SJU POSTGAME DISCUSSION THREAD

[thebin]

ND was a little better on attendance, without the snow storm, it would have been more so. That was a Sunday afternoon rather than a Tuesday night and ND travels WAY more fans that SJU. I would just like to think a Tuesday night BE game would still hit the 10k mark but I guess we have to keep on rolling and that will settle out.

[johnnyred]

Good win guys!! Now go and beat up on BC.

[jerseyhoya34]

johnnyred said:

Good win guys!! Now go and beat up on BC.

Thanks for coming by and sharing the kind words. I am cheering for SJU to pick it up over the coming seasons. Coach Roberts seems to be doing well on the recruiting trail, and things should fall into place from there.

[JimmyHoya]

Attendance wise, it was awesome to see the Student and Alumni sections packed.

Unfortunately, there were like 3 other people in the other sections.

I think we'll get greater unconnected attendances once we're in the papers s'more and have some bigger teams. On one hand, I love the progression, on the other, it's sad that we're getting noticed with only 3 home games remaining.

[BubbleVisionBiff]

JerseyHoya34 said:

Thanks for coming by and sharing the kind words. I am cheering for SJU to pick it up over the coming seasons. Coach Roberts seems to be doing well on the recruiting trail, and things should fall into place from there.

Harumph! Coach Roberts is going to do great things for the Johnnies. He has them playing with maximum effort for a full 40 minutes. You guys will be back, and I can't wait.

[HoyaDestroya]

Not to throw rain on the parade... but I have two objective criticisms...
1. MAKE FREE THROWS - they might not have mattered today down the stretch, but they could very well make the difference on Saturday.
2. Why did so many students leave with a minute or so left... ovbviously they haven't been around long - but we have to be there until the end!

Other than that - a solid game. St. Johns played hard, but our guys showed they can play with anyone. More than impressed with Brandon's defense tonight. And Sead definitely has some competition for most active non-player - Jeff Green's mom (who was sitting a few rows behind me) was the sixth man tonight!

[Nevada Hoya]

It was nice to "hear" the end of the game in the chatroom without having chest pains. Some impressions from the scorecard: we were 8 of our first 9 FTs, but 3 of our last 9. We would have won by 15 if we had made these. We were outrebounded by 29-37!? Jeff got 8 offensive rebs of his total of 9. Can that be right? I wish I could have seen them tonight, because some of the plays described in the chat sounded awesome.

GO HOYAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DDT THE EAGLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DFW HOYA]

Average attendance so far is 7,373, down 14% from 2004.

The lowest average since 1981 was 7,758 in 2000.

[Jack]

John Clougherty is WICKED old.

Crowd was pretty weak aside from the student section, I blame it on the lack of any St. John's fans outside of the New York metro area and their lack of buzz as an opponent. That won't last either- they are clearly headed in the right direction, I look forward to continuing a great rivalry with these two coaches.

I know my local alum friends are getting excited about this team now, we need to get the non-alumni crowd back. People were almost disappointed not to have an exciting ending (unless you wagered on the 9.5 spread, in which case it was an all-time gut-wrencher). Students leaving in the last two minutes to catch a bus back was disappointing to me- stay and cheer, let the boys now you want a win over BC next.

Jeff Green's double-pump take-off-from-the-elbow layin in the first half was impressive, a pro move out of the freshman. People in my section were breathing a little faster after that one.

The Hoyas seemed to get away from the PrinceTown a little tonight, too many turnovers on ill-advised fast breaks. They made some big 3's against the zone, Green was unstoppable, Cook was clutch, but it was not a great offensive performance overall.

Now, BEAT BC! I want to rush the court at an away game. My last trip there was sweet- 70-43 in 2002. The matchup is interesting and they are gonna lose sooner or later. Why not us?

[lichoya68]

ok agree with buffalo hoya that jeff was ticked that hibbs got bigeast row... jeff was awesome i believe he didnot come out was in all 40 i think unless i blinked.. also.. we were slow offensively and defensively in the first half i do believe it may be a stratagey because we arent deep and i think if good shape soooooooooo in the second much faster and more aggresive on d more traps and attempted steals and in the end running circles around them... we seemed in better shap and able to run picks etc and motion on the offense when it counted to knock them out... st johns was tough well coached and that hill sucker can all out play for a little fella really play ....... a tellingstat he had nine in the first half an donly another four with 7;50 to play in the game ie only four points in the first 12 minutes of the second half ie. my hypothesis that we did stepup the d he seemed stolen from and trapped alot and i think that was the game ....green and wallace missed two late foul shots late in game maybe tired legs?? anyway some idiot when we were ahead tried to get a beat bc cheer going and in the last twominutes the 14 point lead was down to 9 or seven PLEASE TELL THAT GUY TO SHUT UP ps oops i was that guy great game great team win and the johnnies fought very very hard good win over a comptetitive team.. go bc beat providence so then......the hoyas can upset the top ten ranked undefeated bc traitors opps i mean eagles opps no i dont at their house to send them packing one at a time hoyas one at a time go hoyas BEAT BC (IS IT SAFE TO SAY THAT NOW THAT THE GAMES OVER NEVER AGAIN WILL I BE SO OVERCONFIDENT ))!!!! NITE NITE SLEEP TIGHT HAVE HOYA DREAMS ;D

[ahoya3]

This game turned out as expected. Very hard fought. What a difference in St. John's. They played tough and aggressively; were quick to the glass. Good defensive game plan on Hill. Ashanti was terrific. Hill picked up a lot of his points after our 9-11 point lead. I was not too upset at the missed free throws. When the game was still in doubt we were fine. At the end we were exhuasted and missed a bunch in garbage time(4/5?)
How long can Green continue to play 40 minutes a game? It looks to me like he has lost 6-10 pounds since the start of the season.

All in all, an excellent scheme. Solid team win. Reed and Owens were excellent off the bench. Wallace is the most valuable 2-4 point a game man I have ever seen. Tough assignment for our big boys with Smith at the Conte center. Refs will play a big part in that game.

[Big Dog]

what's the story with ticket prices this year? without the upper deck seats, are there any of those single-digit dollar seats available anywhere in the house?

I saw Mark Shields was sitting a few rows up behind the benches. Any other "celebrity" sightings tonight?

[][-][ 0 `/ /-\ 5]

I guess I was one of the three other people..
Quick Notes off of the top of my head:
free throws gotta improve
dont let teams beat you down on the offensive glass
learn to inbound the ball when being pressed
go jeff green and his mom
hibbs cant get 3 fouls in like 2 mins or we'll we in trouble
good job stopping a teams best player and top scorer in BE
steals and fast breaks off of them were game changing
people other than students need to come... i was kinda lonely
******************************
***Jeff Green learned how to fly!!!!!***
******************************

[lichoya68]

i think if anytihing jeff has added more muscle hes the man i think he cna do this.. also re the students HUGE student turnout and very vocal loudest coulda been for jeffs mom but will the students please BEG THE CHEERLEADERS pleae to get around the arena and cheer they didnot move from in front ot the band except to weakly throw teeshirts and to do their routines some of youall must know them all and you need to talk to them manomano or womanowomano please this is importatn down the stretch i think the old fogie crowd is coachable but they need the cheerleaders to LEAD please tak to any cheerleaders you know go bc beat providence and then go hoyas beat bc

[Coast2CoastHoya]

Pretty impressed with the showing we put on tonight - another example of quality guard play, intensity, focus, class, and smarts by Mean Jeff Green (we need a cheer for him - i like the "Jeff Green Woooooo" one a few of the front row'ers do), nice work underneath and up top by Brandon, quality minuted by RR and DO . . . and man it was FUN to see us have such control over a game. I love this team!!!

Only complaint was that weird minute+ where we seemed to make bonehead play after bonehead play, almost as if we were bored being ahead by so much (and Roy's 3 fouls in one minute, but the big guy gets a mulligan for getting his first BE ROTW). Get used to being ahead Hoyas; you're going to be blowing out teams left and right next season!!

Couple of side notes:
(1) the Hoop Club/YA/DC Club Happy Hour at the Coach's Club was a lot of fun - a nice, mello way to gear up for a game. It was nice to see some old buddies. HHC should do more of those; it's a nice way to do some community building.
(2) This game was the first time I've ever sat in a luxury box (muchas gracias BANDO!). I was a little sad to be away from the students , but man it was so cool to hear them be so loud and so pumped all game long from that far away (and the leather seats, in-room bathroom, and popcorn weren't bad either). We'll be pretty intimidating when all the YA's are screaming like 'destroya and 'NCCT do (nice to see ya 'destroya) but we need more of us to be as into it! Gotta say though, it was kinda out of body being away from "home." See y'all in the student section next wed. for SHU.
(3) Didn't realize the other concourses (i.e., 200-400 level) were carpeted. Kinda psyched me out!

SO STOKED RIGHT NOW!!!
GO HOYAS!!!

[crzyhoya]

Jeff Green's layup through ridiculous traffic made the top 10 plays on SportsCenter.

Green is def. rookie of the year for Big East- one of the top 5 in the country.

Great game tonight- BC will be a test, but winnable in my mind. They're only big game was beating UConn in Connecticut.

[SpanishHoya]

Student section was packed!! Beside a couple Syracuse games and against a couple top 10 opponents... best student showing in 6 years for regular season game... keep it up.. really impressive!

[FLHoya]

HoyaDestroya said:

Not to throw rain on the parade... but I have two objective criticisms...
2. Why did so many students leave with a minute or so left... ovbviously they haven't been around long - but we have to be there until the end!

In the Recap I did, I dubbed this the "Double Bonus Rush for the Bus." As a general rule, it seems most of the non die-hard Hoya fans, in an apparent rush to get back to campus quick in order to secure the prime wall tables on the 4th floor of Lauinger, tend to perform a mass exodus at the first intentional foul with under 120 seconds to go in a game whose outcome is less than in question.

I don't get it, and I long for the days when such fans were heckled to death at FOOTBALL games of all things.

(EDIT: In response to Jack's note about the attendance, where the crowd seemed to be missing was in the sections behind the basket on the young alumni side--almost deserted, and in some of the corners. This is where the Ticketmaster seats are, and where visiting fans tend to sit. There were also clearly a LOT of freebie group tickets given out to folks who sat in the sections near the students and in other places. I never really notice a humungous difference in the middle sections where the big donors and others are.)

[millerj9]

i really liked the intensity of our guys as well as their composure at the end of the game. If we only made free throws at the end of the game…Like another poster stated, Cook really has been clutch in games of late. I’ve been impressed with his decisions in the last few minutes. He has grown up a lot this year. Each and every game these guys come ready to play. I attribute this largely to JTIII. I am hoping that this effort will be rewarded by the local community coming out to support the team. If we could pack the house with not only students and alumni, but also with local fans, the MCI could be pretty intimidating. With GU being down for a short while, I think we need a top 25 ranking for the locals to start ponying up the $$ to watch this bunch. They are only beginning to become mainstream, but I am hoping the local DC fans really will jump on the bandwagon with a few more wins…and a few more UMD losses.

I know these guys will come to play against BC , and I cant wait to watch the game. Go hoyas!

[GUHoya07]

2. Why did so many students leave with a minute or so left... ovbviously they haven't been around long - but we have to be there until the end!

I AGREE!!! I got really Editeded off and turned around and started screaming at them to stay there and not leave. I was beginning to curse and get infuriated and eventually CAHoya and a couple others insisted that I calm down and stop cursing at fellow students.

[EDITED]!!! They should be there till the very end and get the loudest at the end to congratulate the team on another great victory. Much work still left to be done in student section land. Now that we have all these fans we have to teach them the rules of the game.