Mike Anderson, Julian Champagnie (prime proper) and Posh Alexander
Jason Szenes (2); Robert Sabo
No extra excuses. No extra discuss of all the brand new gamers. No extra, “it’s early,” platitudes.
St. John’s season has to show Saturday. This have to be the start line. If not, it might by no means occur.
The Purple Storm should beat Seton Corridor on the Backyard. They need to begin to present this pissed off, beaten-down fan base it wasn’t fallacious to have such excessive hopes for this season. It’s past time.
That is as must-win because it will get in January.
St. John’s (10-6, 2-3 Huge East) is 0-5 in Quad 1 video games. It doesn’t also have a Quad 2 win. The Purple Storm, picked to complete fourth within the Huge East by the league’s coaches and anticipated to go dancing, don’t have a résumé. They're ranked 103 within the NET rankings, under the likes of New Mexico State, South Dakota State and Santa Clara.
A loss Saturday might imply an prolonged dropping streak on the horizon. Up subsequent is a visit to Seton Corridor’s tiny Walsh Gymnasium on Monday and a go to to Eleventh-ranked Villanova on Jan. 29. The Purple Storm shall be enormous underdogs in each contests. They're winless in 4 video games on the highway this season. With a loss to the Pirates, a 2-3 league mark might simply change into 2-6. That, merely, can not occur.
Whereas St. John’s began 1-5 in league play final season, and rallied to play its means into the NCAA Match image earlier than losses to DePaul and Butler ruined its probabilities, it could’t depend on the same run this time. The Huge East is significantly better this season. Street video games are harder to win, since these contests now embrace packed arenas. And, even with that streak final season, St. John’s nonetheless didn’t web a event bid — and that was the baseline of expectations this winter.
The Purple Storm’s 23-point loss to Creighton on Wednesday was paying homage to the underwhelming and disappointing non-conference season once they began slowly and incessantly dug themselves into early deficits. They clearly weren’t able to play. They couldn’t defend. They took poor pictures. They usually had been hammered on the glass. It was on everybody, from coach Mike Anderson on down.
Anderson made a significant mistake by not shaking up his lineup at halftime, as he has carried out on a number of events this yr. His workforce was down 15 and wanted a jolt. Aaron Wheeler was by far his finest participant, however he was on the bench to open the second half whereas Joel Soriano — who was a whopping minus-19 in eight minutes in the course of the first half — began. Creighton shortly put the sport away by opening with a 17-5 run. I’m not saying St. John’s would have come again to win, and even would have been extra aggressive, if Anderson had modified his starters. However a message wanted to be despatched: This isn’t acceptable.
I totally count on Anderson to change his lineup on Saturday. Wheeler, a 6-foot-9 ahead who has scored in double figures in 4 straight video games, has to begin. He’s capturing the ball effectively, he stretches the ground and he's a flexible defender who blocks pictures. They need to play small towards the larger and extra bodily Seton Corridor. Make the Pirates regulate. Pressure shot-blocking dynamo Ike Obiagu to defend Wheeler on the perimeter. Unfold the ground and create driving lanes.
Which will sound determined, however St. John’s needs to be determined. The Purple Storm should play with desperation and Anderson should coach with desperation. They need to deal with Saturday as if the season is on the road.
This workforce wants a jolt of confidence, a cause to imagine in itself. It has to begin beating high quality groups and stacking noteworthy wins. If not, the one avenue to the NCAA Match could be a miraculous Huge East Match title for a program that hasn’t reached the convention semifinals since successful the tourney in 2000. That was additionally the final time St. John’s gained an NCAA Match recreation.
There have been reasonable hopes that the streak might get snapped this yr. It appears foolish now, contemplating this workforce’s underperformance via 16 video games. As a substitute, this yr feels just like the 2013-14 marketing campaign, when sky-high expectations of a Candy 16 run had been changed by the miserable results of an NIT look.
But it surely’s not too late for this season to flip. I nonetheless imagine there's an NCAA Match in there someplace. That co-stars Julian Champagnie and Posh Alexander can carry this workforce to March Insanity.
For that to occur, nonetheless, it should start Saturday towards Seton Corridor at Madison Sq. Backyard.
Post a Comment