St. John’s loses exhibition to Division 2 St. Thomas Aquinas

Growing pains were expected this season but a 32 point slaughter wasn’t in the blueprint. It didn’t take long for St. Thomas Aquinas to get into a full court press which is a staple of Tobin Anderson coached teams. It didn’t appear that the young St. John’s squad was prepared to handle the full court pressure. STAC took a commanding lead early and never looked back.

The loss will certainly grab headlines, produce some angry fan tweets, but ultimately this game doesn’t count. This is a good measuring stick for the new look Red Storm team. It will be interesting to see how the team responds in their next exhibition game.

Here are some post game notes.

Positives

• Mussini can handle the ball, make good decision off pick and roll, and hit an open jumper from beyond the arc.
• Sima blocked shots without getting into foul trouble.
• All of St. John’s big men have some pick and pop potential.
• Christian Jones spin move and finish at the rim.
• Christian Jones recording a double double after sitting most of 2nd half.
• Malik Ellison earning the start and looked capable spotting minutes running the point.

Negatives

• Durand Johnson didn’t make a shot. (0-7) from the floor.
• Mussini defense was suspect. Had trouble keeping players in front which had him backing up and guys started pulling up.
• Defense lacked hustle and awareness. From reaching to rotation it was a mess.
• Turnovers on inbounds.
• Turnovers period.
• Darien Williams setting sloppy ball screens.
• Mvouika committing more turnovers than he had points. 5:4
• Mullin failing to stop the bleeding.
• Coaches and team didn’t play for the win in the 2nd half.
• Alibegovic had 3 shots and 2 of them were from 3. He didn’t make any of them.
• Team settled for way too many jump shots instead of going to the rim. Shooting 26 threes is too much and making 6 confirms that.

Overall

Mussini is going to be a really good player for this team as will Williams, Ellison, and Sima. You witnessed the worst of the growing pains today (lets hope). The real disappointment in this game came from Durand Johnson and Ron Mvouika who couldn’t have had worse debuts combining to go 1-12 from the floor. The lone bright spot came from Christian Jones who could become a spark plug forward off the bench this season.