The Lion King
Senior
Posts: 394
Reg: 11-21-04
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12-28-05 05:28 PM - Post#12461
St. Peter's has no inside game. Their entire offense revolves around their guard Keydren "Kiki" Clark. He'll get his points against Columbia's inexperienced backcourt, but this will be more than counterbalanced by Baumann and Nwachukwu running wild under the boards. Also, the Peacocks do not have much of a team offense; they basically pass the ball around aimlessly until somebody, usually Kiki, gets impatient and drives to the hoop by himself. This approach should be easier for Columbia to counter than a well-developed Ivy-type passing game.
All this, of course, is based on watching them last night. Based on the same restricted data set, a St. Peter's fan--especially one who left at halftime of the nightcap--could get the impression that Columbia could not toss the ball into New York Harbor from the Staten Island Ferry.
About last night's game, I think the biggest problem was that Columbia got flustered. St. John's must have learned from watching tapes that Columbia does not react well to defensive pressure, because they played an aggressive, ball-hawking man-to-man almost all game, and while Columbia eventually adjusted, they always seemed to be rushing their shots and passes.
The Lions repeatedly missed open shots badly, sometimes with airballs. All their top players got in foul trouble, partly because the refs were calling it tightly, but you have to adjust to that. St. John's was very successful with its three-point attempts, particularly in the first half, while Columbia was ice-cold. On the other hand, the Red Storm had a lot of trouble from the line, so it could have been even uglier. On the bright side, Baumann (8 pts, 6 reb) put up a credible performance against Lamont Hamilton (11 pts, 5 reb). According to the box score, by the way, St. John's blocked only three shots all game, against two blocks by Columbia. And they really didn't look that bad in the second half, much of which was played against St. John's starters.
So I'm not as discouraged as some of my fellow posters. It was not an inspiring performance, to be sure, but basically you had a St. John's team playing its best game of the year so far against a Columbia team that was having a bad night. Just about every team in the league has had an embarrassing loss or two and has managed to shake it off, and I think the same thing will happen here.
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The Lion King
Senior
Posts: 394
Reg: 11-21-04
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P.S.
12-28-05 05:40 PM - Post#12462
In response to The Lion King
St. John's dance team is better than Columbia's. The Columbia dancers may be more technically proficient, but they dance like robots, as if they were running through Latin declensions in their heads. The St. John's team actually look like they're enjoying themselves.
On the other hand, the St. John's cheerleaders are nowhere near as good as Columbia's. In one formation, a couple of girls were supposed to raise one leg to shoulder level and hold the ankle in their hand. Neither could maintain this pose for more than a second or two; the legs kept slipping out, so they had to raise them and grasp their ankles again.
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internetter
Postdoc
Posts: 3400
Loc: Los Angeles
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: P.S.
12-28-05 06:22 PM - Post#12463
In response to The Lion King
The NYTimes article on St. John's supports your point that the Storm put it all together last night for the first time. (see link on this page) They'll have to as least as good tonight.
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Red n Blue
Masters Student
Posts: 898
Loc: South Jersey
Reg: 11-29-04
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Re: P.S.
12-28-05 09:07 PM - Post#12464
In response to internetter
The Lions need to put the St. John's game behind them. Big East teams are tough. St. Peter's should be a lot more manageable. Hopefully the Lions can show something.
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TomPittsburgh
maximus
Posts: 538
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
Reg: 11-28-04
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Re: P.S.
12-28-05 09:24 PM - Post#12465
In response to Red n Blue
we need the Ivy teams to win some out of league contests -- Go Lions!
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light blue heavy
maximus
Posts: 164
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: P.S.
12-28-05 09:37 PM - Post#12466
In response to TomPittsburgh
Agree about the dancers and cheerleaders TLK.
I had two gripes about the dance team though:
1. The 'Rockette' formation (with the tallest dancer in the middle) only works when the girl in the center is attractive, since it draws the eye there. I'll leave it at that.
2. The blonde girl that led most of the dances is not flexible enough to be a dancer: I think she would make a good cheerleader though: cute, nice smile, very peppy.
As an unrelated comment, I was talking to a Red Storm fan, and he said he see's a major cheerleader fall about twice a season. Thats tough.
Oh - and based solely on scores against common opponents, I expect a close game tonight
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The Lion King
Senior
Posts: 394
Reg: 11-21-04
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Re: P.S.
12-29-05 05:42 PM - Post#12467
In response to light blue heavy
Additional notes:
(1) The St. John's dancers have bigger hair, which is a plus from my point of view.
(2) Columbia's dance team and cheerleaders exhibit much greater ethnic variety, which is not inherently a plus or a minus (unless you're Lee Bollinger) but is interesting nonetheless.
(3) The St. John's band is much better muscially than Columbia's--which admittedly is about as impressive as saying that your basketball team is better than Longwood.
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light blue heavy
maximus
Posts: 164
Reg: 11-22-04
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Re: P.S.
12-29-05 08:55 PM - Post#12468
In response to The Lion King
What band were you listening to? Those guys were terrible!
Granted, the CU band wasn't there for comparison (thank the lord) but the flats they hit on the Darth Vader theme were cringe-worthy. I'll take the CU band over them any day.
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