St. John’s basketball fatal flaw that will cost it in Big East Conference title race appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
St. John’s basketball is chasing school history this season. The Queens, New York program has never won back-to-back Big East Conference titles in school history. Expectations exploded following its epic 31-5 campaign under Rick Pitino.
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But now the target grew for the Red Storm. Teams in the always competitive conference now aim to topple Pitino’s crew.
One foe already engaged in a heated Valentine’s Day moment with St. John’s in Providence. Ejections were made including multiple on the side of the Red Storm. Pitino still saw a team that played hard despite the sudden scrapper fest.
That Feb. 14 moment now paints the picture of how much harder repeating will become for the reigning Big East champs.
St. John’s is capable of another Big East run
Natalie Reid-Imagn Images
The Red Storm aren’t getting written off just yet, especially after escaping the Friars 79-69 on Saturday.
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St. John’s is still red hot — winning 11 straight games even despite matching last season’s loss total already.
The defending champs are still behind the Big East leader UConn (24-2 and 14-1 in conference play). Yet it was the “Johnnies” that handed the Huskies their lone conference loss 81-72 back on Feb. 6. Signs point to Feb. 25 in Storrs, Ct., as the game that could eventually decide the regular season champion in the Big East.
St. John’s presents one of the nation’s most athletic frontcourts that hand teams fits. Zuby Ejiofor is rising as a Big East Player of the Year contender in dishing out a career-best 16.2 points per game and is tops on the team in rebounding plus blocks. But a former conference rival in Bryce Hopkins (Providence) and another transfer Dillon Mitchell (Cincinnati) complete this three-headed athletic monster.
Hopkins averages 13.6 points per game including delivering 17 games of hitting double figures. Mitchell has produced 10 games of hitting 10 or more points in this deep lineup.
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CBB fans know that in the Big East, teams must have a formidable front court. St. John’s presents just that and more.
The “more” represents the improved shooting touch from behind the arc. Stanford transfer and former USC Trojan Oziyah Sellers is averaging 10.9 PPG a night featuring 12 games of surpassing 10 points. One more high-profile addition via the portal Ian Jackson (North Carolina) represents the fourth SJ player who’s averaging more than 10 points a night.
This flaw could still doom St. John’s
Defensive rebounding is a flaw — with the Red Storm ranking seventh out of 11 conference teams there.
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St. John’s is more efficient on the offensive side of cleaning up the glass, leading the Big East there at 13.7.
Championship teams must dominate the glass on both ends of the floor. Especially the ones aspiring to make it out of the Final Four.
There’s one more weakness to bring forth here: Lack of a true point guard.
St. John’s has become reliant on the front court but still lacks a true facilitator at PG. The best passer Pitino has is the forward Ejiofor — who’s averaging just 3.5 assists. Worse for the Red Storm, they struggle containing star guards.
Pitino may need to trust his bigs and the offensive tempo to get by in the conference tournament when that time comes.
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