Three takeaways from St. John's Big East Tournament quarterfinal win over Butler
St. John's Red Storm guard Kadary Richmond dribbles the ball upcourt against the Butler Bulldogs in the first half of a Big East Tournament quarterfinal at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Sixth-ranked and top-seeded St. John’s rolled into the Big East Tournament semifinals with a 78-57 quarterfinal win over Butler on Thursday before a sellout crowd of 19,812 at the Garden. The Red Storm (28-4) have won seven in a row and 17 out of 18 as they head into Friday’s 6:30 p.m. semifinal against 25th-ranked and fifth-seeded Marquette (23-9).
On Saturday, the Red Storm closed the regular season in Milwaukee by beating the Golden Eagles, 86-84, when Kadary Richmond stripped a defensive rebound and Simeon Wilcher collected it and passed to Zuby Ejiofor for a buzzer-beating one-hander in the lane.
St. John’s played and lost to eventual national champion Connecticut in last season’s Big East semifinals, its first semifinal appearance since it won the conference tournament in 2000.
Against Butler, Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis Jr. had 20 points, Aaron Scott had 15 points and a career-high five steals — St. John's scored 24 points off 15 Bulldogs turnovers — and Richmond added 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
Here are three takeaways from the Red Storm’s win:
1. Richmond feels he has something to prove
While Ejiofor and Luis were voted to the all-conference first team, Richmond — a first-teamer last season with Seton Hall — was tabbed for the second team as Micah Peavy of seventh-place Georgetown earned a first-team spot. That hasn’t landed well with anyone in the St. John’s sphere. Richmond has mostly been deferential while his coach and teammates express some outrage, but he finally said Thursday that it bothers him.
“It was surprising — I felt like I was up there with the best of them in this conference," Richmond told StormThePaint.com. “They picked who they picked, they did what they did, but we are here now and we’re winning. I’ve got two more games to show everybody they were wrong.”
In St. John’s 18-2 season against Big East foes, Richmond averaged 14.0 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists.
2. Will St. John’s feel at home?
The Big East Tournament semifinal round is a single session on Friday. Connecticut entered the season seeking its third straight national title, not accomplished since UCLA won its sixth straight in 1972-73. And the Huskies fans — who always make their presence felt at the Garden — have been buying up tickets since the dawn of the season.
It’s no secret that St. John’s vs. UConn has become a serious rivalry since Hall of Famer Rick Pitino took the helm of the Red Storm. If UConn's fans bought up most of the tickets, St. John’s might be playing at their home-away-from-home with a hostile crowd.
St. John’s is 10-0 at the Garden this season.
3. The Red Storm bench is vastly improved
As the degree of difficulty gets tougher, and with guard Deivon Smith not playing up to the level he showed before his Jan. 11 right shoulder injury, St. John’s potentially will have its depth challenged.
For most of the season, it looked like a rotation of mostly six or seven, but several players may have developed under Pitino to be ready for more responsibility.
Freshman guard Lefteris Liotopoulis had six points and three assists in 15 minutes on Thursday. Vince Iwuchukwu played 12 effective minutes. Sadiku Ibine Ayo gave St. John’s five points and three rebounds in 14 minutes.
The six-man rotation has forces acting upon it, namely Smith being limited by his shoulder injury. But on Saturday on the road at Marquette, with Smith sidelined and Scott in early foul trouble, that trio gave the Red Storm the stability to persevere.
Maybe this rotation is growing larger than had been thought as recently as a couple of weeks ago.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.