The St. John’s Red Storm basketball team always likes to instill some doubt into their ever so skeptical fans this season. So if it wasn’t enough for St. John’s to stomach not having Justin Burrell in the lineup, right before tip off it was announced that DJ Kennedy, Paris Horne, and Sean Evans would not start this game due to being late for this morning’s shoot around. Yikes! Starting four new players for St. John’s first game at Madison Square Garden this season on national television on ESPN 2. Not exactly ideal, is it? No.
The game started off with a Dele Coker foul 30 seconds into the game followed by a Malik Boothe missed three pointer on the following possession. I could see the crowd getting their torches and pitchforks ready while the people at home were cursing and swearing at their TV screens.
Kennedy and Evans checked in right before the break and neither came out sharp in the first half. Kennedy often struggled when driving to the basket missing his first 4 attempts. On a whole the Red Storm struggled offensively mostly due to poor shot selection and overall execution.
St. John’s came out of the gate running great motion on offense but as we’ve seen before this season the offense begins to become stagnant as the game progresses resulting in scoring droughts for extended periods of time.
St. John’s went into the locker room with a 3 point lead shooting near 30% for the first half leaving a lot to be desired for their Garden debut. Also not the most impressive showing for the 2012 recruits,Omar Calhoun, Nkereuwen Okoro, and Daniel Dingle, who were taking in the sites and scenes in the stands.
St. John’s has made a habit lately of starting games off slow and coming out looking stronger in the 2nd half. The Redstorm did just that as DJ Kennedy rebounded from his slow start and took over the game finishing with 11 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. This game was never really in doubt as St. John’s won 66-56.
Lets take a look at Calm Before the Storm’s Key’s to Victory and breakdown how St. John’s fared to our pre-game analysis.
Keys to the Game:
Pack In the Defense. So Trey Thompkins finished with 7 rebounds and 17 points on 7-16 shooting. All in all Trey was Trey but St. John’s did a good job of forcing Georgia to shoot from the perimeter and didn’t allow many uncontested shots. One thing Sean Evans needs to learn is that he can’t allow his man to establish position down low on the block. Trey did an excellent job of sealing off Evans so that he never had a shot when he caught the ball. Keep pushing them out! As a team though Georgia shot 36% (18-50) so kudos to the guards for defending well.
Grade: B
Don’t Get Sucked In. This is the second straight game where the Red Storm have allowed their opponents to grab double digit offensive rebounds. The Bulldogs grabbed 11 offensive boards giving them too many extra possessions. This will come back to bite St. John’s eventually to a team who can actually put the ball in the hoop. Find a body and box out! There is no time to be spectators on the court. St. John’s needs to have more defensive awareness in protecting the basketball. To St. John’s defense though the more missed shots, the more opportunities Georgia has to grab rebounds but just imagine if we rebounded better. We could have ran all over them.
Grade: B-
Be The Talked-About Undercard. St. John’s certainly got a lot of praise from Bob Knight as he couldn’t stop talking about St. John’s past, present, and future. The talk of the town that night was certainly about John Wall and rightfully so. A win is a win though so St. John’s should be happy about some backpage coverage on the Post and Daily News.
Grade: C+
Protect the Ball. This is really the tale of two halves much like the Duke game. St. John’s looked dreadful handling the ball in the first half. Between fumbling passes and missing layups, St. John’s wasn’t valuing the basketball enough. In the second half St. John’s did a much better job of handling and running with the basketball. Late in the game the team had some unforced turnovers which were simply unnecessary. St. John’s needs to get better decision making out of Malik Boothe and overall play from the point guard position.
Grade: C
Don’t Settle. Well St. John’s wasn’t getting the calls but that didn’t stop the Red Storm from being in attack mode. Evans, Brownlee, Kennedy, Hardy, and Lawrence all took it to the rim strong. This opened up looks from the outside and St. John’s connected making 7-14 of their 3 point goals. Surprisingly Paris Horne knocked down 3-5 of his attempts while only shooting 1 shot within the arc. This might have been the best aspect of the game for the Johnnies.
Grade: A
Overall GPA: 2.75
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