Wed. St. John's at Villanova 12/21/22

[sju88grad]

Say hello to the new St. John's, same as the old St. John's.

Not so fast! The "Finn" is a hellish place to play. I saw nothing that moves me off my position on Anderson's Storm. They could easily sweep 4, maybe 5 conference goes this year. What Soriano has become, with the addition of Jones = Tourney team.

Thanks Xuperman! I wish I had the same confidence as you!

[Jasper67]

Say hello to the new St. John's, same as the old St. John's.

Not so fast! The "Finn" is a hellish place to play. I saw nothing that moves me off my position on Anderson's Storm. They could easily sweep 4, maybe 5 conference goes this year. What Soriano has become, with the addition of Jones = Tourney team.

Yes, Soriano dud have a big game for them last night - 17 points, 13 boards, 4 blocks. He and Jones combined for 21 rebounds, helping St. John’s to a 10 rebound advantage on the hugely important offensive boards.

One of the things which makes Villanova hard to beat is their execution. They don’t turn the ball over and they make their free throws. In other words, they don’t beat themselves. Last night they made an incredible 16/17 free throws, which gave them a 13 point advantage in points scored from the free throw line. That was pretty much the story. They won the game by 15.

[stever20]

I sort of look at Nova like a baseball team with a great bullpen. They shrink the game if you will. Instead of a 40 minute game, you better be up with about 4 minutes to go.

[Jasper67]

I sort of look at Nova like a baseball team with a great bullpen. They shrink the game if you will. Instead of a 40 minute game, you better be up with about 4 minutes to go.

Great analogy.

[hoops22]

Most surprising stat of the night to me was Arcidiacono having only one turnover and five assists. I thought Posh, Curbelo, Wusu would be far more disruptive. While he's no Brunson, he's playing much better than the Nova fan base gives him credit for. As far as St. John's goes, no real surprises. Out of control street ball, little offense, crazy substitution patterns, and Anderson getting out coached by Neptune. Storr should be getting more minutes, hopefully we'll see that starting next game vs Xavier. Still think Johnnies go 10-10 in BE, win one game in BET to finish 22-12. They may be the rare power conference team to go an entire season without one good win or one bad loss. Hopefully a weak bubble will allow them to sneak in come tournament time. One thing I'm certain of, is if Pitino were the coach with this same group, we'd see a much different distribution of minutes and substitute patterns than we see now.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Thinking maybe just not a good matchup for SJU. We see that a lot in this conference; some team just don't matchup the right way with others. Mentally tough and physical teams from top to bottom seem to give us the biggest problems. So some past PC, Butler and SHU teams, who would stand toe-to-toe and not wilt when Nova imposed their will, were always a tough out. Teams like SJU and DePaul who like to play undisciplined street ball are the perfect teams for our style.

Nova's biggest asset for the past decade has been fundamentals, attention to detail and toughness. SJU thrives on teams turning the ball over and speeding up their game. Their D consists of lots of hand checking, bumping and physicality. They try to win with athletes in the open court, with a free flow style without much structure in the half court. Rarely does that style affect Nova. Last night they played at their pace, found the right matchups and dared SJU to beat them shooting in the half court. It worked.

TBH, I just think Neptune outcoached Anderson. The approach and preparation is what won that game for us last night.