Battle For New York Hot Takes, Lava Cakes and Expectation Mistakes

There’s really no way to properly give Sir’Dominic Pointer enough credit at this point. Between Steve Lavin finding more useful ways to put him in a position to succeed (high-post, center of the floor on offense), Pointer is excelling right now. He has also done something far more important than his athletic dunks, sneaky steals and timely rebounds — he has stopped taking bad jump shots.

His shot selection was my lone complaint about Pointer’s game. That and the fact that he sometimes over-dribbled. With Lavin going with small lineups far more often, having Pointer playing large minutes at the four and sometimes even at the five, Pointer is forced to play without dribbling and his only shot attempts are no longer than 10 feet away from the rim. Even when he does have the ball from beyond the elbow, though, Pointer has refrained from shooting.

His lack of taking bad shots is one of the best things to happen to the Red Storm this season. No more lost possessions to iffy shot selection. Again, though, this is me just highlighting how Pointer avoiding the negative aspects of his game has been a great benefit. There’s also been plenty of positives because of how good of a player he actually is.

Sir’Dom was already known to be a solid defender, good athlete and all-around heart and hustle guy. In his senior campaign he has also become a far better rebounder. Pointer, who averaged 3.2 boards a game last season and never over 5.5 in a season over his three previous years, is now grabbing 8.6 manly boards per outing.

Even though Pointer is listed as a G/F combo type maybe his natural position — or at least within this St. John’s roster — is actually the four. This has far been his best season in the program, playing an all-around game that few in the country can do, and he has been doing it “playing out of position.”

As the season progresses and Pointer continues to make top 10 highlight clips I think it is safe to expect his named to start bubbling up for Big East All-Conference team recognition.

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