Well; we won.
ADV got in trouble. The A-train got sidetracked with yet again more foul trouble, and Delaney had a nice opening game.
Beyond that; we did advance to the finals where we hopefully will sleep game number one off. Because that sorry looking less than mid-major effort will not beat a rebuilt and revamped St.John’s who is pretty tough up front. And oh by the way, Chris MullenU blew Marist off the court in their first round match-up.
#79 RPI Virginia Tech at NYC vs. hosting #1o8 RPI Saint John’s:
The Saint John’s Red Storm at a glance:
- NBA legacy baller, and the Red Storm’s best player, one Anthony Mason Jr. #2 is out for the year with a ripped up foot-tendon.
- The next best Red Stormer, one Justin Burnell is out for a while after busting 3 bones in his face during an accidental head-butt in practice on Thursday.
- St.John’s is 75th in Scoring Offense and 63rd in Scoring Defense. i.e. the Red Storm have been blowing people out.
- St.John’s was 40th on the offensive glass; before their frontcourt attrition.
- St.John’s only has 3 upperclassmen on their entire roster, and one of them (Mr. Mason) is out for the year.
- St.John’s used to be a very nice place to shop for Huxtable sweaters.
On top of all of that, St.John’s has been shooting very well (52th best in D-1) and defending very well 75th best in the NC2A’s and this after holding Marist down to 28% on Saturday thank you very much. On top of all of that, the Red Storm is 31st best in Rebounding Margin, and clearly the strenght of this years hoops squad is found in it’s highly interchangeable, very spring, and physically tough frontcourt. On top of that the mostly departed from last year Saint John’s backcourt has been more than respectable, and above average across the board in Steals, Turnovers, and Assists. Only the Red Stroms FT% is slightly below average. Every single other major team vital checks in at no less than a C+ quality nationally. Not bad huh?
So it will take a lot to top Saint John’s; right?
Well, it surely would have. A helluva a lot more than we showed vs. middle of the (poison) Ivy
League road Columbia at least. But the aforementioned Saint John’s frontcourt hurts account for 24 points, 10 boards and 4 assists. That’s a lot to loose for any big east team, all the more so when the two player lost are your top-2 ballers the entire squad. Combo slasher D.J. Kennedy #10 remains and he does lead Saint Johns in scoring (14) and in boards (6 and change); and ‘tweener (small-forward/shooting-guard) Paris Horn will kick in double digit points as well. But there is a whole lot of Red Storm talent that will not be brewing up any major strikes in civilian courtside gear on Sunday.
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Conversely I expect our Hokies to shake off their Gotham sized round one hangover and play much better in the Aeropostale championship game. I was going to pick Saint John’s in the upset, but a 20 hour turnaround without your
best two ballers out is too tough; even for the noticeably improved Red Storm at home. So I’ll call for VT to play better and win by about a handful vs. a post-season quality Saint John’s.
Virginia Tech=66 Saint Johns=62
b’street