Red Storm Review

[OmahaGuy]

The 2015-16 campaign for St. John's has come to an end, ending the 1st year of the Chris Mullin era. Let's review and preview the Johnnies!

As expected, it was an incredibly rough and trying year for the Red Storm. A team that only won 8 games with only 1 conference win. That highlight win of course was the win over Syracuse and that was a SWEET victory. Otherwise, like I said, it was an extremely bumpy year. It was the lack of seasoned talent and experience both on the court and on the sideline that was their undoing.

Who's heading out?
*Durand Johnson
*Ron M'Vouika
*Felix Balamou
**All 3 weren't amazing players but all 3 were serviceable players whom will be missed.

Who's coming back?
*Christian Jones-Went from being a complete afterthought to being one of the teams better players. Mad credit to him for working his butt off and the coaching staff for developing him.
*Amar Alibegovic-Talented player but I didn't see much consistency out of him. I definitely think he'll be a very good player by his senior year though.
*Malik Ellison-Very talented young player who's got a bright future ahead. Had a good run later in the season.
*Federico Mussini-This kid was by far and away one of their better players and he's only gonna get better. Especially now since he'll no longer play out of his natural position with LoVett moving in at PG next season. Kid has a bright future ahead.
*Kassoum Yakwe-Another one of St. Johns' better players this season. His length and athleticism are a major difference maker on the boards and on defense. I'm also loving this kids future.
*Yankuba Sima-Like Yakwe, he's another very long and athletic player except a big man instead of a forward. Scouts have said he's got major pro potential. I could see it, though he's still got a very long ways to go. Again, I really like his future.

Who's coming in?
*Marcus LoVett-This kid is a very talented player and he should step in as PG next season. Going to go through a learning curve but in time, he should be pretty darn good.
*Darien Williams-Was out for the year with an injury. He's a stretch-4. Hopefully he can find his way into the rotation and provide good spacing.
*Tariq Owens-The transfer from Tennessee. Another long and athletic big man. With him, Sima, and Yakwe, oh my! You won't want to drive the rim against those guys, they'll send your shot into the 5th row hahaha.
*Shamorie Ponds-Very talented NYC HS guard.
*Richard Freudenberg-German kid who looks like another stretch-4. Very talented Euro player.
*Bashir Ahmed-One of the more prized JuCo recruits. From NYC.

All in all, next year should still be pretty rocky but they'll definitely improve. St. John's has got a bright future.

[splork]

http://www.bigeastboards.com/

[DudeAnon]

http://www.bigeastboards.com/

lol, love the blog post titles "Wojo is me"

[NJRedman]

Thats a good breakdown, Jones is a great example of the difference in coaching between Mullin and Lavin. Jones was a guy who was an after thought even from SJU fans. A bonehead who only spent little time on the court turning the ball over and picking up fouls while Obekpa caught his breathe. Now, the kid has developed into a stud. He can be the next Anthony Glover for us old enough to remember Glover. I love him now, kid is turning into a beast and if he keeps it up will be our senior anchor and every game starter at the forward position. This kid has improved more than I thought possible. Im proud of him and the coaching staff. These kids are in good hands now and can develop with good coaching.

[Amase2]

Thats a good breakdown, Jones is a great example of the difference in coaching between Mullin and Lavin. Jones was a guy who was an after thought even from SJU fans. A bonehead who only spent little time on the court turning the ball over and picking up fouls while Obekpa caught his breathe. Now, the kid has developed into a stud. He can be the next Anthony Glover for us old enough to remember Glover. I love him now, kid is turning into a beast and if he keeps it up will be our senior anchor and every game starter at the forward position. This kid has improved more than I thought possible. Im proud of him and the coaching staff. These kids are in good hands now and can develop with good coaching.

Ahhh, if only other were shown the light sooner..

[SJHooper]

Very fair analysis, great job! Yes the season is finally over. Here's my recap of what went right and what went wrong and our outlook.

What went right:

-Have to admit, I laughed seeing Ellison for much of the season because he looked like a HS player. Missing layups routinely, coughing the ball up almost every possession, failing on 3 on 1 fast breaks, etc. But he did much better at the end of the season and looked like he can be at worst a solid guy off the bench.

-Sima is a legitimate big who can defend, block, AND score. It was awesome having Obekpa (pre-marijuana bust) and his block parties, but he was awful offensively. Sima is already lightyears better than him offensively and just as good defensively. And he's a freshman. If he stays 4 years he will be our Stainbrook.

-Mussini...now many fans may say how overrated he was, since he didn't have a great year. But anyone who knows hoops knows that Mussini is NOT a PG and was playing totally out of position all year. He is a catch and shoot guy, and if there's one thing he showed us, it's that he only needs a bit of room to get it off and can shoot from anywhere on the court. He will be a very good 4 year player as a catch and shoot guy.

-Coaching staff. There have been nothing but rave reviews from our new recruiting studs Matt A and Slice. They have already shown the ability to keep top local talent home and reel in 4 star kids even in awful rebuilding years. They are generating lots of buzz locally. You can tell they are also finding kids with real skill (Sima, Mussini, Yakwe) instead of Lavin's administration recruiting general athletes who were solid at everything but great at nothing. Greg St. Jean is also a very young hungry kid who is really enjoying his role. Yes it's true that Mullin defers to him in many huddles or timeouts, but remember he never coached before and even if St. Jean takes charge more in the huddle, who cares? College hoops is more about recruiting than coaching IMO. Look at any top 25 team and 90% of them will be chock full of 4 and 5 star kids. As long as you recruit well, balance classes, motivate the kids, and know how to develop them over 4 years, you will succeed in college.

What went wrong:

-Carnesecca Arena is an abomination. The place literally keeps fans away it's so hot and uncomfortable. No seatbacks on most of the seats, no concessions, no luxury, no comfort, and our scoreboard is outdated. The student section is a joke. It has room for about 20 people on each end and it's 15 feet above the court. It needs to either be renovated in a major way, or demolished and rebuilt completely. Yes we play at MSG, but CA should still be a nice arena. We are in the media capital of the world in arguably the biggest basketball city on earth and we are the only NYC team in major hoops. I don't get how all these other schools are getting new stadiums on the reg and we must continue to put up with CA which looks like it hasn't been changed since 1998 and has the luxuries of a little league ballpark.

-Turnovers...missed layups...just a complete mess. The Cuse game was one of the very few games this team actually clicked on all cylinders. Much of this had to do with inexperience and bad players.

-Do we ever win tournament games? Big East or NCAA? I mean it seriously feels like we never do. Even early season tournaments. SJ has a terrible reputation for falling flat on our faces in tournaments. I really don't get it. This goes across coaches and across different teams.

-Refs were absolutely horrendous pretty consistently. Even Raf said "jeez let them play this has been the worst officiating ever". Blowing a whistle every minute and calling 50 fouls is just slaughtering the fan experience at games.

-Everything else that could go wrong essentially did. We also have the hex of being known for severely underperforming. We almost never overperform. The only program that has underperformed worse than us in recent years is G'Town.



Outlook:

-SJ figures to be around a 15 win team next year. The talent will be on an entirely different level, but the consistency will not be there. Inexperience almost always catches up with you unless you are Kentucky, Duke, or Kansas. McDonald's AA's might make instant impacts, but top 50 kids need a few years before getting comfortable and consistent. Our recruiting has been very good and there is a lot of hype around us. We had pretty good turnout for most games despite being arguably the worst major conference team this year in the country. That shows hope. Forget Elite 8's and Final Four's and top 10 rankings. If we can make the NCAA's every other year and appear in the top 25 at some point on and off most years, you will see tons of fans awaken from their slumber. If this team was top 10 and made Sweet 16's and Elite 8's, St. John's games would look like Knicks games. That means sold out. I'm hopeful, but I'm also a realist. Usually when things seem too good to be true at SJ (Lavin, Mullin, etc.) they usually are. Let's see what Mullin can do.

[OmahaGuy]

Amar Alibegovic will transfer

[hoops22]

Amar Alibegovic will transfer

Despite it being a difficult year for St. Johns, the fans remained loyal all season. Attendence was good, they never booed, and there was excitement whenever the team played well. Amar was a big reason for that. He gave 100% every time he was on the floor, and would always be the first one off the bench to congratulate a teammate for a good play. He never let the losing get him down, and remained enthusiatic, while giving his best every time he played. I think every Johnnies fan appreciates Amar's efforts, and wishes him nothing but the best as he seeks a new home. There are other basketball opportunities for him, that will be a better fit. His contributions in the Syracuse game, will always remain one of the few team highlights from this past season.

On a side note, it's rumored Christian Jones will also be moving on. If this happens that will mean everyone from the Lavin era is gone and the entire roster will now be Mullins recruits.

[SJUBBALL]

Expect St John's to have 1 or 2 graduate transfers on their roster by the end of April. They are pushing hard for transfers right now.

[NJRedman]

Amar Alibegovic will transfer

Despite it being a difficult year for St. Johns, the fans remained loyal all season. Attendence was good, they never booed, and there was excitement whenever the team played well. Amar was a big reason for that. He gave 100% every time he was on the floor, and would always be the first one off the bench to congratulate a teammate for a good play. He never let the losing get him down, and remained enthusiatic, while giving his best every time he played. I think every Johnnies fan appreciates Amar's efforts, and wishes him nothing but the best as he seeks a new home. There are other basketball opportunities for him, that will be a better fit. His contributions in the Syracuse game, will always remain one of the few team highlights from this past season.

On a side note, it's rumored Christian Jones will also be moving on. If this happens that will mean everyone from the Lavin era is gone and the entire roster will now be Mullins recruits.

I hope Jones stays, if he keeps playing like he did at the end of the year he can be a really good player in the Anthony Glover mold.

FYI Anthony Glover is my all time favorite Johnny.