I want to honor JP by posting his last story written. It appeared on the Trove......
JP Pelzman
Trove correspondent
Welcome to the third and final installment of my conversation with New York Post college sports columnist and St. John’s beat writer Zach Braziller. This time, we discuss Shaheen Holloway’s substitution patterns, whether St. John’s can turn its great off-season into regular- and post-season gold and the recruitment of Jaquan Sanders. Also--a way for St. John’s fans to get even more info from Zach.
J.P. Pelzman: Here's the question I've been asking everyone. The people who know Sha say he isn’t going to change the way he did things at Saint Peter’s in terms of playing time, and he will have a large rotation and guys will play 25-26 minutes, tops. Can you see that being successful at the Big East level or will guys be sprinting to the portal once the season is over?
Zach Braziller: I think he’s going to do it to an extent. It's not like KC Ndefo was playing 20 minutes a game. In big spots, he was out there, unless he was in foul trouble.
JPP: True, true.
ZB: I think he’s going to make adjustments if he has to. You look at the way St. John’s plays. It's kind of similar. Mike Anderson plays a lot of guys. I think Sha will run in guys who play the way he wants to play. I happen to really like (Pitt transfer Femi) Odukale.
JPP: I like him too.
ZB: I think he’s a tough kid and a really good addition. I like the addition of (Clemson transfer) Al-Amir Dawes, too. Unless it’s Kadary (Richmond), there’s no No. 1 guy, but I think they have some nice pieces and most importantly, I think they have a blue-collar roster. I'd like to see what they can get out of Tyrese Samuel, who’s another guy like Kadary, who hasn’t quite lived up to his talent and potential, and is a guy, to me, who should be much better. He's another guy I'm very interested to see. I think they have a coaching staff that got a lot out of its players at Saint Peter’s and I'm really interested to see what they can do here.
JPP: How do you see the league shaping up?
ZB: I think Creighton is clearly No. 1 and I would probably go Nova, UConn 2-3, and I think there are a host of others who are in that next wave. I think Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Butler, Xavier--I would’ve put Marquette in there if Justin Lewis had come back. I think any one of those (five teams) could finish fourth and any one could finish seventh or eighth and I think Seton Hall is right there because I think they’re going to be tough. They’re going to defend and have balance, (although) they might not have the stars other teams have.
JPP: I know he’s not in any trouble job-security-wise, but how much would it help Dan Hurley to finally get that elusive NCAA Tournament win at UConn?
ZB: I don’t think he needs to win an NCAA game for his job. I do think he has to win an NCAA game to get the fans off his back (laughs). Now it's back-to-back years in which they were favored in the first round and lost. In the Maryland game two years ago, nothing went right. They couldn’t make a shot. This past year, they basically let one guy (New Mexico State’s Teddy Allen) beat them. And both years, it started in the Big East tournament when they lost a tough game that they could have won and it sort of carried over to the NCAA Tournament. They were playing well going into the Big East tournament and I thought they played a great game against Villanova. They just came up a little short. And the year before, they lost to Creighton in the Big East semis. They were playing well, and then it just fell apart (at the end of the game).
This year, I just don’t know what to think of them. They lost their two best players. (Adama) Sanogo is great, but in my opinion, (Tyrese) Martin and (R.J.) Cole were their two most valuable players. So, they lose a lot of experience, and we know big men are not as valuable as they once were. I think Sanogo is really good, and I know they brought in some transfers. But they’re expecting a newcomer to be their point guard and they’re hoping for Jordan Hawkins to have a breakout season. I know they have some good recruits. Some people have them in the top 20. I don’t think they’re that good. I think they’re a Tournament team. I think they’re somewhere maybe 25-30 in the country, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they finished fifth in the Big East. I have a lot of questions about that team, especially in March.
I know a big criticism of Danny is sometimes in crunch time his offense can be kind of shaky, and we’ve seen that the last few years. Look, they’d really have to fall apart for him to be in trouble with his job, but he’s got to have a big March here. You've got to beat New Mexico State. You can’t get beat by one guy. It's interesting. He's got work to do. I don’t think it’s as good as last year’s team on paper.
JPP: They depend so much on their defense to start their offense. I think that’s why they have problems in the halfcourt late in games. Yeah, you can dump it down to Sanogo. But you need more than that.
ZB: When R.J. Cole wasn’t in the game last year, their offense was a mess. And now they’re bringing in Tristen Newton from East Carolina, where he was a scorer (17.7 ppg, 5.0 apg, 3.5 turnovers) and they’re making him the point guard.
JPP: We've seen that sort of thing not work before.
ZB: There are legit questions about them. I'll pick them third, but I could see them being lower than that.
JPP: I wasn’t hyped about St. John’s last year when everyone else was. For some reason, this year I am. They're kind of like the Jets, every year they win the off-season, but the regular season is a bit different. Do you think this could be the year?
ZB: It seems like since the season ended, it’s been nothing but good news. (Julian) Champagnie went pro, but we knew that was going to happen. They got two top five transfers in (Illinois’ Andre) Curbelo and David Jones of DePaul. They get Brandon Gardner a (top 100) recruit for 2023, who’s probably more a top-50 type guy. They're in great shape to get two more top-50 kids, based on what I'm hearing. This could be their best recruiting class since Steve Lavin’s first year. I think their roster (for this season) with Curbelo and David Jones fits the style Anderson wants to play and they have 4-star guard A.J. Storr and I've been hearing great things about (returnee) Joel Soriano all off-season.
They have a healthy Rafael Pinzon. I'm not going to pick them to finish top-five in the league because after last year, I'm of the mode, I have to see it to believe it, because I thought they were a top-four team in the league last year and I thought they were a lock to win an NCAA game and they were just so disappointing.
I thought Mike Anderson did a bad job after doing a good job his first two years. It's funny--St. John’s fans were so down on him, it’s as if the first two years didn’t happen. Last year they were down on him, but now they’re happy because the off-season went great and they’re recruiting the best they have since (Steve) Lavin, at least the last few months. They're a fascinating team.
There are some questions. Do they have enough shooting? How do Curbelo and Posh Alexander mesh? Can David Jones be a No. 1 scorer? So there are questions. But they’re deep and they have a roster that can play the way they want to play. Last year they brought in two guys, Seth Smith (from Vermont) and Tareq Coburn (from Hofstra), who can shoot, but are not nearly athletic enough to play the way St. John’s plays.
I can see them finishing fourth and being a seventh or eighth seed in the Tournament. I can see them finishing eighth and not even making the NIT. I think they’re a boom-or-bust team. My one thought that I'm very confident about is I think Andre Curbelo will have a very good year. Last year, he had a very bad concussion at Illinois. He missed two months. It was probably the first bad basketball season of the kid’s entire life. He's going to be home. He played his high school ball here (at Long Island Lutheran). Two of his school teammates, Pinzon and Drissa Traore are on the team. He'll have his high school people at games, all that stuff. I think the style is great for him. I think he’ll have a really good year.
I think Jones will be good. I'm not as confident that Jones can be a No. 1 guy, just because we haven’t seen it yet, but I'll be stunned if Curbelo isn’t great. I think he and Posh will be good together. Posh is not a guy that’s going to be upset if he’s not getting shots. That’s just not the way he is. He actually shot the ball better as a freshman when he had another point guard to play off--Rasheem Dunn back then. It will take some adjustment. I do like them together.
Shooting is a question. They need Storr, they need Pinzon, they need Dylan Addae-Wusu to knock down shots because, for the most part, Posh and Curbelo are not shooters. Soriano is obviously not going to shoot the ball. Jones shot (29.7% from 3) in his first full year. Maybe he can raise that a little. This is a team that needs to run. They need to get out in transition. But I do think there’s talent there.
One thing I think people forget is not having Pinzon last year really hurt. He's a shotmaker. He can create for others. He had a bad battle with COVID and he missed a ton of time and then he had a broken finger. I'm not as bullish on St. John’s as I was last year because they were disappointing but I think Anderson will do better this year. He's got a lot of guys back. Two of his top three players are gone, but I think they’ll be better. I really do. But I probably would not pick them higher than sixth because I have to see it.
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Final Big East thoughts from Zach Braziller
JP Pelzman
Trove correspondent
Welcome to the third and final installment of my conversation with New York Post college sports columnist and St. John’s beat writer Zach Braziller. This time, we discuss Shaheen Holloway’s substitution patterns, whether St. John’s can turn its great off-season into regular- and post-season gold and the recruitment of Jaquan Sanders. Also--a way for St. John’s fans to get even more info from Zach.
J.P. Pelzman: Here's the question I've been asking everyone. The people who know Sha say he isn’t going to change the way he did things at Saint Peter’s in terms of playing time, and he will have a large rotation and guys will play 25-26 minutes, tops. Can you see that being successful at the Big East level or will guys be sprinting to the portal once the season is over?
Zach Braziller: I think he’s going to do it to an extent. It's not like KC Ndefo was playing 20 minutes a game. In big spots, he was out there, unless he was in foul trouble.
JPP: True, true.
ZB: I think he’s going to make adjustments if he has to. You look at the way St. John’s plays. It's kind of similar. Mike Anderson plays a lot of guys. I think Sha will run in guys who play the way he wants to play. I happen to really like (Pitt transfer Femi) Odukale.
JPP: I like him too.
ZB: I think he’s a tough kid and a really good addition. I like the addition of (Clemson transfer) Al-Amir Dawes, too. Unless it’s Kadary (Richmond), there’s no No. 1 guy, but I think they have some nice pieces and most importantly, I think they have a blue-collar roster. I'd like to see what they can get out of Tyrese Samuel, who’s another guy like Kadary, who hasn’t quite lived up to his talent and potential, and is a guy, to me, who should be much better. He's another guy I'm very interested to see. I think they have a coaching staff that got a lot out of its players at Saint Peter’s and I'm really interested to see what they can do here.
JPP: How do you see the league shaping up?
ZB: I think Creighton is clearly No. 1 and I would probably go Nova, UConn 2-3, and I think there are a host of others who are in that next wave. I think Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Butler, Xavier--I would’ve put Marquette in there if Justin Lewis had come back. I think any one of those (five teams) could finish fourth and any one could finish seventh or eighth and I think Seton Hall is right there because I think they’re going to be tough. They’re going to defend and have balance, (although) they might not have the stars other teams have.
JPP: I know he’s not in any trouble job-security-wise, but how much would it help Dan Hurley to finally get that elusive NCAA Tournament win at UConn?
ZB: I don’t think he needs to win an NCAA game for his job. I do think he has to win an NCAA game to get the fans off his back (laughs). Now it's back-to-back years in which they were favored in the first round and lost. In the Maryland game two years ago, nothing went right. They couldn’t make a shot. This past year, they basically let one guy (New Mexico State’s Teddy Allen) beat them. And both years, it started in the Big East tournament when they lost a tough game that they could have won and it sort of carried over to the NCAA Tournament. They were playing well going into the Big East tournament and I thought they played a great game against Villanova. They just came up a little short. And the year before, they lost to Creighton in the Big East semis. They were playing well, and then it just fell apart (at the end of the game).
This year, I just don’t know what to think of them. They lost their two best players. (Adama) Sanogo is great, but in my opinion, (Tyrese) Martin and (R.J.) Cole were their two most valuable players. So, they lose a lot of experience, and we know big men are not as valuable as they once were. I think Sanogo is really good, and I know they brought in some transfers. But they’re expecting a newcomer to be their point guard and they’re hoping for Jordan Hawkins to have a breakout season. I know they have some good recruits. Some people have them in the top 20. I don’t think they’re that good. I think they’re a Tournament team. I think they’re somewhere maybe 25-30 in the country, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they finished fifth in the Big East. I have a lot of questions about that team, especially in March.
I know a big criticism of Danny is sometimes in crunch time his offense can be kind of shaky, and we’ve seen that the last few years. Look, they’d really have to fall apart for him to be in trouble with his job, but he’s got to have a big March here. You've got to beat New Mexico State. You can’t get beat by one guy. It's interesting. He's got work to do. I don’t think it’s as good as last year’s team on paper.
JPP: They depend so much on their defense to start their offense. I think that’s why they have problems in the halfcourt late in games. Yeah, you can dump it down to Sanogo. But you need more than that.
ZB: When R.J. Cole wasn’t in the game last year, their offense was a mess. And now they’re bringing in Tristen Newton from East Carolina, where he was a scorer (17.7 ppg, 5.0 apg, 3.5 turnovers) and they’re making him the point guard.
JPP: We've seen that sort of thing not work before.
ZB: There are legit questions about them. I'll pick them third, but I could see them being lower than that.
JPP: I wasn’t hyped about St. John’s last year when everyone else was. For some reason, this year I am. They're kind of like the Jets, every year they win the off-season, but the regular season is a bit different. Do you think this could be the year?
ZB: It seems like since the season ended, it’s been nothing but good news. (Julian) Champagnie went pro, but we knew that was going to happen. They got two top five transfers in (Illinois’ Andre) Curbelo and David Jones of DePaul. They get Brandon Gardner a (top 100) recruit for 2023, who’s probably more a top-50 type guy. They're in great shape to get two more top-50 kids, based on what I'm hearing. This could be their best recruiting class since Steve Lavin’s first year. I think their roster (for this season) with Curbelo and David Jones fits the style Anderson wants to play and they have 4-star guard A.J. Storr and I've been hearing great things about (returnee) Joel Soriano all off-season.
They have a healthy Rafael Pinzon. I'm not going to pick them to finish top-five in the league because after last year, I'm of the mode, I have to see it to believe it, because I thought they were a top-four team in the league last year and I thought they were a lock to win an NCAA game and they were just so disappointing.
I thought Mike Anderson did a bad job after doing a good job his first two years. It's funny--St. John’s fans were so down on him, it’s as if the first two years didn’t happen. Last year they were down on him, but now they’re happy because the off-season went great and they’re recruiting the best they have since (Steve) Lavin, at least the last few months. They're a fascinating team.
There are some questions. Do they have enough shooting? How do Curbelo and Posh Alexander mesh? Can David Jones be a No. 1 scorer? So there are questions. But they’re deep and they have a roster that can play the way they want to play. Last year they brought in two guys, Seth Smith (from Vermont) and Tareq Coburn (from Hofstra), who can shoot, but are not nearly athletic enough to play the way St. John’s plays.
I can see them finishing fourth and being a seventh or eighth seed in the Tournament. I can see them finishing eighth and not even making the NIT. I think they’re a boom-or-bust team. My one thought that I'm very confident about is I think Andre Curbelo will have a very good year. Last year, he had a very bad concussion at Illinois. He missed two months. It was probably the first bad basketball season of the kid’s entire life. He's going to be home. He played his high school ball here (at Long Island Lutheran). Two of his school teammates, Pinzon and Drissa Traore are on the team. He'll have his high school people at games, all that stuff. I think the style is great for him. I think he’ll have a really good year.
I think Jones will be good. I'm not as confident that Jones can be a No. 1 guy, just because we haven’t seen it yet, but I'll be stunned if Curbelo isn’t great. I think he and Posh will be good together. Posh is not a guy that’s going to be upset if he’s not getting shots. That’s just not the way he is. He actually shot the ball better as a freshman when he had another point guard to play off--Rasheem Dunn back then. It will take some adjustment. I do like them together.
Shooting is a question. They need Storr, they need Pinzon, they need Dylan Addae-Wusu to knock down shots because, for the most part, Posh and Curbelo are not shooters. Soriano is obviously not going to shoot the ball. Jones shot (29.7% from 3) in his first full year. Maybe he can raise that a little. This is a team that needs to run. They need to get out in transition. But I do think there’s talent there.
One thing I think people forget is not having Pinzon last year really hurt. He's a shotmaker. He can create for others. He had a bad battle with COVID and he missed a ton of time and then he had a broken finger. I'm not as bullish on St. John’s as I was last year because they were disappointing but I think Anderson will do better this year. He's got a lot of guys back. Two of his top three players are gone, but I think they’ll be better. I really do. But I probably would not pick them higher than sixth because I have to see it.
