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Scouting St.Joe's!!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/17/2012
It was apparent late last season that St.Joe's was re-emerging as an A-10 contender. The Hawks were borderline brutal through mid-February. Xavier pummeled them on Hawk Hill in Philly 74-54. But Phil Martelli kept running his young guys out there and the results flipped around. SJU won 4 of its last 6 including a conference tournament play-in game at GW and a Quarterfinal victory over Duquesne (4th seed) at Atlantic City. Dayton took St Joe's out in a tight A-10 semi-final. Basically everybody is back for SJU this season plus they've added an impact transfer and two contributing frosh and the Hawks already have more wins (12-6) than the past two forgettable seasons (11-20 and 11-22).
Martelli's team is still very young. They start 1 junior and 4 sophomores. The scoring PG is 5-11 Jr. Carl Jones(18PPG). He scores in a lot of ways(off the dribble-from 3-at the Ft line) and plays huge minutes. The shooting guard 6-2 Soph Langston Galloway makes 51% of his 3s(#2 NCAA) and averages 16PPG. 6-9 He just pumped in 30 vs Fordham. CJ Aiken(Soph) patrols the paint. He is #2 in NCAA shot blocking at 4.33/game. SJU blocks over 8 as a team (#2 nationally). The Hawks really defend around the rim well so XU will have to be assertive inside.
Hofstra transfer Halil Kanacevic(6-8 258 Soph) plays like a point forward. He leads St Joe's in assists and adds 7 PPG plus 8 Rebs and he blocks shots. The other starter usually is 6-6 Soph Daryus Quarles.
The bench is 3 deep with 6-8 Ronald Roberts who had 16P in a loss at UMass last Saturday-frosh PG Chris Wilson-a bigger ballhandler who owns an impressive 2 to 1 assist-turnover ratio and 6-8 frosh inside player Papa Ndao.
The Hawks had a great non-conference portion at 10-4 with wins over Big 5 rival Villanova,MVC favorite Creighton,Penn State and Drexel-another Philly rival. The A-10 so far has been so-so with an OT win at Duquesne and a home blow-out of Fordham but a low scoring home loss to Charlotte(57-52) and the most recent "L" at UMass.
This team is growing with basically no seniors. Road games and league games are a little more problematic but SJU has the horses with the two great guards plus plenty of size inside. They score 74PPG and give-up 66. FT shotting is average at 66% but Jones the PG and game closer is plus 80%FTs. Offensive rebounding has been below par but the Hawks shoot it so well it's not too damaging.
Xavier needs to start quickly as they have against Fordham,Duquesne and St Bonnies in the winning streak. The Packline defense has to continue to be ravenous!!
Hopefully,Kenny Frease is near 100% physically because the Muskies will be challenged inside really for the first time since Gonzaga. SJU has a collection of capable BIG Bodies. Aiken and Roberts are darn athletic.
The Hawks give up open 3 ball looks so Mark Lyons and Tu Holloway and Brad Redford will have their chances. They cashed in against St Bonnies. St Joe's may not quite be ready for prime time on the road in the A-10 yet,but their time is coming.
It's up to XU to delay that coming out party by jumping them early and often. If XU(3-1 in A-10) does win,they may own first place in the conference outright at the end of the nite. UMass (3-1) plays at Duquesne and Dayton is off-waiting for their game at UD Arena against Xavier Saturday afternoon.
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