Without Steve Lavin, St. John’s Gears Up for No. 1 Kentucky

On Thursday night, St. John’s will, once again, be without their head coach, Steve Lavin, who will not make the trip to Lexington for his team’s matchup with Kentucky.

“We go about our business. I think [the players] feed off the staff,” said assistant coach Mike Dunlap of Lavin, who continues to recover from successful prostate cancer surgery. “He’s got A+ on his bloodwork, we know that. It’s a matter of recuperation.”

As Lavin rests, his team will go on the road for their first true road game of the season.

But no need to ease them into it.

Forget about playing a local low-major in a gym the size of some high schools. Instead, Dunlap will lead the Red Storm into Rupp Arena, home of John Calipari’s number one-ranked Wildcats.

This past recruiting season, St. John’s original eight-man class was ranked as the third best in the nation. Who was one of the two teams ahead of them? Of course, Calipari’s reloaded squad.

The Wildcats start three freshman (Marquis Teague, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Anthony Davis), in addition to two players (Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb) who would probably have entered the NBA, had there been no lockout looming.

With wins this season by 50, 48, 38, and 24, along with disposing 11th-ranked Kansas, Kentucky has had little trouble for the most part of this young season.

And a trip to Lexington brings the national television lights, with the game to be broadcast on ESPN2.

“Everybody wants to play against what people call “the best. This a great opportunity for my team,” said freshman forward Moe Harkless. “We just go in there with the mindset that we want to go in there and win.”

St. John’s is coming off a loss at home to Northeastern, a loss in which they surrendered 21 offensive rebounds. Kentucky is second in the nation in total rebounding, pulling down over 43 boards per game.

“[Rebounding] is going to be by committee. We’re tapping out [God’sgift Achiuwa] in terms of his number, or even, say, Harkless,” said Dunlap. “Those numbers are going to have to come from the [forwards and guards].”

Much like St. John’s, the Wildcats like getting out to run, which has translated to an average of 84 points per game, this year.
The one test so far for Kentucky, so far, was against Old Dominion on November 20th.

The Monarchs were physical throughout, playing a zone and forcing the Wildcats to shoot from the outside. Thirteen points from Darius Miller off the bench propelled Kentucky to a 10-point win.

“Basically, we’re still in a phase of teaching our system, so the focus is more on us than our opponents,” said Dunlap. “There’s a lot of firsts. If we can keep our focus and temperament where it belongs, we’ll be fine.”