The First SHU Game

[NYC Pirate]

It was a bit of a distracting night because of the events in France. Our hearts
and prayers to all the people in Paris tonight.

The game went better than was expected on some level. It was your typical first
game of the season. Dartmouth is not that strong of an opponent and the
game was never really in doubt. The weak free throw shooting probably distorted
the final score.

I'd say the areas of concern would be the interior defense and of course the free throw shooting.
I know the free throw shooting can improve. The offense at times was a bit forced, but you can't
be overly critical after one game.

Plenty of bright spots. Sonogo, Gordon and Desi were playing with great energy. Sonogo is much
improved. IW was just OK and that's still pretty good. Angel was decent and Carrington played
through his foul trouble.

The support players had their moments. Nothing to go overboard about. I think they'll play
better against Wagner, who really gave SJU a good game tonight.

 

[Piratz]

FT shooting (22/43) and 20 turnovers. Too sloppy at times. But 20 assists and some good movement. We looked like a young, athletic team.

We're going to have a different look this year. Less jump shooting, more attacking, driving, and athleticism.

We'll see how they progress. Sanogo and Nzei impressed alongside Delgado. We may have something there.

 

[NYC Pirate]

FT shooting (22/43) and 20 turnovers. Too sloppy at times. But 20 assists and some good movement. We looked like a young, athletic team.

We're going to have a different look this year. Less jump shooting, more attacking, driving, and athleticism.

We'll see how they progress. Sanogo and Nzei impressed alongside Delgado. We may have something there.

Yes, Nzei also showed some skills in the paint. I think they'll improve on those free throws and the turnovers
also. Hopefully, we'll play Virginia at 3-0.

 

[Piratz]

Well-schooled, veteran teams like Virginia or Wichita State are probably going to do a number on us so early, but maybe the Pirates' athleticism can bother them here and there. They will be valuable experiences for this team.

 

[statenman]

I was very happy with how Ish, nzei and Gordon looked. IW with the 8 assists bodes very well. There were problems like sloppy play, turnovers and poor FT shooting but it's the first game. I never felt like Dartmouth was in control of the game even when the score was close.

 

[Section112]

Clearly a work in progress. The D needs to seriously improve (too many wide open shots) as well as the foul shooting which was horrendous. Saw some good passes. Khadeen looked very quick and Gordon has some game. Zeke had some good and bad to his game. In the second half he got stuffed and then tried to take the ball down the court and do it all himself the next possession. He needs to calm down and run the team and hopefully he will learn that. Scary moment when he hit the floor but just cramps it appeared. Work in progress but I wasn't overly impressed. Ish was the bright spot.

 

[halltheway]

...we are not a three point shooting team and Willard changed his thinking and the team listened. We must be selective in shooting the three.. That was a positive for the game. Lets see if it continues....BUT we must shoot, at least 72-75% of our foul shots to have a chance.

 

[Seton75]

18, 8, 5. 3. That was the ok Stat line by isaiah. He is too loose with the ball and forces at tines but he he found teammates and made buckets. Ft Shooting WAS putrid, BUT IW. Jc and dg were main culprits and they all can shoot. Angel was not good again. Out of shape and bad defensively. Ish was terrific, so was Gordon. Ish and Nzei will be terrific pair of forwards for us. Little from Anderson - made a nice jumper but am not sure he will be a factor. Two fouls on Anthony in a nanosecond. Good game from Desi too. He and Singh will be excellent SF for us. Singh showed more toughness under the boards than I expected. Not a thing of beauty but a win with some promise. I committed four fouls writing this post. 30 second clock not noticed by me.

 

[Piratz]

...we are not a three point shooting team and Willard changed his thinking and the team listened. We must be selective in shooting the three.. That was a positive for the game. Lets see if it continues....BUT we must shoot, at least 72-75% of our foul shots to have a chance.

Definitely not this year. We have athletes who can handle and drive unlike the past few years where there were jump shooters than anything.

 

[cernjSHU]

My impressions of the team overall was not very good. They were playing a bad ivy league team that stayed even with Seton Hall for most of the game.

Pros:
Ish was bouncy and active on the court. He attacked the boards and has certainly improved from last year. Negative on Ish is that defensively #12 on Dartmouth lit him up. Btw, that #12 could play on my team any day. Hits outside shots, goes inside and makes foul shots. Very impressive.

Gordon played steady and slashed to the basket repeatedly.
IW while not playing great, he was clearly the best player on the floor.
Desi looked good.

Inbound play! I can't believe after 5 years I finally saw an inbound play which was a pretty sweet give and go which resulted in a foul.

Negatives:
1) Foul Shots. No way a D-1 team should shoot 50% from the line. This was a problem last yea and it seems it will be worse this year. This team cannot give up points at the line.

2) Defense: Dartmouth got their shots in they flow of their offense. Did not turn Dartmouth over too much.

3) Turnovers: What was it like 20 turnovers in the game? Against Dartmouth? Against and non pressing team?

 

[Seton75]

My impressions of the team overall was not very good. They were playing a bad ivy league team that stayed even with Seton Hall for most of the game.

Pros:
Ish was bouncy and active on the court. He attacked the boards and has certainly improved from last year. Negative on Ish is that defensively #12 on Dartmouth lit him up. Btw, that #12 could play on my team any day. Hits outside shots, goes inside and makes foul shots. Very impressive.

Gordon played steady and slashed to the basket repeatedly.
IW while not playing great, he was clearly the best player on the floor.
Desi looked good.

Inbound play! I can't believe after 5 years I finally saw an inbound play which was a pretty sweet give and go which resulted in a foul.

Negatives:
1) Foul Shots. No way a D-1 team should shoot 50% from the line. This was a problem last yea and it seems it will be worse this year. This team cannot give up points at the line.

2) Defense: Dartmouth got their shots in they flow of their offense. Did not turn Dartmouth over too much.

3) Turnovers: What was it like 20 turnovers in the game? Against Dartmouth? Against and non pressing team?

I don't see Dartmouth as a bad ivy. The frosh is excellent. The point is quick and a good ivy pkayer i bet. They had some good wins last year even beat that harvard juggernaut I think.

 

[hallsoccer03]

...we are not a three point shooting team and Willard changed his thinking and the team listened. We must be selective in shooting the three.. That was a positive for the game. Lets see if it continues....BUT we must shoot, at least 72-75% of our foul shots to have a chance.

I think 72-75% is pushing it. That would put us as one of the top ft shooting teams in the nation. 67-70 is more like it. But I get what you are saying. Ft 'a will be the difference in winning or losing in 3-4 games each year.

 

[hallgrad80]

How we play defense and how well we shoot free throws will be a key factor in deciding whether we win or lose a number of games this year. Just think that Dartmouth took 63 shoots last night to our 47 and we held an advantage in rebounding. Too many open looks for them.

 

[Piratz]

Tons of sloppiness. The turnovers and FT's were really quite bad. But you see the raw talent and we have a nice depth of forwards.

This is a different team than we've seen in Willard's previous 5 years, especially on offense. This is not a 3-PT centric. I'm curious to see how that plays out because it is different. There's going to be more players creating and sharing the ball that way.

This could be our best defensive team since KW's first year with the length and depth at forward we have, plus the defensive skills of IW, Carrington, and Gordon, but they're young and it'll take some time. He is going to have to hold them accountable on that end and give the some freedom on offense, I think. That's usually the tradeoff.

I thought we bothered Dartmouth. I didn't think they just randomly missed shots, but we did not rotate well a few times and left a couple of 3's open. Typical for the opening game. Dartmouth only shot 38% for the game and 40% from 2PT.

 

[Seton75]

I saw it as Piratz a aw it. Lots of room for improvement and lots more pure athletic talent. Once Veer gets going I think we will have four solid forwards.

 

[Halldan1]

Plus we got nothing from an injured Singh who is about 10-14 days away from being close to 100%.

His shooting will be a critical part of the team's offense.

 

[NYC Pirate]

We need to keep up the momentum against Wagner. It's actually good that they gave
SJU such a difficult time in Queens last night. Seton Hall needs to make an incremental
step up in the next game and get some of the kinks out before leaving for Charleston.

Excellent turnout by the students last night. Looked to be about 4000 in the building? Good
idea playing the next one in South Orange.

There will be a night where we hit 25 out of 26 free throws. I think we'll be someplace in the
middle for the season as compared to last night's atrocious stat line.

IW has to prove that he can go left. It was mentioned a few times on the broadcast. I liked the guard
play and Gordon adds a lot. We've come a long way from Maayan,Cosby and Smyth.

Desi was very assertive. Sonogo and Nzei could provide much needed size in the paint.

 

[Piratz]

Plus we got nothing from an injured Singh who is about 10-14 days away from being close to 100%.

His shooting will be a critical part of the team's offense.

Really hoping he gives us that threat. Ironicall for a KW team, we'll need a consistent outside shooter. We go him a great look early on last night that he clanged.

I thought it was odd that Willard said he was surprised that VS put up a shot... Then why play him?

 

[Halldan1]

IW has to prove that he can go left. It was mentioned a few times on the broadcast.

Wow, really? I taped the game but haven't watched it yet.

Not sure I agree that Whitehead has issues going left. In fact I think he has a very strong off hand.

 

[Halldan1]

Really hoping he gives us that threat. Ironicall for a KW team, we'll need a consistent outside shooter. We go him a great look early on last night that he clanged.

I thought it was odd that Willard said he was surprised that VS put up a shot... Then why play him?

Covering (making an excuse) because Singh hasn't practiced much and was 50/50 for this game.

No problem with his protecting his player with that comment.

 

[knowknow456]

I thought it was odd that Willard said he was surprised that VS put up a shot... Then why play him?

Willard was speaking figuratively, not literally. Your quality of life would improve 10% if you could just find a way to ignore everything the guy says.

 

[Piratz]

We need to keep up the momentum against Wagner. It's actually good that they gave SJU such a difficult time in Queens last night.

I think the fact that Wagner kept the game to 9 at St. John's is more of an indictment on SJU than anything. That game was nip and tuck the entire way.

Wagner is not as good as Dartmouth either.

 

[Piratz]

Willard was speaking figuratively, not literally. Your quality of life would improve 10% if you could just find a way to ignore everything the guy says.

Thanks, boss. As would your over-sensitivity towards my posts on the coach.

 

[Piratz]

Covering (making an excuse) because Singh hasn't practiced much and was 50/50 for this game.

No problem with his protecting his player with that comment.

I didn't realize Singh was as banged up as he was and probably still another 10-14 days away from health. Wow.

 

[knowknow456]

Thanks, boss. As would your over-sensitivity towards my posts on the coach.

Sorry I offended you. You are the greatest pirate poster in the history of the Internet, but that doesn't mean you still can't get better. I think sometimes you over focus on what the coach says. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[Piratz]

I don't see Dartmouth as a bad ivy. The frosh is excellent. The point is quick and a good ivy pkayer i bet. They had some good wins last year even beat that harvard juggernaut I think.

I thought they looked pretty good too. They were picked to finish 6th in the Ivy (8 teams), but they look better than that. They beat Harvard last year and won 6 of 7 to end the regular season, including 5 consecutive last year.

That Boudreaux is a player. He could play in the Big East and will be one of the top players in the Ivy League.

 

[Halldan1]

SHU fans are really going to like Singh. And he's a great kid to boot.

Talk to him and he'll always have a smile on his face. Should be a HS senior so he will eventually mature and get stronger adding muscle to his slim frame.

Legit 6-7 who might still be growing.

And boy can this kid shoot. Unfortunately with his wrist issues that could hurt him for a while so his accuracy might be diminished early on.

 

[knowknow456]

18, 8, 5. 3. That was the ok Stat line by isaiah. He is too loose with the ball and forces at tines but he he found teammates and made buckets. Ft Shooting WAS putrid, BUT IW. Jc and dg were main culprits and they all can shoot. Angel was not good again. Out of shape and bad defensively. Ish was terrific, so was Gordon. Ish and Nzei will be terrific pair of forwards for us. Little from Anderson - made a nice jumper but am not sure he will be a factor. Two fouls on Anthony in a nanosecond. Good game from Desi too. He and Singh will be excellent SF for us. Singh showed more toughness under the boards than I expected. Not a thing of beauty but a win with some promise. I committed four fouls writing this post. 30 second clock not noticed by me.

I have complicated feelings on IW. I thought he played well but unfortunately we need him to be great most of the time. I need to dial back my expectation level in the short term. Nzei played much better than he did against Baruch. Desi as well. I want to see more of the desi I saw last night. Do you really think its a conditioning thing with angel? I don't really see it that way but am at a loss to explain his general sluggishness.

 

[Piratz]

Do you really think its a conditioning thing with angel? I don't really see it that way but am at a loss to explain his general sluggishness.

+1

I'm hoping it's not conditioning, but rather motivation or lack of assertiveness or something last night.

Obviously would like to see a big game from him tomorrow before heading to Charleston.

 

[HallLine69]

Wow, really? I taped the game but haven't watched it yet.

Not sure I agree that Whitehead has issues going left. In fact I think he has a very strong off hand.

Spanarkel made that point several times. You'll hear it when you watch the tape. I never noticed it before, but IW did go right almost all the time last night.