Post by StPetersburgHoya (Inactive) on Jul 8, 2005 15:44:27 GMT -5
mcnpa said:
nychoya3 said:
SJU still looks like a two man team for next year though, unless one of the frosh really steps up. And honestly, it's almost a one man team, because as Showtime goes, so go the Redmen. Like at MCI, Hill turned it over 10 times or so, and everytime they tried to make a run, he would mess up. And, of course, in MSG, he torched us. Hamilton is a nice player, but it strikes me that his shots are really dependent on Showtime penetrating and making good decisions. I've heard from some folks in NYC that Ricky Torres didn't have the year expected of him - you guys counting on him to produce next season? Mason is supposed to be good, but he really needs to transfer to Georgetown to continue building a replica of the early 1990's Knicks on the Hoya roster.If Uconn has their guards, they're awesome. If they don't they're just good, but the point guard spot will kill them all year. I think Cuse will be better than we think. Roberts, Watkins, McCroskey, Josh Wright, Dayshuan Wright...all these guys were big time prospects coming in, and unless Boheim really misjudged a whole lot of people, they can play. They'll get their chance this year, and I bet that Roberts ends up an all BE player.
WVU is SOOOOO overrated right now. Not as overrated as Louisville (2 returning starters? Big deal!), but overrated. This is still a team that went 8-8 in the BE. They lose 2 of their best players in Sally and Fisher, basically leaving them with nothing on the boards. If anyone here thinks Gansey, Beilein Jr., and Herber are going to hit EVERY freakin' three this year, raise your hands. I didn't think so...
Order of finish:
Uconn
Nova
Cuse
Georgetown
Cinci
Lousiville
WVU
SJU
Providence (they always surprise, good or bad)
Rutgers (decent talent)
And everyone else.
A few points about SJU. You say that it looks like a two man team, but I don't see it that way. First off, our starting center will be Aaron Spears. Spears is not a frehsman, he's a JC transfer, and played at Illinois his freshman year. Spears is a big 6-9 260 and will start at center. It will take alot of pressure off Lamont. Spears brings experience, and he ran the same offensive system at Illinois. He's supposed to be a rebounding machine.
Our starting 2Guard will likely be Jermaine Maybank who was supposed to be the starting 2G last season, but hurt his knee in the pre-season dunk contest. He's 6-4 with a good handle, and is very athletic. Ricky Torres should provide some good shooting coming off the bench. Maybank can shoot as well.
At SF, even though he is a frosh, Anthony Mason Jr is 6-7, a gazelle and a first-team All Tennessee player.
I don't see this being a 2-man SJU team. The reason that everything went through Darryl last year, is because he had nobody to pass the ball to. Our shooting guard was Eugene Lawrence who is really going to be our backup PG this season, and our small forward was 6-1 Cedric Jackson. Neither of those guys were shooters. We only had Lamont in the middle and we had a walkon backing him up.
The addition of 3 new starters, two of whom who are talented JC guys who know the system makes for a VERY different team. SJU should have alot more shooting ability, height as well as post play from Spears. SJU also brings in a 6-11 240lb Lithuanian who is currently on the Under 20 Lithuanian team.
SJU was a gritty team last season, but lacked talent and had players playing off-position. Next year the infusion of ALOT more talent should bode well. Lamont shoould have benn an All Big East player, and it was a travesty that he was not. He ate up Taft, Torin Francis, Shelden Williams and most of the big guys he went up against. Now he moves to his more natural PF position.
My $0.02 - SJU will have a good team next year, but you have a very tough in conference schedule (Villanova away, UCONN away, Louisville at home, Syracuse at home, WVU at home - will all be games in which SJU are not favored IMO). In addtion, I have to be honest that I couldn't find a list of your OOC opponents for next season, but if you hold to form by playing a good percentage of high RPI (200+) teams and then playing 1 or 2 ACC or other power conference schools then you are going to be in trouble because you will be relying on a strong Big East Tournament performance or way over-achieving in your BE schedule in order to impress the tournament committee.
Also having a 6'9 junior in the middle is not all that scary to me - when you consider that most of the centers in this league are bigger than that. And also I would be asking some questions about why this guy was asked to transfer off of a team that nearly won the national championship.
Our main reason for rating the Hoyas above you guys is because like you we return all of our players and have a coach that should have been more seriously considered for coach of the year, and have the first of two very good recruiting classes suiting up for the team next year. This first class in particular seems to fill some holes - i.e. shooters who can break a team's zone - that we've needed filled. Don't get me wrong though I also have you guys as being a "dark horse" in the league - I just think that some of your players might need one more year to really show what they've got - in particular the frosh SF you mentioned.