St John's Game Thread Feb 28, 2019

[olsingledigit]

Good win... Tied for 3rd in the BE... Who'd da thunk it a couple of weeks ago???... Dan

Yep - no one on this board did and that includes me.
There were several posts saying that X would not win another game this year after the DePaul loss and I was one of them.
Just goes to show that at the end of the day all of us don't know *****.

I too was one of them and happy to eat crow. Thankfully the players and coaches stuck together and did not give up.

[whopper]

23 pos, 13 rebounds and zero on ball turnovers by the grad transfers in the biggest road game of the year. Not bad guys and I pray you will see the tournament action you most richly deserve. Lets us have a great senior night. Great play by the core 4 who may simply be healthy now. Scruggs is a great presence even if his numbers are not good. If we get it to Tyrique (especially ) on the press as the safety valve I think we can solve the end of game problems which to me are the only residual problem remaining from last month

[bmuskies]

Good win... Tied for 3rd in the BE... Who'd da thunk it a couple of weeks ago???... Dan

Yep - no one on this board did and that includes me.
There were several posts saying that X would not win another game this year after the DePaul loss and I was one of them.
Just goes to show that at the end of the day all of us don't know *****.

Obviously nothing? I too thought they were not going to win a game the rest of the season after the Depaul loss at home.

[skyhops]

I thought that Q had a nice game yesterday and played solid defense. Jones and Marshall are becoming difference makers and are a tough matchup for any team in the big east. Not to be a downer, but it is still boggles my mind that we cannot handle the full court press at the end of the game. Scruggs and Q (and Caislin) continue to wait to get double teamed in the corner or on the baseline, which is the number one thing not to do. Oh well, can't argue with the energy of this team.

[longliveskip]

I thought that Q had a nice game yesterday and played solid defense. Jones and Marshall are becoming difference makers and are a tough matchup for any team in the big east. Not to be a downer, but it is still boggles my mind that we cannot handle the full court press at the end of the game. Scruggs and Q (and Caislin) continue to wait to get double teamed in the corner or on the baseline, which is the number one thing not to do. Oh well, can't argue with the energy of this team.

i concur on the press break. that was really the only frustrating thing to watch. i kept saying to myself "why don't teams just press us all game?"

we do stuff that my 6th grade girls team does - pick up our dribble on the sideline right after half court and wait for a trap, dribble through 3 people and then off our foot, stand and hold the ball hoping for a foul and then get trapped, etc

i bet there were at least 4 possessions where we didn't even get across half court or when we did, got trapped and turned it over.

but hey, if that's my only beef from an 11 pt win, then GIDDYUP.

nice win, boys.

LET'S GO X!

[oldhoopster]

I told my wife the same thing. If I'm an opposing coach, I'd press X for 40 minutes. Boggles the mind that they catch the ball and wait for the trap. One time they made 3 or 4 quick passes and got an easy bucket. But obviously they didn't learn from that. Hopefully they can continue to build large enough leads before opponents press. They are playing well right now. Maybe Naji's injury was worse than we know? He's been on a roll. Too bad it all started so late in the season.

[finalfourorbust]

I thought that Q had a nice game yesterday and played solid defense. Jones and Marshall are becoming difference makers and are a tough matchup for any team in the big east. Not to be a downer, but it is still boggles my mind that we cannot handle the full court press at the end of the game. Scruggs and Q (and Caislin) continue to wait to get double teamed in the corner or on the baseline, which is the number one thing not to do. Oh well, can't argue with the energy of this team.

i concur on the press break. that was really the only frustrating thing to watch. i kept saying to myself "why don't teams just press us all game?"

we do stuff that my 6th grade girls team does - pick up our dribble on the sideline right after half court and wait for a trap, dribble through 3 people and then off our foot, stand and hold the ball hoping for a foul and then get trapped, etc

i bet there were at least 4 possessions where we didn't even get across half court or when we did, got trapped and turned it over.

but hey, if that's my only beef from an 11 pt win, then GIDDYUP.

nice win, boys.

LET'S GO X!

Pressing the whole game doesn't work because we attack the basket once we break it instead of holding the ball. If we can't solve this problem maybe that would be our better course of action at the end of games too. I'm not sure that the players that are getting double teamed in the corners are always at fault. You either have to stop throwing it to them there or you have to provide outlets for them to throw it to when they get it.

[X-lucidity]

Great point 'Hops about Q's solid game. Much needed. Might just be in my own mind but seems he is out of his odd little personality funk, where earlier in the season, he did not always give off that "engaged" vibe. He is taking better % 3's and hitting a few, enough to keep other teams honest and his slashing attack choices seem better lately along with his D. Now if we could get Scruggernuts back on board with some shooting confidence, we could be humming. Naji is going to cool down a bit, which is fine, as long as he does not revert to his ice-cold start from deep. That dude is playing with swag.....! The engine of our team though is basketball Jones!! (IMHO) Tyrique is just a monster on the glass, defending the rim, and bringing those positive vibes for all to feed off. He had one huge offensive rebound that we kicked out for an open 3 which put us back up by 8 I believe after a Johnnie mini-run. I replayed that O-rebound and Jones came out of nowhere and just wanted it more. Those little stats do not always pop off the score book but are so huge. Getting back to Earth though, we had 3 extra helpers last night: St. Johns was missing their 2nd leading scorer, Pond hurt his wrist early which seemed to take some of his aggressiveness away, but most importantly, Mullen is a horrific bench coach. But we shall take the road kill. Our boys are feeding off our success lately which can snowball in the right direction. On to Butler, one game at a time.....

[X-Expert]

I thought that Q had a nice game yesterday and played solid defense. Jones and Marshall are becoming difference makers and are a tough matchup for any team in the big east. Not to be a downer, but it is still boggles my mind that we cannot handle the full court press at the end of the game. Scruggs and Q (and Caislin) continue to wait to get double teamed in the corner or on the baseline, which is the number one thing not to do. Oh well, can't argue with the energy of this team.
[/quotegood call on turnovers. That is still one of X biggest problems-not just against the press. Marshall, Scruggs, and Goodin accounted for the majority of those turnovers. Having said that, their shot selection has improved a little bit so not quite as many wasted possessions. X right now are winning on the glass and the bigs and Marshall have been huge. Also amazing when others hit shots and have to be guarded makes a difference for Welage. He isn't a create your own shot kind of guy so Marshall hitting a few will continue to help him get better looks.

[DannyV76]

Great point 'Hops about Q's solid game. Much needed. Might just be in my own mind but seems he is out of his odd little personality funk, where earlier in the season, he did not always give off that "engaged" vibe. He is taking better % 3's and hitting a few, enough to keep other teams honest and his slashing attack choices seem better lately along with his D. Now if we could get Scruggernuts back on board with some shooting confidence, we could be humming. Naji is going to cool down a bit, which is fine, as long as he does not revert to his ice-cold start from deep. That dude is playing with swag.....! The engine of our team though is basketball Jones!! (IMHO) Tyrique is just a monster on the glass, defending the rim, and bringing those positive vibes for all to feed off. He had one huge offensive rebound that we kicked out for an open 3 which put us back up by 8 I believe after a Johnnie mini-run. I replayed that O-rebound and Jones came out of nowhere and just wanted it more. Those little stats do not always pop off the score book but are so huge. Getting back to Earth though, we had 3 extra helpers last night: St. Johns was missing their 2nd leading scorer, Pond hurt his wrist early which seemed to take some of his aggressiveness away, but most importantly, Mullen is a horrific bench coach. But we shall take the road kill. Our boys are feeding off our success lately which can snowball in the right direction. On to Butler, one game at a time.....

And Q played all 40 minutes as well.