Chief’s Briefs - St John’s Edition

[Chief00]

Samson Johnson stepped up with 16 points in 30 minutes on 70% shooting. I think he still needs work on playing under screens and protecting the rim with his shot blocking, especially when your opponent is shooting 22% from 3.

I thought Newton came up big as usual in the what do I need to do tonight to win department. While his shooting % wasn’t great, he led the team in rebounding again with 9 and had 6 assists when nobody else had more than 2. Tristen only had 1 turnover, so that’s a 6 assist to turnover ratio. And somehow he managed 15 points to tie with Spencer in being our second leading scorer.

Spencer played pretty well, and seemed to recognize he needed to score some points with Donovan out. Castle also seemed to recognize he needed to rebound and defend well and did just that with 7 rebounds and some key defensive plays. He needs to get his shooting percentage up and has the ability to get to the FT line and score some there.

tn the first half St John’s was 10-12 on FT’s, we were 1-2 despite being fouled on several shots. Our first FT shot was with 40 seconds left in the half. Wake up guys! We don’t have the margin without Donovan to consistently overcome this Big East FT shot discrepancy. Hurley really unloaded on the refs early in the second half and calls were more balance after that.

Karaban is in a deep shooting slump when we badly need him. I can’t really say what he is doing wrong because his shot by its nature is unorthodox. I think he needs to do more of cutting to the hoop that helps him make some points and get to the FT line despite the slump. He did finally hit a three and Hurley took him out. Sometimes I think Danny can be a prisoner of his rotations and after a good shooter hits a 3 shot to keep him in.

I think this was a big win. The guys can enjoy their holiday with family and come back with a positive mindset. The next game is January 2nd, so it would have been painful if we were 0-2 going into that.

 

[ThabeetDown]

He did finally hit a three and Hurley took him out. Sometimes I think Danny can be a prisoner of his rotations and after a good shooter hits a 3 shot to keep him in.

He picked up a BS foul on the next play and Hurley had to take him out. That one is not on Hurley any coach would have taken him out there.

Hurley had short leashes with both Ball and Castle, although he let Castle stay in longer especially when was the backup 4 to Alex.

 

[uconntoatl]

Interesting comments from Dan

https://x.com/knbtknbt/status/1738817841153904883?s=46&t=ogie6uhLeQxXlYu4N0v8DA

 

[Punkbo]

Interesting comments from Dan

https://x.com/knbtknbt/status/1738817841153904883?s=46&t=ogie6uhLeQxXlYu4N0v8DA

This is the perfect “Trust the Process” clip. And it’s not just the players, it’s the coaches and fans as well. We’re all bought into what Danny is doing with this program. It’s a joy to be a part of. Happy Holidays to all. I’m gonna miss watching these games until 1/2, but it’s time to celebrate. Let’s have some fun and enjoy our families!

 

[CL82]

Interesting comments from Dan

https://x.com/knbtknbt/status/1738817841153904883?s=46&t=ogie6uhLeQxXlYu4N0v8DA

Passing shot at Alleyne's parents and advisors? It sure seems like that.

 

[willie99]

Passing shot at Alleyne's parents and advisors? It sure seems like that.

I was surprised and disappointed when he left. But today I'm happier to have Spencer

One of two decisions go differently, and we don't have the kid

"We got the wrong Lamb", Part II

 

[Pmurph678]

Not sure the clip is about Naheim, I was getting vibes he was referring to the big who transferred almost immediately to Texas tech a few years ago.

 

[Jaydumo20]

This a refreshing take @Chief00 and wholly accurate. Admittedly, I should've read this before the post game thread... you'd have thought we lost.

 

[Palatine]

Did it ever occur to Chief that Karaban hurt his hand and is still playing with his fingers taped. That his "slump"has been exasperated by his injury? If Chief is really inside, does he know when AK will be fully healed? I for one will be glad when he starts without the tape.

 

[Sphinx]

Love your stuff, Chief, but surprised that you did not give Castle greater credit for the result. To my eye, he was the take-charge guy we've been searching for in those final minutes, both offensively and defensively. I submit that, in the end, he was the difference -- the reason we finally prevailed in a wire finish.

And perhaps worth a mention is Singare. No one wants to pin any mistakes on Danny at this point, but not giving Singare more minutes in the buy games does seem to have been short-sighted. Danny seems not to have envisioned what would happen if Clingan, already playing injured, went down for an extended period. Singare is a physical presence who, once he fills into that broad frame, will be a monster defensively. His defensive energy last night was impressive, and perhaps he wouldn't have been so tentative offensively if last night had not been his prime-time debut. .

 

[Chief00]

He picked up a BS foul on the next play and Hurley had to take him out. That one is not on Hurley any coach would have taken him out there.

Hurley had short leashes with both Ball and Castle, although he let Castle stay in longer especially when was the backup 4 to Alex.

Given his production thus far and it being late in the game, I would have kept him in and see if he could get on a streak to come out of his slump.

 

[Chief00]

Did it ever occur to Chief that Karaban hurt his hand and is still playing with his fingers taped. That his "slump"has been exasperated by his injury? If Chief is really inside, does he know when AK will be fully healed? I for one will be glad when he starts without the tape.

I have mentioned that several times so not sure why you ask if it has occurred to me?

 

[Sphinx]

Regarding my comment about Danny's handling of Singare, i think a fair retort might be this -- that Danny's first priority was to develop Samson as backup behind Clingan. So Samson got the minutes, and the result is what you see. The defense rests.

We can expect now that Singare will be very much a focus in practice, and perhaps we see more of him against DePaul.

 

[CL82]

Passing shot at Alleyne's parents and advisors? It sure seems like that.

I listened to his full presser. And right at the end he he compliments Alleyne parents. He also said that he told Nahiem that he loves him, Mrs. him, and would have liked to have another season coaching him.

 

[Fan1978]

Samson Johnson stepped up with 16 points in 30 minutes on 70% shooting. I think he still needs work on playing under screens and protecting the rim with his shot blocking, especially when your opponent is shooting 22% from 3.

I thought Newton came up big as usual in the what do I need to do tonight to win department. While his shooting % wasn’t great, he led the team in rebounding again with 9 and had 6 assists when nobody else had more than 2. Tristen only had 1 turnover, so that’s a 6 assist to turnover ratio. And somehow he managed 15 points to tie with Spencer in being our second leading scorer.

Spencer played pretty well, and seemed to recognize he needed to score some points with Donovan out. Castle also seemed to recognize he needed to rebound and defend well and did just that with 7 rebounds and some key defensive plays. He needs to get his shooting percentage up and has the ability to get to the FT line and score some there.

tn the first half St John’s was 10-12 on FT’s, we were 1-2 despite being fouled on several shots. Our first FT shot was with 40 seconds left in the half. Wake up guys! We don’t have the margin without Donovan to consistently overcome this Big East FT shot discrepancy. Hurley really unloaded on the refs early in the second half and calls were more balance after that.

Karaban is in a deep shooting slump when we badly need him. I can’t really say what he is doing wrong because his shot by its nature is unorthodox. I think he needs to do more of cutting to the hoop that helps him make some points and get to the FT line despite the slump. He did finally hit a three and Hurley took him out. Sometimes I think Danny can be a prisoner of his rotations and after a good shooter hits a 3 shot to keep him in.

I think this was a big win. The guys can enjoy their holiday with family and come back with a positive mindset. The next game is January 2nd, so it would have been painful if we were 0-2 going into that.

 

[mussels]

Regarding my comment about Danny's handling of Singare, i think a fair retort might be this -- that Danny's first priority was to develop Samson as backup behind Clingan. So Samson got the minutes, and the result is what you see. The defense rests.

We can expect now that Singare will be very much a focus in practice, and perhaps we see more of him against DePaul.

Now you should do a counterpoint to your retort.

 

[Fan1978]

While the overall officiating was okay, cam and tristan were fouled repeatedly going to hoop in first half. One would expect a home court advantage in officiating but not the case here. Furthermore castle was fouled by soriano early second half. Soriano was not ever close to vertical. Then Soriano committed foul and they changed it to Taylor.

 

[Chief00]

Love your stuff, Chief, but surprised that you did not give Castle greater credit for the result. To my eye, he was the take-charge guy we've been searching for in those final minutes, both offensively and defensively. I submit that, in the end, he was the difference -- the reason we finally prevailed in a wire finish.

And perhaps worth a mention is Singare. No one wants to pin any mistakes on Danny at this point, but not giving Singare more minutes in the buy games does seem to have been short-sighted. Danny seems not to have envisioned what would happen if Clingan, already playing injured, went down for an extended period. Singare is a physical presence who, once he fills into that broad frame, will be a monster defensively. His defensive energy last night was impressive, and perhaps he wouldn't have been so tentative offensively if last night had not been his prime-time debut. .

I agree on Stephon. I did note his rebounding, and him making key defensive plays. He will do well in Big East play because of his skills, strength and size. Plus he’s very hard working and competitive.

 

[Spaceman213J]

Cam still has to get better on defense. The 2 turnovers in a row were awful. I would believe to a man he would tell anyone he was embarrassed by that 30 seconds of play. He also needs to stop drifting on the perimeter when the ball goes in to a big sometimes. Still love his "old man's" game at the offensive end.

I just don't get how the Big East is able to do anything about the refs. It hurts the Big East name & product. I don't get Karaban and Johnson be called for a touch foul on Soriano and yet Soriano got away with just putting his hand in Karaban and Johnson's chest and trying to shove them out of the way. It wasn't even in the guise of posting up. Newton also got bumped (almost out of bounds) and nothing was called. There maybe next to no charges this year, but 'freedom of movement' is no longer a thing either.

I think a key going forward, in the absence of Clingan, is trying to get Johnson involved in a positive play early on. When he gets that fast start, it gives him so much confidence, and when he makes a mistake early, he seems to have trouble letting go moving on to the next play.

Castle has to start hitting some shots other layups and putbacks. He was very solid on the boards and on defense when they let him play.

I know it helps the conference to sell a coach, but if they are going to gush about Pitino, they need to bring up the shady stuff too. I remember Calhoun detractors bringing up how the was found guilty of failure to monitor and promote an atmosphere of compliance, and the phone calls and crap were much less shady than what was going on under Pitino's watch at Louisville.

Finally, while I though he was less than good for most of the game, Hassan stepped up in the last minutes of the game and if not flat out made some plays, helped make things real tough for St. Johns at the end.

 

[Padutch5]

Interesting comments from Dan

https://x.com/knbtknbt/status/1738817841153904883?s=46&t=ogie6uhLeQxXlYu4N0v8DA

Wow!

 

[businesslawyer]

While the overall officiating was okay, cam and tristan were fouled repeatedly going to hoop in first half. One would expect a home court advantage in officiating but not the case here. Furthermore castle was fouled by soriano early second half. Soriano was not ever close to vertical. Then Soriano committed foul and they changed it to Taylor.

In fairness, when they changed the foul away from Soriano, both he and Taylor committed fouls on the shooter.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Regarding my comment about Danny's handling of Singare, i think a fair retort might be this -- that Danny's first priority was to develop Samson as backup behind Clingan. So Samson got the minutes, and the result is what you see. The defense rests.

We can expect now that Singare will be very much a focus in practice, and perhaps we see more of him against DePaul.

To be fair
I think even Freshman Carlton( a fair comparison ) was a tad ahead of Singare as a freshman but he was pretty much our starting 5 at age 18. Hopefully he makes . a similar jump from freshman to sophomore year as Josh .

 

[ctkaiser]

Love your stuff, Chief, but surprised that you did not give Castle greater credit for the result. To my eye, he was the take-charge guy we've been searching for in those final minutes, both offensively and defensively. I submit that, in the end, he was the difference -- the reason we finally prevailed in a wire finish.

And perhaps worth a mention is Singare. No one wants to pin any mistakes on Danny at this point, but not giving Singare more minutes in the buy games does seem to have been short-sighted. Danny seems not to have envisioned what would happen if Clingan, already playing injured, went down for an extended period. Singare is a physical presence who, once he fills into that broad frame, will be a monster defensively. His defensive energy last night was impressive, and perhaps he wouldn't have been so tentative offensively if last night had not been his prime-time debut. .

Was impressed with how Singare was banging with Soriano as if he couldn't wait to get physical. I was looking to see Ball get more time as he looked better than Castle but down the stretch Castle came through nicely.

 

[coachn]

Told you Singare was a player.
Officiating 15 to 4 in the first half a big issue. Should not be playing 8 on5 every game.

 

[imno1]

Cam still has to get better on defense. The 2 turnovers in a row were awful. I would believe to a man he would tell anyone he was embarrassed by that 30 seconds of play. He also needs to stop drifting on the perimeter when the ball goes in to a big sometimes. Still love his "old man's" game at the offensive end.

I just don't get how the Big East is able to do anything about the refs. It hurts the Big East name & product. I don't get Karaban and Johnson be called for a touch foul on Soriano and yet Soriano got away with just putting his hand in Karaban and Johnson's chest and trying to shove them out of the way. It wasn't even in the guise of posting up. Newton also got bumped (almost out of bounds) and nothing was called. There maybe next to no charges this year, but 'freedom of movement' is no longer a thing either.

I think a key going forward, in the absence of Clingan, is trying to get Johnson involved in a positive play early on. When he gets that fast start, it gives him so much confidence, and when he makes a mistake early, he seems to have trouble letting go moving on to the next play.

Castle has to start hitting some shots other layups and putbacks. He was very solid on the boards and on defense when they let him play.

I know it helps the conference to sell a coach, but if they are going to gush about Pitino, they need to bring up the shady stuff too. I remember Calhoun detractors bringing up how the was found guilty of failure to monitor and promote an atmosphere of compliance, and the phone calls and crap were much less shady than what was going on under Pitino's watch at Louisville.

Finally, while I though he was less than good for most of the game, Hassan stepped up in the last minutes of the game and if not flat out made some plays, helped make things real tough for St. Johns at the end.

Since you brought Ricky P. He should have been tee’d up for his hair color. Does he really think it’s a good look?