Hello March! (2) Sunday Big East Games

[sju88grad]

NJ, we blew out South Carolina like 5-6 yrs ago in a white out at CA too. It's amazing what happens when you give all fans free shirts and free bobbleheads that look cool. Diehards always go, but casual fans need reasons to go. People go nuts for shirts. Anyway, nice win...would be nice to win one of these when it actually meant something like bumping us from a 6 seed to a 5 seed one of these years, but baby steps I suppose. I'm not sure if CMA is the guy for the job or not ultimately, but he definitely has the players playing their backs off. Creighton is a good team and never in anyone's wildest dream did we think we'd shoot 50% from 3 all game let alone 63%. We won't shoot like this again, but nice to see CMA's .500 or better streak may still happen if we beat Marquette.

Good lord.

We were projected to finish 9th. We're finishing 8th or 9th. We have limited talent, especially compared to the other Big East teams. On top of that, we were supposed to be competitive with Heron and Figueroa playing as 2nd team All Big East players. Heron has been hurt most of the year and is now finished. Figgy has been up and down. And STILL, we've been in most every game with the exception of 2 blowouts at Georgetown and home to Villanova. By the way, both of the return matches were much closer.

The progression of Julian Champagnie (who was just named Big East Freshman of the Week), Marcellus Earlington, Rasheem Dunn and Greg Williams has been fantastic. They are all underclassmen (except Dunn who is a junior) and will help to form a nice core for next year. Additionally, we've got 4 recruits coming in next year, all of which look like a solid first recruiting class, especially since Mike was hired in April of last year.

If you can't be excited about the future, then please just pick a different team or sport.

[stever20]

NJ, we blew out South Carolina like 5-6 yrs ago in a white out at CA too. It's amazing what happens when you give all fans free shirts and free bobbleheads that look cool. Diehards always go, but casual fans need reasons to go. People go nuts for shirts. Anyway, nice win...would be nice to win one of these when it actually meant something like bumping us from a 6 seed to a 5 seed one of these years, but baby steps I suppose. I'm not sure if CMA is the guy for the job or not ultimately, but he definitely has the players playing their backs off. Creighton is a good team and never in anyone's wildest dream did we think we'd shoot 50% from 3 all game let alone 63%. We won't shoot like this again, but nice to see CMA's .500 or better streak may still happen if we beat Marquette.

Good lord.

We were projected to finish 9th. We're finishing 8th or 9th. We have limited talent, especially compared to the other Big East teams. On top of that, we were supposed to be competitive with Heron and Figueroa playing as 2nd team All Big East players. Heron has been hurt most of the year and is now finished. Figgy has been up and down. And STILL, we've been in most every game with the exception of 2 blowouts at Georgetown and home to Villanova. By the way, both of the return matches were much closer.

The progression of Julian Champagnie (who was just named Big East Freshman of the Week), Marcellus Earlington, Rasheem Dunn and Greg Williams has been fantastic. They are all underclassmen (except Dunn who is a junior) and will help to form a nice core for next year. Additionally, we've got 4 recruits coming in next year, all of which look like a solid first recruiting class, especially since Mike was hired in April of last year.

If you can't be excited about the future, then please just pick a different team or sport.

I think this year St John's has played closer to their potential than any time since at least 2011(and St John's fans may correct me and go even further back- to 99???)….

Kind of similar to Georgetown, they've played closer to their potential in a decade IMO this season...

Hopefully as the talent level for both programs gets better, will be able to keep saying that... That's the challenge a lot of times.

[XUFan09]

How the hell can any St. John’s fan NOT be sold on Anderson??? This is the best your team’s been since the 16 team Big East and you have about 1/10 of the talent. You’re in every game, your guys play tough, what the hell more does he need to do? This team wasn’t going ANYWHERE and Mike Anderson is probably leading them to the NIT or CBI. What’s wrong with that for the roster he had to work with? Give the dude a couple years with his own guys.

I'm pretty bought in with Mike Anderson because of what he's done with the talent he has in year one, but that 2015 team was the best SJU team in the Big East. It's too bad they didn't have Chris Obekpa for the tournament.

If they have Obekpa for the tourney, are they really beating San Diego St, let alone Duke(in Charlotte)? with a 940 at night tip on Friday and 240 tip on Sunday. With basically even with him 6 guys.

1. Yes, they would have been even or even favored in an 8/9 game against San Diego State if they had Obekpa. Without him, they were serious underdogs and the score reflected that. He mattered that much to them.
2. The time differences for a round two don't matter too much when both teams have to play on Friday. It's not like Duke was tipping off their Friday game at 8AM. They would have likely lost, because 8/9 teams tend to lose to 1 seeds, but they would have had a decent chance with Obekpa.

And that's not the point. One poster declared that this is the best SJU team since there were 16 teams in the Big East. That is flatly wrong, as the 2015 team was definitely better than this year's team. The ceiling of the program with that team's coach was lower than the ceiling with this team's coach, but that doesn't change the quality of the respective teams, even if this one is playing more to their potential.

[stever20]

[quote="XUFan09"]

That team was underachieving big time with him....

Also, if memory serves me right, didn't he have a pretty bad ankle injury which he wouldn't have been remotely close to 100% anyways?

[XUFan09]

Also, if memory serves me right, didn't he have a pretty bad ankle injury which he wouldn't have been remotely close to 100% anyways?

I can't remember, but that's (likely intentionally) missing the point. When I talk about having Obekpa, I'm obviously talking about a healthy Obekpa. Crazy thought: If one of your key players isn't playing or is seriously hurt while playing, it's going to be a serious hit to your chances of winning. St. John's in the 2015 tournament was not the same as St. John's in the 2015 season.

[stever20]

Also, if memory serves me right, didn't he have a pretty bad ankle injury which he wouldn't have been remotely close to 100% anyways?

I can't remember, but that's (likely intentionally) missing the point. When I talk about having Obekpa, I'm obviously talking about a healthy Obekpa. Crazy thought: If one of your key players isn't playing or is seriously hurt while playing, it's going to be a serious hit to your chances of winning. St. John's in the 2015 tournament was not the same as St. John's in the 2015 season.

It's interesting looking at the St John's Ken Pom profile for 2015...
healthy- 21 games- 14-7
2-6 vs KP A
1-1 vs KP B

not healthy/suspended- 12 games 7-5
1-4 vs KP A
3-1 vs KP B

Yes, St John's had a better overall record when he was healthy. But a LOT of that was just SOS.

This was just a totally underachieving team period. Now is it better than this years team? Yeah. But to think if they had Obekpa for the tourney they would have had a really good shot to advance far- just not realistic.