The Downside- St. John's | Syracusefan.com

The Downside- St. John's

SWC75

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THE DOWNSIDE

- We are like a football team that can’t pass the ball so the other team puts everybody in the box to stop the running game, (anybody remember a team like that?) This is a basketball team that can’t shoot so the other team circles the wagons and we have to try to burrow through their defense to score. In the presser someone asked if it was the St. John’s defense or we were just missing open shots. “I’ll let you figure that out.

Here are the bullets in our Holster:
Trevor Cooney 13 for 46 from the arc (.283)
BJ Johnson 5 for 23 (.217)
Kaleb Joseph 3 for 13 (.231)
Michael Gbinije 3 for 21 (.143)
Ron Patterson 2 for 18 (.111)
Chris McCullough 1 for 1 (1.000)
Tyler Roberson 0 for 2 (0.000)

- Kaleb Joseph is in Jim Boeheim’s doghouse, (the whole team probably is in there with him- look at the news conference). During one time out, Jim practically dug a hole in Kaleb’s chest with his finger. He went with Gbinije at the point after that. In the presser he said “He’s got to learn that he’s not a three point shooter: he’s a point guard. Sand he’s got to play defense. Kaleb shot 1 for 5, pulled won 4 rebounds, had 2 assists and 2 turnovers. But the big thing is that I only saw him try to break down the defense with dribble penetration once and it worked beautifully. We need a lot more of that to over-come our shooting woes.

- The problem with Cooney now is not just that he’s missing. It’s that we aren’t even looking to get him the ball. Harrison did a good job on Trevor but he didn’t deny every possible pass. If Trevor can get the ball he has a shot at passing to an open guy or dribbling around or to the side of his defender for a shot. By ignoring him we really are going 4 on 5.

- I have a feeling that we have several guys who could hit a pull-up jumper if they made a point to try it. But everything is a trey or a drive to the basket. That’s pretty easy to defend.

- When Steve Lavin came to St. John’s, he immediately started pulling in top recruits and people were predicting a renaissance for the storied program. But they were young and they went 13-19, 16-15 and 20-13. But tonight their team was a bunch of juniors and seniors playing against a bunch of mostly freshmen and sophomores. It looked it.

- As if our three-point shooting wasn’t bad enough, we gave up 10 points at the foul line, going 10 for 20 while the Johnnies when 20 for 25. The biggest problem there was Chris McCullough, who combines the ability to get to the line with an inability to shoot form there. He was 9 for 9 against Adrian but that was an exhibitions game. Since then, in games that actually count, he’s 24 for 44 (.545. And I think his problem is the same as Arinze Onuaku’s: he tries to make the shot by tossing the ball very high so it will be coming down at the basket from directly above, thus increasing the effective width of the hoop it has to go through but at the same time increasing its velocity to the point where it bounces violently away from the hoop if it’s not dead on. Occasionally, he’ll get one that falls in on the way back down from the bounce. But you won’t get any that draw iron that roll in. The traditional instruction has always bene to just get it over the front rim. You can’t change someone’s shooting stroke during the season, (and mayube not at all). So I guess we just have to hope that Chris is dean on.

- Dream #1: Tyler Ennis and Trevor Cooney in the backcourt with Jerami Grant, Rakeem Christmas and Chris McCullough in the front court. You still have the outside shooting problem, (maybe worse because we can’t get Patterson or Johnson in the game). But would they assign a man to follow Cooney around if they had to defend that front line: three guys that can score inside? Yeah, I know it’s a dead horse. But your thoughts turn to who could have been here until they are effectively replaced and those guys haven’t been. They will be ghosts on the court for SU all season.

- Dream #2: This was an old fashioned Big East game, just like the old days, complete with a fight. Both teams played aggressive defense. There were some terrific athletes out there. The game had that inner-city toughness to it, even before the fight. Can we go back to the original Big East? I guess you can’t go home again. But that was home.
 
SWC75 said:
THE DOWNSIDE - We are like a football team that can’t pass the ball so the other team puts everybody in the box to stop the running game, (anybody remember a team like that?) This is a basketball team that can’t shoot so the other team circles the wagons and we have to try to burrow through their defense to score. In the presser someone asked if it was the St. John’s defense or we were just missing open shots. “I’ll let you figure that out. Here are the bullets in our Holster: Trevor Cooney 13 for 46 from the arc (.283) BJ Johnson 5 for 23 (.217) Kaleb Joseph 3 for 13 (.231) Michael Gbinije 3 for 21 (.143) Ron Patterson 2 for 18 (.111) Chris McCullough 1 for 1 (1.000) Tyler Roberson 0 for 2 (0.000) YouTube Video .

Wow. That is sensationally bad. Can you even realistically fix that? Especially if as everyone says the best of the bunch Cooney is lights out in practice, I don't know how much even GMac can help this team with this problem.
 
Those 3-point shooting stats have me dreaming about Elvir Ovcina.
 
The stats don't lie - McC should be our designated three point shooter !!!!
 
The stats don't lie - McC should be our designated three point shooter !!!!
As long as he isn't our designated FT shooter. The tradition lives on. UGH!
 

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