The Holy Land of Hoops

Friday 12/8/17
St. John's vs. #16 Arizona State (-5.5) (Los Angeles), 8:00PM
TV: PAC 12Networks/P12N AZ - Ted Robinson, Steve Lavin

We will be with LoVett this game as he recovers from a sprained knee. Supposedly it's not a bad one, but the staff does not want to risk it at all and have him out for conference play. It's really tough because on one hand, this is the game we 100% need him for to have a realistic possibility of an upset and winning this game would catapult us into the national conversation and possibly get us ranked. On the other hand, it's early and we need him for the long haul, so we have to let him heal up. The timing is never good with injuries to key players, but it's a shame we will be without him for our first real statement game. I do think we still have a slight chance of beating them without LoVett, but it will take essentially a near perfect game from us and an off day for ASU. I'd be more hopeful if we played better in Florida...this team does not seem to perform well at all when traveling long distances even in wins. It's really odd how opponents like Mizzou can lose a key player and they keep chugging along and when we lose a key player it usually ends up hurting us pretty badly. In the Cuse game the other year Lydon was hurt and it didn't look like he'd play and then he did end up playing well against us. Just bad luck I guess but it seems to slowly be turning around for us. We still have a chance and maybe we catch them off-guard looking ahead to Kansas. If we really want to be taken seriously nationally, we have to start winning some of these games against real teams. Butler does it, PC does it, Nova does it, X does it, Seton Hall does it, Creighton does it, etc. The last ranked team we beat was Butler last year at #13, but before that I think we lost something like 13 in a row against ranked teams (of course we had some bad teams the past few years too). Beating OOC ranked teams early in the season is huge if you don't want to sweat on selection Sunday. We are due for a red-hot game offensively and if we can keep our defense respectable and get lots of TO's we have an outside chance.

MullinMayhem wrote:We will be with LoVett this game as he recovers from a sprained knee. Supposedly it's not a bad one, but the staff does not want to risk it at all and have him out for conference play. It's really tough because on one hand, this is the game we 100% need him for to have a realistic possibility of an upset and winning this game would catapult us into the national conversation and possibly get us ranked. On the other hand, it's early and we need him for the long haul, so we have to let him heal up. The timing is never good with injuries to key players, but it's a shame we will be without him for our first real statement game. I do think we still have a slight chance of beating them without LoVett, but it will take essentially a near perfect game from us and an off day for ASU. I'd be more hopeful if we played better in Florida...this team does not seem to perform well at all when traveling long distances even in wins. It's really odd how opponents like Mizzou can lose a key player and they keep chugging along and when we lose a key player it usually ends up hurting us pretty badly. In the Cuse game the other year Lydon was hurt and it didn't look like he'd play and then he did end up playing well against us. Just bad luck I guess but it seems to slowly be turning around for us. We still have a chance and maybe we catch them off-guard looking ahead to Kansas. If we really want to be taken seriously nationally, we have to start winning some of these games against real teams. Butler does it, PC does it, Nova does it, X does it, Seton Hall does it, Creighton does it, etc. The last ranked team we beat was Butler last year at #13, but before that I think we lost something like 13 in a row against ranked teams (of course we had some bad teams the past few years too). Beating OOC ranked teams early in the season is huge if you don't want to sweat on selection Sunday. We are due for a red-hot game offensively and if we can keep our defense respectable and get lots of TO's we have an outside chance.

Just some harmless poking MullinM. You covered a lot of ground with this post. I enjoy your contributions to HLOH and your unyielding fandom of the Redmen...er, Storm.

I'll be at the game screaming my brains out! So happy SJU is playing in LA again!

GumbyDamnit! wrote:

MullinMayhem wrote:We will be with LoVett this game as he recovers from a sprained knee. Supposedly it's not a bad one, but the staff does not want to risk it at all and have him out for conference play. It's really tough because on one hand, this is the game we 100% need him for to have a realistic possibility of an upset and winning this game would catapult us into the national conversation and possibly get us ranked. On the other hand, it's early and we need him for the long haul, so we have to let him heal up. The timing is never good with injuries to key players, but it's a shame we will be without him for our first real statement game. I do think we still have a slight chance of beating them without LoVett, but it will take essentially a near perfect game from us and an off day for ASU. I'd be more hopeful if we played better in Florida...this team does not seem to perform well at all when traveling long distances even in wins. It's really odd how opponents like Mizzou can lose a key player and they keep chugging along and when we lose a key player it usually ends up hurting us pretty badly. In the Cuse game the other year Lydon was hurt and it didn't look like he'd play and then he did end up playing well against us. Just bad luck I guess but it seems to slowly be turning around for us. We still have a chance and maybe we catch them off-guard looking ahead to Kansas. If we really want to be taken seriously nationally, we have to start winning some of these games against real teams. Butler does it, PC does it, Nova does it, X does it, Seton Hall does it, Creighton does it, etc. The last ranked team we beat was Butler last year at #13, but before that I think we lost something like 13 in a row against ranked teams (of course we had some bad teams the past few years too). Beating OOC ranked teams early in the season is huge if you don't want to sweat on selection Sunday. We are due for a red-hot game offensively and if we can keep our defense respectable and get lots of TO's we have an outside chance.

Just some harmless poking MullinM. You covered a lot of ground with this post. I enjoy your contributions to HLOH and your unyielding fandom of the Redmen...er, Storm.

Haha...unfortunately I don't really watch The Simpsons as crazy as that sounds so that went over my head...but I would assume it may mean I repeat myself a lot or my mind wanders as I type which would be accurate on both counts. I'm fighting the urge to get my hopes up for this game. Progress is slow and we are making it, but we are so hungry to get these big time wins against ranked teams.

MullinMayhem, I understand that St. John's will be without Lovett & yes, ASU is ranked and should be favored, but needing a perfect game to win? Come on, they are not Duke. The spread on this is game is 5 1/2. Not saying St. John's winning will be easy, and yes they can totally get blown out by 25 if they don't come ready to play, but its definitely a winnable game. As to the beating ranked teams, not sure that anyone would have expected St. John's to have beaten any ranked teams 2 years ago, given how young that team was. St. John's did beat Butler last year but don't forget they also beat Seton Hall, Marquette & Providence last year, all them (and Butler) were either ranked at one point or went to the NCAA Tournament, which is sometimes more telling. Yes, you always want to beat ranked teams and it certainly helps in resume building, but avoiding bad losses (something St. John's has had an issue with in the past) is also important.

BigEast1 wrote:MullinMayhem, I understand that St. John's will be without Lovett & yes, ASU is ranked and should be favored, but needing a perfect game to win? Come on, they are not Duke. The spread on this is game is 5 1/2. Not saying St. John's winning will be easy, and yes they can totally get blown out by 25 if they don't come ready to play, but its definitely a winnable game. As to the beating ranked teams, not sure that anyone would have expected St. John's to have beaten any ranked teams 2 years ago, given how young that team was. St. John's did beat Butler last year but don't forget they also beat Seton Hall, Marquette & Providence last year, all them (and Butler) were either ranked at one point or went to the NCAA Tournament, which is sometimes more telling. Yes, you always want to beat ranked teams and it certainly helps in resume building, but avoiding bad losses (something St. John's has had an issue with in the past) is also important.

I completely understand...part of me even thinks ASU may be a bit overrated as they were unranked to begin the season. So are they beatable? Yes. Would it be likely even with LoVett? Probably not. So losing LoVett is a big blow IMO as it decreases the odds even more. I think I've just been conditioned over the years to not get my hopes up when playing ranked teams. We had that breakout year in 2011 beating not just ranked teams but top 10 teams. Other than that though, we have not fared very well. I feel like it's tougher to beat OOC ranked opponents because you know your conference mates better and are familiar with their styles of play. Our last OOC ranked win may even be 2014 or earlier. I think it was either Cincy or Notre Dame that year we made the tourney with Lavin. The fact that we don't do well with traveling and against OOC ranked teams makes me not want to get my hopes up. On a positive note though, we are showing signs of some luck coming back our way since we are so overdue...who knows?

MullinMayhem wrote:I think it was either Cincy or Notre Dame that year we made the tourney with Lavin.

He's calling the game. Get him to whisper some pointers to the bench.

Type of game that would put SJU on right side of the bubble come selection Sunday.

NJRedman wrote:I'll be at the game screaming my brains out! So happy SJU is playing in LA again!

same here!....so psyched to see my johnnies in person in LA.....hoping that they continue to schedule games on the west coast....