PREVIEW: PC Faces Rick Pitino’s St. John’s in Big East Home Opener Friday
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
PREVIEW: PC Faces Rick Pitino’s St. John’s in Big East Home Opener Friday
When the Big East basketball schedule came out earlier this year, I circled this PC-St. John’s game on my calendar. Most of the pre-season polls had the Johnnies picked to be #5 in the Big East and the Friars to be #6. I also tentatively had the PC win-loss record as 10-2 at this point (instead of 7-5). And, of course, the return of former Friar coach Rick Pitino would add extra drama to the game at the AMP.
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Alas, St. John’s is only 4 points away from being 11-0, and currently at 9-2, looks like a top-tier Big East team along with Marquette, UConn, and Creighton. On Tuesday night, the Red Storm systematically demolished DePaul 89-61—a team that took the Friars to overtime before PC crawled home with a win.
The Friars at this point? There are more questions than answers. How many minutes can Bryce Hopkins play a game while rehabbing his knee? The Friars live and die with the 3-point shot, but there is no consistent 3-point shooter on the team. The center position—still a work in progress. And they can’t seem to close out a close game. The URI and St. Bonaventure losses were winnable games that they should have won, bringing a potential 9-3 record to this game.
At this point in the season, I feel as if the Friars’ season is slipping out to sea in a slow and steady undertow. And the undertow is slowly taking the likelihood of PC making the NCAA tournament this year out to sea also.
And the Big East lustre is not going to help them this year, even if the Friars somehow finish .500 in the league, come NCAA tournament time. In non-conference play, the Big East is 5-9 against the Big 12, 4-6 vs. the Big Ten, and 3-5 against the strongest conference, the SEC. And, as Friar fans all know, PC is 0-3 against a non-power conference, the A-10.
The Big East is likely to only get four teams, five teams tops, into the Big Dance. The SEC, on the other hand, may have twelve or thirteen teams selected by the NCAA. Tennessee, Kentucky, and Auburn could all be potential #1 seeds!
In any case, the Friars have to focus on the next game in front of them. In St. John’s, PC is looking at their toughest test of the year. The Johnnies under Rick Pitino are a run-and-gun scoring machine averaging 87 points/game and shooting 47% from the field. PC, on the other hand averages just 70 points/game and shoots 43% from the field.
The Johnnies are not a particularly great 3-point shooting team which is somewhat ironic with Pitino as head coach. But they avoid turnovers and move the ball, averaging 19 assists/game with only 12 turnovers/game, getting most of their scoring inside the arc.
They have learned to play defense this year to correspond with their offense of 87 points/game. They are giving up only 67 points/game. Their scoring margin of 20 points/game is the largest in the Big East.
St. John’s is led by four guards, three of whom are 6’6” or taller, and one 6’9” forward--all who can score in double figures. The leading scorer is 6’7’’ guard R.J Luis who comes off the bench and puts up 17 points/game. The leading rebounder and second-leading scorer is 6’9’’ junior forward Zuby Ejiofor, who cleans the glass at a rate of 7.8 boards/game while scoring 14 points/per game. He also shoots at a 56% clip. The Red Storm also feature Seton Hall transfer 6’6” Kadary Richmond, who started slowly under Pitino, but has recently found his game and is now averaging 10.5 points/game.
These two teams have totally different offenses. PC likes to use the clock and shoot the three or give the ball to Hopkins and let him create his own shot with dribble penetration. St. John’s wants to race up the floor and use its athleticism and height to get to the glass or settle for 10-foot jumpers.
For the Friars to win this game, they will need their best defensive effort of the year, they will need to shoot 42+% from beyond the arc. and they will need to get to the charity stripe often and shoot 75-80%. A tall order, which is why the Friars are an underdog against the Johnnies.