable at all unless you have the best seats. It also affects attendance. If we had a new shiny place that was more comfortable and charming I really think attendance would increase. It's not the only factor but it definitely plays a role. It just feels like too much of a HS gym to me. The seating is very steep and the ceiling is obstructive. Why not get a new on campus arena in a bowl shape with all seats instead of hard plastic bleachers in 95% of the place?

What is most strange about the arena is that while being a smaller arena, it doesn't seem to provide many of the advantages that a smaller arena can actually provide. In most small arenas, the fans and students are right on top of the action and ridiculously close to the participants. Based on my TV view of your arena, and assuming the LAVINWOOD signage marked the student section, the students are pretty far removed from the court and apparently in a bit of a balcony or mezzanine. Likewise, the arena didn't appear to hold sound as well as many smaller arenas have a tendency to do. If you compare it to a small venue that Creighton recently played in at St Joseph's, I think it really lacks a lot of the intimating factors that can make small arenas really tough for opponents.

No seating behind the baskets, which is where the students are in most arenas, takes away a lot of the atmosphere.

As a historical note, the arena was built in reaction to the betting scandals of the early '60's as a way to get the team out of MSG and away from the gamblers. The project was actually completed very quickly, so there was probably not a lot of thought that went into its design. When it was completed 50 years ago, it was the 2nd largest arena in the greater NY area, so it's size alone made it special at the time.

[Lavinwood]

You are sitting at the backboard level on either side for student sections. You definitely get the feeling of being far-removed. The seats are anything but comfortable, and it's just a lot of nothing really. I know people will say "You have MSG so who cares?", but we play a lot of games on campus too. It sounds like a HS gym on TV even with a good crowd. That's because everything is so high up, above the court instead of ontop of it.

For a pretty historic program, I expect much better. CA is comparable to many MAAC arenas. Everyone else seems to have loud, clean, intimate courts on campus. We have about as regular a gym as you can get.