Sun Jan 31st Game - Villanova at St John's...

[Red Rooster]

Fair enough, but before your comment I didn't see NovaBall post anything that I would consider negative towards St. John's, it was more complimentary of Villanova with some observations mixed in, "Nova driving and mid range shots = good results, Nova shooting threes = bad results". I didn't see him post anything that warranted the response you gave him.

Not looking to police the board. You can say what you want. I just didn't think it was necessary especially if you don't want Villanova fans firing back with something negative about St. John's.

Well just today he started a thread with the first line "St. John's isn't even pretending Mullin is coaching the team" because an assistant was speaking during a time out. This after the earlier nonsense we heard him say about Mullin last week. Then a few days ago he goes on with Nova is the biggest road favorite in BE history. Obviously no one has a spread sheet detailing point spreads for the past 30 years. He just throws that out there, pretending it's fact and looking to instigate. Then he says no casual fan will watch on TV to see Nova win by two dozen in an empty arena filled with the opposing teams fans. which once again he was wrong about I don't have the time to go back and read all his stuff but you get the idea.

That right there, my friend, is what they call "trolling." Half-baked rhetoric without any fundamental logic or facts to back it up. It's just material to annoy the natives. One of his fellow Villanova fans has already gone on record by saying, NovaBall has been banned from other Villanova basketball forums. Based on the junk he posts here, consider me a believer in him being prohibited from other Villanova fan sites.

[Burrito]

Jay Wright had some some kind words for what Chris Mullin is going through this year.

http://nypost.com/2016/01/31/why-jay-wr ... ns-losing/

[billyjack]

I never understood the storyline that Mullin doesn't coach correctly or whatever. There are many ways to coach a team. Some coaches scream at their players, some are pointy headed x's and o's guys, some delegate, some try to keep their players relaxed no matter what the circumstances.

Chris Mullin knows what he's doing and will be fine. The team always plays hard. Their losses are due to roster turnover and inexperienced players, and because of that, a failure to execute. They just don't have the horses this year. Just enjoy the ride.

[ChestRockwell85]

I never understood the storyline that Mullin doesn't coach correctly or whatever. There are many ways to coach a team. Some coaches scream at their players, some are pointy headed x's and o's guys, some delegate, some try to keep their players relaxed no matter what the circumstances.

Chris Mullin knows what he's doing and will be fine. The team always plays hard. Their losses are due to roster turnover and inexperienced players, and because of that, a failure to execute. They just don't have the horses this year. Just enjoy the ride.

100% agreed. I don't want to knock St. John's players because they play hard and you can tell they care, and at this point, that is all you can ask from them, but Coach K couldn't come in and do much of a better job than Chris is doing right now with what he has. SJU is going to be fine. Help is on the way, not to mention Mullin had a TON of recruits at the game today, not just Alkins, he knows what he is doing. SJU will be fine.

[ecasadoSBU]

Were they really 12,731 fans at the Madison Square Garden today? If someone can confirm that then I gotta say I'm really f'cking impressed at the St. John's fans for showing up despite the challenging year. That's great news.

[billyjack]

Coach K took over Duke in 1981 when Bill Foster took the job at indy South Carolina.
Duke had made the Elite-8 in 1980 (lost to Purdue with Joe Barry Carroll who was traded for Robert Parish), and the national final in 1978 (lost to Kentucky with Kyle Macy and Goose Givens).

In 79, they got a typical gift virtual home game in their first game, but were beaten by the Johnnies (Reggie Carter dropped 21 on Duke!)... the following day, also in the state of North Carolina, the Tarheels were beaten by the Penn Quakers. Woo hoo!

When in current day Jim Spanarkel announces a St John's game on FS1 and he seems to be rooting against SJU (honestly I've never noticed this), it's probably cuz he was on that Duke team, and ACC personnel never forget stuff like that, because the ACC is psychotic. Just joking.

Anyway, Coach K's first three years at Duke:
1981 Duke - 17-13, (6-8 in ACC), NIT bid. <--- inherited an Elite-8 team.
1982 Duke - 10-17, (4-10 in ACC). <--- losses to Appy State and Stetson, beat Uncw in OT.
1983 Duke - 11-17, (3-11 in ACC). <--- lost to Wagner.

So even the sainted Coach K struggled a ton when he started at Duke.

[Continuing on and veering off topic...]

1984 Duke - only in his 4th year did Coach K make the tourney with Duke, but they were bounced in their first game.
1985 Duke - another year of improvement, earning a 3-seed. After beating Pepperdine under Jim Harrick, they were bounced by 11-seed Boston College... don't F with the f-ing Big East...!!!

Another couple of thoughts on 1985:
How freakin dominant was the Big East in 1985...?:

- in 85, Boston College under Gary Williams made the Sweet-16, but after leading much of the game and holding Keith Lee to 8 points, the Eagles lost to the cheatin Memphis State Tigers by 2. Memphis advanced to their later vacated Final Four of course, the only non BE team. So there was actually a decent chance that the Final Four in 1985 could have had four Big East teams. Wow.

- in 85, the ACC sent 5 teams to the NCAA's, and each of them was bounced by a Big East team. BC beat Duke, Villanova beat Maryland and UNC, Georgetown beat Ga Tech, and St John's beat NC State. From that point forward, the ACC and all its minions, Billy Packer, etc, developed a pyschopathic obsession with all things about the Big East. We freakin curb stomped their arrogant asses. But seriously, think of that... all 5 ACC tourney teams were donkey kicked by the Big East.

I'm getting sidetracked here, but this is, i think, the goal of our current Big East. This is what i expect in the years to come, brick by brick. To return to being at the top of the college hoops world, with all 10 of us contributing. And can you guys imagine the buzz when St John's and DePaul put it in gear...?

[climbs down from soapbox]

[NovaBall]

Were they really 12,731 fans at the Madison Square Garden today? If someone can confirm that then I gotta say I'm really f'cking impressed at the St. John's fans for showing up despite the challenging year. That's great news.

Nova has a lot of NYC alumni. The sju v nova game is usually at about 12k. When johnnies are good and their fans show up it gets closer to 20k. I've been to ton ps of nova v johnnies weekend games at MSG, it is pretty much a nova alumni function.

[SJHooper]

SJ uglied the game up and it wasn't a blowout...I'd say that's a success given the circumstances. This would have been a SJ win with last year's team or possibly next year's. This season we just have to bite the bullet and understand that this is a throwaway year. Credit to Nova. Let's get this season over with.

[Jack Williams]

Were they really 12,731 fans at the Madison Square Garden today? If someone can confirm that then I gotta say I'm really f'cking impressed at the St. John's fans for showing up despite the challenging year. That's great news.

Nova has a lot of NYC alumni. The sju v nova game is usually at about 12k. When johnnies are good and their fans show up it gets closer to 20k. I've been to ton ps of nova v johnnies weekend games at MSG, it is pretty much a nova alumni function.

Maybe, but St. John's fans had a great showing yesterday. Despite the season we came out, rooted for the team, chanted the recruits names and it was a fun afternoon until like 16 minutes left in the second half

[Xudash]

Were they really 12,731 fans at the Madison Square Garden today? If someone can confirm that then I gotta say I'm really f'cking impressed at the St. John's fans for showing up despite the challenging year. That's great news.

Nova has a lot of NYC alumni. The sju v nova game is usually at about 12k. When johnnies are good and their fans show up it gets closer to 20k. I've been to ton ps of nova v johnnies weekend games at MSG, it is pretty much a nova alumni function.

Maybe, but St. John's fans had a great showing yesterday. Despite the season we came out, rooted for the team, chanted the recruits names and it was a fun afternoon until like 16 minutes left in the second half

All I know is that it looked very much big-time on my television. That place is special. Then you have the celebrity factor kick in - John McEnroe, among others. Not a huge deal, but it's nice to know that a Big East basketball game is an attractive ticket like that.

Lookout when the Johnnies get rolling.