State of St. John's

[Westbrook#36]

I want to apologize for my contribution in leading this thread astray, my bad. In my defense though I was only returning fire, that doesn't make me any less guilty though. This thread veered off course almost immediately, it never was going to end well, especially once someone who will remain nameless brought up DePaul. Again I'm sorry, my bad and MUBoxer didn't meaning anything with that eye roll emoji.

[billyjack]

Guys, chill.



I can't believe there wasn't an argument over the best pizza in each city. That would be the next step.

Minor League City, Major League Italian Food. Pass a Wimpy Skimpy, please!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/greatamericanbites/2014/07/31/caserta-pizza-restaurant-providence/13368353/

I actually appreciate pizza in many regions. Having lived in Chicago, Boston, Providence and currently NYC, they all have some great pizza to offer!

Great stuff at Caserta, though I haven't been there in a long, long time.
I grew up on my grandmother's Neapolitan style pizza. Thin crust, crunchy. Made it in those round iron pans. Be sure not to clean the pan cuz you gotta get that flavor into the dough for the next pizza, right.
Man I'm hungry right now.

[SJHooper]

After you beat Syracuse, I thought things had turned around. The last stretch of games has been surprising and puzzling. There is more talent there than is showing now and they seem lost. Maybe all they need is to play other BE teams to find motivation.

Unfortunately you're wrong, there really isn't that much talent. I hate to keep blaming Lavin, but really, this is mostly attributable to him. He went "all in" with Briscoe and Diallo, feeling if he got those two, other big names would follow. But when he struck out, there was no plan B and the die was cast for this season. We had three players returning from last year, who had nearly invisible roles on last years team. Everyone was thrilled when Mullin came in and restored the roster in such a short time, with players we all thought were serviceable. But you know who wasn't impressed? The Big East coaches themselves, who projected St. Johns to finish last, even behind perpetually disappointing Depaul. The coaches knew what to expect, and at this point most of us have come to understand what they already knew.

I feel bad for these players, because I believe they play hard, and give their best effort. But they lack some of the basic talents good basketball players possess, like quickness and leaping ability. No coach can teach that. There was litle chance of being good this year, but not having LoVett available was the final nail in the coffin, because we have no one that can dribble and protect the basketball. However, there are three key components in place for next year. LoVett and Yawke from this years team, and Ponds who will be here next season. (He scored 40 in some tournament game over the weekend) A couple of other guys on this years team are question marks ability wise, we'll have to wait and see. But the real key to succcess will be Slice and Abdelmassih earning their paychecks by bringing in a top notch class, now that they have a full season to work on getting some elite recruits. Personally, I will continue to root for the team and not have any illusions about what is in store the remainder of this season. You think you've seen ugly? Wait till Xavier gets a hold of us. The Vanderbilt game was a sneak preview of what to expect. But there's no sense in moaning about it anymore. It's going to be brutally painful for a year or two, but hopefully the right staff is in place to turn things around, and turn them around in a big way.

A lot of St. John's fans have their fingers crossed for Alkins. I thought Briscoe and Diallo would be a lesson for them but apparently it wasn't. I think St. John's has about a 5% chance to land Alkins. I thought he would be more of a UNC or Louisville guy but apparently it seems NC State will be the team to beat. I think guys like Sima, Ponds, Lovett, and Yakwe are the type of players you can build a program with. Mullin is already doing a good job bringing these type of players in, he continues to focus on these guys, SJU will be alright. Wasting your time on a guy like Alkins is not gonna help SJU's situation.

The difference with Mullin is that Alkins is like our reach college we applied for. He has plenty of safety schools he can turn to (a plan B). With Lavin, all he applied for were reaches i.e. Briscoe/Diallo. There was no plan B. So if Alkins comes, great (would be a miracle IMO). If Maker comes, great (another miracle). But we know they are long shots and are prepared to go to our other recruits who are still very good.

And "red flags"? Are people actually reporting others on here for being "mean"? I mean aren't we all grown men here? It's embarrassingly PC if so (no not Providence). I think it's a perfectly good discussion not sure why it would have to end. This is what makes college basketball fun. By the way, I highly doubt we get LoVett ruled eligible by tomorrow. The NCAA seems to absolutely HATE St. John's. There were rumors that he would be eligible by now but those rumors were obviously false. With our program it's always 1 step forward, 2 steps back. Good news always followed by bad news. Next year, LoVett, Mussini, and Ponds will be a very strong backcourt. This will be a fun team to watch when everyone is eligible and healthy.

[NovaBall]

Guys, chill.

Since I don't know how to lock a thread, we should just not post on this thread anymore.
I just got back to my computer, and there are like 6 red flags on this thread that I gotta sort through.

I can't believe there wasn't an argument over the best pizza in each city. That would be the next step.

Novaball is at his best when he directs his barbs at the Judas football schools, skanky ACC leadership and ESPN and all those punks.

Red flags? Who is putting red flags on here?

Difference of opinion as to who contributes more, St. John's or DePaul. And whether a win over a struggling blue blood (at that time in the season) versus a win at the garden versus Cuse is more of a contribution.

But the discussion has been civil with a fair back and forth. We know that DeamonLS is going to throw in some personal attacks, it is what he does. But me and MUBoxer kept it civil.

By the way: Best pizza is Sally's in New Haven. Used to love to hit that place up.

[DemonLS]

WHO SAID I RIPPED VILLANOVA? Please do not accuse me of ripping that program. I have NEVER ripped Villanova's program ever. I have ripped NOVABALL, the wack job on this fan site, who consistently rips DePaul even when the thread has nothing to do with DePaul.

I did say that DePaul's 1980 team would have beaten any Nova team EVER. I still believe that to be true but......

The Big East will only get the respect FIRST if our top programs move themselves way into the tournament. If we have 8-9 programs making head way into the NCAA Tournament and not DePaul, then I feel DePaul should be kicked out very soon thereafter. Until then, Top Teams MUST make noise first.

I recommend starting a poll to see if NovaBall kept this thread civil.

[NovaBall]

2 things, DeamonLS:

1. You are probably the biggest Jay Wright hater on this board. Don't deny it.

2. Agree, you do make comments towards me all the time. I don't make personal insults back, but that's your thing. If you disagree with someone's opinion you make a personal insult instead of stating the reasons you disagree. Don't be afraid to work on this flaw of your's in the future.


Merry Christmas!

[ChestRockwell85]

Going to try to put a nail in the coffin of the DePaul stuff (wish me luck). I think many of us are simply venting our justified frustration concerning DePaul. We look at every other program and they have had their time in the sun very recently. Except them. If you have to look back to an NIT team to brag about, doesn't that prove the point? It just feels like DePaul hasn't been ranked or made the tourney in 400 years and they refuse to hire guys who push the needle. The opportunities are there, but they seem to be content with the rotting. At the end of the day we want to see DePaul succeed. That's why people are so frustrated. Ok, moving on...

Back to the Johnnies: The reason SJ beating Cuse is so significant is because the fanbases hate each other, the players hate each other (got into a fight last year), and there has long been a war between New York State's team and New York City's team. Cuse brands themselves as "New York's team" implying the city too. It was on the top of NYC cabs with the big orange "S". This was completely aggravating for SJ fans. Syracuse is much closer to Canada than NYC, and we argued WE were the real NY team. Cuse is a 45 minute PLANE ride from NYC. This war has really been raging for a while. The split up of the Big East only magnified the rivalry by 100x. Cuse getting up and leaving for the ACC was like a big middle finger to the C7. It essentially said "We are on a different level, we need better competition". So far, it has backfired greatly on them and they are stuck behind Duke, UVA, and UNC every year (not to mention countless others). So now beating them twice in a row, it's a straight punch to their collective gut. Cuse thought they were above us, and now we slayed them twice. And we are not even a good Big East team right now. Beating them was like sending them a post card "Greetings from the Big East, wish you were here! The water's great!". Now, Cuse fans are panicking and wishing they never left. The same goes for UConn fans (oh and by the way SJ beat them the last season of the old Big East after throttling them in 2011).

So, SJ beating Cuse goes much deeper psychologically than DePaul beating Kansas. There is nothing funnier than seeing Cuse fans walk out of MSG in shock and reading their boards. Once Boeheim leaves I just can't see that program being the same. Cuse had their entire identity in the Big East. Their entire tradition. They are out of place in the ACC and they can say goodbye to being perennial title/Final Four contenders.

Yup

Look, I am not defending Syracuse. I find it laughable how teams like Rutgers (although Rutgers was a doormat in the Big East as well), BC, and Syracuse head to "greener pastures" and find themselves in a lot worse shape than they were when they were in the Big East, but none of these teams left because of basketball. Trust me, guys like Boheim and Pitino did NOT want to split from the Big East. They just didn't. The bottom line is football drives the ship and these schools saw dollar signs, it has nothing to do with basketball. Quite frankly, if Villanova played FBS football, I don't think I would want to be in a hybrid league either.

The truth is if any of the current Big East teams had D-I football and got an invite to the ACC, they would have left yesterday. Again, I am not defending any of these schools, and again, I find it laughable how low some of their teams have sunk, but I am also not going to sit here and say that if Villanova got an invite to the ACC they would turn it down. They just wouldn't.

[marquette]

Hey all,
I've locked this thread most likely temporarily. I'm just having a look at some reported posts as there have been a lot of them.