Poll about where SJ's biggest problem lies

[BigEast1]

You nailed it Bluejay, and the problem that presents itself when that happens is that a coach can't make a bad shooting team into a good one. I am all about having a team mentally prepared, going over defensive schemes, running offensive sets, giving the pre game pep talk, those a coach can control, making shooters out of non shooters, man if were only that easy. Watching Marquette and SJU can be very painful, except when they run a fast break.

[hoyahooligan]

You nailed it Bluejay, and the problem that presents itself when that happens is that a coach can't make a bad shooting team into a good one. I am all about having a team mentally prepared, going over defensive schemes, running offensive sets, giving the pre game pep talk, those a coach can control, making shooters out of non shooters, man if were only that easy. Watching Marquette and SJU can be very painful, except when they run a fast break.

I'm going to go ahead and disagree. Shooting is one of the few areas of the game you can teach. You can't teach someone in to being taller, you can't really teach BB IQ, or intangibiles, or athletic ability. Certainly not to the extent you can teach basketball skills like shooting, passing, rebounding and defense.

The point is also that if you have non shooters why would you have an offense that results in you getting jump shots. If you're not a good shooting team you should press and try and force turnover in order to get shots at the rim in transition. Last year st. john's offense was #1 in the nation at taking long 2 point jumpers. Literally the worst regularly taken shot in basketball( you know as opposed to half court heaves). The problem is it seems like St. John's doesn't even have offensive sets period.

[WaitingPatiently]

I didn't vote on this either because I think their biggest problem is they don't play as a team. Everytime I've watched them they play as 5 individuals on the court only concerned with their own performance. Everybody wants to be the man and nobody wants to play a secondary role on a team. All these highly regarded players are more interested in showing what they can do and what that will translate into at the next level than they are in playing together to win games. The big thing they did when they made the run against Cuse was play as a team. They climbed back doing it, then tried to "hero" to the W and fell apart. It appears to me most of them would rather have "The 1" or score 20+ than win a game with single digit points. I haven't watched them every game, so maybe that is completely off base, but the handful of times I've watched them that is what I've taken from it.

[Chalmers0]

Lavin.

Teams are a reflection of their coach. Especially at this stage since Lavin recruited all of them.

Skill set is one thing and a lack of jump shooters really hurts this team but playing with pretty much no discipline at all on either end of the floor is another thing and that typically begins with coaching.

[Jet915]

Lavin.

Teams are a reflection of their coach. Especially at this stage since Lavin recruited all of them.

Skill set is one thing and a lack of jump shooters really hurts this team but playing with pretty much no discipline at all on either end of the floor is another thing and that typically begins with coaching.

This is it, Lavin is recruiting great talent but they are all athletes, no shooters and they play with no discipline. It's pretty much one on one and if that fails, they resort to a 20 foot jump shot or 3.

[BigEast1]

You nailed it Bluejay, and the problem that presents itself when that happens is that a coach can't make a bad shooting team into a good one. I am all about having a team mentally prepared, going over defensive schemes, running offensive sets, giving the pre game pep talk, those a coach can control, making shooters out of non shooters, man if were only that easy. Watching Marquette and SJU can be very painful, except when they run a fast break.

I'm going to go ahead and disagree. Shooting is one of the few areas of the game you can teach. You can't teach someone in to being taller, you can't really teach BB IQ, or intangibiles, or athletic ability. Certainly not to the extent you can teach basketball skills like shooting, passing, rebounding and defense.

The point is also that if you have non shooters why would you have an offense that results in you getting jump shots. If you're not a good shooting team you should press and try and force turnover in order to get shots at the rim in transition. Last year st. john's offense was #1 in the nation at taking long 2 point jumpers. Literally the worst regularly taken shot in basketball( you know as opposed to half court heaves). The problem is it seems like St. John's doesn't even have offensive sets period.

I guess we can agree to disagree on this point. Yes a coach can teach technique when it comes to shooting, but the players still have to make the shots, just like free throws. This a coach cannot do anything about. There was game once where a Frank McGuire coach team was getting beaten badly and his assistant asked him what they could do to improve, McGuire looked at him and said "we're going to get better players". I think the other point you made is more spot on, which is why does St. John's constantly run an offense that results in getting jump shots, along with playing what seems to be undisciplined basketball at times.

[hoyahooligan]

I will add that a coach cannot make a player better at shooting by himself. The player has to be committed enough to put in the work, but people improve their shooting all the time. Like last year for example. Otto Porter for Georgetown went from a 23% 3pt shooter to a 42% 3pt shooter. Markel Starks went from 25.7% from behind the arc as a freshman to 37% as a sophomore to 42% as a junior. He's started the year in a slump from behind the arc this year, but he's back on track in the last 5 games. Again Starks was a 60% FT shooter as a freshman, 70% as a sophomore, 73% as a junior, and 89% as a senior. You can teach shooting and if a player is willing to put in the time and effort they will improve more often than not.

Some Players will not improve their shooting even if they put in the effort, sometimes it's just mental and they can't get over a mental block. But more likely it's they didn't put in the effort to get better. I know Starks gets up every day at 6am to practice FTs before school starts. You can teach shooting.

[Lavinwood]

We are just a collection of very athletically gifted players. Athleticism is great to have given that they already know how to shoot and have a good basketball skill set. The problem is, that basketball skill set is not there so it boils down to all athleticism. I'm just scared that if we lose Lavin our program will fall off completely. It's not one of those things where we can have a guy like Mark Jackson come right in and fill the void. He went to the NBA and is doing very well with the Warriors. Who is even out there? The only name I've heard is Bob Hurley from St. Anthony's. But I just saw he's 66 years old and there's no indication he'd want to leave the job that has made him a legend. We need a guy who can develop players in the worst way. Man, if we crap the bed against Nova now, this is going to be really depressing. I'm so sick of having to rely on this team's run in 1985 with Mullin and our 2011 run with Hardy to pretend like we are relevant. When are we ever going to make a string of tournaments in a row like other teams? When are we going to make any? This team feels so negative. If I'm Lavin, I'm learning from my mistakes here and recruiting some high IQ farm boys who can shoot lights out. I'm also recruiting a big who has real offensive moves to the basket and can finish inside as well as rebound. If we want to be jump-shot happy like our offense is now, we need to have pure shooters all over the floor. Right now we only have 2 shooters I feel comfortable with taking shots: Harrison and Hooper. And Hooper never gets the time he deserves.

[shupirate98]

Lavin may well be a dunce but the players are incredibly overrated. Great athletes maybe. Great basketball players? Nope. It's easy to get seduced by flashiness. That looks lovely in AAU ball. It doesn't win basketball games here.

[Bluejay]

Lavin may well be a dunce but the players are incredibly overrated. Great athletes maybe. Great basketball players? Nope. It's easy to get seduced by flashiness. That looks lovely in AAU ball. It doesn't win basketball games here.

There is certainly something to this. When it comes to grading recruits, it almost always seems like athleticism is overrated, while shooting is underrated.

I've always believed that the most consistent programs implement a system and then recruit to that system. You can tinker with the system to best utilize the talents of your players, but you need a system. I am not convinced Lavin has a system.